Shimla, March 9
The Budget session of the Vidhan Sabha started on a peaceful note even as the opposition Congress tried to raise the issue of corruption charges against Health Minister Rajeev Bindal at the fag end of the day.

Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes raised the issue soon after the House finished the obituary references to former member Ishwar Dass, who died recently. She wanted Speaker Tulsi Ram to allow her adjournment motion to discuss the “situation arising out of the continuation of Rajeev Bindal as Health Minister in the wake of land deals and corruption charges”, regarding which a notice had already been given by her.

The Speaker, however, maintained that he had not received the notice so far. He said Stokes met him in the chamber, but did not serve him a notice. The notice was given to the Secretary of the Vidhan Sabha at 10.30 am. However, as per the rules of business, the notice for an adjournment motion is required to be given at least one hour before the start of the session, with copies to the Speaker, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and the minister concerned, which was not the case. As such, the motion could not be allowed.

Members of the Opposition, led by Stokes and Kaul Singh, were on their legs protesting over the ruling and said it was an important issue which deserved immediate discussion. However, by that time the business listed for the day was already over and the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

Congress legislators later raised slogans like “Agar Vidhan Sabha ko chalana hai, to Bindal ko hatana hai” outside the House, demanding the sack of the Health Minister. Stokes and Kaul Singh said the Congress had demanded his sack from the ministry and a CBI inquiry into the assets and land deals, particularly the purchase of land belonging to an IRDP family. Moreover, the charges of corruption against Bindal were being levelled by BJP leaders. The ruling party had crossed all limits of propriety by allowing him to continue and he was being protected as evident from the fact that prosecution sanction had not be granted in the recruitment scam in which he was involved. The funds being made available by the Centre under the National Rural Health Mission were being misused.

If the stand of the Congress is any indication, the House is likely to witness fireworks over the next week as the party will try to exploit the Bindal issue to the hilt.

Dharamsala, March 9
The local police claims to have cracked the McLeodganj murder case in which a local taxi operator, Sanjay, was found dead in a room of a private guest house under mysterious circumstances.

The police has arrested a Class X student, Uzair Badhir Bhatt, a resident of New Colony, Khwaja Bagh, in Talwal district of Jammu and Kashmir. He was arrested by a team of the Himachal police from Srinagar in coordination with the Jammu and Kashmir police.

Kangra SP Diljeet Thakur said the accused had fled along with a girl in Sanjay’s taxi from Dharamsala. They abandoned the taxi in the Bharatgarh area of Punjab after the fuel in the vehicle was exhausted. From Bharatgarh, the girl left for Chandigarh, while Uzair Bhatt went to Delhi.

The police kept tracking the accused on his mobile. However, by the time the Himachal police team reached Delhi, the accused had left for Srinagar. The police team, however, followed him to Srinagar and arrested him with the help of the Jammu and Kashmir police. He was brought to Dharamsala last evening, the SP said.

Sources in the police said Uzair Bhatt had come to Dharamsala as a tourist. On his way to Dharamsala, he befriended a local girl. Both of them came to McLeodganj and checked in at a private guest house.

The couple hired a taxi from Sanjay to roam in the area. Sanjay got to know about their alleged illicit relations. He later entered Uzair’s room at McLeodganj and tried to molest the girl, who is yet to be identified. This led to a fight between Uzair and the taxi operator.

Uzair allegedly stabbed Sanjay with a knife, killing him on the spot. The girl and Uzair then fled McLeodganj.

The Kangra SP said they were on the lookout for the girl involved in the crime as she was the prime witness and co-accused in the case.

The sources said the police had procured CCTV footage from a private toll barrier at Kiratpur Sahib in Punjab. The footage helped the police identify the accused.

Sujanpur Tihra (Hamirpur), March 9
The third cultural night of the Sujanpur holi festival was devoted to Himachali artistes and several pahari singers who regaled the audience with the popular pahari songs yesterday.

The main attractions of the programme were Kuldeep Sharma and Anuj Sharma, who presented a variety of songs on the occasion. Artists from other cultural clubs from across the state also performed. Social Justice and Women Empowerment Minister Sarveen Chaudhary was the chief guest yesterday, who inaugurated the cultural night by lighting a lamp.

Addressing the audience on the occasion, the minister said the Sujanpur Holi festival had acquired a significant place among cultural festivals of the country and the state government had accorded a national status to this festival. Earlier, Hamirpur DC, Rajinder Singh Thakur welcomed the chief guest by offering her a memento and a shawl.

KANGRA: The three-day Holi festival concluded on Thursday at old Kangra where hundreds of members of the Jain community celebrated the festival without colours in famous Septamber Jain Mandir. Members of the Jain community, who had thronged the temple from the entire North India to attend the festival, left the temple last evening.

Meanwhile, Holi was celebrated with colours in this temple town on Thursday with religious fervour. People from all walks of life enjoyed the festival.

Shimla, March 9
Liquor will cost more in the hill state with the government deciding to increase the licence fee for both country-made liquor and Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in the excise policy approved today by the state Cabinet.

The policy projects a growth of 17 per cent during the next financial year.

The quota of country-made liquor is proposed to be reduced by over 5 lakh proof litres keeping in view the market trend and accordingly the quota for foreign liquor has been increased.

The rate of excise duty has been kept unchanged, but the licence fee has been increased. The levy on the IMFL is in line with the policy approved by the neighbouring Punjab.

The regular brands of the IMFL priced at Rs 1,200 per case will now attract a licence fee of Rs 30 instead of Rs 25 per case. The fee for expensive brands has been raised from Rs 40 to Rs 45 per case.

There is a proposal to close down four vends, open five new vends and shift 12 vends from their existing locations in view of public demand. Although the policy has projected a nominal increase in the revenue, the actual realisation is likely to be much higher.

The main reason for this is that elections are due later in the year and as per past experience, the sale of liquor reaches an all-time high during the poll.

Shimla, March 9
Governor Urmila Singh today said the state was trying to get the industrial package, which was curtailed by the Centre prematurely in March 2010, extended up to 2020.

Addressing the Vidhan Sabha on the opening day of the Budget session, she said the industrial package announced by the then Central Government in January 2003 played a major role in accelerating the pace of industrialisation in the state. However, the duration of the package was later unfortunately reduced from 2013 to 2010. The government was making efforts for the extension of the package up to 2020, but so far the Central Government had not agreed to this.The government was creating infrastructural facilities to attract environment-friendly industries with good employment potential. Till December 2011, 474 medium and large industrial units and 37,935 small units, involving an investment of Rs 14,146 crore, were operational in the state. In all 2.61 lakh people were employed in these.

She said the focus of the government was on providing a responsive and accountable administration and the State Public Services Guarantee Act was a major step in this direction. So far 12 departments had notified time-bound services to be provided to the people. The Prashasan Janta Ke Dwar programme was being organised in different parts of the state and 117 camps at the district level and 556 camps at the subdivision level had been held. A separate women’s grievances redressal cell, under the supervision of a woman officer, had been set up in every department. In all 22,415 complaints and 12,484 demands had been received till January 2012, of which 20,643 complaints and 9,899 demands had been “catered to”.

Listing the achievements of the government, she said the social security pension was being given to 2,77,817 persons, including 10,535 cases sanctioned during the current financial year, and an amount of Rs 112.32 crore was being spent for the purpose. An amount of Rs 816 crore was being spent on the welfare of the Scheduled Castes. The state had registered a substantial increase in the literacy level of women from 68.08 per cent in 2001 to 76.60 per cent in 2011, while the overall literacy rate reached 83.78 per cent.

Dharamsala, March 9
For the first time since he fled into exile from Tibet to India about 53 years ago, the Dalai Lama will not address Tibetans on the annual mass uprising day function tomorrow.

According to the official programme released by the Central Tibetan Administration today, though the Dalai Lama would attend the function of the 53rd Tibetan Uprising Day at Dharamsala tomorrow, he would not address them.

Instead, the new elected Tibetan Prime Minister-in-Exile, Lobsang Sangay, and the speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, Penpa Tsering, would address Tibetans from the Tsuglagkhang, the main temple at McLeodganj.

Besides, Gianni Vernatti, Member of Parliament from Italy, would also address the gathering at the temple. The Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile would also raise the Tibetan national flag on the occasion. The Dalai Lama is not issuing an address this time as he retired as political and administrative head of the Tibetan government-in-exile last year. In fact it was on the uprising day last year that the Dalai Lama announced his decision to retire as the political and administrative head. He announced to pass this responsibility to their elected leadership. Though the Tibetan parliament and community leaders of Tibetan exiles tried to persuade the Dalai Lama to continue leading them, the 76-year-old leader remained adamant on his decision.

The Dalai Lama said since the Chinese Government was labelling him as separatist, it might make some progress on the issue of Tibet with the new democratically elected leadership of Tibetan exiles.

He passed the responsibility of leading the Tibetan government-in-exile to Tibetan PM-in-exile Lobsang Sangay.

Since his retirement, the Dalai Lama has been restraining himself mostly to religious activities. The responsibility of issuing political statements and chalking out political activities now lies with the new elected leadership of Tibetan exiles.

Though the Dalai Lama has withdrawn from political activities, Tibetans still consider him as their undisputed leader. Most of the Tibetans who have self-immolated themselves in Tibet in the last one year were allegedly demanding that the Dalai Lama should be allowed to return to Tibet.

The Tibetan Government is also toeing the middle-way approach advocated by the Dalai Lama in which he had sought meaningful autonomy for Tibet under the Chinese sovereignty.

However, till the new elected leadership of China has failed to break the ice with the Chinese leadership. No talks have taken place between the democratically elected leadership of Tibet and the Chinese authorities. The last round of talks had taken place between envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authorities.

Shimla, March 9
The government has decided to set up an independent “Samanya Nirdhan Varg Kalyan Aayog” (Commission for the Welfare of General Category Poor) in accordance with the announcement made in the Budget. It also decided to withdraw various notifications regarding the tax hike on commercial vehicles.

The decision was taken by the state Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of CM PK Dhumal here today. The commission will make recommendations to the state government for the formulation of welfare and developmental policies for the economically backward sections of the general category. It was also decided to create 16 posts of different categories to make the commission functional.

The Cabinet reviewed its decision regarding the rationalisation of token tax and decided to withdraw the notifications issued on the subject and revert back to the old rate of taxes with immediate effect. It was decided to “reiterate” the case of 1,313 DIET (District Institute of Education and Training)-trained JBT teachers with the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development for seeking exemption from the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) since they had been recruited for JBT training on the basis of merit in an examination.

It was decided to increase the income limit of rural and urban poor to Rs 30,000 per annum for availing of benefits under the Swarojgar Yojna, the Ambedkar Laghu Rin Yojna, the Aadivasi Mahila Sashaktikaran Yojna and the Hast Shilp Vikas Yojna.

The Cabinet granted approval to the draft excise policy for 2012-13 and supplementary demands for the current financial year 2011-12. It was decided to exempt aerial ropeways from entertainment duty for five years and reduce the existing 100 per cent tax to 10 per cent on all other types of activities in the state.

Nurpur, March 9
The suicide reportedly committed by a girl (20) and her boyfriend of Pathankot by taking poison in a hotel, near here, on Wednesday evening took a new turn yesterday when Ravinder Dutta, the father of the deceased girl and resident of Sarai mohalla, Pathankot, lodged a murder case against the deceased boy, Amit Verma (25), with the local police.

According to DSP Rajinder Jaswal, Dutta has alleged in his complaint that the boy had brought her daughter in the hotel with a motive to eliminate her as he had got married about a fortnight ago.

SP, Kangra, Daljeet Thakur, and a team of forensic experts have also visited the hotel yesterday. — OC

Shimla, March 9
The annual tourist arrivals in the state crossed the 1.5-crore mark in 2011, but the growth rate declined for the second successive year.

According to the data compiled by the Tourism Department, 1,50,89,406 tourists visited the state last year as against 1,32,65,602 in 2010, an increase of 13.74 per cent. The growth has declined compared to last year’s 15.98 per cent. In fact, it is the second successive year of decline in growth. In 2009, there was an increase of 17.3 per cent.

The number of foreign tourists increased from 4,53,616 to 4,84,518, an increase of 30,902, but the growth declined sharply to 6.81 per cent from last year’s 13.24 per cent, mainly on account of the economic slowdown in Europe.

The number of domestic tourists swelled from 1,28,11,986 to 1,46,04,888, an increase of 13.98 per cent against a growth of 16.09 per cent in the preceding year.

Shimla district attracted the maximum number of 28,18,270 domestic tourists but the highest number of 1,38,488 foreigners visited Kullu district, which also played host to 26,59,527 domestic tourists. Shimla also drew 1,34,167 foreign tourists, while Kangra drew 98,962 foreigners. The land-locked tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti was the only other region to attract a substantial number of 73,040 foreign visitors along with 4,70,815 domestic tourists. The adjoining tribal district of Kinnaur accounted for 4,67,186 domestic and 17,860 foreign tourists.

Season-wise the maximum flow of domestic tourists was in April (19,03,137), followed by June (18,08,553), May (15,92,719), October (14,84,130) and March (14,28,569). However, the main season as far as foreign visitors are concerned commences in March and after peaking in July and August ends in October. The figures of foreign visitors are April (42,575), May (48,055), June (52,110), July (61,062), August (57,122) and October (43,834).

The state experiences a lean period from November to February when the flow of tourists plummets to the lowest level.

In 2011 the arrivals in November (6,86,067), December (7,02,911), January (7,57,377) and February (8,69,834) were among the lowest and during these months the flow of foreign tourists was also the minimum with an average of about 20,000. February was the leanest with a count of 18,896, followed by January (18,931), December (22,875) and November (24,183).

Shimla, March 9
The HPSEB Project Engineers Association has expressed resentment over the decision of the board management to divert the post of Chief Engineer (Planning & Maintenance) from the project to the electrical wing.

The Project Engineer, who was manning the post, was transferred to the Himachal Power Corporation in September and its charge was given to a junior from the electrical wing. Now the post has been transferred to the electrical wing without any reason.

The association rued that project engineers with more than 30 years of service were waiting for promotion, but the management was curtailing the cadre even though four projects were under construction and two more were in the pipeline.

There are six director-level posts for the electrical wing and two posts for project engineer, which clearly showed that the latter were being given step-motherly treatment. It was largely due to the efforts of the project engineers that HPSEB Limited has 21 hydro-power projects with a generating capacity of 471 MW.

The association demanded immediate withdrawal of the decision to transfer the post of Chief Engineer (P&M) to the electrical wing and posting a project engineer against it. Further, the post of Chief Engineer (Planning & Investigation), which had fallen vacant due to retirement of the incumbent, should be filled immediately and all civil engineering works pertaining to the construction of sub-station buildings, transmission towers and maintenance of existing projects should be transferred to the project wing.

Shimla, March 9
Expressing dissatisfaction over the functioning of the PWD, the high court has directed the department to inform the court whether the Auckland tunnel is being made operational by March 31 as already committed by them before the court.

It also directed the Superintending Engineer, HP PWD, to be present before the court on March 28. The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary passed these orders on the petition of Tarlok Chauhan on the tardy progress of works under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The petitioner also raised the issue of the non-implementation of the plans under the JNNURM in Shimla town in the petition.

The petitioner said only one project of construction of Auckland tunnel had been delayed by over three years and still it may take time for completion. This has caused inconvenience to commuters as virtually no path was available for pedestrians in that area. The court also directed the PWD to file a status report regarding the construction of bridge and time required for the completion of the same on March 28, the date for which matter is now fixed.