Dharamsala, February 22
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal will effect the much-awaited expansion of his Cabinet tomorrow. Sources told The Tribune that Khimi Ram would be inducted into the Cabinet.

The Chief Minister gave information regarding the expansion of the Cabinet while talking to The Tribune here today. He was here to inaugurate a building of Kangra Cooperative Bank at Dharamsala. The Chief Minister said one more minister would be added into the Cabinet tomorrow.

Though he did not reveal the name of the MLA who would be inducted into the Cabinet, the sources said Khimi Ram, the outgoing president of the state BJP and confidant of the Chief Minister, would be inducted as a minister.

Khimi Ram is a Brahmin. At present there is no Brahmin in the Himachal Cabinet.

The Cabinet berth fell vacant after former Forest Minister JP Nadda resigned and joined the central leadership of the party.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister took on HPCC president Kaul Singh, who had alleged that Kangra was being discriminated against by the present government due to Shanta Kumar.

He alleged that during the stint of the Congress in power, three ministers from Kangra - Chandresh Kumari, Vijay Singh Mankotia and Brij Behari Bhutail - were dropped from the Cabinet. However, the present BJP government had inducted four ministers from Kangra into the Cabinet.

During the past four years, many projects like the Shah canal, Phina Singh canal, central university, the National Institute of Fashion Design, the Food and Craft Institute and many drinking water schemes had been allotted to Kangra district. The BJP government brought up the mini-secretariat at Kangra and now its second phase had also been constructed by the government, he said.

Meanwhile, speaking at a function of Kangra Central Cooperative Bank, the Chief Minister said the cooperative bank had registered an increase in its deposits and advances by a record 43 per cent during the past four years.

The Chief Minister was presented a draft for Rs 5 lakh by RS Mankotia, Chairman of the bank. the Himachal Institute of Engineering Technology, Shahpur, also presented a draft for Rs 31,000 as contribution towards the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Shimla, February 22
As widely expected, Chief Minister PK Dhumal has decided to fill the lone vacancy in his Cabinet soon after the appointment of Satpal Singh Satti as the state BJP chief in place of Khimi Ram.

It was obvious that the outgoing party president will be given an honourable exit. But giving him a ministerial berth had become a necessity to check the growing influence of Maheshwar Singh, who is heading the breakaway Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP). The mass support the estranged leader has been receiving, particularly in Kullu district, has not gone unnoticed. Besides various other issues, the rivalry between Khimi Ram and Maheshwar Singh was one of the factors which made the latter desert the BJP and float a political outfit.

The development has upset the applecart of Suresh Bhardwaj, MLA from Shimla, who has been waiting for induction into the ministry for the past almost one year. His name was cleared by party president Nitin Gadkari in consultation with the Chief Minister and veteran leader Shanta Kumar.

Gadkari had also chosen Rural Development Minster Jai Ram to replace Khimi Ram after the two senior party leaders failed to reach a consensus on a name for the post.

However, the decision of the dissidents to desert the BJP and float the HLP completely altered the political equations. The two-member team deputed by Gadkari to review the functioning of the party and the government recommended the name of Satti for the top party post. If Jai Ram had been inducted, another ministerial berth would have been available to accommodate both Bharadwaj and Khimi Ram.

The induction of Khimi Ram will provide representation to Brahmins as there has been no one from the community ever since JP Nadda resigned as Forest Minister.

The elevation of Satti as the party chief has created a slot of Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS). Party sources revealed that there was also a plan to induct three CPSs - Randhir Sharma, Vipin Parmar and Renu Chadha. However, the move was dropped as Sharma and Parmar were reportedly not keen on taking up the post.

Dharamsala, February 22
The Kangra police has booked activists of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) under Section 155 of the Police Act for burning the Chinese national flag at McLeodganj on February 20 night.

SP, Kangra, Diljeet Thakur said the TYC activists had been booked for not taking permission from the authorities nor informing the police before organising a protest in which they had burnt the Chinese national flag. As per the Police Act, every organisation had to take permission from the Area Magistrate and inform the police 24 hours before organising a protest march.

“We have registered a case and are in the process of indentifying the TYC activists who had burnt down the Chinese flag,” he said.

Under Section 155, Police Act, a fine up to Rs 5,000 could be imposed on the accused.

The TYC, that is considered to be a pro-independence and hardline faction of Tibetan exiles, has around 30,000 members across the world. It also had taken on their authorities over changing the name of the Tibetan government-in-exile to the Central Tibetan Administration.

The change of name was affected after the Dalai Lama announced his retirement as political and administrative head of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Though the Tibetan government-in-exile is not recognised by any country, the office of the Dalai Lama has its offices in many countries, including Japan.

Shimla, February 22
An appreciable rise in the mercury across the state over the past one week has not only provided relief to the people from the extreme cold but has also improved generation in various hydroelectric projects due to an increase in the discharge in streams and rivers.

Freezing cold during January and the first half of February had affected power generation, leading to a shortage of power as the availability declined to around 230 lakh units (LU) against the requirement of 250 LU. With the weather getting relatively warm, the demand has started decreasing and the generation is increasing due to the improvement in the discharge. As a result there is no shortage of power, though there are problems in some areas due to overloading and erratic supply from the 220 kV Khodri transmission line through which power is supplied to parts of Sirmaur district.

Widespread snow and rain coupled with rising mercury has led to a significant increase in the discharge. The maximum temperature has shot up over the past one week from 8.5 to 16.9 degree C in Shimla, minus 1.7 to 10.6 degree C in Keylong and from zero to 7 degree C in Kalpa. The discharge and in turn generation has increased and the state electricity board, which has an installed capacity of 471 MW, is set to surpass the target for the year. It has already achieved 97 per cent of the target of 1,914 million units fixed for the year and it is likely to achieve 105 per cent by March 31.

The 126 MW Larji project has turned out the best performance and it has already generated 642 million units (MU) of power as against the target of 575 MU for the year. Similarly, the 60 MW Giri project has generated 199 MU against the target of 200 MU and the Ghanvi project 63 MU against 64 MU. In fact, barring the Bassi project, which generated only 129 MU as against the annual target of 200 MU, all other projects have either already achieved the target or are very near to it.

The country’s largest 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri project has surpassed the target and also the last year’s record generation of 7,140 MU and is set to cross the 7,500 MU mark by the end of the current fiscal.

Shimla, February 22
The executive council of Himachal Pradesh University, which met under the chairmanship of Vice-Chancellor ADN Bajpai here today, approved the recommendations of the selection committees under the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for the appointment of 13 professors and two associate professors.

At the outset, the Vice-Chancellor said a delegation of the council met the Chief Minister and apprised him of the financial position of the university. It requested him to enhance the annual budget of the university from the existing Rs 50 crore to Rs 75 crore. The Chief Minister gave a patient hearing and assured suitable financial assistance to the university.

Those whose names were approved for appointment are Dr Sunil Deshta, Dr Kamal Jeet, Dr Manu Sood, Dr Amar Jeet, Dr Veena Sharma, Dr Kuldeep Attri, Dr Reena Gupta, Dr RS Shandil, Dr PN Bansal, Dr Jeet Ram, Dr Simmi Agnihotri, Dr Shashi Sharma and Dr Nain Jeet Singh Negi as Professor and Aman Sharma and Jawahar Thakur as Associate Professor, and Dr Desh Raj Thakur under direct recruitment.

The council approved the recommendations of the Recruitment and Promotion Committee in respect of technical and engineering staff and also gave nod for updating the syllabus in respect of the bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication introduced in different colleges of the state.

Those present at the meeting included Suresh Bhardwaj, local MLA, Prof Dhani Ram, Prof OP Chauhan, Prof Shri Ram Sharma, Prof Suresh Kumar, Prof NS Bisht, Dr Uma Verma, Dr BL Binta, Chaudhry Waryam Singh Bains and Prof Shashi Kant Sharma, Registrar.

Swarghat (Bilaspur), February 22
The Excise and Taxation Department has initiated action against a private contractor, who has been collecting toll tax on the Chandigarh-Manali National Highway No. 21 on the inter-state border at Garha Mour, after The Tribune highlighted the rude behaviour of the toll staff in its columns.

Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Bilaspur, Vivek Mahajan, said on the phone that this was not the first complaint against the contractor. He had been challaned by the department for misbehaviour with some tourists a couple of months ago.

“I have marked an inquiry to the Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) of the area asking him to submit a comprehensive report in this regard so that appropriate action can be taken against the contractor,” Mahajan claimed.

Mahajan said the department would take strong action against the contractor as this was the second time that a complaint had been received against him.

“The rude behaviour of the toll staff is not only bringing a bad name to the state but also putting tourists to hardship, which the state government will never tolerate,” he added.

Som Dutt, the area ETO, meanwhile, revealed that the contractor had been challaned for not complying with the norms of the contract and further action would be taken against him after the completion of the investigations.

The Tribune had, in its columns on January 29, highlighted the alleged high-handedness of the rowdy staff deployed by KD Sharma, a private contractor, to collect toll tax at Gara Mour.

Hamirpur, February 22
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today parried questions on allegations levelled by Union Minister Virbharda Singh regarding giving a tea estate to Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan and allotting more land then specified to private universities.

To a question while talking to mediapersons here today after presiding over the prize distribution function of a local government college, the Chief Minister said, “He should submit the details to the commission set up by the government to look into charges of violation of the Land Ceiling Act and Section 118 of the Land Tenancy Act, to substantiate his allegations.”

He said, “There is no need of a CBI inquiry into the pulses scam and as soon as the matter came to the knowledge of the government, the tender was cancelled.”

The Chief Minister criticised the UPA government for its alleged move to curb the powers of the Election Commission of India. He said, “The Congress-led UPA government is trying to curb the powers of the Election Commission of India since the commission has taken cognisance of complaints against some of its ministers.”

Earlier, addressing a gathering on the occasion of the annual prize distribution function of NSCB Postgraduate College, Hamirpur, the Chief Minister appealed to the students to shun drugs and violence, and concentrate on their studies and games.

The Chief Minister announced Rs 51 lakh for the college for repairs of roofs, Rs 22 lakh for constructing toilets and Rs 80 lakh for setting up an IT block. He also announced to increase the BBA seats from 40 to 60.

He gave away prizes to meritorious students and those excelling in co-curricular activities.

Mandi, February 22
Dressed up in his “stylish teeth clothes” and a neck chain and locket, bhangra pop king and Nawanshahr-born Jazzy B kept the International Shivratri Fair crowd on its feet, dancing, swaying, singing and shaking to the hot numbers of martial dance he blared out from the choc-a-block Seri Munch stage at the inaugural cultural night show in this temple town yesterday.

Supporting spiky blond hairs puffs, Jazzy B appeared on the stage amid the cheering, whistling crowd, most of it comprising youngsters. He started with a devotional song dedicated Guru Nanak Dev and went on to strike a personal chord with the receptive crowd.

After making waves on the music scene by his chart busters like “Hat Pichey” and “Canadian Spice” on martial dance in the Punjabi community in England, Canada and the USA in the 1990s, Jazzy B was no stranger in this temple town, which has a sizeable Punjabi following.

The range and depth of his vocals certainly sounded diluted from his earlier style after he underwent a throat surgery. But Jazzy B never sounded tired, and danced and sang for more than an hour non-stop.

Officials at the venue were panicky while controlling the dancing and swaying crowd of youngsters as the chief guest at the show was none other than Chief Minister PK Dhumal and his Cabinet colleagues PWD Minister Gulab Singh Thakur and Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Thakur and others.

Mixing rap and pop, his bhangra chart busters from “Tara Roop Romeo”, “Mah”, “Oh Kedi”, “Majajne” etc struck an instant chord with youngsters.

He said he owed his music to God who is one and who people name differently. But the mother tongue is supreme, be it Punjabi for him or Hindi, Urdu and English, and all parents must encourage the mother tongue among their children, he said.

Bilaspur, February 22
The Himachal Government has set up 39 technical institutes in the state in the private sector during the past four years in which 14 are engineering colleges, six polytechnic colleges and seven BPharmacy institutes. This was stated by BJP state spokesman and Naina Deviji MLA Randhir Sharma while addressing as chief guest an annual prize distribution function of Government Senior Secondary School, Namhole, 25 km from here, today.

Sharma said now students from Himachal did not have to go outside the state to get higher training. They were getting it near their own villages, while thousands of students from outside the state were thronging these training centres here.

Randhir Sharma said the government had decided to provide two free uniforms to students in the state from Class I to X plus II every year. It was already providing free text books to 3,61,565 students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and IRDP and had spent Rs 25.98 crore on this project.

Sharma said the government had introduced a scheme of providing Rs 60,000 for the construction of kitchen sheds in every primary and middle school in phases for cooking mid- day meals. He said Rs 2.85 crore had been spent on providing free text books to all primary school students in the state.

He urged teachers to encourage students to develop talent according to their aptitude and taste. He also asked the students to take up their studies seriously.

He announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh for the construction of two rooms of the school, Rs 50,000 for the repair of the primary school building there, Rs 1.50 lakh for the construction of one room of the primary school at Ghayal nearby and Rs 11,000 for students who had presented a clolourful cultural programme at this function.

Sharma distributed prizes among students who had excelled in studies and other activities of the school, while Principal BL Bhardwaj read out the school progress report.

Bilaspur, February 22
All district officers should ensure that all arrangements are made for the month-long annual Baba Balak Nath Shah Talai Fair which begins from March 13 at shrine town Shah Talai, 70 km from here, in this district.

This was stated by HP Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal while presiding over a Mela Management Committee meeting at Shah Talai today. He said no slackness or negligence of any kind would be tolerated as lakhs of pilgrims from all parts of the country and even abroad visited the fair during Chaitra.

Kaundal said the police and Home Guards “bandobast” should be strengthened with a view to increase security and comfort of devotees and special buses would pressed into service. No private cars should be allowed to be used as taxis, he added.

He said cleanliness and hygiene should be top priority with proper arrangements for lavatories and urinals and stay arrangements, while 24-hour medical services with two ambulances and doctors available with emergency equipments should be ensured in every case.

The Deputy Speaker said no drums and loud speakers should be allowed; no roads used for vending stalls and plying of rehries etc; and pilgrims from outside the state should not be allowed to come with polythene and plastic bags etc.

Additional District Magistrate Darshan Kalia, Temple Trust Chairman-cum-SDM RK Gauttam, DSP Sanjay Sharma, Tehsildar Surender Jamwal, Nagar Panchayat president Saroj Kumari and vice-president Pawan Kaushal and a large number of officers and representatives were also present at the meeting.

Kangra, February 22
Villagers of Jalladhi village, near here, are up in arms against a private power project company as a controversy has cropped up between them and the company management engaged in the construction of a 5-MW power project in the village following cracks which had appeared in 48 houses there.

SDM, Kangra, Vinay Kumar Singh today constituted a four-member technical committee and asked it to submit a report in this regard as soon as possible.

Vinay said the District Kangra Himachal Kisan Sabha had raised certain demands which included compensation to the owners of 48 houses which had developed cracks allegedly following blasts carried out by the company for the construction of a tunnel on the Banner river.

He said yesterday villagers forced the company to stop work on the project tunnel which prompted the police to intervene on the company management’s request.

He said the protesting villagers had been demanding proper compensation for the land acquired by the company, 70 per cent employment to Himachali youths and running of a well-equipped dispensary in the village. The protest was led by secretary of the sabha Kapoor Singh Sapia.

The SDM said a four-member committee was constituted under the chairmanship of the Tehsildar of Kangra today. It would assess the damage to the houses and the cause of the cracks. He said the decision was taken during a meeting in his office which was attended by members of the sabha and the project management.

The SDM asked the project management to submit details about the people employed from Himachal Pradesh in the project. He also asked the sabha to submit the list of skilled and unskilled unemployed youths of the village. He said he would take up matter with the CMO, Kangra, for improving the already existing medical dispensary in the village.

Sapayia rejected the decision of today’s meeting. He alleged that the minutes of the meeting showed that the administration was favouring the project management.

Shimla, February 22
The Himachal Pradesh Power Engineers’ Association has strongly opposed the move of the management of HPSEB Limited to further curtail the direct recruitment quota of engineers which has already been reduced from 64 to 36 per cent.

The association said the policy of appeasement being followed by the management to increase promotion quota of various categories at the cost of direct recruitment would spell doom for the government company which needed highly technical manpower to implement the IT-enabled systems being put under accelerated power development and reforms project.

The association urged the management to restore the original quota of direct recruitment to increase professionalism to face the growing competition in the power sector. Inducation of graduate electrical engineers was essential in areas like implementation of the latest technologies, project monitoring techniques, IT-enabled services and other sectors.

Further, the cadre of power engineers would be diluted by promoting or bringing in persons from other cadres.

It asserted that there was need to put the right person on the right job and not tamper with the direct recruitment quota of power engineers. Any such move would be opposed tooth and nail by the association.

Nurpur, February 22
A pall of gloom descended on nearby Sadwan village today following the murder of Ajay Kumar (28), son of Pritam Singh of the village, when he was suddenly attacked by a group of youths of Niyar village with wooden sticks late last night. He was rushed to the Civil Hospital here, but died on the way. His friends Sudesh and Kartik had sustained injuries.

According to DSP Rajinder Jaswal, Ajay, along with his friends, had gone to the village last night on three motorcycles to enquire about the scuffle that had taken place between two local youths yesterday. A group of youths, who had assembled there, attacked them with wooden sticks and smashed their motorcycles.

The DSP said the police had identified three out of the seven accused as Ankush, Subash and Ajay who had absconded after the crime. A case under Sections 302, 201, 323, 147, 148, 149 and 427, IPC, had been lodged in this connection. He said a dozen youths had been rounded up for investigation.

The police has seized the wooden sticks used in killing Ajay and taken into possession the smashed motorcycles.