Shimla, May 29
Scientists, researchers and administrators have expressed concern over the receding glaciers and snowfields and called for effective adaptation and mitigation measures to safeguard future of 800 million people sustained by the Himalayan river system.

“The Himalayan glaciers are the third largest deposit of snow on the earth after Antarctica and North Pole and most vulnerable on account of large habitations which have grown by 120 per cent. Instead of engaging in a debate and creating a hype about how fast or slow they are melting, the focus should be on undertaking real-time studies to assess the impact so that effective measures could be taken to combat it”, said Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy while presiding over the inaugural session of the two-day brainstorming workshop on “Snow, Glaciers and the Himalayan River System, organised by the State Centre for Climate Change, here today.

The glacial lakes in the higher reaches were expanding due to melting of snow and if the trend was not arrested they could be a potential hazard for downhill habitations. While the discharge in the Ravi and Chenab basins was decreasing, it was increasing in the Sutlej and some other river basins. Such trends needed to be investigated to ascertain the cause and taking the required policy initiatives.

In his keynote address, VK Jain, Vice- Chancellor of Doon University and an expert on air pollution, said rising aerosols, fine suspended particles (0.1 to 100 micron) and concentrations was giving rise to anthropogenic brown clouds (ABC) to enhance the impact of greenhouse gases and in turn accelerate the melting of glaciers. The black carbon (BC) was the main culprit along with sulphates and nitrates.

Head of Climate Change in the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences KJ Ramesh gave a detailed presentation on the impact of the climate change in different areas.

Earlier, Director of Environment SS Negi welcomed the participants.

Mandi, May 29
The ruling Congress has aimed at making the filing of nomination of its candidate Pratibha Singh a show of strength at a party rally at the historic Seri Munch here tomorrow as Congress workers from all 17 Assembly segments of the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency are expected to participate in the event.

Party sources said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is expected here in the late evening hours. Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur, Rural Development Minister Anil Sharma, Excise and Taxation Minister Parkash Chaudhary, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sohan Lal, state party president Sukhvinder Singh and other legislators from Mandi,

Kullu, and three tribal segments are expected to come along with party workers in support of Pratibha Singh.

BJP candidate Jai Ram Thakur has put in place an active campaign strategy and media management updating the media on public meetings.

But the Congress has lagged behind so far and has yet to put its campaign machinery in place in support of its party candidate.

Jai Ram has decided to file his nomination on June 1 in which former Chief Ministers Prem Kumar Dhumal, and Shanta Kumar, state Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) president Satpal Singh Satti and other leaders are expected to participate.

Sukhvinder Singh said the nomination of Pratibha Singh would be followed by a party rally at the Seri Munch in which all leaders from Mandi and Kullu would be present.

The campaign would be intensive and district and block presidents and MLAs would be held accountable for any mismanagement at the booth level, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sukhvinder Singh asserted.

Mandi, May 29
The Congress has decided to make good governance and equitable development of all the sections and regions and the rejection of the BJP as its main poll plank. The party will pit it against BJP’s main poll plank of “rampant corruption in the UPA-II Government, price rise and the dismal start of the five-month-old Virbhadra Singh government” in the Mandi byelection.

The Congress is banking mainly on the mass appeal of Virbhadra Singh, who has got the support of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who cleared Pratibha Singh’s name for the election.

The Congress considers Mandi Lok Sabha seat as its bastion, however, the BJP has won six Assembly seats out of 17 seats in the last Assembly elections.

Though the Kullu Congress has geared up its cadre much in advance, the Mandi Congress Committee is yet to activate its cadre to take on the BJP, which has already launched its campaign in Seraj, Karsog and Balh.

Congress president Sukhvinder Singh said good governance with accountability and equal development of all the sections, regions and the rejection of the BJP by the people in last elections would be the main issues in the Mandi bypoll. “The BJP has no right to deliver a lecture on corruption as the people know the real face of the party,” he said.

Solan, May 29
The inordinate delay caused in setting up a dedicated sub-station for the Rs 64-crore Potable Giri Water Scheme has reduced the utility of this ambitious scheme that is often marred by breakdown due to low voltage.

Though as per the last deadline this sub-station was supposed to be completed by March this year, its work was yet to be completed.

Superintending Engineer (transmission) Pankaj Dadwal said the company concerned had abandoned the work for sometime and this had resulted in delay. The company had, however, resumed work now and it would be completed soon.

He added that he along with a team of officials would soon visit the site to assess the progress and ensure that the sub-station was set up at the earliest and a penalty for failing to comply with the deadline would also be imposed.

The scheme, which was inaugurated in April 2008, was supposed to supply water to 131 villages of Kasauli and Solan constituencies till 2036. But failure to provide a dedicated sub-station despite a lapse of over five years had forced the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department to run the scheme on an ad hoc arrangement by drawing power from a 33-KV line at Solan.

This often led to fluctuation in the voltage and breakdown of the machinery, thus incurring losses worth crores to the IPH Department that was responsible for supplying water from this scheme.

The work was earlier awarded to a contractor who had backed out, forcing the transmission wing of the state power board to invite fresh tenders. Despite this, the new contractor had also failed to comply with several deadlines and work had remained incomplete.

The IPH Department had deposited Rs 14 crore in 2008 itself with the transmission wing of HPSEBL for setting up this sub-station to avoid delays on account of late receipt of funds.

With several years having lapsed after the scheme having been inaugurated, the shoddy progress in setting up a sub-station spoke volumes about the indifferent attitude of the authorities.

Dharamsala, May 29
The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBoSE) has released the list of 25 private education boards from across the country, which are not recognised in the state.

Rakhil Kahlon, secretary of the board, said many students from the state got admissions in unrecognised boards that generally gave lucrative offers. Such boards generally offerred students distance school education. Students taking education from these unrecognised boards generally wasted money as well precious academic years. Even certificates issued by these boards were not recognised by the state government. Such students would not be eligible for government jobs or taking admission in institutes of higher learning in the state, he said.

The board has also put a list of these boards on its website www.hpbose.org. The list of unrecognised boards/universities and bodies released by the education board today include the Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi, Delhi Board of Senior Secondary Education, Indian Council of Secondary Education, India, Fatehhullganj, Muradabad, and Indian Council of Secondary Education India, Haldica Shahu, Uttarakhand, All-India Board of Education Training, Delhi, operated by the Dr Ambedkar Chintan Samjik Sodh Sansthan, Rohtas, Bihar, All-India Board of Secondary Education, Delhi, Board of Adult Education and Training, Delhi, Central Board of Higher Education, East Patel Nagar, New Delhi, Central Board of Higher Education, Uttam Nagar, New Delhi, Central Board of Higher Education, New Delhi, Jamia Urdu Aligarh, Medical Road, Aligarh, Gurukul Vishawavidyala, Varindavan, Mathura, Council of Secondary Education, Mohali, Sampurananand Sanskrit Vishawavidyala, Varanasi, Mahashakti Sanskrit Vidhyapeed, Karan Vihar Park, Delhi, Bhartiya Sikhsha Parishad, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, Board of Secondary Sanskrit Education, UP, Lucknow, Hindi Sahitya Sammellan, Allahabad, Mumbai Hindi Vidhyapeedh, Doctor Ram Gopalacharya Sanskrit Mahavidiayala, Nayabas, Etah, UP, Board of Secondary Education, Madhya Bharat, Gwalior (MP), Secondary Education of Bhiwani, Panipat, Haryana, Vedamou Vaidic Vidyapeedh, Badayoun, Doon International University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh and Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Open Learning.

The said unrecognised bodies have developed a network of agents across the state who issue advertisements across the state to attract students.

In advertisements, students are given lucrative offers. The agents further tell students that they will get passing certificates without appearing in any exams provided they shell the required amount for the purpose.

Despite the fact that the advertisements appear daily and centres of such unrecognised boards operate openly, no authority takes any action against them. Earlier, many state universities from eastern states had opened their centres for offering degrees through distance education. 

Manali, May 29
Hundreds of tourists are thronging the tourist town of Manali every day to get relief from the scorching heat of the plains. With it, the 13,050-ft-high Rohtang Pass, gateway to Lahaul-Spiti, on the Manali-Leh highway, which is popularly known as the “Snow Point”, has been attracting a large numbers of domestic and foreign visitors.

The recent fresh spell of snow in the entire higher peaks and rain in the lower parts brought the day and night temperature down a few notches in the Manali region.

The main attraction for tourists is snow at the Rohtang Pass. A festive atmosphere prevailed at the pass, as tourists were seen enjoying yak and horse rides, skiing and having photo sessions.

Every tourist who visits Kullu-Manali loves to visit the Rohtang Pass, the most popular destination. Besides affording a magnificent view of the snow-clad peaks of the Chandra Bhaga range, the pass is a source of the Beas. The 51-km-long road to the Rohtang Pass is replete with magnificent views of the snow-covered Pir Panjal ranges to the north and the lush green Kullu valley to the south.

Shimla, May 29
In the absence of an alternate accommodation to shift offices of the local Municipal Corporation (MC), the restoration projects of the Town Hall building has been held up even as conservation architects have finalised the detailed project report (DPR) of the renovation plan of the historic Town Hall.

Though some alternate accommodation to shift the offices of the MC temporarily have been suggested, no single site has been finalised yet. The possible accommodation suggested to the MC includes the Jakhu aerial ropeway structure, United Services (US) Club, which earlier housed the Public Works offices and the Deputy Commissioners Office Complex.

In fact a committee comprising of the Director, Tourism, Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, and Commissioner, MC, had undertaken a spot visit to the Jahku aerial ropeway structure near the US Club. The promoters have already paid Rs 60.68 lakh as penalty for making deviations in construction, but it is only after their consent that the MC offices can be shifted there.

“We are still in the process of finalising a suitable accommodation as the requirement of the MC is about 1,500 sq m,” said Amarjit Singh, Commissioner, MC. He confirmed that a spot inspection of the Jakhu aerial ropeway structure had been undertaken as a possible temporary accommodation but no final decision had been taken so far. The other issue was that not all the floors in the Jakhu aerial ropeway structure were habitable, he said.

Meanwhile, the Tourism Department has already submitted the DPR of the Town Hall restoration project, prepared by Shikha Jain, a conservation architect, who if presently the director of the Development and Research Organisation for Nature, Art and Heritage (DRONAH). The project is likely to cost Rs 8 lakh to be funded by the Asian Development Bank. The completion period for the restoration work is about two years.

Another issue confronting the MC is that the area occupied by them within the Town Hall might be reduced as architects have proposed certain modifications in the conservation plan. The mezzanine floors that have been created to provide additional accommodation might be done away with after the restoration project is complete. As such, some wings of the MC office might have to be shifted out permanently.

The accommodation on premises of the US Club is too little to suit the requirement of the MC unless and until the office of the Engineer-in-Chief, Irrigation and Public Health, moves. However, that can only happen if the IPH building is complete.

Palampur, May 29
A workshop of the All-India Coordinated Research Project on agro forestry concluded at Agriculture University here yesterday.

Chief guest Dr SP Sharma, Director of the project, urged scientists to present field work with proper data to judge the comparative physical and chemical properties of the soil. He asked the scientists to compile the data related to soil testing accurately. He said in the next Five-Year Plan emphasis would be on fodder tree improvement and the launch of agro forestry mission.

During a plenary session, Dr SK Dhyani, Director, National Research Centre for Agro Forestry, Jhansi, stressed upon compiling information on transferable agro-forestry technologies and the mechanism for their upscaling. He said the project on agro forestry was initiated in 1983 and was one of the largest network programmers in the country. There were 37 coordinating centres located in 25 SAUs, 11 ICAR institutes and one ICFRE institute.

Dr Dhyani also presented a coordinators' report and a brief summary of the research achievements of the project for last year. The presentations of the coordinating centres were divided into different sessions.

The major recommendations were to give more emphasis on value addition, economic analysis and environmental services. Five bulletins complied by PC Unit, SKUAST, Srinagar, PAU, Ludhiana, AAU, Jorhat, and ANGRAU, Hyderabad, were released on the occasion.

Dr B Mohan Kumar, ADG (agro forestry), NRM Division, ICAR, DR CL Acharaya, ex-Director, IISS, Bhopal, Dr RP Awasthi, ex-VC, YSPUH&F, Solan, and Dr KS Dadhwal, ex-CSWCRTI, Dehradun, chaired different sessions of the three-day workshop. Dr VP Singh, regional representative, South Asia of World Agro Forestry Centre, and Dr B Gangwar, Director, PDFSR, Modipuram, delivered plenary lectures.

During the three-day workshop, there were seven technical sessions, including inaugural and plenary sessions, in addition to field visit to the Tea Husbandry and Organic Farming Unit University.

Bilaspur, May 29
Bowing to the pressure of the agitating public under the banner of Sarva Shikshit and Berozgaar Sangharsha Samiti of the Barmana area, the ACC cement factory management accepted almost all the demands of the agitators, giving several benefits to oustees and affected families of the factory last evening.

Local MLA Bambar Thakur, whose effective involvement resulted in this agreement, offered fruit juice to the fasting leaders at Barmana, 22 km from here, last evening, thus ending their 22-day-old agitation.

He expressed happiness over the agreement and the restoration of rights of those who were helping the factory earn crores annually by giving their ancestral agricultural lands for setting it up 32 years ago.

Samiti chairman Amarjeet and general secretary Anil Thakur, who led the agitation, said among other things, the ACC had agreed in writing to give preference to oustees and affected families of this factory in filling vacancies in future.

The factory would also provide facilities and funds for their training, apart from filling up a post which fell vacant by an employee's death from a member of his family. All non-technical and unskilled posts would have to be filled up from among local youths.

Kangra, May 29
National-level workshops help research scholars to interact with one another at different universities and get exposed to academicians, which helps in improving their research output.

This was stated by Prof Furqan Qamar, Vice-Chancellor, Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP), while addressing the valedictory function of the 10-day national workshop on research methodology jointly organised by the CUHP and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, today.

Qamar said: “A bulk of knowledge is acquired from peer groups and interaction with knowledgeable persons at such platforms.”

During the valedictory function, the Vice-Chancellor also released a compendium of resources on research methodology for participants. The participants were also awarded certificates of attendance.

Speaking on the occasion, KC Panigrahi, Research Scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, who participated in the workshop, said the workshop was helpful to him to understand advanced techniques and methodologies used in social sciences.

Prof Arvind Agrawal, Dean, School of Social Sciences; Prof HR Sharma, Dean, Student Welfare; Dr Roshan Lal Sharma, Proctor; Dr Rabindranath Manukonda, Dean and Workshop Director; Dr Arbind Kumar Jha, Dean, School of Education; Heads of various departments and other faculty members of the university were among those present.

The workshop that kicked off on May 20 had 33 participants from 15 universities across seven states.

Dharamsala, May 29
Researchers at the Global Security Software Company ESET have discovered a cyber espionage malware targeting Tibetan activists.

“The threat, which has been named Win32/Syndicasec, bears characteristics similar to the previous campaigns of espionage against Tibetan activists, but uses unusual techniques to evade detection and achieve persistency on infected systems,” ESET said last week.

Sources here said according to Alexis Dorais-Joncas, Security Intelligence Team Lead at ESET, the malware bypassed the user account control (UAC) mechanism in Windows to run arbitrary commands with elevated privileges without prompting users for confirmation.

This technique is used to execute a second malicious component that registers a piece of Javascript code in the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) subsystem.

This technique does not require any malicious code to be stored as a regular file on disk. Analysis tools, such as process monitor, fail to highlight the malicious activity.

“The threat uses fake blogs to discover its C&C servers, which are hosted on Tibet-related domains,” Tibetan sources here said.

The ESET researchers infected a test machine with Win32/Syndicasec to monitor its traffic and found that the interactions between the C&C server and the malware didn’t appear to be automated.

Every day would bring different commands sent at irregular time intervals making it look just as if someone was manually controlling infected hosts, experts here said.

The domain names used for the C&C servers included references to Tibet, for example tbtworld.info and tbtsociety.info. The most recent C&C domain, which was set up in late April, is called nedfortibt.info.

According to the ESET researchers, the infection scale of Win32/Syndicasec is small and strictly limited to Nepal and China.

“The lack of built-in commands in the master script prevents us from discovering the real end-goal of this operation. However, we can affirm that various characteristics observed around this threat are similar to other espionage campaigns against Tibetan activists,” they said.

Last year, security software company AlienVault had made revelations linking the long-running malware assault on Tibetan groups with a Chinese programmer.

Hamirpur, May 29
Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) ID Lakhanpal said the state government was according top priority to technical education so that students could get themselves equipped with technical skills in this era of stiff competition and Rs 110 crore had been provided for this sector in the current Budget.

Addressing a gathering while presiding over the annual function of a polytechnic college at Badu today, he said: “The state government is making every effort to train senior secondary-level students to adopt information technology techniques and smart classrooms have also been established in 618 senior secondary schools and 837 high schools.”

He said the government would start four new courses of automobile, retail, security and IT for students studying in Classes IX to XII to provide more employment opportunities in the state.

Praising the Hamirpur polytechnic college, Lakhanpal said: “This college has played an important role in imparting technical education to students and thousands of them have excelled in their career after acquiring technical skill from this institution and it had also won the award of the best polytechnic.”

Later, the CPS also gave away prizes to students excelling in different fields.

Earlier, college Principal Rakesh Kapoor presented the annual report of the college highlighting its achievements.

Students also presented a cultural programme on the occasion.

Sai Ropa (Kullu), May 29
More than150 activists of a dozen non-government organisations (NGOs) recently warned the government to implement the Forest Rights Act or they would form local gram sabhas.

The NGO activists were here for a three-day conference on the Forest Rights Act. Himalayan Niti Abhiyaan president Kulbhushan Upmanyu said it was a pity that the previous government misrepresented the case.

He said forest-dwellers' rights should be settled by gram sabhas and not forest and revenue authorities. Abhiyaan convener Guman Singh said the government could not infringe upon the rights of those who managed jungles.

Jagjit Singh Dukhai of Him Parvesh, Nalagarh, and VC Katoch of Jan Jagran Manch, Kullu, said the government was under pressure from the corporate lobby.

Man Singh of Salghati Bachao Morcha, Chamba, Ashok Jasotra of Kisan Sabha, Kangra, Muhammad of Gujjar Kalyan Sabha, Chamba, and Nand Lal of Bhakra Visthapit Sangh, Bilaspur, demanded that rights should be settled before ejecting encroachers.

They demanded an inquiry into how certain Deputy Commissioners were given the power of issuing no-objection certificates for projects. National Mahila Congress secretary M Babo assured the NGOs of taking up the matter.

Chamba, May 29
Chamba town witnessed sudden rain, accompanied by a thunderstorm, on Tuesday morning, bringing respite to the Forest Department from forest fires. But the department had to face a tough time tackling applicants appearing for the physical efficiency test (PET).

Undeterred by the inclement weather, all the applicants remained in a queue in front of the century-old forest rest house in Chamba waiting for their turn to appear for PET being held here for the past more than two weeks.

An official of the department said 4,958 of the 7,479 applicants had been called till today, wherein 3,286 candidates appeared for PET and 809 had been issued hall ticket for appearing in the written test to be held on June 30 at the government postgraduate college here.

He said the applicants were showing high merit, hence, the qualifying percentage was 25 per cent. He expressed hope that with this kind of healthy competition good stuff was likely to join the forest cadres.

Chamba, May 29
Mukesh Bansal, Additional Sessions Judge, Chamba, has sentenced Sadiq Mohd of Chowari nagar panchayat in Chamba district to three-year rigorous imprisonment (RI), along with a fine of Rs 20,000, for possessing 390 ‘parvon-spas’ capsules. In case of default in the payment of the fine, he would further undergo simple imprisonment for six months, according to a judgment passed by the court here yesterday.

Deputy District Attorney Surinder Singh Pathania said on March1 last year, a police party, led by ASI Nortam Chand, was checking traffic in the Chowari area. At Trimath they stopped a motorcycle coming from the Lahdu side and recovered 390 capsules in a bag which Sadiq was carrying.

Sadiq was arrested and a case registered under Section 21, NDPS Act.