Shimla, August 14
Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi will take a final call on the appointment of a working president to bridge the factional divide in party ranks ahead of the Assembly polls.

Keen to ensure unity in the party, the party high command has been considering various possibilities in consultation with the state leadership.

Former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has raised the demand to appoint a working president to assist the Pradesh Congress Committee chief. He has also been demanding a revamp of various election-related panels set up by the party.

Senior leaders have put forth several names for appointment as the working president and after due deliberations and considerations of caste and regional combinations, the party has decided on Gangu Ram Musafir, a former Speaker from the Dalit community.

However, the anti-Virbhadra camp had reservations over the move as they felt that with Kaul Singh in command, a working president will not have much to contribute and would only add to the confusion.

Some other leaders, however, felt there was no harm if it helped in forging unity in the party.

Virbhadra Singh met Ahmad Patel, Political Secretary to the Congress President, in Delhi last night. He is reported to have submitted his list of candidates from various Assembly constituencies for the ensuing Assembly polls. He feels that the party should field only the winning candidates and has been seeking a lion’s share in the tickets. He also stressed that the party should clear the confusion about leadership.

Other senior leaders have also submitted their list of candidates to the AICC general secretary and state in-charge of party affairs Birender Singh Chaudhary. The high command had conducted independent surveys and also sent observers to each constituency to get a feedback from workers regarding prospective candidates. Applications have also been received from the candidates through the regular party channel at the block level. They will make recommendation to the District Congress Committees which will further recommend panels of candidates to the Pradesh Election Committee.

According to sources, Candidates for a majority of seats likely to be finalised by the end of this month.

Shimla, August 14
The Executive Council of the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) today decided to hold elections for the Students Central Association (SCA) on August 23. The polls would be held under the supervision of a state-level monitoring committee constituted for the task.

The EC held an emergency meeting here today under the chairmanship of Vice-Chancellor ADN Bajpai to deliberate on the contentious issue of holding student polls in the HPU as well as its 98 affiliated colleges all over the state. The state-level monitoring committee, with a term of one year will keep a strict vigil on the activities of the student outfits before and after the polls.

The decision comes a day after the three main student outfits, the Students Federation of India (SFI), Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the National Students Union of India (NSUI) observed a complete education bandh in the state. There are a total of 116 government and private colleges in the state, including 94 run by the government. The number of total students who are likely to take part in the polls is 3 lakh.

The EC has warned students that if violence breaks out, the SCA polls would be cancelled immediately. It has also been decided to hold student polls strictly as per recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee.

The elections will be held without any disruption of classes or any other academic activities by the student outfits.

The fact that the High Court has taken very serious view of the violence among students of the HPU and other colleges will make it mandatory for the authorities and the police to ensure that the elections are smooth, fair and peaceful. The council has also called upon the students to devote more time towards studies and other co-curricular activities for their all-round development.

Kullu/Sainj, August 14
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today said all the villages would be taken out of the wildlife sanctuary areas as part of the ongoing process of rationalisation of sanctuaries.

The state government has set the target to plant 2 crore saplings of herbal and other plants worth Rs 35 crore to bring 20,000 hectares of land under forest cover and to remove Congress grass from cultivable land, he said.

Addressing the gathering after planting a deodar sapling at Sainj in Banjar sub-division during the 63rd state-level Van Mahotsav today, he called on the people to vote for the BJP MLA from Banjar and forest minister Khimi Ram to get a degree college at Sainj next year.

He also urged the people to be a part of ‘Congress Grass Hatao- Paryavaran Bachao’ campaign. “200 hectares of land has been treated at the cost of Rs 22 crore and Rs 5 crore more is made available this year for the campaign,” he added.

He claimed that the forest area has increased from 21.1 per cent in 1991 to 26.7 per cent in 2012 and the forest yield of Rs 400 crore benefits villagers, who are further benefitted by schemes like ‘Sanjha Van Sanjivani Van’, ‘Apna Van- Apna Dhan’ and ‘Peepal Bargad’.

“As many as 148 van sarovars have been built and 100 more are in the pipeline this year,” he added. He said 53,000 monkeys were sterilised at four centres and 21 additional centres were being set up to check the monkey menace. The sandal saplings scheme is underway in Mandi, Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Kangra districts, he added.

He also inaugurated the Rs 60 lakh Nature Park at Jhiri (Mandi) on the National Highway-21 on the gateway to the Kullu Valley. He also laid the foundation stone of the lift irrigation scheme near Kullu. He also released a book “A Manual of Soil and Water Conservation” written by APCCF JS Walia.

Dharamsala, August 14
Tibetans-in exile carried out a candlelight march at McLeodganj this evening amidst reports of two more Tibetans setting themselves on fire in Tibet in protest against the Chinese rule there yesterday. The Tibetans here said there were also unconfirmed reports of a third self-immolation that took place later in the evening.

Following the self-immolations, local Tibetans carried out a protest in solidarity with the self-immolators, which reportedly resulted in the death of a Tibetan protestor. According to sources, Chinese security personnel beat the Tibetan man to death.

The self-immolations and protests are being reported from the beleaguered Ngaba region of eastern Tibet, the nerve centre of the ongoing wave of fiery protests.

The self-immolators have been identified as Lungtok, a monk from the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba, and Tashi, believed to be a layperson. Soon after the protests, Chinese security forces arrived in large numbers and forcibly took both of them away, the Tibetans here alleged.

The Tibetans-in-exile alleged that soon after the fiery protests, Chinese security forces imposed severe curbs in the region. Last week three Tibetans, a mother of two, a monk and a Tibetan nomad, torched themselves.

The first eight months of 2012 have on an average witnessed nearly five self-immolations every month.

The two confirmed self-immolations on Monday have now taken Tibet’s self-immolation toll to 50.

Shimla, August 14
Prithvi Raj, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Armed Police Training, has been awarded President’s police medal in recognition of his distinguished services.

Prithvi Raj, a 1987 batch IPS officer, has served as Superintendent of Police in several districts, including Kangra and Sirmaur. He has also held several important posts while being posted at the police headquarters here. Besides, he has also served on Central deputation in various capacities.

Three other officers have also been awarded police medals on the eve of Independence Day. They include Abhishek Trivedi, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), CID, and Brij Mohan Sharma, SP, CID.

The two other HPS officers whose services have been recognised include Kuldeep Sharma, SP, Chamba, and Madan Lal, Commandant, Home Guards, Shimla.

Shimla, August 14
Horticulture Minister Narender Bragta, was today allocated the Health and Family Welfare and Ayurveda Departments today.

The departments were being looked after by Chief Minister PK Dhumal following the resignation of Rajeev Bindal. The Governor, allocated the departments to Bragta. — TNS

Palampur, August 14
Over the past six months more than 200 persons have been killed in road accidents in the state. The loss of innocent lives has put a question mark over the functioning of the State Transport Department as well as the traffic police.

The state government has failed to ensure safety of commuters despite tall claims. Trucks and buses ferrying pilgrims on the roofs is a common sight. Making matters worse is the rampant corruption in the state Transport Department and the traffic police.

Despite the fact that 95 per cent of the total population of the state depends on road transport, the safety of passengers has been neglected by the state government.

The state government has granted bus permits solely on political considerations ignoring the condition of the roads where buses are to be plied.

Over the past five years there has been a manifold increase in the volume of light and heavy vehicles in the state. Inter-state traffic has also gone up, but the width of most of the roads is the same as it was 20 years ago.

Even the state and national highways are in a bad shape. The condition of internal roads in the state is worse. The condition of the roads needs to be improved due to the difficult topography and narrow roads.

A senior officer of the state Transport Department said human failure led to 85 per cent of the total number of accidents in the state, while the remaining 15 per cent were due to other reasons such as mechanical failure, landslides and bad roads. Going by the figures, 85 per cent accidents could have been avoided, but instead the number of accidents had gone up.

Owing to rampant corruption in the licencing wing of the government, rules and regulations are not followed in issuing licences for heavy vehicles. Licences are granted without the Motor Vehicle inspector conducting proper tests.

A senior police officer said untrained drivers were behind fatal accidents as good drivers were not appointed to give top priority to the safety of passengers. The buses were passed by the Motor Vehicle Inspector as a mere formality as middlemen were paid as per fixed rates to clear buses. No attention was paid to the fitness of the vehicles while issuing a passing certificate. Even reports on the need to improve accident-prone sections of the roads remained ignored.

Kangra, August 14
Seventeen persons were injured, one of them critically, in different road accidents during the past 24 hours in the district.

Kangra District Police Chief DS Thakur said here today that a tempo trolley (HP 40 B 6945) was on way from Jawalamukhi to Sunisarotri late last evening. The driver failed to negotiate a curve at Choo Khera and the vehicle rolled down into a gorge. He said 11 persons travelling in the trolley were injured, one of them seriously. All the injured were rushed to the DRPGMC, Tanda, from where one
was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh.

Parveen, driver of the tempo, was unhurt in the accident. A case under Sections 279 and 337, IPC, was registered against him and he was arrested.

Four persons from Shimla were injured when the car (HP 07 C 0335) in which they were travelling collided with a private bus (HP 68 2485) coming from the opposite direction at Rajol village, 12 km from here, on the Pathankot-Mandi national highway.

The injured were rushed to the DRPGMC Hospital, Tanda. A case against the car driver, who was also injured, was registered.

The SSP said Ashutosh Thapa of Dari received injuries when his motorcycle skid on the Khaniyara road in Dharamsala.

A scooty driver too was injured when his vehicle (HP-39-6406) collided with an auto (HP-37-B-8976) near Rajina falling under Nagrota Bagwan last night.

Meanwhile, with Bimla Devi (22) of the Chamba bus accident succumbing to her injuries at the DRPGMC, Tanda, the death toll had risen to 53.

Kullu, August 14
A trench weir which cost the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Rs 1.5 crore at its 800-MW Parbati stage-II project got dumped in the Jiva Nullah due to a flash flood in the wee hours on August 3.

Giving credence to the Jiva Nullah trench scam is fact that the scam-ridden Parbati stage-II project authorities kept the incident under wraps for weeks. “Now the trench weir has being shown as washed away or dumped on the bed of the Jiva Nullah as nobody knows whether or not this structure ever existed there or it was washed away by a flash flood, sources said. Sources allege that the trench weir was washed away in the flash flood at 2:30 am on August 4, but the Kullu valley recorded very less rain.

“No flash floods have been recorded in the Jiva Nullah for the past 10 years,” sources add.

“Even the Parbati-II project authorities have no data as to how much was the discharge in the Jiva Nullah on that day and why nobody noticed the flash flood,” sources add.

The trench weir is supposed to divert water of the Jiva Nullah through a 5.2-km-long tunnel to the 30-km-long head race tunnel on the Parbati river to a power house at Siund in the Sainj valley to generate 800 MW of power. The 4.2-km Jiva Nullah tunnel is ready and work on the rest is on, said engineers.

Chief Engineer, Jiva Nullah Parbati-II project, DS Chauhan said, “The trench weir structure is not visible as of now as the Jiva Nullah riverbed has risen by 1.5 metre and it is flowing above it. We will be able to know as to what happens to the weir when the debris is removed from the riverbed,” he said.

He said they had now knowledge as to how much discharge was there in the Jiva Nullah when flash flood struck between August 3 and 4. “The exact loss is being assessed by the surveyors and we have spent Rs 1.5 crore on construction of the trench weir,” he said. He denied any foul play in the case.

Bilaspur, August 14
Jan Satyagraha-2012 leaders Ramesh Bhai, Ashok Chaudhary, Roman and Guman Singh arrived here with other activists to spread awareness among the masses for the protection of environment.

The satyagraha team had already covered 22 states in 320 days and was presently touring Himachal Pradesh. The satyagraha is being organised under the aegis of Himalaya Niti Abhiyaan Samiti, an organisation that works for the protection of environment.

Talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, Bhai, Chaudhary, Roman and Guman Singh expressed concern that the HP Government was not serious about the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in the state which was adopted by Parliament six years ago.

According to the satyagraha team, forest dwellers and the tribal community were being deprived of their own land. The land was being usurped forcibly by the state government and passed on to profit-making industrialists for setting up industries or mega dam projects, thereby earning extra income.

The team said, “We are not against the construction of dams for the production of power, but these dams should not be the mega projects. They should rather construct mini dams so that least harm is caused to the flora, fauna and topography of the forests.”