Kulu Shimla Una

State INTUC chief demands CM's resignation
SHIMLA, July 22 — Mrs Kanta Sood, president of the state unit of the Indian National Trade Union Congress, has demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, for his government's failure to maintain law and order in the Nathpa-Jhakri project area.

Truck carrying logs impounded, 8 held
UNA, July 22 — The Bangana police last night arrested eight persons for carrying illegally cut khair wood in a truck near the Nalwari Tamehra chowk, 38 km from here. The value of wood is estimated to be Rs 1 lakh.

NSUI says no to Pathania as chief

Kargil conflict hits tourism in Kulu
From Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

KULU, July 22 — The sudden outbreak of hostilities in Kargil at the peak of the summer affected tourism in the Kulu valley this season.

The tourist traffic to the valley had just started picking up towards the end of May when the Army launched "Operation Vijay" to flush out the Pakistani intruders from Kargil. As Himachal shares its northern border with Jammu and Kashmir, tourists, particularly from distant states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were wary of visiting the state, more so because of strong apprehensions that the operation may escalate into a full scale Indo-Pak war.

Most of the package tours to Leh and Ladakh were cancelled even though the Rohtang Pass opened on April 26 more than eight weeks ahead of normal. The trouble along the border in Kashmir affected the inflow of foreign tourists the most, says Mr Anil Kant of Iceland Travels. The number of foreign tourists to the valley had increased considerably since the opening of tribal areas of Lahaul Spiti in 1994. Manali-Leh tours had become very popular among foreigners.

The hoteliers estimate that tourist traffic declined by 25 to 30 per cent compared to last year. The hotels located away from the main town in Manali, which normally did good business had to give a 25 to 50 per cent discount even during the peak season, according to Mr Rajinder, a businessman from Delhi, who had taken a 14-room hotel on contract for the season. The contract may turn out to be a losing proposition, he fears.

Rajesh, who has contracted an 11-room hotel for Rs 3 lakh, is not likely to earn anything this season. Last year, he made a profit of Rs 2 lakh.

Hotels in the Kulu area were hit the hardest as tourists mostly prefer to stay in the cool environs of Manali. They opt for Kulu only when proper accommodation is not available in Manali. Compared to private hotels, the tourist complexes of the state tourism development corporation were not much affected. There was low occupancy in the log huts of the corporation which are much in demand normally among high class tourists. Overall, the corporation has not done badly despite the slump, says Mr P.C. Kapoor, Managing Director of the corporation.

Besides the poor inflow of tourists, the ever-increasing number of hotels has also been responsible for poor occupancy. The number of hotels had increased from 93 to 473 over the past one decade in the valley. Manali itself has 363 hotels and the total bed capacity in Kulu was touching 13,000 which was more than the total bed capacity in Delhi.

The season as far as domestic tourists were concerned virtually comes to a close by the middle of July but foreigners, who visit the tribal areas and Ladakh, continue to throng the valley until the first week of September. Of the 17,613 foreign tourists, who visited the valley last year, more than 9,000 came during July and August.

Now that the Kargil conflict is almost over, the hoteliers are hoping that the inflow of foreign tourists will pick up over the next six weeks or so.

Set up job generating councils: Ram Lal
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 22 — Mr Ram Lal Thakur, former Himachal Chief Minister, has urged the Himachal Government to set up manpower planning and employment generation councils at the state and district levels and implement one job for each family programme to solve the problem of rising unemployment in the state.

Expressing concern over the number of unemployed persons, which had increased from 4.47 lakh in1990-91 to over 8 lakh in 1998-99, he said the magnitude of the problem could be judged from the wide gap in the number of persons getting registered with employment exchanges and those actually securing jobs. For instance from January 1, 1998 to November 30, 1998, as many as 1,75,232 applicants were registered in the consolidated live register of the state whereas only 3142 placements were made during the period.

It was high time the government evolved a suitable strategy based on the analysis of manpower needs and job opportunities available so that gainful employment could be provided to youth on a large scale.

It was disheartening to note that industrial growth in the state had been sluggish and despite an investment of over Rs 2550 crore, most of the units were on the sick list, he observed.

The former Chief Minister said proper exploitation of the state's vast hydroelectric power potential could go a long way in solving the problem. Planned harnessing of 4000 mw of potential could generate nearly 50,000 jobs for unskilled and skilled personnel. Besides, in absence of a viable industrial base, horticulture required a big boost. While the existing infrastructure facilities needed to be strengthened, steps were required to eliminate middlemen and commission agent in marketing of fruit.

He said it was unfortunate that apple had been included in the OGL list, paving way for unrestricted import of the fruit, which would spell doom for the local growers. He urged the state government to take up the issue with the Centre to get the import of apples stopped at the earliest.

The resources of the state would have to be supplemented for implementing big schemes and the state would have to approach international funding agencies like the World Bank, he said.

State INTUC chief demands CM's resignation
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 22 — Mrs Kanta Sood, president of the state unit of the Indian National Trade Union Congress, has demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, for his government's failure to maintain law and order in the Nathpa-Jhakri project area.

Addressing a press conference here today, she said there was no "administration" worth the name in the area and the musclemen of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions were ruling the roost. The workers who wanted resume duty were being forcibly stopped as a result of which work on the Rs 10,000 crore project had come to standstill. On the other hand, the Nathpa-Jhakri joint venture company was implementing the ‘no-work no-pay’ rule, denying wages to such workers. Some of them had not earned any wages for the past six months.

The helplessness of the administration could be gauged from the fact that the local Station House Officer was beaten up in the presence of 40 policemen, a personnel manager and an engineer of the company were assaulted in public and 21 vehicles were damaged. The person in charge of the mess was also beaten up and robbed of Rs 8000 and a wrist watch. The persons, who were booked in connection with the murder of a securityman were roaming around freely.

The Deputy Commissioner had made things worse by ignoring the three recognised trade unions and instead holding talks with a group of workers.

She demanded that for restoring law and order those responsible for creating unrest in the project be arrested under the National Security Act.

Vidya Sagar flays Bali’s remarks
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 22 — Mr Vidya Sagar, Agriculture Minister, has ridiculed the statement of Mr Gurmukh Singh Bali, general secretary of the state Congress, demanding that three ministers of Kangra, who had conspired against the Chief Minister, should resign from the Cabinet.

Reacting sharply to the statement he said hatching a conspiracy against "our" own leader was not part of BJP culture. He said all ministers were solidly behind the Chief Minister and there was no factionalism in the party.

He said the Congress which neglected other backward classes during its own rule was now posing as their benefactor. He reminded Mr Bali that the Mandal Commission was set up by the Janata Government in 1978 but the subsequent Congress Government did not implement its report, which was submitted in 1980, over the next 10 years. Besides, the Congress Government did not reserve any seats for backward classes in Panchayati Raj institutions.

Pay arrears with interest: teachers
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 22 —The Himachal Pradesh University Teachers Association has urged the state government to release the pay arrears to teachers with interest.

Mr Rajinder Chauhan, president of the association, said the teaching community was bearing a huge financial loss due to the inordinate delay in the payment of arrears. There would be no financial burden on the government as 80 per cent of the increase on account of revision of scales was to reimbursed by the UGC for five years.

He regretted that while the state government employees had got their arrears almost two years back, the university teachers community had been denied this benefit without any reason. He warned the government that the teaching community would be constrained to resort to direct action if the arrears were not released immediately.

New timings for HP civil hospitals
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 22 — The Himachal Pradesh Government has notified new timings for the civil hospitals in the state.

According to a circular issued, the OPD timings in all health institutions have been changed.

The OPDs will start functioning at 9.30 a.m. There will be a lunch break from 1.30 p.m. to 2 p.m. The OPD units will close at 4 p.m.

Dr Harmohinder Singh, general secretary of the Himachal Medical Officers' Association, said the association had submitted a representation to the government for changing the timings, which has now been accepted.

Truck carrying logs impounded, 8 held
From Our Correspondent

UNA, July 22 — The Bangana police last night arrested eight persons for carrying illegally cut khair wood in a truck near the Nalwari Tamehra chowk, 38 km from here. The value of wood is estimated to be Rs 1 lakh.

Dr D P Sharma, Superintendent of Police, said the police arrested truck drivers Tarsem Lal of Bhanjal village, Gian Chand and Bodh Raj of Thana Kalan village, Ravinder Singh of Chakroha village Kishori Lal of Lakhoon village, Rachhpal Singh and Shadilal of Makrehar village, and Ram Swaroop of Pirigaha village. The main accused Sukhdev managed to escape. A case under Sections 41 and 42 of the Forest Act and Section 379 of the IPC has been registered and the truck has been impounded.

Mr Sharma said in another case on Tuesday the police arrested Ram Swaroop of Raipur Maidan village for carrying khair wood on the Una Pirigaha road and impounded the truck. A case under the Forest Act has been registered.

NSUI says no to Pathania as chief
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 22 — The campus unit of the NSUI in Government College, Sanjauli, here has refused to accept Kewal Singh Pathania as the union's new chief in Himachal Pradesh.

It has urged the Congress high command to reappoint Atul Sharma as the NSUI chief.