Artificial lakes threat to key road
SHIMLA, Sept 30 — Two artificial lakes, created due to melting of glaciers, are threatening the strategically important Thirot-Killar-Sansari road of the Border Roads Organisation in the tribal area of Pangi which will connect the terrorist-infested Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir with Himachal Pradesh.

Mandi Shimla Solan

High taxes ‘hurdle’ in promoting tourism
SHIMLA, Sept 30 — Poor and inadequate transport facilities, unreasonably high taxes and rampant corruption are the main hurdles in promoting tourism in the country, particularly in a far-off state like Himachal Pradesh, says Mr Praveen Bhai, Chairman of the Mumbai Travel Trade Association.

Providential escape for bus passengers
MANDI, Sept 30 — About 20 persons travelling in the Manali bound bus of Haryana Roadways had providential escape when the bus rolled back and fell into the Beas at Hanogi temple near Aut around 6 p.m. today.

Life term for triple murder
SHIMLA, Sept 30 — Amar Bahadur, a Gorkha, was today sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of having committed a triple murder at Giri-Ganga in the Jubbal area of Shimla district.

Artificial lakes threat to key road
From S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 30 — Two artificial lakes, created due to melting of glaciers, are threatening the strategically important Thirot-Killar-Sansari road of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in the tribal area of Pangi which will connect the terrorist-infested Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir with Himachal Pradesh.

This road will also provide an alternative road link with the Kishtwar and Doda areas of J and K.

A bridge between Udaipur and Killar has already been washed away due to triggering of one of the these lakes.

Top officers of the BRO which is constructing the 110 km road, recently conducted an aerial survey of the area and are learnt to have found that another artificial lake has been formed on the hill top in the same area.

The creation of artificial lakes due to melting of glaciers has alarmed officers of the project Deepak of the BRO and they were taking steps to Trigger safely the water out so that the sudden bursting of the hill feature would not damage the road any further.

Brigadier B.M. Bakshi, Chief Engineer of Project Deepak, told TNS here that a causeway had been constructed to enable movement of vehicles at the place where the bridge had been washed away.

He was confident that the road would be completed up to the J and K border within the targetted period of March 31 next year.

The Director-General of BRO Lieut Gen. R.J. Mordecai, inspected the works on the road and is learnt to have ordered the project Deepak to keep the Manali-Leh road open at least till December to enable the military to carry its winter supplies to the Leh and Kargil areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The road is normally closed by October 10 due to snow.

The normal supplies to the Ladakh area were affected this time because of the Indo-Pakistan conflict in Kargil. So the road has to be kept open for a longer period to enable the Army to carry its rations and other supplies.

Brigadier Bakshi said work on the bridge at Tandi, from where the Sansari Road takes off beyond Rohtang Pass, had almost been completed.

The road is expected to provide greater mobility to the security forces to tackle the militants in the Kishtwar and Doda areas. The road has also opened the landlocked area of Pangi in Chamba district.

Terrorists have been striking in Kishtwar and also the bordering areas of the Chamba district.

High taxes ‘hurdle’ in promoting tourism
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 30 — Poor and inadequate transport facilities, unreasonably high taxes and rampant corruption are the main hurdles in promoting tourism in the country, particularly in a far-off state like Himachal Pradesh, says Mr Praveen Bhai, Chairman of the Mumbai Travel Trade Association.

While most tourism destinations did not have proper train and air services, travel by road was not only inconvenient but also expensive because of irrational taxes and corruption. Mr Praveen Bhai is touring the state along with a group of leading tour operators from Maharashtra to work out a plan to boost tourism traffic with the assistance of the Himachal Hotel Association.

He said here today there was neither any direct train service from Mumbai to Kalka nor any flight to Chandigarh. These were absolutely essential for providing a convenient mode of travel to people for touring Himachal. As a result, tourists from the western and southern part of the country had to undertake an arduous bus journey from Delhi which was not a pleasant experience as at every inter-state barrier en route unreasonably high taxes and bribes had to be paid. On an average, an operator had to shell out about Rs 20,000 per bus trip as tax and bribe.

To make thing worse, the government had imposed heavy taxes on airconditioned luxury coaches which cost anything between Rs 16 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per bus. All this made travel costly for the tourists and conducting tours unremunerative for operators. These coaches were a necessity in a hot country with excessive pollution but the government considered it a luxury.

The plea of the travel trade association to the Centre to provide a national permit for tourist buses so that they were not forced to pay taxes passing through every state and fallen on deaf ears.

As far as travel by train was concerned, seats were available only through touts despite the introduction of computerised booking.

Once you reach the state local taxi operators at places like Kalka, Shimla and Manali did not allow the tourists to use their buses and cars for local sightseeing and forced them to hire taxis at exorbitantly high rates. Besides, the bad condition of roads also caused much inconvenience to tourists.

Mr Praveen Bhai observed that the hill state had very good hotels which compared well with those in Europe but its lack of accessibility came in the way of tourism promotion. He said tourist trade was flourishing in Switzerland as travel and hotel tariffs were much lower that the rest of Europe.

Mr Jaffer, secretary of the association, lamented that the government was just concerned about foreign tourists and least concerned about domestic tourism as a result of which this important industry was facing problems. He suggested that Himachal could attract tourists during lean seasons by organising apple festival and other activities.

3 tantriks in police dragnet
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, Sept 30 —They had come here to ward off evil spirits hounding prospective clients but somehow failed to shake off the dragnet cast by the local police.

Three persons, later identified as Shamshad Malik, alias Som Malik, Mahmood Khan and Khalid, all residents of Meerut, checked into a local hotel some days back and had been issuing handbills claiming to be in possession of powers to relieve persons afflicted with "bhoot pret", finish off one’s enemies and enable issueless couples to bear children among a host of other problems.

Shamshad Malik who donned the garbs of the traditional ‘tantrik’ had assumed the role of "baba" while the two accomplices proclaimed themselves as his disciples. The "baba" was made to sit in a darkened room with a zero watt bulb positioned give the illusion of some supernatural light radiating from the baba's face. The room was also filled with the aroma of ‘dhoop’ which heightened the sense of mystery.

The hotel receptionist was roped in to act as the tantrik trio’s receptionist as well. He was provided with regular visitors’ slips which had been printed in the form of a formal receipt. The receptionist charged Rs 51 as the consultation fee. Clients were allowed to meet "baba" only after payment of the fee.

The "baba" himself charged various amounts ranging from a few rupees to those running in thousands for solving the clients’ problems.

It was curtains when a police decoy went in for consultations and the "baba" prescribed his usual costly prescription.

Soon after, a police party headed by Additional SP Sundar Lal raided the hotel premises and arrested the three conmen on charges of suspected criminal activities.

The SP, Mr Rakesh Aggarwal, said a pair of gold earrings, a gold chain and a gold ring, were recovered from the arrested persons along with Rs 8,200 in cash and some fake identity cards. Press cuttings relating to similar crimes committed elsewhere were also recovered. The later pointed to their possible connection with an organised gang. Investigations were going on at the time of filing this report.

Country liquor seized
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, Sept 30 — The Arki police seized 584 pouches of country liquor valued at Rs 47,000 from a Maruti car during a nakabandi near Gumber Bridge under Arki police station, about 35 km from here, today. Chander Mohan of Kakkar Hatti, Subathu, and Hari Singh of Kalaun, Subathu, were arrested on the spot in this connection.

In a similar operation, the Dharampur police seized 1,100 pouches of country liquor valued at Rs 35,000 from a Maruti van near Kumar Hatti, about 9 km from here, yesterday. Sanjeev Kumar and Sandeep Kumar, of both from Chandigarh, were taken into custody under the Excise Act, according to Superintendent of Police Rakesh Aggarwal.

Providential escape for bus passengers
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, Sept 30 — About 20 persons travelling in the Manali bound bus of Haryana Roadways had providential escape when the bus rolled back and fell into the Beas at Hanogi temple near Aut around 6 p.m. today.

An eyewitness Manohar Lal, who was distributing 'prasad' in the bus when it stopped near the temple, told this reporter that he and many passengers jumped out of the bus when it suddenly started rolling back on the steep road. "The bus (HR-37-1582) is still inside the river.

It could not be confirmed whether all the occupants had jumped out of the bus when it fell into the river. The driver, the conductor and passengers had left for the Aut police post when this report was sent.

Life term for triple murder
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 30 — Amar Bahadur, a Gorkha, was today sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of having committed a triple murder at Giri-Ganga in the Jubbal area of Shimla district.

The judgement was passed by Mr Dharam Chand Chaudhary, Additional Sessions Judge, Shimla.

The Gorkha, who was a domestic servant, axed to death one Bhag Chand, his wife Lali and son Kapil Dev, on the night of May 30 last year with the intention of stealing cash and valuables from their house.

His accomplice Prem Bahadur had absconded.

The judge also ordered Amar Singh to pay a fine of Rs 2000 for causing injury to the lone survivor of the family, Arjun Singh, seven.