Una, February 15
The Una police today claimed to have solved the case of the murder of Vinod Kumar, the industrialist from Punjab who was killed at Mehatpur yesterday, with the arrest of his factory manager Pradeep Gupta and four alleged contract killers.

The police claimed that this was the first instance of Himachali youth turning into contract killers. The police also claimed that they killed the industrialist for a petty sum of Rs 40,000 and the youth who pulled the trigger did it for Rs 7,500.

Una Superintendent of Police (SP) Ravinder Sharma told The Tribune that the investigation had revealed that Pradeep managed work at Vinod’s cottonseed oil mill and Vinod rarely visited it.

The SP said Pradeep allegedly swindled about Rs 20 lakh from mill sales and Vinod came to the mill yesterday to settle the issue, but Pradeep planned Vinod’s murder as he did not have the amount.

The SP said Pradeep initially contacted Anil Kumar, a local resident, and planned the murder. The SP added that Anil hired three unemployed Una youths — Rajeev of Dehlan village, Sunil of Rakkar Colony and Arun of Badala village.

The SP said the four youths were promised Rs 2 lakh and paid Rs 40,000 as advance. He added that a 20-inch countrymade pistol was used for the crime.

He elaborated that Arun, who drove the motorcycle used for the crime, got Rs 20,000, Rajeev, who pulled the trigger, got Rs 7,500, Sunil, who rode the motorcycle with them, got Rs 7,500 and Anil, who planned the crime, got Rs 5,000.

Police sources said Rajeev had procured the pistol from the Saharanpur area in Uttar Pradesh for Rs 8,000, which was paid by Pradeep. The police said the pistol and motorcycle used in the crime were recovered.

The police also claimed that Pradeep provided logistic support by giving details of Vinod’s movements after his arrival. The police said the accused shot Vinod and fled to their respective villages using village roads.

The SP claimed that Pradeep spilt the beans after he was apprehended last evening, after which the police caught the other four accused. He said they would try to locate the source of the pistol.

Mandi, February 15
There was one foot of snowfall in Lahaul-Spiti since last night while the Mandi-Kullu region was lashed by rain. The Keylong-Sissu and Keylong-Udaipur highways were blocked again.

The Jalori Pass, the Parbati valley, Thirthan and Sainj in Kullu district and Parashar, Shikari Devi and Kamrunaga in Mandi district received snowfall, with the cold wave sweeping the region.

The district administration sounded an alert in the Lahaul and upper Manali areas not to venture out as the weather forecast warned of heavy snowfall in the next 48 hours.

Manali: Inclement weather conditions worsened on Friday as the upper Manali area received a fresh spell of snowfall while the lower parts of the area were lashed by rain.

Tourists rushed to Nehru Kund and the Solang valley. The Rohtang Pass, the Pir Panjal ranges, Marhi, Gulaba, Kothi, Dhundi, Bhrigu slopes, Hamta slopes and the Chanderkhani Pass also received moderate-to-heavy snowfall.

Kangra: People shivered on Friday as the Kangra valley was lashed by heavy rain since the afternoon and the Dhauladhar ranges and foothills received heavy snowfall.

The mercury dropped considerably and icy winds forced most people to remain indoors. Markets and streets wore a deserted look. Motorists were forced to drive vehicles with headlights on.

Reports of rain were also received from McLeodganj, Bagsu Nag, Naddi, Dharamsala Cantonment, Jwalamukhi, Haripur, Shahpur, Dhraman, Nagrota Bagwan, Icchhi, Gaggal, Mallan, Palampur and Ranital.

Shimla, February 15
With its accumulated losses crossing the Rs 650-crore mark and outstanding liabilities of Rs 330 crore, the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) is struggling to pay salaries to its employees.

With an income of Rs 26 per km per bus and expenditure of Rs 32 per km per bus, the loss is mounting with each passing day. As a result, the loss during 2011-12 came to a whopping Rs 81 crore despite a grant of Rs 90 crore and the cumulative figure reached Rs 653 crore.

Outstanding liabilities have swelled to Rs 330 crore even though the government enhanced the grant for the current year to Rs 215 crore. The HRTC had raised a loan of Rs 15 crore to pay salaries for January. The situation is worsening due to operational losses and the HRTC will have a major problem in paying salaries for February and March.

It has not paid special road tax amounting to over Rs 83 crore, has utilised the provident fund amount of employees to meet daily expenditure and has failed to replace about 300 old buses over the last two years.

The monthly HRTC income is around Rs 32 crore while committed expenditure mainly on account of salaries, pensions and diesel is about Rs 50 crore. Expenditure outstrips income by almost 50 per cent which is unsustainable. Things are going to turn even worse with the government announcing free travel for school students unless the HRTC is compensated adequately for it.

HRTC Managing Director Onkar Sharma admitted that the picture on the financial front was scary. He added that he had initiated measures to improve efficiency and curtail expenditure to reduce operational losses. He asserted that a turnaround would not be possible without substantial assistance from the government.

Apart from high establishment expenses, the main reason for losses is that the HRTC is plying buses on unviable rural routes where private operators refuse to provide service. The gravity of the situation can be judged from the fact that only 124 of the 1,500 routes on which the HRTC plies buses fetch more than Rs 32 per km per bus.

The Managing Director has started negotiations with banks for the lowering of the rate of interest on advance under the cash credit limit and overdraft. He has started monitoring the income and fuel consumption on routes to plug leakage. A scheme to reward efficient staff has also been introduced.

The process of hiring private buses on km basis under the public-private partnership has been initiated to curtail operational expenses. Under the scheme, the HRTC will provide a conductor for the collection of revenue and the entire operational expenditure will be borne by the private party. The policy of indiscriminate and irrational privatisation of passenger transport services has hurt the HRTC the most with private operators managing to get all profitable routes with favourable timings, usually preceding HRTC buses.

The occupancy of HRTC buses has declined from 72 per cent to 57 per cent over a decade. The government should rationalise the privatisation policy to ensure fair and healthy competition.

deep in the red
* Accumulated losses of Rs 653 crore
* Outstanding liabilities of Rs 330 crore

Shimla, February 15
Lambasting the plans of the BJP to divide Kangra district, the Congress said today that the party had not learnt any lesson from its defeat in the Assembly poll.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Neeraj Bharati and vice-chairman of the State Road Transport Corporation Kewal Pathania in a joint statement here today said the BJP while in power always tried to divide Kangra as a result of which the largest district of the state suffered on the development front.

“Even after being thrown out of power, BJP leaders are making such statements to gain publicity, but the people are wise and well aware of their intentions,” they said.

“While the Congress government headed by Virbhadra Singh accelerated development in Kangra, the BJP regime only shifted offices from Kangra to Hamirpur, ignoring the interests of the people,” they said.

The BJP leaders remained a mute spectator as divisional offices of the PWD, Irrigation and Public Health and the State Electricity Board were shifted and the Forest Office of Dehra was also linked to Hamirpur and the Wildlife Division at Nagrota Suriyan was shifted to Hamirpur. All this was done at the behest of former Chief Minister PK Dhumal, they alleged.

They said sub-divisions at Biajnath, Palampur and Jaisinghpur and tehsils at Jwalamukhi, Shapur and Indora were opened by Congress governments led by Virbhadra Singh.

While the BJP government could not even provide land for the Central University during its five year term, Virbhadra Singh had already taken up the matter with Union Human Resource Minister Pallam Raju and adequate land would be provided for the construction of its campus soon, they added.

Shimla, February 15
A team of forensic experts assigned the task of examining the seized hard disc of the CID wing of the police today submitted its final report to the state government. It contains a list of about 1,100 telephone numbers along with recorded conversations in four CDs.

The three-member team headed by Visheshwar Sharma, assistant director, State Forensic Science Laboratory, Junga, submitted its final report to Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy. The 14-page report contains a list of about 1,100 telephone numbers, which had been put under surveillance by the police. This includes mobile numbers of almost all cellular service providers and a few BSNL land numbers of Shimla as well. Some Delhi mobile numbers were also put on surveillance, the report said.

“The team has submitted its report and action will be taken by the government after a detailed examination of the telephone numbers to ascertain how many numbers were put on surveillance with prior permission and how many done without sanction,” the Chief Secretary said. A final decision in this regard is expected only once Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh returns to the state capital from Delhi on February 17.

Highly placed sources said the record of 1,100 telephone numbers, which were put on surveillance, was found and in some of the numbers, the conversation had been deleted, which if required, could be retrieved. The government could also send these hard discs for retrieving the deleted conversation to some other laboratory outside the state. The recorded conversation of some senior political leaders has been found in the hard discs.

The hard discs of the computers were seized from the technical wing of the CID on the night of December 24, a day before Virbhadra Singh took oath as the Chief Minister. Two days later, the hard discs of all the computers of the CID as well as the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau were seized and handed over to the forensic experts.

According to the Indian Telegraph Act, the telephone of an individual can be put on surveillance only after obtaining a prior permission and that, too, for a specified period only. In most cases, the Home Department allows the police to put a phone on surveillance only of it is required for tracking crime.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has said action will be taken against those who illegally tapped the telephone numbers of individuals after the final report from the forensic experts is received.

Shimla, February 15
The Central government has sanctioned a grant of Rs 1.89 crore for the modernisation and construction of fish landing centres in the state reservoirs under the scheme of the National Fisheries Development Board, Hyderabad.

Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri, who also holds the portfolio of fisheries, said here today that the state was concentrating on maintaining the quality of fish in state reservoirs to benefit those involved in the avocation.

He said one more project for creation of post harvest infrastructure (cold chain) in the state reservoirs was in the pipeline and likely to be sanctioned soon.

The state had successfully transferred the technology for rainbow trout farming in private sector and 370 trout units had been set up and 100 new trout units were being added by providing technical and financial assistance, he added.

The Forest Minister said efforts were afoot to produce fish seed at trout fish farm in Patlikuhl, which was a model demonstration centre for private entrepreneurs. He said recently, 30,000 seed of rainbow trout had been exported to Bhutan and two lakh seed had been sold to Sikkim from the Patlikuhl farm, which had a record production of trout seed during the current year.

Chamba, February 15
Top priority has being accorded for the implementation of Centrally-sponsored schemes in Chamba district for which a sum of Rs 1.38 crore has been sanctioned by the Centre under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund during the past three and a half years.

Presiding over a district officers’ meeting with regard to the development works review here yesterday, Kangra Lok Sabha MP Rajan Sushant said of 97 development works assigned to the four Assembly constituencies of Chamba district under the MPLAD funds, 39 had been completed so far.

The MP told the officers to accomplish the ongoing development works by March 31 deadline so that rural people could get basic amenities at their doorstep.

Dr Sushant also appealed to the officials to make all-out efforts benefiting the general public through the development schemes launched in the district.

Kangra, February 15
Senior BJP leader former and Food and Civil Supply Minister Ramesh Dhawala has lambasted the Congress government in the state for allegedly wasting public funds to the tune of Rs 45 lakh for new bags bearing the pictures of Congress leaders, when jute bags were already available but with pictures of a BJP leader.

Dhawala was addressing mediapersons at his native Rainta village, near Jawalamukhi, yesterday. Attacking the Congress government for “dumping” 3.5 lakh jute bags bearing pictures of a BJP leader and replacing them with new bags bearing pictures of Congress leaders for distributing ration he said this was a wastage of public funds which had been incurred on new bags. He described this as unfortunate.

The former minister criticised the Congress for changing the name of “108 Atal Swasthya Yojna” and said a Prime Minister represented the entire nation and his name should be beyond party politics.

He also criticised the decision of the Congress to stop work on a sabzi mandi at Prala in Shimla district which was inaugurated by former Chief Minister PK Dhumal. Such decisions were politically motivated and served no public cause, he added. 

Solan, February 15
Cases of leopards straying into human habitation appear to be on the rise with two leopards having been killed in the Bilaspur circle after turning man-eater and an alert having been sounded for a third one.

The case of a fully grown leopard caught in a hunter’s trap purportedly laid for barking deer came to light in the Nalagarh subdivision on Sunday.

The leopard was grievously injured and succumbed to its injuries due to cardiac arrest and shock. Instances of poaching are also coming to light from various parts of the state.

There is little check on the hunting of animals like wild boar and barking deer. Local residents often kill these animals for meat using weapons issued for crop protection.

This destroys the natural feed of leopards, forcing those to stray into human habitation. Those also fall in traps laid for barking deer and wild boars.

The emergence of concrete and cement units in the Bilaspur-Darlaghat area had led to a reduction in the forest area and natural habitat of leopards. A part of the Majathal reserve forest was denotified to pave the way for a cement unit.

Commercial activities like plying of trucks and laying of roads took a further toll of forest cover. Wildlife authorities have failed to give serious thought to preserving the habitat of vulnerable wildlife species.

When contacted, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) SB Islam, also the Chief Wildlife Warden, said cases of attack on children were reported from the Bilaspur area in the last two months, including the death of two children.

He said a survey on the number of leopards in the Bilaspur area was being undertaken to ascertain concentration. He added that traps had failed to catch the animals and those had to be killed to provide relief to the people.

Bilaspur, February 15
Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Gurmeet Kaur has found Shob Ram of Sarad village, near here, and his accomplice Prakash Chand of Budhu Ram, Mangrot village, Deoli police station, guilty under Sections 342 and 458/34 of the IPC.

Both were sentenced to six months jail each with an additional fine of Rs 200 each under Sections 342/34, IPC, and also six months in jail and additional fine of Rs 500 each under Sections 458/34, IPC.

Earlier, Assistant Public Prosecutor Champa Sureel told the court that the two had hatched a conspiracy and entered the room of complainant woman at night of January 13, 2001, while her husband and mother-in-law were sleeping in another room which they bolted from outside. Prakash Chand stood outside, Shobh Ram entered through a window the complainant’s room where she was sleeping with her minor children.

Bilaspur, February 15
Divisional Forest Officer DR Kaushal said here recently that a “leopard cub”, which injured two persons of Dib Hawani village, near here, was not a leopard cub, but a wild cat.

He said two villagers saw the wild cat when they were going to feed their cattle yesterday and thought it to be a leopard cub. The animal even scratched them when they tried to catch it. Later, some villagers joined them and caught the cat.

Afterwards, forest officials also reached the spot and rescued the animal.

Kaushal said he had given instructions to the forest officials to make villagers aware of the differences between a wild cat and a leopard cub so that in future they should not panic. 

Mandi, February 15
The father of the girl who committed suicide on February 11 at her husband’s house accused her husband and his family members of forcing his daughter to commit suicide. The police has booked the accused under Sections 498-A and 306, IPC, at Jogindernagar police station.

According to the police, Ishwar Dass, the deceased’s father and a resident of Chadhung village (Jogindenagar), his daughter was married to Lal Singh of Dhurli Sammon, Jogindernagar, and her husband and mother-in-law had been harassing her for long.