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Environment Master Plan
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Hydro power projects
Joint consultative panel for pensioners announced
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh honours a veteran pensioner at Sundernagar on Saturday. Photo: Jai Kumar
Una to get bus stand, 42 buses soon
Industry Minister Mukesh Agnihotri distributes solar cookers to beneficiaries of the Swan river IWMP at Khad village in Una on Saturday.
BJP accuses Cong of shielding tainted officers
Rs 4.43 cr spent under RSBY: Kaul Singh
Satti flays CM for remarks on RSS Block committee for Jogindernagar set up
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Hydro-power, industry may hit ecology, warns green plan
Pratibha Chauhan Tribune News Service
Shimla, December 7 The Environment Master Plan (EMP), prepared by the Department of Environment and Scientific Technology and approved by the government, has identified the vulnerable areas of the state where future planning will have to be done with utmost care. The EMP has been adopted to mainstream environmental concerns into the state’s development planning in sectors of economy for the next 30 years. The EMP has not just identified the pressure areas but also the vulnerability index has been worked out, which basically indicates the population pressure on the natural environment which determines the quality of life. While the five districts of Mandi, Bilaspur, Shimla, Sirmaur and Hamirpur have been identified as highly vulnerable, the most susceptible tehsils of the state include Mandi, Bilaspur Sadar, Paonta Sahib, Shimla (rural) and Sujanpur Tira. The recommendations made in the EMP stress on preparation of river basin plans, which determine the carrying capacity of the basin and also include the mapping of catchments. “River basin plans should specifically focus on determination of flow of rivers which will help in determining ecological flow versus available flow,” it suggests. It has also been recommended that a state-level interdisciplinary committee on hydro-power be constituted with eminent experts like basin planners, hydrologists, environmentalists, ecologists and socio-economic experts. This committee could not just coordinate with the Ministry of Forest and Environment but also suggest sustainable hydropower development solutions. “Sectoral approach to EMP has been adopted in mainstream environmental concerns in the state’s development planning in sectors of the economy for the next 30 years,” says Tarun Sridhar, Principal Secretary (Forest and Environment). Three sectors of Infrastructure, Natural Resources Management and Services have been identified for preparation of EMP, he added. He added that the EMP has been prepared in order to ensure the sustainability of environmental heritage and natural resources of the state and to develop a long-term perspective of achieving environmentally sustainable development. As per the EMP, industry is another sector which, in certain areas, is putting pressure on natural resources like rivers, flora and fauna. “There is need to mitigate the impact on rives, flora and fauna and the resulting changes in livelihood because of multipurpose river valley projects, power plants and industries,” the EMP says. The plan
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Villagers affected by power plants say government in a hurry to rush projects
Tribune News Service
Shimla, December 7 The agitated public expressed ire at the conduct of the meeting at a very short notice of four days and that too without sharing of the draft study with the public. The study is being conducted by the Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun, for the state government. The atmosphere was so charged that right at the outset, officials, representatives of the consultants and the project proponents were forced to step down from the dais and sit with the public. All organisations, in the memorandum submitted on the occasion, demanded the conduct of such consultations at the tehsil level in the project-affected areas with at least 15 days prior notice and sharing of the draft report with the public. “We do not understand what was the hurry in conducting this public consultation at a notice of just four days,” said environmentalist RS Negi of the Him Lok Jagriti Manch, Kinnaur. He said the manner in which the consultation is being done has reduced it to being a farce that is being conducted to merely complete a formality. “We do not know whether the consultants have studied the impact of the already constructed hydropower projects like drying up of drinking water sources, impacts of blasting due to tunnelling and road construction and impact on agriculture and the loss of forests,” said Shyam Singh Chauhan, a member of the Mandi District Zila Parishad. “There is no indicator that the consultants have determined the carrying capacity of the Satluj basin or have included in their draft recommendations stretches of the river that should be left free-flowing,” said Nek Ram Sharma of Satluj Bachao Jan Sangharsh Samiti. Hydro project-affected public from areas as wide apart as Spiti, Kinnaur, Mandi, Kullu and Shimla came to attend the consultation. The environmental organisations present at the consultation including Him Lok Jagriti Manch, Satluj Bachao Jan Sangharsh Samiti, Himdhara and Himalay Niti Abhiyan submitted their respective memoranda to the state government, pressing various issues of their concern.
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Joint consultative panel for pensioners announced
Sundernagar, December 7 He said, “The pensioners have contributed a lot during their services for the development and growth of the state”. He urged employees to work with devotion, besides asking the pensioners to come forward in giving creative ideas as the government would like to take benefit of their experience. He said, “The state government has always listened to the demands raised by pensioners despite the challenges before it and had given them benefits from time to time”. Talking about skill development allowance, he said keeping in view limited employment opportunities in the state, the government had extended skill development allowance to educated and uneducated unemployed youths for giving them training to generate self-employment. He said as promised in the state budget, the government had enhanced pension and family pension of pre-2006 period up to 50 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively, of the minimum of the pay in the pay band. He said the state government was providing pension benefits after 20 years of service, besides paying lump sum 40 pensions after commutation to the pensioners in the state. The Chief Minister also inspected the ongoing works at JL Nehru Engineering College and directed officials to complete the work of administrative and hostel blocks at the earliest. Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur, Excise Minister Prakash Chaudhary, Rural Development Minister Anil Sharma and CPS Sohan Lal Thakur were also present on the occasion. CM for upgrade of dental health services
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has said the employees of Himachal Pradesh should be prepared to serve each and every part of
the state. He was addressing a gathering during the inaugural session of the 12th Annual HP State Dental Conference here. He said most of the time he received request from employees that they should be adjusted in urban areas or nearer to their home. “If all will be posted near their home, who will serve far-off areas,” he said. He said the state government was committed to provide better health facility to the people in the state and dental health service was part of it. He said the government had recently decided to create 1,000 posts in the Health Department and dental health services would be further upgraded. On this occasion, he launched a website of the Indian Dental Association, HP unit. Naresh Vaidya, president, Indian Dental Association, Bhushan Lakhan Pal, general secretary, Indian Dental Association, and Mahesh Verma, vice-president of the Dental Council of India, also spoke on the occasion. |
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Una to get bus stand, 42 buses soon
Una, December 7 He was speaking at an awareness workshop organised for rural people by the Swan River Integrated Watershed Management Project
(IWMP) at Khad village of the Haroli Assembly segment. Agnihotri charged that during the previous Congress regime, tenders for a new bus stand building in Una had been finalised on the build-operate and transfer
(BOT) basis, after which Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had laid its foundation stone. However, he said during the five years of the BJP rule, not a single brick was laid and during the run-up to the last Assembly elections, the BJP merely put up a new foundation stone after covering the old one with worn out
tyres. The minister said the process of issuing tenders for the channelisation of all the 73 tributaries of the Swan river in Una district has been initiated. The Union government had recently sanctioned this project, in which the state has only 10 per cent share in expenditure, while the rest will be borne by the
Centre. Appreciating the efforts of the Japan Bank-funded Rs 215-crore Swan River
IWMP, Agnihotri said a federation of 6,000 strong women had been formed and empowered under the project for watershed and livelihood generation activities. He said this federation was the biggest such collective in the country and in the times to come, it would be a major source of rural economic development. He distributed solar cookers to beneficiaries of the project to promote the use of renewable energy and plastic crates to store harvested agriculture produce. Talking about industrial workers, Agnihotri said he had distributed more than 200 bicycles to industrial workers in his constituency. Now, he said women workers living below poverty line would be given induction cookers and washing machines as an intervention by the state Industries Department. Swan River IWMP Project Manager TD Sharma and Una Divisional Forest Officer RK Dogra were also present on the occasion. |
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BJP accuses Cong of shielding tainted officers
Shimla, December 7 In a statement issued here today, state BJP spokesperson Ganesh Dutt said the Congress regime, which swore by honesty and transparency, should make public its compulsions, which was preventing it from shifting such officers. “It is so strange that while the state Congress president too is demanding strict action against tainted officers, the government seems to be shielding them, much to everyone’s surprise,” he said. “The government should have taken stern action against such tainted officers on its own, but it seems to be dithering even after the court directives,” he said. Dutt alleged that the government stand on the issue of officers with doubtful integrity was putting a question mark on the integrity and intentions of the Congress regime. The BJP leader also took exception to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s statement that recruitment of doctors, nurses, junior engineers and linemen would be done directly by the departments and not through the Subordinate Services Selection Board or the HP State Public Service Commission. “The BJP is strongly opposed to any such move as it will only lead to back door entry of incompetent persons,” he said. |
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Rs 4.43 cr spent under RSBY: Kaul Singh
Shimla, December 7 He said Rs 3.11 crore had been spent on critical care patient treatment under the scheme alone at the IGMC. He said the RSBY Plus (Critical Care) was a major initiative taken by the state government under which cashless benefit of Rs 1.75 lakh was being provided for treatment of various ailments and also surgeries. Kaul Singh said various below poverty line (BPL) categories like MGNREGA workers, street vendors, building and other construction workers and persons with more than 70 per cent disability were getting benefit under the health insurance scheme. He said the state continued to have one of the best enrolment and usage under the scheme in the country. He said for realising the dream of a healthy and developed society, emphasis was being laid on ensuring quality healthcare on equitable, accessible and affordable
basis throughout the state by creating infrastructure with all the requisite
facilities. Concerted efforts and initiatives were being taken in a systematic manner at all the levels, he added. |
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Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the state government would consider change of 5 per cent pension allowance as additional pension as demanded by pensioners.
He announced to constitute a joint consultative committee for the pensioners. Addressing a rally organised here today by the State Pensioner’s Sangh, the Chief Minister lauded the contribution of pensioners for the development of the state.
Industry Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said today that a new bus stand would soon be constructed at Una and 42 new buses would be introduced in the Una depot of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation
(HRTC). He said it would give better road connectivity to people living in far-flung areas of the district.
