Mandi/Karsog, June 16
Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal and state Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today slugged it out in the reserved Karsog constituency and levelled charges against each other.

Dhumal alleged that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh did not enjoy rapport with Central Congress leaders and the state was paying for “this rift”.

Sukhvinder alleged that Dhumal used power to promote the land mafia while his son Anurag Thakur traded in cricket. Dhumal turned politics as a means to promote the HPCA and the IPL and sold land to outsiders, he alleged.

Addressing a series of meetings in Karsog at different places in support of party candidates, Dhumal and Sukhvinder traded charges to woo voters for the Mandi bypoll.

Dhumal claimed that it was during the BJP regime that Karsog saw development. The five-month government had only renamed the schemes started by the BJP.

Virbhadra did not enjoy good relations with the Centre due to which Himachal could not get the industrial package though Jammu and Kashmir got it.

Sukhu alleged that Dhumal and his son had made fortunes and tapped over 14,000 phones of politicians, bureaucrats, journalists and even common citizens during his last five years. He said the police was likely to lodge FIRs in land deals and the phone tapping case to uncover the hidden face of the Dhumal government.

Dhumal instead alleged that the government was selling land to outsiders in the name of colonies, and land and mining mafias were ruling the roost. The law and order had deteriorated as incidents of rape and murder were going up, he claimed.

Dhumal further said recruitment was stopped and the government was run by the tired and retired people while good officers had been sidelined.

But Sukhu dismissed Dhumal charges in public meetings, claiming that the Congress was united unlike the divided BJP house of LK Advani and Narendra Modi.

Shimla, June 16
Lambasting the Virbhadra government for removing the name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee from various schemes, the BJP today termed the ruling Congress a thankless party which had forgotten the benevolence of the former Prime Minister, who gave a special assistance of Rs 553 crore in 2004 and an industrial package to the state.

Party spokesperson Ganesh Dutt said the NDA regime did not discriminate against the state even after the Congress came to power and continued to give liberal assistance to it. He also claimed that it was the Vajpayee government which gave approval to the Rohtang tunnel project and instead of being grateful, the Congress government was busy deleting his name from various schemes.

He said despite repeated pleas by Congress leaders, the industrial package to the state had not been restored but, at the same time, it had been extended by 10 years for Jammu and Kashmir. The Congress leaders were claiming that the package would be announced after Mandi byelection just to mislead people.

He said the Congress was misusing official machinery for the byelection and all ministers, chairpersons of boards and corporations were camping in the constituency. He urged the Election Commission of India to videograph the movements of ministers and chairpersons to check the misuse of official machinery.

Mandi, June 16
MP from Pauri, Uttarakhand, and Congress leader Satpal Maharaj today dared yoga guru Ramdev to contest election rather than mixing politics with spirituality behind the curtain and work for the improvement of the system.

Satpal was here in support of Congress candidate Pratibha Singh. Addressing a press conference here today, the MP said he should enter politics and keep aside yoga and work for the improvement of the system.

Satpal’s poser to Ramdev was significant as the BJP had allotted land to him at Sadhupul, which was vested in the government by the Congress government, though Ramdev had got a stay on the government’s action from the high court.

Satpal avoided direct media queries on mixing spirituality with politics as Satpal also ran seva centres in the state.

“I do not mix spiritual talks with politics and have moved the private members Bill to improve the system”, he claimed. “It is my opinion that the reservation should be based on economic criteria”, Satpal said.

Satpal further said the BJP played a negative role in and outside Parliament, stalled proceedings and failed in discharging its responsibility as the main opposition party. “The Food Security Bill could not see the light of the day due to the BJP’s negative role and we hope the Bill will be passed in the July session”, he added.

He was accompanied by Congress state media coordinator SP Katyal along with Pushp Raj and Vikas Kapur.

Sundernagar, June 16
Pratibha Singh today addressed a series of meetings in Nachan and asked the public to vote in the favour of the Congress. Interestingly, it was the birthday of Pratibha Singh today. Many Congress workers asked the public to give her the gift of votes.

Addressing meetings in Chatter, Jaral, Dhanotu, Kanaid, Bhor, Mahadev, Chambi, Jai Devi and Phangwas, she said prior to the state Assembly elections, the party high command had given Virbhadra Singh a free hand to fight the Assembly elections and due to his efforts, the Congress came to power.

She said the BJP was levelling false allegations against her that she did not spend the MPLAD fund.

She said she distributed Rs 10 crore in 17 Assembly segments and the public was satisfied with her performance. BJP leaders could take the information under the RTI Act.

She said the Congress was known for the development of Himachal Pradesh and it would continue doing it. She said the UPA would form the government at the Centre in 2014 for the third time.

She was accompanied by Bambar Thakur, MLA from Bilaspur, Manjit Dogra, former MLA, Badsar, Surinder Kaku, former MLA Kangra, Tek Chand Dogra, former MLA, Nachan, and Sanju Dogra, president of the Youth Congress, from the Mandi Parliamentary constituency.

Sundernagar, June 16
Despite bad weather conditions, Jai Ram Thakur, BJP candidate for the Mandi Parliamentary constituency, addressed a series of meetings in Nachan and Seraj Assembly segments today.

During the election meetings at Baggi, Maggar, Bassa and Gohar villages of the Nachan Assembly segment, he was accompanied by Nachan BJP MLA Vinod Kumar and other BJP leaders from the segment.

He said had he been a weak candidate as was being claimed by Congress leaders, why was the Chief Minister and his family working overtime and conducting meetings even during night time.

In Seraj Assembly segment today, Jai Ram addressed corner meetings at Ghrot, Bassi, Kanda, Bagsaid, Shikawari, Thunag, Jarol and Jangehali.

Former BJP minister and BJP MLA Sarveen Chaudhay, along with women BJP workers, launched a door-to-door campaign in favour of Jai Ram.

Mandi, June 16
A CID team, headed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police from Shimla, today raided a hotel-cum-residence of PRISM party candidate and RTI activist Lawan Thakur. It seized two CDs, a laptop and a hard disk of his computer in connection with the controversial CD that allegedly shows a local senior Congress leader with a woman in different video clips.

Director General, CID, SR Mardi told The Tribune that they raided the premises and seized the hard disk of his computer and a laptop and two CDs. These were subject to investigation, he added and refused to comment further.

Sources said the team wanted to trace the origin of the video clips in the CD and as to who circulated it in the town in the midst of byelection.

Lawan Thakur claimed that the CID raid was aimed at intimidating him as he was campaigning in Manali, raising the issues against the Congress.

“I was being targeted by the CID at the behest of certain politicians as he was raising the issues against the Congress dynastic politics in Mandi”, he alleged. “The hard disk of my computer and the laptop of my hotel customer have been taken by the CID team,” he alleged.

The video CD allegedly featured different video clips of a veteran politician with a woman. It was released in Mandi on June 13.

The state crime branch has lodged an FIR under Sections 292, 465, 469 and 471, IPC, Section 6, Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, and Sections 66-E and 67-A, Information Technology Act, at its police station at Bharari in Shimla following a complaint lodged by Hem Singh of Sain Mohallah of Mandi. He has alleged that the CD had been released to defaming the leader.

The BJP and the Congress have remained tightlipped on the controversy so far as the complaint has followed from a local resident.

Shimla, June 16
With widespread pre-monsoon showers and heavy downpour over the past 24 hours at several places, the state has received 234 per cent excess rain than normal in the first fortnight of June.

All the districts of the state have received excess cumulative rainfall from June 1 to 16 and on an average the state has received to 122.4 mm precipitation.

Sirmaur district recorded the highest rainfall during the last 24 hours with Paonta Sahib recording the highest 180 mm, followed by Una (70 mm), Dharmpur (70 mm), Bangana (65 mm), Kalpa (62 mm), Nahan (58 mm), Dundernagar (47 mm), Jubal, Bharmaur and Bilaspur (45 mm each), Solan (40 mm), Jubbar Hatti (36 mm), Kotkhai (34 mm), Jogindernagar (32 mm), Manali (31 mm), Seobagh (27 mm), Bajura and Keylong (25 mm each).

Una district received 626%, Sirmaur district 503%, Kangra 410% and Solan 310% in excess. Further, cumulative excess rainfall recorded at Jogindernagar is 447mm, Dharamsala 365.4mm, Palampur 307mm, Baijnath 220, Poanta Sahib 340mm, Nahan 272mm, Sundernagar 214mm, Gohar 239, Nagrota Suriyan 237, Dharmpur 219, and Una 227mm.

According to the local met office, rain and thundershowers will occur at many places over the next 48 hours and decrease thereafter.

Shimla, June 16
Landslide triggered by heavy rain at Tapri village in Kinnaur buried two vehicles and caused damage to seven shops this evening.

No loss of life has been reported, but heavy rain was still continuing. The Hindustan-Tibet highway was open to traffic.

Dharamsala, June 16
Unregulated constructions are destroying the natural beauty of tourist places near Dharamsala, including, McLeodganj, Bhagsu and Naddi. Foreign tourists coming to the area for decades allege that the area is being converted into a concrete jungle and no more retains the pristine natural beauty.

Anat Seena, a tourist from Israel, talking to The Tribune said slate-covered houses parted with green patches were a beauty of the Bhagsu area. Foreign tourists used to stay in houses of people renting out rooms to them for long durations. However, the entire green patch had disappeared.

Many other foreign tourists also complain regarding the increasing unregulated traffic in McLeodganj and Bhagsunag. There has been a considerable drop in the number of foreign tourists coming to the Dharamsala region this year. This has affected the local tourism industry as foreign tourists who used to stay in the area for long durations were the lifeline of the Dharamsala tourism industry.

The Bhagsu waterfall, that was a favourite point for tourists, is also losing its glory. The water inflow in the waterfall, especially in summers, has reduced to a trickle these days. Sources here say the diversion of water by power projects coming up in the area may be one of the reasons for decreased waterflow in the Bhagsu waterfall.

As per Town and Country Planning norms, more than four-storey buildings are not allowed in the Dharamsala region as its falls in zone five in terms of seismic activity. Besides, each commercial building has to make provisions for suitable parking on its ground floor. However, the norms exist only on paper, especially in McLeodganj and Bhagsunag.

Multi-storey buildings that do not have provision for parking are coming in McLeodganj and Bhagsunag every year. Hills are being cut, trees felled and concrete buildings coming up in an unplanned manner.

The result is that during the peak tourist season in summer months, tourists get stranded in traffic jams that can extend up to hours. Due to poor traffic management and lack of parking places, high-end tourists are also deserting Dharamsala and its surrounding areas.

The sources say despite the fact that Dharamsala is a rain-fed area and receives very heavy rainfall, there is shortage of water in tourist places as McLeodganj and Bhagsunag, especially during summer months.

Hardly any building in the region has installed the rain water harvesting system that can provide them relief from water shortage.

The unregulated growth of taxis is also adding to the traffic problem of the area. There are more than a thousand private taxis operating in the Dharamsala region. Most of the local youth who buy vehicles taking loans from banks are allowed by the Transport Department to operate taxis. No study is conducted regarding the viability of taxi routes in the region. Due to it, taxis add to the traffic problem as they permanently occupy most of the natural parking place in the area.

Environmentalists are of the view that the government should regulate the growth of hotel industry in the state so as maintain the attraction of its tourist places.

Kangra, June 16
The state will have a new transport policy to strengthen the HRTC and 500 new buses will be added to the fleet shortly.

This was stated by Transport Minister GS Bali here yesterday. Bali said the government was committed to providing pension to retired employees of the corporation. He said for framing new transport policy, the details were being discussed with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

He said the state government would purchase sugar and the tender process had been initiated. He said for Nagrota Bagwan, a drinking water project costing Rs 6.5 crore and drinking water scheme costing Rs 4.5 crore for 10 panchayats of the Changer belt had been sanctioned.

He said five hand pumps to be installed in the Changer belt. He said to combat the voltage problem in his constituency, a 33-KW substation would be set up at the cost of Rs 1.36 crore.

Bali visited Shherathana, Sarotri, Pathiar and other villages of Nagrota Bagwan, heard the grievances of people and addressed most of them on the spot.

Bilaspur, June 16
A group of 80 cocoon-rearing women left for a three-day refresher course in Uttarakhand from Ghumarwin, near here, yesterday.

They were flagged off by Sonika Dharmani, wife of Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Forests and Fisheries) Rajesh Dharmani. Silk Production officers Baldev Chauhan, Dr RK Chingara, Inspectors Raj Kumar and SK Tyagi were among those present on the occasion. Chauhan said these women would also get training in cocoon production through the latest and modern techniques from scientists under the Silk Development Programme of the Government of India.

He said this would prepare them for producing good quality silk and also for more production in this field. This could give them more income and satisfaction in this part-time profession.

Shimla, June 16
Shimla today became the 11th district of the state to be declared smoke-free under Section 4 of COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products - Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution - Act). Tribal Kinnaur district is the only one yet to become smoke-free.

Deputy Commissioner Dinesh Malhotra signed the declaration to this effect and formally declared the district smoke-free at a function organised in collaboration with the Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association (HPVHA).

Malhotra said a survey was conducted as per the prescribed scientific methodology by the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) on five indicators and the report of the agency indicated 92.17% compliance in the district, next only to Bilaspur (92.74%). The compliance was 89.64% in rural areas and 96.65% in urban areas.

Medical Superintendent, IGMC, Shimla, Ramesh said the compliance report of the survey was based on findings on active smoking in public and work places, availability of ash trays and lighters, butts of cigarettes, smell of cigarette smoking and warning signage.

Medical Officer Health, Shimla, Mahesh Jaswal said cigarette smoke contained 4,000 different toxic chemicals harmful to human health and every cigarette shortened life of a person by 11 minutes. As many as 55 lakh people in the world and 10 lakh in India died every year due to diseases caused by cigarettes. He said passive smoking was more harmful than active smoking as it affected more persons around a smoker.

Sriniwas Joshi of HPVHA said about 16% youth in the age group of 15 to 17 years and 21% in the age group 18 to 19 years were smokers in the state, underlying the need for more awareness amongst college and university students. Smoking destroyed vitamin A in the body and affected the glow and lustre of the skin, he added. 

Kangra, June 16
Libraries have to reinvent their new roles and Library and Information Services (LIS ) professionals have to make themselves aware of the emerging trends in LIS and adhere to these so that LIS gets strengthened on national and global levels.

Prof Yogender Singh Verma, Pro Vice-Chancellor, CUHP, said this while inaugurating a one-day workshop organised by the university in collaboration with DELNET-Developing

Library Network, New Delhi, on “DELNET-Resources, Services and Facilities and Koha: an Open Source Integrated Library System” on the CUHP campus at Shahpur yesterday.

Prof IV Malhan, Dean, School of Mathematics, Computers and Information Science, CUHP, and coordinator of the programme, said nearly 100 LIS professionals from various parts of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab participated in the programme.

Dr HK Kaul, Director, DELNET, delivered the presidential address and stressed upon the need to provide knowledge-based services to users. He said DELNET was a major resource sharing library network connecting more than 4,600 libraries in and outside the country and provided access to nearly two crore bibliographic records of books, journal articles etc. He said through the inter-library loan and document supply, researchers and scholars could get material from any part of the country and outside through DELNET.

Dr Kaul said the CUHP was a prestigious member institution of DELNET.

Later in the day, Dr Sangeeta Kaul delivered sessions on DELNET and Koha software. The CDs containing the free Koha software was also distributed among the professionals. 

Solan, June 16
The Apeejay Education Society (AES), having a legacy of 45 years in the field of education, has clarified that it does not have any educational venture in Himachal. It was inadvertently mentioned in these columns that the group was running a university in Shimla which was yet to get approval from the University Grants Commission (UGC).

A spokesman of the society clarified here yesterday that the ASU campus in Gurgaon, which was recognised by the UGC, was their only campus in India. It was the country’s first Liberal Arts University established on the pattern of the best Ivy League universities of the USA. Well-known academicians from Stanford and Harvard universities comprise the advisory board of the ASU.

Apeejay institutions of higher learning aim to impart quality professional education to develop world-class competencies in the fields of architecture, design, fine arts, engineering, information technology, management, mass communication and several other disciplines. The focus is on imparting job-oriented education of global dimension, through the use of the latest course design and teaching-learning strategies, in tune with industry requirements.

Apeejay institutes and colleges offer a plethora of graduate, post-graduate and doctoral-level courses and are all affiliated to reputed Indian universities and boards, meeting rigorous quality standards and stipulations set by the various university certification bodies under the UGC in India.

Hamirpur, June 16
Presidents of the municipal councils in the state have decided to oppose the government's decision of limiting their powers to sign cheques amounting to Rs 10 lakh and above.

The Himachal Pradesh Elected Representatives Association (HPERA), Urban Local Bodies, has blamed Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma for allegedly making it a prestige issue by limiting their powers, despites the Chief Minister's direction of restoring their power.

Gagan Kashyap, general secretary of the HPERA, said, "We had met the Chief Minister twice and he had asked the Urban Development Department to restore our powers to sign the cheques, but the department, through a notification on May 20, has limited our powers to sign the cheque of Rs 10 lakh and above and kept out cheques for salary and allowances out of our purview."

The government had withdrawn the powers of the presidents to sign cheques in February last and given these powers to executive officers and secretaries, saying the payments and development works were getting delayed due to this system and many irregularities were also detected.

Sudhir Sharma said, "There is no provision in the Act regarding their powers to sign cheques and we are making this provision but their powers will be restricted to certain amount of cheques." 

Solan, June 16
The district BJP today demanded that the Congress should make public the name of a senior Congress leader and former minister from Sirmaur district whose relative’s name was figuring in a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy in a land grab case registered at Kasauli.

BJP district general secretary Ravinder Parihar and Vivek Dhobal, media in charge of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha, in separate press notes here, said it was a serious issue as the common man had been cheated and the land was grabbed by a senior Congress leader's relative on the basis of the general power of attorney (GPA). Since more people had also been duped in this manner, the case should be investigated. The leaders alleged that the police was trying to dilly-dally over the matter.

The Kasauli police had registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy against four persons who had forcibly grabbed the land of innocent villagers in Renuka on the basis of the GPA. This land was later sold to Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited which is acquiring land for constructing a dam at Renuka.

Shimla, June 16
The state secretariat of the CPM has urged the government to immediately convene a high-level meeting to have an assessment of the preparedness in view of the early arrival of the monsoon season and to ensure the effective handling of the rainy season.

The party has said the government should prepare guidelines with specific intervention points for different zones of the state so that the problems caused by the monsoon are promptly addressed. The administration should be able to deal with cloudbursts and flash floods which have become a common feature. The government must ensure that specific zone strategies are put in place to meet the challenge effectively instead of general interventions.

The government must adopt special preventive measures for fruit and vegetable growing regions as crops are harvested during peak monsoon. As these are highly perishable items, the maintenance of roads and clearance of blockades due to landslides should be carried out on a war footing.

The party has further said the government should issue suitable directions to the officers in the region to ensure proper and effective coordination among various organisations of people, including farmers bodies, to circumvent some of the potential bottlenecks so that required official machinery is in place in advance.

Finally, the party, while maintaining that the early advance of the monsoon is a great boon for the state, has stressed that it should not allowed to become a bane due to lackadaisical attitude of the government. Even with pre-monsoon showers what has become evident is that people’s woes have increased. This challenge must be faced so that the economy of the state is not dampened due lack of proper interventions on the part of state government.

The disaster management group should work actively so that its functioning is not confined to mock drills, but geared up to face real challenges.