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Monday,
October
13, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
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No change in security at Deotsidh temple
Engineers caution HP against MoU with Centre Steps to promote fish farming Staff shortage, absenteeism hit schools |
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Celebrating women’s emancipation Promotion quota of kanungos raised by 10 pc Martyr cremated
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No change in security at Deotsidh temple Deotsidh (Hamirpur), October 12 This is one of the most important and richest temples of Himachal Pradesh which is frequented by lakhs of people from the states Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh and foreign countries. Melas are organised here every year in the second month of March and continue for three months. However, security measures at the temple are meager and need improvement. The temple trust has appointed eight security persons at the temple but sans weapons. These persons are paid about Rs. 5000 per month. There are three air-guns but these are normally kept under lock and key. Normally, the temple security staff is given a danda (Bamboo stick) in their hands to manage crowds. The Himachal Pradesh Government has set up a police post in this small town. However, services of the police/home guard staff posted at the post are required only on Sundays or during melas. There is no tradition of checking people entering the temple. On a visit to the temple after an year, this reporter found a slight change in the security system. The security man on the VIP gate was armed with an air gun danada he held last time. The guard said that this was meant to frighten monkeys which flock in large number to the temple. Mr Devesh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, said that since no unwanted incident had taken place in and around temple complex no demand for modern weapons for the temple security staff has come from any quarter. |
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Engineers caution HP against MoU with Centre Shimla, October 12 The association held an emergency meeting here today in view of the reports that an MoU was being signed on October 13 to hand over the project to the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam on the eve of the inauguration of the Nathpa-Jhakri project by the Union Power Minister, Mr Anant G. Geete. It expressed surprise that the government, which was reviewing the MoUs signed over the past five years to ensure that the interests of the state were protected, should rush to sign an MoU without working out the details which was most essential in view of the bitter experiences of the Nathpa-Jhakri project. The association had been demanding that, being the most economical option, the Rampur project be assigned to the state electricity board. The 400-MW project was estimated to cost Rs 1,433 crore and with a capital cost of Rs 3.5 crore per megawatt (MW) as compared to about Rs 6 crore per MW for other projects, it would generate the cheapest power. Mr Sunil Grower, general secretary of the association, said the then BJP government committed a similar mistake in 1991 by handing over the project to the NJPC on a platter. However the MoU signed in this regard was followed by a supplementary agreement which was challenged in the court of law by the NJPC staff. It took more than 10 years to settle issues like terms of deputation and equivalence of the direct recruits and deputationists. He urged Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, to direct the department concerned to prepare a detailed agreement, clearly specifying the terms and conditions of deputation, equity share and participation of the state government at the management level during the execution of the project and the operation and maintenance stage. |
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Steps to promote fish farming Mandi, October 12 The minister said 30,000 trout fingerlings of rainbow trout would be imported for the Barot Hatchery. He announced that private trout farm owners, who had sustained loss due to the mysterious viral disease last year which had decimated the fish stock, would be given free fingerlings by the Fisheries Department. He said efforts were being made to increase the trout production in the cold regions of the state, including Barot. Entire potential of trout development in the Barot valley would be harnessed. A committee was being constituted under the chairmanship of Thakur Kaul Singh, IPH Minister, who represented the area, for recommending ways and means for developing trout. Mr Mahajan said a package of incentives like loan and subsidy had been provided for setting up private trout farms. A sum of Rs 52 lakh for tanks and Rs 18 lakhs a subsidy had been set apart for the current financial year. The department, he disclosed, was introducing fingerlings of brown trout in Uhl and Lamba Dag rivers in the Barot valley so that the anglers in the coming tourists season may have good catch. The minister said licences were issued by the department for angling and in the event of a death of an angler holding a licence the department had made a provison of paying Rs 50,000 to next of kin as immediate relief. He said there was a plan to augment the existing hatchery at Barot by adding another tank in the vacant land. The Chief Warden-cum-Director of Fisheries, Mr B.S. Kaundal, who accompanied the minister, lamented that the Public Works Department had failed to lay a pipeline for the hatchery at Barot despite the fact that an advance amount of Rs 12.94 lakh had been deposited for it in 2001. |
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Staff shortage, absenteeism hit schools Kumarhatti, October 12 The problem of staff shortage is severe in schools in the remote areas where teachers do not wish to be appointed. Those appointed often manage to get their transfer orders by using their political links. There are some schools which are functioning without headmasters for a long time. Government High School, Dhayal, under Garhsee panchayat has no headmaster for the past one year. Studies have suffered badly due to staff shortage in the school, rued Mr Ram Gopal, president of panchayat. No body seems to pay any heed to our request to improve the situation keeping in mind, especially, the annual examination in March next year, he said. The high school, Goyala, has no headmaster. In the middle school, Jagjit Nagar, the post of a mathematics teacher has been lying vacant for the past four months. We had to arrange funds from the Parents and Teachers Association to appoint a teacher for chemistry in Chandi Senior Secondary School, said Ms Santosh, president of Chandi panchayat. The posts of the Sanskrit, drawing and language teachers have been lying vacant for a long time in Government High School, Manjhol, under Banasar panchayat. Besides, there are a few administrative posts which are lying vacant in the school. We have written to the Education Minister and the Director, Education, but to no avail, said Mr Upendra, president of Banasar panchayat. Most of the teachers come from Kalka and Parwanoo, he said. The usual time of teachers to reach in the school is after 11 am and in case the cable car trolley of a private hotel along the Kalka-Shimla national highway did not function, there was a holiday like situation in the school, he pointed out. |
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Celebrating women’s emancipation SIROPA (KULU): Hundreds of women from about 160 villages in the Seraj and Jeeva vally gather here in October every year to celebrate their emancipation. Celebrated as an annual women’s mela, the event draws crowds from villages in the western Himalayas. An all-woman affair, men merely sit and watch or sometimes are asked to do organisational chores like making seating arrangements, pitching tents etc for which they are paid by the Women’s Saving and Credit Group (WSCG) that binds these women together. After Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) was notified in 1999, some 1,400 families from 160 villages living in and around the park lost their livelihood based on forest produce. Mr Sanjeeva Pandey, Director of the park, conceived an idea and helped float an NGO — Society for Scientific Advancement of Hill and Rural Areas (SAHARA). The objective was to seek women volunteers willing to get trained as group organisers (GOs), who would then persuade other women to form clusters under the banner of Women’s Saving and Credit Groups (WSCG) to work for their economic independence through small ventures. Based on the micro-lending model of Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank, the WSCG took this concept one step ahead. Instead of lending seed money to the entrepreneurs, women were asked to save one rupee everyday and deposit it in a bank. Bank accounts were opened at Sanj and Goshaini with the help of SAHARA. Women who could not save money were asked to come and work at 10 nurseries started for cultivation of medicinal plants by the Forest Department in the area. With the seed money these women were asked to produce vermicompost which was bought back by the GHNP at Rs 7 per kg. Within the first year, the 12 GOs had managed to form 30 WSCGs. These women further diversified into producing apricot oil that the WSCG helped them market. Earlier these women used to sell the oil to local traders for Rs 18 per litre but now it fetched them Rs 200 per litre. Till date over 980 poor women have been organised into 95 WSCGs and their savings are over Rs 5.25 lakh. These WSCGs have done business worth over Rs 22.5 lakh since their inception in July, 2000. As many as 980 members of WSCGs are today self-sufficient and run their independent ventures. They are now involving their husbands and sons into their expanding ventures. As word about the WSCG success spreads, other women in the region are beginning to follow suit. Jagriti, a community-based organisation working for the empowerment of women, disadvantaged hill women in the Lag valley near Kulu, too, has adopted the WSCG model. Spread over 12 panchayats comprising 3,200 households, 550 women have already formed 48 WSCG groups. |
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Promotion quota of kanungos raised by 10 pc Mandi, October 12 The Chief Minister, who was addressing a state-level Golden Jubilee Celebration function of village revenue officers and Kanungos Association at the Bhima Kali complex here this evening agreed to upgrade 13 posts of Kanungos to Naib-Tehsildar and 80 posts of land reforms patwaris to Kanungo. He also raised the TA of revenue officers. He said the Patwaris would undergo training for two years in revenue law and procedure. He said the posts of Divisional Commissioners had been revived. The Chief Minister also announced domestic rates of power to all religious shrines in the state, which were earlier paying comercial rates of electricity. |
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Martyr cremated Nurpur, October 12 The mortal remains of the martyr were brought to his native village by Col R.S. Guleria of the Army Headquarters on Friday evening and consigned to flames on the banks of Maharana Pratap Sagar yesterday. The local MLA and Forest Minister laid a wreath on the martyr’s body. Thousands of villagers thronged the cremation ground to pay their last respects. Senior officials of the administration, the police and leaders of various political parties also attended the cremation. |
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