Shimla, November 27
Cold wave intensified in Himachal as the high-altitude tribal areas and mountain passes received another spell of moderate snowfall, while adjoining valley areas had light rain accompanied by high-velocity icy winds.

The Rohtang Pass had recorded 15 cm snow till the evening, while Lahaul received 5 cm snow.

The minimum temperature stayed 5 degrees to 10 degrees below freezing point in the high-altitude tribal areas, while it hovered around freezing point in the lower hills of Kullu, Mandi and Sundernagar, which received light rain.

Thick fog engulfed the towns along river banks, while strong winds lashed the region and sky remained partially overcast.

Keylong recorded minimum temperature at -2.1°C, while Manali and Kalpa recorded a low of 0.8°C and 1°C, followed by Sundernagar and Bhuntar 2.5°C, Una 2.8°C, Chamba 3.8°C, Solan 4.4°C, Nahan 6.1°C, Palampur 7.5°C, Dharamsala 8°C and Shimla 9.5°C.

The day temperature also dropped marginally and Una recorded a high of 24.2°C, a drop of three degrees since yesterday, while Solan recorded the maximum temperature at 23°C, followed by Sundernagar 21.3°C, Nahan 20.8°C, Dharamsala 19.2°C, Bhuntar 18.7°C, Shimla 17.4°C and Kalpa 11°C.

Nahan, November 27
Income tax sleuths from Delhi and Dehradun today raided three pharmaceutical firms at Paonta Sahib, Zee Laboratories, Zee Laboratories Private Limited and Lamark Laboratories.

The raids, which began early this morning, lasted till evening and various teams of the IT Department collected records from these industrial units. The units are owned by a Haryana-based investor.

It was learnt that Zee Laboratories, which manufactures cosmetics and drugs, had been granted licences in January 2010 and April 2005 for two categories. It was situated at Gondpur.

The other pharmaceutical unit, Zee Laboratories Private Limited was a World Health Organisation-approved unit manufacturing drugs since February 2010. The third unit, Lamark Laboratories, which was a sister concern of the same group, has been into cosmetics manufacturing since March 2010 and had recently acquired a drug manufacturing licence.

It was also known that their another sister concern in Karnal too was raided by an IT team today.

IT officials sought the assistance from the Nahan police to conduct these raids and a police team was dispatched from the police lines to assist the officials, confirmed DSP, Paonta Sahib, Yogesh Rolta.

While no information was available about what was seized from these units, this was the second such raid conducted on pharmaceutical firms of Paonta Sahib in the past one month by IT teams of Dehradun.

Solan, November 27
The Industries Department has initiated a move to facilitate investors by providing online clearance for the movement of goods, but the non-linking of the Nalagarh office to this facility has become an issue of concern for investors in the Nalagarh industrial area.

The online clearance, which will be functional from December 1, has been provided at the Baddi office of the Industries Department, while the Nalagarh office has been conveniently left out.

This facility will give E1 and E2 clearances to the investors which will ensure that they would get online speedier clearances for the movement of goods from one unit to another or to the other states.

The unavailability of this facility for 600-700 investors operating from Nalagarh will force them to go to Baddi to seek this clearance thereby causing undue hardship. The Industries Department already has an office in Nalagarh but other works are executed from there.

This issue figured at the general body meeting of the Nalagarh Industries Association (NIA) yesterday.

NIA president Vinod Khurana said they would request the director, industries, to extend this facility to the Nalagarh office as well so that investors too could derive benefit from this facility.

Interestingly, while the state government had been taking numerous steps to facilitate investors such as freezing power tariff for five years, simplifying stringent stipulations of Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, 1972, to ease purchase of land by outsiders, etc., this step had come as a setback to investors of the Nalagarh industrial area.

Vinod Khurana said the NIA members discussed crucial issues such as inordinate delay in getting VAT and sales tax assessments done by the officials of the Excise and Taxation Department, vociferously putting forth the stand of the association on various pollution-related issues before the National Green Tribunal, where the association has been accepted as a co-defender and putting on hold payment of infrastructure development charges (IDC) till December 10 as the issue was pending before the Delhi tribunal.

Since the HP State Electricity Board Limited had slapped IDC to the tune of several lakhs on industrial units from April 2005 to March 2012, the investors had approached the tribunal against this decision. Other NIA office-bearers present in the meeting included patron Harish Aggarwal, vice-president Sahil Kansal, secretary BS Thakur among others.

Nurpur, November 27
Up in arms against the unabated mining on Chakki riverbed despite High Court’s ban, the Kangra unit of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) today submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh through local executive magistrate.

In the memorandum, signed by 50 farmers of Khanni upper and lower gram panchayats, the BKS alleged that the stone crusher units of Himachal Pradesh and neighbouring Punjab were illegally mining Chakki riverbed with JCB machines and playing havoc with the ecology.

Jagan Nath Sharma, president of the district BKS, said the high court had imposed a complete ban on mining activities on Chakki riverbed and the state government had enforced Section 144 of the CrPc. But even then the stone crushers were mining the riverbed, throwing all norms and the ban to the wind. He lamented that the mining had damaged fertile land of the farmers in Tika pail and Khanni areas.

“Apart from this, the mining has spoiled drinking and irrigation schemes as underground water level has come down drastically during the past some years,” he added.

In the memorandum submitted jointly by the BKS members, zila parishad member Sat Pal Dhiman and local panchayat pradhan Hoshiar Singh, an appeal has been made to the Chief Minister to curb the menace with a heavy hand and enforce the High Court’s ban affectively.

Nurpur, November 27
The state government has sanctioned 2 kanal land at Fatehpur in Jawali subdivision to build a memorial for martyrs of lower Kangra areas.

Col Narinder Pathania (retd) chairman of local unit of Ex-Servicemen League hailed the government’s decision. He said the league had been raising this demand for long and the present government had finally given its nod for the allotment of memorial land. He said the memorial would render due honour to martyrs who had laid down their lives for the country as their names had not figured in the history.

Pathania said the league had proposed to build this memorial in which name of all martyrs of lower Kangra area would be listed right from first freedom fighter Ram Singh Pathania onwards. He said the foundation stone of the memorial would be laid shortly.

Shimla, November 27
The Union Agriculture Minister has accorded administrative approval for Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBICS) for the rabi season-2014-15.

Agriculture Insurance Company (AIC) of India Limited will be the implementing agency in Solan for tomato crop and ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd will be the implementing agency in Kangra for the potato crop, an official spokesman said.

Frost, chill, low or high temperature, wind, scanty or excess rain, which are likely to lead to crop loss, will be covered under the scheme.

The premium rates for tomato and potato crops have been calculated at 11.5 per cent by AIC India, by using standard premium methodology. About 50 per cent of the total premium will be payable by insured cultivator and the balance will be borne by the Centre and the state government on 50:50 basis.

Leading banks and AIC of India will take necessary action to ensure the implementation of the scheme in the state. The scheme will operate on the principle of ‘area approach’ in the selected notified reference unit areas.

The cut-off dates for accepting the crop insurance proposal from non-loanee and loanee farmers are March 10 and March 15, 2015, respectively, while the cut-off date for tomato and potato crops was January 5, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively. No insurance coverage would be allowed after the due date.

The banks would ensure that the claims are released/disbursed to the beneficiaries within a fortnight from the date of receipt of claims from the implementing agencies.

Hamirpur, November 27
A team of senior officials from the Centre, led by IAS Veena Kumari Meena, visited several places in the district today to assess the losses suffered due to heavy rain and floods this monsoon.

The six-member team visited the flood-affected areas, including Dhirad, Khural, Bagwada and Jahu of Bhoranj sub-divisions of Hamirpur and Dharmpur of Mandi. Meena was accompanied by Aditya Prakash, Superintendent Engineer, Road and Transport, and Raj Bhadur Kaul from Union Ministry of Finance.

Principal Secretary (Revenue and Forest) Tarun Sridhar and Additional Secretary, Revenue, DC Rana were also present. Hamirpur Deputy Commissioner Rohan Chand Thakur, along with Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) of Hamirpur and Bhoranj accompanied the team.

Heavy rain had claimed 11 lives and loss to crops and property had been estimated at over Rs 100 crore during July-August. The approximate loss in the state was assessed at Rs 600 crore. The state suffered the loss due to heavy rain on August 14 and 15, coupled with flashfloods, cloudbursts and landslides at many places.

The team will submit its report to the Centre, which will provide calamity relief to the state on account of damages suffered.

Mandi, November 27
Non-gazetted employees of various unions of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), a public sector telecom service provider, today observed a day-long strike in support of a 30-point charter of their demands.

Addressing members, district president of the BSNL Employees Union Kuldeep Singh said they had submitted the demand charter to the authorities, but till date, not even a single demand had been accepted. He said the employees were forced to protest.

Their main demands were removing of differences in the pay scales of non-executive employees who joined after and before January 1, 2007, proper appointment of contractual employees, restart of the LTC facility, leave encashment and medical allowance, regular promotion of the officiating JTOs, 30 per cent retirement benefits to employees recruited directly, fresh recruitment in the non-executive cadre, fill vacancies under the SC/ST categories, restoration of telecom factories and upgradation of the employees who had completed telecom mechanic training.

Mandi, November 27
The district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Ex-services League has urged the Central Government to implement the one-rank, one-pension scheme at the earliest.

In a meeting held here yesterday, district chairman DD Sharma and secretary Bahadur Singh urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept their long-pending demand and direct the Ministry of Finance to issue a notification in this regard so that retired soldiers and widows could get benefit of the scheme.

They demanded that pension benefits announced in the 7th Pay Commission be given on the basis of the one-rank, one-pension scheme.

They demanded the construction of a sainik sadan and a kargil shaheed park in Mandi, re-employment of ex-servicemen in Central services, implementation of additional benefits to those ex-servicemen who had completed 65 years of age on the pattern of civil pensioners.

The government should increase the recruitment quota of the state and the present quota should also be increased on the basis of the population, they said.

Shimla, November 27
Modern military stations and CSD canteens would soon be set up in Una and Bilaspur districts of the state, said Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr (Col) Dhani Ram Shandil, while presiding over a meeting of State Sainik Welfare Department. The meeting was organised today to review the progress of identification of land for CSD canteens and military stations in the two districts.

He said 1,100 acres had been identified at Varno, Bharshali and the land adjacent to these areas in Una for this purpose. Meanwhile, the process to identify land at Bassi in Bilaspur district was in progress.

The Army had demanded 2,800 acre land for setting up modern military stations and CSD canteens and the government had taken effective steps to meet the demands and the rest of lands would be identified soon, he added.

Directing the Una Deputy Commissioner to transfer 1,100 acre identified land to the Army so that the construction could be taken up at the earliest, he said with the coming up of military stations and CSD canteens, the security of the proposed rail line through these districts would also be ensured. Besides, ex-servicemen and their dependents would also get essential items at reasonable rates.

Shandil disclosed that Sainik Welfare Department was providing daily need items at subsidised rates to the serving soldiers and their dependents, besides ex-servicemen, through 27 CSD canteens, seven extension counters and 55 mobile CSD canteens.

Chamba, November 27
The families whose land and houses have been damaged due to construction activities of hydroelectric projects in the Churah subdivision of the district have sought compensation.

This grievance was aired in a meeting of the members of sub-divisional level grievances committee, held under the chairmanship of SDM Sanjay Dhiman at Tissa, about 65 km from here on Tuesday.

The members demanded compensation for the affected families whose land and houses had been damaged by the blasting and other construction activities at various fronts in the hilly region.

In the meeting, the SDM divulged that a committee to this effect had already been constituted by the Deputy Commissioner of Chamba which would take stock of the situation and compile a report.

The report would be submitted to the DC and on the basis of this report, compensation would be provided to the genuine affected families, the SDM said.

Besides this, the condition of the road linking the interior terrains had also been deteriorated because of the ongoing construction activities, the members pointed out in the meeting.

Dharamsala, November 27
About 70 per cent applicants seek information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act for personal reasons. Very few seek information in public interest. Bhim Sen, Chief Information Commissioner, said this while addressing a press conference at Dharamsala today.

He said the number of applications under the Act has increased from 2,654 in 2006 to 61,202 in 2012-13. The number of people appealing for a second time has also increased in the state, from 52 in 2006 to about 693 last year.

Since the percentage of second appeals is just about 10 per cent of the total applications, it can be implied that the public authorities appointed in the state were doing their work efficiently, Bhim Sen said.

While responding to queries regarding holding the courts of state information commission at district levels, he said there was no need of setting up such courts at the district level. The courts were already being held at the division level.

Taking into consideration the number of cases coming up for second appeal, setting up of courts at division level was serving the purpose, he added.

The Chief Information Commissioner said presently there were 110 public authorities appointed in various departments of government that provided information sort under the RTI. The delivery of information in the state was among the best in the country.

The increased awareness regarding Act in Himachal Pradesh was motivating more people to use it.

He added that the cases of denial of information coming up under the first or second appeal were also decided within time. Presently, there were 19 pending cases before the state information commission.

Shimla, November 27
Two shops and a store were gutted by a devastating fire that broke out at busy Summer Hill Chowk late this evening. The fire reportedly started from a sweet shop store and engulfed shops within minutes, causing blasts of LPG cylinder.

Three fire tenders were rushed to the spot which fought the flames for almost an hour to bring the fire under control and adjoining shops were saved.

“Skyhigh flames were visible at the store of a sweet shop on the main Summer Hill Chowk and deafening sound of blast of LPG cylinder was heard” said Amit, an eyewitness.

The power supply was cut to stop the fire from spreading to other shops, said sources, adding that the fire was under control. However, there was no loss of human life.

Shimla, November 27
The State Health Commission has proposed to set up an Inter-Medical School Council which will put in place an institutional mechanism to monitor and strengthen services being provided in health institutions.

The State Health Commission, headed by Prof MK Bhan, former Union Secretary, today met Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, NGOs and other stakeholders to elicit their views on how to improve healthcare in the state.

Prof Bhan said the need of the hour was to use the national resources sensibly, had an Inter-Medical School Council and a sustainable model for curative services.

“We are keen that a concept such as standard care at standard cost can be evolved and especially for Himachal which is faced with geographical constraints,” said Prof Bhan. He said another area where he felt that Himachal really need to work was to develop good trauma care and emergency services.

“Himachal is already among the top three states which has excellent health facilities but the biggest constraint is human resource which can be overcome by producing more doctors and offer them the best possible career development options and academic opportunities,” said Prof Bhan.

He added that though the infant and maternal mortality was quite low as compared to national figures, efforts would be to bring it further down.

While laying stress on providing the missing link in primary care, he said there was need to focus on issues such as mental health, depression, geriatric care, dementia, anxiety and attention deficit among adolescents. It would be better if the approach was to adopt preventive measures and undertake health screening programmes whether it was in schools, for the elderly or for vulnerable sections.

Prof Bhan said there was need for major reforms in the healthcare system with focus on issues such as health financing, standardisation, health safety and consumer satisfaction.

“A system which provides services for free is not very sustainable so it is time we discuss issues such as contributory care system so that those who can afford are made to pay but at the same time ensure that it is free for the vulnerable sections,” he remarked when asked about people being made to pay rather than free health services.

Mandi, November 27
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) will launch an agitation against the privatisation of health services in the state.

District secretary Bhupender Singh said they opposed the policy of the government to hand over the health services to the private sector. He said nearly 36 per cent of the hospitals, 80 per cent dental colleges and 93 per cent nursing training institutes in the state were being run by private players. He said private health service providers were charging an exorbitant fee from poor people and the government had no control over these hospitals.

He said instead of appointing regular doctors and other staff, the government was appointing employees on a temporary or contractual basis through the Rogi Kalyan Samiti on hundreds of vacant posts in hospitals and primary health centres and these employees were getting very poor salaries.

Nahan, November 27
Dr Rajiv Bindal, former health minister and general secretary of the state BJP, today blamed Congress leaders for misleading the people on the issue of opening three medical colleges in the state without making any budgetary provision for them.

In a statement issued here today, Bindal said the Congress Government at the Centre had not only failed to make any budgetary provision for these colleges, but had made these announcements early this year in haste merely to gain political mileage in the Lok Sabha elections.

Condemning Congress leaders who were now rushing to Delhi on government expenditure to request the Modi-led BJP government to make available a budget for these medical colleges, Bindal said Congress leaders should now confess that they had misled the people by making false announcements about the opening of three medical colleges in the state, including one at Nahan.

These institutes would be opened through budget made available by the BJP government, he added.

Shimla, November 27
The state government today promoted all three senior IAS officers of the 1984 batch, Tarun Sridhar, Principal Secretary (Revenue and Forest), Narinder Chauhan, Principal Secretary (Public Works Department) and PC Dhiman, Principal Secretary (Education), as Additional Chief Secretaries (ACS).

Even as doubts were being raised on the promotion of Dhiman, Principal Secretary (Education), but Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh decided to promote him despite the fact that some in the Screening Committee were averse to it.

Dhiman who enjoys a clean image has been under the scanner as his name figures in a case filed by the Vigilance Bureau against the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA).

“The Chief Minister has said since the charges against Dhiman have not been proved and the matter has still not been put up in the court, he should not be denied his promotion,” said an officer.

Most IAS officers said the positive stand taken by the Chief Minister would help in restoring the sagging morale of the bureaucracy which had been demoralised due to cases being registered against the officers by the Vigilance Bureau.

Though the Cabinet had sanctioned three more posts of Additional Chief Secretaries (ACS) in early October this year, the decision had been pending as the Screening Committee met twice on October 22 and November 24. The committee headed by Chief Secretary P Mitra and its two other members Vineet Chawdhry, ACS (Health) and Sushil Negi, Principal Secretary (Personnel), had made their recommendations to the Chief Minister.

With three new promotions, their total number will go up to seven. The five Additional Chief Secretaries include Deepak Sanan, Ajay Mittal, Vineet Chawdhry, Upma Chawdhry and VC Pharka.

Shimla, November 27
A day after virtually giving a clean chit to registrar Mohan Jharta in the complaint lodged against him by research officer at the Institute of Integrated Himalayan Studies, Himachal Pradesh University Vice-Chancellor Prof ADN Bajpai today said the matter was being probed by the police and the university would act on the basis of its findings.

“We have taken notice of the FIR lodged by Kuldeep Singh against the registrar under Section 3 of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Act and a four-member committee has been set up under the chairmanship of pro-vice chancellor Prof Rajinder Singh Chauhan to ensure that there was no recurrence of such incident in future.”

Clarifying his remarks made yesterday in context of the complaint lodged by Kuldeep Singh, Bajpai said being the VC he had sympathies for both Kuldeep Singh and Mohan Jharta and both of them were respected officers of the university.

“As the matter is being investigated by the police, the university will act on the basis of the findings of the police investigations,” he said.

Referring to the suspension of Kuldeep Singh, Bajpai said it had nothing to do with the complaint and was altogether a different issue. Kuldeep Singh had lodged an FIR alleging that the registrar had made caste-based remarks against him.

Jharta denied the allegations and said the charges were baseless and revengeful as he had forwarded the orders of the VC suspending Kuldeep Singh for creating rowdiness on the campus while driving under the influence of alcohol on November 22.

Meanwhile, the Himachal Pradesh University Teachers’ Association (HPUTA) in its emergent meeting held today condemned the mala fide intentions of the suspended research officer against the registrar. The association said this was a wrong precedent adopted by the complainant to settle his dispute.

Shimla, November 27
As a large number of girls from far-flung areas of the state wants to pursue their studies in Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS), Portmore, the possibility for the construction of hostels for students will be explored.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said this while presiding over the annual function of GSSS Portmore here today.

He said the matter regarding the construction of hostels would be taken up with the Forest Department as some part of the land required for the construction of the hostel comes under the forest area.

The CM announced complete fencing around the school campus and development of the park besides constructing a water-harvesting structure. He said adequate funds would be made available for laying a roof over the primary school building within the campus.

Appreciating the school management for maintaining quality academic standards besides carrying other activities in the school, he said the government was endeavouring to provide every facility in the educational institutions of the state.

He announced Rs 40,000 for Portmore school children and Rs 10,000 for children of primary school for presenting a cultural performance besides showcasing their skill in acrobatics and self-defence techniques.

The CM also released the school magazine ‘Vatika’ and launched the school website www.portmoreschool.in.

He distributed prizes to the students who excelled in academics and other curricular activities. Earlier, school Principal Nisha Bhaloni presented the annual school report.

Shimla, November 27
The Students Federation of India (SFI) today said on the first day of examination irregularities were found in question papers.

They said Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) had replaced MA Geography with MSc Geography this year, but provided the question paper on the old MA pattern.

SFI campus president Rahul Chauhan said instead of two marks questions, students were asked to write 16 marks questions which put them to great inconvenience.

Kullu, November 27
An infant drowned and five others, including four women, were injured as the Trax (HP-66A-0528) they were travelling in fell into a river near the Naglari bridge in the Banjar valley yesterday.

The police said the driver stopped the car to attend nature’s call on way to Sarchi village but the vehicle reversed and fell into the river. The police said while five passengers sustained injuries, a seven-day-old infant went missing in the river. The driver had been arrested and the vehicle impounded. — OC

Chamba, November 27
The Chamba police have seized 1.3 gm charas from the possession of a passenger travelling in a Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus near Baloo, on the outskirts of the Chamba town last night.

A police report said a police party on traffic checking intercepted the Chamba-Amritsar night bus near Baloo and inspected the bus following a tip off.

During the inspection, a passenger got frightened. On suspicion, the police officials checked his luggage and recovered charas weighing 1,300 gm from his possession, the report said.

Accordingly, a case under Section 20 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act had been registered against the accused, identified as Suresh Kumar of Churah area of the district. The accused had been arrested and further investigations in the case was being conducted, the report stated.

Solan, November 27
Five persons were convicted for double murder and criminal conspiracy in the murder case of Rajiya, alias Rattni Nani, a former councillor of the local Municipal Council, and Desh Raj Mahant yesterday. All five were sentenced to life imprisonment and fined ~5,000 each.

The accused, Vakar Chaudhary, Dalip, Mutrjim, Iqbal Khan and Asha, will undergo life imprisonment while Vakar Chaudhary was further sentenced to three years’ Rigorous Imprisonment and fined ~3,000.

Rajiya, Desh Raj Mahant, Priya Mahant, Manish and Rajesh, all eunuchs, were residing near Degree College, Solan. Priya Mahant, Manish and Rajesh used to go to collect money from different persons in the area. On October 29, 2009, at 9.30 am, Priya, Manish and Rajesh came back at about 3 pm and found that the main door was bolted from outside.

They found Rajiya lying on the floor. She was bleeding and her hands and legs were tied. Meanwhile, Desh Raj was found in another room with his mouth and hands tied. Valuables, including jewellery, were found missing as lockers had been broken. The prosecution examined 29 witnesses during the trial. — TNS