Shimla, August 22
Based on the theme “Himachal on sale”, the 81-page Congress chargesheet against the BJP government virtually spells out the party’s poll agenda and makes it clear that Chief Minister PK Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur will be in the firing line during the run-up to the Assembly elections.

The document submitted to President Pranab Mukherjee by a 15-member delegation led by AICC general secretary Birender Singh Chaudhary in New Delhi today contained 50 charges covering the entire tenure of the government.

Besides actions of Dhumal and his cricket-administrator son, the chargesheet highlighted the acts of omission and commission of ministers and some bureaucrats and painted the state government as the benefactor of land mafia, the builder mafia and contractors.

A maximum of five charges pertained to the state cricket association headed by Anurag, on which benefits had been showered by the government, which allotted huge chunks of prime land at Dharamsala (49,118 square metre), Khaniara (3.28 hectare), Nadaun (4.31 hectare), Gummah (1.61 hectare) and Lal Pani in Shimla (9,265 square metre).

Village common land was allotted for building residential accommodation for players and was later used for a five-star hotel project. The government could not find land for setting up a central university.

The Congress termed it a case of a father obliging his son as other sports bodies had hardly been given any land in the state by any previous government.

It also delved into the Annadale controversy in detail and alleged that the move to take the ground back from the Army was aimed at obliging the land mafia.

It also explained how life members from outside the state were inducted to capture the association and contained a list of players from outside who played for the state.

The party promised to either take the land back or recover its market price from the association. The land deals made by Anurag also found mention. The party alleged a nexus between Dhumal and the Jaypee company.

It listed the benefits granted like permission for a thermal power plant, doubling of the capacity of the cement plant at Bagheri, irregularities pertaining to the Karcham Wangtoo project, allotment of land at various places and the takeover of Shanta Kumar’s Vivekananda Memorial Trust for setting up a medical college. In return, the company has been obliging the state cricket association.

The chargesheet also embarrassed Anna Hazare’s team by highlighting the illegal permission granted to Prashant Bhushan for stetting up an educational institution at a tea estate and exposing the sale of land to Baba Ramdev at throwaway prices. It would help the party blunt the attacks on the issue of corruption.

The Congress alleged in the chargesheet that the government was promoting the land mafia by opening and allotting huge chunks of land to a large number of private universities, awarding eco-tourism projects on forest land in violation of the law and granting overnight permission to favoured builders to raise apartments in contravention of rules.

It also mentioned that the State Apartment Act had not been repealed despite the recommendations made by a committee of the Vidhan Sabha.

Various purchase scams in the state electricity board and the police, civil supplies, irrigation and public health departments also featured prominently in the chargesheet.

Shimla, August 22
The stalemate in the Congress continued today, with supporters of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh staying put in New Delhi and state Congress chief Kaul Singh and other leaders of his camp also reaching there.

The suspense about the proposed appointment of Gangu Ram Musafir as working president continued as there was no word from the AICC.

Virbhadra continued to be defiant and did not attend the meeting of the manifesto committee headed by Union minister Anand Sharma. He skipped the meeting for the second time.

Kaul Singh met party president Sonia Gandhi and other leaders. His meeting was a sequel to her meetings with Virbhadra yesterday and a part of the high command’s efforts to sort out matters between rival leaders.

Leaders of both groups continued parleys to exert pressure and counter-pressure, but no one was in a position to say anything as the issue was being handled by the party president.

The Virbhadra camp kept all options open, though a majority of leaders favoured settling matters within the party. Many were keen on exploring the possibility of aligning with the NCP if the matter was not settled to their satisfaction.

Party sources said the next two days would be crucial and the high command might come out with some concrete proposals to address the issues raised by Virbhadra.

The high command was keen to make the best use of his services to bring the party back to power, but was unable to find a way out in the face of stiff opposition from the rival camp.

Bilaspur, August 22
State unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will contest all 68 seats in the state and ensure that not only most well-educated youth are given ticket, but at least 33 per cent ticket are allotted to educated women. He said the party had started its programmes to enable it to contest seats and had formed a number of committees to finalise panels of names.

Talking to mediapersons here today and accompanied by top leaders, state BSP vice-president Sukh Ram Chauhan said the party had launched a membership campaign in the state and it would ensure that all sections of the population were approached for becoming members.

He said the BSP meeting held here today mourned the sudden death of national general secretary Maan Singh Manheda who played a “heroic and historic role” in strengthening the party in this northern region, including Himachal Pradesh. Himachal would never forget the contribution of this leader in the upliftment of weaker sections.

Present on the occasion were district president Anup Chand Bhatia, district youth wing president Raj Kumar and general secretary Mehar Chand, district convener Sarva Samaj Nand Lal Chandel, district women wing president Nirmala Chauhan, former Bilaspur Nagar Parishad member Anil Kishore and prominent leaders Krishnu Ram Bhatia and Jai Dei. 

Bilaspur, August 22
Former MLA and Himachal Kisan Manch state convener Krishan Kumar Kaushal, who has been declared first candidate of a “joint front” of the Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP), CPI and CPM from the ‘Naina Devi constituency in this district, yesterday held his first election meeting at Toba, 95 km from here, which was largely attended.

Inaugurating the election campaign, veteran CPI leader Shankar Singh Chandel said it was from this very constituency that Kaushal had won earlier as a CPI candidate in 1990 after defeating a sitting Congress minister. He said even now he had the potential to repeat such a feat.

Kaushal lashed out at the BJP government and said the government had totally ignored the youth. — OC

Chabutra (Hamirpur), August 22
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today said the state government would promote the plantation of English willow and sandal trees in the state to supplement the income of farmers.

Addressing a public meeting after inaugurating a forest rest house and a district-level vanamahotsava function here, he said, “The plantation of English willow, used in manufacturing cricket bats, and sandal can supplement the income of farmers and the state government is initiating their commercial plantation.”

He further said, “A training centre to provide training to unemployed youths would be opened at Sujanpur shortly at a cost of Rs 100 crore.”

The Chief Minister said, “The Forest Department and the people should take steps to preserve and raise plants since forests yield direct and indirect benefits of over Rs 1,100 crore per annum.”

He said forest cover in the state had increased by 11 km in the last decade and forests were very important to preserve the ecology and environment of the Himalayan region.

Dhumal talked about steps taken by the government on sterilising monkeys, the ‘van sarovar’ scheme, restoring TD rights of people, opening 393 saw mills, allowing sale of khair trees and rosin and steps to eradicate congress grass.

He discussed various schemes launched by the state government and raised the issue of discrimination against the state by the Centre.

The Chief Minister inaugurated a branch of the Kangra Central Cooperative Bank at Ukhali and later attended other programmes. Local MLA Urmil Thakur, district BJP president Desh Raj Sharma and bank chairman Raseel Singh Mankotia also spoke.

Kullu, August 22
A multi-crore reinforcement steel (TMT bar) scam at the 800-MW Parbati stage-II, being executed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) on the Parbati river in the district, has come under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) scanner.

The CBI had unearthed a multi-crore cement scam in this project in April.

NHPC officials are tight-lipped over the alleged TMT bar scam. As per the stock register of the NHPC for the Soma Ropa store near Manikaran accessed by The Tribune, the project “received 295 metric tonne of ‘seria’ of 36 mm and 32 diameter (TMT) in a truck (CH 04L-1851) from May 13, 2010, to February 25, 2012” which is worth Rs 1 crore”. Sources allege 100 metric tonne TMT bars have been dumped in the store of a private transporter in Chandigarh and a complaint to this effect has been brought to the notice of the CBI.

Six other trucks bearing numbers ending with 51 are owned by a Chandigarh-based transporter as these trucks have also delivered the ‘seria’ to other NHPC stores under the Parbati-II project, sources said.

Interestingly, the truck (CH 04L-1851) also delivered 36-mm diameter TMT bar measuring 41.310 metric tonne at the NHPC store near Manikaran on February 25. No truck weighing more than 21.5 MT is allowed to cross Manikaran Bridge on the Beas near Bhuntar as per the High Court.

Even after the installation of weighing machine of 20-metric tonne capacity at Soma Ropa store, trucks weighing 40 MT were admitted in the store, giving credence to the scam, sources said.

NHPC chief (IT and Stores), Rakesh Gupta, said since he joined recently, he did not have the facts. Declining to comment further he said, “We will look into the matter.”

Mandi, August 22
Harjinder Singh (15) of Moga district in Punjab died due to a landslide at Khotinala near Hanogi Temple on the Mandi-Kullu stretch of the National Highway-21. Traffic was disrupted on the national highway for more than half-an-hour at Saat Meel as boulders fell due to the landslide today.

The police said the body was handed over to the family members after the postmortem examination.

Bilaspur, August 22
A team of the Home Guards and Civil Defence Department, led by Company Commander Ram Chander and consisting of Platoon Commander Jarnail Singh, Havaldar Dina Nath and Home Guard Madan Lal, held a day-long “Disaster management training camp” at Government Senior Secondary School, Kothipura, near here, yesterday which was presided over by Principal Shobha Garga.

Commander Ram Chander said, “Any where and any time we can suddenly come face to face with a natural or man-made disaster. We should always remain fully prepared to see that not only we first save ourselves, but also try to save lives, limbs and property.”

The team gave demonstrations of all safety measures and methods to meet challenges of emergencies like fires, floods, earthquakes and house collapses and save lives and carry injured persons to safety at the earliest before any further damage or injury is caused to anybody.

Teams like Disaster Management Committee, Disaster Awakening Committee, Fire Safety Committee, Disaster Losses Evaluation Committee, Search and Safety Committee and Fire Control Committee were formed, which were led by senior lecturers and teachers and also included students.

Dr Shobha Garga thanked the team for their efforts to apprise students and staff regarding facing the challenge of disasters. 

Shimla, August 22
Banking services remained paralysed today due to the two-day strike call being by the United Forum of Banks in support of their demands.

Bank officials and other staff members held demonstrations outside their offices. A huge protest rally was held outside the State Bank of India (SBI) branch near Kali Bari. The protesters lashed out at the UPA regime and Indian banks Association for pursuing wrong policies and implementing the anti-employees recommendations of the Khandelwal committee.

The officers and employees of the public sector banks will remain off work tomorrow as well. Business was severely affected due to the strike though private banks functioned normally.

The bank employees have been opposing outsourcing of bank jobs, proposed Banking Law Amendment Bill, closure of rural branches, pension on the pattern of the Centre and five-day week in the banking sector.

Hamirpur: Staff of all nationalised banks in the district struck work today. The circle president of Punjab National Bank Officers Association, Surender Sharma, claimed the bank employees observed a complete strike in the district today and also held a protest demonstration before their respective bank branches.

He said the United Forum of Bank Employees are against FDI in the banking sector, voting rights to foreign investors, Khandelwal committee recommendations, move to outsource banking operations and settle other pending issues. 

Shimla, August 22
The Castle Naggar, a hotel of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation in Kullu valley, has been awarded heritage status by the Union Ministry of Tourism.

Disclosing this here today, S Roy, Chief Secretary, said Naggar, royal seat of Kullu state, remained its capital for about 1460 years. The castle is traditionally believed to have been built by Raja Sidhi Singh in early 16th century. Stones for construction were brought from Gharhdhek of Baragarh across the Beas.

He said Castle Naggar was used as a royal residence and state headquarters until the middle of the 17th century, when Raja Jagat Singh transferred the capital to Sultanpur (Kullu). However, the castle continued to be used as summer palace by subsequent rulers until the British took over the whole of Kangra and Kullu from the Sikhs in 1846.

Built in local architecture named “Kathloonmi” (a combination of stones and wooden beams), the castle in its courtyard has a small historical temple called Jagti Patt, which was revered, as the judgment seat of Kullu Gods. 

Solan, August 22
Acting on a writ petition filed by Solan-based NGO, Jan Kalyan Sabha, challenging the 95th Amendment in Article 334 of the Constitution of India and Delimitation Notification a Double Bench of the Supreme Court (SC) has issued a notice to the Union Government of India, Election Commission (EC) and Delimitation Commission of India.

The petitions have pleaded that the delimitation conducted in 2006 are in violation of Section 9 of the Delimitation Act. Four Assembly constituencies of Kasauli, Solan, Pachhad and Renuka in Shimla parliamentary constituencies have been continuously kept reserved for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste despite being contiguous, and five Assembly constituencies of Rampur, Anni, Nachan, Balh and Karsog have also been reserved under the Mandi parliamentary constituency.

Some parts of the Chamba legislative Assembly constituency were deducted from the Chamba legislative constituency, which was a part of the Kangra parliamentary constituency, and added in Bharmour due to that newly-added Bharmour legislative constituency, which falls under the Mandi parliamentary constituency, which is also a clear-cut violation of the Delimitation Act.

The petitions have stated that the basic object of Article 334 of the Constitution of India is to uplift backward classes. Initially it was notified for 10 years, but was regularly amended by Parliament and renewed again for 10 years on January 26, 2010, despite the fact that various other Acts i.e. SC & ST Atrocity Act, Article 335 to provide reservation in service & posts, special representation in education, Legal Service Authority Act, 1987, and National Commission for SC & ST, SC & ST Corporation Bank had already been enacted to uplift the backward classes. But these mechanisms had not been considered while passing the 95th Amendment Act, 2009. Therefore, the Jan Kalyan Sabha has now challenged this amendment in the Supreme Court.

The NGO has also taken exception to the fact that the Kasauli constituency has always remained a reserved constituency despite having barely 37.92 per cent SC population as per the certificate issued by the Additional Director Census Department. Initially, it was a part of the Solan legislative constituency from 1962 to 1977 after which it was reserved for the SC. Later when it became an independent constituency in 1977, it was again reserved for the SC category and it continues to be reserved till today.

Dharamsala, August 22
The Tibetan Parliament-in-exile has demanded that an international fact-finding delegation be sent to Tibet keeping in view the situation arising from incidents of self-immolation there.

It has also demanded that the United Nations (UN) discuss the issue of Tibet based on resolutions passed by it in 1959, 1961 and 1965 and continuously make efforts to bring the resolutions in force.

Its members today alleged that China never changed its hard-line policy on Tibet in the last 60 years.

They further said in a press note that Chinese security forces had cracked down on Tibetans since 2008. Tibetans were setting themselves on fire for a peaceful resolution of the issue and the return of the Dalai Lama, they said.

According to the press note, they launched the worldwide Flame of Truth Relay on July 6, the Dalai Lama’s birthday. Since then, relay participants had covered nearly a dozen states in India, it noted.

It was stated in the press note that the second leg of the relay would begin in North America, Europe, Africa, South-East Asia and Australia on September 2, the Tibetan Democracy Day. The relay would conclude on December 10.

New Delhi, August 22
The International Centre for Human Development in India of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been set up at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), Shimla. The centre is a result of a partnership between the Government of India, the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), Shimla, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Launching the centre here today, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said it would provide valuable support to the efforts of national governments in the South to share, learn and realise the objective of human development. IIAS Chairman Gopal Gandhi and Director Peret R deSouza represented the centre at its launch here today.

The centre aims to strengthen South-South cooperation and help countries in the region solve outstanding problems through innovative human development approaches. It will develop strategies on ways to improve development outcomes for the poor and marginalised people by using new solutions.

“The IIAS is delighted to have the centre. It will help us extend our mandate on improving the human condition. We hope to help improve human development through our research,” said the Director.

The centre will provide policy advisory services based on national and international evidence to ensure that human development concerns become integral to planning processes and policy making.

It will focus on moving from human development analysis to action and on adaptation of good practices to local contexts. It will also provide a range of capacity development tools and services with a special emphasis on monitoring and evaluation of human development processes and outcomes.