Shimla, May 25
The new provisions of direct election to the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor along with 50 per cent reservation for women generated keen interest in the Shimla Municipal Corporation poll, campaigning for which came to a close today.

Unlike the past when political parties strived to win maximum number of municipal wards to secure a majority, focus of the campaign has been on candidates vying for the top two posts.

The most important fall out of the new format has been that it made the electoral battle for the prestigious municipal body triangular with the CPM, which stood little chance in the earlier indirect polls, emerging as a formidable third force giving the BJP and Congress a run for their money.

The focus on the top two posts blurred the scenario in 25 wards, out of which 13 have been reserved for the fair sex. The electioneering centered around the three main mayoral candidates - Madhu Sood (Congress), SS Minhas (BJP) and Sanjay Chauhan (CPM). The candidates for the post of Deputy Mayor - Devinder Chauhan (Congress), Digvijay Singh Chauhan (BJP) and Tikender Panwar (CPM) - also remained in focus.

Reservation for women forced parties to come up with new candidates in most of the wards and there are not many known faces. Senior leaders of all the three main parties joined campaigning in the final phase.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal spearheaded the BJP campaign and many of his ministers camped in the city all through. For Congress, Virbhadra Singh spent three full days addressing a series of election meetings and his Cabinet colleague Anand Sharma also held meetings with representatives of various organisations.

PCC Chief Kaul Singh and other leaders also campaigned. The CPM brought in its national leader Sitaram Yechuri to boost its campaign in the final phase.

Apart from basic issues like shortage of water, inadequate parking space, bad condition of roads, the Congress and the BJP locked horns over the failure to take full advantage of the JNNURM. The Congress alleged that the BJP government failed to submit detailed project reports and even diverted the funds released for housing schemes, the BJP squarely blamed the Congress-ruled corporation for the mess.

The Congress has been ruling the municipal body since 1985, when it was upgraded to a corporation, without a break. However, the Congress and the BJP have been alternately winning the Assembly elections with the BJP forming the government in 1990, 1998 and 2007. At present, the Congress has the maximum 15 councillors, followed by the BJP (8) and the CPM (2) in the House.

Stakes are high for the Congress and the BJP as the direct election to the two top posts will provide some indication about the mood of the electorate and the winner will claim advantage in the run up to the Assembly poll likely be held later around October.

Dharamsala, May 25
The one rank, one pension scheme for ex-servicemen will be implemented within a few months, Army Chief, General VK Singh, assured ex-servicemen of Himachal at a state-level rally organised here today. The General said Defence Minister AK Antony was positive about implementing the scheme, which would put a burden of just Rs 1,300 crore on the state exchequer.

During the rally General VK Singh was urged by Vijay Singh Mankotia, president of the Himachal chapter of the Indian Ex-servicemen League, to join politics after retirement. However, the General skirted the idea and confined his speech to efforts made for the betterment of ex-servicemen.

Responding to queries from mediapersons about Anna Hazare’s offer to join his movement, General VK Singh said he had not yet worked out his post-retirement plans.

Regarding the show-cause notice issued by him to a Lieutenant-Genearal who was about head the Eastern command, the General said that it was an internal matter of the Army.

The General said he planned to settle in Himachal. “My daughter is married here. Since I have also bought a plot in Dharamsala, I have an intention to settle here,” the Army Chief said.

Earlier, addressing the ex-servicemen’s rally, Mankotia said there was a crisis of leadership in the country. Mankotia said the army of ex-servicemen was behind General VK Singh for the grit and courage he had shown for eradicating corruption in arms deals.

Mankotia said if the one rank, one pension scheme was not implemented, ex-servicemen would be forced to hit the streets against the government, he said.

General AS Jamwal (retd.) said General VK Singh had earned respect of soldiers and common people by showing courage to swim against the tide.

General VK Singh honoured the families of the state’s four PVC winners.

The families of Major Somnath Sharma (the first PVC winner in independent India) Lt-Col Dhan Singh Thapa and Captain Vikram Batra were honoured by the General. As three were awarded the PVC posthumously, the fourth PVC awardee, Havaldar Sanjay Kumar, was present to receive the honour.

The Himachal chapter of the league conferred the Bharat Shoorveer Mahavir award on General VK Singh on the occasion. He was presented a citation and a bow and arrow by the league.

Nurpur, May 25
Following the mysterious death of a Gaddi youth, Jarnail Singh (19), son of Kanshi Ram of Sadwan, members of the local Gaddi Community Union held a demonstration in front of the hospital mortuary here today, demanding strict action against the accused named in the FIR for allegedly humiliating the deceased forcing him to commit suicide last night.

Pacifying the demonstrators, Rajinder Jaswal, DSP, assured them that action would be taken against the culprit. On the complaint of Kanshi Ram, the deceased’s father, a case under Section 306, IPC, has been registered against Om Parkash of Sadwan.

The complaint said the deceased was humiliated publicly yesterday by the accused, saying that he had stolen timber. The youth told his father that it was a false accusation. The anguished youth consumed a poisonous substance in the night. He was rushed to the local civil hospital where he died later. The police handed over the body to the victim’s family after a postmortem examination.

Dharamsala, May 25
GS Bali, Congress MLA from Nagorta Bagwan, has planned a ‘rath yatra’ to highlight unemployment among youth of Himachal. Bali said the yatra would most likely be flagged off from Manali on June 6 by the party in charge for Himachal, Barinder Singh, and HPCC president Kaul Singh.

The rath yatra would touch all districts of Himachal in three phases. In the first phase starting from Manali, the yatra would cover, Kullu, Mandi and Chamba districts. In the second phase the yatra would start from Poanta Sahib and cover Sirmaur, Solan and Shimla districts. The last phase of the yatra would start from Kinnaur district and end in Kangra district, touching all remaining districts, Bali said.

He said that the yatra had been named as “Himachal Rozgar Sangarsh Yatra”.

Bali said he had been taking up the issue of unemployment in the Himachal Assembly. He had also moved a private member resolution in the Assembly over the issue.

However, the resolution fell as the BJP enjoyed a majority in the House. However, it exposed the seriousness of present government about the issue.

When asked if other Congress leaders from the state would join him, Bali said he had urged all senior leaders to come with him.

Dharamsala, May 25
Girls dominated the Class XII results declared by the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBSE) here today. Girls topped all streams of Class XII, including, science, commerce and arts. Most of toppers in all streams this year belonged to government schools.

Aastha Thakur of Government Senior Secondary School, Bilaspur, topped the Class XII results in the science stream. Other toppers in science stream include Manpreet Thakur (second) from DAV Sr. Sec. School, Una; Dalip Kumar of Government Senior Secondary School, Kotli, and Naincy Singh from Government Senior Secondary School, Mandi (joint third).

In the commerce stream, Tanuja Kumari of Government Senior Secondary School, Dharamsala, bagged the first position, Radha Rani and Priya Saini of DAV Sr. Sec. School, Una, bagged the second and third positions, respectively.

In the arts stream, Anupam of SVPM Government Girls Secondary School, Ghumarwin, bagged the first position while Akla Sharma of Governemnt Senior Secondary School, Takoli, Una district, bagged the second spot. Kalpana Devi of Government Senior Secondary School, Matlahar, Kangra district, got the third position.

In the vocation stream, Nagender Pal of Government Boys Senior Secondary School, Bilaspur; Kushboo of Government Senior Secondary School, Jubbal, and Chanchal Kumari of Government Senior Secondary School, Bhangorotu, bagged the first, second and third positions, respectively.

Board Chairman Balram Sharma said 65,747 of the 106891 students had cleared the Class XII examinations this year. Those who wanted to get their papers re-evaluated could apply to the board till June 23.

Solan, May 25
Students of various schools in the district have excelled by bagging the highest 10 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) score in the Class X CBSE matriculation examinations.

This includes six students of Pinegrove School, Dharampur, five of Army Public School, Dagshai, and two of Lawrence School, Sanawar.

In Army Public School, Dagshai , five students have secured a CGPA of 10 and another 10 have secured over nine out of the total 95 students who had appeared.

Out of the 95 students, 24 have scored between 80-89, 35 between 70-79 and the entire batch scoring first divisions.

Navdeep Kaur, Sidharth Shridhar, Digvijay Singh Thakur, Sristhi Menon and Sakshi Gill have scored CGPA of 10 points.

Pinegrove School, Dharampur, have lived up to its reputation with 30 students scoring a CGPA of 9 and above and the class average being a high of 8.4.

In Lawrence School, Sanawar, eight students have scored above 9.6 CGPA. Out of these, two students - Swati Saha and Kudrat Kashyap - have scored a perfect 10 points.

Hamirpur, May 25
The Himachal Pradesh Pensioners’ Kalyan Sangh (HPPKS), which has been demanding pension on the Punjab pattern for past many years, has once again intensified its campaign to achieve its demands and decided to hold rallies and dharnas at all district headquarters.

A rally would be held at Gandhi Chowk, Hamirpur, tomorrow.

The pensioners have been demanding adoption of the Punjab pattern for paying pension and not as per Central rules .

BD Sharma, president of the HPPKS, said:”Before the Assembly elections, the state BJP, had promised to give us financial benefits at par with pensioners in Punjab. The party had included our demands in its election manifesto also.”

“The BJP government has not fulfilled any of the demands during the past four-and-a-half years except for paying our DA arrears in routine, forcing us to start an agitation”, he added.

The pensioners had been demanding additional pension benefits on the Punjab pattern i.e. 5, 10 and 15 per cent increase in pension after attaining the age of 65,70 and 75 years, respectively, a medical allowance of Rs 500 per month, besides paying travel allowance every two years.

The HPPKS was also demanding gratuity and leave encashment benefits to pensioners retiring from the HRTC and the Electricity Board after January 1, 2006. 

Shimla, May 25
The state high court has sought an explanation from the Director, Higher Education, regarding discrimination between regular and contractual employees in granting maternity leave.

It further directed him to file an affidavit as to the policy of the state regarding the extension of benefits on maternity leave within one month.

The court observed that the government was discriminating between regular and contractual employees in granting maternity leave.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary passed this order during a hearing of the petition filed by Geeta, who is working as a contract lecturer at Government Senior Secondary School, Sarol, in Chamba district.

She has filed this petition against the discriminatory decision of the department regarding not to grant her 135-day maternity leave at par with regular employees.

It observed that regular employees were entitled to 135 days leave, but contractual and other such employees were permitted to avail only 12-week leave.

The state actually wanted to discriminate between regular and contract employees, though contract employees were lesser paid employees.

The matter will be listed before the court on July 9 for further hearing.

Solan, May 25
The state-level Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) authorities will now be able to grant clearance to mining projects having lease area less than 50 hectares as per the latest notification of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

While treating such cases under category B as per the EIA notification, 2006, such cases will be dealt with by the state authorities and clearance will have to be accorded within a fixed time as laid down by the apex court.

The ministry has, however, also laid down that applicants can approach them for obtaining clearance in cases involving mining in an area less than 5 hectares and such permission will be accorded within 10 days.

The ministry had, earlier, in response to an apex court order, laid down that all mining projects of minor minerals, including their renewal, irrespective of the size of the lease, would require prior environment clearance.

State geologist Arun Sharma, confirming this, however, said all projects located within a radius of 10 km from a bordering state would not fall under this criterion and they would have to seek EIA clearance from the Central authority.

The new notification would only benefit projects lying in the interior areas of the state.

The State Pollution Control Board, which grants consent for such cases, has also been directed by the state geologist about these directions so that no such permissions bypassing new directions were given.

A State Expert Appraisal Committee had also been constituted for the technical assessment of such projects and a state EIA authority overlooked the final clearance.

Sharma added that all fresh and renewal cases would be required to get EIA clearance and directions had been issued to the field staff.

The Mining Department had, however, been granting yearly short-term permits where lessees were directed to lift the material stocked at sites and not indulge in fresh mining. The arrangement was made as a stop-gap arrangement and lessees were directed to obtain EIA clearances where the area involved was over five hectares.

Since the EIA was a time-consuming mechanism, lessees had been shying away from adopting its procedures. These directions would also bring the monopoly of panchayat pradhans to an end as cases had come to light where they in connivance with lessees had been granting them NoCs without seeking consent of panchayats.

Shimla, May 25
The Centre will assist Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) in expediting clearances for its 900-MW Arun-III project from the Government of Nepal.

Presiding over the “Raising Day” function of the SJVN Union, Power Secretary P.Uma Shankar appreciated the company for expanding its operations not only within the country but also in neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bhutan. He specially mentioned the projects in Bhutan for which it had prepared the detailed project report in a very short time.

He also commended the company for diversifying into wind energy and power transmission and the excellent performance of the country's largest Nathpa-Jhakri hydroelectric station for which it bagged the 'Gold Shield'. He said the silt management expertise developed by SJVN had earned worldwide acclaim.

The Raising Day celebrations commenced on May 4 with a 'blood donation camp' in which 100 employees and their family members donated blood. A “mini-marathon” was organised on May 20.

Solan, May 25
The chairman and executive officer of the local municipal committee were gheraoed by members of an anti-corruption body, Youth Against Corruption (YAC), in protest against the non-registration of an FIR against the Durga Club where reckless digging had broken water pipes of the main storage tank of the town a few days ago leading to losses worth Rs 14 lakh.

Members of this organisation, which is a wing of the ABVP, including its district convener Anupam Lakhanpal, while expressed concern at the lackadaisical attitude regarding this incident that had hampered the water supply of the town for six days and caused losses worth lakhs and demanded registration of an FIR against the Durga Club.

He added that it was surprising why municipal committee officials and the district administration were favouring the Durga Club and this act smacked of corruption. YAC members said the executive officer had assured them that he would talk to elected members and take a decision on registering an FIR.

They added that officials had agreed that a chowkidar’s room too had been damaged in the mishap where reckless digging by the club had damaged the water pipes and it had also endangered a 7 lakh capacity water tank, which could put residents in danger.

The anti-corruption outfit also sought a reply as to which government agency would undertake the repair work of the wall and which agency has been paid the penalty of Rs 10 lakh, which had been imposed by the district administration on the club.

Executive officer Ajmer Singh when quizzed said the unanimous decision of committee members was being abided by in this case.

Mandi, May 25
The CPM and the CPI today staged a protest march in the town against the hike in petrol prices and accused the UPA of benefiting the petroleum companies at the cost of the public.

Addressing the gathering, CPM and CPI leaders demanded a rollback of the price hike as it has badly hit the common man. The hike is nothing but a ploy to benefit the petrol companies as the government has imposed VAT, duties and other taxes that has made petrol out of reach of the general public.

Petrol prices should be regulated by the government, asserted Bhupender Singh, district secretary, CPM.

BILASPUR: Himachal Lokhit Party activists and leaders of this town took out a protest demonstration through town bazars and raised slogans against the recent increase in prices of petrol.

Led by party district president Daulat Ram Sharma and state joint spokesman Kesh Pathania, these leaders sought immediate intervention of the President in the matter and rollback of the hike.

Later, they also met Deputy Commissioner Ritesh Chauhan and presented him a memorandum on the issue for forwarding it to the President.

They also urged the President to dismiss the Central Government if it fails to see reason and does not withdraw this inordinate hike in petrol prices.

Several activists of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, led by their district president Brij Lal Thakur, took out a protest demonstration against the Central Government through the main bazar here last evening and burnt an effigy of Sonia Gandhi.

They said this government had increased the prices of petrol by Rs 33 per litre during its three-year tenure.

They demanded immediate withdrawal of the petrol price hike.

Shimla, May 25
Retired chief engineers of the HP State Electricity Board, who superannuated before the 2006 pay revision, are running from pillar to post to secure their due pension benefits on the pattern of the PSEB.

Convener of the HPSEB Senior Engineers Forum PC Sardana said despite repeated pleas, the board authorities were not taking any action in the matter as a result of which they were receiving over Rs 3,000 per month less in pension.

Instead of fixing the initial pay scale of chief engineers at Rs 45,140 (unrevised Rs 18,600-23100), the board after the revision placed them in the pay scale of Rs 41,300, applicable to superintending engineers.

The net impact was that they were getting a basic pension of Rs 25,900 instead of Rs 27,820 and with dearness allowance the difference came to Rs 3,200 per month.

He said most of the pensioners were old and did not have the resources and physical strength to fight an indifferent management.

There was no justification for denial of the due pension benefits to those who had served the board through their life and were now in their twilight years. Sardana added that the number of such engineers was over 100 and some of them were aged over 80.

Haripur (Kullu), May 25
Villagers in three panchayats - Soel, Karzan and Halaan-1 - today demanded scrapping of the 1.5 MW Haripur power project on the Haripur nullah here on the ground that the company has not got NoC from affected panchayats.

A committee headed by SDM, Kullu Sadar, Vinay Dhiman, today visited the spot and registered public objections listed by Jan Jagran and Vikas Manch (JJVM) and representatives of the three panchayats against the project.

They demanded since the company had failed to get NoC from the three panchayats, the project should be scrapped by the government as it was done in the case of the Chohad nulllah project on the Jogni Fall, near Manali.

The high court has directed the Deputy Commissioner, Kullu, to form a committee to list public objections against the project in three affected panchayats.

The JJVM, Kullu, three panchayat pradhans - Jeet Ram (Soel), Meera Devi (Halaan-1) and Premu Devi (Karzan) - presented their panchayat resolutions.

The high court order came as a much-awaited relief to a population of over 15,000 villagers in three panchayats.

Villagers have been opposing all the four proposed micro projects located in this trout-rich stream on the ground that the projects will ruin their sources of livelihood.

LC Katoch, president, JJVM, said the three panchayats have not given NoC to the company and presented their objections to the committee. The company had no land lease from the district revenue office so far, he charged.

Katoch said Intra Continental Company had been pursuing the work here, despite the fact that these panchayats have opposed the projects on this nullah since 2010.

On the other hand, the company, which has raised a concrete structure and cut down over 30 trees downstream, claimed that they have the NoC with them and the Forest Department had diverted the land for the project.