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Tuesday,
August 21, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Adopt China model: Dhumal Wrong site selected for resort:
MLA BJP, Cong
plan floor
strategy Medicinal herbs project makes
progress |
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PARWANOO DIARY BADDI DIARY VHP gives call for Shimla
bandh
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Adopt China model: Dhumal Shimla, August 20 With almost 92 per cent people of the state involved in agrarian economy, dependence on forest produce for their biotic needs was high. He said it was unfortunate that this wealth had dwindled over the years due to unscientific extraction from forest. Many species had become extinct and more were on the list of threatened species. Mr Dhumal said Himachal Pradesh was the fruit bowl of the country, yet the state’s production targets did not conform to international standards. He said universities and research institutions would have to put sincere efforts on technology development and business entrepreneurship by way of value addition and infrastructural support for processed food. The Chief Minister stressed on the need for evolving high-yielding cash crops for diversification. He said scientists would have to formulate farm plans that were location-specific and need-based. He also stressed on entering the realm of bio-business for sustaining rural economy and suggested adopting the China model. He said in China each village had a processing unit for which raw material came from local produce. Dr Rajan
Sushan, Minister of State for Revenue and Bio-Technology, said Himachal Pradesh had shown the way by setting up a separate Department of Bio-Technology. He urged the scientists to help the state in the exploitation of its biodiversity. He said biotechnology would generate employment to about one lakh persons in the state. He called for replacing chemical fertilizers with bio-fertilisers. The workshop called for taking effective steps so that the benefit of biotechnology could filter down to rural areas by promoting processing, biodrug aroma,
biofertilisers, biopesticide, biochemical, biofuel and other related industries at the small scale in the cooperation sector. It also underlined the need to produce high-yielding disease-free planting stock by employing biotechnological techniques and their mass production by micropropagation for diversification of farming. Other recommendations included a programme to domesticate medicinal and aromatic plants and their processing for value addition for biodrug and aroma industries, production of high value organic food, fruits, vegetables and other high value cash crops for making farming a remuneration vocation, improvement of degraded forests and community land with application of mycorrhiza and other biofertilisers under the joint forest management and development of micropropagation techniques as a small-scale industry for promoting biobusiness of ornamental, herbal, fruit, forest and other cash crops. |
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Wrong site selected for resort:
MLA Palampur, August 20 Addressing mediapersons, he said the area on which the resort was being developed, was flood prone. No survey was conducted before the selection of the site and the decision was taken in a hurry. Sorabh Van Vihar, a resort being developed in the memory of Capt Sorabh Kalia who died fighting Pakistan intruders in Kargil, suffered loss last week due to heavy rain and floods. The road leading to the resort has been washed away and water has entered the resort. The loss has been estimated at Rs 20 lakh. The first phase of the resort was recently inaugurated by the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs and Civil Supplies, Mr Shanta Kumar. He had also given Rs 30 lakh for the project. Mr Butail said the resort was situated on the right bank of the Neugal which had a history of changing its course. He had warned the forest officials not to go ahead with the project but to no avail. Residents of the area were also against the setting up of the project, he said. The leader urged the Chief Minister to order a probe into the matter and save the public money to be spent on the second phase of the project. |
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BJP, Cong
plan floor
strategy Shimla, August 20 The meeting of the BJP Legislature Party was presided by the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, and the meeting of the CLP was held under the chairmanship of Mr Virbhadra Singh. While the Congress is in a mood to put the BJP government on the mat on various issues, the BJP is learnt to have decided to remain on the offensive. On the opening day, the Congress is expected to seek a discussion on the imposition of users charge in hospitals by the state government. Various other issues, including the “growing” corruption and “deteriorating” law and order are among the issues which might be raised by Congress members. The unattached member, Mr Mohinder Singh, who had won on the HVC ticket, said he would join hands with the Congress in opposing the “anti-people” policies of the Dhumal government. |
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Medicinal herbs project makes
progress Chamba, August 20 An official spokesman said besides Chamba and Kulu districts which are endowed with medicinal plants, the Masrund, Mani, Jhalara and Sagnahar zones have been identified to be developed as “vanaspati van”. He said with the initiative taken by the Ayurveda and Forest Departments and herbal experts, various training programmes and workshops had been organised to generate awareness of the utility of medicinal herbs. The spokesman informed that out of 3,000 flowering plant species, more than 500 were found to have medicinal properties. He said the demand for herbal medicines had increased tremendously in the past few years, thereby putting pressure on the natural resources available in the hilly regions. |
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PARWANOO DIARY Parwanoo Criticising the decision of the ESI, Mr Des Raj Gandhi, president, Mr Karam Singh Kuthleria, vice-president, and Mr Rameshwar Gribta, general secretary of the HP. Housing Board Employees Association, alleged that this work was being given to the UP State Construction Corporation under pressure from the centre when Himachal Pradesh had a number of specialised agencies construction agencies such as the Housing Board. These leaders have appealed to the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh to intervene in the matter and take up the issue with the Government of India and get the task assigned to the State Housing Board. The Parwanoo branch of UCO Bank organised a customer meet on the bank premises, which was attended by about 50 industrialists, traders and eminent citizens of the town. Mr S.D. Uppal, Deputy General Manager of UCO Bank, disclosed that the business of the bank had exceeded Rs 33,000 crore and it had earned an operating profit of Rs 65 crore in the quarter ending June 2001. Mr Uppal said that advances worth of Rs 2200 crore had been planned. He said the bank had introduced a scheme to advance loans up to Rs 100 lakh to meet the requirement of the business class. The bank would adopt a flexible approach to providing loans to traders. A special scheme, ‘‘UCO Nari Shakti’’ had been introduced especially for women under which loans were advanced at a reduced rate of interest. Other schemes of the bank are UCO Shelter Scheme and UCO Mega Cash Loans. It recently started accepting telephone bills and had met with an encouraging response. At a question-answer session at the end of the meet, a number of queries of customers were answered. Mr S.S. Wassan, Manager of the Parwanoo Branch, highlighted various deposit schemes of the bank. On the occasion of Independence Day, Mr Raghu Raj, the local MLA, announced a grant of Rs 50,000 for the construction of a road from Kanda village to Kotla village and Rs 10,000 for the construction of a youth hostel at Kanda near Parwanoo. The recent rain has so damaged the road from Chakki Morh to Bhoj Nagar near Parwanoo, that vegetables and other farm products are rotting on the roadside for want of means of transportation. The residents have urged the district administration to make alternative arrangements to enable the farmers to take their produce to Chakki Morh Subzi Mandi. |
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BADDI DIARY Baddi As many as 800 tractors are registered in the area for agricultural purposes but a number of these are put to this commercial use. They transport material such as stones, gravel and clay from riverbeds to stone crushers. A public Interest Litigation filed in the Delhi High Court last year had resulted in a ruling that the police and transport authorities should check the misuse of tractors for commercial purposes. The District Mining Officer, Mr BD Sharma, says that if the use of tractors is strictly restricted to agricultural operations, 80 per cent of the illicit quarrying can be checked. The problem is compounded by the fact that a majority of them do not carry any documents and even if they are caught red handed, the Mining Department can do little to take punitive action against them. At times the drives desert their vehicles and wait for an appropriate opportunity to drive these back. According to a recent government order, if a tractor registered for agricultural purposes is caught being used for commercial purposes, the authorities can collect taxes from with retrospective effect besides impounding the vehicle. A majority of tractors in this area have been registered for agricultural purposes. These tractor-owners often indulge in indiscriminate quarrying and often dig up stones and clay from riverbeds beyond the permissible limited. This has greatly widened the riverbeds at certain points. Problems of congestion and lack of hygiene have raised their heads in the Baddi, as a result of rapid industrialisation in the last decade. Though the area has progressed considerably, the basic amenities remain dismal. Unplanned and haphazard construction of houses and shops has added to the problem. The traffic situation is chaotic on narrow roads in the industrial area, particularly near the entry fee collection barrier, the bus stand area and Sai Road. The administration has failed to earmark parking places and loading and unloading sites. A large number of vans, cars, maxi cabs and jeeps plying as taxis in thickly populated localities have become a major traffic problem and also a nuisance for the public. |
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VHP gives call for Shimla
bandh Shimla, August 20 The bandh call has been supported by a dozen organisations, including Guru Singh Sabha, Valmiki Sabha, Aggarwal Sabha, Sanatan Dharm Sabha, Hotel Dhaba Union and various frontal outfits of the Sangh Parivar. The VHP has been alleging all along that the cows were killed by a retired police officer. One of the cows, it said, was found lying in a pool of the residence of the retired officer, indicating foul play. The VHP rejected the first post-mortem report and alleged that the veterinary doctor was hand in glove with the suspect. The government was forced to order an inquiry into his conduct. Thereafter a team, comprising three veterinarians, carried out a second post-mortem examination. However, the second report also did not satisfy the VHP and finally, the administration summoned a team of veterinary experts from Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, Palampur. It dug out the carcasses, which had been buried and conducted a post-mortem examination for the third time in the presence of activists of the VHP. The team took viscera and samples of tissues from various parts of the carcasses as desired by the activists for a detailed analysis to ascertain the cause of death. It may take about a fortnight to submit the report. |
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