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HP gets 22.67 cr for agriculture
Dhumal lambasts Cong govt
Ayodhya temple a national issue: BJP chief
Tourism potential of Mandi still untapped
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9 Corps organises educators’ meet
Regular water, power supply for residents demanded Snag in motor hits
water supply Ban on killing of wild boar to go Marketing agriculture produce via IT Israel keen to provide knowhow on arid farming Compendium released
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HP gets 22.67 cr for agriculture
New Delhi April 29 The scheme was sanctioned at a high-level meeting between the Centre and state government officials here today. J.C. Rana, Director, Agriculture, said out of the total plan, the Centre's share would be Rs 20.40 crore while the state would provide 2.27 crore. He said out of the sanctioned amount, a sum of Rs 894.18 lakh would be spent on agricultural development while Rs 1372.82 lakh would be spent on natural resources management. Out of the total outlay, Rs 136.27 lakh would be spent on women's development while Rs 336.80 lakh had been earmarked for the SC/ST plan. He said a target had been fixed to cover an area of 8.65 lakh hectare under food grains and commercial crops with a production target of 30.26 lakh tonnes, during the year 2006-2007. An area of 7.96 lakh hectare would be put under food grain production to grow 17.81 lakh tonnes of food grains while 12.45 lakh tonnes of commercial crops would be grown on an area of 0.69 lakh hectare. Mr Rana said farmers would be provided financial assistance and subsidy for purchase of improved varieties of seeds of wheat, paddy and pulses. It would encourage them to adopt high-yielding varieties of seeds to register higher growth in production. He also said farmers would be provided assistance for purchasing farm machinery such as small farm tractor, power tillers, power thrashers and plan protection equipment. A sum of Rs 289 lakh would be spent under the programme during the current year.
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Dhumal lambasts Cong govt
Kangra, April 29 Mr Dhumal was talking to The Tribune here today. Deploring the board decision he said the board authorities were asking the private schools to submit NOCs even from those schools which were functioning for the past 40 years. He criticised the Virbhadra Singh government for encouraging encroachments by influential people and forcing the poor and needy people to leave the encroached government land. He said the policy of the BJP government was to regularise encroachments of SC, ST, OBC, disabled people, widows, ex- servicemen and landless people in order to provide them a succor to earn their bread and butter with a condition that the encroachment was not interfering with the traffic in the area. Professor Dhumal alleged that the state government did the reverse of the policy of BJP government. He alleged that people in power encroached the valuable forest land, destroyed forest wealth, and created big orchards, but they were not touched by the present government. but 'khokas' of the poor people were demolished at Chamunda, Kangra and Nadun leaving them in a lurch. Prof Dhumal said 40,000 posts were lying vacant on the one hand and on the other hand, the examinations for the JBT course was canceled thrice, examinations for the post of patwaries, forest gaurds, MPW and Class IV-pump operators were cancelled to surprise of every one. He predicted that the present government would fall at any time as the fate of 19 MLAs, including 12 CPS and PS were hanging. He said that three charge sheets were submitted by the BJP against the government, but none was inquired into.
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Ayodhya temple a national issue: BJP chief
Dharamsala, April 29 Making a blistering attack on the UPA government, the BJP chief said the government had disbanded the special Ayodhya cell set up in the PMO by the NDA government. He said it was strange that the government could hold talks with the Hurriyat leaders, but had preferred not to take any initiative in starting negotiations with the two sides on the temple issue. He said that the next BJP government at the Centre would not hesitate in bringing a legislation to settle the Ayodhya temple issue. Answering a question on floating of a new party by Ms Uma Bharti, he said there were many political parties in the country and there was no talk in the party to take Ms Bharti and Mr Madan Lal Khurana back into the party
fold. Nurpur: Meanwhile, addressing a public meeting at Brijraj Swami Stadium here, Mr Rajnath Singh criticised the UPA government for its failure to check rising prices of essential commodities. Taking a strong exception on the proposal of reservation on religion basis, he said the Congress-led government was raking up the issue merely for vote bank and the BJP would oppose the move in the larger interest of the country. Lashing out at the Virbhadra Singh government in the state, the BJP chief alleged that the work on all development projects in the state had come to halt which were launched by the previous BJP government. He lauded the state BJP leaders for managing the yatra efficiently in the state. The rally was also addressed by former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, BJP vice-president Shanta Kumar and state BJP chief Suresh Bhardwaj.
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Tourism potential of Mandi still untapped
Mandi, April 29 Even tourists who come to visit Manali-Lahaul-Leh Ladakh do not stay the night at Mandi. There are no signboard in the town to guide tourists about the nearby spots like Riwalsar lake, Lomas Rishi caves, Tarna temple and Panchvakhtar Temple. Remote tourist destinations like Mahunag, Kamrunag, Shikari Devi, Jhenjeli, Barot and the Prashar lake are not even taken notice of. The natural salt mines of Drang and Guma, one of its kind in the country, which could have been developed as the new hot spot for health tourism in the country, remains to be developed despite Salt India Limited’s plan to develop it on those lines. Even though the town is locally known as the Chhoti Kashi of the Himalayas with 84 temples, the town is in a dilapidated condition, thanks to the apathy of the HP Art Language and Culture Department. The president of the Progressive Writers’ Association, Mandi, Mr Dinu Kashyap, said the artifacts and works of art of the Chandramani museum were in poor conditions in a private room of its collector, as the government could not provide space for the objects, he rued. The hoteliers said tourists would stay for the night at Mandi if tourism potential of the district was tapped. Barot with its trout-fish farm and cool environment still remains unknown to the tourists. Same is the case with the Prashar lake, residents said. The tourism officials said the Prashar lake was being developed under the Special Area Development Authority (SADA) to make it a new eco-tourist destination in the district. “Stingri and Barot are also being developed for the tourists,” they added.
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9 Corps organises educators’ meet
Dharamsala, April 29 Major-General R.S. Mehta, Chief of Staff, Headquarters 9 Corps, and Chairman of the school, presided over the meeting, which was attended by over 250 participants, including officials of the district Education Department, Principals, teachers and students from different schools of the district. The DIG Police, Northern Range, Mr P.L. Thakur, was also present on the occasion. In his address, General Mehta exhorted the teaching faculty to keep themselves aware of the changes in the school environment, teaching methods, societal demands and children’s expectations and aspirations. He stressed the need to have networking of teachers, students, parents and administrator for all round development of students’ personalities. He also stressed on the need to spread AIDS awareness. Mr A.K. Ambastha, Principal, Army School, said the school would conduct an essay-writing competition with participation from different schools.
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Regular water, power supply for residents demanded Nahan, April 29 Mr Sharma alleged that due to unscientific and unauthorised boreing by several industrialists in the Kala Amb industrial area, the level of underground water had gone down, due to which the Kheri Drinking Water Supply Scheme had failed to pump desired quantity of drinking water for Nahan. She alleged that some of the localities of the town were getting water supply on alternative days or once in three days. She charged that it seemed that the ruling Congress had nothing to do with the problems faced by residents of the town. She claimed that except the BJP, no political party had raised these issues. She also alleged that the administration had imposed the condition of NOC for ground boreing by industrialists when the damage was already done. She claimed that slackness on this issue may create unrecoverable damage to the water supply scheme. She said on the one hand, the Chief Minister was daily announcing that Himachal had surplus power and on the other, unannounced power cuts were being imposed in the town. Regular tripping of power supply for several hours had plunged household industries, business institutes, schools and the public into deep trouble. She alleged that a regular power supply was being given to the Kala Amb industrial area. Officers of the HP Electricity Board were diverting domestic power supply of the town to the Kala Amb industrial area. She demanded ‘white paper’ on the electricity supply to the town and the industrial area under the Right to Information Act,’ so the common man could know the bare facts. She said if the water and electricity supply of the town was not regularised the women wing of the party would begin an agitation against the government.
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Snag in motor hits
water supply Parwanoo, April 29 Besides, a few villages falling under adjoining Chammu panchayat have also been hit. Helpless villagers have no other alternative than to trudge long distances to meet their water requirements. There is a virtual water crisis like situation in area. The discharge in natural water sources was decreasing at alarming level thus causing a panic like situation among villagers. The report of below-normal monsoon has further triggered the panic among villagers. They are clueless to meet their water requirement, in the peak summer season. The disruption of water supply to this area due to snags is a routine affair. The water is being supplied through a three-stage based water-lifting scheme from Kaushalya Khud. A pair of water-lifting motor and pump each have been installed at base of scheme along the khud and upstream area of Chambi and Manjhol, respectively. At every stage of the water scheme, an alternative pump has been installed so that it can be used if the main pump fails. But almost all pumps are on the verge of breaking down. The frequency of snag in motors or pumps is very high. On an average, every week a snag hits water supply. Moreover, long delays in repair makes matter worse.
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Ban on killing of wild boar to go Shimla, April 29 This was stated by Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, while presiding over the district Shimla grievances committee here today. The Chief Minister said the number of wild animals had increased substantially as a result of ban on their hunting in the past over 10 years. He said the government had examined all aspects and after consultation with the experts in the field the ban would be lifted on selected species of wild life. He added that initially the ban would be for one year and extended after review. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the monkey menace was also on the increase in the state and farmers were suffering heavy losses. He said in consultation with experts the government would soon be coming up with four pilot projects under which laser sterilisation of monkeys would be carried out to check their population. He said that feeding of monkeys on the roads had already been declared illegal and warning hoardings had been put up at different places in the state so that people were discouraged from feeding monkeys. He directed the forest authorities to plant saplings which had been the traditional feed for monkeys in forests all over the state.
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Marketing agriculture produce via IT Shimla, April 29 This was disclosed by Mr Satya Prakash Thakur, Chairman, Himachal Pradesh Marketing Board, on the conclusion of a week-long computer training programme organised by Himachal Pradesh Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) for 30 officials of the HP Marketing Board. During the training module, the participants were trained in websites, e-mail handling and other computer programmes so that farmer friendly, marketing-oriented and linkage-based efficiency be brought in the working of the board. He added that the growers were already getting information through the website of the board regarding the latest trends in the national markets and the websites have been linked with AG Mark net. Mr Thakur said the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, Government of India, has already linked the board with AG mark net to provide the latest information regarding the prices of cash crops and horticulture produce of different national markets of the country. He said that in the present era of globalised market, the introduction of latest technology would be of immense help to the farmers of the state. He said the board is contemplating to introduce video conferencing with the farmers at district headquarters so as to keep them abreast with the latest information during the harvesting season. He said the state headquarters had already been linked with the entire district through video conferencing facilities.
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Israel keen to provide knowhow on arid farming Shimla, April 29 Addressing mediapersons here, he said Israeli had developed requisite expertise for growing crops in arid conditions and making optimum use of water. He said he had discussed the issue with Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, and suggested that the state should formulate some projects for the purpose which he would pursue at the appropriate level. He said that there was a close affinity between India and Israel and only next week a high-level delegation was scheduled visit Israel to discuss cooperation in the agriculture sector. It would be headed by the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, and have chief ministers of four states and agriculture ministers of some states as members. Earlier, Mr Danieli called on Mr Virbhadra Singh and discussed the possibilities of collaboration in the agriculture and other sectors. The Chief Minister said the technology developed by Israeli scientists could help the state in greening barren slopes.
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Compendium released Shimla, April 29 The Chief Minister appreciated the endeavour of the author in collecting, compiling and rewriting the valuable information about the forensic science wherein the latest trends of crime investigation had been incorporated.
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