M A I N   N E W S

3 storeys is the limit in HP
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, FEB 13 — The devastating Gujarat earthquake proved to be an eye opener for the Himachal Government and the state Cabinet today decided not to allow construction of buildings beyond three storeys and drew up an extensive disaster management plan as a number of areas of the state fall in the zone-5 seismic prone region.

The state Cabinet, which met here today under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, took a number of important decisions regarding precautionary measures and the disaster management aspects. Briefing mediapersons about the Cabinet decisions, the Chief Secretary, Mr A.K. Goswami, said with certain parts of the state, including Dharamsala, Chamba, Kulu and Mandi, falling in the high seismic risk zone, buildings would not be allowed to have more than three storeys.

He informed that a panel of chartered engineers would be finalised for every district. To reduce the damage to the minimum in case of an earthquake, the provision of a setback in the Town and Country Planning Act, would be implemented strictly. Men from the Armed Police Battalion and Home Guards would be trained in rescue work along with sniffer dogs.

To meet the situation arising out of drought, a demand of Rs 80 crore would be placed before the Centre for activating the traditional water sources. Directions would be issued for reactivating 6,000 traditional water sources across the state with the necessary job of dis-infecting being assigned to the Health Department. Out of the total 9,000 hand pumps in the state, 200 were dysfunctional, and these would be repaired to meet the water demand. The installation of 400 hand pumps in Himachal was already underway apart from energising 40 tubewells through Nabard funding.

To meet the water requirement of Dharamsala and the adjoining areas water supply would be augmented by drawing water from Bhagsu Nag and installing 15 tubewells. The Agriculture and Horticulture Departments had been directed to prepare contingency plans, with a weekly review of the overall drought relief measure in the state.

In a major decision the Cabinet decided to invite tenders from private parties for the construction of a ski lift at Solang Nullah near Manali. Earlier, the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation was to give some equity in the project which would now be constructed and operated by a private party. In another decision aimed at giving a fillip to tourism, the government decided to amend the Aerial Ropeway Act, so as to waive the maximum limit to be charged from the passengers for the next 10 years.

With the government laying stress on decentralisation it was decided that the devolution of powers to the various Panchayati Raj institutions, would be accomplished within three months, along with the necessary budgetary support. As part of this programme primary school buildings would be handed over to the panchayats, with Rs 6 lakh annual budgetary provision for their repair. A village committee would be free to utilise these for any educational related activity to generate resources. The cumbersome procedure for the appointment of water carriers would be simplified, with the pradhan, BPO, and the headmaster selecting the person, who would be created as panchayat employee.

The cash strapped government also decided to allow five years leave to government servants, who would be free to work in private concerns, without losing their seniority. A decision to upgrade 14 posts of private assistants to private secretaries was also taken at today’s Cabinet meeting.

Apart from this the government decided to honour the wishes of the locals by naming the polytechnic at Ambota as B.R. Ambedkar Polytechnic. Palampur Agriculture University, which had been named as Chaudhary Shravan Kumar Krishi Vishvidyalaya, would now be known as Chaudhary Shravan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University.