H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Gagret airport project may not take off for lack of funds
Shimla, January 15
The project of an international airport along with air cargo hub at Gagret in Una district in the private sector may not take off due to the inability of the state to fill the huge “viability gap”.

Kangra to have SEZ
Dharamsala, January 15
The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, today announced the creation of a Special Economic Zone in Kangra district. He was speaking at a public meeting at Fatehpur in Kangra district.

8 years on, vet hospital still incomplete
Kumarhatti, January 15
Even after eight years the building of veterinary hospital at Banasar has not been completed. The work, which started in 1997, has been suspended for the past three years as a private contractor left the work.

Road tax on passenger services reduced
Shimla, January 15
The Himachal Pradesh Government has reduced the special road tax on passenger transport services to rationalise the tax structure and provide relief to the private bus operators.

Mahant elected Kulu MC chief
Kulu, January 15
Mr Gopal Krishan Mahant and Ms Urmila were respectively elected president and vice-president of the Municipal Council Kulu, here today.

Congress harassing BJP leaders: Shanta
Palampur, January 15
Former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar has assailed the Congress government for violating all democratic norms to win the Zila Parishad and Black Samiti elections in Kangra district.

Illegal mining to be curbed: CM
Dharamsala, January 15
The state government will initiate steps to check illegal and mechanical mining in the harder areas of the state to safeguard ecology, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh assured a delegation of the Damtal Stone Crushers Owners’ Association which met him at Dharamsala yesterday.

Proposal for interest-free loan to Gujjars
Chamba, January 15
A proposal has been made to provide interest-free loan facility for the purchase of milch cattle to the nomad Gujjar community in the state. This was stated by Animal Husbandry and Housing Minister Harsh Mahajan while presiding over the district-level Gujjar Sammelan at Jadera, 14 km from here, today.

Sood Kalyan Manch to open old-age home
Palampur, January 15
A regional-level meeting of the Sood Kalyan Manch was held here today. Over 500 members from Kangra, Una, Mandi, Chamba and Kulu districts participated in the meeting. Mr Brij Behari Lal Butail, local MLA and political adviser to the Chief Minister, presided over the meeting.

Setback to Cong in BDC poll
Nurpur, January 15
The ruling Congress received a setback when the BJP-backed candidates swept top posts in Indora Block Development Committee in Nurpur subdivision in the election held on Sunday.

Gagret airport project may not
take off for lack of funds
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 15
The project of an international airport along with air cargo hub at Gagret in Una district in the private sector may not take off due to the inability of the state to fill the huge “viability gap”.

The Rs 1400 crore project, to be implemented by the SKIL Infrastructure, a private company, which is setting up two special economic zones in the state under a Rs 5047 crore investment plan, has run into problems as the government does not have resources to bridge the ‘viability gap” on the pattern of similar projects being set up at Bangalore and Hyderabad. The viability gap in case of the two ventures was over 35 per cent but the state governments provided grant and loans to make the vital infrastructure projects feasible.

The Andhra Pradesh government allowed grant of Rs 100 crore and loan of Rs 350 crore to make the Hyderabad Airport Project viable. Similar, arrangements had been made by the Karnataka government for the Bangalore venture.

The “viability gap” in the Gagret project could be to the extent of 75 per cent and as such the state government will have to arrange fund to fill the gap. However, the fund-starved Himachal government is not in a position to spare resources for such projects. It gave its nod to the project on the presumption that it would be cross-subsidised through income from the special economic zones (SEZ’s). The preliminary project report indicates that it would take quite sometime before the SEZ’s became an income-generating venture to cross subsidise the airport project.

The only way the government could help bridge the viability gap is by providing land on easy terms. Here again the problem is that out of the total 5,500 acres of land required for the project, the government land involved is only 1200 acre. Its value works out to be just Rs 66 crore, which is insignificant compared to the huge cost of the project.

In the situation it is quite clear that it will not be possible to implement the project until the government finds ways and means to bridge the viability gap.

Kangra to have SEZ
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 15
The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, today announced the creation of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Kangra district. He was speaking at a public meeting at Fatehpur in Kangra district.

He inaugurated the Salig-Jather water supply scheme, completed at a cost of Rs 48 lakh, and the Fatehpur augmented water supply scheme, completed at a cost of Rs 34 lakh.

The Chief Minister said the SEZ proposal had been sent to the Centre for approval. He said specialised industries would be set up in the area.

He said the Dharamsala-Una express highway had also been planned. He said quality infrastructure was being created in Kangra, Una and Chamba areas keeping in view the future development needs. This would give momentum to economic activities in the areas and all educated youths would be able to get employment.

The Chief Minister said the state had attracted a large industrial investment in the past three years. Over 25,000 job avenues had been created in the government sector alone and the recruitment process was being completed expeditiously.

He said the government had decided to appoint labour officers in industrial areas and hydro projects. The government would ensure that minimum wages to skilled and unskilled workers were provided.

Later, the Chief Minister dedicated the Manjhi Khad bridge on the Yol-Dadh-Palampur road and the Ghurlu Nullah bridge to the people. He also inaugurated the residential complex of the HP Education Board and laid the foundation stone of a community hall at Sidhwari.

8 years on, vet hospital still incomplete
Jagmeet Y. Ghuman

Kumarhatti, January 15
Even after eight years the building of veterinary hospital at Banasar has not been completed. The work, which started in 1997, has been suspended for the past three years as a private contractor left the work. The dilly-dallying approach of the PWD to hire a new contractor has resulted in further delay in the completion of the hospital building.

Inquiries by this correspondent have revealed that the Animal and Husbandry Department has deposited Rs 3.40 lakh with the PWD. The estimated total cost of construction is Rs 5.12 lakh.

Till date, only half of the construction work involving Rs 1.50 lakh has been done. After repeated pleas to the PWD, the Animal and Husbandry Department has taken an accommodation on rent to run a dispensary.

Ironically, this veterinary dispensary has failed to serve the purpose due to shortage of staff. Since its opening, no permanent staff has been appointed.

At present, a Class IV employee visits the dispensary twice in a week to distribute medicines. A doctor at the Dharampur Vet Hospital visits the dispensary only when his service is required.

As per the norm, the vet dispensary should have at least one permanent pharmacist and a Class IV employee.

Mr J. K. Sood, Deputy Director, Animal and Husbandry Department, said the PWD had not responded to reminders of the department. On shortage of staff, he said the situation would be improved after the completion of training of a batch of pharmacists soon.

Mr S.N. Sharma, SDO, PWD, Parwanoo, said the work would be resumed soon. The defaulter contractor had been penalised, he said.

Road tax on passenger services reduced
Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 15
The Himachal Pradesh Government has reduced the special road tax (SRT) on passenger transport services to rationalise the tax structure and provide relief to the private bus operators.

The relief on account of the downward revision of the SRT on bus services being operated in the rural routes will be to the extent 20 per cent. The bus operators had been demanding reduction in the rate of tax ever since the transport department increased the occupancy rate by five percent across the board for buses plying on rural, local, state routes and the national highways. This led to almost the 25 per cent increase in the SRT for rural routes.

Besides decreasing the rate of SRT, the government increased the occupancy of rural routes by one per cent and that of national and state highways by 1.5 per cent as part of the rationalisation exercise.

The new rates for local routes will be Rs 4.03 per km in hills and Rs 2.59 per km for plains for all categories of bus services. In case of rural routes, the rates range from Rs 4.03 per km for ordinary buses to Rs 8.06 per km for deluxe services for hills and Rs 2.59 to Rs 5.18 per km for plains. Similarly , on the state highways the rates for various categories of bus services vary from Rs 5.03 to Rs 10.06 per km for hills and from Rs 3.23 to Rs 6.46 for plains.

The rates are highest for the national highways and vary from Rs 8.04 to Rs 16.08 per km for hills and from Rs 5.17 to Rs 10.34 for plains for various classes of bus services.

Mahant elected Kulu MC chief
Our Correspondent

Congress harassing BJP leaders: Shanta
Our Correspondent

Palampur, January 15
Former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar has assailed the Congress government for violating all democratic norms to win the Zila Parishad and Black Samiti elections in Kangra district.

Addressing mediapersons at his residence yesterday Mr Shanta Kumar said despite the fact that the Congress was in a minority in the zila parishad as it had won only 23 seats out of 56, it had resorted to all illegal means to grab the post Zila Parishad president in Kangra. He alleged that the Congress was misusing government machinery and false cases were being registered against BJP leaders with a view to demoralising them. He said earlier a false criminal case was registered against an ex-MLA from Sahapur, Mrs Sarveen Chaudhry, for kidnapping a woman member of zila parishad, later the woman personally appeared in the court and filed an affidavit denying the allegation levelled by the Congress.

Mr Shanta Kumar said, later a false case was registered against the Kangra district BJP chief Romesh Dhwala at Nalagarh when he was on way to Shimla to attend a meeting. He was illegally detained at a police station for three hours.

He alleged that the Congress government had created emergency-like situation in the state and members of ZP had been forced to leave their houses to avoid kidnapping by Congress leaders.

Illegal mining to be curbed: CM
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 15
The state government will initiate steps to check illegal and mechanical mining in the harder areas of the state to safeguard ecology, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh assured a delegation of the Damtal Stone Crushers Owners’ Association which met him at Dharamsala yesterday.

The Chief Minister said the state had banned mechanical mining in the rivers of the state and put a complete ban in the areas, where drinking water and irrigation schemes were being fed. He said strict ecological safeguards were being enforced to save environment in the state and the state government would not allow any activity, which harmed ecology.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said the government had permitted manual mining in the riverbeds to provide avenues of self-employment besides making construction material available at cheaper rates.

The Chief Minister said the government was aware of the problems of the stone crushers and would examine these in consultation with the authorities concerned. His government was committed to safeguarding the interests of stone crushers, he added.

Proposal for interest-free loan to Gujjars
Our Correspondent

Chamba, January 15
A proposal has been made to provide interest-free loan facility for the purchase of milch cattle to the nomad Gujjar community in the state. This was stated by Animal Husbandry and Housing Minister Harsh Mahajan while presiding over the district-level Gujjar Sammelan at Jadera, 14 km from here, today.

The minister said the government was considering the development and proper education of the Gujjar community, and had taken many steps in providing basic educational facilities to their children. It had opened six mobile schools for children of Gujjars in the district and a proposal was under way for opening 15 more mobile schools for them in the district.

He said a tribal hostel would soon be constructed at Chamba with an outlay of Rs 1.5 crore.

Giving details about providing land to landless Gujjars in the district, the minister said a survey was conducted for the same and the matter was taken up with the district administration too but no adequate land was available in the district. However, depending upon the willingness of the Gujjar community, the matter could be taken up for their rehabilitation in the nearby districts.

Sood Kalyan Manch to open old-age home
Our Correspondent

Palampur, January 15
A regional-level meeting of the Sood Kalyan Manch was held here today. Over 500 members from Kangra, Una, Mandi, Chamba and Kulu districts participated in the meeting. Mr Brij Behari Lal Butail, local MLA and political adviser to the Chief Minister, presided over the meeting.

Among other resolutions, it was resolved that a “Sood Kalyan Kosh” will be set up and the funds collected would be utilised for the welfare schemes, including scholarships to the intelligent children of the community, pensions to the widows, financial assistance to the poor and medical help to ailing members of the community. Besides, an old-age home would also be built in Palampur to accommodate over 300 aged persons who have none to support.

Setback to Cong in BDC poll
Our Correspondent

Nurpur, January 15
The ruling Congress received a setback when the BJP-backed candidates swept top posts in Indora Block Development Committee (BDC) in Nurpur subdivision in the election held on Sunday.

Ms Anita Sharma and Ms Anita Dhiman were elected chairperson and vice-chairperson, respectively. Anita Sharma got 16 out of 27 votes, whereas Ms Anita Dhiman got 20 votes. The Congress-supported loser candidates got only 11 and seven votes for the same posts.