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Thursday,
August 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Floods,
rain claim 42 lives in HP Drought wreaks havoc in Spiti
valley Noisy
scenes in Assembly Cong
misleading people: ministers Threat to
safety of kids: parents march to House |
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‘Official apathy’ forces closure of school Bill on
shamlat lands introduced VHP bandh hits life in
Shimla BJP flays Cong leaders over user charges
issue Ultra
sneaking into Himachal arrested
Former Miss India not to act in
films Industry
opposes move to hike power tariff Strike hits IGMC
functioning 70
suffer from enteritis in two villages Man burnt alive in furniture shop
fire Impostor
arrested Girl
drowned at Jaisinghpur
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Floods, rain claim 42 lives in HP Shimla, August 22 Giving this information in the Vidhan Sabha while replying to discussion raised by Mr Kaul Singh of the Congress on the widespread devastation caused by rain in the state Dr Rajan Sushant, Revenue Minister, said as per initial reports seven more persons, were feared killed in Bharali village of Kulu last night in house collapses. In all 2,232 houses had been damaged and the loss on this account was estimated at Rs 3.10 crore. Besides, 3,800 hectare fertile land had been washed away and standing crops over 7,704 hectare had suffered extensive damage, resulting in a loss of Rs 16.20 crore. The total loss had been assessed at Rs 116.15 crore till August 20. In all a population of 1.52 lakh had been affected. The way the region had been experiencing rain it was likely to cross the Rs 150 crore mark by the end of this month. Until July 31 the loss was only Rs 29 crore. But the state received exceptionally heavy rain during last week of July and the current month, including cloud bursts at Baijnath, Rohru and Kulu. The maximum devastation was caused in Baijnath followed by Kulu and Rohru. The loss at these three places was estimated at Rs 18 crore. Referring to the relief and restoration measures carried out by the government, he said the Centre had provided Rs 45.66 crore under the Calamity Relief Fund and it had already spent Rs 45.75 crore. Out of this Rs 38.75 crore were released for drought-relief measures and the remaining to deal with rain damage. The Centre had released an additional Rs 18.98 crore to the state on the recommendation of the central team, which visited the state two months ago. Besides, the Centre had also allotted 54,000 tonnes of rice to provide succour to the affected families, which would be supplied over the next three months. A detailed report of rain damage was being prepared on the basis of which the state would approach the Centre for seeking more funds for relief and restoration works. He said the state spent Rs 85.10 crore to restore the infrastructure facilities destroyed by flash floods in the Sutlej last year. Intervening in the debate the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal assured that the government would provide necessary funds for the relief and restoration works in Rohroo and Rs 5 lakh had been released so far for the immediate restoration of foot bridges that had been washed away. Initiating the debate Mr Kaul Singh, expressed dissatisfaction over the pace of restoration works and said the relief provided was inadequate keeping in view the magnitude of the damage. He made specific mention of the devastation caused in the Chuhar valley and called for the restoration of collapsed and damaged bridges on a war footing. He said the Bhatoh village had started sinking and many houses had developed cracks and immediate remedial measures were required to safeguard the lives and property of people living there. Mr Ishwar Das (Congress) gave details of damage in Kulu district and sounded alarm over the situation in Mani Karan town the existence of which, he said, was threatened. Mrs Asha Kumari (Congress) drew the attention of the government towards illegal and indiscriminate mining in the state, which was a main factor responsible for rain damages. Besides, the debris from various under construction hydel projects was also finding its way into the Ravi, the bed of which had risen significantly, rendering several areas prone to floods. Mr Dulo Ram (BJP) while giving details of damage in his area appreciated the efforts of the Chief Minister who visited the affected area and ensured prompt relief. Mr Karan Singh, Minister of Primary Education, suggested that a development authority should be set up for the proper maintenance of Mani Karan. The authority should raise funds by imposing a toll tax. Mr Chander Sen (BJP) addressed the wider issue of preserving the ecologically fragile Himalayas and said it was high time a national agency was set up for the purpose on the pattern of the Ocean Development Authority. He said scientific data revealed significant changes in the environment over the past 50 years. For instance, the average annual snowfall in Kulu had declined from 12 feet in 1950 to 2 feet at present and the average temperature had shot up from 28°C over the period. The minimum temperature which plunged to —10°C now rarely fell below the 4°C mark. Mr G.S. Bali, Mr Lajja Ram and Mr Jaikrishan Sharma also participated in the debate. |
Drought wreaks havoc in Spiti
valley Shimla, August 22 Mr A.N. Vidyarthi former chief secretary and a member of the AICC, who toured the tribal area said here today that residents of the remote villages in the Spiti valley were facing hardships because of damage to their crops and lack of basic facilities. Fodder was not available in a number of villages. He said 11 of the 13 panchayats of the area were badly hit by the drought. The worst-affected villages were Hull, Pangmo, Khurik, Sumling, Kibber, Chicham, Kee, Langcha, Hikkam, Komic, Quiling, Demul, Lara, Lidang, Lalung, Rama, Telling, Chidang, Tagnam and Salling where 55 to 65 per cent crops were destroyed. Mr Vidyarthi said the economy of the farmers had been shattered as they were already reeling under the pressure of rise in the price of foodgrains, LPG and kerosene. He said Asia’s highest village, Komic (15,500 ft), was facing an acute shortage of fodder and the farmers there were planning to slaughter a number of their sheep. The farmers were critical of the government which had failed to provide any relief to them, he said. The telephone system was in shambles particularly in Kibber village and Kaza. Residents of the Pin valley were agitated because of erratic power supply. Many villages were receiving low voltage of electricity. Mr Vidyarthi said only one veterinary doctor was available in the entire Spiti valley for taking care of the entire livestock of about 10,300. All veterinary hospitals except the one at Kaza, were without veterinarians. He demanded that adequate funds should be provided for repairing water sources and supplying fodder in the area. |
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Noisy scenes in
Assembly Shimla, August 22 Heat was generated in the House during a question of Mr Yogendera Chandra (Cong) regarding encroachments in the demarcated forests in the state. While the reply to the main question was given by the Forests Minister, Mr Roop Singh, the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, intervened and made it clear that small encroachments on the land of the Revenue Department by the poor would only be regularised. There was no question of regularising encroachments on forest lands. Mr Virbhadra Singh, leader of the Opposition, said most encroachments in the Shimla town were in the forest areas. He accused the ruling BJP of making false promises to people of regularising these encroachments for which it had no powers. He said certain ministers had issued statements that about 5000 encorachments would be regularised here. Mr Dhumal said the Congress member was twisting the facts and there was no move to regularise the encroachments on the forest lands. He said the Congress was perturbed because the government had taken the popular decision. Mr Kaul Singh and Mr harsh Mahajan (Cong) pointed out that the number of encroachments was increasing and in many cases the authorities had provided water and electricity connections to the encroachers. Replying to the main question, the Forest Minister said about 263 hectares of demarcated protected forest area in the state had been encroached upon. He said encroachments on an area of 164 hectares in the reserved forests and 4982 hectares in unprotected forests had been reported. Action had been initiated to get the encroachments removed and in some cases eviction orders had been issued. While replying to a question of Mr Ram Lal Thakur (Cong), Mr Dhumal said the HPSEB had filed a petition before the Electricity Regulatory Commission for enhancing the power tariff. He said the commission would go through the objections which had been filed by various organisations and individuals against the proposed tariff hike and also grant public hearing before giving its decision. Thakur Ram Lal said domestic consumers would be burdened financially as the hike was being made applicable for them also. The power tariff had already been increased twice during the past two years. The copy of the petition placed on the table of the House by the Chief Minister indicates that the HPSEB has proposed to increase the domestic electricity supply to Rs 1.25 paise per unit for consumption between 1 and to 45 units, Rs 2.25 paise per unit for 46 — 300 units and Rs 2.90 for each unit above 300 units per month. |
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Cong misleading people:
ministers Shimla, August 22 Terming the charge as politically motivated the ministers, Mr Krishan Kapoor, Mr Ramesh Dhwala, Mr Vidya Sagar, Dr Rajan Sushant and Mr Ravinder Ravi, said the Congress leaders were issuing such statements to divert the attention of the people from the ongoing infighting within their party. They challenged the leaders to substantiate their allegations with facts and figures and said it was the Congress, which pushed back the Kangra district and other merged areas by its biased attitude while in power. The allegations that Mr Shanta Kumar, Union Minister, and Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, had not tried to
safeguard the interest of Kangra in the matter of development was misplaced. The ministers said the Congress did nothing for Vivekananda Medical College and deliberately delayed it on one pretext or the other. It failed to seek recognition from the Medical Council of India for this prestigious project and now the present government had earmarked land for this hospital and foundation stone would be laid soon. The ministers challenged the Congress leaders to give details of the funds spent by them under Nabard scheme in Shimla and Kangra districts. A regional office of the Central Underground Office had been opened at Dharamshala by the present government. Besides this the office of the Sales Tax Tribunals had also started functioning. Referring to development works undertaken in Kangra district during past three years, they said 30 bridges were constructed, 40 villages connected with motorable roads and 31 roads were constructed under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna at a cost of Rs 13 crore. They said 29 roads were under construction under Nabard and 18 roads were named after the Kargil martyrs. The ministers further added that Rs 16 crore were spent on construction works in Tanda Medical College at Kangra besides upgrading of primary health centres of Rehan, Jainsinghpur and Nagrota Surian. The development works included the Sidhartha irrigation scheme, Khauli and Neogal projects, opening of a regional centre of Himachal Pradesh University at Dharamshala and starting law classes. They said the Congress while in power failed to make any headway towards setting up a mini secretariat at Dharamshala but the present government had started its work in which provisions of 12 rooms were being made for the ministers. The ministers said Rs 17 crore sewerage project was underway at Dharamshala. The work on Rs 143 crore Shah Nahar project had started and Rs 9 crore sewerage project had been launched in Jawalamukhi besides providing water supply scheme for 550 left out villages. They further said long standing problem of Khudro Drakhtan of land owners of Kangra district had been solved and 51,000 kisan pass books distributed in Kangra alone. |
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Threat to safety
of kids: parents march to House Shimla, August 22 The school has been closed following the collapse of the retaining wall on August 14 which demanded the primary section. The retaining wall was constructed by the CPWD only a month ago. The authorities have closed the school as the building is unsafe and about six trees are posing a threat to it. |
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‘Official apathy’ forces closure of school Shimla, August 22 Mr Roy said he had recommended to the Commissioner of the Kendriya Vidayalaya Organisation to get the matter inquired as inferior quality material appears to have been used for construction of the wall. The school has been closed as a couple of trees near the school are posing a danger to the students due to the collapse of the retaining wall. Parents alleged that the Municipal Corporation authorities were dilly-dallying the matter of cutting those trees thereby endangering the safety of the students. The Minister for Horticulture, Mr Narendera Bragta, who is the local MLA, visited the school today to assess the situation following his meeting with the parents yesterday. He ordered the municipal authorities to immediately cut the trees which were precariously hanging over the school. Mr Roy said he might order reopening of the school on Monday if the trees were removed. |
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Bill on shamlat lands
introduced Shimla, August 22 The Bill seeks to make a provision for the review of the Himachal Pradesh Village Common Lands Vesting and Utilisation Act to pave the way for returning the shamlat lands which were taken over by the government from the original owners in 1974. So far there was no provision of review in the Act. The amendment would enable the government to review the takeover of shamlat lands and restore these to their owners. A large number of individual owners of such lands will be benefited following the passage of the Bill by the House. The BJP had in its manifesto promised to return the shamlat lands to their owners. The Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, had also made an announcement in this regard recently. The state government had appointed a committee to comprehensively review land laws of the state, including the Common Lands Act. A committee of officers of the Revenue Department was appointed to study the recommendations of the high-powered committee and recommended amendment of the Act. It is learnt that a large number of people in the entire state, particularly in the districts of Kangra, Hamirpur, Una, Kulu, parts of Solan and Shimla will benefit with the restoration of their shamlat lands. The Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, introduced a Bill to amend Section 10 of the Himachal Pradesh Courts Act 1976 to enhance the pecuniary original jurisdiction of the district courts from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The House passed the Himachal Pradesh Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2001, which provides for adopting the Punjab pattern of tax leviable on commercial vehicles. The Bill was piloted by the Transport Minister, Mr K.K. Kapoor. |
VHP bandh
hits life in Shimla Shimla, August 22 All shops and business establishments on The Mall, Lower Bazaar and other parts of the town remained closed in protest against the efforts of certain people to hush up the incident. Tourists faced problems as all restaurants were also closed in the town. The call for the bandh was given by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and various other organisations. The VHP has rejected the authorities claim that the cows had died due to poisoning. They also rejected the post-mortem report of the local veterinary doctors. A team of veterinary experts from Palampur university have now been asked to examine the dead cows and submit their report. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr P.C. Katoch, said the report of the university experts was expected in 15 days. Meanwhile, Mr K.S. Dhaliwal, retired IGP, has in a statement claimed that communal colour was being given to the incident by certain political parties. |
BJP flays
Cong leaders over user charges issue Mandi, August 22 Talking to newspersons, he said during the past over three years the Dhumal government had taken initiative to harness power potential of the state despite financial restraints. The Malana project has been executed before the scheduled time and the work was being taken up on a war-footing on Larji and other projects. Mr Datt alleged that the ongoing financial crisis was due to the wrong policies of the previous government which had misled the Ninth Finance Commission by showing squeezed figures of loss whereby the financial assistance to the state from the Centre was withheld. |
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Ultra sneaking into Himachal arrested Dharamsala, August 22 Chamba Deputy Superintendent of Police Ranjana Choudhary yesterday said Latif was arrested by the Chamba police on August 13 while he was trying to sneak into Himachal Pradesh, hiding within a group of pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir. Latif, a resident of Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, was allegedly involved in terrorist activities in Kehaar sector in 1993. Ms Choudhary said after being arrested, Latif tried to conceal his identity but later confessed that he had spent one-and-a-half years in various jails in Himachal earlier. She said the state police was in touch with the SSP, Doda. The police suspects that Latif had plans to lead militants in the hilly terrains of Kehaar sector. They said a team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police was reaching Chamba to interrogate Latif. No arms and ammunition were, however, found in his possession.
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Widow of IAF officer awaits
justice Hamirpur, August 22 Mrs Kamlesh Kumari has a son and a daughter. Her husband had rendered more than 35 years of service in the Air Force as the RGM (OED). The Air Force authorities have not yet released the family pension, gratuity or any other allowance to the family of the deceased even after five years of his death. A recent letter written by Mr Raj Kumar, son of the deceased, to the Cabinet Secretariat (Public Grievances) has also not helped. The Under Secretary to the Government of India (Cabinet Secretariat) has said that complaint/representation has been transferred to the department concerned as it is outside their purview. The family of the former Air Force personnel is upset over the shabby treatment being meted out to them by the Air Force authorities, the Ministry of Defence and the Union Government. Mrs Kamlesh Kumari says the government talks much about helping and rehabilitating the kith and kin of the armed forces personnel but nothing has been done in her case. She has also written to the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister. |
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Industry
opposes move to hike power tariff Nahan, August 22 Stating the present proposal of tariff hike as most unjustified, it has said the reasonable electricity charges which are prevalent now are the only basis for the survival of the industries. If the tariff is increased all industries which are already on the verge of collapse would crumble down. The KCCI said as regard to the cost of production, comparison of Himachal Pradesh should not be done with Punjab and Haryana. |
Former Miss India not to act in
films Hamirpur, August 22 She said she was interested in modelling right since her childhood “I first took part in year 1996, but failed in 1998, I again took part in the Miss India contest and I got through. She said that it was due to grace of God and love of her parents that she became Miss India. Miss Thomas who hails from Agra, said she was proud of India’s culture and believed in maintaining the old culture of India. About the growing impact of fashion on he Indian women, she said fashion never taught to adopt wrong culture. It was a way and means to move forward by adorning good clothes. She praised the people of Himachal Pradesh for their
hospitality. She said that she would visit Himachal Pradesh for 10 days in November. |
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Strike hits IGMC
functioning Shimla, August 22 The call for the strike was given by the Resident Doctors Association. Emergency services remained suspended and the working of OPDs was also affected. The doctors are demanding implementation of the agreement arrived with them by the government in December. They warned that their agitation will be intensified if their demands were not met. |
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70 suffer from enteritis in two villages Kangra, August 22 The Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Dr Naresh Kumar Laath, said medical teams along with the Block Medical Officer, Dr V.K. Mahajan, had rushed to the villages. Twenty two patients at Thana Bargalan and at 28 Kholu had been administered medicine. Chlorine tablets had been distributed and the sources of drinking water in both villages chlorinated. He said all patients were out of danger. No death was reported from any part of the sub-division. |
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Man burnt alive in furniture shop
fire Solan, August 22 The cause of the fire could not be ascertained and the police remained clueless about the identity of the man whose charred body was recovered from a corner of the basement of the gutted building. The shop owner, Mr Naveen Bhakroo, in an FIR lodged with the sadar police station, said he had locked his shop at about 8.30 p.m. yesterday after checking that none of his employees was inside the building. He said he had no clue about the charred body found inside his shop, adding that all his employees were safe. Mr Bhakroo said he received information about the fire in his shop, at 2.15 a.m. He found the whole building engulfed in flames when he rushed there. Eight firemen battled the flames for more than two hours before overcoming the fire. There was criticism that the fire brigade reached the scene of the fire more than half an hour after receiving the information. The fire station is virtually a stones throw away from the building. The nearby municipal hydrants were found dry and the tanker of the fire engine had to be filled from a distant source. It is learnt that the District Magistrate has suspended an official of the Fire Department following complaints of laxity in fighting the fire. The Additional SP, Mr Sunder Lal, said he suspected foul play behind the incident. A case under Section 43, IPC has been registered. |
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Impostor
arrested Nurpur, August 22 The man, a resident of Pathankot, reportedly took Rs 150 as gratification from a shopkeeper and started collecting money from other shops. One of the shopkeepers who spotted liquor bottle in his clothes, suspected his identity. The shopkeepers beat him up and let him go after he sought pardon and returned the money. The police caught him at Harnora Ghat while he was consuming liquor and arrested him under Sections 41 and 109 of IPC. |
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Girl drowned at Jaisinghpur Jaisinghpur, August 22 According to the pradhan, Bandana along with another girl of the village had gone to take a dip at the sangam on the occasion of Haritalika. She slipped into the Neugal and was carried away into the Beas. The body of the deceased had not been retrieved till the filing of the report. Ms Chandresh Kumari, Rajya Sabha MP and president of the All-India Mahila Congress, had expressed shock over the incident. |
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