Shimla, March 24
The Himachal Government has decided to hand over the 400 Rampur project, which had been hanging fire for the past over five years, to the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam.

The Chief Secretary, Mr Shamsher Singh, has sent a letter to the nigam asking it to start work for creating infrastructure and updating the detailed project report (DPR). However, an agreement in this regard is likely to be signed only after the Lok Sabha poll. The decision will ensure the continuation of the 760 officers and employees of the state electricity board currently on deputation with the nigam. With the Nathpa Jhakri project almost complete they were rendered surplus.

The government had been reluctant to assign the project to the nigam in view of the unending bickerings between the direct recruits and the deputationists from the state electricity board, which led to repeated agitations, affecting work. It also felt that the nigam had failed to safeguard the interests of the people of the state. The Dhumal government had decided to handover the project to the nigam and even finalised an agreement in August 2002. But it could not be signed because of stiff opposition from employees of the board who wanted a better deal. They also demanded that all issues regarding their service conditions be settled before signing the agreement.

The Centre also adopted a tough posture on the issue and said it would not retain the surplus manpower. Mr R.V. Sahi, Union Secretary of Power, had asserted that the process of sending it back to the board would commence from March and that his ministry in Delhi would issue the orders. The Centre also maintained that wrangling would continue as the terms and conditions of service and pay-structure of the public sector undertakings in the state and the Centre were different. Instead of taking the board staff on deputation it offered to absorb it in the nigam.

Kulu, March 24
Ecological imbalance would reach an alarming stage if the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) continued to work haphazardly on the 2051-MW Parbati Hydel Project, said the Satya Prakash Thakur, a former minister and Chairman, Himachal Pradesh State Marketing Board, while addressing mediapersons here.

Mr Thakur expressed surprise that the project had been cleared without taking environment factors into consideration.

He said the agency, which had done the environment survey, was possibly not of international standard and demanded a revised survey by a competent agency.

He criticised the management of the NHPC for ignoring rights of the local people and threatened to launch an agitation. He also blamed the NDA government and the local MP for not keeping in mind interests of the state.

He said the district in general and the Parbati and Sainj valleys in particular had been badly affected due to anti-people policies of the previous BJP government and the NDA government at the Centre.

He criticised standards adopted by the NHPC for giving compensation against land and property acquired by it. He said the compensation for buildings should be given on replacement value and not after deducting depreciation as was being done.

He said compensation was not sufficient as farmers had also lost their rights of forest produce.

Chamba, March 24
With the increasing population, the town has started facing water shortage. It is high time for the government to draw another water supply scheme for town apart from the existing one.

The existing water supply scheme was commissioned in 1993. The water is tapped from the Chameenu nullah, near Jadera village, by a 13-km gravity line. A water treatment unit having a capacity of 7.28 lakh gallons had been constructed which was the first of its kind in any potable water supply scheme in the most tough mountainous area.

Taking into account a huge domestic as well as commercial development in and around the town, the necessity of more water is being felt by the residents.

Shimla, March 24
Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, a former Chief Minister, will head the state election management and campaign committee of the BJP in Himachal Pradesh.

The committee will have Mr Kishori Lal Vaidya, Mr Jagat Prakash Nadda, Mr Roop Singh Thakur, Mr Praveen Sharma, Mr Mohan Lal, Mr Kripal Parmar, Mr Dulo Ram, Mr Ram Swaroop Sharma, Mr Mohinder Pandey, Mr K.D. Dharmani, Mr Satpal Satti, Mrs Bimla Kashyap, Mrs Urmil Thakur, Mr Khushi Ram Balnatah, Mr Ram Chand Bhatia, Mr Baldev Bhandari, Mr Alam Chand, Mr Virendra Kashyap, Mr Chander Mohan Thakur and Mr Ajay Rana as members.

Shimla, March 24
The Indian Ex-Services League will oppose the NDA in the Lok Sabha poll because of its failure to implement the “one rank one pension “ demand and settle other issues concerning the ex-servicemen.

Stating this at a press conference, here today, Major Vijay Mankotia (retd), president of the state unit of the league, said the NDA had taken the ex-servicemen for a ride by stating that the demand had been accepted. Not only that, Mr Madan Lal Khurana, a senior BJP leader, during the Assembly elections in the state, had announced at Dharamsala on February 15, 2003, that the one rank one pension rule would be implemented within two months. However, more than a year had passed since then but no progress had been made on this front.

He said all Central Government employees and pensioners had benefited from the Fifth Pay Commission but the Army jawans had been left high and dry due to the indifferent attitude of the NDA regime. He said the ex-servicemen and serving personnels were a major influence in the hill state and the BJP would pay dearly for betraying them.

Major Mankotia blasted the NDA leaders for making a hue and cry over the decision of the Congress to field Mr Rahul Gandhi from Amethi and said his entry into electoral politics had rattled them. He said it was a replay of the drama enacted by such leaders when Rajiv Gandhi joined politics. He was later hailed as one of the best young leaders of the world and compared to John F. Kennedy, Mr Tony Blair and Mr Bill Clinton who were in the same age group.

Shimla, March 24
The state unit of the BJP has termed the much-publicised crusade against corruption of the Virbhadra Singh government as a ploy to divert attention from its own failures and asserted that graft had flourished in the state over the past one year.

In a statement here today Mr Ram Swaroop Sharma, vice-president of the party, said that non-performance of the Congress government and corruption would be the main issues during the Lok Sabha elections. He said the Congress had raised a hue and cry over alleged corruption of the BJP-HVC government just to win the elections. Over the past one year, despite all-out efforts of the police and the vigilance agencies to expose “corruption” of the previous regime, not a single case had come to light.

Hamirpur, March 24
As many as 10,000 residents of Sujanpur Tira in the district have refused to pay house tax imposed by the state government.