Dharamsala, May 20
Pandemonium prevailed at McLeodganj last evening as thousands of spectators moved uphill from Dharamsala after the conclusion of the IPL match between the Kings XI Punjab and the Delhi Daredevils. The limited infrastructure at McLeodganj failed to cater to the sudden upsurge in the number of tourists. A large number of spectators failed to find a place in restaurants, leading to clashes between restaurant owners and customers.

Sources said certain “inebriated and agitated” spectators damaged windowpanes of some restaurants at the main crossing of McLeodganj.

A spat between spectators and the management of the famous Mcllo restaurant located at the main crossing of McLeodganj started at about 10 pm. The sources said a customer from Jammu forced his entry into the restaurant and was thrashed by the staff. He was later hospitalised by the police.

Restaurant owner Pankaj Chada said due to the rush, they had restricted entry into the restaurant and only couples were allowed. However, a few youths, who were allegedly in an inebriated state, forced their entry into the restaurant. Once inside, they started trouble that led to a clash between them and the staff.

As the youths creating trouble were forced out of the restaurant, many of their friends started throwing empty bottles at the windowpanes of the restaurant, Pankaj Chada alleged. A few windowpanes of the Mcllo restaurant and other adjoining restaurants were broken or damaged.

The Mcllo restaurant is the most common venue for night parties of visiting IPL teams at Dharamsala.

During IPL matches, it is general practice that a large number of youth gather outside the restaurant to get a glimpse of the cricketing stars. Yesterday night also, a large number of spectators had gathered outside the restaurant expecting that the IPL teams would visit the restaurant.

The sources said there were just a few cops at the McLeodganj crossing who found themselves helpless in controlling such a huge crowd of cricket fans.

McLeodganj hoteliers alleged that rowdy crowds that gathered at Dharamsala during the matches were destroying the reputation of the tourist destination. Due to these rowdy crowds, the number of foreign tourists had decreased to a great extent, they alleged.

Police officials were investigating the violence till the filing of this report.

Kangra, May 20
Former Transport Minister and sitting MLA from Nagrota Bagwan GS Bali today charged organisers of IPL at Dharamsala with causing environmental degradation to the hill town. Besides, local residents were put to inconvenience because of the failure of the administration to regulate traffic during the event.

Bali was addressing a press conference here this evening. He said traffic jams were wittnessed everywhere during the past four days. He alleged that innocent people of this hill state despite purchasing tickets could not enter the stadium. He said it was because of overselling of tickets and unlimited complimentry passes being issued to people close to power, party and big business houses of the country.

Bali said it was not an IPL match, but an obligation match. He asked the state government to come out with a white paper on how much tax was received from the organisers.

He asked the HPSEB why crores of rupees which lay outstanding against the HPCA as electricity charges for consuming power during day-night matches, including previous IPL match, were not recovered. He said the HPSEB should have disconnected the power connection to the stadium before the IPL.

Dharamsala, May 20
The Central Tibetan Administration (changed name of the Tibetan government-in-exile) has alleged that Chinese agencies had been making efforts to eliminate the Dalai Lama.

A spokesperson for the CTA, while talking to mediapersons today, alleged that according to reports received from Tibet in June 2010, Chinese intelligence agencies were making concrete plans to harm the Dalai Lama by employing well-trained agents, particularly women.

It was also learnt that they were exploring the possibility of harming the Dalai Lama by using ultra-modern and highly sophisticated drugs and poisonous chemicals. In another report received in October 2011, it was learnt that Chinese intelligence agencies had stepped up their clandestine efforts to collect intelligence on the status of the Dalai Lama’s health, as well as collecting physical samples of his blood, urine and hair. They were reportedly co-opting Tibetans inside Tibet to visit India with the intention of seeking an audience with him to serve this purpose, he said.

In early April 2008, Zhang Qingli, the then party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), held a meeting of all top officials in the government. During that meeting, he was quoted as saying, “those who must be killed should be killed and those who must be imprisoned must be imprisoned”. Recently in February 2012, Chen Quanguo, the current party secretary of the TAR, called for “a war against secessionist sabotage”.

In recent years, the Chinese government has launched an unprecedented offensive campaign against the Dalai Lama inside Tibet and has also issued instructions to its officials concerned to organise protests by overseas Chinese communities against the Dalai Lama during his visits outside India. A number of such protests have since been organised in the US, Europe and Japan.

The Dalai Lama’s efforts to reform and democratise Tibetan society have also emboldened certain fundamentalists within the Tibetan community. This relates to differences arising from the worship of the Shugden spirit, which the Dalai Lama had advised the Tibetan people from worshipping against. The primary group among these fundamentalists is the Dorje Shugden Devotees Charitable and Religious Society (DSDCRS), founded in May 1996 with its headquarters in New Delhi. The Indian police has identified and charged the DSDCRS with murdering three monks close to the Dalai Lama, including his Chinese translator. Various reports also point to the fact that the Chinese government is also covertly backing Shugden fundamentalist groups.

Shimla, May 20
Tourists and local residents will no longer be able to see the gorgeous feathered creatures at the Himalayan Bird Park (HBN) at Chaura Maidan here with the Central Zoo Authority directing the state to close down the five-decade old pheasantry.

The decision was taken by the Central Zoo Authority on the recommendations of an inspection committee which found that it did not fulfil the norms and could not be allowed to continue as per the new policy for keeping animals in captivity. At present, the park has 65 birds, including monals, cheer and silver pheasants, peacocks, red jungle fowls and kalij.

The main objection was that it lacked the requisite infrastructure and, more importantly, with an area of just 0.2 hectare, it was too small to serve any conservation purpose.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, RK Sood confirmed that the Central Zoo Authority had recommended closure of the park, but said it would take a couple of years as the existing birds could neither be released in the wild nor shifted to other zoos. At best, some pheasants, which were fewer in number, like monals, kalij and cheer could be shifted. However, there was a large number of red jungle fowls which could not be shifted as per the protocol. Most of these birds would complete their life in the park, but no further breeding would be allowed.

Once famous as Raj Niwas Zoo, the HBN was set up in the late 1950s by then Lt-Gen Bjarnag Bahadur Singh, a great lover of animals. At one time it had big animals, including a pair of lions, black bears and deer, besides pheasants.

Being one of the very few zoos, it attracted a large number of visitors, particularly schoolchildren for years. The decline started after big animals were shifted to the Tutikandi zoo in 1968, when a lion escaped from the park located in the heart of the city, causing panic.

The new policy discourages the proliferation of zoos and nature parks for the purpose of displaying animals and lays down that these should be set up only to promote the objective of the conservation of wildlife.

However, the Rewalsar zoo will continue subject to the condition that infrastructure would be approved and the number of animals, which was too large, will be brought down in a phased manner by preventing further breeding.

Dharamsala, May 20
“Shanta Kumar has every right to persuade Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) leaders to rejoin the BJP. He can try to bring them back into the party fold,” said Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal here today. He was responding to queries regarding Shanta Kumar’s repeated statements praising HLP leaders.

Asked if Shanta Kumar managed to persuade HLP leaders back into the party, would he be ready to accept them, Dhumal said it would be for the party to accept them. “I have never commented on the developments in the party in public. Neither had I asked the HLP leaders to leave the party nor am I asking them to rejoin it. However, Shanta Kumar is free to make efforts to bring them back into the party,” the Chief Minister said.

Besides praising HLP leaders, Shanta Kumar had stated that “mission repeat” will be difficult for the party to accomplish unless the unity in the party was restored.

Meanwhile, Dhumal said the Congress had nothing to offer to the people of the state, except making baseless allegations against the present government.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister participated in an India Recycle Day function . About 700 students also participated in the drive for collecting solid waste from McLeodganj.

Shimla, May 20
The Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP), a breakaway group of the BJP, today fired another salvo at the Dhumal government accusing it of according “special treatment” to the national convener of the BJP legal cell while engaging him as counsel for the state.

Armed with information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, president of the HLP Maheshwar Singh said here today that the government had a battery of advocates comprising one advocate-general, eight additional advocates-general, eight deputy advocates-general, four assistant advocates-general, but still a large number of cases were being assigned to other advocates from outside the state. His party had already obtained details pertaining to 21 cases assigned to Satya Pal Jain and many RTI applications were in the pipeline as the authorities concerned were trying their best to deny or delay information.

He said noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan, engaged as Advocate-on-Record to represent the state in the Supreme Court, was being paid in accordance with the terms and conditions notified in April 9, 2003, as per which the fees per appearance was Rs 5,500 per hearing for miscellaneous cases and Rs 11,000 for regular cases. Senior advocates, including B Dutta and PN Nag, were being paid accordingly, while JS Attri, who handled the all-important BBMB claim case, is entitled a per appearance fee of Rs 1,100 for miscellaneous cases and Rs 2,000 for regular cases.

However, in case of Jain, the notification appointing him to represent the state in the high court and the Central Administrative Tribunal dated August 3, 2009, stated that the fee in each case would be settled by a senior functionary of the administrative department keeping in view the nature of the case, subject to the concurrence of the Law Department and approval of the Finance Department. He revealed that as per the RTI information, he was paid fee ranging from Rs 55,000 to Rs 1.10 lakh per appearance.

Jain said on th phone that he was giving services as an advocate to a number of states, agencies and organisations, besides the Himachal Government. He was being paid as per rules and not a penny in excess. All payments had been duly accounted for in his income tax returns. Those levelling charges of undue favours against him knew best the reasons for doing so.

He was trying to get details of press conferences addressed by HLP leaders and initiate legal proceedings against them after growing through the contents.

Nurpur, May 20
National BJP Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president and Lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur today addressed a mammoth public meeting at Fatehpur, native Assembly segment of suspended BJP MP from Kangra Rajan Sushant who is bete noire of Chief Minister PK Dhumal. Sushant’s political detractors, under the banner of the local BJP Mandal (unit), organised this rally just to display a show of strength in the wake of forthcoming Assembly polls.

Addressing the public meeting, Anurag alleged that the UPA government had always discriminated against the hill state, but the Dhumal government had made strides in development and provided subsidised food items to all ration card holders by spending Rs 500 crore as subsidy during the past over four years.

He said former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had promised at least one job in every family during his tenure, but only 3,568 unemployed youth could get jobs during his regime. But the present Dhumal government had set a record by providing 60,000 employment opportunities to the jobless.

“The government has not only enhanced daily wages to Rs 130, but also increased social security pension to Rs 400 per month from April, this year. The government is spending 19 per cent annual budget on education and has established universities and other professional colleges in nine out of 12 districts in the state,” he maintained.

He claimed that the cricket stadium built at Dharamsala by the HP Cricket Association had brought the Kangra valley on the world map. He announced that the cricket stadium proposed by the association at Nurpur would be completed within the next three months. State BJP vice-president Kirpal Parmar and Nurpur MLA Rakesh Pathania were also present at the rally which was addressed by state BJP Kisan Morcha general secretary Rajesh Thakur and local BJP president Kartar Pathania.

Hamirpur, May 20
Taking tough measures against defaulters not paying water charges for quite long, the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department, Hamirpur, has issued strict notices to finally pay the water bills or face disconnection of their water connections.

This action has created ripples among the defaulters because it will be quite difficult to get the water connection restored during the summer months.

Notices to this effect were issued by the IPH Department recently after the failure of the defaulters to pay water bills for many months.

The IPH Department, which has given about 6,000 water connections in the Hamirpur Nagar Parishad area, have been facing the problem of non-payment of water charges bills by residents.

The department is already finding it difficult to recover the outstanding bills from many government departments.

In the Hamirpur Nagar Parishad area, 155 people have not paid their water bills for long and bills worth several thousands are pending against each defaulter.

The defaulters, who have been served disconnection notices are Raj Rani, Bela Ram, Rakesh Kumar, Amar Nath and Shamsher Singh.

Though the IPH Department has got the power to disconnect the water connection in the case of the defaulter not clearing the outstanding amount, the department has been avoiding taking such a harsh step.

Executive Engineer, IPH, SK Dhiman sad, “We are issuing disconnection notices to the defaulters, and many of them are paying the outstanding bills. But if some of them fail to pay the bills despite the notices, we will be forced to snap their water connections.”

Bilaspur, May 20
Property worth Rs 5 lakh was destroyed in a devastating fire which suddenly spread in three adjoining houses and one cow shed of Gandhi Ram, Satish Kumar and Sonia at Chakrana village under Gatwaad gram panchayat near Bharadi, 55 km from here, last night.

Reports said the families were fast asleep when the fire spread and someone raised an alarm.

A large number of villagers rushed to help extinguish the fire. The Fire Brigade took time to arrive from a far-off Bilaspur town and helped in controlling the fire. — OC

Hamirpur, May 20
The ongoing differences in the district Congress, Hamirpur, took an ugly turn today as the Block Congress Committee passed a resolution demanding the removal of District Congress Committee (DCC) president Sunil Sharma (Bittoo) from the post.

The resolution was passed at a meeting attended by 60 members of the block committee and chaired by block Congress president Jugal Kishor.

The members have also sent a copy of this resolution to HPCC president Kaul Singh Thakur for further action.

There were reports that the DCC had reportedly expressed its displeasure over the alleged “inactiveness” of block Congress committee president Jugal Kishor and also appointed Rajesh Chaudhary as the working president of the block Congress committee a few days ago.

Today’s action is likely to further widen the differences among Congress leaders, which could damage the party prospects in the Assembly elections.

Block Congress president Jugal Kishor said, “We have passed a resolution signed by 60 members for the removal of district Congress committee president Sunil Sharma.”

He said the resolution was passed since the district president had not been keeping contact with members and did not attend the meeting today despite being given an invitation.

DCC president Sunil Sharma said, “I am not aware of such a development and do not want to comment on the issue.”

“Taking such issues to the media is an act of indiscipline and the HPCC will take appropriate action in this matter,” he added.

Bilaspur, May 20
The District Consumers Redressal Forum, headed by Justice BR Chandel and members Shyam Lal Thakur and Manorama Thakur, on Friday ordered a motor vehicle trading company, Ashrit Trading Company of Bhida, Hamirpur, to either provide a new car or return its total cost of Rs 7,41,544 with 9 per cent interest to complainant Surender Kumar of Baddu near Ghumarwin.

Complainant’s advocate Sushil Kalia said the forum also ordered the vehicle company to pay a compensation of Rs 30,000 and litigation cost of Rs 5,000 to Surender within 30 days.

Surender had bought this vehicle from this company on December 29, 2008, but it had a mechanical defect and started giving trouble within a few days of its purchase. The customer reported the matter several times to the trader and the company, but he was not provided any relief and had to approach the forum on June 26, 2009, for relief.

Bilaspur, May 20
The Himachal Pradesh State Transport Unions Coordination and Joint Action Committee (TUCJAC) has unanimously decided to start working for only eight hours a day from May 29 and go on a one-day strike throughout the state on June 5 as a mark of protest against the government for ignoring their long-pending demands charter.

Talking to mediapersons after a meeting of their state committee here yesterday, state Chairman Shankar Singh Thakur and state secretary Rajender Thakur said this programme would stop vehicular traffic on 40 to 50 per cent routes of the HRTC (Himachal Road Transport Corporation) in the state on June 5. This action would also be implemented in 23 HRTC depots and three divisional workshops.

They demanded that the HRTC should be converted into roadways like all transport services of neighbouring states. A high-powered committee should also be appointed to enquire into the causes of losses. They said most of the losses were due to negligent mismanagement and corruption at some stages and shameless exploitation of lower staff like conductors and drivers.

They said more than 3,000 vacant posts of driver, mechanic and conductor should be filled immediately as they all were already overworked. They said the gravity of the situation could be gauged from the fact that the HRTC still had to pay for 3.50 lakh and four lakh Sundays of conductors and drivers, respectively, which amounted to some Rs 30 crore if converted into payment.

Others present included Roshan Chauhan, Gulab Singh Dhiman, Vidya Sagar, Dev Raj Thakur, Khemender Gupta, Ranvir Chandel, Raj Kumar, Sukh Ram, Keshav Varma, Kuldip Kumar, Satya Praksh Sharma, Prem Lal Thakur and Pawan Kumar.

Sundernagar, May 20
Hundreds of bighas of forest land has allegedly been given to oustees of the Beas-Sutlej Link (BSL) Project without the permission of the Central Government despite the enactment of the Forest Conservation Act.

Information received under the RTI Act from the office of the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Sundernagar, reveals that a large number of BSL Project ousteees were given forest land despite the Forest Conservation Act having come into existence. The Act bars the use of forest land for non-forest purposes.

Thousands of farmers were uprooted for the construction of the 990 MW BSL Project, which started producing electricity in 1977.

The state government had given land to these oustees at different locations prior to the enactment of the Forest Conservation Act. The state government used to sanction forest land to oustees as “nautore land”. This practice continued even after 1980 when the Forest Act was enacted. The law stipulates that forest land cannot be used for non-forest purposes without the prior permission of the Central Government.

The present information came to light after an RTI activist applied for information to the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Sundernagar, to know how many persons were given “nutore land” after 1980. The information revealed that BSL Project oustees were given land at various sites, including forest areas.

According to sources, hundreds of oustees from non-Below Poverty Line (BPL) families were given forest land in violation of the Forest Conservation Act without permission from the Central Government.

Bilaspur, May 20
The police last evening arrested Suman Kumari’s in-laws Prakash, Kaushalya and Anita Kumari of Kasaru village near Ghumarwin under Sections 306 and 34, IPC, on a complaint of her mother Kanta Devi of Jewin village who held them responsible for her daughter’s death.

Kanta Devi has got registered an FIR alleging that Suman might have been forced to commit suicide because she was repeatedly maltreated by her in-laws ever since she was married to Rishu Kumar about three years ago.

Reports said earlier Suman’s body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her room. She was rushed to the Civil Hospital at Ghumarwin, but was declared brought dead by doctors there. Suman (23) has left behind a two-year-old son.

Suman’s maternal relatives and other villagers from Jejwin, who arrived in good numbers, protested against Suman’s ill-treatment and to settle scores with the in-laws insisted on cremating the body in their courtyard.

Later, the police, led by DSP Manoj Jamwal and SHO SL Dhiman, saved the situation and on their persuasion the body, after the post-mortem examination, was cremated and the in-laws’ arrested.