Dharamsala, January 25
In a freak incident, two buses were burnt down and the driver of one of these, Suresh Kumar, was charred to death at the Dharamsala bus stand late last evening. Sources told The Tribune that the fire broke out at about 8.30 pm in a bus belonging to the Kamal Bus Service Transport Company. The bus was parked near the entrance to the bus stand.

It immediately spread to an HRTC minibus that was parked alongside the private bus. The staff at the bus stand managed to take away other buses from the on-fire buses that averted a major tragedy.

Ironically, none of the persons who arrived at the spot noticed the private bus driver, Suresh Kumar, who was probably sleeping in the private bus, calling for help to come out the bus on fire. His body, that was charred beyond recognition, was later recovered by the local police.

Bus stand in charge Kishori Lal said he first noticed fire at the bus stand at 8.30 pm. “I immediately called for fire tenders. However, the fire tenders which were at a distance of just 300 metres from the bus stand, arrived at the scene at 8.55 pm. The 25-minute delay on the part of the fire-fighting department led to the fire going out of control,” he claimed.

Deputy bus stand in charge Dinesh Kumar was also critical of the fire-fighting department, Dharamsala. He alleged that the fire engines arrived late and the staff that came along with these was not professional. They found it difficult to maintain the spray of water over the burning buses so as to put out the fire.

Kikar Singh, brother of the deceased, arrived at the scene of the incident this morning. He alleged foul play in the death of his brother. He alleged that his brother spoke to him on the mobile phone at 8.15 pm. It was hard to believe that just after about 15 minutes, he fell so asleep that he was charred to death. He demanded an inquiry into the incident.

Kangra SP Diljeet Thakur said the police was keeping all options open. An investigation into the incident was going on and a case had been registered. He said the postmortem on the body of the driver had been carried out and the viscera would be sent for chemical examination.

Minister for Industries Kishan Kapoor also visited the spot this morning and announced an ex gratia grant for next of kin of the deceased.

Sundernagar, January 25
Apart from allocating funds for stadia and grounds, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today announced that the government would appoint 100 junior engineers (JEs) and 2,000 jal rakshaks in the Irrigation and Public Health Department to boost irrigation and drinking water schemes in the state.

He announced that private bus operators would get Rs 2,000 per month as assistance and tax exemption under the Mukhya Mantri Gramin Path Parivahan Yojna to provide bus services in remote rural areas. All villages having a population in excess of 250 would be connected by roads this year.

Addressing a public meeting on the occasion of the 42nd Statehood Day here today after he unfurled the Tricolour and took the salute at a march past of the police, the Home Guards and the NCC, the Chief Minister said,“We have requested the Centre to shift the Dogra Regiment centre to Himachal and we will provide suitable land for it. We have also requested the Centre to increase the Himachal quota in the Army and the paramilitary forces”.

He said all villages having a population in excess of 250 would be connected by road this year. Private bus operators would get Rs 2,000 per month for operating a 29-seater bus, Rs 1,500 per month for a 22-seater bus and Rs 1,000 per month for a 17-seater bus in rural areas under the Mukhya Mantri Gramin Path Parivahan Yojna.

Remembering Dr YS Parmar, the state’s first Chief Minister, he recounted the rapid strides taken by the state in the field of development which had made it a role model of development in the country.

He said his government had provided good governance and launched schemes which had benefited farmers, labourers, employees, SCs/STs, women, widows and pensioners.

He said 12 per cent of the state budget was allocated for agriculture to help 70 per cent people who depended upon it.

The Chief Minister said delay in works bred corruption and the government had put in place a transparent, responsive and corruption-free mechanism of governance under the Himachal Pradesh Public Services Guarantee Act.

PWD Minister Gulab Singh Thakur, IPH Minister Ravinder Ravi, Horticulture Minister Narender Bragta, Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Transport Minister Mahender Singh, Chairman of the HP State Finance Commission Dile Ram, Sundernagar MLA Roop Singh Thakur, Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu and DGP DS Manhas were among those present on the occasion.

The Chief Minister announced Rs 14.40 lakh for a gymnasium at Mandi, Rs 36.33 lakh for an indoor stadium at Badrinagar in Paonta Sahib, Rs 15 lakh for a stadium at Mohri School, Mandi, Rs 6.86 lakh for “high mast lights” in the Vikram Batra Stadium, Palampur, Rs 25 lakh for Town Hall, Mandi, Rs 12.17 lakh for a wrestling stadium at Chehar, Ghumarwin, Rs 25 lakh for a stadium at Karsog, Rs 20 lakh for a boundary wall of the Chamoha ground, Nahan, Rs 10 lakh for an outdoor sports complex, Kullu, Rs 5 lakh for a sports stadium, Jubbal, Rs 15 lakh for a shooting range at Nahan, Rs 94 lakh for a synthetic track at Dharamshala, Rs 90.06 lakh for a sports complex, Dharamshala, Rs 16.68 lakh for volley terra flex flooring at Una, Shimla and Dharamshala, Rs 1 crore for an indoor stadium, Rohru, and Rs 1.22 crore for a synthetic track at Hamirpur.

He allocated Rs 83 lakh for a mini-secretariat at Sundernagar, Rs 50 lakh for an HRTC workshop at Sundernagar, Rs 3.31 crore for the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme, Sundernagar.

He upgraded the middle schools at Bandli and Dharanda to the high school level and three high schools at Porhi, Kothi and Maloh to the senior secondary level.

Shimla, January 25
Himachal has finally staked a claim of Rs 4,662.34 crore as arrears from Punjab and Haryana as its share in the Bhakra and Beas power projects since the reorganisation of states in 1966.

The state government has calculated its claim at Rs 4,662.34 crore and has sent it to the Union Power Ministry so that the hill state can get the pending dues from its neighbours, Punjab and Haryana. A Supreme Court judgment delivered on September 27 last year paved the way for Himachal’s claim, pending for the past 35 years.

“Last week we sent our claim of Rs 4,662.34 crore to the Union Power Ministry after taking into account all aspects so that we can get the money for which we have literally been waging a battle for the past three decades,” said Deepak Sanan, Principal Secretary, Power and Revenue. He added that he had personally spoken to senior officials in the Power Ministry to expedite the matter.

The Centre will have to calculate Himachal’s entitlements and liabilities within six months and file a statement in the Supreme Court so that the final decree is made. The arrears claim will go a long way in easing out the grave financial position of the state.

It is learnt that the Union Power Ministry is likely to convene a meeting of senior officials from Himachal, Punjab and Haryana so that the viewpoint of all can be heard before arriving at a final decision.

The compensation will be charged from Punjab and Haryana and will carry 6 per cent interest from 1966 in the case of Bhakra and from the date of commissioning in respect of the Beas I and II projects. The interest will have to be calculated till October 31, 2011. Himachal will start getting its decreed share of electricity from November 2011.

Had it not been for the verdict from the apex court, the hill state’s struggle to seek its enhanced share of power from Punjab and Haryana would have continued. The Supreme Court substantially raised the share of power from the Bhakra project retrospectively from 1966 and from the date of commissioning of units I and II of the Beas project.

Himachal will be entitled to an additional 6 per cent of the total production from November 1, 1966, against the 2.5 per cent it has been getting till now. From Beas I project, Himachal will get 5.75 per cent from the date of commissioning of the project against the 15 MW being given to it now. From the Beas II project, Himachal will get 2.98 per cent against its present nil share.

Shimla, January 25
Governor Urmila Singh has called upon the media and NGOs to create awareness among the people about the right to franchise which enables them to form governments in a democratic set-up.

Presiding over a state-level function organised to mark National Voter’s Day here today, she underlined the need for supplementing the efforts of the Election Commission and the government to educate the masses and make them realise the importance of their vote.

The Governor said the voters must exercise their franchise to strengthen the democratic fabric of the country. It was the responsibility of all concerned, including political parties who had a significant role to play in strengthening the democratic system and the electoral process.

She congratulated the newly registered voters and appealed to them to exercise their right to franchise whenever the opportunity came. She said elections were conducted in a transparent, fair and impartial manner in the country by the Election Commission of India, which had established its credibility among the voters, but all its efforts would be worthwhile only when the people exercised their right to vote.

The Governor administered oath to all citizens present on the occasion and distributed photo identity cards to newly registered voters.

Chief Electoral Officer Narinder Chauhan gave details of the activities of the department, while PL Negi, Additional Chief Electoral Officer, read out the message of the Chief Election Commissioner of the Election Commission of India.

A colourful cultural programme was presented by the Art, Language and Culture Department and the Gyan Vigyan Samiti.

Suresh Bhardwaj, local MLA, Roopa Sharma, vice-president, state BJP, MP Sood, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, and Rakesh Kanwar, Director, Art, Language and Culture Department, were also present on the occasion.

Shimla, January 25
Already having 10 major hydroelectric projects in hand in Himachal, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Nepal and Bhutan, the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) is all set to enter Arunachal Pradesh.

Keen on exploiting its vast hydropower potential, the Arunachal Government has assigned the survey and investigation work of two major projects and a river basin to the public sector undertaking. Besides the 1,100 MW Kameng Stage II and the 300 MW Ranga Nadi Stage II projects, it has been awarded the task of investigating the hydropower potential of the Si river basin. It will also prepare the pre-feasibility reports for these projects for which it has been given six months. The SJVN will prepare the reports on its own expense.

The survey and investigation work was assigned to the SJVN after its Chairman-cum-Managing Director RP Singh and Director, Personnel, NL Sharma visited the state and met Chief Minister Nabam Tuki and expressed willingness to take up projects in the state. “The hill state has been lagging in hydropower development and of the total 58,000 MW of potential, only 405 MW has been harnessed so far whereas Himachal is a leader in the sector. The state assigned the task to the SJVN, which provided the much-needed impetus to the hydropower sector by successfully executing the country’s largest 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Power Project.

The SJVN has 10 hydroelectric projects in hand, besides the Nathpa Jhakri project and it is also diversifying into wind power by setting up a 50 MW project on a turn-key basis. The 412 MW Rampur project in Himachal is in an advanced stage and is scheduled to be commissioned by March 2013, while the Luhri (775 MW) and Dhaulasidh (66 MW) projects are in the initial stages of execution. It has three projects in Uttarakhand - Devsari (252 MW), Naitwar Mori (60 MW) and Jakhol Sankri (51 MW), and Arun III (900 MW) in Nepal. It is also constructing two projects of 600 MW each in Bhutan.

It has also entered Manipur where it is executing the 1,500 MW Tipaimukh hydropower project, estimated to cost Rs 9,000 crore, in partnership with the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and the state with 26 per cent equity share. The NHPC has 69 per cent share and the rest 5 per cent is held by the Manipur government. The plan is to have an installed generation capacity of 6,500 MW.

Kangra, January 25
A 55-year-old man from Sidbhari succumbed to his injuries at the DRPGMC Tanda today. He was injured in a road accident when his motorcycle skid off the road on Sunday last, the police said.

Sunil Kumar and Laximan Singh, both of Sidbhari village, were travelling on a motorcycle which skid off the road at Sidhbari.

The duo was rushed to the DRPGMC Tanda where Sunil died. — OC