Virbhadra's charges baseless: Dhumal
SHIMLA, Nov 18 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, today launched a scathing attack on Mr Virbhadra Singh, a former Chief Minister, for levelling "baseless and unsubstantiated" allegations against the government and said that the Congress leader should come clean of the charges against him already under probe by the CBI before indulging in such mudslinging.

5 doctors’ transfer hits health care
NURPUR, Nov 18 — Health Services in the local 100-bed Civil Hospital has been hit following the transfer of five doctors from the hospital last week.

Hike in HRA for Himachal staff
SHIMLA, Nov 18 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, today announced an enhancement of house rent allowance (HRA) to the employees of the state with effect from December 1, 1999.

• HP BJP executive committee meeting
• HP Vidhan Sabha session from Dec 9
• 1 killed, 1 hurt in mishap
• Renuka Fair begins

HP signs accord for 1000 MW hydel project
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 18 — Himachal Pradesh achieved an important milestone in privatisation of hydel power generation by assigning the 1000 MW Karcham-Wangtoo project to the Jaiprakash Industries Limited for execution. It is the largest hydro-electric project to be handed over to the private sector in the country so far.

An agreement for the execution of the project was signed here today between the state government and the company in the presence of Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, Mr Kaushal Bhai Patel, Gujarat Energy Minister and Mr Ravinder Ravi, Minister of State for Energy. Mr Ajay Tyagi, Secretary, Power and Mr Jaiprakash Gaur, Chairman of the JIL signed the agreement on behalf of the state government and the company.

The government has introduced efficiency-linked incentives and disincentives to ensure expeditious completion of the project for the first time. The company has been given a maximum of three years for obtaining various statutory clearances from the state government and the Centre and a maximum of seven years for completion of the project. The state will get 12 per cent free power for the first 12 years and 18 per cent over the next 28 years. In case the company executes the project before the scheduled date of commissioning, the quantum of free power to the state government will be reduced by one per cent for every year saved in the completion of project. The state will get reduced power up to the scheduled date of commercial operation.

Similarly, if the project is delayed, the company will have to give one per cent additional free power to the state for each year by which the completion is delayed beyond the scheduled date of commercial operation.

Essentially a run-of-the-river scheme the project envisages construction of a 40-metre high diversion dam downstream the confluence of Baspa and Satluj river in the Kinnaur district. A 170km tunnel will carry the river water to the power house site at Wangtoo, where four generating units of 250 MW each will be installed. It is likely to cost about Rs 7000 crore.

It will generate 4651 million units in a 50 per cent dependable year. The government has opted for free power as royalty instead of purchasing power from the project. The project will fetch an annual revenue of Rs 225 crore to the state in the first 12 years and Rs 335 crore over the next 28 years.

Hailing the agreement as a landmark in hydel generation Mr P.K. Dhumal Chief Minister said the government had taken a number of decisions to encourage private sector to take up hydel projects, the equity share of independent power producers (IPP's) for projects of more than 100 MW capacity had been reduced to 26 per cent. They could raise 25 per cent through public and remaining 49 per cent from financial institutions. The earnest money had been reduced from .5 per cent of the cost to a meagre two crore bank guarantee.

He said the decision of the Centre to restore the ratio of hydel and thermal power, which had come down to 25 is to 75 due to neglect of hydro sector. To 40 is to 60 would go a longway in expeditious exploitation of the state's vast hydel power potential.

Mr A.K. Goswami, Chief Secretary, said being a run-of-the-river project it would not lead to any major dislocation of population or environmental disturbance.

Mr Jaiprakash Gaur, chairman of the JIL, said he was against foreign equity in projects as the fluctuations in the value of dollar increased the cost. He said if clearances could be given in one year he would see to it that the project was completed in seven years instead of 10 years. The financial institutions should be asked to give funds of hydel power projects which was a priority sector.

He said as goodwill gesture to the state the company would set up an institute of information technology and a maize processing unit, besides development of the Jwalamukhi temple complex. The information institute would run no-profit, no-loss basis to provide education and training to the local youth at reasonable cost. The entire profit from the maize processing unit would be used for the development of local area. He also offered to construct buildings of all primary schools within 50 km of the project.

HPTDC to set up 5 tourism townships
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, Nov 18 — To boost tourism, the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC), will set up five tourism townships in the state.

Addressing a press conference here today, the Vice-Chairman of the HPTDC, Mr Rakesh Pathania, disclosed that a high-powered committee had been set up under the Chairmanship of the Revenue Minister, to work out the modalities for the setting up of these five townships. the departments of Forest, Revenue, Tourism, PWD had been involved in this venture.

Mr Pathania said that the five sites selected for the setting up of the townships included Holi near Bharmour (Chamba), Jhanjiali in Chachiot (Mandi), near Parbati Project (Kulu), near Nerwa in Chopal (Shimla) and Jot near Khajjiar (Chamba). "Ten thousand hectares of land will be identified for promoting the township on completely commercial lines, including starred facilities like golf course and swimming pools," he revealed.

Mr Pathania, said that with the intention of giving a boost to privatisation, 11 properties of the HPTDC had been identified for being given on lease. He said a number of private parties including reputed chain of hotels had expressed keenness for taking some of the units on lease, formalities of which were being worked out. "In certain cases the private parties had ever agreed to train our staff, which would be very useful in the long run," he stated.

Mr Pathania, said that efforts were being made to usher in and celebrate the new millennium in a grand way for the tourists. It is for the first time that helicopter sight-seeing is being started to Tabo and Rampur side. The inaugural flight will be for Tabo on the 21st of this month, and will be on every weekend. The 18-seater Mesco helicopter, that has been hired by the state government will be put to use. The charges have been fixed at Rs 4,000, including the lunch at Tabo. The total flying period shall be one hour and 40 minutes.

Mr Pathania, said that the HPTDC, had registered a profit of Rs 18.50 lakh, during the past six months, which was likely to double during the next half of the year. He added that 14 new properties had been added to the Corporation during the last 18 months.

After Kerala HP opts for micro planning
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, Nov 18 — After Kerala, it is Himachal which has decided to introduce micro planning at the panchayat level.

The notification for implementation of the scheme was issued on October 30 by the Director-cum-Secretary, Rural Development. To begin with, the scheme is being launched in eight blocks falling in four districts. These blocks are Kangra and Nagrota Bagwan in Kangra district, Mandi Sadar and Darang in Mandi district, Nahan and Shillai in Sirmaur district and Dharampur and Kunihar in Solan district.

As per the new approach, the unit of preparation of micro-level development will be the gram panchayat. The micro plan committee, comprising the pradhan, up-pradhan, ward members, representatives of the mahila mandals, yuva mandals and the gram sudhar sabha, will interact with various sections of people to assess the availability of resources of the panchayat, identify problems and priorities and work to be taken up during the next five years.

The final draft plan shall be submitted to the gram sabha for approval after which it will be sent to the Deputy Commissioner and other district heads of departments for funding. The selection of eight blocks from all over the state has been undertaken on the basis of the presence of strong NGOs who will be actively involved in the training of members of the panchayat micro plan committee.

Though micro planning is a welcome step. Certain reservations are being expressed by some panchayati raj institutions and NGOs. First of all it is being felt that the concept of gram sabhas is not so much developed in Himachal. This concept has paid off only in the kandi and changer projects, where village development committees were constituted. Under the micro planning approach, the panchayat samitis and the Zila Parishad have been bypassed as the plans will go directly from the panchayat to the Deputy Commissioner. "While on the one hand the government has tried to strengthen the Zila Parishad by making its Chairman the head of the DRDA (District Rural Development Authority) on the other side it is making the panchayats parallel power centres", commented a panchayat samiti head.

It is being strongly felt that in the absence of the involvement of panchayat samitis and the Zila Parishad, the gram panchayats will be very vulnerable to pressure from the Deputy Commissioners. Being dependent on the Deputy Commissioner for funds for the schemes, there could also be political victimisation.

A number of NGOs and social organisations feel that a good concept like the micro planning approach at the panchayat level should not prove to be a failure merely because of a few bottlenecks.

HP notifies 23 sanctuaries
From S.P.Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 18 — As many as 23 wildlife sanctuaries covering an area of 4525 sq kilometres have finally been notified in Himachal Pradesh by the state government.

The final notification setting up these sanctuaries was issued today as no objections were received from residents of these areas.

The biggest among all is the Kibber sanctuary which sprawls over an area of 1400 sq km in the tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti. The sanctuary will touch the international border of the Chinese, occupied area of Tibet at the "V" point and move towards Spiti.

The state government had declared its intention of setting up these sanctuaries in 1974 and subsequent years. However, the final notification was got delayed because of pulls and pressures. The Supreme Court had sometime back ordered the state governments to issue final notifications regarding the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in their respective areas.

Moreover, proper setting up of these sanctuaries was required as successive governments here have allegedly been fiddling with these areas for setting up various projects under political and other compulsions. Various environment organisations have been raising objections to diversion of the forest area for other purposes.

So far only four of the total number of 32 sanctuaries in the state were properly notified. These were the Manali, Kias, Khokhan and Kanawar in the Kulu district which was a part of Punjab before being merged in Himachal. The Punjab law had already confirmed these sanctuaries and there was no need of renotifying them, the Law department is learnt to have opined.

Settlement of the Darla, Lippa Assang, Rupi Bhabha and Shikari Devi sanctuaries was taking a lot of time as the objections raised by residents of these areas are yet to be met. The authorities are reportedly finding an uphill task in notifying the three sanctuaries of the tribal district of Kinnaur where much influence is being wielded by the political bosses of the area for altogether scrapping the sanctuaries. The district authorities are learnt to have suggested that the sanctuaries including Sangla, Rupibabha and Lipa Asang should be shifted elsewhere because of the local pressure.

The Pin Valley National Park is also facing similar fate in the Kinnaur district where the authorities were under tremendous pressure to cut its area and demarcate its boundaries again.

Problems were also being faced in notifying the Darlaghat and the Shikaridevi sanctuaries. A big chunk of the Darlaghat sanctuary has already been denotified and a cement factory set up there.

The Kibber sanctuary notified today will not only touch the international border, but will also cover the highest peak of the state, Gya (22,290 ft.) in the north.In the south, it will touch another high point of Kamelong (19,362 ft).

The second largest sanctuary will be the Dhauladhar in the Kangra district sprawling over an area of 944 sq km. The sanctuary will also touch the districts of Lahaul-Spiti, Kulu, Mandi and Chamba and will cover the high passes of Mukar Jot (6069 metres), Laluni Jot (5738 mts.), Bherilanga Pass(4139 mts.) and Thamasar(5078 mts).

A 307 sq km sanctuary will also be set up in the Pong Dam lake in the Kangra district where water sports were being introduced in a big way. A 100 sq km area in the Gobind Sagar in the Bilaspur district has also been declared a sanctuary. This covers the area of the lake between the Bhakra Dam and Slapper bridge along the Sutlej including its tributaries on both banks up to the reduced level of 1700 foot above the sea level.

The other sanctuaries which have been included in the list of final settlement are, Sachu-Tuan Nala, Camgul-Siyabehi, Tundah, Kugti and Kalatop-Khajjiar sanctuaries in the Chamba district, Tirthan and Sainj in Kulu district.

The sanctuaries notified in the Mandi are Nagru and Bandli. A 123 sq km area around Nainadevi in Bilaspur is also a sanctuary.

In the Shimla district, the 10 km area of the water supply catchment area of the town, Talra and Darangghati I and II have also been notified as sanctuaries. Majathal, Shilli and Chail sanctuaries have been notified in the Solan district and Renuka, Simbalbara and Chur Dhar in the Sirmour district have also been given the status of sanctuary.

Virbhadra's charges baseless: Dhumal
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 18 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, today launched a scathing attack on Mr Virbhadra Singh, a former Chief Minister, for levelling "baseless and unsubstantiated" allegations against the government and said that the Congress leader should come clean of the charges against him already under probe by the CBI before indulging in such mudslinging.

Reacting to the allegation of corruption against the chief minister's office, Mr Dhumal said instead of making "vague and wild" allegations Mr Singh should come out with facts, if he had any, and assured that he would order an inquiry to get to the truth. He said he did not ever expect that senior leaders like Mr Virbhadra Singh would behave in such an irresponsible manner.

Mr Dhumal said the government would soon come out with a white paper on the financial irregularities and bunglings during the Congress regime to take action against the guilty. He said the CBI inquiry against Mr Singh was still in progress and no clean chit had been given as claimed by him.

He said the financial irregularities, particularly payment of commission in loans, were very serious for instance, a loan of Rs 900 crore was raised through public sector undertakings and deposited in the small savings to enable the government to further borrow the amount for day to day expenditure. In another case an amount of Rs 90 lakh was paid as service charge on a loan of Rs 90 crore, which was repaid after a few months. Apparently, the loan was raised only to pocket the service charges.

Not only that the private parties which received commission in such deals were allowed to set up institutions in the state. It was a big "gorakh dhanda", he said.

By raising loans indiscriminately, the Virbhadra Singh government plunged the state into debt, the interest liability of the state which had already increased to Rs 770 crore this year, would go up to a whopping Rs 2500 crore by the year 2005. In such a situation only the Centre could bail out the state from the financial crisis.

Mr Dhumal said most other states were also facing problems and that the matter had been discussed during the Chief Minister’s conference held two days ago. A proposal to set up a corpus fund to help the states had been mooted. However, assistance available to the states would be minimal and the states would have to build up their own resources.

He said he had urged the Centre to give the incentive of Income Tax holiday for new industrial units only in backward states like Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir as with the application of uniform Sale Tax rates in the region the entrepreneurs would have no other incentive to set up units in the states.

5 doctors’ transfer hits health care
From Our Correspondent

NURPUR, Nov 18 — Health Services in the local 100-bed Civil Hospital has been hit following the transfer of five doctors from the hospital last week. The Health Department has also ordered the transfers of four doctors including specialists here who according to reliable sources are reluctant to join here and have been trying to get their transfer orders cancelled. These transferred doctors had been ordered to join here a few months back but their transfer orders were also cancelled at that time too.

Enquiries reveal that all five doctors of this Sub Divisional Hospital were relieved on second Saturday, November 13 when they had not even received the official intimation of their transfers. Norms allegedly were not followed in relieving them. They were not accorded any relieving report period. Before relieving, they were neither given 'No Dues Certificate' nor allowed to fill in the Form TR.I, necessary for relieving a gazetted officer. Even one doctor on emergency duty was relieved in haste by the authorities concerned.

The residents of the area are sore over the manner in which the five doctors were relieved in haste without waiting for joining of even a single new doctor in the hospital. At present there is not a single lady doctor. Earlier, there were strength of 11 doctors including Senior Medical Officer which has come down to six, who are supposed to render health services besides emergency duties and to conduct post mortem examinations for Nurpur and Jawali Sub Divisions.

After the shifting of five doctors from here, long queues of patients were seen waiting before the OPDs. Shortage of doctors has put health services in a mess.

There is demand for the posting of requisite strength of doctors including gynaecologist, surgeon and physician in the civil hospital which serves the inhabitants of Nurpur, Jawali and neighbouring Bhatiyat Subdivisions.

Hike in HRA for Himachal staff
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 18 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, today announced an enhancement of house rent allowance (HRA) to the employees of the state with effect from December 1, 1999.

The Chief Minister said that the scales of such allowance and other parameters connected with it had been finalised and a notification would shortly follow, indicating the enhanced limits. He said the enhanced HRA was being made available to the employees in spite of a difficult resource situation in view of the government's resolve to ensure welfare of employees.

The President of the state Non-Gazetted Federation, Mr Ganga Singh Thakur, thanked the Chief Minister for the decision and said that this decision would go a long way in boosting the relationship between the employees and the present government.

HP BJP executive committee meeting
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 18 — The state executive of the BJP will meet here on November 23.

It will be preceded by a meeting of officers-bearers of the state unit on November 22. Mr Narinder Modi, all-India general secretary of the party, and Mr Shanta Kumar, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, will also attend the meeting, besides Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, and other senior leaders.

The party is likely to chalk out a programme for the organisational elections during the meeting.

1 killed, 1 hurt in mishap
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, Nov 18 — One person died and one was injured in a collision between a bus (HP 20-9409) of the Una depot of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation and a private Tata 407 truck (HR-46170) near Nagali on the Kalka-Shimla national highway, about 6 km from here, last night.

The body of the deceased, identified as the driver of the truck, Ishwar Singh, 36, a resident of Karnal, has been sent for a post-mortem examination. Satish Kumar, the injured, was rushed to the district hospital.

HP Vidhan Sabha session from Dec 9
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 18 — A 12-day winter session of the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha will begin on December 9.

The session will have eight sittings. Six days have been fixed for official business and two for private business.

The notification for the session was issued today.

Renuka Fair begins
From Our Correspondent

RENUKA (Nahan), Nov 18 — A Six-day long Renuka Fair commenced here today with the arrival of "palki" of Lord Parshu Ram.

The Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, was present on the occasion.

More than 25,000 persons participated in the traditional "shobha yatra" of Load Parshu Ram.