Dharamsala, September 28
Bus fare in the state has been increased by 30 per cent with effect from October 1. Minister for Transport, Food and Civil Supplies and Technical Education, GS Bali, made this announcement here today. He said the bus fare have been increased due to increase in the diesel prices and consistent pressure from private bus operators who had been alleging losses due to increased diesel prices.

The minimum bus fare in the state has also been increased from Rs 2 to Rs 5. For a distance of 5 km, the bus fare will be Rs 5.

The students have been exempted from the recent increase in fare for one year. The rates of their bus passes will continue to be issued at the same rates for a year.

The private bus operators in the state had been building pressure for increase in bus fare, alleging losses due to an increase in the prices of diesel. They had also resorted to a strike recently. The Minister for Transport had been resisting pressure from the transporters.

The minister said the state government had decided to affect one-time increase in the bus fare. The bus fare will not be increased for two years. Despite the recent increase, the bus fare in the state is lower than in Uttarakhand. After the increase, the bus fare will be Rs 1.11 per km in the state. In Uttarakhand, the bus fare is Rs 1.50 per km, the minister said.

He said the private bus operators will also be allowed to increase revenue by supporting advertisements on their buses. The private bus operators will be allowed to enter into agreements with private advertisement agencies for the purpose or in collaboration with the HRTC.

The minister said bus circuits were being established in Kangra. The circuits will include routes like Dharamsala-Nagrota-Kangra or Palampur-Nagrota-Chamunda. In these circuits, the bus fare will be fixed at subsidised rates. It will be 30 per cent lower than the normal bus fare. He said similar bus circuits were also being established in the entire state for the benefit of local residents.

Bali said many private transporters did not deposit the state road tax with the government. The applications of defaulter transporters for route changes or other concessions will not be processed till the transporters clear their dues. The names of defaulter private transporters would also be displayed outside the HRTC offices.

The minister said with the financial assistance of the Centre under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, the HRTC will get 500 new buses. It will overhaul the old fleet of the HRTC buses, in the state.

The minister also said the HRTC employees have been provided benefits worth Rs 40 crore, including 98 per cent liability left by the previous BJP government. He said the HRTC bus tickets will now be available online. The passengers booking tickets online would get a discount of 5 per cent. Under this scheme, the agents would also be provided a discount of 5 per cent.

Hamirpur, September 28
The Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) has withdrawn the powers of its divisional managers and regional managers to start new buses in their areas. The direction has issued by the HRTC Managing Director.

The decision has been taken as the divisional managers and regional managers were receiving a large number of requests from MLAs and elected representatives of the Panchayati Raj institutions to start new routes and divert the existing ones in their Assembly constituencies.

The mangers were finding it difficult to cope with the situation as several requests were being made by public representatives to please their voters. Besides, changes made on the requests of public representatives were posing administrative problems in the HRTC divisions.

As per the new direction, “The decision on new routes or changes in routes will be made by the office of Managing Director. The regional managers will forward such requests to his office.

Shimla, September 28
The Centre has approved Rs 3.85-crore project for the rehabilitation of street vendors in the area under the Municipal Corporation (MC). The same will be done under the Challenge Fund Programme of the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

Sudhir Sharma, Urban Development Minister, said here today that under the project, 222 shops will be built along with parking space for 50 vehicles on roof top. Each floor will have public convenience and provision for rain water harvesting with solar passive design, fire escape routes, two lifts and solar lights.

Shimla, September 28
The Shimla Municipal Corporation today urged the state government to review its decision to hand over the entire 1880.13 hectares of its forest area to the Forest Department.

The MC, in its monthly meeting today, urged the government to return the entire forest area to it. It was in 2006 that the control and management of the entire forest area had been handed over from the MC to the Forest Department but later 843.91 hectares was returned to the MC.

The decision of the cabinet two days back to hand over the entire forest area falling within the MC to the Forest Department had come as a bolt from the blue. The MC, which had on several occasions requested the government to return the remaining over 1,000 hectares of the land, to it was hoping to gain control of the entire area.

It was also decided to undertake a cleanliness drive and spray disinfectants to check incidence of scrub typhus cases.

Sainj (Kullu), September 28
The commissioning of two units of 130 MW capacity each of the 520 MW Parbati-III hydropower project, which is already running four years behind schedule, is in trouble.

The water discharge in the Sainj river has receded drastically and “is just enough to run one unit”, which is likely to be commissioned in October next month.

Though National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) had targeted to commission the two units in August, but the water ingress and non-completion of cable and civil termination works in the power house at Bihali have further delayed the commissioning.

The water access to the 8-km-long Siund-Bihali tunnel of the project developed at five different points in a span of 500 m between Spangni and Bihali has been plugged by fixing valves, but a small leakage still remains.

“The major leakages at the joints have been plugged and there is no problem now”, said Om Parkash, General Manager, Parbati-III.

This project also faces another problem. The 31.52-km head race tunnel of the 800 MW Parbati-II is not ready to take water from Pulga to the dam of the Parbati-III project at Siund near here.

The water of Parbati and Sainj rivers is being used to make its all four units operational in winters. As a result, all four units, which are likely to be ready next year, will not operate for seven months from October to March as the available water discharge in the Sainj river recedes to 40 cusecs per minute during the lean winter season, said NHPC engineers.

“But we have enough water to run four units during summers when the water level increases due to the rains or melting of snow,” said the engineers.

The available discharge in the Sainj river is about 40 cusecs per minute in winter, which is just enough to run one unit of 130 MW. The project needs minimum discharge of 160 cusecs of water to run its all four units, they added.

Started in 2005, the project is already running four years behind schedule as it was expected to be commissioned in 2009. It was rescheduled for October 2012.

The losses to Himachal are mounting as the project is expected to generate 1,963.29 million units in a year. The state will get 12 per cent free electricity as per the MoU and as such losses to Himachal runs into several crores of rupees per year, said power experts.

The Parbati-III project is country’s first project which will be completed within the estimated cost of the project at Rs 2300 crore, said Om Parkash.

Shimla, September 28
The ragging at the hands of seniors cut short the dream of 19-year-old Aman Kachroo of becoming a doctor, but the four accused for his death can now go on to become doctors. The Executive Council (EC) of the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) today gave its nod for their readmission in the Tanda Medical College in Kangra.

The EC at its meeting held here today gave its nod to the proposal sent by the Medical Education Department to allow these four students to complete their medical education at Tanda College. However, the EC also put an embargo that these four youths on completion of their studies will not be given government jobs in the state government.

The proposal was placed before the EC following a meeting between the HPU Registrar and the Principal of the Tanda Medical College. As per the EC decision, these four youths will be treated as having failed and will resume education from where they had left. No increase in seats will be made to allow their continuation in medical college.

The decision of the EC will now be conveyed to the Medical Council of India (MCI). After obtaining the MCI’s approval, the four students will be admitted to the classes which they were in 2009 when the death of Aman landed them up in jail. The four students -Abhinav Verma, Mukul Sharma, Navin Verma and Ajay Verma - were sentenced to four-year jail on November 11, 2010.

It was on March 8, 2009, that Aman Kachroo had died after being subjected to intense ragging. After the postmortem report confirmed death due to brain haemorrhage that the four youths were arrested.

Rajinder Kachroo, father of Aman after losing his only son had started a campaign against ragging and set up the Aman Sathya Kachroo Trust and launched an anti-ragging helpline. It was the nationwide movement against ragging following Aman’s death that the Supreme Court barred ragging and Union Ministry of Human Resource Development started an anti-ragging helpline. 

Bilaspur, September 28
The state government has urged Bhakra Dam oustees to submit to the Deputy Commissioner any suggestions regarding the framing of “policy” on regularisation of encroached government land before September 30.

Addressing a meeting of the District Bhakra Dam Oustees’ Rehabilitation Advisory Committee” on Friday evening, Principal Secretary (Revenue) Tarun Shridhar said the state government had decided to give encroached land to oustees and now rules were being framed in this regard. The Chief Minster wanted that oustees must be taken into confidence while framing the policy, which should be practical and implementable as per law, he added.

He said the government had decided to allot their rehabilitation plot to them free of any charge, thus converting their status from a lessee to that of its owner. The government has also decided to give legal status to their encroached land up to 150 sq m. In the past 55 years of their displacement, they were given only a plot of 1,800 sq ft for their rehabilitation in the new town, though there vast property got submerged in the old town of Bilaspur.

Shridhar, however, cleared encroachments on public facilities like roads, lanes, bylanes , sewerage lines, main holes, plots of others and public parks and open spaces for public celebrations and far off from rehabilitation plots, etc., would not be regularised. Any disputes between adjoining families would be settled by revenue officers after spot visit. All Party Bhakra Oustees’ Rights Protection Committee presented a memorandum to the Principal Secretary giving concrete suggestions in this matter. 

Kullu, September 28
As many as 19 Delhi-bound passengers were left in the lurch today as the Air India flight failed to take off from the Kullu-Manali airport at Bhuntar today due to a technical snag.

The aircraft landed at the airport a little late than its scheduled time. The flight was cancelled after the pilot detected a technical snag in the aircraft, sources said.

Air India, the only airliner operating its flights between Kullu-Manali and Delhi, has not deployed an engineer at the airport to take care of any emergency situation.

The passengers, including foreigners, said the Air India should set up an engineering cell at the airport.

The landing and take off at the airport is difficult for the pilots as the runway is small. Larji hill on way to the airport also poses a problem, sources said. The Air India has deputed the team from Delhi and is expected to reach here tonight, the Airport Authority of India sources said.

Shimla, September 28
The ninth edition of the Himalayan Mountain Biking rally, christened as Discovery Montra MTB-2013, was flagged off from Shimla today. As many as 84 bikers, including several foreign participants, are taking part in the six-day event, which attracts some of the tallest names in the world.

Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy flagged off the rally from Hotel Holiday Home in the morning. Roy lauded the organisers in making the rally a mega event. “Besides, biking being an activity which keeps one very fit, the rally in a way promotes Himachal and its picturesque locations from the tourism point of view,” said Roy.

The rally was almost threatened by heavy rain early in the morning, but the weather finally cleared up. Out of the total 84 participants, 16 are foreigners and eight are women. “There are five teams from the Indian Army and six participants from the Indian Air Force. But it is world number nine, Luis Liao Pinto and Ricardo Martin, world number 16, who are attracting maximum attention,” said Mohit Sood, President, Himalayan Adventure Sports and Tourism Promotion Association.

Living up to his reputation of being a biker of international repute, Luis Liao Pinto from Portugal completed the first stage of 40 km in just one hour and 34 minutes. Besides Pinto, two other Portugese, Eduardo Pereira and Luis Canto Moniz, also completed the first stage comfortably. Among the Indian participants, it was only the participants from the Indian Army who were able to complete the first stage.