Law Dept upholds ED stand
SHIMLA, Nov 27 — The Law Department is not in favour of the BJP-HVC combine government going ahead with its move to register cases against former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for alleged violation of land ceiling laws.

Chilgoza pines face extinction
SOLAN: Man's greed and apathy, hostile soil conditions and insect attacks have over the years, been slowly but inexorably pushing pinus gerardiana, commonly called chilgoza or neoza pine, towards extinction in India.

Blind to observe black day
SHIMLA, Nov 27 — Members of the Himachal Federation of the Blind will observe December 3 as black day and stage a dharna in front of the state Vidhan Sabha in protest against the indifferent attitude of the government towards their demands.

Earlier mistakes avoided: CM
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 27 — The execution of the 2051 MW Parbati hydro-electric project will herald a new era of economic growth and prosperity in the state particularly, the interior of Kulu valley.

To be constructed at cost about Rs 12,000 crore, the project will on completion fetch an annual income of Rs 400 crore to the fund-starved state. The project, which is to be executed in three stages will take 10 to 12 years for completion. As per plans work on the 800 MW-stage II is to be taken first followed by 501 MW-stage III and 750 MW-stage I. In all the project will generate 8500 million units of electricity annually.

The agreement signed between the National Hydel Power Corporation and the state power board has been the best so far from Himachal’s point of view. Besides, 12 per cent free power as royalty, the state would get 15 per cent power at generation cost without making any investment. In all earlier projects the share of power had been proportionate to the investment made.

Further the state will get this share in the winter too, when it actually faces a power shortage. There was no such provision in earlier agreements as a result of which the state, despite being overall a surplus state, had been facing shortage of power in the winter.

Another important feature of the agreement was that the NHPC will purchase the entire land required for the project. Hitherto, the state handed government, land virtually free of cost.

The agreement also ensures preference in employment to local people.

As many as 30 per cent of the officers at the executive level and 75 per cent of non-executive staff will be taken from within the state at the initial stage and thereafter for incremental recruitment 80 per cent personnel will be taken from the state. Besides, employment will also be provided to one member of each family dislocated due to the construction of the project.

Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, the Chief Minister, took care that the mistakes of previous projects, which created much problems for the government in settling issues pertaining to employment of local people and sharing of power, were not repeated. He made full use of his friendly relations with Mr P. Kumaramangalam, the Union Energy Minister, to have the best possible deal for the state.

Another advantage of assigning the project to the NHPC is that there will be no inter-state disputes, like the aborted accord signed among five states, and Himachal will have to deal only with the Centre.

The Chief Minister also seriously pursuing the 800 MW Kol Dam project and if all goes well it will also be got executed through a central agency like the National Thermal Power Corporation. This along with the 85 MW Malana project, 12 MW Khaul project and 3 MW Gummah hydel project, work on which has already commenced will go a long way in improving the financial position of the state.

EC biased, says Cong MLA
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, 27 — A sitting legislator and joint secretary of the HPCC, Mr G.S. Bali, today said despite blatant misuse of official machinery by the BJP during the Baijnath byelection, it was strange that the Election Commission had given it a clean chit.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said it was clear that the election observers and the district administration was "biased" as it had decided not to take note of the use of the official vehicle by the Vice-Chairman of the HRTC, Mr Khushi Ram Balnatha, in Baijnath.

"Two sitting MLAs, Mrs Viplove Thakur and Mrs Asha Kumari, along with party workers, saw the official vehicle of Mr Balnatha at the Panjla polling booth in Sansal area later the election observers saw the misuse of the official vehicle too, he said.

Mr Bali also took exception to the appointment of the state president of the ABVP, Mr Rajeshwar Chandel, as hostel warden at Horticulture University in Nauni near Solan Mr Chandel is a member of the teaching faculty at the university.

He alleged that Mr Chandel was using his position to strengthen the ABVP unit in the campus and for "victimising" NSUI students. "Due to the pressure tactics adopted by the BJP the academic atmosphere in the campus has been vitiated and the Vice Chancellor has failed to take appropriate action," Mr Bali said. He said when the state president of the NSUI, Mr Atul Sharma, went to raise the matter with the vice-chancellor, the latter refused to talk to him. Instead, he called the police and got him arrested.

Mr Bali said he would join the NSUI students on strike in this connection. He also demanded a judicial inquiry into the role of the hostel warden in university politics.

State asks Centre to restore special grant
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 27 — The Himachal Government has urged the Centre to restore the grants under the special category state status to Himachal Pradesh to accelerate development.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr JP Nadda, said the state government had asked the Centre to include the restoration of these grants and reimbursement of non-plan expenditure for the special category states in the agenda of the 11th Finance Commission.

The Chief Ministers of the special category states had recently met in Delhi put to jointly the demand before the Centre.

The special category states, particularly, Himachal Pradesh are reeling under a financial crisis ever since the practice of bridging the gap between the plan and non-plan expenditure was scrapped on the recommendation of the Ninth Finance Commission.

The issue is expected to be debated in the forthcoming winter session of the Assembly.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the financial position of the state has not improved despite assistance of Rs 300 crore provided by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The state government had demanded financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore from the Centre for the current year. However, only Rs 100 crore was given under the "ways and means" account. Instead of solving the problem, this has put an additional burden on the state as the amount is to be repaid with an annual interest of 8.5 per cent.

An advance of Rs 100 crore is already being recovered by the Centre by adjustment from share of the central taxes an duties in nine monthly instalments Rs 11.11 crore.

The remaining assistance of Rs 200 crore was to be released by the centre against specific schemes.

The government employees have started feeling the pinch of the bad financial position as they had been denied payment of various allowances.

Law Dept upholds ED stand
From S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 27 — The Law Department is not in favour of the BJP-HVC combine government going ahead with its move to register cases against former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for alleged violation of land ceiling laws.

Highly placed sources said the Law Department is of the opinion that the Enforcement Department (ED) should not register any FIR against Mr Virbhadra Singh on this account.

The state government had sought the opinion of the department following reluctance of the Enforcement Department to register an FIR as the Lokayukata and various other courts had already decided the case.

Upholding the stance of the ED, the Law Department is learnt to have pointed out that reopening of the issue might create legal problems and contempt proceedings against the ED.

The Himachal Vikas Congress chief, Mr Sukh Ram, has been pressurising the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, to order a CBI inquiry against Mr Virbhadra Singh. He has been issuing deadlines for continuing support to the fragile government of Mr Dhumal on the issue.

The state government had recently removed the Additional Director-General of Police (Enforcement), Mr V.K. Malik when he reportedly said it would be wrong to register an FIR in a case already been decided by the court.

Moreover, the Lokayukata Act of 1983 provided for contempt proceedings.

The state government had asked the ED to register the case as Mr Sukh Ram had set November 6 as the deadline for meeting his demand. After examining the "charge sheet" prepared by the HVC, the ED did not favour registration of an FIR.

It is learnt that an HVC leader participated in the high-level official meeting presided by the Chief Secretary, Mr O.P. Yadav, in the first week of the month to discuss the issue. He tried to persuade the ED to register the FIR.

Sources said the ED has asked the Personnel and Finance Departments to supply it with the record pertaining to raising of loans from private financial institutions by the Virbhadra Singh government as also papers relating to allegations that a relative of the former Chief Minister had been favoured with the allotment of an agency of a cement company.

These files will be searched for finding any loophole against the Congress leader. Similar allegations have also been made by the HVC.

The HVC had prepared the "charge sheet" against Mr Virbhadra Singh in July. It was submitted to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee by Mr Dhumal in August with the recommendation that a CBI inquiry must be ordered.

Chilgoza pines face extinction
From Romesh Dutt

SOLAN: Man's greed and apathy, hostile soil conditions and insect attacks have over the years, been slowly but inexorably pushing pinus gerardiana, commonly called chilgoza or neoza pine, towards extinction in India.

This particular pine species was found only in the Western Himalayas. Kinnaur and Chamba (Pangi valley) districts of Himachal Pradesh and a small pocket (bordering Tibet) of Kashmir in India, Baluchistan province of Pakistan and some scattered areas of Afghanistan were the only places in the world where this commercially important nut bearing tree presently grew.

Dr R.N. Sehgal, Professor and Head, Department of Forest Biology and Tree Improvement, Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, who has conducted extensive researches on chilgoza pines says he cannot find the presence of young neoza pines of the 0-25 years age groups in their natural habitats in Kinnaur and Chamba. Most trees belong to 60 to 150 years age groups, which bids ill for the species.

He says the chilgozas, highly prized for their delicate flavour and nutritional value, command handsome prices in the dry fruit markets of the plains. The ever-increasing gap between demand and supply caused by depletion of neoza forests on the one hand and by population explosion on the other, have been pushing up the prices of the commodity year after year.

This in turn has resulted in the ever-increasing pressure on pine forests. Today, the tribals living in and around neoza forests tend to plunder every single nut from the pine cones, leaving nothing for the regeneration of the trees through the natural seeding process.

Whatever little numbers that managed to grow have been trampled under the hooves of grazing animals or have fallen prey to their nibbling.

Also, attacks by two insect borers called dioryctria abietella and euzophera cedrella have been playing havoc with standing trees for well over a quarter of century now. The larvae of the two insects bore into the nut-bearing cones, adversely affecting the net yields and forcing the tribals to scrounge the nuts from even those areas of the forest floors, normally considered inaccessible.

Some of the fauna native to neoza pine zones like birds, squirrels and rats have developed a special liking for the neozas and taken a heavy toll of the nuts lying scattered on the forest floors.

The removal of the neoza seeds by man, birds and animals from the forest floors have emerged as the prime cause of non-regeneration of chilgoza pine forests.

Dr Sehgal says tree scientists of his institution had successfully raised nurseries of chilgoza pines at Sharbo (Kinnaur) some years back, but the seedlings grown there recorded low survival percentages after transplantation in their natural habitats, owing mainly to the causes listed above.

However, he suspects that the real cause might lie in "our inability to fully understand the ecological niche of this species. It is still a mystery as to how nature can produce and establish trees on rocky mountains having hardly any layer of soil while we with our best efforts fail to do so even on comparatively good sites."

The tree scientist says the preservation steps of chilgoza pine forests have assumed importance not only because the trees have come to face extinction, but also in the context of the paramount need of arresting the heavy soil erosion in the Sutlej valley, particularly in Kinnaur.

Presently, chilgoza pine is the only available species which can withstand the harsh climatic and geo-physical conditions of the dry temperate zones like those of the Kinnaur and Pangi valley. It is not for nothing that the chilgoza pine has been called the "champion of the rocky mountains".

Dr Sehgal advocates the introduction of a system of closing chilgoza forests for at least six years, by rotation, involving one or two forest areas at a time only.

This seems to be the only solution, especially in view of the fact that the chilgoza has been the mainstay of the tribal economy down the ages. Closure of one or two forests, by rotation, will ensure the limiting of financial losses to only a small percentage of the tribals, and that too for specified periods only.

Some kind of governmental intervention by way of compensation or provision of alternative sources of income will go a long way in enlisting the support of the local population for the conservation measures. If implemented, this can play a decisive role in restarting the required process of natural regeneration.

The present depleted status of the chilgoza pines also warrants the establishment of a gene bank without any loss of time. There is an urgent need too, for selecting genotypes that have not only survived the rocky, degraded and hostile sites, but have actually flourished there. This can help bring certain difficult areas of the Kinnaur and Pangi valley under a protective forest cover in future.

Blind to observe black day
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 27 — Members of the Himachal Federation of the Blind will observe December 3 as black day and stage a dharna in front of the state Vidhan Sabha in protest against the indifferent attitude of the government towards their demands.

Mr Deva Singh Negi, President of the Federation, said here today that despite repeated requests the government had not taken any steps to implement the demands. The federation had been thoroughly disappointed with the negative attitude of the bureaucracy which forced it to stage a protest on the opening day of the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha.

The federation had sent copies of its demand charter to Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister and Mr Gulab Singh, Speaker.

He said for the blind persons the change of government in the state had not made any difference. The federation took out a procession on August 24 last and held talks with the welfare minister, but despite his assurance to concede the demands nothing had been done so far.

The main demands included 1 per cent reservation in jobs for blind persons on the pattern of neighbouring states, setting up of school for the blind, Rs 1000 per month as unemployment allowance, free education and boarding and lodging facility.