Shimla, July 18
The sharp decline in enrolment in government schools over the past decade has put a big question mark on the mid-day meal scheme introduced in 2004 to enhance enrolment, retention and attendance at the elementary level.

The official data said the strength in the primary schools came down from 5,89,741 in 2003-04 to 4,65,960 in 2008-09 and further to 3,80,699 in 2012-13. The overall decline comes to a whopping 35.45 per cent.

Similarly, in upper primary schools, it dwindled from 3,81,582 in 2003-04 to 3,36,587 in 2008-09 and declined rather sharply to 2,62,778 in 2012-13. The decrease of 31.13 per cent over the period was slightly less than the decline at the primary level.

There were 626 primary schools and 113 upper primary schools with an enrolment of less than 10 students each.

Interestingly, the state was doing well in primary education even before the launch of the District Primary Education Project (DPEP) or Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and as per the Public Report on Basic Education in India (PROBE), it was on the verge of achieving 100 per cent enrolment in elementary education as early as 1995. It did not require the mid-day meal scheme to boost enrolment.

The implementation of the midday meal scheme in 2004 only made a negative impact as on the one hand, the enrolment came down and on the other, the learning levels of the students took a plunge. This led to flight of students from government to private schools.

The main reason for the slide in learning levels is that the scheme had shifted the focus to peripheral issues rather than on learning. The main thrust was that the child must go to school not to learn but for eating meals. The teachers were preoccupied with managing the mid-day meal kitchen instead of teaching.

The scrapping of the exams conducted by the State Board of School Education for Class V and Class VIII only made things worse as evident from the shocking performance of the students who appeared for the scholarship examination under the Medhavi Chhtravriti Yojana.

Out of a total of 13,777 students, who appeared for the scholarship examination, over 90 per cent failed to secure 35 per cent marks. The performance was worst in environmental science with 96 per cent of students ending up in grade E, followed by mathematics (94 per cent) and English (92 per cent).

The DPEP and the SSA have indeed helped to build infrastructure, but focus on non-academic issues made the situation irretrievable. The schools now have a much better infrastructure but there are not many children. The teachers have to pay from their own pockets when the grants are not received on time. The budget is meagre and makes mockery of the scheme.

Mandi, July 18
The flash flood triggered by landsides inundated 10 shops in the Bagi bazaar and washed away 12 bighas of land in Mandah and Baha villages in the Shegli gram panchayat in the Kataula area in Drang last night.

The flash flood struck a second time in 10 days, wreaking havoc downstream in the khad basin. The bazaar and several houses in Mandah and Baha fell in the danger zone as the flood had inundated the entire region, said flood-hit villagers.

Hundreds of trees and debris blocked the river flow at Bagi township, the centre market place of the panchayat, diverted water in the bazaar, flooded the shops and destroyed goods, said shopkeepers.

Panchayat pradhan Kanshi Ram said the khad level had receded since morning, but landslides in higher areas had made the flood-hit villages unsafe. There were seven houses still in the danger zone and they had been given tarpaulins and asked to be vigilant, he added.

But there is no danger to habitations, including IIT Mandi at Kamand downstream of Baghi khad, as these were situated on a higher side of the Uhal river, said the officials.

Health and Revenue Minister Kaul Singh Thakur had directed the SDM Paddar to assess the loss and ensure the safety of the villagers.

Shimla, July 18
The government is planning to introduce environment-friendly golf carts for short-distance movement within Shimla, Manali, Dalhousie and Dharamsala to rid the towns of traffic congestion and facilitate the movement of visitors as well as locals.

The facility will be introduced in the hill stations which witness heavy vehicular movement due to tourist rush. Golf carts will be introduced in the core areas of the towns, where vehicular movement is already restricted to avoid traffic congestion.

"We propose to introduce the new facility shortly so that it becomes easy to move around freely in the main parts of these towns," said Transport and Civil Supplies Minister GS Bali.

He added that preference would be given to the elderly, handicapped and sick for travelling in the golf carts which would ply only on the restricted roads of the capital.

He said the golf carts would be run on the pattern of taxi service plying in Shimla on the restricted roads which were not open for traffic without permit. It would be convenient for people to travel to The Mall and the main town from various distant localities like Summer Hill, Kasumpti, New Shimla and Chakkar.

"In Shimla, we will introduce golf carts in some areas while private taxis will continue in some parts on the present pattern," he said.

The move to go in for golf carts is to ensure environment-friendly vehicles which do not give out carbon emissions and keep the city clean. The Himachal Roadways Transport Corporation (HRTC) is running the taxi service only in Shimla till now, so the golf cart facility will be a completely new and novel idea for other tourist destinations like Manali, Dharamsala and Dalhousie.

In fact, the Shimla Municipal Corporation is exploring various options to facilitate the movement of tourists as well as locals in the town as the roads are perpetually choked with traffic. Efforts are on to have monorail and aerial ropeways so that traffic congestion can be reduced.

Golf carts will be an added attraction for tourists. Commercial golf carts are often used in popular tourist destinations as they provide affordable, fuel-efficient and environment-friendly mode of transportation. Golf carts are used by many organisations spread over several acres in places like colleges, universities and senior living communities.

Kullu/Manali, July 18
The district administration today imposed a ban on rafting in the Beas and paragliding in the Solang valley in Manali till August 15 due to monsoon.

The Tourism Department and local administration do not want to risk a chance as a public interest litigation plea on the adventure activities has been filed in the high court. But rafting and paragliding associations have called the ban unjustified. The weather has been normal for the tourists, who can enjoy rafting in the Beas or taking joyrides in paragliders in the Solang valley, they pleaded.

But paragliding and rafting had become free-for-all because the "technical committee has neither experts to check the paragliders and rafts, nor does it have inspectors to nab the violators compromising on the safety standards made mandatory by the Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation," revealed operators.

The technical committee under the director, mountaineering and allied sports, was finding it difficult to keep a track on 250 paragliders operating in the valley and 350 raft operators running the show in the Beas. Many of them were not registered with the Tourism Department and mishaps took place every year, the insiders revealed.

The technical committee lacked professionals, said Rohan Thakur, adviser, Paragliding Association, Manali. The raft operators were sulking over the ban. The Beas was perfect for rafting as it had not surged because there had been no rain in the Kullu-Manali valley for the past many days this time, pleaded the raft operators.

But district tourism officials said both activities were banned for one month every year. "We have a technical committee that checks safety standards and takes action against the violators and educate the tourists on safety standards. Five FIRs have been lodged in rafting mishap cases so far," said Rakesh Kanwar, Deputy Commissioner-cum-Chairman of the committee, Kullu.

But the operators questioned the technical committee. "It should check the violators, rather than banning the rafting," the operators claimed.

The DC said the ban was the practice keeping in view the monsoon season and the rising level of the Beas.

Nurpur, July 18
The Himachal Pradesh government has geared up its machinery to arrange trucks for transporting apple crop to big fruit markets in Delhi and Chandigarh. A team, led by ADC, Shimla, Dr NK Lath, convened a meeting with the local truck unions of Jassur and Damtal here yesterday and exhorted them to engage their trucks for transporting apple to fruit markets outside the state.

After holding a meeting with the truck operators, Dr Lath told mediapersons that the state government had constituted three such teams to motivate truck operators from Himachal Pradesh and neighbouring Punjab and Haryana states keeping in view the timely shifting of produce to different wholesale fruit markets outside the state. “My team has been targeted to procure at least 2,500 trucks for this purpose. After holding meetings with operators at Nangal (Punjab), Nalagarh, Pathankot and Nurpur, he will convene such meetings in Una district to mobilise them,” he informed.

He said operators had been informed that the government had enhanced 15 per cent transport freight from the previous year. “Apart from this, the government has also exempted entry and goods tax for transporting apple. The truck operators will not experience any police harassment in the state while transporting apple,” he said.

Solan, July 18
The erratic power supply at Kasauli, Garkhal, Dharampur, Dagshai and its surrounding areas has put a question mark on the working of Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited.

Power cuts have become a routine affair in the area.

An illustration of the poor electricity supply can be gauged from the fact that power supply remained suspended in the area from 12:30 pm to 6 pm on Sunday, and even though there was a maintenance cut on Monday, the power supply remain disrupted from 12:45 pm to 3:10 pm yesterday in these regions.

Today, there was no power supply from 12:45 pm to 1:20 pm.

This severely affected the working of banks, computer centres, hospitals etc. This is the general state of affairs which is going from bad to worse and the field staff is doing little to suggest rectifications to the problem.

JC Rana, Executive Engineer, said on Wednesday, a bird had come in contact with the wires because of which there was disruption in the power supply in these areas.

The Executive Engineer agreed that it was a matter of concern that frequent power cuts were being experienced in the area, while adding that they tried to rectify the faults as and when they appeared.

With several new housing and commercial projects coming up in the area, there is an urgent need to augment and strengthen the power infrastructure, so that the existing population does not suffer the repercussions of the added load.

Solan, July 18
The managements of private polytechnic and engineering colleges may get some relief in admitting students who have failed to take entrance examinations after Technical Education Minister GS Bali assured a delegation that met him in Shimla today that the issue would be taken up in the next Cabinet meeting.

A delegation of representatives from private polytechnic and engineering colleges apprised him of a large number of seats which would remain vacant if the mandatory norm of admitting students only through the various entrance examinations was not relaxed.

The managements of various colleges said they had received applications from 2,500 students who had failed to appear for the mandatory Joint Engineering Entrance Examination.

The minister, directing the managements to give assurance of providing jobs to 10 engineers in each college, said the government could consider another state-level entrance test to facilitate admissions in engineering, pharmacy and management courses.

The managements of private polytechnic colleges also demanded relaxation in admitting students who had failed to appear in the Polytechnic Admission Test as majority of the seats had remained vacant after the initial rounds of counselling, stated RK Abhilashi, who runs various colleges.

KS Pasricha, president, HP Unaided Technical Institutes Association, said they had sought one-time relaxation to admit students this year and they had promised to visit senior secondary schools to create awareness about the entrance examinations so that more students could appear in these exams next year.

Shimla, July, 18
Taking a tough stance on the issue of unauthorised constructions raised in Mandi town, the HP High Court directed the Executive Officer (EO), Municipal Council, Mandi, to demolish all those structures that neither had any appeal nor any suit pending in the court here yesterday.

It further directed the EO to ensure that the demolition cost and occupation charges were recovered from the occupants of the said structures.

While passing the order, a Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice RB Misra, granted two weeks to the EO and further cautioned the officer that non-compliance of the order would be taken seriously. He said the authorities had failed to discharge their obligation primarily arising under the statutory provisions.

The court also directed the Collector and the Superintendent of Police (SP), Mandi, to provide all support and adequate police force to the EO for undertaking the demolition process. No lapse would be accepted, it said.

During the course of hearing, it came to light that there were 20 structures in respect of which neither any appeal nor any suit was pending.

Meanwhile, the court has sought an explanation from the Municipal Corporation, Shimla, regarding unauthorised constructions. It has also directed the MC to file an affidavit in this regard.

While passing this order, Justice Rajiv Sharma observed, “One of the main reasons for the increasing unauthorised constructions in the state is myopic policies of the functionaries at the helm of affairs. The functionaries keep on framing the so-called one-time settlement policies/retention policies.”

The court also made it clear that the unauthorised structures would not be given water and electricity connections.