Garm Pani (Kinnaur), September 14
Bodies of two more Army jawans were spotted in the Sutlej river late this afternoon here. Earlier, the body of Havaldar Ravi Selvan was recovered by the Army with the help of British rafters, two days ago.

As many as 34 army personnel, including two officers and one JCO, were swept away in Sutlej river after the bailey bridge that they were constructing on the National Highway-22, collapsed suddenly last Thursday at Kharo, 21 kilometers from Rekong Peo, the district headquarters of Kinnaur.

When the report regarding the bodies reached the control room, especially set-up for the purpose, officials of the district administration, including the District Magistrate, Dr Amandeep Garg, the Superintendent of Police Mr Arvind Sharda, along with Mr R.S Negi, Commanding Officer of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBPF), rushed to the spot immediately.

A senior Army official told The Tribune that efforts were on to recover the bodies. “It is indeed very difficult and risky to go in the river and face the current to pull out the bodies but we are on the job”, he said.

It has become more difficult for the rescue team to pull out the bodies from the Sutlej as it has been raining in the area for the past few hours.

The road stretch near here was completely washed away in the recent flash floods and the road leading to the river has deteriorated making the rescue work more risky.

Army, ITBPF and the local police personnel were making joint efforts to pull out the bodies from the river till the time of filing of this report.

On the other hand, the Army seemed to have dropped the idea of pulling out the collapsed bridge from the river as continuous efforts in this regard for the past five days had proved futile. Today, the recovery vehicles were sent back from the site of the incident at Kharo.

Two recovery vehicles had been hired by the district administration and the Army from a private company running hydro power projects here. However, all efforts to get comments in this regard from the Army authorities proved futile.

Shimla, September 14
The World Bank is likely to give its final nod to the Rs 370 crore Mid-hill Himalayan Watershed Development Project, the biggest scheme in the forestry sector, by 
October 1.

A team of the bank will arrive here on September 18 for the final appraisal mission after which the project will be cleared. The government had submitted a Rs 540 crore proposal which was pruned during evaluation by the experts of the bank. To be implemented over a period of seven years the project will cover the ecologically fragile mid-hill areas on an altitude of 1800 feet to 5000 feet. In all about 400 panchayats of 10 districts, excluding those already included in the Kandi project or DIFID project will be covered. Only the tribal districts of Kinnaur and Lahaul- Spiti will remain uncovered.

The focus of the project will be on conservation of water, which is increasingly becoming scarce. Besides vegetative measures, check dams and water harvesting structures and other civic works will also constructed under the project. The water impounded through the measures will be used for irrigation to enable the farmers in the rainfed areas to diversify into cash crops.

The integrated project will be implemented through people’s participation adopting the watershed approach. Micro planning will be carried out at the Panchayat level for each watershed keeping in view the requirement of the local people and available resources.

Along with afforestation and water conservation measures, the project will aim at improving farm productivity through dissemination of latest know-how, besides high-yielding seeds and milch cattle. 

Shimla, September 14
Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, has underlined the role of Hindi strengthening the emotional integrity of the country.

Addressing the state level Hindi Day function organised here today, he said that language lent identity to a country and served as a vital communication link between different sections and areas of the country. He said Hindi was one of the few languages of the world which was spoken and written by a large number of people. He stressed the need to use Hindi in all communications, written and spoken, so that it got promoted at all levels.

The Chief Minister said that the literary works of prominent writers, poets and historians had helped immensely in promotion of Hindi. He said that Hindi films had also been contributing immensely towards the popularity of the language globally as these films were popular across the world.

Mr Virbhadra Singh also gave away prizes to officers and officials for commendable work in promotion of Hindi in official working.

He also released the two publications of the Language, Art and Culture Department titled “Sanskriti-2004” and “Vibhagiya Gatividhiyan”.

The Una district was adjudged best in the state in implementation of Hindi, while a special prize was given to district language officer Sirmour for rendering meritorious services.

Mandi, September 14
The Minister for Cooperatives, Mr Kuldeep Kumar, and the Registrar (Cooperatives) Mr R.D. Dhiman assured members of the action committee of the Mandi Citizens’ Council (MCC) that the government would ensure that the depositors’ money was safe and defaulters would not be spared.

Spokesperson of the committee TL Vaidya stated here that members of the committee met Mr Kumar and Mr RD Dhiman at Shimla and apprised him of the slow pace of recovery of loans from defaulters by the new administration of

the Mandi Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd.

Mr Vaidya stated that Minister and Registrar assured that the department would put in all sources at their command to safeguard depositors’ money and book the defaulters.

The action committee put forth put its demand to hold the general house of the bank’s shareholders to know the exact status of the bank. The delegation also urged the minister to speed up the process of recovery and auction the property of those whose cases had been rejected by the court, the committee members urged.

The delegation was led by Mr PC Bisht, president, MCC, Col KK Malhotra, Mr Suhash Paul, Capt YC Vaidya, and Mr TL Vaidya.

Parwanoo, September 14
The two-day Mata Kaushalya Memorial Volleyball Competition concluded here yesterday. Thirtyseven teams from various government schools of the region took part in it.

The competition was divided into primary, middle and senior secondary levels. In the primary school section, National Public School (NPS), Parwanoo, lifted the trophy while Government Senior Secondary School remained runners-up.

In the middle school category, the local DAV school emerged winners while NPS, Parwanoo, were declared runners-up. In the senior secondary school category, the Shivam Club, Kalka, lifted the trophy while NPS team grabbed the second spot.

Puneet of NPS was declared player of the competition in the primary section. Shavinder Thakur and Jugal Kishore, both of NPS, were declared players of the series in the middle and senior categories.

Ms Meenakhshi Sharma inaugurated the competition. During the closing ceremony, Mr Raghu Raj, Congress MLA, was the chief guest. He gave away prizes to the winners.

Mr S.K. Chopra, Principal of NPS, welcomed the chief guests on both occasion. The local National Sports and Culture Committee had organised the competition.

Mr Dharampal Thakur, Deputy Speaker of the HP Vidhan Sabha, said during this fiscal year, Rs 17 crore had been spent on the construction of a stadium and providing sports infrastructure in the state.

Promoting sports in the state was on the top of the agenda of the state government, he said while addressing sportspersons during the inauguration of the 22nd state-level sports tournaments of the Government Middle School at Kunihar.

“The state government has decided to construct a stadium in every constituency, ” he said. The decision was taken to promote rural talent. Adventure sports would also be encouraged, he said.

The sportspersons had been given three per cent reservation in government services, he said.

Mr S.S. Rathore, Deputy Director of Physical Education, welcomed Dharampal Thakur.

Nurpur, September 14
Keeping in view the long-standing demand of the inhabitants, the state government has issued notification for upgrading the local government girls high school to senior secondary school with immediate effect.

Mr R.K. Mahajan, president, Municipal Council, Nurpur, in a statement issued today thanked the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, for fulfilling his promise made during the civic reception accorded by the council in January 2004.

Mr Mahajan said the Chief Minister had also promised to revoke the notification of the Irrigation-cum-Public Health Department in which the tariff of piped water had been enhanced and consumers were served notice to install water meters.

Shimla, September 14
The Governor, Mr V.S. Kokje, has stressed the need for better coordination among various agencies and voluntary organizations working for the welfare of the society by ensuring effective implementation of social upliftment programmes.

Interacting with visually impaired children and their teachers from the School of the Himachal chapter of National Association for Blinds, Kulu, at Raj Bhawan here today, he said the School of National Association for Blinds had emerged as a model NGO. Earlier, the children pinned up the flags to the Governor, his wife and other senior officers of Raj Bhawan.