Shimla, May 23
Stating that the high court verdict on violation of norms by Jaypee Associates Limited has left the Dhumal government with much to explain, Union Minister for Commerce Anand Sharma today said the sequence of events pointed to “connivance, collusion, overlooking and deliberate inaction” on the part of the authorities concerned.

If violations of environmental rules and regulations by a company were noticed at an early stage and came to public domain, the government had to act and take immediate corrective action. The law of the land had to be applied uniformly, irrespective of the fact that the corporate involved was big or small. Allowing the violations to continue for a period of time and the cement plant to come up made it a case of collusion. Even if the process was started in the Congress regime, as was being alleged by the BJP, it was the responsibility of the Dhumal government to act and ensure that work was stopped.

He came down heavily on the BJP regime for levelling allegations of discrimination against the UPA government and said as a minister at the Centre, he had ensured that all issues and proposals submitted by the state were taken care of. The state had been flooded with central funds under schemes like the MNREGA, the PMGSY, the NHRM, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the JNNURM. However, these were not being utilised properly as evident from the fact that the funds provided for Shimla city under the JNNURM were diverted and the spice park sanctioned for Nadaun in the home district of Chief Minister PK Dhumal three years ago failed to take off.

The Centre was providing sufficient foodgrains for both APL and BPL families, but the state was not managing the public distribution properly.

Earlier, he had a roundtable with representatives of the CII at which problems being faced by industirlists were discussed. Sharma lamented that power was becoming a major constraint and the state was even recovering the cost of the transmission system, which was its responsibility, from the industries. The overall infrastructure was far from satisfactory. Let alone adequate drinking water facility, even industrial water was not available. The state should go for eco-friendly industries like tourism, electronics, agro-processing and other labour-intensive units.

Shimla, May 23
The last phase of canvassing for the Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) poll is witnessing a high-pitched campaign with senior party leaders, including Union Minister Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister PK Dhumal and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, to address public meetings in favour of the party nominees.

The BJP’s campaign for the poll today received an impetus with Dhumal addressing three public meetings at Totu, Ram Bazar and Bhattakuffar in favour of the BJP nominees and its candidates for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Keen on putting an end to the Congress monopoly over the MC for the past 25 years, Dhumal, along with state party chief Satpal Singh Satti and other local leaders, made a fervent appeal to the electorate to vote for development, which had eluded the state capital under the Congress regime.

Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Virbhadra Singh is likely to address more than a dozen public meetings in the town during the next two days. The Congress leadership has tried to put up a united front with Virbhadra, state HPCC chief Kaul Singh Thakur and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Vidya Stokes ensuring their presence at all meetings. They had jointly addressed four public meetings in Totu and Sanjauli on May 19 in favour of its mayoral candidate Madhu Sood and others.

Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who was in the town today, also tried to reach out to the electorate of the state capital by interacting with various associations and cells like the Central Government Employees Association, the High Court Bar Association, the Beopar Mandal and the HP University Teachers Association. Though he did not address any public meeting, he tried to send a strong signal that the interests of the people of the town would be protected under the Congress.

CPM leader Yechury will arrive here tomorrow to address a public meeting in favour of its candidates for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Sanjay Chauhan and Tikender Panwar, respectively.

The Congress has retained its hold over the MC since 1986. With direct elections for the top two posts being held for the first time, the BJP wants to make the most of it and it is for this reason that it fielded a renowned surgeon, Dr SS Minhas, for the post.

Shimla, May 23
Having been put on the back burner due to the Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) poll, the issue of the creation of new districts in Kangra will figure on the priority list of the BJP as a final call on the issue will be taken in consultation with all senior leaders, including former Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Kumar, to evolve a consensus.

A four-member organising committee, constituted to handle the contentious issue of trifurcation of Kangra by creating new districts of Nurpur, Palampur and Dehra, has already taken the opinion of all senior leaders, including ministers and MLAs from Kangra. The members of the committee include national BJP general secretary JP Nadda, national BJP secretary Shyam Jaju, state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti and state organizing secretary Praveen Rana.

“We have already taken a feedback from all senior leaders from Kangra, including ministers and MLAs, but we will also hold consultations with members of the BJP core committee before arriving at a final decision,” said Satpal Satti, state BJP chief. He added that the issue would be dealt with after the MC poll and the four-member committee would submit its report to the high command on the issue.

The issue of the creation of new districts is likely to be taken up in the first week of June when the core committee members will be consulted on the issue. “Owing to political compulsions, leaders from Kangra might be opposing the creation of new districts openly, but internally all of them are in its favour,” said a BJP legislator from Kangra.

Satti said at the moment the committee was only exploring the possibility of the creation of new districts in Kangra and the demands for new administrative units in other districts like Mandi and Shimla would be looked into later keeping in mind the public mood. “We will arrive at a final decision on the issue only after gauging the public mood and taking a feedback from senior leaders,” he said.

Leaders from the Santa faction have already conveyed their displeasure at the idea of the trifurcation of the biggest and politically most significant district of the state. They include Industries Minister Kishan Kapoor and Palampur legislator Praveen Sharma.

On the other hand, Dhumal loyalists, including IPH Minister Ravinder Ravi and Nurpur MLA Rakesh Pathania, have been vociferous in their demand for the creation of new districts in Kangra. In case the BJP decides to go ahead with the move, it will be their biggest poll plank in Kangra, which has 15 Assembly segments.

Hamirpur, May 23
The Himachal Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Board (HPSSSB), Hamirpur, has selected about 16,000 candidates for appointment to different posts in various departments of the state government during the past one year.

During 2010-2011, the maximum candidates have been selected for appointment as lecturer and teacher in government schools.

As many as 199 lecturers have been selected in the mathematics stream. The figures for other streams are physics (106), biology (105), chemistry (94), commerce (123), political science (79), English (75), Hindi (79), economics (82), history (80), sociology (23), geography (11), music (nine), home science (one) and Sanskrit (45).

The HPSSSB also selected Trained Graduate Teachers: non-medical (344) and medical (330). As many as 61 candidates were selected as Shashtri and 81 candidates as language teachers in the Elementary Education Department.

The HPSSSB also selected 200 clerks in different government departments during this period.

Among other selections made by it were sub-inspectors (54), junior engineers (56) and assistant librarians (79). As many as 48 candidates were selected to various allied posts.

Thousands of other candidates were selected for various posts. A teachers’ eligibility test was also conducted by the HPSSSB in which about 90,000 candidates appeared.

Mandi, May 23
Patients are increasingly seeking ayurvedic treatment for a host of ailments and even chronic conditions in which Himachal Pradesh figures as “one of the best in North India”, but miles behind Kerala, the top state, where “classical medicine” is a way of life.

This finding came to light in a recent status report on AYUSH submitted by Shailja Chandra, former secretary, Department of AYUSH, Government of India, to the Central Government. The findings call for strengthening government pharmacies and regulating private ones for quality control and good manufacturing practices (GMPs) to make this classical system as good as it is in Kerala.

Talking to The Tribune on the phone, Chandra said, “Public faith in ayurvedic treatment in Himachal is growing and the network of government-run ayurvedic hospitals, health centres and private practitioners is committed to providing treatment and spreading its knowledge and benefits among the public in the state.”

Chandra’s report on the status of Indian medicine (ayurveda, unani and siddha medicine) and the benefits that the systems have covers all aspects of research conducted in ayurveda over the past 40 years in the country.

Chandra was appointed as principal investigator of the project. She toured key states and districts in India, where the Indian systems of medicine are widely used.

In Himachal, she investigated seven districts, examined several government-run ayurvedic colleges, hospitals, health centres, dispensaries and pharmacies and a herbal garden at Jogindernagar.

Chandra observed that ayurvedic pharmacies needed urgent attention of the government regulating manufacturing and trial of ayurvedic drugs. The government needed to supply medicines in remote areas where allopathic treatment was not readily available, she added.

Chandra presented her findings before state Principal Secretary, Health, AR Rizvi in Shimla recently at a meeting attended by other state AYUSH officials.

She said, “Next to Kerala, public faith and utilisation of ayurvedic treatment appears to be strongest in Himachal Pradesh.”

Dr Om Raj Sharma, officer nominated for the project, who is Assistant Director at Regional Ayurvedic Research Institute, Mandi, said, “Patients have full faith in this treatment and AYUSH treatment has been growing and we are happy that Himachal is only next to Kerala in this field.”

Mandi, May 23
Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) president Maheshwar Singh today took the state government’s legal adviser, Satya Pal Jain, head-on saying that he would not apologise to him as the HLP had never cast aspersions on his professional acumen and competence. He had instead asked the BJP government to tell the public as to why it was hiring a lawyer from outside at the cost of the state exchequer whereas it had a battery of lawyers in the state.

Maheshwar Singh said on the phone from Kullu that the HLP had obtained information under the RTI Act as to how much fee the government was paying to Jain while appearing in the high court or the Supreme Court. “We were shocked that the government was paying Rs 1.80 lakh per hearing in the Supreme Court and Rs 75,000 per hearing in the high court,” he claimed.

Jain had asked Maheshwar Singh to either tender a public apology or face legal action.

Maheshwar Singh claimed that the HLP had never cast any aspersions on Jain’s professional conduct, and he was misleading the public through the media.

He clarified that he had asked the Dhumal government to explain as to what was the need for spending so much monyey on hiring a legal expert when there were over 8,000 registered lawyers in the Himachal Bar and the government had appointed Advocates-General and Deputy Advocates-General. Apart from paying Jain, the government was paying Rs 33,000 as salary to an assistant, he added.

Maheshwar Singh said the Dhumal government must come clean on the issue before the public.

He said there was no question of tendering an apology to Jain as he was not raising any doubts about Jain’s probity or ethics.

Shimla, May 23
The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry is organising Destination Himachal-Shimla Mega Mart (Indo-Pak Edition) for the second time at Shimla from June 3 to 7 in collaboration with the state government.

“The main objective of the event is to bring Himachal Pradesh on the international tourism and investment radar,” said Ambrish Jaipuria, Chairman, state committee, PHD Chamber. 

Mandi, May 23
The case pertaining to the Rs 3.5-crore statue of Lord Padamsambhava has landed in the high court with the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Mandi, and the Buddhist community differing on the issue.

Hearing a petition, District Magistrate (DM), Mandi, Devesh Kumar said the statue was of Lord Padamsambhava raised on land leased to the Zigar monastery, Rewalsar, to erect a statue of Lord Buddha under Section 118 of the HP Land Ceiling and Tenancy Act.

The DM ordered that the monastery violated Section 118 as it raised a statue of Lord Padamsambhava instead of Lord Buddha. As such the statue should be vested in the government.

However, the Zigar monastery did not accept the DM’s viewpoint on the different avatars of Lord Buddha. It said they worshipped all 1,000 avatars of Lord Buddha.

Moreover, Rinpoche Padamsambhava was worshipped as “second Buddha”, they said while commenting on the DM’s order delivered here yesterday.

They claimed that they had nowhere stated in their application to the government that they would raise a “particular statue” when they got permission from the government in 2000-01.

Requesting anonymity, office-bearers of the Zigar monastery said they would submit their affidavit to the high court taking the stand that all incarnations of Lord Buddha were equal. “We have all documentary evidence to support it,” they added.

The Dalai Lama had deferred the inauguration of the statue of Lord Padamsambhava on April 2. The petitioner had challenged the construction of the statue in the high court. The court is yet to announce its verdict.

Solan, May 23
Buses of the Punjab Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) operating from Chandigarh to Shimla have allegedly been harassing passengers by refusing to give them tickets.

Passengers said the conductors either did not give tickets or gave these in parts to long-distance commuters, while those travelling on shorter routes like Parwanoo, Kalka and Pinjore were not given any ticket.

These commuters said if they asked for tickets, conductors talked to them insultingly and said if there was checking by a flying squad, they would handle the situation.

Those commuting from Chandigarh to Shimla were given tickets in parts; the conductors initially granted tickets till Parwanoo or Dharampur, and then refused to give tickets for the remaining journey though they charged them full money.

Though long-distance buses usually did not pick up passengers travelling to shorter distances, these buses stopped at each and every stop. 

Solan, May 23
With the detection of three sawing machines on the premises of a saw mill, from where 76 illegal logs were detected by the police on Sunday evening at Mehruwala village in Paonta Sahib sub-division of Sirmaur district, the working of forest officials has been exposed. There was little justification in having three sawing machines as only one sawing machine is registered on a single premises.

The presence of three machines was indicative of large-scale cutting of wood and it also reflected the magnitude of the illegal activity.

DFO, Paonta Sahib, AK Bali, while confirming that a single license had been issued, said the presence of more sawing machines would be inquired into.

He added that since 26 trees had been illegally felled without any permission prima facie, the beat guard could not escape responsibility and his explanation had been sought in this case.

A total of 97 logs of khair woods have been seized by the police from the Sirmauri Tal village in the Paonta Sahib area of Sirmaur district, which had been illegally stacked by a local BJP leader.

This was in addition to the 76 logs of wood of various varieties belonging to Ajay Mehta, which had been seized by the police on Sunday evening from two tractors at Mehruwala village during a routine checking.

DSP, Paonta Sahib, Nishchint Negi said though the value of these 96 logs of khair was assessed to be around Rs 2.5 lakh by forest officials it was sold for several lakhs by black marketeers. Since wood worth Rs 2 lakh was earlier seized, the total value of illegal wood seized by the police was around Rs 4.50 lakh.

Forest officials on condition of anonymity said a nexus between the forest staff and such illegal operators could not be ruled out and they were investigating into such linkups. Investigations were also being conducted to verify for how long such illegal activities had been thriving in the area as commercially significant khair wood was among the popular species grown in the area.

Kangra, May 23
Local advocate Vinay Sharma today filed by post a PIL before the Supreme Court to direct the governing council of the Indian Premier League (IPL) through its Chairman and the BCCI and King’s XI Punjab to pay approximately Rs 5 crore to the Himachal Pradesh police for

providing security during the seven IPL matches held at the Dharamsala stadium. He also sought direction from the apex court asking the council of the IPL to pay entertainment tax, service charges and sales tax to the state government too.

In a three-page petition Vinay Sharma sought the apex court’s intervention for Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka police too to direct the council of the IPL to pay security charges to the police of these four states too.

He stated that the IPL was a professional and commercial league set up to earn profit. UK-based Brand Consultancy and Brand Finance had valued the IPL at Rs 18,998 crore in 2010 and this value had further increased.

He claimed in the petition that the IPL was launched by the BCCI to earn a huge profit as 20 per cent proceed went to IPL, 8 per cent to prize money and 72 per cent to franchisees. He named nine franchisee owners who belonged to big corporate houses of the country.

He claimed that IPL organisers had not paid a single penny to Himachal police for providing security. As the Chief Minister heading the Home Department was the chief patron of the HPCA and his son president of the HPCA, so Home Department officials had declared the IPL a public event and not charged it anything.

He said the police charged fee from various temple authorities during the Navratras for deployment of Home Guards. While the temple authorities did not charge anything from devotees, the IPL governing council was charging from Rs 250 to Rs 35,000 per person for tickets. The IPL authorities were also not paying entertainment tax to the state government.

The petitioner said the BCCI had earned Rs 8,700 crore from Sony Entertainment TV rights, but the IPL was proving to be a hole in the government exchequer. 

Shimla, May 23
The high court has given the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) the liberty to recruit staff nurses in case the government is not extending the services of staff nurses to BBMB Hospital, Sundernagar, situated here in the BBMB colony in public interest.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary passed this order during the hearing of the Letters Patent Appeal filed by Jagdamba Devi, who was sent on a secondment basis to BBMB Hospital, Sundernagar, by the government.

At the time of the hearing of the appeal, the BBMB told the court that they were in dire need of experienced staff nurse and they were also at the service of the public.

The court after hearing both parties ordered that in case the government was not extending the services of the staff nurses to their share, the BBMB was free to recruit staff nurses.

The petitioner has filed this appeal against the judgment passed by the Single Judge in a writ petition on the basis of which the government had issued a letter to the BBMB to relieve the petitioner to her parental department with the direction to join at her original place of posting.