M A I N   N E W S

Rs 173 cr earmarked for uplift of SCs
Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 19
A sum of Rs 173 crore has been earmarked under the special component plan for the uplift of Scheduled Castes in the state.

Stating this while presiding over the high powered coordination and review meeting of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment here today, Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, said that 11 per cent budget was being allocated under the special component plan for the implementation of various welfare programmes for Scheduled Castes. He said 56 castes had been included in the category of scheduled castes with the approval of the Central Government and development schemes were being formulated for their welfare systematically.

He said there were 15.3 lakh Scheduled Castes in the state as per the 2001 census, which came to 24.72 per cent of the state’s population. Under the scheme like the Guru Ravidass Sarvjanik Suvidha Yojna, basic amenities like health, sewerage and other facilities were being provided in hamlets with Scheduled Caste population. He said eight hostels for Scheduled Castes students had been constructed at a cost of Rs 2.15 crore and another was coming up at a cost of Rs 1.20 crore in Nalagarh.

The Chief Minister said grant ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 was being provided for house construction in snow-bound areas and Rs 4,000 to Rs 8000 in other areas, and now this amount had been increased to Rs 22,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.

There were 2,552 census villages having Scheduled Caste population of 50 per cent or more and 3,286 villages with 90 or more people from Scheduled Castes. As many as 1,361 such villages had been linked with roads and provided drinking water facility. Besides, 326 veterinary institutions had been opened in such villages.

Apprehensions over projects for Himachalis
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 19
The belated decision of the state government to reserve the micro-hydel projects up to 2-megawatt capacity may not yield the desired results as most of the viable projects have already been allotted.

Under the new policy, projects upto one-megawatt capacity are to be assigned to bonafide Himachali individuals and up to two-megawatt capacity to cooperative societies of bonafide Himachalis. However, it may not evoke much response from the Himachali entrepreneurs as most of the techno-economically viable projects have been over the past decade allotted to outsiders.

In all 264 projects with an aggregate generation capacity of 478 MW have been assigned to private companies so far. The cost of construction in case of these projects ranges from Rs 5 crore to Rs 6 crore per megawatt. However, the projects, which are, yet to be assigned, will cost over Rs 7 crore per megawatt. Only 92 identified projects with aggregate generation capacity of about 100 MW have been left for Himachalis. Initially, 469 sites were identified but one out of these 113 sties have been dropped for environmental reasons and non-availability of grid for evacuation of power generated.

The main reason for the high cost of construction is that the sites of the remaining projects are not approachable by roads and they will require lengthy transmission lines for evacuation of power. The promoter will have to invest much more on development of basic infrastructure and transmission lines. Besides longer lines will result in higher transmission and distribution losses. Mr R.L. Justa, a retired hydropower engineer and convener, the Himachal Professional Forum, points out that generation cost will be more than Rs 3 per unit.