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| Wednesday, February
14, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Shimla IT
park in three months Weapons
used illegally for hunting SSP
confirms case against ministers Tibet
highway to be reopened on Friday HVC
opposes sale of chilling plants |
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Generate
own funds, college management told 2.5 lakh
grant for community hall Manali-Leh
road to reopen in May Sukh Ram
against creating new dists Fire in
Shimla MC building put out MC
employee suspended
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Shimla IT park
in three months UNA, Feb 13 Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said a software technology park at a cost of about Rs 7 crore would be set up in Shimla within two to three months. He said the park would boost up information technology in Himachal Pradesh. Mr Dhumal was speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of 2000 lines remote subscriber unit and a new telephone exchange building at Mehatpur, 12 km from here, on Sunday. Prof Dhumal said in the state as many as 2500 km of optical fibre lines had already been laid which were likely to cover 4000 km in next six months and expressed hope that entire state would be covered in next 2-3 years. He said a separate department of IT had been set up and an Institution of Information and Technology which had tie-up with University of California, USA, had already been started and first batch was likely to be started from July, 2001. He said an NRI from Una had also shown interest in setting up such an institution in Una and the state government had taken up the matter with the Manipal group to set up one institute of information and technology. Mr Suresh Chandel, MP, said every village in Hamipur, Una and Bilaspur districts would have public call booth soon. Chief General Manager (Telecom) HP, N.S. Gill said the HP telecom circle had more than 3 lakh consumers at present and this year the target of providing 60,000 telephone connections had been fixed. Mobile telephone service will also be started in the state soon by the department and 12000 mobile connections will be given by June 2001. |
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Weapons used illegally for hunting KASAULI: Instances of the misuse of weapons, licensed for crop protection, for hunting wild animals have been reported in the past three years. According to information gathered from the district police headquarters in Solan, two cases were detected in the past two years and an equal number in the very first month of this year. Though the number of cases is not high, some police officials believe a large number of such instances remain undetected. Applicants seeking licences have to go through a verification procedure to establish the authenticity of their claims. The police duly checks the antecedents of the applicant and a person with a criminal record is not cleared for a
licence. Further, a panchayat pradhan has to ascertain whether the applicant possesses agricultural land and the need for a weapon is genuine. After such verification the Subdivisional Magistrate forwards the application to the Additional District Magistrate, who finally grants the licence. An NOC is also sought from the Forest Department to ensure that a licence is not granted in the proximity of a wildlife sanctuary. The Superintendent of Police, Mr Rakesh Aggarwal, says that a mere 3-4 per cent of the reported wildlife killings involve the misuse of weapons obtained on the pretext of crop protection. If misuse is detected, the licence is immediately cancelled and the weapon
confiscated. He adds that at times weapons are used for crop protection as well as hunting ,which again is an offence. Some people treat guns as a status symbol. The Divisional Forest Officer, Mr S.K. Sharma, says licences are not given within a radius of 5 km of a wildlife sanctuary. Animals like the wild boar, monkeys and hounds cause harm to crops, when they attack in groups. Crops like maize are in particular prone to damage. If the loss is excessive, the affected farmers can apply to the panchayat concerned for the killing of animals. The procedure includes the filling of a form obtained from the Forest Department and the grant of sanction by the Wildlife Warden, who categorises the animals as vermin. Thereafter, permission is given for killing a specific number of animals during a particular period. The carcasses are to be surrendered to the Wildlife Department. The weapon can be used to kill an animal in self-defence also but the carcass has to be handed over to this department. Reports indicate that at least two cases of killing of wild animals were detected in the area surrounding the wildlife sanctuary of Chail during the past few months. At times animals are trapped and later killed, according to police officials. In certain cases the police confiscates the animal skins. Animals like the endangered barking deer have been killed by poachers near the Chail sanctuary. The damage caused to crops is sometimes as much as 15 per cent when it becomes mandatory to kill animals. The ADM, says at times people manage to secure licences by misrepresenting facts regarding their
requirements. Licences granted without keeping in mind the proximity of a wildlife sanctuary may lead to the misuse of the
weapons. Periodic meetings are held with villagers to make them aware about such misuse, he adds. |
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SSP confirms case against ministers DHARAMSALA, Feb 13 The SSP, Kangra, Mr Prithvi Raj, today confirmed registration of an FIR against the three BJP ministers and the Kangra district BJP chief in connection with the alleged kidnapping of two OBC women members of the Kangra Zila Parishad. The SSP today said along with the two BJP workers, Mr Bhagat Ram, Director of the HRTC, and Mr Des Raj, the names of the three ministers Mr Kishan Kapoor, Mr Ramesh Chaudhary and Mr Ravinder Ravi and MLA and district BJP chief Dulo Ram figured in the FIR (No. 52/2001) under Sections 365, 342, 506 and 34 of the IPC. The Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr A.P. Singh, who has been made the investigating officer, had created confusion by claiming that so far the three ministers and the MLA had not been booked in the alleged kidnapping of the two women Zila Parishad members from Nagrota. Mr Prithvi Raj said he did not know why the ASP gave such a statement when he had been appointed the investigating officer for the case. Moreover, the SSP had already issued a press release regarding registration of a case against the ministers. The Congress MLA from Nagrota, Mr G.S. Bali, said people had lost faith in the district police and the matter should be investigated by another agency. He said the contradictory statements of the police clearly reflected that efforts were being made to weaken the case against the ministers. Even the Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal, is reported to have told Mr Bali that a case had already been registered against the ministers and the law would take its own course as nobody was above it. |
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Tibet highway to be reopened on Friday SHIMLA, Feb 13 The 165 km-long India Tibet highway linking the tribal areas of Kinnaur district between Wangtu and Kaurik with the rest of the country will be reopened on Friday after having remained closed for over seven months following flashfloods in the Sutlej. Stating this to TNS here today, the Chief Engineer of the Deepak project of the Border Roads Organisation, Brig B.M. Bakshi, said five bailey bridges had been prepared and a new road of 17 km constructed for re-establishing road link with tribal areas. The highway is of strategic importance for the defence forces as it goes up to Kaurik, the last post on the Tibetan border. The highway was devastated on August 1 last year due to unprecedented flashfloods in the Sutlej because of a cloudburst somewhere in Chinese-occupied Tibet. Five strategic bridges of Khab, Kharo, Shongtong, Karcham and Akpa were washed away and a road length of 17.30 km completely destroyed at 94 places by the swirling waters. Brigadier Bakshi said bailey bridges had been constructed at Khab, Kharo, Shongtong and Karcham. Concrete bridges would be constructed at these places by 2004. Besides, the state PWD had also constructed a bridge at Wangtu. He said that the four-hour-long flash flood permanently has changed the face of the highway between Wangur and Khab for a length of 100 km. A labour force of 1700 along with heavy earth moving equipment were
deployed to reconstruct the road. The repair and restoration of such huge magnitude could have taken more than a year, but entire road was restored in a period of six months due to sound planning. Brigadier Bakshi said a total expenditure of Rs 35 crore was incured on restoring the road link. A sum of Rs 10 crore had been spent so far and Rs 11.50 crore earmarked for 2001-2002 for further improvement and strengthening of the vital road. He said the task of reconstructing the road was challenging as a new alignment had to be carved out by cutting rocky mountains. The highway had been washed away at 25 places in a stretch of 51 km between Akpa and Khab. There had been 17 breaches in the 10 km stretch between Tapri and Karchm and Karchm and Shongtong. Residents of Kinnaur district suffered miseries due to the damaged road as their movement outside the district remained restricted through another route which was lengthy. Their apple produce and cash could not be transported from many places. |
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HVC opposes sale of
chilling plants MANDI, Feb 13 The general house of the HVC in which the party chief, Mr Sukh Ram also participated, criticised various decisions of the Dhumal government in which the HVC is an alliance partner. Members observed that if the party remained a mute spectator to the anti-people ad unpopular decisions of the government the people would not forgive it in the forthcoming general election. The general house met here on Sunday. It took exception to the proposal of winding up or selling the chilling plants in Mandi district which had played a big role in ushering in the white revolution which began in Himachal from Mandi district when the countrys most modern milk plant was set up by Germany at Chakkar in this district. Members expressed the view that there was widespread resentment among people over the proposed privatisation of the chilling plants and dairy farms and hike in power tariff. Addressing members, Mr Sukh Ram said he would leave no stone unturned to realise his dream of making Himachal a prosperous state. He said while he never opposed entrusting big projects to reputed national and multinational companies he strongly felt that smaller contracts should be awarded to the local contractors. He said the mini and micro projects should be given on priority to the Himachalis. Unemployed engineers should be encouraged to join hands under the cooperative sector to take up the micro-hydel projects. The HVC opposed the entry tax levied all over the state and added that it was the biggest irritant for the people in general and tourists in particular. It was demanded that entry tax should be abolished without further delay through an ordinance or by any other means. |
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Generate own funds, college
management told JWALAMUKHI, Feb 13
Jwalamukhi Degree College, being run by the Jwalamukhi Shiksha Samiti, appears to be heading for trouble as the temple trust has told the management to generate its own resources to run the college. The move has put the management in a fix. Deputy Commissioner R.C. Kapil who is also chairman of the trust and the samiti, when asked to comment on the reported move to discontinue funding of the college by the temple trust, said the shiksha samiti had been told to generate its own resources to meet the expenditure of the college. The college, which is not receiving any grant-in-aid from the state government or the UGC for want of required infrastructure, may ultimately face closure as it does not offer any professional courses and is unable to generate enough money to meet the expenses. The principal of the college, Mr Prem Kumar said the management has flashed a request for liberal donation from the NRIs and social bodies on the web site. Trying to justify the move, the trust officials claim that apart from the degree college it also ran a Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya in the temple, besides other development activities. The sources say the Sanskrit college, which had remained shut for two years was reopened at the instance of Governor Mr Vishnu Kant Shastri. |
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2.5 lakh grant for
community hall KULU, Feb 13 Mr Maheshwar Singh, MP, and Mr Karan Singh, Minister of State for Primary Education, visited the affected families in Barsheni village yesterday. Maheshwar Singh announced a grant of Rs 2.5 lakh for the construction of community hall in the premises of the temple. Karan Singh said 40 houses were gutted and five were partially damaged. The official figure of the loss was quoted at Rs 1.5 crore. Mr S.R. Thakur, Additional Deputy Commissioner said Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 was disbursed to each of the 49 families. Mr Maheshwar Singh urged the district administration to make a comprehensive plan for water supply scheme in Barsheni village. He urged the Himachal Pradesh Government to allocate funds for the scheme. Mr M.L. Dhamalu, SDM, who supervised the rescue operation from the day one thanked the people of Nathan, Tosh, Pulga and other adjoining villages. |
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Manali-Leh road to
reopen in May SHIMLA, Feb 13 The strategic 422 km-long Manali-Leh road will be cleared of snow and avalanches and reopened in the first week of May. The snow-clearing operations on the road, which was closed in early December, will be launched by the Deepak project of the Border Roads Organisation on February 16. The road is an alternate link with the frontier areas of Leh and Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir. The road came as a boon during the Kargil conflict with Pakistan when the other highway between Kashmir and Kargil was under constant shelling of the enemy. The Chief Engineer of the Deepak project, said the strategy for reopening the road had been changed. This time the snow cover would be removed without waiting for further snowfall. This would enable early reopening of the road to the Pangi and Lahaul valleys. In the past, the BRO used to start snow-clearing on March 10 and reopen the road in June. Although more snowfall was expected, snow-clearing would be launched so that the road could be finally cleared by May 1. The Rohtang Pass and the Baralacha-La were the main bottlenecks where the road was buried under deep snow. However, the snowfall at the Rohtang Pass was about 14 feet this time against the normal of 25 feet. The 25 feet snow at Baralacha-La was expected to be cleared by March. |
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Sukh Ram against creating new dists MANDI, Feb 13 Mr Sukh Ram, HVC chief said today he was not interested in joining the state Cabinet. He was commenting on the reported remarks of the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, that whenever Sukh Ram wanted he would be included in the ministry. Mr Sukh Ram, who was talking to mediapersons at the local Circuit House said he had been holding to topmost positions at the Centre and in the state. It was not a big thing for him to become a minister. He had earlier joined the ministry because he wanted to realise his dream of making Himachal a power state. He opposed the proposal of creating more districts in the state which was reeling under acute financial crisis and could not bear the burden of more districts. He reiterated his opposition to the setting up of cement plants in Himachal as it would lead to further degradation of environment. He said cement plants had caused havoc in the hilly areas of the country and, therefore, no more such plants should be set up in Himachal. Only pollution-free industries and hydel projects should be harnessed in the state besides promoting the vast potential of tourism. |
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Fire in Shimla MC
building put out SHIMLA, Feb 13 The building of the Shimla Municipal Corporation on the Mall was today saved when the staff put out a fire which had started in the office of the Commissioner. The bathroom and the retiring room were damaged in the fire. The fire was controlled before firemen reached the spot from the fire station on the other side of the road. Former Mayor Manoj Kumar and councillor Sanjay Sharma were among those who controlled the fire which is said to have been caused due to a short circuit. The incident comes on the heels of the gutting of two floors of the railway board building here on February 10. Another fire broke out in the cooperative press near the transport office on the Cart Road. |
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MC employee suspended SHIMLA, Feb 13 An employee of the Shimla Municipal Corporation, Mr Narotam Dass, has been suspended on charges of negligence of duty that led to a fire in the historic building of the corporation. Mr Sukhdev Mattoo, general secretary of the Municipal Workers Federation, criticising the suspension, said electric wiring in the building was worn out which had caused the fire. He demanded immediate reinstatement of the services of the employee. |
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