Shimla, August 26
The Ceiling on Land Holdings (Amendment) Bill was today referred to a select committee of the Vidhan Sabha amid a walkout by Congress members, who were demanding its withdrawal to protect precious agricultural land against plundering by outsiders.

It was state Congress chief Kaul Singh Thakur who set the motion for his party’s strong opposition to the amendment.

“The amendment will open the floodgates for outsiders to buy precious and scarce agricultural land in the hill state on the pretext of setting up projects,” he said.

He added that the law had been enacted by the state’s first Chief Minister YS Parmar to protect the interests of the farmers and he failed to understand the desire of the BJP regime to amend it now.

Heated exchanges were witnessed between the Chief Minister and the Congress chief during the debate on several occasions.

Replying to Opposition charges of putting Himachal “on sale”, the Chief Minister said the successive Congress regimes had amended the Act several times and had granted maximum permission for the purchase of land in relaxation of Section 118 of the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, which barred non-agriculturists from buying land.

Dhumal said the government had already constituted a judicial commission to probe all benami land deals in violation of Section 118 but the Congress was now hesitant to bring cases to its notice with all the details.

“It is because of the mistakes made by the successive Congress regimes that the state has had to suffer and it has not got its due even in power projects and the government has now moved the Supreme Court to get Himachal its legitimate share,” he said.

He said the Congress was also critical of the Apartment Act, enacted during its own rule.

Participating in the discussion, Congress MLA Harshwardhan Chauhan said the government had not clarified the extent of land which could be purchased after the amendment as at present one could purchase 150 bighas. “We fail to understand as to who would be the ultimate beneficiaries and we even suspect that it could be used to regularise the illegal occupation of land by some people,” he said.

Other Congress MLAs, too, echoed similar sentiments and said the amendments were against the interest of Himachalis. Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, too, expressed his concerns and suggested that the proposed amendment be withdrawn.

Following the referring of the Bill to the select committee, the dissatisfied Congress legislators staged a walkout.

Shimla, August 26
Hundreds of farmers today marched to the Vidhan Sabha to highlight the marketing problems being faced by vegetable growers who, they alleged, were being neglected.

The march, organised under the banner of the Himachal Kisan Sabha, also drew attention to the monkey menace and urged the government to take up the matter with the Centre. After holding a rally, a deputation, led by president of the sabha Kuldeep Tanwar met Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and discussed the demands. The sabha made it clear that if the issues pertaining to the Dhalli Agriculture Market were not settled, the farmers would resort to direct action from September 5.

Tanwar said over 7 lakh families were involved in vegetable cultivation but the government was not paying attention to their problems. With no support price for vegetables and lack of infrastructure, the vegetable growers were not getting remunerative returns. 

Shimla, August 26
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today dismissed the Congress criticism regarding opening of private universities in the state and said this would help in improving the quality of education and providing professional courses closer home.

He was replying to a resolution moved under Section 130 by CLP leader Vidya Stokes and Congress legislators Harshwardhan Chauhan and Kuldeep Singh Pathania on the issue of opening of private universities.

“Himachal is the first state in the country to have set up a regulatory commission to keep a watch on the courses, fee structure and look into complaints received against private universities,” he said.

He said it was ironical that the Congress was opposed to private universities while Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal was advocating setting up of 1,000 private universities. “Why is the Congress so opposed to opening of 15 private universities in the state when students from Himachal will be the beneficiaries and they will not have to go out to take up professional courses,” he said.

Lashing out at the BJP regime for opening private universities, CLP leader Vidya Stokes said the private universities were exploiting students with government shelter.

“They are not even competent to run a college and teachers have been asked to hunt for students,” she said.

Participating in the debate, Congress legislator Harshwardhan said the Congress was not opposed to opening of private universities but there should be no compromise on the quality of education.

Shimla, August 26
It is mainly on account of human error and drunken driving that 3,334 persons have lost their lives in road accidents in Himachal Pradesh during the past three years.

To a query by Anil Kumar and Yog Raj (both of the Congress) during question hour in the Assembly today, Transport Minister Mohinder Singh said 97.84 per cent accidents in the hill state had taken place due to drunken driving and human error.

It is only a miniscule 1.52 per cent accidents which had occurred due to the bad condition of roads and 0.64 per cent due to mechanical failure. “Steps have been taken by the government through various means to reduce the accident rate so that precious human lives are not lost in mishaps,” he remarked.

He said officials of the Transport Department had been directed to check overloading and carrying of passengers in goods vehicles to prevent accidents. “Use of mobile phones by drivers while on duty and ban on the use of stereos in buses had been ordered,” he said.

He said 248 of the total 536 black spots which formed the accident-prone areas had been improved by the Public Works Department. He added that the period for obtaining driving licences for the transport category had been enhanced from 30 to 60 days.

To another question by Prakash Chaudhary of the Congress, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal informed the House that no new power projects were being allowed to come up on the Tirthan river as a means to protect trout fish. “Two projects were approved on the river before the ban on new projects was imposed in 2004 and in case these have been allotted later we will not hesitate to cancel them,” he said.

He said the government was also contemplating extending this ban on power projects even on the tributaries of the Tirthan river.

Dhumal said during the past three years, 269 mini hydel projects had been approved of which 250 had been given to Himachalis and only 19 to outsiders as preference was given to Himachalis.

In a written reply to a question by GS Bali of the Congress regarding money spent under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Health Minister Rajiv Bindal said no money had been paid for the payment of salaries to doctors nor had any vehicles been bought from the funds.

In a written reply to a question by Harshwardhan of the Congress about the progress of work at the Renuka dam, it was informed that a sum of Rs 100.48 crore had been spent by way of construction activity and award of compensation.

Though 417 bighas of land had been purchased, work had been stopped following the stay by the National Green Tribunal in July.

Shimla, August 26
The state Assembly today approved the Himachal Pradesh Public Services Guarantee Bill, 2011, to ensure the delivery of services to the public in a time-bound manner.

Members discussed the Bill, which had been introduced by Chief Minister PK Dhumal on August 24. Dhumal said Himachal was the third state after Madhya Pradesh and Bihar to have passed the Bill, which was aimed at providing good governance, transparency and accountability in the administration and providing services to the public in a time-bound manner.

Participating in the debate, the Chief Minister said the main objective was to ensure that services were provided to people in a time-bound manner as even delay breeded corruption. “A citizens charter would be issued by the state government by selecting the services to be delivered in a time-bound manner,” he said.

Dhumal, while addressing the concerns echoed by Opposition Congress members, said the government was open to suggestions which could be incorporated even later. “There will be provision for a penalty ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 and the applicant can appeal against the rejection of his request to the appellate authority and the Chief Information Commissioner will be the second appellate authority as an independent agency,” he stated.

The Congress members, led by Kaul Singh Thakur, welcomed the Bill but said it needed to be made more stringent. Kuldeep Pathania, Sukhwinder Sukhu and Rajesh Dharmani, too, welcomed the Bill but pointed out certain shortcomings, which, they felt, must be addressed to make it more effective, especially to curb corruption.

The Bill was later passed by voice vote.

Shimla, August 26
Union Minster Virbhadra Singh and his wife again approached the state high court for quashing the FIR registered against them in the CD case. The high court today adjourned the hearing in a petition filed by the former Chief Minister and his wife Pratibha Singh till September 2.

Today the matter was listed before a Division Bench comprising Justice RB Misra and Justice DD Sud, but the same was adjourned on the request of the counsel of the petitioners.

The petitioners in a 506-page petition said the police had presented its report before the court and even considering the entire material on record as no case was made against the petitioners.

The petitioners have submitted that the case registered against them was “politically motivated”.

They said the trial court had prima facie rejected the much hyped CD and had not relied up on it, even for issuing summons.

Petitioners added that in the alleged CD against them the government had not verified the authenticity of the CD and even after investigation, the police had failed to produce any evidence of authenticity and origin of the CD before the court.

Shimla, August 26
The dream house being sought by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the hills of Shimla could take a while to translate into reality as the near-complete structure has been razed to the ground and a new contractor and architects assigned the task to erect a cottage with local flavour.

Priyanka who cherishes the fond memories of the time spent here in Mashobra with her father, the late Rajiv Gandhi, had engaged Delhi architects and contractors to construct a house in Charabra according to her liking. With too much use of cement and less wood and locally extracted slates in the construction, the entire structure consisting of two storeys barring the foundation has been pulled down.

With Priyanka attending to her mother and AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, it is expected that the new building plan and design would receive her nod only after she returns from the USA. In the past one year, two dismantling jobs were undertaken but now the house will be made all over again.

Sources said with the house not coming up to the liking of Priyanka in terms of design and size, a new building plan is likely to be readied. “The earlier building plan had been approved by the agencies concerned but no new plan has so far been received by us,” said an official of the Town and Country Planning Department.

The Vadras had bought a plot, measuring three and a half bighas, in Mashobra in 2007. Work has been going on at the site but Priyanka was not too happy with the results. There is likely to be further delay now with work to be started from scratch.

A Congress leader said Priyanka was keen on having a wooden cottage with differently hued natural slates extracted from Himachal on the roof. She, along with her mother and children, had visited the site on several occasions while work was under way.

Dharamsala, August 26
The Himachal Pradesh High Court order directing the state against making ad hoc or temporary appointments in future is likely to spell trouble for government colleges and regional centre of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) at Dharamsala.

The said institutions would face trouble in appointing guest lecturers or contract appointments in the self-financing courses being run in various government and aided colleges.

The regional centre of the HPU at Dharamsala has about 90 per cent of its faculty working on guest lecturer basis.

The said category of teachers were recruited just during the teaching session. They were reappointed every year when the session starts. However, with the HC banning ad hoc appointments, the government institutions might find it difficult to reappoint such teachers as guest lecture faculty.

Government College, Dharamsala, is recently recruited lecturers on contract basis for the MBA course, which the institution is going to start from this session. However, the decision would have to be reviewed in light of HC orders.

The guest lecturer category was created by the Education Department to expose students to external faculty from prestigious institutions and experts from industry. The category was to be used on rare occasions. However, college managements are recruiting teachers on permanent basis against the category.

The category is being used especially in self-financing courses as BBA and BCA by government colleges. The regional centre of the HPU at Dharamsala was running entirely on the guest lecturer category.

There are about 800 students in various professional courses being run in the regional centre of HPU.

However, there are a few permanent teachers. Some of the professional courses like Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication are run entirely on the guest lecturer category.

As per the rules, a guest lecturer is paid Rs 250 per hour. However, government colleges are paying just Rs 150 per period to lecturers recruited under the guest lecturer category. The logic behind the payment is that the guest lecturer teaches for 40 minutes instead of 1 hour as specified in the rules of payments to guest lecturers. However, sources here said making lesser payment under the guest lecturer category was in violation of the rules.

Certain guest lecturers who have been working in government colleges for the past many years alleged that they are being paid just about Rs 11,000 to Rs 12,000 per month despite the fact that they were working for almost full day.

In certain cases, the entire administrative work as preparation of results and admissions is being carried out by them. Still they are being paid less than peons recruited on permanent basis in government colleges.

Mandi, August 26
Even as schoolteachers have termed the Education Department’s move of making teachers accountable for the poor school results as “dictatorial step”, but students and their wards hailed the government step and said the department should also make “officials from the director to the block level accountable for bad results and bad ratings of government schools in the state as well.”

Talking to The Tribune students and parents, who have put up their wards in government schools, said: “The initiative of the government to link the performance of teachers with results in schools will improve teaching standards. But the ratings should be linked to other activities also as students have to compete with their counterparts in private and public schools as well.”

Schools were not only focusing on huge percentage scored in academics, but also on the “comprehensive grading system of evaluation, said NR Thakur, a teacher.

However, the department had fixed a criteria that teachers’ increment or promotion would be linked to the school results. The pass percentage in each government school should not be less than the overall pass percentage of the HP Education Board just to make teachers accountable, said officials.

On the other hand, president, State Lecturers’ Association, Ashwani Sharma, and Sachin Thakur, its spokesperson, claimed that the government move was biased as it had not fixed same accountability to its officials as well.“Teachers are engaged in workshops, seminar, training, elections, guides and scouts duties from time to time besides they also have to complete the syllabus in time,” they added.

They claimed either the department should take back this notification or ask teachers to do only teaching.

Chamba, August 26
Reports pertaining to the damage caused by incessant rain in far-flung areas of Chamba district have been continuously pouring in the district headquarter town of Chamba.

The loss caused to the public and private property due to landslips and the fury of floods in streams and rivulets in the district following heavy rain for the past two months has so far been put at over Rs 10 crore.

People’s representatives and the rain-hit residents from different areas of the district have demanded adequate relief in view of the losses suffered by farmers and orchardists .

Bilaspur, August 26
Dev Raj (27) was killed and Suresh Kumar (23) was seriously injured when their scooter was crushed by a truck near Jabbal bridge on the Hamirpur-

Shimla NH on Thursday night. Both belong to Nalwaad village and were coming from Braham Pukhar side. The police has taken truck in to its possession while driver is still being searched for further investigation. — OC