H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Karmapa controversy resurfaces
DHARAMSALA, July 25 — The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has turned down the idea floated by a regent, Shamarpa Rimpoche, of having two Karmapas — one in India and the other in Tibet — as heads of the Karma Kagyu sect, simultaneously.

Shifting of ‘Rozy’ opposed
SHIMLA, July 25 — The wildlife authorities have decided to ask the Central Zoo Authority to review its decision to shift the two-year-old rare snow leopard, “Rozy”, from here to Darjeeling zoo where 14 snow leopards have died.

Dictionary of Indian culture soon
SHIMLA, July 25 — Belated though, the ambitious project of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study to compile a “dictionary of the Indian culture” has finally taken off.

ICAR award for Shimla researchers
SHIMLA, July 25 — A team of scientists of the Central Potato Research Institute here has been conferred an award for outstanding research in the field of horticulture by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Notices issued to DC, civic body chief
SHIMLA, July 25 — A Division Bench of the High Court consisting of the Chief Justice C.K. Thakkar and Justice R.L. Khurana today issued notices to the Chief Secretary of the state, Deputy Commissioner and Municipal Commissioner, Shimla, on a public interest petition seeking direction for the construction of a pedestrian overbridge from the premises of St Edward’s School here and further directions to regulate the traffic outside the school.

An unhealthy health centre
BADDI July 25 — The primary health centre here is expected to provide immunisation to children and family planning services to the adults of about six adjoining villages, besides the industrial area of Baddi.

Nalagarh-Ropar road still closed
DHANGNIHLI (Nalagarh) July 25 — The collapse of the 104-year old bridge on the Sirsa river on the Nalagarh-Ropar road in the recent heavy rain has become a public hazard. The road remains closed to traffic. Commuters from the Ropar and the Nalagarh areas are put to great inconvenience as no bus service is available at present.

Tearful adieu to Sierra Leone martyr
HAMIRPUR, July 25 — Mortal remains of Havildar Krishan Kumar of 14 Mec who was killed in a rocket launcher attack in Sierra Leone in Africa last week were consigned to flames at his native Barara village yesterday evening with full state honours.

Panel to monitor plan for Kargil martyrs’ kin
SHIMLA, July 25 — The Himachal Government has constituted a state-level committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to monitor the progress of the special scheme introduced by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for the allotment of petrol pumps and gas agencies to the dependants of the defence personnel who made the supreme sacrifice during the Kargil conflict.

Dagshai link road damaged
KUMARHATTI, July 25 — The Kumarhatti-Dagshai link road which was metalled by the Military Engineering Service (MES) two months ago has been completely damaged as, it is alleged, sub-standard material was used.

Human rights panel contradicts report
CHANDIGARH, July 25 — The Himachal Pradesh Human Rights Commission has contradicted a news report published in our issue of July 16 under the heading “A father’s quest for justice”.

Panchayat poll : BJP to hold conferences
SHIMLA, July 25 — The state unit of the BJP will organise conferences in each Assembly constituency to mobilise partymen for the ensuing panchayat and municipal poll.

Threat to scribe condemned
SHIMLA, July 25 — The Shimla Press Club has condemned the threat to Mr Ajay Srivastav, a senior journalist, allegedly by certain influential persons whom he had exposed in his write ups.

• Admission date extended

• Man kills father

• Clarification
  

Collapse of bridges: HP orders probe

SHIMLA, July 25 (PTI) — The Himachal Government today ordered a high-level inquiry into the collapse of two vital bridges in the state during the current monsoon.

The Additional Chief Secretary, Mr Harsh Gupta, will hold the inquiry and submit his report within a month.

The inquiry has been ordered in the wake of apprehension expressed in various quarters that whether the designing and execution of these bridges at Sataun on Giri Khud in Sirmaur district and the Manglar Khud on the Hindustan-Tibet national highway was done in a proper manner.

The inquiry officer will investigate if the designing of the bridges was proper, the material used was of standard quality and conformed to specifications, whether lack of supervision by any departmental officer or contractor was responsible for the washing away of the bridges. He will also look into any other matter relevant to inquiry.

Karmapa controversy resurfaces
From Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, July 25 — The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has turned down the idea floated by a regent, Shamarpa Rimpoche, of having two Karmapas — one in India and the other in Tibet — as heads of the Karma Kagyu sect, simultaneously.

In a bid to settle the controversy over the “genuine” Karmapa, one of the four regents of the sect, Shamarpa Rimpoche, met the Dalai Lama in the USA with the suggestion. Shamarpa Rimpoche has all along been opposed to the selection of Ogyen Trinley Dorjee as the head of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

With the Tibetan government-in-exile pleading the case of the 15-year-old Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, for being allowed to go to the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, the row within the Karma Kagyu sect over the real Karmapa has resurfaced.

Shamarpa Rimpoche, in his meeting with the Dalai Lama on June 20 in Washington, had pleaded that the Karmapa controversy needed to be settled as it had not only caused dissensions within the sect but had caused confusion in the outside world making the position of the Indian Government difficult.

In his letter handed over to the Dalai Lama, Shamarpa said, “Previously you have stated that there can be more than one Karmapa. I accept this position and accordingly ask you to publicly accept both Ogyen Trinley and Thaye Dorje as Karmapas.” He suggested that Ogyen Trinley Dorjee was installed at the Tsurphu monastery in Tibet, so he should continue to be the legitimate Karmapa in Tibet.

“Thaye Dorje will forever renounce any right to this seat in Tibet. In return, I propose that he be publicly supported by you as the Karmapa for India and head of the monasteries there, including Rumtek,” Shamarpa Rimpoche said. He urged the Dalai Lama to see the wisdom of the compromise and accept it.

In reply to the suggestion made by Shamarpa, the Dalai Lama is learnt to have conveyed to him that there can be only one Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley, who is recognised by him. While accepting that he did mention about the possibility of having two incarnations of the Karmapa, just as there have been in some cases, including one with five emanations, the Dalai Lama said that when asked to produce evidence in support of his choice, Thaye Dorje, he had failed to do so.

The letter written by the Dalai Lama’s office to Shamarpa on July 14 states that the approval for selecting Ogyen Trinley as the Karmapa was given not only on the basis of the prediction letter and other information presented to him but also on the indications the Dalai Lama himself had.

The Dalai Lama has asked Shamarpa not to rake up the Rumtek monastery controversy and complicate matters. He explained that since the Tsurkhu monastery was the original seat of the 16th Karmapa, who himself established the Rumtek monastery when he was in exile, there was no question of it not being the seat of the 17th Karmapa who was now in exile.

In his letter addressed to the Dalai Lama, Shamarpa has even questioned the authority of the Dalai Lama in selecting the Karmapa. “Your consent does not amount to recognition of Ogyen Trinley as the genuine Karmapa according to the Karma Kagyu tradition,” he said.

It is reliably learnt that the Dalai Lama has written to the Indian Prime Minister, Home Minister and the External Affairs Minister to take an early decision on the status of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, as the inordinate delay was encouraging certain people to rake up the controversy unnecessarily.

Shifting of ‘Rozy’ opposed
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 25 — The wildlife authorities have decided to ask the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) to review its decision to shift the two-year-old rare snow leopard, “Rozy”, from here to Darjeeling zoo where 14 snow leopards have died.

A senior wildlife officer told TNS here yesterday that it was being pointed out to the CZA that a snow leopard had died at Darjeeling shortly after being shifted there from Kashmir.

The wildlife officials were worried that “Rozy” might catch infection at Darjeeling where most of the snow leopards were reportedly suffering from inbreeding problems.

They suggested to the CZA to provide a mate for “Rozy” by transferring a male snow leopard here from Darjeeling zoo as favourable conditions had been created in Kufri zoo near here by constructing a bigger enclosure which was sufficient for a pair.

The secretary of the CZA had recently visited here and examined “Rozy” and also the new enclosure where she is proposed to be shifted after the rains.

The CZA had recently decided to transfer a pair of snow leopard here from Darjeeling in exchange for “Rozy”.

However, the wildlife officials have not liked the move as this would bring the inbreeding problem here from Darjeeling and they were already facing similar problem in the lion safaris at Renuka and Gopalpur.

“Rozy” was found abandoned by her mother in the tribal area of Lahaul about two years ago and was brought to the Kufri zoo. Thereafter, her stay has remained uncertain.

Dictionary of Indian culture soon
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 25 — Belated though, the ambitious project of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study to compile a “dictionary of the Indian culture” has finally taken off.

The need for a comprehensive dictionary, which conveyed the real meaning of words as understood in the Indian cultural context, was being felt since long. More so because the existing dictionaries and encyclopaedias, of which there was no dearth, had failed to retain the abiding sense and spirit of the word and quite often even the literal meaning was confusing and ambiguous, said Prof V.C. Srivastav, director of the institute.

“It will be much more than a dictionary. It will cover the complete journey of words from the pre-historic era to the present, taking care of the variations in the meanings at different times and the distortions, if any, and finally the correct meaning as understood in the Indian perspective,” he explained.

Citing examples of the distortions in meanings of certain words that had crept in over the years Dr Srivastav said, “dharma” which originally meant the norms and common code for social conduct, had been virtually reduced to a religious cult or sect. It was the most glaring distortion as the Indian equivalent of cult or sect was the word “mat” and not “dharma”.

He, however, said western scholars who had compiled dictionaries could not be blamed as they were not conversant with the Indian cultural ethos in which the words evolved. Only those who were born and brought up in that particular cultural milieu could have the real “feel” of words, so essential for conveying the exact meaning, he observed.

The dictionary will have three main sections. While the first section will deal with basic concept, the second will be devoted to institutions which were vital in cultural evolution. The third section will take care of names of persons and places which had played a significant role in the cultural development.

The journey of certain institutions like Gurukul ashrams to the modern universities would indeed provide an interesting insight into their growth. The institute had planned to complete the dictionary in five years. Dr Srivastav said over 10 scholars, specialised in different fields would be appointed for the job. Each one of them would be assisted by a team of scholars.

The basic sources would be ancient Sanskrit texts and some South Indian languages like Tamil and Telugu which were also quite old. While the compilers would mostly draw from Vedic sources where original meanings had been well defined and also depend on archaeological evidence for confirmation.

He said a number of workshops would also be organised to know the views of scholars during the compilation. A preliminary workshop was organised early this month at Allahabad to work out the methodology for compilation and identification of sources.

ICAR award for Shimla researchers
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 25 — A team of scientists of the Central Potato Research Institute here has been conferred an award for outstanding research in the field of horticulture by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Dr P.C. Gaur, (team leader) and his associates Dr S.V. Singh, Dr S.K. Pandey, Dr Dinesh Kumar, Dr Devendra Kumar and Dr R.S. Marwaha have been given the award for excellent research work in the development and release of India’s first processing potato varieties Kufri Chipsona-1 and Kufri Chipsona-2.

Both possess high tuber dry matter, low enzymic browning, low reducing sugar and produce excellent light colour chips of international standard.

These varieties can be grown in the Indo-gangetic plains for good quality processing potatoes. Kufri Chipsona-1 and Kufri Chipsona-2 compare will in tuber dry matter and chip colour with the best available chipping varieties in Europe and North America and show superiority over these in having a better tuber yield and resistance to late blight.

These indigenously developed varieties will open up new opportunities for potato farmers to get better returns on their investment and will also improve the quality of processed product.

Notices issued to DC, civic body chief
From Our Legal Correspondent

SHIMLA, July 25 — A Division Bench of the High Court consisting of the Chief Justice C.K. Thakkar and Justice R.L. Khurana today issued notices to the Chief Secretary of the state, Deputy Commissioner and Municipal Commissioner, Shimla, on a public interest petition seeking direction for the construction of a pedestrian overbridge from the premises of St Edward’s School here and further directions to regulate the traffic outside the school.

The counsel for the petitioner, Mr Vinay Kuthiala, argued that in spite of sanction for the construction of pedestrian overbridge from school premises across the Cart Road on June 10, 1992, the respondents had failed to initiate further steps in this direction. Instead a private road adjacent to the Cart Road leading to a private house “Chillingham” opposite to St Edward’s School had been sanctioned. The counsel further sought directions from the court to stop the paying of vehicles on the road leading to Marina Hotel from Cart Road during school hours.

New school rooms develop cracks
From Our Correspondent

RAMSHAHAR ( Nalagarh): Two newly constructed rooms in the Senior Secondary School at Diggal stand testimony to the way funds meant for rural development are misused or misappropriated. Work on these rooms started in September, 1998 and was completed three months ago at a cost of Rs 1.50 lakh. But the walls have already developed big cracks and are in danger of collapsing. The Principal of the school, Mr J.K. Garla, has refused to take charge of the rooms because he considers these to be unsafe. The panchayat pradhan is said to be putting pressure on him to take over the rooms which surprisingly have been approved by the engineers in the Block Development office at Nalagarh.

Some political leaders of the area have represented to the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, to hold an inquiry into the alleged bungling in the construction of these rooms.

An unhealthy health centre
From Our Correspondent

BADDI July 25 — The primary health centre here is expected to provide immunisation to children and family planning services to the adults of about six adjoining villages, besides the industrial area of Baddi.

But the centre presents a picture of neglect and desolation. Like most rural dispensaries in Himachal Pradesh, sanitation is the least of the concerns of this health centre. There is only one doctor who has been assigned to the family planning campaign. In a month he has to attend not less than 20 family planning camps in Nalagarh sub-division, and remains away.

The result is that most of the time, a class IV employee runs the centre. The worst affected are the poor who are denied proper medical care at the centre, and they have to go to private practitioners. Even when the doctor is available, they have to buy medicines from the market. In the absence of repairs, the building is crumbling. Most of the window panes are missing and the condition of the doors and the furniture is far from satisfactory.

Rain water collects in the building, and in the absence of a boundary wall, stray cattle often enter the health centre. People urinate against its walls and all the garbage of Baddi village is dumped near the health centre.

Nalagarh-Ropar road still closed
From Our Correspondent

DHANGNIHLI (Nalagarh) July 25 — The collapse of the 104-year old bridge on the Sirsa river on the Nalagarh-Ropar road in the recent heavy rain has become a public hazard. The road remains closed to traffic. Commuters from the Ropar and the Nalagarh areas are put to great inconvenience as no bus service is available at present.

Traffic on the road has been diverted via Bharatgarh and Dabhota. Lack of a bus service is forcing people to travel 6 to 7 km on foot to reach Nalagarh. Auto-rickshaw drivers are charging 10 times the bus fare for going up to Jagatkhana.

A deputation of representatives of about 20 villages, led by a social worker, Mr P. S. Suryavanshi, met the Regional Manager of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) at Nalagarh recently as a result of which a bus was put in service up to Jagatkhana, but it is not plying regularly at present.

At least seven pillars of the Sirsa bridge near Jagatkhana were washed away in the flood. The water level is still high in the Sirsa as it is joined by seven or eight khuds.

Situated on the Nalagarh-Ropar road, about 3 km from the Punjab border the bridge was built by the British. Construction started in 1896-97 and completed only in 1932-33. According to sources, the then ruler of Handoor state, Raja Joginder Singh, had played a pivotal role in building the bridge. Sheikh Tawi, a renowned contractor of that time, had constructed 32 pillars while the remaining 11were built by Mahiya Singh, a contractor from Punjab.

According to some old residents of the region who were involved in the construction of the bridge, the main objective of the British Government behind the construction of this bridge was to give boost to trade in this region. A railway line was also to run from Ropar to Nalagarh, but now the track is lying in ruins.

It is learnt that during the rainy season every year big cracks used to appear in the bridge, but the PWD authorities paid no attention to these beyond carrying out perfunctory repairs. This year, the bridge finally collapsed.

There are allegations that the Mining Department also failed to check the activities of the stone mafia. According to sources, stones had been dug out from around the pillars. Besides affecting transport services in the area, the telecommunication facilities have also been thrown out of gear. Telecommunication wires which went over the bridge were snapped. The department has not been able to restore the telephone services so far.

Threat to scribe condemned
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 25 — The Shimla Press Club has condemned the threat to Mr Ajay Srivastav, a senior journalist, allegedly by certain influential persons whom he had exposed in his write ups.

Mr P.N. Sharma and Mr Shashikant Sharma, president and general secretary, respectively, of the club, urged Cheif Minister P.K. Dhumal, to take a serious notice of the incident and ensure the safety of the journalist.

Mr Srivastav received threatening calls after he exposed an illegal katha factory and highlighted the inability of the police to take action in a kidnapping case.

Admission date extended
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 25 — A spokesman of Himachal Pradesh University has said that keeping in view the climatic conditions of the state and heavy rains and landslides in certain parts of the state during the past few days, the Vice-Chancellor has extended the last date for admission to the summer and winter closing colleges up to July 31 with a late fee of Rs 20.

Man kills father
From Our Correspondent

KUMARHATTI, July 25 — Sukh Das (45) had a heated argument with his father Mr Shiv Ram (80) last night. A scuffle ensued in which Shiv Ram became unconscious. Sukh Das returned to the room and hit the old man on the head with a pistol repeatedly.

Sukh Das went to his house in blood-soaked clothes and wept for having killed his father. The villagers thronged his house.

Mr Lakhnpal, DSP, arrested Sukh Das and a tenant of the deceased.

Shiv Ram used to sell his property. Sukh Das, employed in the PWD, did not like it. The quarrel between the two was a regular feature. 

Clarification
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 25 — The Himachal Pradesh Forest Corporation yesterday sent a clarification on a news item published in The Tribune dated July 18.

The Managing Director of the corporation asserted that there was no dilution in the role of the Forest Department, as stated in the news item, especially because all regulatory functions were still with the department.

The state government had created a wide network of checkposts and flying squad divisions to control illegal transport or trade in timber.

He added that similarly all territorial divisions and most of the ranges had been connected through the wireless network for fast flow of information on offenders.