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CM for revival of industrial package
Opposition takes on govt over Shimla youth’s death
Reforms needed to take advantage of bailout package
Ground work for new excise policy begins
Car used recovered from MLA’s house
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Two arrested with 900-gm charas
Murder accused hospitalised
HIMURJA chief executive’s appointment hailed
Cong flays incident
Inquiry begins
Cong leaders credit Virbhadra with win in Kangra district
Shopkeeper awarded two-year jail term
BJP plans smaller units in large districts
Nagar parishad cancels works alloted to contractors
ABVP activists burn Pak flag
Sukhwinder to take over on January 15
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CM for revival of industrial package
Dharamsala, January 11 He said the industrial package was given to special category states, but was scrapped in case of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand while being continued with in case of other states in this category. He said the industrial package to the two states had not been scrapped due to economic considerations, but due to opposition by the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana. He said the neighbouring states had been alleging that the industrial package to Himachal Pradesh led to the flight of industry from the two states. “I do not know of a single industrial house that has stopped operations in the neighbouring states after setting up a unit in Himachal Pradesh. We will urge the Centre to revive the industrial package,” the Chief
Minister said. He said the Congress would constitute an inquiry into the alleged benami land deals affected during the stint of the previous government and take appropriate action. He said the state had slipped on development parameters as per the latest data. He said Himachal Pradesh had slipped to 19th among the 20 big states on some development parameters as per the latest survey of an English weekly. He said the awards bagged by the previous government were given away by the President and other dignitaries, but the selections were made by private or non-government organisations whose credibility was not beyond doubt. The Chief Minister said the debt on the state government had increased by about Rs 9,000 crore in the last five years and was about Rs 1,100 crore more than the debt increase during the
stint of the previous Congress government. He expressed concern over poor quality construction by the Public Works Department. He said an endeavour would be made to check the quality of material for buildings and roads. He said officials concerned would be held responsible if the quality was found to have been compromised with. The monkey menace found special reference in the speech. He said farmers in many areas had given up farming due to the monkey menace. He said the tardy sterilisation programme was not a solution to the problem. He further said the state government would seek special funds from the Centre to tackle the problem. Speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail also made a special reference to the monkey menace while addressing the House. The Chief Minister also said the Congress manifesto would be adopted as the policy document of the government. He said agriculture and horticulture would be accorded top priority. |
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Opposition takes on govt over Shimla youth’s death
Dharamsala, January 11 Ravinder Singh Ravi asked if the constable had the authority to keep a weapon. The Chief Minister replied that the constable was authorised to carry a revolver. In his statement read out in the House, the Chief Minister said constables Ranvir Singh and Rahul were on duty on January 9 near Tara Devi in Shimla where vehicles impounded by the police were parked. He said they noticed some miscreants indulging in vandalism around 11:30 pm and the constables caught hold of one of
the accused, Nitin of Phagli in Shimla. He said when the constables were interrogating Nitin, other miscreants came in a Santro car, tried to overrun Ranvir, tried to take the accused away and attacked the policemen with iron rods and stones. He further said Ranvir fired some rounds in self-defence and two assailants who were injured were shifted to the IGMC, where one of the assailants, Udaybir Singh, succumbed to his injuries at 3 am on January 10. He said two cases had been registered and the government had ordered a magisterial inquiry which was being conducted by the ADM (Law and Order). |
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Reforms needed to take advantage of bailout package
Shimla, January 11 Unlike some other states, the board has been regularly filing aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) with the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) and power tariff is being revised annually. However, still there is a huge gap of 61 paise per unit in the cost of supply and average revenue realisation, which is as high as 4.59 per unit. As per the parameter for evaluating performance under the package, the revenue gap has to be reduced by 25 per cent every year. The tariff is already quite high and the government is paying subsidy to domestic consumers, which is estimated to be Rs 276 crore against the projected Rs 240 crore for the current year. Thus, the focus has to be on cost reduction and more efficient recovery of dues to reduce the revenue gap. The board has to ensure timely billing of bulk consumers and recovery of the due amount, which will bring down its working capital requirement. Currently, it is raising short-term loans for paying salaries of employees which is not admissible for under the regulatory norms. Due to this the SERC does not allow interest on such loans while working out the tariff. However, the board is relatively better placed as far as the condition for reduction of technical and commercial losses by 1.5 per cent annually (with 2010-11 as the base year) is concerned. In fact, it is confident that it will be able to secure incentive from the Centre for exceeding the target. Senior officials of the board claimed that the special drive launched by it to recover outstanding dues had led to a decline of four per cent in the commercial losses in 2011-12, which will come down by another four per cent in the current year. Thus, with total revenue pegged at Rs 3,600, it will be eligible for an incentive of Rs 180 crore for exceeding the target by five per cent. The technical losses could be brought down only by upgrading the low tension (LT) lines by high tension (HT) lines to achieve the normative LT:HT ratio of 1:1 which is 1:1.7 at present. The three-year moratorium on repayment of loan and owning of up Rs 700 crore of loan by the state government will reduce its annually outgo towards debt servicing by about Rs 150 crore. The package will help only if the board can manage its affairs efficiently by reducing power purchase cost through long-term arrangement to meet the winter shortfall containing the ever-swelling wage bill and ensuring timely recovery of bills through down-sizing over three periods. Or else, it will not be able to find a permanent solution to its perennial financial crisis.
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Ground work for new excise policy begins
Solan, January 11 The state government had opted for a new excise policy six years ago where a draw of lots was drawn to select the licencee after fixing the reserve price. The policy was floated to break the monopoly of contractors who had been grabbing a lion’s share in the liquor business, but since no fresh allotments were made in the last six years, the trade had again been monopolised. The existing policy was, however, leading to stagnation since it restricts the opening of new vends as the licencees object to their sales getting divided. The policy is also leading to considerable revenue loss, especially along border areas, where the department cannot hike the reserve price. Revenue also suffered on account of renewal fee which generates nominal income in comparison to fresh allotment which can fetch much higher gains. Since several housing projects, industries, hydel power projects, universities and several infrastructure projects were coming up across the state, the growth of liquor sales at these places was as high as 50 to 200 per cent. The reserve price was, however, hiked only marginally, thus leading to lesser growth in the revenue. The department had pegged a rise of about 14.82 per cent in its revenue in the current financial year though a much higher revenue could be generated if fresh allotments were made.
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Car used recovered from MLA’s house
Panchkula, January 11 The police did not reveal the identity of the person who used it. The police also looked for major clues at a hotel in Baddi where Jyoti reportedly met some of the accused often. It questioned a few persons, including the hotel staff. The Panchkula police sought the assistance of the Baddi police last evening to recover the vehicle. Jyoti’s post-mortem report had revealed that she underwent an abortion not long before her murder. |
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Two arrested with 900-gm charas
Nurpur, January 11 A police team, led by SHO, Fatehpur, Tilak Raj, set up a naka there and two pedestrians covered in blankets tried to flee on seeing the police. The police chased and nabbed them and during a search of their bags recovered charas. DSP, Jawali, Sanjay Sharma said the accused had been identified as Ghiano Ram of Darni village near Bharmour, from whose possession 460 gm charas was recovered, and Ravinder Singh of Hatli village, near Fatehpur, from whose possession 440 gm charas was recovered. He said the duo was arrested and a case under Section 20 of the NDPS Act had been registered. They would be produced in the court on Thursday. |
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Murder accused hospitalised
Mandi, January 11 Though the local court sent Sen in 14-day judicial remand, he complained of chest pain and was admitted to the Regional Hospital, Kullu, on Wednesday. Sen is among the five other accused, who were arrested earlier by the police in connection with a case of beating up Pawan Kumar of Jadore, Kullu, who died at the PGI subsequently. He was allegedly beaten up by villagers on the plea that he was a thief. The police had lodged the FIR after Pawan’s wife alleged that he was beaten up by the villagers without provocation. SP, Kullu, Ashok Kumar said Sen was earlier on interim bail, but his regular bail was rejected by the high court asking him to cooperate with the investigation. He was under treatment at the hospital here, he added. |
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HIMURJA chief executive’s appointment hailed
Shimla, January 11 The association said almost 90 per cent of the works in hydroelectric projects pertain to civil engineering and as such, the appointment of Bhanu Pratap Singh, who was the Chief Engineer (Projects) with the HPSEB, was a prudent decision by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. Bhanu Pratap had over 30 years of experience in the implementation of hydropower projects in the state. The move would boost the implementation of mini and micro-hydel projects in the state, it said.
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Cong flays incident
Shimla, January 11 Party spokesperson Naresh Chauhan said the primary concern of the police was to protect citizens and it was expected to exercise restraint. He urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to order an impartial probe and take stringent action against the guilty. He also urged the Chief Minister to issue directions to the police to ensure that such incidents did not take place again in the future. |
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Inquiry begins
Shimla, January 11 Latth today visited the vehicle compound of the police on the Tara Devi-Totu bypass, where the incident took place on the night on January 9. He has also taken the copies of counter FIRs lodged by the two parties, including the youth and the two policemen, one of whom fired. Latth also recorded the statement of Harsh Sharma, one of the injured youth in the shootout, who is undergoing treatment at the IGMC. The statement of the medical officer, who treated both Udiavir and Harsh, was also recorded. “Despite tomorrow being a holiday, court will be held to record the statements of Nitin, constables Ranvir Singh and Rahul, who were also involved in the scuffle,” the ADM said. However, the police has taken the weapon of offence, which included a 9 mm service pistol and two iron rods, two empty shells and the vehicle of the assailants, into possession.
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Cong leaders credit Virbhadra with win in Kangra district
Dharamsala, January 11 In a rally organised at the Zorawar stadium here, the leaders said the landslide victory in Kangra district, where the party bagged 10 of the 15 seats, was due to the hard work of Virbhadra Singh. The leaders also tried to put up a show of strength and popularity in the district before the Chief Minister. Transport and Food and Civil Supplies Minister GS Bali mustered the maximum strength. Addressing the rally, the Chief Minister said the government would accord high priority to the power sector and providing employment to the youth. He said the government had adopted the Congress manifesto as its policy document. He added that the unemployment allowance promised in the manifesto would be given to the youth in the near future. Bali said the government would dedicate itself to constructive work in the next five years and not indulge in political vendetta as it was not a part of its policy. He said there were about 10 lakh unemployed youth in the state and the government would strive to provide them jobs in the private and government sectors. Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma thanked the electorate for reposing faith in him and Virbhadra Singh’s leadership. He promised to fulfil all promises made during campaigning. Vidya Stokes, Sujjan Singh Pathania, Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Kuldeep Pathania, Ram Lal Thakur, Chander Kumar and Kewal Singh Pathania were present.
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Shopkeeper awarded two-year jail term
Bilaspur, January 11 He was sentenced to two years imprisonment with a fine of Rs 2,000 under Section 354 of the IPC and also six months imprisonment and an additional
fine of Rs 1,000 under Section 323 of the IPC by Judicial Magistrate Ranjit Singh Thakur. Assistant public prosecutor Rahul Chopra told the court that the
accused teased and misbehaved with the woman who came to his shop for purchasing bangles on August 7, 2009. The woman immediately reported the matter to the police. The prosecution presented 10 witnesses to prove the charges. |
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BJP plans smaller units in large districts
Shimla, January 11 The party today constituted a team headed by Shimla legislator Suresh Bhardwaj to take a feedback from everyone on the issue. The other members of the team included state BJP general secretaries Rajiv Bindal and Ram Swaroop, MLA Vipin Parmar and organisation secretary Pawan Rana. The committee after holding discussions with all the 68 constituency level BJP mandals and district chiefs will finalise its report by January 30. The report will then be placed before the core group, which will meet in February. “The final decision in the matter will be taken by the core group, which includes PK Dhumal and Shanta Kumar,” said state BJP chief Satpal Satti. He said it was last night that he along with BJP national secretary Shyam Jaju and three state general secretaries held discussions on the issue, before the matter was placed before MLAs and senior party office-bearers today. He said everyone was of the opinion that a feedback should be taken from all the MLAs and mandal chiefs before arriving at a final decision. “It was a few MLAs and party workers who raised the issue that the district BJP chief was not visiting their constituency even once and in case of the bigger Assembly segments, the mandal chief was not visiting all parts of the area,” said Satti. He said in case a majority favours the move, the bigger Assembly segments could have two mandal chiefs and the bigger districts like Kangra, Mandi and Shimla could have two or three district chiefs. He said the main objective was a better management of party affairs and a direct contact with workers, which was not possible for a district BJP chief in bigger districts like Kangra, Mandi and Shimla. He said the constituencies, which had vast area, could also have two mandal chiefs. Now it remains to be seen whether the move will get the nod from Shanta Kumar and his loyalists or will they oppose it the way they have done when Dhumal as Chief Minister wanted to create three districts of Palampur, Dehra and Nurpur by re-carving Kangra. In fact, Dhumal had recently raised the issue of creation of new districts after the formation of the Congress regime in the state. However, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh reacted by stating that the creation of districts should be on administrative grounds and not on political considerations.
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Nagar parishad cancels works alloted to contractors
Hamirpur, January 11 The works, amounting to several lakhs, allotted to these contractors like construction of a community centre, drains and creating facilities in Hamirpur town were pending since months. The nagar parishad authorities had served them an ultimatum to complete the works or face cancellation of allotment about a month ago. Local sources said: “These contractors had obtained the works due to their closeness with influential BJP leaders in the previous government but failed to start the same.” The issue had been raised by nagar parishad councillors in a meeting after which a notice was also issued to contractors to complete the same. The parishad had also decided to blacklist defaulter contractors and debar them from allotting work. Taking a serious note of the inordinate delay in completion of the allotted works amounting to about Rs 50 lakh, the nagar parishad had asked contractors to complete the works by December 24 or face action.
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ABVP activists burn Pak flag
Mandi, January 11 They raised anti-Pakistan slogans and said India had failed to take immediate action against Pakistan during the Kargil war when martyr Saurabh Kalia and others were tortured to death in the same fashion.
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Sukhwinder to take over on January 15 Shimla, January 11 He will take over from Virbhadra Singh who resigned as the HPCC Chief after becoming the Chief Minister. He will address party workers and also hold a meeting with office-bearers of the district and block units of the party.
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