Dharamsala, February 25
The newly established Central Universities are lobbying with the Union Ministry for HRD for implementing the pension portability scheme in these institutions. This was disclosed by Vice-Chancellor of Central University, Himachal Pradesh, Furqan Qamar while talking to The Tribune here today.

These universities are lobbying for the implementation of the pension portability scheme as they are facing shortage of staff at the ranks of professor and associate professor.

The VC said the Union Government had discontinued the old pension scheme for all employees recruited after December 31, 2003. Later, the government allowed portability of pension for the employees moving from one Central Government department to another. Under this scheme, faculty moving from one Central University to another could retain its pension benefits. However, the pension portability scheme was limited to the institutions that were established before December 31, 2012.

The newly established Central Universities, including those of Himachal, were not in a position to attract senior faculty from other universities as their pension schemes would not continue and the faculty would be considered as new employees in case they joined here.

He further said the government had allowed a deputation of employees for a period extending up to 10 years.

“Under this scheme, we are offering senior faculty from the university to join the Central University, Himachal Pradesh, on deputation. During the deputation period, we will continue sending contribution to the original pension fund of the employees. We hope that during this time period, the Union Government will allow pension portability to senior faculty members joining the new Central University,” the VC said.

He also admitted that the Central University was not getting quality faculty at the levels of associate professor and professor ranks. The main reasons for that is acute shortage of senior teaching faculty at the national level. Besides, most of the universities have started giving career progression schemes to its faculty members due to which they have lesser inclination towards moving to other places.

The only attraction that senior faculty from state universities has for joining the Central Universities is that retirement age here is 65 years. In most of the state universities, retirement age is about 60. However, the senior faculty is not ready to forego its retirement benefits by joining the Central University, the VC said.

“In case we fail to find quality faculty during the interviews being conducted, the posts will be re-advertised,” he added.

Regarding the recruitment of professors from different disciplines in some departments, the VC said some subjects such as social work, computational biology, environment science and IT had been introduced recently and senior faculty for these subjects was not available. Due to this, professors from allied and relevant disciplines could be recruited as per the UGC guidelines, he said.

Solan, February 25
With the newly constituted Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) levelling allegations of corruption against local MLA and Ayurveda and Health Minister Dr Rajiv Bindal, the latter today furnished details of his properties here and termed these allegations as “politically motivated”.

In an apparent reference to the former BJP minister and spokesman of the HLP, the Health Minister stated that a person who had contested against him and campaigned against the BJP and floated a mitra mandal against his own BJP government had lost the faith of the masses.

He said this HLP leader had, in connivance with a former Chief Minister, got a vigilance probe initiated against him for five years and despite levelling allegations relating to his property before the masses and courts, he had failed to prove anything. “People had negated his allegations by voting in my favour,” he said.

The HLP had yesterday stated that Bindal who barely owned 300 m of land earlier was now the owner of 160 bighas and owned land in Solan and Sirmaur districts of the state, Naraingarh in Haryana and Lucknow.

Dr Bindal, however, termed these allegations as false and baseless and said though the Congress had also levelled allegations relating to his property and had got the matter probed from the state Vigilance Bureau, it had yielded no result.

Terming the HLP spokesman as “selfish”, Dr Bindal said they were frustrated and disappointed as they had lost ground after having stabbed the BJP in the back.

The minister said he hailed from a family that was among the oldest tax payers in Solan and he himself had been a private medical practitioner since 1983, who had been duly filing returns of his property before the Income Tax, the Chief Minister and the Election Commission.

He said the HLP could not digest the pro-people approach of the state government, which under the leadership of Chief Minister PK Dhumal had bagged 55 awards at the national level. The state government was working for the masses and every section of society had been benefited.

Palampur, February 25
The Vintage Car Rally, which was flagged off from Chandigarh on Thursday, reached here this afternoon. Out of 24 cars, only 16 could reach Palampur. Participants of the rally said bad road condition between Una and Palampur resulted in the breakdown of eight vehicles.

A 1952 model Mercedes-Benz was the major attraction of the rally. Hundreds of local residents greeted the participants of the rally on their arrival here. Later in the evening, people thronged to Villa Camellia, where the rally would halt for a night, to have a glimpse of the vintage cars. A cultural programme was also organised.

Shimla, February 25
The government has proposed an increase of 12 per cent in the annual plan for 2012-13 but raising additional resources to finance the Rs 3,700-crore plan will be a daunting task in an election year.

Woefully lacking in its own resources, the hill state has been mostly depending on special financial assistance over and above the normal plan assistance from the Centre for plan funding. The current financial year’s plan of Rs 3,300 crore has been funded with the help of a special plan assistance of Rs 1,000 crore from the Centre.

Reeling under the impact of additional financial burden on account of revision of pay scales of employees, the state has urged the Prime Minister to provide an assistance of Rs 5,214 crore, including Rs 2,500 crore as special plan assistance and Rs 2,714 crore on account of estimated committed liabilities. The demand is on the higher side and is obvious, given the past experience, that the Centre is not going to oblige by increasing the special plan assistance by a whopping 250 per cent in one go.

Even for increasing the scale of special plan assistance nominally, the Centre has been of late insisting that the state must also go for additional resource mobilisation. Accordingly, it will have to make a commitment to raise at least Rs 150 crore, which will be tall order, otherwise it will be difficult to maintain the plan size of Rs 3,700 crore. The state could no longer rest to borrowing as the loans have been capped at 3 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and it was allowed to raise only Rs 1,647 crore during the current year.

Given that average rate of inflation will be around 7.5 per cent over the next year, the increase of 12 per cent in the plan size is nominal. However, for raising even Rs 150 crore, a tax burden of over Rs 200 per head will have to be put and no government could afford such measures when the assembly elections are just months away. However, being the first year of the 12th plan, any shortfall in the plan spending will set a bad trend and hamper the implementation of the Rs 22,800-crore Five-Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17) proposed by the state by effecting an increase of 65 per cent over the 11th plan. A final picture will emerge only after the Planning Commission holds the final meeting for approval of the annual plan.

Hamirpur, February 25
The Himachal Pradesh State AIDS Control Society has taken a new initiative to check the spread of HIV virus from HIV-hit expectant mothers to their newborn babies by administering them a medicine in government hospitals.

A medicine, Navirapine, which has been found 100 per cent effective in checking HIV among newborn babies from HIV patients, is being administered through Field Integrated Counselling and Training Centres(ICTC), in state government-run Primary Health Centres (PHCs).

This medicine is being given to the newborn and the mother immediately after delivery by medical staff trained for the purpose.

In this regard, the society has arranged special training programmes for staff nurses dealing with pregnancy cases and training for staff nurses and nurses of 39 PHCs is being carried out in a phased manner.

The society has already started ICTC centres in 19 PHCs and plans to open 38 more such centres across the state.

ICTC counsellors are motivating expectant mothers to voluntarily come forward in taking the HIV tests at ICTC centres and convince them to give birth at the nearest PHC to save the newborn from the virus.

ICTC centres are carrying the HIV tests on expectant mothers free-of-cost and even Navirapine is administered to the mother and the child without any charges.

Project Director, State AIDS Control Society, MK Pathak said: “Navirapine is 100 per cent safe and effective medicine to check the spread of HIV virus from the expectant mother to the newborn and at present it is being administered at 19 PHCs across the state.”

Nurpur, February 25
Vashno Devi (49), wife of Joginder Mehra of Ward No. 3, died on the spot when the Maruti WagonR in which she was travelling hit against a roadside tree at Kandwal on the Pathankot-Mandi national highway last night.

According to information, Vashno Devi, along with her family members, was returning home after attending a marriage at Pathankot. Her son who was driving the ill-fated vehicle lost control over it and it dashed against a tree. In the mishap her husband Joginder Mehra and daughter Alka received injuries and were rushed to the Civil Hospital.

According to DSP Rajinder Jaswal, the police has handed over the body to the family after a postmortem examination and a case under Sections 279, 337 and 304 (A), IPC, has been lodged in this connection.

Sundernagar, February 25
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has held the Congress responsible for the decision to set up a cement plant near Sundernagar.

Stating this during his visit here yesterday, he said the Congress had signed an MoU in 1995 to set up a cement plant. Afterwards, it was the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who wrote a letter to A Raja, Minister of State for Environment and Forests (now involved in the 2G scam), on which the Ministry of State for Environment and Forests (MOEF) waived off the condition of public hearing for the project and accorded environment and forest clearances for the same in 2005 when the Congress governments were in power at the Centre and the state.

The Chief Minister said now Congressmen were blaming the BJP for setting up of the cement project, which was a false propaganda.

Shimla, February 25
The CBI has recovered documents pertaining to several landed properties and other assets in raids conducted on the residential premises of Brig JK Narang at Noida, Uttar Pradesh, yesterday in connection with the cases registered against him for allegedly making purchases of equipment at exorbitant rates as Chief Engineer of Deepak Project (Border Roads Organisations) here.

In the first such case pertaining to procurement of variable messaging systems two other officials, IR Mathur, the present Chief Engineer, and Lt-Col Chanchal Jhamb, have also been booked under Section 420, IPC, and various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Owners of three Delhi-based firms, Om Enterprises, Krishna Trader and Agency and Aggarwal Enterprises, also figure in the FIR for criminal conspiracy.

They have been charged with purchasing equipment at exorbitant rates in connivance with private suppliers and in violation of the financial rules, causing a loss of Rs 1.49 crore to the government.

In the second case, Brigadier Narang and Lt-Col Jhamba were accused of procuring telephone exchanges from Siemens Enterprises Communication Private Limited, New Delhi, at exorbitant rates by splitting the demand and by not adhering to the rules. As a result, the government suffered a loss of Rs 1.25 crore.

An official statement said during the raids on the residential premises of Brigadier Narang, Rs 1.33 lakh cash, ornaments worth Rs 5 lakh in locker and documents pertaining to over Rs 30 lakh in bank accounts, Rs 15 lakh in mutual funds, four plots, two flats and a two-storeyed building worth over Rs 1.50 crore and two cars in the name of the accused and his kin had been recovered.

Meanwhile, during the search on the residential premises of IR Mathur, papers of acquisition of a flat in Noida and jewellery worth Rs 6 lakh was recovered.

Shimla, February 25
The Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) will not impose any new taxes or increase the existing ones even though the government has issued notification for the enhancement of various taxes by the urban local bodies in the state for raising resources.

Stating this at a press conference here today, Mayor Madhu Sood said the corporation had so far not passed any resolution in this regard and as such there was no reason for various political parties to make hue and cry over the issue.

She said various economic reforms under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission were required but the government had taken too long in enacting relevant legislations and issuing notification in this regard. She said no house tax would be imposed until all houses in the areas merged recently into the corporation were regularised. The corporation was charging commercial rate for water supply to such houses which was quite high.

Mandi, February 25
State Chief Information Commissioner (SCIS) Bhim Sen has imposed a fine of Rs 17,000 on the Block Development Officer (BDO), Dharampur, for not supplying information in time under the RTI Act.

Hearing the complaint filed by an RTI applicant, the SCIC found the reasons given by the BDO as “unsatisfactory and wrong”. The commission upheld the applicant’s plea and imposed a fine of Rs 17,000 on the BDO for providing the applicant delayed and wrong information.

RTI applicant Bhupender Singh had sought information on the receipts issued to MNREGA workers by the BDO in connection with works in gram panchayat Dharwar in Dharampur block in 2010-11.

But the then BDO, PC Manahas, who is retired now, supplied him wrong information and that too after a delay of 68 days. The BDO claimed that he could not supply him the information as there was no electricity in the panchayat office and computers did not work.

The applicant moved the SCIC against the BDO. He cited the copies of electricity bills paid by the gram panchayat office as proof that the BDO was misleading the commissioner on the matter.

The commissioner examined the reasons pleaded by the BDO and found him guilty of supplying the applicant wrong and delayed information.

Bilaspur, February 25
With a view to steamlining the functioning of the Public Distribution System (PDS), Deputy Commissioner Ritesh Chauhan has ordered all presidents of gram panchayats in the district to check all ration cards under their panchayats with the panchayat “parivar register” so that the benefit of this system reaches to all deserving families.

This was stated by Additional District Magistrate Darshan Kalia while presiding over a meeting of the Department of District Food and Supplies. He said this was necessary to identify those who were from outside the state or district but possessed ration cards. Moreover, it was important to know and reconcile the complaints how the number of total beneficiaries exceeded that of actual population of the district, he added.

Highlighting the achievements of the department, District Food and Supplies Controller Chander Prakash Jishtu said there were 165 ration depots serving 4,29,820 persons through 1,00,243 ration cards in the district. Of these, 77,577 persons were covered under the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families through 18,153 ration cards, 85,254 persons under Antyodaya Anna Yojana through 12,149 ration cards and 128 persons under same number of ration cards under Annapurna Yojana, while the rest were covered under the Above Poverty Line (APL) families.

Jishtu said the wide network of the PDS had succeeded in controlling open market prices of all essential commodities being supplied by the government on subsidised rates. This system of price control was also being enforced through checking of various shops and commercial establishments in the open market in the district by departmental inspectorate and officers from time to time.

He said from April last year to January this year, the department had conducted 1,228 surprise raids at various shops and commercial premises and imposed penalties worth Rs 1,85,848 on the law breakers, apart from issuing warnings to 267 shopkeepers who were first-time offenders.

Shimla, February 25
The government will take all the required steps to regulate the activities of learning centres and, if needed, a legislative provision would be considered to protect the interests of students.

Presiding over a review meeting of the State Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission, here on Thursday, he said the commission was set up as an autonomous body to regulate the functioning of private educational institutions and protect the interests of students. The commission had been receiving complaints relating to courses being conducted by various learning centres having no affiliation to the UGC or any university, but these were charging hefty fees from students.

Dhumal said there were 239 private educational institutions, which did not include learning centres. The government would consider increasing the accreditation time from existing 3 years to 5 years. Himachal Pradesh University would be designated as the competent authority to conduct the Common Management Admission Tests for private institutions and the minimum educational qualification for admission would be on par with government institutions.

The Chief Minister said no approval would be granted for undertaking any BTech integrated degree course for matriculates and intake for each course would be fixed as per the available infrastructure and facility.

He said AIEEE would be mandatory for admission to engineering courses from 2013-14, while minimum educational qualification for BTech for the academic session 2012-13 would be Class XII with minimum 55 per cent marks.

Admission to pharmacy or any other course would be through a common entrance test by state private universities. A uniform academic calendar would be adopted and there would be only two semesters (July to December) and (January to June) in each academic session. It would be made mandatory to collect fee from students in two equal instalments at the beginning of each semester.

He said the commission would be competent to create synergy in approval and enforcement of regulations and a strategy would be evolved for reporting to the commission. It would carry scrutiny of courses offered by universities with the approval of the government and no un-approved courses would be permitted.

The state in association with the commission work out a calendar for the advance approval of courses and fees for the academic session 2012-13 and clearances would be granted by March 31, 2012.

Solan, February 25
Taking a lead in ensuring quality education in private universities, the Waknaghat-based Bahra University has become the first university to opt for AIEEE test for admission to its engineering courses.

Gurvinder Singh Bahra, Chairman, Rayat Bahra group, which has been running a chain of educational institutes in Punjab, said though the regulatory commission for private universities in Himachal had proposed to instruct private universities for admitting students to engineering courses through AIEEE for the 2013-14 session, Bahra University would adopt the move from the coming 2012-13 academic session.

He said the selection of candidates through the AIEEE merit would ensure that deserving students were admitted and the much-needed quality was ensured among private universities.

Gurvinder Singh said they would also abide by the directives of the state government to give admission to maximum students from Himachal.

He said Bahra University had already fixed at least 60 per cent in Class XII as the qualifying criterion for admissions to engineering courses. Bahra University was trying to develop academic models in collaboration with industry in the region. This would equip students with technical and academic skills as per the requirement of the industry.

As a furtherance of this objective, the university had already signed a memorandum of understanding with a leading corporate of the country in automobile, pharma and IT industry, he added.

Kangra, February 25
The first-ever annual national conference of the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) in the rural setting will be held at the Sobha Singh Auditorium of DRPGMC, Tanda, from February 27 in which 1,000 doctors from across the country and abroad will participate and present 450 scientific papers.

Stating this today, Dr Sunil Raina, joint organising secretary, 39th IAPSM Annual Conference, said this national-level medical conference was the first-of-its-kind in this hill state.

He said the theme of the conference was “Epidemiological Transition RV up to the Challenge”. He said the focus of the conference would be on understanding emerging trends in disease pattern globally and its implications to the local conditions.

He said Chief Minister PK Dhumal would inaugurate the conference on February 27.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama would address the conference on February 28. The conference would conclude on February 29.

Dr Raina said it would be preceded by a one-day “pre-conference” under the “Continuous Medical Education” programme tomorrow.