Shimla, February 5
Incessant heavy snow brought life to a standstill in the tribal belt and other higher areas of the state while people in the lower hills groaned under the chill as the storm caused by a western disturbance continued to pound the region for the third consecutive day today.

A man walks during heavy snowfall in Keylong on Tuesday.

Kinnaur district received heavy snow with Kalpa recording 80 cm of snow and Chitkul over 100 cm over the last 48 hours. Narkanda, Kharapathar, Churdhar, Dhauladhar and other high areas in Shimla, Kullu and Chamba districts received intermittent snow. Lower hill areas received widespread rain.

The state capital was lashed by heavy rain and sleet accompanied by strong icy winds throughout the day. Streets wore a deserted look as the weather forced people to stay indoors.

Kinnaur and upper Shimla areas were cut off as snow blocked the Hindustan-Tibet road and other roads in the region. The Himachal Road Transport Corporation was forced to suspend service on over 100 routes.

Tissa recorded the highest rainfall (121 mm), followed by Seobagh (53 mm), Sangrah (48 mm), Karsog and Kotkhai (42 mm each), Sujanpur Tira (41 mm), Renuka (37 mm), Bhuntar (35 mm), Paonta Sahib (33 mm), Rajgarh and Dharamsala(32 mm each), Saluni (31 mm), Kandaghat and Rampur (29 mm each), Solan and Kumarsain (25 mm each), Gohar and Banjar (23 mm each) and Nagrota Surian (21 mm).

Kalpa recorded the lowest temperature of -3.4°C while Paonta Sahib was the warmest at 19°C. According to the meteorological office, the storm will start losing intensity tomorrow and the weather will clear over the next 48 hours.

Lahaul-Spiti Deputy Commissioner Veer Singh Thakur held a meeting of district officials to review the situation as snow continued to pile up. He said the valley had received over 90 cm of snow and the supply of essential commodities in the district was adequate.

He directed the officials to keep a strict vigil and be fully prepared to deal with any emergency. He directed the ITBP unit at Karga and the Border Roads Organisation at Stingri and Udaipur to make necessary arrangements for tackling any situation arising from the heavy snowfall. The administration advised people to stay indoors.

A 24-hour emergency helpline 01900-222501 was started to provide assistance to the public. All educational institutions in Lahaul-Spiti were closed. Most areas in the valley were without electricity as power lines snapped.

Manali: Normal life was thrown out of gear as the entire upper Manali region received moderate-to-heavy snowfall for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. Vehicular traffic was disrupted in the upper Manali region in the morning.

The Manali-Kullu highway and the Manali-Naggar-Kullu road were opened to vehicular traffic.

All long-route Manali-bound buses were halted between Kalath and Aloo ground. Local bus service remained suspended on the Manali-Naggar-Kullu and Manali-Kothi-Solang roads.

Power supply in the upper Manali areas was disrupted since Monday. Snowfall brought cheer on the faces of taxi operators, luxury bus operators and hoteliers as they felt that it would boost tourism in the Kullu valley.

The area was in the grip of severe cold conditions, leading to a further decline in day and night temperatures. Most local residents remained indoors as icy winds blew throughout the day.

Chamba: The far-flung areas of Nayagran, Hadsar and Satrundi were cut off on Tuesday and transport services could not be operated following heavy rain in Chamba district on Monday and Tuesday.

Electricity supply to several villages was erratic. The high reaches were covered in a thick cover of snow while lower hill areas received a heavy downpour. The Pir Panjal mountains were under thick snow.

Rain was beneficial for rabi crops, according to agriculture and horticulture experts. Heavy snow on the mountains would be a boon to hydroelectricity power generation and irrigation and drinking water supply schemes in the plains.

Nurpur: The intermittent rain lashing the lower areas in Kangra district since Sunday night disrupted normal life. Markets in Nurpur, Jassur, Rehan, Nagrota Surian, Jawali and Indora were deserted on Monday and Tuesday.

SS Rana, Associate Director, Horticulture Regional Research Station, said the timely rain was good for the flowering of mango, litchi and citrus fruit crops. He said the winter rain would reduce the danger of fruit diseases.

Chandigarh, February 5
A group of seven students from Lawrence School, Sanawar, are all equipped to undertake the daunting task of taming Mt Everest, the world’s highest mountain. Having procured certification from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), the youngest team will fly to the base camp in Nepal on April 6 before commencing their arduous ascent.

Team members after they scaled the BC Roy peak (17,765 ft) on the Rathong Glacier.

The team comprises Hakikat Singh Grewal, Fateh Singh Brar, Prithvi Singh Chahal, Guribadat Singh, Ajay Sohal and Shubham Kaushik. All of them are students of class XII. The final call on Raghav Juneja, a class XI student, will be taken later.

The age of the youngest Indian mountaineer on the Everest located at 8,848 metres has been recorded as 16 years, 11 months and 27 days in the name of Arjun Bajpai. Juneja is the youngest in the team with his age at 15 years and nine months. In fact, all the climbers on the current list are younger than Bajpai.

The expedition was an idea of former graduates of Lawrence, who met Col Neeraj Rana, the then Principal of HMI, Darjeeling, about six months ago. Having retired from the famed institute in quality mountaineering, Colonel Rana is now the climbing leader of the team. Colonel Rana has to his credit at least three peaks of more than 8,000 metres height, including Mt Everest, Kanchenjunga and Makalu peak.

Twelve students were selected from among volunteers for mountaineering. This was followed by a strenuous training session in basic mountaineering for 28 days. A select group was given an advanced training course, which was followed by successful expeditions to the BC Roy peak in Sikkim (17,765 ft) and Mt Frey peak (19,500 ft).

The team completed a 1,000-km cycling expedition to Suratgarh, Jaisalmer and parts of the Thar in the first week of January.

Hakikat Singh said, “The feel of the walk in the clouds has no words to describe. It is almost magical to be on the top of a peak after days of hard work. The journey gives a feel of endurance to our hearts as well as our minds”.

Fateh Singh said, “During a meeting with our parents, Colonel Rana floated the idea of an expedition shortly after he had returned from the Everest. Judging us from physical and mental transformation during the training, our team leader presented our case to the HMI which certified our fitness”.

Shimla, February 5
Efforts to revive the industrial package are a part of the Congress government’s larger strategy to boost economic growth through speedy industrialisation to help find a permanent solution to the problem of unemployment.

Never before has the political leadership shown such concern for securing funds from the Centre to tide over the financial crisis. The Chief Minister and ministers concerned have been camping in New Delhi and pursuing the case with various ministries ahead of the Union Budget.

The 42-page document submitted by state Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri to Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma focuses on the constraints holding back industrial growth and spells out measures required to speed up the process for which an assistance of Rs 1,500 crore has been sought.

Short-term measures pertain to the strengthening and upgrade of infrastructure like roads, power supply network and waste disposal facility while long-term initiatives include two new industrial townships, textile parks, handloom training and development centres and strengthening of post-harvest infrastructure for fruits and vegetables.

The mood is positive and the main reason is that some of the issues are within the purview of the Commerce Minister, who was also the chairman of the Election Manifesto Committee. He has already given an assurance that capital investment subsidy will be restored and matters pertaining to transport subsidy settled.

The special package granted by the Centre in January 2003 had provided an impetus to industrial growth, but only one-third of the investment proposals approved translated into reality. With no plan in place, the growth was haphazard, creating problems in the main industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh and encouraging the land mafia.

After the granting of the package, 298 medium and large units, 294 expansion projects and 8,375 small units came up till December 31 last. With a total investment of Rs 13,980.3 crore, the units provided employment to 1,15,586 persons, of which 92,543 were from the state.

Though impressive, the figures look discouraging when one takes into account the fact that proposals of 1,045 new medium and large units, 432 expansion projects and 15,175 small units involving an investment of Rs 48,746.43 crore with the potential to provide employment to 5.38 lakh persons were approved. If all the units had come up, about four more lakh persons would have got jobs.

Agnihotri maintains that apart from inadequate infrastructure, which has been a major constraint, the state also lacks an investor-friendly environment. This is the main reason for a majority of companies not setting up projects even after getting approval.

His main concern is the creation of a pro-investor environment and bringing by invitation big industrial houses to the state. The state will shortly organise a mega investors meet. The effort will be to bring reputed companies which provide quality employment.

Of the schemes worth Rs 1,500 crore submitted to the Commerce Minister, projects worth Rs 500 crore pertain to infrastructure development under the assistance to states for developing export infrastructure and other allied activities and industrial infrastructure upgrade schemes.

Besides common effluent treatment plants in Paonta Sahib, Kala Amb, Tahliwal and Mehatpur, projects for improvement of roads in industrial areas, strengthening of the power transmission and distribution network and skill upgrade centres have been proposed as well.

For employment generation on a large scale, two textile parks for Una and Kangra, 10 handloom training centres and a tussor silk research centre have been proposed. Horticulture projects worth Rs 90.50 crore have been proposed.

These include setting up an apple juice concentrate plant at Paralla (Rs 28 crore), upgrade of cold stores in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai (Rs 30 crore), modernisation of fruit processing plants at Parwanoo and Sundernagar (Rs 30 crore) and setting up a grading and packing unit in Chamba (Rs 2.5 crore).

The state also proposes to set up two new industrial townships in Una and Kangra districts for which a project worth Rs 240 crore has been formulated. A major problem in this regard is that the Centre has fixed the minimum quantum of land for such projects at 5,000 hectare, which is not feasible for a hill state.

The state is pleading for separate norms for hill states and the framing of schemes to encourage industrial clusters so that industry could be dispersed in interior areas. The state Industries Department has already taken the initiative to create a land bank so that investors do not have to run from pillar to post to identify and acquire land.

The initiative will not only help solve the problems being faced by existing units, but also ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated and there is no haphazard growth in case the Centre restores some incentives under the package, Agnihotri explains.

He is also coordinating with other departments to facilitate the setting up of an information technology park and biotechnology ventures. These generate employment for the educated youth, the prime concern of the government. 

Dharamsala, February 5
The fish farming potential in the state lies unutilised. The Department of Fisheries has failed to motivate farmers, especially in lower areas, to take to fish farming in a commercial manner. Just a few farmers are doing fisheries commercially on their own initiative.

The fish caught from the Pong Dam lake being sold at the Fisheries Department centre in Nagrota Surian. Photo by writer

One of them Baljit Singh Tur is a farmer from Una district. Baljit has successfully converted his water-logged land into a fish farm and is earning about Rs 50,000 per acre for fish farming.

Sources here said fish farming if carried out in a professional manner could raise the net income of farmers up to Rs 1 lakh per acre per annum.

Baljit Singh while talking to The Tribune said it was boom time for fish farmers in the region. Even the wholesale price of fish had increased to about Rs 50 per kg.

Fish farming is turning into a lucrative venture in the region due to increasing demand for fish in cities of Punjab. The data collected by The Tribune revealed that there was a daily demand of about 4,000 kg fish in the Amritsar wholesale market. A similar quantum was required in Ludhiana and Jalandhar.

Due to lesser production locally, dealers in the region import fish from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. Sea fish is imported from Maharashtra. However, sea fish is available just in winters as in summers it is difficult to transport it within a stipulated time.

The varieties that are imported include sangara, mali and sal. Pangas, commonly known as pyasi, is a cheap boneless fish and imported from fish farms in Andhra Pradesh. The boneless varieties like sal and mali are sold at rates ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 180 per kg.

In Himachal, however, the Fisheries Department is concentrating on promoting farming of just trout fish. The trout fish is the high-end product that has its market just in metros. Last year trout farmers rued the fact that they were not finding a proper market for their produce due to a decrease in the number of high-end foreign tourists coming to country.

The other major fish production in the state comes from two man-made lakes, the Gobind Sagar lake on Bhakra Dam and the Pong Dam lake. However, the fisheries production in the lake has its limitations. It is supporting fishermen, rather than fish farmers. At the Pong Dam lake, the Fisheries Department is also in direct conflict with the Wildlife Department. The Wildlife Department claims that commercial fishing cannot be allowed in the lake as it is part of the international wetland area.

If farmers in the state, especially in lower areas, are motivated to take up farming of common fish varieties that can be sold easily in adjoining states it can boost their income. Fisheries, is lesser time consuming and gives more returns to the farmers.

A farmer in Una district has also displayed that fisheries can also be coupled with pearl farming. A few other farmers from the district who want to take up pearl farming in a commercial manner have requested the department to call in experts from Orissa to train them in intricacies of pearl farming. However, their requests have till date fallen on deaf ears of the authorities concerned.

The farmers also blame certain government policies that are bottleneck in promoting fish farming. There is no tax on income generated from traditional crops. However, fish farmers have to pay tax at par with the industry. The hassles of paying taxes desist the farmers from diversifying to fish farming. 

Solan, February 5
The issue of the formation of new districts within the BJP organisation echoed in the two-day ‘chintan baithak’ which began at Kasauli today to ponder over the future strategy of the party.

Headed by the state BJP president Satpal Satti, former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal, state general secretary Dr Rajeev Bindal, MPs Virender Kashyap and Anurag Thakur, MLAs and former MLAs were among those present in the meeting.

The leaders opined that the Congress government after assuming charge had started harassing BJP workers and this was a matter of concern. Among other issues which were discussed included revamping the organisational structure in view of the next year’s general elections and the byelection of the Mandi Parliamentary seat which had fallen vacant.

The leaders also decided to oppose anti-people policies of the present government while supporting those which would give relief to the common man. While a final strategy would be chalked out tomorrow, the leaders discussed various issues concerning the party at length.

Among those present included Dr Rajiv Sehzal, Randhir Sharma, Sukh Ram, Suresh Bhardwaj, Praveen Sharma and Virender Kanwar.

Power supply, however, remained disrupted since 11 am in Kasauli and surrounding areas. BJP state secretary Praveen Sharma asked the government if it was a planned strategy to harass the Opposition and added that despite being an important place of tourism, unavailability of power had forced BJP senior leaders, including former Chief Minister, to convene a meeting in the cold and dark. He added that it was a mockery of the state which was power surplus.

Shimla, February 5
The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board has clarified that the infrastructure development charges (IDC) for which public objections had been invited would not be levied retrospectively and the proposal would come into effect from May 23, 2012, the date on which new regulations were notified.

A spokesperson of the board said the connections released to consumers before this date were being charged as per the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (Recovery of Expenditure for Supply of Electricity) Regulations, 2005.

Also, the charges ranging between Rs 910 and Rs 4,870 per KVA proposed by the HPSEB would be finalised by the commission only after due consultation with stakeholders, he said, adding these would be recoverable only if approved by the commission.

The denial regarding shifting of burden of un-recovered dues from government departments to industries and the proposal for recovery of charges was as per HPERC Regulations, 2012, and did not have any concern with the electricity charges to be recovered from government departments, he said.

As per Section 43 of the Electricity Act, 2003, no person would be entitled to demand or to continue to receive, from a licensee, supply of electricity unless he had agreed to pay him such price as determined by an appropriate commission.

The board had filed a petition before the Commission for approval of service connection charges as per regulation 14 of the HPERC (Recovery of Expenditure for supply of Electricity) Regulations, 2012.

On its direction, salient features of the petition had been published in leading newspapers and the rates were yet to be finalised by the commission. Copies of petitions have also been sent to industrial associations and state government departments for filing claims and objections. 

Hamirpur, February 5
Though the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, was enforced in the state more than three years ago, many provisions of the Act have not been implemented in the state.

To ensure free and compulsory education under the Act, all the government/aided/ and non-minority unaided private schools were mandated to reserve 25 per cent of the total seats available in every class for students of weaker sections between 6 and 14 years.

For meeting educational expenses of such students, the state government is supposed to provide grant to government-aided schools and educational expenses in minority un-aided schools was to be met by the state government.

Fulfilling the provision of admission to students of weaker sections was mandated as a precondition for affiliation of private schools with the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education.

This provision of the Act was even upheld by the Supreme Court rejecting a petition moved by certain private schools challenging the provision in April 2012.

The state government has not taken steps to ensure 25 per cent reservation to students of weaker sections in private schools after so many months.

Even other provisions of the Act, like change in curriculum of elementary classes and publication of books for students by the HP Board of School Education, have not been implemented in the state.

K Sanjaymurthi, Secretary, Education, said, “This provision of the RTE Act was not promulgated in the state as this matter was pending in the Supreme Court. However, now that the court verdict has come, steps are being taken for implementing this provision in the state”.

Sundernagar, February 5
After the change of government, local residents have started raising their voice against the decision of the previous BJP government to change to Hamirpur the location of the technical university which was to be opened here as per the recommendation of the Department of Technical Education.

Local legislator Sohan Lal raised the issue during the planning meeting recently and requested the Chief Minister to review this decision of the previous government so that the technical university could be shifted back here.

Sohan Lal said here today that the Department of Technical Education had conducted a statewide survey and Sundernagar was found to be the most suitable location. He said a preliminary exercise was done by the Directorate of Technical Education and about 90 bigha (7,2588 square metre) in the heart of the town identified for the purpose.

He said the Department of Technical Education had recommended to the government that the technical university be opened in Sundernagar, but the BJP government had decided to open it in Hamirpur.

He accused BJP leaders in Mandi district of conniving with then Chief Minister PK Dhumal. He added that Gulab Singh Thakur, Mohinder Singh and Jai Ram, all from this district, attended the Cabinet meeting, but did not raise their voice. He further said then local legislator Roop Singh Thakur did not utter a single word on the issue.

Chamba, February 5
Thieves stole gold and silver jewellery worth Rs 1.80 lakh and a valuable idol from the house of Des Raj and his brother at Patti tribal village falling in Bharmour tribal sub-division of the district yesterday, according to a report here today.

The report said on the night of February 3, the thieves had broken open the locks of the doors and ransacked the house when Des Raj had gone to attend a meeting at the Community Health Centre in Bharmour and there was nobody in the house.

On a compliant of Des Raj a case had been registered at Bharmour police station under Sections 457 and 380, IPC. 

Hamirpur, February 5
The Bhoranj police has booked Anil Kumar of Mundkhar for allegedly abetting suicide under Section 306, IPC.

The police said Sneh Lata of Manoh village had allegedly committed suicide in her house on January 16. Her brother found a suicide note wherein the deceased had alleged that the accused had broken a marriage promise made to her.

Sneh’s brother has made a complaint to the police. — TNS