Shimla, August 27
The four-day monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha commenced on a turbulent note here today with the Congress staging a walkout after the government did not respond to its demand for a CBI probe into the allegations in the chargesheet submitted by it.

The session began on a sombre note, with obituary references to former members Ranjit Singh, Durga Dass and Virender Gautam. The trouble started when Chief Minister PK Dhumal stood to inform the House about the business before it.

He was interrupted by Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes, who wanted to raise the issue of the chargesheet against the state government. She said the charges were serious and must be probed as the government had lost confidence of the people.

This led to slogan-shouting by members on treasury and opposition benches, forcing Speaker Tulsi Ram to intervene. He said the issue was being raised without a proper notice. Senior Congress leader Kaul Singh said the government should refer the chargesheet for an impartial probe to an independent agency like the CBI.

The chargesheet had been prepared by a five-member committee which collected a host of documents to support it, he said. This led to slogan-shouting from both sides again. Order was restored only after the Congress staged a walkout. Proceedings continued in the absence of the Opposition.

Education Minister Ishwar Dass Dhiman introduced Bills to amend Acts pertaining to private universities to specify the maximum period within which an institutions would have to be made functional and to safeguard the interests of students in the event of the dissolution of a university.

As per the amendments, a university would have to be made functional within a year from the commencement of the Act. In the event of dissolution in contravention of provisions in the Act, assets of the university, including those of the sponsoring body pertaining to the university, would be with the government, free from all encumbrances.

Shimla, August 27
Attacking the Congress on the chargesheet issue, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ravinder Singh Ravi asserted in the Vidhan Sabha today that it had no substance and the party was trying to make an issue out of non-issues.

Criticising the Congress walkout, he said the party was a house divided and it had no real issue of public interest to raise. The BJP was ready to discuss any issue, but the Congress must give a proper notice for discussion, he added.

Congress leaders were upset that the BJP government was performing better than governments at the Centre and in Congress-ruled states despite the discriminatory attitude of the UPA, he claimed.

Senior Congress leaders had been camping in Delhi for the last many days, he said. The party had no moral right to raise the issue of corruption as the UPA government was embroiled in the 2G scandal and other scams, he added.

Scam-tainted P Chidambaram was shifted from Home to Finance, he said. Sushil Kumar Shinde, under whom the country witnessed the worst power grid failure, was made Home Minister, he further said.

Interacting with mediapersons after the session, Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal said the Congress had been rendered leaderless, direction-less and policy-less, as was evident from the walkout.

He said the people wanted concrete work and not walkouts. He said if the Congress was serious about early elections, it should approach the Election Commission and the Centre.

Regarding the appointment of former Union minister Virbhadra Singh as state Congress chief, Dhumal said, “We are not bothered who leads the Congress. We defeated the Congress under his leadership in 1990, 1998 and 2007.”

Shimla, August 27
Congress and BJP councillors today stalled proceedings of the Municipal Corporation over the issue of development and staged a walkout, expressing dissatisfaction over Mayor Sanjay Chauhan’s explanation.

The House was adjourned this morning after Congress and BJP councillors expressed dissatisfaction over development works.

With councillors refusing to discuss the agenda, the House was adjourned till the afternoon. Chauhan accused BJP and Congress councillors of playing politics.

When the House reassembled, councillors again started harping on lack of development and paucity of funds. Despite the Mayor providing them details of the financial position, members refused discussion till they were given an assurance.

Issues like the Food Safety Act, resource mobilisation and dearness allowance for employees could not be taken up due to the commotion. The House had to be adjourned once again as councillors refused to take up the agenda.

The Mayor said it was unfortunate that councillors were not willing to cooperate. “The development of the town is not solely the responsibility of the corporation, but of all councillors and the state government,” he said.

He said they had sought Rs 30 crore as capital grant and Rs 13 crore as the grant it got in lieu of abolishing octroi.

He added that efforts were on to mobilise resources and the help of the Centre and the state government had been sought. He added that efforts were being made to recover Rs 11 crore that was due from various quarters.

Mandi/Manali, August 27
The state government is mulling a proposal to extend the capacity of home-stay units from three rooms to five following a demand by owners of these units.

It will decide tariff as per the value of the property and the services provided. The issue may come up at a Cabinet meeting in the near future, sources said.

Home-stay unit owners’ body president Ved Ram Thakur said they were ready to go by the criteria fixed by the government. Hoteliers in Manali and Shimla objected to the commercialisation of the home stay concept.

They said home-stay units were exempted from commercial electricity and water charges and luxury and service taxes, which were being levied on them.

Manali Hoteliers Association president AR Thakur said the government should consider the fact that Manali was a small township compared to Shimla.

Home stay should include all villages around Manali, he said, adding that the criterion of an 8-km radius from the town could not be feasible in Manali.

He said they had no objection in extending rooms from three to five, but the government should make it mandatory that home stay units operated where tourists got a real feel of home and rural life, culture and cuisine.

Tourism Director Arun Sharma said the government was taking a holistic view of all stakeholders as hoteliers in Shimla were objecting to home-stay units within town limits in Manali.

Nurpur, August 27
The police today booked Satish Kumar, pradhan of Denkwa panchayat; Beaso Devi and Baryam Singh, panches; Pratap Singh and Ranjeet Singh, panchayat secretaries; and Gurjeet Singh and Naresh Kumar, junior engineers of the Indora development block in this sub-division, for embezzlement of panchayat development funds.

Sampooran Singh, after procuring documentary evidence under the Right to Information Act, had submitted his complaint to the Rural And Panchayati Raj Department and the police, but no action was initiated. Later, he moved a petition in the local judicial court.

It was alleged that the accused had misused and embezzled government funds allocated for undertaking development works in the Denkwa panchayat.

A sum of Rs 3 lakh was allocated for the construction of a road and a protection wall in the Dalit hamlet but the accused allegedly conspired to divert this fund by constructing a retaining wall of a private house of a villager, Vidhya Devi.

Another Rs 1.5 lakh sanctioned for the construction of a check dam and a protection wall was spent on the construction of a cowshed of Lakhvir Singh and Rs 3 lakh sanctioned for a village road and a protection wall in ward No. 5 of the panchayat was also utilised for the construction of retaining walls of fields of four villagers.

DSP Rajinder Jaswal said a case had been registered and action would be taken after thorough investigation.

Solan, August 27
The manner in which some industrial units in various industrial clusters avail electricity connections issued in the name of earlier units, which have either been closed down or have changed their products, has put a question mark over the working of Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL).

It has been found that several industrial units have been sold, leading to new manufacturing activities on the premises. Instead of obtaining permission from the HPSEBL and the State Pollution Control Board, several units continue to be operated under permission to earlier units.

A number of such cases have come to light in Parwanoo. The HPSEBL has been issuing them bills for earlier units. This can pose a problem if any such unit defaults on payment. The HPSEBL will then not be able to recover charges from new units and locating the owner of the earlier unit will be a Herculean task.

It has become difficult to recover liability worth lakhs from several steel units which have either been closed or have changed hands. Though each unit is suppose to obtain separate connection by submitting its project report approved by the Industries Department, many units appear to have avoided completion of formalities.

One such case has been unearthed by officials with the State Pollution Control Board at Nalagarh, where a new industrial unit is operating without permission on the premises where another industrial unit had been operating earlier. The laxity has been discovered during a routine check.

Since each unit has its own contract demand, the situation will be beneficial to the unit which takes over an earlier unit which has a load above the new one’s required load. Besides causing loss of revenue, it violates the Electricity Act.

HPSEBL Superintending Engineer Anup Dhiman said every new unit was suppose to seek a new power connection on the basis of the project report approved by the Industries Department. He added that they would inquire into any case if it was brought to their notice, but none was pointed out to them so far.

Palampur, August 27
Most of the hydropower projects either under construction or already commissioned in the Kangra valley are yet to deposit the lease money for government land in the state exchequer.

These projects have occupied thousands of acres of forest and other lands of the state in the Kangra valley. The scam had come to light following an information gathered under the RTI Act by Naveen Pathania, an RTI activist.

The details supplied under the RTI Act by the state government said lease documents of most of the power projects for leasing out state land could not be completed in the past 10 years. Therefore, no lease money was deposited in the state exchequer.

The construction of these projects was taken up before 2002, and since then no one in the state government was bothered to recover the lease money or complete the documents. On the other hand, Revenue and Forest Departments liberally allowed these companies to encroach upon government land.

In the past 10 years not even a single notice was served on these companies in this regard. It was revealed under the RTI that a South India-based company, which owned many power projects in the valley, had yet to finalise its lease deeds with the state government and no lease money was paid.

It was also learnt that nearly six power projects had already started generation and earning profits, but had not signed any lease agreements with the government so far and also not paid the lease money.

The RTI added that no officer of the Revenue and Forest Departments knew how much government land was under the legal or illegal possession of these power companies in the valley today.

Official sources said total liabilities of these projects towards the state would exceed Rs 200 crore with interest and penalties as on today.

However, corrupt political set-up had made the matter worse and power companies were at liberty to loot the state’s wealth. KR Bharti, who took over here as the Deputy Commissioner recently, was the first officer to initiate steps for the recovery of government money from these companies.

Mandi/Keylong, August 27
The Lahaul-Spiti district administration has sought funds to set up a network of satellite phones at five remote locations to help tourists and local residents marooned in case of snowfall, snowstorms, avalanches, cloudbursts or accidents.

The urgency to set up the network is more as there is virtually no communication link in the high-altitude remote region, making rescue in case of a disaster delayed and difficult, say officials.

Natural disasters, triggered by climate change, have been striking Lahaul-Spiti,, Kinnaur and the Pangi-Bhamour subdivision in Chamba district.

The Manali-Leh, Manali-Kaza and Kaurik-Rampur national highways and the Keylong-Killar and Killar-Sach Pass-Tissa roads have recorded an increase in tourist traffic every summer. With this, the incidence of road fatalities has gone up.

Neither private operators, nor the BSNL has evinced interest in providing seasonal connectivity in the region as the service is unviable. The district administration is finding it difficult to provide rescue services, say officials.

Lahaul-Spiti Deputy Commissioner SS Guleria said they had sought funds from the government to set up satellite phones at Koksar, Jispa, Kaza, Udaipur and Keylong.

He added that there was a satellite phone at Batal, at the base of the Kunjam Pass, and sought more phones were required at these key locations as communication links broke down in the region often.

He said they contacted Israeli tourists injured in the accident near the Kunjam Pass last week through the satellite phone at Batal and rushed 108 ambulances to take them to the Kullu hospital on time.

Shimla, August 27
The state high court has declined to stay the investigation of a criminal case registered against former Industries Minister Kuldeep Kumar for the alleged offence of cheating and forgery.

While refusing to grant interim relief, Justice Kuldeep Singh observed that as the investigation was in its initial stage, without hearing the complainant no interim relief could be granted to the petitioner at this stage.

The court passed this order on a petition filed by former Industries Minister Kuldeep Kumar for quashing the order of the Judicial Magistrate, Amb, whereby the Magistrate has directed to register an FIR against the petitioner under Sections 420, 463, 464, 465, 468, 471 and 474 of the IPC.

The petitioner alleged that the complaint was filed with a motive to malign the image of the petitioner. It was contended that such complaints were filed only when the Assembly elections were due in the state.

Complainant Des Raj alleged in his complaint before the Judicial Magistrate that Kumar belonged to the Tarkhan caste as per the pedigree table of 1913-14.

It was alleged that Kumar had got changed his caste to Lohar Kaundal in the revenue records. The complaint said Kumar did not belong to the Scheduled Caste and had wrongly taken the benefit of the wrong revenue records.

Kumar contended before the high court that he belonged to the Lohar caste and a mistake had crept in the revenue records of 1913-14 and the same was corrected by the settlement collector in accordance with law.

The Magistrate has not followed the proper procedure.

The court has issued notice to complainant Des Raj and listed the matter for further hearing on September 17, 2012.

Shimla, August 27
The Himachal High Court has issued a notice to Parveen Sharma, a former minister and BJP vice-president, and his wife Anita Devi on the issue of getting job of a craft teacher on the basis of forged certificates in October 2000.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Dharm Chand Chaudhary directed them to file reply by September 21 to the notice issued on the petition of Kuldeep Dogra seeking an inquiry into the illegalities from an independent agency.

The petitioner alleged that Anita Devi was more than 40 years of age at the time of recruitment, whereas the upper age limit was 38 years. It was alleged that forged employment certificate identity card was submitted with application form as the card showed her as a daughter of Lal Chand, whereas Anita Devi was the daughter of Om Parkash.

It was also alleged that false experience certificate was annexed with the application as the Panchayat Samiti, Amb, had informed under the RTI that no sewing and stitching centre was opened or functioning in 1997-98 in Chaproh (Chintpurni) Panchayat. Even, the trade certificate seemed to be forged as it was issued in the name of Anita, daughter of Parveen Sharma, alleged Dogra.

During the previous BJP government, from 1998 to 2003, Parveen Sharma was a state minister when his wife had joined service in October 2000 on the recommendation of the HP Subordinate Services Selection Board.

Dogra alleged that he had approached the state government, but no action was taken in the matter till date.

Shimla, August 27
The Himachal Pradesh High Court (HC) has directed the Mandi Municipal Council (MC) to pay Rs 1 crore to the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) within two weeks and Rs 1 crore within another three weeks.

The HC passed the order on the issue of non-payment of Rs 10 crore as electricity arrears, including surcharge.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary also directed the MC’s Executive Officer to file an affidavit, indicating sources of income and heads of expenditure.

The HC also directed the Executive Officer to file an additional affidavit, showing the total number of residential and commercial buildings under the MC and when was tax on those revised.

It directed the Director, Department of Urban Development, to release the grant for the third quarter within a month and the fourth quarter within another two months.

The HC directed the HPSEB to have a provision to collect surcharge from defaulters. It passed the order during the hearing of a writ petition filed by Laxmender Singh against the MC for not paying bills for streetlights.

The petitioner had alleged that bills amounting to Rs 9,00,85,217 had not been paid for the last 10 years. He had added that the MC levied rent tax and got crores as government aid every year.

He had pointed out that the HPSEB issued a notice for disconnection if the amount due was not paid within 15 days, but the MC did not deposit any amount, following which the HPSEB disconnected streetlights.

Bilaspur, August 27
The Himachal Pradesh State NGOs Federation has criticised the Rogi Kalyan Samiti of the Regional Hospital here for levying Rs 100 as user charge from every attendant accompanying a patient, resulting in delay in treatment.

Federation president Ram Singh said here today that this new provision, along with other such charges imposed earlier and the increase in laboratory charges, had been resulting in scuffles between the staff and security guards.

He said the samiti had collected lakhs and squandered the amount on useless purchases and provisions, with no medicine being provided to general patients.

He said complaints regarding the supply of substandard medicines and the monopolised business should be probed, along with the favoured allotment of chemist shops and clinics on the hospital premises.

Ram Singh said the federation had urged the Chief Minister to order a thorough probe and ensure that there was discipline at the hospital.

He also urged that all vacant posts of doctor and specialist be filled, the recently inaugurated Trauma Centre be made functional and the increase in laboratory charges be withdrawn.

Bilaspur, August 27
Sunita Devi and Abhishek, wife and son of Ram Kumar, were injured when their house collapsed and was raised to the ground at Lakhala village of Behal gram panchayat in the Naina Deviji constituency, 55 km from here, last night during very heavy rain.

Reports said the family was fast asleep in the house when it suddenly collapsed also causing huge damage to property. Both the injured persons were rushed to the Primary Health Centre, Behal, for treatment.

Earlier, heavy rain, which is lashing the region for the past several days has resulted in the collapse of the houses of four other Lakhala villagers, viz Pritam Singh, Kishori Lal, Ram Pyari and Bagga Ram.

Led by panchayat president Kulvinder Dhiman, vice-president Ram Kumar, BDC member Maan Singh Dhiman and BJP block general secretary Ram Kumar Sharma, a number of village elders have urged the district administration to provide immediate financial assistance to these families so that they can reconstruct their houses. 

Hamirpur, August 27
The Himachal Pradesh Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) Junior Engineers and Additional Assistants Engineers Association has decided to support the proposed agitation of the PWD and IPH Junior Engineers Associations from August 28 to demand grade pay and promotion on the Punjab pattern.

RD Agnihotri, president of the association, said the proposed agitation by their counterparts in the PWD and IPH Department was justified as junior engineers of their category were working on the same posts for more than three decades without getting any promotion and promotional pay scale.

Both of them said though the HP Government had given 4-9-14 promotion scheme to the state government employees on the Punjab pattern, but the junior engineers were deprived of the same benefit.

The association alleged that junior engineers who played a significant role in converting the state into a power state were being discriminated by certain officials. It said even the directions given by Chief Minister PK Dhumal to solve the JEs’ grievances were being ignored by those at the helm of the affairs and also by the HPSEBL management.

Kangra, August 27
More than 500 saplings of different verities, including medicinal and fruit plants, were planted by medicos on the campus of Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (DRPGMC) at Tanda today.

The plantation drive was organised by the Tanda Medical College Resident Doctors Association. Saplings of bamboo, Arjuna and fruits were planted on the campus.

President of the Resident Doctors Association Rahul Gupta said they were organising this plantation drive, along with undergraduate and postgraduate students of the college, not only to meet the well-known objectives of plantation, but to develop a conservative attitude and affection for natural resources among students of the college. He said each plant would be adopted by students, faculty members and staff.

Principal Anil Chauhan said forestation was essential for protecting environment. He said plantation drives should be launched frequently to counter the effects of landslides, besides expanding the forest cover in the state.

The working committee of the association expressed gratitude to the administration, TAMCOT, NGOs and officials of Forest and Horticultural Departments for their support in the execution of this novel work.

Dr Chauhan said the association had planned to plant 1,000 saplings, but could get only 500 saplings. He said on September 2, another plantation drive would be held. 

Bilaspur, August 27
“There should be forests on at least 60 per cent of the land in hill states of the country, but we have forests on only 29 per cent of land in this Bilaspur district.” This was stated by BJP state spokesman and Naina Deviji MLA Randhir Sharma while inaugurating a constituency-level Vana Mahotsava at Jaamli, 40 km from here, recently.

He said, “This is why we should plant maximum saplings and plants during rainy and winter seasons, not only on our land, but also wherever it is possible. We should help the Forest Department which has launched a consistent campaign to grow maximum number of trees and forests in the state.”

Sharma said cheel-pine forests in Bilaspur district and adjoining areas were an annual fire hazard. These did not give much revenue to the state, as most of these forests became prone to devastating fires during summer days before the onset of monsoon.

So now the Forest Department was giving more attention to grow trees of other broad-leaf plants and also herbal and fruit plants which would be finance-spinners in the coming years. He said special varieties of fruit trees were also being planted so that these forests could attract monkeys to forests and prevent them from entering villages and destroying farmers’ crops in search of essential food.

Randhir Sharma said Rs 77.28 lakh was being spent on planting fruit, herbal and other better variety of plants in 324 hectares of land in this district during this year. He said the Forest Department had initiated several employment-generating afforestation schemes like Sanjha Van, Sanjivani Van, Apna Van, Apna Dhan, Lantana Destruction and Save Forests from Fires etc. Villagers should also help in these schemes as these were for their benefit and very essential for their economic development.

Sharma also inaugurated Rs 6.10-lakh sabzi mandi at Jaamli and said Rs 57 lakh had been sanctioned for the restoration of the Neri-Jaamli Lift Irrigation scheme which was stopped due to landslides some years ago.

Bilaspur, August 27
Zila Parishad (ZP) chairman and BJP leader Kuldip Thakur has written to the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police against the corruption indulged in by some officers of the District Transport Office through their “agents”.

Addressing mediapersons here recently, Thakur urged the Chief Minister to order a high-level probe into such corrupt practices.

He alleged that it was impossible to get any work done without the “dalals” who get the work done at once for a few hundred rupees. He alleged the money went to officers concerned to get the work done.

Thakur alleged that an agent demanded a few hundred rupees as bribe for the clearance of his new tempo. The agent said the tempo would not be passed if the money was not paid, he alleged. He warned that even old vehicles, which should not be plied on the road, could be passed for a few hundred rupees.

Thakur said such corruption was serious in view of the fact that many precious lives were lost in road accidents every day. The government should look into this scandal and ensure that this highly reprehensible practice was curbed with a heavy hand and such officers were hauled up for corruption.

Thakur also provided copies of two letters given to him by Shyam Lal Sharma of Moti village, who alleged that a bribe was demanded from him. Manoj Kumar of Saai Kharssi also shared a similar experience stating that he had to pay Rs 400 to get his new vehicle passed.

Nurpur, August 27
Some unidentified assailants attacked forest contractor Ravi Dutt of Kupper village and four others accompanying him at Chobees Miles near here yesterday.

According to the police, the miscreants, who were consuming liquor in a restaurant, suddenly attacked them with sticks and sharp-edged weapons and looted Rs 2.10 lakh cash and gold chain and ring from the contractor. Of the five victims injured, three received serious injuries and had been admitted to a private hospital in Pathankot.

A case under Sections 147, 148, 149, 382, 323 and 506 of the IPC has been registered against unidentified assailants.

Chamba, August 27
The police has registered a case against a woman’s in-laws for allegedly for sprinkling kerosene on her and trying to burn her when she was cooking in the kitchen on Sunday at Bhattiyat subdivision in Chamba district, a police press statement said here today.

The statement further said aggrieved Anita Devi of Luhanai village of Bhattiyat in the district had got her compliant lodged with Chowari police station. Investigation in the case was on. — OC