Shimla, April 1
Rising above party lines, the Congress and the BJP today expressed concern in the Vidhan Sabha over the sharp decline in learning levels in schools and called with one voice for the reintroduction of Class V and VIII examinations to stem the rot.

The House also unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, to allow the state to conduct examinations for Class V and Class VIII till the comprehensive and continuous evaluation (CCE) has been strictly implemented.

Moving the government resolution, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the scrapping of the examinations conducted by the board and introduction of the CCE in its place had done no good and instead had led to a “huge fall” in education standards at the primary level.

Students were not serious about studies and teachers were no longer interested in teaching as they knew that promotions to the next level would be effected without any examination.

Even parents had stopped taking interest and they were not bothered about the performance of their children, he said.

Obviously, the system of CCE was not working well and if this situation was allowed to continue, the state would lose the ground it had covered in the field of education, the Chief Minister said.

He said he would take up the matter at all the levels to ensure that the law was amended and a credible system to evaluate learning levels was put in place.

Leader of Opposition PK Dhumal said the country had adopted a system which had failed in the US. The BJP had opposed the move of the Centre and he had even met the then Union Minster for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal, but he did not relent.

He said the massive slide in learning levels came to light when an examination was conducted for granting scholarships to meritorious students as there was no Class V examination of the board. It was shocking that Class V students were not able to comprehend the books of Class II.

Further, the students were psychologically not prepared for appearing in examinations and faced problems later. However, he pointed out that Section 30 of the Act clearly stated that no child should be required to pass any board examination till the completion of the elementary education and every child would be awarded a certificate in the prescribed manner. As education was in the concurrent list, the government should also explore the possibility of amending the Act at the state level, he said.

Out of 13,777 students of Class VI who took the scholarship test, over 90 per cent failed to secure even the pass marks (34 per cent) in English, Mathematics and Environment Science (EVS). The latest Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) revealed that the percentage of Class III students in government schools, who could not read Level I text had increased from 33 per cent in 2008 to over 40 per cent in 2011.

CHANGING NORMs

* The House unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, to allow the state to conduct examinations for Class V and Class VIII

* The Chief Minister said the scrapping of the examinations conducted by the board and introduction of the CCE in its place led to a “huge fall” in education standards at the primary level

* Dhumal said the country had adopted a system which had failed in the US

Shimla, April 1
Discussion over renaming of schemes started by the previous BJP regime ended in an uproar with the Opposition expressing dissatisfaction over the reply of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Speaker BB Butail adjourning the House.

Confusion prevailed as BJP members said they had staged a walkout as they were not satisfied with the Chief Minister’s reply and Butail maintaining that he had adjourned the House.

Earlier, replying to the discussion initiated by Rajeev Bindal, Virbhadra defended the decision to rechristen some of the schemes named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and said it did not mean any disrespect to the leader. He said the BJP government had also renamed the Rajiv Gandhi Aawas Yojna as the Atal Aawas Yojna.

Regarding the Atal Swasthya Yojna, he said it was part of the National Rural Health Mission and the Centre had after review named it the Rashtriya Swasthya Yojna. The Atal School Uniform Yojna, which was partly being financed under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, had been renamed as the Mahatma Gandhi Vardi Yojna.

The free bag scheme under which a bag with the picture of Vajpayee was given for carrying ration was a one-time affair, while there was no justification for the Atal Adarsh Gram Puruskar Yojna in view of the fact that a Centrally sponsored Panchayat Empowerment and Accountability Incentive Scheme was already in place.

Initiating the discussion, Bindal alleged that the Congress was setting an unhealthy precedent by renaming schemes just to remove the name of one of the most illustrious leader of the country, which was not acceptable.

The Atal Swasthya Sewa had responded to 2.80 lakh emergencies and transported over 48,000 pregnant women to hospital for delivery, besides attended to 11,000 accidents and there was no need to rename it, he said.

Earlier, during the Question Hour, Virbhadra Singh said the estimated cost of the proposed Kharapathar tunnel in the apple belt of Shimla district was about Rs 247 crore. The consultant agency was also of the view that the tunnel might not be beneficial for the people, he said.

New Delhi, April 1
Congress President Sonia Gandhi today appointed Sukhvinder Singh Sukku president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) with immediate effect. Sukku had been named officiating state party chief in January after Virbhadra Singh resigned from the post following his election as Chief Minister.

A press statement issued by AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi this evening said Sukku had now been confirmed as the new PCC chief. Sukhvinder is a two-time former MLA who lost the recent Assembly election from Nadaun in Hamirpur.

Sukhvinder’s appointment is significant as he is known to be a Virbhadra Singh-baiter and is currently close to the Chief Minister’s bete noire Commerce Minister Anand Sharma. At one point, Sukhvinder was known for his proximity to senior Congress leader Vidya Stokes when she had taken on Virbhadra Singh. Stokes has since patched up with the Chief Minister. Sukhvinder’s appointment is also a measure of Anand Sharma’s clout in the party at the Centre.

Congress insiders said Sukhvinder’s politics had always been anti-Virbhadra Singh who would have preferred that this post went to his loyalist former MP Chander Kumar. The fact that Sukhvinder had been confirmed as PCC chief despite the Chief Minister’s best efforts was a clear sign that it would not like to give him a free hand. Virbhadra had dictated his terms in the run-up to the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls when he threatened to join the NCP. The party placated him by appointing him PCC chief, projecting him as the CM candidate and gave him freedom in the selection of candidates.

The party had then given in to the veteran leader under duress as it did not have an effective and charismatic Chief Ministerial candidate in the state. Moreover, it was important for the Congress to win Himachal Pradesh at all costs as its defeat in the Gujarat Assembly polls was a foregone conclusion. Congress sources said having pandered to him before the elections, the Congress leadership would now like to keep a check on him or else it would create further trouble for the party in the Lok Sabha elections. As it is, the dissident camp in Himachal Pradesh has been complaining of marginalisation by the Chief Minister.

Keeping the Chief Minister on a tight leash, the party leadership has not cleared the appointment of chairmen of boards and parliamentary secretaries sent by Virbhadra whose loyalists maintain he was not being allowed to function by New Delhi even though he was singlehandedly responsible for the party’s victory in the hill state.

Shimla, April 1
The State Home Department is likely to issue notices to cellular service providers showing reluctance in disclosing names of subscribers whose mobile phones have been intercepted by the police so that the investigation in the phone tapping case can proceed further.

It is learnt that some of the service providers, including Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), from whom details of the names of subscribers, whose phones had been tapped had been sought, showed reluctance in disclosing the names. Probe into the alleged phone tapping case can proceed only once the investigating agency has the complete details of the person whose phones were intercepted by the CID and the Vigilance Bureau.

“Since the service providers are not being too cooperative, we will shortly be issuing them notices so that we can get a complete list of the persons whose phones have been intercepted as per the data found in the hard disc of computers seized from the CID and the Vigilance Bureau,” an official said.

Reports said the cellular providers have been dilly-dallying in furnishing details of the subscribers.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had already said the Vigilance Bureau would probe the phone tapping case and the investigation was likely to be over in two months. However, even after two months since the team of forensic experts submitted the final report complete with the telephone numbers and the recorded conversations, there has been very little progress. Till now, the Home Department had not been able to get the complete list of persons whose numbers were tapped.

Virbhadra had earlier said out of the total figure of 1,370 numbers, which were allegedly intercepted by the police, permission had been granted in only 170 cases. He had alleged that besides trying to use a bugging device in his room in the Himachal Bhawan, cellphones of several politicians and bureaucrats had been intercepted illegally during the BJP regime.

Solan, April 1
Acceding to the demand of Kasauli-based Central Research Institute (CRI), the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has granted a year’s extension to the institute’s old manufacturing facility after dilly-dallying over the issue for over a month.

A letter regarding the same was received by the institute on March 26. The licence of the old facility, which manufactures various anti-sera and various vaccines falling under the Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus group, was suspended in 2008 after its manufacturing facility had failed to confirm to the World Health Organisation’s Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).

The licence was, however, revoked for three years in February 2010 on the condition that the institute would ensure compliance of GMP norms within the next three years. This deadline had expired on February 28, but the institute was yet to ready its lab as per the laid down condition.

The institute management had, therefore, sought a year’s time to comply with the GMP norms and this request has been accepted by the ministry now.

This has come as a big relief to the institute where all fresh production activities had come to a halt and work was only underway to complete manufacturing of pipeline process of manufacturing.

The CRI was among two other national-level institutes which had received this extension and Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) Vaccine Laboratory, Guindy, and the Pasteur Institute of India (PII), Coonoor, were among other institutes who had received extension for two years each.

Director, CRI, Dr Sunil Gupta, while confirming the news, said the renewal of the licence of the old facility would enable them to manufacture various products like anti-sera and DPT group vaccines. He said they had written to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to provide adequate funds for undertaking upgrade of the old facility to confirm to the GMP norms as this was the need of the hour.

The institute could barely complete 50 per cent of last year’s targets and it was yet to accept targets for this financial year.

Since the new lab set up in December last year was undertaking trial vaccine production, only the lone commercial vaccine production was being undertaken only from the old facility. 

Chamba, April 1
Consequent upon the directives of the state government, the restoration work to reopen the snow-covered Chamba-Killar-Alwas highway has been undertaken by the Public Works Department (PWD) on a war footing, but the unseasonal snowfall due to the intermittent bad weather is coming in the way of progress to remove snow from the road, according to reports reaching here today.

In fact, the Chamba-Killar highway links Killar, the Pangi tribal sub-divisional headquarters with Chamba, the district headquarters town, which remains closed for almost six-seven months during the harsh winter season when the Pangi valley experiences heavy snowfall.

Since the road is deep in snow, the PWD had been making concerted efforts to clear the road and reopen it for the plying of transportation services as early as possible, the reports said.

The officials maintained that despite all odds, the workforce of the PWD was making headway to reopen the highway, adding that so far a stretch of about 10-km distance of this road had been cleared of snow and the restoration work on the road was still continuing. 

Bilaspur, April 1
People from Balh Seena, Barthin and Bhadoliyan areas in Jhandutta Development Block, near here, protested against the decision of the Forest Department to release a large number of monkeys in their areas.

Village leaders, including Ram Pal, Nardev, Raj Kumar, Kamal Kant, Rinku Guleria, Rakesh Chandel, Devanand, Nand Lal and Madan Lal, said they were already troubled by monkeys in their villages and any further release would only add to their problem. The strong opposition by the villagers forced the officials of the department to leave the place without releasing the monkeys.

However, Divisional Forest Officer DR Kaushal said the monkeys were caught earlier from these areas and taken to a sterilisation centre in Hamirpur. He said according to rules, the animals were to be released in the same area from where they had been caught.

He said in case the villagers did not allow the monkeys to be released back to their places, the department would stop the process in these areas. 

Chamba, April 1
The Government Senior Secondary School, Khushnagri, situated in the outlying Churah subdivision of Chamba district, has been declared a ‘model’ school by the state government in 2010 when it was of middle standard.

Later on, the school was upgraded to the senior secondary level and the classes for the IX standard commenced in 2011. Now, with the inception of the new academic session, Class XI is proposed to be started in the school.

Surprisingly, the model school has been run by six teachers against a sanctioned strength of 34, including other staff, for the past three years. Even the accommodation in the school is not sufficient.

Members of the local School Managing Committee (SMC), met Chamba Deputy Commissioner (DC)Kadam Sandeep Vasant on Monday and apprised him of the prevailing situation in the school.

The DC assured the members of the SMC that the issue would be taken up with the Education Department for requisite action on priority.

Mandi, April 1
Children living with the deadly HIV/AIDS infection and AIDS orphans are being deprived of financial aid and other help from the government as the State AIDS Control Society (SAIDSCS) has no ready mechanism to identify them. The death of AIDS patients is not strictly monitored in the state.

The SAIDSCS has no exact data on how many AIDS/HIV positive patients have died so far and how many AIDS orphans have been left behind by such parents.

“This is so because the integrated counselling and testing centres (ICTCs) overseen by district surveillance officials do not monitor the death of AIDS patients,” insiders revealed.

The programme officers claimed that there were about 1,601 children getting financial assistance from the state government till September 2012.

However, they admitted that they had no exact data on how many were AIDS orphans.

There are about 5,367 AIDS/HIV positive patients registered at three anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres at the IGMC, Shimla, Zonal Hospital, Hamirpur, and Tanda Medical College.

However, only 2,117 patients were actually getting ART treatment at these centres in the state till September 2012, sources said.

Health officials said the state government gives them a financial assistance of Rs 300, Rs 600 and Rs 800 intermittently up to 18 years.

The SAIDSC has appointed ICTC counsellors to monitor the patients. However, insiders said there was no ground mechanism to monitor death and identify AIDS orphans in the process.

“This may be because patients fear stigma and prefer to get ART medicines from outside as NALCO guidelines give him/her the freedom for keeping anonymity,” said Dr Hemant Kapur, District AIDS Programme Officer, Mandi, where 158 children are getting financial assistance from the government.

“There is no strict monitoring of death of AIDS patients,” he added.

The story is no different in other districts as well.

“Children who have lost either of their parents to this disease are left in the lurch after the death of their parents as they are subjected to the general social stigma attached to the disease,” the health officials said.

Dr Kuljit Dogra, state programmes officer, said ICTC counsellors keep a track of AIDS patients. “If patients do not come to ART centres for two months, we are supposed to get in touch with them,” he said.

He said he had no exact number of AIDS orphans, but they were getting free medicines as per NALCO guidelines and from the state government scheme. However, AIDS/HIV had shown a downward trend by 54 per cent for the last 10 years, he added.

He said they had involved 26 NGOs working with the high-risk group, sex workers, migrant labourers and truck drivers keeping track of both the AIDS patients and AIDS orphans.

Solan, April 1
The problem of solid waste disposal in the historic town of Paonta Sahib may finally find a solution with the local Municipal Committee (MC) finally identifying a piece of land at Rampurghat for setting up this plant.

The Deputy Commissioner has already inspected the site and officials of the MC are hopeful of getting approval for this site soon, confirmed MC president Sanjay Singhal.

Though several efforts had been made to find a suitable site for setting up this plant in the past too, it could not be done due to public objections. Since such a plant was supposed to create filth and malodor, residents had been opposing its setting up tooth and nail.

Interestingly, the site at Rampurghat had been selected earlier too, but work could not begin due to objection by locals and it was shifted to Kedarpur. The plant, however, could not be set up here too, despite initiating some work like raising the boundary wall, as objections from the locals acted as a deterrent to complete the work.

With a population of about 25,000, the absence of scientific disposal of the town’s municipal solid waste was creating pollution-related problems. Though several notices had been issued by the State Pollution Control Board to set up this facility at the earliest, work appeared to be progressing at a snail’s pace.

Dr S Kumar, Environment Engineer, Pollution Control Board, Paonta Sahib, said the board had served a notice about a month and a half ago directing the MC to set up this plant at the earliest and such notices had been served in the past too.

Despite being a historic town housing a famous gurdwara where lakhs of pilgrims paid obeisance every year, representatives of the MC had failed to garner people’s support to select a site and construct a solid waste plant. This was despite the fact that funds worth Rs 52 lakh had been provided to the MC to initiate this work for the last almost a decade.

In the absence of scientific disposal of solid waste, the town wears a littered look with garbage disposal being dependent on manual collection and incomplete disposal.

Panchkula, April 1
In a major development in the infamous Jyoti murder case, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed for further investigations. It was after the deceased girl’s father had filed an appeal in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the police was under the influence of main accused Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary that SIT was formed.

Several objections were raised by the district attorney when the challan was sent to him for conformation.

SIT will comprise three persons, Panchkula Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Ashwin Shenvi, Panchkula Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Virender Sangwan and ACP Naraingarh Suresh Kumar.

The father, in his appeal, alleged that the police was acting in connivance with Chaudhary and might even destroy the proofs. He had requested the court to either get the investigation done from a separate investigating agency or some senior officer.

Recently the hair sample reports of the Doon MLA were out from the Forensic State Laboratory (FSL) which revealed that the hair samples did not match with those of the hair strands found on the victim’s sweater at the time of the murder.

The court had then sent a notice to the Panchkula police asking it to put up a report about the complete case. The case will come up for hearing on April 9.

Jyoti (24) was found murdered on a road in Sector 21, Panchkula, on November 22, 2012. It was later that the police arrested Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary and his aides who, according to the police, had murdered the victim because she was forcing him to continue relations with her.

Bilaspur, April 1
The police has arrested Sanjiv Kumar (25) of Doorghat village in the Jhandutta constituency, 90 km from here, under Sections 307 and 223, IPC, for injuring his elder brother Prem Lal (31) on Friday night at Talai.

Reports said the victim’s parents with other villagers ran towards a nearby jungle on hearing his cries from there at night and found him injured.

They also found their younger son Sanjiv there who said they had had a fight in which Prem had got injured.

Prem was rushed to the Jhandutta Community Health Centre, then to the Regional Hospital and from here to the IGMC, Shimla. His condition is said to be serious. — OC

Kangra, April 1
The Heritage Education and Communication Service (HECS) of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), with the support of the Ministry of Culture, has been involved in building a network of heritage clubs in schools throughout the country. To make this possible, a two-day workshop was organised at GAV Public School in Kangra.

Stating this here today, state convenor, INTACH, Maalvika Pathania said this workshop was a first of its kind in the state in which 75 teachers from 32 schools affiliated with the CBSE and 15 government schools affiliated with the HP Board of School Education participated.

She said the workshop was to bring heritage education close to schools through teachers so that architectural heritage, besides environmental and intangible heritage, was preserved. She said this workshop also helped the teaching community to learn more about the Indian cultural heritage.

Maalvika, oldest convener and 43rd life member of INTACH, said the workshop was aimed at inculcating awareness and appreciation of the heritage of the city and the state to which the teachers belonged, starting heritage clubs in schools, helping teachers organise hands-on activities, motivating them to use appropriate resource material in classroom teaching and making them play an effective role in sensitising children about heritage. She said the teachers were told to increase the use of multimedia, including websites, films and DVDs, in classrooms.

Each teacher was provided with a resource kit. He/she would be awarded a certificate at the culmination of the workshop tomorrow, Maalvika said. She lauded the role of Principal Sukwinder Singh of GAV Public School for showing keen interest in organising the workshop. She said different government and private colleges had also shown interest in bringing college students close to national heritage.

Elizabeth, a research scholar from the USA, stressed on teachers to impart Indian cultural values to students so that the Indian cultural heritage remained alive in the years to come. Poornima Dutta, Director, INTACH, gave tips to teachers regarding the preservation of the Indian heritage and moral values to be infused in children.

Maalvika said INTACH was working in preserving such sites in the state which were not under the control of the ASI. She said the famous Badarakali temple at Sarrah, which had tilted during the 1905 earthquake and was kept alive by local pundits for a century by performing puja in it, was reconstructed after matching the stones by experts from Orissa. It took seven years to complete this project. She said the renovation of the Boothnath temple in Mandi would be completed soon.

She said under the directions of the state High Court, preservation of the heritage site at Poanta Sahib had also been started. 

Shimla, April 1
The State Forest Corporation Employees Corporation has accused the top brass of the Forest Department of mismanaging the affairs of the corporation and drew attention of the government to some of its recent questionable decisions.

Alleging that the autonomy of the institution had been severely undermined due to excessive interference of the department, it questioned the decision to donate Rs 98 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund when the corporation had accumulated loss to the tune of Rs 40 crore. Recently, the corporation raised a loan and donated Rs 51 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

The irregular and premature promotions of IFS officer effected in the Forest Department had put an additional burden of Rs 25 to Rs 30 lakh per month, while the decision of the government to raise the minimum daily wages from Rs 130 to Rs 150 per day had not been implemented in the forest corporation. In other public sector undertaking, it was implemented from September 2012.

Bilaspur, April 1
The police at Suharghat, near here, has registered a case under Section 3 of the HP PDP Act against some unknown elements who have destroyed and demolished the foundation-laying plate wall of an artificial lake.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had performed stone-laying ceremony in 2006.

Reports said the case was registered on the complaint of a chowkidar residing nearby, who had reported to the police regarding the demolition of the structure.

Earlier, a large number of leaders from the Block Congress, Naina Devi, including District Congress general secretary Kuldip Singh Deol, former Bilaspur Sadar Block Development Committee chairman Ram Chand Dangi, Block Youth Congress president Narender Thakur, State Mahila Congress vice-president Amarjit Kaur, Tarwaad panchayat president Ranjit Singh, Block Mahila Congress president Seema Thakur, Reeh panchayat president Surendra Kumari and Talli panchayat president Devi Ram had taken a strong exception to this misdeed of some mischievous elements and demanded an immediate action against culprits.

This foundation stone was laid by the Chief Minister under the Mid-Himalaya Watershed Development Project.

However, the scheme, like some other schemes in this area, became a “victim of political controversy” as there was a change in government and this could not be implemented during all these years and the foundation stone stood as only a land mark on the spot. 

Nurpur, April 1
A large number of BSNL subscribers who had deposited their landline and postpaid mobile bills in the local Lok Mitra Kendra are facing hardship as their outgoing calls have been barred by the BSNL. According to information, the subscribers who had deposited their bills on March 21, just two days before the last date of making payment (March 23), were unable to make calls on their cell phones today.

The Lok Mitra Kendra in charge said the payment of BSNL bills had been remitted online and receipts had been issued to subscribers.

Amballika Sharma, Account Manager, BSNL, Dharamsala, in her official version admitted a communication error in the transmission of bill payments made on March 21. This problem would be rectified, she added.

Nurpur, April 1
Following a tip-off, a team of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Kangra district, led by three inspectors conducted a raid in the Suliali gram panchayat yesterday and found the illicit felling of trees on private lands owned by six owners. Bureau SP Vimal Gupta confirmed the detection of illicit felling of around 30 trees of different species on private lands by forest contractor Tilak Raj, a resident of nearby Lakhwal village.

Briefing mediapersons, Bureau ASP YR Jaryal said after getting secret information, a team was constituted which started investigations and found that the accused contractor, under the pretext of having permission for felling 25 trees, had felled another around 30 trees without the consent of the land owners in the area. He said a case under Sections 379 and 120-B, IPC, and 41-42, Indian Forest Act, had been registered after preliminary investigations and he could be arrested any time to continue further investigations.

Jaryal said the estimate cost of the illicit felling was Rs 1.60 lakh and added that the connivance of Forest Department employees could not be ruled out. “Action can be taken against forest employees if they are found involved in the case,” he asserted.

Chamba, April 1
While imposing a crackdown on the careless dumping of muck illegally, the state Forest Department has initiated action against the Chanju hydroelectric project which is under construction in the Tikri forest range in Churah sub-division of Chamba district.

Revealing this here yesterday, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF), Chamba, ARM Reddy said the throwing of muck had led to the choking of the Chanju nullah. He said action would be taken against the project functionaries.

“It is also likely that the project functionaries will be levied penal compensatory aforestation in lieu of the violations done as a result of the project execution in the subsequent diversion,” the CCF further stated.

At the same time, the explanation of the forest staff concerned was also sought for not taking timely action against such offences in the execution of hydropower projects, the CCF said.