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Infuriated Shimla Mayor calls Smart City evaluation formula ridiculous, alleges Mission Director of partism mind set
SHIMLA- In press note, the Mayor of Shimla city said that he was shocked to note some of the reports that appeared in the press regarding Dharamshala being chosen for Smart City from Himachal Pradesh. The qualification for Dharamshala has only come after evaluation by Mission Director and her staff, who are not final authority. He also alleged that the minutes of HPSC have still not been confirmed, therefore, he has raised objection. He also said that as far as the evaluation done by Mission Director it seems they have not learnt any lessons from the past and continue to work with partism mind set. The entire exercise by Mission Director is being done in a slavish manner at the behest of UD Minister, he said.
Based on the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) participation in the Smart City HPSC meeting held on January 7, 2016, the Mayor asserts on the following points:
1) The severe indictment of the Department has come to the fore of fudging the data in past which they have admitted by bringing in a new consolidated Smart City Score for both Shimla and Dharamshala. This amply proves that there has been serious partism functioning on the part of the department as both the score sheets of the past and present does not match. What does it prove?
2) The UD department led by the Mission Director in strong abatement with the Minister have come up with their own imaginative score sheet placing percentile instead of points. What does this mean? According to the Departments evaluation excel with all their concoctions, Shimla score 77 points (though the actual figure is 85) and Dharamshala scores 72.5 (Actual score is 32.5). However, with their own imaginative formula Shimla gets score out of 100 and were as Dharamshala gets score out of 80, which leads to a percentile of 77.5 and 90% for Shimla and Dharamshala respectively. This is utterly ridiculous; firstly this was never brought to the discussion prior to the evaluation and completely contradicts to the guidelines of evaluation format under stage 1.
3) Even if there ridiculous formula is to be accepted, but the actual data and not fudged data (32.5) is to be considered then they score 40.6%, which is nearly half which Shimla scores.
4) He strongly condemned the hell bent attitude of the Mission Director and in case the HPSC to recommends the same evaluation criteria then MC Shimla will be left with no other option but to resort to a legal solution. This is what MC Shimla has to speak on the merits of Smart city score card evaluation.
During the meeting following observations were raised by the Mayor:
1. Total Scoring Pattern
He pointed out that why now the scoring for Dharamshala town is taken from 80, this means that ACS UD and her team have not paid any attention for conducting evaluation earlier and she has just nominated city wrongly and in pressure from Government. It was also agreed by ACS UD that earlier they have made fallacious evaluation.
2. JNNURM Reforms
Dharamshala city has not done any single reform as per UIDSSMT reforms, then how come Dharamshala assigned 10 marks against this earlier. Similarly now why this parameter was not taken for final scoring. Dharamshala is an UIDSSMT town and as per the guidelines of UIDSSMT, Dharamshala has to achieve all the six reforms such as i) Adoption of modern, accrual-based double entry system, ii) Introduction of system of e-governance using IT applications for various services iii) reform of property tax with GIS, so that it becomes major source of revenue for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) iv) Levy of reasonable user charges by ULBs/Para-statals with the objective that full cost of operation and maintenance or recurring cost v) Internal earmarking within local body, budgets for basic services to the urban poor vi) Provision of basic services to urban poor.
Whereas Dharamshala town has not done any single reform which was also supported and agreed by Commissioner Dharamshala town. When the Commissioner Dharamshala was questioned regarding Double entry accounting system, he replied that they are now starting to implement. Similarly Shimla has completed all the reforms which was agreed by the members of Committee.
3. Self Financing of Salaries
Commissioner Dharamshala submitted that they pay their staff salaries from the grants, however as per the parameter of scoring salaries are to be paid by own source of ULB. However, evaluation committee which only comprises ACS UD and Director UD have given full marks. Hon’ble Mayor objected and mentioned that since the salaries are not paid by their own income the marks of Dharamshala town should be 0. The evaluation committee has not adhered to the criteria given in the score card, which justifies their interest for promoting Dharamshala town.
4. Contribution of internal revenue sources ((self-generated) used for capital works
How can Dharamshala MC spend more than 20% of their own revenue on capital works when there revenue is equal to their salaries? Total salary of Dharamshala MC per month is Rs 22.60 lakhs as per the given figures, and total revenue of MC Dharamshala is Rs. 2.74 crore. This means that entire revenue gets exhausted for disbursement of salary of Rs 2.71 crore.
Further, how Dharamshala city can justify utilisation of its funds for capital expenditure. Similarly if they are utilizing the revenue for capital expenditure, than how the Dharamshala MC is self financing its salaries. They are only left with Rs. 3 lakhs as per there revenue statement. Hence the ACS UD and Director UD have not made serious thoughts while evaluating. The total score of Dharamshala MC for this parameter is also 0.
5. Other Points raised
2.
Similarly Shimla city had all substantiate documents against all the parameters, the copies of same were also supplied to the committee.
This clearly indicated that ACS UD has simply promoted city for her own interests, he said.
3. With dissatisfaction from the scoring and evaluation including no supporting documents from Dharamshala city, he submitted the score card of Dharamshala town to the Steering Committee which showed the actual evaluation of Dharamshala MC. The total score of Dhramshala as per actual scoring is 32.5 out of 100 and Shimla MC is 85 out of 100.
4. The evaluation committee even after the directions from Hon’ble High Court has not undertaken the exercise seriously and the entire exercise is again done for formality. The evaluation is done in non transparent manner concealing the actual facts. The Committee was required to evaluate based on guidelines and score Card, the committee has not given any heed to read the score card and its parameters carefully.
5. In light of this, he requested the Committee for fair evaluation and insisted that there has to be reason why only Dharamshala town is selected for Smart city. Whereas if Dharamshala can qualify than any other town in Himachal such as Rampur, Kullu, Mandi, Talai, Solan etc qualify equally. He insisted that Committee should give serious thoughts to his suggestion.
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HP Cabinet Decisions: Eligibility Criteria for BPL List, Special Task Force to Combat Drug Abuse & Other Decisions
Shimla-The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet, in its meeting held on Thursday, approved the inclusion of the following families in the BPL list:
- Families with no adult members between the ages of 18 and 59.
- Women-headed families.
- Families whose head has a disability of 50 per cent or more.
- Families that worked for at least 100 days under MNREGA in the previous financial year.
- Families whose earning members are suffering from chronic diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, muscular dystrophy, thalassemia, or any other condition resulting in permanent disability.
The Cabinet also approved the establishment of a Special Task Force to combat drug abuse and dismantle drug trafficking and organized crime networks in the state through a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach.
Additionally, the Cabinet decided to promulgate an ordinance to amend Schedule 1A of the Indian Stamp Act of 1899. This amendment will facilitate the levy of a uniform stamp duty rate of 12 per cent on transfer and lease transactions secured under Section 118(2)(H) of the Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, 1972, with prior approval from the State Government.
The Cabinet approved a ban on the felling of trees, except for Safeda, Poplar, Bamboo, and Khair (for sale), in accordance with a ten-year program.
The Cabinet reiterated its request to the Government of India to adopt a 90:10 funding formula for the power component of the Kishau Multipurpose Project, similar to the formula adopted for its water component. Alternatively, the Cabinet proposed providing a 50-year interest-free loan for the entire amount payable by the State Government for the power component under the Inter-State Agreement.
It approved the establishment of a 1 MW Green Hydrogen Project in Nalagarh, to be executed by HPPCL.
The Cabinet sanctioned the imposition of Green Energy Development Charges for Pumped Storage Projects. A charge of ₹2.5 lakh per MW per year will be levied for the first 10 years after the project’s commissioning, increasing to ₹5 lakh per MW per year thereafter.
Approval was given to introduce the Himachal Pradesh Sadbhawana Legacy Cases Resolution Scheme 2025 to resolve pending cases, litigations, and arrears under subsumed enactments such as VAT, CST, Entry Tax, etc.
The Cabinet decided to designate the area surrounding the Tara Devi Temple in Shimla district as a Green Area.
It approved the creation and filling of 10 Junior Office Assistant (IT) posts for the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission, Shimla.
The Cabinet selected the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, to conduct computer-based tests for the recruitment of Group-C posts through the Himachal Pradesh Rajya Chayan Aayog, Hamirpur.
Approval was granted for creating the Block Primary Education Office at Rohnat by bifurcating the existing Block Primary Education Office at Shilai in the Sirmaur district.
The Cabinet decided to transfer three-gram panchayats — Matyal, Kudal, and Dhadol — from Development Block Lambagaon to Development Block Baijnath in Kangra district to serve the residents of these areas better.
The Cabinet approved the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Development Authority Land Pooling Policy-2025.
It also approved the establishment of the Himachal Pradesh State Water Informatics Centre to collect data from domain-specific bodies, develop new databases, and disseminate comprehensive water-related information.
Shimla– Himachal Pradesh Government has initiated action against Zila Parishad cadre employees, who have been on strike since September 30 over their demands for a merger with the Panchayati Raj Department. To start with, the Govt has terminated the services of 167 Junior Engineers (JEs) and ordered fresh recruitment of Diploma or Degree holders in Civil Engineering.
According to the Director, Panchayati Raj Department, Rugved Milind Thakur, notifications have been issued to the Chief Executive Officers of Zila Parishad and the Deputy Commissioners regarding the same.
Earlier, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, in a statement to the media, had said that at a time when the State was hit by a natural disaster and is in the middle of carrying out relief work and rehabilitation of the affected people was not an appropriate time for such strike. He further added that the demands of these Zila Parishad employees would be attended to when conditions are suitable. He had added that the employees wouldn’t get anywhere by using pressure tactics against the State Government.
The Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Minister Anirudh Singh had maintained the same argument and urged the employees to end the strike and get back to work because their absence was obstructing relief work. Anirudh Singh argued that the HP Government was serious about the demands of the employees, but their merger will have to go through various stages in accordance with the rules and legal procedure. This process would take time, he said. However, the Minister also failed to convince the striking employees to get back to work.
A few days back, a spokesperson of the HP Panchayati Raj Department had issued a statement, which said,
“Absence of technical staff was causing delayed wage payment to the MGNREGS workers as well as hampering development works being undertaken for disaster relief and restoration. A special package has been announced by the state government for the disaster-affected families. Under this package, reconstruction of houses and cowsheds and other relief and rehabilitation works, conservation activities of agriculture and horticulture land, etc. were to be done. But these works are being affected due to the absence of technical staff.”
The Department had also sought details from all the Chief Executive Officers of the Zila Parishads regarding the absence of employees in view of the delay in developmental and disaster relief works by October 18, 2023. The government termed their absence as unauthorized.
The Department said that it was taking all necessary steps to deal with the situation arising due to the absence of certain categories of employees.
“There should not be any unnecessary delay in disaster relief and rehabilitation works and the Panchayati Raj Department was determined to ensure all assistance and other benefits to the affected families on time,” the Spokesperson said in a statement.
The Department had also handed over the charge of Panchayat Secretaries temporarily to Gram Rozgar Sevaks, Sewing Teachers, and Panchayat Chowkidars. They were also given financial powers. The Panchayati Raj Department justified that these alternative arrangements were helping to restore the issuance of certificates and other routine works of the Gram Panchayats.
However, the striking employees on Friday said the alternative arrangements weren’t working at all, thus, causing a huge inconvenience to the people. The employees said that the decision of the government to sack the JEs has not affected their strike, and it will go on indefinitely till their demand for merger is met.
Why Zila Parishad Employees Are on A Strike
4,700 Zila Parishad cadre employees have been on indefinite pen-down strike since September 30, stalling the routine functions of Zila Parishads. The main demand of the Zila Parishad cadre employees is the merger with the Panchayati Raj Department so that they could avail benefits on a par with the employees of the other government departments.
These employees also said that despite a poll promise before the elections to the State Assembly, the current Congress government was denying them the new pay scale.
These employees argued that they were suffering financial loss, and they were not receiving dearness allowance (DA) and arrears while other employees were getting these benefits.
The employees are also demanding regularization under the contract policy. The strike has also received support from Panchayat representatives.
News
HP Cabinet Decisions: Construction in Shimla’s Green Belt Areas Permitted, Special Relief Package Approved
Shimla-Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Wednesday held a meeting under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. Here are the decisions taken by the Cabinet:
Approval to Construction in Shimla’s Green Belt Areas
The Cabinet also decided to amend the Shimla Development Plan and construction would be permitted in green belt area lying above the road, from Navbahar to Ram Chandra Chowk to Machhiwali Kothi to Christ Church to Lakkar Bazar to IGMC to Sanjauli Chowk to Navbhar where there are no trees.
As per the Government, residential construction in the Green Belt area as per the Shimla Development Plan will be permitted only on those plots in which there are no trees.
It also decided to amend HP Town and Country Planning Rules to allow construction at a distance of 5 meters and 7 meters from Nallah and khad respectively.
The Cabinet decided to provide two Biswas of land in urban areas and three Biswas of land in rural areas who have been rendered homeless and those who are not left with land suitable for the construction of new houses.
HP Govt’s Special Package Approved
Nod was given a Special Relief Package for the disaster-affected families in the State as announced on 30th September 2023 by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.Under the Special Package:
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- The compensation of Rs. 1.30 lakh for a completely damaged house would be increased five and a half times to Rs. 7 lakh.
- The compensation of Rs. 4,000 for partial damage to a ‘kutcha’ house would be increased by 25 times to Rs. 1 lakh, while the compensation for partial damage to a ‘pucca’ house to be increased by 15 and a half times, from Rs 6500 to Rs. 1 lakh.
- Compensation of Rs. 25,000 given in case of damage to a shop or dhaba would also be enhanced four times to rupees one lakh.
- The HP Government will also provide increased financial assistance of Rs. 50 thousand instead of Rs. 3000 for damage to the cowshed. T
- The state government will provide assistance of Rs. 50 thousand for damage or loss to the belongings of the tenants thereby marking a 20 times increase, from the existing Rs. 2500.
- For the loss of large milch and draught animals compensation of Rs. 55000 and for goat, pig, sheep and lamb Rs. 6000 per animal compensation would be provided.
- The compensation of Rs. 3615 per bigha for damage to agricultural and horticultural land would be increased to Rs. 10 thousand.
- The compensation on crop loss of Rs. 500 per bigha is to be increased eight times to Rs.4000.
- The financial assistance for removing silt from agricultural and horticultural land is to be enhanced from Rs. 1384.61 per bigha to Rs. 5000.
This special package would be granted from 24th June 2023 to 30th September 2023.
‘Van Mitra’ Scheme Approved
The Cabinet approved the Forest Department ‘Van Mitra’ Scheme. Under this scheme, one ‘Van Mitra’ each, in 2061 Forest Beats would be engaged. It also decided to fill up 100 vacant posts of Forest Guards in the Forest Department on a contractual basis.
It decided to enhance the honorarium of Jal Rakshaks, Multi-Purpose Workers, para fitters and para pump operators of Jal Shakti Vibhag by Rs. 500 per month raising it to Rs. 5000, Rs. 4400, Rs. 6000 and Rs. 6000 respectively.
Chintpurni Passenger Ropeway
The Cabinet approved in principle to establish a passenger ropeway system from Chintpurni Baba Mai Dass Bhawan Parking to Chintpurni Temple in PPP mode in district Una with a cost of Rs. 76.50 crore.
It also gave its approval to hire 15 e-taxis in the Transport Department.
It decided to promote Amateur and Community Radios for ‘Alternate Communication during emergencies in all districts of the State. This would provide effective information exchange between information sources, emergency managers and those impacted by disaster or emergent situations.
The Cabinet decided to reduce the Additional Goods Tax on lead by 25 paise per kg.
It also accorded approval to grant 234 routes for private operators and additional 100 routes for tempo travelers to provide better transport facilities to the people of the State.
It also gave its approval for declaring Traffic Inspectors, Motor Vehicles Inspectors, Senior Motor Vehicle Inspectors of the Transport department and Assistant Sub Inspector and Head Constable of the Police Department as designed authority to compound the offences under various Sections of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.
HP Cabinet Decisions: Eligibility Criteria for BPL List, Special Task Force to Combat Drug Abuse & Other Decisions
HP Govt Takes Action Against Striking Zila Parishad Employees, Orders Fresh Recruitment
HP Cabinet Decisions: Construction in Shimla’s Green Belt Areas Permitted, Special Relief Package Approved
Himachal Aims to be India’s First Green Energy State by 2025
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