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Thursday,
May 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Virbhadra
invites captains of industry Virbhadra:
work for uplift of BPL families
Rs 150
crore to augment water supply facility
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‘End
illegal quarrying in Chakki’ HP
directed to form panel on stone crushers Oath-taking
ceremony suspended Training
cops to guide tourists Hotel
owners held for attacking woman 2
miscreants damage cafe Disabled
soldiers want pension hike
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Virbhadra invites captains of industry Shimla, May 7 Inaugurating a Round-table conference on “Employment generation in mountainous regions — role of social partners” organised by the PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry here today, he said the government would take all possible steps to provide an environment congenial for rapid industrialisation. He said Himachal has already come to be known as the apple bowl of the country and the government would now focus on tourism for which the state had a vast potential. New plans would be formulated to generate employment in areas of core competence. He announced that “Paryatan Sahayak Scheme” would be launched soon and the government would encourage entertainment parks and cinema halls to give boost to tourism. Efforts would be made to promote adventure tourism in a big way and ex-servicemen and cooperative societies encouraged to popularise trekking and excursions. Mr Sat Mahajan, Minister for Rural Development, said the government would play the role of a facilitator and the private sector would have to play a major role in the economic uplift of the state. The emphasis would be on promoting labour-intensive industry. Mr Duncan Campbell, Department of Employment Strategies, ILO, Geneva, giving international perspective on the subject said that the main problem of landlocked regions was limited access to market, thereby resulting in stunted growth. There was a need to identify employment rich sectors, backed by policy-level incentives, to support the growth of industry in the region. Mr P.K. Jain, President of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said effective implementation of special employment generation programmes by enhancing durability of assets, decentralisation of the decision-making process, credit and other forms of technical support for growth of employment in non-farm rural enterprises would have to be an integral part of any package. Mr I.P. Anand, member, governing body, ILO, said 80 per cent of the mountain people in the world lived below the poverty line even though these areas were rich in resources. It might not be appropriate to adopt foreign models, but work culture, approach and innovativeness could be adopted with tenable modifications to suit local requirements. |
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Virbhadra: work for uplift of BPL families Shimla, May 7 Addressing officers of the department at the end of a two-day seminar at the Himachal Institute of Public Administration last evening, he said sincere efforts should be made to raise the socio-economic status of the BPL families. He said the micro-planning should be carried out to ensure need-based development at the village level. The Chief Minister said the government would consider strengthening of the Block Development Office, which played a key role in the implementation of policies and programmes at the grassroots level. Mr Sat
Mahajan, Rural Development Minister, said the block development offices would be computerised within six months. |
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Rs 150 crore to augment
water supply facility Shimla, May 7 Addressing a press conference, here, he said although all 16,807 villages had been provided with drinking water facility, there were some hamlets where the people had to go beyond 100 metres to fetch water. Besides 574 non-covered hamlets, there were 8877 partially covered hamlets where the quantity of water being supplied was far less than norm 40 litres per head per day. The government would spend Rs 150 crore to provide drinking water to all the non-covered and some partially covered hamlets in the year for providing adequate water to all partially-covered hamlets Rs 650 crore would be required. He added that water tankers would supply water in severely hit villages whereas in some others hand pumps were being installed. He said in all 12,000 hand pumps had been installed in the state and out of these 375 had been rendered inoperational either due to fall in water table or mechanical fault. As many as 180 them were not repairable. On water supply to Shimla he said three plans had been prepared out of which one would be finally taken up. The plan to bring water from Pabbar river in Rohru involved Rs 600 crore but it was gravity scheme and would not involve expenditure in lifting the water. The Giri scheme under which water was to be lifted from the Giri river near Kotkhai would cost Rs 71 crore and involved huge recurring expenditure. The scheme to bring water from Chanshal lake near Chirgaon required to be studied. He said the department was paying Rs 65 crore as electricity charges to the state power board for various lift-drinking water schemes. Mr Kaul Singh said that there was no proposal to privatise the maintenance of drinking water or irrigation schemes. |
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Check misuse
of water: CM Shimla, May 7 Inaugurating a conference of irrigation and public health engineers here, he said over 92 per cent population of the state lived in rural areas and was dependent on agriculture for which cattle were indispensable. The failure of the engineers to take the cattle population into account was the main reason for the shortage of water. The Chief Minister said the engineers should ensure optimum utilisation of water and check its misuse. He said due to global warming and climatic changes the groundwater level was fast receding whereas the demand for water was increasing. He said sedimentation and filtration tanks should be provided for every scheme to supply clean drinking water. He advised the engineers to harness groundwater scientifically and ensure maximum utilisation of the schemes. He underlined the need to expand irrigation facilities so that farmers could grow cash crops and other off-season vegetables. He also asked the engineers at all levels to ensure quality in construction. Mr Kaul Singh, Irrigation and Public Health Minister, said the department was committed to providing safe and clean drinking water to the people. It was making arrangements to meet the scarcity of water during
the on going summer season. He said over 12,000 hand pumps had been installed in the state to supplement the drinking water supply schemes. He also stressed the need for prompt action regarding complaints of people in rural areas to avoid any inconvenience to them. |
Governor
given
warm send-off Shimla, May 7 He was given a warm send-off at the Raj
Bhavan. Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, Mr Rangila Ram Rao, Excise and Taxation Minister, Mrs Asha
Kumari, Education Minister, Mr G.S. Bali, Transport Minister, Mr Sohan
Lal, Mayor, MLAs, Mrs Rajendra Bhattacharya, Chief Secretary, Mr A.K.
Puri, Director-General of police, Dr S.D. Sharma, Vice-Chancellor of Himachal Pradesh University, and senior civil and police officers were among those present on the occasion. |
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‘End illegal quarrying in Chakki’ Nurpur, May 7 The samiti alleged that 50 crusher units of Punjab without licence from the Punjab Government had started extracting raw material from Chakki river’s bed falling in Himachal area. Inquiries reveal that 6000 hectares land of 15 villages had been affected as unscientific quarrying of 2000 cubic feet area of river bed was being carried out which had endangered natural water resources of the villages. The level of these resources has gone down and a drought-like situation had been created in the area. The samiti has demanded permanent pickets and raising of crate walls to save farm land from erosion. It alleged that the crusher owners had been preparing bogus agreements from the right holders of Chakki river and inducing poor farmers of the area to allow them the mining. The samiti demanded the intervention of the state government to save the affected villages from reckless mining and quarrying. It threatened litigation if the government did not act fast. |
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HP directed to form panel on stone crushers Shimla, May 7 Issuing these directions a Division Bench of the court comprising Chief Justice Vinod Kumar Gupta and Mr Justice Arun Kumar Goel further directed the state government to constitute this committee within two weeks. The court directed that apart from the Secretary Science and Technology, member-secretary pollution control board, Secretary Industries, Secretary Forest, Secretary Tourism, Secretary Irrigation and Public Health
(IPH) and Secretary PWD would be members of this committee. The court also directed the government that this committee shall consider and examine the issue of present location of all existing stone crushers in Himachal and also consider and examine the basic requirement of clean air and noise-free
atmosphere whether stone crushers at present can be allowed to remain where these were or be located else where. It shall be up to this committee to take a decision whether to re-locate the stone crushers presently operating in other places in large number or in a smaller number. The court also further directed that if the committee took a decision to re-locate the existing stone crushers elsewhere, these stone crushers shall be under obligation to re-locate at such identified places. |
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Oath-taking ceremony suspended Nurpur, May 7 On April 28 the posts of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman were won by Mr Baldev Pappi and Mr Chain Singh, respectively. Nineteen out of the 29 BDC members took part in the elections. The BJP-supported BDC members, who didn’t participate, later came and raised a controversy over the quorum required for conducting the elections. They were led by Mr Rakesh Pathania, former local BJP MLA. They also wrote to the Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, claiming that at least 20 members were required to participate in the election process. They demanded that the election be declared null and void. According to the official sources, the DC has sought that legal opinion of the chief electoral officer, Himachal Pradesh. |
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Training
cops to guide tourists Shimla, May 7 Speaking at the inaugural session of the four-day orientation programme for the police personnel organised by the faculty of Tourism Administration of Himachal Pradesh University and Department of Tourism here. He stressed the need to activate and revitalise all tourist information centres in the state, especially those situated at the entry points. He exhorted police personnel to work with sincerity to build a good image of the department. He said the police should be well-equipped with all information of the tourist interest. The Tourism Minister said being the highest revenue earning industry, tourism should be given special attention. Every effort would be made to improve infrastructural facilities to make the stay of tourists more comfortable here, he said. It should be ensured that tourists were not harassed at bus stands, railway stations and other places. The porter system should also be regulated. Mr Ashok
Thakur, Principal Secretary, tourism, said the special orientation programme for police personnel was introduced about three years ago. The programme aimed at arming them with the information of tourist interest so that they could properly guide the tourists. |
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Hotel owners held for attacking woman Dharamsala, May 7 According to a complaint lodged with the police by Mr Dheeraj Sareen, who runs billiard parlour in Hotel Lotus Leaf at Jogiwara, Mc-Leodganj, Mr Gurpal Singh and Mr Pankaj Malhotra, with whom a litigation was going on, forcibly entered his room around 5 a.m. today morning and first hit his child and later dragged his Tibetan wife to another room with the intention of raping her. Due to resistance by them they did not succeed. Mr Sareen alleged that the threats from the hotel owners were reported to the police earlier also but no action was taken and this had emboldened them to this act. Mr ZHS Zaidi, SP Kangra said that the complaint has been received and an FIR registered against Mr Gurpal Singh and Mr Pankaj Malhotra under Section 451, 354, 506, 504 and 34 of the IPC and both culprits had been arrested. He denied that the police was helping the accused. |
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2 miscreants damage cafe Dharamsala, May 7 According to the owner of Park cafe, Mr Jagmohan Sharma, who is a senior Congress leader, this was the second attack on his restaurant within a month. He said the same group, which had the backing of a senior minister, had attacked the restaurant with an intention of physically harming him, but as he was away, they left after damaging the cafe. According to Mr Sharma, the two came armed with iron rods and started breaking the main door glasses. He and his staff saved themselves by running from the back door to the police station. The culprits ran away, but were chased by the police and arrested in Chilgarhi. The Kangra SP, Mr Zahoor H.S. Zaidi said the culprits had been arrested. |
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Disabled
soldiers want pension hike Palampur, May 7 In a press statement issued here yesterday Mr C.D. Singh, president of local unit of the league said despite repeated reminders, no steps had been taken to revise the disability pension of the soldiers who had fought wars in 1948, 1962, 1967 and 1971 and returned home in disabled conditions. He said the Fifth Pay Commission had covered all
problems of serving and retired soldiers, but ignored the demands of disabled soldiers. |
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Departmental
exams postponed Shimla, May 7 The Board of Departmental Examinations said the exams would be held from July 25 to August 2. The applications on prescribed forms will be entertained till June 16. |
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Two proclaimed offenders held
Nahan, May 7 |
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