Shimla, May 22
In the thick of controversy for the past some time, the listed heritage building of Bantony has been undergoing major restoration without the required permission from the municipal corporation (MC) and the heritage advisory committee despite being in the heart of the town.

What is amazing is the fact that extensive wood and roof work has been going on for the past several months despite the MC issuing three notices to the owners. How seriously the owners who are getting the work done take the MC notices can be gauged from the fact that they term these orders as totally misconceived, uncalled for and untenable.

Bantony was the summer palace of the erstwhile rulers of Sirmaur and is one of the most important heritage buildings of the town. Following a controversy over a proposal for the conversion of the structure into a hotel, Chief Minister PK Dhumal had assured that keeping in mind its heritage value, it would be acquired, which is yet to be done.

“In case the work is still going on despite our notices, we will take action as per the rules for undertaking restoration work without seeking the approval of the MC,” said MP Sood, Commissioner, MC. He assured that an MC team will undertake spot inspection of the place to stop work in case it was still under way.

It is mandatory for the owners of any heritage building in the town to seek prior approval of the heritage advisory committee and the MC before undertaking restoration or repair work. The first notice was issued to the owners by the MC on December 27, 2011, under Section 254(1) for stopping work immediately as it was a listed heritage structure.

Paying little heed to the notice, the work continued and a fresh notice was issued on March 2, 2012, urging compliance of the earlier notice. When it was found that work was still going on, another notice was issued on March 9 under Section 254 (2) where it was said that work would be stopped forcibly with the help of the police. “The owners of a heritage building cannot undertake major repairs, restoration or conservation work without permission and action will be taken against the owners for undertaking work without permission,” said TCP officials.

One of the owners of the building, Vishwanath Sood, said he was not aware of any such rule where permission had to be sought from the MC or any other committee. “The word heritage has no legal definition and I cannot let my property just crumble waiting for the heritage advisory committee to meet,” he said while admitting that he had not applied to them for permission.

He added that whatever he had done was under the purview of law and the MC had not been able to cite any law where restoration of a heritage structure could not be undertaken.

The manner in which extensive restoration work has been done without permission only leads to suspicion that the owners have the backing and support of the high-ups as in all other cases there is prompt action against the violators.

Shimla, May 22
The entry tax imposed by the state government on various construction-related materials will increase the cost of hydroelectric projects by over 3 per cent, adding to the financial woes of both public and private sector companies.

Hydro-power producers are upset as the cost of construction has already gone up sharply due to high inflation. With the government levying the entry tax on specified goods such as diesel, lubricants, iron, steel, cement and goods at rates ranging between 4 and 7 per cent, the overall impact works out to about 3 per cent.

Power companies are already committed to providing 13 per cent free power, 1.5 per cent of the project cost for the local area development fund and a significant amount for funding the catchment area treatment (CAT) plan to address environment concerns.

Independent power producers (IPPs) are demanding exemption for hydropower projects from paying the entry tax. They cite the example of Jammu and Kashmir where the government has exempted hydropower generation machinery, transmission lines, buildings and other hydroelectric project-related constructions from the entry tax.

With projects having an aggregate capacity of over 12,500 MW to come up by 2022 with an investment of about Rs 1 lakh crore, the power companies will have to shell out Rs 3,000 crore by way of the entry tax.

The IPPs and the public sector undertakings engaged in the execution of hydroelectric projects have decided to take up the matter with the government.

The issue will be discussed at a joint meeting of hydropower forums of the five basins to be held shortly. The forums for the Sutlej, the Beas, the Ravi, the Chenab and the Pabbar together have 35 companies as members.

The companies which have been allotted projects in the tribal Lahaul and Spiti are opposing Cumulative Environment Impact Assessment for the Chenab basin and want the government to take effective steps to enable them to start work in view of the limited working season.

There are other problems too with local people preventing the companies from even carrying out preliminary investigations for the preparation of detailed project reports.

Shimla, May 22
The opposition Congress today staged protests across the state in support of its demand for the dismissal of the Dhumal government for “rampant corruption” symbolised by favours showered by it on the Jaypee Group and the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur.

Party men, led by senior leaders, held dharnas and rallies at all district headquarters and submitted memoranda highlighting instances of corruption. The protests were part of a public campaign started by the party to expose the “misdeeds” of the BJP government under which it observed the “anti-corruption” day.

Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh led a delegation of senior leaders to the Raj Bhawan and submitted a memorandum to Governor Urmila Singh. Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes, former PCC chief Viplove Thakur, Kuldeep Pathania, Mukesh Agnihotri, Rakesh Kalia, Nikhil Rajour, Yog Raj and Surinder Bhardwaj, all MLAs, former minister Ram Lal Thakur and other leaders were part of the delegation.

The party alleged in the memoranda that the state’s precious resources were being looted by private companies and individuals and the government had become a puppet in the hands of the land mafia, the illegal mining mafia, the builder mafia, the hotel mafia and the “IPL mafia”. The recent high court judgment imposing a fine of Rs 100 crore on Jaypee Associates Limited (JAL) for setting up a cement and a thermal plant in gross violation of the government rules and regulations was a glaring example of it. It points out that the government facilitated JAL in transgressing the law.

The inquiry should also go into the “favours” extended by JAL to the HPCA and the nexus between the two must be exposed.

Besides, the Dhumal regime allowed the Jaypee Group to take over VMRT Hospital at Palampur, facilitating the transfer of government land worth crores of rupees along with public donations, including Rs 3.6 crore from the public exchequer. Further, the company raised the installed capacity of the Karcham Wangtu project from 900 MW to 1,200 MW without approval. Permission was granted to the company to axe thousands of trees for laying a transmission line, which could have been saved by aligning it on the other side of the Sutlej.

At the district level, the memoranda were submitted to the respective deputy commissioners.

Shimla, May 22
The Education Department has made it mandatory for candidates seeking benefit under the Merit-cum-Means Scholarship Scheme for minorities to submit applications online.

A spokesperson for the department said the scheme was being implemented for Muslim, Sikh, Christian and Buddhist minority communities and candidates whose annual family income was less than Rs 2.50 lakh and who had secured over 50 per cent marks in the previous examination were eligible for the scholarship. Eligible students could submit fresh applications online by September 30, 2012, on the website www.momascholarship.gov.in.

He said students who were already registered would have to submit their renewed applications online by December 31, 2012. Submission of a copy of the application to the institution was also compulsory.

The spokesperson said under the post-matric scholarship scheme were those with annual family income less than Rs 2 lakh and who had secured above 50 per cent marks in the previous examinations. He said eligible students could submit their new applications online by August 15, 2012.

Students of government and non-government senior secondary schools could submit their applications to the respective principals by July 15.

College and university students had to get registered and apply online only to take benefit of the scheme.

He further said the Maulana Azad National Scholarship Scheme was being implemented for girl students of minority communities who were permanent residents of the state.

Under the scheme, candidates with family income below Rs 1 lakh annually and who had secured over 55 per cent in the previous examination were eligible for scholarships. Eligible girl students could submit their applications by July 15 to the respective principals to take benefit of the scheme, he added.

Solan, May 22
The manner in which a huge cache of illegal wood of various species belonging to a BJP leader has been confiscated in the Paonta Sahib sub-division of Sirmaur district, a question mark has been put on the working of forest officials.

A team led by DSP, Paonta Sahib, Nishchint Negi today confiscated 78 logs of khair wood from the Sirmauri Tal area. Its market value was being assessed. This was in addition to the 76 logs of tunn, khair and kokart wood confiscated from two tractors on Sunday evening at Mehruwala village, near the Singpura police station.

Ajay Mehta, who was arrested in this connection, was remanded in police custody for five days by a local court last evening. He is the vice-president of the local BJP.

Negi said the estimated cost of the 76 logs seized on Sunday evening had been found to be Rs 2 lakh and a subsequent raid at the saw mill of the accused, Ajay Mehta, led to the recovery of a sizeable number of logs of various varieties. A special investigation team comprising range forest official and police officials would now verify the illegal and legal wood stacked at the saw mill.

A letter has also been written to revenue officials to verify the ownership of private land where illegal felling had taken place.

He added that the other accused who fled from the spot had been identified and efforts were afoot to trace him.

DFO, Paonta Sahib, AK Bali confirmed that 26 trees of tunn, khair and kokart species had been found to be felled from a private land without permission at Sirmauri Tal village.

He added that the ownership of the land was being verified and if any connivance of the field staff was established in the act suitable action would be initiated.

Though the field staff has been provided with cell phones, no information of illegal felling was reported and forest officials were shying away from initiating action.

The DFO, however, added that a case under the Land Preservation Act would be registered if the felled trees belonged to a single owner.

Additional SP Sanjeev Lakhanpal said investigations were underway to unearth the entire theft as they were acting on information procured from Mehta to recover illegally stacked wood at various places.

A case under Sections 41 and 42 of the Indian Forest Act and Section 379, IPC, for theft has been registered.

Sundernagar, May 22
One person was killed and two others were seriously injured when the car in which they were travelling fell into a 400-foot-deep gorge at Jarol, 10 km from here, on the National Highway-21 on Sunday midnight.

While Mahesh Chaudhary (50) of Mahadev died on spot, his wife Raksha and other occupant Revti Sharma were seriously injured. Revti was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, and Raksha was admitted to the Civil Hospital here. — OC