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Petrol station allotments Solan, October 17 Even as 11 petrol pumps in Himachal Pradesh allotted during the former NDA Government’s rule have been cancelled by a Supreme Court order, the allegations of favouritism are being levelled by a section of aspirants in some recent petrol pump allotments made in the region by the UPA government.
Reversion of 726 nigam staff imminent
Plan to tap 10,500 MW potential by 2012
Neglecting Kangra cost Congress
Guler seat: BJP
Minister warns industrialists
Migrant labourers block traffic
in protest
BPL survey fraught with errors
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Traders look for other vocations Mataur (Kangra): With business dipping, oxen traders in the region are in search of other vocations. There has been a drastic decline in the number of deals being struck at the oxen market held here in recent years.
State set to start herb cultivation
Five-year RI in assault case
Private vehicles used as taxis evade tax
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Favouritism thrives despite change in govt
Solan, October 17 At least two petrol pump allotments were held back by the Ministry of Petroleum after the news of norms being given a go-by was highlighted by The Tribune in July this year. The Indian Oil Corporation, which had conducted interviews for the two sites of Galog and Darlaghat in Solan district, is now conducting an inquiry into the allegations. Surprisingly the tradition of allotting petrol station sites to the favourites of political leaders was still being followed as far as Himachal Pradesh was concerned. Not only was a youth Congress state general secretary allotted an Indian Oil petrol station at Sanaura in Sirmaur district, but another office-bearer of the state Congress was also allotted another site at Salogra in Solan district. Yet another site located on the Solan bypass had been allotted to a former HVC youth president. The site, which was formerly earmarked for setting up a zonal hospital was later given on lease. All these allotments had been made in the past about eight months. While a common man was denied such opportunities it was also learnt that the district administration usually extended all help to facilitate the grant of land lease to any such political “henchman” vying for a petrol station. In Solan alone many such cases have been highlighted by a section of the media recently. An area of 1,100 sq.mt, in Saproon, worth about one crore, was being granted on lease to a state level office-bearer of the Congress to help him shift the site of his present station. The administration, which paid little attention to the need to grant land on lease for community purposes, was going all out to help these political henchmen. Not only was the Sanuara site in Sirmaur district granted on lease but the one earmarked for a zonal hospital here, was also given on lease. Such incidents frustrate hopes of a common man to expect a fair deal from the political powers and for them any change of government made little difference. |
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Reversion of 726 nigam staff imminent
Shimla, October 17 The agreement was to be formally signed yesterday but the state government backed out at the last minute creating an awkward situation. An agreement was finalised after the management of the nigam made it clear that it would not be able to retain the staff rendered surplus with the completion of the Nathpa Jhakri project unless the state assigned to it an adequate number of new projects, including the downstream Rampur project, for execution. As the state government adopted a dilatory attitude in the matter, the nigam ordered reversion of the surplus staff in August. Except 189 deputationists from the board, who were accommodated under the 40 per cent quota in the manpower approved for the operation and maintenance of the Nathpa Jhakri project, the entire staff from the board was given the marching orders. The action of the nigam had the desired effect and after a series of meeting between senior officers of the state and the Union Power Ministry an agreement was finalised last month. The agreement was even
initiated by Mr H.R. Sharma, Additional Secretary, Power, on behalf of the state and Mr H.B. Sahay, a Deputy General Manager, for the nigam. The deadline of October 15 was fixed for signing the document and it was also agreed that the deputationists who have been issued reversion orders would not be relieved till then. The Board of Directors of the nigam in which the state is represented by the Principal Secretary, power, and the Principal Secretary, Finance, had also approved the decision. All arrangements were made for the signing of agreement yesterday. However, when the officers of the nigam reached the state secretariat for purpose at the appointed time they were told that the agreement could not be signed in the present form. It is learnt that the state again wants some changes in the terms and conditions of the employees of the board to be taken on deputation. Senior officers feel that it may not be possible to have major changes in the agreement finalised and approved after extensive and prolonged consultations between the Centre and the state. The state government had in principle decided to assign the Rampur project to the nigam and early this year written a letter to it in this regard. The nigam had not only completed the detailed project report but also done all spadework for starting work on the headrace tunnel, colony at the powerhouse site and three bridges over the Sutlej. The Nigam is annually spending Rs 13 crore on the salary of the surplus staff and it has already informed that it will not bear the burden and raise a bill if new projects were not allotted to it to ensure gainful utilisation of the surplus staff. Besides keeping the deputationists on tenterhooks, delay in execution of the project is causing a loss of Rs 2 crore per day. |
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Plan to tap 10,500 MW potential by 2012
Shimla, October 17 Power generation has been given top priority to ensure expeditious exploitation of the state’s total identified hydroelectric potential of 20,376 MW. Over the past 50 years, only 6058 MW of the potential has been tapped. At present it is not a very happy situation as the demand for power is growing at a much faster pace than its availability. Under the prospective plan, projects with an aggregate generation capacity of 2773 MW would be executed in private, public and joint sectors during the 10th Plan and 7755 MW under the 11th Plan. While the 1500 MW Nathpa-Jhakri and 300 MW Chamera-II projects have been commissioned in the recent past, seven hydroelectric projects with an aggregate generation capacity of 322.5 MW are under execution in the state sector by the state electricity board. Out of these, the 126 MW Larji project will be completed during the current financial year. A special purpose vehicle, HP Jal Vidyut Vikas Nigam Limited, has been formed and it has been assigned the 100 MW Uhl-III, 66 MW Kashang-I and 10 MW Ganvi-II projects. To ensure gainful utilisation of the vast reservoir of expertise and experience available with the board, the government has decided to allot the 100 MW Sainj, 13 MW Suil and 6.5 MW Sal-I projects to the board. The 3 MW Holi hydroelectric project in the tribal Bharmour area has been completed and the trial of its units has been started. Simultaneously, a large number of schemes have been prepared to strengthen the existing power transmission and distribution system under the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme. Schemes have been prepared for all 12 circles and an amount of Rs 327.81 crore sanctioned by the Centre, of which Rs 196 crore will be spent on various works during the current financial year. |
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Neglecting Kangra cost Congress
Guler seat: BJP
Dharamsala, October 17 Addressing a press conference, he said that the discipline with which the BJP leaders and party workers had worked during the campaigning process also went a long way in ensuring victory for the BJP candidate, Mr Harbans Rana. He further said that it was very rare that a ruling party had lost a byelection. "Even on the day the BJP candidate filed his nomination papers, I had said that this election would write a new history. We had also spelt out the issues on which we wanted to fight the elections at the very outset," he said. He said that since the mandate had gone against the ruling party, this could see a change in leadership. Mr Suresh Chandel, BJP MP, said that the people of the Guler constituency supported the issues raised by BJP, even though the Congress party had tried to ‘mislead’ the voters with false propaganda during the campaigning. |
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Minister warns industrialists
Kumarhatti, October 17 He was talking to newspersons at Pine Wood Hotel, Barog, after inaugurating a workshop on World Standards Day on Friday. The Bureau of Indian Standards, Nalagarh, organised the workshop. Four industries have been found guilty of not giving desired representation to Himachalis in jobs, the minister said, adding that appropriate action would be taken against these. He said licences of the entrepreneurs who had not started their plants on the allocated plots at Baddi and Barotiwala yet would be cancelled. Industries which had failed to meet prescribed guidelines would no more be eligible for incentives under the package, he added. A single-window system is operational in the state to facilitate the entrepreneurs to set up industries, he said. Earlier, addressing the workshop, the minister said the importance of standardisation could not be undermined. It was an important part right from the procurement of raw material to the final product. He lauded the Indian Standard Bureau for maintaining quality in products. He called upon the people to use only ISI mark goods. Mr Ravi Narula, Director of Indian Standard Bureau, threw light on the activities of the bureau. Additional Chief Secretary, Ms Renu Dhar Sahani, presided over a technical session of the workshop. |
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Migrant labourers block traffic
in protest
Shimla, October 17 The labourers got enraged when policemen reached the Idgah, where they were putting up in make shift shelters, and asked them to show their identity cards. They started raising slogans and marched to the bus stand and blocked traffic. They alleged that they were being unnecessarily harassed by the police. However, the district police chief, Mr Jog Raj Thakur, said the police was only verifying the antecedents of some labourers who had arrived recently. The registration of migrant labourers had been made mandatory in the wake of mishaps and natural calamities like floods and landslides which had claimed several lives. He said the protestors also attacked a public call office in the area and roughed up its owner whom they suspected of being a police informer. |
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BPL survey fraught with errors
Solan, October 17 The fact that the government has not been able to identify any cut-off marks for identifying the BPL families due to a pending apex court decision confusion continues to prevail among people. A BDC member from Dilman in Sirmaur district contended that a majority of the 13 indices laid down in the form fail to solve the objective of identifying the BPL families. Illustrating his point, he said a family drawing a salary, no matter if it were a meager amount, was accorded the same score of three marks as that scored by a family drawing a handsome five figure amount. Further, an educated person would score three to four marks while an illiterate would only manage to score fewer or no marks. While it has become difficult for the people to comprehend how the BPL families will be identified when the disadvantaged scored only fewer marks Mr Om Prakash alleged that a JBT teacher drawing a handsome salary fell in the BPL category as per the criteria. In another column requiring preference of assistance a person opting for targeted public distribution system will only manage one point while one preferring housing as well as financial assistance of one lakh would score three to four marks. Other indices like food security, ownership of consumer durables, type of houses have also created confusion as those living in joint families and yet having no land fared scored only few marks. The Director, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Mr J.P.Singh, while clarifying that the October 2 meetings were aimed at settling objections said if further objections were found they would also be settled in the final scrutiny. He added that the forms were based on the Central Government pattern and the state government had no say in their preparation. He, however, added that with a PIL pending in the apex court the final BPL lists in the state could not be worked out. |
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Oxen market loses business
Mataur (Kangra): With business dipping, oxen traders in the region are in search of other vocations. There has been a drastic decline in the number of deals being struck at the oxen market held here in recent years.
The untimely rains this month have added to the woes of the traders, who have been forced to lower the oxen prices as lack of proper feed and poor health have made the animals look less healthy. Sita Ram, a trader from Una, says, “The market has been catering to the needs of the local farmers for over two decades. But in recent years it has ceased to offer lucrative business to traders who come here from different parts of Kangra district and Una during kharif and rabi seasons.” This season, he says, the business is down by Rs 400-500 per ox. “Still, we are expecting to sell a total of more than 600 oxen by the end of next month,’ he says. More than the advent of modern means of farming, added Ravinder Singh, another trader, it is the growing resourcefulness of even the small-time farmers to reach out to bigger markers in Sundernagar and Hamirpur that has affected the market. “Earlier, almost all farmers from Kangra district used to come to this market. But now they want to get rid of the middlemen and buy cattle straight from the main markets,” he says. Otherwise, says Ram Saran, a local farmer, tractors and other technology-based farming methods cannot be used much in the tarrain. Surinder Kumar, another trader from Una, said that these days, only those farmers, who were unable to shell out the fuel price in cash at one go came to this market. “They know that in the bigger mandis there cannot be any bargaining and the entire price will have to be paid in cash there and then.” “This leads to the problem of bad debts for us as a majority of local farmers do not eventually pay the full price. It is a common practice to use the oxen for some time and then say that they are not good enough. This has forced many traders to switch over to other business,” he adds. Instead of rearing calves, the traders prefer to buy nearly a dozen full-grown oxen every season and then sell them off at this mandi. “The rising costs of transportation and the fee of Rs 8,000 per annum to the village panchayat to use the land leaves us with little profits. The day is not far when this market would become a thing of the past,” says Gannu Chand, another trader from Chamba. |
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State set to start herb cultivation
Shimla, October 17 The building, constructed at a cost of Rs 35 lakh, has been completed while equipment worth over Rs 50 lakh is being installed. The project is funded by the Reproductive Child Health Programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It is being jointly implemented by the ayurveda and forest departments of the state. Several of the high-altitude medicinal herbs are endangered due to their high demand in the herbal medicinal market, there is a lot of illegal extraction of such herb but no regeneration. “Since many of these herbs are in demand for their root part like rhizome, these face the threat of extinction in the Himalayas,” said Mr D.R. Nag, Project Officer (Medicinal Plants), Research Institute, Ayurveda Department. He said the agro-technique for eight of the 19 valuable species, had been developed. “It will take more than two years to raise quality germ plasm after which protocol of every species will be developed,” he added. He said the plant would pave the way for a large-scale cultivation of herbs for which almost 15,000 farmers had been registered to get training. So far, farmers in the districts of Kulu and Chamba have been involved in the cultivation of medicinal herbs on the forest land above the height of 10,000 feet. Various species are being selected for each area to avoid glut. Chamba farmers are being encouraged to grow sugandhbala and taxus baccata, while preference is being given to cultivation of kutki (picrorhiza kurroa) in the Kothi and Solang areas of Kulu, he said. The income generated from the sale of herbs will be shared equally by the farmer and the Van Vanaspati Society, on whose land it will be cultivated. The government proposes to have a tie-up with pharmaceutical industries so that middlemen do not fleece growers, he added. At present, it is only through wild collection that the demand of pharmaceuticals is being met as there is no germ plasm technique. The trade or export of medicinal herbs is not allowed till it is from a cultivated source, under the negative list prepared by the Ministry of Commerce. As such the entire trade of herbs in the state is illegal as it is collected through wild growth. |
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Five-year RI in assault case
Sundernagar, October 17 The court ordered that the fine amount would be paid to the victim as compensation. The convict was cutting bushes near the house of the victim. When the victim asked him not to cut the bushes, the convict inflicted a blow of a sharpedged weapon on the head of the victim in the presence of a grandson and granddaughter of the victim. The police had registered a case under Section 307 of the IPC. |
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Private vehicles used as taxis evade tax
Chamba, October 17 According to sources, hardly 25 per cent of the vehicles in Chamba district were registered as taxis and goods carriers to carry passengers and goods. But surprisingly, all bylaws pertaining to commercial transportation are being flouted in this region. There is no check on the plying of private vehicles for carrying passengers and goods. The local Taxi Operators Union has expressed concern over the menace of private vehicles being used for commercial and business purpose.
The authorities have become silent spectators to this malady. |
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