Shimla, October 3
The schedule announced by the Election Commission to hold Assembly elections in the state in a single phase after a gap of 19 years has baffled political parties as the counting of votes will take place almost seven weeks after polling.

Election will be held on November 4 and the results will be declared on December 20, along with the Gujarat results, which will go to the polls in two phases.

In a similar scenario in 2007, elections were held in the state in two phases, with voting in the three tribal segments which are snow-bound in winter, taking place on November 14 and the rest on December 19.

The long wait for results will not only give an uneasy time to political parties, but also bring the functioning of the government to a grinding halt for almost two months. Elections in two phases would have spared such a situation.

This is for the fourth time that elections will be held in a single phase in the state. The last time the state had a single-phase poll was in 1993 when polling was held on November 9. Single-phase elections were also held in June, 1977, and May, 1982.

These will be the first Assembly elections after delimitation, which has changed the complexion of many constituencies. The number of seats remains 68, but the number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes has increased marginally from 16 to 17.

There is no change in the number or status of seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes with Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Bharmour continuing to be reserved as before.

Thural in Kangra has been scrapped, bringing down marginally the number of constituencies in the biggest district of the state from 16 to 15. The new constituency of Manali has been carved out in Kullu, taking the number of seats in the district up from three to four.

The total number of voters is 45.9 lakh and 7,252 polling stations will be set up for polling, for which 11,000 electronic voting machines will be put to use.

Though political parties in the state have been in election mode for over six months, the single-phase elections have brought a sense of urgency as they have been expecting polling in two phases.

The Screening Committee of the Congress held a marathon meeting under the chairmanship of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to shortlist candidates for seats for which more than one person had been recommended by the State Election Committee.

Sources said the party would try to finalise candidates in the next two days. The Bharatiya Janata Party has released a list of 45 candidates and is likely to release the remaining names shortly.

SINGLE phase

* Counting of votes almost seven weeks after polling

* Long wait for results to give uneasy time to parties

* Functioning of govt will halt for almost two months

* Elections will be held in single phase after 19 years

Shimla, October 3
State Congress chief Virbhadra Singh has termed the advertisement blitzkrieg in the media launched by the PK Dhumal regime to highlight its achievements as gross misuse of government funds and machinery to mislead the electorate.

He alleged that public money worth crores had been spent on advertisements which did not reveal the truth. For instance, it was claimed in the ‘Rozgaar ke avsar apaar’ advertisement that 40,000 jobs in the government sector and 70,000 in the private sector were provided in the last four years, he said.

The fact was that the BJP government had officially abolished 1,500 class III and IV posts and 44,000 posts were lying vacant in the education, revenue, PWD, irrigation, public health and police departments, he claimed. No new jobs had been created, he added.

Virbhadra Singh said the BJP was promising in its government-paid election advertisements to create 2 lakh jobs in the future, not specifying any time limit. With its poor track record in creating jobs, this announcement was nothing more than an empty election slogan, he claimed.

The ‘Zindagi roshan hui’ advertisement of the BJP pertained to the Centre’s ‘Bharat Lamp Yojna’ which was renamed as ‘Atal Bijli Bachat Yojna’ to derive political mileage for the party, he said.

It tried to project that it was providing Rs 80 crore worth of CFL bulbs free of cost to consumers, but it did not spend a single penny on it, he pointed out.

In the ‘1,86,275 new electricity connections’ advertisement, the BJP government had claimed that 1,86,275 new connections were given and 2,656-km high-tension lines, 3,677-km low-tension lines and 3,644 transformers were installed, he said.

As a result, the load increased from 3,668 MW to 4,403 MW, for which 5,709 substations were required, but only 4,217 substations were built, he said. The power board was in a debt trap with a burden of more than Rs 4,500 crore, he added.

In the ‘Himachal First Aaya’ advertisement, it was claimed that the social welfare budget had been increase to Rs 6,579 crore, he said. The fact was that capital expenditure on social sectors as a percentage of total expenditure had gone down from 25 per cent in 2006-07 to 11 per cent in 2010-11, he said.

In education, capital expenditure had gone down from 20 per cent to 5 per cent, he pointed out. In health, capital expenditure had gone down from 10 per cent to 8 per cent, he said. The ranking of the state in the national education development index had come down from fourth in 2006-07 to 17th in 2009-10, he added.

Shimla, October 3
With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set to make ‘discrimination against the state’ and ‘corruption at the Centre’ its main poll plank, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime will be in the firing line during the upcoming Assembly elections.

Spelling out the BJP’s poll agenda, Chief Minister PK Dhumal alleged that the state was denied its due in the last five years and the UPA curtailed incentives like
the industrial package provided by the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

He claimed that the two Union ministers from the state failed to protect the interests of the state and adopted a negative attitude. The most glaring example, according to him, was of the proposed hydro-engineering project in Bilaspur, which was cleared before the General Election in 2009.

He said Rs 78 crore was sanctioned for it, but despite his repeated requests, the Union Power Minister had refused to even lay a foundation stone.

He alleged that the government was adopting separate norms for assistance to special category states, as a result of which Himachal Pradesh was suffering.

He said North-Eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir were being provided funds in the ratio of 10:90 and Himachal Pradesh 20:80, 30:70 or even 35:65. As such, the state was being made to contribute more for schemes, he added.

Dhumal claimed that the state’s quota of rice under the public distribution system was reduced from 18,500 tonne to 7,100 tonne and kerosene from 5,411 kilolitre to 2,044 kilolitre. He said the monthly sugar entitlement was slashed from 1 kg to 550 gm per person.

He said only 44 km of rail track had been laid in the state since Independence and the Nangal-Talwara track had not been completed despite the announcement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He added that work on the Bhanupali-Bilaspur track had not begun and the process of land acquisition had also come to a standstill.

He alleged that the UPA government was steeped in corruption and its real face had been exposed with mega-scandals like the CWG, 2G Spectrum and coal scams. He said the BJP would highlight the UPA’s misdeeds during the upcoming Assembly elections and ensure that it was held accountable.

Shimla, October 3
With the gap between the polling dates for Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh almost 40 days, the top brass of the two main political players, the BJP and the Congress, will be able to concentrate on the hill state before shifting focus to the politically sensitive state headed by Narendra Modi.

Though it has been expected that elections in the two states will be held together, the huge gap between the polling dates of November 4 in Himachal and December 13 and 17 in Gujarat has come as a surprise to most.

This is primarily on account of the fact that Himachal will witness a single-phase poll for the fourth time in the political history of the state.

It is expected that with barely a month’s time left, senior Congress leaders like AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi and BJP stalwarts Lal Krishan Advani and Nitin Gadkari will now be able to devote ample time for canvassing in Himachal. After polling here, they will have over a month’s time to concentrate on Gujarat.

Senior leaders of some regional parties like the Trinamool Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party who are trying to gain a foothold in the North by making inroads in Himachal may campaign here. These may include Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar.

The next one month will witness whirlwind electioneering by the top brass of the Congress and the BJP to cover all 68 Assembly segments, including the three tribal seats of Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Bharmour.

Single-phase elections were held in Himachal for the first time in June 1977 when Shanta Kumar became Chief Minister. Single-phase elections for the second time were held in May 1982 and a Congress government headed by Thakur Ram Lal was formed.

It was once again advantage Congress in single-phase elections in November 1993 when Virbhadra Singh became Chief Minister. Holding elections in the three tribal segments after voting in 65 segments had invariably gone in favour of the party in power.

Though the outcome of elections in the three seats did not affect the formation of the government, people of the three tribal seats voted in favour of the party in power, placing the party in the opposition in a disadvantageous position.

Shimla, October 3
The Screening Committee of the Congress headed by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, which met in New Delhi today, cleared candidates for 46 seats, but the final list would be announced only on October 6 after the meeting of the Central
Election Committee.

According to party sources, all sitting MLAs except four whose constituencies had been affected in delimitation were cleared. While the game was over for Sohan Lal and Yog Raj, whose constituencies were de-reserved, Sudhir Sharma was in the race from Dharamsala and Rakesh Kalia from Gagret.

The Dharamsala seat was among the 22 seats pending, with Jodhpur MP Chandresh Kumari as the front-runner. But the final call would be taken by Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the party required every single MP. Sharma was also trying for the Palampur seat, but the party renominated BB Butail.

Names of candidates from Shahpur, Kusumpti, Chamba, Dehra, Hamirpur, Jwalamukhi, Baijnath, Solan and Kasauli are pending. Virbhadra Singh will contest form Shimla Rural.

Kailash Prasher, a protégé of Union minister Anand Sharma, who contested from Solan last time, was shifted to Arki. Yadvinder Goma, son of senior Congress leader Milki Ram Goma, will be the nominee from Jaisinghpur. Ram Kumar, son of veteran leader Lajja Ram, will enter the fray from Doon.

The names of Asha Kumari (Dalhousie), Surinder Bhardwaj (Churah), Kuldeep Pathania (Bhattiyat), Ram Lal Thakur (Naina Devi), Rajesh Dharmani (Ghumarwin) and Anita Verma (Sujanpur) are final.

HPCC chief Virbhadra Singh, CLP leader Vidya Stokes, state party affairs in charge Birender Singh Chaudhary and former HPCC chief Kaul Singh Thakur were present at the meeting. Union minister Anand Sharma held a meeting with Sheila Dikshit before this meeting.

Dalhousie, October 3
Akhil Bharatiya Gaddi Janjatiya Vikas Samitti president Lalit Thakur has flayed the successive state governments for ignoring the non-tribal panchayats which fall in the Bharmour tribal Assembly constituency of Chamba.

Thakur said yesterday that 21 non-tribal panchayats of the district fell in the Bharmour tribal Assembly segment, but the areas had witnessed no development.

Thakur alleged that the development of these panchayats had been overlooked and there was no advantage of including these in the Bharmour tribal Assembly constituency. “Ignoring the development of these panchayats will be the major poll plank in the forthcoming Assembly elections,” Thakur said.

Palampur, October 3
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vice-president Shanta Kumar said here today that the BJP was fully prepared for Assembly elections and claimed that it would form the government again.

He was addressing mediapersons at his residence here this evening after the announcement of the election schedule. He said the party had allotted 45 of the party ticket and the remaining candidates would be announced in two days.

He said the party made efforts to field candidates with a clean image. He said corruption, rising prices and steep hike in LPG and diesel prices would be the major issues in Assembly elections.

He claimed that the BJP had taken upon itself the task to make India a corruption-free country. According to him, people had high hopes from the BJP. He alleged that UPA-2 had disappointed and cheated the nation.

Shanta Kumar alleged that the country had gone bankrupt during the UPA regime and the Prime Minister was watching the rich get richer and the poor poorer.

Addressing party workers outside his residence earlier, he said there should not be any place for the corrupt. He said they should reject such politicians and only then could the party claim to be a party with a difference.

He said major scams like 2G, coal and Commonwealth Games had surfaced during the last two years and-a-half. 

Shimla, October 3
Himachal and Russia will jointly try to revive the activities of the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute, set up by famous Russian artist Nicholas Roerich at Naggar in Kullu, and create a memorial museum complex.

An agreement was signed between the International Centre for Roerichs (ICR) and the International Roerich Memorial Trust (IRMT) during the visit of a delegation, headed by Chief Secretary S Roy, in Moscow yesterday.

Manisha Nanda, principal secretary and general secretary of the IRMT, and Rakesh Kanwar, Director, Department of Language, Art and Culture, also participated in the discussions. Prof AV Postnikov, president, ICR, Honoured Worker of Sciences in Russian Federation, LV Shaposhnikova, vice-president of the ICR and director-general of the museum.

Honoured Worker of Arts in Russian Federation and AV Stetsenko, the first deputy director-general of the museum, were present from the Russian side.

The memorial museum complex would be set to revive the activities of the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute with the help of experts from the ICR and engaging Indian specialists.

The ICR will prepare a concept plan for the development of the IRMT at its own expense. The Indian delegation agreed to facilitate the work of the ICR experts at the IRMT for the performing of this task.

The agreement also elaborates the procedure, status, rights and responsibilities of the Russian curator and others, which will help in avoiding any kind of misunderstanding or tension that marred the functioning of the IRMT for the past over two years.

Roy said the implementation of the plans outlined by the ICR and IRMT would strengthen cultural relations between Russia and India. The team also visited the museum named after Nicholas Roerich.

Kangra, October 3
The Tibetan government-in-exile today made the Chinese government responsible for the self-immolation by 52 Tibetan persons in the age group of 17 to mid-60 years. It appealed to the Chinese government to review the policies which were behind the distress that was causing self-immolations.

Dicky Chhoyang, Kalon, Minister for Department of Information and International Relations, Tibetan government-in-exile, said here today that self-immolation by Tibetans started in February 2009 and the last one was reported on September 29 this year. Of the total 52 persons who self-immolated, 42 died.

She justified the self-immolation spree saying Tibetans had exhausted all the conventional methods of protest and they were being arrested, imprisoned and tortured, and now through self-immolation they had been sending univocal message to the international community and Chinese government that there was need to review the policies in Tibet areas.

She said despite appeals from the Tibetan government-in-exile to Tibetans to desist from taking such a drastic step, Dicky said self-immolations continued.

She appealed to the international community to urge the Chinese government to engage in a dialogue with representatives of the Dalai Lama to find out a long-term solution to the Tibet issue. 

Sanawar, October 3
Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal attended the 165th Founder’s Day celebrations of Lawrence School, Sanawar, on the second day today. Nostalgic on his visit to the school, he said, “The school is the same, the air I breathe is the same and I feel as if I am in 1980 and these are moments frozen in time.”

He went around the campus reminiscing his days as a student, along with several of his batch mates.

Various other items like the dance, PT, gymnastics, high-horse and bugle band played by girls were appreciated by parents. A yoga presentation, a tribute to erstwhile superstar of Bollywood and a retro dance performed by 450 boys and girls of senior school were other events.

Junior boys and girls performed a folk dance depicting the happiness and hard life in an Indian village. These dances were choreographed by Umashanker Khilnani associated with the renowned Saroj Khan group.

Earlier, an athletics meet was presided over by Suresh Dhir, student of the 1962 batch, as the chief guest.

Headmaster Praveen Vasisht bestowed a token of appreciation on the chief guest. A parent-teacher meet, soccer and basketball matches between present and old Sanawarians were also held.

Those who won top honors in atheletics included Fateh Pal Cup for Best Athlete (Under-14 Boys), Aryan Chauhan and Shashwat Thappa, Bala Cup for Best Athlete (Opens Girls), Akansha Kala and Meher Rana, Kalinga Cup for Best Athlete (Opens Boys), Fatehbir’s Dhaliwal and Rohit Sinam. The PD Cup was won by Himalaya House, GD Cup by Vindhaya and BD Cup by Shiwalik House, that also won the overall trophy.

A concert was also held at the historic Barne Hall. An Indian orchestra based on Raga Hoopali, a performance by the rock band and an Indian classical dance were the other highlights of the day.

It was, however, the screening of “Bayen”, a short film directed by Siddharth Shashta, based on a short story written by famous Bengali litterateur Mahasweta Devi which had the audience spellbound.

Mandi, October 3
With the model code of conduct coming into force from 4 pm today, candidates and political parties cannot use rest houses and public property and have to maintain expenditure registers with details of sources of income.

Though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have yet to declare candidates in most Assembly constituencies in Kullu, Mandi and Bilaspur districts, Deputy Commissioners (DCs) have directed officials to enforce the model code of conduct strictly.

Talking to The Tribune, Mandi DC Devesh Kumar, who is also the returning officer for the state Election Commission, said candidates and parties would have to follow the model code of conduct.

He said each candidate would have to maintain an expenditure register with details of every amount spent after the last date of withdrawal of candidature.

He said ministers, MLAs and other VIPs could not use government rest houses and circuit houses for stay or for holding meetings and use government vehicles except for going from home to office.

He said only the Chief Minister, who was in the Z category, could use rest houses, but even he was not allowed to use those to hold meetings.

He said candidates would have to give details of sources of income and maintain a single bank account with details and sources of income and cash.

He said income tax officials would inspect every bank account from which Rs 1 lakh or more was spent. He said parties and candidates could not deface walls and public property and would be punished if they did so.

Shimla, October 3
Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) will explore the possibility of collaborative understanding with reputed information technology (IT) institutes to ensure better and latest advancements and research in the field.

This was stated by HPU Vice-Chancellor ADN Bajpai during the inauguration of the two-day cultural festival “Utkarsh” organised by the University Institute of Information Technology (UIIT) here today.

He said an MoU would be signed with IT institutes in Allahabad and Jabalpur and suggested that the UIIT should start its own research journal to give impetus to activities being conducted in the institution. The Vice-Chancellor said during the 12 years of its existence, this institute has earned a name in the Northern region. “This institution has achieved many milestones under the banner of the Information Technology Students’ Association (ITSA),” he added.

Shimla, October 3
The state high court has convicted Dalip Singh of Mandi of throwing acid on a young girl and sent him to two-year rigorous imprisonment (RI).

As per the prosecution, the allegation against the accused was that on April 7, 2001, in a Mandi bazaar, he threw acid on the face of the victim causing grievous injuries to her.

Her right eye, the right portion of her face, her arms, throat and chest were burnt in the incident. A case was registered against him and trial was conducted but he was acquitted by the trial court and feeling dissatisfied from the order of the trial court the state filed an appeal before the high court.

While setting aside the acquittal of the accused, a Division Bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Rajiv Sharma observed that the victim of a crime could not be equated with the perpetrator of a crime. “Here is a case where a young girl, aged 18 years, has been disfigured for life. Why should the statement of this witness and her mother who was an eyewitness to the incident be swept aside and discarded only because the police has not done its job properly and the prosecution has failed to examine the eyewitness.

It further observed that there could be no manner of doubt that the incident in question took place 11 years ago. For this, the convict could not be blamed. He got married in the meantime and has children.

He threw acid on a young girl. The girl got married within a week of the incident taking place, but that does not absolve the convict and could not be taken into consideration to reduce the sentence. The Bench also said the maximum sentence provided for an offence under Section 326, IPC, is life imprisonment.

“We are only imposing a lesser sentence keeping in view the fact that it is only the convict, who has committed the offence and his wife and children are innocent”.

It ordered that taking into consideration all these factors, we direct that the convict shall undergo RI for a period of two years and pay a fine of Rs 10,000 for having committed an offence under Section 326, IPC.

Shimla, October 3
The Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Bank has taken an initiative to help provide funds to small power developers for execution of hydroelectric projects up to 5 MW capacity.

Chairman of the bank Chander Mohan Thakur said here today that under the scheme loans were being advanced at the rate of Rs 6 crore per MW subject to the conditions that the developer would contribute at least 10 per cent of the cost. In all, the bank had sanctioned about Rs 600 crore to 13 power companies for executing projects of different capacity. The maximum limit of funding had been pegged at Rs 30 crore. The rate of interest on the loan was 13 per cent.

Managing Director of the bank Amit Kashyap said the bank had been keeping pace with the technology.