Shimla, March 20
The growing wage bill and other committed liabilities coupled with sops announced by Chief Minister PK Dhumal in his “please-all” Budget do not augur well for the financial health of the debt-ridden state, which has been exercising a degree of fiscal discipline since the enforcement of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

While financial implications of benefits and concessions have not been mentioned in the Budget, there are strong indications of expenditure outstripping the receipts by the end of the year. The salary bill is projected to increase from Rs 5,497 crore in the current year to Rs 6,285 crore next year and the pension liability from Rs 2,206 crore to Rs 2,784 crore, which is already high.

However, the actual outgo will be much higher as the government will have to release another instalment of dearness allowance, about Rs 325 crore, before elections.

The regularisation of services of various categories of employees and increase in emoluments and tax concession will all tend to widen the revenue gap as the Budget is silent on the resource mobilisation front.

There is danger of the state veering off from the fiscal correction path laid down by the World Bank while granting development policy assistance of Rs 900 crore to pull the state out of the debt trap.

With estimated interest payments pegged at Rs 2,249.67 crore, loan repayments at Rs 1,937.30 crore and allocation of Rs 1,567.55 for maintenance, the committed liabilities account for 86 per cent of the Rs 20,243 crore Budget.

There has been a meagre increase in the actual plan expenditure from Rs 1,406.46 crore to Rs 1,449.65 crore, which is quite disturbing. This year, the entry tax helped to mop up additional resources that countered the impact of slowdown and the same buoyancy may not be maintained next year, particularly as economists have predicted that slowdown will continue during 2012.

Steps like increasing the procurement price of milk and wool, starting of new fisheries project to promote cage culture, 15 per cent reduction in sale price of trout feed, slashing of VAT on milk products, opening of 230 new veterinary dispensaries and other such steps will enhance income in rural areas with small land holdings.

Shimla, March 20
Softening its stand, the Opposition Congress today scaled down its protest inside the House and instead of disrupting proceedings like the previous week, it announced the boycott of Health Minister Rajeev Bindal. Congress members arrived in the Vidhan Sabha wearing black badges.

The Leader of the Opposition was on her feet as soon as the House assembled and, referring to the issue, she said her party had demanded the removal of Bindal who was facing serious charges of corruption, but the government had not taken any action in the matter. The demands for a CBI probe had also been rejected by the government.

However, she said, to ensure the smooth conduct of the proceedings, it would alter its mode of protest.

The party would resort to “social boycott” of the minister. From now onwards Bindal was not a minister for the party and his presence wound not matter for the members. The Congress MLAs would not ask any questions from him but would ignore him.

Thereafter, the proceedings of the House went on peacefully. After the question hour, the House also adopted a resolution urging the Centre to impose a ban on the import of “gambier’, a carcinogenic substance that was being as used as a substitute for catechu (Kathta) extracted from khair trees.

Replying to the debate on the private member resolution moved by Balbir Singh of the BJP, Chief Minister PK Dhumal said it was a serious issue as it not only involved the health of the people, but also the economic interests of farmers of lower hill areas who raised khair on their private land.

Unlike the catechu, which had numerous medicinal properties, the gambier was of poor quality and used mainly for dyeing leather.

However, it was much cheaper and available at Rs 80 to Rs 90 per kg whereas pure catechu sold at Rs 30 to Rs 350 per kg.

The government would take up the matter with the Centre to help protect the health and economic interests of farmers.

Shimla, March 20
Having set the ball rolling for ensuring the repeat of the BJP regime in the state by way of a sops-filled election Budget, the ruling party is already getting into election mode as its efforts to galvanise party workers right up to the booth level have already begun in anticipation of an early polls.

National convener of BJP frontal organisations, including morchas and cells, Mahender Pandey today addressed senior party functionaries at the state party office here as part of the training camp.

Both Chief Minister PK Dhumal and state party president Satpal Satti addressed party workers, exhorting them to start working towards making the “mission repeat” a success. Senior leaders Praveen Sharma, Vipin Parmar, Ramswaroop Sharma, Chandermohan Thakur, Randhir Sharma and Ganesh Dutt were among those present.

Party sources said Pandey also held separate meetings with state office-bearers of all the six morchas - Yuva Morcha, Mahila Morcha, SC Morcha, ST Morcha, Minorities Morcha and Kisan Morcha and the 22 cells representing various sections of society like Media, Legal, Cooperative and Beopar cell.

“With elections round the corner, members of all the cells and morchas must get active and ensure appointment of booth-level agents in every village,” he said.

Pandey directed office-bearers of morchas and cells to strengthen the mandal or constituency-level party unit.

“The party can reap the benefit of the development works undertaken by the Dhumal regime only if you are able to make the people aware about them,” he said.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal addressed the inaugural session of the training camp.

“An economic revolution has been heralded in the state under the BJP, bringing prosperity resulting in the per capita income touching Rs 73,648,” said Dhumal.

He said the BJP regime had undertaken uniform development of the state with special thrust on education, health, roads and agriculture,” he said.

The Chief Minister said the main objective behind getting mandate was not to enjoy power but to serve people and strengthen the party base.

Satpal Satti said party workers’ meetings would be held in every constituency and district.

“The development works undertaken by the government and the benefits announced by the Chief Minister in the Budget should be enough to ensure BJP’s victory in the elections,” he added.

Solan, March 20
With funds worth Rs 2.28 crore having been embezzled from the account of Rajpura Co-operative Society in 2009, it has proved to be the biggest scam among cooperative societies in the state.

These facts emerged during the ongoing Assembly session of the Vidhan Sabha in reply to a question posed by Nalagarh MLA Lakhwinder Rana.

Nearly 1,300 persons had suffered monetary losses as the society’s managing committee comprising its Manager Rajinder Saini and Assistant Manager Naseeb Singh had embezzled this amount.

It was a special audit conducted in September 2009 that had unearthed the scam. An FIR was subsequently lodge in September 2009 where the embezzled amount had been worked out to be Rs 2.28 crore.

An amount of Rs 25.33 lakh had been recovered from Saini while Rs 2.3 crore was pending, which had to be recovered from Saini, and Rs 10.5 lakh has been recovered from Singh till now. It had also been decided that in case the duo failed to return the pending amount, it would be recovered equally from other members of the managing committee.

The issue had generated much heat in the Nalagarh bypoll held in November last and this had proved to be a major factor leading to BJP’s defeat.

The 1,300 members had deposited funds in the fixed deposit of the society. However, the society failed to return the maturity value to them despite the lapse of the validity period in March 2009.

The Registrar, Cooperative Societies, had then dissolved the managing committee and put in place a three-member board of administrators comprising a deputy registrar, district inspector and a local inspector, to oversee the society affairs.

The assistant registrar had been appointed as the administrator. The society had bought a large chunk of land using these funds.

The society had also set an example by bagging a district-level award in 2005 for its outstanding performance after enrolling 2,586 members from nine panchayats comprising 52 villages.

MLA Lakhwinder Rana said people should be returned their money and appropriate action against those involved should be initiated at the earliest.

He added that it was lamentable that there were attempts to save the kin of politicians from the ruling BJP who were managing the affairs of this society.

Mandi, March 20
District Congressmen has accused the BJP government of protecting corrupt ministers and promoting corruption at all the levels in the state.

Staging a protest rally in response to the statewide call given by the party yesterday, Congress leaders alleged that the Dhumal government had lost its morality to govern the state.

Those BJP men who had floated the Himachal Lokhit Party were publicly levelling charges of corruption against the government and it had no right to stay in power, they said.

District Congress president Puran Chand, former Sundernagar MLA Sohan Lal, former Nachan MLA Tek Chand Dogra and other party men participated in the protest demanding the resignation of Health Minister Rajeev Bindal.

They alleged that Mandi district had been ignored in the present regime as all development works started during the last Congress regime had been brought to a standstill.

Dharamsala, March 20
The district police arrested a Chinese spy from a monastery at McLeodganj today. Sources here said Li Cheng Zie, who belonged to Hunan province in China, was arrested on a tip-off from security agencies.

ASP, Kangra, G Shiva said the accused was arrested from the ZKL monastery on the McLeodganj-Bhagsunag road. He did not have any valid documents. He had just a Chinese passport and visa to visit Nepal. Even the visa had expired in September last year. However, he arrived in McLeodganj on March 9, just a day before the Uprising Day observed by the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Shiva said the police was investigating the matter and would seek Cheng’s police remand to retrieve information regarding his activities. A case under the Foreigners Act had been registered against him, he said.

The sources also said the police would have to hire the services of Tibetans living in exile to enter into conversation with the arrested spy. Since the spy was speaking in Chinese, the police officials had failed to cut any ice with him.

The Tibetan administration in exile had been cautioning the Indian authorities regarding suspected Chinese spies in McLeodganj and its surrounding areas. They suspected that since McLeodganj was seat for the Tibetan government-in-exile, Chinese agencies kept sending spies here.

Last year also a suspected Chinese spy was arrested from McLeodganj. However, later he turned out to be a pauper. The local court ordered his deportation back to China. However, he did not have funds to go back to China. Even his family in China was not in a position to support his travel back to China.

The Deputy Commissioner of Kangra then had to provide financial assistance to deport him back to his country.

Solan, March 20
With no assured source of drinking water, about 12 families of Nihara village in the Sadhupul area of Kandaghat sub-division have been forced to drink unhygienic river water.

Residents, led by OP Sharma, have been representing their case persistently since 2009 for getting a water tank constructed where potable water can be stored and supplied from the nearby Ashwani khud. Its implementation has, however, been caught in official red tape.

Initially, the IPH Department decided to extend an existing scheme from Ashwani khud to the right bank of Nihara village, but it had to be suspended following objections from villagers. Later, to facilitate these villagers the department decided to provide water through an alternative source at the Throlla-Ka-Nullah and an estimate of Rs 1.47 lakh was prepared for the same in March 2010.

But since no funds were available for this scheme no work could be initiated by the IPH Department. Sharma was then directed to approach the local MLA, Rajeev Bindal, for sanction of funds.

Sharma said he wrote a letter to the MLA in August 2011 requesting him to sanction funds for the scheme but no funds were received.

He had again requested the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Solan, to sanction funds for this scheme in February this year as villagers were being forced to drink polluted water that could lead to outburst of water-borne diseases.

Asserting that potable water is a human right as per the UNO resolution, Sharma said it was unfair to deny them this basic facility.

Following directions from the DC, the district planning officer has now written to the Executive Engineer, IPH, to examine the matter and send him a report regarding the feasibility of this scheme at the earliest so that further action could be taken.

Executive Engineer, IPH Department, JS Chauhan said they had already prepared the estimate earlier also, but since there were no funds it could not be implemented.

Mandi, March 20
The fate of country’s first mahaseer fish seed breeding farm at Machhial, near Jogindernagar, hangs in the balance as HIMUDA, which is executing the project, and the state Fisheries Department are engaged in a blame game over the lack of water supply to the farm.

The Fisheries Department and HIMUDA are blaming each other for the delay in completion of the project. The project is hanging fire since 2008 when the work on the farm had started.

It is for the first time in the country that a mahaseer fish seed breeding farm has been set up to propagate the endangered fish in the Beas and other rivers.

Built at a cost of Rs 3.88 crore, HIMUDA started work on the farm in 2008, but it has yet to handover the farm to the Fisheries Department.

There is not even a single hatchery in the country to breed the mahaseer fish in the river. Mahaseer, once thrived in the Beas, faces extinction due to depletion of its marine breeding grounds in the river.

Mahaseer fish will be caught from the river for breeding in the seed farm and then these will be released back into the Beas replenishing its depleting breeding ground in the natural system, said fisheries officials.

Deputy Director, Fisheries, Mandi, Ashok Verma said they needed an“overhead tube well quality water for hatchery”.

“HIMUDA has yet to provide regular water supply for the farm as the riverbed is on a lower side during the lean winter months,” he added.

He said HIMUDA had not handed over the farm, but they had started the activity in the farm. The farm had eight tanks and nurseries and would be raising two-breed stocks.

On the other hand, Executive Engineer, HIMUDA, DK Tandon claimed that most of the works were complete. The water issue had arisen as the water discharge in the Rana khud was less in winter months. The department should build a small intake dam to assure regular water supply in winter months, he added, passing the buck on the Fisheries Department.

He said the Fisheries Department had not put forward a proposal to construct water storage tank from the river.

“We are executing works as per the directions of the department,” Tandon added.

Kangra, March 20
The Students Federation of India (SFI) today condemned the attack on SFI activists by students affiliated with the ABVP in Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) and criticised the state government for providing patronage and shielding rowdy and law-breaking members of the ABVP.

In a statement here today, SFI district secretary Vishal Deep charged the ABVP with misusing official machinery for creating an atmosphere of terror on the HPU campus.

He alleged that ABVP workers had used sharp-edged weapons, rods, sticks and stones and inflicted injuries on SFI workers on the campus two days back and the police was a mute spectator to the entire scene.

He alleged that SFI cadre was being threatened by such a rowdy elements following the patronage from people in power.

Vishal pointed fingers on the functioning of the law-enforcing agency in uniform who released two ABVP activists last night within six hours of their arrest for damage to public property.

He alleged that the law violators were released following pressure from people in power.

Vishal said the SFI was prepared to face any eventuality to keep its cadre close to its commitment.

The SFI leader demanded that the state government instead of patronising criminal elements within the student community should try to control law-breakers to maintain peace in this hill state.

Shimla, March 20
In its endeavour to arrest the trend of dwindling of house sparrows, a voluntary organisation, Himachal Birds, will install 100 nest homes for these birds in the state capital and 10 each at every district headquarter.

The initiative was today formally launched with the installation of a nest home at Oakover, the official residence of Chief Minister PK Dhumal, here today.

The campaign launched today coincided with the World Sparrow Day, which is observed across the world.

Vikram Kanwar, member, Himachal Birds, said the campaign besides installing nests, will also create awareness among the public about the steep decline in the number of these commonly spotted birds. He added that the depleting green cover, rapid urbanisation and scarce food are some of the reasons for the sharp decline in the number of house sparrows.

Forest Minister Khimi Ram Sharma took the initiative of placing the nest home atop a tall tree at the CM’s residence.

Additional Chief Secretary Sudipto Roy (Forest) was also present on the occasion. The wildlife wing of the Forest Department has been associated with the campaign.