Shimla, June 28
The fury of the Sutlej that lasted for just a few hours has changed the face of its banks forever. While the destruction caused by its swirling waters was confined to the narrow banks, its impact has been felt far and wide.

Areas as far as 50 to 70 km from the river have been affected as the collapse of bridges and washing away vast stretches of national highway has not only cut off the large parts of the tribal Kinnaur district but also hit power supply and telecom services. The optical fibre cable and electric transmission lines, which have been laid on the edges of the highway, were snapped where the road was damaged.

Moving down at tremendous speed the flood water broke the banks to trigger off numerous landslides. In the process, the highway running close to the river was washed away at several places along with electric poles and the underground cables.

As a result telecommunication links has been snapped to the villages served by telephone exchanges at Tapri, Choeling, Karacham, Bhabhbanagar, Neugal Seri and Nichar.

Mr V. Chaturvedi, divisional manager of the BSNL, said optical cable could be re-laid only after the restoration of the road link.

However, the department was making efforts to connect the Bhabanagar, Neugal Seri and Nichar exchanges to Rampur.

Further, power lines have also been snapped over 60 km, disrupting supply from Karcham to Pooh. The Youngthang area has not been affected but almost half of the Kinnaur has plunged into darkness.

The collapse of bridges on the national highway, the lifeline of Kinnaur, has severely affected those living within a radius of 70 km of the Sutlej.

The washing away of the bridges at Kharo and Akpa has cut off all villages and valleys falling in between. Similarly, the collapse of a bridge at Khab has cut off the Hungrung valley.

The Leo and Sumdoh areas have also been cut off due to the washing away of bridges at Khab and Shalkar and breaches in roads. Some stretches of road between Choling and Ralli and near Powari have suffered extensive damage.

There are many other areas and pockets like the Riba which will have to do without a road link for quite some time.

Mr V.C. Pharka, Principal Secretary, who is monitoring the situation, said the Public Works Department had been asked to restore the old Hindustan-Tibet road from Kharo to Akpa at least for light vehicles.

It will, indeed, require quite an effort to restore the large number of bridges and several kilometres of road length that has either been washed away or extensively damaged. The construction of bailey bridges will take a long time.

At many points the span of the river, which was widened significantly during the August 2000 floods, has been further increased. New sites may have to be identified to built bridges .

In Powari, the river has cut deep into the banks to cause breaches in the road. Besides, at places where the flood water has eroded the base of the hill through which the road is passing, the engineers may have to look for a new alignment.

Shimla, June 28
The scare created by flash floods in the Sutlej is affecting the flow of tourists, even though major tourist destinations and circuits have not been affected. The destruction has been confined to Kinnaur district.

Important tourist destinations like Shimla, Kulu, Manali, Dalhousie, Chamba, Dharamsala, Palampur, Mandi and Bilaspur have not been affected in any way.

A government spokesman said that there were approximately 40,000 tourists in the state at present and all were safe, comfortable and were at no risk whatsoever. As many as 102 tourists, staying in different hotels and lodges in Kinnaur, were being looked after well and arrangements for their transport were also being made. The hotels had been instructed to render all assistance to them and continue to extend them hospitality even if they run short of money. Full credit facility was to be extended to these tourists and the Department of Tourism would take the responsibility to cover such expenses.

The tourist information centres of Himachal Pradesh located in different parts of the country had been advised to allay the apprehension of the tourists and provide them with correct information and assistance.

The Shimla Hotels and Restaurants Association has urged the government to take adequate measures to dispel the unfounded doubts created due to floods in the Sutlej.

Mandi, June 28
A surging Sutlej pumped in silt into three hotels, two private and one owned by the HPTDC, and a government school ground, and washed away hot spring baths at Tattapani in Mandi district, where over 300 residents spent a sleepless night on Sunday to keep a constant watch on the fury of the flooded river.

Residents said three hotels were damaged by the Sutlej around 11 p.m. on Sunday when the river touched its highest, about 50 ft above normal.

“The river was flowing about 50 ft above normal on Sunday. It was flowing just 5 ft below the Tatapani bridge, said Mr Anil Kumar Atri, a resident of Tatapani, adding that this time the flow was about 4 ft less than what was witnessed during the floods in 2001.

“As the river started surging around 10 p.m, we spent the whole night sleepless along with officials, policemen and Home Guards, who had sounded a red alert in Sunni and Tatapani, said Mr Nirmla Devi, a housewife from Tatapani.

“There is silt in the HPTDC hotel, besides two others. Two families residing by the river side have been shifted to safety. Panic is subsiding as the river has receded to its normal level,” said residents.

The Additional General Manager of the 800 MW Kol Dam, being executed by the NTPC, Mr R.B. Pathak, said the river had recorded a discharge of over 3600 cusecs between 12.30 p.m. and 2 p.m. yesterday and the river had receded to its normal level now. “We had suspended work on the river bed on Sunday for safety sake but yesterday we resumed work on the project”, he said.

The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mandi, Mr R.S. Gupta, said silt had entered the resort at Tatapani on Sunday night, but there was no report of loss of life. “We are assessing the damage at Tatapani, he added.

Shimla, June 28
Fortysix stranded tourists, including 23 foreigners, were evacuated from flood-ravaged areas of Kinnaur as relief and rehabilitation operations gained momentum today.

Helicopters of the Indian Air Force made two sorties and the state helicopter one to airlift the tourists from Peo to Rampur. However, the helicopter could not fly to Sangla and Hungrung where more than 150 tourists are stranded due to inclement weather. Mr Arvind Sharda, Superintendent of Police, said in all 60 tourists had been evacuated and still an estimated 300 tourists were stranded in various parts of the district.

Some relief material, like kerosene stoves and candles, has been flown to the affected area. Work on the restoration of road links has been started on a war footing. At places where spans are to be provided in place of collapsed bridges, work on the foundation has commenced.

With the Parechu threat over for the time being, the people living along the banks of the Sutlej , who moved to safer places following the flood warning, have started retuning to their homes. The government has not scaled down the alert to keep the official machinery in readiness.

The 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Power Project remained closed for the fourth consecutive day today. While the discharge in the river came down to 1,800 cumecs, the silt content remained exorbitantly high at 34,000 ppm (parts per million).

The project which generates over 36 million units of electricity daily, and its closure is costing the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Rs 9 crore per day. Generation will be resumed only after the level of silt falls down to the permissible limit of 5,000 ppm.

Solan, June 28
With tomato prices crashing to an all-time low of Re 1 per kg, its growers in the region are having a distressing time. Complaining that the government had failed to open tomato processing units, the growers are now demanding minimum support price for the tomatoes along with crop insurance like that for apple and other crops.

The fact that the economy of the region is largely dependent on tomato, the growers have now delayed plucking of tomatoes from the fields.

This, however, appears to be a short-term measure as being a perishable commodity these have to reach the market within a short time of ripening.

The growers had planted tomatoes in larger numbers this year, but the lacklustre beginning of the tomato season has left them disappointed.

The local MLA, Dr Rajiv Bindal, while supporting the cause of the farmers said the prevalent market rate of tomatoes would not even enable a farmer to recover his expenditure. With rising cost of petrol, insecticides, pesticides, fertilisers and power, they now have to opened twice the price they used to open earlier on the crop.

He said despite raising the issue time and again in the Vidhan Sabha, the government had failed to either fix a support price or open any tomato-based industry in the region.

This, he felt, would have helped the growers who had shifted from plum cultivation to tomatoes in the 1970s.

“Successive governments have failed to address their cause. Though the former BJP government had opened vegetable markets, the present government paid no heed to its upgrading,” he lamented.

Shimla, June 28
Large-scale felling of trees within the Kasauli Cantonment area and haphazard construction in its peripheries is playing havoc with the environment.

Expressing concern over the systematic degeneration of the hill resort, Mr Baljit Malik, convenor of the Kasauli Bachao Andolan, here today alleged that over the past 10 years more than 1,000 green trees had been axed in the garb of removing dead trees and another 400 to 500 trees had been felled illegally.

He said on an average 80 to 200 trees were being cut through the state forest corporation, but the trees which were actually dead were left standing for years together until they fell on their own.

On the top of it no new plantations were being raised as a result of which the green cover was shrinking rapidly. He demanded that a complete moratorium on the felling of trees for 10 years be imposed in the area. Besides, saplings of oak and "daru"(pomegranates) be planted in between the spurs and ridges.

Mr Malik said while building laws were being strictly enforced within the cantonment, indiscriminate and excessive construction activity was going on in the peripheries. Huge concrete structures, which did not blend with the hill environment, were coming up all around. The defence authorities during the NDA regime allowed the regulation prohibiting construction within 900 m of the IAF station to lapse, he alleged.

Taking advantage of what seemed to be a "deliberate lapse", private builders have also managed to get land circumventing the Land Tenancy Act and were constructing huge structures. Further, bore well had been deep sunk which would affect ground water and natural sources of water.

He demanded revival of the defunct environment commission to save Kasauli and other areas from degeneration.

Shimla, June 28
The Indira Gandhi National Open University has approved a proposal for the setting up of a new study centre at Sarkaghat Government Degree College in Mandi.

The university is also starting programme study centres for M.Sc Programme (Dietetics and Food Service Management) in the Home Science College, Agriculture University, Palampur.

A spokesman for IGNOU said admission for the current session for M.A, M.Sc, B.A. & B.Sc. programmes had started. The last date for the submission of admission forms is July 30, 2005.

To strengthen student support services, IGNOU is making further innovation in the area of satellite-based communication technology.

A dedicated satellite (Edusat) has been launched and three centres, Shimla, Dharamsala and Rampur have been identified as high priority locations for the satellite interactive terminals.