Dharamsala, November 29
The district administration has advertised vacancies of 226 posts of patwari, the lowest-rank posts in Revenue Department.

The posts are likely to be filled on a contract basis and people recruited will be offered a salary of about Rs 10,000 per month.

However, the kind of response the posts have drawn from eligible candidates has startled district officials. The basic eligibility for the post of patwari is class XII. However, the officials, while screening the applications coming from candidates, were surprised to see candidates having much higher educational qualifications have applied for the post.

The sources here said candidates having BTech, MPhil, double MA, MCA, BCA, BEd and diploma in engineering have applied for the post of patwari.

The sources here said the district administration had received 19,500 direct applications and about 7,500 applications through employment exchanges for the 226 posts of patwari.

This means that about 27,000 candidates from Kangra had applied for the posts, which includes more than 3,000 highly qualified candidates. The ratio of candidates competing for a single post would be around 120.

The DRO, Kangra, Naresh Thakur, who is screening the advertisements, when contacted, admitted that they had received a large numbers of applications from highly qualified candidates. He did not quantify the number of highly qualified candidates who had applied.

The sources said since such a large number of candidates had applied for the posts of patwari, they had started exerting political pressure on district officials to get the posts.

The political leaders had started ringing up officials to know how their candidates could be selected.

However, the district administration was conducting a screening test for selecting patwaris, that would include multiple-choice questions. The candidates would have to answer the question paper on an answer sheet that would be evaluated though computer. This would leave no scope for manipulation, except helping candidates in the examination.

The patwari, though is lowest post in the Revenue Department, involves the important work of maintaining revenue records in respective partwar circles.

Patwaris are the custodians of revenue records in the patwar circle and people have to depend on them for all revenue work.

In terms income by illegal means also the posts of patwaris are considered to be very lucrative. However, candidates having MCA, MPhil, MA and BTech degrees applying for the posts of patwari illustrates unemployment among the highly qualified youth in the state. There is hardly any industry available in the state to absorb highly qualified IT professionals. The youth have to move out of the state to get jobs in IT and its related industry.

In many cases, the Himachali youth prefer to do other work as working as patwari within the state rather than moving out.

Shimla, November 29
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) has framed new regulations for determining tariff to promote efficiency in implementation of small hydropower projects to help contain the rising cost of generation.

The regulations were needed for rationalising the tariff in the competitive environment that has emerged over the past decade. “Independent power producers (IPPs) were projecting higher capital costs ranging from Rs 8 crore to Rs 11 crore per megawatt and with the annual capacity utilisation factor on the lower side, the cost of generation would have increased to over Rs 4.10 per unit from the current Rs 2.90 which would make the projects unviable”, Chairman of the Commission Subhash Negi pointed out.

Further, the impact of 13 per cent free power to be provided to the government and the mandatory 15 per cent discharge to be maintained downstream the diversion structure had to be factored in.

The normative annual capacity utilisation factor for all small hydropower projects up to 25 MW has been fixed at 55 per cent, up from 45 per cent, to bring efficiency and optimum use of discharge in water sources. It will help increase annual generation to 4.3 million units from 3.9 million units per megawatt. The new regulations also take the central subsidy into account in view of the competitive environment.

The normative capital cost has also been fixed for the projects which have been classified into three categories on the basis of installed capacity. The normative cost for projects with generation capacity ranging from 100 kW to 2 MW capacity has been fixed at Rs 7.80 crore per megawatt, for 2 MW to 5 MW Rs 7.50 crore per megawatt and for 5 MW to 25 MW Rs 7 crore per megawatt.

Shimla, November 29
Having failed to turn up for questioning in the ongoing probe into the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) case, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has summoned a senior IAS officer, Kamlesh Panth, currently serving with the Union Civil Aviation Ministry in New Delhi, to join the investigation immediately.

The Vigilance Bureau is keen to question Panth as he was Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, when the process for relocating the residential quarters for lecturers, owned by the Education Department, was pursued.

“Having failed to join the investigation on the two earlier given dates, the Vigilance Bureau issued a notice to Kamlesh Panth under Section 160 of the CrPC yesterday to join the investigation in the HPCA case at Dharamsala immediately,” said AP Singh, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Vigilance.

Panth, who had earlier been asked to come for questioning on November 22, had sought some other date on the plea that he was scheduled to visit Dubai in connection with official work.

On his request, the Vigilance Bureau asked Panth to join the investigation between November 25 to 28, but he failed to turn up.

“The intimation had been sent on fax and the summons were delivered personally, but he expressed his inability to come to Dharamsala and sought that the questionnaire may be sent to him through mail,” confirmed Vigilance officials.

They said it was following this development that he was now asked to join the investigation immediately.

Vigilance officials said Panth as DC, Kangra, had chaired a meeting of officials from the Public Works Department (PWD), Education and HPCA office-bearers to decide the issue of relocation of lecturer quarters, owned by the Education Department.

The act of damaging and dismantling of the lecturer quarters later is being viewed as an alleged criminal conspiracy by the Vigilance Bureau in the HPCA case.

One of the allegations against the HPCA pertains to encroachment on 720 square metres where the residential quarters of the Education Department were located. The structure was removed to pave the way for the construction of the HPCA stadium.

Nahan, November 29
Sukhwinder Singh, president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, today blamed Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) president and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur for having commercialised cricket by illegally converting the society into a private company.

Addressing a meeting of the District Congress Committee, which was for the first time convened in a rural area at Mariyog in Pacchad constituency of Sirmaur, he said Anurag had illegally converted the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association into a company and the state government was now inquiring into this matter.

He said the sanctity of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association could be restored only after holding of elections in a democratic way and its re-conversion into a society. He said former Chief Minister PK Dhumal had commercialised politics and his son Anurag had commercialised cricket.

Urging party workers to gear up for the elections, Sukhwinder Singh said they should strengthen booth-level committees as this alone would help in propagating the policies and programmes of the Congress among the people. He stressed on reconstituting panchayat-level committees for better coordination.

He said people had committed a blunder by defeating a senior leader like five-time MLA Gangu Ram Musafir and said despite this the Congress had not discriminated against the people and several development schemes had been announced for the area.

Ajay Solanki, president of the District Congress Committee, said it was a matter of concern that the youth in the age group of 18 to 30 years were disenchanted with the Congress and the party along with its frontal organisations like the Youth Congress should ensure that more youth joined the party.

He said since this section of the youth comprised a large section of voters, they would soon initiate a programme to attract the youth.

Former Nahan MLA Kush Parmar said the contributions of his father, late YS Parmar, who was the first Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh and had laid played a crucial role in the development of the state, should be included in the school syllabus. Musafir, vice-president of the Planning Board, was present.

Dharamsala, November 29
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has slapped another case on the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), revenue and forest officials for alleged felling of green trees on the land on which Pavillion Hotel has come up near Dharamsala.

Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau officials said during probe in case registered against HPCA and revenue officials for committing irregularities in the lease of land to the cricket organisation, it came to notice of the investigating officer that a large number of pine trees were standing on land allotted on lease to HPCA for Hotel Pavillion.

A report was sought from the DFO Dharamsala over the matter. As per the present report of the DFO, 2,023 trees were standing on the land leased to HPCA.

However, the revenue officials who demarcated the same land before the allotment to HPCA have not mentioned the fact in their report. While giving No Objection Certificate for land, the then DFO and Range Officer posted at Dharamsala had also not mentioned about the existence of pine trees over the land allotted to HPCA.

In the reports of revenue officials and forest officials, it was mentioned the land being allotted to HPCA was a grass land without trees (Charagah Vila Darakhtan).

It has been alleged that undue favour has been given to HPCA by the officials of revenue and forest department and wrongful loss has been caused to the government exchequer.

A case has been registered under Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 447 and 120-B of IPC.

Shimla, November 29
A high-level team of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) surveyed a site measuring 700 bighas near Kandaghat to assess the feasibility for the setting up of a bigger airport which can enable the landing of bigger aircraft and improve air connectivity to the state.

The AAI team, accompanied by officials of the Tourism Department, visited Kandaghat on November 27 and Bhuntar airport on November 28. The AAI will send the technical feasibility report within the next fortnight, which will indicate the technical suitability and economic feasibility of the site for setting up a bigger airport and improving connectivity.

The two main aspects that the team assessed were the availability of a hindrance-free access for takeoff and landing of aircraft and the safety aspect of the site. “The technical team of the AAI inspected the site from various angles and their report is expected within the next 15 days, which will decide the suitability of this chunk of land,” confirmed Mohan Chauhan, Director, Tourism and Civil Aviation.

Besides the 700 bighas of government land available at this particular site above Kandaghat, there is an additional 400 bighas of private land. In case the site is found suitable, the AAI could give its nod for the setting up of a bigger airport, which is desperately needed for better connectivity to the state.

The AAI team also visited Bhuntar in Kullu to see how to proceed with the issue of extension of the 4,100 feet airstrip to enable landing of bigger planes. Experts from the IIT, Roorkee, were
present at Bhuntar when the AAI team visited the Kullu yesterday.

“The IIT experts, after a detailed survey of the site, have given two options of either diverting the river or constructing a bridge over the river to extend the runway,” said Chauhan. He added that the AAI team inspected the site at Bhuntar to decide which option would prove better and less expensive.

Of the three airports at Jubbarhatti near Shimla, Bhuntar near Kullu and Gaggal near Kangra, flights are operating only from Gaggal. The airstrip at Jubbarhatti is in need of repairs, besides the short 3,900 feet runway proving insufficient for landing of bigger planes. There is a plan to extend the airstrip, but the matter is pending with the AAI.

The proposal to set up a bigger airport has been in the pipeline for quite some time and sites had been identified near Ranital in Kangra and at Kandaghat. Now, with the visit of the AAI team, there could be some headway in this direction.

Himachal Pradesh, with near-total dependence on road transport and limited rail connectivity, will have to strengthen its air connectivity in case it wants to promote tourism and attract high-end tourists with greater paying capacity.

Shimla, November 29
Health and Family Welfare Minister Kaul Singh Thakur today ordered a thorough inquiry into the death of two patients at IGMC, Shimla, a few days ago.

Taking cognisance of the report published in these columns in The Tribune, Kaul Singh said strict action would be taken against those found responsible for the death of the patients. He said those responsible for the lapses would be brought to book.

The two patients, Shalini (13), a thalassaemia patient, and Rajkumar (29), an accident victim, had died after blood transfusion.

Attendants and NGOs had raised concern over the lack of “proper pre-operative and post-operative patient care at the hospital”.

Shalini and her younger brother Rohit, both thalassaemia patients, were brought to the IGMC for blood transfusion by their father Khor Singh from Karsog, Mandi.

However, Shalini developed complications soon after she was given blood and went into trauma after vomiting out blood. But there was no senior doctor to take care of her and she died, charged her family members.

Similarly, Rajkumar died four days ago after blood transfusion after his fractured leg was operated upon by a surgeon. He also developed complications and was not well-attended during the post-operative period, charged his relatives, who had staged a protest accusing the doctors of negligence.

Dr Ramesh, Medical Superintendent, IGMC, and Dr SS Kaushal, director, IGMC, denied the charges of medical negligence. They said both the patients were well-attended, but developed complications which were rare, but a known problem in such cases.

They have sought a report from the Department of Orthopaedics, where Rajkumar was operated upon, and the Department of Paediatrics, where Shalini was given the blood transfusion.

Shimla, November 29
The Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to launch its own online payment gateway which will help thousands of applicants to remit examination fee without any hassles.

The MoU was signed by Secretary HPPSC with Mohan Chauhan and PNB circle head VK Goyal in the presence of KS Tomar, Chairman and other officers.

Tomar said the initiative was part of the process to introduce IT-enabled innovative measures for the convenience of the candidates and at the same time save time and money spent on postage and travelling and other costs. The candidates would be able to make payments using credit and debit cards. They would get an SMS after every transaction.

He said PNB would charge a nominal fee of Rs 13.48 for each transaction to provide the facility to the candidates.

Regarding other steps to ensure secrecy and efficiency in the functioning of the commission, Tomar referred to the use of bar-codes and optical mark reader (OMR) for outer sheet for conventional examinations.

He said the existing system of writing fictitious roll numbers on the answer sheets would be done away with. It would help save a lot of time and manual work and bring efficiency to the entire process pertaining to the conduct of examinations.

The OMR answer sheet was introduced in the Subordinate Accounts Service (SAS) examination held recently.

Shimla, November 29
Buoyed by the success of the pilot project on embryo transfer technology (ETT), the government has decided to use it on a large scale to help boost milk production.

The ETT facilitates rapid genetic improvement of livestock and in a state like Himachal, where production of hilly cattle is as low as 4 litre per day, the technique may prove a boon for good quality animals, whereby through ETT, the production can help increase it to 15 litre per day.

The progress of the Rs 2.9-crore ETT project was reviewed during a two-day meeting convened by Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Anil Sharma, which concluded here today.

It was informed during the meeting that trials conducted by Director of Animal Husbandry Department Dr KD Ryot had resulted in the standardisation of ETT technique and out of the six ET born calves, two males Saurav and Gaurav had been shifted to the Sperm Station, Palampur, for production of semen for artificial insemination.

A state-of-the-art ETT laboratory at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore with equipment worth Rs 1 crore and trained technical experts at the Jersey Cattle Breeding Farm, Palampur, had been established. A target of providing 20 to 30 high pedigreed Jersey bulls through the ETT Sperm Station, Palampur, every year was also set.

Anil Sharma said the breeding policy was discussed and it was felt that the current policy needed to be changed.

Deepak Sanan, Additional Chief Secretary, Animal Husbandry, Himachal Pradesh, directed the authorities to prepare an ETT module with a clear-cut vision of the department.

Chamba, November 29
Members of the district unit of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) have waged a campaign against the Centre and the state governments for its failure to check skyrocketing prices, unemployment, capitalism and the deteriorating law and order situation prevailing across the country.

State spokesperson of the morcha Amit Thakur said the nationwide campaign had already been kicked off under the leadership of BJYM national president Anurag Thakur.

During the campaign, the morcha activists would oppose the Central government for its anti-public policies, the spokesperson said, adding that the morcha activists would work with a new vision and the new politics of the new era.

The spokesperson claimed the morcha activists who were working with zeal would succeed in their mission.

Shimla, November 29
These special girls are engaging in study, music and dance activities with others. As many as 20 special girls - eight visually impaired and 12 hearing and speech impaired - are studying with other girls at the Government Senior Secondary Girls School, Portmore, Himachal's oldest model girls school which is tipped as a model for inclusive education in the state.

The special girls are yet to be enabled with proper studying gadgets like computer software and understanding of their learning difficulties while studying with other children. Most of them come from economically poor households from across the state.

They have been enrolled here for what the government has termed as "inclusive education of special children launched on the direction of the High Court and the Supreme Court. Himachal is one of the first states to launch this project funded by the government of India.

These special girl children are studying the subjects with their over 1,500 schoolmates in this all-girls school. In fact, the government has launched this inclusive education programme in three other senior secondary boys schools as well - Joginder Nagar, Nahan and Nagrota Bagwan school in Kangra.

The special girls, however, tend to be moving in their own groups whether they come from classes from the hostel or they go back. Other girls assist them, play and chat with them, said the students.

These girls - 15 studying in XI, three in XII and one each in IX and X - go about their work with zeal and say they are fond of the school. The visually and speech impaired feel they are more comfortable with their teacher using sign language rather than with other teachers teaching the subjects in the class, they told The Tribune when the sign language teacher Sumedha Sharma communicated this query to them.

The visually impaired Muskan has shown her singing talent at the summer festival, Shimla and won accolades and state-level awards.

The problem is that they do not understand lecturers in the class delivered by teachers as they cannot hear them. The teachers rarely write and describe lessons on the blackboards and thus they face problem in understanding the lessons, they said.

The sign language teacher has joined here recently when the session is heading for a close. "We teach them the lessons, discuss problems in the resource room and undertake the set-up for them. We have computers but the software is being uploaded," says Sarita Chauhan, the special educator here.

"We cannot write and need to come back to the resource room to use Braille for writing," says Kusum who comes from Kullu and Ponam who comes from Bilaspur, who want to study in the college after passing XII.

Everybody helps them in the school and hostel. "There are separate beds for each girl as they prefer to be together as a group," says hostel warden Sushila Rathaur.

The school is facing a piquant situation as one of the class XII special girls has got married while another one left the school as she felt homesick; she left the school a few months ago.

School principal Nisha Bhulani said it is somewhat odd for them to keep the married girl in the hostel. "The hearing and speech impaired face problems in the usual classroom," she adds.

Nodal officer for inclusive education programme Dr Amar Dev said it is a new programme and they are providing these special children gadgets, study material, hostel facilities and uniforms free. The computers have been dispatched and software will be loaded soon, he added.

Kangra, November 29
An 82-year-old widow from Parnoh village near Panchrukhi has been moving from pillar to post demanding her old age and widow pension from the state government, but all her efforts, it seems, have gone in vain, with her finding it difficult to make both ends meet.

Ahilya Devi Shinthu lost her husband Bhot Ram Shinthu nearly 25 years back, with three sons and a poor family to rely on. One of her sons was a vendor in the village and another was jobless. Thus, it has been tough for Ahilya. She lost her third son seven years back in an accident.

Satish Sharma, a local resident of Ladoh village, said Ahilya Devi leaned under the burden of her age and was finding it difficult due to extreme poverty. She has been moving from one office to another for her old age pension.

Sharma said as the elderly widow was not heard by the authorities, he approached Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh through an email for mitigating the ordeal she is going through at this stage of her life.

He said CM Virbhadra Singh forwarded her request to Upma Chawdary, the Additional Chief Secretary, social justice and empowerment, for necessary action with intimation to the Chief Minister’s office and to the applicant through email. He said there was no communication from Upma Chawdary’s office till date regarding any progress in the case.

Meanwhile, the elderly widow approached local MLA Yadvinder Goma, who assured her he would take necessary steps to help her, but nothing was done to provide succour to the elderly widow.

Satish said there was no progress in the case and the widow continued to crave for old age and widow pension, thus continuing to struggle in the twilight of her life without any sustenance.

Solan, November 29
Blaming the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department for poor maintenance of its operating systems, officials of the Electrical Wing of HP State Electricity Board Limited said frequent breakdown of water pipes and defective motors of the Rs 64-crore Giri Lift Water Scheme had created water crisis in Solan town in the last few days.

Refuting the claim of the IPH Department that low voltage due to lack of power availability had led to the shortage, the officials said a visit to the site by the Managing Director, Superintending Engineer and other officials on Sunday had exposed the “poor maintenance” of the operating system by the IPH Department.

Solan town had been facing a shortage of water for the last 10 days and the officials of the electrical wing had visited the site to chalk out a solution. It was found that out of four water pumps, only two were in running position and working of the water pumps had been affected due to the breakdown of pipelines and frequent leakages.

The voltage was found to be 11.6 KV during the inspection and the officials claimed that this was adequate for good lifting of water. They also claimed that the capacitor bank of the IPH Department had been found defective requiring immediate repair, while out of the three motors to lift water, only one was found to be functional.

Though the water supply had been normalised now, it had not only exposed the shoddy maintenance of the scheme but also the lack of communication between the two key departments.

Superintending Engineer Pankaj Dadwal claimed that the 132/ 33 KV dedicated sub-station for the Giri Water Scheme would be commissioned by February.

Shimla, November 29
The 30-member General House of the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) today passed two resolutions, giving its nod to the Rs 12.58 crore maintenance and construction of pedestrian paths project and 1-km-long

IGMC-HIMFED petrol pump tunnel project to be built under Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission(JNURM).

In the 30-member House, deputy mayor Tikender and three councillors were absent while the majority of the House passed these resolutions to build these projects the detailed projects reports for which have been prepared by the PWD, said Sanjay Chauhan, Mayor SMC who presided over the General House meeting that continued till late in the evening.

The House also demanded that the all 800 streetlights, which were out of order in the different wards in the city, should be repaired immediately. "We will involve the HPSEB and repair the streetlights with funds provided by the corporation," added Chauhan.

The councillors also raised the demand that five public toilets should be constructed in the city.

The PWD has made the DPR on the 1-km-long IGMC-HIMFED petrol pump tunnel that would ease the traffic mess in the town. The cost of the tunnel is estimated to be Rs 163 crore, said the SMC officials.

Addressing the hazards that the pedestrians are facing in the city, the House passed the resolution that the Rs 12.l58 crore project prepared by the PWD should be constructed under JNURM.

Chauhan told The Tribune that they would send both projects for sanction to the Central government under the JNURM.

SMC commissioner Amarjeet Singh and other officials were also present.

Bilaspur, November 29
As many as 157 cases of gastroenteritis have been reported at the Regional Hospital here since November 26. This was stated by Chief Medical Officer ML Kaushal here this evening. He said all these patients were from Mandi Mandwan village under Nauni gram panchayat and Jabbali village under Raghunathpura gram panchayat, 7 km from here.

Kaushal said at present only 40 patients were admitted to the hospital. All of these were out of danger and were responding to treatment. The other patients were getting treatment at the local Primary Health Centre at Mandi Mandwan.

He said the disease was now under control as all affected families were being given medicines at their doorstep.

Health teams distributed ORS and chlorine tablets among patients and other residents and advised them to take only boiled water.

Kaushal said two samples from drinking water sources had been taken and sent to the Kandaghat laboratory for testing. 

Shimla, November 29
The police yesterday raided a computer shop here and seized the hard disk and a printer which were used by certain NSUI leaders to make fake DO transfer letters in the name of the Special Secretary to the Chief Minister.

The owner went underground as the police raided the shop. The police have got clues from an accused arrested in the fake DO transfer letter earlier. The police have launched a hunt to nab the computer shop owner.

The police have seized four fake DO letters out of the 37 found suddenly missing from the note-sheet of the Chief Minister's Office, sources revealed.

The police got clues from Sanjay Guleria, who is on interim bail till November 30, confessing that they allegedly used to make the fake DO transfer letters from the computer shop.

The police had arrested Ved Parkash, an ITI trainer of Baijnath and Pankaj Kumar of Nain Pabbar, both beneficiaries of the fake transfer order last week. Their interrogation gave the police clues about the fake DO letter and the police were yet to get to the bottom of racket, sources revealed.

Shimla, November 29
While growers had to be content with low returns despite a bumper apple crop, fresh fruit companies, which stocked large quantities of fruit in controlled atmosphere stores (CAS), are reaping bumper profits.

It was for the first time that the CAS set up by private companies in the state were stocked to capacity and some companies hired storage facility outside the state to take advantage of the downswing in the market due to fruit glut. The companies started procurement midway during the season from August 15 when the rates in the market had come down to Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,100 per standard box and their average cost came to about Rs 40 to 42 per kg. With rates hovering between Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,500 per box, the CAS fruit is now fetching over Rs 100 per kg.

In all, about 36,000 tonne , about five per cent of the total production of 7.30 lakh tonne, was stocked in the CAS, with Adani Agri Fresh stored the maximum 19,000 tonne, followed by Container Corporation of India (12,000 tonne) and Dev Bhoomi (4,000 tonne). The state-owned HPMC also has a capacity of 1,300 tonne, which was outsourced to Gem Tree Company.

The prices are on a high due to the decline in imports due to depreciation of rupee and the outbreak of scab in Jammu and Kashmir also affected the production. The companies which have stocked apple are making money.

Growers could not take the full advantage of a bumper crop as unlike private companies they lacked market intelligence and also the CAS facility, said Prakash Thakur, Director of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

This year’s experience has only underlined the fact that the only way to protect the interests of the growers from the negative influence of market forces is to create more CAS capacity in the state.

Neighbouring state Jammu and Kashmir is far ahead in the matter as it already has 22,000 tonnes of CAS capacity and projects to add another 55,000 tonne are in various stages of implementation. More importantly, the CAS has been established by local entrepreneurs and not by multinational companies as was the case in Himachal.

Prakash Thakur, a leading apple grower, said it was time that the government put in place mechanism for providing market intelligence to growers and also to encourage local growers to set up CAS as cooperative ventures.

Kangra, November 29
Six hundred MBBS and postgraduate students of Dr RP Government Medical College Tanda besides 400 families of the faculty, resident doctors and the paramedical staff residing on the college premises have been craving for water for the last two days, when six out of the seven water-lifting pumps went out of order and lack of maintenance funds added to woes of the TMC residents.

Dr RP Government Medical College Tanda has been crying for maintenance funds for the last few years and during the BJP government's rule, only Rs 1,000 was kept for maintenance of the huge medical college complex and the present government is also giving only assurances, thus leaving students, faculty, resident doctors and the paramedical staff in the lurch, doctors in the college said on condition of anonymity.

Crisis deepened since yesterday when two of the three centrifugal water pumps and all the four submersible water pumps meant for supply of water to the entire medical college campus were left out of order and the 600 students residing in all the hostels and 400 families living in the residential quarters were left in the lurch.

With there being chances of failure of the last surviving water-lifting motor, the hospital services too could collapse any time, said the working doctors. Medical students said they were busy in examinations and failure of the water supply was leading to distraction during this crucial period. They said they had to waste time in arranging water from far-flung sources, food and

on searching for places that could serve as toilets. They said the toilets were practically choking in absence of water.

Ajay Sharma, Additional Assistant Engineer, B and R, Tanda, confirmed that six out of seven pumps have failed to work. He said efforts were on to bring other pumps and put them to service. He said HPSEB engineers suspect that short circuit could be cause of damage to the two-decade-old pumps. He said for want of funds, regular maintenance of pumps could not be carried out.

Dr Rahul Gupta, president, Resident Doctors Association, said in case of shortage of maintenance fund, the college authorities should use the student fund which was nearly Rs 6 crore for maintenance to avoid a crisis in the college. He said these student funds were unfortunately being used on refreshments which should be stopped and the same should be used for maintaining the infrastructure within the campus which would go a long way in helping students, doctors and patients.

He said the service providers for routine and emergency care of patients of Tanda hospital, that is interns, resident doctors, consultants and paramedical staff, were busy in arrangement of water.

On a visit to the hospital building, this reporter found more than 80 per cent of water points were without taps and more than 30 per cent of water tanks and water pipes were leaking, which was not only leading to huge water loss but also putting extra load on the water supply system and the decades-old water pumps, which ultimately crumbled.

A team of the IPH division of PWD was trying to install hired water pumps, but till filing of this report, the medical college premises was without water supply.

Nurpur, November 29
MP Rajan Sushant today convened a meeting of elected representatives of gram panchayats and field staff of the Panchayati Raj Department of the Nurpur development block to review progress of development works under MGNREGA and MPLADF. He reviewed works of every ward of beneficiary panchayats.

He said under the MGNREGA scheme, panchayats could build mini irrigation schemes by constructing check dams and improve agriculture produce.

He said MGNERGA was a lone scheme in the country which had no fix budget allocation, but its budget was allocated in accordance with demand and requirement of the people.

He exhorted representatives of gram panchayats to work in unison by rising above their political affiliations in undertaking rural development and urged panchayat pradhans to function like heads of an institution to ensure smooth completion of development works in their panchayats.

On this occasion, he sanctioned Rs 5 lakh from his MP fund for the renovation and modification of a conference hall of the Nurpur development block. Later, talking mediapersons, he said it was his 18th block-level review meeting in Kangra-Chamba parliamentary constituency. He also expressed satisfaction over the ongoing progress of development works in the Nurpur development block. Later, he convened meeting with officers of different departments.

Shimla, November 29
Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau officials today formally started questioning of senior police officers in the alleged phone-tapping case as two IPS officers of the rank of Inspector-General (IG) were today quizzed about the whole entire process while they were posted as nodal officers in CID wing.

Vigilance officials led by Virender Tomar, Superintendent of Police, Special Investigation Unit, Vigilance, today quizzed AP Siddiqui, posted as IG (Armed Police and Training) and Ashok Sharma, IG (Railway and Traffic), here today about the requests for putting certain numbers under surveillance while they were posted in the CID.

Prithvi Raj, Additional Director-General of Police, Vigilance, confirmed the development. All police officers above the rank of IG who were formally involved in the task of seeking permission from the Home Department for putting phones under surveillance were being questioned as part of investigations. Two other senior IPS officers, who as Additional Directors-General of Police were posted in the CID, are also likely to be questioned in the next few days.

Vigilance sleuths also went to question Ashok Sharma, which could not be completed as he had to go somewhere. Vigilance officials are expected to complete the task of seeking queries from him tomorrow.

Both Siddiqui and Sharma remained posted in the CID during the previous BJP regime. The Vigilance is expected to call an IAS officer for questioning as he remained Principal Secretary (Home) during the period when the alleged phone tapping is learnt to have taken place.

The Vigilance Bureau seized the hard discs of all computers of the technical wing of the Vigilance Bureau on the night of December 24, a day before Virbhadra Singh assumed the office of Chief Minister.

Nurpur, November 29
Owing to the failure of the Chakki water supply scheme, most residents of the town remained without piped water for the second day today. The scheme catered to the maximum requirement of consumers here, but taps remained dry on the second day, causing hardship to them.

The Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department supplied piped water to consumers.

PK Sharma, Executive Engineer, IPH, Nurpur division, said the water pumping sets of the Chakki water supply scheme were suddenly damaged, hitting the regular water supply in the town.

He said the pumping machines were being repaired and consumers would get piped water supply on Saturday morning.

Chamba, November 29
The police arrested Dev Raj for raping a deaf and dumb woman (30) in a cowshed at Tur village here yesterday, Chamba SP Jagat Ram said here today. The SP said the accused entered the cowshed and committed the crime.

A case under Sections 452 and 376, IPC, had been registered at the Bharmour police station and a further investigation was underway, the SP said.