Shimla, February 6
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is likely to offer some major incentives such as pension for all above 75 years in the Budget tomorrow.

It is learnt that, the Budget could offer some major sops to woo voters. Sources said among the major announcements that Virbhadra could make was old-age pension of about Rs 500 to all above 75 years.

Sources said the number of such pension beneficiaries was about one lakh. At present, old-age pension is given only to weaker sections which have low income and fall in the vulnerable sections of society.

Another section of the electorate which the Chief Minister could target is women who constitute almost half of the total electorate of 47.39 lakh. There is a possibility that the government could reserve some posts in government departments for women.

He could also try to woo ex-servicemen and employees.

Shimla, February 6
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said the government was looking for a way out to accommodate the IT teachers who had been teaching in various government schools, following the decision to fill 970 posts through the State Subordinate Services Selection Board.

It was during Question Hour in the Assembly that the Chief Minister gave this assurance while replying to the issue raised by Asha Kumari. "There are about 2,500 persons giving IT training in various schools for over eight years as the private agency who hired them kept changing," he said.

"There is a major contradiction as the previous BJP regime decided to fill 970 posts of IT teacher, but made no provision to accommodate them," he said. The government was exploring various options so that their services could be retained and they got relief, he added.

In reply to a question by Sanjay Rattan and Asha Kumari, the Chief Minister said efforts were being made to complete all formalities for obtaining forest clearances for roads and other projects. "Besides 377 road projects for which clearance under the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) 1980 are to be obtained, there are 2,100 roads where there had been violations," he informed the House.

Virbhadra said to expedite the clearances, an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer had been posted in the PWD to coordinate. He added that besides this, nine IFS officers of the rank of Principal Chief Conservator (PCCF) had been assigned the task of monitoring and coordination of the clearances.

In reply to a question by Asha Kumari and Anirudh Singh on fixing of income criteria for government jobs on compassionate grounds, he said, the government would reconsider its decision. He said the earlier applications, when the income criterion was Rs 75,000, could not be treated as per the new norm of the minimum income of Rs 1.25 lakh raised by the Congress regime. A total of 718 applications were pending with the government.

In reply to a question by Ravi Thakur, the Chief Minister said the government could consider giving exemption to hotels in Lahaul-Spiti during the six winter months when occupancy was almost nil.

Shimla, February 6
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today made an attack on former Chief Minister PK Dhumal for unleashing a vilification campaign against him and indulging in character assassination and said he had degraded the political discourse to the lowest ebb.

Replying to a three-day debate on motion of thanks on the Governor’s address, he accused the Dhumals of hacking his bank accounts and income tax returns.

Asserting that he had no animosity against the Dhumals, Virbhadra said Vigilance inquiries had been ordered on the chargesheet submitted by the Congress, while in the Opposition and the Dhumals were becoming desperate as they were feeling the heat as the probe was progressing.

Castigating the BJP for indulging in “nautanki” (gimmicks) and adopting various modes of protest, he said he would not be surprised if they came to the House in “kachha and baniyan”(vests and underwears).

Steering clear of his “bonded labour” remarks, he said he did not make such remarks in the media, but it was his personal opinion that BJP MLAs were helpless before one family as either they were ticket seekers for the next elections or first-time MLAs or partners in crime.

Asserting that the probe into various charges had upset the Dhumals and it had become a compulsion for BJP members to obstruct the proceedings of the House, Virbhadra said, “Law will take its own course and the innocent need not worry”.

While the BJP boycotted the debate on motion of thanks on the Governor’s Address, the Chief Minister took on the HPCA and exposed the alleged irregularities being probed by the Vigilance Department.

Virbhadra said Dhumal was feeling the heat of inquiries against him and using these tactics to derail the probe into various allegations. The BJP was afraid of its mistakes as thousands of acres had been sold to outsiders during the tenure and large scale benami transactions had taken place.

Shimla, February 6
The Opposition BJP boycotted the proceedings of the Vidhan Sabha for the fourth consecutive day today. They sat in the House with their mouth taped shut and left it without participating in the debate on the Governor's Address immediately after Question Hour was over.

It is for the first time since the session commenced on February 3 that Question Hour was taken up without any disruption and sloganeering from the Opposition benches. All BJP legislators entered the House together at 11 am with their mouth taped shut. They kept sitting quietly even as Deputy Speaker Jagat Singh Negi took the names of BJP MLAs whose questions were listed.

The moment the session started, the Deputy Speaker said under Rule 331, the derogatory and objectionable remarks made in the House yesterday had been expunged from the procedings. Following this, only those questions were taken up which were listed against the name of Congress legislators. The BJP members sat and left quietly the moment the Deputy Speaker said Question Hour was over at 12 noon.

Later, chief whip of the BJP Legislature Party Suresh Bhardwaj said the legislators had decided not to participate in the proceedings as the issues raised by them were yet to be addressed.

"It is only during a meeting tomorrow that we will take a final decision whether to participate in the session or not," said Bhardwaj.

Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal and state BJP president Satpal Singh did not attend the session as they had to go to Badsar in Hamirpur to attend a party meeting. Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker informed the House that Congress MLA from Doon Ram Kumar Chaudhary had been given exemption from attending the session after consulting the Leader of the House.

Shimla, February 6
Even as the expected growth rate of Himachal is estimated to remain more or less stagnant at 6.2 per cent during 2013-14, the per capita income of the state registered an increase of 11.6 per cent at current price.

The Economic Survey Report for the current fiscal year 2013-14 was tabled in the Assembly today. Himachal is likely to register a growth rate of 6.2 per cent as compared to 6.1 per cent for the last fiscal year, 2012-13, which is above the national growth rate.

The growth rate was 7.3 per cent in 2011-2012 and it is mainly due to dip in revenue from the key sectors of power, tourism and industry that it has slowed down in the last two years. The good news is increase in revenue from the primary sector of agriculture and forest by 9.5 per cent.

The per capita income rose from Rs 75,185 in 2011-12 to Rs 83,899 in 2012-13 at the current price, registering an increase of 11.6 per cent. The pre-budget economic survey estimated the per capita income in the state for 2013-14 at Rs 92,300. If worked out at constant price, the per capita income for 2012-13 would have been only 5.1 per cent.

The primary sector of agriculture, forestry and mining has registered a positive growth of 9.5 per cent while the secondary sector, comprising manufacturing, construction and electricity has registered a growth of mere 3.4 per cent. The tertiary sector of transport, finance, real estate and community services increased by 7.4 per cent.

According to budget estimates for the year 2013-14, the total revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 17,701 crore as against Rs 16,736 crore in 2012-13. The revenue receipts increased by 5.77 per cent in 2013-14 over the previous year. The state’s own taxes were estimated at Rs 5,373 crore in 2013-14 as against Rs 5,049 in 2012-13. The state’s own taxes are estimated to be 6.4 per cent more in 2013-14 over the previous year.

The foodgrain production for the current fiscal year is targeted at 15.80 lakh metric tonnes as compared to 15.68 lakh metric tonnes in 2012-13. The total fruit production in the state rose to 8.28 lakh tonnes (till December) as compared to 5.56 lakh tonnes in 2012-13. 

Shimla, February 6
The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has set up a multi-departmental committee to put in place its own city development plan. A Delhi-based consultant, CRISIL, has been hired to prepare a master city plan in six months' time.

The body met today under the chairmanship of Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan, Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar and MC commissioner Amarjeet Singh, architect planner KC Chauhan and others and discussed the presentation given by CRISIL.

The MC is mulling its own plan as all plans prepared by the Town and Country Planning (TCP) have lost sight of the city’s specific needs, which is realised by the House later as it is not taken into confidence.

It has been stated that the TCP development plan has failed to deliver the goods to residents and the SMC should have its own master plan to take care of needs and problems of each section of the city, said Panwar.

The MC has objected to the 260-page Shimla Development Plan prepared by the TCP. The satellite towns of Ghanati, Kufri, Fagu, Neri, Shoghi and Chailey proposed by the TCP rarely took representatives of the area into confidence.

The public-private partnership model may not fit into the development plan as it would rob poor peasants of their land in the peripheries, said the councillors. The land pooling would encourage massive land acquisition, forcing the poor to sell their
land at throwaway prices, that, in turn, would benefit the lobby of big builders, they cautioned.

Secondly, the MC rejected the restriction of plots from 200 sq m to 400 sq m. This spoke volumes about the fact that the urban poor had no participation in the development plan as they could not afford bigger plots, they pointed out.

Thirdly, the TCP’s development plan had not addressed the issues and problems being faced by residents in merged areas of the Shimla MC, New Shimla-Kagnadhar, Vikasnagar-Devnagar, Tutu, Kusampati, parts of Sanjauli, Dhalli and the like. There was no policy as of now for the regularisation of their houses, sewerage and transport and other amenities, observed the councillors.

The TCP plan observed that about 40 per cent of the population comprised work force, about 1,27,724 workers in the city areas, and talked about 30 per cent of quota to be allotted to them by private builders.

But it had no specific plan. It had yet to fix the income limit to qualify for the quota to provide roof to them as they were kept at the mercy of private builders.

It was against this backdrop that the Shimla MC had put in a multi-departmental body that would include transport, parking lots, parks and playground and open areas for residents, said Panwar.

CRISIL General Manager Monica Belh said they had taken the viewpoint of each stakeholder and would submit the report on the proposed development plan in six months.

Amarjeet Singh said the consultant had given a presentation taking view of the various stakeholders, NGOs and officials for the city plan.

Shimla, February 6
The Congress and the BJP are heading for a showdown on February 16 when BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will address the Parivartan rally in Sujanpur and the Congress hold Aam-e-Ijlas, a statewide programme for gram sabhas, to raise the political pitch ahead of the Lok Sabha poll.

While the BJP is eyeing Modi's rally as a major game changer to fan out the Modi wave to woo the electorate, the Congress, in a tactical move, has made an all-out bid to launch Aam-e-Ijlas to mar Modi's first show of strength ahead of the coming Lok Sabha poll.

Political tempers are running higher today as top BJP leaders took on the ruling Congress, terming its programme a cheap move to thwart the Parivartan rally.

"It is nothing but a political confrontation and conspiracy by the Congress," said BJP leader Satpal Satti. The Congress could have chosen the other date for the Aam-e-Ijlas, he claimed.

The state coordination committee, which met here under its state coordinator Chandra Mohan Thakur and BJP general secretary Pawan Rana, took stock of the preparations for the rally. PK Dhumal termed the rally historic as people would come in a large number in their traditional dresses. The 10-year rule of the UPA at the Centre was the harbinger of miseries for the poor, he claimed.

Satti further added that people would teach them a lesson in the coming poll. A majority of the villages were with the BJP, a claim that the Congress dismissed as a day dreaming.

Countering the BJP charge, Congress vice-president Harsh Mahajan said, "The Congress does not go by the BJP's programme. The party has its own agenda to gear up its cadre for the coming poll as the BJP was shown the door by the people in 2012 Assembly elections."

Modi had already flopped when he was in charge of the state BJP earlier as the Congress had won the election during his tenure, he claimed. The BJP had no issue as they were on the defensive on the issue of corruption as BJP MP Anurag Thakur figured on the list of corrupt of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, he alleged. But state convener of the Loh Sangrahan Samiti for the Statue of Unity of Sardar Patel Jai Ram Thakur said the Congress was only showing its desperation by organising the gram shabhas on the same day.

New Delhi, February 6
Congress Member of Parliament (MP) from Himachal Pradesh Pratibha Singh has sought Defence Minister AK Antony’s intervention for consideration of the one-rank, one-pension policy for ex-servicemen.

In a letter to Antony, Pratibha pointed out that presently there was a difference in the pension drawn by old pensioners in comparison to the new retirees, despite having retired with the same rank and length of service.

The state government has pushed the matter to the centre-stage by raking up the issue with the Union Government for the second time within 10 days. Earlier, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had taken up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Pratibha said ex-servicemen had been demanding a solution to this problem for long and requesting for the adoption of one-rank, one-pension policy. She said recommendations of the Committee of the Cabinet Secretary in the matter could narrow the gap, but was not a solution for the removal of the anomaly.

The letter gives a sharp edge to the issue by highlighting that there are more than 10 lakh ex-servicemen, serving soldiers, widows, gallantry award winners and their dependents in Himachal Pradesh.

Pratibha said Hamirpur, Kangra and Mandi (represented by her) parliamentary constituencies had a large population of ex-servicemen and their families. “A positive decision with regard to the policy will have definite impact on voters in these areas,” she added. 

Shimla, February 6
Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) has not hiked the fee nor is there any proposal to do so in the near future. This was stated by a university spokesman here today.

The university, on recommendations of the resource mobilisation committee, headed by Dr OP Sharma, the then Director of Higher Education, during 2004, has now constituted a reviewing and implementation committee under the chairmanship of Prof Suresh Kumar, Dean, Studies, with finance officer of the university as its convener.

Other members of the committee are Prof PK Ahluwalia, Dean, Planning, Prof OP Chauhan, Secretary to Vice-Chancellor, Prof SS Chauhan, Dean, Students Welfare, Prof RS Chauhan, Dean, College Development Council, and Prof Shyam Lal Kaushal, Chief Warden, and Chaudhry Waryam Singh Bains.

It may be recalled that during 2004, the Dr OP Sharma Committee constituted for resource mobilisation of HPU, studied the fee structure of different universities of neighbouring states. On the basis of the average fee of these universities and existing fee structure of HPU, it proposed a new fee structure.

However, the proposed fee structure could not be implemented and in the due course of time, restructured monitoring and implementation committee constituted is yet to give its recommendations to the Executive Council of the university for taking any further decision in this regard.

Manali, February 6
Inclement weather conditions prevailing in the entire upper Kullu valley for the past couple of days worsened this afternoon. Manali and its adjoining areas experienced a fresh spell of snowfall, leading to a fall in the day temperature.

The entire Manali region was wrapped in a white blanket again. Hundreds of tourists who have converged on Manali from across the country were delighted to see the town donning an impeccable white mantle.

The vehicular traffic in the upper Manali region was disrupted due to the fresh snowfall. The higher reaches in the upper Kullu valley, including the 13,050-foot-high Rohtang Pass, also experienced heavy snowfall. The ski slopes of the Solang valley also received fresh snowfall.

Orchardists and agriculturists of the region have welcomed the snow and rain.

Snowfall in Dhauladhars

Kangra: The Kangra valley was today lashed by rains since afternoon and fresh snowfall was experienced by the Dhauladhar mountain range, overlooking the lush green Kangra valley. This led to considerable temperature drop.

Reports of rain were received from Shahpur, Mallan, Palampur, Nagrota Bagwan, Icchhi, Gaggal, Ranital. Dhraman, Jwalamukhi, Dehra, McLeodganj, Bagsu Nag, Naddi and Dharamsala.

Cold wave tightens grip

Shimla: The piercing cold wave sweeping most parts of Himachal has further tightened its grip. Tribal areas and higher hills had another spell of mild snowfall while mid and lower hills had scattered rains accompanied by strong-velocity icy winds.

The sky remained heavily overcast and day temperatures dropped by a few notches while minimum temperatures fell marginally. Shimla and its surrounding areas had intermittent rains followed by mild snowfall while Kalpa, Narkanda, Rohtang, Dhauladhar and Churdhar ranges had 5 to 10 cm snow.

The minimum and maximum temperatures decreased by 2 to 7 degrees and Keylong was the coldest with -8.7°C, followed by Kalpa, -3.4°C and Manali, -2°C. Shimla recorded 2.3°C, Solan 2.4°C, Bhuntar 3.2°C, Sundernagar 3.9°C, Una 5.4°C, Nahan 5.7°C and Kangra 5.5°C.

Una was the warmest with a maximum of 20.8°C followed by Nahan (19.4°C), Kangra (13.5°C), Sundernagar (11.2°C), Solan (11°C), Bhuntar (8.8°C), Shimla (8.9°C), Manali (7.2°C) and Kalpa 2.6°C. Kalpa and Shimla received 3 and 2 cm snow while intermittent rains lashed Manali (4 mm), Bhuntar (4mm), Kangra (2mm), Solan (1 mm) and Sundernagar (0.5 mm).

The local Meteorological Department has predicted heavy snow and rainfall in high and mid hills and rain and thunderstorms in low hills in the next 48 hours.

Shimla, February 6
After British plant collector Henry Collet collected about 134 plants species about 115 years ago, now, native botanist Dr Vineet Jishtu has done for Himachal in three years what no one has done before: He has raised a botanical garden and an arboretum, a living museum of 134 native rare or near extinct and threatened plant species at Potters Hill in the capital city, a first-of-its-kind in North India.

The Tourism Department is now set to market it as an eco-tourism spot and a locale for bird and butterflies watchers, tourists, Bollywood filmmakers, 'desi' album singers, eco-researchers and students.

It is no small effort. Dr Jishtu, the country's top botanist at the Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI) here, scanned and surveyed inaccessible interiors of north-west Himalayas from the 19,000-ft-high Khardung La in Ladakh to desolate desert of Spiti before his dream came true at Potters Hill here three years ago.

Dr Jishtu has three odd labourers, who cleared all weeds and biological waste from the Potters Hill and raised this living museum that today grows more than 134 temperate native species of arboreal plants from various parts of the north-west Himalayan region, which otherwise are as good as rare or extinct.

"We are adding orchids and a fern house covering 2.5 sq km area in the hill," he said.

Dr Jishtu harvested rain water in tanks and check dams to water the garden. The native plant species line the hedges and fences that line the zigzag eco-trail in the garden, which has repositories of oak, rhododendron, orchids, medicinal plants, fir spruce, nuts and bamboos, including rare native plants of kharkis, fazas, khareiu and kharsu and the like.

Named as Western Himalayan Temperate Arboretum, this garden blooms into a fragrant living biosphere full of butterflies, humming bees and birds in summer time. Wildlife wing of the state Forest Department is funding the project.

"The idea is to preserve, conserve and propagate local species of flora, use it for horticultural and other research purpose and educate children so that our natural heritage does not vanish under the sun," said Dr Jishtu.

It has won accolades from scientists and researchers. "It is commendable work. Dr Jishtu has little guidance and meagre staff. He collected tree germplasm from the interiors, planted it in nursery beds and raised this garden that will propagate natural heritage for posterity," observed Dr GS Goraya, Deputy Director General (Research), Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun.

Director, HFRI, Dr VRR Singh said the botanical garden would emerge as a major repository for arboreal research efforts as it had come up successfully.

It is an invaluable asset for the state and more forest officers and conservationists must visit the garden to improve environment, observed Dr Sanjiva Pandey, additional principal chief conservator of forest.

The Tourism Department is including Potters Hill botanical garden in its trail. "If all goes as planned, we will add more species and a cafeteria for visitors," said Dr Jishtu.

Director, Tourism, Mohan Chauhan said they would tap the garden for eco-tourism.

Una, February 6
The three-day Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign (PIC), organised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), began at the Ramlila Ground in Amb subdivision of Una district yesterday.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Abhishek Jain inaugurated the fair in which different departments of the Central and state governments put up stalls to educate and inform people about various developmental schemes.

The DC said the Public Information Campaign was providing people the latest information about various developmental programmes, besides motivating youth and women to earn a livelihood.

School and college students took interest in the stalls, particularly put up by the Army recruitment cell, Hamirpur, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Fire Department. Items made by women self-help groups were also put on display.

Panchayats from Amb subdivision, which had successfully implemented the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Total Sanitation Campaign and other flagship programmes were honoured.

Directors at the Chandigarh office of the Press Information Bureau Bhupinder Kainthla and Ravinder Singh, Regional Director (Publicity) Ashish Goel, Amb SDM Vikram Mahajan, were also present on the occasion.

Chamba, February 6
Three persons, including a woman, were nabbed by the police for smuggling charas weighing 900 gm on Tuesday night. The vehicle in which the charas was being transported was also impounded, SP Jagat Ram said here today.

The SP said a police team, during patrolling at the Karian forest barrier, intercepted a Bolero vehicle and on checking recovered the charas from the accused.

A case under different sections of the NDPS Act had been registered.