Shimla, April 9
Despite 55 per cent sanctioned seats remaining vacant last year, the number of seats for 2013-14 at 16 private universities has gone up by over 25 per cent. The government has effected a nominal increase in the fee structure. The State Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission has approved 15,797 seats, up from 12,442 in 2012-13.

Course-wise approval of seats indicates that intake sanctioned for engineering courses has gone up marginally from 7,404 to 7,816 due to two more universities becoming functional.

The number of seats in other streams have shot up from 5,038 to 7,981. Average intake of less than 1,000 makes it evident that the number of private universities is more than required.

Last year, only 5,329 seats were filled. The situation may be worse this year as percentage of vacant seats is expected to go up. Agrasen University and the ICFCAI University which did not admit any student last year were sanctioned 550 and 480 seats, respectively.

The Arni University has highest intake of 1,955, followed by Baddi (1,888), Manav Bharati (1,368), Shoolini (1,289), Bahra (1,002) and IEC (994). The Jaypee University has an intake of 510 and the Chitkara University has 900 seats.

The government has okayed fee structure for private universities on condition that those will comply with new Mandatory Assessment and Accreditation Higher Educational Institution Regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Those have been allowed to charge an institutional development fund of Rs 10,000 annually while one-time caution money will be Rs 10,000 and hostel fee Rs 5,000. The amount will be refundable. Tuition fee for courses vary for each university and will be charged annually in two equal instalments.

Fee for hostel inmates and day scholars will be categorised and mentioned in the prospectus. The revised fee structure will be applicable only for new batches to be admitted in the next session. Universities will be allowed to start only courses approved by the regulatory commission.

zUniversities from which two batches have passed out will have to apply for mandatory assessment and accreditation. The detailed bio data of faculty members along with photographs will have to be uploaded on the respective websites.

Shimla, April 9
The BJP staged a walkout from the Assembly today after the Chief Minister did not give a positive response to its request to refer to the Select Committee the Himachal Pradesh Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill.

Despite the walkout, the Bill was passed through voice vote. Virbhadra Singh initially agreed to refer the matter, but withdrew his statement on the plea that the ordinance would lapse if the Bill was not passed. “The matter is in high court, but that does not debar the Assembly from passing a law,” he said.

The amendment provides that both elected and nominated members of managing committees of cooperative societies will be eligible to be elected as chairman and vice-chairman.

The announcement met stiff opposition, particularly Leader of Opposition PK Dhumal and former minister Ravinder Singh Ravi who kept pressing for withdrawal on the pretext that it was against spirit of the cooperative movement and violated the 97th Amendment.

Dhumal urged the government not to show undue haste in passing the Bill. “The Bill should be withdrawn as coopted members do not have the right to vote in elections. The amendment should not be passed as it is against democratic, cooperative and constitutional spirit,” he said.

Urging that the Bill be referred to the Select Committee, Dhumal cited the gazette notification of the Centre which came into force on February 15, 2012, and state governments had to notify the Act in the next one year.

“The passing of the Bill will bring the state into conflict with 97th Amendment passed by the Lok Sabha on December 22, 2011, and the Rajya Sabha on December 28, 2011,” he said.

He said only two Directors could be nominated in addition to the 21 as per the 97th Amendment and they could neither have voting rights nor could they be nominated as Director or Chairman.

“The matter is already in court. We should wait for the final order rather than rushing it through as questions will be raised on wisdom of the House in passing it,” he stated.

Speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail later adjourned sine die the Assembly. He said 19 Bills were passed and four withdrawn, besides the Budget for 2013-14. He said there were 18 sittings, including two days for private members, and the BJP staged a walkout more than six times.

Mandi, April 9
Subscribers and government agencies in the remote areas of Lahaul-Spiti and Pangi subdivision of Chamba remained without connectivity for the last two months as the optical fibre cable (OFC) has been snapped at Rani Nala on the Manali-Leh highway since February 4.

This is because of the widening of the national highways and rampant corruption in laying down OFCs.

Though the BSNL today claimed that the OFC was repaired and connectivity had been restored, thousands of subscribers in the remote valley complained of constant breakdown of the Internet, fax, landlines and mobile services there. “The Internet has been out of service since February 4,” said Prem and Haryapa, local residents.

“We cannot email and fax official documents for the last two months as the BSNL, the only Internet service provider, has failed to restore the connectivity even today,” they said. Corruption in the laying of the OFC in the highland was responsible for cable breakdowns from time to time, alleged subscribers.

Though Airtel had set up two towers in Udaipur and Keylong, its service remained poor as it had a limited reach here, subscribers said. “The company provides GPRS, but it is as good as non-existent,” said Suresh, a subscriber from Udaipur.

“Reliance has set up a few towers in the valley, but it has yet to start the mobile service in the tribal belt,” the subscribers said. “The BSNL is a major service provider in the region and we have to depend on it for most of the connectivity,” they said.

BS Thakur, DC, Lahaul-Spiti, said they had taken up the matter with the BSNL and the broadband had been restored today after two months.

However, senior General Manager, BSNL, SK Gupta, claimed that the OFC was exposed by the widening work on the national highways and most of the area remained under a thick blanket of snow making it difficult for the operating staff to rectify the fault. “We are providing connectivity through limited satellite channels in Lahaul in winter, when the cable was snapped in early February at Rani Nala,” Ranjit Singh, SDO, BSNL, Keylong, said.

He said the OFC was repaired yesterday and the broadband and Internet had been restored. “Mobile and landlines have been running through satellite channels, but communication link was never snapped despite heavy snowfall in the winters,” he said.

He said Killar in Pangi subdivision had no OFC and, hence, the service was provided though the limited satellite channel.

Shimla, April 9
Only 10 per cent of the 559 hydro power projects allotted to independent producers during the last two decades have been made operational and at the cost of environment with the condition of providing to residents of Himachal Pradesh 70 per cent jobs not being fulfilled.

These remarks were made in the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which was tabled in the Assembly today.

The report mentions that of the 559 projects allotted between 1991 and 2011, only 55 with a capacity of 1805.45 megawatt had been made operational.

“Negligence of environmental concerns was visible for sustenance of aquatic eco-system and condition of ensuring a minimum of 15 per cent water flow downstream was not adhered to,” the report reads.

It points out that inefficiency was shown in ensuring power development. It has been pointed out that there was no suitable monitoring mechanism.

The CAG has suggested constitution of a high-powered committee to monitor and ensure proper implementation of projects and ensuring that there is no adverse impact on the environment.

In its remarks on the revenue sector, the CAG has pointed out a loss to the state government of Rs 1,569.41 crore on account of under-assessment and short levy, adding that there was an increase of 13 per cent in revenue in 2011-2012.

It says the state received Rs 1,998.37 crore as its share of divisible Union taxes and Rs 6,521.37 crore as grant-in-aid from the Centre.

The report says revenue raised by the state was 41 per cent of receipts and 59 per cent was met by the Centre. It mentions functioning of 19 public-sector undertakings, of which eight earned a profit of Rs 17.37 crore and seven lost Rs 240.42 crore.

Hamirpur, April 9
The BJP is organising a big political programme at Banal village in the Sujanpur Assembly constituency on the 69th birthday of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal tomorrow in its effort to regain lost ground in this constituency.

In the last election, a former close confidant of Dhumal, Rajender Rana, had won as an independent candidate from Sujanpur with a huge margin of over 14,000 votes relegating the BJP candidate to third position.

Though Dhumal had shifted to the Hamirpur Assembly constituency and won by a comfortable margin after disintegration of the Bamsan constituency, which he was earlier representing in the Assembly, the defeat of the BJP candidate and victory of Rana remained a cause of concern for him and the BJP.

More so, since a major portion of the Sujanpur Assembly constituency used to be part of the Bamsan constituency where Dhumal had a complete dominance but Rana had taken lead in a majority of 42 polling booths of the old Bamsan constituency, which was merged in Sujanpur during the last Assembly election.

Rana has already parted ways with Dhumal and there were strong speculation of the Congress inducting him as an associate member of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the Vidhan Sabha.

Though Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had not made any announcement regarding the MLA’s (Rana’s) induction into the CLP during the Holi festival at Sujanpur, he had made several announcements regarding development needs of Sujanpur giving a moral boost to Rana.

Rana’s growing clout with the Congress has definably made Dhumal and the BJP quite concerned in view of the next Parliament elections since stakes are quite high for them since Dhumal’s son Anurag Thakur, a sitting MP from Hamirpur, is likely to contest from here again.

Through Dhumal’s birthday celebrations in the Sujanpur constituency, BJP leaders would make efforts to revive contacts with the grass-roots party workers.

To corner Rajender Rana, the BJP leaders are also planning to distribute induction cookers to selected mahila mandals as well.

Solan, April 9
Padam Singh Chauhan, a 2000 batch IAS officer, died at Fortis Hospital, Mohali today following a lung ailment. He was due to retire at the end of this month.

He is survived by his wife and two daughters. He was cremated here today where various officials, including Deputy Commissioner Meera Mohanty attended the cremation. He was presently serving as the Special Secretary, Administrative Reforms, and had earlier served as Deputy Commissioner at Una and Sirmaur and also as Registrar of the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni. — TNS

Kangra, April 9
Though the Centrally sponsored Weekly Iron and Folic acid Supplementation (WIFS) Campaign for schoolchildren from Class VI to XII will be launched in the district tomorrow, till evening, iron and folic acid tablets were not available with the department concerned.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, has started the Solid Bano India Campaign through the WIFS programme to reduce the prevalence and severity of iron and folic acid deficiency in adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years. This programme targets adolescent boys and girls enrolled in Class VI-XII of government and municipal schools.