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Anti-cannabis drive spells doom
for cottage industry
Dhumal offers to face CBI probe
CM lays stone for water supply scheme
Virbhadra flags off ASEAN car rally
Translocation of monkeys on in HP
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‘Unplanned’ digging leads to traffic jams
Resource crunch hits projects
Martyrs’ gallery opened during
Dhar Fair
Work on Chamera-III held up
Insurance scheme for poor women
renewed
HP Governor, CM greet people on Id
2 women killed as bus falls into khud
2 killed, 11 injured in road mishaps
1 held for raping minor
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Anti-cannabis drive spells doom
for cottage industry
Mandi, November 14 “Women who used to make pulas (women’s shoes from fibre extracted from cannabis plants) have nothing to fall back on as cannabis has been destroyed in villages by the police”, rued Pushpa Devi from Saraj village in the Jhanjheli area in Mandi district, who sells a pair for Rs 60 to 70 to earn a livelihood. “The cannabis plant provides the strongest fibre for pulas, which is the mainstay for poor women in the Bali-Chowki-Saraj and Jhanjeli areas in Mandi district”, she said. Talking to The Tribune at the week-long Red Cross mela that concluded here today, Meera Kapur, a supervisor with the Self-help Group, which helps poor women to sell their products in local markets, from Jhanjeli said: “The pula cottage industry has crashed as the police and the NCB have destroyed cannabis plants, which provided fibre for this product. There is no alternative fibre to keep this small village-based enterprise alive”, she added. Women said cannabis not only provided fibre for pulas, an embroidered shoe worn by women, but was also used in making ropes. Besides, its seeds were used in a dish called ‘magnolia’, which is considered nutritious and warm in winter. “Its seeds are used to worship a local god and are also used for prasad during the Phagli festival in February in Malana. But now that cannabis had been destroyed, where we will go?” asked Masi Devi, president of the Malana panchayat in Kullu district, where the NCB and the police destroyed cannabis in over 2,000 bigahs in October. Mr O.P. Sharma, Superintendent, NCB, Chandigarh, said villagers needed an alternative as they were in a transit stage. “It is the duty of the state government to provide them alternative sources for the cottage industry so that their confidence is not shattered”, he added. The Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Central Range, Mr O.C. Thakur, said few people depended on making pulas for survival. “These people cultivate cannabis for charas. Villagers use nylon ropes and an alternative fibre can be used for pulas as well,” he said. |
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Dhumal offers to face CBI probe
Shimla, November 14 Reacting sharply to the decision to order an inquiry into the roads constructed during the BJP regime, he said the Virbhadra Singh government had been pre-occupied with probes for the past 21 months. It would be better if inquiry into all the works pertaining to his tenure as Chief Minister were entrusted to the CBI. He said the fact was that the state scaled new heights on the development front, particularly in the construction of roads and bridges, during BJP rule, whereas the present Congress government had failed to raise resources or secure adequate funds from the Centre to maintain the pace of development. The Chief Minister had been ordering one inquiry after the other out of sheer frustration. He said the maximum irregularities were committed during the 1994-98 period when the Virbhadra Singh government not only raised loans at exorbitantly high rates of interest but also paid commission to middlemen. The private company through which loans were raised was allowed to set up an engineering college without the requisite facilities. Instead of levelling allegations, the Chief Minister should improve his relations with the Centre to secure more funds for the state, he said. |
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CM lays stone for water supply scheme
Shimla, November 14 The scheme has been named after Pt Jawaharlal Nehru. Water will be lifted from the Giri river under the HUDCO-funded scheme. A sum of Rs 6.85 crore will be spent on the scheme during the current financial year. It will help provide 200 lakh litre additional water to residents of the capital and its suburbs daily. The project will be completed in three years and in two phases. The project has been formulated keeping in view requirements of the tourist town up to 2018. Water will be lifted from the Giri river at a height of 1,200 m using six pumps of 1,000 horse power each in the first phase. Another six pumps will be installed in the second phase. Water will be brought to Shimla by a 31.50-km pipeline. At present, 290 lakh litres of water is being provided to the residents of the capital but during the tourist season in summer, the requirement goes up and this leads to shortage. With the completion of this project the availability of water will increase by about 80 per cent and there will be no shortage. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the government was committed to provide safe drinking water to people and as many as 38,476 habitations had been provided the facility. The remaining would be covered within next three years. He said under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Scheme Rs 24.50 crore had been spent by the state government and Rs 40.07 crore by the Central Government during the current financial year. The Irrigation and Public Health Department was maintaining 7,989 water supply schemes in the state that included 1,496 lift drinking schemes, 91 tubewells and 6,402 gravity schemes. In addition, 13,265 hand pumps had been installed. |
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Virbhadra flags off ASEAN car rally
Shimla, November 14 Similar rallies flagged off from Gandhinagar, Panjim and Kanyakumari will converge at Guwahati on November 20. Simultaneously, mini rallies will originate from various state capitals in the North-East to reach
Guwahati. The main rally will take off from Guwahati on November 22. The event is being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry to promote better cultural and trade relations between India and the ASEAN countries and facilitate people to people links. The “Chalo ASEAN” will cross through nearly all states and cover about 14,000 km. The participants include a diverse set of rally enthusiasts-entrepreneurs, journalists, senior IAS officers, industrialists and educationists. The rally will be received mid-way in Vientiane in Laos on November 30, when Dr Manmohan Singh will be joined by all the heads of ASEAN countries in giving a formal send-off for the second leg. Mr Virbhadra Singh, said the rally would go a long way in improving trade and friendly relations in the region. |
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Translocation of monkeys on in HP
Shimla, November 14 In the first phase 1903 monkeys were trapped from the “queen of hills” and Rampur, the two worst affected towns, and released in deep forests. The department has decided to focus on the Shimla-Kalka National Highway on which hordes of monkeys are a big nuisance for motorists and local people alike. Teams specialising in trapping monkeys will start their work over the next two weeks. During the monkey census conducted in June last, as many as 22 troops with a total strength of about 2035 were located on the highway. While one troop was based near the Sankat Mochan Temple, the rest were located at various places between Shogi and Parwanu. The department plans to translocate as many simians as possible form the highway, as they are not only a traffic hurdle but often become a cause of accidents. The plan to contain the monkey nuisance was formulated on the directions of the high court and in the first phase severely affected areas like Shimla, Rampur and the Shimla-Kalka National Highway have been taken up. Since translocation is not a permanent solution as space vacated by the translocated animals is soon occupied by other troops from adjoining areas, the department planned to sterilise the male monkeys in a phased manner. However, so far it has been unable to decide which technique to adopt and how to carry out the job. “Mass sterilisation of simians on such a large scale has not been carried out anywhere before. It was the main reason that the department was not taking any chances”, explains Mr A.R. Gulati, Additional Principal Chief Conservator, Wildlife. He said a final decision regarding sterilisation would be taken after an in-depth study of study of the similar efforts made elsewhere. There were reports that laser-based techniques had been developed for carrying out sterilisation of animals but so far no literature was available on it. Mr Gulati maintained that the translocation of over 1900 monkeys over the past two months had not created any problem. There were no signs or complaints of monkey nuisance from the remote forest areas where they were released. The impact of translocation would be seen during the six-monthly monkey census to be held in December. The department wants the Centre to fund a project to check monkey menace in the entire state. The first-ever actual headcount of the simian population carried out in December 2003 revealed that the state had 3,18,680 monkeys and 555,180 langurs. As many 4763 troops of monkeys and 1137 of langurs were located during the census. The females outnumbered the males in all troops. In all there are 96,570 males, 1,24,028 females and 78,592 infants among monkeys and 18,359 males , 23,399 females and 13,422 infants among langurs. The census undertaken in June 2004 put the number of monkeys at 3,19,168 and that of langurs at 56,986. So far the department has received only Rs 21 lakh for Shimla, Rampur and the national Highway. Much more funds would be required to tackle the monkey nuisance in the entire state. |
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‘Unplanned’ digging leads to traffic jams
Hamirpur, November 14 Although digging has started on a kilometer-long stretch in October but it isn’t certain when the work will be completed. It is difficult to drive on this patch of road. The worst-affected are vehicle owners who are caught in the jam created by those digging the land. The earth has been dug up in places and is lying all along the road. Pedestrians, too, can’t cross the road. Muddy water has accumulated on the road which is full of potholes. At many places, mosquitoes have started breeding in ditches are full of dirty water due to faulty digging. The traffic police is helpless to control the flow of traffic. The ASP, Hamirpur, is supervising the whole operation as there is no alternative road via Hamirpur to Shimla and Dharamsala. A spokesman for the Department of Irrigation-cum-Public Health said the work was in final stages and would be completed soon. He said once the work was completed, the patch between the petrol station and the hathli khud via the main bus stand would retarred. People of the main bazaar area are, however, resentful reports that the department will dig the main road in the coming days as it will be difficult for them to run their business smoothly and cross the congested road leading through They have asked government to ensure that while digging, a plan should be formulated. |
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Resource crunch hits projects
Palampur, November 14 The centrally-sponsored projects Pardhan Mantri Gramin Sarak Yojna have been affected as the state government has failed to issue the letter of credit for these projects. These projects are fully funded by the Union Government and funds are always sent in advance to the state governments. It is surprising that why the payments of contractors have been withheld. Though only two-days ago the Chief Minister had claimed that there was no shortage of funds, however, official sources revealed that over 100 contractors of the PWD in Kangra district alone had been waiting for the payment of contracts executed by them. The situation in Palampur, Dharmsala, Dehara Gopipur, Kangra, Nurpur and Baijnath divisions of the PWD is no better where various contractors daily come to the offices of Executive Engineers and go back without payments. In the absence of funds various contractors have either stopped or slowed down the execution of works. Sources in the PWD told The Tribune that situation had become worse with the power to release funds being centralised by the Engineer-in-Chief at
Shimla. |
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Martyrs’ gallery opened during
Dhar Fair
Nahan, November 14 The function was organised by Mr Ajay Bhadur Singh, former MLA, to honour the martyrs. He donated a part of his Jaitak house for setting up a memorial to warriors. Two minutes’ silence was observed in the memory of martyrs. Serving and retired Army officials along with kin of martyrs from different parts of the district participated in the function. Earlier, Mr Ajay Bhadur Singh welcomed all guests. Mr D.R. Shandil said the development schemes of the government would be named after martyrs. He announced that more war memorials would be established in the state. |
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Work on Chamera-III held up
Chamba, November 14 The project is under construction on the Ravi upstream of Chamera project stage-II Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. |
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Insurance scheme for poor women
renewed
Shimla, November 14 The feature of the scheme is that the premium is paid by the government and the insured women have to only file the claim through Block Development Officers
(BDOs). Women belonging to poor families are eligible. Women in the age group of 10 to 75 years have been covered under the scheme. The dependents get Rs 25,000 in case of the death of the woman and the amount is also payable in case of permanent disability or loss of limbs or eyes. It also provides a compensation of Rs 25,000 to a married woman living below the poverty line in case of accidental death of her husband. Besides, up to Rs 12,500 is given in case of loss of one limb or one eye in an accident. It covers all types of accidents. The BDOs will countersign all documents before submitting those for the claim. The procedure for getting claims in case of death or injury are the same and the claimant is required to attach the requisite form along with the death and injury certificates. |
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HP Governor, CM greet people on Id
Shimla, November 14 In his message, the Governor said that every religion preached the message of truthfulness, honesty and brotherhood and Id-ul-Fitr would help strengthen national integration. Mr Virbhadra Singh has expressed the hope that the festival would bring happiness and prosperity, besides strengthening the bonds of brotherhood.
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2 women killed as bus falls into khud
Shimla, November 14 The bus was on its way from Chandigarh to Sangla in
Kinnaur. There were about 40 persons on board. While Kokla Devi of Shilaru died on spot, Kanko Devi of Kandiali succumbed to her injuries on the way to hospital. In all$ 23 injured persons were brought to Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital
here. In another accident one person was killed and three were injured when a Maruti car fell into a khud near
Kotkhai. — TNS |
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2 killed, 11 injured in road mishaps
Chamba, November 14 The deceased, Raj Kumar, a resident of Banjbar village in Salooni tehsil, died on the spot when his scooter skidded off the road at the Chakoli bridge. The other deceased, Balak Ram, succumbed to his injuries at the Primary Health Centre, Sinhuta when he was travelling in a tractor which overturned near Draman nullah in Bhattiyat
tehsil. Meanwhile, the police has arrested 29 persons for gambling in sporadic raids conducted in different parts of the district and seized Rs 10,000 from them. |
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1 held for raping minor
Nurpur, November 14 According to the police the victim was on her way to buy crackers from Bhadwar, a nearby market on Friday when the accused took her to a forest and allegedly committed the crime. The police got the medical examination of the victim conducted said the report had confirmed the rape of the victim.
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