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Wednesday,
May 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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PM’s
trip creates hassles for locals Hailstorm
damages crops Release
salary of 22 college lecturers: tribunal CM for
scientific methods to save ecology Forest
officers’ conference ends Staff
shortage at farm centre |
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Leopard
kills villager Factory
gutted Water
supply augmented
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PM’s trip creates hassles for locals
Manali (HP), May 13 But what do his visits here mean for the common people? Security hassles and impact on traders looking forward to earn from tourism during the peak summer time were the common refrain of the public although the administration claimed all efforts were made to ensure least inconvenience to the people. “The annual visits mean problems for us,” says Dharmendra Sharma, vice-president of Hill Taxi Operators Union. “Police starts to impose curbs on movements at least four days ahead of the trip and the restrictions continues as long as the Prime Minister is here,” he points out, adding it means impact on business. The authorities mobilised additional police and security personnel ahead of the trip of the VVIP and special barricades were erected upto at least 3 km from the cottage where Mr Vajpayee would stay. “If he (Vajpayee) wants to travel through the city, it means more problems as the markets are shut down and tourist shoppers are kept at bay,” says Janak Raj, proprietor of a shawl shop in the main Manali market. There were also complaints of “over-reaction” by the police and charges of harassment of people. “Free movement is curbed as there are a lot of diversions. Policemen even stop us at will,” says Gopal Singh. The authorities, however, differed and maintained that no harassment was caused to the people. “We make all efforts to ensure that there is minimum harassment and least inconvenience to common people. But some part of it is unavoidable,” says Deputy Inspector General O.C. Thakur. He said even as the Prime Minister moved within Manali, stoppage of public movement was kept for the least possible time. But not all views about the Prime Minister’s annual visits were critical as a section of the populace points out that these trips also entail some benefits for the place. “Every time the Prime Minister visits this place, he announces some package for Manali or the state,” says student Jagdish Kumar as he mentioned that Mr Vajpayee pondered over development of Himachal Pradesh during his trips. His friend Rakesh said since Mr Vajpayee started visiting Manali on yearly basis, the condition of roads and other facilities had improved.
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Hailstorm
damages crops Kumarhatti, May 13 The farmers of Chewa, Barog, Dharampur, Bohali and few other surrounding panchayats, where the impact of hailstorm was severe, feared that their crops might have been damaged. “Today’s hailstorm proved a double blow this year as earlier a poor yield of peas crop had been recorded due to absence of timely rain”, said a grower of the Bohali panchayat. “A good amount of money had bee spent to sow the costly quality seeds of hybrid varieties of tomato to get good earnings, but with today’s disaster it seemed impossible”, he rued. “All hopes to get a good produce of tomato now seemed a dream as there was all possibility of outbreak of various diseases in standing tomato crop now”, lamented a grower of the Barog panchayat, who had sown the tomato crop on a large scale. A visit to the stone fruit orchards revealed that the hailstorm had caused pre-mature falling of fruits on a large scale. According to horticulture experts, the hailstorm besides affecting the produce, could cause downfall in fruits’ quality. Meanwhile, Dr U.K. Kohli, Head of Department of Vegetable Crops, Nauni Farm University, said there was no need to panic as there was still a chance to resow the crop in the badly affected pockets, though the process could delay further. “There were every possibility that small plants of tomato and others vegetables could regrow despite the hailstorm”, he
asserted. |
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Release
salary of 22 college
lecturers: tribunal Dharamsala, May 13 The college management was suspended by the state government due to irregularities and the management was looked after by the Additional District Magistrate Kangra as administrator. In his orders on May 9, Mr Narinder Thakur, vice-chairman of the tribunal directed the Secretary, Director and the Treasury Officer along with the principal and administrator of the college to give due and admissible salary to the applicants in as per rules. They had also been directed to file replies within six weeks. Teachers were represented by Mr Himanshu Mishra. |
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CM for scientific methods to save ecology Shimla, May 13 He emphasised that scientific methods be used to protect
environment around the project from pollution. Later the Chief Minister also inspected the site of Subzi Mandi. He was informed that the multistoried complex would provide ample space to traders and for the parking of 500 vehicles. The Chief Minister directed the authorities to initiate steps to implement the proposal. The Chief Minister was accompanied by Mr Sohan Lal, mayor of Shimla, Municipal Corporation, Mr Harbhajan Singh Bhajji, MLA, Mr S.K.B.S. Negi, Deputy Commissioner and other officers. |
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Forest officers’ conference ends
Shimla, May 13 It was recommended that a committee be constituted to advise the government on this issue and the focus area of forest reforms should be land use planning, with cross-sectoral linkages, integrating the vision of the forest department with that of the local institutions. It was recommended that there should be a clear structure within the department and fresh blood should be infused in the department at all levels. It also called for reviving the forester’s cadre and imposition of 2.5 per cent cess on all mining activities to compensate for the damage caused to the environment. The main focus of the conference was that a roadmap should be developed to decide the future course of forestry in the state. Issues like empowering local communities, cross-sectoral linkages, resource mobilisation and wildlife management were discussed. Forest Minister Chander Kumar called for a special drive against timber smugglers, poachers, encroachers and the forest and mining mafia. He stated that encroachments in forest areas would not be regularised and disclosed that there were over 46,000 encroachments on forest land. He asked forest officials to remove all encroachments on forest land.
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Staff shortage at farm centre Solan, May 13 This “anomaly” was pointed out by Dr AR Bhandari, Dean, College of Forestry, during a tour of the KVK undertaken in March. A report submitted by the Dean pointed out that the KVK urgently needed plant protection scientists to cater to the needs of the area. It is worth mentioning that 90 per cent of the population residing in and around Rohru comprises horticulturists, whose primary avocation is farming. The KVK, whose main work is to provide extension education to the farmers, has been suffering as these prime posts have been lying vacant for years. The centre, instituted in 1995, has a sanctioned strength of six assistant scientists and one senior scientist. Officials at the KVK, Rohru, pointed out that experts have to be invited from the main campus to provide information, which incurs extra expenditure. Programmes like special resource training of farmers, clinical services, diagnostic visits to the fields suffer adversely in the absence of adequate staff. They regretted that despite the university officials being aware of the problem, nothing had been done in this regard. The Vice-Chancellor of the university could not be contacted for comments. |
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Leopard
kills villager Mandi, May 13 Hearing the barking of dogs, his wife woke up. When she went to the spot, she was stunned. She raised the alarm and villagers reached the spot. The police took the body to Sarkaghat. It was handed over to relatives after postmortem examination. An amount of Rs 25,000 was given by the Forest Department to the dependents of the deceased and Rs 75,000 would be given when the case would be completed. |
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Factory
gutted Mandi, May 13 Fire tenders were immediately rushed from Sundernagar and Mandi which brought the flames under control. The owner of the plant, Mr Chander Mohan, a Congress leader, said the loss caused by the fire was over Rs 10 lakh. |
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Water supply augmented Shimla, May 13 The Irrigation and Public Minister, Mr Kaul Singh Thakur, said that two tubewells with 4 lakh gallons and 2.50 lakh gallons per day were energised a few months ago, increasing the availability of water during the summer season from 50 lakh gallons to 60 lakh gallons per day.
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