H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Shift IIAS from Viceregal Lodge: SC
Shimla, April 23
The Indian Institute of Advanced Study is again amidst uncertainty following the Supreme Court orders to the government to get the Viceregal Lodge complex in which it is housed at present, vacated by December 31,2003.

Solan villages hit by water scarcity
Kumarhatti, April 23
The scarcity of potable water has affected a populace of 6000 residing in over 70 villages of Kabakalan, Bhojnagar and Bohali panchayats under Solan block. The tap supply has been reduced considerably with the availability of water supply lasting for mere five to 15 minutes on alternate days.

Water shortage in Mandi
Mandi, April 23
Mandi town and its suburbs are facing an acute shortage of drinking water in April for the first time in many years. A Rs 9.41 crore drinking water augmentation project for the town was sanctioned and approved in December, 2000. 

Review bus fare hike: ex-minister
Palampur, April 23
Dr Rajan Sushant, former Revenue Minister and senior BJP leader today asked the state government to review orders on hike in bus fares last week. Addressing mediapersons here this morning he said the 95 per cent hike ordered by the government was “very high” and should be reviewed.

Plan to beautify Hamirpur
Hamirpur, April 23
Deputy Commissioner Devesh Kumar Gupta said here today that all-out efforts were being made to beautify Hamirpur town and to end congestion. He said under a drive all rehriwalas operating on the main road in the town would be rehabilitated and it would be ensured that there was no traffic problem due to them.

1 killed in wall collapse
Palampur, April 23
One person was killed and three others were injured when a 15-feet-high retaining wall collapsed at Ghuggar-Tanda village near here last night. One of the injured is stated to be serious. The injured have been admitted to the local civil hospital.

2 houses gutted
Chamba, April 23
Two houses were destroyed in a fire, which broke out in a distant village of Hobar in Bhatiyat subdivision of the district on Monday night, according to a delayed official report received at the district headquarters town today.

Tension over delay in post-mortem
Bilaspur, April 23
Tension mounted at the Regional Hospital here last afternoon when relatives and friends of two persons who had died in an accident became desperate as no doctor was available for the post-mortem examination of the bodies.

Shift IIAS from Viceregal Lodge: SC
Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 23
The Indian Institute of Advanced Study is again amidst uncertainty following the Supreme Court orders to the government to get the Viceregal Lodge complex in which it is housed at present, vacated by December 31,2003.

The institute finally lost the battle to retain the premises when the apex court rejected the prayer of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry that the institute be allowed to function in the heritage complex and directed that the property should be handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India as ordered earlier.

The legal battle over the complex started in 1990 when Mr Rajiv Mankotia, a conservationist, filed a public interest plea before the apex court against the decision of the Centre to convert the historic premises into a tourist resort and pleaded that it should be preserved as a national monument.

The court appreciated Mr Mankotia’s initiative for the preservation of the complex. It had observed that but for his painstaking effort the Viceregal Lodge would have been desecrated into a five star hotel and the people of India would have lost ancient heritage.

Mr Mankotia said he was not against the continuation of the IIAS in the premises and concerned only about the preservation of the monument which indeed, was a marvel of architecture. He lamented that even after the order of the apex court, the list of antiquities was not supplied by the authorities. Not only that the CPWD tampered with original architecture and carried out major alterations in the name of renovation toilets were redone using modern tiles and a damaged church was never restored. Some new structures were also raised within the complex.

Hope of the institute continuing in the heritage complex were raised when the HRD ministry decided not to shift it. Accordingly a decision was taken by the Union Cabinet last July. Subsequently, the government approached the court to inform about its decision and seek a review of its order to shift the institute. However, the court refused to turn down the plea.

Solan villages hit by water scarcity
Our Correspondent

Kumarhatti, April 23
The scarcity of potable water has affected a populace of 6000 residing in over 70 villages of Kabakalan, Bhojnagar and Bohali panchayats under Solan block. The tap supply has been reduced considerably with the availability of water supply lasting for mere five to 15 minutes on alternate days.

To meet the deficit the villagers have to trudge long distance to get the drinking water. Generally, such a situation is witnessed in May or June but this time it has occurred quite earlier, thanks to the absence of timely rain. A visit to these panchayats has showed the sad state of affairs as most of the water lifting schemes in the area had witnessed drastic decline in underground water table, forcing the Irrigation and Public Health Department to check the water supply. The situation has turned from bad to worse with very low outflow of water in natural water sources and streamlets. Panicky villagers have now set their hope on the district administration to start the water tanks services. Those having cattle were the worst hit as they were finding it hard even to meet the water demand of their cattle. The panchayats have started calling emergency meetings to tackle the situation and to forward resolutions to the administration seeking water tanks.

“After a gap of a day villagers would manage to get only 15 to 25 litres of water on the Irrigation and Public Health IPH connections and with each passing day the quantity was decreasing, said Mr Nand Lal, president of the Kabakalan panchayat. He blamed the IPH Department for the current situation that had failed to start the water lifting schemes in the area. “The schemes have not been made operational in the past four years despite the fact that the area faces severe scarcity of water in summer”, he lamented.

Similarly some remote panchayats in the Dharampur block have faced grave shortage of potable water. The department has blamed the long dry spells responsible for current situation that had caused unprecedented decline in the water table.Meanwhile the department has started to monitor the situation in which daily discharge of water schemes had been recorded regularly.

The per capita water consumption has been monitored regularly and special efforts to check the disparity in water supply were being made, said a highly placed official of department.

Efforts were being made to arrange the minimum quantity of water to each family and the the department was in process to recommend water tanks for them, he added. 

Water shortage in Mandi
Our Correspondent

Mandi, April 23
Mandi town and its suburbs are facing an acute shortage of drinking water in April for the first time in many years.

A Rs 9.41 crore drinking water augmentation project for the town was sanctioned and approved in December, 2000. Most of the augmentation work had been done and only Rs 2.5 crore had been spent. But no funds were provided last year for the work and the town reeled under water shortage during summer.

Last year, the town was getting about 54 lakh litres of water from various sources against the daily requirement of 114 lakh litres. This year the water discharge from various sources had reduced much before the peak summer time. This was causing concern.

The only ray of hope was that a Rs 2.38 crore loan had been sanctioned by Hudco for the augmentation work. The first instalment of Rs 76.01 lakh was received last month. The Chief Engineer, Mr J.N. Sharma, said the treatment work would be completed within a week or so and additional water would be added to the existing supply line at Motipur. This would ease the water crisis this summer to a great extent, he claim.

During a visit to the augmentation project site, the Executive Engineer, Mr D.K. Gupta, said two big storage tanks at Tarna Hill had been completed and were being connected with the supply line. The work of crossing the lines through the Suketi Bridge was in progress and was likely to be completed shortly. The 1,200 metre Tarna Twambra line had been completed and tested. This would provide relief in the Jail Road colony and its outskirts, which had been experiencing scarcity of drinking water in the past.

Mr Gupta said with the completion of the work the entire water of Maigal and Bijni main lines would be spared exclusively for Jawar Nagar, Purani Mandi and Bhuili areas. He said the replacement of the old and rusted distribution lines with the new ones was the toughest task, ahead, which would be undertaken only after receiving the remaining instalments of the loan from Hudco.

Review bus fare hike: ex-minister
Our Correspondent

Palampur, April 23
Dr Rajan Sushant, former Revenue Minister and senior BJP leader today asked the state government to review orders on hike in bus fares last week. Addressing mediapersons here this morning he said the 95 per cent hike ordered by the government was “very high” and should be reviewed.

Dr Sushant criticised the recent decision of the Congress government not to allow educational institutions sanctioned by the BJP government before quitting office in February. He reminded the Chief Minister that in 1998 when the BJP was voted to power all 130 schools and other institutions announced by the Congress government days before the Assembly elections were made functional by Mr Dhumal.

It was unfortunate that the Chief Minister had threatened to review all MoUs signed by the BJP government for the execution of these projects with private parties. He said this would further delay the completion of these projects.

Plan to beautify Hamirpur
Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, April 23
Deputy Commissioner Devesh Kumar Gupta said here today that all-out efforts were being made to beautify Hamirpur town and to end congestion. He said under a drive all rehriwalas operating on the main road in the town would be rehabilitated and it would be ensured that there was no traffic problem due to them.

Talking with reporters here today at “meet the press” programme, he said tenders for the construction of a shopping complex-cum-taxistand near main the bus stand here had been floated and the construction work would start shortly. He denied reports appearing in a section of press that the work was going to be scrapped.

He said there was no shortage of fodder and water in the district . He said all-out efforts were on to provide potable water to the people of the district. Moreover, tender for the supply of water through tankers in drought-hit areas of the district would be opened in the first week of May so that water supply work was taken up on time.

The Deputy Commissioner said the administration was seized of the problem of dumping of garbage of the town. The administration and the civic body were holding negotiations for acquiring land for garbage dumping. The work for dumping of garbage at new site would start after the acquistion of land.

1 killed in wall collapse
Our Correspondent

Palampur, April 23
One person was killed and three others were injured when a 15-feet-high retaining wall collapsed at Ghuggar-Tanda village near here last night. One of the injured is stated to be serious. The injured have been admitted to the local civil hospital.

It is learnt that Partap Singh, resident of the village, had hired these labourers for construction works. When they were removing the stones, all of sudden the retaining wall collapsed and all four of them working on one side of the wall were buried alive. Later fire brigade officials were called who immediately removed the debris and saved the life of three persons, while the body of the fourth one was recovered after an hour.

The deceased has been identified as Kuldip Kumar, who is among the relations of Partap Singh. The police has registered a case. 

2 houses gutted
Our Correspondent

Chamba, April 23
Two houses were destroyed in a fire, which broke out in a distant village of Hobar in Bhatiyat subdivision of the district on Monday night, according to a delayed official report received at the district headquarters town today.

Officials have rushed to the site for relief and rescue operation. According to preliminary reports, a loss of about Rs 3 lakh has been estimated. 

Tension over delay in post-mortem
Our Correspondent

Bilaspur, April 23
Tension mounted at the Regional Hospital here last afternoon when relatives and friends of two persons who had died in an accident became desperate as no doctor was available for the post-mortem examination of the bodies.

The bereaved grew restless as they had come from Behali village in Nalagarh in Solan. Since the accident had occurred the day earlier, they were anxious to return in time for the last rites.

Congress President Hosiyar Singh Thakur rushed to the hospital and urged the Chief Medical Officer to assign the task to another doctor.