Palampur, October 18
Café Bharve, a prime property of the state Tourism Department situated at Baijnath, 15 km from here, is in a state of neglect.

The department has long abandoned the building and other infrastructure. It is now being used as a mule shed and a workshop by private transporters. Due to lack of repair and maintenance, the building is on the verge of collapse. Furniture/fixture and other things of the café have already been stolen.

Enquiries by The Tribune reveal that the café was constructed by the state government in 1985 and later, the HPTDC was asked by to run the eating joint. In 1998, under a new policy, the then BJP government transferred this unit to a private party on lease. In 2000, the Tourism Department cancelled the lease and asked the party to hand over the building and other equipment to the HPTDC.

Later, a dispute arose between the HPTDC and the Tourism Department over the ownership of the cafe. Being a sick unit, the HPTDC was reluctant to take over its possession. The Tourism Department, too, refused to take charge of the unit. The matter kept pending for years. During this period, a number of private parties also approached the authorities to buy the unit or take it on lease, but none in the government bothered.

Even after the expiry of more than 10 years, the issue of ownership is yet to be resolved between the two government departments. The matter is already in the notice of the Chief Minister who holds the portfolio of tourism.

Café Bharve is strategically located on the Pathankot-Manali national highway-21. The present market value of this building is over Rs 5 crore. A number of senior officers of the Tourism Department pass through this road ever day, but no one bothers to enquire why a prime property of the corporation is in ruins.

A visit to the site reveals that shutters, doors, windows, windowpanes etc are lying broken and the building is being used as a mule shed and a workshop by transporters. The roof of the building has developed cracks. The rooms inside the café are being used as a storehouse by the locals for keeping bricks, stones, sand and other construction material.

A senior officer of the Tourism Department said the government had planned to auction the café. However, since it was constructed on forestland, the process was delayed as the government needed permission from the Centre to sell the property, he added.

Chamba, October 18
The state government is endeavouring to create the best infrastructure at the village-level to check rural migration to the urban and semi-urban areas thereby reviving the traditional vocations and fortifying the rural economy to retain rural youth in their villages. The economy of the state is agrarian based as more than 90 per cent population resides in villages.

Sheep and goat rearing is the primary occupation of migratory tribes, besides being an important subsidiary occupation of rural population in the state, particularly in Chamba, Kangra and Mandi districts. Sheep and goats are reared by the rural population as they provide wool, milk, meat and manure. These animals have wide adaptability to suit variety of agro-climatic conditions. However, this sector remained backward on account of poor awareness, non-availability of credit and lack of focus on improving performance of animals. Considering these problems, the state government is making efforts to organise and educate sheep breeders in the latest technology available to ensure that animals are selected for better performance by making the use of locally available resources.

The 'Bhed Palak Samridhi Yojna' was launched on October 18 last year for the benefit of the ‘gaddi’ (shepherd) community. Under the scheme, easy loans are available at 33.33 per cent subsidy to the beneficiaries. The scheme is being implemented in Chamba, Mandi and Kangra districts for sheep and goat units and in Kullu and Shimla districts for rabbit units. Now, the State Level Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (SLSMC) has decided to extend this scheme to Shimla, Kullu and Kinnaur districts for sheep and goat units.

The main objective of the scheme is to encourage sheep, goat, and rabbit rearing farmers to go in for commercial rearing rather than subsistence farming by providing incentives for performance. This scheme would also help improve the production performance of native breeds.

The ambitious scheme 'Bhed Palak Samridhi Yojna' is benefiting interested sheep breeders with liberal financial assistance ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. A loan of Rs 1 lakh is available to the shepherds to establish a unit of 40 sheep or goats and two rams or bucks, for which beneficiary’s share is Rs 10,000 and the subsidy of Rs 33,300 is provided. A loan of Rs 25 lakh is available under the scheme for establishing sheep and goat breeding units having 500 sheep or goats and 25 rams or bucks, wherein subsidy amount is Rs 8.33 lakh and beneficiary share is Rs 6.5 lakh. A loan up to Rs 2.25 lakh is also available for establishing rabbit units in Shimla and Kullu districts at 33.33 per cent subsidy.

The repayment period of loan depends upon the cash flow of the project and is up to 9 years, including the grace period of two years.

Bilaspur, October 18
Dr Naryan Lal Nadda of Vijaypur village near here has been given the Lifetime Achievement Award by Patna University recently.

A veteran educationist and a gold medallist from Banaras Hindu University in commerce and a PhD from Patna University, Dr Nadda was presented the award here by specially deputed professor Dr Brahm Dutt Pande, as he could not attend the award ceremony in Patna recently due to ill health.

Dr Nadda said he was delighted that his efforts as an educationist were recognised by Patna University.

He said though he had served most of the time either as a professor at Patna University or as a Vice-Chancellor of Ranchi University, it was an honour for his entire state.

Dr Nadda, who is the father of former state Forests and Health Minister JP Nadda, also has served the state as the chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Education Board and Takniki Shiksha Board from 1992 to 1995.

Dr Pande said he was one of the students of Dr Nadda and he considered himself fortunate to be selected by the university to come all the way from Patna to present the award to his mentor. 

Chamba, October 18
A patch of about 25 km Gait to Chowari road of the Chamba-Shimla highway crossing over via Jot, a pass at an altitude of around 2,700 m, is in a bad shape.

The steep road is hazardous and full of potholes. The road passes through the winding and undulating hilly ranges.

Even this perilous road is without concrete parapet walls, thereby posing a constant danger to vehicles plying on the highway. A number of passengers have lost their lives on this risky patch of the highway in the past few years.

The road via Jot is the shortest route reducing a distance of about 45 km from the district headquarters town of Chamba to the rest of the state as compared to regular routes via Banikhet, the long-route buses from Chamba to Shimla, Dharampur, Palampur, Draman and Chowari ply on this highway, besides numerous light vehicles.

A travel from Chamba to Chowari on this scary road reveals that the parapet walls are hardly visible on this road. The parapet walls, which are mostly damaged by landslides during the incessant rains and snowfall, are not the only solution to curb road mishaps.

The afforestation plans can be a permanent solution to strengthen the hillsides of this highway. Passengers suggest that since the traffic, including the long route buses, was increasing day-by-day on this road, there was an urgent need for its widening and upkeep. Officials, however, maintain that necessary funds were provided by the government every year for carrying out widening, maintenance and restoration works of this road.

Palampur, October 18
Overloading of trucks in the state has become a matter of concern. These trucks are not only flouting the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act but also resulting in fatal accidents.

In the past few years, the state and the national highways have become worst victims of overloaded trucks. Trucks carrying cement, clinker, tiles and steel are flouting the provisions of the Act in the state and carrying more load than the prescribed limit of 9 tonnes resulting in heavy damage to the roads in the state.

Four cement plants set up in Bilaspur and Solan districts and construction of 50 hydel power projects have further aggravated the situation. There is no check on the overloading of trucks carrying cement and clinker from factories and equipment for power projects. Besides resulting in large-scale pollution in the region, these trucks have also caused heavy damage to internal link roads used by truckers to avoid the tax barriers.

Official sources said over 20,000 trucks and dumpers belonging to Gujarat Ambuja Cement Plant, Darlaghat, ACC Cement Plant, Barmana, and JP Cement Plant, Bagga use the national and state highways. Most of these trucks carry load between 15 tonnes and 20 tonnes openly violating the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act. These vehicles pay a nominal tax to the state government as compared to the loss being caused to the state roads.

Failure on part of the state to deal with this menace, the NHAI and the state Public Works Department have found themselves helpless and damage to roads is going on unabated. The Kalka-Shimla (Hindustan-Tibet Road), Kiratpur-Manali, Shimla-Kangra and Pathankot-Mandi and Pathankot-Chamba national highways arethe worst 
affected.

Weighing machines installed at high cost by the government at different entry points of the state are either out of order or not put to use by the officers posted on the barriers. In the absence of any proper check, over 90 per cent of the trucks have been carrying goods more than the prescribed limit, resulting in the destruction of roads, culverts and bridges on the highways. The total loss caused to the highways in the state has been estimated over Rs 500 crore.

The state Transport Authority and the traffic police, the major law enforcing agencies in the state, have failed to fulfil their duties. Official figures revealed that out of 100 traffic challans filed by these authorities in various courts of law in the state, only five per cent pertained to offences related to overloading.

The rampant corruption in the traffic police has made the matter worse as the posting in the traffic police has proved a gold mine for the corrupt police officials, which has encouraged the defaulters.

When the Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association (HPVHA) received award from Dr Nata Menabde, WHO representative designate to India, on August 23, 2011, at the Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, (see photo) for its “outstanding contributions in tobacco control efforts, including support to declare Shimla, the capital city of Himachal Pradesh, as smoke-free in October 2010”, the words of Jawaharlal Nehru came alive for the organisation: “A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new; when an age ends.”

That rare moment for this organisation, providing umbrella to 40 other voluntary organisations in the state, added a golden chapter in its history when its attempts bore fruits to see that the ‘age of smoking in public places in Shimla’ ended on October 2, 2010.

The story of making smoke-free Shimla started with the passing of ‘The Himachal Pradesh Prohibition of Smoking and Non Smokers Health Protection Act’ in 1997. The HPVHA had organised a workshop for all concerned to assess the working of the Act in the state in 2004 and was surprised to know that none of the implementing officers knew that such an Act was in force here. Smoking in Shimla schools then had attained a worrisome proportion. The Community Medicine Department at the IGMC had conducted a survey in Shimla schools in 2004-05 and had found that 29.3 per cent of the students of higher classes smoke or use tobacco. The percentage of smokers in private schools (31 per cent) was a little higher than that in government schools (28.6 per cent). The HPVHA’s survey had disclosed that 80 per cent of the adult smokers had started smoking when they were in school.

The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, abbreviated as COTPA, came into force in 2003. The Act covering entire country stimulated the HPVHA to go the whole hog against smoking in this state. The HPVHA started with a signature campaign in Shimla town in 2007, in which all 3,000 signatories promised never to smoke in life and to convince others to avoid smoking. Memoranda were given to the Governor and the Chief Minister requesting them to strictly implement COTPA in Himachal Pradesh. Many objected: ‘Why ban smoking? It gives us pleasure.’ There is no ban on smoking in private or open places. If one wants to kill oneself by smoking, one is at will to do so. The problem is that he kills others too through secondhand or passive smoking. A non-smoker living with a smoker for eight hours gets toxicity as if he has smoked 20 cigarettes. The Supreme Court has also held in Murli Deora vs. Union of India that public smoking violates the non-smoker’s fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The state Health Department and the HPVHA are working in tandem for implementing COTPA. It goes to the credit of this department that it decided that the amount earned through booking smokers under COTPA would be spent in furthering the cause of no tobacco-use by the department issuing the challans. It gave incentive to the Heads to attain smoke-free departments or institutions. The police has also been given powers here to book the smoker, which is not there in the Act because the founders believed that COTPA was a social legislation that delivered fruits when each member of the society worked for a smoke-free society, not just the government and non-government agencies, especially, the police.

A study of most public places in Shimla was conducted by the Economic Development Trust supported by The Union SE Asia New Delhi. The study disclosed that the town was 90 per cent free of smoking in public places and could be declared smoke-free, which was done on October 2, 2010. The HPVHA did another tentative study of randomly selected public places here after one year of the declaration and found the percentage dropping to 78. It is because of our complacent attitude and the downward trend may continue till each denizen of the town felt concerned and checked the practice of smoking in public places.

Nurpur, October 18
Even two months after the washing away of the central pillar of the Chakki railway bridge near Kandwal in this subdivision and snapping partial railway service between Pathankot-Jagindernagar rail line, the commuters in the lower areas of Kangra district have been left in the lurch.

Thousands of commuters in the rural areas of the Nurpur and Jawali subdivisions have been deprived of the cheaper transport means due to the apathy of the Railway authorities. The authorities had earlier restored railway service from Nagrota Surian to Jogindernagar after a couple of days after collapsing of one span of the Chakki railway bridge on August 12 last year.

There is lot of resentment among the inhabitants in the lower Kangra areas against the Railway Department for leaving over 60-km rail track from Nagrota Surian to Nurpur road (Jassur) unused even after persistent demand of the public.

In some areas, bus service is inefficient as people were dependent on the economical rail transport. But after the termination of rail service on the narrow gauge Pathankot-Jogindernagar railway line, buses can be seen overcrowded and jam-packed inviting road mishaps.

Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Kumar has taken up the issue with the Railways, but no step was taken in this connection.

Before the damage of the bridge, the Railway Department had spent over Rs 1 crore on the maintenance and repair of its pillars, but this huge expenditure has been wasted. Illegal and unscientific mining along the Chakki riverbed had resulted in the weakening of the foundations of the supporting pillars of the bridge.

BB Lal, traffic inspector (Railways) of the area, admitted that people were facing hardships due to the partial termination of the railway service. He said this service could not be restored up to Jassur as there was no facility of coach maintenance here. There is a demand to make temporary arrangement of restoring the damaged railway bridge by laying steel girders to connect the damaged rail track so that trains, without passengers, can ply over the bridge to approach the main railway station at Pathankot. 

Dalhousie, October 18
The Forest Department has drawn a flagship project called 'India-Himachal Pradesh Reforestation Project - Improving Livelihood and Watersheds', a clean development mechanism (CDM) for implementation in 11 watershed divisions of the Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project in the state.

The state has emerged pioneer in the country by signing a pact with the World Bank, which would cover over 4,000 hectares spread across 177 gram panchayats in 10 districts. The project envisages protecting watersheds, improving livelihoods and generating carbon revenue for the communities through afforestation, the official sources revealed.

The broad objective of the project is to sequester ‘greenhouse gases’ by expanding forestry plantations on degraded lands apart from creating a carbon sink, besides fulfilling global and national environmental objectives.

The project would help in developing innovative cost-effective ways to minimise climate change risks and provide multiple benefits to the poor farmers through meeting their needs of timber, pulpwood, firewood, minor forest produces along with carbon credits, in cash incentive. The people of the project area would be benefited with the implementation of the project as they would be deriving cash incentives out of the project.

The state government has been taking tangible measures to conserve the environment. The complete ban on the use of polythene had been imposed in the state. A buy back scheme for plastic waste from urban local bodies has been started and plastic waste is being bought at Rs 3 per kg and an additional rupee is given as handling charges. The fiscal incentives to panchayats, urban bodies and individuals for contributing towards proper collection of waste plastic in their respective areas are being provided.

The state has also taken lead in making use of plastic in construction of roads. Last year, over 30 tonnes of the collected plastic waste was used for tarring of 42 km of roads and during the current year, the plastic waste will be used for tarring of 150 km of roads.

For sustainable management of plastic in the state, the initiatives of the state government have been appreciated at the national-level. The state had been conferred the ‘Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration’ for the year 2009-10 for the initiatives taken in sustainable plastic waste management.

The hill state has earned the distinction of being a trendsetter in development issues as other states have been requesting Himachal to provide them with a model for plastic waste management to replicate in their states.

Hamirpur, October 18
Him Academy Public School (HAPS), Hamirpur, has taken an initiative to upgrade the marketing skills of small manufacturers of the local products and students of the school by organising a workshop on Fair Trade on the school premises recently.

Resource persons from Mumbai-based NGO International Resource for Fair Trade (IRFT) Pallavi Rana and Ngopune Purnay were invited for this workshop by the school management.

The main objective of the workshop was to upgrade the skills of the local artisans and small entrepreneurs to enhance the marketability of their products in the national and international markets through value addition and following the principles of Fair Trade, a wider concept of trade in the international market.

The resource persons also trained the local artisans and the local marginal manufacturers to make the best use of the local produce like pine cones, bamboo articles, Himachali caps and other woolen produces, Chamba handkerchieves, traditional fruits like local bananas, figs, apricots, walnuts and pickles in the market.

Pallavi said: “Fair Trade is a new concept in the international trade, which means providing fair and equal opportunities of trade to everyone, including small entrepreneurs. The Fair Trade has 10-point international charter which ensures fair and equal opportunities of trade for everyone sans exploitation”.

HPAS principal CP Lakhanpal said the school had taken the initiative in training students, local artisans and manufacturers in Fair Trade practice by inviting the IRFT resource persons.

“While students of the school have shown a keen interest in learning the new trade concept, the local artisans, small manufacturers and progressive farmers have also shown curiosity in learning Fair Trade principles and adopting its ideas for the better marketing of their produce,” she said.

Solan, October 18
A teachers’ interactive session was held at the Kala Amb-based Himalayan Institute of Professional Courses where principals and faculty members of various educational institutes participated.

The session was aimed at evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the institute so that steps could be taken to bring an improvement.

The guests were asked to make critical comments on the working of the institute which runs several professional courses like engineering and technology, polytechnic, law, pharmacy, nursing, BEd and computer sciences, so that corrective steps could be taken to bring about positive changes to achieve academic distinction.

Rajneesh Bansal, chairman of the institute, while addressing the guests gave a presentation on various courses run by the institute.

This was followed by an interactive session of the guests with the chairman where several key issues like falling standards of educational institutes was debated. The academicians delved into the need to raise the standard of educational institutes to the highest level which could be comparable to the IIMs and IITs.

The issue of weaker students, who were unable to receive higher education due to lack of resources, was also discussed during the session. The issue of students coming from Hindi medium, who found it difficult to cope with English at the higher level, also came up for discussion. It was also deliberated that guidance was an essential aspect of education and it would help dispel doubts in a student’s mind while opting for a particular course.

Dr Budhi Ram Sharma, principal of Government Sanskrit College, Nahan, said efforts could be made to improve the standard of the institute so that it could be elevated to the level of a university.

KS Negi, principal, Government Senior Secondary Secondary School, Sangrah, expressed his views on improving communication and the ways to increase attendance of the students so as to bring discipline and improve the academic standards.

RS Gulia, Director-General of the institute, concluded the session by stressing on skill development training programme for the dropouts and backward students so as to enable them to take up some job. He also spoke on the other issues like improving class attendance and academic achievement.

Bilaspur, October 18
Prominent Congress leader and former Zila Parishad member Bambar Thakur has highlighted the step-motherly treatment with Bilaspur district by the state government in all areas of development.

He presented a charter of demands to the government through the Deputy Commissioner after taking out a procession through town bazaars.

He also observed an Anna-style four-day fast in the main market here with a view to awaken people regarding the injustices being done with this district by the state BJP government.

Thakur was on fast against the transfer of number of government offices and facilities from this district by the government, failure to lay foundation stone of long declared hydro-engineering college here, transfer of ACC factory funds from here to Hamirpur district for completing the construction of a synthetic track, sabotaging the Central School project of Ghumarwin town by refusing to allot suitable land and neglect of all roads in district, including NH 21 (Chandigarh-Manali).

Though he did not get the requisite response either from the people or from leaders of different parties of opposition and even his own Congress party, yet he did succeed in earning sympathies of the common masses as he put forward the popular demands of the district residents. He did succeed in exposing the “double face” of some Congress leaders here as they did not even take note of this “symbolic protest” and did not even care to visit his fast camp.

Addressing his followers, Thakur said this was his symbolic protest fast against the step-motherly treatment being meted out to Bilaspur district by the BJP government. Since the fast has not awakened the government, he plans to start a district-wide peaceful agitation in shape of mass fasts and regional yatras at various places in the district here.