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HP missive to NHPC
Govt rolls back sewerage charges
‘Undo’ damage to ecology by Parbati project, HP missive to NHPC
Dhumal for CBI probe into recruitment scam
Cabinet approves water policy
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Rs 540 cr watershed project launched
Where traffic jam is a permanent problem
No check on unplanned buildings
HP donates Rs 1 crore, relief material to J&K
Medicinal plants project sanctioned
6 hurt in road mishap
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HP missive to NHPC
Shimla, October 13 For the first time the government, had exercised power under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act against a central public undertaking. The directive issued to the general manager of the project warns that the government will go ahead with prosecution if its directions were not complied with. The state government has adopted a tough posture on the issue after the Centre unilaterally granted environmental clearance to the NHPC for the
Parbati-III and Chamera-III projects. The decision to take legal action against the corporation was taken on the basis of the report joint inspection committee, headed by the Deputy Commissioner,
Kulu, and comprising officers of the forest department, science and technology department and the state pollution control board. The committee visited the project area in the third week of August and found evidence of environmental devastation caused due to dumping of debris on hill slopes and the
nullahs, particularly in the Garsa and Manikaran valleys. The project authorities have been directed to restore the dumping sites and remove the recklessly dumped debris, which had choked the natural drainage system and damaged roads extensively. The government earlier had asked the NHPC to submit a week-wise action plan for the removal of debris from various points in Puliah Nullah and other places. The project authorities were also directed to create new dumping sites and restore the roads damaged due to failure of the management to provide protection works. However, the committee found that ecological degradation caused by Parbati II Project has only got aggravated beyond control since then, indicating that the management did take the required measures to undo the environmental damage.
Mr Virbhadra Singh , Chief Minister, has also written to Mr A.Raja, Union Minister for Environment and forests, asserting that the ministry had erred in granting environmental clearance to the two projects. He said the central public undertaking which were exempted from the requirement of mandatory recommendations of the state government by a circular dated August 20,2002, continued to be governed by the Environment Impact Assessment
(EIA) notification as per which a no-objection certificate from the state pollution control board was mandatory for processing of environmental clearance cases in the Government of India. As such recommendation of the state government should have been taken into consideration before according environmental clearance to the two projects. He lamented that the NHPC had not sent any communication regarding adherence to the conditions proposed by the government. |
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Govt rolls back sewerage charges
Shimla, October 13 The State Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, here, decided to reduce the one-time sewerage connection charges from Rs 1000 to Rs 400 per toilet seat for domestic and from Rs 1500 to Rs 800 per seat for commercial users. Further, no application fee will be charged for domestic and commercial connection. In case of houses and hostels having septic tanks or already connected to the existing system no fresh connection charges will be levied. It decided to transfer 11.24 hectares of land to the Railways for the Nangal-Talwara rail project. It also approved the water policy. The Cabinet turned down the request of the J.P. Industries for grant of one year’s extension for the commissioning of the 1000 MW Karcham-Wangtu project. The project is to be completed by 2010 as per the implementation agreement. It also cleared 11 projects with generating capacities ranging between 5 MW and 100 MW for allocation to private sector through the MoU (memorandum of understanding route). It cleared a proposal for recruitment of 51 veterinary officers on contract, besides regularisation of 170 posts of peon and 93 posts of sweeper working on part-time basis against Class IV. The Cabinet also gave its nod for the creation of 29 teaching and non-teaching posts for government college, Shillai, and approved the norms for issuing no objection certificates for the introduction of BPE and BPEd courses on regular basis in the private sector. |
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‘Undo’ damage to ecology by Parbati project, HP missive to NHPC
Shimla, October 13 For the first time the government, had exercised power under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act against a central public undertaking. The directive issued to the general manager of the project warns that the government will go ahead with prosecution if its directions were not complied with. The state government has adopted a tough posture on the issue after the Centre unilaterally granted environmental clearance to the NHPC for the
Parbati-III and Chamera-III projects. The decision to take legal action against the corporation was taken on the basis of the report joint inspection committee, headed by the Deputy Commissioner,
Kulu, and comprising officers of the forest department, science and technology department and the state pollution control board. The committee visited the project area in the third week of August and found evidence of environmental devastation caused due to dumping of debris on hill slopes and the
nullahs, particularly in the Garsa and Manikaran valleys. The project authorities have been directed to restore the dumping sites and remove the recklessly dumped debris, which had choked the natural drainage system and damaged roads extensively. The government earlier had asked the NHPC to submit a week-wise action plan for the removal of debris from various points in Puliah Nullah and other places. The project authorities were also directed to create new dumping sites and restore the roads damaged due to failure of the management to provide protection works. However, the committee found that ecological degradation caused by Parbati II Project has only got aggravated beyond control since then, indicating that the management did take the required measures to undo the environmental damage.
Mr Virbhadra Singh , Chief Minister, has also written to Mr A.Raja, Union Minister for Environment and forests, asserting that the ministry had erred in granting environmental clearance to the two projects. He said the central public undertaking which were exempted from the requirement of mandatory recommendations of the state government by a circular dated August 20,2002, continued to be governed by the Environment Impact Assessment
(EIA) notification as per which a no-objection certificate from the state pollution control board was mandatory for processing of environmental clearance cases in the Government of India. As such recommendation of the state government should have been taken into consideration before according environmental clearance to the two projects. He lamented that the NHPC had not sent any communication regarding adherence to the conditions proposed by the government. The ministry should not have any objection in including these conditions in environmental clearance to ensure proper monitoring subsequently. He urged Mr Raja to ensure that all conditions were incorporated in the environmental clearance of the two projects. |
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Dhumal for CBI probe into recruitment scam
Kangra, October 13 Mr Dumal was addressing a press conference here last night. He said that the state Cooperative Bank conducted examination for recruitment with same roll numbers given to number of candidates, answersheets did not have serial numbers and same question papers were repeated in the morning and evening sessions of the examination. He said the bank authorities had allegedly tampered with the answersheets in a guest house at Shimla at night. He alleged that this was done to accommodate favourites. He alleged corruption was rampant and common people were suffering. He said that the JBT selctions were challenged in the court, and patwari examination papers were leaked to benefit own candidates but when it became public the examination was cancelled. He said that TGT Medical results for the appointment of the teachers was declared after 22 days of results and seven students of the reserved category were declared successful. He asked the Chief Minister that people had the right to know who other seven candidates from general category were deleted after the fresh results. Mr Dhumal, said recruitments were made only through the back doors to accommodate own people. He said wards of police officers were appointed from the districts where their parents were serving the police. He also alleged that in TGT Lecturer cadre candidates who had got B.Ed in 2002 were appointed and those who passed B.Ed a decade back were dropped because the former belonged to Rampur and Rohru and latter belonged to the merged areas. He said that a committee of five BJP MLAs which included Mr Isshwar Singh Dhiman, Dr Rajeev Bindal, Choudary Sukh Ram, Mr Ravinder Ravi and Mr Vikram Thakur, has been constituted to go into the charges of corruption in recruitments in the state. He said if a CBI inquiry into these charges was not ordered the BJP would fight it inside and out side the Assembly. Mr Dhumal later attended concluding programme of Ram Leela here as chief guest and distributed the prizes. |
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Cabinet approves water policy
Shimla, October 13 Non-conventional methods like artificial recharging of ground water, roof-top rain water harvesting, dual plumbing in buildings for use of rain water will be promoted to augment availability. Planning, development and management of water sources will be carried out on a hydrological unit basis and a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary participatory approach will be adopted for the purpose. An "environmental discharge", not less than minimum of 15 per cent of the total available discharge will have to be released under the sustainability evaluation criteria for projects. The environmental impact assessment of major projects shall be preferably carried out by independent agencies. The main objective of the policy, says Mr Kaul Singh, the Irrigation and Public Health Minister, is to ensure long-term availability of quality water and prepare the hill state to deal with predicted global water crisis. Water audit will be conducted periodically to check losses between bulk storage and usage points and groundwater recharge projects will be developed to ensure that exploitation did not exceed recharging. Effective integration of water use and land use policies will be effected for harnessing the full irrigation potential and scientific practices like sprinkler and drip systems will be promoted wherever feasible. Water user charges shall attempt to gradually recover at least the operation and maintenance expenses for services and subsidies on water rates will be well-targeted and transparent. A citizen charter will be developed to guarantee efficiency, transparency and accountability in the delivery of drinking eater and irrigation. Water zoning of the state will be carried out in a time bound manner to guide the economic activities. Conservation of water will be promoted through incentives and disincentives and measures like selective lining of the conveyance systems will also be taken up. |
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Rs 540 cr watershed project launched
Nurpur, October 13 “Three offices at Nurpur, Chuwari and Dharamshala have been opened to commission the project,” he said. He informed that 132 Gram Panchayats from Kangra and Chamba districts had been identified for operation of the project. Mr Kumar also inaugurated the computerised vehicle registration and licensing office at Jawali sub-division. Mr Kumar pointed out that the Rs 52 crore Sidhatha Irrigation Project in Jawali sub-division, on which work was in progress but delayed, was selected by the Union government under fast track scheme and its completion is expected by 2007. “With its commissioning, 3,000 hectares of land will get irrigation facility” he added. He also informed that the UPA government had taken the declining interest of people in agriculture and the planning commission had been asked to formulate a strategy for development of infrastructure to make agriculture more attracting. The public sector banks had been asked to increase financing in the agricultural sector to the tune of 33 per cent, which was about 15 per cent at present. Mr Kumar, who is also member of National Wild Life Board, also informed that in order to strengthen wild life — a wing of the Forest Department — the Union government was also contemplating to bifurcate it from the Forest Department. |
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Where traffic jam is a permanent problem
Parwanoo, October 13 The problem, however, starts at Kalka where the road has been reduced to a narrow corridor with shops and their wares being displayed everywhere. It takes at least half an hour to cross
Kalka, comments Mr Ajay Sharma, a businessman who daily, visits Parwanoo from
Chandigarh. He added it had become routine to move at a snail’s pace while crossing
Kalka. With apple season in progress the movement of hundreds of trucks daily has added to the increasing influx of vehicles. This rush goes up during the weekends when hundreds of tourists visit Kasauli and
Shimla. The authorities in Himachal are four laning the existing road to ease traffic. This would solve the problem of vehicles creating a jam while paying various dues. Locals, however, say that an alternate route needs to be constructed to divert heavy vehicles from Kalka to
Parwanoo. The fact that the road at Kalka remains busy with hundreds of vehicles throughout the day the diversion of traffic appears to be urgently done. Though a
four-laning project linking Tipra to Kalka has been suggested in a survey carried out by the Ministry of Road and Surface Transport, lack of funds is stalling its implementation. With the hub being an important industrial town the problem of traffic needs to be addressed on priority. The problem is also compounded with the absence of any bus stand. This makes the buses to halt at various spots leading to more chaos. With a government senior secondary school located right next to the road, the traffic jams create particular problems for the children. |
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No check on unplanned buildings
Palampur, October 13 In past five years Kangra district, particularly Palampur and Dharmsala towns have turned into a huge concrete jungles. After the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat the Himachal Pradesh Government has taken several measures to regulate the construction activity in the region and also brought all important towns of Kangra district within the purview of the Town and Country Planning Act. But it is surprising that hundreds of buildings, including residential houses and
multi-storeyed complexes in the district have come up without the prior approval of Town and Country Planning Department. Private builders, semi- government and government agencies are not following the norms laid down by the Town and Country Planning Department. In various cases thecourts have granted stay orders on the constructions of buildings. The entire Dhauladhar ranges in Himachal Pradesh falls in Zone five and experts of the Seismology Department of Roorkee University have recommended earthquake- proof constructions for this region. It is on record that a number of civil engineers and other senior officers of the state have been imparted training for the construction and designing of earthquake- proof structures in the state. Towers constructed by the cellular telephone companies on the roofs of certain buildings in various parts of the district is an open example of the violation of norms. But no action has been initiated against these companies by the Town and Country Planning Authorities or the municipal councils. |
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HP donates Rs 1 crore, relief material to J&K
Shimla, October 13 The Himachal Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, said the people of Himachal Pradesh were deeply concerned at the deaths and devastation caused by the earthquake in the neighbouring state and considered it their duty to help the affected people. He said 5,000 blankets had been dispatched for distribution among the victims. The Chief Minister said Himachal Pradesh would extend all possible help to supplement the relief and rehabilitation effort in the quake-ravaged state. |
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Medicinal plants project sanctioned
Solan, October 13 The DFO-cum-CEO, FDA, Mr Alok Nagar, said the project would enable the villagers to cultivate medicinal plants over an area of 250 hectares of forest land. The project has been sanctioned for a period of five years. The project entails technology demonstration, extension and training to the villagers. A list of various medicinal plants suitable to the region has been prepared. Marketing of these herbs is a major area of concern. Efforts are afoot to identify herbal- based industries in the prime industrial areas of Baddi and Nalagarh in the district. The work would be executed by 11 village forest development committees spread across Parwanoo, Dharampur, Solan, Subathu and Kandaghat ranges. The University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, and Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishaw Vidyalaya, Palampur, would be associated to the project. While the project promises generation of income to the villagers, the empowerment of the masses by participatory forest management programmes is its other feature, Mr Nagar said. He said medicinal plant cultivation and collection of usufruct could be a major tool in attracting people towards sustainable forest management. The state’s population being inextricably linked to the forests,its medicinal plants are the basis of rural health traditions, both in respect of humans and cattle, he added. |
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6 hurt in road mishap
Solan, October 13 The truck driver was also injured. The other injured were taken to the community health center, Kandhaghat, for a first aid. A case of rash and negligent driving under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC has been registered against the bus driver. |
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