H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Panchen Lama issue raised ‘ineffectively’
Dharamsala, April 5
Condemning China’s politics of “reincarnation”, Ms Mary Beth Markey, Director, International Campaign for Tibet, said today that a more vigorous campaign would be launched for the release of the Panchen Lama.

2 family courts for Himachal likely
Kangra, April 5
The recommendations of the HP State Commission for Women to set up two family courts in the state have been accepted by the high court and the state government and Law Minister Arun Jaitley has assured the commission that the state will have two family courts out of the 34 proposed to be opened in various states.

Vigilance in search of Cong legislator
Shimla, April 5
After having established tampering of revenue records in the Dalhousie landgrab case, the Vigilance Department is on the look out for Ms Asha Kumari, a Congress legislator for interrogation.

Ammonia killed fish
Baddi, April 5
An abnormally high concentration of ammonia in the Sirsa river, 40 km from here, led to the death of a large number of fish on March 7. Being a toxic effluent of industrial units its concentration was found to be as high as 549 mg/litre in small ponds, where the incident occurred.

Effluent treatment plant for Baddi
Baddi, April 5
With a formation of a committee to overlook the installation of a common effluent treatment plant in this industrial belt comprising Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh, there is a ray of hope that the long-standing problem of the pollution in this area may be solved.

MC’s tax collection misses target
Shimla, April 5
The Shimla Municipal Corporation has not been able to meet the target with regard to collection of taxes from various sources in the town. According to sources, the SMC had to collect Rs 8.87 crore from different sources but only Rs 2.88 crore were realised till December, last year.

HVC rules out pre-poll alliance
Nahan, April 5
A district-level conference of workers of the Himachal Vikas Congress was held here at Kisan Bhavan today. Leaders in their address made it clear that the HVC would not enter a pre election alliance with its present ally the BJP or any other political party.

7-yr-term for raping aunt
Shimla, April 5
The Himachal High Court has enhanced the sentence of Shiv Lal, accused of raping his 60-year-old maternal aunt. Mr Justice Kamlesh Sharma has sentenced the accused to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined him Rs 5000.

Power board men hold rally
Shimla, April 5
Members of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Employees Union today held a rally at the Vidyut Bhavan in protest against the failure of the management of the board to meet their demands.

Leopard victim’s kin to get Rs 1 lakh
Mandi, April 5
A sum of Rs 1 lakh would be given as compensation to the parents of the Hans Raj (9), who was killed by a leopard at Rachhwana village of Talyarh panchayat in Tungal valley of the district on Wednesday.

Panchen Lama issue raised ‘ineffectively’
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, April 5
Condemning China’s politics of “reincarnation”, Ms Mary Beth Markey, Director, International Campaign for Tibet, said today that a more vigorous campaign would be launched for the release of the Panchen Lama.

Interacting with mediapersons, Ms Markey, who heads the government relations wing of the campaign and has been instrumental in passing of a number of laws in the US Congress on Tibet, said they would step up their efforts to ensure the release of the Panchen Lama, who happened to be the youngest political prisoner.

“The issue of the release of the Panchen Lama is a very complicated matter as he is one person who can play a crucial role in shaping the future of Tibet and China would obviously not want to set him free,” she said.

Admitting that they had failed in raising the issue effectively, she said this year they hoped to pursue the matter by putting more pressure on China on an international level. She added that the release of three political prisoners by China recently was perhaps not indicative of a sea change in the Chinese thinking but at least they had responded.

Elaborating on the US administration’s new policy on Tibet, she said: “ The US administration now has a much more fundamental connection with Tibet and President Bush does not have superficial but deep personal concerns for the issue of Tibet.” She added that the Clinton administration on its part had domestic political concerns and even the Chinese had managed to handle it on the issue of Tibet.

2 family courts for Himachal likely
Our Correspondent

Kangra, April 5
The recommendations of the HP State Commission for Women to set up two family courts in the state have been accepted by the high court and the state government and Law Minister Arun Jaitley has assured the commission that the state will have two family courts out of the 34 proposed to be opened in various states.

Stating this at a meet-the-Press programme here yesterday, the Chairperson of the commission, Ms Malvika Pathania, said women would get speedy justice through these courts which would be headed by a woman judge. She said there were 85 family courts in the country but Delhi and Himachal had none.

She said the commission would hold a two-day regional tribal conference in Kangra next month in collaboration with the National Commission of Women. It would be attended by tribal women from J & K, Uttaranchal, Haryana and UP.

She said Kangra district was leading in crime against women in the state with 199 cases reported out of 638. She said 321 cases had been disposed of and the remaining were being processed. She said the NCW had sanctioned a helpline at the women police cell at Dharamsala.

The commission was taking up the issue of Purana Kangra where women were agitating against the setting up of a liquor vend. She said the commission had issued 25 suo motu notices in the past nine months.

Vigilance in search of Cong legislator
Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 5
After having established tampering of revenue records in the Dalhousie landgrab case, the Vigilance Department is on the look out for Ms Asha Kumari, a Congress legislator for interrogation.

A case was registered last year against Mr Brijender Singh, husband of Ms Asha Kumari, for manipulating the revenue records in connivance with officials to illegally retain the land which had been vested in the government under the Land Ceiling Act. Besides, Mr Brijender Singh, who belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Chamba, six officials were also booked. He was charged with illegally retaining 67 bighas by way of fake tenants, “forged wills’ and general power of attorney.

Mr Ajit Narain, Additional Director-General of Police, confirmed that the report of the state forensic science laboratory had confirmed that the revenue records in various offices had been tampered with to introduce five tenants, years after the land had been vested in the government in 1976. In some cases, full pages had been replaced to achieve this.

The will and power of attorney of the five tenants, all domestic servants of the royal family, used to transfer the land in the name of Mr Brijender Singh were also found to be forged. Arjun Singh, one of the tenants, had denied having signed the will. This had been confirmed by the report of handwriting experts which indicated that signatures on the will were not that of Arjun Singh.

Similarly, the general power of attorney of another tenant, Piar Singh, in the name of Ms Asha Kumari was also forged.

The third tenant, Narbada Devi, whose thumb impression was used, told the police that she never put her thumb impression on any document and always used signatures. This was also confirmed by forensic experts. Two other tenants Behmi Ram and Nand Lal, whose power attorney were used, had died.

The modus operandi was that the surplus land vested in the government was transferred in the name of these persons by creating fake tenancies. Thereafter, their forged will and general power of attorney were used to get the land transferred in the name of Mr Brijender Kumar.

Ammonia killed fish
Our Correspondent

Baddi, April 5
An abnormally high concentration of ammonia in the Sirsa river, 40 km from here, led to the death of a large number of fish on March 7. Being a toxic effluent of industrial units its concentration was found to be as high as 549 mg/litre in small ponds, where the incident occurred. The concentration of dissolved oxygen is as low as 2.5 mg/litre in the river between the stretch downstream of Sandholi Nullah and upstream of Housing Board Colony. This has been identified as one of the causes of fish death here.

Following this, the Chairman of the State Pollution Control Board, Dr Rajeev Bindal, has ordered the disconnection of electricity supply to one unit at Baddi which uses these organic compounds as raw materials. In addition to this, surveillance has also been intensified to identify other such units which could have spilt this organic compound into the water bodies.

For rainbow trout fish a limit of 0.97 mg per litre of ammonia concentration is considered safe. But its concentration was found to be much higher in the water bodies here. The report released by the Member Secretary, Pollution Control Board, Mr Nagin Nanda, points out that the white mass found on both banks of Sirsa, downstream of Sandholi Nullah in a stretch of about half-a-kilometre where the dead fish were found was identified as poly-acrylonitrile, which is a polymer compound. Formed as an intermediate compound of polymerisation, these substances are reported to have moderately dangerous to very dangerous aquatic toxicity. The release of these acrylic compounds into the aquatic environs could have resulted in fish mortality and also formation of a polymerised whitish substance that was found on the banks of Sirsa.

In addition to this, a high concentration of ammonia has also been reported at upstream of Sandholi Nullah, which shows a subsequent dilution downstream.

A high-powered team comprising senior officers of pollution control board had conducted intensive field inspections and sampling of water bodies to ascertain the cause of fish mortality on March 7 by the Chairman, Pollution Control Board, after being informed of the incident. Various samples collected by the officers were sent for an analysis to the Central Laboratory, Parwanoo; Central Pollution Control Laboratory, New Delhi; Entomology Laboratory, YS Parmar University, Nauni, near Solan and Himachal Pradesh University to explore the various analysis.

In addition to this, raids were conducted by the team at night to assess the functioning and efficacy of the various effluent treatment plants installed in various industrial units. An on-the-spot inspection of the affected sites by these officials on the day of the incident had led to the recovery of a white sticky substance with a pungent odour, resembling ammonia. An analysis of the dead fish was also conducted at the various laboratories.

This was the fifth incident of fish death in the area in the past year. While two incidents were found to be the result of cyanide and pesticide release by industrial units, two others were found to have been caused by local miscreants by administering bleaching powder to the fish. Following this incident, the department has stepped up its resolve to set up a common effluent treatment plant in the region.

Effluent treatment plant for Baddi
Our Correspondent

Baddi, April 5
With a formation of a committee to overlook the installation of a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) in this industrial belt comprising Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh, there is a ray of hope that the long-standing problem of the pollution in this area may be solved. The decision was reached at a day-long workshop organised by the HP State Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board.

The industrialists have agreed, in principle, to form a committee comprising 11 members to look after the functioning and installation of the CETP.

The Chairman of the State Pollution Control Board, Dr Rajeev Bindal stated that despite the directive role entrusted to their department, it wanted to build a consensus of the industrialists here to install a CETP.

Member Secretary of HP State Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board, Mr Nagin Nanda, while expressing concern over the problem of pollution in the region stated that unscientific disposal of waste, both human and industrial, had given rise to the problem.

He said the state government had already sanctioned a sum of Rs 2.25 crore for the project, along with selecting a 30-bigha site for setting up this plant. He urged the industrialists to lent their full support for this project by pooling in the remaining 1 crore required for the project. The project envisages solving at least 70 per cent of the pollution problem in the region.

The additional deputy commissioner, Mr S.C. Kalsotra welcomed the decision of the industrialists to form a company for the setting up of CETP and said that the government had already earmarked 30 bigha of land for the purpose.

The workshop was attended by at least 60 industrialists, environmentalists, officials from the Housing Board irrigation and electricity departments.

MC’s tax collection misses target
Our Correspondent

Shimla, April 5
The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has not been able to meet the target with regard to collection of taxes from various sources in the town. According to sources, the SMC had to collect Rs 8.87 crore from different sources but only Rs 2.88 crore were realised till December, last year.

The sources pointed out that the collection of Rs 3.89 crore as general tax was pending and an additional arrear of Rs 3.95 crore had accumulated during the current financial year. The corporation had earned Rs 2.30 crore from taxes during has financial year and Rs 5.54 crore were balance payments.

The previous balance payments of sewerage tax is Rs 9.6 lakh and for the current year it is Rs 30.46. The corporation has earned Rs 18.20 lakh and Rs 21.32 lakh is the balance payment till December, last year.

The corporation has only collected Rs 1,100 from show tax and Rs 5.40 are the balance payments while Rs 2.83 lakh is the previous balance and Rs 2.58 lakh is the demand for the current year.

The SMC has to collect Rs 2.41 lakh as water tax. Rupees 35,000 had been collected by the corporation till December, 2001. No taxes have been collected from the sale of liquor and Rs 10.4 lakh remains as the balance payment. Similarly Rs 10 lakh is the balance payment of electricity tax.

It is learnt that the corporation is adopting a soft corner attitude for collecting taxes although it has been facing financial crunch for the past many years.

HVC rules out pre-poll alliance
Our Correspondent

Nahan, April 5
A district-level conference of workers of the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) was held here at Kisan Bhavan today.

Leaders in their address made it clear that the HVC would not enter a pre election alliance with its present ally the BJP or any other political party.

Among others, Mr Dhani Ram Shandil, MP, Mr Anil Sharma, MP, Mr Ram Lal Markenday, Animal Husbandry and PWD Minister of State and Executive President of the HVC, Mr Vijay Kumar Joshi, also addressed the workers.

Later they addressed a press conference in the Circuit House and charged the state government with ignoring Sirmour district in the field of development. They also opposed the taxes, including the users charges levied by the Government.

7-yr-term for raping aunt
Our Legal Correspondent

Shimla, April 5
The Himachal High Court has enhanced the sentence of Shiv Lal, accused of raping his 60-year-old maternal aunt.

Mr Justice Kamlesh Sharma has sentenced the accused to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined him Rs 5000. While enhancing the sentence Mr Justice Kamlesh Sharma observed that though for some reasons mentioned in the judgement less punishment could be awarded but “in view of the pious relation between the accused and the victim, the accused deserved maximum punishment for committing such heinous, gruesome and shameful act with his maternal aunt, who is like his mother”.

The prosecution alleged that on December 19, 2000 the victim was all alone in her house when the accused came there and committed the crime.

Power board men hold rally
Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 5
Members of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Employees Union today held a rally at the Vidyut Bhavan in protest against the failure of the management of the board to meet their demands.

The union leaders came down heavily on the government and the board management for not holding a dialogue with it and interfering in the trade union activities. Meanwhile, the board of trustees of the HPSEB Employees Benevolent Fund Scheme has decided to grant Rs 50,000 and immediate relief to the next of kin in case of death of an employee.

Leopard victim’s kin to get Rs 1 lakh
Our Correspondent

Mandi, April 5
A sum of Rs 1 lakh would be given as compensation to the parents of the Hans Raj (9), who was killed by a leopard at Rachhwana village of Talyarh panchayat in Tungal valley of the district on Wednesday.

Stating this here today Mr Vineet Kumar, DFO, said he visited the site yesterday and paid Rs 25,000 on the spot and the balance would be paid within a week or so.