Solan, August 11
With the Central Administrative Tribunal ( CAT) directing Central Research Institute (CRI), Kasauli, to suspend the contractual appointments and make no further appointments, employees today heaved a sigh of relief.

The directions came on a contempt petition filed before CAT where the employees asserted that though CAT had directed the institute not to make contractual appointments but it was gong ahead with these appointments. The CAT’s directions were later put up on the institute’s notice board to inform the appointed candidates who had come to complete the formalities of joining.

Apart from one of the 21 candidates who had been appointed on a contractual basis, none was allowed to join. They were later informed by the institute not to join in view of the CAT’s directions. They were not given papers for getting themselves medically examined which is a prerequisite for joining a government job.

General secretary Tara Chand Dhiman said the CAT’s directions were a welcome step and would pave the way for departmental promotions which had been long overdue.

These 21 appointments had been made for the Rs 50-crore ambitious DPT Project and included various posts like Assistant Director, Deputy Assistant Director, veterinary officers and junior and senior biochemists. The institute was running on a provisional licence which was valid till 2013 and it was supposed to acquire a “good manufacturing practices” certification from the World Health Organisation before the lapse of this licence. Since the DPT vaccine production in the new laboratory is supposed to begin by the year-end, paucity of staff would be a major issue as these appointments have been suspended.

Shimla, August 11
Expressing dissatisfaction over the utilisation of funds deposited by various power projects towards the diversion of forest land for non-forestry purposes with the ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), the HP High Court has directed the Principal Secretary (Afforestation) to furnish the details of the steps taken by the state to get these funds from CAMPA.

The court further directed him to produce the entire record showing the steps taken by the state till date to get this amount and file his affidavit in this regard.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Rajiv Sharma perused the reply filed by CAMPA wherein it was informed that the principal amount deposited in the account of the state of Himachal was Rs 896,76,56,740 and of this only Rs 80 crore had been allocated to the state.

The Bench observed that “this reflects a shocking state of affairs where enormous sums of money deposited for afforestation purposes are lying with CAMPA and are not being utilised for the purpose they are meant to be utilised for”.

The Bench further observed that “the funds have been stashed in banks and neither any afforestation has been done nor the persons for whom these funds were collected have been given the benefit”.

The Bench said, “We expect the state to take urgent and immediate steps to get the remaining amount, so that the same is actually used for afforestation purposes.”

Shimla, August 11
Concerned over the inordinate delay in the revision of the expired forest working plans (FWPs), the bible of forest management, the government has decided to make an Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests along with two Chief Conservator of Forests responsible for the task.

Unlike the past when independent working plan officers were appointed, the task of writing the detailed FWP has been assigned to territorial divisional forest officers and the Conservator of Forests concerned will be responsible for writing the preliminary WFPs. The two Chief Conservator of Forests to be located at Shimla and Mandi will provide technical assistance and personally supervise each WFP. In all 22 DFOs have been designated as working plan officers.

At present of the total 34 forest working plans covering 38 divisions, 21 have already expired and another eight will expire in the next three years. The working plans for Shimla-Theog and Una expired last year and that of Outer Seraj will expire during the current year. The plans for Chamba, Hamirpur and Nahan-Paonta will be valid up to 2013 and Renuka and Nichar-Pooh up to 2014.

In the absence of approved WFPs, the management of forests was being affected as over the past 15 years the focus had completely shifted from commercial felling to rehabilitation of degraded areas, watershed development, enhancement of livelihood and carbon sequestration to retard the process of climate change. The new WFPs will take care of all these issues and make prescriptions accordingly.

Additional Chief Secretary, Forests, Sudipto Roy said the Chief Conservator of Forests would be appointed soon after the Vidhan Sabha session and thereafter a series of meetings would be held to decide about the parameters to be changed or replaced and the new ones to be introduced to ensure that the WFPs reflected the ground realities and facilitated the implementation of the polices of the government. For instance, hydropower projects had become a major concern and it required dovetailing of the catchment area treatment (CAT) plans with the FWPs.

Besides, revised FWPs would enable the department to know the exact growing stock and in turn the carbon sequestration to enable it to take benefit of carbon credits. Besides, it would also focus on new species which facilitate carbon sequestration to phase out existing the commercial species like pine.

Palampur, August 11
Hundreds of BSNL landline subscribers of the region are fed up with the non-cooperative attitude of the BSNL authorities. Besides poor services, most of the subscribers have also received inflated bills for their landline and broadband connections.

A number of subscribers said they had bought broadband connections under the Rs 125-per-month plan, but the BSNL had changed their plan to Rs 250 without intimating them and sent them inflated bills.

The subscribers have been moving from pillar to post to get their phone bills corrected, due to the new billing system adopted by the BSNL.

Long queues of subscribers can be seen in front of BSNL offices everyday who come from far-flung areas to get their bills corrected.

Even the BSNL staff is unhappy as they have to entertain hundreds of customers a day.

Sita Ram, a BSNL subscriber from Bhawarna, told The Tribune that he had received a bill for his broadband connection, which was never installed at his residence.

Another subscriber from Palampur said he was availing of Rs 450 per month broadband plan. He had paid the annual rent in advance and his next bill was due in October 2011. Despite the advance payment, he was served with a inflated bill.

Uttam Chand Dogra, DET, Palampur, admitted that hundreds of inflated bills were issued and necessary corrections were also being made everyday in this regard.

He added that the bills were issued from Dharamsala, therefore, he could not comment at what level the lapses were committed.

Shimla, August 11
Having maintained its supremacy in its citadel - Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) - the SFI is going all out to ensure that it is able to retain its hold over the campus as well as win the maximum possible seats in the 97 colleges which will go to the polls on August 20.

With a little over a week for the student outfits to undertake campaigning, the HPU campus and other colleges today witnessed hectic canvassing despite restrictions as per the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. The activists of three outfits could be seen seeking votes, especially from new students who do not have a clear-cut affiliation so far.

Barring one occasion when the ABVP managed to win all four SCA seats, the SFI has maintained its hold over the HPU and it has also taken the lead in announcing its panel for some of the colleges.

Despite the BJP being in power in the state, the ABVP has not been able to make inroads into the SFI bastion except once.

The HPU alone has over 3,000 voters while the number of students who will cast their vote in the polls on August 20 will be over 1.50 lakh. Even SFI leaders admit that their performance on the HPU campus has always been good but over the past few years they have not done impressively in the colleges where they will concentrate this time.

The ABVP on the other hand is hoping that its stand of opposing privatisation and commercialisation of education by the BJP government in the state could help boost its image. Like the other two outfits - the SFI and the NSUI, it too has been in the forefront in criticising the BJP regime for allowing opening of private universities.

The SFI and the NSUI have been able to muster support among the student community in colleges in the districts.

The SFI has made commercialisation of education as one of its main election plank just like the ABVP and the NSUI. Now it remains to be seen who is able to woo the student voters. Besides, the SFI has also been raising the issue of lack of facilities for students, including the hostel facility.

Mandi, August 11
Students and their parents, who have come for counselling from across the state and outside at Jawahar Lal Engineering College, Sundernagar, resent the absence of drinking water and other basic facilities for admission-seekers in the college.

Over 3,000 students and their parents have visited the college in the past few days for counselling. It is for the first time that the counselling has been started on a new campus, despite the fact that the college buildings are not ready.

“We do not have water for drinking and even there are no toilets on the campus,” rued students.

The state government has failed to appoint a regular principal in the college as the principal of the polytechnic college at Sundernagar is holding the additional charge of the same.

The college was set up during the previous Congress regime and was being run from the campus of the polytechnic college till last year. It was only last year that some classes were shifted to the new campus, offering four courses in mechanical, textile, civil and electronics engineering.

Despite the two batches of students having passed out, the college is yet to have its own campus. Students also complained about not having proper labs and hostel facilities.

Acting Principal Vinita Arya told The Tribune that they were getting water through tankers and had made standby arrangements for students and their parents.

Mandi, August 11
For 16 private engineering colleges in the state, it is a “perform-or-perish” situation as more than 4,000 BTech seats remained unfilled after counselling in these colleges that are allegedly being run as “teaching shops” without the mandatory labs, faculty and infrastructure.

The counselling for the BTech course, including for the government-run Jawaharlal Engineering College, Sundarnagar, ended today.

The plight of the private engineering colleges is clear from the fact that these are offering a rebate of 10 per cent in the fees to lure students to their colleges.

There are colleges who have between 100 and 120 seats, but most of these remain vacant, sources said.

Talking to The Tribune, Ajay Mittal, Principal Secretary, Technical Education, who chaired a meeting of technical officers and principals at the Directorate of Technical Education, Sundernagar, today, said, “It is a good sign that students and parents are questioning colleges over labs and other facilities at private colleges. We have told the colleges to either perform or perish.

He said the department had no control over private engineering colleges as these were controlled by the AICTE.

Students do not seem to be preferring the private engineering colleges in the state, four of which are located in the Mandi-Sundernagar belt, as most of these do not have proper labs, faculty and other facilities for students, rued students and parents.

Though more than 4,700 applications for BTech were received this year, the first preference was for Sundernagar Engineering College, which offers four courses in electronics, textile, mechanical and civil engineering, and has filled 252 seats.

In the second year, the college filled 46 through lateral entry for students who had done diplomas.

It is for the first time that these colleges will be affiliated to Technical University, Hamirpur, the home district of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who had decided to start a university there last year.

However, the plight of the university is such that it is being run from four rooms of the polytechnic college, Hamirpur, as it has no campus of its own.

The approval given to these private colleges by the AICTE is yet to come under the scanner despite the fact that most of these are run on an ad hoc basis making a mockery of the norms. Seats are allotted on the whims and fancies of the authorities.

The counselling for BTech ended today and only around 2,000 BTech seats have been filled of the about 6,000 seats that engineering colleges in Himachal offer.

The top 252 seats went to Government Engineering College, Sundernagar, while the remaining 1,748 were filled by private colleges, said BTech admission in charge TR Sharma.

Mandi, August 11
Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur today termed the Dhumal-led BJP government’s move of registering FIRs against Congressmen in the controversial Legislature’s Housing Society, Heeranagar, near Shimla, on the demarcated protected forest (DPF) as an act of political vendetta. He declared that the Congress would launch anti-corruption padayatra from Solan to Shimla from August 22 to 24 for ousting the corrupt BJP government in the coming Assembly polls.

After addressing the general house of the Youth Congress here today, state executive member Rangila Ram Rao, former Sundernagar MLA Sohan Lal Thakur and other leaders made an all-out attack on the BJP government and vowed that they would oust the “corrupt BJP government” as it has put “Himachal on sale” to outsiders.

Kaul Singh later at the press conference charged that the Dhumal government had targeted him in the MLA housing society, but his land fell outside the DPF land. “It was a Cabinet decision and the land measuring 10 bighas cut into 35 plots of 6 biswas size was given on lease for 99 years. Then it was not the DPF and we have got all documents with us,” he said.

He said the Dhumal government had the two different laws in the state. While Congressmen, even those who were dead, were being framed in false cases, BJP leaders, including ABVP activists who blocked national highways, had been spared, he stated.

Thakur alleged that BJP government first sought applications from people promising that it would regularize their 10 bighas of land and as such abetted offence.