Shimla, January 31
Senior Congress leader Viplove Thakur was today declared elected to the Rajya Sabha on the last day of withdrawal of nominations as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not field a candidate.

Thakur has been elected following the completion of the Rajya Sabha tenure of former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar. She will take oath after April 9, when Shanta Kumar completes his term.

Assembly secretary SS Verma declared Thakur elected at 3 pm after the time for withdrawal was over. This will be Thakur's second term in the Upper House. She was a member from 2006 to 2012.

Thakur had been president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee and a three-time legislator from Jaswan constituency in Kangra. She was the Minister of State for Ayurveda in Virbhadra Singh regime earlier.

“I am grateful to All-India Congress Committee chief Sonia Gandhi for giving me this opportunity. I will try to raise state issues in Parliament,” she said after being elected. She said she would seek the creation of more employment avenues in the state so that the educated youth could get gainful employment.

Thakur said she would try to ensure that more industries came up in the state, especially those which required locally produced raw material. “This will not only generate employment, but will help producers to sell their product locally as well,” she said.

“I totally disagree that the Centre has not come to the help of the Himachal Pradesh Government by providing financial assistance. This is false propaganda by the BJP,” she said in reply to a query.

Had the Centre discriminated against Himachal Pradesh in giving financial assistance, it would not have been possible for the hill state to be among the top states with excellent development indicators, she added.

“Speculation about the Congress being divided is untrue. We are united under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi,” she said, dismissing reports of factionalism. She denied that there was a showdown between the Chief Minister and legislator Asha Kumari when Thakur filed her nomination papers on January 28.

Shimla, January 31
Apart from giving its nod to the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Una, the state Cabinet, which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, decided to open three new degree colleges in Mandi, Kangra and Shimla districts.

These colleges would come up at Nihri in Mandi, Khundian in Kangra and Chail Koti in Shimla, for which the CM sanctioned Rs 5 crore each.

The HP Power Corporation Ltd. and the HP Power Transmission Ltd would be the industry partners for IIIT, Una, the cabinet said. It also approved to notify Works of Licensees (Himachal Pradesh) Rules, 2014, under Sections 67 and 68 of the Electricity Act, 2003, and decided to outsource the operation and maintenance of 4.5 MW Tharot and 2 MW Sal-II hydro projects initially for five years through open-bidding process.

The Cabinet approved the budget for 2014-15 financial year and supplementary demand for the grants for 2013-14.

It also gave approval to present the 27th Annual Integrated Report of the state Lokayukta for 2013 along with explanatory memorandum in the ensuing session of the Vidhan Sabha.

The Cabinet further decided to present the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Report for 2012-13 on the table of the Vidhan Sabha in the forthcoming session. It was decided to grant pension to the families of the military pensioners in addition to pension admissible from the Army side.

It gave its approval for paying travelling allowance, daily allowance, maintenance expenses and transport expenses (limited to the

bus fare) to the victims of atrocities, his or her dependent and witnesses during investigations of the cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,1989.

The Cabinet approved the increase of the state government block guarantee in favour of the HP Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation, Kangra, from Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore for raising the loan from the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation.

It decided to amend the HP Vidhan Sabha Secretariat (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1974, for the posts of secretary and joint secretary. The patwar circle Tikkar in Padhar in Mandi district was declared as the most-difficult area of category E.

Hamirpur, January 31
The screening committee of the Congress has sent a panel of names to All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi to select the candidate from the Hamirpur parliamentary seat, but the selection seems a ticklish issue with sharp division among state Congress leaders on the issue.

The screening committee of the party, which met in New Delhi recently, had sent a panel of names. The state Congress was divided on the issue as Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and state Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu reportedly had a divergent view on the issue.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was supporting the candidature of Sujanpur legislator Rajender Rana while Sukhu was in favour of a candidate from within the party. After remaining an associate of former Chief Minister PK Dhumal, Rana had won from Sujanpur as an independent candidate in the last elections and later became an associate member of the Congress Legislature Party.

Leaders pushing for Rana's candidature had been relying on his support base to take on Dhumal's well-entrenched son Anurag Thakur to challenge the Dhumals in their home turf in the coming general election.

People opposing Rana had been arguing that it would be difficult for the Congress organisation to rally in support of Rana due to his long association with Dhumal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Congress had been experimenting with different candidates after the death of Narain Chand Prashar, who had won the seat several times. In a few elections, division within the party over the choice of candidate had been reflected.

Since the AICC and state Congress leaders had been emphasising on the Hamirpur parliamentary seat to regain it from the BJP after losing six times in a row, the choice of candidate and whole-hearted backing by all leaders would be important.

Palampur, January 31
In a significant political development, veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shanta Kumar said he would contest the general election from Kangra. He made this announcement while addressing party workers here this afternoon.

Shanta Kumar said he was a sincere BJP worker bound to obey orders of the party high command which told him to contest from Kangra. He said he had withdrawn from electoral politics, but could not go against the wishes of party leaders.

Shanta Kumar became emotional while addressing the gathering. He said the party had given him beyond his expectations. He said he was the Chief Minister twice and was the first Member of Parliament from Himachal Pradesh to be a Union Cabinet minister.

He said the country needed a stable and honest government in the present political scenario and Narendra Modi could lead the country better. He claimed that the Congress had lost credibility because of numerous scams unearthed in the past five years.

Shimla, January 31
Expressing concern over engineering of rivers to suit hydro power projects, environmentalist Sunita Narain today advocated redesigning of projects along with strict enforcement of a minimum of 30 per cent river flow condition and a distance of five km between two projects.

Sunita Narain, Director-General of the Centre for Science and Environment, today said rivers were being killed and the pace at which these projects were coming up, the day was not far when rivers would disappear.

“I am all for run-of-the-river projects as hydro power is clean and renewable energy. You cannot allow rivers to dry up as projects are being designed to keep the entire water for only hydro power,” she asserted.

“Projects are being designed to engineer the river rather than mimic the river flow, which is why we have not been able to strike a balance,” she opined.

Narain was a member of the inter-ministerial group headed by Planning Commission member BK Chaturvedi, which was set up to study dams on the Ganga.

“A careful look at power projects in Uttarakhand indicated that river flow was barely 10 per cent and sometimes even zero as projects had been set up along the entire river stretch,” she explained.

“Based on these observations, I am of the firm opinion that projects must maintain a minimum flow of 30 per cent during the six months of high discharge. During the lean period, it should be 50 per cent,” she recommended.

She recommended the re-engineering of some projects by adding more turbines to maximise energy and optimum use of excess water.

“To meet the power demand during the lean season, a provision for having dual source, whether it is wind or solar power, will have to be developed,” she advised. She admitted that by restricting flow, the cost of power would go up, but only marginally.

She said the government would have to be more cautious in ecologically fragile high-altitude areas like Lahaul-Spiti.

“It is a fact that soil stabilisation is a must to avert a catastrophe like the one at Kedarnath. Being a major stabilising force, forests will reduce silt, resulting in increase in productivity and enhancement of life of projects,” she maintained.

She was of the opinion that there was an urgent need to re-evaluate setting up of projects below 25 MW. “Power from those should be exclusively for meeting demands of local residents and not for feeding into the grid,” she said.

Palampur, January 31
Member of Parliament Shanta Kumar today expressed concern over the rotten foodgrains being found in a godown of the Government of India at Karnal.

He said such lapses on the part of officials were a serious crime and they should be penalised. Shanta said the Commerce Committee of Rajya Sabha had already directed the Centre to take necessary steps to save foodgrains. Besides, the Supreme Court had also issued directions to the Union Government and asked the officials concerned to ensure that not even one kg of foodgrains was wasted.

He said on the one hand, people in the country were dying of hunger and on the other side, foodgrains worth crores of rupees were being wasted in the godowns.

Shanta disclosed that a recent report submitted to the Union Government had established that foodgrains worth Rs40,000 crore were rotting in the FCI and other godowns in the country.

He said the Commerce Committee had asked the Centre to ensure that such foodgrains were sold in a phased manner. 

Chamba, January 31
The carcass of a leopard which was recovered on January 29 in protected forest in Mortu beat of upper Chamba range is said to have been incinerated last evening. It has been stated that this was done after observing all codal formalities, as per the standard operating procedure and guidelines issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority of the Government of India in presence of senior forest officials and other field functionaries as well as local villagers on the premises of Mehla nursery, till it turned to ashes, official sources said here today.

Earlier in the day, the carcass was sent for postmortem to veterinary hospital at Chamba which, after examination, reported that the cause of the death could not be ascertained as the carcass was severely autolysed.

"Since no valuable body parts of the leopard were missing, we see no foul play in the death of the animal. Had it been otherwise, the carcass would have not remained untouched in the forest for such a long time, of one week to almost 10 days," sources said, adding that a complaint had been lodged with the police.

Shimla, January 31
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has welcomed the Union Government’s decision to raise the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders from 9 to 12 annually as it will go a long way in saving forests of the hill state.

Virbhadra said he had taken up the matter with the Petroleum Ministry and the Central Government from time to time to enhance the limit of subsidised LPG cylinders to 12. “We hail the decision as it will not only benefit state people, but also the entire country,” he said.

He said consumers would get one cylinder per month at the subsidised rate from April and households would get two additional subsidised refills in the year ending March.

Baddi, January 31
GS Bali, Minister for Technical Education, Food and Civil Supplies and Transport, today urged investors to undertake projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode and called for efforts to upgrade infrastructure.

He said ample funds were available with the private enterprises which could be put to apt use while the governments always faced scarcity of resources.

Bali, who was in the IEC University here, said promoting quality education was top priority of the state government and measures like admissions through national eligibility tests like the Joint Engineering Entrance Examination would ensure admission of deserving students. This measure would not only ensure grant of jobs by maintaining high academic standards but also ensure that poor students did not suffer.

He said such norms would also ensure that private universities maintaining high academic standards survive while those failing to provide trained faculty and other infrastructure do not befool the gullible students of the state.

The minister urged the management of the IEC University to undertake mass plantation of saplings in the area so that Baddi, which has earned the dubious tag of the country's second most polluted city, could acquire a clean and green ambience. He also urged investors to come forward and contribute to greening in this industrial belt.

The minister while lauding the efforts of the management of the IEC University in providing free books to the students for helping them prepare for various entrance examinations, said more private universities should come forward to promote the cause.

Bali said he would request Cyrus Mistry, chairman of Tata Group and Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Limited, to adopt Himachal for undertaking a green revolution through large-scale plantation of saplings.

He urged investors to ensure availability of jobs to the local youth and said exemption in taxes should not be the sole criteria for investing in the state which was providing them uninterrupted power, peaceful ambience and a pollution-free environment.

Baddi, January 31
Minister for Technical Education, Food and Civil Supplies and Transport GS Bali flagged off a marathon “Bhag Baddi Bhag-2014” organised at the IEC University here today.

The event witnessed participation of around 1,000 persons, including sportspersons, senior citizens, students from various educational institutions and renowned personalities like Punjabi singer Jasbir Jassi, actors Yashpal Sharma, Manjot Singh of Oye Lucky Oye fame, Divya Dutta, besides university’s Chancellor RL Gupta, Vice-Chancellor Dr Naveen Gupta, among others.

Bali said investors should come forward to plant saplings and contribute their bit to make Baddi a green and clean place.

The marathon kick-started from the university campus and covered a distance of 7 km.

Panchkula, January 31
Jyoti and Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary were in love with each other, said Jyoti’s sister, who deposed before the District and Sessions Court today. 
Ishu, Jyoti’s sister and one of the key witnesses in the case, said the MLA had promised Jyoti that he would marry her, but ditched her after the elections. She said the two had a husband-wife like relationship.

During the cross examination, Ishu told the court that she came to know about the murder before Chaudhary's arrest, when his wife Nidhi called and threatened her.

She said Nidhi asked her to deny that she knows Chaudhary and that she was Jyoti's sister.

Another key witness, the then Investigating Officer Ajay Singh Rana, who was the Station House Officer at Sector 5 police station at the time of the murder, said he had examined the spot and on the basis of the call details of the MLA with that of the victim, he had raided the premises with the team. He said he also took the hair samples of the accused.

Later, the investigations were transferred to Assistant Commissioner of Police Virender Sangwan.

While on the application moved by Jyoti’s father Buti Ram to give the evidence again, the defense counsels Aman Bindra and AS Sukhija filed a reply saying that perjury proceedings be initiated against him. The order on his application has been kept for tomorrow. Buti Ram had requested the court to give the evidence again, saying that he turned hostile as he was under pressure from the MLA and his men.

The defense has also moved an application in the court stating that they may be provided all reports of the FSL, Madhuban. The police had sent some reports for reconsideration at CFSL, Chandigarh.

As many as nine witnesses deposed before the court today. Those who deposed, included a clerk from Hoshiarpur along with SC certificate of Jyoti; executive officer of the MC, OP Sihag, who accompanied the police team with Chaudhary at the scene of crime; ASI Mange Ram, who on patrolling found the alto car which reportedly was used by the second main accused Paramjeet to reach Panchkula on MLA's directions; first Investigating Officer ASI Kashmira Singh; second IO, Ajay Singh Rana; Inspector Naveen Sindhu, who visited Baddi and apprehended Harbhajan, brother of MLA in 216 (harboring a criminal); and other formal witnesses.

Shimla, January 31
The Department of Environment, Science and Technology today organised a workshop on "Natural Capital Cost Accounting in Himachal Pradesh".

Sunita Narain, Director General of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), delivered the keynote address on "Forests as Engine of Growth in HP". In her address, she said there is need to take forests from conservation to development, but only with the help of a robust methodology to assess value of resources.

"Himachal has taken a lead in the past, but the need is to calculate the carbon sequestration accounts so that they can make way into the state accounts," she said.

"Since our focus is on conservation, forest productivity is nobody's business and the national economic survey too indicates how forests have disappeared from national accounts," she said. She said forests are not just under pressure to meet local needs and illegal extraction, but the pace of clearances for projects too has doubled and is expected to increase in the future.

She further said there is need to value the economic, ecological and livelihood potential of forest and to incorporate it into national account. She further said there is a need for building strategies without degrading forests as is there a need to reposition forests as integral to economic growth of the state.

Dr Haripriya Gundimeda, Associate Professor in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, spoke at length about the Natural Capital Cost Accounting (NCCA). She suggested that an inter-departmental steering committee be constituted to achieve (NCCA), strengthening of data and surveying tourism which will help in green accounting. "We need to have good quality forests which can help reduce carbon emissions and also adoption of renewable energy sources like solar or wind energy," she emphasised.

Later, Pradeep Chauhan, Advisor, Department of Economics and Statistics, made a presentation on "Institutionalising Forest Accounts". He said forests are an important natural asset for Himachal and the two critical growth sectors - Tourism and Hydro-power, depend on sustainable management of forests. Forests can play a key role in the state's commitment to low carbon growth and having a carbon neutral economy.

The main objective of the workshop was to discuss the findings of the study to build Forest Accounts in Himachal and prepare a workplan for this for the year 2014-15. It also aimed to identify the policy priorities for building forest accounts. Principal Secretary (Finance) Srikant Baldi and principal Secretary (Forest and Environment) Tarun Shridhar also spoke. Others who gave their inputs included Dr Urvashi Narain, Vandana Agarwal and James Matthew.

Nurpur, January 31
After damage to cemented protection steps of as many as 12 pillars of the Chakki railway bridge on the Pathankot-Jogindernagar narrow-gauge railway line near Kandwal in flash floods, the survival of the bridge is under constant threat.

The Railway Department had spent lakhs to build cemented steps to cover all 22 supporting pillars last year. The steps of six pillars were washed away in June last year in the flash flood in the Chakki rivulet. The department had constructed these steps after the washing away of four pillars in the flash flood in August 2011.

Intriguingly, the department has started raising an embankment (fixing of hard stone with knitted steel wires) to protect the supporting pillars. This had led some to wonder as to how an embankment can protect bridge pillars when cemented steps couldn't face the flood fury and were washed away within one year of construction. The short life of these steps has raised eyebrows on the quality of construction work undertaken by the Railway Department.

The railway authorities have held the ongoing unabated mining of the Chakki riverbed responsible for washing away of these steps. According to official information, the railway authorities had moved the state High Court two years back to stop ongoing mining of the riverbed. The court had imposed a blanket ban on all types of mining on 3-km area on downstream and 1.5-km on upstream of the Chakki river adjoining the railway bridge.

The court has also ordered the removal of the old cause way and remains of the old bridge on the national highway creating bottlenecks in the smooth flow of flood water in the river.

Meanwhile, Manjit Goyal, Assistant Engineer, Railway Department, said the department was constructing an embankment to support damaged protection steps as a temporary measure keeping in view the winter rains.

"The Himachal Pradesh Government has failed to stop mining activities on the Chakki riverbed, notwithstanding a complete ban by the state High Court. The JCBs of stone-crushing units set up on the riverbed are engaged in mining with impunity," he rued. He asserted that the passage area of flood water on 550-m-broad riverbed had squeezed to 250 m due to mining, which aggravated the flood situation in the rainy season.

He said deep trenches made on the riverbed by JCBs had settled down in the cemented protection steps.

This railway line is considered a lifeline in the Kangra valley as it provides a means of economical transport to the commuters.

Chamba, January 31
In a persistent campaign to curb drug-trafficking in the region, the police have seized two kg of charas from the possession of a pedestrian near Chakoli bridge in Salooni tehsil of Chamba district today.

The accused, identified as Nand Lal, has been arrested.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Headquarters Jitender Choudhary said a special investigating unit (SIU), led by head constable Virender Singh, nabbed the accused during a ?naka near Chakoli bridge.

On searching his luggage, two kg of charas was recovered from his possession.

A case under Section 20 of the NDPS Act had been registered against him, the DSP said. — OC

Sundernagar, January 31
Authorities at the Jawaharlal Nehru Government College of Engineering, Sundernagar, are running from pillar to post to get uninterrupted power supply for more than four years.

As per the college authorities, the amount for setting up a substation was deposited by college authorities in 2008-09 while the HPSEB awarded the work to a company in June 2010.

Principal RL Sharma said many letters had been written to the authorities concerned, but to no avail. He said the institution had its own power backup system, but power was needed to operate the system.

He said he wrote to the Technical Education secretary and HPSEB chief engineer yesterday as the substation was lying defunct.

A visit to the site revealed that the transformer installed on the site was manufactured in 2010. The contractor had agreed to complete the work till March 2013, but it was not completed.

A team of officials conducted a check yesterday. It found that the substation lacked certain parameters so it was not made functional. GC Shandil, executive engineer, HPSEB, said the work of the substation was going on and would be completed soon.

Mandi, January 31
Nand Lal, a resident of Dohara under Rajwari panchayat, has lodged a complaint with the police for alleged cheating.

The complainant said he had received a call said to be on behalf of IRDA some time back for him to surrender his insurance policy to get bonus.

The caller later asked him to deposit Rs 30,000 as processing fee for the same which he deposited in a bank account and Rs 30,000 and Rs 32,800 were deposited subsequently.

After sensing cheating by the caller, Nand Lal approached the Balh police to lodge a complaint. — TNS