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Friday,
September 28, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Himachal may allow
casino
HP to Haryana: you check
our buses, we check yours HPAU project on dry
flowers Panel fails to decide on Forest Dept
chief
Board’s indifference makes students suffer
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Resurrecting dying art
forms Ganagughat bus mishap toll
rises to four Unclaimed body given to MC Gandhi Smriti offers peace course
at Solan varsity 4 sentenced for rape
Tourism Week opens in HP Blind association stages
dharna Angling contest from Oct 13
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Himachal may allow
casino Shimla, September 27 It is learnt that the state government is exploring the possibility of setting up a casino and some concrete proposal might be formulated in the next two to three months. The government is in touch with a Canada-based Indian, Mr Atam Uppal, an expert in casinos. He might be asked to prepare a detailed report for the project. The casino might be set up in Solan district somewhere near Chandigarh or in Sirmaur district which is nearer to Ambala and Yamunanagar. Mr Ashok Thakur, Secretary, Tourism, said that it might not be difficult to fetch international investment for such a project. He said that the scheme was still at an exploratory stage and a decision on the matter would be taken by the Cabinet. The state government will have to amend its gambling act in case it gives a green signal to the project. The government might have to give only land for setting up the casino and the investment part will be taken care of by the private party which is awarded the casino on the basis of international bids. Haryana is also reportedly exploring the idea of setting up a casino somewhere around Surajkund which was already attracting tourists from Delhi. Goa has an offshore casino.
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HP to Haryana: you check
our buses, we check yours Shimla, September 27 The decision was taken at a minister-level meeting held here today. While the transport officers of Haryana will check the buses of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation, their Himachal counterparts would check the Haryana Roadways buses. The transport officers of both states will meet every three months to sort out problems, if any. It was also decided in the meeting that a new time-table for plying of buses will be chalked out keeping in view the interest of both the states. It was agreed that the both the states would avoid unhealthy competition as it led to more accidents. It was also decided in principle that vehicles of both the states would not be challaned and in cases of violation of rules by drivers and conductors the complaints would be made directly to the department. Mr Krishan Kapoor, the Himachal Transport Minister said an agreement was signed between the two states as early as 1993. The transport activity had increased manifold since, but there had been no amendment to the agreement. Mr Ashok Arora, Transport Minister, Haryana, said Mr Om Prakash Chautala, was in favour of maintaining cordial relations with Himachal Pradesh.
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HPAU
project on dry
flowers PALAMPUR: Flowers are associated with the mankind from the dawn of civilisation and in the modern era these have become an integral part of human life. After the government’s liberalisation policy, the export of flowers has gone up from Rs 14.5 crore in 1991 to Rs 116.7 crore last year. Among the flowers exported are cut-flowers, dry flower, live plants and bulbs. It is an established fact that the Himalayas are rich in plant wealth comprising a variety of ornamental trees, shrubs, climbers, herbaceous, fleshy fungi, ferns, lichens, and sellaginellas found in a wild or naturalised state. Many ornamental parts of these plants have fascinated tourists, naturalists and flower lovers. These plants can be retained as cut-flowers or cut foliage for a longer duration and can be seen by those who are not able to visit the Himalayan region and remain deprived of their beauty. It is a sad state of affairs that no efforts have been made to exploit this field. However, the Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University (HPAU) has made a beginning and its scientists are busy in these days a project “Alternatives in floriculture”. Dr Des Raj, an assistant professor in the Department of Floriculture of HPAU says that as per the statistics available a major part of exports pertains to dry flowers. He says the USA, Japan and other European countries are the principal flower markets of India. Although the dry flower production is the smaller component of Indian floriculture industry, the demand for these products has significantly increased all over world in five years. Dr Des Raj says the main reason for the high demand of dry flowers is that of its beauty, fresh look and its foliage can be maintained from months to years with less labour and cost, whereas in the case of fresh flowers, its fresh look and foliage can be retained for a few days using the best possible techniques of post-harvest technology. The floriculture department here has taken up a first ever floriculture ad hoc project on dry flowers with assistance from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Under this project, foliage of dry flowers, fruit and seeds are being used in preparing bouquets, flower balls, wall scenarios and greeting cards. Such decorations are sold at tourist places and to companies earning high profits in this trade. Dr Tej Partap Kaushal, Vice-Chancellor of HPAU says that there is a lot of potential for dry flower products from the bio-diversity of the Himalayan region, which can provide ample employment avenues to the rural youth and women. He says the university will impart training to rural youth and women and made a plea to farmers to go for training and demonstrations in dry-flower production to improve their socio-economic standard. |
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Panel fails to decide on Forest Dept
chief Shimla, September 27 The committee comprising Mr Harsh Gupta, Chief Secretary, Mr Avay Shukla, Financial Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Forests, and Mr S.C. Sharma, Additional Director-General of Forests, representing the Centre, considered the cases of six officers for promotion to the post of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests. However, the committee could not complete the proceedings due to difference of opinion among the members. The Centre’s representative left for New Delhi without even signing the minutes of the meeting. While Mr Sharma was of the view that Mr Pankaj Khullar, senior most officer holding the charge of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, was fit for promotion, the state representatives wanted that a panel of names be forwarded to the government for making a final choice. This was reportedly not acceptable to Mr Sharma, who maintained that a panel could be drawn only if a post was likely to fall vacant over the next year or the new incumbent to be selected had less than a year to go. After deliberations, the committee decided to seek the opinion of Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, before taking a final decision. However, the Chief Minister could not be contacted till late in the evening and Mr Sharma had no option but to leave for Delhi. The matter will now be decided by Mr Dhumal. In case he agrees with Mr Sharma’s view, then the officer recommended by him would be appointed but in case he disagrees and favours a panel, then a DPC meeting will have to be convened again for the purpose. Besides Mr Khullar, Mr R.A. Singh, Chief Conservator of Forests (Headquarters), who is next to him in seniority, has emerged as a contender for the post. There are, four other officers. Mr K.K. Gupta, who is on Central deputation, Mr A.C. Karwasra, Chief Conservator (Protection), Mr A.L. Sharma, Chief Conservator, Sanjhi Van Yojna, and Mr O.P. Sharma, Managing Director of the State Forest Corporation, in line for promotion to the post. Mr Harsh Gupta, when contacted, said there were definite rules and guidelines for conducting the DPC and full record of the officers in consideration was taken into account. He said the deliberations of the committee were a confidential affair and could not be divulged. The post of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests has been lying vacant since August 12 when Mr S.K. Pande proceeded on Central deputation and took over as the Director-General of Forests. |
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Board’s indifference makes students suffer Kulu, September 27 This was stated by one of the examinees, Vishal Sood, here today in a press note. Sood said he appeared for the trained graduate teachers test held on September 23 at Hamirpur by the board. The question booklet supplied to him did not have questions from serial number 77 to 82, though the booklet pages were in order. He said the question booklet number 3898 with godo number 0-614 (B-series) was given to him and after attempting 77 questions he found out that some of questions were missing. He said he reported the matter to the invigilator who changed his question booklet after 10 minutes. This time to his surprise there were many questions which had been repeated in the question booklet. His requests were turned down by the invigilators for consideration of extra time. They told him to contact the HPSSSB officials, but to his astonishment none of the officials were available, neither at the examination centre nor at the board’s office. This correspondent contacted the Under Secretary of the board at Hamirpur, who said the board had authorised the Superintendent of the examination centres to change sheets if any discrepancy arose and they were also authorised to consider genuine demands of the examinees. He further said the affected examinees should have continued with the same question booklet and tallied the questions with the new booklet. When asked whether the board would consider grace marks for the lapse, the Under Secretary asked the correspondent to contact the Chairman of the board. The chairman was not available for his comments. However, the Under Secretary did confirm that there was no such provision of grace marks.  |
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Resurrecting dying art
forms Banikhet, September 27 Catching up with Gopal at the symposium on Asian performing arts here was quite an experience. A kathakali expert, he pioneered kutiyattam’s resurrection. He explained, “An art form so magnificently refined and so well-created by a great intellectual and artistic tradition could not be left to die.” Legendary 84-year-old Ammannur Chakiyar, whose lineage goes back to four centuries, and Kapila, Gopal’s daughter, the youngest kutiyattam performer in the world, were also present. Kutiyattam’s revival began in 1977 when Gopal sought the blessings of Chakiyar to bring the form back to life and took training from the guru. Later, he established a kutiyattam institute called Ammannur Chachu Chakiyar Smaraka Gurukulam in Irinjalakuda. He demonstrated the art in Japan and Europe. Not a man of many words, Gopal believes in the art of mimetic expression (the abhinaya). It was this belief which gave him success in his first project — the Natana Kairalai, an organisation formed in 1975 to revive languishing art forms like natakam, patayani and mudiyettu. Last year saw the realisation of his another dream — the establishment of Abhinaya Kalari or the international acting laboratory. Informed Venu, “Set up as a wing of Natana Kairali, the Kalari envisages a holistic, inter-disciplinary research in all departments of abhinaya (mimetic expression) at a pan-Asian level.” Gopal is also working to revive the traditional puppet theatre of Kerala like Pavakathakali and Tolpavakoothu. He has already taken this theatre to international puppet festivals in Tashkent, Poland, Japan, Greece, Holland, Spain and many more countries. Dedicated to keeping the art forms fresh, Venu believes, “Audiences should not just witness these traditions. They should be helped to understand them. When any performing art changes context, it needs to renew itself to remain relevant.” His current role is that of an expert member of the Unesco pilot project on the preservation and promotion of performing arts in Asia and the Pacific, originally, however, he is a man of kathakali. He learnt the form as an 11-year-old from Kerrickattu Sankara Pillai. “I continued learning the form in Vishwa Kala Kendra and later studied its Southern system,” he added. Gopal’s work titled “Alphabet of gestures in kathakali,” received the Kerala Sangeet Nataka Akademi award in 1977. |
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Ganagughat bus mishap toll
rises to four Solan, September 27 The deceased have been identified as Tulsi Ram, son of Goria Ram, Ganagughat, Paras Ram, son of Dalu Ram of Sainj, Arki, Babu Ram of Chand Pur Bakhalag, Arki Tehsil and Nand Lal, son of Dila Ram of Kaselu P.O. Mangu, Arki Tehsil. Mr S.Z.H. Zaidi, SP, said preliminary inquiries had revealed that the bus was plying on the wrong side when a maxi cab suddenly came from the opposite direction. The driver in an attempt to avoid a head on collision steered the bus further towards the side of khud when it rolled down. The driver Nikku Ram Bilaspur had been arrested.
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Unclaimed body given to MC Dharamsala, September 27 The hospital authorities handed over her body to the local Municipal Committee for cremation. She had been admitted to the hospital here on March 14 last year with a major fracture in the leg. She was brought to the hospital by the Shahpur police, who had found her lying injured on the roadside after being hit by a vehicle. Being one of the longest inmates of the hospital, Lajjo Devi had become a part of the hospital as she had no one to look after her. The Medical Superintendent said Lajjo Devi was not in a sound state of mind. Her fracture had not healed completely. She continued to suffer from various ailments.
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Gandhi Smriti offers peace course at Solan varsityTribune News Service New Delhi, September 27 In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the university, the Gandhi Peace and Darshan Samiti has said the programme will commence intially from Delhi on October 2, 2001, and later from different identified centres. The letter says the samiti will identify the resource persons locally from among experienced Gandhian scholars.
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4 sentenced for rape Dharamsala, September 27 The accused have been convicted under Sections 341, 342 and 376 (G) of the IPC and 3 (XI) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. It was on July 7, 1999, that a Harijan girl was taken by two of the accused to an orchard and raped. Later, in the night she was taken to another place and raped by the accused.
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Tourism Week
opens in HP Shimla, September 27 The opening of the week-long celebrations was organised on the World Tourism Day by the HP Hotels and Restaurants Association. An exhibition on the heritage of Shimla, photography competition, painting, fancy dress show and flower show are some of the programmes which will be organised during the week. Mr Suraj Bhan laid emphasis on involvement of private sector in tourism. Mr M.K. Seth, president of the association, and Mr V.C. Pharka, Director, Tourism, were also present on the occasion. |
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Blind association stages
dharna Shimla, September 13 The police forcibly removed the agitators to clear the traffic. Mr Sobhu Ram, president of the association, said Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, had promised to provide jobs to 19 qualified blind persons by June 15, but nothing had been done in this regard so far. He said Mr Dhumal had agreed to appoint them against 1 per cent quota. At present, there was a backlog and 499 posts were vacant. The number of the blind persons eligible for jobs in the state was only 266 and as such all of them could be given jobs. However, the government seemed reluctant to do so. The blind were taken to the nearby Chhota Shimla police station where the Additional Director Welfare, held talks with them. He assured them the government was sincere about implementing their demands. It was decided that the representative of the association would hold another meeting with the Director on their demands.
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Angling contest from Oct 13 Mandi, September 27 A spokesman for the angling association said the site of the competition would be the confidence of the two rivers. He said the competition would be unique because anglers of trout would converge from all parts of the country to take part in it. The participants would have to get themselves registered at Larji before the scheduled dates and get the requisite licenses from the Department of Fisheries.
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