Manali, May 24
The deodar greenline in this tourist town will shrink. More than 100 deodar trees will be cut for the Manali bypass road project to ease the traffic congestion in this town and make way for the double-laning of the Manali-Leh highway.

In Ram Bagh, three big trees have dried up in Van Vihar as the kitchen waste water from Sa Ba restaurant ends up here. But the local administration, the nagar panchayat and the Wildlife Department, which maintains four Van Vihars in Manali, look the other way.

This reporter counted more than 24 big deodar trees in and around two Van Vihars along the main road that connects these. These Van Vihars are protected forests and a home to the pheasants, being kept in aviaries here, and are open to tourists for bird watching and nature trails.

More than 72 deodar trees will be cut along the Van Vihar that runs along the Beas. The Ministry of Surface Transport has finalised the alignment of the 2-km-long Manali bypass here.

More than 1,000 tourist vehicles move in or out from Manali every day causing traffic jams.

The final inspection carried out here last week after the team under Chief Engineer SK Marwa from the Surface Transport Ministry visited the bypass project. According to it, more than 49 trees will be cut down for the highway, but they are finding ways to save another 23 trees, said members of the team.

The bypass project will cost Rs 38 crore and work will start after the Forest Department gives the clearance in four months. The ministry is also constructing the Rs 10 crore double-lane RCC bridge across the Beas river to connect the Manali-Chandigarh highway to the Manali-Leh highway.

Heaps of debris and junk have been dumped around the trees along the main road near the Bailey bridge and the cremation ground. These trees have dried up.

Though the Manali bypass has been part of the highway project of national importance, the local authorities have failed to check the drying up of trees here. Shop owners have concretised two big deodar trees which have dried up outside the Hadimba Devi Van Vihar.

Further, encroachers have pruned the branches of deodar trees on a large scale to make way for advancing in the forest areas.

Twelve deodar trees are being suffocated along the Circuit House road and the lower Mall Road. Concrete walls have been built around these trees and these face imminent death, pointed out residents.

Wildlife Conservator Ajay Srivastav claims that only 19 trees have dried up due to the natural ageing process in four Van Vihars. “Some trees have dried up near Ram Bagh as these lie outside the boundary of the Van Vihar. But we are preparing a list of the trees drying up in the town”, he added.

Dharamsala, May 24
Tibetans are likely to urge the Dalai Lama to retain some powers. Sources here told The Tribune that 413 Tibetan leaders, who deliberated over the retirement of the Dalai Lama for past three days at Dharamsala, had concluded that their leader should retain some of his political powers.

The sources said they wanted the Dalai Lama to continue as symbolic political and spiritual head of the Tibetan government-in-exile. As a participant said the Dalai Lama should retain the authority as the Queen of England was holding over the government of Britain. The statement had been added in the proposed amendments.

Tibetan leaders also want that the Dalai Lama should hold the legal authority to issue statements over the issue of Tibet and give advice to the Tibetan government. By doing so the Tibetans want that the Dalai Lama should remain closely associated with the struggle fot Tibet.

They also want that the Dalai Lama should retain his right to appoint his representatives to 11 countries. These countries, including Japan, are having the representatives of the Dalai Lama. But the countries do not recognise the Tibetan government-in-exile.

In the other proposed amendment, “Apostle of World Peace” has been added before the name of the Dalai Lama. He has been termed as a free spokesperson of the entire Tibetan community.

The sources said the seven of 10 committees formed in the general house meeting were of the opinion that the Dalai Lama should remain associated actively with the Tibetan government.

The committee has proposed amendment in article 1 and 15 of the Tibetan Charter to effect the amendments.

The sources said the conclusions of the general meeting that concluded today would be presented before the Dalai Lama tomorrow. The members of committee would once urge the Dalai Lama to give up his idea of retiring as political and administrative head of the Tibetan government or at least retain some of his powers.

The Tibetan Parliament in exile has then convened a special session from May 26 this month to finally decide on the Dalai Lama’s retirement.

Kol Dam, May 24
After running four years behind schedule, the 800 MW Kol Dam hydropower project, being executed by the NTPC, will be completed by December 2012.

It will be commissioned in 2013 as it requires more than six months to fill the 167-m-high and 12.5-sq-km reservoir. The NTPC has yet to sort out the issue with the Bhakra Beas Management Board for filling the dam as it will hit the inflow of water from the Sutlej into the Gobind Sagar dam downstream. More than 30 per cent work of the project is yet to be completed, say NTPC sources.

RR Chaudhary, new Chairman, NTPC, recently visited the project site here and monitored the progress of the work.

He has set December 2012 as the new deadline for the completion of this rock-and-clay-fill dam on the Sutlej.

The NTPC had revised its schedule twice in July 2008 to July 2010 and now the fresh deadline is December 2012.

This delay will result in a loss worth Rs 108 crore each year to Himachal on account of its 12 per cent free power share in the project, say experts. The NTPC will be losing about Rs 900 crore annually, the experts said.

Earlier, a high-ranking team from the Ministry of Power led by the Secretary, Power, inspected the Kol Dam in 2010 and pulled up the Kol Dam management for neither sticking to the schedule, nor maintaining the quality of work. The company has cited two major reasons for the delay. It faced some geological surprises and sippage in dam, which push the project behind schedule, said a senior NTPC official. NTPC GM SC Gupta said the sippage in the dam had been plugged.

Apart from geological surprises, the newly constituted State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) stopped the procurement of 15 lakh cubic m of clay from Sundernagar as the approval for this has to come from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), said NTPC officials.

It has delayed the work further, they added.

Shimla, May 24
The irrational unbundling of the state power utility is likely to pose problems for the State Electricity Regulatory Commission in determining the separate tariff for generation, transmission and distribution.

The commission is carrying out the exercise for the first time for 2011-12 and it will be a big challenge as the government has during the restructuring wrongly retained the bulk of transmission assets with the distribution company.

Apart from creating confusion regarding transmission and wheeling charges, a major problem will be that transmission and distribution are governed by two different sets of regulations. Before unbundling, the commission was treating lines of 66 kv and above under transmission, but now lines up to 212 kv have been retained with the distribution company.

At present, the state transmission utility (STU) is virtually without any assets. Of the 19 lines given, seven are not owned by the state utility while three are yet to be constructed. In Uttarakhand, the STU is constructing 33 kv lines, but in the proposed model.

The distribution company, apart from the power generated by its own projects, also gets power from private sector projects like the 300 MW Baspa, 192 MW Allain Duhungan and other projects. In such a situation, one fails to understand how the transmission and wheeling charges will be determined in accordance with the Electricity Act and the regulations framed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).

As a result, the issue of open access will be more complicated and add to the problems of IPPs (independent power producers). The wheeling will be very costly affair as charges for evacuation through distribution network are in excess of 90 paise per unit in comparison to average transmission charges of 20 to 25 paise per unit.

Had the assets been transferred to the STU, the charges would have evened out to reasonable levels. The IPPs will closely watch what approach the SERC adopts for determining tariffs for segregated entities.

Shimla, May 24
Chief Minister PK Dhumal has expressed grief over the demise of Surinder Kaur, wife of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, here today.

Dhumal prayed for the peace to the departed soul and strength to the family members to bear the irreparable loss.

Bilaspur, May 24
Chief Minister PK Dhumal presided over a Prashasan Janata Ke Dwaar programme at Ghumarwin, near here, today.

The Chief Minister advised all officers to be quick to provide essential relief and solution to all problems of people as this also ensured a responsive and sensitive government.

He said delay was the main reason for corruption and any delay in solving grievances would be viewed seriously.

He urged villagers ensure that water was not wasted away and every drop of it was utilised. He asked the IPH Department and district officers to ensure proper drinking water supply in all the water scarcity-hit areas and villages of the district.

The Chief Minister announced grants totalling Rs 50 lakh to various schemes of gram panchayats, mahila mandals and schools, and sanctioned Rs 90,000 for life-saving treatment of a two-year-old child of Dohru village, who has a hole in his heart.

Shimla, May 24
Having caused embarrassment to the Congress party for taking a U-turn on the Bemloe Developers housing project, Mayor Madhu Sood faces the threat of disciplinary action as state party chief Kaul Singh Thakur today said a show-cause notice would be issued to her.

While rumours were afloat that the Mayor would be submitting her resignation, Sood could not be contacted. She did not attend office and it was learnt that she had left for Delhi to meet the HPCC chief who was in the national Capital.

Thakur said she had told him in the morning that she would be submitting her resignation.

“We will be issuing her a show-cause notice for taking a stand different from that of the party and a final decision would be taken after holding consultations with the party councillors and other laeders,” said Thakur. He added that Sood had alleged that she had been threatened by people of the ruling party with dire consequences if she proceeded further with the Bemloe inquiry.

Shimla, May 24
Chief Minister PK Dhumal has sought a report from the Forest Department to ascertain whether eco-tourism projects, assigned to private parties, were carrying out their activities as per rules. He has directed the department to take appropriate action if there is any violation by promoters and even cancel the sites.

Taking prompt notice of the news report appearing in these columns, he has asked the Chief Conservator of Forests (Eco-tourism) to give details how much land had been given to each project and whether it had been mentioned in documents.

He has also sought comments regarding the legality of the binding document and the status of the Kangra and Dalhousie sites in particular.

The department has decided to put on hold the five projects for which expression of interests had been invited. It had already received bids for the allotment of forest rest houses at Shoja, Habban,Triund, Khara Pathar and Mahasu.

However, the process was stopped as the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had termed it as a non-forestry activity, attracting provisions of the Forest Conservation Act.

The state maintains that it was a forestry activity and sought clarifications from the Centre in this regard. Till the issue is settled, no further eco-tourism projects would be awarded, Additional Chief Secretary Sudipto Roy confirmed.

The state eco-tourism policy lays down that the allotment will be made for three years at the first instance and in the normal course, the project will be re-tendered after the end of the management lease of three years.

However, the projects were allotted for five years straightaway. Senior officers revealed that the executive committee of the state Eco-tourism Society had decided to increase the period from three to five years, subject to ratification by the governing body and approval by the government. However, the decision was never approved.

Shimla, May 24
In a major initiative to modernise the madarsas, the All-India Imam Organisation (AIIO) has drawn up a plan to introduce Information Technology (IT) education in all such institutions in the state in a phased manner.

The project will be implemented by the Azim Premji Foundation, which works in the area of elementary education, in collaboration with the Earthstation, a public charitable trust based in New Delhi and Khajiar in Chamba. The plan was given a final shape during the recent visit of Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, president of the AIIO, to the state during which he inaugurated a craft centre set up by the Earthstation at Khajiar.

Chief Executive Officer of the Earthstation Aniel Kumar Bhalla said an agreement would soon be signed between his organisation and the foundation to implement the project. The revered and learned Muslim religious leader, who was keen to bring the community into the mainstream, and his AIIO would play the role of facilitator.

The foundation would provide the computer hardware and other required equipment and funds for the project and the Earthstation would develop the training modules, provide linkages and implement the project on the ground. Bhalla said his team had already started compiling details like the number of madarsas in the state and students enrolled.

Kangra, May 24
ASI Baldev Singh, who was locked up in a room with a woman, at Dharghata village yesterday, and against whom the police had initiated an inquiry on a complaint of the woman’s husband Gian Chand, was placed under suspension today by the Kangra district police chief and asked to attend the Police Lines. The in charge of Ranital police post was accused of having illicit relations with the complainant’s wife.

Disclosing this here today, Kangra District Additional Police Chief Sanjeev Gandhi said SDPO, Dehra, Manmohan Singh submitted the report of inquiry ordered by the SSP, Kangra. On the basis of this report, ASI Baldev Singh was placed under suspension. He said departmental inquiry too had been initiated against the ASI.

Meanwhile, the police was investigating in to the case under Section 497 of the IPC.

Both the ASI and the woman locked up in a room were medically examined yesterday, said the SDPO. He said the report could not be made public as it would hamper the investigation.