Shimla, November 28
Rival factions in the Himachal Congress are virtually at daggers drawn over the issue of taking disciplinary action against those who indulged in anti-party activities in the Assembly poll with Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Virbhadra Singh meeting AICC general secretary Chaudhary Birender Singh in Delhi today.

With Birender Singh putting a stay on all suspensions, expulsions and removal from party posts ordered after November 4, the HPCC chief today held a closed-door meeting for about one hour with the AICC general secretary at his residence in Delhi.

The former Chief Minister is learnt to have discussed the issue of setting up of the three-member committee to look into all poll-related complaints.

Besides Virbhadra, other senior state Congress leaders, including Asha Kumari and former Minister GS Bali, also met Birender Singh, who is the in charge of party affairs in Himachal, today.

Viplove Thakur, former Rajya Sabha MP, who is the member of the committee, said she had held talks with the other members.

“We will shortly be holding a meeting to work out the modalities to be followed before we start scrutinising the complaints,” she said.

The Virbhadra camp is not too happy with the setting up of a three-member committee as this indirectly erodes the authority of the HPCC.

Moreover, with all the three members being former state party chiefs it will not be easy to influence them and they are likely to act in a judicious manner.

The anti-Virbhadra camp has been accusing him of acting in a partisan manner by initiating one-sided action.

They pointed out that no action was taken on the complaints made by candidates who were not his staunch loyalists but in case of his own supporters he chose to act not just swiftly but also did not issue any show-cause notice as is the procedure.

President of the Shimla (Urban) District Congress Committee (DCC) Pradeep Singh today welcomed the stay ordered by the AICC general secretary on the expulsions ordered by the HPCC chief.

“We are grateful to the high command for putting a stay on these expulsions as they were one-sided and taken without issuing of a show-cause notice which denied party men a chance to put forth their side of the story,” Pradeep added.

Shimla, November 28
The State Election Commission has modified the election programme for the conduct of byelections of Panchayati Raj Institutions of Mandi and Bilaspur districts.

According to the notification, nomination papers can be presented on December 7, 10 and 11 between 11 am to 3 pm and the same will be scrutinised on December 12.

Candidates can withdraw their candidature till December 14 before 3 pm. A list of contesting candidates showing the name of the symbol allotted to them will be prepared and affixed on December 14, immediately after the time of the withdrawal of candidature is over. The list of polling stations will be published on or before December 7.

The poll, if necessary, will be held from 8 am to 4 pm on December 25.

The counting of votes for members, up-pradhans and pradhans of panchayats will be taken up on the date of poll immediately after the closure of the elections at the gram panchayat headquarters.

The results will be declared on the date of the poll immediately after the counting is over at respective gram panchayat headquarters.

The election process will be completed by December 28.

Shimla, November 28
The process of issuing new ration cards to over 16.31 lakh consumers in the state is being done at a snail’s pace though 14 lakh ration cards have already expired a year ago.

It is to check the excess number of ration cards and the subsequent pilferage of subsidised food items being given to consumers under the public distribution system (PDS) that the whole exercise of issuing new ration cards was initiated.

In fact, to have a foolproof system, the department has even launched a pilot project in Una to issue computerised ration cards, which is to be extended to the entire state in a phased manner.

Added to this was the fact that the Food and Civil Supplies Department itself admitted that though the population of the state was 68.50 lakh, subsidised food items were being provided to almost 74 lakh people which clearly indicated that there were excess numbers of ration cards.

There are a total of 16.31 lakh ration card holders in the state. Out of these cards, 11.63 lakh cards issued to the Above Poverty Line (APL) category and 2.25 lakh to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category have already expired in December 2011.

The 1.97 lakh cards issued to Antodya families will expire in March 2014.

Though the Food and Civil Supplies Department has cancelled over 9,000 ration cards, which were either bogus or held in addition to another card, even now there is scope for a lot of pilferage. The department is also providing subsidised ration to about 40,000 migrant labourers and a sizeable population of Tibetan refugees on specially issued permits.

“We have already printed six lakh cards and sent 4.23 lakh out of these newly printed ration cards for the APL category to the respective Food and Civil Supplies officers in various districts,” said Amar Singh Rathore, Director, Food and Civil Supplies.

He added that 3.16 lakh BPL cards in two different colours of blue and yellow were under print.

As such, about 6.10 lakh cards are yet to be printed. The cards once completed and ready for issuance will be printed at the State Printing Press in Shimla.

The Food and Civil Supplies Department had earlier decided to stop giving ration after the expiry of the cards but with the issuance of the new ones taking really long, a decision was taken to continue with the old ones.

At the pace with which work on the making of the new ration cards is going on it appears that it will take at least another year before the task is accomplished and the entire state covered.

Renuka Ji, November 28
Governor Urmila Singh today said the historic Renuka fair was a symbol of rich cultural values present in Indian society.

She was addressing the closing day ceremony of the six-day international Renuka fair at Renuka Ji today. She said the place had an immense potential for tourism as thousands visited the place to pay obeisance at the temple. This demonstrated the religious traditions of Himachal and added that these should be safeguarded to strengthen brotherhood in society.

She said such occasions also helped raise the economic status of an area as they offered ready markets for local products. Products prepared by self-help groups, especially women, found good markets on such occasions.

The Governor offered prayers at the temple of Goddess Renuka and Lord Parshuram and participated in the departure ceremony of the palanquin of Lord Parshuram and other deities to their destinations.

She performed the traditional puja on the banks of the Renuka Lake and announced the departure of the palanquin in the presence of thousands of devotees.

Padam Singh Chauhan, Deputy Commissioner, Sirmaur, and Deep Ram Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Renuka Development Board, were among those present.

Shimla, November 28
The cold wave in the state has intensified with reports of fresh snowfall on the high mountain peaks in the tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti.

The weather today remained cloudy with icy cold winds sweeping the state due to the fresh snowfall in Lahaul-Spiti. Keylong and the adjoining areas experienced snowfall this afternoon, causing a dip in the day temperature.

The Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur, Bharmour and Pangi areas have been reeling under severe cold wave conditions.

There were reports of a light snowfall at the Rohtang Pass as well though vehicular movement on this route is still open.

The minimum temperature recorded today were - Keylong -2.9°C, Kalpa 0.1°C, Solan 1.4°C, Manali 1.6°C, Bhuntar 1.8°C, Sundernagar 3.1°C, Mandi 3.9°C, Una 5.0°C, Shimla 5.9°C.

With there being no rainfall in the state for the past two months, the dry spell has prevented sowing of wheat and even apple plants have become vulnerable to various diseases. As such, farmers and fruit growers are eagerly awaiting snowfall, which will help improve moisture in the soil.

As per the forecast by the Meteorological Department, there could be more snowfall during the next 24 hours.

Some parts of Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur and Kinnaur experienced mild tremors at about 5.45pm yesterday.

Kangra, November 28
One lakh pilgrims from different parts of the country and outside have visited the ancient Jayanti Mata temple in Kangra during the five-day Panch Bhisham festival, which concluded here today on the occasion of Kartik Poornamashi. The festival had started on Kartik Ekadashi on November 24.

The festival was being celebrated as the marriage of Tulsi and Saligram and also to remember the great warrior and guru of the Pandvas, Guru Bhisham Pitamaha of the Mahabharata. The famous Kangra Fort is located on one side of the Manji river and on the other side on the top of the hill is the temple of Mata Jayanti.

Palampur, November 28
To drive on the Dehra Gopipur-Mubarkpur national highway (NH) connecting Punjab and Chandigarh with Kangra district in lower hills of the state is not less than a nightmare as the road at many points has turned into a death trap because of deep potholes.

The national highway wing of the Himachal Pradesh Public Works Department (HP PWD) took over this road last year. This road needed immediate carpeting as the patch work done by the PWD had not solved the problem. This bumpy road is causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers and tourists visiting the Kangra valley.

However, the national highway wing of the HP PWD seems unconcerned. Till date no steps have been taken to take up for the repair of the road.

This correspondent visited the road on Tuesday and found a long queue of vehicles stranded at different points because of potholes. No official of the HP PWD was available on the spot for comments. The Executive Engineer, PWD, NH, Hamirpur, was reportedly on a tour and could not be contacted.

This road was taken over by the national highway authority two years ago and since then the condition of the road has gone from bad to worse. It is learnt that no funds have been allocated for its repair and maintenance by the Minister of Road and Surface Transport to the state government.

Solan, November 28
Leading global firm Grant Thornton has been appointed as the consultant for the centrally-sponsored National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP) from among the five proposals, which was received by the Directorate of Industries for this project.

The firm will initiate work once it receives its first instalment and it will be given six months’ time to prepare a vision document specifying various activities that would be taken up in the state for promoting food processing-based activities.

Grant Thornton is a leading firm that provides consultancy support for evaluation, assessment and research in various fields, including agri-business and natural resources.

Rajinder Chauhan, Adviser, Industries, said they had already received funds from the Centre to initiate various activities, including setting up of a food processing cell for this project.

The Centre had provided funds for this project as per its 12th Five Year Plan and Himachal is among other states where the project is being implemented.

While the Union Ministry of Food Processing will provide 75 per cent of the budget, the remaining 25 per cent will be pooled in by the state.

The state had received the first instalment of Rs 1.12 crore in August and another Rs 3.81 crore was received later.

The state too has now released its share for the project, thus clearing initial hiccups for its implementation as the enforcement of the model code of conduct had delayed receipt of the state share.

The project aims to undertake technology upgrade, establishment and modernisation of food processing industries, introduce schemes for setting up cold chains, value addition, preservation infrastructure for non-horticulture products and scheme for human resource development.

Bilaspur, November 28
The Government Post-Graduate College, Dharamsala, virtually trounced the Government PG College, Bilaspur, in the final of the annual Inter-College HP University Women Hockey championship here last evening as Dharamsala defeated Bilaspur by five goals to nil.

Earlier, Maharaja Luxman Sen College, Sundernagar, got the third position as it defeated Government PG College, Mandi, by 2-1 goals. Only five girls teams from about 85 colleges of the state participated in this championship proving beyond any doubt that colleges are ignoring women’s sports, particularly hockey, in their institutions.

Chief guest Rohan Chand Thakur (SDM) gave away prizes and certificates to the winners. Earlier, Additional Deputy Commissioner Darshan Kalia inaugurated this university meet.

Present on the occasion were Director, HP University Sports, Rajender Singh Chauhan, Principal RP Chopra and Dr Pravesh Monty among others.