Lajyana (Hamirpur), November 24
Chief Minister PK Dhumal has said the state government is taking up the issue of reduction in cement prices with cement companies strongly and is waiting for the outcome of a meeting between the Industries Minister and representatives of the cement companies.

He said this while talking to mediapersons after inaugurating a PWD rest house at Lajyana today.

On being informed by mediapersons that the cement companies had enhanced the price of a cement bag by Rs 5 today, the Chief Minister expressed surprise over this and said, “The state government has deputed the Industries Minister to discuss the matter with them and strong efforts are being made to convince the cement companies to bring down the cement prices in the state.”

To a question on state Congress leaders’ accusation regarding the alleged involvement of two BJP ministers in land deals in the state, the Chief Minister said, “The Congress is going to lose both seats in the byelections and sensing defeat their leaders are making baseless allegations in frustration, but the real issues in these elections are price rise, corruption, bringing back black money deposited in foreign banks and development carried by the BJP government in the state during the past four years.” He said, “If Congress leaders have any evidence of illicit land deals and cases of alleged violation of Section 118 of the Land Tenancy Act they should submit such information to the judicial commission set up by the government.” 

Shimla, November 24
Even as decongestion of the town by way of having three satellite townships and shifting of the grain, timber and vegetable markets and other services to the outskirts of the town have been suggested in the interim City Mobility Plan proposed for the town, the local Municipal Corporation (MC) has sought more practical suggestions, pointing out certain shortcomings in the document.

Not satisfied by the presentation made by the Delhi-based consultant, Urban Mass Transit Company, about the much-awaited City Mobility Plan (CMP), the MC has asked them to rework on certain areas and come out with more practical solutions within a month’s time. Team members today visited certain sites in the town to get a practical feel about the CMP and also met some stakeholders.

The consultant made a presentation about the interim CMP here yesterday before the Commissioner, MC, AN Sharma. “We have given them some time to work on certain areas where we feel there are shortcomings and only then we will place it before the MC House and later send it to the Urban Development Ministry for approval,” said Sharma. He added that certain suggestions made by the MC would also be incorporated in the CMP.

“The CMP lacks a practical view which is a must along with better solutions for developing an alternative transportation system along the circular road, creating more parking and how to go about developing the three satellite townships suggested,” said AN Sharma, sounding not too satisfied with the CMP.

He said the developing of three satellite townships near Fagu, Ghannahati and Vaknaghat had been suggested in the CMP but the consultant had been asked to come out with more comprehensive suggestions how to develop these new areas which could help decongest the town. They had also been asked to identify exact sites for shifting of the grain, timer, coal and vegetable markets from the town so that the town could be decongested.

The main thrust of the CMP is to connect the main hills of Shimla by way of aerial ropeways (cables), have more tunnels and an elevated rapid transport system which can run on a spiral track, requiring minimum space. There is also a proposal to connect the newly constructed ISBT with the Mall and the Ridge.

The MC has also asked the consultant to suggest more parking spaces in case an alternative transport system along the Cart Road is suggested. At present it is the circular or the Cart Road which is practically taking the entire burden of the total vehicles in the town.

Renuka, November 24
The BJP candidate from Renuka, Hriday Ram, may be facing flak from his detractors for being a paratrooper, but his insight and vision about the issues afflicting this backward reserve constituency has certainly set the ball rolling in his favour.

Having resigned his Himachal Administrative Services job to enter the poll arena, Hriday Ram has risen from a humble rural background and hails from Beuri Khrahan village of Renuka.

Talking to The Tribune today, he said, “I am the 12th child of my parents who made their living by running a small watermill. After acquiring primary education in the local government school, I was forced to drop out as there was no middle school in my village. However, after a gap of one and a half years, the local school was upgraded which led me to join school again though it was after the insistence of my teachers who saw the potential of a good student in me.”

With shoes and even a proper dress eluding Hriday Ram as a child, he grew up in poverty and walked to school barefoot till class VIII. His hard work paid off and he made a place for himself in the State Administrative Services finally.

Hriday Ram is, however, moved by the plight of many rural panchayats where the toil to fetch water by walking a distance of several kilometers is still an everyday affair. Blaming the Congress for the lack of development, he says, “It is unfortunate that several villages like Kalriya, Unger and Kando, which fall in the panchayat of the Congress nominee, still have no drinking water facility and the presence of Congress MLA for six terms has failed to address this basic issue.”

He adds, “Even roads which were laid years ago have not been maintained and are still non-concrete. This speaks volumes about the abject neglect of this constituency.”

He is hopeful of gaining the voters’ support as he feels his long administrative experience will help develop the area where even the basic facilities have remained amiss despite the area remaining loyal to one single family all these years.

Expressing his resolve to work for the people, he adds, “It would have been a mistake not to rise to the occasion and make use of my administrative experience to develop this area after seeing the plight of the rural masses.”

Palampur, November 24
A two-day national symposium on “Strategic issues in plant pathological research” was inaugurated at CSK HP Agriculture University here today.

Dr BM Singh, an eminent plant pathologist and former Dean, while addressing around 150 delegates from all over the country, asked the young scientists to think out of the box for innovation and research. He said due to high-tech agriculture, many new diseases had cropped up which needed effective control measures.

Dr PK Sharma, Dean, College of Agriculture, in his presidential address, appreciated the plant pathologists in the university for their excellent teaching, research and extension work. He said due to fast the movement of seeds and other food stuff, many new pathogens were entering the country and the race between effective control and new diseases would continue.

Dr SP Sharma, Director of Research, said it was a challenge to enhance food production on ever-decreasing farmland.

Dr TS Thind, President, Indian Society of Plant Pathologists, elaborated on the activities of his society.

Dr YS Paul, Head of Plant Pathology Department, Dr SS Kang, Dr PN Sharma and Dr DK Banyal also expressed their views. 

Shimla, November 24
With a view to fulfilling the objectives listed in the Vision Document 2020, the Academic Council of the Himachal Pradesh University today recommended the setting up of 10 new departments, 11 new centres for research and extension and seven new chairs, besides deciding to start several new courses.

The important recommendations were made by the Academic Council after holding its 63rd meeting here today. The new departments recommended by the council are anthropology, archaeology, bio-chemistry, geology, library and information science, defence studies, fine arts, philosophy, traditional knowledge system and pharmaceutical sciences.

In another significant recommendation, the council also decided to set up 11 centers for research and extension in a phased manner, to be started from the next academic session. These will be the Centre for Nano Science and Technology, Food Processing, Multi Media, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Indian Religion Philosophy Thoughts and Culture, Environmental Studies, Pahari Language and Culture, Remote Sensing and GIS, Spiritualism, Jyotish and Yogic Studies, Social Exclusions and Inclusive Growth and Disabilities Studies.

Another important decision arrived at today’s meeting was the setting up of seven more Chairs in the names of SS Bhatnagar for Science Education and Research, Shobha Singh - Visual Arts, JC Bose - Life Sciences, Baba Bhalku Ram - Tourism, Transport and Hospitality, Sri Aurbindo - Indian Philosophy and Thoughts and the Planning Commission and Reserve Bank of India Chairs.

The council also decided to introduce certificate courses in Urdu, Chinese, Japanese, human rights, tourist guide, computer, personality and skill development, religious tourism and freedom struggle tourism, which are in demand and will help enhance employment opportunities for the youth.

Several new courses, including MTech in Bio-Technology and Information Technology, MSc in Remote Sensing, GIS, Environment Science, Statistics, Polymer Science, MA in Disaster Management, Hindi Journalism, Population and Development Studies and Tribal Studies will be started.

MBA in Infrastructure Development, Banking and Life Insurance, Retail Management, Bio-technology, Environment Management and Rural Development will also be started.

Some other courses to be started include postgraduation in financial studies, accounts and taxation, costing, banking and insurance and retail management with short-term special courses in veda, vyakarana, darshana and Himalayan culture and spirituality.

The council also recommended to start postgraduate diploma courses in cultural tourism, adventure sports, Pahari miniature painting, bio-informatics, Buddhists studies, cyber law and IPR and patent law.

Dharamsala, November 24
Peeved at the cost escalations due to delay in works, the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department has withdrawn the powers of executive engineers to grant extension of tender time periods in bigger contracts.

As per the orders issued by the department, now, the authorities who have approved the tenders can only grant permission in extension of the time period of contracts. Sources here told The Tribune that as per the rules of the department, executive engineers have the power to approve tenders up to Rs 15 lakh.

Superintendent engineers have the power to approve tenders up to the cost of Rs 60 lakhs. All tenders above the said amount have to be approved by chief engineers or engineer-in-chief.

However, since executive engineers were signing and executing authorities on almost all the contracts, they were in many cases granting extension of time periods to contractors on their own.

The sources said many such extensions were given in the Swan channelisation projects in Una district, which is the biggest irrigation work, being under taken by the IPH Department.

In some cases, the time period of the contract was about six months, but the executive engineer concerned gave extension to politically influential contractors up to two years.

According to the rules, contractors have to be penalised in case they do not complete the work within the stipulated time period. However, in certain cases no penalty was imposed on contractors despite the fact that they inordinately delayed projects.

Senior officials of the department expressed reservations while clearing the bills of such delayed contracts on the plea that they were never informed about the extensions.

However, to avoid such incidents in the future, the department has withdrawn the power of executive engineers to grant extension of contracts in case of tenders that have not been approved by them. Now, in case an executive engineer wants to get the time period of the contract extended, he would have to cite reasons and forward the case to the approving authority of the contract that can be superintendent engineer or the chief engineer.

The sources added that executive engineers generally granted extensions allegedly under local political pressure. This caused losses worth crores due to delay in works and escalation of costs.

Though the department has taken the steps to check inordinate delay in execution of works by contractors, other departments like the PWD have yet to resort to similar measures. Many contractors in the PWD also have been accused of delaying the execution of contracts inordinately that leads to escalation of costs. However, most of such erring contractors get away without being penalised.

Mandi, November 24
The state high court’s Division Bench, headed by Chief justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rajiv Sharma, today granted a stay on the order issued by the Directorate of Higher Education regarding the reduction in the retirement age of teachers teaching in five government-aided colleges from 60 years to 58 years.

Hearing the petition filed by 16 teachers in these colleges in the HC, the Bench granted stay on the letter issued by the Directorate of Higher Education in which the retirement age was reduced from 60 years to 58 years.

The court also ordered that these colleges will continue to get the grant-in-aid as per the prevailing rules.

The Directorate of Higher Education had circulated a letter to five colleges - St Bede’s College (Shimla), MLSM College (Sundernagar), DAV College (Kangra), DAV College (Kotkhai) and SVSD College (Bhatoli) - stating that the retirement age of teachers in these colleges would be 58 years instead of 60 years as per the new directions.

The affected teachers challenged government’s decision in the HC, citing the HP Service Security Act, 1994, and the HP University Ordinance, 1973, and requested for a stay.

Talking to The Tribune, president, Himachal Pradesh Non-Government

Lecturers’ Association, CP Kaushal, said: “We hail the court order and hope the teaching faculties in these colleges will get justice from the court on merit.” The petitioners were represented by advocate Rajneesh Maniktala.

Bilaspur, November 24
Dalip Singh (45), a labourer working at Seer khud for gravel extraction and belonging to Behran Kalhi village under the Behna gram panchayat in Jhundutta Development Block, was found dead in the village bowli (water source) outside the village under mysterious circumstances.

The police has registered a case and the cause of the death is being investigated.