Shimla, August 30
The statewide education bandh called by the Students Federation of India (SFI) evoked a good response at Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) and affiliated colleges. This was despite the ABVP and the NSUI withdrawing from the Joint Action Committee (JCC) to protest fee hike and deferring of the Students Central Association (SCA) polls for a year.

More than 1,000 students gathered near the university library and protested the fee hike, deferment of SCA elections and move to have a nominated student association in place of directly elected bodies at the university and affiliated colleges.

State president of SFI Suresh Sarwal said: “After 35 per cent hike in fee, education has become a luxury during the tenure of Vice-Chancellor ADN Bajpai as only rich students can avail their Right to Education.”

The SFI today made a fresh appeal to the entire student community to come under one banner to fight “anti-student” policies of the university and the government.

“The VC, who is working like a dictator, has deliberately deferred the SCA elections so that students cannot question his anti-student actions such as fee hike and the implementation of RUSA in a haste without proper planning, which has led to chaos in the state,” former SCA president Rahul Chauhan and HPU campus president of SFI Hoshiyar Singh said.

The student leaders said: “The university has been converted into a police fort and student voices are being muzzled.”

The agitating SFI members simultaneously started a chain-hunger strike from today and warned that the agitation would be further intensified in case the demands were not met.

SCA president Rajan Harta demanded immediate rollback in fee hike, notification of SCA elections, construction of four hostels, four new buses for day scholars, Wi Fi on the university campus, payment of scholarships to research scholars, repairs and renovation of the library and toilets, commencement of work for the Arts Block III, strengthening of the placement cell and filling of vacant posts of teaching and non-teaching staff.

Hamirpur, August 30
The father of the student, who was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room, today alleged that his son was ragged and forced to commit suicide.

Amit Kumar (18), a first-year student of a local private college, was found dead in the room on Thursday and the Hamirpur police today registered a case under Sections 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC and under the Himachal Pradesh Educational Institutions (Anti-Ragging) Act, 2009, against the management of the college and two of its students.

Deceased’s father Deep Chand said his son was tortured by two students of the same college and compelled him to commit suicide. He said his son had made a complaint to the Principal about harassment by these students, but he failed to take any action.

“Had the college management taken timely action, the precious life of my son would have been saved,” he said.

Hamirpur SP Ajay Bodh said a case was registered, but no had been arrested so far. Meanwhile, resentment prevailed in the college and strict action has been demanded against erring boys and the management. Aman Kachroo, a student of Tanda Medical College died due to ragging in 2008 and four seniors were convicted and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. — PTI 

Solan, August 30
State Electricity Board Limited has been forced to effect power cuts in the industrial clusters as the department is facing a shortfall of as much as 30 lakh units of power owing to a sudden decline in the production at major hydel power projects.

The board officials have blamed the weak monsoon to be the reason behind the decline in power production. The usual requirement is of 270 lakh units and the board faces a shortfall of 30 lakh units.

The production has declined at the major hydel power projects of the state, including Nathpa Jakhri, Chamera and the central projects, thus forcing the board officials to affect power cuts in the industrial clusters, including Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh, Parwanoo, Kala Amb and Paonta Sahib.

The investors rue that power cuts, stretching nearly two hours, were being affected in morning, evening and night for the past several days. The total shortfall of power appeared to be 40 to 50 per cent in the industrial clusters alone.

The Parwanoo Industries Association (PIA) said despite the HP Electricity Regulatory Commission’s assertions that since sufficient margins had been considered in the tariff order, there was no reason to withdraw power supply.

Blaming the board from shying away from buying power from open market at a higher cost to meet the contingency, the industries association said the state government was erring on its priorities as loss of industrial production was also a loss of revenue to the state government.

In a letter written to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the Parwanoo Industries Association has requested him to give immediate attention to the problem and restore power supply round the clock.

Rakesh Bansal, senior member of the PIA, said they had been informed by the Chief Minister’s office that the issue had been forwarded to the Secretary for an early solution. 

Solan, August 30
The State Pollution Control Board finally woke up to check irregularities in the working of erring industrial units after being slammed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) by ordering the disconnection of power supplies of eight industrial units in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) industrial area today.

Board officials have been conducting a series of inspections in the BBN area for the past several weeks, where irregularities, including operating units without the mandatory consent to operate, non-operation of effluent treatment plants and failure of samples have come to the fore.

Superintending Engineer of the board Praveen Gupta, while confirming the news, said: “At least two units have been found working without the mandatory consent to operate and this has put a question mark on the working of the other departments as such units can neither secure permanent registration from the Industries Department nor can avail a power connection.”

He said in other cases issues such as non-operation of effluent treatment plants (ETPs) and the failure of the industrial units to enhance the capacity of their ETPs had come to light, while in a few others the samples had failed to conform to the norms.

Chamba, August 30
“The Virbhadra government is strong, stable and functioning smoothly for the development of the state and the wellbeing of its people,” said Kuldeep Singh Pathania, state Congress spokesperson-cum-chairman of the state Pollution Control Board, while addressing a press conference here yesterday.

Pathania accused the BJP leaders of creating a spurt of false propaganda against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh unreasonably that there were bickering in the Congress over weak leadership.

Lashing out at the state BJP unit, he condemned the BJP leadership, who had stalled the functioning of the recent Vidhan Sabha session.

He said the Congress had launched a bunch of development schemes and other works in the state during its short stint of 18 months.

Regarding development of Chamba, he questioned former Chief Minister PK Dhumal to give details about how many schools were opened and how many development schemes were put through during his tenure.

He said under the Congress regime, the recruitment were being made through the Himachal Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Board (HPSSSB) and the school managing committees (SMCs) had been empowered to appoint teachers.

Shimla, August 30
The Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC) today declared the list of qualifying candidates for the Himachal Administrative Service (HAS) Combined Competitive examinations held in 2012.

As many as 31,363 applications were received for the examinations, out of which 27,166 were admitted provisionally.

Around 11,683 candidates appeared for the HAS preliminary examinations, out of which 556 applicants appeared in the main examinations and only 98 cleared them to sit in the interview for 32 posts.

The names of the qualifying candidates included Shikha Sharma (HAS), Babu Ram Sharma (HAS), Avaninhder Kumar (HAS), Surender Mohan (HAS), Sunny Sharma (HAS), Vikram Singh (HAS), Vijay Kumar (HAS), Niraj Kumari (HAS),Tribhuvan Singh (HAS), Naresh Kumar Verma (HPS), Amar Negi (HPS), Manoj Kumar (HAS), Rajesh Kumar (Tehsildar), Jagdish Chand (Tehsildar), Ganesh Thakur (Tehsildar), Surender Kumar (Tehsildar), Pankaj Sood (Tehsildar), Vikram Jeet Singh (Tehsildar), Shephali Sharma, Block Development Officer (BDO), Raj Kumar (BDO), Sonu (BDO), Manmohan Singh, District Employment Officer (DEO), Nivedita Negi Treasury Officer (TO), Amit Kumar (TO), Anirudh S Chauhan (TO), Samritika (TO), Pulkit Sandal (TO), Prashant (TO), Kamal Kishore, Assistant Registrar Cooperative Societies (ARCS), Paras Aggarwal (ARCS), Neeraj Sood (ARCS) and Rajneesh Kumar (ARCS).