Shimla, July 16
The police will set up anti-human trafficking units (AHTU) in six districts of the state, including Sirmaur where reports of forced marriage of girls from Shillai area into Haryana for monetary considerations has been widely reported but no case has registered so far.

The six districts of Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Kangra, Kullu and Chamba where the problem of human trafficking seems to be more will have one AHTU to be set up under the scheme financed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

These units will function in close coordination with other agencies like the Women and Child Welfare Department, the Health and Family Welfare Department, the Labour and Employment and Prosecution Department.

With only 25 cases under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA) registered in the state during the past 10 years, statistically it may seem that the hill state is not really plagued by the problem but that might not be true reflection of the actual problem, which exists on a larger scale.

Major tourist destinations, pilgrim centres and urban centres along highways, especially on the Parwanoo-Shimla highway, have gained notoriety for flesh trade and human trafficking in some form.

However, the CID wing of the police has admitted to incidents of sale of girls by way of marriage, at times on more than one occasion from the Shillai area in Sirmaur and the outer Seraj area in Kullu into parts of Haryana, having a miserably screwed sex ratio.

It is a ticklish problem having socio-cultural connotations but the police has to act within the ambit of law while dealing with such cases as there are a lot of gray areas, admitted Director General of Police D.S. Manhas. He said it was a problem which could be tackled only through joint efforts of all.

There have been reports of forced marriage of girls for monetary considerations from Sirmaur into parts of Haryana on account of its very low female sex ratio but on conducting a survey informally, nobody came out to establish such illegal transactions, said Punita Bhardwaj, SP (CID), who has been looking into various aspects of the problem of human trafficking, be it in the form of forced marriage, labour or sexual exploitation.

Chairperson of the State Commission for Women Ambika Sood felt that the problem of human trafficking need to be dealt with joint efforts from all. “We held a camp in Shillai, urging women to come forward with their problems but nobody spoke of the sale of women from the area, she says.

As per CID figures of missing persons in the state till June-end this year, there were 294 women and 156 men who had disappeared. As far as children are concerned, the number of missing girls was 39 and boys 51 till June end this year.

Hamirpur, July 16
Putting mandatory print of “government supplies” on medicines supplied by a private company to the Health Department meant for free distribution to public at Hamirpur regional hospital has raised eyebrows. More so, since according to the accepted norms, these medicines should have been stamped at the factory itself where they were manufactured.

It is notable that huge quantity of medicines and injections are purchased by the state for all government hospitals, many of which are supplied directly to them.

It is clearly mentioned on the wrappers that these are not meant for sale and to be distributed to patients free of cost.

According to norms of the Health Department and instructions from the state drug controller, no supply of medicine is accepted in the hospital without having such print on the wrappers.

Surprisingly, not only huge quantity of medicines and injections were accepted in Hamirpur regional hospital without the mandatory print, the same was being printed in the hospital store, raising several questions.

According to sources in the office of drug controller, medicines supplied by the company should bear the mandatory print and medicines supplied without such print should not be accepted by hospital authorities.

Drug inspector Sunny Kaushal said, “Medicines procured by the state government for public distribution through the hospital should get the mandatory slogan ‘government supply’ printed by the company. If this is being printed at Hamirpur regional hospital it is gross violation.”

Hamirpur CMO Dr DS Chandel said , “We had detected medicine supplied by a company in our store without the mandatory print and brought this fact to the notice of the company after which they deployed their men to put stamps on the wrappers. However, we will inspect these medicines and send them back if not found as per mark.”

Shimla, July 16
Eleven persons were killed in four separate accidents in Shimla and Kinnaur districts during the past 24 hours. Three persons, Devender, Amrit Lal and Vidya Sen, were killed when the Santro (HP57-2132) they were travelling in washed away in the Sutlej near Bhagat Nullah in Pooh subdivision of Kinnaur district. It was a Himachal roadways driver who noticed a body on the riverbank this morning and alerted the police. Two bodies are yet to be recovered.

In another mishap, four Nepalese labourers were killed when the jeep they were travelling in rolled down a deep gorge near Kak Sthal in Tapri area, killing all four. The deceased include Kedar Prasad, Rajender Bhalla, Suraj and Lima Lama. The vehicle was on its way from Ramni Nullah to Tapri when the mishap occurred.

Another Santro fell into a 1,000 feet deep gorge near Jeori on Shimla-Kinnuar border today. Three people were killed out of which only two, Shiv Kumar from Chamba and P.K. Mishra from Nainital, have been identified. They were on their way to Kinnaur when the accident took place.

Rash and negligent driving by a driver of the Pollution Control Board resulted in the death of one person and two seriously injured in Chhota Shimla area last night. Bhagat Ram, an employee in the Vidhan Sabha, died while two others were admitted to hospital.

The police also registered a case of rape against Vikki of Krishnanagar of the town on the complaint of a married woman. She alleged that the man was her neighbour and had been sexually exploiting her for the past several years.

Chamba, July 16
Office of the Resident Commissioner (RC) headquarters at Killar in the mountainous tribal subdivision of Pangi in Chamba district was reduced to ashes in a fire which broke out at 12 pm last night.

According to a report received here today, a few other offices, which were housed in the same building, including the Education Department, Youth Services and Sports, Special Area Development Authority (SADA) and a store of the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP), were also reduced to ashes within no time.

Chowkidar at the RC office was sleeping on the first floor of the building when he saw smoke billowing.

“As I opened the door, I saw flames coming out. I jumped from the first floor to save myself and hurt my ankle before raising an alarm,” he said.

Killar sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Karam Singh Choudhary said according to preliminary assessment, tentative loss caused due to the fire was estimated at more than Rs 1 crore.

He said the RC office was constructed in 1988 and was renovated a few years ago. Besides, renovation work of the building was still going on, the SDM added.

The building housed seven big rooms and a multipurpose hall. The adjoining premises of the integrated tribal development project and the information and public relations department were also damaged partially.

In the absence of a fire brigade in the Pangi tribal valley, local residents from nearby housing colony swung into action and struggled hard to douse the flames.

Mandi, July 16
As Rohanda community health centre (CHC) in the district has existed only on papers since 2007, activists of the Kisan Sabha, accompanied by local villagers, today gheraoed the Rohanda Block Medical Officer’s (BMO) office for two hours, demanding more doctors, pharmacists, nursing staff and indoor facilities according to norms of the CHC.

Despite the fact that the Rohanda CHC was upgraded from primary health centre in 2007, the Health Department had not sanctioned posts of doctor, nurse and pharmacist according to norms even after three years. This raised ire of residents as the CHC caters to over a dozen panchayats in the area.

Leading the protestors, Kisan Sabha activists Bhupender Singh and Kushal Bhardwaj said they welcomed the government’s decision to shift office of the BMO from Bhangrotu chowk to Rohanda.

However, they rued that the CHC was functioning on papers only as the Health Department had not sanctioned staff according to the CHC norms.

“We have to go to Sundernagar or Mandi for indoor facilities, spending anything between Rs 300 and Rs 500,” they said.

Construction of the CHC building at Rohanda has not begun due to lack of land. Even doctors have no place to sit.

The activists claimed that they met the Heath Secretary and raised the demand for sanctioning of the posts of three doctors, a pharmacist and a staff nurse for the CHC.

Mandi CMO Dr AB Gupta said two doctors had joined the CHC two weeks ago. “We have sent the requirement of other staff to the government and new recruitment is under process,” he added.

For the new building, the department is facing shortage of land near the old building. “We have asked locals to identify land so that construction can start as there is no shortage of funds,” he said.

Shimla, July 16
Chief Secretary Asha Swarup has underlined the need for speedy reforms to improve efficiency of the power sector and ensure quality power at competitive rates.

Addressing the inaugural occasion of symposium on “Policy Issue on Electricity Reforms and Solar Power Generation in Himachal Pradesh”, organised by the National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, in collaboration with University of Technology, Sydney, here today, she said the state took a long time in unbundling of the state electricity board but it should be used as an opportunity by learning from the experience of the states which carried out the exercise at the outset.

However, the process of reforms had taken off ever since the state constituted the electricity regulatory commission. Its orders had indeed brought efficiency in the functioning of the state utility, though a lot more was needed to be done, particularly in the distribution company, after unbundling.

The government had fine-tuned its policy to encourage the private sector in the generation by promoting open access and allowing freedom to sell power. The government was also aware of the need to harness solar energy and it had set a target of generating 10 MW by 2017 through the state power corporation. The state electricity regulatory commission had it mandatory for the distribution company to procure at least 0.1 per cent solar energy in 2011-12 and 2012-13.

In his keynote address, Prof. Deepak Sharma from University of Technology said reforms had brought down power tariff in Australia by 50 per cent as privatisation led to reduction in manpower. However, the prices of electricity were again moving up as the companies had to factor in the environmental costs, procure fixed quantum from of power from renewable resources and take care of carbon aspect in view of the climate change.

Mandi, July 16
Residents feel insecure in this temple town as the police has failed to solve the murder mystery of Tek Chand, a local contractor-cum-money lender from nearby Bari Gumanu village even after two years. The police has put up a challan in the court declaring the accused as untraceable.

The police claimed that it questioned 200 persons, including the two local prime suspects in the last two years. The investigating officers were changed time and again so were police officers, but there was none who could solve the mystery.

RTI bureau president Lawan Thakur said Tek Chand disappeared from the town in broad daylight on July 2, 2008, but police remained clueless about the killers. The probe was slacking as certain influential local politicians and contractors did not allow the police to work independently, he said.

The highly decomposed body of Tek Chand was fished out from Sundernagar canal after 26 days. The post-mortem report found some injuries and marks on his body showing that he was kidnapped and then done to death, sources revealed.

The police investigation into the case revealed that Tek Chand had borrowed loan worth Rs 40 lakh from the State Bank of Patiala and had funded a road contract about worth Rs 1 crore to one contractor from Mandi”.

The police investigation revealed that Tek Chand disappeared under mysterious circumstance from the town soon after the police registered a case of the controversial benami royal property sale deed early this month. Tek Chand had also involved in the deal though two agents.

Mandi SP S M Agnihotri said the police investigation would continue even if the challan had been put up in the court.

Bilaspur, July 16
The general house of the district unit of the Himachal Pradesh State Beopar Mandal will meet here on August 1 and consider various difficulties of traders and steps to get redressal of their long pending problems.

General secretary Purushottam Dutt Sharma said here today that this was decided at the district executive committee meeting presided over by district president Raj Paul Sankhyayan here last night. The meeting also decided to hold its election on that day and elect new executive committee.

The meeting strongly criticised the 1.25 per cent increase in VAT on items connected with households and house constructions etc and demanded that it must be withdrawn as it would also funnel price rise in other items of daily consumption.

The meeting demanded that the mid-session increase in VAT should be curbed. It said all new systems in taxation should be introduced from beginning of a new quarter and not from the middle of the quarter as the new 13.75 per cent VAT has been introduced from July 15.

Shimla, July 16
With 53 new cases of diarrhoea surfacing at various hospitals and dispensaries in the state capital, the government today alerted people against consuming water from traditional sources throughout the state.

A committee under the chairmanship of Health Secretary PC Dhiman today reviewed the situation arising due to outbreak of diarrhoea, especially in the Sanjauli area of Shimla.

People have been advised to drink boiled water and not consume water from traditional sources like bowris as it is not treated.

Four teams comprising health, IPH, urban development, district administration and Municipal Corporation officials have been formed to inspect the affected wards of Shimla town, which are Sanjauli, Chamyana and Kasumpti.

Dhiman said while only one patient was admitted to Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), the rest were given treatment in the OPD.