Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh:

Himachal Pradesh will build its first road using Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) technology in Ghumarwin subdivision of this district, minister in the state government Rajesh Dharmani said here on Thursday.

The 7-kilometre Gahar-Naswal road will be constructed at a cost of Rs 5.50 crore and benefit 5,000 people in the area, officials said adding that the FDR technology would reduce the cost by almost 80 per cent.

Roads constructed by using FDR technology are more durable and better for vehicles.

Dharmani, who holds the portfolio of Technical Education Minister, said that in the initial phase, as many as 113 roads of the state will be built using FDR technology.

FDR is a pavement rehabilitation technique in which the full flexible pavement section and a predetermined portion of the underlying materials are uniformly pulverized and blended together to produce a homogeneous stabilized base course.

FDR uses materials from the deteriorated asphalt pavement and with the addition of cement, creates a new stabilized base.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had in October last year instructed the Public Works Department to use FDR technology for construction of 666 km of roads in all the districts under Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chandigarh:

The BJP’s allegation that the Congress government of Himachal Pradesh is “Mitron ki Sarkaar (A government of cohorts)” has drawn a sharp rejoinder from one of the people targetted. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s principal media advisor Naresh Chauhan has questioned what is wrong in helping friends who stand by you in times of crisis.

“The BJP is repeatedly talking about ‘Mitron ki Sarkar’. Should enemies be given place in the government?” he has told journalists in Hamirpur.

The BJP jibe is directed at Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, who has given cabinet-rank posts to several allies who are not even MLAs.

Besides Mr Chauhan, the list includes Gokul Butail, Principal Adviser to the Chief Minster for IT and Innovation, Political Adviser Sunil Kumar Bittu, and Vice-Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh State Forest Department Development Kehar Singh Khasi.

Party insiders say Mr Chauhan is an old associate of Mr Sukhu, Gokul Butel has been a long-time Congressman and is considered close to Rahul Gandhi, while Mr Khasi is considered close to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Four MLAs have also been given cabinet rank by Mr Sukhu — Nagrota MLA RS Bali, the chairman of HPTDC, Rampur MLA Nand Lal, Chairman of the 7th State Finance Commission, Fatehpur MLA Bhawani Singh Pathania, Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Commission and Chief Whip Shahpur MLA Kewal Singh Pathania.

The non-MLAs who have not been given cabinet rank but receive the facilities include Ram Subhag Singh (Mr Sukhu’s chief advisor) and Anil Kapil (advisor, infrastructure).

Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition Jairam Thakur claimed the state is under a Rs 80,000 crore debt.

“In this situation, is it good that a Chief Minister increases the financial burden by distributing Cabinet ranks among his friends? The mining policy in the state was amended so that Mr Sukhu’s allies benefitted,” he alleged.

Also, while the government took action against many stone crushers after the 2023 flash floods, but those owned by Congress leaders were left untouched, he alleged.

The BJP, he also said, has filed a petition against the appointments of six chief parliamentary secretaries.

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SC to hear plea of six disqualified Himachal MLAs against their disqualification on March 12 

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on March 12 a plea by six rebel Congress MLAs, who had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, against their disqualification. The Speaker of Himachal Pradesh Assembly, Kuldeep Singh Pathania, had disqualified the six on the Congress’ plea for “defying” the party whip that required them to be present in the House and vote for the budget.

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court will hear a petition by six rebel Congress MLAs of Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday. The MLAs — who cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh — had challenged their disqualification by the Speaker. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta and Prashant Kumar Mishra will hear the plea.

On February 29, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania had disqualified them for “defying” the Congress whip that required them to be present in the House and vote for the budget.

The rebels had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha election on February 27. Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had lost the Rajya Sabha election owing to the cross-voting.

The disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur and Chetanya Sharma.

Following their disqualification, the effective strength of the Himachal Pradesh assembly has slid from 68 to 62, while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34.

In their petition, the rebel MLAs have alleged violation of the principle of natural justice, claiming they did not get adequate opportunity to respond to the disqualification petition.

This was the first time in Himachal Pradesh, an MLA was disqualified under the anti-defection law aimed at checking defections.

Announcing the disqualification of the six MLAs on February 29, the Speaker said they attracted disqualification under the anti-defection law as they defied the party whip. He ruled that they ceased to be members of the House with immediate effect.

The petition seeking their disqualification was filed by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister.
Senior advocate Satya Pal Jain, who appeared for the rebel Congress MLAs, had argued that they were only given the show-cause notice and not the copy of the petition or the annexure. He also pointed out that seven days were mandatorily allowed for replying to the notice but no time was given to them.

Under the anti-defection law, any elected member who gives up the membership of a political party voluntarily or votes or abstains from voting in the House, contrary to any direction issued by his political party, is liable for disqualification.

The rebel MLAs had signed the attendance register but abstained from voting on the Budget, the Speaker said. They were issued notices for defying the whip through WhatsApp and e-mail and were asked to appear for the hearing.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Shimla:

In a setback to the Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government, the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday declared the water cess levied on hydropower generation unconstitutional. With this, the government will have to forgo an annual revenue of around Rs 2,000 crore it was hoping to make by levying the cess on hydroelectric projects.

The Sukhu-led Himachal government has now decided to move the Supreme Court on the issue.

A high court division bench of Justices Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Stayen Vaidya on Tuesday said that the provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Water Cess on Hydropower Generation Bill, 2023 exceed the state’s legislative competence as per Articles 246 and 265 of the Constitution of India, rendering it ultra vires (beyond its legal powers).

Sections 10 and 15 of the Himachal Pradesh Water Cess on Hydropower Electricity Generation Act, 2023, dealing with fixation and liability to pay cess made applicable to the existing projects, are declared to be unconstitutional and stand quashed, the bench said.

“The provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Water Cess on Hydropower Electricity Generation Act, 2023, are declared to be beyond the legislative competence of the State Government in terms of Articles 246 and 265 of the Constitution of India. Consequently, the Himachal Pradesh Water Cess on Hydropower Electricity Generation Rules 2023, are also quashed and set aside,” the judgment passed by a division bench of Justices Tarlok Chauhan and Satyen Vaidya stated.

Rajnish Maniktala, the advocate of the petitioner said “There are potential hydroelectric projects in the state. The government of Himachal Pradesh invited projects to exploit the potential and the investors invested lots of money projects were commissioned and there was no concept of water cess then for taxation.”

He further added that the government and legislature came up with an Act and levied the Cess depending on the generation and usage of water. This amount was calculated in Crores of rupees and the petitioners questioned this act. As per Article 246 of the Constitution, there were no powers of the state.

“Consequently the court has ordered a refund of the money to those projects from whom the state government has charged water Cess. Article 265 of the Indian constitution says no tax can be levied by the state government on the provisions of the law. It has been sound that this act is unconstitutional and has observed that it has ultra vires the constitution. There were nearly 40 petitioners in the case,” added Mr Maniktala.

Anup Kumar Rattan, Advocate General of the High Court, said, “The state government had constituted the Water Cess Act and it has been quashed by the High Court. The Act was constituted with the idea to generate resources in the state as over 70% area in the state either is under occupation of forest or water area. The state government tried an attempt to tap those resources. Such Acts were functional in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Sikkim and governments are getting revenue.”

He further said that along similar lines, the state government had imposed water cess on hydropower generation companies on the uses of water and there was a possibility of generating income for the state.

The court has declared it unconstitutional as it was not in the competence of the state government. The court has also ordered that if tax is charged, the refund should be given within four weeks.

The state is facing an acute fiscal crunch and some of the hydropower players have already deposited Rs 33 crore as cess. The case in the high court had been filed by nearly 40 hydropower generators.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Shimla:

Himachal minister Vikramaditya Singh has sent the Congress leadership in a huddle again after he removed his official designation from his Facebook bio. Formerly identified as the PWD Minister and an Indian National Congress member, his bio now just reads “servant of Himachal”. The Congress government in Himachal Pradesh almost fell after a Rajya Sabha election loss, and has since then been in firefighting mode.

Vikramaditya Singh, the son of six-time former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, met the other rebel Congress MLAs before leaving for New Delhi yesterday.

Sources reveal that Mr Singh could meet key BJP leaders in Delhi, including prominent figures like former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and State President Rajiv Bindal.

He has publicly accused the Congress of disrespecting his father, even though they sought votes in the last assembly elections in his name.  

Simultaneously, the state government, led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, has appointed Ramapur MLA Nandalal as the Chairman of Himachal Pradesh Finance Commission, replacing Vikramaditya Singh. The move is seen as a measure that Mr Singh may have fallen out of favour within the party.

On Wednesday, as the Congress dealt with the challenge of cross-voting MLAs, Vikramaditya Singh had announced his resignation. He accused the Chief Minister of “negligence” towards his lawmakers and broke down as he accused the party of not allotting land for a statue of his father.

That same day the Congress pulled off a last-gasp maneuver to save itself, expelling 15 BJP MLAs to bring down the effective strength of the House and pass the state budget.

Soon after, Vikramaditya Singh took back his resignation.

The political saga will unfold today when the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet convenes at 11 am. The crisis exploded after the six rebels, and three independents who had professed their support, voted for the BJP’s candidate in this week’s Rajya Sabha election, and were then taken by the party.

The Chief minister has accused the rebel MLAs who voted against the party of being “black snakes” who sold their honour. “How can people who sell their honour for money serve the people of their constituency,” he said, while addressing a public meeting in Dharampur,” Mr Sukhu said.

In political life, people who betray their party which gave them a chance to contest elections are called “black snakes,” he said.

Shimla:

Some Congress MLAs sold their souls and went against the party ethics to cross-vote in the Rajya Sabha election and they will be made to pay for it by God, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Friday.

“Those who betrayed the party and played with the sentiments of the people of the state won’t be spared even by the Almighty,” said Sukhu addressing a public meeting in Dharampur in the Kasauli Assembly constituency of Solan district.

He said that six rebel MLAs from Congress abstained themselves from the house during the passing of the budget and when a coup was planned to take place by the rival BJP.

Mr Sukhu accused the BJP of being ill-at-ease with his government’s performance in curbing corruption and starting welfare schemes.

“I am here for the people of the state, for the development of my state, I am here for you all and not afraid of the conspiracies being hatched against me,” he said, “I will not allow the wealth of the state to be looted at any cost. My people are my strength and I am bound and committed to serve them until my last breath,” he added.

Mr Sukhu also accused his predecessor and Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur of being power hungry, as he reiterated his claim that his government will complete its five-year tenure.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sanjay Awasthi said an attempt was made by a few to destabilise the government with money power, which is against the ethos of democracy and Himachal Pradesh has been put to shame by those few.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Congress remains on alert in Himachal Pradesh – a state it almost lost after Tuesday’s Rajya Sabha election loss left its government on the brink of collapse – following reports that Vikramaditya Singh on Thursday night met six rebel MLAs whose cross-voting triggered this political storm.

Mr Singh – the son of six-time former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh – did not cross-vote but his emotional outburst on the day, in which he accused the Congress of disrespecting the memory of his father, was an added challenge for the party as it fought off rival Bharatiya Janata Party’s attacks.

Himachal’s Urban Development Minister is in Delhi for two days to meet the Union Road and Transport Ministry. Sources said he met the rebel MLAs – who this morning moved the Himachal Pradesh High Court against their disqualification – in Panchkula, which is in BJP-ruled Haryana.

Sources also said two other Himachal Pradesh Congress MLAs have also met the rebels.

Neither side has yet commented on the subject of these discussions.

Mr Singh’s mother, Pratibha Singh, the Congress’ state unit boss, told news agency ANI she has “no idea” of her son’s schedule. “He was here till last night. What he did after… I don’t know.”

Amid speculation the Singh family is biding time before it challenges the Congress’ chief ministerial pick, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, for control of the state government, Ms Singh also said she will meet the party’s behind-the-scenes boss – Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi – to “keep them informed”.

READ | “MLAs Are Upset, Natural…”: Himachal Congress Chief On Cross-Voting

“Definitely. They are our high command and we have to go and apprise them… that this is the situation now in Himachal Pradesh and (they can) tell us what to do,” she said.

Further comments by Ms Singh – including telling ANI “… it is true that the BJP’s (government) is working better than ours” – seem to suggest the Congress’ Himachal problems are not yet over.

The comments have been seen in the light of the general election due in a few months.

The hill state has been a bastion for the BJP since Prime Minister Narendra Modi led his party to power at the centre; there may be only four seats, but the BJP won all four in 2014 and 2019.

“From Day 1 I have been telling the Chief Minister that we can only face upcoming elections if he strengthens the organisation. This is a very tough situation for us… we can see a lot of difficulties on the ground (and) as per directions of PM Modi, BJP is going to do a lot of things,” she said.

#WATCH | When asked about speculations of Vikramaditya Singh’s meeting with the six disqualified Congress MLAs, Himachal Pradesh Congress president Pratibha Singh says, “I have no idea about this. He was here until last night. What did he decide further and where did he go, I… pic.twitter.com/gqwAIHcfZR

— ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2024

“We are on weak footing… I have urged him again and again. This is a difficult time, but still we have to contest elections and win,” Ms Singh, who also showed sympathy for the cross-voting MLAs, said.

On Wednesday, as the Congress dealt with the challenge of cross-voting MLAs, Vikramaditya Singh had announced his resignation. He accused the Chief Minister of “negligence” towards his lawmakers and broke down as he accused the party of not allotting land for a statue of his father.

READ | “Didn’t Get Land For Father’s Statue”: Himachal Congress Leader

“In the past year, I have not said a word on this government but it is my responsibility to speak out now…” he declared. Hours later he backtracked, but underlined his ambivalent stance as he did so.

That same day the Congress pulled off a last-gasp maneuver to save itself, expelling 15 BJP MLAs to bring down the effective strength of the House and pass the state budget.

READ | Congress Buys Time In Himachal? Budget Passed Amid Coup Fears

The Assembly session was then adjourned, buying the party at least till after the general election.

The BJP must also now contest the expulsion of its MLAs – including former Chief Minister Jairam Thakur – before it can mount another attack on its rival.

For its part, the Congress has declared itself ‘safe’ for now after its top troubleshooter, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, was rushed in.

READ | “All Is Well”: DK Shivakumar On Crisis In Congress’s Himachal Unit

He met both Vikramaditya Singh and Pratibha Singh in Shimla Thursday evening, after which he told reporters, “All is well. This government will stay for five years. All issues have been sorted out…”

The crisis exploded after the six rebels, and three independents who had professed their support, voted for the BJP’s candidate in this week’s Rajya Sabha election, and were then taken by the party.

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In signs of a thaw in the infighting-riddled Himachal Pradesh unit of the Congress, state minister Vikramaditya Singh has taken back his resignation hours after tendering it. Six Congress MLAs had cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha election on Tuesday, leading to the party suffering a stunning defeat.

Amid a possible threat to the survival of the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government, Mr Singh had announced his resignation as the Public Works minister on Wednesday morning. The minister had accused Mr Sukhu of “negligence” towards MLAs and disrespecting his late father and former chief minister Virbhadra Singh. 

Stating that he will not be pressing for his resignation being accepted after a day of high drama, Mr Singh said, “I have spoken to the observers that were sent by the party high command. The organisation is more important than one individual. Keeping the organisation strong is every individual’s responsibility. In the larger interest of the party and the unity of the party, I will not press my resignation that was rejected by the chief minister earlier today.”

When reporters asked him whether this meant the threat to the government was over, the minister said, “There was no crisis to begin with. It was a creation. A solution can be found to everything if people work together and take a positive approach. We are here to serve the people of the state and governing is the way to do that. Strengthening the government and serving the people by doing so is everyone’s responsibility.”

Rajiv Shukla, Congress’ Himachal in-charge, who was with Mr Singh when he made the announcement, also said that the government has a majority and there is no threat to it.

Hours after the BJP claimed that the ruling party has lost majority in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has alleged that five or six Congress MLAs were taken to Haryana accompanied by a convoy of the state’s police and the Central Reserve Police Force. Mr Sukhu’s claim comes amid reports of six Congress MLAs cross-voting for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls on Tuesday. 

BJP sources have hinted that the party will move a no-confidence motion against the Sukhu government on Thursday after there were indications that six Congress MLAs and three independents backing the party had voted for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha election. The Congress, which has 40 MLAs in the 68-member Himachal Assembly, was expected to secure a comfortable win for its candidate, Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Moving the Congress MLAs to Haryana, a BJP-ruled state, is believed to be part of the party’s preparation for the no-confidence vote. The BJP has 25 MLAs.

“Counting for the Rajya Sabha polls is taking place and the way the BJP leaders are threatening the counting officers is not good for democracy. They have stopped counting for a long time. I will request BJP leaders to remain patient and not put pressure on people,” Mr Sukhu said in Hindi.

“The way 5-6 MLAs have been taken by a convoy of the Haryana Police and the CRPF… The MLAs’ families are trying to get in touch with them and the legislators should contact them. There is no need to worry. There is a government and an opposition in a democracy but the kind of hooliganism (gundagardi) being done by the opposition will never be accepted by the people of Himachal,” he asserted. 

Rajya Sabha Tally

Sources said votes for Mr Singhvi of the Congress and the BJP’s candidate, Harsh Mahajan, were tied at 34 each. The BJP, however, pushed for the ballot of Congress MLA Sudarshan Babloo being cancelled on the grounds that the chief minister’s helicopter was sent to get him to Shimla from Hoshiarpur in Punjab. The party has alleged that this is a violation of the model code of conduct.