 |
|
|
Shimla, September 16 The abnormally high level of silt content in the Sutlej is taking a heavy toll of machinery in the 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri project. The excessive corrosion caused by the silt-laden water has led to the breakdown of three out of the total six generating units over the past few days.
BJYM to hold dharna at Rajghat
Cong candidate Bharti files papers
Stokes ridicules BJP’s poll plank
Contempt charge against ex-minister dropped |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Development an issue in byelection: CM
Raising issues not anti-party activity, says Mankotia
Rana asks CM to clarify on Mankotia’s statement
Unit faces probe for employing non-Himachalis
Swedish trekker’s body recovered from glacier
IRB-2 to be shifted from Jangel Beri
CM’s assurance to SD College staff, students
Leprosy to be eliminated soon
Ozone Day celebrated at Parwanoo
Convention on Tibet
in Rome
|
||
|
Silt causes
breakdown of 3 Nathpa units Shimla, September 16 In fact, the fourth unit was also shutdown for about 10 hours yesterday as a result of which the generation came down to 500 MW. However, it was made operational by the evening and today the project is generating 750 MW all through. The discharge in the river has been ranging between 270 and 290 cumecs (cubic metre per second), which is enough to operate four and even five units with a slight under loading. However, only three have been in operation. The management of the Sutlej Jal Vidut Nigam is maintaining that the units have been closed down due to low discharge but insiders revealed that three generating units had actually been rendered non-functional due to the damage caused by silt. The guide vanes, runners, cheek plates and labyrinth seat had been extensively damaged due to corrosion rendering the first, second and sixth units inoperational. The loss of generation, including the 10-day shutdown due to the Parechu flood threat, has been 1000 million units. Thus, the project has already suffered a loss of revenue to the tune of about Rs 250 crore in the first six months of the year. The board of directors of the Nigam, which met at Delhi early this week, took a serious notice of the damage being caused to machinery by silt, which was hampering the smooth operation of the project and asked the engineers to find a solution without delay. The engineers of the Nigam are facing problems in operating the project because of the unusually high and fluctuating level of silt, which forced repeated shutdowns in July and August. The project has been designed for a silt load of 5,000 ppm (parts per million) but the level of silt content is varying and frequently crossing the permissible limit. The silt level even reached 16,000 ppm, which was more than three times the limit. Despite repeated shutdowns to protect the turbines from being damaged by silt the metal parts are eroding at an alarming pace due to corrosion. The engineers were facing difficulties in restarting the units after shutdowns because of malfunctioning of the guide vanes, which bear the brunt of the silt-laden water. The project became fully operational only in May and the extensive damage, which the machinery has suffered over a short period, is causing concern to the management of the Nigam. It has already contacted the General Electric Hydro, the Norway-based company, which supplied the turbines.
|
|
BJYM to hold dharna at Rajghat
Shimla, September 16 He said despite large areas of the country being affected by severe drought, the committee constituted to look into the matter was yet to submit its report, resulting in delay in disbursal of relief to affected farmers. “It is surprising how the government can be so casual and indifferent towards the needs of the farmers, who are being forced to commit suicide,” he remarked. Giving data he said so far 1,200 farmers in Andhra Pradesh, 467 in Karnataka, 419 in Kerala and 350 in Maharashtra had committed suicide during a short span of four months since the formation of the Manmohan Singh Government. He said the plan of linking the rivers should be taken up as it was the only way to save the farmers from the vagaries of weather and reduce their dependence on rain. In a country where 60 per cent farmers have no access to irrigation facility and are dependent on monsoons, the government must take up linking of rivers on a priority basis, he added. Mr Dhankad also lashed out at the Congress for making false promises to the people, especially farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka, of providing free power. “The Congress, which has befooled people in other places with this promise is now trying to woo the electorate of Maharashtra by playing the same card,” he said. |
|
Cong candidate Bharti files papers
Kangra, September 16 Mr Neeraj Bharti is the first to have filed nomination papers for the byelection to the Gulier constituency. The seat fell vacant after the resignation of Prof Chander Kumar, former Forest Minister, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Kangra parliamentary seat. Mr Bharti, son of Prof Chander Kumar, Lok Sabha
M.P., was accompanied by his father, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, H.P. Congress Committee chief Vidya Stokes, Rural Development Minister Sat Mahajan, Education Minister Asha Kumari, and Minister for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Haresh Mahajan. Mr Surender
Kaku, Chairman, H.P. Other Backward Classes Financial Corporation, and Mr Sujan Singh Pathania were among other party leaders who accompanied him. Mr Bharti was brought to the SDM court in a procession by Youth Congress workers. He reached the SDM’s office at 11.45 a.m. and submitted his papers at 12 noon. |
|
Stokes ridicules BJP’s poll plank
Nurpur, September 16 Addressing a press conference at Jawali yesterday, she clarified that it was during the BJP government when the MoU had been drafted and signed. “The present Congress government has only made certain amendments and there is no ban on appointments in government departments, “she added. Asked to comment on the outburst of the former minister from Kangra district, Mr Vijay Singh Mankotia, at a public meeting at Shahpur on Sunday against the state government, she said as she was on a foreign tour then she was not in a position to comment. Earlier, she announced the name of Mr Neeraj Bharti as official candidate for Guler Assembly byelection at a meeting of the Kangra District Congress Committee at
Jawali. |
|
|
Contempt
charge against ex-minister dropped Shimla, September 16 While discharging the contempt proceedings, the court cautioned them to be careful in future and to ensure that in future they did not create a situation whereby the court gets even the slightest impression that the orders of the court had not been complied with. These observations were made by a Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Vinod Kumar Gupta and Justice Arun Kumar Goel on a contempt petition where in it was alleged that despite the directions issued by this court on the issue of the constitution of a State Dental Council, the state government failed to do so with in specified time given by the court. It may be recalled that a petition was filed by Ashok Bhoil for the constitution of the State Dental Council in Himachal in the year 2003. And the same was allowed on August 4, 2003, with the directions that the council be constituted within three months from the date of passing the order. But the state failed to do so within the specified period. Therefore, the petitioner filed the contempt petition against both the respondents. |
|
|
Development an issue in byelection: CM
Nurpur, September 16 The BJP had only played politics of religion, caste and regionalism ever since it had come into existence, whereas the Congress had always cherished democracy, he said. The meeting was also addressed by Revenue Minister Sat Mahajan, MP Chader Kumar, Excise and Taxation Minister Rangila Ram Rao and Forest Minister Ram Lal Thakur. Later, addressing a Press conference, the Chief Minister clarified that the MoU was signed by the previous PK Dhumal Government but his government had only reviewed it in larger interests of the state. |
|
|
Raising issues not anti-party activity, says Mankotia Shimla, September 16 He said the statement of five leaders of Kangra, including Mr Sat Mahajan, Revenue Minister, and Mr Chander Kumar, MP, was uncalled for as he had supported the candidature of Mr Neearj Bharati for the Guler assembly by-election and made a strong plea for induction of his father , Mr Chander Kumar, in the union ministry. He said he had focussed on the problems of unemployment and corruption, which were the main election planks of the Congress. Further, he had given credit for the party’s victory in the Lok Sabha to the leadership of Ms Sonia Gandhi, which some leaders had not been able to digest. |
|
|
Rana asks CM to clarify on Mankotia’s statement
Hamirpur, September 16 Mr Rana, in a statement here today said the repeated statements of Major Mankotia proved that whatever the allegations were levelled by the BJP were true and based on facts. He said the Guler byelection would prove a waterloo for the Congress party as the BJP was going to win this election with thumping majority. |
|
|
Unit faces probe for employing non-Himachalis Solan, September 16 The minister on a surprise visit yesterday found that the unit had, in clear violation of the Himachal employment policy, employed only non-Himachalis in its unit. Assigning the Labour Inspector and the member secretary, single window, to enquire the unit’s employment data the minister had sought a report within three days. He said the government was considering a proposal to constitute an industrial development authority for the Baddi-Nalagarh-Barotiwala corridor which had registered maximum industrial growth in the state. This was essential to ensure a uniform growth of industry in a planned way, he said. With a view to facilitating industrialists he directed the General Manager, District Industrial Centre, to visit Baddi at least once a week and instructed the staff not to keep any file pending for more than a week. Expressing concern at the indiscriminate and unscientific mining in the river beds of the region he issued clear directions to officials to cancel the lease of such lessees, who allowed this environment degrading activity. He assured the officials that two mining inspectors would be posted at the two mining barriers set up in the region to nab the illegal traders. The miningsquad comprising the DSP, SDM, mining officer were also instructed to carry out random checks of the area to keep illigal mining under check. |
|
|
Swedish trekker’s body recovered from glacier
Mandi, September 16 The team members told Lahaul and Spiti officials that they retrieved just one body and as it was snowing at the Kang-La glacier, they had to abandon the search. The Deputy Commissioner, Lahaul and Spiti Mr B.R. Verma, told reporters in Keylong that it was due to communication problem that they could not get the exact information from the site over the number. “The body weighs around 15 kg and have been sent for forensic examination to Shimla.” The officials said the team recovered a few documents and cash. The woman had been identified as R. Margod Lydia, a Swish national from Stockholm. Her mother in Stockholm’s had reported her missing since February 1982, says an official. The police disclosed that the passport and a visa of the victim had been recovered from the body, which were fairly intact in her attire . The visa was valid up to July 21, 1981, but the then SP, Lahaul, had extended it to December, 1981”. The police says that Lydia had mentioned Tathul Gompa, a monastery about 5 km from Keylong, as her last address. “Team also recovered Rs 370, $ 13 and some Swedish currency”, the police said. |
|
IRB-2 to be shifted from Jangel Beri
Nadaun (Hamirpur), September 16 While talking to mediapersons, he said Jangel Beri was not an ideal place for the battalion and hence it would be shifted from there. He said if people were opposed to its shifting from Jangel Beri to Nadaun, any other place in the district would be located for the shifting of the battalion. He denied the charge that the change was due to various political considerations. He said Hamirpur would get representation in the coming reshuffle. However, since the matter was sub judice, he would not be able to tell when the next expansion would take place. Talking about a recent controversy in which he had presented a siropa to the Shiromani Akali Dal chief, Mr Prakash Singh Badal, at Shimla recently, the Chief Minister said that he himself was a guest at the function along with BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal and Prakash Singh Badal. He said how could he give the siropa when he himself was a guest in the function. He described this controversy raised by a section of Congress persons from Punjab as wrong and unfounded. |
|
CM’s assurance to SD College staff, students
Kangra, September 16 The delegation led by Mr Kripal Singh, Vice-President of the managing committee, called on Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh at Ranital, when he was on way to Jawali, and handed over a memorandum to him. They said this college was imparting education to the rural people in commerce, arts and science at the graduate level. They hoped that if the college was taken over by the state government. it would certainly help people of this backward area to get a quality education at their doorsteps. A social activist, Mr Bali Ram Sharma, in his Baroh village founded the college in July 1995 to help the rural poor people. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh laid the foundation stone of the college building in 1996 as the college. |
|
Leprosy to be eliminated soon
Shimla, September 16 In 1983, the Multi Drug Treatment (MDT) programme was started which proved effective. The entire state came under MDT in 1996. The target was to check the prevalence of less than one case per 10,000 of population. The World Bank-supported National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) project launched in 1993-94 brought down the number of cases in the state came down to 2,733 in 1996 and the prevalence was reduced to 5.14 per 10,000. By launching modified leprosy elimination campaigns, providing training to health functionaries and strengthening IEC activities in the state, the number of leprosy cases were further came down to 1,455 (1997) and finally to 283 (2000). The elimination status was achieved. Mr Mukesh Agnihotri, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, expressing satisfaction over the performance of the state, said though the state had achieved the leprosy elimination target, still much was to be done in declaring it a leprosy-free state. At present, the prevalence rate had been reduced to 0.38 per 10,000 of population by July, 2004. Since April, 2004 to August 31, 2004, 103 new cases of leprosy had been detected in the state. The patients were receiving MDT drugs free of cost from various health institutions in the state. Dr R.N. Mahanta, Director, Health Services, observed that labourers from endemic states, especially UP and Uttranchal, to the industrial areas and orchards in Solan, Sirmour, Shimla, Kullu, Kinnaur and Mandi was a major concern in leprosy elimination. |
|
|
Ozone Day celebrated at Parwanoo
Kumarhatti, September 16 Various awareness events to save the ozone layer were organised. Various schools of Parwanoo participated in slogan and painting competitions. A technical discussion among representatives of the Industries Associations of Parwanoo, Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh was also held. Mr Bharat Khera, member secretary of the HPSCST&E and the chief guest, stressed on the need to take care of the environment. Later, he inaugurated a mass awareness campaign organised by the NRTC. A technical presentation on the subject was given by Dr S.K. Sinha, Senior Scientist and officer in charge, NRTC. |
|
Convention on Tibet
in Rome
Dharamsala, September 16 The delegation, which has been holding meetings with the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan officials, supported the demand for the release of Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a political prisoner in China’s custody. Addressing a press conference here today, the Italian delegation also expressed hope for a positive response to the ongoing negotiations between the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and China. This is the second visit of the Italian parliamentarians to
McLeodganj. |
|
Man falls into gorge
Kulu, September 16 |
|
Body found Kumarhatti, September 16 |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
