P R A D E S H
Friday, March 19, 1999
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H I M A C H A L P R A D E S H |
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Friday, March 19, 1999 |
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Over 9,000 forest
encroachments |
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Rohtang Pass reopened SHIMLA, March 18 — Rohtang Pass has been reopened for pedestrians after remaining suspended for two months due to heavy snowfall in the area, Deputy Commissioner of Lahaul-Spiti T.D. Negi said at Keylong yesterday. CPM to
raise Nathpa-Jhakri issue Cancellation
of paper sought Vidyarthi
joins Congress |
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Over 9,000 forest encroachments SHIMLA: There has been an alarming increase in encroachments in Himachal Pradesh forests over the past few years. While forest settlement operations started more than a decade ago to end discrepancies in the forest area in records of the Forest Department and the Revenue Department, are progressing at snail's pace, cases of encroachments are rising steadily. As per a recent report of the department, the number of encroachments had crossed the 9,000-mark. In all, over 18,000 hectares of forest land had been encroached upon. Even reserved forests have been encroached upon and there have been about 1,250 cases, involving about 600 hectares of forest. Besides, over 1680 cases of encroachments in demarcated protected forests have also been detected. The maximum number — over 6500 encroachments — are in undemarcated protected forests, involving an area of about 17,000 hectares. Though cases detected by the department are a modest figure, the actual number is much higher, officials point out. The department has not been taking any action to remove the encroachments as it could have a serious political fallout. Eviction orders had been secured only in about 30 cases. The main reason for the failure of the department to check encroachments is the wide discrepancy in the land record maintained by it and that of the Revenue Department. Out of the total 55,673 km of geographical area of the state, forests account for 21,324 sq km, which comes to 38.3 per cent. Of this, only 9,876 sq km (18 per cent) is under reserved and demarcated protected forests. The remaining 11,447 sq km constitutes undemarcated protected forest area, which is neither measured nor entered in the revenue record. In order to remove discrepancies in the forest and revenue records, the government decided to survey the undemarcated protected forest areas, only 7.5 lakh hectares of undemarcated forest areas could be measured and demarcated. A sum of Rs 6.5 crore was sanctioned to complete the job by 1992-93. However, till now not even 25 per cent of the work had been completed. The main reason has been the failure of the government to provide requisite staff. While the department required 300 patwaris. 20, tehsildars and about 40 kanungos for the purpose, not even 15 per cent of the staff was provided all these years. Later even the sanctioned staff was reduced. At present, three field units are working in Kulu, Nahan and Palampur with a skeletal staff. Out of the three posts of Collectors, only one has been filled at Kulu. The units at Palampur and Nahan are without Collectors. Similarly in one tehsil, Dar, there are only three patwaris. In such a situation, settlement operations may not be completed even by the end of the 21st century, a senior officer observes. There have been cases where townships have come up on forest land. About two-thirds of Nankheri town in Rampur division has come up on forest land. The department, instead of taking action on its own, proposed to set up a joint team comprising revenue, forest and police officials. As expected, even after several months the team has not been constituted. The officers of the
department point out that checking encroachments would
not be possible until the government demonstrates
political will and takes stringent actions against
offenders. |
Cong men lash out at BJP govts HAMIRPUR, March 18 — BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Himachal Pradesh are the most incompetent regimes and will be out of power after the current session of Parliament. These observations wee made by various Congress leaders at a rally which was organised by the Hamirpur mandal unit of the party here today. Prominent among those who addressed the rally were Mr Sat Mahajan, State Congress chief, Mr Vijay Singh Mankotia and Mr Narain Chand-Prasher, both ex-ministers, Mr Kaul Singh, general secretary of the state unit of the party, Mr Vikram Katoch, Mrs Anita Verma, the organiser of the rally, Mr Suresh Kumar, DCC chief, and a number of other local leaders. The speakers said the present government was the most inefficient and incompetent one the people had seen since Independence. They alleged that prices had skyrocketed any the law and order situation had worsened. They said the government had lost faith in the people and must be sacked. Mrs Sat Mahajan said the days of the present government were numbered and a new government led by the Congress would be installed in the state soon. He said the BJP was not in a position to rule as it lacked political will and administrative experience. He blasted the Chief
Minister for increasing the power tariff through the
backdoor. |
CPM to raise Nathpa-Jhakri issue SHIMLA, March 18 — The CPM will draw the attention of the government towards the situation created due to the indefinite strike by workers at the Nathpa Jhakri project by raising the issue during zero hour in the Parliament. Stating this here yesterday Mr Vasudev Acharya, chairman of the Subcommittee of Parliament on Energy, said that it was shocking that the government had made no effort to talk to workers and end the strike which would delaying the commissioning of project and cause huge losses to the state exchequer. He said the workers were agitating for the enforcement of the violation of contract labour abolition and regulation act as per which the contract workers were to be given the same wages as permanent workers. It was the responsibility of the Labour Department to enforce the act but it was surprising that no effort had been made in this direction. He said declaration of strike as illegal was wrong as the workers had given proper notice and the fact that almost 90 per cent of them were on strike indicated that CITU supported factions was the true representative. Mr Acharya said a
parliamentary sub-committee would visit the project and
the issue would also be discussed during its forthcoming
meeting on April 5 and 6. He criticised the government
for banning the rally and said it amounted suppressing
the democratic rights. |
Govt land files vanish SHIMLA, March 18 — Files pertaining to valuable government land at at least 15 places in Kulu, Mandi, Solan and Kangra districts have suddenly disappeared from the secretariat here. It is learnt that these files related to about 130 bighas of prime land. The land reportedly belongs to the Rehabilitation Department. Sources said that some of the files pertained to allotment of land as far back as 1974. In some cases the original allottees are learnt to have sold the government land to others. Some time ago a couple of
files pertaining to purchase of land by outsiders at
various places in Solan district had also vanished. |
Cancellation of paper sought SHIMLA, March 18 — Mr B.R. Kaundal, Subdivisional Magistrate, Chopal has recommended the cancellation of the matric science paper at the Thiroch Senior Secondary School examination centre following detection of mass copying during a raid yesterday. He has also recommended action against superintendent, deputy superintendent and two invigilators of the centre who had been booked under the Prevention of Copying and other Malpractices in Examination Act. The flying squad also raided the examination centre at Nerwa and detected 10 cases of unfair means.
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Vidyarthi joins Congress SHIMLA, March 18 — Mr A.N. Vidyarthi, a former Chief Secretary, today joined the Congress. Mr Virbhadra Singh, leader of the Legislature Congress Party, was present at the PCC headquarters when Mr Vidyarthi joined the party. Mr Vidyarthi expressed faith in the leadership of Mr Sonia Gandhi. He said the party alone could uphold the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy. Mr A.N. Bazwaria,
permanent secretary of the PCC, said that Mr Vidyarthi
would be an asset to the party. |
Contractors steal stones: BJP BILASPUR, March 18 — Mr Prem Singh Thakur, Vice-President, of the Kot Kehloor BJP unit, has pointed out large-scale theft of stones from government walls on National Highway 21 particularly near Gambhrolla near here by certain unscrupulous contractors. He urged the state PWD Minister, Mr Mohinder Singh Thakur, to order an inquiry into incident and take action against erring contractors and officials involved. In a representation to the Himachal PWD and Excise and Taxation Minister, Mr Thakur has said that these contractors were carrying away these stones for their works. He alleged that these
activities were being patronised by certain officers of
the department. |
Rohtang Pass reopened SHIMLA, March 18 (PTI) — Rohtang Pass has been reopened for pedestrians after remaining suspended for two months due to heavy snowfall in the area, Deputy Commissioner of Lahaul-Spiti T.D. Negi said at Keylong yesterday. He asked all pedestrians to get themselves registered at the rescue posts of Koksar and Mari, where rescue teams were deployed yesterday, before crossing the pass. Mr Negi advised the
pedestrians not to attempt crossing the pass during bad
weather in view of the risk of avalanches in the area. |
Proclaimed offender arrested HAMIRPUR, March 18 — The police has apprehended two youths of Batran village of district, namely Rajesh Kumar and Ashok Kumar, for allegedly committing a major dacoity in Mumbai and a murder in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The photograph of Rajesh Kumar, a proclaimed offender, was also shown on "India's Most Wanted" on Zee TV. This was claimed here yesterday by the district police chief, Mr R.M. Sharma, while talking to reporters. He said they were being interrogated in the murder case of a patwari of the Nadaun area. Rajesh Kumar carried a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head. He said the Saharanpur
police had been informed about the arrest of the accused
and a police party from there has left for Hamirpur to
take the accused in custody.
60 students caught copying BILASPUR, March 18 —
The flying squads which have been active here in the
district during the past seven days to curb copying in
board examination caught as many as 60 students
red-handed and have referred their cases to the Himachal
Pradesh School Education Board for action. The squads led
by the District Education Officer, Mr Om Prakash Sharma,
detected 45 copying cases while another squad led by the
Additional District Magistrate, Mr RD Panwar detected 15
copying cases in the district. |
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