Shimla, May 31
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has sought decade-old satellite images of the patch of land on which a five-star hotel of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) at Dharamsala has come up to ascertain how many trees were illegally felled to pave way for the building.

Satellite images will vindicate the Vigilance stand that trees have been illegally felled. “We have approached the National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad, to provide us decade-old satellite images and establish that trees were illegally felled,” said an official.

The Vigilance Bureau has already registered a case against the HPCA for illegally felling trees on the patch of land on which the HPCA stadium has come up. The investigations are in the final stage and the chargesheet can be submitted in the court shortly.

The Vigilance Bureau has collected the entire record of the trees standing on the adjoining land. “Even though forest officials in their non-objection certificate (NOC) given to the HPCA have stated that there are no trees on the patch of land, the fact is that even now, there are 2,023 trees standing at the site,” said officials.

It is also reliably learnt that the Vigilance sleuths have been able to lay their hands on official records which proves that trees that were felled had been planted by the Forest Department under a plantation drive.

Forest officials in their report have also revealed that trees adjoining the hotel are at least 30 years old so they could not have been planted later on after the hotel was constructed. The Vigilance Bureau had found inconsistency in the records of the Forest and Revenue Department during investigation which hinted that trees were felled illegally.

The HPCA was provided 49,118.25 sq m of land for the stadium and 3.28 hectares for constructing a residential facility for players. This residential facility was later converted into Pavilion Hotel for which permission was taken from the government for commercial purpose.

An FIR was registered against the HPCA on August 1, 2013, under Sections 406, 420 and 120 of the IPC by the Dharamsala office of the Vigilance Bureau.

The Registrar of Societies had also issued a show-cause notice to the HPCA on September 9.

The row Vigilance sleuths have official records that the trees felled were planted by the Forest Department under a plantation drive Forest officials in their report have revealed that trees adjoining the hotel are at least 30 years old so they could not have been planted later on after a five-star hotel was constructed The Vigilance Bureau had found inconsistency in the records of the forest and revenue departments during its investigation. This indicates that trees were felled illegally

While the present Himachal Government is victimising the HPCA, it is withdrawing criminal cases of grievous nature against its former minister (Singhi Ram) Anurag Thakur, bjp mp from hamirpur

Dharamsala, May 31
The criminal case against Singhi Ram, former minister and former Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBOSE), is generating political heat after former DGP ID Bhandari and BJP MP from Hamirpur, Anurag Thakur, questioned the government intention behind withdrawing the case.

Sources said the BJP was planning to make it a major issue against the Congress that was targeting it on the HPCA case.

Anurag, who was here to appear before Vigilance officials, said while the present Himachal Government was victimising the HPCA, it was withdrawing criminal cases of grievous nature against its former minister.

This clearly indicated that the state government was just working on vendetta politics, he said.

HPCA spokesperson Sanjay Sharma said they would expose the present government for withdrawing a clear-cut case of corruption and forgery against former Congress minister and former chairman of the HPBOSE.

The case

Upma, daughter of former Congress minister Singhi Ram, had failed in Class XII examination in 2005. She was studying at Lawrance School, Sanawar. However, she managed to secure admission in Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi, for the 2005 session on the basis of the HP Education Board certificate.

The police registered a case against Singhi Ram, Upma and then Chairman of the education board, BR Rahi, on March 11, 2008, for making a forged marksheet.

The forged marksheet showed that Upma secured 90 per cent marks in the HPBOSE board examination in 2005, whereas the 2005 topper of the board had secured just 82 per cent marks.

The police had booked Singhi Ram and Rahi under Sections 420, 468, 471 and 120 (B) of the IPC.

BJP leaders alleged that the case against Singhi Ram and BR Rahi was an open-and-shut case of corruption. Sources said the government had written to the Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, to withdraw the said case against Singhi Ram and Rahi. However, the case was in an advanced state before the Kangra court. The decision regarding the withdrawal of the case at such a time would depend on the discretion of the court concerned.

Shimla, May 31
An ambitious Rs 127.10-crore sewerage and water supply rehabilitation project sanctioned to the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in 2009 has lapsed. The reason: the "fund-starved" SMC could not implement the project and the state government dithered on the release of matching grants.

The project, which was scheduled to be completed by April 2014, crashed without take-off and the Union Urban Development Ministry has asked the state to return the unutilised first instalment of Rs 23 crore advanced to the SMC with interest. The project envisaged Rs 54.74 crore for the improvement of sewerage and Rs 72.36 crore for the rehabilitation of water supply of the SMC. As much as 80 per cent of the cost was to be borne by the Centre and 10 per cent each by the state government and the SMC.

As the SMC supposedly had no infrastructure to execute the project, it was proposed that either the IPH Department should execute it or it should be entrusted to the Independent Project Cell. Finally, the project was given to nodal agency HIMUDA.

HIMUDA failed to make any headway and the project was reverted to the SMC after a year. The civic body initiated the process and appointed a consultant for executing the project in Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode.

Despite the EPC mode, the projected remained grounded and it was decided to execute it in the Public Private Partnership mode. Meanwhile, the total integrated cost of the project increased to Rs 237 crore and it was decided to pool Rs 110 crore through PPP mode for which the payment was linked to performance indicators.

Bids were invited under the PPP twice, but only one bid was received. The third time two bids were received, but nothing could be finalised.

After the change of government in the state in December 2012, the project was again reverted to IPH Department. A detailed project report was prepared and sent to the Centre in March.

The works under drinking water rehabilitation scheme included replacement of old worn-out water mainlines from Craignano to Sanjauli, building of additional storage capacity at Jakhoo and suburban areas, improvement of water distribution system through replacement of half-inch pipes, installation of bulk meters and preservation of water bodies.

Had the project been implemented as scheduled, the water shortage problem in the town would have been less severe.

Shimla, May 31
Faculty members and students of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Hamirpur, have accused the governing body and administration of the institute of “playing with their future as the faculties face shortage of staff and latest equipments”.

In a communication to The Tribune, the faculty association of NIT, Hamirpur, rued that NIT had 190 faculty positions out of which only about 125 lecturers were regular. “But 32 teachers are on contract and about 35 posts are vacant in different disciplines as recruitment and promotion rules are not pro-faculty,” they claimed.

In the process, the students are suffering as NIT is neither appointing regular staff nor is filling up the vacant posts.

“The administration is not even procuring new equipments to keep pace with the needs of the faculty and students,” alleged members of the faculty association.

With the change of guard at the Centre, the association has sought change in recruitment and promotion rules for NITs and proper recruitment of staff so that nobody suffers.

Many faculty associations gave a representation to the HRD Ministry against the norms which ignored the seniority of teachers in NITs since 2011 but in vain, they said.

The Prof Sunil Sarangi Committee’s norms looked after the interests of the “group of directors,” the teachers claimed. Besides, many faculty members were denied enrolment as part-time candidates in doctoral programme and as a result the World Bank grants were not being utilised, they said.

“We are taking up the matter with the NIT administration and Human Resource Ministry soon,” said Dr Rajeshwar Banshtu, president, NIT Hamirpur Association.

However, Dr R Shrivastva, Director, Hamirpur NIT, trashed the charges saying that the recruitment and promotion rules and faculty positions were in line with other NITs in the country.

“Problem is that qualified manpower having PHD degrees is not available for regular recruitment and NIT has enough staff to teach students, who are as good as other graduates in NITs,” he claimed.

NITs have their own pay scales and the Central pay scales have nothing to do with NITs, Dr Srivastva said.

Kangra, May 31
World No-Tobacco Day, a three-day programme, organised by the Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Students Central Association of the Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (DRPGMC), Tanda, culminated today.

Principal, DRPGMC, Tanda, Anil Chauhan, who was chief guest on the occasion, said the day was celebrated across the world today. Various activities were conducted to spread awareness about harmful effects of tobacco consumption.

He said the theme for this year was "Raise taxes on tobacco".

A large number of medical, nursing and paramedical students attended the event that included a poster-making competition which was held in the OPD complex so as to make the patients and their relatives in the waiting area aware of ill-effects of tobacco.

He delivered an awareness message for the participants, encouraging them to educate the community about this deadly addiction.

During the programme, there were educational talks by faculties from various departments. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Rekha Bansal said worldwide, 3 million deaths occurred annually due to smoking, that meant one death every 8 seconds. She said in India, there were around 7 lakh deaths per year due to smoking and around 9 lakh deaths per year due to all forms of tobacco use.

She said the most commonly used form of tobacco in Himachal Pradesh was bidi. She added that every year, around 100 patients of lung cancer were diagnosed in the Department of Pulmonary Medicine by her as a result of bidi smoking among the population of Kangra and adjoining districts.

Kullu, May 31
Shaan Laezar (29) of Kerala died and his wife Minu John (28) escaped with minor injuries, when a raft they were boarding capsized in the Beas near Babeli, 7 km from here yesterday.

Sanjay Sharma, Kullu DSP, confirmed the reports and said relatives of the deceased had been informed. The district administration was rendering every assistance and care to the family, he added.

It was learnt that the raft was stuck in a whirlpool and the oarsman could not regain control and it flipped, leading to the tragedy.

Shimla, May 31
In order to draw students from Himachal, Chandigarh University, Gharuan, has offered course fee waiver up to 50 per cent in non-engineering courses for students securing 75 per cent or more in Class XII. Dr RS Bawa, Vice-Chancellor, said the courses included those in hotel management, pharmacy, animation, business management and biotechnology.

Academicians have dubbed the move as a“luring offer” to the students to fill their seats as the number of private colleges and universities are multiplying.