Dharamsala, September 10
Rampant flattening of hillocks along the roads has been going on in Una and Kangra districts. The hillocks were raised for various purposes, including bringing up new housing colonies, religious deras and commercial establishments like dabhas. In most of the cases the raising down of hillocks comes at the cost of the green cover over them.

A survey along the Kangra-Una road revealed that huge operations were going on for flattening hills for bringing up commercial establishments. Perpetrators were using JCB machines for the task. Inquiries revealed that the hills were being razed for bringing up religious deras or commercial establishments like shops. At some places right from the state highway two new approach roads were being brought up to the flattened hill top leading to dumping of stones on the main road. In addition to that the muck being generated in the process was being dumped across the road probably for created a parking place.

Ideally permission has to be sought from the PWD, if any person or organisation wants to bring up any road opening at the state highway. Permission also has to be sought from the Forest Department for flattening the hillocks. The people involved in the job had no knowledge if any such permission was sought or not.

Besides the religious deras, a large number of dhabas have come up along the roads. The dhabas at many places have been raised after flattening hillocks and at the cost of the strip forest.

In Una district many colonies have come up right along the Una-Nangal road. Inquiries revealed that many colonies have not been approved either by the town and Country Planning Department or the Department of Forests. So blatant is the violation that in many places, the colonisers have encroached upon the river beds. They have raised earthen bandhs to protect their colonies. However, these bandhs have the potential of diverting the course of water towards other areas.

The Irrigation Department authorities when contacted while speaking on the condition of anonymity said that they have brought the issue of encroachments in river beds to the notice of government. However, the government has been dithering to act on the plea that in many cases land of river beds is private ownership.

We have been lucky in an aspect there have not been much rains in past ten years. If there is a repeat of 1988 rains there would now be large scale destruction in residential areas because of fact that many colonies have now come right inside the river beds they alleged.

The PWD authorities when contacted said they would look into the alleged violations along the state highways.

Palampur, September 10
The state government was perturbed over the precarious financial health of state as the previous BJP government had left debts worth Rs 28,000 crore payable to various financial institutions and banking agencies when Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh took over the reins of the state in December last.

Development activities in the state have adversely been affected due to the financial crisis. Construction activities on various development projects have virtually come to a standstill.

Most of the state roads are crying for repairs but the Public Works Department (PWD) has no funds to purchase the construction material.

The monsoon season is over but repair of roads in lower districts like Kangra, Una, Hamirpur, Chamba and Bilaspur of the state is yet to begin.

During the Assembly elections, the Chief Minister has made promises to residents of state but in the present political scenario it looks difficult for the state Congress government to fulfil the same.

A senior officer of the PWD admitted that at present, the PWD had no funds to buy cement, steel and other material and lack of funds was causing a delay in completion of the development works.

When the BJP was voted to power, the total liabilities of loans payable were Rs 19,000 crore and in its five-year regime, the BJP government raised loans to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore.

At present, the state government was paying interest of Rs 4,000 crore on these loans annually.

In the past nine months the Congress government made all efforts to tide over the financial crisis and to maintain the pace of development, the Chief Minister called on various central leaders seeking financial package for the state but in vain.

The Congress government was in a difficult situation as the new educational institutions opened by the previous government needed large-scale infrastructure and staff to make these functional.

The government is even finding it difficult to meet the salary expenses of Rs 8,800 crore being paid to employees and pensioners in the state.

Chamba, September 10
For the past several months, the Hardaspura police lines link road that connects Mugla, Karian and Hardaspura to lower Julakhri, Swami Dayanand Ashram, police barracks and the forest colony is risking the lives of daily commuters. The road here has open manholes because of the construction of the sewerage system that is causing inconvenience to the local residents.

The residents are also forced to get drinking water from the nearby natural water spring. But, due to the rains the condition of the road has become more worse.

According to the families of the affected vicinity, they have to park their vehicles on Chamba-Bharmour highway and in case of any emergency, no vehicle can reach their houses.

The residents are of the view that the roads were in better condition before the construction work. The perturbed residents have urged the executing agency to improve the condition of the road and finish the construction work of the sewerage system. Ravinder Ravi, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, also took a serous note of the slow pace of construction work. He has also asked the executing agency to accelerate the construction work thereby completing it on time.

Palampur, September 10
The state government has failed to keep a check on the overloading of trucks which are not only causing extensive damage to the roads but fatal accidents are also ccuring daily due to the same.

The state agencies are unconcerned with the situation, particularly the extensive damage being caused to national and state highways by the trucks overloaded with cement, clinker and other construction material.

Over 90 per cent trucks plying on the state roads carry load more than the prescribed limit of nine ton, resulting in heavy damage to the roads in the state.

In the absence of any stringent law to deal with this menace, the state Public Works Department (PWD) and the traffic police find themselves helpless and the damage to roads is going on unabated.

The Kalka- Shimla, Kiratpur- Manali, Shimla-Kangra and Pathankot-Mandi national highways of the state are the worst affected.

The half dozen cement plants set up in Bilaspur and Solan districts of the state and major power projects coming up have further aggravated the situation. There is no check on the over loading of the 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 the internal link roads being used by them to avoid the sales tax barriers.

The official sources admitted that over 25,000 trucks and dumpers belonging to different cement plants, use the national and the state highways daily. Most of these trucks carry load between ten to seventeen tons, openly violating the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act.

Because of the excessive use of the road by the over loaded trucks, the Kiratpur- Manali National Highway, between Bilaspur and Kiratpur has become prone to land slides and soil erosion. It is on record that over two dozen small and big culverts have been badly damaged by the over loaded trucks.

Meanwhile, the State Transport Authorities and the traffic police who are the major law enforcing agencies in the state have failed to keep a check on the over loaded trucks.

The official figures reveal that out of one hundred traffic challans filed by the authorities in various courts in the state, only three per cent pertains to the offence of over loading. Sources said wide spread corruption in traffic police is also attributed to be one of the reasons which has encouraged the overloading.

Maharastra and Karnatka are the two states where there is a blanket ban on the entry of the overloaded trucks. In these states, no truck can carry more than nine ton of load. If any over loaded vehicle is detected, a fine of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 is imposed. All the interstate barriers are equipped with the latest weighing machines and it is mandatory for every vehicle to pass through these machines.

Shimla, September 10
Himachal Pradesh, the country's main apple-growing region that is heading for a bumper crop this season, has launched a rejuvenation project spread across 170 hectares in a bid to expand the apple industry in the state, one of its principal revenue earners that gives employment to thousands of people.

The measure is expected to benefit nearly 350 apple growers initially and 10,000 growers in the long run. Private investment is being encouraged to set up storage facilities with a controlled atmosphere.

Under the Rs.85-crore apple rejuvenation project launched in 2012-13, Rs 24.36 lakh has been spent by the state Horticulture Department for replacing old and uneconomic apple plantations with improved, high-yielding varieties in 170 hectares, a government spokesperson said.

The project aims to cover over a period of five years 5,000 hectares where plantation was done before 1960.

Apple constitutes about 93 per cent of the total fruit production in the state. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, in his Budget speech on March 14, explained that the rejuvenation project would see the planting of new trees to replace old ones.

He said the desired results were, however, not achieved because the project did not provide for the uprooting of old trees in plantations that were nearly 60 years old.

"Now, new guidelines, including uprooting of old plantation, will be issued so that apple growers can rejuvenate their old orchards," he said.

Director of the state Horticulture Department Gurdev Singh said the old orchards had 250 to 300 plants per hectare; under the rejuvenation project, high-density plantations, ranging from 700 to 800 plants per hectare would be raised in phases.

Besides, improved varieties and rootstock of apple are being imported by the Horticulture Department from other countries. These are being multiplied at orchards run by the Horticulture Department for distribution to growers.

The state has so far imported 10,300 plants of apple varieties like Scarlet Sur, Super Chief, Dorsett Golden and Anna from France, the spokesperson said. Surveys of the department say the productivity of apple ranges from six to 11.5 tonnes per hectare in the state, in comparison to 35 to 40 tonnes in more advanced countries.

State's apple boom is credited to Satyanand (Samuel Evans Stokes Junior), an American missionary, who first introduced high-quality apples in the Kothgarh-Thanedar belt in upper Shimla in the early 1920s.

As per the estimates of the department, the state is heading for a bumper apple harvest this season after two consecutive years of less than normal yield of 25 million boxes.

A production of over 35 million apple boxes of 20 kg each is expected, which is approximately 765,000 tonnes, said the spokesperson. So far, over 17.5 million boxes had been sent to various markets in the country, he said.

The area under apple cultivation in the state has increased from 3,025 hectares in 1960-61 to 104,000 hectares in 2011-12, which constitutes over 48 per cent of the total area under fruit cultivation. — IANS

Solan, September 10
The Centre of Advanced Faculty Training in Horticulture, one of the premier centres of vegetables in the country, conducted a 21-day advanced training on recent approaches for breeding and production of vegetable crops. The training was organised for the scientists of various research institutes and universities.

The Department of Vegetable Science of Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry has been chosen as the lead centre for conducting the advanced training programmes in view of its contribution in research and development for the past 35 years.

As many as 18 scientists from eight different states including Assam, Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh along with 12 different institutions joined the advanced training which was conducted from August 20.

According to Dr ML Bhardwaj, director of the centre, 23 such advance training on different aspects of vegetables have been conducted in which more than 450 scientists of the country have benefited in the last 19 years. During the 21-day training, various eminent scientists of the country visited the Vegetable Science Department of the university for interacting with the participants.

During the training programme, problems of the agrarian community in respect to vegetable cultivation, their growth under polyhouses, high yielding disease resistant varieties and control of diseases and insect pests related subjects were discussed at length.

Speaking on the concluding session, Dr Vijay Singh Thakur, Vice-Chancellor of Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, exhorted the trainees and the scientists to promote commercial cultivation of vegetables in large tracts according to the suitability of soil and other climatic conditions.

He emphasised the need for speedy development of package and practises for the protected cultivation of vegetable crops to address the problems of the farmers. He outlined the future strategies to develop vegetable varieties which can withstand the changing climate and also other abiotic and biotic stresses. Further, emphasis was also laid on the use of bio-technological approaches for enhancing the productivity of the vegetable crops in the state and the country as a whole.

Palampur, September 10
Stray animals hinder traffic on all roads in the city and are causing public nuisance. It is a common sight to see stray animals loitering around and even occupying the middle of the road. This disrupts the traffic flow and often leads to jams. Many times, bulls lock horns on the roads and pose threat to the lives of the passers-by.

Recently, a stray cow had knocked down a woman in the market when she was buying vegetables. In a similar incident, a 45-year-old man received injuries when a bull knocked him down. Simian attacks on local residents have also occurred several times in the past. There is a need to check the issue.

“Stray animals like cows, bulls and dogs hinder the movement of passengers at the old bus stand and also make the place unhygienic,” said Rakesh Kumar, a local resident. Sanjiv, another resident, said “The district administration must ensure that the stray animals are removed from highways as well from public places in the city.”

Areas like the Nehru Chowk, old bus stand and Sabzi Mandi should be made free from stray cattle menace. Local social organisations say the authorities concerned should adopt measures to prevent the entry of stray animals to the town.

Thakur Balwant Singh, President, local Municipal Council, said a drive against stray cattle would be initiated soon.

Nurpur, September 10
The Himachal Pradesh Ex-servicemen League has expressed resentment over the alleged deplorable Canteen Stores Department (CSD) services of the Defence Ministry in the state.

Col NS Pathania (retd), president of the local unit of the league, said the CSD was a unit of the Indian Armed Forces that had canteen stores across the country to provide consumer goods to the serving Army personnel and ex-servicemen at cheaper prices.

“However, in Himachal, where above two lakhs serving or retired defence personnel and their dependants are residing, they are suffering due to negligible and poor CSD services,” he rued.

He said the successive governments in the state had taken initiative for the establishment of one CSD depot for the state in Una district but the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had outrightly rejected the offered land for the same with the plea that the said site was prone to floods during the rainy season.

Pathania said the ministry, vide its letter no. AHQ,QMG Branch 96001/Q/DDGS dated December 12, 2012, had lifted the ban for opening ex-servicemen-run CSD canteens but ex-servicemen of defence forces were yet waiting for opening of such canteens in far-flung areas and non-military stations of the state.

Pathania said the existing poor service of CSD canteens being run by Army units and mobile canteens for remote villages had forced Army personnel and their families to buy consumer items of their daily need from markets.

He alleged that the ex-servicemen community and dependants of serving personnel of the state were being ignored by the MoD.

I got an opportunity of visiting Delhi Police Officers Mess at Civil Lines in Alipore Road, Delhi. Hung on the walls of the spacious sitting room, there were old paintings and photographs that had historic importance. One Lowes Dickinson, long back, had turned paintings by Emily Eden into hand-coloured lithographed copies.

A lithographed copy of ‘portrait of a native Indian’, a painting by Emily Eden while she was in Kolkata (1836-38) was also there (See Photo). Those of you who are not introduced to Emily Eden, novelist and artist, may like to know that she was the great-great-great-aunt of Anthony Eden, the Prime Minister of Britain, who saddled the chair from 1955 to 1957 after the retirement of Winston Churchill and was the sister of George Eden or Lord Auckland, the Governor-General of India from 1836 to 1842.

A portrait of Emily Eden (See Photo) with her spaniel ‘Chance’ was made just before her sister Fanny and she were to leave for India with their brother. An observer had said, “She is ugly and stinks like a polecat.”

I cannot smell her from the sketch but no stretch of my imagination will declare her ugly. She has the appearance of modern day ‘Barbie Doll’. She stayed in Shimla for one year with her brother Lord Auckland and wrote letters to her elder sister and friends. I am giving interesting excerpts from those letters which were published in 1919 as book titled ‘Miss Eden’s Letters’ edited by Violet Dickinson.

These days the art of letter-writing has gone to pot. Short, differently spelt SMS messages are tweets for the gen y -- “V went to CP; 8 GGs and GJs there, CU 2mrow”. One needs to be acquainted with popular acronyms to understand these: CP, GG and GJ are Connaught Place, Gol Gappa and Gulab Jamun respectively. But there was a time when Jawaharlal Nehru wrote 30 detailed letters to 10-year-old Indira informing her about natural history and the story of civilisation. These were published as book, “Letters from a Father to His Daughter”. Those were the days of letters.

‘Miss Eden’s Letters’ that she wrote from Shimla unfolded the natural beauty all around. Her first letter from here dated April 28, 1838, reads: “It is even more delightful than I expected to be in these hills; the climate is perfection, and the pleasure of sitting out of doors looking at those lovely snowy mountains, and breathing real cool air, is more than I can say. These mountains are very beautiful, but not so picturesque, I think, as the Pyrenees (range of mountains in South-West Europe) in fact they are too gigantic to be sketchable, and there are no waterfalls, no bridges, and no old corners that make the Pyrenees so picturesque, independent of their ragged shapes.

But I love these Himalayas, good old things, all the same, and mean to enjoy these seven months.” In her letter of June 10, 1838, she writes about the difference in tunics that the Muslims and the Hindus used to wear in British household. It is information for me.

She writes: "I must say that the Hindus and Mussulmans have separate cooking-places, and that the Hindu's livery Tunic is made to button on the right shoulder and the Mussulman's on the left, they ask no other differences.”

She writes in 1839: “We have been uncommonly gay at Simla this year, and have had some beautiful tableaux with music, and one or two very well-acted farces, which are a happy change from the everlasting quadrilles, and everybody has been pleased and amused, except the two clergymen who are here, and who have begun a course of sermons against what they call a destructive torrent of worldly gaiety.

They had much better preach against the destructive torrent of rain which has now set in for the next three months, and not only washes away all gaiety, but all the paths, in the literal sense, which lead to it. At least I know the last storm has washed away the paths to Government House (present Auckland House).” Her last letter that she wrote from Shimla was dated June 29, 1839.

Nurpur, September 10
The rural as well as urban areas of this border sub-division of Kangra valley is in the grip of quacks that have mushroomed during the past few years.

Thanks to the apathy of the state Health Department authorities which failed to initiate even random checking to curb the menace.

Quacks are playing with the health and life of patients. Though they are taking help of steroids in treating the patients, the latter are least aware of the side effects of the same.

A large number of fake dental surgeons without possessing any BDS degrees have descended this border area during the past some time and running clinics successfully.

The Health Department has turned a blank eye to the burgeoning menace of quacks in the area. As many as 100 quacks and unregistered practitioners have set up their ill-equipped clinics in far-flung rural areas of this sub- division.

They are exploiting the patients who cannot afford expensive treatment.

Such patients getting treatment from them are required to be educated about the risks involved in the same. Some ill-equipped health clinics and hospitals are undertaking even minor to major surgeries without having surgeons.

Local social organisations and public welfare committees have appealed to the state government to issue strict instructions to the drug inspecting authority and the Health Department to curb this menace keeping in view the health of the public. The local Free Thinkers Club had taken up the issue with the successive governments in the past several times but in vain.

Meanwhile, Dr DS Gurung, chief medical officer, Kangra, said the state enforced clinical establishment Act in December last and under this Act registration of all private practitioners, clinics and hospital had been started.

“The Health Department will be armed to take punitive action against quacks after procuring online data of registration of private practitioners.

Moreover, block medical officers have been directed to monitor the menace and take required action under the Drug and Cosmetic Act,” he asserted.

The Shimla unit of The World Wide Fund for Nature” (WWF) and Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI) organised the “Fourth Himalayan Day” at Panthaghati on September 9.

Eminent speakers were invited for delivering talks and share their experience on the rising concerns about the ongoing environmental degradation of the Himalayan region. Dr Sanjeeva Pandey, Additional Principal Chief Conservation of Forests (Wild life), appreciated the efforts being made by the WWF and HFRI to sensitise the people of the area about the ecology of Himalayas. He stressed the need to strike a balance between conservation and development as it had been observed that most of the developmental activities like construction of roads and establishment of hydroelectric projects were being carried out in this eco-sensitive region.

Dr Hemant Gupta from the State Biodiversity Board delivered a talk on “Biological Diversity Act 2002 for Conserving of Himalayan Culture and Landscape”. He said that the Act was playing an important role in conserving the Himalayan biodiversity. Savita Sharma, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, spoke on “Payment of Environmental Services,” Dr KS Kapoor, scientist on “Integrated Approaches for Sustainable Himalayas,” Dr YP Sharma, scientist on “Utilisation of Plant Genetic Resources of Himalayas for Improvement of Temperate Fruit.

Vandana Thaplyal from the WWF apprised the participants about Himalayan Day, which was a new term introduced by some activists in 2010 to show their concern on the emerging problems in the Himalayas. As most of the people were aware that the Himalayan region was an eco-sensitive zone and the communities residing in and around it were mostly dependent on natural resources such as energy, soil, water and air. Therefore, there was an urgent need to conserve the Himalayan ecology and the very purpose of organising the programme was to sensitise the people of the region in general and the environmental activists in particular.

Solan, September 10
Yadavindra Public School (YPS) in Mohali, defeated Pinegrove School in the final match of the third All India Sant Singh Memorial Soccer Tournament for Boys being played at Pinegrove School in Dharampur.

The first half of the match went without any goal by the teams. During the second half, the YPS team regrouped and mounted pressure on Pinegrove team. Ikrabdeep Singh Ghai spearheaded the Mohali boys and scored two goals within no time.

Thereafter, Pinegrove boys on their part tried their level best to make a comeback but were denied any opportunity by the winners.

The best defender award was given to Rushil Negi of Pinegrove School. Shiva Partap Chand of Pinegrove School was adjudged as the best goalkeeper of the tournament. He was awarded the Aryan Cup.

The highest scorer award and the best player of the tournament award was won by Ikrabdeep Singh Ghai of Yadavindra Public School.

Brigadier Om Prakash Singh, Commandant 14 Gorkha Training Center in Subathu was the chief guest during the closing ceremony and gave the prizes. He congratulated the winners and all the participating teams for making the tournament a success.

He also complimented the school management for organising the tournament and for giving an opportunity to the budding players to showcase their talent.