New Delhi, August 10
Faced with a sulking Virbhadra Singh on the eve of Himachal Pradesh elections, the Congress leadership has agreed to the senior leader’s demand that he be allowed to contest the poll, but is not willing to go all the way and project him as the party’s chief ministerial candidate.

“If Virbhadra Singh wants to contest the elections, the party has no objection,” said AICC general secretary and Himachal Pradesh affairs in charge Birender Singh, adding that this had been conveyed to the senior leader.

Five-time former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, currently a Lok Sabha MP, had been pushing for his return to state politics so that he could emerge as an automatic choice for the top post in case of a Congress victory.

He was aware that the party would use his services to lead the election campaign, but deny him the Chief Minister’s job, as it did recently with Harish Rawat in Uttarakhand.

He feared that his bete noire, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, could pip him to the post. Admitting that Virbhadra Singh was out of favour, Congress insiders said the party was not keen on handing over the top post to him.

The former Chief Minister had been pressing for a substantial ticket share for his loyalists and also wanted elections to be conducted under his leadership.

In an attempt to exert pressure on the party leadership, Virbhadra Singh had recently resigned from all election-related committees in protest against the composition of the panels.

He was angry that the campaign committee which he headed was set up without consulting him and that he had been excluded from the ticket screening committee.

He was also upset that Anand Sharma, far junior to him, was heading the election manifesto committee. Although the party leadership was unhappy with Virbhadra Singh, it recognised that it could not afford to alienate him.

The senior leader, who completed 50 years in the party recently, had a good following in the state and was capable of playing spoilsport in the elections.

The Congress did not have effective and credible second-rung leaders in the state and necessarily had to depend on the veteran to pull in the crowds.

It was for this reason that senior Congress leaders, including Digvijaya Singh and Sheila Dikshit, were pressed into service to mollify Virbhadra Singh.

The party was willing to accept his demand that a working president be appointed to assist Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh as the party had realised that he was not an effective leader.

It had also agreed to include some loyalists of Virbhadra Singh in election-related committees, but was not prepared to draft any supporter of his for the job, though he had been insisting on it. 

Shimla: The Theog block Congress committee has unanimously recommended the name of Vidya Stokes as party candidate from Theog for the Assembly poll. 

The five-member committee met under the chairmanship of block president Nathu Ram.

Nurpur, August 10
The Nurpur block of the Youth Congress has taken a strong exception to the damaging of foundation stones of a number of development projects laid during the Congress regime.

Sandesh Dadwal, president of the Nurpur block of the Youth Congress, alleged that some anti-Congress elements had damaged the foundation stones of bridges on the Hath Dhar and Nagabari-Hadal link roads.

He said the PWD was informed in this regard, but it failed to restore these stones. Giving an ultimatum to the department, Dadwal said if these stones were not restored, activists of the Youth Congress would launch a protest.

He criticised political opponents of the Congress for adopting such “tactics” to eliminate the identity marks of development works undertaken in the Nurpur area during the Congress regime 

Kangra, August 10
The Congress today criticised Chief Minister PK Dhumal “for taking policy decisions that have serious financial implications for the new government coming to power following the poll”.

AICC member and Nagrota Bagwan MLA GS Bali lambasted the state government for taking policy decisions with an eye on polls. Bali stated this while addressing a press conference at his residence here today.

He alleged that the Dhumal government during the past over four years was never bothered to take any decision benefiting state employees or other sections of society but when elections were near it takes major policy decisions. He said that the Chief Election Commission must take cognisance of the matter.

He said the employees who worked on a contract basis for eight to 10 years were not regularised, then how the services of those with seven years of service would be regularised. He described it as a political gimmick of the BJP government.

Bali was critical of the Chief Minister for indulging in mass transfers of bureaucrats and senior civil and police officers with an eye on poll so that officers of his confidence remain at key positions.

He said a high power delegation of the Congress led by AICC general secretary Virender Choudary would call on the Chief Election Commissioner in this regard to apprise him about these developments.

He alleged the BJP government was trying to get the credit of Central Government schemes by changing the names of these.

He alleged that the Chief Minister issued a letter to all village pradhans on July 12, 2012, according to which smart cards would be issued to economically weaker sections of society by August this year. He alleged that no such cards was issued to them till date.

Hamirpur, August 10
Though the Yuva Sankalp rally, being organised here tomorrow at the Government Senior Secondary School ground, Hamirpur, is being termed as youth rally, BJP leaders are making an all out effort to put a big show of strength through the rally.

All the BJP leaders of the Hamirpur Parliamentary Constituency are reportedly mobilising maximum activists for the rally to ensure a large turnout.

Through this rally, the BJP would be starting its campaign for “Mission Repeat of BJP Government in the State” before the next Assembly election in the state due by the end of this year from the home district of Chief Minister PK Dhumal.

Since the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee has already held a Parivartan rally by mobilising party activists from the Hamiprur Parliamentary Constituency last month, the BJP leaders would be giving a ‘reply’ to the Congress though the Vijay Sankalp rally tomorrow.

Anurag Thakur, MP, Hamirpur, who is also the national president of the BJYM, is mustering youth support for this rally by gearing up the BJYM organisation.

The top leadership of the BJP in the state, including Chief Minister PK Dhumal, former Chief Minister and national vice-president of the BJP Shanta Kumar and state BJP president Sat Pal Singh, awould be attending the rally.

Former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and national vice-president of the BJP Raja Nat Singh would be the main speaker at the rally.

State vice-president of the BJP RS Mankotia said, “Raja Nat Singh is reaching Una today and Chief Minister PK Dhumal, former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar and other leaders would be reaching here tomorrow morning”.

He said, “All arrangements have been made for the rally and there is a great enthusiasm among the party activists and the public for the rally”.

Palampur, August 10
Brij Behari Lal Butail, senior Congress leader and former minister, has criticised the BJP government for neglecting the development of Palampur in the past over four years.

Addressing mediapersons here today, he said in the past over four years of BJP regime not even a single new project was sanctioned for Palampur.

He said the BJP government only inaugurated those projects which were launched by the Congress government when he was MLA from Palampur.

He said funds were also sanctioned by the Congress for various projects and the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had laid the foundation stones of the same.

While criticising the BJP government, Butail said during Chief Minister PK Dhumal and his cabinet colleagues in the past four years had laid foundation stones for 12 new projects in the town, but till date no construction was taken up for these projects despite availability of funds.

Butail said though the new hospital complex had been declared open by the Chief Minister three years ago, government had failed to fill the posts of doctor here.

He said the post of gynaecologist and ENT specialist were lying vacant for the past one year.

He said if the Congress was voted to power it would reverse all anti-people decisions of the BJP.

Shimla, August 10
CPM activist Baldev Singh Verma, who died at his native village Bhangari in Sirmour district this morning, became the first person to donate his body for medical research.

It was a difficult decision for the family, particularly his 80-year-old father Ujagar Singh, to send the body to Indira Gandhi Medical College instead of cremating it.

The family honoured Baldev’s wish, who had decided to donate his organs and body for the benefit of students at the medical college after he came to know that he was suffering from the cancer of the kidney.

His body was transported to Shimla in heavy rain in the shortest possible possible time to ensure that it was well-preserved. After the completion of formalities, the body was handed over to the college authorities.

This was the first case of body donation in the state. Anatomy department head Randhir Chauhan said 40 persons had expressed the willingness to donate body and had got themselves registered.

State CPM secretariat member Kuldeep Tanwar sought a mechanism for the smooth transportation of bodies to the medical college in case of donation. He appreciated the gesture of the deceased and his family.

Shimla, August 10
A neglected portion of the Viceregal Lodge here, where Myanmar’s democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has stayed as research fellow, will house the Tagore centre, being established at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS).

The dilapidated north-eastern portion on the ground floor of the main edifice has been repaired and renovated under the adaptive reuse plan to house the Tagore Centre for the Study of Culture and Civilisation (TCSCC) to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.

Aung San Suu Kyi joined the Institute as fellow in 1986 to work on “Burma and India- Intellectual Life in the Colonial Period”. Her husband Michael joined the institute the next year and they stayed in this portion. It was subsequently used as a make-shift office of the Archaeological Survey of India.

The spacious centre, comprising a library, a reading room, study rooms for four scholars and a lounge, is complete and awaiting inauguration. A large portrait of Gurudev, gifted by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, greets visitors at the entrance.

This is the second major effort to renovate a neglected portion of the sprawling complex under the adaptive reuse plan. The old abandoned fire services building, housing a squash court and a swimming pool, had been renovated to set up a theatre, an an art gallery, a book store and a coffee shop.

The objective of the TCSCC is to encourage scholars to study and explore the entire range of the great philosopher’s works. The IIAS has already selected four scholars for the Centre, including Sari Nusseibeh Country, a Palestinian philosopher and president of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem.

The other three scholars are art critic S Prasanna, former Pune University professor Sharad Deshpande and Shardendhu Chakravarty from Delhi University.

“A search committee selected the scholars from different disciplines to cover the wide-ranging works of Tagore, who was an accomplished poet, philosopher, artist, playwright, composer and novelist. It is for this reason that the IIAS decided on four fellows, including a foreign scholar and an artist,” says the Director of the institute.

The Centre will support translations of Tagore’s works into other Indian languages, promote comparative studies of his works with poets, artists and writers in other parts of India and the world, advance a study of elements of his humanist philosophy and explore his concerns regarding the relationship between science and society.

The research will not be confined to Tagore’s works, but acquire global dimensions through comparative studies with works of scholars across the world. The centre will also organise a seminar on some aspect of Tagore’s concerns, a study week, an artist camp and a Tagore lecture every year.

Chamba, August 10
An annual 45-day pilgrimage to the Manimahesh lake began today on the eve of Janmashtami with religious fervour in the Bharmour tribal sub-division of Chamba district.

According to ‘Panchaang’, Hindu almanac, the pilgrimage would conclude on September 23, the occasion of Sri ‘Radhashtami’ when the pilgrims would take their final holy dip.

BR Kamal, Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Bharmour, told The Tribune over the phone that with the commencement of the pilgrimage today, the pilgrims had started thronging to the Manimahesh lake and over one lakh pilgrims had taken a holy dip in the Manimahesh lake.

“The journey requires pilgrims to be physically fit. Rucksacks must contain warm clothing and sufficient edibles. However, the local administration takes care of their convenience,” the ADM said.

He said officials had been directed to carry out assignments allotted to them such as regulation of traffic, parking lots, transit health centres, huts for rest and stay, fuel, water and electricity, besides toilet blocks en route for the facility of the pilgrims.

The use of intoxicants had been prohibited during the pilgrimage, the ADM said, adding that ‘langar’ organisers and other such establishments had been asked to ensure cleanliness.

The Irrigation and Public Health Department had made arrangements to provide chlorinated water supply. Parking lots for light vehicles and heavy vehicles had also been earmarked.

Besides this, additional checkpoints, traffic barriers and control rooms had also been set up with a view to giving security cover to the pilgrims, the ADM added. 

Bilapur, August 10
An amount of Rs 70.24 crore has been sanctioned by NABARD for providing basic infrastructure for villages in the state.

BJP state spokesperson and Naina Deviji MLA Randhir Sharma said this while addressing a meeting of the BJP workers at Circuit House here today.

He said the amount had been sanctioned for the construction of roads, bridges, minor irrigation schemes and two flood control projects in the state.

He said two roads had been sanctioned for the Naina Deviji constituency. He said Rs 2.30 crore had been sanctioned for the Prohi-Deoth link road, while Rs 2.82 crore had been sanctioned for the Suharghat-Majhed road via Matnoh.

He said efforts would be expedited to start the construction work on these roads at the earliest.

The MLA said NABARD had also provided Rs 3.49 crore for the construction of three water storage structures at Nova, Prophi and Khui villages. 

Kangra, August 10
Twelve persons were injured, few of them seriously, when a tempo in which they were travelling in overturned and rolled down a 15-feet deep gorge at Soura on the outskirts of this town today, the police said.

SDPO Kangra Dinesh Kumar Sharma said the small tempo going from Abdullahpur to Gaggal overturned at Soura and fell into a gorge.

The injured were rushed to civil hospital, Kangra, and other hospitals for treatment.

Residents of Soura helped in taking out the injured from the vehicle. Later, Kangra MLA Sanjay Choudary also reached the hospital. It was heavily raining when the accident took place.

The police has arrested the driver of the tempo, Divender Kumar. A case has been registered.

Hamirpur, August 10
A local bus operator has been convicted, jailed for three years and fined Rs 15,000 for assaulting the then Hamirpur regional transport officer (RTO).

Judicial Magistrate Avira Basu found Naresh Kumar, alias Darji, guilty of assaulting the then RTO Jagdev Singh in 2003.

According to the prosecution, the accused threatened him and forcibly took away an impounded bus.