H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Centre asks HP to develop codes for quake risk mitigation
Shimla, May 2
With the government failing to further restrict the number of storeys in house construction despite large parts of the state falling under the highly seismic zone, the Centre has asked the state government to develop codes for earthquake risk mitigation, which can be reviewed from time to time.

Joint venture for express highway projects
Shimla, May 2
The Himachal Government has decided to set up a joint venture company with the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services, a quasi-central public sector undertaking, for the implementation of its three ambitious express highway projects.

Himachal gears up to welcome tourists
Shimla, May 2
Hoping for a good tourist season not plagued by the routine water shortage and traffic problem, the Tourism Department has made elaborate arrangements to welcome visitors to the hill state with folk artistes regaling them at various destinations like Dalhousie, Dharamsala and Shimla.

CM wants quality education
Solan, May 2
While extending invitation to private players for opening quality educational institutes in the state, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh yesterday said the government wanted to make Himachal a model destination for education.

Pharma sector welcomes govt move on goods tax
Baddi, May 2
The Baddi-Barotiwala and Nalagarh Industries Association while welcoming the move of the government to put on hold the imposition of goods tax on the pharmaceutical and mineral water transported from Himachal said the prompt decision of the government has allayed fears of the industrialists.

Dr Rathore is farm varsity VC
Palampur, May 2
Eminent horticulture scientist D.S. Rathore took over as Vive-Chancellor of Chaudhari Sharwan Kumar Himachal Agricultural University here today. He would hold the office for a term of three years on attainment of 65 years of age, whichever is earlier.

Snowfall in HP areas
Shimla, May 2
Several parts of Himachal Pradesh had mild rain, while higher reaches in the tribal belt experienced freak snowfall during the past 24 hours, even as the minimum temperature rose marginally in mid and lower hills.

One held for stealing idol
Nurpur, May 2
The police today recovered the stolen idol of the Mata Shitla Mandir, Chogan, here from the possession of Raghubir Singh of Baldoon village. The idol, weighing about 25 kg, was stolen from the temple last night.

Centre asks HP to develop codes for quake risk mitigation

Shimla, May 2
With the government failing to further restrict the number of storeys in house construction despite large parts of the state falling under the highly seismic zone, the Centre has asked the state government to develop codes for earthquake risk mitigation, which can be reviewed from time to time.

A letter from the Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, has directed the state authorities to review the existing codes, develop new codes, manuals and documents for earthquake risk mitigation. In the letter it has been pointed out that some of the codes laid down by the Bureau of India Standards (BIS) for design and construction of buildings and infrastructure projects have not been updated for quite some time apart from the need for developing new codes.

Even though different departments like the Revenue, Urban Development, Public Works, Housing are involved in the code implementation but in reality little has been done to strictly enforce these codes and recommendations. With areas like Kangra and Chamba falling in the highly vulnerable seismic Zone V, experiencing tremors of low magnitude quite regularly in the recent past, the issue has assumed greater significance.

The letter states that to institutionalise the process and mechanism for the development of codes for disaster mitigation, an apex committee would be constituted under the chairmanship of the Secretary (BM), Ministry of Home Affairs. The committee would meet every six months to review the progress of revision of the existing codes and development of new guidelines.

The availability of these codes would be ensured to the public so that there is awareness on the issue. The other members of the committee would include Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Director-General, Bureau of Indian Standards, and Joint Secretary and Central Relief Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs.

It was after a study conducted by Rorkee University in 1995 had indicated that it is five or more storeyed buildings which were worst affected by an earthquake, that efforts had been made to put restrictions. Though the number of storeys that can be made in the core area of Shimla town has been restricted to two, four storeys are still allowed in the restricted area and five in the other parts of the town.

“We are proposing to further slash down the number of storeys that can be constructed in the restricted areas to two and make it need based in the core area, which is already under tremendous pressure,” informed an official. A maximum of three storeys would be allowed in the rest of the town, he added. Officials point out that restricting the number of storeys would be possible in Dharamsala and Dalhousie, which too are turning into concrete jungles, only once a decision is taken with regard to Shimla.

Joint venture for express highway projects
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 2
The Himachal Government has decided to set up a joint venture company with the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (ILFS), a quasi-central public sector undertaking, for the implementation of its three ambitious express highway projects.

According to official sources, a memorandum of understanding with the ILFS, which is promoted by the State Bank of India, the Central Bank of India, the UTI and the HDFC, will be signed shortly in this regard. The new joint venture company will be started with an equity of Rs 10 crore.

The state infrastructure development board will take part in the joint venture from the state. A tripartite arrangement will be made involving the state Public Works Department as the third shareholder. The new company will carry out all spadework and assign the project through global tenders.

The company will also work out ways and means to ensure the economic feasibility of projects. In case it is found that the imposition of toll is not enough to recover the investment, the system of viability gap funding will be adopted under which necessary funds will be provided by the government to ensure viability.

The joint venture company will take care of the development stage of the projects which will be assigned to private sector companies on develop, finance, build , operate and transfer basis. Besides the Shimla-Kalka express highway, Una- Dharamsala and Rohru- Solan will be implemented.

The Union Ministry of Surface Transport has already prepared a Rs 867 crore project for the four-laning of the Shimla-Kalka highway. It involves boring of 11 tunnels between Maliana (Shimla) and Kothi which will reduce the distance by 19 km. The total length of the tunnel will be 9.5 km.The two longest tunnels will be 2.27 km each between Taradevi and Shogi and Kandaghat and Solan.

The state government has asked the Union Ministry to revise the proposal and propose more tunnels to reduce the distance by another 20 km. The emphasis is on reducing the travel time. It also wants the ministry to explore the possibility of connecting the highway to Baddi at a later stage after the Baddi-Chandigarh road is through.

The government feels the Una- Dharamsala express highway can be completed expeditiously as it does not involve the construction of tunnels. The cost of the project will also be much less compared to the Shimla-Kalka express highway.

Himachal gears up to welcome tourists
Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 2
Hoping for a good tourist season not plagued by the routine water shortage and traffic problem, the Tourism Department has made elaborate arrangements to welcome visitors to the hill state with folk artistes regaling them at various destinations like Dalhousie, Dharamsala and Shimla.

With a good snowfall this winter, the department of Tourism and Civil Aviation is confident that the biggest problem of water shortage in the state capital will not cast its shadow on the inflow of tourists. “The water level at the various reservoirs, including the one at the Ridge and the Ashwani khud, is far higher than the normal at this time of the year so we are confident that it will be a good season,” informed a tourism official.

With the ‘Queen of Hills’ invariably facing an acute water shortage during the peak summer months, tourists avoid coming here when media reports in this regard are splashed in newspapers. The Commissioner, Tourism and Civil Aviation held a meeting with all the District Tourism Officers on April, 27 and with the various hotelier’s associations here recently to make elaborate arrangements for the tourist season.

The visitors to the state this year can get a glimpse of the Himachali folk dance and music as the local artistes will give performances at places like Ridge, Naldehra, Mcleodganj, Dalhousie and Manali throughout the summer season. “This will not only give an opportunity to the local artistes to showcase their talent but will add to the air of festivity and celebration which is prevalent around this time,” remarked an official.

During the recent road shows held at Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad recently to promote Himachal as a tourist destination, senior tourism officials held meetings with the tour operators. “During the tourism fairs organized at Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune and Delhi we got overwhelming response from people who made queries about various places in the state,” said officials.

In order to regulate traffic and ensure proper parking for the tourists, the department of Tourism has asked the district administration to throw open certain areas like Chaura Maidan for parking of outside vehicles. Similar plea is also being made to the concerned district authorities and Municipal Council’s at places like Kulu-Manali, Dalhousie, Mandi, Chamba and other places of tourist interest.

The officials of the department are undertaking regular inspection of hotels to ensure that the rate list is displayed and there is no overcharging or fleecing by taxi drivers and porters. The tourist information centres will remain open from 8 a.m to 8 p.m so that the tourists can seek information.

CM wants quality education
Our Correspondent

Solan, May 2
While extending invitation to private players for opening quality educational institutes in the state, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh yesterday said the government wanted to make Himachal a model destination for education.

While commercialisation of education would not be allowed, quality educational institutes were welcome.

He was addressing students, staff and parents at the local Geeta Adarsh Vidyalaya here on the occasion of its foundation day. He said moral education should be made compulsory in government schools.

The government endeavoured to achieve its target of providing compulsory elementary education to all in the state in the next two years. The centrally-aided Sarv Siksha Abhiyaan had provided Rs 532 crore for this target.

He said Himachal was the first state to provide girls free education from class one to the university level.

Listing the achievements in the field of education, he said literacy rate had risen from 7.1 per cent in 1971 to 77.4 per cent. Female literacy at 68 per cent was among the highest in the country. As against 331 schools at the time of formation of Himachal Pradesh, there were now 15,500 schools in the government sector alone.

He released a book, “Adyatambodh” Dayanand Saraswati.

He gave away prizes to students and also announced an aid of Rs 3 lakh for the school. Earlier, the principal of the school read out the school report. The students presented a cultural programme.

Pharma sector welcomes govt move on goods tax
Our Correspondent

Baddi, May 2
The Baddi-Barotiwala and Nalagarh Industries Association while welcoming the move of the government to put on hold the imposition of goods tax on the pharmaceutical and mineral water transported from Himachal said the prompt decision of the government has allayed fears of the industrialists. The president of the association, Mr Rajinder Guleria, said the measure which had sent adverse signals to the expanding industry was now under consideration by the government.

A meeting was slated to be held tomorrow in Shimla where the industrialists and the officials of the Excise and Taxation Department would chalk out the modalities of the tax. Senior officials of the Excise and Taxation Department said though the tax would not be abolished but certain relaxations would be worked out. Setting aside any move to reimburse the tax already collected for a few days, the officials said there was no such probability as it had been collected as per the notification issued. The tax had drawn an adverse reaction from the industry.

The Baddi based Rs 30 crore Unichem Pharmaceuticals which has plans of investing another Rs 60-70 crore may reconsider its future plans, said its General Manager, Mr R.K. Goyal, if the move was not reversed. The unit which sends about 40 truckloads every month to other states may have to shell out as much as Rs 30-35 lakh on this tax alone. Another major pharma player in the region, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, a Rs 50-crore unit, which is slated to become operational by October, also voiced similar sentiments. The officials said the coming investor should be apprised of these taxes at the very beginning so that its pros and cons could be measured. Industrialist opined that the move of the govt to first welcome the investors and then roll out taxes in the form of enhanced factory registration fee, power tariff, made an investor reconsider his investment plans.

Demand to withdraw VAT on CSD items
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 2
The Himachal Pradesh Ex-Services League has condemned the state government for failing to safeguard the interests of ex-servicemen, widows and their dependents while implementing the value-added tax (VAT).

JWO K.C. Thakur (retd) said that the closure of the CSD was leading to financial losses to the ex-servicemen. “There is great resentment among ex-servicemen and we demand that the VAT should be withdrawn on CSD items and the canteens should be reopened without any further delay,” he said.

At an emergency meeting of the league held here yesterday, the members pointed out that for the past one year there was no representation of ex-servicemen in the Himachal Cabinet to safeguard their interests and the ex-servicemen had been ignored by the government.

“Recently, there was a move by the government to divide the league by offering allurements to a few ex-servicemen and by ignoring the organisation, which is working for the welfare of the ex-servicemen,” they alleged.

Dr Rathore is farm varsity VC
Our Correspondent

Palampur, May 2
Eminent horticulture scientist D.S. Rathore took over as Vive-Chancellor of Chaudhari Sharwan Kumar Himachal Agricultural University here today. He would hold the office for a term of three years on attainment of 65 years of age, whichever is earlier.

Born at Etah, Dr Rathore did his graduation, postgraduation and Ph.D. in horticulture from Agra University and joined the Indian Agriculture Research Institute in 1965. He held various positions in scientific institutions and was Dean, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Central Agricultural University, Arunachal, before joining as Vice-Chancellor. — PTI

Snowfall in HP areas

Shimla, May 2
Several parts of Himachal Pradesh had mild rain, while higher reaches in the tribal belt experienced freak snowfall during the past 24 hours, even as the minimum temperature rose marginally in mid and lower hills.

The sky remained heavily overcast in the region. The Meteorological Office predicted rain at many places in mid and lower hills and snowfall in the higher reaches.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 11°C at Shimla, 12.1 degrees at Sundernagar and 11.2 degrees at Bhuntar, while it hovered around freezing point in the higher hills. The continuous bad weather was unusual for Shimla and other mid-hills during the month of May, except for 1987 when Shimla town had snowfall on May 5. — PTI

One held for stealing idol
Our Correspondent

Nurpur, May 2
The police today recovered the stolen idol of the Mata Shitla Mandir, Chogan, here from the possession of Raghubir Singh of Baldoon village. The idol, weighing about 25 kg, was stolen from the temple last night.

The mandir committee found the idol missing in the temple this morning and reported the matter to the police.

The detective wing of the police swung into action and recovered the idol from the house of the accused, who has been arrested under Section 380 of the IPC. It alleged that there was a nexus between the temple pujari and the accused.