Mandi, August 27
With the last day for campaigning ending today, the CMP-backed SFI, the BJP-backed ABVP and the Congress-supported NSUI are locked in a triangular contest for the Students’ Central Council (SCC) elections scheduled for August 29 in over 85 government and private colleges affiliated to HP University.

Leaders of the SFI, the ABVP and the NSUI addressed general houses separately, on the campus day.

In Mandi, Sundernagar, Jogindernagar, Bilaspur, Ghumarawani, Kulu, Banjar colleges, the SFI, the ABVP and the NSUI held rallies and highlighted their manifestoes among the students to woo them.

Interestingly, the SFI, the ABVP and the NSUI have common set of demands for the most collages, but they charged one another with neglecting the interests of the students.

SFI state vice-president Ravi Mandyal said the state government had been intimidating students as it had imposed Section 144 on the HPU campus.

The SFI accused the ABVP and the NSUI of fielding candidates of the same names as its candidates Pushp Raj (president) and Harish (Vice-president) have greater appeal among the students.

Dismissing the SFI’s charges as baseless, NSUI spokesperson Amit Pal claimed the NSUI would win this time as it had managed to get started B.Ed classes and law courses from the next session at Mandi college.

The ABVP dismissed the NSUI’s claims as “false propaganda” to gain its lost hold over the students. “We swept the poll last year in the college, We will win this time also claimed Hirsh Jamval, an ABVP leader.

KAKIRA (Chamba): The lush green Kakira belt, falling in Bhattiyat subdivision of Chamba district, can best be called the “bowl of pears and citron” of the lower ranges of this alpine region. But the belt has fallen prey to sheer neglect of the state government. The local fruit-growers bemoan that it has remained in limbo so far because the authorities have escaped their attention toward their fruits crops.

Nearly 200 bighas of land is involved in the cultivation of pears and citron comprising Kakira, Jarai, Nainikhud, Tunnuhatti, Ghatasani, Taragarh and Chilma gram panchayats of Bhattiyat tehsil. The production in the entire tracts of orchard is estimated to be around 300 tonnes of each fruit crop.

Residents of local orchards say that they earn thousand of rupees from the combined fruit crops, if the season favours. This year due to heavy rains, the orchardists were benefited and counted much cash. They say that they are dependant on nature and when by the untimely rain and squall their crop is damaged, they are not provided any assistance by the government agencies.

Termites are said to be a menace to the pear plants for which fruit growers spray DDT and the pesticides and insecticides which they use have to be bought from the open market.

The fruit growers, who inlude Mr Madan Suri, Col Narang (retd) and Mr Bishan Dass Choudhary, have been experienceing acute problems of marketing. There is no government purchase centre, which could procure fruit from the local growers at reasonable rates.

Moreover, fruit-growers are harassed by the Excise and Taxation Department at Tunnuhatti barriers as they have always been meted out a step motherly treatment by government departments, as the government does not consider pears and citrons as “fruit crop” barring apples. There is a demand to open a government marketing depot here.

The authorities concerned, however, maintain that they are functioning within the purview of the directives issued by the government from time to time. 

Mandi, August 27
The timber mafia has adopted a new modus operandi for smuggling in the state.

This came to light when 84 fresh deodar sleepers worth Rs 2.50 lakh were seized by the Forest Department at Katindia checkpost, about 35 km from here, last evening.

The sleepers were being smuggled to Una in a truck, which had a temporary registration number. The truck is owned by Deepak Sharma, the kingpin in the illegal trade and resident of Katola under the Drang constituency.

This was the second seizure by the Forest Department from Katola. Earlier, it had seized over 180 deodar sleepers being smuggled out from Katola last month in a truck owned by Deepak, said forest officials.

The Divisional Forest Officer, Mandi headquarters, Ms Upasana Patial, who was at the spot, said the driver and cleaner of the truck did not possess documents and fled the scene.

The seizure revealed the new modus operandi of timber smugglers. They first procure fake bills from outside depots to hoodwink forest guards at check-posts.

They then use a fake stamp to mark the sleepers.

Another dimension of the timber smuggling is that the forest mafia is procuring timber from TD rights holders in villages, which is illegal.

“The government has given depots to private distributors, who are misusing these for timber smuggling,” the officials said.

The Conservator of Forests, Mr C.S. Singh, said the guilty would not be spared and their licences would be cancelled. “We are facing a problem in the Katola wildlife area as it is not in our control,” he said.

Shimla, August 27
Mr G.S. Bali, Tourism Minister, said here today that he was ready to face CBI probe in connection with the “Mumbai musical blast” provided a similar inquiry was ordered into the affairs of the Vivekananda Hospital Trust, Palampur. Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar was associated with the trust.

Addressing a press conference here, he said he would make a written request to the Chief Minister for instituting an inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the trust. He said some BJP leaders of Kangra were levelling charges against him at the behest of Mr Shanta Kumar. They had made serious allegations against Mr P.K. Dhumal, when he was the Chief Minister. He said some of them were involved in kidnapping zila parishad members and police investigation was on into it.

He also denied the BJP allegation of favouritism in attachment of private buses and said bids were invited thrice and finally the rate of Rs 12.50 per km per bus was approved for attachment. The state road corporation was earning Rs 9 per km per bus as its operational expenditure was Rs 21.50 per km per bus. Since the corporation was only providing its conductor and all the income from the bus was going to it, there was no scope for loss. The total income from 117 attached buses was Rs 33 lakh so far.

Similarly, there was no loss form the Volvo buses and the corporation had , in fact, earned Rs 80 lakh from six buses. Himachal had taken the lead in introducing these super luxury buses in the region. The neighbouring Punjab and Haryana were now trying to have such buses, which were not easily available. He also denied giving prime properties to private parties and said all contracts for construction of modern bus stands on “build, operate and transfer” basis were awarded after inviting bids. 

Shimla, August 27
The state government is contemplating to open at least one model school in each subdivision equipped with special teaching aids and infrastructure.

Stating this while reviewing the implementation of various programmes of primary education at a meeting here today, Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, said special attention would be paid to the physically or mentally challenged children. It was the prime responsibility of the state government and it had formulated a number of programmes for their welfare, education and overall development. He said the government was considering to provide educational facilities to such children in at least one school in each subdivision, preferably in a senior secondary school where these hapless children could avail education facilities to pursue studies along with other students. He said it would help the children who otherwise had to go to Shimla and Sundernagar for education.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said the state government had identified 28,936 such children out of which 26,720 had been brought to the mainstream. The 2,700 severely challenged children were being identified and so that they could covered under the individual education plan as a part of home-based education scheme. Possibility of associating non-government organisation was being explored.

The Chief Minister said mid-day meal scheme had been a grand success and all the 6,70,807 primary school students of 10,651 government, alternate and government-aided schools had been covered.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said 14,000 more Aanganwari Kendras would soon be opened in the state bringing their total strength to 24,000.

Solan, August 27
With a view to facilitating the industrialists of Himachal, the All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA) and All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) have decided to open its branches in Himachal. An assurance to provide all requisite support was extended to a delegation of Federation of Himachal Industries (FHI) which met the transport minister Mr G.S.Bali in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The opening of their offices will solve the long- standing problem of the industrialists here who have been complaining that they were being fleeced by the local transport unions. Mr G.S. Bali told The Tribune that talks were already on with the Indian Corporation of Containers in New Delhi to open its outlets in Himachal.

He said this had become necessary in the wake of large-scale investment in Himachal after announcement of the Central industrial package. While assuring the investors of working out a mechanism whereby the industry would be allowed to ply 50 per cent of their own trucks, he said the government would ensure free movement of trucks.

The chairman of FHI, Mr M.P. Mittal, said the measures like fixation of freight charges, allowing hiring of trucks from other states if the local rates were found higher and a free hand to district level officials to ensure implementation of the rates would help in expanding industry.

He informed that the AITWA had assured that preference would be given to local transporters if their rates were found competitive. While promising return load from various destinations in the country the association further said it would ensure making the trips economical for the truckers.

The opening of a container depot at Baddi will specially benefit the export-oriented units who are either made to hire containers from outside the state at higher costs or pay Rs 500 per container to the local transport union. With more and more export-oriented units coming up in the region the demand for this depot has been voiced several times by the investors.

Shimla, August 27
The Himachal Pradesh Employees Confederation has urged the government to take action against the employees leaders involved in the employees accident insurance scam.

Mr Vinod Kumar, a spokesperson of the confederation, said the government had discontinued the scheme after the scandal came to light but it had not taken any action against the leaders who allegedly received commission in the scheme. He said the CBI was probing the case in connection with the irregularities committed in the insurance company but the government could have proceeded against the leaders under the conduct rules. He said failure to act against the guilty leaders was bringing a bad name to the government.

He said the employees had paid Rs 1.36 crore as premium and now that the scheme had been discontinued the amount should be either refunded to the employees or deposited in the Chief Minister’s relief fund.

Shimla, August 27
The Himachal Pradesh government has imposed a complete ban on the excavation of stone, grit and sand in the Chakki khud downstream the Damtal railway bridge.

A notification issued in this regard here today said that no mining would be allowed on the present course of the khud up to the highest flood level. The permission already granted stood withdrawn and the stone crusher units dependent on raw material from the khud had been directed to shift their mining activities to other suitable areas other than the present course of the Chakki khud.

The ban had been imposed on the recommendations of the B.C. Negi Committee Study Report on the functioning of stone crushers and its allied activities, which observed that the Chakki khud had attained its base level and as per norms should not be disturbed any further by mining activities at all costs.