Shimla, April 5
The government will order a fresh probe by the Vigilance Department into the pulses purchase scandal to ensure that all those involved are held accountable. Food and Civil Supplies Minister GS Bali said this in the Assembly today.

He was replying to Congress legislator Sanjay Rattan’s question. Bali said the Vigilance Department had investigated the case and filed a challan in court against the officials accused. He said departmental action was being taken by the Civil Supplies Corporation as well.

Rattan pointed out that the Vigilance Department had booked only two middle-rung officials. He alleged that high-ups, including the General Manager and the Managing Director who had approved the tender document, were being shielded. He wanted the role of the then Food and Civil Supplies Minister probed.

Maheshwar Singh of the Himachal Lokhit Party wanted to know if it was true that good-quality imported stocks had been disposed of in Mumbai and poor-quality pulses purchased locally 
had been packed and supplied to consumers.

Bali urged the members to furnish the information they had pertaining to the matter and assured them that a fresh probe would be conducted by the Vigilance Department to ascertain the culpability of senior officers.

Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said the government would make more stringent the mining policy to effectively check illegal mining. He claimed that it had assumed alarming proportions due to the ban on mining in adjoining states.

He said the government was taking the steps required and conducting frequent raids in which up to 50 vehicles had been impounded from one site. He said it would take some time to contain activities of the reportedly well-entrenched mafia and the government would effect in the mining policy necessary changes for the purpose.

He sought the cooperation of members and said no one should put pressure on the authorities for the release of vehicles impounded during raids. He said 11,647 cases of illegal mining had been detected in the last three years. He elaborated that 7,738 cases had been compounded after recovering Rs 3.67 crore and challans had been filed in 3,038 cases.

The issue was raised by Ravinder Singh Ravi of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Kuldeep Kumar of the Congress during the Question Hour.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said 1,041 cases of recruitment on compassionate grounds were pending, of which 1,029 pertained to various departments and 12 to public-sector undertakings. He asserted that the cases were under consideration of the government.

Mandi, April 5
The proposal to set up a satellite town at Nasloh in the vicinity of the temple and a residential colony at Sarkaghat town, has fallen flat as the HIMUDA, the state-run Urban Housing Development Agency, has failed to procure land for the purpose.

The proposed residential colonies have turned out to be nothing more than a paper work as the HIMUDA failed to avail the land for the purpose.

“Owners at Nasloh have quoted the exorbitant rates for the land that has made the whole project unviable, HIMUDA engineers said.

The HIMUDA has received about 3,000 applications in Mandi alone for the housing colonies proposed near Mandi. The agency had identify a chunk of 200 bighas of land at Nasloh and promised to develop the area as satellite town to decongest the temple town, where the land has been a problem.

As HIMUDA proceeded further on the project, the land owners remained a divided lot. Some of them demanded exorbitant rates ranging from Rs 25 lakh per bigha to Rs 22 lakh bigha. Others refused to part away with their land, the engineers said.

Similarly, the proposed colony at Sarkaghat town has met the same fate as the proposal was spurred more by politics rather than by the genuine housing demand.

Sources said the colony was proposed by the then Urban Development and Transport Minister, Mahender Singh Thakur, as he hailed from the Sarkaghat sub-division.

HIMUDA was now more cautious as the land owners moved court, seeking more prices for the land, the engineers said.

Sources said plot owners in Sinyardi have accused the housing board of illegitimately increasing the cost by Rs 44,000 per biswa. Even the basic amenities like street light, road, water supplies and sewerage line are yet to be put in a proper shape.

The HIMUDA had spent Rs 1.45 crore on site development, but it was yet to develop a proper road and drainage system. The plot owners had paid Rs 1,200 per biswa for land development and landscaping, but the HIMUDA has raised the cost of the land, citing increase in prices after the land owners moved court and got more prices 
for the land.

Chief Executive Officer, HIMUDA, Arun Gupta, said they were looking for a land at a reasonable price. “We are trying to identify the other sites where we can get enough land,” he added.

Shimla, April 5
In a major step to streamline admissions and bring in transparency, the government has notified national and state-level common entrance tests on the basis of which candidates will be admitted for 2013-14 to various technical, engineering and management courses at government and private institutes.

No government or private educational institute, including private universities, will be able to conduct its own examination for admission. Admission to bachelors’ courses in engineering will be carried out through the joint entrance examination to be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education, says the notification.

Admission to masters’ courses in engineering and bachelors’and masters’ courses in pharmacy will be made through the state-level common entrance examination to be conducted by the Himachal Pradesh Technical University in Hamirpur.

The Himachal Pradesh University will not be able to hold an entrance test for masters’ courses in engineering. It has been assigned the responsibility of holding the state-level common entrance examination for admission to masters’ course in computer applications.

Scores of the national common management admission test or the state-level common entrance examination of the Himachal Pradesh University will be counted for admission to masters’ courses in management. The Himachal Pradesh Technical University cannot hold an entrance test for masters’ courses in computer applications and management.

A spokesperson with the Education Department has advised aspirants to management courses to get registered for the common management admission test. He has added that it will be conducted by the All-India Council for Technical Education and the last date is April 10.

He has further said eligible candidates seeking admission to private universities and professional institutes should appear in national and state-level common entrance tests specified.

The regulatory commission on private educational institutes has granted approval to private universities for various courses and started inspecting whether or not those have the requisite faculty and infrastructure.

Shimla, April 5
Sharing the concern of members over increase in cases of enzootic bovine hematuria, Rural Development Minister Anil Sharma today announced in the Assembly that a campaign would be launched to create awareness among farmers to contain the incurable disease.

Replying to the discussion on the issue raised by Gobind Thakur of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he said the disease caused by bracken fern in cows was a worldwide problem and its impact in Himachal Pradesh was more in Kullu, Mandi, Chamba and Shimla districts.

He said toxic release from the fern caused cancer of the urine bladder and the animal affected would die within three years. He said there was no cure and only symptomatic treatment was provided to animals. He said the presence of blood in urine provided an indication about it.

Quoting data of animals treated at veterinary institutes, he said a total of 5,014 animals were affected of which 1,912 had died. He said It was not a transmittable disease and milk of infected cows was safe for human beings. He said milk should be boiled to prevent milk-borne diseases.

He said the situation was not as alarming as had been made out to be. He pointed out that the survey conducted by a non-government organisation to ascertain the extent of the problem was not authentic and only a small percentage of cows had been infected.

He said incidence was high in the districts of Kullu (1,404 cases) and Shimla (1,347 cases) where as large number of cases were detected. Raising the issue, Gobind Thakur said farmers were suffering huge losses as a large number of cows had succumbed to the disease.

He said the Director of Animal Husbandry had written to the district office in 2011 to ascertain extent of the disease in Kullu. He said it was revealed that incidence was high in 109 patwar circles and over 70 per cent animals were affected. He pegged the loss at Rs 14 crore.

He said such cases were seldom reported and farmers affected did not get any compensation. Jai Ram Thakur of the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted to know if milk of infected cows was safe for human consumption. He said there was need to educate farmers about bracken fern which was widely used by them.

Shimla, April 5
The Himachal Government has given one last chance to Rahul Anand, a Himachal cadre IAS officer serving with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, to join back service by June 30, failing which his services will be terminated.

Anand, a 1996 IAS officer, hailing from Bihar has been serving with the IMF for the last three years. It is following his failure to return to the service even after being issued a show-cause notice that the state government had decided to move his case for termination of service, last year.

Surprisingly, even though the reply sent by Anand to the notice was found to be unsatisfactory, a decision has now been taken to give him another chance.

Infact, the state government had last year sent a recommendation to the Centre to terminate his service as per the All-India Service Rules, since he had failed to report back on duty even after being served a show-cause notice.

“We have decided to give one last and final chance to the IAS officer to report back on duty by July 1, failing which we would be left with no other option but to terminate his service,” confirmed Sudripta Roy, Chief Secretary.

Anand has been intimated in writing about the latest deadline set for him. Sources said Anand had sought time till June end this year as this would help him to complete a three-year term with the IMF. Anand has been away from his home cadre for almost eight years since he proceeded on a study leave in 2005 for a period of five years. Following this, he was asked to resume duty, but he further sought three years leave to be able to take up the international assignment.

It is following a disagreement over grant of leave that another IAS officer, Manisha Sridhar, serving with the World Health Organisation (WHO) had quit service in 2011.

Some other IAS officers from the HP cadre too had quit service for lucrative assignments with international agencies such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) and the IMF.

Among those, who have quit their jobs earlier, were Pradeep Monga (1980), Vivek Srivastava (1979), Sandeep Madan (1979) and Ashish Dev (1977). 

Hamirpur, April 5
Member of Parliament Anurag Thakur has criticised the UPA-led Central Government for its alleged failure on all fronts and for its dismal performance.

Addressing a meeting of BJP activists of Sujanpur mandal at Jhaniari, Ree, Jangal Bairi, Sujanpur and Kutheda today, Thakur accused the UPA Government of not fulfilling the aspirations of people.

He said several scams unravelled during the past several years had exposed alleged involvement of Congress leaders in many corruption cases.

Thakur alleged that the interests of common people had been ignored by the Congress as a result of which people had become disenchanted with the present regime and would teach a lesson in next parliamentary elections.

Coming down heavily on the state government, Thakur said the hundred day’s rule of the Congress had been of dismal performance and development had allegedly come to standstill.

The MP said, “I have been raising various issues related to the area in the parliament and arranged to provide funds for the railway line project and national highways.”

Former MLA Urmil Thakur was also present in the meetings. 

Solan, April 5
As a step towards building corporate social responsibility, the Waknaghat-based Bahra University has initiated a skill improvement programme for teachers working in various government schools of Himachal.

The programme has been organised in collaboration with the Directorate of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh.

Under this programme, the university has imparted training to few principals, lecturers and headmasters of various government schools of Solan and Shimla districts.

Elucidating on the idea behind the programme, Rayat-Bahra Group of Institute chairman GS Bahra said the programme had been launched to bridge a gap between the best available experts in the industry and private institutions and teachers in the government schools which were a 
backbone for higher education in the country.

To improve the standards of higher education, manpower and infrastructure in the schools, especially in the government schools, should be in synchronisation with the changing times, he said.

The chairman said they were ready to adopt few government schools to facilitate improvement of their basic infrastructure, especially to promote learning of science. The number of students opting for technical or Science education in the country was still a dismal, he added.

Bahra University Vice-Chancellor SK Bansal said the programme was closely monitored by the Directorate of Higher Education.