Shimla, July 17
The Himachal government will contest the amount of compensation proposed by the Centre to be given to the state in lieu of the arrears of energy in the projects under the Bhakra and Beas Management Board (BBMB) since 1966 in accordance with the verdict of the Supreme Court.

The decision was taken at a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh here today at which Chief Secretary Sudripta Rao, Principal Secretary, Power, Sushil Negi, and Law Secretary Chirag Bhanu were present.

The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that Punjab and Haryana will have to pay Rs 1,497.39 crore, basing its calculations on the rates paid by the Nangal Fertiliser plant. It maintains that the plant rates were fair and reasonable.

However, the state government wants the arrears to be calculated on the basis of the power rates of the Bhadarpur Thermal Power Plant as per which the amount works out to be Rs 2,751.69 crore, including simple interest at the rate of 6 per cent. The amount will increase to Rs 3,309 crore if calculated on the basis of compound interest.

The state is also not pleased with the alternative proposed by the Centre for paying the compensation in the shape of additional energy over a period of 30 years, which it feels that the period is long and the fund-starved state needs funds urgently.

However, the Centre asserts that it is an old case involving arrears of 45 years and the payment of compensation for 30 year is reasonable.

The state government is agreeable to the payment of arrears in the shape of energy, but wants these within five to 10 years. It will file an affidavit before the apex court within two weeks.

The state, which had been getting an ad hoc share of 2.5 per cent in the BBMB projects since 1966, had filed a case in 1996 in the apex court seeking its share of 7.19 per cent to which it was entitled under the Punjab State Reorganisation Act. The Supreme Court decided the issue in favour of the state in September 2011 and directed the Centre to set up a committee to work out the arrears in all projects.

The state was getting only 46 MW from the BBMB projects and after the court verdict, the quantum was increased to 152.6 MW from November 1, 2011. The share in the Bhakra project went up from 31 MW to 84 MW and in the Dehar project from 15 MW to 56 MW. It has secured 42 MW from the Pong Dam project from which it was not getting anything.

* State wants arrears to be calculated on basis of power rates of Bhadarpur Thermal Power Plant

* The amount works out to be Rs 2,751.69 crore, including simple interest at the rate of 6 per cent

* It will increase to Rs 3,309 crore if calculated on the basis of compound interest

Solan, July 17
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau today filed a chargesheet in a local court against former BJP minister and Nahan MLA Dr Rajeev Bindal and 25 others, including two former councillors and a retired HAS officer, in a case involving irregularities in making appointments in the Solan Municipal Committee in 1999.

The state government had granted prosecution sanction in the 15-year-old case about a week ago to the bureau.

Sources in the Vigilance Bureau said an approximately 160-page chargesheet had been filed against Bindal and 25 others who were involved in various appointments, including safai karamcharis and clerks, made in the local MC when Bindal was its president in 1999.

Two former councillors, Hem Raj Goyal and DK Thakur, and the then ADM, SC Kalsotra, who was holding additional charge of Executive Officer of the MC, also figure in the chargesheet.

More than 2,000-page documents have also been filed with the chargesheet in this case. The case was registered during the regime of the Virbhadra government in 2006.

The Vigilance Bureau, after the formation of the Congress government in December last year, had withdrawn the chargesheet put up in the court earlier for re-investigation and on the basis of some new leads, a new chargesheet had been prepared which was put up in the court by investigating officer and DSP Rajinder Sharma.

Bindal is a close confidant of former Chief Minister PK Dhumal.

The case against Bindal figures prominently in the Congress chargesheet which was submitted to the President of India and the Governor. Even as minister, Bindal remained the target of the Congress. 

Shimla, July 17
Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal today asked the state government to pursue Himachal's claim for getting Rs 4,250 crore as its share in BBMB projects and also offered to be part of the delegation which could plead the hill state's case effectively before the Centre.

In a statement here today, he said Himachal's claim was legitimate and Punjab and Haryana, which were partners in the BBMB projects, must give the hill state its share as per the directives of the Supreme Court. "The Centre must give Himachal the entire claim of Rs 4,250 crore," he demanded.

Dhumal accused the Congress-led UPA regime of adopting a discriminatory and non-cooperative attitude towards Himachal.

"The UPA government had filed an affidavit against Himachal's claim in the Supreme Court, while on the other hand, the Chairman of the BBMB had supported the legitimate claim of our state by terming it fair and resaonable," he said.

The BJP leader regretted that the oustees of the Bhakra-Nangal and Pong dam were running from pillar to post even after 50 years to get adequate compensation and rehabilitation. "People of the state sacrificed their lands to pave way for these power projects and in return all they have got is endless wait and rounds of the court to seek their legitimate claim," Dhumal remarked.

He said as Chief Minister, he had pursued Himachal's case with the Prime Minister as well as the Union Finance and Power ministers and had also sought the intervention of the President of India on the issue.

Hamirpur, July 17
The Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) yesterday organised a convention to start a membership drive “Yuva Mitra, Yuva Sadasya” here, in which national president of the BJYM Anurag Thakur was the chief guest.

Talking to mediapersons on the occasion, Anurag said the programme had been launched keeping in view the role of the youth in the next Parliamentary election in 2014.

He said, “The youth will be playing a very important role in this election, and we want to enroll maximum youth as BJYM members. We have kept a target of enrolling one crore members in the country and one lakh members in the state.”

Anurag said, “We are also gathering information through the youth on the basis of which a political agenda for them will be set.”

Replying to a question, Anurag said, “Though the Congress also intends to approach the youth on the appeal of Rahul Gandhi, the alleged indifferent approach towards various pressing issues before the country like flashfloods in Uttarakhand and unemployment has failed to create an impact on them.”

He said, “The BJYM will also try to link youth with Narender Modi and 500 members enrolling maximum number of BJYM recruits will be taken to meet Modi.”

MLA Randhir Sharma also addressed the youth on the occasion.

Earlier, district BJP president Vijay Agnihotri, speaking on the occasion, gave tips to strengthen the organisation.

Shimla, July 17
The monitoring of the cases pending with the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau will be undertaken by the state government on a weekly basis to ensure proper progress in the investigation of the cases.

"We have decided to hold meetings on a weekly basis to review the progress of the cases being investigated by the vigilance bureau," said Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy. He added that a weekly meeting would help in the grant of the necessary permissions required from the Home Department without any delay.

Till now, only select cases were examined by the government, including the Home Department. The system will be put in place shortly as the progress in most of the cases registered by the vigilance bureau is very slow.

It is reliably learnt that there are about 180 cases pending with the vigilance bureau, including those against some senior officers. "There are about 25 cases in which we have sought prosecution sanction from the government against government officials, both gazetted and non-gazetted," said a police source.

The state government has asked the vigilance bureau to hold thorough investigations in about a dozen charges that figure prominently in the Congress chargesheet against the BJP regime. The vigilance bureau is already investigating charges levelled against some of the ministers in the previous Dhumal regime, purchase of land near the Annandale ground and the grant of land to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association at Dharamshala and other places in the state.

A case has already been registered by the vigilance bureau in the alleged phone tapping undertaken by the CID during the BJP regime. Congress leaders, including the Chief Minister, had alleged that their telephones were being illegally intercepted. 

Shimla, July 17
MP Pratibha Singh today called on Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh in New Delhi and urged him restore the original runway length of 4,100 feet (1,189 m) of the Shimla airport.

She drew his attention to the fact that the effective length of the airport had been reduced to 3,800 feet due to soil erosion and urged him to sanction Rs 142.70 crore for the restoration of basic strip by arresting soil erosion.

She said a feasibility study was conducted by the IIT Roorkee and the issue was discussed with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, yet no action had been taken.

Pratibha also requested for carrying out a pre-feasibility survey for the Kandaghat green field airport and demanded more flights to Shimla, Kullu and Kangra to cater to the high-end tourists. She also urged him to introduce private airlines to provide economical air services.

She urged the minister to grant subsidy on air services on the pattern of Northeast states keeping in view the similarity in topography and geography.

Hamirpur, July 17
SR Mehta, newly appointed member of the Himachal Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Board (HPSSSB), took the oath of office and secrecy at a function here today.

The oath was administered by HPSSSB Chairman JK Chauhan.

Mehta, who had retired as Engineer-in-Chief from the Public Works Department (PWD), hails from Kinnaur district and had served the department in different capacities for several decades.

A civil engineer by profession, Mehta did his Bachelor of Engineering from the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala.

HPSSSB members BR Jamwal, Naresh Mahajan, JR Thakur and other dignitaries were present on the occasion. 

Dharamsala, July 17
Supporters of Minister for Housing Urban Development Sudhir Sharma and former minister Kishan Kapoor have entered into a spat over the development of Dharamsala.

Kapoor, while addressing mediapersons, alleged that Sharma was not available to locals of Dharamsala. He alleged that during the elections, a false propaganda had been carried out by the Congress which had swayed the voters. He said within six months of the Congress coming to power, people of Dharamsala had realised their mistake.

Kapoor also alleged that most of the development projects announced for Dharamsala during the stint of the present government were just on paper. None of the ambitious projects such as the mono rail or the ropeway were likely to materialise, he claimed.

He said while new projects were being announced, roads in the constituency were in a bad shape.

In response to allegations made by Kapoor, block president of the Congress Suresh Papi and general secretary Jatinder Sharma in a joint statement here today said Sudhir Sharma had carried out a lot of developmental works in Dharamsala.

They alleged that Kapoor had failed to make considerable development in Dharamsala during his stint as the minister. They said Sharma had got a Rs 30-crore water supply augmentation project sanctioned for Dharamsala. They said this was the biggest water supply augmentation project announced for Dharamsala since Himachal Pradesh came into being.

The statement said the minister had identified 400 kanals near Dharamsala to bring up an IT park, which would provide employment opportunities to local youth. Five new hand pumps had been sanctioned for near Dharamsala, they said.

Sharma, who has been busy with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, being his most trusted lieutenant in the current stint in power, has not been available for locals for about past two months.

Mandi, July 17
Five government polytechnic colleges, started this year in five established institutes with 400 students, have stretched the infrastructure in these colleges to the limit, as labs and faculty are not enough to train even the original strength of students, leave alone the additional strength.

These polytechnics have been started in five districts, Kullu, Bilaspur, Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur and Sirmaur, said official sources.

With the launch of five polytechnics, now all 12 districts had a polytechnic. But the decision was inspired more by political expediency rather than by genuine needs for technical education, said education experts.

Though the final round of the counselling for the polytechnics would conclude on July 29, all seats in the new and old polytechnics had been filled. The students preferred government institutes, while private polytechnic institutes could fill just 250 seats, officials said.

Even as five polytechnics had been approved by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), but the Department of Technical Education had no option than using the existing infrastructure in the established colleges to run the new colleges.

The Lahaul-Spiti polytechnic is functioning from the Sundernagar polytechnic, Kullu from Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College, Sundarnagar. Similarly, Kinnaur college is functioning from Rohru, Bilaspur from Hamirpur and Sirmaur (Paonta Sahib) college from Una polytechnic college, the officials said.

The buildings for the polytechnics were under construction. The administrative block in Kullu was ready while other building was under construction. So was the case with the college building at Paonta Sahib, the officials said.

The tender for the Bilaspur college had been awarded. In Kinnaur, JP Training Institute, built under LADA funds at Urni, had been given to polytechnic college and process to construct building in Lahaul was on, sources said.

There was no shortage of labs and the staff as the new colleges would be utilising the existing infrastructure at these institutes, said Vijay Chandan, Director, Technical Education.

Chandan said the department had started two technical courses in the five colleges, tailored to the needs and demands of industries.

The new courses would be introduced once the colleges had their own campuses and full-fledged staff, he added.

Chamba, July 17
The inquiry report with regard to the high-voltage short-circuit incident at Pleur village in Chamba district in May last, has pinpointed mechanical failure as the cause of the tragedy. During this episode, the domestic electric wiring of houses in the village was destroyed, thereby electrocuting four persons and injuring five persons.

Official sources said here today that the inquiry report prepared by the Deputy Chief Engineer, Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB), who was the investigating officer in the incident, observed that the accident had occurred due to the mechanical failure of the 11-KV Disc Insulator, thereby decreasing the minimum clearance between high-tension (HT) and low-tension (LT) power transmission lines and sparking over with LT line.

"No one is directly involved in the accident. However, officials of the HPSEB supervising the shifting of the transformer after the damage of DTR (Digital Transformer Radiometer) to the present DTR were negligent and may be warned suitably," the sources said.

The sources said the inquiry report had suggested remedial measures like providing of earth wire wherever it was missing.

Moreover, the LT pole, which was underneath the HT line, should have been shifted to a safe position, the report said. The report also suggested regular checking of the hardware and the disc insulator of the lines.

Kangra, July 17
Employees and students of Pandit Anant Ram Sanathan Dharam Degree College, Baroh, and other residents of the region have asked the government to take over the college or they will hold a symbolic agitation tomorrow. They said if their demand was not met before July 23, they would hold protests.

Prof Naveen Sood, employee secretary of the college, in a letter to the Kangra Deputy Commissioner submitted to the Baroh Tehsildar expressed resentment over the "unbecoming attitude" of the district administration towards their demand to take over the college in the interest of the students, employees and people of the region.

He said the Kangra Deputy Commissioner had been requested to intimate about the protest to the state government so that the government gauged the gravity of the situation and took a favourable decision.

Sources said the college was becoming a victim of Congress infighting. They said while a senior Congress leader and state minister wanted the government to take over the college, former Congress MLA and the right-hand man of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was interested in getting the college closed. They said amid the political tussle, the future of the college students was getting jeopardised and the employees' jobs, too, were at stake.

Shimla, July 17
Expressing displeasure over the working of the Health Department, particularly the manner in which it had cancelled an examination for lecturers at Himachal Pradesh Government Dental College (HPGDC), Shimla, held on January 16 and 17, 2013, the HP High Court imposed Rs 25,000 fine on the state government.

While passing this order, a Division Bench comprising Justice DD Sud and Justice Sanjay Karol further quashed the cancellation order of the state government and directed it to declare the result of the examination forthwith.

The court passed this order recently on a petition filed by Dr Abhishek Soni challenging the action of the state government of cancelling the examination without any cogent reason.

The petitioner further alleged that the Principal Secretary (Health) issued a letter addressed to the Director of Medical Education and Research, cancelling the examination held for the post of lecturer at the HPGDC, Shimla, wherein it was mentioned that various representations had been received by the government from candidates who could not appear in the examination due to inclement weather conditions.

The Bench observed that without ascertaining the facts, the Principal Secretary had accepted inclement weather as a ground for the cancellation of the examination.

The court further observed "we also find from the record of the petition that the Meteorological Department had stated that in Shimla the weather was totally dry on January 16, and on 17 there was rain only. The record also shows that 34 candidates had applied, 29 collected their roll numbers on January 15 and all of them appeared in the examination.

Sundernagar, July 17
A Bench of the Consumer Forum, Mandi, headed by its president JN Yadav, has returned a complaint filed by Pupul Dutt Parshad, Superintendent of Police, Mandi, with regard to an excessive tariff bill issued by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Mandi.

The complainant was posted in Mandi and had to go abroad in 2011. He applied for an international roaming, which was provided to him by the BSNL after he paid Rs 5,000.

He said the BSNL authorities told him that the roaming charges would vary from Rs 7.50 to Rs 12 per minute and later on he received a bill for Rs 48,693, where the roaming was charged at Rs 174 per minute. Therefore, he had filed a complaint for quashing the bill.

The BSNL authorities said the bill was “raised strictly as per consumption and was rightly issued”.

The forum held that it was not having the jurisdiction to try consumer dispute with regard to tariff.

Una, July 17
The fake currency seized from various parts of the district by the Una police recently had its roots in Thailand.

Sources in the police said investigations had revealed that the currency was brought from Thailand.

Earlier, the fake currency was brought into India through Nepal or Pakistan. However, the recent recoveries had indicated that Thailand was becoming the new destination for bringing fake currency into India.

SP, Una, Khushal Sharma told The Tribune that various cases of fake currency seizure were reported from various parts of the district. A sum of Rs 4,600 was recovered from Amb, Rs 17,500 from Pandoga and Rs 8,500 from Chintpurni. All fake currency was in the denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 500 and Rs 100 notes.

Though the amount of fake currency confiscated from Una was small, it had some strange similarities. The fake currency was being brought into the district by pilgrims from Punjab, he said.

The SP added that the currency recovered from various parts of Una district recently was of very high quality and could not be easily identified.

Interrogation from the people who were using fake currency in Una district revealed that they had procured it from a person in Hoshiarpur district. The person, who used to supply fake currency in Hoshiarpur, was identified as Kamal Kishore.

He was arrested. Inquiries from him revealed that he had procured fake currency from Thailand. Kamal Kishore was a frequent visitor to Thailand. He was introduced to conduits who used to supply fake currency in Thailand by some people from Adampur of Punjab.

The SP said some persons from Adampur were also questioned by the police and they had admitted to having brought fake currency from Thailand.

Kamal Kishore told the police that the high quality fake currency was available at 60 per cent price in Thailand. He had brought Rs 1 lakh fake currency for Rs 60,000 from Thailand.

He said the investigations into the case had revealed that a chain of suppliers was functioning for distributing fake currency in various parts. Investigations in fake currency cases were still going on and the police was trying to break the chains, he said.

Solan, July 17
A team of the Mandi police today seized a computer, a printer and papers used to print fake currency notes from a computer shop in Nauni and arrested Sumit Bharat Bansal who was running it.

Superintendent of Police, Mandi, RS Negi, told The Tribune that a police team, led by Jeet Singh, in charge Jhanjheli police post, arrested Bansal (23), who is a student of Bachelors of Computer Application, and seized the computer and the printer used in printing fake currency notes.

Bansal was arrested on the leads given by two youths, Deepak Sharma and Tarun Thakur.

Negi said they were investigating into the matter and also ascertaining the links of the arrested youths and also the places where such currency was in operation.

The computer centre is owned by an employee of the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, and is located opposite to the gate.

Mandi, July 17
The Mandi police on Monday recovered fake currency worth Rs 36,500 from two men, identified as Deepak Sharma of Kamali, Ghumarwin, and Tarun Thakur of Damrog, Solan, who were roaming in the Jankheli area. They were arrested under Sections 489-A and 489-C, IPC, at Gohar police station.

The police said the duo was roaming in their bid to circulate the fake currency in the denomination of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 when they were caught by the police. The fruit and vegetable season is on and racketeers target innocent villagers by circulating the fake currency.