Mandi, March 25
The court of District and Sessions Judge, Mandi, Virender Singh, today sentenced six members of the Board of Directors of Mandi Urban Cooperative Bank Limited under Sections 409 and 120-B, IPC, to four years rigorous imprisonment (RI) in a case of embezzlement of bank funds.

It also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on each of them.

They were sent to Mandi jail from where they would be sent to the Central Jail, Nahan, tomorrow, the police said.

After announcing their conviction last week, the judge had reserved the quantum of punishment for today. The prosecution had challaned 16 members of the bank, including six Board members. However, it could not prove the involvement of 10 other members of the bank and they were acquitted.

The convicted members are the then president MP Sehgal, Manjit Singh Dhamija, Ajit Kapur, Anil Kapur, Nitin Kapur and Mahesh Behl. The Judge found them guilty of criminal conspiracy and mistrust under IPC sections.

The police had registered the case in April 2005 after the RBI shut down all transaction of the bank following a case of misappropriation and embezzlement of funds of depositors came to light. The police had arrested all the accused in the case in April 2005 after an FIR was lodged and filed a challan in the court subsequently.

The Bank Depositors’ Sangharsh Samiti had launched a long struggle to bring the bank back in operation, demanding strict action against the guilty. 

Shimla, March 25
The Queen of Hills may finally get respite from the increasing stray dog menace with the High Court directing the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) to make the city free of the canines seen moving all over the place in large packs.

The problem of stray dogs has been there for the past quite sometime, but the situation turned worse after the animal birth control and anti-rabies programme (ABCARP) ran into rough weather due to lack of adequate facilities for operating on the animals. The SMC had set up a Stray Dog Birth Control Society in 2006 to sterilise dogs. The plan was to make the famous tourist destination free of stray dogs in five years. Despite the slow progress due to lack of funds, it managed to sterilise as many as 5,724 stray dogs till March 2011, covering almost 80 per cent of them.

However, the issue came under the scanner of the high court as animal rights activists drew attention to the pitiable conditions in which the dogs were kept in the shelter. The fund-starved corporation was also facing problems in feeding the dogs kept in the shelter. Moreover, dogs captured from various parts of the city were also kept there, along with those brought for sterilisation. It has been decided to involve some non-government organisation for the proper management of the dog shelter.

The SMC suspended the programme and started the construction of a new centre for the purpose and with the intervention of the court, a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was also formed. However, making the city free of stray dogs within three months will be a tall order. The number stray dogs was around 2,500 when the sterilisation programme was suspended and the number has gone up and could be anything between 4,000 and 5,000. The dog shelter has a capacity for 500 dogs and the corporation will have to make additional arrangements. The sterilisation programme can be resumed immediately, but the operated animals will have to be released somewhere else if the city is to be made free of stray dogs.

Lack of support from civic bodies and non-government organisations has been hampering the implementation of the ABCARP across the state. As per the 2007 census conducted by the department, there were over 67,000 stray dogs in the state. So far there are only about 9,000, including 5,724 in Shimla where the municipal corporation provided requisite support for capturing stray dogs and post-operative care, there is not much support for the programme elsewhere.

Shimla, March 25
The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) has issued show-cause notices to about 45 industries, private universities and stone crushers for violating environmental norms and operating without getting due sanction.

The violators, including three private universities, have been given time to obtain the necessary permissions and environmental clearances from the SPCB by March 31 or else face penal action. In case they fail to obtain the necessary sanctions, they will be panelised as per law, which includes closure of their units and disconnecting their power and water supply.

“To ensure strict adherence to environmental laws and norms, we have issued show-cause notices to about 45 units, which have been directed to comply with the laid down norms,” said Kuldeep Singh Pathania, chairman, SPCB. He said strict action would be taken against anyone found violating the norms.

The show-cause notices pertain to deviation in the approvals sought by entrepreneurs and promoters of private universities. “Some of the universities have taken an approval for undertaking construction in a specific area, but have now gone beyond that without applying and seeking fresh approvals,” Pathania said.

It was following gross violations by owners of stone crushers that a large number of these crushing units have been issued notices.

There is strict monitoring of air and sound pollution by five cement plants in the state so as to ensure that there is no adverse impact on the health of the people residing in the vicinity of these plants.

Private universities, almost 15, including 10 in Solan, have also come under the strict surveillance of the pollution board. Two universities had earlier been issued notices for not obtaining a prior environmental clearance as the built area covered by them was huge. “We will ensure that construction activity is strictly in adherence to the approved plans and there is proper debris disposal so that no damage is caused to the forest,” said an official.

Solan, March 25
Sessions Judge, Sirmour, Rajesh Verma has sentenced Balbir Singh of Jubla village to seven-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) and a fine of Rs 50,000, for raping, kidnapping and intimidating a girl.

The case pertains to July 28, 2004, when the victim was on her way to Ghanyar village, and was kidnapped near a house by Balbir, who had arrived in a Maruti van(HP 14-7112). The car was being driven by Pinku, who is the co-accused in the case.

Balbir forcibly dragged the victim inside the van and both took her to a lonely place where she was raped by him.

Mahesh Sen, district attorney, said Rs 50,000, which would be collected as fine, would be paid to the victim as compensation.

Dharamsala, March 25
Various organisations of construction workers have flayed the decision of the HP Building and Other Construction Worker Welfare Board to give Rs 1 crore towards the Chief Minister’s relief fund.

The Bhawan and other construction workers’ union has threatened to move the Supreme Court in case the money was not reverted to the board.

Ravinder Singh, general secretary of the union, while talking to The Tribune said the money of the board was meant for the welfare of construction workers.

“Its usage in all states is being monitored by the Supreme Court. However, still the HP Construction Worker Welfare Board has illegally given Rs one crore to the CM’s relief fund,” he said.

According to information, the Labour Department of the state has failed to register adequate numbers of workers under the Buildings and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.

Till date, only 400 construction workers have been registered under the Act in Kangra district, which is the biggest and most populous district of the state.

About 25 per cent population of the state is concentrated in the district. However, the district contributes just six per cent to the total number of construction workers registered in the state. Till date, about 5,500 construction workers have been registered in the entire state.

Under the scheme, construction workers would get health insurance cover of Rs 30,000, accidental death insurance worth Rs 70,000, maternity benefit to women construction workers worth Rs 10,000, pension Rs 500 per month to the construction workers remains enrolled in the scheme continuously for a period of three years after attaining the age of 60 years. Besides, they can also get interest-free loan of Rs 50,000 for the construction of house.

Due to non-registration, construction workers are being denied various benefits under the scheme.

As per the Act, the state government has imposed a cess of one per cent on all the constructions of above Rs 10 lakh in the state. The sources here said in the last three years, the government had collected cess worth Rs 101.09 crore in the state. However, due to non-registration of construction workers, the state till date has managed to disburse just Rs 2.12 lakh. Out of this amount, Rs 2 lakh has been paid as a premium to the insurance company. The only two benefits extended to labourers include Rs 2,410 medical assistance to a construction worker and Rs 10,000 as funeral assistance to a deceased.

The sources here also said the cess was also not being imposed on private sector. Rs 101.09 crore cess collected till date under the Act by the state Labour Department has been imposed on government building. Till date, the Labour Department has failed to impose cess on private building of more than Rs 10 lakh value.

The sources said even the District Rural Development Agency had failed to deposit construction cess of one per cent on the all the building brought up by them.

The sources said the state government had formed a board for implementing the Buildings and Other Construction Workers (regulation of employment and conditions of service) Act, 1996. However, the board has not opened up its offices at district levels.

Shimla, March 25
Intrigued over the failure of the government to act promptly against the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), as it did in case of swami Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogapeeth, the CPM demanded takeover of village common land allotted to the sports body in violation of law for the construction of a five-star hotel in Dharamsala

Haling the decision to charge fee for providing police security for IPL matches, the party said the government must also first recover the amount due on this account from the HPCA for matches held earlier. Further, matches should not be allowed until the outstanding dues were recovered, the party said.

The IPL was a money-making machine and not doing any charity. An amount of more than Rs 2 crore was due from it from the HPCA for matches held in earlier seasons, it said.

The CPM demanded that the government should also acquire the prime land allotted by the BJP government to the HPCA for the construction of a five-star hotel in Dharamsala in blatant violation of law.

Member of the state Secretariat of the CPM Tikender Panwar cited the landmark Supreme Court judgment of 2011 which held “transfer of village community land for private and commercial use as illegal and directed the states to take immediate steps to evict encroachers”. The court further observed that “the state governments must prepare schemes for eviction of illegal occupants of village community land and restore them for the purpose it was originally meant”.

In the present case, the HPCA happened to be an encroacher on the common land of the people and should be immediately evicted, the party demanded.

Mandi, March 25
Vikramaditya Singh, president, Himachal Pradesh Sports and Cultural Association, said today that the government would soon set up a multi-purpose sports and skill training complex in Shimla rural and a hydro-engineering college at Bilaspur.

Vikramaditya, son of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, said, “The biggest challenge before the planners is to provide sustainable job opportunities to educated unemployed youth”.

“State-specific skilled manpower will be produced in the hydro-engineering college at Bilaspur,” he said.

“Himachal youth are sincere, honest, hardworking and talented,” he said, adding that the biggest challenge was how to channelise this reservoir of youthful energy and put them on the path of sustainable growth, progress and development.

Vikramaditya was here to oversee the arrangements for a function for the Youth Congress to be addressed by the Chief Minister at Kanaid today, but it was postponed due to bad weather.

He said the youth would get skill training in adventure and other sports in the proposed multipurpose sports complex that in turn would boost self-employment and adventure tourism in the state.

Solan, March 25
Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment DR Shandil today said a trauma centre would soon be opened between Parwanoo and Dharampur to facilitate accident victims.

Addressing mediapersons here today, he said facilities in the trauma centre would surpass those prevalent in the PGI, Chandigarh. He said a parking lot would be constructed at the Kotla Nullah area of Solan and a mini-secretariat would be constructed above this building.

He said funds would be made available for this trauma centre from the Union Ministry and provide immediate relief to the patients.

He said the four-laning of the Parwanoo-Shimla National Highway would be undertaken after considering the sentiments of the people so that least loss to the public property could be caused. 

Sujanpur (Hamirpur), March 25
The four-day Sujanpur Holi festival had a colourful start today with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh participating as a chief guest in the inaugural ceremony.

The Chief Minister participated in a colourful procession taken out on the occasion. Later, the CM inaugurated an exhibition in Chowgan where 
different organisations had put up stalls to showcase their activities.

A fire show was also organised on this occasion.

Sujanpur MLA Rajender Rana, state Congress president Sukhvinder Singh, Badsar MLA Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, CM’s son Vikramaditya, Deputy Commissioner Ashish Singhmar and several other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

Shimla, March 25
Taking into consideration the decline in generation in the Nathpa Jhakri project due to low discharge in Sutlej during the current year, the Union Ministry of Power has reduced the target for 2013-14 to 6,875 million units.

A MoU to this effect was signed between P Uma Shankar, Union Secretary, Power, and RP Singh, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Sutlej Jal 
Vidyut Nigam, at New Delhi today.

The energy generation under “excellent parameters” will fetch a revenue of Rs 1,783 crore and net profit of Rs 790 crore during the year.

The target for the current year has been increased from 6,700 million units to 7,000 million units.

The MoU also provides for commissioning of the company's 47.6 MW Khirvire Wind Power Project in Maharashtra and all the six units of 412 MW Rampur Hydro-Power Project by March 2014. 

Hamirpur, March 25
The decision of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) management to extend Hamirpur-New Delhi Volvo night bus to Nagrota in Kangra district, Transport Minister GS Bali’s constituency, has turned out to be a loss-making proposition.

The bus service, earlier plying between Hamirpur and New Delhi, now starts and terminates at Nagrota Bagwan passing through Nadaun, Hamirpur and Jwalamukhi.

Though the bus service has been extended to benefit passengers of Nagrota Bagwan, Jwalamukhi, Nadaun, etc, passengers from these places do not prefer to travel to New Delhi by this service since this is an unusual route to travel between Nagrota and New Delhi.

Generally passengers from Nagrota to New Delhi travel via Amb, which is a shorter route. Moreover, they have to shell out nearly Rs 300 extra for the journey.

The extension of the bus service is also resulting into to and fro journey of about 280 km, incurring losses to the HRTC.

An HRTC employee, on condition of anonymity, said, “This service is virtually running empty between Hamirpur and Nagrota Bagwan as passengers travelling between Nagrota Bagwan and New Delhi do not like to pay nearly Rs 300 by travelling via Hamirpur and spending more time”.

Onkar Sharma, Managing Director of the HRTC, said, “The Hamirpur-New Delhi Volvo bus service has been extended to Nagrota Bagwan on an experiment basis. We will start a new Volvo bus from there soon as we are acquiring more Volvo buses”. 

Shimla, March 25
Expressing concern on the issue of sexual exploitation of a 13-year-old girl by her close relative, the HP High Court on Saturday directed the state government to register an FIR against the girl’s uncle.

After taking cognisance on the news report highlighting the victim’s plight, the court observed that a question of great sensitivity and public importance had been raised in the news item wherein it was reported that a girl was sexually exploited by her close relative. She gave birth to a baby (girl) in a hospital. Being of tender age, the mother, who is an orphan, was not in a position to look after the baby. The society should take care of the mother and her baby.

A Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice RB Mishra and Justice Rajiv Sharma further observed, “Ours is a welfare state and it is the duty of the state to take all necessary steps towards the welfare, care and protection of mother and baby since she is unable to protect herself.”

The court directed the Social Justice and Women Empowerment Director to visit the mother and the baby admitted to Ripon Hospital, Shimla, and provide all the day-to-day necessities to them. The court said in case any family was ready to adopt the baby, all the codal formalities, in accordance with the law, would be completed within two months.

Shimla, March 25
Acting on a petition filed by the Union of India, the HP High Court today stayed any excavation, digging and blasting activity in the 450 MW Shanghton-Karcham Hydroelectric Project at Reckong Peo in Kinnaur. The project is being executed by HP Power Corporation Limited.

While passing the interim order, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice RB Mishra and Justice VK Sharma further directed that such activities were allowed to be taken under the undertaking of the Power Corporation general manager, which may not affect the security measures and listed the matter for further hearing on April 11.

The court further directed the state authorities to file their replies within two weeks.

The bench passed these orders on a petition filed by the Central Government and the Western Command authorities against the state government.

The Centre has stated in its petition that the 36 Sector Ordinance Maintenance Platoon is a static unit of the Army located in Kinnaur district i.e. Shoungtong Powari.

It further said the complete unit was spread out over a distance of 2km from Shongtong to Powari through extremely rugged and mountainous terrain. That aforesaid unit was having its ammunition depot in the above mentioned place and at present huge quantum of ammunition and explosive had been stored in the ammunition point for either sending it to the troops located in the border area. Looking into the aspect seriously, the Central Government had issued a notification in 2005 restricting construction activities in the clearance zone. It further alleged that the Army authorities wrote to the Deputy Commissioner, Kinnaur, in September 2007 to advise the HPPCL not to acquire the land for the project as no construction was permitted in the area.

It further alleged that in February 2011 the Army authorities requested the Chief Secretary to issue suitable directions to change the route of the tunnel of the project. But despite several objections of the Army, the construction work was already going on and substantial work had already been carried out. 

Bilaspur, March 25
The low railings of the Kandraur bridge over the Sutlej has claimed the life of a young girl.

An unidentified girl is said to have suddenly jumped into the Sutlej from the Kandraur bridge today. Reports said eyewitnesses saw the girl running on the bridge and before any one could sense her intention, she jumped into the river.

Villagers informed the police about the incident, but it did not succeed in finding the body as gushing currents of water made the search difficult.

The police will take the help of CCTV camera fixed on the bridge to establish the girl’s identity.