Shimla, February 22
Himachal BJP general secretary Randhir Sharma today accused Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of involvement in a benami land deal.

The BJP alleged that he purchased land in the name of a company owned by his children, evaded stamp duty and concealed his assets from the Election Commission in the affidavits submitted at the time of filing his nomination for the Assembly elections in 2012.

The evasion of stamp duty, the purchase of a farmhouse spread over 2 acre at the Dera Bandh Road, Mandi village, Mehrauli in New Delhi, Sharma said. The cost of the property was Rs 25 crore while it was purchased for Rs 1.20 crore, he alleged.

Maple Destinations Dream Build Pvt Ltd, the company in question in which the CM's son and daughter, Vikramaditya Singh and Aprajita Singh, held 95 per cent and 5 per cent share, respectively, was registered on May 30, 2011, on the address of a farmhouse. The property was bought on August 25, 2011, he said, adding that it was mentioned in the registry that there was land for agricultural use with walls. In reality, it is stated, it was a fully furnished four-room bungalow with landscaped gardens and a swimming pool.

Charging the Chief Minister with furnishing incomplete information in the affidavit submitted during filling nominations before the Assembly elections, he said the CM had shown his children as dependents, but was silent on the information regarding investments of the company owned by them.

Releasing the copy of the bank statement of Vikramaditya and a copy of registry of the farmhouse to the press, Sharma alleged that Rs 30 lakh was paid as advance in April 2011.

Money was deposited in Virbhadra's account on July 21 and 22 by Vakamullah Chandershakher. On August 2, Rs 90 lakh was transferred from Virbhadra's account to his son Vikramaditya's. On August 4, Vikramaditya transferred Rs 90 lakh (Rs 45 lakh each) to the accounts of Picheshwar Gade and Sunita Gade, owners of the farmhouse, from his individual account.

Stating that the payment was made from his individual accounts while the property was registered in the company's name, he alleged it was a case of benami land transaction in which Vakamullah Chandershekhar and Dev Kumar Pathak were witnesses.

He said the people of Himachal wanted to know as to who Vakamullah was and how he was linked to the Chief Minister.

Shimla, February 22
It is a Budget full of sops to woo the labour class, urban poor and working women. Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan today presented a Rs 156.64-crore tax-free Budget for 2014-15 of the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) in the 30-member House.

He left an uncovered deficit of Rs 30.12 crore, a jump of about Rs. 31 crore as compared to the last year.

The Mayor stated that economic crisis had hit development works in the city, as was the case elsewhere, with the corporation reeling under a resource crunch. "Hence, the SMC has not proposed any fresh tax hike to burden the common man," he added.

It has proposed capital expenditure of Rs 63.31 crore. It has proposed revenue expenditure of Rs 93.33 crore, as against Rs 59.96 crore last year.

Out of the total income of Rs 156 crore, the corporation has proposed to spend Rs 46 crore in 2014-15 on 1,189 employees and 435 pensioners of the corporation. “We will allot Rs 30 lakh for medical compensation for the treatment of employees this year,” he added.

The Mayor said the corporation raised an income of Rs 61.97 crore-Rs 33.80 from its own sources and Rs 28.17 crore from grants.

“We have incurred an expenditure of Rs 59.91 crore in the current financial year, that in turn dilutes the pace of development in the city,” he added.

He informed the House that they would again take up the proposed green tax on tourist vehicles with the High Court and that would give an income of Rs 6 crore every year. Also on the agenda is a proposal for a new parking complex for over 2,000 vehicles at different locations, work for which is already in progress.

Second, the property tax had not been collected for two years as the proposed Unit Area method tax was rejected by the House seeking a change.

The corporation would seek to collect the house tax on old lines, said Chauhan.

The Mayor said they proposed to take back the charge of urban forests from the Forest Department. The ward grant was increased from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for each councillor, while Rs 25 lakh was allocated for the ward sabhas this year, he added.

He informed the House that the revised sewerage project had been increased from Rs 127 crore to Rs 307 crore to be executed jointly by the IPH and Shimla Municipal Corporation under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. The work will start as the Centre gives its nod.

He said working women hostels would be renovated or extended. They proposed that they should be charged domestic electricity supply.

Dharamsala, February 22
Rajan Sushant, BJP MP from Kangra, joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi this evening. The news took the party workers in the district, who were undertaking a 'jharoo yatra' in Dharamsala, by surprise.

Some of them said this might have happened at the party's high command level as they were not consulted on the matter. Sushant, when contacted by mediapersons, confirmed he had joined AAP. He said, "I will be arriving in the state in the next two days and declare my future strategy."

When asked if he would contest the parliamentary elections from Kangra on an AAP ticket in the forthcoming elections, Sushant said it would be decided by the party high command.

State BJP president Satpal Satti, when asked to comment on the development, said, "Rajan Sushant has already not been with the BJP for the past three years. It is good that two like-minded people, Rajan Sushant and Arvind Kejriwal, have come together."

With Sushant joining AAP, speculation is rife that he will contest the election from the Kangra parliamentary constituency. Before joining AAP, Sushant, who had declared his resignation from the BJP on January 10, was contemplating contesting as an Independent. On the AAP platform, Sushant is likely to cause embarrassment to the top BJP leadership by levelling allegations of corruption against them. Already Sushant had announced that he would make startling revelations as regards senior BJP leaders Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Shimla, February 22
Vikramaditya Singh, state Youth Congress president and son of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, today refuted BJP allegations levelled against him.

"The purchase of the said land at Mehrauli was done as per the laid-down norms and procedures with no illegality whatsoever," he asserted. He added that the circle rate of land as fixed by the patwari of the area was paid.

Vikramaditya accused the BJP of raking up the same issue time and again to derive political capital out of the issue. "I have already replied to every allegation levelled by the BJP in the past too. They are reiterating it with ulterior political motives," he remarked.

He further said his father Virbhadra Singh had already filed a defamation case against the BJP leaders who had levelled these baseless allegations on several occasions. "The matter is subjudice in the Shimla local court, so everyone will know the truth behind such mudslinging and personal insinuations," he said.

Vikramaditya said the move showed the desperation of the BJP, which wanted to target the Chief Minister, who was the biggest stumbling block in their gameplan. "This was probably the last arrow in their quiver which they have fired," he said.

"We will fight such malicious campaign of the BJP, both politically and legally," he said.

Shimla, February 22
It is for the first time in the history of the Himachal Vidhan Sabha that almost the entire Budget session of the Assembly took place in the absence of the Opposition BJP, reducing it to a one-sided lacklustre affair.

Having the maximum number of sittings, the Budget session of the Assembly is the most animated one with members of the Opposition not losing out on any opportunity to hit out at the ruling party and the government.

In sharp contrast to this, the BJP legislators attended the House for barely a week this time and that too only for a short duration and finally staged a walkout.

They boycotted the session in protest against the purported derogatory remarks made by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh against them.

During the first four days, the BJP raised slogans inside the House, holding placards. On one occasion they came to the House with black bands tied across their mouth. After this, the BJP staged protests outside the House.

The 14 day-long session which commenced on February 3 had been preponed in view of the Lok Sabha elections.

The session was also historic in the sense that the BJP MLAs staged a walkout while the Governor was addressing the House on the opening day. The same trend continued till the last day with the BJP members absenting even when the Budget was presented on February 7 and later when it was passed on February 19.

Notwithstanding the continued absence of the BJP legislators, the business in the House was taken up with the ruling party members keeping the House running. In fact, the biggest contribution in ensuring that the House ran as normally as possible was made by lone Himachal Lokhit MLA Maheshwar Singh. He probably asked the maximum number of questions and supplementaries.

It was once again left to Maheshwar, Asha Kumari and Kuldeep Kumar to take part in every debate that took place in the House. In all, six Bills were tabled in the House, out of which four were passed.

The all-important Lokayukta Bill, 2014, and the Town and Country Planning Amendment Bill, 2014, were not discussed as the Chief Minister said they would be referred to the Select Committee.