Shimla, February 15
The state Cabinet today decided to increase the house rent allowance (HRA) of the employees by 100 per cent with effect from March 1, 2012, in accordance with the assurance given by Chief Minister PK Dhumal at a meeting of the joint consultative committee held last month.

The decision will put an additional financial burden on the state exchequer to the tune of Rs 100 crore. The Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Dhumal, also approved a proposal to implement the Shetty Commission recommendations regarding the grant of allowances to subordinate employees of the judicial courts. It also approved the reduction of VAT from 13.75 per cent to 5 per cent on fuel cakes (biomass briquettes) made from solid waste procured from any local body or from any person.

The Cabinet finalised the procedure to be adopted for the sale of power available from Bhakra Beas Management Board projects for the next one year to help raise an additional revenue of about Rs 72 crore.

It adopted a policy with regard to setting up of micro hydel projects up to 100 kV capacity in the state and to consider applications only if the generation was for “captive or direct third-party sale locally”. It decided to set up a 2 X 250 MW (500 MW) instead of (1 X 660 MW) thermal power plant on the BOOT basis at Raniganj (West Bengal) under a joint venture of the state-owned HPPCL with M/s Eastern Minerals and Trading Agency (EMTA).

It accepted the compliance report of the Gopi Bai Foundation Trust, Kota (Rajasthan), and the Vocational Education Foundation, New Delhi, to pave the way for the enactment of the Career Point University (Establishment and Regulation ) Bill, 2012, and also approved to amend the Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions (Regulatory Commission) Rules, 2012.

Other decisions included the creation of a new tax revenue district at Nurpur and three new circles at Paonta-II, Jawali and Sundernagar, reconstitution of the committee for granting permits under the Mukhya Mantri Gramin Parivahan Yojna, auction toll barriers for the next financial year and set up a new toll barrier at Shela Ghora on the Bassi-Naina Deviji road in Bilaspur.

Dharamsala, February 15
The move of the Forest Department in the state to review certain cadre posts has caused resentment among the affected officers. The department has proposed to post Chief Conservators as the heads in Kullu, Chamba and Rampur forest circles. At present, the circles are being headed by Conservator-rank officers.

The department has also got approval from the Union Ministry for Forests and Environment for reviewing the said cadre posts.

Sources said according to the new proposal of the department, senior officers of the rank of Chief Conservator would now head the forest circles in Kullu, Chamba and Rampur. The rationale behind the move is extra workload in the forest circles.

However, the affected officers allege that if only extra workload was the criterion for posting Chief Conservators as heads of the said circles, then the affected conservators should also be given the charge of forest divisions that are at present being headed by Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) on the same logic of extra workload. They maintain that posting Chief Conservators against posts of Conservator can start a chain reaction in terms of determining powers right up to the rank of Range Officer in the forest circles.

An affected officer said on condition of anonymity that it was like posting a DIG to head the district instead of an SP.

The forest officers affected by the new decision allege that if the decision regarding posting Chief Conservators against posts of Conservator is to be implemented, it should be enforced in the entire state rather than targeting just three circles.

Resentment against the move also prevails among state cadre forest officials who reach the post of Conservator through the promotion channel. Some of them alleged that if posts of Conservator were reduced to “nothing” in the circles, it might end their chances to head forest circles even after putting in their entire service in the Forest Department.

Senior Indian Forest Service officers are, however, supporting the move on the plea that the workload in the department was increasing and senior officers were required to take up additional responsibility.

Since the Centre has given permission to the state government to review the cadre posts of Indian Forest Service officers in the state, the ball is now in the court of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who holds the Forest portfolio.

The sources said the affected officers were planning to meet the Chief Minister over the issue.

Bilaspur, February 15
The government should ensure that villages facing drinking water scarcity near and within a reasonable distance of Rs 65-crore Kol Dam Drinking Water Supply Scheme should be included in this scheme and it should be properly revised. The scheme at present is being implemented by the state government.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangthan district president and former MLA Babu Ram Gauttam said he had held a series of meetings with villagers in Harnoda, Devla Chhamb, Nehar and Bohat Kasohal yesterday and listened to their grievances. All of them had complained that their villages had been ignored in providing drinking water through this ambitious project. Gauttam was accompanied by several top party sangthan leaders, including district general secretary Ram Prakash Dhiman.

They said this was sheer injustice with them as this water could reach long distances, but would not be provided to villages that fell en route to this project near the Kol Dam from where water would be provided to the three constituencies of this district.

Dr Gauttam said these villagers were resentful and the government should reconsider this project and revise it in such a way that it also provided water to rural areas like Naalag, Khated, Gugga Bhated, Barmana, Berry, Panjgain, Dhar Tatoh, Solag Jurasi, Drobad, Bloh, Kunanu, Dhawan Kothi, Kanaun Bagon, Gahar and Ropa.

Villagers demanded that the NTPC management should be forced to provide employment to families of oustees of this project. The management had been refusing to fulfil its promises to them after taking their ancestral land for the same.

They said the management should also be forced to provide free medical treatment to oustees.

They warned that if their grievances continued to be ignored, they would stop the implementation of the project and start an agitation against it.

Shimla, February 15
The selection of below poverty line (BPL) families in accordance with the new parameters is likely to be delayed due to failure of the Centre to provide computer software being specially developed for the selection of families in an objective manner.

The state completed the caste-based socio-economic survey of about 18 lakh rural and urban families by the deadline of December 31 set by the Centre. However, no further progress has been made as the Centre failed to provide the software which will enable listing of the families in a particular format. After the listing, printouts were to be provided to gram panchayats for scrutiny to ascertain if the information provided about the families was correct or not. The final list was to be approved by respective gram panchayats for which the government had fixed a meeting on February 12. However, since the process of listing has been held up for want of the software, the meeting could not be held.

The role of the panchayats will end after the final listing of the families. The list of BPL families thereafter will be finalised using the softwares to be provided by the Centre, which will automatically select the families on the basis of fixed parameters. It will provide flexibility and the states will be able to select BPL families using a varied set of parameters at a click of the mouse. The process is not likely to be completed by the deadline of March 31.

However, the state faces a major problem in respect of the parameters set by the Centre for automatic exclusion and automatic inclusion of families. The five parameters for automatic inclusion are widows, houseless, beggars, scavengers and tribal clusters, of which the widow status is relevant. Similarly, most of 14 parameters for exclusion are also not in line with the socio-economic reality of the hill state. These include possession of two-wheelers and four-wheelers, tractors, a member in a government job, no member with an income in excess of Rs 10,000 per month, a pucca house of three or more rooms, a refrigerator, a loan in excess of Rs 50,000 under the kisan credit card, more than 2.5 acres of irrigated land, 5 acres of “two crop” non-mechanised irrigated land and 7.5 acres of unirrigated land and a non-agriculture industrial unit.

A large number of poor villagers have built pucca houses and most of them have refrigerators and two-wheelers. At present, there are 2.82 lakh BPL families and the number could decline if the selection is made on these parameters.

Shimla, February 15
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal yesterday said successive BJP governments had succeeded in securing sanctions to the tune of Rs 2,575 crore from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for various projects.

Addressing a meeting to discuss the plan priorities of MLAs, he said since the introduction of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) in 1995, the state had been sanctioned Rs 3,752 crore of which Rs 2,575 crore (68.63 per cent) had been sanctioned during the BJP regimes and the remaining 31.37 per cent during the Congress rule. He said to remove imbalance in the allocation of funds, added priority had been given to those Assembly segments which had been sanctioned less funds earlier. He said schemes worth Rs 1,491 crore had been got approved during the past four years under the RIDF. An amount of Rs 382 crore had been sanctioned under NABARD so far against Rs 400 crore during the year and the remaining amount would be received soon.

He said the Bhanupali-Bilaspur-Beri-Leh rail line was important from the defence point of view and its delay was a matter of concern. He directed the officers to ensure speedy forest clearances so that developmental works were not hindered for want of these.

Yesterday, MLAs from Kangra, Kullu, Una, Hamirpur, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts participated in the meeting.

Neeraj Chaudhary (Guler) sought the construction of the Koteshwar Mahadev-Khabbal road and some link roads in the segment and Nikhil Rajour (Jaswan) sought the deployment of medical and paramedical staff in health institutions at Terrace and Kaswa Kotla, speedy preparation of detailed project reports and filling of vacant posts of schoolteachers.

Rakesh Pathania (Nurpur) called for early action to provide power connection to eight completed water supply schemes and the implementation of the Finna Singh Project, Yog Raj (Pragpur) wanted an HRTC bus service in rural areas, a science block in Pir Saluhi and the construction of school rooms. Atma Ram (Rajgir) wanted a power sub-station for the Changer area to solve the low-voltage problem. Sudhir Sharma (Baijnath) sought project-specific clearance in the wildlife sanctuary area and outsourcing of the tunnel project, while Parveen Sharma (Palampur) sought relaxation in norms in the opening and upgrade of schools, clearance for the construction of two helipads near Chamunda and an electrical sub-station at Drang. Vipin Parmar (Sulah) wanted the completion of the Dheera-Chamunda water supply scheme and the Kripal Chand kuhl and an Atal Swasthya Sewa ambulance at Bhawarna.

Mukesh Agnihotri (Santokhgarh) expressed concern over indiscriminate mining and wanted a ban on setting up of stone crushers on border areas and the time-bound completion of road projects, channelisation of the Santokhgarh-Bakhri section of the Swan river and the Beut Irrigation Project. Balbir Chaudhary (Gagret) demanded a timber depot in Una district and starting of the mechanical and DPharmacy courses in BR Ambedkar Polytechnic.

Kishori Lal (Anni) demanded the construction of a tunnel under the Jalori Pass and Tejwant Negi (Kinnaur) wanted the construction of bridges which were washed away during Parechu floods and opening of the Mansarovar pilgrimage route through Kinnaur.

Manali, February 15
After three days of snowfall and inclement weather conditions in the Manali region, the sun shone bright this morning and local residents and tourists got some respite from the cold.

But again dark clouds hovered in the sky in the afternoon and snowfall began in the upper Manali region and rains in the lower parts.

Sanjeev Sharma, JE, PWD, Manali, said all link roads leading to places of tourist interest around Manali have been opened for vehicular traffic. After clearing the snow on roads, all nearby tourist places were bustling with visitors. Hundreds of tourists visited the Hadimba Devi temple, Manu Rishi temple and Club House today.

He further said the PWD also pressed snow-clearing machines and labourers into service to clear the snow on the road leading to Vashisht village, which is famous for the Vashisht Rishi temple and hot water springs.

Vehicular traffic on the Manali-Roatang road was disrupted at several places beyond Nehru Kund in the morning. All tourists going on a sight-seeing tour to the Solang valley had to stop near Nehru Kund.

Meanwhile, the Manali-Kullu national highway and the Manali-Naggar-Kullu (left bank) road have been opened for vehicular traffic, following which tourists started heading for Manali.

The influx of the tourist consists mostly of newly weds on their honeymoon.

Solan, February 15
As many as 18 bottlebrush trees have been axed illegally on the campus of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) at Kunihar without obtaining permission from forest officials.

Forest officials of Kunihar division swung into action after receiving a complaint in this regard yesterday and the range officer, who visited the school, detected that 18 trees had been axed.

School Principal Jatinder Bhaku, however, maintained that he had no idea that he was required to obtain permission for axing these trees. Since a mathematics lab was to be constructed there, he had directed labourers to axe the trees for clearing the land.

DFO, Kunihar, Prem Mahajan said he had directed the range officer to submit a fact-finding report in this matter and a letter had been written to the higher authorities of the school for initiating appropriate action against the Principal.

He said an irresponsible act had been executed by the school authorities. Children should be taught the importance of preserving the environment, he added.

Bottlebrush is an ornamental species that was planted several years ago to beautify the campus after investing thousands on procuring the plants from Chandigarh.

Though the trees were axed about a fortnight ago, a complaint was made to forest officials yesterday.

Forest officials have seized the chopped wood and its market value is being assessed to initiate an appropriate action against the Principal.

Shimla, February 15
Private universities are not pleased with the findings of the nationwide survey conducted by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and some of them have contested the highly generalised conclusions.

The fact that most of the private universities are in Solan district is not by chance, but by design. It is a policy of the government which has decided to create an educational hub at Kalujhanda in the district, they point out.

Universities like the Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technology, Eternal University and some others, which have been upgraded from colleges, have not purchased land from poor farmers like others. As such all the institutions can not be painted by the same brush.

The Baddi university, says its Registrar DK Banerji, has emerged from a group of institutes, each having its own campus and approved by the AICTE, which are successfully running under Himachal Pradesh University since 2002. As such, it will be incorrect to say that universities do not have the past experience of imparting higher education.

He says the university faculty include 11 PhDs and 13 teachers are on the verge of completing the doctorate programme, while 64 postgraduate teachers are having NET and GRE qualifications, and all of them are being paid under the UGC pay scales. The fee structure has been decided by the government and universities are following it.

Teams from the Education Department, the state Regulatory Commission, the UGC, the AICTE and the Pharmacy Council of India regularly visit universities to check the quality of education.

Shimla, February 15
The tribal district of Lahaul and Spiti has been adjudged the best in the country for maintaining a gender ratio of 1,017 females per 1,000 males in the past decade.

Stating this while inaugurating a two-day workshop on “Rights of Girl Child and Future Impact of Imbalanced Gender Ratio”, organised by the State Social Welfare Board here today, Chief Minister PK Dhumal said consistent efforts of the state through various policies and programmes had over the past four years yielded positive results and increased the overall female gender ratio to 974 as per the latest census.

He said pre-natal sex determination was a cognisable offence and the government had also decided to give cash reward to any individual who provided information about pre-natal tests and termination of pregnancy.

He said the government had introduced various schemes to motivate parents to give birth to the girl child.

Under the Beti Hai Anmol scheme, an amount of Rs 5,100 was deposited at the time of the birth of a girl child which grew into a substantial amount to meet the expenses of her education.

He said girls were being imparted free education up to the highest level and they were also being provided free text books and uniforms. The Mukhya Mantri Kanyadaan Yojna, Matri Seva Yojna, Mother Teresa Matri Sambal Yojna, Matri Shakti Bima Yojana, Matritva Sahyog Yojana and Sabala Yojana were all aimed at the empowerment of women.

The BJP government was the first to reserve 50 per cent seats for women in panchayati raj institutions and the actual percentage of women who got elected was 58 per cent.

Himachal also ranked at the top for having the lowest infant mortality rate (IMR) in the country.

Veena Thakur, Chairperson, State Women Welfare Board, gave a detailed account of the policies and programmes under implementation in the state for saving the girl child and checking foeticide.

Satwant Atwal, Deputy Inspector General of Police, spoke about the legal protection available to women and remedies available to them under different Acts.

She said every police station had adequate women officials to listen to the atrocities against women.

Kullu, February 15
After the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks, Pakistani-American mastermind accused David Coleman Headley’s divorced Morroccan wife Faiza Qutalah was in Manali in 2008. Now a Delhi terror attack on Israelis on Monday has brought the spotlight on Israelis Chabad houses in Manali and Kasol, the main nerve centres of travelling Jews, mainly young military personnel in the valley.

The police has been sounded and is keeping a watch on places frequented by Israeli tourists.

Travelling Israelis make a beeline for the valley of gods in search of cheap accommodation and hashish, mainly in the Old Manali village and Kasol in the Parbait valley from April to October.

The number of Israelis visiting Himachal has decreased following visa restrictions on them by the Israeli government over their increasing tendency to use drugs in the country. But young Israelis’ first port of call remains Dharamkot in Kangra, Old Manali and Kasol in Kullu district.

Though in winter Israelis visiting the valley are in almost a negligible number, their Chabad house run in the tourist town takes care of their spiritual needs, police sources said.

Israeli Chabad houses have come in security focus following the attack on Israeli embassy vehicle carrying five Israelis in Delhi, said the police.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had traced the whereabouts of Headley’s Morrocan wife in Manali after she had crossed the Wagah border from Pakistan in 2008. There were reports that she used to run a massage centre in Manali and nobody had a clue about her Headley connection then.

The ATS’s concern was important as Headley had surveyed all Chabad houses in the country before he allegedly masterminded the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks.

SP, Kullu, Ashok Kumar told The Tribune that the police had sounded an alert after receiving advisory in connection with the attack in Delhi. But there are few Israelis in Kullu district, it being an off-tourist season.

Sundernagar, February 15
Residents of eight panchayats of Sundernagar subdivision situated on the border of Mandi district adjoining Bilaspur district have been still waiting for the status of affected persons since 1984 when a cement plant was set up by ACC Cement at Barmana in Bilaspur district.

Residents of Baroti, Dehar, Kangoo, Dhawal, Jarol, Slapper and Salwana panchayats, situated in Sundernagar subdivision of Mandi panchayats, have been suffering due to pollution caused by the ACC Cement plant, which is situated nearby on the other side of the Sutlej in Bilaspur district.

Residents of these areas have been raising their voice against the issues faced by them due to the cement plant, but not even a health survey was conducted either by the ACC project authorities nor by any agency of the state government in this area, which comprises 31 villages with a population of 22,000 residents along with 10,000 animals.

According to Bali Ram, a social worker, the benefits, if any, were given to residents of a few panchayats of Bilaspur district who got compensation for the land which was used by the cement project and they got direct or indirect employment from the cement plant.

The project authorities gave a huge financial assistance for developmental activities in Shimla district and other areas, but not to residents of these panchayats who were the real sufferers.

Residents further claimed that the government had framed a wrong policy with respect to the affected persons of cement plants. As per the policy, the affected persons were those whose land was used in the project, but it does not cover those who lived in the vicinity and suffered pollution and nuisance.

In the present case, benefits were given to residents of the adjoining panchayats of Bilaspur district, but not to those residents who live on the other side of the Sutlej in Mandi district.

As per RTI information provided by the office of the tehsildar, Sundernagar, these panchayats were badly affected with the pollution caused by the ACC Cement plant, Barmana, situated in Bilaspur district as these were situated within 2-km area from the plant.

Residents of these panchayats appealed to Chief Minister PK Dhumal to frame a policy vide which these panchayats were declared as affected panchayats of the ACC Cement factory at Barmana and benefits were given to them.

Nurpur, February 15
Following a court direction, the local police lodged a rape case under Sections 376 and 493, IPC, against Bajinder Singh of Dharooh village this evening.

According to DSP Rajinder Jaswal, the complainant, a resident of Suliali village, in her complaint alleged that the accused was her classmate.

The two are studying in a college at Badani near Pathankot. Both fell in love and the accused promised to marry her. But he allegedly exploited her sexually and did not fulfil his promise to marry her. She then approached the local court to lodge a case against the accused. The DSP said after booking the accused, investigation had been started.