H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Halt planting pine saplings: NGO
Dharamsala, May 7
On account of the adverse effect it has on biodiversity, a 15-year moratorium on planting of pine trees has been demanded by an NGO the Dhauladhar Education Society.

Review bus routes’ allotment: Sukh Ram
Shimla, May 7
Mr Sukh Ram, president of the Himachal Vikas Congress, has urged the government to review its policy for the allotment of bus routes and review the tax structure to save private operators from ruin.

Internet card service in HP
Shimla, May 7
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) today introduced Internet card service in the state for the first time.

Jogindernagar cut off
Mandi, May 7
Jogindernagar town of the district remained cut off from the rest of the country for the third day today following disruption of optical fibre cable (OFC) causing great inconvenience to the people.

‘Legalise charas trade’
Kulu, May 7
The charas trade should be made legal to avoid loss of revenue to the state government. This was stated by Mr Dharam Vir Dhami, president of the Constituency Congress Committee, here today while talking to the mediapersons. He said the confrontation between the local people and administration would also go if the trade was thrown open.

HP to be power-rich state by 2012: CM
Hamirpur, May 7
Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, HP Chief Minister, said here yesterday that efforts were on to make the state a power-rich state by 2012. 

IT raid on mine owners’ premises
Shimla, May 7
In a raid on the premises of two leading limestone mine owners of Sataun area in Sirmaur district, the Income Tax authorities claim to have seized bank accounts worth Rs 25 lakh, Rs 15 lakh in cash and 1 kg of gold, besides papers relating to unaccounted wealth worth crores.

Buddha Jayanti celebrated
Shimla, May 7
Buddha Jayanti was celebrated with religious fervour and devotion throughout Himachal Pradesh today.

Home Guards beat forest guard
Mandi, May 7
A forest guard, who was returning home after doing night duty at the forest barrier at Brindavan, near here, was allegedly beaten mercilessly by three Home Guard personnel on night patrolling duty. He suffered multiple injuries.

3-storeyed building gutted
Shimla, May 7
A three-storey building was gutted when a fire broke out in it at Chamba town last night, affecting seven families, police sources said.

Halt planting pine saplings: NGO
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 7
On account of the adverse effect it has on biodiversity, a 15-year moratorium on planting of pine trees has been demanded by an NGO the Dhauladhar Education Society.

Mr Ajit Kumar, an environmentalist, who heads the NGO, while interacting with mediapersons here today said it was high time that the government imposed a minimum of 15 years’ moratorium on planting of pine trees as the trees had ruined the local life support system in the villages. He added that already 60 per cent of the total forest area in Himachal was covered by pine trees.

He said as compared to pine tree local shrubs like harad, beda, lasura and karal were far more beneficial and took much less time to grow. He said like pine these shrubs too will help in checking soil erosion and be useful to the local population in a number of ways. He added mixed forest culture was the best for the life support system of the people.

Mr Ajit Kumar contested that not only did the pine tree take 30 years to grow but government claims that resin could be a useful byproduct had been belied as the two resin factories in the state were lying closed and now Himachal was making deal with the adjoining state of Uttaranchal for getting resin.

Demanding the redesigning of the agro forestry philosophy, he said the case of khair was no different. He said under the OGL, gambier, which is used in leather tanneries, is available at half the price of katha.

Welcoming the decision of the government to confer comprehensive rights to the locals in an effective manner for the success of the afforestation programmes, he demanded that the century-old concept of forest cooperatives should be revived.

“The fate of 71 such cooperatives in Kangra and 317 in Una district should be decided by the government so that they can play a vital role in making schemes for the new forest policy announced by the government,” he stated. He added that these forest cooperatives having demarcated land can play a more effective role in afforestation schemes than planning at the bureaucratic level.

Mr Ajit Kumar said the realisation by the government that the most important limitation coming in the way of the afforestation scheme was that the local communities had not been conferred with comprehensive rights in an effective way.

This was a positive signal. He said now the local groups would have the right to select the tree species of their choice for plantation. This would become a major source of income for them.

He informed that the right to harvest timber from these plantations would also rest with the communities and the income would be shared at 75:25 ratio between the groups and the local panchayat. The main objectives of this programme include improvement of the environment and economic situation of the local communities as well as the provision of employment.

Review bus routes’ allotment: Sukh Ram
Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 7
Mr Sukh Ram, president of the Himachal Vikas Congress, has urged the government to review its policy for the allotment of bus routes and review the tax structure to save private operators from ruin.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said the indiscriminate allotment of routes was leading to unhealthy competition as a result of which most of the routes had become economically unviable. There was an urgent need to rationalise the bus routes so that people got adequate bus services and the transporters also got reasonable returns from their investment.

Underlining the need for rationalising the tax structure he said at present the taxes were on the higher side which added to the woes of operators who were finding it difficult to ply buses due to increasing costs of operators. He said the private sector which supplemented government’s effort in providing various services should not be seen as an exploiter. When the government was itself not in a position to cater to the needs of people, it was its duty to ensure its viability in the public interest.

He said he would take up the issue with the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, and Mr Krishan Kapoor, Transport Minister, and urged them resolve the problems of the private transporters.

Mr Sukh Ram said he was not in favour of the closure or disinvestment in the public sector undertakings. However, the loss-making units which were no serving any useful public purpose, should be closed down.

HP to be power-rich state by 2012: CM
Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, May 7
Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, HP Chief Minister, said here yesterday that efforts were on to make the state a power-rich state by 2012. He said the way the Central Government was providing us with assistance to clear the power projects, the day was not far away when the state would be able to achieve the target and started getting an annual income of Rs 4000 crore from the power sector only, he told reporters.

Talking to reporters, he said the state had started getting 4.6 per cent share in the electricity being produced at the Ranjit Sagar dam from yesterday at nominal rates. The state would get about 27 mw of power per annum from the dam, he added.

He, however, said during the past three years of the BJP rule, we exploited 33 mw of power. He said the work on 86 mw Malana hydel power project would be completed in a record time of three years as against the target of six years. The project would be commissioned on June 27 and the state would get an income of Rs 10 crore per annum from the project.

The Chief Minister also gave details of other projects that were on the completion stage. He said the Union Power Minister, Mr Suresh Prabhu, had assured him that the agreement on all remaining power projects of the state would be finalised within the next two years.

Prof Dhumal said there was no plan to reshuffle the ministry.

Internet card service in HP
Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 7
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) today introduced Internet card service in the state for the first time.

Inaugurating the service, Mr Prithipal Singh, Director (Operations), BSNL, at Gumma, near here, said the Internet card service would enable the subscribers to avail of Internet service through a pre-paid card without going through the existing procedures. The card would provide 25 hours of Internet connectivity.

Earlier, Mr D.R. Shandil, MP, inaugurated a state-of-the-art technology 512-line telephone exchange.

Mr N.S. Gill, Chief General Manager, Himachal telecom circle, who presided over the function, said during the current year 90,000 telephone lines would be installed and 3,000 more village public telephones provided.

He said for remote villages the department had decided to use the latest technology like time domain multiple access point in multipoint (TDMAPMP) wireless in local loop (WLL) and satellite telephones. He also said old village public telephones which were faulty would be replaced with suitable alternatives.

For fast data transfer and video conferencing ISDN had been introduced at Shimla, Solan, Mandi and Dharamsala.

He also informed that a public grievance cell had been opened at the circle headquarters where complaints were received from all over the state on telephone no 95-177-1094 which was free of call charges.

Jogindernagar cut off
Our Correspondent

The breakdown shows that the tall claims that after laying the OFC all-weather world-class service would be provided to the consumers have proved false with frequent breakdowns of the OFC in all parts of the state. It is also alleged that irregularities had been committed in laying the cable by some contractors in connivance with the officials.

‘Legalise charas trade’
Our Correspondent

Kulu, May 7
The charas trade should be made legal to avoid loss of revenue to the state government. This was stated by Mr Dharam Vir Dhami, president of the Constituency Congress Committee, here today while talking to the mediapersons. He said the confrontation between the local people and administration would also go if the trade was thrown open.

The cultivation of cannabis in the district had increased manifold after the introduction of ‘hybrid seed’. The farmers had been deviating from the normal crops to cannabis as they received better price for hashish.

The Superintendent of Police here said the villagers objected to destroying the standing cannabis crops by the police, which they cultivated under the pretext that they used the fibre for clothing and footwear.

Mr Dhami said the Himachal Pradesh Government was losing revenue in two directions — one because of prohibition and by destroying the crop and another by losing the excise tax which could be imposed on the charas and bhang trade.

He further said about one ton of charas was being smuggled out of the district every year. The police could hardly seize 10 per cent of the total production.

IT raid on mine owners’ premises
Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 7
In a raid on the premises of two leading limestone mine owners of Sataun area in Sirmaur district, the Income Tax authorities claim to have seized bank accounts worth Rs 25 lakh, Rs 15 lakh in cash and 1 kg of gold, besides papers relating to unaccounted wealth worth crores.

The biggest-ever income tax raid, led by Mr M.P. Singh, Deputy Director, Income Tax, Shimla, was conducted simultaneously at six places in Sataun, Kamroh, Paonta Sahib, Dehra Dun and Herbertpur. At least 80 personnel of the department and 50 policemen were engaged in the raid.

Involvement of officials of the mining and sales tax departments, who were manning checkposts in the area, in the smuggling of limestone on the basis of fake papers and under-valuing of the product, is not ruled out.

The officials are learnt to have seized incriminating documents pertaining to fraudulent trading of limestone by two persons.

Sources said one of the persons used to under-bill the price of limestone at Rs 80-Rs 90 per tonne against the acutal market price of about Rs 900 per tonne.

Buddha Jayanti celebrated

Shimla, May 7
Buddha Jayanti was celebrated with religious fervour and devotion throughout Himachal Pradesh today.

Functions were organised at McLeodganj, the seat of Dalai Lama, and other Buddhist monastries at Shimla, Revalsar, Kinnaur, Kaza, Tabo and other places to mark the 2545th birth anniversary of the founder of Buddhism.

The Indo-Tibetan Friendship Society held a function at Shimla at which Buddhist scholars threw light on the works of Lord Buddha.

Speaking on the occasion, Parliamentary Secretary Chet Ram Negi stressed on the preachings of Lord Buddha. PTI

Home Guards beat forest guard

Mandi, May 7
A forest guard, who was returning home after doing night duty at the forest barrier at Brindavan, near here, was allegedly beaten mercilessly by three Home Guard personnel on night patrolling duty. He suffered multiple injuries.

Forest guard Sher Singh told mediapersons that the Home Guards kept on thrashing him even after he disclosed his identity. An FIR has been lodged with the city police in this connection. UNI

3-storeyed building gutted

Shimla, May 7
A three-storey building was gutted when a fire broke out in it at Chamba town last night, affecting seven families, police sources said.

However, no loss of life was reported. But the loss of property was stated to be around Rs 12 lakh. District authorities have given relief to the sufferers. The cause of the fire was being ascertained

In another incident, a two-storey house was gutted at Janjhali under Gohar police station in Mandi district today. The loss of property, in the blaze which was probably caused due to leakage of gas from a cylinder, had been estimated at Rs 4 lakh. The fire was controlled by the villagers themselves. UNI