P R A D E S H
Tuesday, October 27, 1998
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H I M A C H A L P R A D E S H |
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Tuesday, October 27, 1998 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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CM offers incentives |
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 Bring
back kids, Tibetans told |
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Haven for liquor, drug,
stone smugglers |
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CM offers incentives to private
sector SHIMLA, Oct 26 — Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has invited the private sector to invest in industrial, tourism and power sectors in the state and assured all possible help and assistance for setting up projects. Addressing a conference on "Investment opportunities in Himachal Pradesh" organised by the All-India Manufacturers Organisation at Mumbai today, Mr Dhumal said the goal of the government was to transform the state’s agrarian economy into an industrial one with the active participation of the private sector, he said. The state had offered attractive packages of incentives, facilities and concessions for entrepreneurs which included land at concessional rates, subsidised power, concessions in state taxes, transport subsidy and complete exemption from payment of income tax for the new projects. He said the income tax exemption was likely to be extended further by the Government of India. The matter had already been taken up with the Union Finance Minister. He said the availability of abundant, cheap and quality power at economical rates, harmonious industrial relations, clean environment and investor-friendly administration were some of the other added advantages which investors would not find elsewhere. Besides, export units had been accorded special priority in the state’s industrial plans. An export promotional industrial park was being developed at Baddi at a cost of more than Rs 20 crore. Its first phase was nearing completion. Industrial plots would be available to entrepreneurs soon. The government was also determined to remove procedural bottlenecks to attract investments in the state, he assured. The Chief Minister said the leading industrial houses of the country were keen to invest in Himachal Pradesh. About 75 projects with an investment of about Rs 50 billion had been approved and many of them were under different stages of implementation. Referring to opportunities in the tourism sector, he said investment in projects such as health and holiday resorts, entertainment parks, adventure sports, heli-skiing, water sports, cultural heritage tourism and tribal area tourism were being encouraged. The state was looking forward to the private sector, especially foreign investors, to gainfully exploit this tremendous potential. He said tourism projects, already being implemented in the state, involved an investment of more than Rs 600 crore. On completion, these would greatly improve facilities for tourists throughout the state with the opening up of tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh for foreigners. The number of domestic and foreign tourists visiting these tribal areas had increased manifold. In the hydel power sector, out of total 20,000 MW of potential only about 3,000 MW had been exploited with Himachal's close proximity to high power consumption states like Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, the need of the hour was to exploit these expeditiously. These would not only meet the power requirements of these states but also help the state in raising resources. He said the Himachal Government was giving special concessions such as interest subsidy, banking and wheeling facilities at the rate of 2 per cent inclusive of transmission losses, waiver of water royalty to projects up to 1 MW for five years and rebate in royalty of 2 per cent for projects between 1 MW and 2 MW. Besides privatisation of
the generation sector, the state was also considering
setting up an electricity regulation authority to
rationalise power tariff. |
Focus shifts to Delhi SHIMLA, Oct 26 — The scene for selecting candidates for the Baijnath Assembly seat has shifted to Delhi with the BJP and the Congress forwarding the panels to their respective high commands. The pradesh election committees of both parties have left the final choice of the candidates to their party high commands. The pradesh election committee of the Congress, which met here today under the chairmanship of Mr Sat Mahajan, unanimously decided to send the panel of all 10 aspirants to the AICC chief, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, for final decision. The committee decided to send the names of Mrs Nirmala Devi (widow of Mr Sant Ram), Mr Sudhir Sharma, Mr Kuldeep Rana, Mr Baldev Rana, Mr Suresh Kumar, Mr Lokinder Thakur, Mr Trilok Kapoor, Ms Savitri Katoch, Dr Anand Banwal and Mr Deepchand Bakshi to the AICC. While Mrs Nirmala Devi was reluctant to fight the elections, senior Congressmen consider her the best bet. Mr Virbhadra Singh, Thakur Ram Lal, Mr JBL Khachi, Mr Rangila Ram Rao and Mr Vijay Singh Mankotia, were among those who attended the meeting. The BJP has also not been able to select its candidate for the seat. The election committee of the BJP, which met at Delhi yesterday, is learnt to have forwarded all four applications for the ticket to the party high command. The panel includes the names of Mr Dulo Ram, Ms Indu Goswami, Mr Kamal Kishore and Mr Medh Ram. It is being said that the final choice will be from among Mr Dulo Ram and, Ms Indu Goswami. Mr Dulo Ram is considered close to Mr Shanta Kumar while Ms Goswami supports the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal. On the other hand, the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC), which is the alliance partner of the BJP, has not dropped its claim to the seat. The party is demanding that the BJP should leave the seat for the HVC to contest. The HVC leaders are meeting here on November 1 to discuss their strategy.
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Bring back kids, Tibetans told DHARAMSALA, Oct 26 — Tibetans in Lhasa, are being compelled by the Chinese authorities to bring back their children, who are studying in schools being run by the Tibetan Government-in-exile in India, or else face losing their jobs. Last month, three staff members of Lhasa Middle School were forced to travel to India to get back their children, who were studying in schools being run by the exiled Tibetan Government. They were suspended from work till they complied with the orders issued six months back on March 20, 1998. Any other monetary incentives, which the staff is usually entitled to for working the previous year, were revoked. The three staff members were immediately issued travel documents by the Public Security Bureau and asked to deposit 1000 yuan on the assurance that the money would be returned once they brought back their children. The parents are currently in India and most likely to lose their jobs. According to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy here, all those whose children are studying in India are looked down upon. This is part of the "clean up" campaign launched in Tibet. As a part of this campaign so far 37 children have been forced to return to Tibet against the wishes of their children. This has been done following an order stipulated on October 22, 1994, under document 58 of the Tibet Autonomous Regions' Disciplinary Action Committee. One of the points says the party members and cadres must not send their children to a school run by the "deserters' administration" and those who had sent them must bring them back. Lhasa Middle School is pursuing these orders strictly. According to a student who went to Tibet and then came back to India disclosed that children returning from India were admitted to primary schools with poor facilities. Children above the age of 15 were being employed as tourist guides or in state departments. All these children have became victims of suspicion and are being discriminated against on false grounds. Many of these children are fired from work on the charge of clandestine political involvement. As a result of all these discriminatory measures, certain children have been seen doing petty business on the streets. This has led some of them to resort to excessive drinking. One of them is learnt to have committed suicide. Among those who are being suspected are Ngawang Seldon and Yeshi Tsogyal, who were students of TCV School in Dharamsala. Tibetan children have been
risking their lives in the past in their quest for better
education and living in India. |
Haven for liquor, drug, stone
smugglers SOLAN: The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial belt of this district has of late become a veritable haven for smugglers of liquor, narcotics, drugs and river-bed stones. Parts of this area are contiguous with Haryana where, after the lifting of prohibition, liquor has become between 10 to 30 per cent (depending upon the brand) cheaper than in Himachal Pradesh. Myriad of bridle paths connect different border villages of the two states. Besides providing short cuts, these, some of which pass through heavily-bushed terrain, bye-pass the various police and excise barriers that exist on the road routes only. Liquor smugglers find plying of their trade over such paths a comparatively safer proposition. They employ part-time "conduits," mostly picked up from amongst the nearly 25,000 strong industrial labour force of migrants from UP and Bihar, for "importing" their wares from Haryana. Sometimes even respectable-looking school and college students are used. At any given time after dusk, scores of bootleggers carrying small lots of Haryana-made liquor can be spotted on the various bridle paths there. Some amongst the newly emerged class of nouveau riche who have become millionaires virtually overnight after their lands have been either acquired for setting up industrial areas or bought off by entrepreneurs, are allegedly behind the liquor-smuggling racket. Not used to remaining idle nor knowing any other trade and also having pots of money, some of them readily fall prey to the machinations of the bootleggers. A substantial section of the local peasantry and a large population of factory labourers, many amongst whom are given to partaking a "quarter" or a "half" daily, provide a readymade clientele to the bootleggers. An idea of the quantum of illicit trade in liquor can be had from the fact that the 13 vends of Indian-made foreign liquor and 14 of those of the country wine located in the area were auctioned for Rs 5 crore this year. The Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mr K.L. Thakur, says in order to "break even," these 27 vends have had to register a minimum sale of Rs 12 crore per annum. Industry experts opine that against every rupee worth of legal sale, at least Rs 2 worth of illicit one is transacted in the area. This means that about Rs 36 crore worth of illicit liquor is sold in the industrial belt of the district every year. A veteran police official, who seems to think that the figure of Rs 36 crore worth of illicit liquor sales per annum is a bit on the higher side, nevertheless admits to the existence of a fairly large-sized liquor smuggling racket in the area. Another middle level officer, who also concedes that the price differential between Haryana and Himachal Pradesh has led to "increased smuggling" across the border, says he and his colleagues are handicapped by the difficulties posed by the peculiar terrain and under staffing of the police force. He also says the fact that a majority of the cases booked under the Excise Act fall in the courts for want of evidence is proving to be a disincentive to the police. The law demands evidence of first-hand witnesses. Such persons can not be presumed to be always present at the time of the arrest of the offenders. Even cases where the witnesses are actually present and have seen the accused being caught red handed, have fallen through in the courts because of the time lag of a minimum of five years between the booking of the accused and the appearance of the concerned witness in the court. During this time the witness either forgets vital details about the arrest operation and falls an easy victim to the defence counsels or he simply lets himself be bought over by the liquor mafia. Recently, the presence of a large labour force had also attracted the narcotics smugglers for whom the Nalagarh belt fell on the traditional opium route from Kulu to the plains. Mercifully, the sale of opium and other narcotic drugs has not emerged on a menacing scale as yet. It is confined to a few odd "paan-bidi" sellers and some "jhuggi" dwellers who cater to a very limited clientele. However, another kind of smuggling activity, that of river bed stones that has been going on in the Nalagarh-Baddi-Barotiwala area for decades now, can spell disaster for the area in the years to come if allowed to go on unchecked. River beds, of which there are plenty in the area as the very name Nalagarh seems to suggest, are leased out by the State Mining Department every year to private lessees who are allowed to extract the minor mineral up to depths of three feet only. However, they dig up the river beds far deeper than the permissible limits. There are also a large number of unlicensed operators who smuggle truck- loads of the vital building construction material across the state borders virtually round the clock. These activities have resulted in the excessive deepening of the river beds and jeopardised the existing irrigation system. This has forced a large number of peasants who used to grow rice along river beds to switch over to growing other less profitable rain-fed crops as they can not afford to install lift pumps needed to draw water from the deepened river beds. Unrestricted over-exploitation of the river bed stones can result in a highly accelerated flow of run-off waters having the potential of unleashing formidable furies of nature in the times to come.
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Stranded tourists rescued MANALI, Oct 26 — The inclement weather which has been persisting for the past two weeks worsened yesterday at 13,050 ft high Rohtang Pass, 51 km from here, the dream destination of most tourists. This left over 300 tourists and a number of private cars and taxis stranded in severe cold conditions during the night. Mr Ashok Shah, a tourist from Ahmedabad, along with his 35 of the family members told this correspondent that about 3 p.m. yesterday there was a heavy snowfall at Rohtang Pass and a private vehicle skided on the road and created a massive roadblock, this resulted in all the vehicles following being stranded. Another tourist, Mr Ashish Vohrey from Ahmedabad, said they had to endure severe cold conditions without food and water atop the Rohtang Pass till this morning. The Border Roads Organisation and the Local Taxi Operators and Luxury Coach Association informed the district authorities about the plight of the tourists. Immediate action was taken by the authorities concerned. A few tourists were rescued last night. The rescure team today rescued all stranded tourists and brought them to Manali by buses and army vehicles.
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Fire
destroys
government building CHAMBA, Oct 26 — A government building housing the irrigation and public health subdivision, a consumer goods store of the Food and Supplies Department and half a dozen government shops having employees quarters upstairs were burnt to ashes this afternoon in Chowgan bazar here, causing a loss of about Rs 5 crore. According to official sources, the fire which broke out at about 3.30 p.m. was noticed at about 3.45 p.m. On receiving information, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sanjay Murti, along with fire-fighting agencies launched a fire-fighting operation. Local youths did their best to put out the fire. The fire is now reportedly under control. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner has ordered a magisterial inquiry. He said the work to rehabilitate fire victims had been initiated.
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PM to lay foundation of project SUNDERNAGAR, Oct 26 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, will lay the foundation stone of the Parvati hydroelectric project next month. This was stated here yesterday by Mr Maheshwar Singh, MP. He said the project which was of 2100 MW capacity had been recently cleared by the Centre and the work would be carried out by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation on a time-bound basis. The project was spread over Mandi and Kulu districts.
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