H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Hydel projects threat to Chamba’s ecology
CHAMBA, May 4 — Environmentalists of Chamba district have expressed grave concern over the threat to ecology caused by the hydro power projects as the river Ravi is becoming a dumping site for debris and silt of these projects.

Sukh Ram still supports BJP: Congress
SHIMLA, May 4 — A sitting MLA and general secretary of the PCC, Mr G.S. Bali, yesterday accused Mr Sukh Ram of continuing to support the ruling BJP because of his personal compulsions despite the humiliation being caused to him by the BJP leadership.

Come summer, forest fires follow
SHIMLA, May 4 — With the coming of summer and a drought-like situation in Himachal, fires have started breaking out in many forests. A fire broke out in the Longwood area of the town here on Tuesday evening taking toll of many green trees. Men of the Fire Brigade fought flames for many hours.

Reforms must for development, says expert
SHIMLA, May 4 — Dr Jagdish Shettigar, a renowned economist and member Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, today said yesterday that reforms and restructuring were essential to provide basic amenities to the deprived sections and accelerate the pace of development.

Kangra gets new exchanges
KANGRA: Five remote villages of Kangra and Chamba districts will be connected on a priority basis through the satellite and new telephone exchanges will be opened in the two districts this year.

A jinxed house ?
HAMIRPUR, May 4 — Is a police house located the Anu area of Hamirpur and official residence of the district police chief a jinxed one or a haunted one ? No police officer that came to reside here was able complete his three-year tenure and they have to leave the place in a huff.

Hydel projects threat to Chamba’s ecology
From Our Correspondent

CHAMBA, May 4 — Environmentalists of Chamba district have expressed grave concern over the threat to ecology caused by the hydro power projects as the river Ravi is becoming a dumping site for debris and silt of these projects.

An “environment meet” held at Chamba under the chairmanship of Mr H.C. Sharma, an environmentalist last evening opposed the setting up a cement plant in Chamba district which being an environment al hazard would play havoc with the greenery of the region. The meeting observed that these projects were causing landslips, soil erosion and degradation of environment enormously as the geological formation of the Chamba zone was quite fragile.

The meeting took serious note of the reckless illegal quarrying in Basu, Bakan and Samra hill slopes of Chamba district due to which dozens of villages were sinking and some of the residents evacuated their hamlets to safar places.

The meeting has drawn the attention of the government towards the rape of the river Ravi by commercial plunderers who are polluting the Ravi waters. The meeting underlined the need for the enactment of a clean water Act to ensure cleanliness of water like in other developed countries.

The meeting decried the Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board for taking no notice of the situation arising out of polluted environment and atmosphere. The meeting observed that the board had also failed to improve the present conditions of environment degradation in this region.

The meeting felt the need to stop the rape of historic Chowgan of Chamba as its precincts had been leased out to commercial use. The meeting demanded that the sewerage should be made compulsory to improve civic conditions of the town.

The meeting urged the state and central governments to directs the authorities concerned that to take preventive measures to save ecology of Chamba for preserving rich tourism potential, perennial source of employment as well as clean environment to the people.

Dr Kaven Qaul, Professor of anthropology of the Hendrix USA, who was also present on this occasion, underscored the need for eco and sustainable tourism on a small scale, construction of cluster houses and control of growth adding that the rape of the countryside should be stopped.

Sukh Ram still supports BJP: Congress
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, May 4 — A sitting MLA and general secretary of the PCC, Mr G.S. Bali, yesterday accused Mr Sukh Ram of continuing to support the ruling BJP because of his personal compulsions despite the humiliation being caused to him by the BJP leadership.

Mr Bali, who was talking to newsmen here, said that Mr Sukh Ram, whose HVC has been split by the BJP, cannot part company with the ruling party because of his personal compulsions.

He said that the HVC has become insignificant in the political scene following the split in the party between Mr Sukh Ram and the PWD Minister, Mr Mohinder Singh.

He denied that the Congress was trying to make way for return of Mr Sukh Ram in its fold. The second rung leadership of the HVC will be welcomed back in the Congress on individual merit. The Congress will consider the case of Mr Sukh Ram only after he applies in writing for being taken back.

Mr Bali alleged that indiscipline was growing among the ministers, Mr Ram Lal Markendey, a minister and loyalist of Mr Sukh Ram, has publicly accused Mr Dhumal of having broken the HVC which had brought him to power in the state. This clearly indicates that the HVC minister does not have confidence in Mr Dhumal.

He alleged that there was a virtual chaos in the functioning of the BJP-HVC combine government and corruption was rampant.

The forest and mining mafias have become active due to political patronage and were plundering the natural wealth of the state, he alleged.

Mr Bali accused the BJP of having forgotten its agenda of solving the Kashmir problem and the Ayodhya temple just to grab power.

The ruling coalition in the state was only burdening the poor by increasing prices of essential commodities and electricity tariff to which the Congress will not remain a mute spectator and would launch a statewide agitation.

He accused the Dhumal government of favouring a particular company for executing a number of power generation projects and also contemplating to award them lease for the lucrative limestone mining at Arki in Solan district.

Mr Bali warned that the Congress activists will gherao those officers who unnecessarily accompany ministers on tours thereby causing problems for the common people due to their absence from offices.

He demanded that the Chief Minister should create a consensus with the Opposition Congress on solving the acute financial crunch in the state. Government cheques were not being encashed by the treasuries.

Had Mr Dhumal been serious in solving the financial crisis, he would have cut the size of his ministry and also reduced the number of chairmen and vice-chairmen of various boards and corporations.

Come summer, forest fires follow
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, May 4 — With the coming of summer and a drought-like situation in Himachal, fires have started breaking out in many forests.

A fire broke out in the Longwood area of the town here on Tuesday evening taking toll of many green trees. Men of the Fire Brigade fought flames for many hours. Fires were also reported from near Jubbarhatti and Tuti Kandi.

This correspondent yesterday witnessed a large forest area near Hamirpur and Arki engulfed in fire. Hardly any efforts were made by the Forest officials to control these fires.

Reports said that smoke was coming out of some forests in the Kangra, Una and Chamba districts. One or two fire incidents have been reported in the Solan and Sirmaur districts.

However, a senior officer of the Forest Department claimed that the number of fires this time was fewer as compared to last year.

A big blaze was witnessed in the forest below the Taradevi temple near here last week.

Residents of most villages around the forest fire-prone areas have so far, ignored warnings of the officials that their rights in the forests would be suspended in case they did not undertake fire fighting operations in their respective areas.

Some of the Deputy Commissioners, have ordered the residents to remain vigilant on forest fires.

The incidence of forest fires has been increasing year by year. As many as 1966 incidents of forests fire were reported last year in which 41105.53 hectares of forest area was burnt up.

The number of forest in the summers of 1998-99 was 521 when 6902.82 hectares area was gutted.

Only 60 forest fires were reported in 1997-98 when 301.59 hectares area was affected.

According to official estimates, the last year’s forest fires caused financial loss more than Rs 3.23 crore, while the loss in the previous year was a little over Rs 47 lakh.

Although the number of forest fires was increasing, but the Forest Department has hardly constructed any inspection paths or jeepable roads in the past two years in the thickly-wooded areas of Shimla, Suket, Dharamshala, Palampur, Dalhousie and Karsog.

Reforms must for development, says expert
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, May 4 — Dr Jagdish Shettigar, a renowned economist and member Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, today said yesterday that reforms and restructuring were essential to provide basic amenities to the deprived sections and accelerate the pace of development.

Delivering a lecture on “economic reforms” organised here by the State Institute of Public Administration, he said it was very clear now that policies adopted over the past 50 years had failed to deliver. Despite spending thousands of crores of rupees poverty had not declined and still over 35 per cent people were below the poverty line. Besides, a vast majority of people was still denied the basic amenities like education, health,water and roads.

Worse, the financial position of the government was alarming with a huge chunk of its revenue going towards payment of interest on outstanding loans and there was no money for development. In the situation the government had no option but to go for reforms like reprioritising expenditure, rationalisation of subsidies on essential commodities to ensure that it reached the target groups, involving private sector in development. The issue now was how best the government could sell reform to the people.

He said the days of populist policies were over and people were not influenced by them anymore. Instead proper implementation of reforms could yield better dividends even in the electoral arena as already seen in Andhara Pradesh.

He cautioned that while going for reforms a balance had to be struck by focussing attention on the social sector to help the poor sections.

Referring to the state’s vast potential for development of hydel power and tourism, he said investor-friendly environment should be created to attract private investors.

Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, the Chief Minister, said that the Centre should help those states which were interested in adopting reforms in the larger interest of speedy development. It should also keep in view the geographical conditions of the states like Himachal Pradesh while formulating schemes and added that criteria of population sometimes put such states in a disadvantageous situation.

Kangra gets new exchanges
From Ashok Raina

KANGRA: Five remote villages of Kangra and Chamba districts will be connected on a priority basis through the satellite and new telephone exchanges will be opened in the two districts this year.

Chhota and Bara Bangal villages in Kangra district and Durgai, Garola and Gehra villages in Chamba district will be connected through the MCPC. Two such exchanges are already working in the Holi and Bharmour areas.

The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Mr Shanta Kumar, who disclosed this added that the capacity of the telephone exchanges in Kangra and Chamba districts would be increased by 17000 which wouldclear the backlog of 6600 phones. In Himachal Pradesh, 23,905 persons are on the waiting list.

Mr O.P. Sikka, General Manager, Telecommunications, says that at the Ashapuri telecom tower near Panchrukhi, a wireless in local loupe (WLL) facility is being provided for the first time in the history of DoT in Himachal Pradesh to provide telephone facilities to residents of surrounding 200 villages where the laying down of cables is not possible.

Kangra and Chamba districts have 129 telephone exchanges which include two MCPC exchanges. During the current year 280 villages in Chamba district and 400 villages in Kangra district will be provided with telephone facilities and the next year in Kangra district, 800 villages would be brought under this programme. He said in Kangra district of the 3620 villages, 1783 were already availing the telephone facility.

The telegraph transmission and window customer system at Palampur would also be modernised.

However, the long-pending demand for telecom centre with a junior telecom officer as in charge has not been conceded despite clear directions of then Communication Minister, Mr Sukh Ram, that a telecom centre be immediately opened in this town.

The Dharamsala exchange will be brought on the integral subscribers digital net (ISDN) which will prove helpful to mediapersons and businessmen in transmitting their data easily.

Four more railway crossings on the Pathankot-Baijnath line will be set up to avoid accidents. These crossings will be set up at Raja Ka Bagh, where 10 persons were recently killed and 30 injured, at Talara, Srajpur Jilka (Gangth) and Trehal (Rajarh). Kangra Queen will be reintroduced on the Pathankot-Palampur track within a week with reduced tariff and additional second class compartments. Earlier the train was withdrawn as it could not promote tourism in the Kangra valley.

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Fortyeight blood donors of the town were honoured by the Agriculture Minister, Mr Vidya Sagar, at a function organised by the Sewa Bharti here. On the occasion, 198 persons were also medically examined and provided treatment.

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Frequent power cuts in the town have put the people to great inconvenience. Mediapersons, people dealing with computers those in the electronic business and doctors are facing problems because of the cuts.

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Leakage in the pipes of the IPH Department in Kangra town has resulted in the wastage of thousands of litres of drinking water. The augmentation of the water distribution pipes is the need of the hour. Residents of Gupt Ganga and Jayanti Vihar localities have complained of as leakages from pipes. During the monsoon, sullage enters through these pipes into the water supply pipes which results in the outbreak of diseases. The IPH Department should properly plan the laying of the pipes.

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Sulabh International will construct four toilets costings Rs 10 lakh each at the old and new bus stands at Palampur, one each at Baijnath bus stand and near the GPO, Dalhousie. Four such toilets will be constructed at different bus stands in the district by HRTC Department.

A jinxed house ?
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, May 4 — Is a police house located the Anu area of Hamirpur and official residence of the district police chief a jinxed one or a haunted one ?

No police officer that came to reside here was able complete his three-year tenure and they have to leave the place in a huff.

The house construction work was got done by Mr Sita Ram Mardi. But before he could move to the house, he was shifted from here to Shimla.

It was Mr Jagjit Kumar Gupta, who occupied the house for the first time during the Congress regime. However, he could not remain there for about two years and had to leave due to his reported tiff with the then Education Minister, Prof Narain Chand Prashser. Mr Sanjeev Rahjan Ojha replaced Mr Kumar but he was also shifted from Hamirpur within a span of one year. Mr Rajinder Mohan Sharma also remained in this house for three months and shifted to IRB, Una.

Mr Ahmed Pyam Syddiqui then came as SP, Hamirpur, and occupied the house but he could not complete one-year term as he was sent to Kosovo on an UNO assignment.

HP to generate power worth Rs 1500 cr a year
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, May 4 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Himachal Chief Minister, has said that by 2010 Himachal Pradesh would generate 10000 MW of hydel power yielding Rs 1500 crore annual income to the state. He declared that the nominal hike in the power tariff would be withdrawn after some time when state would start getting adequate income from power generation. He said the government had planned to give free power to those below the poverty line on the completion of on going hydel projects. He said in a short period of two years work on projects with total installed capacity of 4500 MW had been started.

Mr Dhumal, who was addressing a public meeting at Jogindernagar this evening disclosed that Himachal had topped in the country in providing basic amenities to the people. Health, education and roads were the major priorities of the government and added the government had drawn up plan to link every village with the road in the next three years. “My government had given the top priority to rural development for the first time”, claimed Mr Dhumal.

He said Rs 8.40 crore would be spent on the education of the talented students of backward classes, other backward classes and Balmiki girls. One thousand students each of the above two categories would be selected on merit for Rs 10000 annual stipend for higher studies while the Balmiki girls irrespective of number would be given Rs 9000/- annually for their education. Similarly Thakur Sen Negi scholarship had been floated for tribal students who would be given Rs 11000 annually. Merit of outstanding students of other castes would also be prepared and 2000 of them would also be given scholarships for higher studies under the new scheme of the government.

Earlier the Chief Minister inaugurated Rs 1 crore building of Government Degree College Jogindernagar. He said the previous Congress government had allocated no funds for the building in four years of its rule except a Rs 40 lakh provided from the Centre by the then Minister of State for Planning, Mr Sukh Ram.

Mr Dhumal also inaugurated the Industrial Training Institute for Jogindernagar and laid the foundation stone of Rs 6 crore sewerage scheme. He also laid the foundation stone of Rs 2 crore 100-bed hospital building.

Thakur Gulab Singh, Speaker Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, said real development of Jogindernagar had started during the government of Mr Dhumal while in the past many years people of this town had been getting lip-sympathy only.

Health Minister, J.P. Nadda lamented that the health institutions in the state were in complete mess when the BJP-HVC government took over as many as 400 posts of doctor were vacant most of which had been filled by the government during its tenure. Mr I.D. Dhiman, Education Minister, Mansa Ram Food and Supplies Minister, Mr Ravinder Singh Technical Education Minister and state Yuva Morcha chief Mr Jai Ram Thakur MLA also spoke.

Jogindernagar wore festive look and thousands of people had converged to receive Mr Dhumal.

Ex-servicemen’s rally on May 27
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, May 4 — The station headquarters, Kasauli of the Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh sub-area of the Western Command of the Army would be organising an ex-servicemen’s rally at the Thodo Grounds here on May 27.

Station Commander, Brigadier J.K, Mohanty told reporters at Kasauli yesterday that there were 2173 ex-servicemen, including 47 officers and 272 junior commissioned officers in this district. The main purpose of the proposed rally would be to educate these ex-servicemen about various welfare measures instituted by the government for their benefit, and also to honour war widows and freedom fighters.

Every effort would be made to remind the families of ex-servicemen especially of those who laid down their lives for the sake of the country that the Army and the country had not forgotten them.

Brigadier Mohanty said that special arrangement would be made to provide free transport to ex-servicemen residing in far-flung areas. Meals would be provided free of cost to all those attending the rally.

He said that a special attraction of the rally would be a counter of the Canteen Stores Department and exhibition and some fun and frolic stalls to be put up by various government departments.

A grievance cell would be set up at the venue of the rally to provide on-the-spot hearing of the ex-servicemen’s grievances, if any.

Ex-servicemen desirous of obtaining any information concerning the rally can contact Army’s Kasauli Telephone Numbers 72091, 72092 and 72484.