Dharamsala, December 10
The Dharamsala zonal hospital is devoid of fire-safety equipment. A visit to the hospital revealed that the four-storey building, housing 200 beds, did not have even a single fire extinguisher.

The building also lacked sand buckets that can be used to douse a fire in case it is caused by electrical sparking.

Hospital officials said that there used to be fire-fighting equipment at the hospital when a medical college was housed in the building. However, after the medical college was shifted to Tanda, the fire equipment was also removed from the building.

The medical college was shifted out of Dharamsala zonal hospital about five years ago. Ever since, the building has been without any fire-fighting equipment.

The medical superintendent of the hospital was on leave and couldn’t be contacted for comment. The staff did not have any knowledge about the status of fire-safety measures at the hospital.

The building is, however, spacious and has multiple exit points and broad corridors that can help in easy evacuation of patients in case of an emergency. The saving grace for the hospital is that the fire office is just 200m away.

However, the lack of fire-fighting equipment assumes significance as Dharamsala is located in a seismically sensitive zone (level 5).

Fire department officials said that hospital officials had recently written to their commandant for surveying the hospital building. But the survey couldn’t be carried out due to shortage of staff and time.

Shimla, December 10
With the high court imposing a ban on all construction activity in the Rohtang-Mari area, near Manali, except for defence purposes, work on all hydro-power projects, government welfare schemes and private construction work has come to a complete halt.

The Deputy Commissioner (DC) and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Kullu district visited the area around Rohtang two days back where all construction activity was to be stopped to ensure strict enforcement of the ban.

Barring three private houses where minor construction activity was on, work on all other projects has already been stopped.

Expressing concern over the need for preservation of the fragile ecology of the area, the green Bench of the high court had ordered that all construction activity except by the Army should be stopped till an interim development plan was not ready.

“Our concern is to maintain the pristine environs of the Rohtang area by ensuring that there is no water, air or sound pollution. We will take all necessary steps in this direction,” said Sudipto Roy, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest and Environment).

While HIMURJA, the state energy development agency, has written to the executors of the hydro-power projects coming up in the area to stop all works, the ban order has also put a question mark on the fate of some projects which have been allotted, but work is yet to begin as formalities are being completed.

The government has prepared a list of all the projects, both private and the ones being executed by it, so that the High Court can be apprised of the exact extent of construction activity. It has been reliably learnt that DC, Kullu, has filed an affidavit in court about all the projects, including power projects, MNREGA works, construction of a primary health centre by the PWD and private construction work.

As many as five power projects in the area will be affected by the ban - Rahla (2 MW), Mari (5 MW), Kothi (1.5 MW), Beas (2.25 MW) and Beas Kund (9 MW) where the work is on. While the Mari project has already been commissioned, work in other projects is under way.

Besides this some other projects have been allotted but since they are still in the process of obtaining NOC and mandatory permissions, physical work has yet to begin. This includes Khanora (2MW), Siander (1 MW), Palchan Bhang (8.5 MW) and Bhanga (8.5 MW).

The court in its order had observed that the glaciers of the area feed our river basins and any damage to these could be irreparable. It had observed that unregulated construction activity could adversely affect nature and the national economy and hence, some immediate measures needed to be taken.

Solan, December 10
With a view to improving infrastructure in the state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN), a proposal to levy external development charges at the rate of Rs 4 per sq.m. per annum has been put forth by the BBN Development Authority.

The amount will be used to improve infrastructure including regular maintenance of roads and parks.

These charges will be imposed in the industrial areas which are not maintained by the HP State Industrial Development Corporation (HPSIDC) and will be on the lines of the developmental charges being charged by the HPSIDC and Himachal Pradesh Housing and Urban Development Authority (HIMUDA) in their respective areas at the rate of Rs 6 per sq.m. and Rs 10 per sq.m. respectively.

The BBNDA has sought comments from industrial associations so that the matter could be pursued with the government.

Interestingly, contrasting views have emerged from the industry associations on the issue. While the BBN Industries Association has given its consent on the issue, the Nalagarh Industries Association (NIA) has opposed it.

Senior vice-president of the BBN Industries Association CD Dhar said that they had given their consent as the funds would be used for infrastructural development in the area.

However, terming these charges as another burden on the industry, the president of NIA Prem Sharma said that as they were already paying several charges like change of land use (CLU), infrastructural developmental charges, entry tax etc to various departments, there was little justification in imposing another charge. To illustrate his point, he said that he had paid Rs 25 lakh as CLU charges to the Town and Country Planning Department.

He said that the NIA opposed these charges and had presented their viewpoint to the BBNDA.

The Himachal Drug Manufacturers Association, while expressing apprehension over the utility of this fund, wondered if the funds would actually be used to improve infrastructure or be used merely to bear the expenditure of the BBNDA, including staff salaries.

HDMA president Sanjay Guleria said if transparency is maintained in utilising the funds by giving annual information to the industry, then they would contribute to it.

While lack of regular maintenance of roads and parks has been the constant lament of the industry, the investment of funds vis-à-vis collection of taxes has been less in the BBN, opined industrialists.

Dharamsala, December 10
The human rights situation in Tibet is worsening. The Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay, said this at a function organised here today to mark the 22nd anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s conferment of the Nobel Peace Prize and global Human Rights Day.

He said the human rights situation in Tibet has deteriorated so much that Tibetans were resorting to desperate and unprecedented acts like self-immolation.

A large number of Tibetans attended the celebration at the main temple here in McLeodganj.

Tibetan government officials said the celebration was kept low-profile in light of the self-immolation protests in the recent months.

Sangay said in 2011 alone, 12 Tibetans have reportedly committed self-immolation out of which seven have died.

“We call upon China to release all political prisoners who are sentenced under various pretexts without fair trial and to stop all repressive policies at present being implemented across Tibetan areas and to resolve the Tibetan issue peacefully through talks,” he said.

Sangay urged the United Nations and the international community to send fact-finding delegations to Tibet and assess the gross human rights violations and the ground situation.

The independent media and liberal Chinese intellectuals should also be allowed access to the affected areas of Tibet, he said.

Sangay later launched several books written by Tibetan authors and honoured three civil servants of the Central Tibetan Administration for their 25 years of service.

He released a new full-length feature film titled “Kyema - The Agony of Wrong Path” to promote awareness regarding drug and substance abuse in the community that was produced by the Department of Health of the Tibetan Government-in-exile.

The movie will be screened for a select audience later. Meanwhile, the Students For a Free Tibet and the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress launched a campaign for a global support to end the on-going crisis in Tibet though an on-line signature campaign.

Governments around the world must listen to the call by over 7,00,000 plus signatories to immediately take bold, multilateral diplomatic action to press China to end the crackdown before more lives are lost, said Tenzin Jigdel of Students for a Free Tibet.

Dalai Lama, who is at present in Prague, Czech Republic, for public talks and other engagements, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Shimla, December 10
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Kaul Singh Thakur today constituted a three-member fact-finding committee to find out the reasons for the defeat in the Renuka byelection, which had traditionally been a Congress stronghold.

The committee, headed by Brij Bihari Lal Butail, has MLA Rajesh Dharmani and former MLA Sohan Lal as its members. They have been asked to submit the report within a month.

The state Congress chief was supposed to leave for Delhi on December 6 to discuss the election results with the high command. However, he met with an accident on December 5 and is still under treatment at Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla.

Kaul Singh had earlier said the party would look into reasons for the defeat of the party in Renuka. Incidentally, Union Minister Virbhadra Singh had campaigned extensively in Renuka for party candidate Vinay Kumar, son of former MLA Prem Singh, whose death resulted in the holding of the byelection.

Chamba, December 10
The Centrally sponsored Saakshar Bharat Mission-2012 launched in Chamba district has revealed that 5,570 government employees working in different departments in the district are still illiterate.

These illiterate employees are serving in various government departments at the lower level such as peons, beldars, part-timers, mid-day meals workers etc.

Official sources of the mission revealed that the Public Works Department had the highest number of illiterate employees (2,777), Irrigation and Public Health Department had 299 such employees and the Forest Department had 73 illiterate employees.

Amazingly, the Education Department in Chamba district had 583 illiterate employees and the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board had 60 staff members in this category.

Meanwhile, Sharabh Negi, Deputy Commissioner, Chamba, who is also the chairperson of the zila saksharta samiti constituted under the Saakshar Bharat Mission-2012, said that in order to make these employees literate, 1,410 volunteer teachers had been deployed.

The DC added that there were a total of 80,000 illiterate persons in the district who would be taught by 8,000 volunteer teachers.

The DC informed that 283 lok shiksha kendras had also been set up in 283 panchayats of the district. He added that Saakshar Bharat Mission clubs were also being formed in government colleges, senior secondary and high schools of the district.

Chamba district is one of 365 districts of the country and the only district of Himachal Pradesh which has been identified under the Saakshar Bharat Mission-2012 with the aim of wiping out illiteracy by March-end.