Shimla, February 8
The 14-day Budget session is facing BJP’s threat of a boycott. The main Opposition party insists that it will not participate in the session till Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh apologises for his remarks.

The first five days of the session were drowned in commotion, with the BJP raising slogans, staging a walkout during the Governor's Address and finally boycotting the presentation of the Budget by the Chief Minister on February 7.

The two political rivals are at loggerheads, with three notices for Privilege being filed by both parties before Speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail.

There are nine more sittings of the Assembly till February 21.

The BJP has objected to remarks purportedly made by the Chief Minister that the BJP legislators were bonded labourers of one family.

A notice for the Breach of Privilege under Section 75, signed by all the 26 BJP legislators, has been given to the Speaker on this issue.

In fact, the BJP staged a walkout on Day 3 of the session on February 5 when their plea for referring their notice to the Privileges Committee of the Vidhan Sabha was turned down by the Speaker.

The Speaker said efforts would be made on Monday by calling an all-party meeting to resolve the stalemate, failing which he would refer the notice for the Breach of Privilege to the committee concerned. The Chief Minister has denied having made the remarks.

The Congress has given two notices of the Breach of Privilege. One is on the issue of the BJP staging a walkout during the Governor's Address which, it says, amounts to contempt of House. The second is over the wearing of aprons with slogans written on these by Bharatiya Janata Party legislators in the House.

"How can we take this persistent insult and personalised derogatory remarks by him, both in and outside the House?" said Satpal Singh Satti.

He said the Congress regime had decided to hold gram sabhas on February 16 when Narendra Modi was scheduled to address a rally at Sujanpur in Hamirpur.

Industry and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said the Bharatiya Janata Party was looking for reasons to boycott the Assembly session.

"They want to avoid coming to the Assembly as they want to prepare for Modi's rally," he said.

He said the Speaker had held talks with both parties and the Congress too was keen that the BJP should participate in the debate.

Shimla, February 8
The BJP has criticised the Budget as a disappointing document. It has called it a perfect recipe for fiscal disaster and against the long-term financial interest of the state.

"The Budget is simply a statement of expenditure. It is silent on revenue generation and will hit development in the state," said BJP general secretary Randhir Sharma during a media interaction here today.

Asserting that there had been no significant increase in the size of the Budget which was Rs 23,613 crore against Rs 21,767 crore last year, Sharma said the increase was only 8.5 per cent, which was totally offset by inflation. Moreover, the proposed annual plan size had been fixed at Rs 4,400 crore, which was only 300 crore (7.32 per cent) more than the last year's plan of Rs 4,100 crore.

He said during the BJP rule in 2011-12, the Budget allocation was Rs 17,328 crore. In 2012-13, it was increased to Rs 20,344 crore, an increase of 16.8 per cent. The annual plan of Rs 3,300 crore in 2011-12 was increased to Rs 3,700 crore in 2012-13, an increase of 12.12 per cent.

Maintaining that there would be shortfall and growth and development would be affected, he said the revenue receipts had declined while in the BJP's tenure, the revenue receipts had gone up from 2011-12 to 2012-13.

Further, the downward trend in capital expenditure which had been reduced from Rs 4,120 crore to Rs 3,830 crore would retard the development.

He expressed surprise that the Budget was silent on price rise, resource mobilisation, unemployment and youth had been taken for a ride by giving skill development allowance for two years which was like a scholarship.

He also criticised the Budget for meagre increase of Rs 20 in daily wages and said the BJP government had increased the daily wages from Rs 75 to Rs 100 and then to Rs 150. Sharma said hike in grant for marriage of daughters of freedom fighters to Rs 51,000 was an eyewash and questioned how many daughters of freedom fighters were still unmarried even after 67 years of independence.

Shimla, February 8
Even as the region got some relief from snow and rain, cold-wave conditions persisted in most parts of the state. The Met office here has predicted dry weather in the region during the next 72 hours.

The Hindustan-Tibet national highway, which was blocked due to heavy snowfall, was cleared up to Reckong Peo, but the road remained blocked beyond Pangi Nullah. The link roads connecting Sangla, Pooh and Chopal were also closed.

The higher reaches in the tribal areas had another spell of intermittent snowfall. Keylong, Kalpa, Bharmaur and Jubbal recorded 17 cm, 10 cm, 8 cm and 3 cm of snow, respectively.

The high-altitude tribal areas reeled under biting cold-wave conditions as the mercury dipped following fresh snowfall. Keylong and Kalpa recorded minimum temperatures at -9.7°C and -3.5°C, respectively.

Mid and lower hills received widespread rains and Paonta Sahib and Solan received a maximum of 32 mm each, followed by Kheri 23 mm, Shimla, Jubbarhatti and Baldwara 21 mm each, Dalhousie 20 mm, Rampur and Sunni Bhajji 19 mm each, Sundernagar 18 mm, Gaggal and Nahan 17 mm each, Bhunter 16 mm and Mandi 15 mm.

The minimum temperature dropped by 2 to 4 degrees across the state and Manali, Dalhousie, Shimla, Bhuntar, Sundernagar, Solan, Nahan, Kangra and Una recorded -1°C, 0.3°C, 2.5°C, 2.6 °C, 3.9°C, 4.5°C, 5.1°C, 5.8°C and 6.7°C, respectively.

The maximum temperatures remained steady in the region and Una was the warmest during the day with a high of 20°C, followed by Sundernagar 19.1°C, Nahan 17.9°C, Bhunter 17°C, Solan 16.5°C, Dharamsala 15.2°C, Shimla 13.3°C and Kalpa 5.4°C.

Shimla, February 8
More than half of the 20 state public sector undertakings (PSUs) are in the red. These PSUs have incurred Rs 2841.86 crore losses till March, 2013. According to the report of the PSUs tabled in the state Assembly yesterday, only nine out of the 20 PSUs registered a marginal profit. There are a total of 41,547 employees in these PSUs.

The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board tops the list of the PSUs with a loss of Rs 1940.24 crore followed by the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) with a loss of Rs 764.39 crore. The HP Financial Corporation suffered a loss of Rs 127.42 crore, Horticulture Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation Rs 63.29 crore, HP State Forest Development Corporation Rs 44.94 crore, HP State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Corporation Rs 31.52 crore, HP Tourism Development Corporation Rs 18.77 crore, HP Agro Industries Corporation Rs 17.44 crore and HP State Handicraft and Handloom Corporation Rs 17.70 crore.

A handful of profit-making corporations too have registered only marginal earnings barring the HP Housing and Urban Development Authority, which has reported a profit of Rs 126.73 crore. The HP State Civil Supplies Corporation registered a profit of Rs 25.87 crore while Industrial Development Corporation too has recorded a profit of Rs 19.33 crore.