Shimla, July 15
Normal life in most parts of the state was disrupted as widespread heavy rain caused numerous landslides, blocking roads at several places during the past 14 hours.

The upper areas of Shimla district were cut off as a major landslip blocked the Kotkhai road near Gumma. The Kotkhai, Jubbal and Rohru bound buses were terminated at Gumma and Chhaila.

The National Highway-22 was blocked at Kalimitti and Jhakri as a result Kinnaur district was completely cut off. The Shimla-Karsog road was blocked near Churag, but the traffic was restored by the evening. The ongoing widening of road between Kingal and Odi blocked drainage as a result of which storm water inundated some houses and agricultural fields.

The traffic on the Junga-Chail road, Mahsobra-Khatnol and several other link roads was disrupted. The local depot of the state road transport corporation had to suspend bus services on 14 routes.

The local roads leading to Annandale helipad and Bharari were also blocked by landslides. There is a demand for handing over the Annandale road to the PWD as the local municipal corporation has allegedly not been able to maintain it properly. The Shimla-Bilaspur road also remained affected for some time due to landslide at Tutu.

Meanwhile, the city recorded 135.9 mm rain, followed by Dharamsala (109 mm), Sundernagar (86.1mm), Sunni (77 mm), Rampur (42.8 mm) and Pandoh (34 mm).

KULU: Vehicular traffic remained disrupted for the second day today on the Manali-Leh road between the Beas nullah and Rahla Fall due to a heavy landslide 31 km from Manali yesterday.

No tourist or passenger was reported stranded the HRTC.

Mr K.B. Raju, Commander, 38 Border Road Task Force (BRTF), revealed that the necessary machinery and adequate labour had been deployed to clear the road. He was hopeful that the road would be thrown open by Saturday.

Meanwhile, the recent floods in the Solang nullah have damaged the road from Palchan to the Solang valley as a result the Solang valley has been cut off from Manali.

Mandi, July 15
The Bilaspur police has frozen assets worth lakhs of three persons arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act for past few years in the district.

Superintendent of Police, Bilaspur H. Chandershekhar said that police had frozen assets of Anoop Singh of Mazari in the district after he was arrested under NDPS act on March 16 this year, seizing 6.7 kg of poppy husk from his possession. The police froze Rs 2.46 lakh deposited in various banks in the names of his friends and relatives, he added.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Ms. Bindu Rani found that Anoop Singh had bought 18 biswas of land in his name at Mazari, 15 marla land in his wife’s name at Anandpur Sahib in Punjab and tanker(PB-12-G-9837) in the past six years. Mr Chandershekhar said that the freezing order of the assets had been confirmed by the Competent Authority, New Delhi, the statutory body set up under the NDPS Act. “After the assets are frozen the accused would not able to dispose these of”, he said.

The police investigation found that Anoop has also two kanal and 15 marlas of land and an LIC policy of Rs 5 lakh was detected in the name of the accused and his relatives. “This also has been frozen and referred to the Competent Authority, Mr Chandershekhar said.

He said that the police had also frozen assets worth Rs 18.94 lakh of Jagat Singh, of Marzi. He was arrested at Kot in the district. In the third case the police has also frozen the assets including 20 bighas of land, investments worth Rs 2.92 lakh in LIC policy of Shyam Lal, resident of Sungal arrested under the act, he added.

Mr Chandershekher said that the motive is to “deprive them of the ill-gotten wealth”,

Mr Chandershekar said that whenever a drug trafficker is booked under the act, the police would also investigate the financial assets of his relatives, friends and others connected with him. If the assets are not found commensurate with the known sources of income these would be frozen under the legal provision under the NDPS act”, he added.

Shimla, July 15
The Spanish authorities have issued a speeding ticket to a Himachali man who says he has never been to that country in his life, the police said today.

Ravinder Wasan, a resident of Dharamsala, was found speeding in his Opel Astra in Acronia town of Spain on March 20 by the Spanish authorities and has been asked to deposit Euro 200 or face action.

The one-page letter addressed to him in Spanish says he was driving the vehicle (B9173 NK) at 76 km per hour as against a speed limit of 50 km an hour at 9.14 a.m. on March 20.

Wasan says he had applied for a passport on February 25 and received it from the Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh, only on April 27 this year.

The envelope of the letter received by Wasan bears his name and Civil Lines address.

The district police has taken up the matter with the Deputy Director (Coordination) of the Interpol wing of the CBI in New Delhi, saying that it would help verify if the letter was authentic. — UNI

Shimla, July 15
Engineers of the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam have managed to operate one 250 MW unit of the 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri project even though the level of silt in the Sutlej remained beyond the permissible limit of 5,000 ppm (parts per million).

The silt content at the Nathpa intake continued to be about 7,000 ppm, but the engineers worked on the strategy that drawing less water from the dam will slow down its speed and it will carry less quantity of silt into the head race tunnel. Initially, an attempt to run two of the six generating units was made but the level of silt, though reduced, remained high.

However, when only one unit was operated the level of silt came down to 4,500 ppm at the powerhouse. As a result it was possible to operate one unit to generate about 6 million units of power.

The project was shutdown on June 25 and the nigam has suffered a loss of Rs 190 crore since.