Kangra, February 12
President Pranab Mukherjee today struck an inspirational chord among teachers by saying he wanted to go back to teaching, his calling earlier on.

“I would like to go back to the profession I left 50 years ago…,” he said, delivering his address at the Second Annual Convocation of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) in Kangra’s Shahpur in the presence of the state's Governor Urmila Singh, CM Virbhadra Singh, Planning Commission member and HPCU Chancellor Arun Maira and leading economist Vijay Kelkar, given an honorary D Phil today.

Nostalgic about his days as professor in Kolkata in 1963, the President indicated that he intended to do as much “virtual” teaching as possible within the limits of his demanding Constitutional job.

“On the New Year Day, I delivered a message to students in 450 institutions using videoconferencing. I want to invite questions from them and give answers … to go back to teaching,” Mukherjee said, saying poor quality education, faculty shortage and mediocrity in institutions were major concerns for education.

HPCU Vice-Chancellor Furqan Kanwar flagged a concern that forty-odd Central universities of India had around 14,000 sanctioned faculty positions, of which around 5,000 were unfilled, when he said the varsity had selected many more faculty members, but only 69 had joined.

The President expressed alarm over the continuing absence of Indian institutions in the world’s top 200. “We have done commendably when it comes to adding educational infrastructure in the 11th Plan, but infrastructure is one part of the education continuum. The more pressing challenge is to elevate scholastic value of our students and their quality. It’s worrying that no Indian institution figures in the world's top 200. I feel sad,” Mukherjee said, adding that at a recent conference of Central University VCs, why this was happening was a topic of discussion.

“Some IITs have 100 per cent campus recruitment even by MNCs and yet don’t figure in the world's top 200. When we discussed the issue, we found that our institutions were not presenting their work properly to international rating agencies. We need to project our work in a format these agencies require. VCs will do the needful," he said.

"Hopefully, we will have better rankings soon,” the President said, calling for transformative ideas and research to “steer India’s educational institutions out of muddy waters of mediocrity”.

On faculty crunch, Mukherjee cited his own example of video conference interaction with students to show how technology could be used to fill teaching gaps. Teacher-student ratio in India is currently 1:20.9 as against the UGC norm of 1:13.5.

As visitor to 98 institutions, including IITs and NITs, Mukherjee had recently asked VCs of CUs to start industry interface cells on campus to boost academic research. Today, he said, older institutions must also involve alumni to seek inputs for research.

“Most varsities have these innovation clubs which must now be linked to incubation centres at IITs and NITs. Remember, the world will never be free of challenges. Research alone can help us fight these,” he told the gathering of students and teachers.

Kangra, February 12
After Vijay Singh Mankotia, who expressed displeasure at being ignored for the function presided over by President Pranab Mukherjee in Kangra today, another senior Congress leader and Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Transport and Technical Education GS Bali decided to stay away from the event.

The President was here to preside over the second annual convocation of the Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) in the Shahpur area of Kangra district today.

Bali stayed away from the function despite the fact that he was in the area today and his name was there on the list of VIP guests.

Sources here said Bali stayed away from the function as his name was not among the VIP guests who were to accompany the CM for welcoming the President of India, at the Gaggal airport, in the initial list. His name was entered later. The minister was peeved that he had not been accorded due status during the President's visit.

His supporters vented their ire against the officials who allegedly tried to keep Bali away from the list of dignitaries who were to welcome the President.

Anu Chaudhary, a Bali supporter, said they woould not take the insult lying down. Bali, when contacted on phone, declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Union Minister for Culture Chandresh Kumari accompanied the President to the function from Delhi. Chandresh is a former MLA from Dharamsala and fell out with the CM after her son was denied party ticket from Dharamsala. Virbhadra preferred to go for Sudhir Sharma, his loyalist from the area.

Kangra, February 12
Common people were put through harassment owing to heightened security in Kangra district today due to the arrival of President Pranab Mukherjee for the second annual convocation of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh.

The district police sealed most of the rural roads connecting the Gaggal-Shahpur national highway for about three to four hours as the Presidents's entourage was to cross the road.

Schools in the area advanced their examination timings due to arrival of the VVIP in the area. The examinations in the schools were earlier scheduled to start at 9 am. Due to the President's arrival, the examination timings for schools in the area were advanced to 8.30 am.

The Aam Aadmi Party has ridiculed the VVIP culture exhibited at the function. The district convener of the AAP, at a press conference, said the President was a respected and senior leader. It was the state government that created an environment that harassed common people. The President should have been available to the students for whom he had supposedly come there, they maintained.

Shimla, February 12
Most parts of the state shivered under the intense cold wave as the region experienced the coldest night this winter with the minimum temperature hovering around the freezing point.

The minimum temperature plummeted in spite of a clear sky and stayed between -18°C and -28°C in high-altitude tribal areas, while Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti, Bharmaur in Chamba and Kalpa in Kinnaur recorded a minimum temperature of -15°C, -12.3°C and -6.8°C, respectively, three to six degrees below normal.

The key tourist resort of Manali reeled under the piercing cold wave with the mercury dropping to -4.8°C, while Kullu and Bhuntar shivered at -0.2°C, followed by Solan and Sundernagar which recorded a minimum temperature of -0.5°C and -0.4°C.

Una and Nahan in the Shivalik foothills was under the piercing cold wave with a minimum temperature of 3.1°C and 3.3°C, two and six degrees below normal, while Dharamsala recorded a minimum temperature at 5.0°C, three degrees below normal.

Shimla recorded a minimum temperature at 0.5°C, 2.2 degrees below normal, while Kangra and Palampur shivered under severe cold with the mercury hovering around the freezing point to stay at 1.0°C, five degrees below normal.

Bijahi in Mandi received the first snowfall of the season and recorded 4 cm snow, while Theog in Shimla district recorded 3 cm snow. The lower hills had scattered rains and Mandi and Karsog recorded 7 mm rain, while Jogindernagar and Kumarsain received 3 mm rain each.

However, the maximum temperatures rose marginally with Una hottest during the day with a high of 22°C, followed by Sundernagar 21.1°C, Bhunter 18.7°C, Nahan 18.8°C, Solan 17.8°C, Dharamsala 16.8°C, Shimla 13.0°C and Kalpa 2.0°C.

The local Met office has predicted rain or snowfall at isolated places in the next 24 hours and possibility of heavy snowfall at isolated places from February 14 onwards.

Panchkula, February 12
Several contradictions surfaced in the statements of victim Jyoti’s father Buti Ram who gave his evidence against Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary for the second time before the District and Sessions Court here today.

Buti Ram had turned hostile earlier alleging pressure by MLA’s kin and had requested to give evidence again.

Though the father identified the MLA before the court and stood by his word that his daughter Ishu told him about Jyoti’s relations with the MLA, most of his crucial statements did not coincide with those of Ishu or his supplementary statements given to the police.

“During the cross examination, Buti said the photograph of the MLA at Ishu’s wedding was given to the police by him, but Jyoti’s maternal uncle in the last hearing had said he had mailed it to the police,” said defence counsel Amandeep Bindra.

Buti said he was from his son-in-law’s family, but in the statements given to the police, he said it was Chaudhary's driver, added the counsel.

Buti was unable to answer as to who had clicked the photograph or made the album. Also in the statements, Buti said Ishu was married in September 2009, but before the court he said she got married in December.

When during cross examination he was asked as to why he did not reveal about Chaudhary’s involvement when he got to know about his daughter’s murder, he said it was the police that told him about his involvement.

Day’s proceedings

Solan, February 12
The Darlaghat-based cement plant of Ambuja Cements Limited (ACL) has been forced to shut its operations since Monday following pending clearance of its mining lease.

The action follows the issuance of a notice by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on January 22 where the plant has been directed to stop its operations with immediate effect as it had failed to procure the mandatory clearance from the National Wildlife Board (NWB).

The MoEF has failed to reconstitute the NWB after the earlier board was dissolved in September last year.

The MoEF had stipulated all projects falling within a purview of 10-km radius of a sanctuary or a national park to seek clearance from the NWB in 2012. This had forced several projects, including existing cement plants, to seek a clearance from the State Wildlife Board (SWB) and then the NWB.

The ACL’s Darlaghat plant which manufactures 5.5 metric tonnes cement per annum had not only applied for clearance of its existing mining lease, but also for expanding its capacity to 7.5 metric tonnes. Its case had been approved and recommended by the SWB in its meeting held in December.

With the general elections round the corner, the plant management was having anxious moments about the delay in reconstituting the board. Officials wishing anonymity said they had represented their case before the MoEF and also to the state government to provide some relief as the clearance from the NWB was neither time-bound nor they were given an opportunity to present their stand.

With constitution of the NWB failing to be a priority of the Union Government, the plant management feared the impasse could last for months, thus leading to revenue loss of lakh per day.

Revenue of Rs 18 crore is generated in a single month by the plant both for the state and the Centre.

The plant provides direct and indirect employment to thousands of persons, including 4,000 truckers. All manufacturing processes have been halted since Monday, thus creating trouble for the transporters who dwell on daily transportation work to repay their loans availed to buy trucks.

Shimla, February 12
Himachal Health and Family Welfare Minister Kaul Singh today made a fresh appeal to the BJP members to attend the House as the boycott of the Assembly by the main Opposition party continued for the fourth consecutive day.

Kaul Singh, who made the appeal on behalf of the government in the absence of the Chief Minister, said BJP members had been saying the government had not made any effort to break the deadlock, but they had talked to them thrice and were again appealing to them to participate in the House proceedings.

Stating that the Opposition's participation was essential for proper debates in the House and the government got encouragement to work from the issues raised by them, Kaul Singh said, “We are aware that the BJP members are busy with preparations for Narendra Modi's rally, but we hope they will return to the House from Monday and participate in the proceedings."

The BJP members have been disrupting or boycotting the House right since the Governor's Address on the opening day of the Assembly session on February 3.

They disrupted the Governor's Address, did not take part in the debate on the motion of thanks on the Governor's address, set a new precedent by boycotting the Budget speech, stayed away from the debate on the Budget for 2014-15 and did not participate in the Question Hour.

The BJP members staged a walkout thrice, came to the House donning aprons with caricatures depicting corruption, taped their mouths shut with black bands, came on scooters up to the Vidhan Sabha gate to highlight the issue of transportation of apples and did not attend office.

Shimla, February 12
Desperate to win all four Lok Sabha seats in the state, the Himachal BJP has taken almost all rebels, barring some leaders, back into the party, but leaders of the Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP), floated by BJP dissidents on the issue of corruption, have spurned all offers to rejoin the party.

About 100 leaders, including former ministers Roop Singh (a six-time MLA), Harbans Singh Rana, former MLAs Rakesh Pathania, Navin Dhiman and several other leaders who had contested against the official candidates, including Bhupinder Singh Chauhan (Bhatiyyat), Sanjay Guleria (Jwali), Mahant Ram Chowdhary (Balh), Shyam Lal Thakur (Mandi), have been re-admitted into the party.

However, the cases of Kamla Patial, who contested against former BJP minister Krishan Kapoor from Dharamsala and HN Kashyap, who entered the fray as a rebel BJP candidate from the Solan (reserve) Assembly constituency, have not been decided owing to opposition from local leaders.

Senior BJP leaders tried to woo back the rebels who had formed the Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP), but most of them, including the state president Maheshwar Singh, former ministers Mohinder Sofat and Shyama Sharma, former MLAs, Khushi Ram Balnatah and Dulo Ram, had not responded favourably and refused to come back.

The suspended BJP MP from Kangra, Dr Rajan Sushant, who has already resigned from the party, has not shown any inclination to return to the partyfold despite appeals from senior party leader Shanta Kumar. In fact, he has made his intent to contest the LS polls against Shanta clear.

His wife, Sudha Sushant, had also contested the Assembly election from Fatehpur as a BJP rebel and has not sought re-entry into the party. The re-entry of rebels has apparently strengthened the party's Dhumal faction as most Shanta loyalists who had joined the HLP have not rejoined the party.

Sushant, who had been intensively touring the constituency during the past two years after he opened a front against the Dhumal government, is expected to make a dent in the BJP's campaign in the Kangra LS seat and may play a spoilsport for the BJP.

Hamirpur, February 12
To counter BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally being organised at Sujanpur on February 16, the Congress is planning to hold Sonia Gandhi’s rally here.

However, the Congress is yet to decide on the date for holding the rally, but it will be organised at the same venue.

Since the BJP is all set to make Modi’s rally a show of strength, the Congress will also try to hold a big rally at the same venue to prove its strength to counter Modi’s rally.

The Congress leadership is making a determined bid to capture the Hamirpur parliamentary seat in the coming elections, after losing the seat to BJP candidates six times in a row.

The state government had organised a grand function at Hamirpur on the completion of one year of the Congress government in the state on December 25 and mobilised a large gathering for the function.

Both BJP and Congress leaders had been concentrating on the Sujanpur Assembly segment for the past sometime, where Rajender Rana, once a close associate of former Chief Minister PK Dhumal, had won as an independent with a huge margin in the last Assembly elections.

Later, Rana became an associate member of the Congress legislature party and is one of the probables to contest the Hamirpur parliamentary seat as a Congress nominee.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had toured the Sujanpur constituency several times and announced to hold a massive rally at Sujanpur.

Dharamsala, February 12
The state government has planned an IT park at Dharamsala. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today laid the foundation stone of the IT park at Jagrandal in the Dharamsala Assembly constituency today.

It is for the second time that the state government has identified land for the IT park in the state.

Earlier, land for the same was identified at Waknaghat near Shimla. However, no IT park could come up there.

The idea of an IT park in Dharamsala is pursued strongly by Minister for Housing and Urban Development Sudhir Sharma, who represents the area.

The minister said 2,500-kanal land had been identified for the IT park at Jagrandal. Since 1,600 kanals is a forestland, the remaining could be used for the development of the IT park.

The minister said the case for diversion of 1,600-kanal forestland would be sent to the Ministry for Environment and Forests.

Though the state government has now planned to develop an IT park in the Dharamsala region, it will have to face a tough competition from Punjab. The Punjab Government has taken a lead and already allotted about 500 acres to Infosys Ltd in Mohali. An international airport is also coming up at Mohali that will provide a further edge to the neighbouring state.

Sudhir Sharma, when asked as to how they would compete with Punjab to attract the IT industry, said the state government would be coming up with a comprehensive package for attracting the IT industry. The state government had an edge over the neighbouring state in terms of cheap power tariffs and a cool atmosphere, he said.

Sandeep, a senior IT consultant from the region, however, said the government would have to sell itself to attract the IT industry. The northern states, including Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, had missed on the IT revolution as they did not provide infrastructure to the related industry. Now that an international airport was coming up in the region, the northern states could attract the IT industry, he said.

The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone of a war museum at the war memorial here yesterday. The museum will come up at a cost of Rs 2 crore. The brief description of all martyrs since the British period will be highlighted at the museum.

Virbhadra said the state government had proposed to enhance financial assistance of World War-II veterans from Rs 750 to Rs 2,000 per month and annuity of gallantry award winners from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000.

He said the Samman Rashi of wives and daughters of late freedom fighters would be enhanced from Rs 3,500 to Rs 5,000 and marriage grant to Rs 51,000 in case of daughters and Rs 21,000 in case of grand-daughters.

The government had also announced to enhance the funeral grant from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 in case of death of freedom fighters and Rs 10,000 in case of death of wives of late freedom fighters.

Una, February 12
Postal services were hit following the strike call given by the All-India Postal Employees’ Union here today.

Members of the Una Postal Division Association raised slogans against the management and the Union Government.

Association president HS Saka said the Centre should implement the recommendations of the Pay Commission from January 1, 2014, and merge 50 per cent of the dearness allowance with the basic pay.

He said vacant posts in the department should be filled and the move to privatise government departments should be stalled.

The president said all postal services would remain suspended tomorrow as well.

Shimla, February 12
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh laid the foundation stone of the Rs 84.58-crore lift water supply scheme at Gharog, 13 km from here, on Saturday.

The scheme, aimed at lifting water from the Sainj Nullah to Gharog village, will benefit over 50,000 people of 618 villages spread across 29 gram panchayats, including villages falling under Shakrah, Mehli, Dev Nagar, Dhami, Nehra and some areas of Ghanahatti in Shimla district.

Virbhadra said the financial condition of the state was not good due to financial mismanagement of the previous government and with the 13th Finance Commission underestimating the committed liabilities of the state.

He said despite this, he had presented a tax-free and growth-oriented Budget for 2014-15.

He said the BJP government opened colleges without any financial provisions during the fag end of its tenure, but the present government had announced the opening of 12 colleges, out of which nine had already been notified. He said Rs 5 crore each had been allocated for creating necessary infrastructure for these colleges. The CM said an outlay of Rs 2,384 crore had been proposed for the Public Works Department and Rs 4,282 crore for the education sector for 2014-15.

He said the Rs 922-crore Swan River Channelisation Project had been sanctioned for Una district and the Shahnehar, Sidhata and Fina Singh schemes were being implemented in Kangra district.

He also laid the foundation stones of Anganwari Bhawan at Gharog to be constructed at a cost of Rs 4.5 lakh and Government Senior Secondary School, Shakrah, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 4.50 crore.

Shimla, February 12
Chief Parliamentary Secretaries Vinay Kumar and ID Lakhanpal today slammed former Chief Minister PK Dhumal for misleading people on the new concessions to industries in the state.

In a joint press statement here, they claimed that Dhumal was not able to stand the state's development and was resorting to baseless and frivolous statements to mislead people.

They said the state government had given industries some concessions to attract more investment for employment generation. The state-level single-window clearance and monitoring committee was giving clearances to new industrial projects within 90 days. The Revenue Department would now give approval under Section 118, HP Tenancy and Land Reforms (HPTLR) Act, within 45 days, they added.

"When Dhumal was Chief Minister, he always talked about industrial growth, but now, when the present government is striving for industrialisation, he is unable to come to terms with it," they charged. New industrial areas with modern facilities would be developed in Una and Kangra districts by spending Rs 219 crore out of which Rs 100 crore would be provided by the Centre, they added.

It was announced in the Budget that electricity duty for specified extra high-tension category consumers would be reduced from 17 per cent to 15 per cent.

Besides, a new industry which employed more than 300 Himachalis would be charged 2 per cent electricity duty for five years.

A new industry would pay 50 per cent stamp duty on sale deed or lease deed and pay 50 per cent less on land use charges, they added.

Shimla, February 12
Former BJP minister Ram Lal Markanda on Sunday accused the state government of being anti-Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and said it was dithering over the implementation of the 85 Constitutional Amendment providing reservation in promotions of SC and ST employees.

The successive governments had been delaying the implementation of quota in promotions on one pretext or other to deny the rights of SCs and STs, but they would no longer allow the government to delay this matter, he said.

The SCs and STs, which was 32 per cent population of the state, would oppose the government in the coming Lok Sabha elections to protest against the non-implementation of the quota in promotions in spite of the Supreme Court ruling.

Markanda who was defeated in the last Assembly elections from the tribal Lahaul and Spiti constituency also accused Congress MLA Ravi Thakur of ignoring the interest of STs.

Markanda asked the government to immediately implement the Supreme Court order and clear the backlog by promoting the eligible persons retrospectively.

Shimla, February 12
A fine of Rs 1 lakh was slapped on a shopkeeper for storing gutka in the Krishnangar area here.

The Corporation Health Officer, Shimla Municipal Corporation, who is a designated officer under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, imposed the fine.

The shopkeeper was caught with five gutka bags and 5,300 pouches of khaini during a joint raid conducted recently by the Shimla Police and the health wing of the corporation.

Chamba, February 12
Dog menace has become rampant in Chamba town and the authorities are still mulling on ways to deal with the problem. The area near the Government Regional Hospital has become their favourite hotspot. Their presence is a continuous threat to those going for morning and evening walks.

Municipal Council president Anita Thakur said the council was working on ways to tackle the menace. — OC