Heaps of polythene in a garbage dump at Aima on the Palampur-Dharamsala highway

Palampur, May 24
Tall claims of the state government regarding the complete ban on the use of polythene notwithstanding, the menace is far from over. In fact, polythene is yet to be eradicated completely from the state.

It may be mentioned that the Union Government recently gave an award to the Himachal government for making the state polythene-free. A team from the Centre also visited the state early this year to have an on-spot evaluation and support the claim of the state.

Earlier, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had amended the law to ban the use of polythene and personally convened meetings of officers even at the lower level to make this campaign a success. However, despite all these efforts, the state is yet to achieve its objective.

Due to lack of administrative will and failure on part of implementing agencies polythene is still being used in the state and can be seen littered everywhere. Though the SDMs had been given the responsibility to check the menace, hardly any officer takes interest in this cause.

In several parts of Palampur, polythene can be seen littered in garbage dumps on the roadside. Interestingly, nobody in the government knows how polythene is making its way into the state.

Besides, the government had set up polythene collection centres in the town, but no polythene was received at the centre in the past three months as no official bothered to get it sorted out from the dumps and send it to the centre for its further use in macademising of roads.

Hamirpur, May 24
Though the state government has decided to strictly follow the transfer policy norm of not posting a teacher in the school falling within the radius of 25 km of his/her residence, it appears to be a challenging task for the Education Department to stick to it and ignore political/ administrative pressure by teachers.

A large number of teachers have been managing postings of their choice for a long period through their clout in the political and administrative circles.

So much so that while a large number of posts are lying vacant in schools in tribal and far flung areas, there is a race to grab postings near towns and urban areas.

To fill the vacant posts, the state government under its transfer policy had prohibited adjustment of teachers within 25 km of their residence long ago.

Not giving two hoots to these norms, a large number of teachers have been making such adjustments by manipulation through their political masters or mandarins sitting in the government.

Due to this, the government has been finding it difficult to fill hundreds of posts of teachers in the remote areas which is affecting the functioning of numerous schools, most of which are being run by a single teacher.

Meanwhile, a section of the teaching community has already started a campaign opposing the norm.

Shrikant Baldi, principal secretary, education, said, “Since three-year term and no adjustment within 25 km are part of the transfer policy, any adjustment within that limit would be considered as short stay. As adjustment within this limit makes posting of teachers from outside almost impossible, we are implementing these norms”.

Palampur, May 24
Dr Rajan Sushant, MP and a senior BJP leader, during his visit to Om Power Project being executed on the Neugal river by a private company, criticised the project management for playing havoc with the nature and damaging local water resources and indulging in green felling, besides causing inconvenience to thousands of residents of Palampur. He cautioned the power companies to follow the environment law and do not harass the public.

Dr Sushant along with a team of government officials, mediapersons and affected villagers visited the project site recently and reviewed the loss caused by the project to water supply schemes, irrigation channels and forests. He expressed concern over unscientific and illegal cutting of hills and dumping of debris in the Neugal in violation of the directions of the HP High Court and the state government. He said the project had failed to set up a dumping site as per MoU signed with the government and dumped the entire material, debris and boulders in the Neugal river, which is a major source of drinking water supply and irrigation for more than two hundreds villages of Palampur region.

He said besides unscientific cuttings of hill rocks it had disturbed the fragile eco-system, which has resulted in a large-scale land slides in Dhauladhar hills damaging the natural water sources. He quoted that one of oldest perennial water source “Bag Nullaha”, which was feeding Palampur town for the past 200 years is not in existence today because of landslides and dumping of debris.

Dr Sushant asked the officers of the Forest and Irrigation Department why they remained silent spectators to all illegal acts of the company and not initiated any action in the past six years despite hue and cry raised by the local residents, why they failed to recover the damages from the company. He categorically asked why the administration shielded the company when it was violating all environment laws, flouting the terms and conditions of MoU signed with the government. He argued that criminal cases should have registered against the company and erring officials immediately. He said concerned officers should have to explain their conduct to the public.

Number of villagers, including men, women and children who stopped motorcade of Rajan Sushant at different places while on way to project site lodged their protest against the non-cooperative attitude of project authorities, failure of the government machiney to watch their interest. 

Nurpur, May 24
The Kangra District Body Building Fitness Association (BBFA) organised a state-level bodybuilding championship to select Mr. Himachal-2011 at the Bachat Bhavan here recently. Over 25 bodybuilders from across the state participated in the championship. There were five categories of weight-wise bodybuilders who participated in the championship.

First of all, category wise Mr. Himachal-2011 was adjudged by the state BBFA, which in collaboration with the BBFA organised the event. Finally, five best adjudged bodybuilders entered into the final of Mr. Himachal-2011.

Rahul from 75-kg category bagged the first position, whereas Sandeep from 70-kg category was declared the runner-up. The winner and the runner-up won cash prizes of Rs 21,000 and Rs 3,100 respectively, along with citation and trophies.

During the event, noted bodybuilder and Mr. Asia from Pathankot displayed his bodybuilding capacities which were lauded by the audience.

Local MLA Rakesh Pathania, who encouraged the organisers to hold this state-level event this year, called upon the state BBFA to organise a national championship at Nurpur.

He awarded the winners of the championship and announced to give Rs 52,000 to the organisers for holding the event here.

Hamirpur, May 24
The Sarva Kalyankari Sabha, an NGO working in Hamirpur district, has adopted a novel way to highlight the issue of recent hike in petrol prices.The NGO organised a mock loan mela for giving loans to buy half litre of petrol and 100 grams of pulses and such other items to the common people who are adversely affected by the rise in the prices of essential commodities.

The NGO mobilised a large number of people, including hundreds of women, to organise the loan mela at Gandhi Chowk of the district recently. Many of them carrying placards against the price rise marched to Gandhi Chowk and filled up forms to seek loans.

The organisers of the programme said: “The things have become so difficult for a common people that they have to seek loan for buying half litre of petrol and even 100 grams of pulses or vegetable due to a sharp increase in the prices of essential commodities”. Rajinder Rana, president of the Sarva Kalyankari Sabha, said: “The basic purpose of organising the mela was to highlight the issue of price rise, especially steep increase in petrol prices”.

He said: “The way prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed and the government is showing little concern to the problem, we decided to highlight this issue in a different manner and thus organised the mela”.

The organisers also appealed to public to join their campaign against the price rise and asked the government to rollback the recent hike in petrol prices.

While the agreement signed by the government with the World Bank to earn carbon credits for reforestation will go a long way in encouraging farmers to raise and protect trees, it should also take steps to save the existing trees which are drying up due to insensitive attitude of the authorities which are pursuing ecologically destructive practices.

The authorities seem anxious to raise constructions on every inch of land in the state capital which is fast losing green cover due to unplanned urbanisation. The unregulated expanse of the concrete jungle is making the eco-sensitive high hill ranges impervious. The “Queen of Hills” and its surrounding areas have been losing green cover in every possible way, which is also hampering the natural phenomena of recharging of water sources. The completely impervious surface leaves no scope for rain and melted snow to percolate down to the drying aquifers.

Migration is the endeavour of humans to survive in the most testing conditions, both natural and manmade. When food and good living are not available at home, people go out for greener pastures. Besides uneven development, the social structures in our country and natural calamity - drought or floods - also influence migration. Migrants, as per the Census 1971, were 167 million that rose to 315 million according to Census 2001. Migration figures might show declining trend in 2011 Census with the introduction of MNREGA in the past decade.

The Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association (HPVHA) conducted a survey of migrant labourers in Shimla in January this year that brought out interesting data. Prior to discussing only two aspects, menaces of tobacco consumption and open defecation, in that, I would like to introduce Geeta (cleaning utensils) a migrant from Nepal and Deepa, her granddaughter (tied to her back), (see photo). They were a family considered as living in the “better placed” social order in Nepal.

Geeta’s daughter Kamala developed stones in kidney and they found that it was very costly to get the operation done in a private hospital there and the doctors in the government hospital were not as competent as in India. So, Kamala, her husband Tika Ram, their one-year-old daughter Deepa, matriarch of the family Geeta and her husband came to Shimla and started living here in a hired room - five souls in an 8’X8’ room. Electricity and a separate semi-flushed latrine are there but water has to be collected from a nearby tap.

Kamala got successfully operated at IGMC for a little cost. Tika Ram was in class IX when he fell in love with Kamala studying in class VIII and this untimely love resulted in the loss of their studies; they got married and Kamala became a mother even before her 18th birthday. They earn their livelihood, today, by doing various chores, including that of unskilled labourers in the construction work. It is good that the young ones do not drink or smoke while the elders, both husband and wife, smoke. The story gives yet another cause of migration, insight into seriousness with which education is taken in the rural areas and the living condition of the migrants.

The two smokers did not know that Shimla was a smoke free town and that smoking in public places could attract penal provisions. The survey conducted by the HPVHA also showed that only 41 per cent of the migrants knew about this status of Shimla and that there were 66 per cent households where at least one member of the household smoked but the blessing came in the form of 70 per cent who wanted to get rid of this injurious habit.

How different are these poor people from the modern, moneyed and educated youth who take to smoking as status symbol? Everyday, 5,500 youth are joining the queue of smokers in India. Of total migrants living in Shimla, 30 per cent (maximum) have come from Nepal followed by about 20 per cent from Bihar, 11 per cent from other districts of Himachal Pradesh and the remaining from different states, the least, 0.25 per cent from Orissa. Most of the migrants are engaged in lifting bags and baggage, 17 per cent are in the construction industry while 1.49 per cent earn their bread by begging. Why should a beggar come to Shimla? What is the HP Prevention of Begging Act, 1979 doing? It is heartening that a “pahari” generally does not resort to begging whether he is from Himachal or Uttarakhand or J&K or Nepal.

When Himachal Pradesh is heading towards an open defecation-free state, it is surprising that 64 per cent of migrants in Shimla live in shanties that do not have the provisions of toilets and 13 per cent of them go for morning ebullitions near a water source. No wonder, diarrhoea in Shimla is intermittent news and the Department of Health has to fight it out. The survey disclosed that 44 per cent of the migrants used open space for defecation and 32 per cent spoil the forests for answering the nature’s call. They are the people who toil in the soil of the state and the state as well as the community has responsibility towards them.