Cyber cafés flout norms
Dharamsala, April 12
Thousands of domestic and foreign tourists visit Dharamsala, especially Mcleodganj, to spend holidays and they feel the need of cyber cafés to get connected with their families and friends back home.

Suspension of helicopter service
Tribals stuck in Kullu
Kullu, April 12
The suspension of helicopter services to the difficult tribal areas of Lahaul & Spiti and Chamba is not only posing difficulties to the tribals but also to the employees who had served in the hard areas during severe winter.

vignettes
Conserving biodiversity need of the hour
Elite gathering, Rotary Town Hall on the Mall, collaboration of Himachal chapter of Age-care and Council of Science, Technology and Environment and the topic “Conserving Biodiversity” was enough mental-shake for the assemblage.

Tailpiece

Himachal diary
Anna Hazare’s campaign gets huge response
Anna Hazare’s campaign against corruption and to put pressure on the UPA government for enactment of the Lokpal Bill by Parliament evoked an extensive response in Himachal Pradesh too. The way people from all walks of life like social activists, intellectuals, professionals and students came out in Anna Hazare’s support to fight the menace of corruption indicated that a vast majority was upset with rampant graft and were keen that corrupt politicians who have been amassing of wealth misusing their position be brought to the book.

12 yrs on, ex-serviceman awaits division of ancestral land
Dharamsala, April 12
Pending applications for the division and demarcation of land in the district have many residents peeved as they have been made to wait for unreasonably long periods. An ex-serviceman, Capt Parkash Chand, a resident of Bilaspur village, near Dehra, has alleged that he has been waiting for the division and demarcation of his ancestral land for the past 12 years.

Capt Parkash Chand

Rare surgery saves patient
Hamirpur, April 12
A dental surgeon at Hamirpur Regional Government Hospital saved the life of a patient by conducting a rare surgery. The patient was suffering from ruptured psuedoaneurysm involving external carotid artery, which the doctor claims is the seventh case of this nature.

Letter
Monetary help alone not sufficient

Shady land deals rampant in Solan
Ambika Sharma

Solan, April 12
Even as the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has booked two persons, a businessman and a property dealer, for allegedly obtaining permissions under the Section 118 of the HP Land Reforms and Tenancy Act in collusion with two senior officials of the state government, the trend of routing such permissions through middlemen has become a common practice among investors in Solan.

This is especially so in cases where permissions have been procured for one purpose, but later the land use has been modified. According to the provisions of the HP Land Reforms and Tenancy Act-1972, non-Himachalis are barred from buying land in the state. They can, however, buy limited land after procuring permission from the government.

With the district emerging as the fastest growing area of Himachal Pradesh, there is an influx of outsiders buying property here and violations are common. An inquiry conducted by the Tourism Department sometime ago had detected that essentiality certificates (ECs) granted by the government for setting up tourism projects turned out to be cases of grabbing land by the outsiders which are otherwise barred from buying land here.

Some of the promoters, who had obtained ECs from 2003 to 2006 in Solan district, had not set up any projects. The land was either illegally sold to a third party or used for other purposes like constructing flats.

It is reliably learnt that such offenders, after having constructed illegal flats, are on the lookout for modifying their permissions and have been trying to approach middlemen, comprising realtors, who not only manage to procure hasty 118 permissions, but also manage other such permissions. Such middlemen are allegedly known to have links with officials who help clear such cases.

Bureau officials said they were keeping a vigil on such people and if specific complaints were made, they could inquire into the veracity of such cases.

A section of investors in the state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh said the system of middlemen did exit as it saved the harassment of delayed work, albeit at a higher cost. The trend of officials seeking favours like arranging stay in luxury resorts in Delhi, Chandigarh, Zirakpur, etc., was rife during weekends as was the trend of arranging vehicles and free shopping for their families.

Changar irrigation project to benefit 11,000 villagers: CM
Jai Kumar

Cyber cafés flout norms
Tribune News Service

Suspension of helicopter service
Tribals stuck in Kullu
Subhash Sharma

Kullu, April 12
The suspension of helicopter services to the difficult tribal areas of Lahaul & Spiti and Chamba is not only posing difficulties to the tribals but also to the employees who had served in the hard areas during severe winter.

The sowing of peas, the main cash crop of the area, has been delayed as many farmers are stuck in Kullu for the want of helicopter flights. The 20-seater MI-17 helicopter, which the government had hired from Jagson Airlines for tribal flights and VIP movement, was taken back to Delhi on March 15 due to some technical snag and routine check.

While Director General of Civil Aviation is yet to give clearance for its flying, more than 2,000 persons, including about 1,500 farmers, have been waiting for the service to begin.

Norbu Barongapa, a former chairman of the Lahaul Potato Society and a social worker, said the sowing of peas would be delayed if the farmers did not reach Lahaul this month. He said the time stipulated for agricultural operations in the tribal district was very short as the area remained under heavy snow for at least six months in a year and the 13,050-ft high Rohtang Pass was opened for a limited period to market the agricultural produce.

Raghubir Singh Thakur, a former MLA and senior Congress leader, demanded that the government instead of waiting should arrange another helicopter.

The employees union of the HRTC also demanded that the chopper service should be resumed immediately for carrying employees who had served in the valley during the harsh winter months. The District Congress Committee of Lahaul and Spiti has also submitted a memorandum to the government through the deputy commissioner for restoring the service immediately otherwise the party would launch an agitation.

Meanwhile, sources in Jagson Airlines confirmed that the helicopter was expected to arrive in a day or two and the service would be restored.

vignettes
Conserving biodiversity need of the hour
by Shriniwas Joshi

Elite gathering, Rotary Town Hall on the Mall, collaboration of Himachal chapter of Age-care and Council of Science, Technology and Environment and the topic “Conserving Biodiversity” was enough mental-shake for the assemblage.

Himachal Pradesh is 1.7 per cent of the total area of India but has a rich biodiversity. It has 5,721 species of animal life which is 6.5 per cent of the total in India and the plant life is still richer with 3,256 plants out of 45,000 in India giving a percentage of 7.23. We, however, are poor citizens of the state because very few of us are aware of this richness and let the wealth looted by unscrupulous people.

Narain Singh Chauhan writes in his book “Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Himachal Pradesh”: “The unsystematic exploitation of drug-yielding plants to support pharmaceutical industry has become a suicidal trap. Their regeneration, protection and preservation in nature are today a challenge to restore our biological heritage. The rich repositories of the past have been butchered with ruthless greed and several species of drug plants are facing threat to their survival”.

I, as a child, used to see Berberis aristata, commonly known as kasmal, growing in abundance in the jungles and had enjoyed the berries grown in those thorny bushes. My grandchildren are totally unaware of these as all bushes in our surroundings have been callously extracted from the roots that are used for preparing medicines.

Then on February 28, 2003, the state government declared panchayat pradhans as forest officers and listed 38 items of minor forest produce who, on a fee charged from the applicant, could issue passes or permits for extracting the produce from the forests. It led to havoc because the contractors made merry with the herbal wealth once the permits were in their pockets. I am not against decentralisation of powers but it should be done only when the shoulders have strength enough to bear the responsibilities loaded on those. Has any capacity building of the pradhans done by the Forest Department in this regard?

The speakers, one after the other, decried the monkey menace in Shimla and did not lag behind in criticising themselves for creating the nuisance as they made the green trees and open spaces around Shimla swallow by cement and stone. The monkey menace in Shimla, however, is not of recent origin.

Edward Buck writes in “Simla, Past and Present”, published in 1904: “Of recent years, monkeys have become a decided nuisance in Shimla, as they are terribly destructive pests in station gardens and do not improve our houses by frolicking on the roofs”. I am reminded of a couplet by Arman Shahabi, a local poet who died a couple of years ago. It says all in two lines: “Main hoon bunder to dijiye mujhe jungle mera/Shehri hoon to madaari se bachaya jaye”.

I, in my discourse, disclosed that western tragopan, called jujurana was the state bird of Himachal Pradesh and had replaced monal in 2007, which was now the state bird of Uttarakhand and the national bird of Nepal, and that the mountain monarch snow leopard replacing musk deer as the sate animal and that cedrus deodara, commonly known as deodar, was the state tree and that rhododendron campanulatum - the pink-white rhododendron - and not the common red rhododendron was the state flower. I was not surprised to note that only two out of a gathering of about 50 knew the right answers to all four queries. A quick assessment, therefore, was that 4 per cent of the learned people of Himachal Pradesh were fully aware of the biodiversity of the state.

The assembly in the Town Hall decided to establish an emotional bond between them and nature to save species and environments - for nobody fights to save what one did not love. 

Tailpiece

A lonely frog desperate for any form of company telephoned an astrologer to find out what his future has in store. The astrologer advises him, “You are going to meet a beautiful girl who will want to know you inside out. The frog is thrilled and asks, “It is great. Where will I meet her, in a club or in a party?” “No,” says the astrologer, “in a biology class.” 

Himachal diary
Anna Hazare’s campaign gets huge response

Interestingly, most of the politicians except for senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar, have refrained from speaking against corruption. People here are asking why MPs of all political parties kept quite for so long and made no effort to pass the Lokpal Bill in Parliament. Though public support to Anna Hazare’s crusade against corruption had been welcomed in the state a question is being asked are all those, who joined the campaign, serious about fighting corruption? If such a large number of people take a vow not to indulge in corruption, much of the problem will be solved.

Exhibition a big draw

The painting exhibition of well-known artist from Karnataka Manjunath Mane at Gaiety Theatre in Shimla (See photo) was a big draw.

While almost all 41 works on display caught attention for the “colourfulness”, but the life-like images of sculptures of a Hindu god stood out for the exquisite artistic skills. Using the contrast of “light and shade” he successfully created a three-dimensional effect. The combination of vibrant colours along with his deft multi-layered brushwork even imparted a sandstone-like texture to the image of “Helibidu Ganesh”, which looked very “real”.

A majority of the works depicted the royal lifestyle of the erstwhile princely rulers, folk culture and the rural rustic life. The images brought to fore the ethos of cultural and religious life in villages.

During his 25-year career he has created thousands of paintings but he had not painted the kind of hillscape he saw in Himachal. He said he was wonderstruck with the beauty of the hills, particularly the snow-capped ranges and he would soon paint some landscapes to capture the awesome beauty of the Himalayas on the canvas.

A large number of foreign tourists were among those who thronged Gaiety Theatre to view the exhibition organised by the State Department of Language, Art and Culture.

Knit India programme

Indore-based Universal Solidarity Movement organised a four-day knit India programme at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School in Shimla from April 10 in which about 500 children from 26 schools in nine states participated.

Convener of the programme Nitu Joshi said the objective was to change the mindset set of individuals so that they adopted a positive approach in dealing with various problems, including “corruption”. It was the 43rd programme but the first to be held in Shimla. The programme helps in developing leadership qualities among young students from Class VIII to Plus Two who interact with one another and also give their views on various social issues.

The participants were addressed by the Chief Justice of the High Court, DGP and other senior officers who threw light on various burning issues like corruption. Besides talks on important issues, discussions and quiz prgrammes, the participants also practised meditation and staged cultural events, besides undertaking various other creative activities.

(Contributed by DP Gupta and Rakesh Lohumi)

12 yrs on, ex-serviceman awaits division of ancestral land
Lalit Mohan
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, April 12
Pending applications for the division and demarcation of land in the district have many residents peeved as they have been made to wait for unreasonably long periods.

An ex-serviceman, Capt Parkash Chand, a resident of Bilaspur village, near Dehra, has alleged that he has been waiting for the division and demarcation of his ancestral land for the past 12 years.

He says he first moved an application in 2000. “Since then I have been making rounds of the office of the Revenue Department, but without any result”.

The hapless applicant has recently complained to the Chief Minister through e-governance scheme and also to Kangra deputy commissioner RS Gupta against the failure of revenue officials to redress his grievance.

A dejected Prakash Chand, who is now 72, says, “It seems that I would not be able release my share of ancestral land during my lifetime”.

Des Ranjan Sharma, another aggrieved person, had bought a piece of land near Palampur about two years ago. Since then he has been trying to get his land demarcated. He submitted applications with local revenue officials who kept giving appointments for doing the job. However, each time, the exercise was postponed on one pretext or the other.

Sharma alleges that he has not been able to take possession of the land due to the failure of revenue officials to demarcate it. “Now I have moved an application under the RTI to know the reasons for the delay”.

Rare surgery saves patient
Dharam Prakash Gupta/TNS

Hamirpur, April 12
A dental surgeon at Hamirpur Regional Government Hospital saved the life of a patient by conducting a rare surgery. The patient was suffering from ruptured psuedoaneurysm involving external carotid artery, which the doctor claims is the seventh case of this nature.

Dr Rajan Bhardawj, HoD, dental department, conducted the surgery recently with the help of a team of doctors on 22-year-old Meenu, who has now fully recovered.

Dr Bhardwaj said, “Pseudoneurysm of carotid artery is very rarely encountered in clinical practice and its incidence is 0.07 per cent and as per data provided by the US National Library of Medicine, only 1,644 patients of traumatic aneurysm of the face and temple have been reported till now and only six cases involving external carotid artery have been reported throughout the world”.

He said, “Though such cases have been reported, mortality rate is as high as 40 per cent and the surgery is very difficult as profuse bleeding can lead to gagging of the patient and it is quite difficult to operate upon as there is very little space in the mouth. Besides, external carotid artery is protected by adequate buffer of soft tissues, which makes the surgery even more difficult”.

Amin Chand, the father of the patient, said, “Meenu was treated at various places in the last five years and was brought to Hamirpur with profuse bleeding”.

Dr DS Chandel, chief medical officer, Hamirpur, said “Such surgeries are generally conducted in medical institutes like PGIMR, Chandigarh, having superspecialty, but the surgeon here has done a wonderful job”.

Letter
Monetary help alone not sufficient

I have read with pleasure your write-up "Couples having single girl child to be honoured" published on March 30. Whereas such girls should be offered full facilities for education and employment but the monetary help of a few thousands to these couples is nothing but peanuts. Under the intensive and extensive campaign for family planning, a large number of couples opted for one or two girl children, but their old age became pathetic for want of a male member in the family to render domestic help. Such persons having single or two daughters deserve full grants to lead a bit comfortable old age. They need to be provided with banking facilities at their doorstep, procurement of materials and mess facilities for their two meals a day. Then only the gap can be bridged which such couples face in the absence of a son as daughters ultimately do have to settle with their spouses. Can the government and NGOs come forward with such a plan to help such couples that were content with daughters.

Dr BL Kapoor, Mandi