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Rs 4,000-cr Centre package for HP
Sloppy workmanship pours silt in Sutlej
Direct HC to decide case, senior citizen writes to SC
Plan to raise medicinal plants
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Release of DA instalments sought
Meeting on forest sector development plan
Assess rain loss, Dhumal to CM
Encroachers on the roads
face eviction
Japanese team visits Solan villages
Senate poll: faculty keeps away
HP facing terrorist threat: Viresh
Baddi police station
understaffed
Intruder at HAS exam centre
Armed Battalion’s raising day
Advocates suspend stir
Boy crushed to death
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Rs 4,000-cr Centre package for HP
Shimla, August 7 Giving details of the package in a suo motu statement he said in all it had 11 elements comprising Railways, human resource development, drinking water, road connectivity, airports and civil aviation, tourism, plan financing, power, information media, financial restructuring and irrigation. The Prime Minister’s special development initiative for the state included Rs 1200 crore Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri railway line, which he promised to take up for full funding by the railways as national project. At Nangal Talwara rail line to be completed by 2008 at a cost of Rs 400 crore and examining the feasibility of Rs 200 crore Chandigarh Baddi railway link for which survey would be completed by December, 2005. Another related issue was the setting up of an Inland Container Depot at Baddi and the Container Corporation of India had been requested to examine the feasibility. All these announcements add to Rs 1850 crore at current prices. Further, a grant of Rs 20 crore was announced for upgrading the infrastructure of the three universities in the state, a special project would be taken up under “Bharat
Nirman” to cover the left out 6000 habitations by the year 2007 at a cost of about Rs 518 crore and special assistance of Rs 366 crore to provide road connectivity to 257
panachyats. Other elements of the package included Rs 100 crore for extension of three airports Rs 97 crore for nine tourism projects, raising states equity in
Rampur, Khab and Luri projects from 25 to 30 percent and 20,000 DTH boxes free of cost for the remote tribal areas of the state. Dr Man Mohan Singh also assured support for structural adjustment of facility to reduce debt burden and in fact, the Planning Commission had already granted approval in principle for framing a detailed proposal. |
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Sloppy workmanship pours silt in Sutlej
Shimla, August 7 The situation is worst in the catchment of the Sutlej, which has become the most polluted river of the state. A study conducted by the engineers of the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam, which is finding it difficult to operate the 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri project because of excessive silt in the Sutlej, has revealed that the source of silt is not in the tributaries like Spiti and Parechu, which originate and pass through the erosion-prone cold desert areas of Ladakh, Spiti and Tibet. The fast-flowing river is being polluted due to tonnes of debris being thrown by the state Public Works Department and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the two main agencies involved in the construction and maintenance of roads in the region. The engineers were surprised to find that the level of silt at the Nathpa dam continued to be over 7,000 ppm (parts per million) even though when it came down to under 2,000 ppm at Khab, where Spiti joins the river upstream. Further investigations to identify the source of pollution revealed that it was the debris being dumped into the river after cutting the hills to widen roads. They identified as many as 18 points up to Nathpa where debris thrown on hill slopes was being washed into the river by rain. Besides, they also identified six side streams like Panvi and Baspa , which were carrying a high amount of silt. The situation has aggravated following the recent floods as restoration and repair work is gong on a war footing on the National Highway-22 and the old Hindustan -Tibet Road. The nigam has taken up the matter with the state government and urged it to take effective action to ensure that the muck was not thrown on slopes and was dumped properly. It has also urged the government to take up the issue with the BRO, which maintains the national highway that runs close to the river. The engineers are of the view that the catchment area treatment (CAT) plans for various hydroelectric project is not enough to deal with the problem as it does not take into consideration factors like road construction. The CAT plan covers a large area and does not take care of specific problems. A separate project was required to focus on highly erosion prone pockets and the sources of silt created due to unscientific dumping of debris. In fact, out of the six tributaries identified as source of silt three are not covered in the CAT plan. This clearly indicates that inadequacy of such plans in addressing the problem of soil erosion in the catchments of rivers on which hydroelectric projects have been set up. A workable alternative could be to construct a series of dam on the river instead of long tunnels to generate power. It would also help break the speed of the fast flowing river, says Mr H.K. Sharma, Chairman -cum-Managing Director of the nigam. |
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Direct HC to decide case, senior citizen writes to SC
Sundernagar, August 7 Mr Hari Singh, retired physical education teacher and resident of
Kalwaa, along with other teachers had filed a petition before the Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal in 1991 pertaining to some service benefits, which were declined to them by the state government, but the same was dismissed in 2001. He, along with one other teacher, challenged the order of tribunal before the Himachal Pradesh High Court, which was admitted for hearing vide CWP No. 511/2001. According to Mr Hari Singh, he is a senior citizen and has filed applications for early hearing of the case six times but these applications have been dismissed. Now he has written to the Chief Justice of India to issue directions to the high court to decide his case soon in accordance with the law. The copies of the letter and order sheets of the high court were circulated by the applicant to mediapersons along with the postal receipt vide which the application has been sent to the Chief Justice of India through the Registrar-General of the Supreme Court. In the past the Supreme Court has issued guidelines to various courts that the matters pertaining to senior citizens be decided on priority basis. While talking to The Tribune he said many persons who were interested in the fate of the case had expired and many were in 70s. |
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Plan to raise medicinal plants
Kumarhatti, August 7 The proposal has been prepared by the Forest Development Agency, Solan, and will be executed by the village-level committees constituted for the purpose, informed Mr Alok Nagar, DFO, Solan, Forest Division. It would be implemented in three years (2005-2008) . While explaining the proposal, Mr Nagar said about 57 per cent of land in Solan district was either barren or very unproductive. It was principally utilised as grazing ground for the livestock, which occupies a key position in the day-to-day lives of the people, he pointed out. The 20.5 per cent (700 sq. mt. ) of the total geographical area of the Solan Forest Division was legally defined as forest, and all of government. wastelands were so notified as to require the concurrence of the forest Department for any non-forestry use, asserted Mr Nagar. Effectively, a majority of the land in Solan district and even in the entire state was being grossly under-utilised from the standpoint of income generation, he said. In other words, these lands offer tremendous opportunity to supplement peoples’ incomes if only one could desire suitable wages, he maintained. |
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Release of DA instalments sought
Shimla, August 7 Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Verma said the government had discontinued the scheme after one year at the behest of the leaders involved in the scam and without taking the employees into confidence. He said instead of taking action against the leaders who benefited from the illegally paid commission, the government chose to disband the scheme. He demanded that the premium paid by the employees should be refunded. Mr Verma said the scam came to light after the CBI raided the office of United India Insurance Company here. The pace of investigations had been slow, he alleged. He also demanded the immediate release of two instalments of dearness allowance, which had been due more than a year ago. He lamented that the benefit of merger of 50 per cent dearness allowance into the basic salary was not being given in respect of house rent.
— TNS |
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Meeting on forest sector development plan
Palampur, August 7 Mr A.R.M. Reddy, DFO, Palampur, chaired the meeting. Despite inclement weather and downpour people from distant places like Tatwal Tati in Sansal panchayats and Chotta Bara Bhangal areas attended the meeting. Over 100 delegates participated in the meeting. While addressing the meeting, Mr Reddy said Sansal and Luai panchayats consisting of five wards each were selected during 2003-04 under the Forest Sector Reforms Project funded by the Himachal Pradesh Government and the DFID, UK. People were migrating to Kinnaur, Lahul and Spiti from these areas in search of work as labourers despite the region being full of natural resources such as water, green cover and good soils. He said so far Rs 5 lakh had been spent on the income generation and development activities in each panchayat for the construction of tanks and kuhls to facilitate irrigation in the areas. He said in 2005-06 and 2006-07 the pasture development programme and afforestation in 54 hectares would be carried out, besides other development works such as check dams, water harvesting structures, bridges, construction of roads, repair of tanks etc. would be taken up. More than 36 user groups have been constituted from these panchayats for growing off season vegetables, bee keeping, Lungru pickle making, making of jam and squashes from Brass flowers, making articles from Nirgal bamboo, mush room farming, rising of medicinal plants, fish farming and cheese making. |
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Preserve forest wealth: Dhumal
Shimla, August 7 Presiding over the function, Mr Prem Kumar
Dhumal, a former Chief Minister, expressed concern over the fast-depleting green cover in the state and called for drastic measures to check the felling of trees. He said the preservation of forests was essential for the survival of human life on the planet. He said it was not enough to plant saplings. The young plants should be protected and nurtured until they found roots. He asked those present to ensure that every single sapling planted by them was properly looked after. Earlier, Ms Sonia
Bhatt, general secretary of Manas Kalyan, detailed the activities of her organisation. |
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Assess rain loss, Dhumal to CM
Shimla, August 7 In a letter to Mr Virbhadra Singh he said vast tracts of fertile land had been washed away and in Sujanpur tehsil villages located along Beas the from Sachuhi to Bir Bagera had been severely affected. All protection works along the banks had also been washed away exposing farm land to the fury of the river. In Bhoranj tehsil some houses were inundated in Dhareen and Chamboh villages and landslides had endangered houses. Most of the roads had been damaged in Samirpur, Bharatyani, Jeeh and Sangroh and houses had developed cracks. The National Highway-70 was getting eroded at four places between Hamirpur and Awah Devi and immediate protective measures were required. |
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Encroachers on the roads
face eviction
Mandi, August 7 Though rules have been finalised, the revenue and PWD departments have completed over 90 per cent of the road map, revealed sources here today. The state government has sought extension of the deadline from August 31 to September 30 this year to submit the road map to the high court through the Chief Secretary as the Revenue Department has yet to enter the khasra numbers on the road map, sources informed. The high court, in fact, had directed the state government to prepare the road map after the filing of the PIL in the court a few years ago, following large-scale encroachments which have resulted in congestion, causing road accidents in the state. In Mandi district, over 2739 km of roads under the PWD are being mapped. We have completed over 90 per cent of the mapping with the help of the revenue department, informed Mr N.K. Jindal, Superintending Engineer, PWD, Mandi. |
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Japanese team visits Solan villages
Shimla, August 7 Giving details of the project, Dr J.C. Rana, Director of Agriculture, said the JICA had agreed to fund the development study report. A master plan would be prepared on diversification strategies for the proposed project to be implemented at a cost of Rs 80 crore. The main target group would be the small and marginal farmers and the main goal was to boost farm income and productivity, women empowerment, employment generation in rural areas, promotion of agri-business activities and infrastructure upgradation for post harvest, processing, storage and marketing. The delegation had a detailed discussion on the proposed project with the Director of Agriculture and other stake holders like horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries, Himachal Pradesh Marketing Board, irrigation and scientists of both agriculture and horticulture university. It visited Shoghi, Kalog, Mehog, Kufri, Jenedgaht villages of Solan and Shimla to take stock of farming situation and interact with farmers. |
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Senate poll: faculty keeps away
Solan, August 7 Sources in the university say this is a clear indication of the lack of interest shown by the associate professors, professors and assistant professors who have two representatives in the senate. Faculty members say the senate has become a body lacking powers to implement its own decisions. |
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HP facing terrorist threat: Viresh
Nahan, August 7 Mr Shandilya claimed that he had specific information that terrorists were very active in the border areas of Chamba district. They had even established their camps in these areas, he added. He said he would share this information with the Additional Director General of the HP police (CID), Mr B.S. Thind. |
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Baddi police station
understaffed Baddi, August 7 The area has three police stations at
Parwanoo, Batoriwala and Nalagarh. While Barotiwala police station has one police chowki at Baddi, Nalagrah police station has two police posts at Jogon and
Dabota. There are just about 100 personnel in these posts. The area has 60 cops of constable rank. According to police officials, the area should have at least 50 constables to maintain law and order effectively. At
Parwanoo there are 30 police personnel to keep a check on the law and order besides performing duties for VIPs passing through the Kalka-Shimla
national highway. As the route is regularly used by VIPs cops are unable to solve the cases. The investigating officers have to remain busy in VIP duties. The VIPs duty should not be given to police station staff, said an
official of Parwanoo police station. In past few months the accident cases have considerably increased in the Baddi area. The reason was attributed to bad and congested roads, no proper parking places and lack of traffic police. The theft cases in units and residential
area were on the rise. The understaffed police was unable to perform night patrolling. On an average each cop has to perform 12-hour duty in a day. The area has limited number of vehicle for patrolling. But the sanctioned monthly consumption of diesel for four-wheeler was just 50
lts. However, the police needs 300 to 400 lts diesel per month to perform its routine duties.
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Intruder at HAS exam centre
Solan, August 7 He tried to prevail upon the officials on duty that he had been sent by the HPPSC Secretary to enter the examination
centre. The officials on duty, however, were not convinced and they telephonically asked the HPPSC Secretary, Mr
O.C. Sharma, at Shimla about him. Mr Sharma said he had neither authorised any such person nor could he allow anyone to intrude in any examination
centre. The senior assistant, Mr Jasbir Singh, who was on duty at the
centre, later submitted a complaint to the police. |
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Armed Battalion’s raising day
Shimla, August 7 Addressing the jawans on the occasion, Mr Sanjay Kumar said the battalion had been doing a splendid job in supplementing the efforts of the police in maintaining law and order. He said training was being given more impetus and under the modernisation plan, state of the art security and communication facilities would be provided to the police forces. |
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Advocates suspend stir
Shimla, August 7 It was decided at the meeting that the cases registered against the advocates during the agitation would be withdrawn and a committee would be constituted for making suggestions for the mode of payment of tax. The committee would comprise the Excise and Taxation Minister and five advocate members. It would suggest the mode of payment of professional tax and also the implementation of other demands. |
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Boy crushed to death
Kumarhatti, August 7 |
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