H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Six victims identified
Shimla, November 20
The six members of a family, including three children, who were crushed to death under a boulder on Thursday morning in Kheuncha village under Rampur subdivision, have been identified. According to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sushil Negi, the incident took place at 2.30 am when the family was asleep.

Fire threat looms large over British Raj buildings
Shimla, November 20
A large number of old British buildings in the town have been lost to fires as precious little is being done to save these fine examples of colonial heritage from the threat of fire.

Bus mishaps claim 91 lives in three months
Palampur, November 20
The sudden spurt in the accidents in the state in past few months has alarmed the commuters. It has once again put a question mark on the passenger safety and functioning of the state transport department. Every third day an accident is reported from the state.

3 arrested for staircase collapse
Bilaspur, November 20
The police here has arrested a contractor, Virender Kumar Modgil, Junior Engineer Sanjiv Kumar and a junior draughtsman, Umesh Gautam, the latter two of the Bilaspur Nagar Parishad, in a case related to the sudden collapse of stairs of the pavilion of a cricket stadium at the Luhnu Sports Complex here on March 3 this year.

• Dalai Lama inaugurates Buddhist mahavidyalaya

Six victims identified
Tribune News Service

Fire threat looms large over British Raj buildings
Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, November 20
A large number of old British buildings in the town have been lost to fires as precious little is being done to save these fine examples of colonial heritage from the threat of fire.

Over the years many buildings constructed by the British have been completely gutted in devastating fires. Some of these includes Wild Flower Hall, which was once the residence of Commander-in-chief of the Army, Peterhoff, which was later made the Governor’s official residence, Kennedy House, Walkers Hospital which housed the Military Hospital, Western Command, Grand Hotel, Butlers School, Snowdon building, Government College, Sanjauli and Convent of Jesus and Mary.

On Thursday night also a major mishap was averted when the fire tenders succeeded in controlling a fire that broke out on the fifth floor of the Armsdale Building, known as the Mini-Secretariat. In this case, too, short-circuiting is suspected to be the cause of the fire, which could have proved to be much more disastrous had it not been for the timely action by the firemen.

As a majority of these old buildings being made of wood, the British had made a provision for water hydrants within the entire complex. Today, in majority of the old buildings either these are lying out of order or have been buried under new constructions. A fine example of the still functional water hydrant system is in the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. Even before the water tanks of the kitchen and bathroom get filled the reservoir for the hydrants gets filled first of all.

With the capital facing a perennial water shortage, it becomes difficult for the fire tenders to meet the water requirement in case of fire as water pressure is very law. “With some of these old buildings being located on a height and the approach roads being very steep and narrow the fire tenders are unable to reach, as was the case in case of the fire that gutted Wild Flower Hall building,” said an official from the Fire Department. He admitted that in case we have to save the remaining old British structures, a foolproof fire fighting system, on the pattern installed by the British would have to be installed.

Though the state government has prepared a list of over 100 buildings, which are a century-old, but no concrete efforts have been made to protect these buildings so that they are not lost in fires. The area from the state Secretariat till the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies has been declared as Heritage Zone, where there is complete ban on reconstruction and only very minor alteration and addition is permissible under the Town and Country Planning Act. With the threat of fire looming large over these old colonial structures, if timely steps are not taken, the town may loose these precious structures.

Bus mishaps claim 91 lives in three months
Our Correspondent

Palampur, November 20
The sudden spurt in the accidents in the state in past few months has alarmed the commuters.

It has once again put a question mark on the passenger safety and functioning of the state transport department. Every third day an accident is reported from the state. According to official figures, over 91 innocent persons have lost their lives in different bus mishaps in the state in past three months. The situation is quite alarming.

Despite tall claims made by the Himachal Pradesh Government in nothing worthwhile has been done to ensure the passenger safety in the state. Though the state government is aware of the fact that 98 per cent of the total population of the state is dependant on the road transport but the passenger safety has completely been neglected.

In most of the mishaps, private buses and other vehicles were involved.It seems that the state government has not learnt any lesson and it continues to grant new bus and taxi permits to private transporters on political considerations. The authorities do not bother to verify whether the roads for which permits were being issued are traffic worthy or not.

Though there has been manifold increase in the number of light and heavy vehicles in the state, state and interstate traffic has also gone up but the width of most of the roads has remained the same as it was 30 years ago.

The state government has taken various steps for the widening of roads but very little improvement has been done in this field so far. Most of such projects have been hanging fire because of official bottlenecks.

The conditions of roads in the rural areas is worst where frequent accidents are taking place.

In past five years, over 1000 persons in the state have lost their lives in different road accidents while over 2300 were injured.

The state has a high rate of accidents because of its difficult topography and narrow roads.

It would not be wrong to say the in Himachal Pradesh “an accident- free day” is a news .

Almost after every accident, the state government orders probe into the cause of accident, but sadly no follow- up action is taken on such reports.

3 arrested for staircase collapse
Our Correspondent

Dalai Lama inaugurates Buddhist mahavidyalaya
Tribune News Service

Mandi, November 20
The Tibetan spiritual guru, the Dalai Lama, yesterday inaugurated the Jogsar Choko Lodo Tarshastra Mahavidyalya at Chauntra, about 85 kms from here, in a Buddhist tradition. The mahavidyalya will provide Buddhist education to over 5,000 students.

The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, presided over the function.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Mr Virbhadra Singh said it was a matter of pride for Himachal that Buddhism had been growing side by side with the Hindu and other religions in the state.