Shimla, November 20
The state Cabinet today approved the Preliminary Project Report (PPR) for the setting up of the Rs 3,500 crore Himalayan Ski Village near Manali, paving the pay for signing of the MOU.

According to sources, the Cabinet approved the PPR submitted by the Ford, which will submit the detailed project report (DPR) within six months time. The Cabinet, chaired by the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, granted nod to the project after some changes. 

The company will no longer have exclusive rights, as proposed earlier, over the land on which it will be set up. This was the most contentious issue, because of which there had been a lot of criticism. Now the area where the project will come up will be open for other parties who wish to set up some other projects.

The government will provide five acres of forest land to the company on which the ski slopes will be developed. The permission for giving this land to the company will be taken from the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment. Besides, the company will buy the land that is required for setting up of the project. 

The issue of providing 70 per cent employment to the locals in the project was also approved by the Cabinet. 

"Almost 3,500 locals will get job in the project and the government has ensured that the grazing rights of the villagers remain protected even after the coming up of the project," disclosed, Mr G.S. Bali, Tourism Minister. 

Almost Rs 1,500 crores will be spent in the first phase while another Rs 1,700 crores would be spent in the second phase. 

Being one of the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country, the project had attracted a lot of attention, with the main opposition party, BJP terming it as a complete sellout. The party had threatened to launch an agitation in case exclusive rights were given to the Ford.

Mandi, November 20
The state BJP President, Mr Suresh Bhardwaj, today charged the Congress MP from Mandi, Ms Pratibha Singh, with pleading to the delimitation commission to include the Dharampur constituency in Hamirpur district.

Addressing a rally at Dharampur, near here, the BJP chief said the MP had tried to undermine the interests of the locals by recommending to the delimitation commission and the Chief Election Commissioner to exclude it from Mandi district.

He accused the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, of manipulating voter lists and rosters by delaying the process of panchayat elections.

“No notification has been issued so far and the Chief Minister has accepted the defeat after the Guler assembly byelection and the Kaithu ward in the Shimla municipal elections.”

Earlier, Mr Bhardwaj told mediapersons that appointments made on the basis of chits should be probed by the CBI as the Shukla Committee and a Division Bench of the high court had already established a prima facie case and ordered a vigilance inquiry. But the Vigilance and the Home are under him “so we demand a CBI probe” to know the truth, he claimed.

The Dharampur BJP MLA and former PWD Minister, Mr Mohinder Singh Thakur, said Mr Virbhadra Singh had set a wrong precedent by ordering the measurement of land owned by BJP workers.

Among others who spoke at the rally were Mr Ram Swarup, Mr Dile Ram, Mr Ajay Rana, Col Inder Singh and Mr Damodar Das.

Shimla, November 20
The World Bank has agreed in principle to finance a road development project to enable the state to advance the implementation of major roads.

The project is to be implemented from 2007. The state government took up the matter with the bank, which agreed to finance the project. It will be able to start work on double-laning of some important roads within the current financial year. Funds will be placed at the disposal of the Public Works Department (PWD) by the government and the bank will reimburse the amount in 2007. The bank has committed over Rs 1,000 crore.

The State Roads and Other Infrastructure Development Corporation will be reconstituted and made a functional company to implement the project. The Secretary of the PWD will be made Managing Director of the corporation in place of the Finance Secretary.

The corporation will plan, design and assign projects to private companies. The PWD will supervise the implementation of the project. It will be provided requisite staff to undertake the task. While a chief engineer will be inducted as project director in due course, two superintending engineers and other staff will be provided immediately to the corporation.

The work for the up gradation of about 800 km of single-lane road into double-lane highway will be undertaken immediately for which the government will provide about Rs 300 crore over the next 18 months. The work will be executed as per the guidelines of the bank so that there is no problem in reimbursement. One of the conditions is that the work will not be divided and the minimum tender amount has to be Rs 5 crore.

Rajgarh, November 20
Despite inquiry reports confirming illicit felling of as many as 448 trees of deodar and kail in the reserve and protected forests of Tharu and Deothi-Majhgaon in Habban range of Rajgarh division, the Forest Department has failed to initiate action against the offenders. 

This has exposed tall claims of the state government of rooting out corruption. Despite repeated assertions of the Chief Minister in various public meetings, the guilty have been left unpunished. The forest mafia has not only established its stronghold over the area but has managed to transport the felled trees.

The Forest Minister, Thakur Ram Lal, when quizzed, said the reports were being legally examined and action would follow after the opinion is received. This, however, belies all norms since as many as two in-depth inquires have been conducted. An enforcement inquiry was further underway. 

A copy of the two inquiry reports available with The Tribune reveals that no identification or hammer marks were found on the stumps indicating their illegal felling. 

The plea of the local officials that the Himachal Forest Corporation had felled some trees for their use has been negated by the absence of hammer marks. Further, no damage bill was found to have been issued by the Forest Department for the unmarked trees. 

So glaring is the extent of connivance of the field staff that even the number of trees listed by the flying squad are lesser in number than shown in the marking abstract. Illicit felling has been carried out in an area of 33 and 73 hectares, respectively, lying in the reserve forest of Tharu and protected forest of Deothi. 

A total of 448 trees have been felled between the year 2003 to 2005. 

The fact that the field staff failed to produce stump counting register and even failed to pay any visit to the damaged area before the inquiry began points to their laxity. No major allotment of trees for cremation and timber for agriculture implements has been made in the past several years. This further negates the department earlier stand.

With no sanction having been found in the measurement book for Bakhog Block of Habban range, the departmental use for erecting fence posts has also been proved wrong. The department earlier held that 250 fence posts were created by cutting 90 trees from Deothi and Tharu forests. The salvage removals of kail as reported earlier cannot be distinguished from the illicit felling in the absence of identification marks. 

The inquiry concludes that 488 trees have been felled in the compartments 1 and 2 of Tharu forests in the last three years. Out of this, 195 are deodar, 254 of kail and 39 of oak and other species.

Though the report was submitted on October 10, little has been done to punish the offenders.

Mandi, November 20
In its war against the gender gap in girl child’s education, the National Programme of Education for Girl Child (NPEGC) launched in seven most backward education blocks in the state in 2001 has charted a success story with the help of community participation under the Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan (SSA).

The most backward education blocks chosen for the NPEGC included Churah, Salooni, Tissa, Pangi and Bharmaur in Chamba district, Chuhara block in Rohru in Shimla district, Seraj block in Chachiyot in Mandi district and Shillai block in Sirmaur district, which have been covered under the programme this year.

Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of state-level three-day bal mela and exhibitions, which started here yesterday, the SSA coordinators revealed that they accomplished the uphill task through local participation and Kasturba Gandhi residential schools and life-learning skills that attracted girls to schools.

Though the SSA has yet to conduct a study as to know the exact percentage of gender gap in these blocks, the NPEGC coordinators claimed that the gap has been reduced and female literacy has gone up to 54.5 per cent, which is still less than the state average of 68.08 per cent as per 2001 census.

Mr Panna Lal of Rohru gave four rooms for free to run the Kasturba Gandhi School for girls child. Other encouraged girl children to resume education and learn skills like weaving sweaters, table clothes, door mats, baby sets and the like.

How they performed the task? “We organised meeting with villagers and knew their problems. As many 30 girl dropouts learnt life-learning skills in middle school Saloni and it caught the fancy of women”, said Mr Manoj Vij, coordinator, SSA, Chamba district.

In Seraj block, the community participation has helped end the gender gap in girl education. “We organised meeting with the villagers, including women. The girls have to walk two hours from Dand to high school Jarol, said a school trainer, GHS, Jarol, where dropout rate is zero and school has enrolled over 458 children, including 230 girls.

The students are not only taught life-learning skills through the Teaching Learning Materials (TLM), but they are also taught how to eat and live a healthy life as well, which makes a difference now, said Mr H.R. Ratan, District Coordinator, SSA Mandi.

Ms Daya Thakur, a trainer, taught us how to eat and live a healthy life. She taught us how to do yoga. I do it regularly. It has benefit me and my family,” said Ms. Jagdamba Devi, a student of class 8th government high school, Jarol. 

Shimla, November 20
The Himachal Pradesh State Block Development Officers Association has expressed concern over the government’s move to increase the promotion quota of tehsildars to the Himachal Administration Service (HAS) from 22 to 30 per cent.

The association, which met here today to discuss the issue, pointed out that at present a meagre 28 percent quota was available for 13 categories having a cadre strength of about 350. It would be further reduced to 20 per cent making the scope of promotion for the BDO cadre more dismal. The tehsildar cadre with a strength of 105 had already been given 22 percent quota against the direct intake of 30 per cent.

At present the HAS cadre strength was 185, out of which tehsildar cadre had 41 and the BDO cadre only 17.

In merit of the HAS examination the BDOs are ranked third after HAS and HPS. Hence those who opted for the cadre keeping in view the promotional avenues would be affected after the recruitment and promotion rules were changed. Moreover, it would create an anomalous situation. The association has appealed to the government to take all factors into consideration before taking any decision in this regard.

Shimla, November 20
Conforming to international standards and the only one of its kind, the new state-of-art cardiothoracic surgery centre at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), will now enable the holding of open-heart surgery in the state.

The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, yesterday inaugurated the cardiothoracic surgery modular operation theatre and ICU complex at the IGMC. A sum of Rs 8.50 crore has been spent on the construction of the building while the latest machinery and equipment worth Rs 4.35 crore has been installed.

“The starting of the cardiac surgery centre has opened new doors for specialised health facilities to the people of the state,” said Mr Virbhadra Singh. He said an eminent cardiac surgeon, Dr P. Venugopal, and his team from AIIMS would be collaborating with IGMC to establish the facility. He added that doctors, nurses and other para-medical staff were being imparted training by technical experts from AIIMS. 

The Chief Minister said the facility of open-heart surgery would benefit the people of the state, especially the poor sections. “Now people will not have to go to distant places for getting an open-heart surgery and, moreover, this facility will be available at almost half the cost that is charged in corporate hospitals,” he said. Mr Virbhadra Singh said Rs 7-crore MRI facility would be provided at the IGMC within a month’s time. “The new OPD block will be constructed at a cost of Rs 7.5 crore on the Lakkar Bazar road and made functional within 15 months time,” he disclosed. He said two more operation theatres would be added at IGMC, which will increase their number to 12.

The new phase-II building would house the OPDs of skin, ENT, eye, psychiatry, medicine, general surgery and cardio thoracic surgery. Three new regional diagnostic centres were being set up at Solan, Bilaspur and Hamirpur at a cost of Rs 9 crore. A mental health and rehabilitation hospital had already been opened here at a cost of Rs 3.46 crore, he added.

Mandi, November 20
The Divisional Commissioner, Mandi range, Mr S. Subhrahmaniyam, yesterday urged students and teachers to take advantage of the information technology and Internet, which has reduced the world to a global village and the website launched for school children by the President of India, Dr Abdul Kalam.

Addressing gathering of the schools children and teachers and parents from across the 12 districts after inaugurating the three-day-long state-level bal mela cum exhibitions by school children here, Mr Subhramaniyam urged students to take advantage of the IT knowledge and children website in which the President of India, a great scientist, responds answering school children’s queries.

Mr Subhramanyam added that trends in education are changing and the teachers and taught should upgrade their skills from time to time. “The right to education is fundamental and Internet and computer empower a child to bring out the hidden talent in them,” he added. 

He said that the government is charging 2 per cent education cess worth Rs 2900 crore a year, which would be raised for education in the country. “The government is pending Rs 120 crore under SSA,” he added.

The Additional Commission, Mandi district, Mr R.S. Gupta, welcomed participants and urged the SSA Mandi to cover over 300 physically challenged children in Karsog and Dahrmapur blocks under the SSA to give them hotel or training facilities. 
Mr Subhramaniam gave wheel chairs to 13 children and hearing aids to 10 children. In all, over 758 children have got the appliances under the SSA in the state, the SSA coordinators informed.

The school children staged a fancy dress competition, and exhibited their works of arts, showcasing their creations.

The children will have the painting, cartoon, yoga, martial arts, folk dance and film shows, slogan writing, modelling and skits competitions during the mela.

Shimla, November 20
Mr C.R.B. Lalit, Managing Director of the HP Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC), has been conferred with the prestigious Indira Gandhi Sadbhavna Award 2005. 

The Delhi-based Global Economic Council has conferred this award upon Mr Lalit. According to secretary-general of the council Sanjay Singh this award is given to a select band of achievers in the field of industry, business, public life, administration, education service and culture.

Mr Lalit has already received a number of awards in the past also. The award has been given to him in recognition of his services in the field of management and culture.

Kumarhatti, November 20
The Doordarshan Kendra, Kasauli, bagged an award at the fifth Doordarshan Annual Awards function that was held at DD Kendra, Mumbai, on November 16.