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Road, telecom links remain snapped
Forums support Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti
Traffic jams on Kalka-Shimla highway irk commuters
Flow of water into Bhakra, Pong dams decreases
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Mishap-prone spots identified
Resentment among docs over non-revision of pay
SJVN grounds Khab storage project
Legislators from Theog to support BJP
Dhumal urged to ban boating in Renuka Lake
Gallantry award for naval officer
Projects for Sirmaur welcomed
Girl dies on way to Manimahesh
1 killed in accident
Woman found murdered
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Road, telecom links remain snapped
Shimla, August 17 Rohru, Chopal and some other areas in the upper Shimla region became inaccessible from the state capital as a massive landslide blocked the main road near Chhaila. The road leading to Solan from Sainj was also blocked by landslides. The road connecting Uttarakhand from Tiuni was also blocked. In the adjoining Sirmaur district, the Paonta-Shilai road was blocked between Sataun and Kamrou. The Chandigarh-Bilaspur national highway was blocked at Swarghat for sometime. There have been several instances of traffic disruption on the highway over the past fortnight as debris generated by mining activity was washed down on to the road. Several other roads in the apple belt were blocked by landslips. This added to the woes of growers who were unable to pluck fruit due to continual rain. The vegetable growers of the region were also a worried lot as their cabbage crop had started rotting due to rain. The maize crop has been affected in the entire state. The damage had been as high as 70 per cent in the mid-hill areas. Rain has affected telecom services severely. Both landline and mobile connectivity in Kinnaur, Rampur and parts of Shimla district was affected. In Shimla, some landlines connection were out of order for the past three days. Power supply was also affected as uprooted trees snapped transmission lines at some places. Meanwhile, Solan recorded 21 mm of rainfall, followed by Shimla (20 mm), Dharamsala (17.7 mm), Sundernagar (16.1 mm) and Una (4 mm). According to the local Met office, the rain will continue over the next 24 hours. |
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Forums support Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti
Kangra, August 17 P.R.Agnihotri and R.D.Sharma, presidents of the two forums, respectively, denounced the action of the Jammu and Kashmir Government for the revocation of the land diversion orders under the pressure of anti-national elements, which has deeply hurted the sentiments of people. Both the leaders said it had also acted as a precipitating point for the present agitation. The genesis of the present turmoil lies in the soft approach of the successive governments. They suggested that remedy was lying in a strong deterrence for the extremist anti-national elements and encouragement to the nationalist elements both in Kashmir valley & Jammu province. Both the leaders requested authorities to take the remedial measures based on justice and equity to defuse the present turmoil, in the first instance by restoring 39.88 hectares of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board and by sacking Governor N.N. Vohra for his failure. |
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Traffic jams on Kalka-Shimla highway irk commuters
Solan, August 17 The situation has been aggravated by the huge influx of trucks. Truckers have to commute daily on the NH-22 due to the ongoing apple season. “It is a painstaking experience to remain stranded on the Kalka-Shimla highway for hours amidst hundreds of vehicles. The movement of vehicle is one-way. The Parwanoo police has ensured that the vehicular movement is smooth downhill. But with a huge traffic jam at Kalka, the situation is worsening” rued Arvind Kumar, who was travelling with his family from Chandigarh to Solan and was struck near Timber Trail Resorts today evening.
With apple season at its peak, trucks are a part of the traffic on the Kalka-Shimla highway. The ongoing rain had further added to the problem, as landslides along the highway had shrunk the roads at several places. The Parwanoo police posted additional staff to control the jam, but it was the traffic from Pinjore and Kalka that led to uncontrolled traffic jams along the Kalka-Shimla National Highway, said Parwanoo SDPO Ramesh Pathania. He added that despite taking up the issue of traffic mismanagement at Kalka-Pinjore several times with the administration of Panchkula, little had been done to ease the situation. Traffic jams had become a daily headache for the police. Poor condition of road with potholes had further aggravated the traffic situation at Kalka and Pinjore that caused traffic bottlenecks. This not only slowed down the pace of the traffic, but also disrupted its smooth movement on the highway. The situation was particularly worse near a temple close to the Parwanoo barrier, where the road is narrow with potholes. With hundreds of tourists visiting the hill stations of Shimla and Kasauli at the weekend, huge traffic influx had added to the problem. The Haryana government did little to improve the condition. The road extending from Kalka to Parwanoo barrier remained at its worst. The road has not been repaired for years. The worst sufferers were the patients, who were not able to reach PGI, Chandigarh, in time. The district administration of Solan, too, had harrowing experiences at times with the cavalcade of VIPs getting stuck in the traffic. There were occasions when VVIPs, including judges, ambassadors, politicians, got struck in the traffic jam for hours causing embarrassment to the district administration. |
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Flow of water into Bhakra, Pong dams decreases
Mandi, August 17 The water level at Bhakra dam on Satluj river today was 13 ft below the highest level of 1,684 ft and Pong Dam’s level remained 15 ft below the highest level
of 1,390 ft. Engineers of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) said the flow of water into Satluj and Beas rivers had decreased, as there was no rain since
last night. Director, regulation, BBMB, R.K. Garg, said, “We have released 37,000 cusecs of water from Bhakra dam and 19,000 cusecs from Pong dam today to take care of the safety of the dams and flood situation in Swan and other rivulets at the boarder areas of Pathankot and Una.” “Floods in Ferozpur and Moga have been caused by the Swan river. We have released 23,000 cusecs of water to generate power that goes into canals for irrigation purpose in Punjab and not into the Satluj river,”
he added. Garg said levels of Bhakra and Pong dams were being monitored round the clock and were safe. Superintending engineer, BBMB, M.L. Gupta, who is in charge of the 990-MW Beas Satluj Link project, said, “The flow of water into the Beas river in Pandoh dam has decreased to 26,000 cusecs from the highest of 41,000 cusecs, recorded three days ago. Last year, inflow reached to 55,000 cusecs.” Similarly, the inflow into the Satluj river has decreased from 65, 388 cusecs, recorded between 6 pm and 6 am today, to 81,110 cusecs, the highest recorded on
August 13. Water level in Bhakra dam today reached to 1669.20 ft, which is still 15 ft below its highest level of 1,684 ft. |
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Mishap-prone spots identified
Shimla, August 17 Singh said he had ordered the department to put warning boards at these points to caution the travellers. He said the state government had also drawn attention of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) on the issue and sought its help to reduce the rate of accidents. The state has nine national highways measuring 1,260 km. The minister said the department had also started sapling plantation along the highways for protection and their beautification. The accident rate is very high in the state as its roads are narrow and have several sharp turns. —
PTI |
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Resentment among docs over non-revision of pay
Shimla, August 17 They were appointed on a monthly salary of Rs 16,000 and still continue to draw the same amount although their batch mates, who joined in November and December, 2005, on contract basis were regularised by the previous government along with their seniors. The services of all doctors who had completed one year or more were regularised last year by granting one-time relaxation in the recruitment and promotion rules. In all, services of over 450 doctors were regularised. In the meantime, the Assembly elections were announced and the services of remaining doctors could not be regularised in 2007. It was expected that the new government would regularise their services by according the same relaxation. However, it started fresh recruitment on contract basis at much higher monthly emoluments of Rs 23,000 and Rs 26,000, depending on their posting in rural and difficult areas. There is resentment among old appointees who were still getting Rs 16,000 per month. They want their services to be regularised and salaries on a par with fresh appointees. |
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SJVN grounds Khab storage project
Shimla, August 17 Engineers of the SJVN said with the consecution of a project upstream Khab, it will not be possible to construct the proposed 275 m high dam at the site. The dam with a storage capacity of 500 million cubic metre would have been the second highest concrete gravity dam of the world after the 285 m high Grand Dixiens Dam in Switzerland. The Tehri dam is the highest in the country, followed by Bhakra dam. Chairman-cum-managing director of the SJVN H.K. Sharma said the Khab-I and Khab-II projects were combined into a single storage project of 1,020-MW to find a permanent solution to the problem of excessive silt, which had forced repeated shutdown of the 1,500-MW Nathpa- Jhakri project. It would have benefited the six-mega projects coming up on the Sutlej downstream Khab. With Yanthang-Khab coming up close to Khab, only a run-of-the river project of 636-MW would be feasible. Studies conducted by the engineers revealed that the snow-fed Sutlej and Spiti have been bringing down 16 million cubic metres of silt annually at Nathpa dam. At Khab, the confluence of Sutelj and Spiti, the quantum of silt was 12 million cubic metres out of which 6.5 million cubic meters was being contributed by Spiti. A storage dam at Khab was proposed to help arrest 12 million cubic metres of silt to ensure smooth running projects downstream. It would have taken 28 years to exhaust its storage capacity at the current level of silt content. However, to prolong the life of dam and permanently solve the problem of silt, the Nigam had also proposed three more dams, two on Sipti at Poh and Rangrik, and one at Powari, downstream Khab. With the main storage dam project grounded the plans for other three dams would have to be given up. |
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Legislators from Theog to support BJP
Shimla, August 17 He said his supporters, which included 25 panchayat pradhans, 14 block samiti members and chairman of
zila parishad Hem Raj Verma, have joined the BJP along with hundreds of supporters, which would certainly The decision of Verma and his supporters to throw their weight with the BJP also indicated that the Dhumal Government was doing well in the state. Their decision would certainly
help accelerating the pace of development in Theog. |
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Dhumal urged to ban boating in Renuka Lake
Nahan, August 17 Thanking Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal for making announcements of more than 147 crore of rupees for the development of Sirmaur, they hoped that more than three-decade-old demand initially raised by 18 gram panchyats of Sirmaur and social organisations to stop boating in the Renuka lake would be fulfilled by the Chief Minister. Boating was hurting the religious feelings of the devotees, as tourists threw wine bottles, fast food packets and mineral water bottles in the lake while boating. It was causing an environmental hazard too. He said the existence of the biggest natural lake of the state was in danger, as heavy silting had already destroyed the one-fourth portion of the lake. A number of other NGO’s, including Vishwa Jagriti Manch, SIDHI, and Swami Shish Pal Upadhaya, chairman, Trimurti Natural Healing and Research Institute, have also written to the Chief Minister to impose a permanent ban on boating in the holy lake. They said despite their month-long protest against boating, the previous Congress government did not hear their voice. Although Renuka Development Board has to decide on the allotment of the tender of boating for next year, NGO’s and saints of Renuka Ji are up in arms to stop boating in the lake. In the press statements NGO’s, SKS and PPPSS have announced that a big yagya that includes performing of Shrimad Bhagwat, Shat Rudri and Shat Chandi rituals would be organised for the speedy development of the Sirmaur district from September 18. |
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Gallantry award for naval officer
Shimla, August 17 Shwet, who belonged to Bilaspur district, died trying to save the lives of five sailors trapped on the ship on which gas leakage
took place. His widow, Charu Gupta, who received the communique, said, "I have received a letter from defence secretary Vijay Singh that the President of India has announced a gallantry award for Shwet, who sacrificed his life for the nation." In May, she had written to naval authorities demanding a gallantry award for the officer. Shwet had struggled for life for nine days after the February incident and died at a hospital in Delhi. Six sailors died in the gas leak on the INS Jalashwa, which is the first ship to be transferred from the US, besides being the first Landing Platform Dock (LPD) to
be acquired by the Indian Navy. — IANS |
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Projects for Sirmaur welcomed
Nahan, August 17 The Himachal Pradesh State Non-Gazetted Employees Federation has also welcomed the announcements. Addressing mediapersons, NGOs’ state president Ram Singh said the Chief Minister announced grant of 6 per cent DA to more than 3 lakh employees and pensions since January this year, which would cost Rs 225 crore to the government. |
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Girl dies on way to Manimahesh
Chamba, August 17 In another incident, Suraj and Vijendra of Hamirpur were injured after being hit by boulders that rolled down the hill at Kalidhar. The were on their way back from Manimahesh at that time. |
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1 killed in accident
Shimla, August 17 The deceased was identified as Sita Ram of Tikri village. Seriously injured Laik Ram and Dinesh, both of Chopal, were referred to the IGMC here. Two other injured were hospitalised at Chopal. |
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Woman found murdered
Mandi, August 17 The daughter of Biyasa Devi told the police that she saw Ganga Devi running from the field where her mother’s body was lying. They had a dispute over land and this was said to be the reason behind
the crime. Biyasa Devi was reportedly hit on the head with a stone. The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination. |
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