Leopard skins seized
SHIMLA, Nov 9 — Officials of the Forest Department seized two leopard skins from a resident of Chamba yesterday.

Plea to appoint regular staff
SHIMLA, Nov 9 — A member of the executive council of Himachal Pradesh University, Mr Subhash Puri, has urged the Chancellor to appoint regular teaching and non-teaching staff for the College of Business Studies which was functioning without any faculty of its own for the past three years.

Dr Pramod Sharma
SHIMLA, Nov 9 — Dr Pramod Sharma has been appointed president of the INTUC Young Workers Council.

News analysis
Dhumal’s policy worries HVC, Cong
From S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 9 — The Chief Minister Prof P.K. Dhumal’s policy of compromise is worrying his party’s alliance partner, the Himachal Vikas Congress(HVC) and the opposition Congress party.

Mr Dhumal has succeeded in consolidating his position because of his policy of appeasement during the past 19 months when he came to power and on the other hand the HVC and the Congress are the losers.

He has also mended fences with Mr Shanta Kumar, a top BJP leader who has become a minister at the Centre.

The rank and file of the Congress in particular is completely demoralised due to successive defeats and groupism among leaders.

The Congress leadership is worried over the fact that many of their partymen were in touch with Mr Dhumal. Certain senior Congressmen fear the party would be further weakened if Mr Dhumal continued to "lure" their party workers and completed his term.

Mr Dhumal was reportedly maintaining cordial relations with several senior Congress leaders who have hardly criticised any decision of the government, including the electricity tariff hike and bus fare hike. The issue of "close" relations of these leaders with Mr Dhumal recently came up at a meeting of the Congress party in presence of Mr R.K. Dhawan, General Secretary of the AICC, in charge of Himachal Pradesh.

The proximity of these leaders with Mr Dhumal and the BJP was also one of the reasons for demoralisation in the Congress rank and file.

The ordinary Congressmen point out that instead of organising protests against the power tariff hike, the PCC chief, Mr Sat Mahajan, issued a three-month notice to the government for withdrawing the hike. The issue subsided by the time Mr Mahajan’s ultimatum expired.

They also point out that a senior leader of the Congress toured interior areas of Shimla district with Mr Dhumal and also shared the BJP platform to criticise the CLP leader and the former Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh.

All this has further widened differences among the senior Congress leaders. Certain party leaders, including a woman activist claiming proximity with Mrs Sonia Gandhi, are making efforts to grab leadership of the party although they have hardly any roots in the state.

Many of the Congress leaders who supported Mr Sukh Ram during the trial of strength for chief ministership in 1993 have not yet sunk their differences. They were not satisfied with the functioning of Mr Virbhadra Singh. These leaders have occasionally been pleading for return of Mr Sukh Ram to the Congress.

The HVC chief, Mr Sukh Ram, with whose support in the Assembly Mr Dhumal came to power, is also apparently unhappy with the developments taking place in his party.

The widening differences between Mr Mohinder Singh, PWD Minister and Mr Sukh Ram and the former’s closeness with Mr Dhumal was causing concern to the HVC leadership.

Two other ministers Mr Mansa Ram and Mr Prakash Chaudhary, who won the election on the HVC symbol and later were made to go to the BJP, have been defying Mr Sukh Ram’s directives. Mr Mansa Ram recently clarified that both of them were a part and parcel of the BJP and Mr Dhumal was their leader.

The HVC leaders were apparently suspecting that Mr Dhumal was trying to break their party. Mr Sukh Ram reportedly expressed this apprehension recently at a public function in the presence of Mr Dhumal.

However, both Mr Dhumal and Mr Sukh Ram have said their alliance would continue here.

In the meantime, Mr Mohinder Singh has virtually become the power centre in the HVC and most of the youth in particular have started rallying around him.

With the induction of Mr Shanta Kumar in the Union ministry another centre of power has been created in the BJP.

Legal Service Day observed
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Nov 9 — The district legal service authority here observed Legal Service Day and held legal literacy camp today on the court premises. Mr O.P. Sharma, District and Sessions Judge, presided over the function. Mr J.S. Mahantan, Senior Sub-Judge, and Mr K.S. Chandel also attended the function.

In his address, Mr Sharma stressed on advocates to avail of the opportunity of the present provisions of the law to adhere to the old traditions of deciding matters amicably through compromise. He said the provisions of the Legal Services Act and rules had been incorporated in order to ensure that no person should be deprived from getting justice on account of his poverty and illiteracy.

Mr Chandel, member secretary of the district authority, explained the provisions of the Act and rules. He said so far aid had been provided to 55 persons this year. He also explained that persons having income up to Rs 25,000 per annum could avail of this opportunity by writing a simple application to the authority. However, the fiscal implications would not be applicable to Dalits, he added.

Preparing for eco-tourism
From Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 9 — After successfully introducing the exotic winter sport of Heliskiing, Himachal, is all set to exploit the scenic charm of snow-clad Himalayas to boost tourism by arranging regular helicopter flights for aerial sight seeing.

The once-a-week flight will operate on every Sunday from November 21 onwards. It will be for the first time that such tourism flights will be organised in the country.

Planned on the pattern of aerial flights organised in Nepal to provide a closer view of the worlds' highest mountain the Mount Everest, the flight being conducted by the State Tourism Development Corporation will focus on 21000 feet high Mount Kinner Kailash, which has great religious significance. The flight has been aptly named as "Kinnar Kailash Parikarma".

It will take off from here in the morning and take the tourists over the tribal Kinnaur, close to the Chinese border and after a "parikarma" of the Kinnar Kailash touch down at Sarhan for an hour-long halt and lunch. The flight will return to the base here in the afternoon.

The corporation will use the 18 seater state-leased helicopter for the purpose. The fare will be Rs 4000 per seat inclusive of lunch. The government has granted permission to the corporation to operate two flights every week. However, the corporation to start with will operate only one flight. The frequency will be increased, if the response is good, says Mr P.C. Kapoor, Managing Director of the corporation.

This scheme is part of the government's effort to shift the focus from the hotel based commercial tourism to nature-based eco-tourism. The tourism boom in the wake of outbreak of militancy in Kashmir had provided much needed boost to the hotel industry in the state over the past one decade. However, in the process, the main tourist stations like Shimla, Manali and Dharamsala lost much of their scenic due to mushrooming of concrete structures.

Belatedly though, the state has realised that haphazard growth of tourism industry could prove disastrous in the long run and decided to explore new eco-friendly ways to boost tourism. Besides aerial flights, plans are afoot to organise activities like "herbal treks" to enable visitors to have a close interaction with the nature.

According to Mr Balram Sharma, Director of Tourism, there are plans to set up health resorts, nature cure centres and ayurvedic treatment centres with the help of the private sector to exploit the state's vast resources of herbs, medicinal plants, hot sulphur springs and salubrious ozone-rich air.

The State Tourism Corporation has come out with a unique "Himalayan herbal package" trek to acquaint tourists with medicinal plants and create awareness about the depleting bio-resources. The package has been planned in collaboration with the State Institute of Research in Indian Medicine, Jogindernagar.

The seven day trek commences with a visit to the institute's herbal garden and then to high mountains of the Chhota Bhengal valley, the treasure house of medicinal and aromatic plants. The experts of the institute will accompany the tourists and provide them information about the flora, particularly the medicinal use of plants. The tourists will be taken in groups of 30 and provided tented accommodation and boarding facility en route at a cost of Rs 4000 per person.

The corporation plans to convert its tourist complex at Jogindernagar into a "herbal camp" to serve as the base for such treks. Similar treks to acquaint visitors with the aquatic life, particularly the fisheries, are also being planned. Besides promoting adventure sport like paragliding, hang-gliding and heliskiing the government also plans to popularise golf and water sports on commercial scale.

S.K. Rajput expelled from Shiv Sena
From Our Correspondent

KANGRA, Nov 9 — The State Shiv Sena chief, Dr Gulshan Kumar, yesterday expelled Mr Surender Kumar Rajput of Shimla from the party for his alleged anti-party activities.

Dr Gulshan Kumar in a press statement issued here yesterday said Mr Rajput had violated the directives of the party headquarters during the poll and even issued press statements which were deterimental to the party's interest in the state. He said Mr Satish Pradan, MP, had directed him on phone from Mumbai to expel Mr Surinder Rajput.

Leopard skins seized
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 9 — Officials of the Forest Department seized two leopard skins from a resident of Chamba yesterday.

According to Mr Joginder Singh, Chief Wildlife Warden, the skins were recovered on a tip-off from a local wildlife lover. The Divisional Forest Officer laid a trap and sent a decoy customer to the alleged smuggler for purchasing the skins.

He said the leopards were killed in Salooni and Tisa about two years ago. Further investigations could expose the racket involved in illegal trade of wildlife trophies.

Plea to appoint regular staff
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 9 — A member of the executive council of Himachal Pradesh University, Mr Subhash Puri, has urged the Chancellor to appoint regular teaching and non-teaching staff for the College of Business Studies which was functioning without any faculty of its own for the past three years.

Mr Puri yesterday demanded that proper faculty should be constituted for running the college of the HPU here. He regretted that the finance committee of the university has deferred sanctioning of posts of 12 staff members, including three lecturers each for the BBA and BCA courses.

Mr Puri expressed concern over the sad state of affairs in the only professional college of the university although lakhs of rupees were being charged from the NRI students.

He pointed out that 20 seats were reserved for NRI students in the BBA course for which 40 seats were in the open category and 20 each were earmarked for the open and NRI categories in the BCA course.

Dr Pramod Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 9 — Dr Pramod Sharma has been appointed president of the INTUC Young Workers Council.

This was announced here today by Mrs Kanta Sood, president of INTUC.