Sampat's charge against Badal
SHIMLA, Aug 18 — Mr Sampat Singh, a former Home Minister of Haryana, and a sitting MLA, has accused the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, of creating hurdles in the implementation of the report of the Eradi Tribunal on the sharing of waters of the Ravi and Beas between Haryana and Punjab.

Forestry students
threaten stir
KASAULI, Aug 18 — Forestry students of Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, have threatened to launch an indefinite agitation if the government does not take immediate steps to provide jobs to them in the state Forest Department.

Illegal mining on the rise
PALAMPUR: Landslides and other mass movement has become a severe environmental hazard in Himachal Pradesh. Large-scale illegal and unscientific mining and quarrying combined with public utility like construction of roads and buildings have further contributed to the fragility of ecology creating an environmental imbalances in the region.

1,000 BJP, Cong men join HVC
CHAMBA, Aug 18 — As many as 1,000 workers of the BJP and the Congress have joined the HVC, said Mr P.C. Oberoy, district president of the HVC today.

Threat to launch indefinite stir
PARWANOO, Aug 18 — CITU-Affiliated trade unions have threatened to launch an indefinite strike if the state government failed to stop the harassment of the workers by industrialists.

Man "kills" father
MANDI, Aug 18 — Bahadur Singh, a resident of Bhubhu village was killed allegedly by his son, Prastu Ram, yesterday.

Sampat's charge against Badal
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 18 — Mr Sampat Singh, a former Home Minister of Haryana, and a sitting MLA, has accused the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, of creating hurdles in the implementation of the report of the Eradi Tribunal on the sharing of waters of the Ravi and Beas between Haryana and Punjab.

Mr Sampat Singh, who was talking to reporters here today, demanded that the award of the Eradi Tribunal should be implemented without further delay as 11 years had passed after the tribunal submitted its interim report.

He refuted the claim of Punjab that it had riparian rights over the river waters. The water of these rivers was basically meant for Haryana and Rajasthan under the Indus Water Treaty.

Mr Sampat Singh who is a leader of the Indian National Lok Dal, demanded that to avoid such inter-state disputes on the sharing of water and electricity, these should be declared national assets and a masterplan should be prepared for the sharing of water.

He said that an authority at the national-level should be set up to sort out such disputes.

He criticised the Haryana government for having bifurcated the Haryana State Electricity Board (HSEB) into two corporations, Genco and Transco, which would result in increase in power tariff.

He suspected some "foul play" in the decision of the government to hand over the assets of the HSEB to private companies on book value.

Mr Sampat Singh suggested that hydroelectric generation should be given priority.

He said that the World Bank was dictating terms and fixing the power tariff in Haryana after having sanctioned certain loans for power generation and transmission. The state government should not have allowed interference of foreigners in deciding the power tariff.

Mr Sampat Singh demanded that a regional council consisting of the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir be set up to settle inter-state disputes. This will also help develop cordial relations between these states.

He said that the north zonal council had failed to fulfil the objective.

Forestry students threaten stir
From Our Correspondent

KASAULI, Aug 18 — Forestry students of Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, have threatened to launch an indefinite agitation if the government does not take immediate steps to provide jobs to them in the state Forest Department.

Undergraduate forestry and horticulture students yesterday protested against the non-acceptance of their demands and observed a one-day hunger strike. In a demands charter submitted to Governor V.S. Ramadevi, the students demanded a concrete recruitment policy for forestry graduates in the state Forest Department and allied sectors. The students criticised the university authorities for not initiating a dialogue with the state government as agreed to by the Vice-Chancellor.

The students demanded the implementation of the decision taken on March 6, 1995, under which the Congress government had decided to recruit forestry graduates as range officers.

Girls who want to marry their abusers
From R.C. Joshi

NAHAN, Aug 18 — With cases of rape and sexual abuse showing a rapid upward trend, the administration of this relatively crime free district is grappling with the question of how to tackle this delicate problem without affecting local sensibilities.

Since February, this year, the police have registered five cases of rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The victims in all the cases are minor girls belonging to the lowest strata. The emotional and social impact of the abuse on the victims is such that conventional advice regarding termination of pregnancy and taking legal recourse against the accused seems neither effective nor justified.

In all the five cases the victims became pregnant but refused to have the pregnancy terminated despite the fact their being minors.

They would rather have matters amicably settled and have their marriages fixed with the accused than have them punished for the crime against their persons. The modus operandi in each case was similar — a male partner who first developed friendship with a girl and enticed her with a promise of marriage. Then when the girl became pregnant, he backed out.

According to Superintendent of Police Prithwi Raj Singh, the victims are from such poor families that instead of letting the law take its course, they want the police to intervene and help them marry their abusers.

Awareness of their rights and female dignity is so low that an 18-year-old girl wants the police to force her paramour to marry her despite the fact that he raped her along with two of his friends after tricking her into coming with him to Sarahan, about 38 kilometres from Nahan.

According to FIR number 33/98 registered on April 20, against three local youths, one of them asked his then barely 18-year-old girlfriend to come to Sarahan on the night of April 19, where the trio raped the girl.

The victim is pregnant and the case is now being heard in the trial court. The girl, however, just wants Subhash to be released so that they can get married despite his deceit."These people are so poor and ill-informed that they have no idea what the consequences of reporting such matters to the police would be. Justice for them has a totally different meaning. They asked us to intervene mainly to pressurise the accused to marry the victims. They do not realise that once a case under Section 376 of the IPC has been registered, our job is not to make peace but to ensure that justice is done," Mr Prithvi Raj Singh told this correspondent.

A 17-year-old girl was raped in Chaknal, about 40 km from Nahan in February. According to the FIR Number 24/98 registered on February 19, the girl was physically abused by a youth from the same village. After the case was registered the accused failed to secure bail in the trial and sessions court and finally moved the High Court. While the case was being heard in the High Court, it transpired that the victim found she was pregnant but refused to have the child aborted. She insisted instead on having the baby and wanting to marry the accused.

"The situation was such that the youth was getting pressurised to marry the girl even when arguments on the bail application were being heard. The girl was just 17-year-old and under great mental trauma. The accused, finally agreed to marry the girl.

The situation was such that despite the proper procedure being followed the general feeling was that not enough was being done," an official said.

Apart from the five registered cases since February, which the police feels is an "alarming trend", there are a large number of instances which have not been reported.

Officials say that the number of reported cases reveal only the "tip of the iceberg" as rural bodies and the village elders' advise the victims and their families to get the girls married to the accused or hush up the case.

Some victims actually approach the police with the presumption that a little "uniform pressure" will set matters right. In Moginand, about eight kilometres from Nahan, a minor girl's father told the police clearly that he did not want the matter to be taken to the court. He just wanted a little pressure to be applied on the accused so that he married the girl.

Though the rule book and the law does not permit this, the police actually hounded the boy and he finally agreed to marry the girl. Since both the girl and the boy are Muslims and the Muslim law reportedly lays down that he cannot marry her during her pregnancy, the duo expect to get married soon after the baby is delivered.

"There are two more such cases from Kolar and Dhagerha in the vicinity of the district headquarters. In each cases the girls get exploited due to complete lack of awareness about such vital issues as their rights.

"We are thinking of organising regular workshops and seminars which would have large public participation from the rural areas. The aim of such workshops would be to make people aware of not only how criminal jurisprudence works but also of the rights of women and their dignity in a civilised society," said an official on condition of anonymity.

Illegal mining on the rise
From Ravinder Sood

PALAMPUR: Landslides and other mass movement has become a severe environmental hazard in Himachal Pradesh. Large-scale illegal and unscientific mining and quarrying combined with public utility like construction of roads and buildings have further contributed to the fragility of ecology creating an environmental imbalances in the region.

Over 425 hectares of land has very seriously been affected by mining and other construction activities in the state. Large-scale destruction of forests by illegal and legal mining have resulted in floods and land erosion in the state. In Kangra district the illegal and unscientific quarrying and mining have posed serious threat to the future of a number of water supply and irrigation schemes. The water level of a number of streams and tributaries of the Beas like Binwa, Neugal, Baner, Gajj, Mandh etc has gone down in past 10 years. These streams are the major sources of over two hundred drinking water supply and irrigation schemes. Not only this a number of water sources in the district have dried up in the past few years because of unchecked mining.

It is most surprising that the persons involved in this illegal trade have no legal rights to extract stone, sand, and other raw material from these khuds. A survey reveals is that most of the persons who are engaged in this business enjoy protection of ministers and MLAs and on their recommendations the officials of the state mining department have been issuing casual permits by charging nominal royalty from these persons. It was also noticed during the survey that persons with high political connections were issued the permits. In a number of cases the Chief Minister himself directed the mining department to grant permits to particular BJP workers keeping aside all rules and norms laid down for the grant of such permits. An officer of the state mining department remarked that he was helpless in taking any action against the offenders since the persons were close to the power lobby.

The large-scale illegal mining is not only creating environmental imbalances in the state but also causing huge loss to the state exchequer every year since the auction system of these khuds has been abandoned by the previous Congress government long ago on political consideration with an intention to provide monetary benefits to their henchmen. It is estimated that the state government was losing revenue of over Rs 50 crore every year by not openly auctioning these streams and khuds, sources of mining.

Illegal or legal mining in the state has put a question mark on the lives of Bhakra and Pong dams built at a high cost. The capacity to hold water by these dams has been reducing year after year because of heavy siltation caused by destruction of forests and mining in the catchment areas of these dams. The Bhakra Beas Management Board has already cautioned the state government to stop all mining activities in Shimla, Bilaspur, Mandi, Solan and Kangra districts which were contributing large quantity of silt to these two important dams of the nation. But it is most unfortunate that despite repeated warnings of the BBMB and other agencies dealing with environment experts the state government has done nothing worthwhile and illegal mining is still on the increase. The experts say that the beds of Gobindsagar and Pong dams have risen by two metres in the past few years which is quite alarming. The survey also revealed that nearly three times more sediment was flowing into these dams when they were built, reducing their life on an average to one third.
Besides this natural lakes in Dharamsala and Chamba have been diminished because of soil erosion and existence of Rewalsar lake is under threat.

The illicit felling in the state has also contributed to the large-scale landslides, particularly in Kulu and Shimla districts where property worth crores of rupees were destroyed in floods and over 500 persons lost their lives in the past two years. Still the state government has not learnt any lesson and all efforts are made to shield the culprits on political consideration.

A number of highways in the state are prone to landslides thus causing huge loss to the state exchequer every year. The Kiratpur-Manali national highway is the example. A portion of the road between Kulu and Manali has been washed away that the state government is finding it very difficult to restore it. Likewise a bridge near Bilaspur on this highway was also totally damaged because of heavy landslides.

1,000 BJP, Cong men join HVC
From Our Correspondent

CHAMBA, Aug 18 — As many as 1,000 workers of the BJP and the Congress have joined the HVC, said Mr P.C. Oberoy, district president of the HVC today.

He said the people were joining the HVC as they had lost faith in the BJP and the Congress.

Threat to launch indefinite stir
From Our Correspondent

PARWANOO, Aug 18 — CITU-Affiliated trade unions have threatened to launch an indefinite strike if the state government failed to stop the harassment of the workers by industrialists. Workers today staged a dharna in front of the Labour Department's office to protest against the non-payment of medical bills, rising prices and the 'anti-worker' policies adopted by the state government.

The rift between the CITU-affiliated worker trade unions and industrialists widened on August 4 when the owners of a Parwanoo-based electronic unit did not allow CITU to hoist its flag in the factory premises. The state government's move to cancel the registration of the Parwanoo unit of CITU also added fuel to the fire. CITU sources say the registration was being cancelled at the behest of industrialists.

State CITU President Rakesh Singha said the CITU-AITUC joint coordination committee had decided to hold a black flag march on August 25 and a complete strike on September 1 in Parwanoo.

However, PIA (Parwanoo Industries Association) sources said that industrialists were not against any registered trade union but would not tolerate interference by outsiders and bogus trade unions. The sources alleged that vested interests were spoiling the peaceful working climate in this industrial township by creating unlawful trade unions.

Man "kills" father
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, Aug 18 — Bahadur Singh, a resident of Bhubhu village was killed allegedly by his son, Prastu Ram, yesterday.

Mr Sanjay Kumar Kundu, SP, said Prastu Ram was beating his wife when his father tried to stop him. The former hit Bahadur Singh on the head with a stone, resulting in his death.

Bimla, the wife of Prastu Ram, lodged an FIR.

The Police has arrested Prastu Ram and registered a murder case under Section 302 of the IPC against him.