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Budgetary support for forestry up
Successful captive breeding of
Need for more permanent lok adalats stressed
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Pak Punjab too faces water shortage
HC directs govt on sound pollution
Husband beats up wife, attempts suicide
BJP tarnishing CM’s image
No corruption, says HP PWD
5 students hurt in mishap
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Budgetary support for forestry up
Shimla, June 10 While the expenditure on raising new plantations has been rising due to an increase in the wages and rising cost of material, the allocation of funds has been declining progressively. The outlay for 2003-04 came down to Rs 50 crore from Rs 80.35 crore in the preceding year. Belatedly though, the government has taken a corrective step and the outlay has been raised to Rs 80.60 crore which will enable the Forest Department to bring about 25,000 hectares under forests as against 15,000 hectares last year. A sum of Rs 8.80 crore has been allocated for the Kandi project, Rs 13.30 crore under the forestry sector reform project and Rs 5.50 crore for the proposed Mid-Himalayan project. However, the allocation was still not enough to meet the target of brining 33 per cent area under green cover by 2012. At present forests stand only over 26 per cent of the total geographical are of the state. To achieve the target, the annual afforestation target will have to be more than doubled from the current 25,000 hectares. The sharp fall in the allocation of funds over the past six years had severely affected the afforestation programme in the ecologically fragile hill state. The Forestry Department had been finding it difficult to achieve even the scaled-down targets of afforestation. In fact, the entire afforestation programme had gone haywire. Consequently, the area being brought under new plantations had been decreasing every year. In 1998-99 new plantations were raised over 31,300 hectares whereas last year only 15,000 hectares was brought under forests. The activities of the department had been confined to only those areas where externally aided projects were under implementation. In the 7th Plan, allocation for the forestry sector was as high as 9.44 per cent. It came down to 6.47 per cent in the 8th Plan and further declined to 5.12 per cent in the 9th Plan. The afforestation programme was being sustained largely through the externally aided projects all these years. Out of a total financial outlay of Rs 50 crore, the Forest Department for the year 2003-04 the externally aided projects account for as many as 35 crore. Since these projects are site specific, the activities of the department were confined to a few selected areas and the rest of the state remained neglected. Senior officers feel that the Centre should allocate more funds to the state to enable it to achieve the long-term goal of bringing 66 per cent of the area under forests as prescribed in the national policy. |
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Successful captive breeding of endangered bird
Shimla, June 10 The breakthrough is most significant as the pheasantry is the only one in the world to have the rare bird in captivity and the survival of the species depended on the success of the breeding programme being pursued by the department for the past 15 years. History was made in conservation breeding of pheasants when two of the three eggs laid in the last week of April by one of the three pairs at the
pheasantry hatched on Tuesday. Last year too, the same pair had laid three
eggs there was no hatching as there was no proper brooding by the female. This year too the female did not show any interest in brooding. However, the department used broody hens for the purpose and the strategy worked. The same pair has laid another clutch of three eggs. Besides, another pair also laid eggs but there was no hatching. “Tragopan melanoce-phalus” for the zoologists, the rare pheasant is placed high on the Red Data Book of the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) listing the highly endangered species. The captive breeding programme had been going on for the past about 15 years but without success. There was an accidental breeding in 1993 but no further progress could be made because of lack of technical expertise and experience. Things changed after the department engaged Mr John Corder, a conservation-breeding expert from the World Pheasants Association, as a consultant two years ago. He worked in close coordination with Dr Lalit Mohan, who has been recently shifted as Conservator of Wild Life, Mr B.L. Negi, Divisional Forest Officer, and Mr Alam Singh, Deputy Ranger, and suggested several changes in the shape and size of enclosures, diet of the birds to improve fertility and other measures to create the required stress-free environment for the birds to breed. A zoologist-turned-forester, Dr Lalit had two years ago achieved the “parent rearing” of the highly endangered cheer pheasants. Mr John Corder visited the state every six months to guide the breeding programme which was cashed under the supervision of Dr Lalit and Mr B.L. Negi. The pairing of the birds was done keeping in view the emotional compatibility of the male and the female on the basis of ocular observation and three pairs were found out of the seven birds available at the pheasantry. |
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Need for more permanent lok adalats stressed
Shimla, June 10 Inaugurating a one-day Conference of Law Secretaries, he said a new chapter (VI A) had been inserted in the Act providing that in case the parties failed to arrive at a settlement or conciliation, the Lok Adalat would proceed to decide the matter on merit which would be binding. However, so far only Rajasthan, Haryana, Jharkhand and the Union Territory of Chandigarh have set up permanent adalats and Delhi, Punjab and Karnataka are in the process of doing so. He said the lok adalats had been very successful and as many as 1.74 crore cases had been settled in 2.52 lakh such lok adalats held till December 2004. While the Central Government had raised the annual income limit under the legal aid system from Rs 12,000 to Rs 50,000, nine states, including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal and Orissa had fixed different limits. He said a separate panel of legal aid counsel having good advocates from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled tribes and women, who had an understanding of the problems of these categories, should be set up. There should be a reasonable fee structure to attract good advocatesm, he added. He also underlined the need for computerisation which had helped in reducing pendency of cases in the Supreme Court from 1.05 lakh cases in 1991 to 30,131 cases on January 1,2005. The Union Home Secretary, Mr V.K. Duggal, said the judicial reform was a priority area of the common minimum programme and it was not confined to the decongestion of courts but also enhanced quality of justice. |
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Pak Punjab too faces water shortage
Palampur, June 10 This was expressed by Dr Bashir Ahmed, Vice-Chancellor, University of Agriculture Studies, Faisalabad in Pakistan, and his team of agri-scientists who visited CSK HP Agricultural University, Palampur, today. Talking to The Tribune, Dr Ahmed said the purpose of the visit was to develop linkages with Indian farm universities in the old Punjab region for the exchange of research and technology. “We will work on developing collaborations for exchange of scientists, students and scientific material,” he said. Dr Khalid Mustafa, Chairman of the Agricultural Marketing Department, said the Pakistani kinnow was being exported to several countries in the west and the gulf region. “However, on coming here we found that the Indian citrus fruits are not all that tasty. So our kinnow can have a good market here. We can benefit from the tea cultivation here,” he said. Dr Ahmed informed that the local tea cultivation in Pakistan was not meeting even 1 per cent of the requirement and most of the tea was imported from outside, which made it very expensive. Similarly, said Dr Mustafa, “although they got good apples in the Baluchistan region and most of these were exported, Himachali apple and mango were much cheaper. “While we get mangoes at Rs 30-35 per kg, here it is sold at Rs 15 per kg,” he said. He added that realising the importance of proper marketing, Pakistan had identified export-processing zones, along with tax-holiday zones wherein growers were being asked to adopt practices to improve the quality of fruits so that exports could increase. Certain WTO agreements now restrict exports from the developing counties and this highlights the need for having collaborations between the two countries. “Although our tropic pattern is different from Himachal as we have only 5 per cent hilly area, we can definitely benefit from the technology developed here as it is known for fruits and vegetables,” he said. Later, taking up questions of the local faculty, the visiting Vice-Chancellor said water shortage was a major problem in their region and in Pakistan’s Punjab over 50 per cent of the water was drawn from underground sources, through 6-7 lakh tubewells. But most of this was not fit for drinking, he added. Although Pakistan has little area under cultivation of pulses, deficiency of proteins was made up by consumption of meat, said Dr Ahmed. He said they were also working on having effective linkages between the research laboratories of the university and its extension centers so that the results are actually translated on the ground and the farmers benefit from it. “I am of the belief that investment in research never goes waste,” he said. Other members of the delegation included Dr H. Abdul Qayyum, adviser of Agriculture to the Government of Pakistan, and Dr M.Akhtar Cheema, Professor of Agronomy.
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HC directs govt on sound pollution
Shimla, June 10 These directions were issued by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice V.K. Gupta and Mr Justice K.C. Sood in a public interest litigation filed by advocate Trisha Sharma. The court held 10 authorities mentioned in the petition responsible for fully and absolutely complying with the directions and specifically directed the district magistrates and superintendents of police in all districts to jointly ensure that the said notification was implemented in the letter and spirit. The court ordered the Chief Secretary and the Director-General of police issue circulars in one week to all district magistrates and superintendents of police along with the copies of the order, the earlier notification the court further asked the district magistrate to file their individual, separate compliance reports in the court before the next hearing fixed for August 1 next, informing that they had received the circulars from the Chief Secretary and the DGP with the copies of the order and the notifications and have taken note thereof. The DMs and SPs have been further directed to inform the court that they had issued necessary directions to all concerned SHOs (Station House Officers), who will be held responsible and accountable for implementing the directions within their jurisdiction. If it was ever brought to the notice of the court that the notification has been violated in any area in any manner, the first and primary responsibility shall rest on the SHO, who apart from being dealt with for such violation under law, may also be held liable for action for committing contempt of the court ordered. The petitioner had contended that the provisions of notification of October 31, 2003 and sound pollution (regulation and control) rules, 2000, were being observed more in breach than in compliance.
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Husband beats up wife, attempts suicide
Solan, June 10 Harold, who had checked in the hotel yesterday afternoon, was found in a semi-conscious state amidst scores of tablets of sedative drugs. The hotel staff intimated the police today morning about this visitor after repeated attempts to get his door opened proved futile. The police party, led by DSP Surinder Verma, then broke opened the room and found Thomas in a semi-conscious condition. He was rushed to the local ESI Hospital from where he was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. The police was investigating his antecedents. A case under Section 309 of the IPC for an attempt to commit suicide was registered against him by the Parwanoo police. His wife, who was shifted to the PGI yesterday, had been attacked with a knife and a platter and an iron rod. She had suffered grievous injuries in the head, stomach, face, legs. Thomas, who had left for Kasauli along with his wife from Tipra, near Kalka, yesterday got into some dispute with her. He beat her up severely and then left her to her fate by locking her in a room. Her parents later rescued her when they returned home later in the day. |
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BJP tarnishing CM’s image
Shimla, June 10 Taking a strong exception to the statement of Mr Randhir Sharma, spokes-person of the party, alleging that the Chief Minister was using public funds for fostering his family income, he said it was a futile attempt to sully his clean image. “Such politically motivated and concocted charges are not going to cut much ice as everyone is aware of the selfless and dedicated services that Mr Virbhadra Singh had rendered to the state over the past five decades.” Mr Singhi Ram said pointing a finger at the Chief Minister’s daughter, Ms Abhilasha Kumari, time and again was part of the gameplan of BJP leaders to defame her and Mr Virbhadra Singh. Ms Abhilasha Kumari who had 19 years of experience in legal profession and other standing counsels had been appointed on the basis of merit. She had remained a standing counsel for the Central Government from 1996 to 2002 continuously during various regimes and for various boards and corporations of the state for years together even during the BJP regime, which spoke of her ability and merit both, he said. |
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No corruption, says HP PWD
Chandigarh, June 10 In a communication to The Tribune, the Superintending Engineer (SE), National Highway Circle, Shahpur, has also denied the allegations of adopting a pick and choose policy for selecting contractors. “There is transparency in the system of calling tenders”, he has asserted, adding all the contractors were class “A”. As such, no contractor with “doubtful background” was awarded work. The SE has further added that the quality of work has rather improved due to regular checking carried out by different officers, including executive, assistant and junior engineers. In fact, no portion of the road was in a “pitiable condition”. The Tribune Correspondent adds: The story is based on facts and I stand by it. Taking cognisance of complaints against the officials of the national highway, the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister has already asked the Secretary, PWD, to look into the matter. The complaints were forwarded by the residents to the Chief Minister during his visit to Dharamsala. |
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5 students hurt in mishap
Kangra, June 10 A senior police official, Mr Virender Thakur, said that five students of first year, identified as King Ji Dhar, Munish Yadav, Abhishek Thakur, Aman Thakur and Daleep Garg, were in a drunken condition. They stole the mini bus of the college at midnight and left for Nagrota Bagwan. He said the mini bus dashed against a tree at Rajina. All the five occupants were injured in the accident, Mr Thakur said. Mr Thakur said that all the five injured were shifted to the Dr RP Government Medical College and Hospital, Dharamsala, where from King ji Dhar, who was seriously injured, was referred to the IGMC, Shimla. He said that the police had registered a case under Sections 279, 337,379 of the IPC and Sections 184 and 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act. Dr Suresh Sankiyan, Officiating Principal of college, when contacted, said that the students were drunk and without informing the Warden or any other official of the college they took away the mini bus in the dead of night and while returning from Nagrota Bagwan met with an accident.
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“Need” for paradigm shift in teacher’s role
Shimla, June 10 Speaking at the valedictory session of orientation programme for teachers at the university here yesterday, he said in the present society, the whole development process was becoming knowledge centric. |
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Volvo bus runs out of fuel
Shimla, June 10 The bus remained stranded for over three hours as the driver could not find fuel until this morning. Apparently, the crew failed to refuel the vehicle while taking off from Delhi. As a result the bus arrived here at 9 am more than three hours behind schedule.
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‘Need’ for shift in teacher’s role
Shimla, June 10 Speaking at the valedictory session of orientation programme for teachers at the university here yesterday, he said in the present society, the whole development process was becoming knowledge centric.
— TNS |
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