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Satellite Town
Scanty rain hits crops in lower areas
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Sundernagar Cement Plant Forest Dept to count trees to be axed Mandi, January 11 The Department of Forests would undertake a fresh joint inspection and the counting of trees to be cut down for the controversial 1.7 million tonne capacity Sundernagar cement plant as the tree species have grown up both in size and number in over 467 hectare of areas earmarked for the mining for the plant since 2005 when the company was given the no objection certificate (NOC) by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
Ministers prefer general category staff
Aiyar’s advice to PCC, panchayati raj body
Jai Ram, Sarveen flay Musafir
Colloquium on PNDT Act
Bindal assures help to charitable organisations
State to set up talking libraries for special kids
Members threaten to lock coop society office
Seminar on uplift of farmers held
Domestic help flees with Rs 3.58 lakh, held
Multiple use of syringe alleged
Complaint against truck operators
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Satellite Town
Mandi, January 11 According to sources, the government issued the Section 4 notice to acquire the 1,200 bighas of land at Nasloh. Out of this land 240 bighas is government land and rest is private, sources added. If one goes by the plan of the HIMUDA and the Town and Country Planning (TCP), Nasloh town would provide modern amenities, sewerage system, roads, street paths, green parks and other facilities to its residents, officials said. “There would be provision for housing of weaker sections as well,” they added. HIMUDA, chairperson, Ganesh Dutta said, “The Section 4 notice has been issued and process has already started to acquire land, develop plots and houses for applicants. It will be a modern township providing all facilities.” Town planer AN Gautam said Nasloh township would go a long way in decongesting this ancient town, which had no land available for housing. He said the villagers have raised no objections, as their land had no agricultural value. The satellite townships are being developed in Dharamsala, Mandi and Shimla and other towns just to decongest these, catering to housing needs and checking their mushrooming growth, he explained. |
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Scanty rain hits crops in lower areas
Dharamsala, January 11 The farmers said there had been no rains this December, due to which more than 60 per cent crop had been damaged. Besides scanty rains, farmers alleged that they failed to get fertiliser at the time of sowing that had also affected the yield. Most of the farmers in lower areas are dependent on rain for agriculture. This is for the second consecutive winter that the farmers of lower areas are facing draught-like situation. Last year also farmers of lower areas, including Una, Hamirpur and Kangra district had suffered about 80 per cent damage to crops. The Department of Agriculture had sent reports regarding damage to crops of farmers, but the government had failed to provide any compensation. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal when asked about providing compensation said the crop insurance scheme had been implemented for the farmers. However, since the holding of farmers in the lower areas is very small and most of them do not have the capacity to subscribe to crop insurance scheme. The crops in lower areas have sustained only in small pockets where the lift irrigation schemes have reached the fields. The lift irrigation schemes are, however, limited to very small pockets. Some of the farmers have also created their own system of irrigation in Una district and the Chari area of Kangra district. Ironically, the worst affected areas are the Changar area located near the Pong Dam wetland and the Kutlehar area near the Gobind Sagar Lake. The government can easily create irrigation facilities for farmers in the said areas by lifting water from Gobind Sagar and Pong Dam lakes. However, sources in BBMB, organisation that controls both the reservoirs, told that till date the Himachal Government had not submitted any irrigation or drinking water scheme to them for approval. Due to drought-like situation and lesser land holdings agriculture is becoming unviable in lower areas. The farmers here are resorting to doing petty jobs in plains rather than doing agriculture in their own fields. The CM, who is himself, holding the agriculture portfolio had announced many schemes as promoting poly-houses for creating sustainable agriculture in lower areas. However, owing to poor financial condition of farmers of these areas the government would need a hurricane effort to create interest of people in innovative schemes. Increasing the land ceiling could be one such measure. As per the present ceiling the holdings of farmers have been reduced to so small sizes that agriculture on them is not sustainable. In addition to that the land consolidation had not taken place due to which even small pieces of lands of farmers are scattered. |
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Sundernagar Cement Plant
Mandi, January 11 According to sources, the MoEF had already given approval to the diversion of 173 hectares of forest land in 2005 on which over 5,800 trees of chil pines, jamun, toon, kohi, semal and species would be cut down making a way for the mining of the cement plant. In fact, the company has asked for the diversion of over 467 hectares of land for the mining that falls in the Demarcated Protected forests (DPF) Tarambri, Keran Shil and Behali Badaran and in the un-demarcated forest (UDF) area on which over 11,630 trees would be cut down. Over 2,726 trees are in DFP Tarambri, 5,800 in Behali Badaran, 1,720 in Keran Shil, and 1,384 trees are in UDF (un-demarcated forest), revealed sources. The company has demanded over 467 hectare area for the mining from the MOEF, but it still awaits approval as the MOEF is apprehensive of the damage that mining and quarrying would do to the wildlife and greenery, revealed sources. The Sundernagar Sangharsh Samiti (SSS) and Puryavaran Sangharsh Samiti (PSS) have asked the state government to cancel the MoU signed by the government with Harish Cement Ltd, a subsidiary of Grasim Industry Ltd, Mumbai. The fresh enumeration of trees in the mining area has come as major relief for the samiti, demanding shifting of the site to the Nalini area. On the other hand, the company has pleaded that they have presented the DPF to the MOEF, which had given them NOC way back in 2005. The company will pay the cost of trees to the state government, it added. Conservator of Mandi district, BD Suyal said, “The MOEF has given permission for the diversion of 173 hectare area on which over 5,800 trees would be cut down in a phased manner. The counting of trees will be done freshly to assess total value as permission was granted in 2005,” he added. Suyal said the new saplings of trees have come up and they have grown in size on the mining site. “We will examine all other aspects related to wildlife and apprised the MOEF about it. We may go for fresh enumeration of trees at the mining and plant sites,” he added. |
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Ministers prefer general category staff
Shimla, January 11 The ministers have full freedom to choose their personal staff. However, while exercising that discretion, they somehow end up favouring the general category. This interesting fact came to light after RTI activist Dev Ashish Bhattacharya gathered information from the Government of India under the Right to Information Act. Out of the total staff of 229 pertaining to 48 union ministries for which information was made available, 206 were from the general category. The percentage came to 90. Of the remaining, 11 officers were from the Scheduled Castes (SC), two from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 10 from Other Backward Classes (OBC). Out of the 48 private secretaries, 43 were from the general category, four from SC and one from ST categories. Similarly, of the total 71 additional private secretaries, 67 were from the general category, one from SC and three from OBC categories. In case of assistant private secretaries, 60 out of the total 67 were from the general category, six from SC and one from ST. Out of the total 43 1st personal assistants, 36 were from general category while seven were from the OBC category. Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh, who has emerged as a crusader for the reserved categories under the UPA regime, has not opted for even a single officer from the reserved category. All seven officers in his personal staff were from the general category. Similar is the case of Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. He has four officers in his personal staff and none of them is from the reserved category. All six officers chosen by the commerce minister are also from the general category. While all officers in the personal staff of Shipping and Surface Transport Minister TR Balu are from the general category, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has opted for an assistant private secretary from the SC category while his other four officers are from the general category. Minster for Social Justice And Empowerment Mira Kumar has opted for an assistant private secretary and 1st personal assistant from the SC category while the other four are from the general category. Bhattacharya says the information exposes the double face of the leaders for whom reservation is merely a ploy to pursue vote-bank politics. If they ignore the reserved categories in making appointments where they have a free hand, what moral right they have to plead for reservation. Had the politicians been sincere about uplifting the needy and really deserving among the deprived sections, they will not have raised the creamy layer limit to reward the rich and the influential and restricted the reservation benefit to one-time for a family, he says. |
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Aiyar’s advice to PCC, panchayati raj body
Solan, January 11 He was addressing a regional conference of the RGPRO here today. Representatives of the organisation from Solan, Sirmaur, Shimla and Kinnaur districts participated in the conference. Aiyar said panchayati raj representatives were the torchbearers of democracy in the nation as they directly faced the masses. Extending a lesson to the state leaders in strengthening this crucial pillar of democracy, he said the sole reason why the ruling BJP had scored over the Congress was due to lack of booth-level committees. He urged state president of the RGPRO Ranjeet Singh Verma to come out with suggestions regarding PR bodies that could be incorporated in their party manifesto for the forthcoming elections. State PCC president Thakur Kaul Singh said the BJP’s one-year rule was replete with anti-people decisions like removal of PTA teachers with no alternate arrangements till today, shortage of staff in hospitals and bungling in the purchase of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). He expressed optimism that the Congress would win all four Lok Sabha seats from the state. CLP leader Vidya Stokes, former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, PCC spokesman Kuldeep Rathode, state president of the RGPRO Ranjeet Singh Verma also addressed
the gathering. |
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Jai Ram, Sarveen flay Musafir
Shimla, January 11 In a joint statement, the two leaders pointed out that the present government had more than doubled the budget for the SC sub-plan from 11 to 25 per cent. The previous Congress government had made a provision of Rs 231 crore, whereas the BJP government increased the allocation to Rs 594 crore, a hike of more than 157 per cent. Further, the social security pension had been increased from Rs 200 to Rs 300 per month and it would be further hiked to Rs 330 from this month. The daily wages had also been increased from Rs 75 to Rs 100. It had also launched a scheme under which Ambedkar Bhawans were being constructed in every assembly constituency. The Congress ignored the weaker sections while being in power and made appointments through PTA teachers and water carriers ignoring the reservation and roster system, they said. Having a dig at Musafir, they said the former Speaker could do little for the weaker sections while his party was in power and now he was making false charges against the BJP government. The fact that 18,000 post of reserved category were vacant indicated that the Congress had not taken any initiative to fill those posts. |
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Colloquium on PNDT Act
Shimla, January 11 Another recommendation was that anybody accused under Section 25 of the Act, which provides for imprisonment up to three months and a fine, be tried summarily on the spot for which Sections 261 and 265 of the Criminal Procedure Code be made applicable. Director of the state judicial academy, which organised the colloquium, said another important recommendation was that the chief medical officers should be given a fortnight training on the enforcement of the Act so that they were able to take care of all legal aspects involved. Special teams comprising chief medical officer or a senior medical officer and deputy superintendent of police or a police officer not below the rank of inspector having not less than five-year experience be constituted at the district level to plug the loopholes. The offenders should invariably be arrested, as it was a non-bailable offence, and produced before the magistrate for bail or remand. In every case, an FIR must be registered and probe held. Director of Health Services Sulakshana Puri said various steps were being taken to control female foeticide in the state and surprise raids were also being conducted. She said training and awareness workshops were being organised to acquaint doctors and health workers to improve the sex ratio. She said district advisory committees had been reconstituted in the state. Since it was a social problem, concerted efforts were required to change the mindset of the people, she added. |
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Bindal assures help to charitable organisations
Kangra, January 11 Health Minister Dr Rajeev Bindal today assured the Vivekananda Kendra, a spiritually oriented service with headquarters at Kanyakumari, that all facilities would be provided to the kendra for holding surgical camp in Dr RP Government Medical College Hospital at Tanda. He expressed gratitude to Dr Sanjay Sachdeva, director, Fortis and HOD ENT, for his contribution through the kendra in the field of health care in the state. Bindal said he would direct the DRPGMC hospital authorities to provide theatre and other facilities for carrying out the ENT surgical camp without any hindrance. He said this when approached by the organisers regarding some inconvenience they were facing in holding the camp in the service of mankind. The kendra had been organising free ENT camp every month in this town for the last one year where Dr Sachdeva was rendering his yeoman services. He also operated upon some patients during two surgical camps at DRPGMC, but due to some avoidable circumstances the surgeries could not be carried out in the hospital putting nearly 24 patients to inconvenience. The kendra also organised OPD today at Gopal Bag locality of the town where 98 patients were treated. Bindal personally thanked Sachdeva for his contribution. Dr Sachdeva offered free services of reputed cardiologists like Dr U Kaul and Dr Mohant and his personal services for the students of DRPGMC so that the students of this college could get the best possible and latest techniques of surgeries in different fields. He suggested organising workshops in this hospital, which would attract doctors of repute towards this college. |
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State to set up talking libraries for special kids
Shimla, January 11 This was stated here yesterday by Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Sarveen Chaudhary while presiding over a function organised by the National Federation Of Blinds (NFB) to mark the 200th birth anniversary of Louis Braille, who invented the Braille script for the blind. She said the talking libraries would be set up at two schools for blinds and deaf located at Dhalli and Sundernagar, the latter would also be upgraded to plus two level. The government is creating adequate infrastructure for training, manpower development and research to provide services to persons with disability for which the Composite Regional Centre, Sundernagar, was acting as nodal agency. She said blind people, recruited on daily-wage basis, would be regularised and vacant posts under reservation for the disabled persons would be filled. She said the government had decided to give convenient postings to employees with more than 60 per cent disability. North zone coordinator of the NFB Jage Ram underlined the need for setting up a state-of-the-art institution for the education of the blinds in the state. Chairman of the state chapter of society for disability and rehabilitation studies said bureaucratic hurdles were coming in the way of implementation of the people with disability act in letter and spirit. |
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Members threaten to lock coop society office
Hamirpur, January 11 A meeting of the society was held here today. An ultimatum was served on the government that the office of the society would be locked after 15 days if no action was initiated against the office-bearers of the society allegedly involved in irregularities. Members of the society, who have been raising this matter for quite some time, had met the DC, Hamirpur, a few days ago and urged him to take action on their complaint. Society members have been alleging that the secretary of the society and a few other office-bearers have “misused” funds of the society without seeking approval from the general house besides committing some other irregularities. The members have alleged, “Loans to a few people not residing in the jurisdiction of the society were not only sanctioned against the norms, but even waved off without the approval of the general house.” Another issue resented by the members was “investment of Rs 7.7 lakh in Bajaj Allianze and about Rs 2 lakh in Reliance Money without their knowledge or approval from the House.” The members are also opposing “the manner in which the salary of the secretary of the society has been fixed.” |
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Seminar on uplift of farmers held
Bilaspur, January 11 Manch president Nanak Chand Thakur and general secretary Jeet Ram Kaundal said here today that the seminar was addressed by a team of specialists from Chaudhary Shravan Kumar, HP Agriculture University, Palampur, and it was led by Dr KK Katoch and consisted of veterinary specialist Dr YP Thakur, health specialist Dr Arun Animal, soil health specialist Dr NK Sankhyan, vegetables production specialist Dr Ravinder Singh, husbandry specialist Dr Amit Animal and compost specialist Dr Subhash Vermi. These specialists gave discourses on proper utilisation of all cattle products like cow dung and cattle urine and its use for preparing vermicompost and for common manure which could be very useful for production of crops apart from increasing production capacity of fields, which had been depleted due to excessive use of chemical fertilisers. Chand and Kaundal said some 700 farmers and milk producers from 70 villages who are attached with this manch participated in these two-day discussions. |
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Domestic help flees with Rs 3.58 lakh, held
Palampur, January 11 Inquiries made by The Tribune revealed that Gautam Rana, a vegetable seller of Gharana village, had employed a “sadhu baba” as domestic help in his shop. Earlier, this baba was looking after the local temple. Last night Rana brought the sadhu baba to his residence and they slept in a same room. Rana had kept cash for payments in Sabzi Mandi, Hoshiarpur. At midnight sadhu baba fled away along with a bag of cash amounting to Rs 3.58 lakh. In the morning Rana was shocked to see that sadhu had decamped with his bag containing cash. He immediately reported the matter to the Bhawarna police. Wireless messages were flashed to all police stations in Kangra and adjoining Hamirpur district. Later in the afternoon, Bhawarna police with the help of Jawalamukhi police nabbed the culprits at Jawalamukhi bus stand and recovered the entire cash. |
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Multiple use of syringe alleged
Nurpur, January 11 According to information, Neelam Kumari an anganwari worker of Kandwal Anganwri Centre near here has submitted a written complaint to the subdivisional ayurvedic officer yesterday alleging that ayurvedic doctor on duty had been using single syringe needle for more than one person to take blood samples for testing their hemoglobin. She in her complaint asserted that, however, she had no knowledge of health treatment but she was aware of the fact that using of single syringe needle for more than one person could be dangerous and even fatal. In this connection, Dr Kushal Sharma the subdivisional ayurvedic officer, Nurpur, admitted that he had received the complaint from the anganwari worker and sought explanation from the alleged ayurvedic doctor. “If the doctor on duty is found erring, an action will be taken against him,” he added. |
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Complaint against truck operators
Nurpur, January 11 The society has also lodged its complaint against office-bearers of the beopar mandal for thrashing one of its members. DSP Bidhi Chand Verma said the police had started investigations into the complaints and soon action would be taken. The Broker Association-cum-beopar mandal, Damtal, in its complaint alleged that the society members with their musclemen had descended the premises of the grain market on January 8 and forcibly took away loaded trucks HP38-A 6011, HP38-1514 and HP57-4217. Beopar mandal president Raj Kumar has claimed that the director of the cooperative societies, Shimla, had directed the society not to interfere in the trading activities and enforce its bylaws only on members of the society. |
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