Shimla, April 28
Wintry conditions have been revived in mid and higher hills of Himachal as the high-altitude areas in the tribal belt and other high mountain passes have experienced intermittent snowfall while the mid and lower hills have intermittent rain accompanied by strong winds.

The intermittent rain and hailstorm have caused damage to standing wheat crop in the 75-km long belt from Shahpur in Kangra district to Jogindernagar in Mandi district and about 50 per cent crop has been damaged in some areas, a report from Palampur said.

The Dhauladhar ranges in Kangra district and Rohtang and Kunzam Passes also experienced intermittent heavy snowfall, hampering the road clearance work. The Rohtang Pass, which was expected to be opened in the first week of May, might take a few more days for providing connectivity to the tribal Lahaul valley. The Rohtang Pass was covered under 20-ft of snow and the fresh snowfall had hampered the road clearing operations, a spokesman of the GREF said.

Intermittent rain in the lower valley areas in Mandi district had resulted in waterlogging at many places and the standing wheat crop had started turning pale due to excessive moisture. besides wheat crop, mustard, potato and fruit crops had also been damaged in the district due to hailstorm and untimely rain.

Villagers feared that the damage could be more if the conditions continued for some more days.

Shimla and its surrounding areas also received mild rain during the past 24 hours and strong velocity winds continued to sweep the region causing sharp fall in day temperature.

The sky remained heavily overcast in the region and Met office predicted more rain in some parts of the state during next 24 hours. — PTI

Shimla, April 28
The Rs 15.87-crore Water Availability through Self Help (WASH) project under the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) programme was formally launched here today.

The Irrigation and Public Health Minister, Mr Kaul Singh Thakur, stressed the need for people’s participation in public utility services. “There is a need for launching an extensive awareness campaign at all levels to motivate people to contribute in all services being rendered to them by the state government,” he said.

The main objective of the project was to enable Panchayati Raj institutions to plan, implement and manage safe-drinking water and minor irrigation systems in a sustainable manner. It would incorporate components like capacity building and training, technical assistance and awareness and orientation.

Pilot schemes to identify and demonstrate best practices for planning and its implementation would be taken up in Kangra, Shimla and Mandi districts.

Mr Thakur said potable water facilities to all habitations would be provided within the next three years besides providing irrigation facilities to maximum rural areas. A total of Rs 461 crore would be spent under irrigation and public health activities this year.

“Thrust should be on micro and macro planning for providing people quality water and irrigation facilities, based on area-specific needs so as to give a boost to agro economy,” he said. He thanked the Federal Republic of Germany for extending financial assistance to the state for various projects.

Mr Michael Gluk, NRM Project Coordinator, GTZ, India, said the purpose of all projects was to bring about economic prosperity, especially in the neglected and under-developed areas. 

Kangra, April 28
The bee keeping industry is in a shambles in the state because of alleged government apathy. Bee keepers from Kangra and Una districts have demanded that the support price of honey in the state be fixed at Rs 70 per kg to rescue the dying industry.

Mr Prabhat Choudary, president, Kangra Valley Bee Keeping Cooperative Society, Icchi, says the industry is on the verge of closure because of non-availability of market for their produce.

The state has neither fixed the support price of honey nor revoked the order imposing sales tax on honey.

Mr Choudary expressed concern over the “unsympathetic” attitude of the state government towards the industry which fed 25,000 families in the state.

He said tonnes of honey was wasting in stores and the people depending on this industry were on the verge of starvation. Thousands of traders last year had to sell honey to private agencies in Delhi and Punjab at Rs 80-95 per kg, he said.

This year these agencies, exploiting the situation, were willing to pay only Rs 18 per kg for the product.

He reiterated the demand that the support price for honey be fixed at Rs 70 per kg and more purchase centres be set up in the state while those at Indora be re-activated.

He demanded that on the pattern of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal and Haryana, bee keeping be brought under the agriculture sector and crude honey not be brought under the tax purview.

He demanded that the orders for imposition of tax on crude honey be revoked immediately and a meeting of the committee constituted in February this year be convened in order to discuss the problems of the industry.

Solan, April 28
The 189 members of the Golden Land Losers Union, who had surrendered their 846 bighas for the mining work of Gujarat Ambuja Cement Limited (GACL), were finally allocated a separate share of transportation work today.

An agreement promising work to the union was signed here after Deputy Commissioner (DC), Rajesh Kumar held talks with the union and unit officials. Revising its earlier order of February, the DC allocated transportation work of one lakh tones exclusively to the union. This work was earlier allocated to the Baghal Land Losers Society.

The union had met the Chief Minister on Monday following which the district administration was directed to resolve the issue. The decision has, however, not taken into account the future “land losers”. Another 4,000 bighas were yet to be acquired from these villagers out of the earmarked 8,000 bighas. A matter regarding any change in the work percentage of the other three unions would be unanimously resolved stated officials.

The 72 trucks of the union had been lying idle for the past two months. Its five panchayats, comprising Chandi, Kashlog, Giana, Mangu and Sanghoi, had surrendered about 846 bighas to the GACL recently and another 3,500 bighas had been acquired earlier. Despite being genuine “land losers”, the union had been unable to get any work from the GACL.

Though suitable compensation had been awarded to the “landlosers” but they had demanded a fair share in the transportation work.

The union has also drawn the attention of the district administration towards the fact that the other three unions operating in the region have been distributed work unfairly. A majority of the transportation work has been granted to people who are neither land losers nor belong to the affected panchayat.

Nalagarh, April 28
The unplanned industrial expansion in the Baddi-Barotiwala and Nalagarh region is having an adverse effect on the groundwater level. The fact that industrial units are making use of deep drilling to bore tubewells has made water level recede at a faster pace in the area.

The Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department has no say in such operations. There is also little coordination between various industrial units. Officials of the IPH Department opined that in the absence of any regulation, even the ideal distance of 300m between two tubewells fails to be maintained. This causes more harm to the groundwater. According to an estimate the water table recedes by as much as 30-35m in the summers and even water availability in the “kuhals” shifts about 400-500m away from the river beds.

There are about 3,000 industrial units in the region and the pace at which the water is being used has put an additional burden on the water schemes. A population of about one lakh industrial workers resides in the region, increasing the overall water requirement. The region has about 25 tubewells for potable water supply and another 74 for irrigation purposes, out of which 18 also supply potable water, informed Executive Engineer R.N. Gupta. The State Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board has now made it mandatory for the new units to install a water-harvesting structure within its premises. Officials of the IPH Department, however, lament that they should be granted some regulatory powers to check further loss to the groundwater level.

Indiscriminate mining is another cause of concern in the region, which has adversely affected the irrigation schemes. So extensive is the damage that additional monetary burden becomes inevitable in the maintenance of these schemes, especially during rains. The fund strapped department has also failed to get adequate funds for putting in place a proper sewage treatment plant, which has added to the problem.

Mandi, April 28
The Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) engineers from across the state will deliberate upon the key issues like the shortage and contamination of water and new rain water harvesting technique to evolve a joint strategy for the future to provide safe and swift drinking water system in the state at the IPH’s two- day state-level meeting here tomorrow.

Talking to The Tribune, the organising secretary of the IPH meeting, Mr B.D. Thakur, who is a Superintending Engineer, IPH, Mandi division, said the scarcity of potable water and contamination of the water sources would be the key issues on which the engineers would deliberate upon and chalk out a future strategy to tackle the problems in the state.

Mr Thakur said the IPH engineers would also present their case studies on rain water harvesting techniques, its shortcomings and success during the meeting. “We will evolve a common strategy as to how to make it a success as water sources are drying up and many areas face water problems in peak summer and “dry months”, he added, informing that IPH Minister Thakur Kaul Singh would participate in the meeting on April 30. 

Shimla, April 28
Senior employee leader and general secretary of the HP Employees Confederation, Mr O.P. Sharma, died here 
yesterday.

Mr Sharma, an employee leader for the past two decades, died while being taken to the PGI, Chandigarh, after he suffered brain haemmorhage yesterday. The 53-year-old employee leader was a Superintendent in the Health and Family Welfare Department.

Various employees bodies, while condoling the death of Mr Sharma, said he always fought for the cause of the employees. The last rites of Mr Sharma were performed at Hamirpur today.

Kulu, April 28
“National integration camps can play an important role in guiding the youth of the nation”. This was stated by Raj Krishan Gaur, Agriculture, Labour and Employment Minister of Himachal Pradesh, at the valedictory function of a 10-day national integration camp on the SSB campus at Shamshi, near here today.

He said the Nehru Yuva Kendra had the credit of organising the camp in which 13 districts of 10 states participated. Unity in diversity had been exhibited during the camp in which participants from Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chandigarh, besides the host Himachal Pradesh, had presented cultural, linguistic and social programme of the states. Mr Gaur announced Rs 10,000 grant for the participants.