The Himachal Pradesh government has approved setting up of three universities in the private sector across the state.
“A letter of intent has been issued to three parties to open universities in the state. They are Sree Sai College of Engineering & Technology, Badani, KD Education Trust, New Delhi and Gopi Bai Foundation Trust, Kota,” Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal told the media after a Cabinet meeting.
He said VAT had been reduced from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent in automobile and certain IT items in all Army canteens across the state.”This has been brought on a par with neighbouring Punjab,” Dhumal said.
On the Giri lift water supply scheme to the popular resort town of Shimla, Dhumal said the cost of the plan had escalated from Rs 40 crore to Rs 64 crore.
“We have detected a major scandal in the pipes laid out in this scheme. Experts are pointing out that these pipes are meant for the plain terrain instead of hills and is causing a lot of leakage,” he said.
The pipes were supposed to have a capacity of 20 million litres per day. But only 8 million litres pumping has been achieved so far due to heavy leakage.
The state’s PWD department had recently acquired 40,000 drums of bitumen worth Rs 24 crore to tar and repair roads across the hill state.
