Shimla, September 21
Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, today dedicated the 400 kv Lingti Hydel Project, set up in Spiti to the people of the area. Constructed at a cost of Rs 8.5 crore, the project will meet the energy requirement of about 2,000 persons of 16 villages.

The Chief Minister said the work on the second phase of the project would be taken up soon. Addressing public meetings at Tabo, Lingti and at Kungri, he said to solve the problem of frequent blockade of roads at Maling, the government would take up the matter with the Government of India for the construction of an alternative road.

The Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of a library hall at Serkong Monastery at Tabo and announced Rs 20 lakh for it. He also laid the foundation stone of a multipurpose hall at a public school in Serkong.

He said the Mani-Yoma road would be constructed at a cost of Rs 8.25 lakh and announced Rs 5 lakh for the Tabo special area development authority. He said a timber depot would be opened at Tabo and a fuel wood depot at Gui. The construction of Sumra road would be started soon.

He visited the seabuckthorn farm near Lingti and urged people to take up its plantation on a commercial basis.

He said four bridges were being constructed in the Pin valley and the Teling bridge would be completed this year. The bridge would be constructed on the Tangti to provide communication link to Tangti-Yongma and Khar villagers and said a road would be constructed from Rajgaon to Sagnam and Kidul to Phunchog.

Hamirpur, September 21
The construction of a water harvesting dam under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture has become a topic of discussion due to the faulty site and charges regarding substandard material used for its construction.

The dam is located in the interiors of the district near Thara village.

A sum of Rs 27 lakh had been earmarked for its construction. There was a proposal to construct an 18-metres-high dam for providing water to the people of nearby villages and to promote pisciculture.

A visit to the site revealed that construction work had been stopped due to heavy flow of water in the khud, where the proposed project is located. Those working on the dam had left the place, leaving behind their makeshift cots and other material.

Water leaked profusely from the basement of the dam and even from within the structure.

The site is unfit for construction of the dam due to its topography. There are no villages adjacent to the dam. Hardly four or five houses can benefit from the dam.

Mr Virendra Thakur Podi, chairman of the Sujanpur Tihra Block Samiti, alleges that the dam was constructed, bypassing norms laid down in the agreement. This project was sanctioned during the BJP regime. However, work on the project started once the Congress came to power.

He demanded a high-level probe into the construction of the dam with “substandard material” and pilferage of cement.

However, Mr Rajendra Verma, who is the supplier for the dam, told The Tribune that the material was up to the mark and there was no question of cement pilferage.

He said work was on as per the instructions of the village committee executing the project.

Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, former HP Chief Minister, demanded an inquiry into the construction of the dam, alleging large-scale irregularities in its construction.

Hamirpur Deputy Commissioner Devesh Kumar, when contacted, said he did not know about the details of the project. However, if something was wrong and the work was not as per the specifications, it would be inquired into by the Department of Agriculture.

Shimla, September 21
Decks were cleared for the signing of an agreement for the execution of the 400-MW Rampur project with the Himachal Government assuring adequate number of projects to the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam to ensure gainful utilisation of the surplus staff and the Union Power Ministry softening its stand on the repatriation of the deputationists.

The second round of talks between the Centre and the state held at Delhi today ended on a positive note with both the Centre and the state underlining the need for starting work on the Rampur project at the earliest.

As per the understanding reached the nigam will go ahead with the Rampur project and a formal agreement will be signed shortly. The state will prepare a revised draft for the agreement to be cleared by the Union Ministry of Power.

The state will in due course allot some more projects.

The Khab and Luri projects figured during the talks in this context. However, it was decided that no specific project would be mentioned in the agreement to ensure flexibility.

Regarding the repatriation of the over 700 employees and officers ordered by the nigam early this month, it was decided that a subcommittee of the board would be set up to ensure gainful utilisation of the surplus staff.

Thus, there would be no immediate repatriation of the staff but the condition of permanent absorption in the nigam within a year's time had not been diluted.

It is quite obvious that differences on the contentious issues of assigning more projects to the nigam and the terms and condition at which the staff from the state electricity board have yet not been fully sorted out, though a way out has been found to get the Rampur project going.

Kumarhatti, September 21
The verbal orders of the Director Health to transfer over dozen paramedical staff from TB Sanatorium, Dharampur, 4 km from here, has caused panic among the staff.

Dr R.N. Mahanta, Director Heath, during his visit to the sanatorium on Friday last evening had ordered the shifting of six staff nurses, six ward sisters and a driver to Mental Hospital, Shimla, which would start its operation soon.

A fax message was received by the sanatorium office from the Directorate Health last evening ordering the posting of a sanatorium doctor to the Community Health Centre (CHC), Dharampur, on deputation.

The 300-bed sanatorium, set up in 1913 by the British, currently has 200 operational beds.

The staff feared more cut in strength following the opening of the State TB Training, Research and Demonstration Centre (STDC) in sanatorium.

The plan provides for only 50-bed provision at the STDC. Though there was no official order to cut down the bed strength to 50, the process was already under consideration.

The success of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) in Solan district has forced the Health authorities in the state to downsize the function of sanatorium, which was once regarded as one of the premier institutes of North India to cure TB.

Under the RNTCP, the focus remains on door-to-door medical treatment of TB patients.

Though the RNTCP has proved to be a big success, sanatorium continues to receive serious TB patients from far-flung areas of the state as well as from other states.

With a considerable rise in the inflow of patients diagnosed with multi drug resistant (MDR) condition, a culture sensitivity lab is expected to start functioning at the sanatorium soon, sanatorium staff pointed out.

AIDS patients were also on the rise and such patients were vulnerable to TB, said a sanatorium doctor.

The sanatorium management’s decision to cut down indoor admission of patients after March this year has sent wrong signal to authorities, as the move was to provide space for the office since repair and maintenance of the unsafe OPD-cum-administrative block had to be carried out, said a senior official.

Besides TB treatment, the sanatorium has a daily attendance of around 100 OPD patients.

Due to lack of infrastructure at the CHC, most of the cases are referred to the sanatorium for laboratory and X-ray checkup.

Interestingly, some panchayats have passed resolutions to oppose the proposed move to downsize the staff of the sanatorium.

Dr V.B. Bhardwaj, Medical Superintendent of the sanatorium, was not available for comments as he was on leave. Dr Mahanta also could not be contacted.

Palampur, September 21
Despite tall claims by the state government to check the fall in female sex ratio in the district, nothing worthwhile has been done in this field and the situation is turning from bad to worse.

It seems that measures adopted by the state government are confined to files alone.

The alarming and dismal scenario of the falling female sex ratio in the state, particularly in Palampur sub-division, has caused concern not only among the health authorities, but social organisations as well.

According to a survey conducted by the Health Department, it has been revealed that Palampur region of the state is the worst-affected; the sex ratio of females has come down to 836 as compared to 1,000 males in Thural area.

The survey revealed that various private doctors who have installed ultrasound scanning machines in the region, have been indulging in pre-natal sex-determination tests followed by unethical termination of pregnancies, resulting in the fall of sex ratio of females.

Various panchayat pradhans and zila parishad members told The Tribune that private doctors in rural areas were openly resorting to sex-determination tests. They said it had become a major source of income for RMPs and private doctors in the area.

However, the health authorities say they are worried about the increase in the fall in the female sex ratio in the region. In the past one year, the Health Department has taken various steps to educate the people in this regard, yet there have been no gains.

Dr H.K. Vasisth, Block Medical Officer, PHC, Gopalpur, said the Health Department had been organising camps in different parts of Palampur to make people aware of the pre-natal diagnostic techniques and provisions of law misused.

The department had also constituted a vigilance committee under the chairmanship of Dr H.K. Vasisth, which included zila parishad members, panchayat pradhans and social workers.

The committee would keep a watch on persons involved in the heinous crime of female foeticide.

Shimla, September 21
The last rites of the Swedish trekker, Margot Lydia Alluki Ryyanen, whose body was retrieved from the Kangla Jot glacier after 22 years, might have to be performed here in case the Swedish Embassy is unable to fly the body to her parents in Sweden.

The Deputy Inspector-General of Police, CID, Mr S.P. Kaushal, said that they had written to the Swedish Embassy yesterday and contacted them today as well to intimate the police whether they would make arrangements to take the body to Delhi.

“They have assured us that after consulting their government in Stockholm, they will let us know whether the body will be taken to Sweden or should be buried in Shimla itself,” he stated.

Mr Kaushal further said in case the Swedish Embassy asks for a burial here itself, the Municipal Corporation will be asked to perform the last rites of the Swedish lady.

The body has been lying at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) here since September 16.

“Since we are still awaiting a reply from the Swedish Embassy, I have requested the IGMC to keep the body at their mortuary till a final decision can be taken,” added Mr Kaushal.

The doctors said though the body had been mummified after lying in extreme low temperature, in case it is not flown to Delhi, taking it by road would be rather difficult as it would decompose.

The body has been embalmed and preserved at the mortuary of the IGMC. It is learnt that Margot’s mother had been intimated on September 16 about the body’s retrieval but she not being in a position to bear the entire expenditure, it is now for the Swedish Government to take a final decision.

According to the head of Forensic Medicine, IGMC, Dr V.K. Mishra, the body will be handed over to the police tomorrow.

“Since for want of space we cannot keep the body in our mortuary any further, we will hand it over to the police whose responsibility it will be to send it to Delhi,” he said.

The body which has been embalmed was brought here from Kangla Jot glacier for a thorough examination by experts from the forensic and anatomy departments.

After the bodies were spotted by a guide accompanying some trekkers at Kangla Jot, it was on the request of the Swedish Embassy that the body was retrieved.

Margot, is believed to have died at Kangla Jot in 1981, while she was on a trek from the Leh side.

Her mother had reported her missing to the police in Stockholm and the documents found on the body had some letters with her name.

Palampur, September 21
The local police today seized the records of the Kangra Tea Planters Association in connection with Rs 50 lakh scam unearthed in the society last week.

A case under Sections 506 and 309 of the IPC has already been registered against Partap Chand, manager of the society.

DSP Sanjiv Gandhi, who is investigating the case, said preliminary investigations had revealed that a subsidy of Rs 15.5 lakh given by the State Agriculture Department to the society for the purchase of inputs in the past four years never reached the growers and the manager pocketed the amount.

He said the Agriculture Department also did not ask for a utilisation certificate of the amount from the society.

Another grant of Rs 30 lakh given by the government for the purchase of fertilisers and other inputs was not utilised by the society for the welfare of tea growers, as no fertiliser was purchased.

The manager of the society withdrew the amount on different occasions through self cheques from the bank account of the society.

However, in the account books, the money was shown utilised for the purchase of fertilisers and other inputs.

Mr Gandhi said under the rules the Board of Directors of the society was supposed to go through the accounts but nothing of the sort happened and no legal formalities were completed. The manager was left free to embezzle the money.

On another occasion, the manager raised loans worth Rs 20 lakh from private traders through bearer cheques without making any credit entry. At the same time, interest was paid on these unsecured loans to the traders.

The manager also disbursed bogus loans to the tune of Rs 16 lakh to tea growers. In fact no such tea growers existed as beneficiary of these loans. Besides, he also withdrew a loan of Rs 5 lakh from the account of the society.

Surprisingly, the DSP said, during the past four years the account books were duly audited by a chartered accountant and internal auditors of the Cooperative Department and balance sheets were also prepared along with an audit report.

Hamirpur, September 21
A gang of child-lifters is active in Hamirpur if the report of a bid to kidnap a local school boy is to be believed.

A bid was made by a group of three persons, including a woman, to kidnap a 12-year-old school boy, Arun Rajan Saklani of Hamirpur town, on Saturday morning. This boy is studying in Class VII at Him Academy Public School.

Saklani told The Tribune today at his school that when he was going to school, a van stopped near him and gave him a packet of sweets. Those sitting in the van told him that they would drop him at his school. He said that listening this, he became suspicious and ran away.

The Saturday’s incident, however, came to the knowledge of the media and the administration only today.

He said that after returning from school, he told the incident to his mother who, in turn, informed the school principal.

Similarly, Sanjay Urav, a nine-year-old boy is missing from his NIT house. Bandhan Urav, father of the missing boy, told The Tribune that his son was studying in Government Primary School, Paniala. He said that the boy had gone to school but never returned after September 17.

When contacted, the SP, Mr Shyam Bhagat Negi, said that the police was verifying the reports of reported bid to kidnap the boy of Him Academy Public School as well as the missing of Sanjay Urav.

Dharamsala, September 21
Students of the local Degree College ransacked the booking office of the local inter-state bus terminus after an alleged altercation with a conductor around 3 pm today. The students also pelted stones at the office and broke its main door.

According to the police, while the students alleged that a conductor beat up one of the students and locked him inside the booking office, employees of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) said there was no provocation from their side.

A large number of students descended on the bus stand as news of the fight spread. The HRTC employees, meanwhile, stalled the movement of buses for one hour as a sign of protest.

"We were on our way back to Shahpur when we heard that a student has been beaten by the conductors. We immediately rushed to the office of the bus stand in charge and broke open the door to take him out," students said.

The police rounded off some students for interrogation. "But those actually involved in pelting stones had fled. An FIR has, however, been registered and the matter is being investigation," said a police official.