Shimla, February 21
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled in the Assembly today presented a grim picture of the state’s financial health. The revenue deficit increased from Rs 1,633 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 2,979 crore in 2012-13.

The CAG report for the year ending March 31, 2013, showed that the fiscal deficit was 4.13 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

This percentage is above the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) target of 3 per cent. The state had revenue surplus of Rs 645 crore in 2011-12, which turned into revenue deficit of Rs 576 crore during 2012-13.

The report pointed out that the revenue expenditure increased by Rs 2,276 crore (16 per cent) and revenue receipts by Rs 1,055 crore. The grants-in-aid from the Union Government increased by Rs 792 crore (12 per cent) from Rs 6,521 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 7,313 crore in 2012-13.

There was a consistent increase in the growth rate of revenue receipts during 2008-11 from 1.82 per cent to 22.86 per cent, but it declined substantially by 14.41 per cent and 7.25 per cent in 2011-12 and 2012-13. The major sectors which witnessed a decline was power (Rs 509 crore), interest receipts (Rs 45 crore) and forestry and wildlife (Rs 31 crore).

The expenditure on salaries, interest payment, pensions and subsidies increased from Rs 7,357 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 12,939 crore in 2012-13. This is an increase of 72 per cent, which exceeded the FRBM projections by Rs 722 crore, requiring the state government's attention, the report added.

The fiscal liabilities of the state increased from Rs 21,819 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 30,442 crore in 2012-13. The debt repayment also increased by 8 per cent from Rs 867 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 2,117 crore in 2012-13 with sharp increase of Rs 989 crore during the current and the last financial year.

The expenditure on non-development, including interest payment, was 41 per cent of the revenue expenditure during 2012-13. The interest payment increased by 25 per cent from Rs 1,894 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 2,370 crore in 2012-13 and increased by Rs 240 crore during the current year.

The CAG report also pointed out increase in per capita debt from Rs 35,562 in 2009-10 to Rs 41,049 in 2012-13. The report showed that all revenue, fiscal and primary accounts experienced a situation of huge deficit and except for 2011-12 when the state had surplus of Rs 645 crore, the revenue deficit increased from Rs 130 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 2,276 crore in 2012-13.

Shimla, February 21
The Opposition BJP today announced its public boycott of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. It will continue until he regrets the insulting remarks made against BJP MLAs.

This announcement was made jointly by former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal and state BJP president Satpal Satti at a press conference here.

“The party has decided that it will neither attend any public function of the Chief Minister, nor any official meeting chaired by him,” Satti said. BJP legislators did not attend the session on the last day today as well and lodged its protest by sitting on a dharna outside the Vidhan Sabha.

He said Virbhadra, who was in the habit of treating even his own party MLAs in a shabby manner, had started doing the same with BJP legislators.

“When the BJP was in power, we used to invite all Congress MLAs to official functions, gave them opportunity to speak and respect them,” said Satti.

Echoing similar sentiments, Dhumal said the BJP would continue its protest against the repeated humiliation to its MLAs by Virbhadra. “We have been compelled to take such a step and the boycott will continue till he expresses regret over the remarks made by him,” he said.

Dhumal said in sharp contrast to Congress MLAs, who used to rush to the well of the House and thump tables of ministers and the Chief Minister, the BJP legislators did not try to force adjournment or create ruckus in the House. We only lodged our protest by sitting on a dharna outside," he added.

Dhumal said except for a telephone call from the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, neither the Assembly Speaker, nor the Chief Minister made any efforts to resolve the stalemate.

“No one knows who will be where after the Lok Sabha poll, so we will decide about attending the next Assembly session when the situation comes,” he said in reply to a query.

Dhumal also expressed concern over the grim financial health of the state which, he said, would aggravate. “The state economy is in shambles due to the financial mismanagement of the Congress regime as we had not left any liability,” he said.

He said the huge fiscal deficit would grow due to the announcements to open new institutions. He said the need of the hour was to lay stress on quality and not quantity, especially in the health and education sectors.

Shimla, February 21
In the absence of the Opposition BJP, the Assembly today referred the Lokayukta Bill, 2014, to the Select Committee of the Vidhan Sabha. The Bill will be deliberated upon at a special session when the report is submitted.

“I do not want to give the Opposition an opportunity to accuse us of passing the Lokayukta Bill in its absence, so I urge the Speaker to refer it to the Select Committee of the Vidhan Sabha,”� said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in the Assembly.

He also requested the Speaker to refer the Town and Country Planning Amendment Bill, 2014, tabled in the House along with the Lokayukta Bill, to the committee. The Chief Minister also requested the Speaker to constitute the committees at the earliest.

“The moment the reports of the two Select Committees are received, we will hold a special session and discuss the two Bills and pass these in the presence of the Opposition,”€� he said.

He said, though Himachal was among the first few states to set up its Lokayukta in 1983, the institution needs more teeth to be more effective to fulfil the purpose for which it was set up.

He said some more amendments would be brought in the Lokayukta Act and the Town and Country Planning Act. He regretted that the BJP MLAs despite being present in the Vidhan Sabha complex chose to sit in the sun and raise slogans rather than participating in the debate on the two important Bills.

Earlier, participating in a debate on the Bill, Deputy Speaker Jagat Singh Negi suggested that the SDMs in all sub-divisions should be designated as nodal officers to accept complaints on behalf of the Lokayukta as it was not possible for everyone to come to Shimla.

Participating in the debate, Maheshwar Singh welcomed the Bill and said it was the right step in the right direction. 

Shimla, February 21
The state is planning to file a contempt of court case in the Supreme Court if the Rajasthan Government does not provide plots to all eligible Pong Dam oustees.

This assurance was given by Revenue Minister Kaul Singh Thakur during Question Hour in the Assembly today.

Ajay Mahajan, who represents the Nurpur segment, raised the issue of re-settlement of the oustees, who after so many years are yet to get justice despite the Supreme Court giving a verdict in favour of the oustees in 1996.

“A ministerial team from Himachal will raise the issue once again with the Rajasthan Government and also personally visit the site for settling the oustees,” said Thakur.

He said in case the oustees still did not get justice, the Himachal Government will file a contempt of court case against the Rajasthan Government for not honouring its verdict.

The minister said a total of 90,702 persons were displaced because of the construction of Pong Dam as 75,268 acres of land was required for the dam. A total of 16,532 eligible families were selected and 10,584 took possession of the land allotted to them, he said. He added that out of this, 1,128 never applied for getting land in Rajasthan, while cases of 126 were found ineligible.

“At present, 2,320 cases for land allotment have been sent to Rajasthan, but after 2002 not even a single allotment has been made by them,” said Thakur.

In reply to a query by Ravi Thakur about implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said 1,375 Forest Rights Committees (FRC) had been formed.

Replying to questions raised by Maheshwar Singh and Balbir Singh Verma about shortage and transportation problem of LPG cylinders, Food and Civil Supplies Minister GS Bali said a total of 5.64 lakh cylinders per month were being used in the state and the number of subsidised cylinders a consumer could avail had been raised to 12 from February 2014.

Shimla, February 21
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu today said Chief Minister Virbahdra Singh had agreed to open a separate Indira Gandhi Government Degree College for Girls at Hamirpur.

Sukhu, who led a delegation of people to meet Virbhadra here, said the Chief Minister had agreed to start the college from the next academic session.

Sukhu said he had urged the CM to begin the classes on the premises of the Government Senior Secondary for Boys which could later be shifted to the old building of JBT institute. — TNS

Dharamsala, February 21
The Congress will organise a rally of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Dharamsala on March 8 to counter the impact of the rally of prime ministerial candidate of the BJP Narendra Modi, sources said.

HPCC president Sukhwinder Sukhu has confirmed that Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Dharamsala.

Youth Congress workers have already been directed to prepare for the rally. Block president of Dharamsala Suresh Papi admitted that the rally of Rahul Gandhi had been finalised.

Senior Congress leaders said the matter had been discussed.

The massive rally of Modi at Sujanpur on February 16 had set the tone for the BJP campaigning for the parliamentary elections in Himachal. The rally had motivated BJP workers and the party leadership had been claiming that Modi magic was working in Himachal.

Since then Congress leaders were planning to counter the Modi rally. Initially, some leaders had announced that a rally of Sonia Gandhi would be held at Sujanpur. However later, the claims were negated by the state government.

Sources said Rahul Gandhi’s rally had been planned in Dharamsala. The Assembly constituency is represented by Sudhir Sharma, Minister for Housing and Urban Development who is a confidant of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Nurpur, February 21
The Vishva Hindu Parishad’s (VHP’s) frontal organisation Durga Vahini’s north zone coordinator Rajni Thukral demanded an honorarium of ~5,000 to ~10,000 per month to guru-pujaris and temple caretakers in the state on the pattern of moulvies.

Addressing mediapersons here today, she said VHP had decided to launch a statewide stir under the banner of Guru Pujari Caretakers’ Mahasangh. The action committee of the mahasangh would launch a stir on Mahashivratri from Mandi district.

Thukral said the VHP would strongly oppose the proposed construction of flats only for one section of the minority community at Subash Park in Shimla. She said the VHP would support only that political party in the Lok Sabha polls which would incorporate promises of “gausadan” at gram panchayats, to develop religious tourism at village level and employment to Hindu youths in the state in its poll manifesto. Manoj Kumar, state VHP organising secretary, was also present on the occasion.

Una, February 21
The Union Ministry of Water Resources has sanctioned ~27.72 crore special irrigation project for the Beet area in Haroli segment of Una district.

This was stated in a government communiqué, quoting Industry Minister Mukesh Agnihotri.

The project aims at lifting 4.7 crore litre water everyday through a deep-bore tubewells along the Swan river. The collected water would be distributed through different lines to nine panchayats of Haroli block. These panchayats are located at a higher altitude than the rest of the panchayats in the segment and experiences scarcity of drinking water during summer season. This area is locally known as the Beet area. Once the project gets complete, Beet would get irrigation facilities for the first time. 

Mandi, February 21
Installation of new domestic electricity meters by the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) in various parts of Mandi town has left the customers worried as they have been receiving exorbitant monthly power bills.

Locals rue that the new meters has led to heavy monthly bills.

Rama Devi, Narbada Devi and Moti Ram of Ram Nagar said, “Our monthly average electricity bill, which used to be around Rs 500 per month during winters, has now jumped manifold leaving the consumers worried.”

Similarly, the domestic electricity bill of Dr Chiranjeev Parmar, a Jail Road resident, has also registered a manifold increase.

He said, “My average monthly electricity bill round the year is around Rs 400 and my highest bill during the last year was Rs 1,422. However, I received bills of Rs 8,012 and Rs 3,940 for my two domestic meters for the last month, the amount which I have not paid even in a year.”

Residents of a few other areas are getting very high bills and some of them had brought this problem to the notice of the district administration.

The HPSEB has undertaken a drive to replace the existing electricity meters with new meters in the town in a phased manner and have already replaced a large number of these.

Locals complain, “The new meters are defective, and move at a very high speed, leading to high consumption and exorbitant bills.”

Many residents have demanded that the HPSEB authorities should not install the new meters and rationalise the bills given to them.

Executive Engineer, HPSEB, Mandi, Desh Raj said, “We have received a few complaints regarding high monthly power bills and have asked the assistant engineer to inquire into the complaints.”

Shimla, February 21
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) termed the Lokayukta Bill proposed by the state government the Bill for a weak Lokayukta.

Though the CPM and Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) welcomed the bill, they slammed the BJP for its double standards on the issue of corruption and demand that judicial officials should be brought under its preview.

The proposed Lokayukta was no different than the Lokpal Bill passed by the UPA Government in Parliament, claimed Des Raj, national AAP member and state coordinator.

This Lokayukta has no power to prosecute corrupt. It should have the power to take suo motto notice of corruption cases and start a prosecution in a strict time frame, he asserted.

The BJP dragged its feet on the Lokayukta during its regime from 2007-12 and now, it was shedding crocodile tears over the Lokayukta Bill highlighting legal jargons to confuse common public, he charged.

We welcome the Congress Lokayukta Bill, but it has little power. The BJP and the Congress are in the same boat as far as the strong Jan Lokpal as advocated by the AAP was concerned, Des Raj asserted.

The fact that there was not a single challan put up against corrupt ministers or top-level functionary could gauge that the BJP always tried to weaken the Lokayukta and now the Leader of Opposition, PK Dhumal, was issuing sermons on the Lokayukta, charged Tikender Panwar, state secretariat member, CPM. “We sought to bring judicial officials under the Lokayukta,” he demanded.

Panwar said the Lokayukta should set up public grievance redressal cell. The BJP boycott of the Vidhan Sabha and protest outside the Assembly amply demonstrated that the party did not believe in the parliamentary form of government.

The Vidhan Sabha is the venue where they could oppose, legislate and redress public grievances, he said while demanding the resignations of BJP MLAs.

“The BJP owes explanation to the people of the state as to why they submitted the list of questions in the Budget Session, but they did not seek answers from the treasury Benches and protested against the Lokayukta outside the Vidhan Sabha till today,” quipped HLP secretary Khushi Ram Balnatta, who was former BJP legislator from Rohru before he deserted the party and joined the HLP.

HLP wanted a strong Lokayukta. The BJP stand on it was not clear as the entire party was HPCA-centric and had exposed itself before the people of the state, Balnatta charged. 

Palampur, February 21
Residents of Baijnath and Paprola today hailed the decision of the state government to set up Nagar Panchayats in the towns. The Cabinet had sanctioned Nagar Panchayats for the two towns.

Kishori Lal, MLA, Baijnath, said he was grateful to the Chief Minister who had fulfilled his commitment made to the people during his visit to Baijnath last month. — OC