The salary bill is the largest component of the total costs incurred by the organisation in running its operations. The organisation had shown losses to the tune of Rs 3.6 crore in the last financial year. The corporation has got in touch with other departments and corporations of the Himachal Pradesh government in order to encourage them to source their employee requirement from the surplus staff available with the HPMC. As a result, over 30 employees have already been absorbed by other departments and corporations. However, Mr Baldi is of the opinion that being a public sector undertaking (PSU), it is not an easy task to encourage employees to go in for employment with other organisations. The corporation has already put a complete ban on new recruitments. Technology park: The Himachal Pradesh government has finally taken cognisance of the potential of information technology a a high growth industry. As a first step towards attracting investments in the sector, the government is setting up a softwaretechnology park (STP) at Shimla.

A proposal of Rs 7 crore had been prepared as initial investment required for setting up the facilities. The central government has already sanctioned a sum of Rs 6 crore to fund the project. The commissioner-cum-secretary, information technology, government of Himachal Pradesh, Ajay Tyagi said: "The speed of implementation holds the key to attracting investments. A case in point in the STP at Mohali which did not come up as expected because of tardy implementation."

So far the government has acquired 20,000 square feet of built up space at Apurti Bhawan, Shimla. It also plans to install an earth station for high-speed data connectivity at Kamna Devi, near Shimla, at a projected cost of Rs 3.28 crore.

E-governance: The Himachal Pradesh government has taken the first step to usher in e-governance. It has taken up implementation of the LOKMITRA project on a pilot basis in Hamirpur district. The project envisages setting up a district-wide intranet linked to the Internet with servers at district headquarters, connecting 25 citizen information booths located at various panchayats.

Secretary, IT, Ajay Tyagi told Financial Express that: "On the national level this scheme was initially implemented in a few blocks in the north-east by using VSAT.

We have improved upon this and are using VSAT and OFC to provide better connectivity. The information booths will be equipped with a computer and phone lines and will be operated by private parties.