Bankhandi (Dharamsala), July 26
The state government has planned a major investment in forestry-related activities. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, while presiding over the 61st state-level Van Mahotsav function organised at Bankhandi, 40 km from here, said Rs 123 crore would be invested by the state government in forestry-related activities in the current financial year.

Data collected by The Tribune regarding the status of forests in the state has some concerns for the policy makers and environmentalists. In the recent past, the Government of India announced green bonus for the Himalayan states. The state got about Rs 100 crore as green bonus under the scheme, which was the lowest amount among all Himalayan states of the country.

Even states like Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand received more green bonus than the state. Jammu and Kashmir got Rs 160 crore under the scheme while Uttarakhand got about Rs 205 crore. The eastern Himalayan states got much more funds due to larger percentage of forest cover.

According to sources, the state received least green bonus due to lesser percentage of dense forest cover. The power projects have adversely affected the dense forest cover in the state. In the past two decades 9,000 hectares forest area has been diverted to power projects.

The forest cover in the state increased from 26 per cent to 44 per cent after above the snowline areas were removed from the formula used by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) to calculate the amount of forest cover in respective states. However, even this increase in forest cover was the lowest in case of the state.

Dhumal also said this year thrust would be on growing medicinal trees and herbs as they have been over exploited in the state by unplanned commercial use. “Only afforestation of medicinal plants in a big way can help restore the balance. We have entered into an agreement with Yog Peeth of Baba Ramdev that has consented to buy the entire herbal produce of the state for production of herbal medicines,” he added.

Global warming was a threat to society and steps have to be taken to check it. He also claimed credit for allowing the felling of khair trees and opening of 393 sawmills that were banned by the Supreme Court.

“The ban of felling of trees on private lands and rationalisation of wildlife sanctuaries will benefit 767 villages and population of 1.12 lakh,” he said.

The CM said another monkey sterilisation centre would be opened in Una district. He also paid tributes to Kargil martyrs. A grant of Rs 5 lakh was announced for Government Senior Secondary School at Bankhandi.

Vikram Thakur, former MLA and vice-chairman of the HP State Forest Corporation, also welcomed the Chief Minister and appealed to the people in general to actively involve themselves in Van Mahotsav.

Shimla, July 26
While questioning wisdom of the state government in allowing coming up of 18 private universities in the hill state, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) today said it would raise the issue at the national level.

Addressing a press conference here today, Ravi Kumar, national secretary, ABVP, said a small state like Himachal topped the list in the country with regard to having the maximum number of private universities. “Even a big bigger state like Tamil Nadu comes a close second with 12 private universities. Hence, there is no justification in the government granting approval to so many private varsities,” he quipped.

“We want to ask Chief Minister PK Dhumal if any survey has been undertaken to assess the need for universities in Himachal,” he added.

He said the universities did not offer any concessions to students from the economically weaker sections of society not did it offer reservation for students from scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories.

Ravi said the ABVP was vehemently opposed to the opening up of so many universities. “We will raise the issue at the national level as this would only lead to commercialisation and privatisation of education, making it difficult for those from economically weaker background,” he said.

Umesh Dutt, another national secretary of the ABVP who hails from Himachal, said these universities did not have proper staff and infrastructure to offer quality education of high standard.

“A few universities have still not started functioning but are holding placement fairs to attract students,” he said.

He also dismissed the proposed move to frame regulatory laws as he felt this was insufficient. “We will raise the issue of charging of exorbitant fees by some of these universities during our national agitation as it is against the interest of the student community,” he said.

Solan, July 26
Detection of toxic chemical phenyl from the viscera of dead fish, which were killed in Chikni river early this month, has set alarm bells ringing for the State Pollution Control Board.

These findings have emerged from the twin reports of two laboratories of the pollution board as well as the Shimla-based laboratory of the Veterinary Department.

The reports have confirmed that presence of toxic chemical phenyl was the chief cause of fish mortality.

This has exposed the abject lack of accountability on part of the auto major-TVS Motors which had dumped untreated effluents openly into the river body without caring about its impact on the aquatic flora and fauna.

Though the board had effected disconnection of its power supply, the TVS Motors then approached the board’s appellate authority which granted it some relief and modified the orders into prospective power disconnection. It also directed the board to continuously monitor the plant and collect samples and sent its report for further action.

Board’s superintending engineer Chetan Joshi, while confirming the report, said the unit’s samples were collected and analysed for three days. Its report was sent to the appellate authority and the case was further listed on August 3 for hearing.

He, however, did not disclose whether the new results conformed to the prescribed standards or not as the case was being heard by the appellate authority.

Him Parivesh, a local environmental society, blamed the board for lack of regulation. Its general secretary Bal Kishen Sharma said it was a sorry state of affairs that such big units acted irresponsibly towards the environment.

Shimla, July 26
The World Bank-funded state road project has run into rough weather due to exorbitant cost escalation, creating problems for the government which will have to arrange over Rs 400 crore more to complete the work.

Slipshod implementation has not only delayed work on various packages for upgradation of roads but also led to a huge cost overrun. According to well-placed sources, the Rs 1,365 crore project is likely to cost around Rs 1,800 crore. The steep escalation of about 30 per cent over a short period of two years and that too at time when cost of construction had actually come down due to economic slowdown was surprising.

The government has now decided to approach the World Bank for additional funds without which it will not be possible to complete the project. Accordingly, it has decided to send a case to the Union Ministry of Economic Affairs so that it could be further posed to the World Bank.

The bank had given a loan of Rs 990 crore for the project and the government will seek an additional loan in the same proportion. The amount will be around 
Rs 250 crore.

In case the bank refuses to grant additional loan, the state will have to arrange the required funds from its own resources which will be a tall order.

According to sources, one of the main reasons for the tardy implementation is that the engineers of the public works department (PWD) do not have requisite experience of handling international contracts.

The supervising agencies also lack legal expertise to effectively address legal issues which could be handled properly only by those who have sufficient experience and knowledge of the latest interpretations of various clauses in the contract.

Big construction companies hire best legal brains to pursue their cases and often take the ill-informed government agency for a ride.

The government had set up an Infrastructure Development Board and a Road and Other Infrastructure Development Corporation but it has made no effort to train manpower for handling international contracts.

Shimla, July 26
Embarrassed by its flip-flop stand on allotment of the twin Jangi-Thopan and Thopan-Powari projects to the Netherlands-based Brakel Corporation, the government clarified its stance and asserted that it had taken the same stance as in the high court.

An official spokesperson said “following the high court’s decision requiring cancellation of the allotment of this project to Brakel Corporation, the state government had taken a decision not to challenge it. However, it was also decided on October 22, 2009, itself that in case other parties approach the Supreme Court, the government will put forward its point of view before it”.

“Now that both parties affected by the cancellation of the project, the Brakel Corporation and the Reliance (Anil Ambani) Group, have approached the Supreme Court for relief, the government has decided to reiterate the grounds that led to the decision to allot the project to the Brakel Corporation and not to re-bid the project at this stage,” he further stated.

The spokesperson said the state had outlined the entire history of the case in the affidavit filed in response to the court wanting to know its position. No change had been made in the position already taken by the state government in the case before the high court and inference drawn from the affidavit in the media reports was misconstrued. The government had not overturned its earlier position regarding allotment of the projects.

It is worth mentioning that the government had cancelled the allotment after the high court’s verdict and decided to invite fresh bids for the project. It had even decided to impose a penalty of Rs.280.69 crore ($60 million) on Brakel for delaying implementation of the project.