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| Wednesday, August 2, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Protest against river-bed mining Panchayat poll to be verdict on govt: BJP HRTC announces incentives Census work in snowbound HP from
Sept 11 Autumn festival in Dalhousie University centre ‘victim’
of BJP infighting Panchayat poll in Nov HP revenue record to be
computerised |
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Thief escapes from police
custody Market dump hits peach growers |
Protest against river-bed mining NALAGARH: Alleging that the economy in the area is on the brink of disaster, a movement against mining is building up among the local residents in the Baddi-Nalagarh belt. To check indiscriminate mining on the Sirsa river-bed, the villagers and residents plan a demonstration on August 4 to lodge their protest against the environmental hazard. Having formed nearly half a dozen organisations to protect the environment and the falling water levels in the area, the protest will be led by the Paryavaran Bachao Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti. It would submit a memorandum to the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal. The chairman of the samiti, Mr Gyanendra Bhardwaj, says: “The mining activity is wrecking havoc in our area and this is one place where the issue of environment and state of the economy is dove-tailed. The leasing out of the river bed and setting up of stone crushers all around is taking its toll on agriculture.” The farming community is being gradually reduced to penury owing to the paucity of water for irrigating fields. Maize has replaced paddy, which requires water in plenty, the only thing becoming scarce in this belt. Besides, the lowering of the river bed, where large stones and boulders have become a rarity, has made the 16 lift water irrigation systems redundant. “Though these irrigation systems are closed during the monsoon, these are a complete failure since water does not rise to the extent that it can be tapped. Each year the Irrigation Department has to make nullahs further upstream to make them functional. In addition, the 200-odd “gharath” owners are left jobless since there is no water to run the mills. “Illegal” miners have not even spared the bundhs made by villagers to raise the water level,’’ Mr Bal Krishan Sharma, president of the Sirsa Paryavaran Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, Nalagarh, explains. The villagers opine that illegal mining has contributed significantly to the lowering of the river bed which has resulted in the washing away of the Nalagarh bridge. “The water was beginning to lash on to the foundation of the bridge which could not take the water pressure and collapsed. The new ropeway coming up downstream is also going to meet the same fate, if the mining operations are not suspended,” Mr Bhardwaj rued. While residents are vehemently opposed to the idea of allowing lifting of sand and stones from the river-bed by lessees, they are even more worried about “illegal mining” going on in the Sirsa river-bed. To substantiate the claims, the villagers point out to the stones lying in the maize fields. A member of the block samiti, Mr Bant Ram, explains: “There are some bad fish among us. A handful of families owning tractors smuggle out stones from the river bed at night and stock them in their fields. A couple of days later, these just vanish. Now, the panchayats and villagers have turned against these people and are willing to furnish a list of all those who indulge in the practice to make quick money. A couple of these have already been delivered to the office of the SDM.” Terming the existence of a “stone mafia” operating in the belt, the samiti members add that some of the 21 lessees are also indulging in unfair trade practices by lifting more than what they are entitled to with no officials to check them. The SDM, Mr K.C. Chander, admits that a “mafia” is flourishing in the mining trade and that the administration is doing its best to check the smuggling. “The mining carried out by lessees is not illegal even though residents want to put an end to this. As far as illegal operations are concerned, the government has taken a serious view and issued instructions to departments concerned. We have formed special raiding parties and have realised over Rs 3 lakh by imposing a penalty on those caught,” he said. The Nalagarh Stone
Crushers Owners’ Association, General Secretary, Mr
Ram Kumar, explains that the lessees are carrying out
work in the river-bed in accordance with the rules of the
game. He, however, admits that illegal mining is carried
out by villagers who supply stones to the numerous
crushers that have mushroomed on the Punjab side with the
objective of making quick money. |
Panchayat poll to be verdict on
govt: BJP DHARAMSALA, Aug 1 — The Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Housing Board and a BJP spokesperson, Mr Ganesh Dutt, today said that the coming panchayat elections in the state would be a verdict on the performance of the Dhumal government. Talking to mediapersons here today he claimed that the BJP government headed by Mr P.K. Dhumal had brought about overall and balanced development of the state during the past two-and-a-half years. “It is for the people to see for themselves that the BJP government has done much more than what the Congress regime could do during the past forty years,” he further claimed. He said that his party was in favour of holding the panchayat elections of a non party-basis, though it was for the government to take a final decision on the matter. He announced that during the recent meeting of the BJP state executive, two separate committees, one for the rural areas and the other for the urban areas, were constituted in view of the panchayat elections. Mr Dutt, however, felt that election for the block samitis, panchayat samitis, zila parishad, nagar parishads and nagar palikas must be held on a party basis. Mr Dutt said that the panchayat elections would be a “prelude” to the assembly elections. Lashing out at the Congress party, he alleged that at the moment it was a ‘leaderless’ and ‘directionless’ party, groping in the dark and levelling baseless charges at others. “The charge sheet being framed by the Congress against the Dhumal government is nothing more than a political gimmick, aimed at diverting the attention of the people from the development works being done in the state,” he alleged. He said that the talk of the charge sheet was nothing short of ‘blackmail’ and if the Congress leaders had solid proof they should approach the Lok Ayukta. “After having
played the card of regionalism to the hilt, the Congress
is now talking of the charge sheet, as they have been
unnerved by the performance of the BJP-HVC
government.” stated Mr Dutt. |
HRTC announces incentives SHIMLA, Aug 1 — Waking up to the challenge from the private transporters, the state-owned Himachal Road Transport Corporation today launched a number of incentive schemes to arrest declining occupancy in its buses. Formally launching the scheme here today Mr Krishan Kapoor, the Transport Minister, said the policy of privatisation had over the past five years led to cut throat competition in the passenger transport sector as a result of which the occupancy rate in the buses of the corporation had declined appreciably. To reverse the declining trend the corporation had decided to introduce smart card, group booking and other schemes to provide concession in fare to passengers. The smart card, priced at Rs 50, would enable the passenger to avail 10 per cent concession in fare on journeys up to 10 km for a period of one year. The concession would be 20 per cent for senior citizens. Similarly, under the group booking scheme, booking of four to nine seats and 15 per cent on 10 to 15 seats. A passenger who also books the return ticket would also be entitled to 10 per cent concession. An incentive scheme had also been started for the bus crew to help increase the occupancy and provide better services to the public. Under the scheme 25 per cent of the additional income (over and above the normal revenue) from different bus routes would be given as reward to the crew. The conductor would get 15 per cent and the driver 10 per cent. Mr Kapoor said the body
building workshop at Jassur was being modernised at a
cost of Rs 2.5 crore. |
Census work in snowbound HP
from Sept 11 SHIMLA, Aug 1 — Census operations in the snowbound areas of Himachal Pradesh will be conducted from September 11 to October 5. This was announced by Mr A.K. Goswami, Chief Secretary, while presiding over a workshop-cum-training on population enumeration census-2001 here yesterday. He said census operations in other parts of the state would take place from February 9 to March 5 next. Underlining the need for creating awareness amongst people regarding data to be collected by enumerators, he said the staff engaged in the census operations should undertake this work with care, diligence and with proper supervision at all levels. Mr Goswami said adequate
touring should be undertaken by census officers for
effective and timely supervision. Required staff should
be spared for census duty and refusal or violation of
rules would be dealt with under the Census Act. |
Autumn festival in Dalhousie DALHOUSIE, Aug 1 — The Municipal Council of Dalhousie has decided to host an autumn festival in October. Giving this information here today, Mrs Renu Chadha, president of the council, said the decision had been taken in consultation with local residents and hoteliers with a view to attracting tourists as this was considered off-season for tourists. Mrs Chadha said this
step would benefit people engaged in the hotel industry.
The arrangements for the festival would be made by the
festival committee which would be constituted shortly,
she added. |
University centre
‘victim’ of BJP infighting DHARAMSALA, Aug 1 — The state president of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), Mr Kewal Singh Pathania, said today that the regional centre of HP University had become a victim of the infighting within the BJP. In a statement issued here today he said as a result of the infighting between the Shanta and Dhumal camps, the regional centre was suffering as it was facing shortage of teaching staff and other infrastructure facilities. “Being located in the Assembly constituency of the Transport Minister, Mr Kishan Kapoor, who was a staunch Shanta loyalist, the state government was intentionally ignoring the regional centre,” he stated. “It is surprising as to how the filling up of vacant posts at the centre was not cleared despite being listed in the agenda for the executive council meeting, whereas the process of selection in the university was on,” he regretted. He added that the authorities had failed to select the land for the setting up of the regional centre. Mr Pathania also criticised the proposed move of the authorities to close the law hostel in the college. He threatened that in case the authorities did not change their decision they would be compelled to move to the court of law.
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Thief escapes from police
custody HAMIRPUR, Aug 1 — An alleged thief, who was arrested at Bhota town, has given the police a slip at the local hospital. The thief, Raj Kumar of Rajasthan, is facing charges under Sections 380 and 457 of the IPC. An official spokesman told reporters here today that the district police Chief, Mr N. Venugopal, had placed the two constables on duty with Raj Kumar under suspension. A case under Section 224 of the IPC had been registered against the missing man. The spokesman said the police set up nakas last night at various places, but the man could not be apprehended. Meanwhile, some miscreants broke into the shop of a halwai at Anu chowk here last night. The theft came to light when its owner, Sagar, opened the shop in the morning today. He claimed that about Rs 5800 and some packets of sweets had been stolen. The police has registered a case under Sections 380 and 457 of the IPC.
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HP revenue record to be
computerised HAMIRPUR, Aug 1 — The revenue record will be fully computerised in Himachal Pradesh. The new move of the state government will help in maintaining the precious record and to help the common masses, according to Dr Rajan Sushant, the Minister of State for Revenue. Addressing a meeting of the district officers here last evening, he said in the beginning all the tehsildars would be given computers and they would be connected with the office of the deputy commissioner concerned through the local area network. Computers would be given to patwaris for which they would be trained in a systematic manner. The minister said the government was effecting changes in the revenue law in a phased manner to remove shortcomings in the old laws framed by Raja Todarmal, the Revenue Minister of Mughal Emperor Akbar. The present law has become obsolete and it was being amended, the minister added. He said such clauses not suitable to present set-up would be deleted and new ones substituted in their place. He said in future no sale and registration of land would be made without taking a joint photograph of the tehsildar, seller and the buyer. He said it was being done to avoid ghost registration of sale deeds inside hotels and even residences of the tehsildars. The government, he said was for transparency on all fronts. Dr Sushant said the menace of encroachment was taking alarming proportions in the state. The government would remove all encroachments but would not uproot the poor, widows and handicapped persons. However, no powerful person would be allowed to encroach upon the government land. He said there were 70,000 such cases in the state and most of them were in Shimla district and Shimla town alone. He said he would take a lead to end such encroachments and no political or any other pressure would be allowed to come in its way. He announced that the new Himachal Pradesh Kisan Books would be given to farmers and others in future. This work would start from September 12, the birthday of Lord Balram and end on the birthday of late Lal Bahadur Shastri. He said during this period as many as one lakh such books would be given on payment basis. These books would be completed in every respect by patwaris concerned before handing those over to the respective farmer. He said that in future all bank loans, ration cards and other facilities would be made available to the people only on the basis of these passbooks. Mrs Anuradha Thakur, Deputy Commissioner, Hamirpur, SP, Mr N. Venugopal and other district officers also attended the meeting. Earlier, the minister also addressed a meeting of patwaris and kanungos of the district.
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Panchayat poll in Nov SHIMLA, Aug 1 — Elections to Panchayati Raj institutions and urban local bodies in Himachal Pradesh are likely to be advanced by a few months in view of census operations. The present term of these bodies will expire on January 22. As such, in the normal course the election would have been held in the middle of January, for which the process must start in December. However, census operations will be at their peak during December and January. As both exercises involve a large number of employees they can not be conducted simultaneously. The Directorate of Census Operations wants that the panchayat polls be completed by November 30 so that they do not interfere with the census operations. According to official sources the poll dates will be advanced by at least two months and the process is likely to be initiated by the end of October. Conducting elections to urban local bodies may not pose a problem as it is confined to 48 towns and does not require much manpower. The government also proposes to use electronic voting machines in the municipal poll, which will further speed up the process. Meanwhile, a high-level meeting of officers, presided over by the Chief Secretary, Mr A.K. Goswami, discussed arrangements for the ensuing poll. It was decided that delimitation of panchayat wards should be completed by the end of August and a roster of reservation of wards for women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes be compiled. Since one-third of the wards with highest percentage of women were reserved in the last elections, this year wards with the second highest population of women will be reserved. The reservation for SC and STs will also be effected on the basis of their population percentage. Simultaneously, a detailed revision of electoral rolls will be carried out and completed by September 7. The model code of
conduct applicable in Lok Sabha and Assembly polls will
be enforced for the first time during the panchayat and
urban local bodies elections this year. The government
had amended the relevant Acts early this year for this. |
Market dump hits peach growers NAHAN, Aug 1 — Former Cabinet minister and senior Congress leader of the Himachal Pradesh Gangu Ram Musafir said here today that peach, potato and tomato producers of Rajgarh and Sarahan areas were facing economic hardship because there was no buyers for their crops in the national and international markets Mr Musafir said peach which was being exported for the past many years to many Asian countries, was being returned by commission agents as there was no buyer. But till now the state government had not taken any action to save the peach producers of the area. He said due to a slump in the market potato and tomato producers of the areas had also been hit hard. He urged the government to compensate the farmers and peach producers of the area. He also sought a support
price for peach, potato and tomato. |
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