Shimla, September 19
Concerned at recurring breakdown of the country’s largest hydroelectric venture, the 1500-MW Nathpa Jhakri project, due to excessive silt in Sutlej, the Union Ministry of Environment has decided on a comprehensive study to map environmental status of its catchment.

The objective of the study is to prepare an environmental status report of the Sutlej catchment and to identify related issues ,besides suggesting measures to resolve the problems. The ministry has sanctioned Rs 27 lakh for the study to be conducted by the state’s Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board in collaboration with the Central Pollution Control Board.

It is the first study of its kind to be taken up by the Union Ministry, which plans to replicate it in other catchments as environmental degradation has affected most of the important rivers.

Total catchment area of the river upstream the Nathpa dam from where the water of the river is diverted for the project is 49,820 sq km of which 36,900 falls in Tibet and the remaining 12,920 sq km in Himachal Pradesh. The extent to which the river has been affected due to the ongoing environmental degradation could be judged from the ever-increasing level of silt. The Nathpa Jhakri project was designed for a maximum silt level of 5,000 ppm (parts per million) on the basis of data as per which the silt content was likely to exceed this limit only for four days in a year. However, in the very first monsoon after the project was commissioned the silt content has surpassed the permissible limit on 53 days from June 24 to August 31.

The study will help generate authentic environment related data which will help engineers in planning future projects on the river. The composite view of environmental status mapping and conservation priorities of the catchment will also be useful to environmental regulators to have a neutral opinion in decision making while granting clearances to development projects.

The user agencies such as agriculture, forest, wildlife, Hydropower, Industry and Tourism departments of the state will be taken into confidence while conducting the study which will also enable the government to evolve the strategies for conservation of catchment and sustainable development.

Shimla, September 19
Activists of the BJP today staged a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in protest against the price rise and the failure of the government to procure apple under the market intervention scheme.

The Shimla, Kusumpati and Suni units of the party organised the protest. The protesters submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner addressed to the Governor calling upon the UPA regime to roll back the hike in diesel and petrol prices.

The party alleged that only 20 fruit procurement centres were opened which were far from adequate. As a result hardly any fruit was procured under the market intervention scheme. The authorities also failed to maintain adequate supply of apple packing cartons during the season. Mr R.D. Kashyap , a former minister, Mrs Vimla Kashyap, state Mahila Morcha chief, Mr Ganesh Dut, a former spokesperson of the party, and other leaders participated.

A similar protest was staged at Theog in which workers of Jubal, Kotkhai and Theog participated. Led by former minister Naridner Bragta, they blocked traffic near the local bus stand for some time.

Solan, September 19
Field staff of Himachal Pradesh Roadways Transport Corporation (HRTC) have demanded security for its buses plying on various sensitive routes, including Saharanpur and Hardwar. The demand follows the alleged killing of HRTC conductor Gurudev Singh by armed robbers on September 10 near Saharanpur.

The drivers and conductors of the HRTC said there was palpable fear while driving through various towns of Uttar Pradesh. They rued that despite the buses being checked at various barriers all along the route from Chandigarh to Saharanpur, there were instances of attempts being made by armed bus occupants to snatch the cash bag.

They said that September 10 was not an isolated attempt. Gurudev had earlier complained that cash worth Rs 15,000 had been snatched from him in the past, but no action was taken.

While they alleged lack of police inaction, they also said that the local police often connived with the miscreants, who were unsurprisingly never traced.

The Transport Department has taken up the matter with the Chief Minister, said Mr G.S.Bali, Transport Minister. He added that there was a need to intensify patrolling in the sensitive area en route Chandigarh-Saharanpur.

Dharamsala, September 19
The impressive list of over 555 bird species found in Kangra district would soon be projected as an attraction for tourists coming to the area.

Disclosing this, Mr G.S. Bali, Tourism and Transport Minister, said the details of the project were being finalised and tourists coming to Kangra would be given special facilities to indulge in bird watching.

“Places like the Pong Dam and other prominent habitats of birds would be developed as tourist spots so that the tourism industry in the region gets an impetus. A recently published book by a Dutch bird-watcher on the birds of the valley would also be promoted by the Tourism Department as part of the project,” he said.

The Pong Dam reservoir, spreading over 400 sq km, hosts nearly 1,50,000 water birds, including 20 per cent of the world’s bar-headed geese in winter. Besides, the list of interesting species of birds found in the area includes pied harrier, greater white-fronted goose, sociable lapwing, ruddy turnstone mew and the slender-billed gull.

“Birders from India and abroad keep coming here but given the large number of species found here, even the general tourists can find a creative way of spending time in Kangra in case prominent tourist spots are developed, especially near the water bodies,” says a travel agent based in McLeodganj.

According to the Wildlife Department, this year, about 1,40,000 migratory birds of different species visited the area. The Pong Dam has become a centre of attraction for the bird watchers due to the presence of about 70 demoiselle cranes, which have visited the area for the first time and that too in the off-season.

The 115-km reservoir, however, has a long way to go to develop as a proper tourist spot. Presently, there is no source of information about the arrival of birds and the right locations to visit during different periods of the migratory birds’ stay here.

“The restaurant at the Pong Dam terrace lies deserted and even a devoted bird watcher would have a second thought about spending a night there. Tourists have to cross over into Punjab to have good food as the nearby villages do not have much to offer in the name of facilities. But given the high number of bird species having their habitat in the area, the Kangra valley can definitely catch the interest of every nature lover,” said a wildlife official.

Mandi, September 19
The former PWD Minister and the Dharampur BJP MLA Mohinder Singh Thakur today alleged that the HP State Cooperative Bank has become a den of corruption as the loans have been sanctioned to bank defaulters and its contractors are being benefited by the bank incurring looses on the bank. If the bugling continues, the bank may head for a disaster like the Mandi Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd, he alleged.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Thakur said the bank has given a tender of Rs 52.36 lakh for the bank’s building on The Mall Road, Shimla. “But the bank paid Rs 1.44 crore for the completion of the work after two-and-a-half years, violating tender’s terms and condition.

The bank substituted over 87 items and quoted higher rates just to benefit the contractor”, he alleged.

Mr Thakur accused the bank management of sanctioning loans worth Rs 10 crore to the Messrs. Kufri Hotel Resort, which had already got loans of Rs 4.71 crore from the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and Rs 13 lakh from Punjab National Bank (PNB) and a sum of Rs 62 lakh from some other bank.

Raising the finger at the way the bank’s management is sanctioning the loans, Mr Thakur further alleged that the cooperative bank gave loan worth Rs 2.5 crore to the Himalayan International Mushroom, Paonta Sahib, and a loan of Rs 2.5 crore to the Himalayan Brewery, Solan.

Mr Thakur alleged that the bank management has committed a lot of irregularities in conducting the written test for the class III and IV employees held recently in Sarkaghat centre.

He pointed out that the rains have breached the link roads in Dharampur constituency at several places, but the PWD has no workforce and machineries left there to repair the roads.

He demanded a white paper on the CM Relief Fund worth Rs 175.52 crore showing where and how the fund is being spent. “It should be given to the relief work in the natural calamities hit areas,” he added.

Mandi, September 19
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Mandi police destroyed over 60 bighas of cannabis crop in Thachi, Jehra and Nachan forest areas in the tehsil today. The NCB and the police launched an anti-cannabis drive yesterday. However, the team came out with a surprise. The villagers now want an alternative.

Talking to The Tribune from Jehra, the Superintendent of the NCB, Regional Directorate, Chandigarh, Mr O.P. Sharma, who led the 34-member team, said the team destroyed over 60 bighas of cannabis after covering over 20 km on foot today.

“The most of cannabis had been grown in the forest areas. The villagers had even destroyed the crop themselves when the main charas kingpin from the area was arrested during the NCB-police operation in August this year”, Mr Sharma said.

“We suspect that over 250 bighas are under cannabis cultivation mainly in Jehra, Thachi and Nachan, Didar and Chamaj and Bong forest areas”, Mr Sharma said. “People are poor here and are looking for government help to give them a road link and a school as they have to walk 8-10 km on foot to reach the Thachi road-head”, he said.

The team held three camps for the villagers, who came in a large number to listen to the team members, according to the reports from Thachi.

They wanted to grow off-season vegetables, but they had no roads to take the crops to the market, the villagers told the NCB members at the camps.

The Superintendent of Police, Mandi district, Mr Ajay Yadav, said the team would book cases if the cannabis was grown on private land.