Shimla, May 8
With its errant Lok Sabha MP from Kangra Rajan Sushant going to the extent of seeking the ouster of Chief Minister PK Dhumal, the state BJP will seek his expulsion from the party when national president Nitin Gadkari arrives in Nahan to address a rally.

The state BJP, including ministers and party MLAs, have made up their mind to use the opportunity to seek Sushant’s ouster from the party for the latest embarrassment caused by him. “We will request the party chief to show Sushant the door as even after being suspended from the BJP, he has not mended his ways,” said state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti.

Satti admitted that it was high time action was taken against not just Sushant but also against all others who were creating indiscipline in the party. “I will urge Gadkari ji to give me a free hand to deal sternly with all such elements whose actions and utterances are damaging the party,” he said.

Echoing similar sentiments, state BJP vice-president and former Rajya Sabha MP Kripal Parmar said it was high time that the party acted tough with Sushant who had caused more harm than good to the BJP in his entire political career. Sushant was removed from the BJP state executive last year and in March this year he was suspended from the BJP, but since then no action has been taken against him.

What is surprising is the fact that despite being suspended from the party, Sushant has not changed his anti-Dhumal stance, which clearly indicates that he is already prepared to be expelled from the BJP. “The inaction by the party and continued tolerance of Sushant’s misdemeanour has only emboldened other leaders, including ministers and MLAs, to indulge in acts of indiscipline and cause embarrassment to the government in the state,” said a senior minister.

Sushant, who has always been a cause of embarrassment for his party and senior leaders, including Shanta Kumar and PK Dhumal, has openly pointed fingers at the Chief Minister, his Cabinet colleagues and his MP son Anurag Thakur. Though his relations with Dhumal have never been cozy, things took a turn for the worst after his wife was denied the BJP ticket from Jawali after he was elected to the Lok Sabha.

With Sushant indicting the Chief Minister and seeking his resignation in the wake of the high court judgment on the JP cement plant at Bagheri, it remains to be seen whether the BJP high command will expel Sushant or choose to once again go soft and ignore his belligerent ways. The fact that the Assembly elections could be held any time after October, the party may be compelled to act as he is openly defying the high command and damaging the party, which is aiming to repeat its performance in the elections.

Dharamsala, May 8
Private engineering colleges in the state are at loggerheads with Himachal Pradesh Technical University over the development fee imposed on them.

The university had imposed development charges of Rs 5,000 per student per annum on the engineering colleges functioning in the state. However, most engineering colleges in the state have refused to deposit the amount.

The university has withheld the results of the students of engineering colleges that have not deposited the development fee with it.

Vice-Chancellor of Himachal Pradesh Technical University Shashi Kumar Dhiman admitted that the results of the colleges that had not deposited the development fee of Rs 5,000 per student per annum had been withheld.

He said some colleges had started depositing the fee and their results were being declared. The managements of certain private engineering colleges had collected the fee from the students but were not depositing the same with the university, the VC said.

Justifying the fee, he said it would be used for constructing an academic staff college on the university campus for training the faculty of private engineering colleges. Besides, private engineering colleges could also reclaim a part of the fund by submitting projects to the university for upgrading their laboratories or other required technical infrastructure, he said.

There are 16 private engineering colleges in the state that are now functioning under Himachal Pradesh Technical University. Sources said the managements of 12 private engineering colleges were resisting the move of the university to impose development charges on them. The managements had also moved court and obtained a stay order against the imposition of development fee.

Since the university is now withholding the results of their students, the managements of private engineering colleges are contemplating moving contempt proceedings against the university.

The colleges maintain that students are resisting paying the said amount. No government technical university has imposed development charges on students studying in private colleges under it. The basic purpose of the university is to conduct examinations of the colleges functioning under it. For this, the university charges examination fee and registration fee from the students directly.

The colleges maintain that it is for the first time in the country that development fee is being charged from private and self-financed engineering colleges. It seems the state government wants to burden the students for creating the infrastructure of Himachal Pradesh Technical University.

The colleges are resisting the government’s move to bring them under the state regulatory commission. They say the mandate of the regulatory commission is limited to private universities. However, now the government has asked even the private engineering colleges to deposit 1 per cent of their fee with the regulatory commission despite the fact that they are not regulated by it. The managements of private engineering colleges are contemplating meeting the Chief Minister over the matter.

Shimla, May 8
Asserting that the BJP government allowed Jaiprakash Associates Limited (JAL) to set up a captive thermal power plant after overturning the policy of the Congress regime, Union Minister Virbhadra Singh today accused Chief Minister PK Dhumal of indulging in “blatant lies” to escape responsibility and mislead the people on the issue.

In a strongly worded rejoinder, he said the Congress government had not only rejected the proposal of JAL to set up a 25 MW thermal plant but also sought to punish guilty officers. The BJP government changed the policy of not allowing thermal power plants without paying any heed to reservations that existed on record in this regard. And strangely on the same day even before the ink had dried on the paper, the JP company submitted a fresh enhanced proposal for a thermal plant of 60 MW and the BJP government went ahead and granted permission.

He said this had been amply brought out in the high court judgment and a note in his own hand cited in this regard said: “It is a serious matter, particularly an NoC for thermal power, which is on the negative list and against the power policy of the state. This officer may be suspended with immediate effect and charge-sheeted. The file shows that the electricity board was also involved in issuing NoCs for thermal power stations; the board very well knew that it is against the power policy and also that it had no power to decide on the allocation of thermal power stations.”

“The plants included those of JP Associates (25 MW) for a plant at Bagheri, Mahabir Spinning Ltd (8.5 MW), M/s Deepak Spinners (5 MW) at Baddi and Tannu Alloys (6 MW) at Una. All officers for this may be identified within one week and a case put up. All permissions and NoCs granted for setting up thermal power stations may be withdrawn.”

Virbhadra Singh said the noting was self-explanatory and Dhumal was not only lying but also attempting to misguide the people of the state on the issue. Clearly, the mess he was talking about was his own creation. What remained to be seen was how fairly his investigating agencies investigated the issue, he added.

Solan, May 8
After a spell of cold weather, the mercury is now showing an abrupt rise with the town witnessing a maximum temperature of 32.4°C today.

According to the Department of Environmental Sciences (DES), Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, the minimum temperature, too, has risen from 12.4°C witnessed on Sunday to 16°C today. The temperature has risen abruptly from 28.5°C on Sunday to 32.4 °C today. This temperature is likely to rise further during the next two days.

Though the first week of May has been witnessing the season’s hottest days for the past few years, the advent of summers was late this year due to frequent rain and thundershowers caused due to western disturbances.

Light showers and cloudy weather was predicted for May 11 and 12, said Dr Satish Bhardwaj, head of the DES. The industrial town of Baddi remained hot at 40°C today.

The fluctuating weather has also had an adverse impact on the number of weekend tourists coming to Kasauli and other nearby places from Chandigarh and the surroundings.

Shimla, May 8
Umang Foundation, a public welfare trust, organised a blood donation camp here today to mark the International Thalassemia Day and launched a campaign to make the hill state free from the disease.

The foundation urged the government to extend benefits to thalassemic persons. Children with thalassemia released a poster on the occasion to create awareness about this genetic blood disorder. Thalassemic children inaugurated a blood donation camp by honouring donors with a rose stick.

Chairman of the foundation Ajai Srivastava said the poster was brought out to create awareness among people about the disease and it had all the required information, including about preventive measures. There was also an appeal to people to donate blood for affected children. He underlined the need for pre-marital blood test to prevent the spread of the disease.

He said the demand of the foundation for a special ward for children with thalassemia at the Indira Gandhi Medical College and free medicines for such patients were fulfilled by the Chief Minister last year. This proved to be a great relief for poor patients. He also said these patients should get all the facilities and benefits, including reservation in education and employment, because they were totally dependent on the blood of others and physically very weak.

The main objective of the campaign was to create awareness in society and government. He emphasised the need to conduct a statewide survey to ascertain the number of thalassemia patients.

Apart from local social activists, thalassemic children and their parents from Karsog, Theog, Kumar Sen, Rajgarh, Bilaspur and Hamirpur were also present. 

Mandi/Keylong, May 8
The state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has booked Ram Krishan, a clerk at the regional hospital, Keylong, under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 13/2 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

However, it is yet to tighten the noose around the then Chief Medical Officer-cum-Medical Superintendent, Lahaul-Spiti, and local contractors, who were the alleged beneficiaries in a “Rs 20-lakh medicine and medical equipment purchase and contract work scam”. They allegedly misused funds of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti.

Though the Vigilance has sought permission from the government to book the then CMO in the case, the government has not given its nod as yet.

The scam runs into several lakhs as the accused purchased medicines, X-ray film developers and fixers and carried out wooden penalling and aluminium fabrication work, generator fitting and whitewash in the hospital without performing codal formalities in 2009-10.

The Vigilance had lodged a complaint in the case in 2010 and its inquiry detected large-scale irregularities in the funds of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti.

The Vigilance investigation revealed that the clerk invited “false tenders” for sanitation and other works at the regional hospital in 2009-10 and allegedly awarded the work to contractors close to him. The accused allegedly purchased medicines and medical equipment using funds of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti from the local market without observing codal formalities.

The investigation found that the quotations called for the purchase of equipment were also false.

However, the missing link in the case is that how could a clerk do all this without the knowledge of the then CMO-cum-Medical Superintendent of the hospital.

SP, Vigilance, Central Range, Virender Sharma said the Vigilance had registered a case against the clerk. The role of the then CMO and the beneficiaries was also under investigation, he added.

Bilaspur, May 8
A man, later identified as Sonu according to a tattoo on his arm and about 30 years old, was recovered from a Seer khad by the police and people at Ghumarwin, 22 km from here, today.

Reports said someone saw this man jump into the khad from the Ghumarwin town bridge which resulted in his death. The police was informed and it arrived at the spot and took out the body from the water with help of people.

The police recovered his mobile phone and shirt from the side of the khad, which indicates that he might have got caught in the deep water and was drowned.

The police gathered that he was a son of Mazgar of Chaseeri, Bijnaur, Uttar Pradesh. He was unmarried and had come to Himachal only a few days ago. — OC

Bilaspur, May 8
Two persons were killed and four others injured seriously in four separate incidents in this district during the past 24 hours.

Reports said tempo (HP 23 B-7545) driver Anil Kumar of Badotta village, Luharwin, was killed when his vehicle struck against a jeep near Ghumarwin last night.

Jeep driver Sunil Kumar of Kaari village, Hoshiarpur, Punjab, was also injured and rushed to the Ghumarwin Civil Hospital.

Ayurveda doctor Kishore Chand of Oel village of Bilaspur was injured seriously when his scooty (HP 69-1302) was hit by a speeding truck (HP 12-8577) near Kandraur this morning. He was rushed to the Regional Hospital here and was said to be stable. The truck driver fled after the accident.

Kamla Devi (50) of Bhavva village near Ghumarwin is said to have taken some poisonous substance and died after some time at a hospital. She was said to be under constant pain due to some crippling disease.

In another accident on National Highway No. 103 (Shimla-Kangra), a tipper and a car collide last night resulting in car driver Manohar Lal and his relative Sudama Ram being seriously injured. They were rushed to the Regional Hospital here.