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on record Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh spoke exclusively to Raj
Chengappa, Editor-in-Chief, The Tribune Group of Newspapers, and Himachal Bureau staffers Rakesh Lohumi and Pratibha Chauhan in Shimla recently. Excerpts: My focus has been twofold. One thing is to deal with the problems which I inherited from the previous government whether it is chaos in the administration or bypassing the rules and regulations. The second thing is to deal with the financial situation, which is precarious. We have a debt of about Rs 15,000 crore, mainly because of profligate spending by the previous government, particularly just before elections. I do not know how Dhumal would have dealt with it if his party had won. I am trying to resolve it so that our pace of development is not hurt and we are able to fulfil our objectives. What are the other inherited issues you are tackling? We have opened all schools that were closed by the Dhumal government. A large number of schools were closed because of poor student-teacher ratio. Our policy is to reach education to remote and difficult areas. Then we have rationalised the education system. Dhumal was in power for five years for the second term. For the first four years and six months he did nothing, but in the last six months he opened about 15 colleges without proper provisions, building, staff and accommodation. We are taking action against such colleges where there were no buildings, no teachers.
What are you doing about the private universities that have mushroomed in Himachal? How are you ensuring the students don’t have a problem? We have now set up a regulatory commission to look into the needs of these universities. Otherwise, they have their own Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor and the government cannot interfere in their management and functioning. Now this regulatory commission goes into the functioning of the universities and will take cognisance of the wrong things that are happening. This will ensure these universities that have been started don’t just collapse; otherwise students will suffer. What are the new things you are doing or proposing to do? My priority is to fulfil the manifesto of the Congress party and all the previous ongoing plans which were started by the Congress government that were neglected by the successor BJP government. You came to power with a slogan that Himachal was on sale and you would take action against the corrupt. What have you done so far? We are going to investigate all cases of corruption and take it to the logical conclusion. The one involving Pavilion Hotel at the cricket stadium is completely a case of misuse of government machinery. I am not against cricket stadiums. I want to promote sports and games in a big way. I am against special favours being given to somebody by bypassing the rules and regulations. In Pavilion Hotel, it was first mooted as a hostel for players and now the purpose has been converted into a five-star hotel. The transfer of land for that purpose was illegal and I have suspended and charge-sheeted two senior officers already for that and an inquiry is taking place. We are also inquiring into benami transactions in Shimla district. Everybody was eager to oblige, shutting their eyes to what was going on. The third thing is the bad roads even outside Shimla. Just one rainfall would wash away the metalling and surfacing. There is tremendous corruption in the making or repairing roads. We want to stop this. Your government has also taken up cases of illegal phone-tapping by the previous government against its rivals. What is the progress? We are carrying out investigations and all illegally taped conversations are with the Vigilance Department. These illegal tappings were done with the nod of the former Chief Minister and with the connivance of the then DGP, involving the police machinery. I was tapped also. In the bulk of the cases no permission from the Home Department was taken. They can be prosecuted under criminal law, nobody can go scot free from the criminal law, whether in service or retired. I will carry it to the logical end. What are you doing to improve your bleak financial position? It has to be a balancing act. For example, I cannot put a stop to development expenditure; development was the key issue in our election manifesto, so we need to provide more roads, more schools, colleges, hospitals, dispensaries, drinking water, irrigation facilities, etc. For all this we require money and apart from using our own resources properly we need help from the Central government too. What is the amount you need to execute your election manifesto commitments and at the same time meet the requirement of fiscal prudence? We require around Rs 3,000 crore and the Centre should help us. They cannot penalise us for being a peaceful state. Take our forests, we have got forests worth many hundred crores. If I were not prudent and acted like many other states and cut our forests, I could have earned much revenue for the state. But I did not do that. Instead, I acted against the forest mafia and I put them in jail. My view is that if we cut down trees and forests, the entire plains of India will be affected by global warming. So by restraining ourselves we have done a great national duty. So why cannot I be compensated for preserving my forests? The Central government did give special concessions for industry to come to Himachal. We were given concessions for industry just as Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and other hill states. In our case, Punjab and Haryana raised their voice and said industries from those states were migrating to Himachal. Let them give me one example of an industry that came to Himachal from these states. I wish all our neighbours well. But they are not our well-wishers. We should now have a new package because we are a a hill state and want to carry the industry to the interiors of the state, not just keep it at the border. So help must come. What about the recent decision in the BBMB case, where compensation for Himachal Pradesh has been cut down. Are you going to appeal to the Supreme Court? This is another case of injustice. The attitude Punjab and Haryana have adopted is not conducive to friendly relations in the region. What we get or not is a different matter, but their attitude hurts us. We have always given respect to them. But whenever something comes to the advantage of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana come forward to stop it. Yes, I am going to challenge this in the Supreme Court. The Central government is to give the recommendation. If they change the formula, it is not acceptable to us and we will challenge this in the Supreme Court. Are we making all the dams and uprooting the people for the benefit of Punjab and Haryana alone? We are doing this for the benefit of the nation. What is the position of the 72-odd large power projects in Himachal? During the past five years not a single power project had advanced even an inch. We have got to stabilise things and see that those people who were given these power projects perform and finish it in the stipulated period. If they don’t show any progress we will dispense with them. We will give them to some other agencies or take over. Also we are reviewing the environmental impact. For me, it is environment first and power next. Your critics say that there has hardly been any overall progress in the state during your current tenure, and that you are ailing. This is all propaganda by the BJP and Mr Dhumal. They say I can’t talk and I can’t walk and I will soon be going to America for treatment. But here I am hale and hearty. In the recent by-poll, I did more touring than all my rivals put together.
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good news
Located
on the Amritsar-Jalandhar road, Maqboolpura has over the years earned disrepute, contrary to its meaning — “a place of eminence”. Now, people know of it as a “locality of widows” since a large number of lives have been snuffed out due to rampant drug addiction. However, things are slowly changing. Social activists Brij Bedi and Master Ajit Singh have taken it upon themselves to ensure that the future generations of Maqboolpura are safe and do not fall prey to the menace of addiction. They are bringing light in the lives of the children of addicts with education.
The journey The duo set up the Citizen Forum Vidya Mandir in the late 1990s to offer free education to these children. The school started functioning from a small room at Master Ajit Singh’s place with 20 students. They worked hard to convince residents to send their wards to the school. Today, they have around 800 students from KG to class VIII; around a dozen classrooms; and 21 teachers in their institution. Four more classrooms will come up in 100 sq yards they have added adjacent to the school. Master Ajit Singh says they teach 70 students in the evening classes as they are short of space. “We encourage the children to continue with their studies after class VIII in other institutions, and also support them in every possible manner. At present, 58 of our students are studying in higher classes in various schools. We keep a track of all of them.” “We provide them with books, uniform, cycles to commute to their schools, and also pay their fee. We want to make sure they stand on their feet. That is how they would be able to transform their families and neighbourhood,” says Bedi. They are also preparing these kids for cut-throat competition by running free coaching classes for the Joint Entrance Test for admission to polytechnics and other colleges. For this, they have roped in retired teachers.
Shining stars Among the students who have done well are Kiran Kaur, who is in the final year of computer engineering, and Nirmaljit Kaur, who plays tennis and squash. Another former student, Sarabjit Kaur, got recruited in the Punjab Police. Some others are doing a course in garment technology or training to be a medical lab technician. Most of these students come from a humble background. Nirmaljit’s father sells eatables on a “rehri” while Kiran’s father is an addict. Her mother ekes out a living by selling vegetables. Master Ajit Singh is all praise for Balram Singh, Judge Singh, Sunil Singh and Gursewak Singh who, after passing out of the school and college, now teach at the school. The school has received immense support from the administration and philanthropists from across the world. While the district administration extended the midday meal facility to the school, the Springdale School management offers free uniform and books to its students, besides training teachers and paying their salaries. Besides this, the India Vision Foundation, an NGO set up by Bedi’s wife and former top cop Kiran Bedi, is also supporting the higher education of some girls. The district administration has launched an action plan in Maqboolpura, under which health cards have been issued to the students and health centres have been identified for them. “We are ready to support our students to any level up to which they want to study. We are planning to set up a trust with a corpus fund of around Rs 10 lakh to fund higher studies of girl students,” shared Bedi. As regards the school, he says: “We have certain limitations. We will require highly qualified staff if we open higher classes, for which we think we are not ready right now.” Master Ajit Singh says they will launch a “learning plus earning” initiative with the help of the Senior Citizens Association, under which students will be trained in various vocations.
The curse Master Ajit Singh says in the last 14 years, 329 persons have died due to drug addiction in the locality. Last year, 13 addicts died in the area. Most of the deceased were in the age group of 20 to 40 years, which is evident from the growing number of young widows. There are families that have lost their sons and the onus of looking after the next generation has fallen on the shoulders of the elderly. Septuagenarian Swaran Singh runs a horsecart to support his daughter, daughter-in-law and six grandchildren. His son and son-in-law, who were addicts, died within years.
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Pope Francis, head of the catholic church MM Pallam Raju, hrd minister Shatrughan Sinha, actor and bjp leader Sonam Kapoor, bollywood actor Lata Mangeshkar, legendary singer
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It’s been seven months now since you came back as Chief Minister. What have you focused on?
If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him? They should not be marginalised, rather they must be integrated into society. 
It's sad our concerns were not factored in. The division process was very fast. Any decision on Telangana should have brought us goodwill. It will divide the people of the state.
Popularity alone is not a criterion. If that is the criterion then the most popular person of the country today is Amitabh Bachchan. It's our wish that he becomes the President.
My father doesn't believe in marriage. He thinks it's an old-fashioned concept. The men in my family are against it. So the man who wants to marry me has to go through my six brothers and dad.
I was short-tempered, but I never fought. I would remove my sandals before entering the recording room. But when I was angry, I would just walk in with my sandals on. People would stay away from me.