Shimla, October 25
Jammu and Kashmir has made a strong plea for according “full participatory” status to the state in the eastern rivers, besides compensation for the denial of consumptive use of the western rivers under the Indus Water treaty.

Speaking at the meeting of the northern zonal council here today, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, Deputy Chief Minister of the state, said that the state could not utilise or even store the water of Indus, Chenab and Jhelum, the eastern rivers which was causing a perpetual loss to the state. At the same time, it was not being given full benefits from the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, the western rivers. The state must be compensated for the loss and bestowed full participatory status in respect of the eastern rivers.

He lamented that the accord on Thein Dam project signed in 1979 had not been implemented in toto to this day as a result of which the state was not getting its full share in power and water. It was also being denied its due share in employment. The state, he said, was entitled to 20 per cent of the power generated, a 15 per cent share in employment and .65 MAF (million acre feet) of water but it was not getting these benefits.

The third important point raised by him concerned only Himachal Pradesh. He said the main highway connecting the state from other parts of the country passed through Himachal Pradesh which charged a cess at the entry point from trucks carrying fruit and some other goods bound for various parts of the country. He said no such tax was being charged in Jammu and Kashmir and since the vehicles were not bound for Himachal and only passed through a small stretch of it , there was no justification in charging tax from them.

Gen S.F. Rodrigues (retired), the Administrator of the Chandigarh, underlined the need for evolving coordinated regional planning for the Union Territory of Chandigarh and its surrounding settlements of Mohali and Panchkula. He said a master plan for the area in the periphery of Chandigarh, a strategy for growth of satellite towns with an efficient communication of transport system, additional links to Panchkula and Mohali and a bye-pass for Chandigarh needed special attention and made an integral part of the regional planning concept.

He said the implementation of the Periphery Control Act 1952 in the areas falling outside the jurisdiction of Chandigarh had been tardy and a mechanism to achieve the objective must be devised and strictly implemented in cooperation with Punjab and Haryana to ensure planned development of the city and prevent growth of slums on the periphery.

Advocating the need for according a partnership status in sharing of water and power for the union territory, General Rodrigues said that Chandigarh was given a share of 3.5 per cent respect of irrigation and power by the Government of India.

Further, being a successor state of the erstwhile Punjab, the union territory also had a right in the water and power generation from the Renuka Dam, Kishau Dam and Hathni Kund barrage which should be formalised.

He said a bye-pass needed to be urgently constructed covering the areas of union territory, Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana to ease traffic congestion and the Government of India must consider this issue on priority.

Shimla, October 25
It was the contentious issue of water sharing between states that dominated the proceedings of the 25th northern zonal council meeting held here today after six years.

Even as the need for fostering regional cooperation and understanding between the neighbouring states was stressed by Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, yet it was on the issue of water sharing where practically every state stuck to its earlier stand, leaving little scope for any headway.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said the issue of water sharing between the states must be considered in totality by a new tribunal for re-allocating Ravi and Beas waters as diversion from Punjab could render thousands of acres in Punjab barren.

He said unfortunately there had never been a scientific assessment of availability of water in Punjab where assured irrigation was a must for the growth of the state. “The allocation of Ravi-Beas waters has been affected by ad hoc decisions and agreements rather than by internationally recognised riparian principles,” he opined.

He suggested that it would be appropriate if the entire issue of water sharing was considered in totality with regard to the changed hydrological, ecological and sociological factors by a new tribunal. “Diverting water from Punjab to other areas would render nine lakh acres of basin area in Ferozepore, Moga, Muktsar, Mansa, Bathinda and Faridkot dry,” he said.

Refusing to comment on the issue of SYL canal as it was sub-judice, he said both Punjab and Haryana had taken their stand and the matter was in the Supreme Court. “While some of the states have been fortunate enough to receive water from other sources, for Punjab there is no such hope,” he remarked

Referring to the sensitive issue of SYL canal, the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, said the Central Government should have played a more pro-active role. “The people of Haryana are continuously suffering injustice and acute water scarcity on account of the non-completion of the SYL canal,” he opined.

Adopting a stand contrary to his Punjab counterpart, Mr Hooda said there was no need for a new tribunal and the Centre must publish the award already passed by the tribunal set up in 1987. Mr Hooda also raised the demand for share of power in proportion to water allocation under the MoU signed on May, 12, 1994.

The Rajasthan Home Minister, Mr Gulab Chand Kataria, rejected Punjab’s demand for setting up of a tribunal for resolving the water sharing issue. “Decision on the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004, should be expedited as there is no provision for setting up a new tribunal,” he said

Shimla, October 25
The state government today ordered the posting and transfer of three IAS and four HAS officers.

Ajay Bhandari, Secretary, Finance, and Director, Treasuries, has been posted as Administrative member in the state power board.

Special Secretary, Forest, V.C. Katoch has been posted as Director, Ayurveda, and Registrar, Horticulture and Forestry University, Nauni, R.N. Batta, Secretary, Regional Transport Authority, has been posted as Additional Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, in place of Dinesh Malhotra, who has been posted as Director Public Relation and Information.

Additional Secretary in the Power and Multi Purpose Project Department Sushil Chowdhary would be new Secretary, Transport Authority.

R.D. Dhiman, Registrar, Cooperative Societies, has been given additional charge of Managing Director of state electronic corporation. — PTI

Shimla, October 25
The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, today raised the issue of transfer of the Shanan power project from Punjab to Himachal Pradesh in the interest of the people of the state.

Speaking at the Northern Zonal Council meeting here today, he said that the forum should be used as a meeting ground to resolve all disputes, besides encouraging regional cooperation. “Even though the matter for transferring the Shanan project, given to Punjab under the provisions of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, has been rejected by the Centre, in the interest of the people of Himachal, I am once again raising the matter,” he remarked.

“Keeping in view the problem of traffic congestion at Pinjore, Kalka and Parwanoo, there is an urgent need for a bypass to these townships,” he stated. He said that Haryana and Himachal Pradesh should jointly take up the matter with the Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways and request that bypass be made in the first phase, delinking it from the four-laning project.

Even as various speakers emphasised the need for better regional cooperation, Capt Amarinder Singh, much to the discomfiture of his colleagues, demanded that the special industrial incentives given to the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Jammu and Kashmir be reviewed by the Centre at the earliest as it had adversely affected industrial growth in Punjab. “The incentives like excise duty and income tax exemption given to these states defy every logic of equity and fairness having wider ramifications like unemployment and redundant investments,” he remarked.

Expressing concern over increasing drug abuse in Punjab, he called for setting up of an inter-state working group under the chairmanship of the Union Home Minister to work out a mutually acceptable policy framework.

The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, sought sharing of power proportional to the water allocation under the MoU signed on May 12, 1994, a stand adopted by Rajasthan.” Since Haryana and Rajasthan have for long been requesting their share of power from the Anandpur Sahib, Mukerian, Thein dam and Shahpur-Kandi hydel projects and the matter remains unresolved, I feel we should now approach the Supreme Court on the issue,” he said.

Kol Dam, October 25
The National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) contractor-firm, Italian-Thai Development Corporation (ITDC) and over 2000 workers led by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) are on a collision course here over “51.8 per cent hike in workers’ wages. It has hit work at the 800 MW Kol Dam hydropower project since October 20.

Urging the state government to intervene, NTPC managers charged the CITU-led workers with slowing down the pace of work by over 40 per cent at the dam site for the past six days. “The state will lose Rs 25 lakh daily because it is to get 12 per cent free power and 15 per cent power on the bus-bar tariffs from the NTPC project”, said Mr RB Pathak, NTPC’s Additional General Manager, (AGM), Kol Dam.

On the other hand, CITU Joint Secretary Rajesh Sharma blamed the NTPC and the ITDC for slow pace of work. “We increased the productivity by 34 per cent on October 19, but the NTPC and the ITDC did not announce the hike of 18 per cent they had promised”, he claimed.

“We have reduced the wage hike from 148 per cent demanded earlier to 51.8 per cent now, but they have given them a damn”, the leaders claimed. “The wages of the project work can not be decided on the basis of what the IPH and the PWD offer in the state”, the leaders added.

On the productivity-based hike, the leaders said it was a notion only as productivity depended not only on workers, but also on the NTPC and the ITDC machinery as well. “They do not have spare parts to repair the machinery which is out of order. Both have joined hands to “corner money in the guise of damages due to slow pace of work” for which only the NTPC and the ITDC are responsible”, alleged the protesting CITU leaders.

On the other hand, the ITDC’s Human Resource Manager DD Panday said the CITU had slowed down productivity by over 40 per cent since October 20. “The CITU’s 51. 08 percent hike is totally “unlawful and unjustified”, he claimed.

Mr Pandey said that the company was paying the workers on a par with what workers in other hydro projects in the state are getting. “They are dictating terms as they say they can resume talks on October 28 with the Labour Officer as a negotiator”, he claimed.

Mr Pathak said that unskilled workers were getting Rs 1950 per month plus Rs 175 HRA while skilled ones were getting Rs 2918 plus HRA Rs 175, the highest given in any project in the state. “We have announced them to give 10 per cent hike depending on productivity, not otherwise. The 51.8 hike and then slowing down work amount to an act of blackmailing, which will have a cascading effect elsewhere as well”, he said.

Mandi, October 25
Though Mandi district has reported over 156 HIV positive and 58 AIDS cases in the past three years, the District AIDS Control Society has no trained NGOs and coordinators to carry out the anti-AIDS control programme to spread awareness among the high-risk and vulnerable groups in the district.

Though the society has done a mapping of the high-risk migrant labourers and truckers, but it has no clue about other high-risk groups of sex workers, homosexuals and intravenous drug users because the district police and health department has no coordination in this connection.

Talking to The Tribune after a workshop on AIDS awareness programme here, the society officer, Dr Hemant Kapur, said the mapping of the high-risk group revealed that most patients contracted the disease from outside the state while working. “Forty cases of AIDS have been reported at the voluntary confidential testing centre, Mandi, since 2002, when the centre was set up here”, he added.

Dr Kapur stated that the Mandi centre had tested over 969 cases since 2002, of which 82 tested HIV-positive.

“The rest of the 156 HIV-positive cases in the district have been reported from other such centres in the state and outside”, he added.

Dr Kapur said the district had over 4,850 truckers, and 3,000 migrant labourers, but they had no information on other high-risk groups.

Health officials said they needed trained NGOs to carry out the anti-AIDS programme in the district. “We need more coordinators to spread, awareness among the vulnerable sections of society.”

The Deputy Commissioner, Mandi district, Mr Subhasish Panda, urged social workers and intellectuals, teachers and students, including the Panchayati Raj institutions to come forward to make the anti-AIDS programme a mass movement.

The Superintendent of Police, Mandi district, Mr Ajay Yadav, said the police would coordinate with the health officials in tracking down sex workers and intravenous drug users.

Sundernagar, October 25
Thirtyone persons were injured, six of them seriously, in a collision between a bus and truck near Slapper, 18 km from here, this morning.

According to information, a private bus (HP-31B-9190) coming from Bilaspur and a truck (HP-23-1491) going to Bilaspur, collided. The bus fell into a ditch, injuring 31 persons.

The SDM, Sundernagar, rushed to the spot and helped in shifting the injured to hospital. An immediate relief of Rs 5,000 each was given to the seriously injured persons and Rs 1,000 each to the injured.

According to hospital sources, six persons were seriously injured and of them three had been referred to Zonal Hospital, Mandi.

A case under Sections 279, 337 and 338, Indian Penal Code, has been registered against the driver of the truck, who had run away from the spot.

Shimla, October 25
The Himachal Pradesh Government has decided to sell free power available to it as royalty in various hydroelectric projects from November 1 through the Power Trading Corporation (PTC).

The decision was taken by the state Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, here yesterday. It also approved an agreement to be signed with the corporation in this regard as per which the government would supply power to the PTC at the base rate of Rs 3 per unit. In case the corporation manages to sell it at a higher rate the additional revenue would be shared by the state and the corporation in the ratio of 95:5.

The Cabinet deferred the matter pertaining to trifurcation of the state electricity board and instead decided to seek two-year extension for unbundling of the state utility.

It decided to take over the Maharaja Sansar Chand College, Thural, and approved a proposal to create, 2,000 posts of primary assistant teacher to fill the vacancies in primary schools. It also gave its nod for filling 50 posts of various categories in the Excise and Taxation Department.

It did not approve the draft for the excise Bill and returned it for making certain amendments. The transfer of 3,300 sqm to the Ministry of Defence for setting up a polyclinic at Hamirpur also got the Cabinet nod.

Shimla, October 25
The HP High Court yesterday issued a notice to Mr Rajnish Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Hamirpur, on a contempt petition filed by Mr Bharat Bhushan Kalia for wilfully disobeying the directions of the High Court on April 19, 2005.

Issuing the notice, a Division Bench comprising Mr Justice L.S. Panta and Mr Justice Surjit Singh directed him to file a reply within four weeks.

The petitioner alleged that Mr Rajnish Kumar, then the Deputy Commissioner of Una and Temple Officer, Mata Chintpurni Mandi Trust, had disobeyed the order passed by the High Court, wherein the court had directed the respondent to consider the case of the petitioner for appointment as member of the managing committee of Mata Chintpurni Trust within two weeks.

The petitioner alleged that despite clear directions of this court to decide the representation within two weeks of the receipt of the copy of the order and after affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, the respondent had till date neither called the petitioner for hearing, nor passed an order on the representation made by him.