Baddi, June 29
Virender Chowdhary, Congress in charge of the state, said those party leaders who had a soft attitude towards the BJP would not be tolerated.In an apparent reference to the senior PCC leaders at a rally in Baddi, he said a tough posture was needed against the BJP’s wrongdoings if they had to recapture power in the state.

Alleging that the BJP had sold out its interest at the hands of the moneyed people, Chowdhary said the state government had left poor peasants landless by selling their land for crores to non-Himachalis. He said people would give a befitting reply to the BJP in the upcoming elections. He criticised the BJP government for giving 83 bighas of prime land to Baba Ramdev at Sadhupul and said its lease would be cancelled once the Congress was voted to power. He demanded the imposition of the Land Ceiling Act on land allotted to religious trusts.

Chowdhary gave a clarion call to the party men to sink in all differences and fight against the anti-people’s policies of the BJP. He said though the Congress had undertaken record industrialisation, the investors were being harassed by the cohorts of the state government and they were contemplating to migrate to other places. He said the several universities that were being opened in the state were mere centres for minting money.

Anees Ahmed, secretary, AICC and co-in charge of Himachal, advised his partymen not to indulge in undue criticism of their colleagues and work in unison to strengthen the party.

PCC president Kaul Singh Thakur said one lakh bigha of land had been sold out to 800 non-Himachalis and the BJP was steeped in corruption. He said while on one hand the BJP was making a hue and cry against corruption, on the other it had failed to own responsibility for its leaders in Punjab and Karnataka.

Union Minister Virbhadra Singh said despite receiving aid worth crores from the Centre the BJP government had failed to appreciate the gesture. Venting his ire against the frequent outbursts of former Congress leader Vijay Singh Mankotia, he said the false case registered against him was Mankotia’s handiwork .

CLP leader Vidya Stokes said the BJP government was an anti-people government that had failed to protect the rights of the people of the state.

Among others who were present on the occasion were CWC member DR Shandil, AICC secretary Asha Kumari, MLAs GS Bali, Harshwardhan Chauhan and Mukesh Agnihotri.

Dharamsala, June 29
The police today arrested eight women employees of the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBSE) in the examination scam that has rocked the state. It is for the first time that women employees have been arrested in the case.

Those arrested are Draupati Devi (senior assistant dealing with 10+2 class result), Veena Devi and Roop Dasi (both superintendents dealing with 10+2 results), Pushpa Devi (senior assistant dealing with 10+1 results), Rajni Sharma (junior assistant dealing with 10+1 results) and Meena, Champa and Sheela Devi (senior assistants dealing with Class VIII board examinations).

SP Kangra Diljeet Thakur said the arrested persons had also been booked under same sections as main accused Ashwani Dogra.

All the accused arrested today were produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate (Kangra) at Dharamsala, who later released them on bail.

With this the number of board employees arrested in the case has gone up to 28. The police is arresting all the employees of the board who were involved in preparing the annual results of the board classes during the academic session 2010-11. These employees have been accused of dereliction of duty and also of being hand-in-glove with Dogra in the case.

The police officials have been maintaining that the accused could not have carried on the racket of getting students declared pass in board examinations without the active connivance of certain board employees.

As there was no way of pinpointing board employees working with the accused, the police has made all those officials party in the case who were on crucial examination duties.

The police is also maintaining that the failure of board employees to overlook the list of absentees in examination centres while preparing the results was an offence that could not be overlooked with just the assertion that it was an inadvertent mistake.

With the police establishing the offence of those involved in the case, investigation has been drawn to a logical conclusion. The police is now waiting for the forensic report of the answer sheets used in the examination to file a chargesheet against the accused.

Shimla, June 29
Even as the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) authorities maintained that the lift connecting the Mall with the Cart Road was safe and in good running condition, the police has registered a case of negligence against the corporation.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal has sought a detailed report of the incident in which 13 tourists were trapped inside the elevator for over two-and-a-half hours yesterday.

The police registered a case under Section 336, IPC, against the HPTDC for their negligent act of allowing 13 persons in the lift when its capacity was eight persons. “Since it is a public utility service, we have to ensure its safety and 13 persons being allowed despite the elevator getting stuck shortly before the incident demands a look at the safety aspects to prevent its recurrence in future,” said Shimla SP Sonal Agnihotri.

The twin lifts installed in the early ’70s are being maintained by OTIS Company. “We have an annual maintenance contract with the company and even today its officials assured us that the elevators are in a good running condition and safe for use,” said Vineet Kumar, Managing Director, HPTDC.

He said the technical staff of OTIS, which is responsible for taking all the safety measures, have also said overloading was the main reason for the clutch of the lift getting locked. “The clutch got locked in a manner that it became difficult to pull the elevator down manually that resulted in the long duration in rescuing the trapped tourists,” he said.

The lift, which is one of the most convenient modes of reaching the Mall, is one of the few profit-generating venture of the HPTDC.

Considering the tremendous pressure that is on the lift, the HPTDC is also planning to install an elevator adjacent to the present two lifts. “As the existing lifts, with a capacity of eight persons each, are in a good condition, we will install another elevator with a capacity of 16 persons as the cost on overhauling these and getting a new one is almost the same,” the MD said.

Following the incident, it has been decided to depute additional manpower to regulate entry into the lifts, so that there is no overloading. The possibility of having an emergency exit on the roof of the lift will also be explored. 

Shimla, June 29
Gaiety, colour and festivities marked the centenary celebrations of St Thomas School which entered its 100th year of existence today.The celebrations started with the centennial ceremony. Governor Urmila Singh was the chief guest on the occasion. Satvasheela, wife of Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, and Bishop PK Samantha Rai were the guests of honour.

The Governor lauded the contributions of one of the oldest institutions of the state, that came into existence in 1912 and with the farsightedness of the then Principal, Helen Zarwood, it emerged as a centre of excellence for the girl child.

Underlining the need for quality education she said the emphasis should not only be on fulfilling the basic educational needs of children, but also to make them responsible citizens of the nation. The need of the hour was to create awareness about the preservation of environment. The Governor dedicated the ancient and heritage building of St Thomas School to the memory of Sadhu Sunder Singh, the Evangelist preacher.

Satvasheela Chavan released the centenary logo on the occasion.

Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy, Chairperson, St Thomas School, inaugurated an exhibition of pen-sketches of the school building. Principal Vidhu Priya Chakravarty spoke in detail about the activities of the school.

The celebration song sung by the school choir, “Be the Change so Change the Be to see the Change” dedicated to environment issues, penned by well-known film-maker Vivek Mohan, was also released.

The other programmes planned for the centenary year include a workshop on ‘Talking Families for Children’, a sound-and-light programme ‘Salaam-e-shatak Shimla’, a workshop on environment, a four-day International Literary Festival at Gaiety Theatre, a food festival, a rock show and a craft mela master craftspersons. The celebrations will conclude on June 29, 2012.

Mandi, June 29
After an expose on the “misleading data” on tourist arrivals in the state in these columns, the Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation (DTCA) today went on the defensive stating that the department had hired a private agency, AC Nielsen ORG-MARG, New Delhi, to prepare a realistic data on tourist arrivals in the state.

The agency will submit its report next year.

Even the Ministry of Tourism is seized of the matter that all state governments must devise a mechanism to prepare a “realistic data on tourist arrivals in each state”.

Most of the states have deputed private agencies to do surveys on tourism as the state governments have been presenting a rosy picture of tourist arrivals in their states to get funds, whereas the reality is otherwise, revealed sources.

Reacting to The Tribune report, the DTCA failed to come out with a convincing answer to the misleading data on tourist arrivals in the tribal Lahaul-Spiti in particular and the state in general.

But the department acknowledged that the data was open to public scrutiny as such might not be authentic as “they depended on the field reports from different offices, including hoteliers, pilgrims, home stay units and others”.

The DTCA in a statement, which is not signed by the director, claimed that the field report for Lahaul subdivision was received from the field office, Manali, and for Spiti subdivision from the Shimla field office.

Without giving any breakup or figure on tourist arrivals, the DTCA claimed that tourists used to travel to Spiti from the Kinnaur side much before the opening of the Rohtang Pass. But hoteliers refused to buy this explanation on the grounds that tourists started coming to Kaza from the Kinnaur side at the earliest by mid-April or in May and June and from the Lahaul side in June or July whenever the 15,000-ft high Kunjam Pass is opened for traffic by the HP PWD.

The DTCA stated that the private agency would do a survey of each destination and would prepare data on tourist arrivals in the state.

“It will submit its report to the government next year as the Ministry of Tourism has also demanded,” it added.

Shimla, June 29
Himachal Pradesh has become the second state in the country where female ratio has improved considerably as per the latest data.

This has been revealed by ‘Gender Statistics - Himachal Pradesh’ published by the Department of Economics and Statistics and released by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Statistics Day to mark the 118th birth anniversary of renowned statistician late Prasanta Chandra Mahalanabis here today.

The Chief Minister said there were 974 females against 1,000 males in the state - an increase of 6.8 per cent in the sex ratio. He said female sex ratio was higher in comparison to neighbouring states of Punjab (893), Haryana (877), Jammu and Kashmir (883) and Uttarakhand (963). He further stated that women literacy rate had jumped from 20.23 per cent in 1971 to 76.6 per cent now. — TNS

Palampur, June 29
A five-day camp has been organised by the Department of Microbiology, CSK Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, to motivate students to adopt science as a career here yesterday. The camp has been sponsored by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology. As many as 150 students from 10 local schools are taking part in the camp.

Inaugurating the camp, Dr PS Ahuja, Director, Institute of Himalayan Bio-Resource Technology (IHBT), spoke about the vastness of space and its scientific explorations for the benefit of humanity. He advised the students that efforts should be made to meet the needs without compromising on the future requirements of the coming generations.

Vice-Chancellor SK Sharma said, “Among the 34 bio-diversity hot spots in the world, India has three. So we need to make full use of the innovative technology to explore this rich bio-diversity”. He said the Government of India was encouraging students to study science with a large number of innovative schemes like INSPIRE.

Dr SS Kanwar, Coordinator of the camp and Head of the Department of Microbiology, said 12 special lectures from leading scientists of PAU, IHBT, IVRI, HPU, Panjab University etc had been arranged.

A small kit comprising scientific instruments has been given to the participants and each school will be given a microscope to strengthen their labs. 

Nurpur, June 29
The Jawali police has detected an inter-state immoral trafficking racket following the arrest of two women from Sultanpur Lodhi (Punjab) for allegedly working as agents in the flesh trade along with a manager of a private hotel at Nurpur.

The trio were produced in a judicial court here today which sent them to five-day police remand.

According to DSP Jawali Bhupinder Singh Negi, the accused had left a minor girl at Khatiar near Fatehpur on Monday night in a suspicious condition.

The local residents informed the gram panchayat pradhan about the incident, who further intimated the police.

The girl, who also hails from Sultanpur Lodhi, alleged in her statement that Sheetal and Pooja, her distant relatives, had brought her to a hotel at Nurpur a few days ago on the pretence of imparting dance training to her. She was allegedly gangraped by hotel customers for four days.

She further stated that on Monday night she left for Talwara in a car along with some unidentified persons, but on the way they tried to rape her. After she resisted, she was left by the roadside at Khatiar.

Following her statement, the police laid a trap and succeeded in arresting Sheetal and Pooja from Talwara.

The DSP stated that after medical examination of the minor girl, which had confirmed rape, a case had been registered. 

Shimla, June 29
In a major step to rein in private universities, the government has made approval from the regulatory bodies mandatory for running various courses.

The decision has been taken in view of the glaring deficiencies in terms of faculty and infrastructure revealed during the first-ever inspections conducted by the Education Department authorities.

Almost all the 10 universities set up in the state in the past three years lack requisite faculty and infrastructure to run even the existing courses, but they have given advertisements in newspapers for many new courses.

The government has now issued specific directions to each private university on the basis of deficiencies revealed in the inspection report to run only those courses for which they have adequate faculty and infrastructure as per the norms of the regulatory bodies like the AICTE, DCI, MCI and NCTE. They have been asked to fill the vacant posts as per norms and then apply for permission for new admissions. No new admission will be allowed without approval from the department.

For other courses, the universities concerned will have to first fulfil the requirement of the regulatory body and then apply to the Education Department. Further, if the course is not under any regulatory body, the additional intake in it will be equal to the intake fixed by Himachal Pradesh University for that course. Thus, universities will not be able to increase the number of seats in various courses and start new courses without approval and requisite infrastructure.

More importantly, they have been asked to provide details of existing faculty course-wise and upload the names along with photographs, qualification and biodata on their respective websites within 15 days.

Similarly, they will have to upload the names of students already admitted in the existing courses. Names of the students to be admitted in the new session will have to be uploaded within 15 days of the start of the session.

Principal Secretary of the Education Department Shrikant Baldi said the steps were taken to ensure that the faculty was not deployed on paper only and the students were regulars.

The necessary faculty, infrastructure, laboratories and library books required for the additional intake of students would have to be provided as per norms before the start of the new session, he added.