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Khab dam to be highest in country
Simultaneous elections to MCs, panchayats: CM
MC forced to put off demolition drive
PWD top post sans regular head
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BDOs flayed for opposing promotion quota
of tehsildars
High Court seeks explanation from Sessions Judge, DC
11-year-old, but a class apart
State set to achieve record fruit output
Stone laid for lift irrigation scheme
2 killed in bus accident
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Khab dam to be highest in country
Shimla, November 23 Specifically designed with the objective of protecting the downstream hydroelectric projects from damage due to excessive silt and floods, the dam will cost over Rs 5,000 crore. It will be the second highest concrete gravity dam of the world after the 285-m high Grand Dixiens Dam in Switzerland. At present the 261-m Tihri dam is the highest in the country, followed by 225-m Bhakra dam. The abnormally high level of silt in the river has made it imperative for the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam, which originally planned to construct a run-of-the-river hydroelectric project at Khab by boring a 22-km-long tunnel, to go in for a storage project. The 1500-MW Nathpa Jhakri project was repeatedly shutdown due to excessive silt during the recent monsoon, which cost the nigam over Rs 650 crore. The pre-feasibility report prepared by the nigam indicates that a high dam was required to arrest the 12 million cubic metre (MCM) of silt which the snow-fed Sutlej and Spiti, its main tributary, bring down annually. Further, the structure must be able to take care of eventualities like bursting of the Parechu-like water body which could bring 74 MCM of water in a gush. As per the prevalent standards, a storage dam must have a minimum life of 25 years and taking the silt load and Parechu factor into consideration the minimum height of the dam works out to 275-m, explains Mr Vijay Chopra, General Manager, Infrastructure Design. The project has been designed to generate 1020 MW of power, but the cost of generation will come to about Rs 6 per unit, almost double the normal cost, because of the construction of dam. The cost of the project has been estimated at Rs 10,000 crore and the dam will account for half of it. Thus, to ensure viability the projects located right down to the Bhakra dam, which will directly benefit from the construction of dam, have to share the cost, he adds. The reservoir formed by the dam will extend up to a point just 4 km short of the Indo-China border at Shipki La. Only three villages will be submerged in the sparsely populated tribal area. Even otherwise, villages like Leo which bore the brunt of Parechu fury, are to be relocated at a safer height from the river bank. The power producers of the Sutlej basin have already formed a forum to address the common issues but the Centre will have to work out some formula for cost sharing to make the highest storage dam a reality. |
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Simultaneous elections to MCs, panchayats: CM
Hamirpur, November 23 “The elections to the Shimla Municipal Corporation, however, will not be held along with panchayat elections as its tenure is not yet over,” he said, while addressing a press conference here. The panchayat elections in the state will be held in three phases on December 18, 20 and 22. The Chief Minister said the panchayat elections would not be held on party symbols and expressed optimism that Congress leaders and workers would be able to win maximum seats in these elections. The chief minister said he would extensively tour the districts of Kangra, Hamirpur, Chamba and Una from January next year to ensure an efficient and transparent administration to the people of the state. He said the state government was reviewing its policy of opening new primary schools in various parts of the state, as in some schools, the number of teachers was more than the students enrolled there. Justifying the appointments of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries and Parliamentary Secretaries in the state, he said the previous BJP government had also had made similar appointments during its tenure. The Chief Minister also announced that the proposed judicial complex for Hamirpur would be constructed near the existing Mini Secretariat, saying both were complementary to each other. State Forest Minister Ram Lal Thakur, Excise and Taxation Minister Rangila Ram Rao and MLA, Anita Verma were also present. Earlier, Mr Virbhadra Singh appeared in the court of Hamirpur Special Judge, in the matter of appointment of vidya upasak in the state. He remained in the court for over an hour during which his statement was recorded. — UNI |
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MC forced to put off demolition drive Shimla, November 23 The MC had issued fresh notices to 106 encroachers and given them time to leave the forest land occupied by them illegally till 10 a.m today. However, the demolition drive could not be launched as people gathered at the site of demolition and other places like the CM’s residence and the Deputy Commissioner’s Office to oppose eviction. The MC was to undertake demolition drive to remove 76 encroachments on forest land out of a total of 106. Two days back the MC had undertaken demolition in the Portmore area, near Oak Over, the official residence of the Chief Minister and removed 32 unauthorised structures. There are a total of 916 encroachments on forest land within the MC limits. The demolition drive is being undertaken in compliance with the high court’s directions on removing all unauthorised structures. The total number of encroachments within the MC limits is more than 5,000, which have structures on PWD, revenue and other government land.
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PWD top post sans regular head
Solan, November 23 It was reliably learnt that though in a recently conducted DPC, the name of the senior most engineer Mr S.K Kanwal was cleared for the top post but the official has not been promoted as the ENC till now. The fact that the additional charge has been given to Mr S.C Negi, despite faring lower in the seniority list, it was a pointer towards his elevation to the post of the ENC. Sources revealed that a new post of ENC (designs) was now being created to adjust the senior most official while conveniently adjusting Mr Negi as the ENC. The department had also sought a vigilance clearance from the Director Vigilance, to promote about seven officials. This was now proving to be a hindrance as the vigilance report received on November 19 has mentioned that Mr Negi was found involved in a case registered on December 9, 2003 while he was posted as executive engineer at Dharampur division in Mandi district. Interestingly, the vigilance directorate has sought permission to accord them prosecution sanction in this case. The challan has already been presented in the court and this permission was now sought from the principal secretary, PWD. Mr S.K Kanwal, when contacted, said it was the prerogative of the state government to make such promotions and he would serve the department at whatever post he was posted. The move is not an isolated case as a similar trend has been seen while appointing senior officials of the level of superintending engineers and chief engineers in two other districts. The post of SE Solan was kept vacant for about two months to adjust a candidate of choice. This delayed the promotion of SE Mr D.P Sharma by about two months. On the other hand Mr R.S Kanwar was granted the additional charge of Chief engineer Dharamsala in January while he was due to be promoted in July. |
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BDOs flayed for opposing promotion quota of tehsildars Shimla, November 23 Mr K. K. Sharma, president of the association, said the proposed increase in quota from 22 to 30 per cent was justified as unlike other feeding cadres to the state civil service , the tehsildars had no other avenues of promotion. The tehsildars were integral part of the civil administration and performed multifarious duties like maintenance of law and order, conduct of elections, protocol duties, census operations, relief operations and registration of deeds, besides handling revenue matters akin to the duties of HAS officers. He charged the block development officers (BDOs) with issuing misleading statements on the issue and said the BDOs were not ranked third in the order of merit. The candidates had the choice to opt for the state police service, tehsildar or any other allied service.
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High Court seeks explanation from Sessions Judge, DC
Shimla, November 23 The order was passed by the court on a petition where the court had directed to shift the civil court temporarily till the construction of a building to a suitable place. The Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, and District and Sessions Judge, Kangra, were entrusted with the work to locate the suitable place for shifting the court. High Court received some complaints from Kangra bar and litigants about the place. A two-member committee was constituted to look into the complaints. The committee submitted its report which was placed before the Chief Justice. The order of the court said that the report and photographs paint a pathetic picture of the place where the civil courts of Kangra have been temporarily shifted. The report said that courts have been shifted to an open area and there is no toilets for the judges, lawyers, staff and the litigants. Access to the building is through liquor shop where pandemonium and chaos always prevails. The two courts are functioning in open area without partition and the judicial records and other documents are always at risk. The report said that Director, Sainik Welfare, Himachal Pradesh, and the state government have approved the occupation of Sainik Rest House for temporary shifting the courts. The high court observed that both the district judge and Deputy Commissioner acted in a casual and irresponsible manner in selecting and approving this place for the courts. The division bench comprising Chief Justice Vinod Kumar Gupta and Justice Deepak Gupta said: “We disapprove of the manner in which the Deputy Commissioner and District and Sessions Judge are handling the issue.” The high court directed both these officer to take possession of the Sainik Rest House building for housing the courts temporarily. |
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11-year-old, but a class apart
Mandi, November 23 “My mother has taught me that hardships come in life, but you have to rise above them to accomplish what you want”, says this tiny tot, who shared his thoughts with The Tribune. “My ideal is Dr Kalam and I listen to him whenever he appears on television or in print. I want to become a scientist. I want to raise the prestige of my country in the world”, Tushar asserts. His concept of an ideal pahari village is one where greenery, neat and clean streets, and pollution free surroundings co-exist. But does his unique “powerless refrigerator” hint at a child prodigy in him? “The poor children cannot afford expensive refrigerator and hence this model of earth, pitcher, plant and water using processes of evaporation and condensation to explore how to make it a user-friendly device”, he said. What sets apart Tushar is that while most children were helped by their teachers to prepare the models, under the Teaching Learning Material (TLM) scheme under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), but he gathered his materials and made his models at his own. “He gathered scrap and then prepared the models himself, said Tushar’s father, who is painter here. He watches only two TV channels-Discovery and National Geographic — at neighbour’s house as we cannot afford cable charges of Rs 275 a month, says his mother. Tushar is a Class V student at Government Middle School, Paddal, in Mandi. His school Principal, Ms Himachali Devi, says Tushar excels not only in studies, but also in sports and other co-curricular activities in the entire block. “The talented students from poor social background never get a platform to tap their talents, alleged Ms Himachali Devi. “The selection process during the competition is biased and unfair”, she claimed. |
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State set to achieve record fruit output
Shimla, November 23 Stating this while reviewing the progress of the development activities of the horticulture sector here today, Mr Singhi Ram, Horticulture Minister, said the state achieved the highest-ever fruit production of 6.92 lakh tonnes during 2004-05, an increase of 1.32 lakh tonnes over the previous year. The upward trend continued this year and the production was likely to cross 7 lakh tonnes. A record apple production of 5.40 lakh tonnes had been achieved during the year which was 12,000 tonnes more than last year. As many as 2.42 crore boxes of apple had been exported during the season as against 2.37 crore boxes sent out last year. Besides
fruit, the state was also doing well in allied horticultural activities and it produced 4700 tonnes of mushroom, 1547 tonnes of honey and 28 tonnes of hops. An additional area of 9832 hectares had been brought under orchards, of which 2,350 hectares had been replanted. |
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Stone laid for lift irrigation scheme
Nahan, November 23 The scheme to be completed in two phases with an estimated cost of Rs 1.48 crore will irrigate 178 hectare of land in this part of Doon valley. Addressing a large public meeting at Muglawala, the minister said that Doon valley is grain bowl for the whole state and linkage of irrigation system in the entire valley would improve productivity and create new openings for farmers. The area in an around Paonta Sahib is very fertile which can be irrigated through waters of Giri and Yamuna rivers that flow in this area. MLA Chaudhary Sukh Ram urged the minister to restart IPH schemes in vicnity of Giri river which were washed away during floods and filled with silt. |
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2 killed in bus accident
Kulu, November 23 The deceased were identified as Chandi Devi (28), wife of Naresh Kumar of Bharein village in this district, and Bindu Devi, wife of late Panna Lal of Ghat village, Bali Chowki in Mandi district. Mr Raj Krishan Gaur, Agriculture Minister, visited the injured in the Regional Hospital here and assured all possible help to the families of the victims. |
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L.R. Verma
Shimla, November 23 Prof Verma was earlier appointed member of the National Council of Rural Institute, Human Resource Development Ministry.
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