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Sunday,
October 27, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Paragliding gets off with IAF men’s show Afforestation project for
Salooni, Tissa The neglect of a ‘kasba’ In dire need of radiologist Renovation of Pucca Tank begins |
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RMS building inaugurated ABVP
plans rally on job policy
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Paragliding
gets off with IAF men’s show Dharamsala, October 26 Earlier dare-Devils of Indian Air Force gave spectacular show of free fall from an Air Force helicopter in which a couple also participated. Squadron Leader Vasant Raj and his wife Flight Lieutenant Bhawna Raj are with the IAF and paragliding enthusiasts. In all 34 paragliders, including 23 professionals from foreign countries and 11 from India are participating in the competition. As many as 67 entries were received but some opted out of the competition as Billing is considered one of the toughest, but enchanting take off site. Six youths from Himachal are also participating in the professional as well as amateur competition being organised under the guidance of International Paragliding Association. On the first day the paragliders participated in Race and Return even in which after taking off the paragliders had to go up to Palampur and return to touch point at Mata Maheshwari top and land at Bir. According to Mr Sanjeev Gupta, Director, Tourism and one of the organisers, taking the wind speed into account, the paragliders were expected to cover 42 km at a speed of 21 km an hour. He said other events, include Cross-Country race, solo and tandem Paragliding. He said the event would be decided every morning after taking into account the weather condition. The Himachal Chief Minister assured the participants that the government make sure that facilities of international standard were provided at Billing and Bir to promote the adventure sport to attract foreign and Indian tourists to Himachal. He said efforts were on to hold World para-Gliding Championship next year at Billing and observers of the world body were supervising the preworld even to assess for whether facilities for the world championship could be created here or not. He said Bir Billing road was being built with NABARD assistance and an aero-sports hostel at Bir had been completed at a cost of Rs 25 lakh. Two more rooms are being added to the existing forest rest house at Billing for use by para-gliders and trekkers. The Chief Minister said that Himachal had given a lead in sports adventure like water sports, trekking and paragliding. He said adventure sports could provide employment to youths at an investment which was less compared to then in agriculture and the government would explore ways to encourage the youth for training and equipping them with skills. The Chief Minister was accompanied by HPTDC Chairman and Nurpur MLA Rakesh Pathania. Secretary Tourism Ashok Thakur and HPTDC Managing Director V.C. Pharka and MD HRTC and Director Tourism, Mr Sanjeev Gupta welcomed Mr Dhumal. |
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Afforestation
project for Salooni, Tissa Chamba, October 26 Giving this information here today, the Conservator of Forests (Chamba), Mr Arvind Kumar Alipuria, said the Forest Department had constituted 35 village forest development committees in Salooni and Tissa under this programme. With the formation of these committees, all works were being executed with the active participation of the locals. There was also a provision for grant-in-aid to the committees. He said under the programme, cheques for Rs 5,000 each had been issued to the committees. |
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The neglect of a ‘kasba’ JAHOO (HAMIRPUR): Located on right bank of the Seer khud at the trijunction of the districts of Hamirpur, Mandi and Bilaspur, Jahoo area of Hamirpur district is crying for a facelift. This small “kasba” once known as the gateway to Mandi from Kangra district, still faces many problems, which should have been sorted out earlier. Jahoo has also got wide publicity in the media with the demand of a former MP, Mr Ranjit Singh, to have the state capital located here. He says that Jahoo is an ideal place for the state capital as pressure on Shimla has increased manifold. Though the kasba has a gram panchayat to run its affairs, it has failed to perform its duty. People throw garbage and filth into the Seer khud on both sides of the bridge connecting Hamirpur with Mandi district. The stink coming from the garbage dump is a nuisance for the people, located near the khud but the gram panchayat has ignored this problem. The demands of the people to punish those fouling up the khud are yet to be met. This kasba is frequented by hundreds of buses every day but the state government has yet not opened a sub depot of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation here. A demand for opening a sub depot was made at a Congress rally recently. Students from this area are forced to go to Sarkaghat or Ghumarwin in Mandi and Bilaspur districts respectively to complete their graduation. Their demand for the opening of a college at Jahoo has not yet been heard in the corridors of power. Most traders of the area are upset over the non-enforcement of the labour laws. There is no holiday for shopkeepers and worst affected are labourers at various shops. One of them, Ram Chand said since there was no weekly holiday for them, they were forced to wash their clothes and perform other duties during the night. He demanded that under labour laws Sunday should be declared a holiday. Mr Atul Katna, member of the Hamirpur zila parishad, who runs a shop at Jahoo, said the town badly needed drains. It is difficult to cross the road during the rainy season as water accumulates on the road and traffic becomes impossible”, he observed. Local residents also want a number of government offices to be opened here. They say that though it was an old kasba of the state and known for its business activities, it is a matter of great concern that there is no government office located here. While the BJP supporters claim that the kasba has got government attention in shape of construction of new roads and a new bus stand, this claim has been disputed by Congressmen. Mr Rattan Verma, a prominent Congressman, laments that nothing has been done for the area by the government. He was pained to say that all this is happening at a time when Mr Ishwar Dass Dhiman, HP Education Minister, represents this area in the assembly. People are waiting for the day when someone will come to their rescue and provide them amenities needed from time to time.
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In dire need of radiologist KULU: The district police wakes up once every three-four months and starts harassing people for minor offences under the traffic rules. A few days back the Additional Superintendent of Police here fined two cops for not wearing helmets while driving service motorbikes. And then the traffic police harassed people for three or four days after which the same old routine started. One can again see people, including police personnel, driving two wheelers without helmets, vehicles parked on roadsides, minors driving commercial vehicles and even many drivers of private buses without valid licences. *** The Irrigation and Public Health Department in this district seldom thinks of providing adequate supply of drinking water to people. The department has 386 hand pumps in the district. As many as 50 per cent of these are either not working or have dried up because of the indifference of the officials concerned. Badah village, which is adjoining the district headquarters, is hit the most. The water supply to the area is from Kulu, which is controlled by the Assistant Engineer, Kulu, whereas the area falls under the jurisdiction of Assistant Engineer, Shamshi. The residents suffer as both these officers allegedly do not see eye to eye and water is released at will by the officer at Kulu. The villagers said there was no fixed time for water supply. *** Kulu is the only district in Himachal which does not have a navodaya vidyalaya. A school was sanctioned in 1991 by the Ministry of Human Resource. A joint inspection committee was formed and land measuring 43.2 bighas was demarcated at Pirdi village on the national highway. The Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Kulu, who was one of the members of the committee, refused to sign the inspection report and the matter has been hanging fire since then.
*** Most of the commercial banks in this district have been computerised. The computerisation was done ostensibly to provide better banking facilities but on the contrary the services standard has gone down as employees have not been given proper training in operating computers. Another reason for slow services is said to be a shortage of staff in many banks. Kulu, a tourist station, surprisingly has just one bank which exchanges foreign money (only traveller’s cheques). |
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Renovation
of Pucca Tank begins Nahan, October 26 Vice-Chairperson of the state Planning Board, Ms Shyama Sharma, on the occasion of the commencement of renovation work, said the state government was committed to the conservation of the historical and cultural heritage of the state. She said shopping and parking complexes at Chaugan and vegetable market had been completed, adding that Rs 10 lakh had been spent in the town, under the Special Component plan, for the improvement of bastis. Taking note of the poor condition of roads in Nahan, she assured that these would be repaired under a special repair programme by November and Rs 27 lakh would be spent for the purpose. She said she would be available at Nahan on every Sunday for the redress of grievances of the local people. Municipal Council Chairman Sanjeev Sharma and Vice-Chairman Surinder Saini also spoke on the occasion. |
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RMS building inaugurated Shimla, October 26 Mr Sharma said efforts were afoot to strengthen and modernise the postal network in the country. He said a computerised management information system at the circle headquarters would be made operational during the current financial year. He said three more customer-care centres at Chamba, Rampur
Bushahr, and the circle office would be computerised by the end of this year. He said three high-speed VSAT systems installed at the Shimla GPO, Mandi and Dharamsala head post offices would soon be made fully operational. |
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ABVP plans
rally on job policy Hamirpur, October 26 Mr Ramesh Pappa,
general secretary of the National unit of the ABVP, said here this
afternoon that Parishad activists would collect 20 lakh signatures of
students to be presented to the Indian Government. He said the
Parishad had been holding rallies, seminars and discussions all over
India to mobilise student opinion.
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