The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Cabinet approves power policy Tribune News Service Shimla, May 10 The Himachal Cabinet today approved the new power policy, while the draft of the implementation agreement for the controversial Himalayan Ski Village project was withdrawn after discussion. It also approved setting up of a 2 million tonne capacity cement plant at Gummah in Chopal tehsil of Shimla district. The Cabinet which met under the chairpersonship of Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Chief Minister, also took stock of the price situation in the wake of sharp increase in the rates of pulses. It decided that if required the state Civil Supplies Corporation will import pulses and also make bulk purchases from markets within the country. The Chief Minister will convene meetings regularly to personally monitor the situation. According to sources the some ministers had reservations regarding the grant of exemption from the 118 Section of the State Land Reforms and Tenancy Act for further selling housing units. Under the Act non-agriculturists are debarred from purchasing land in the state without the prior permission of the government. The government was willing to give 11 hectares of potato farm land near Manali for the project provided the local people agreed. It was decided that the draft be revised after discussion with the company and put up again. The new power policy makes it mandatory for all hydroelectric projects to maintain 15 per cent discharge in the river at all times and 1.5 per cent of the total cost of the project to be set apart for the local area development. Other features included mini projects up 2 MW to be reserved for Himachalis and upto 5 MW for cooperative societies so that local people could benefit from the projects. The companies will have to recruit atleast 70 per cent of the total manpower from among Himachalis.
	Villagers travel 4 km for water; block traffic for six hours Our Correspondent Kangra, May 10 Hundreds of villagers of Bhin and Lambhi Pukhar today blocked the Daliara-Dadaseba road for more than six hours in protest against the shortage of drinking water in the area for the past eight days. The protesters, including children, raised anti-government slogans at Bhin and blocked traffic on the Daliara-Dadaseba road. The protesters said Bhin, Lambhi Pukhar, Daliara, Nangal Chowk and Vatward villages were the worst affected. The blockade was lifted after the IPH authorities assured them that the water would be supplied through tankers by this evening. The Subdivisional Police Officer, Dehra, Ms Bindu Sachedeva, said to avoid inconvenience to the motorists traffic was diverted during the blockade. The protesters said children in schools were craving for water. Mr M.S. Rana, Principal, Shivalik International Convent School, Nangal Chowk, said due to water shortage the students were allowed to go home after the lunch break. The villagers were forced to travel 4 km to get water. Even some villagers were fetching water from the Pong Dam reservoir. When contacted on the phone, the Executive Engineer, IPH, Dehra, Mr P.C. Daroch, said 24 water supply schemes had gone dry. He said at least 24 tankers and 11 tractor trailers were required to face the crisis. He said he had informed the Principal Secretary, IPH, and the IPH Minister, Mr Kaul Singh Thakur, in this regard. He said the government had directed the Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, to finalise tenders of the tankers immediately. He blamed the Deputy Commissioner for the delay in finalising the tenders.
	Protest against leasing out of forest land Tribune News Service Mandi, May 10 The local NGOs and the BJP men have raised a banner of revolt against lease of prime 10 bighas of land in the demarcated protected forest (DPF) to the Rajiv Gandhi Education-cum-Tourism Society managed by a local Congressman to “run a senior secondary school there”. The Himalayan Path Swan Paryavaran Sanrankshan Sangathan, a local NGO, feared that the DPF land leased out to the society would spell doom for the flora and fauna and destroy the shrinking green cover of the town, upsetting its ecology. “We will gherao Mandi ministers and local MLAs, if the lease is not cancelled”, warned its spokesperson. The BJP district convener, sports cell, Mr Manvinder Kapur, today stated that the government had sacrificed the interests of the local residents by leasing out the prime DPF land to a society whose bona fide was yet to be know to residents. “Mandi has no green cover other than the Kangni forest. For residents, the Kangni temple at top of the hill is the pilgrimage spot”, he added and threatened to launch an agitation if the lease was not cancelled. Raising the ire of the residents is that the land lies in the prime location of the Kangni forest near the place where the new market complex is coming up on the right bank of the Saketi khud near the bridge on National Highway-21. Though the market value of land was around Rs 6 crore, the society had got it just for paying the lease charges not exceeding Rs 5 lakh to the Central Environment and Forestry Ministry, which had sanctioned the lease, revealed the sources. The Conservator of Forest, Mandi Circle, Mr Chandershekhar Singh, said the land sanctioned involved five trees and most of the area was under shrubs. There is no sanctuary and park in its surroundings. Commenting on the issue, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Subhasish Panda, said: “It is a plain area and does not involve cutting down of trees as it has been made out. Under ruling all lands, even wastelands, are forest land and the lease has been cleared by the Central Environment and Forestry Ministry.”
	Cong responsible for campus violence: Nadda Tribune News Service Shimla, May 10 Holding the Congress regime in the state responsible for the deteriorating law and order situation in the Himachal Pradesh University campus, former BJP minister, Mr J.P. Nadda, yesterday said that it was due to lack of political will that there were incidents of violence. In a statement issued here, he said he welcomed the statement of the Chief Minister that an elaborate plan would be chalked out to keep a check on incidents of violence in the campus but at the same time Mr Virbhadra Singh should do some introspection as to why was this happening. The Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also criticized the Chief Minister for trying to interfere with the autonomous character of the university. They demanded that action should be taken against the SFI members who were responsible for burning the belongings of ABVP activists in the boys hostel. They also sought compensation from the government for those whose belongings had been burnt in the incident.
	Nadda’s plea for better health service Our Correspondent Bilaspur, May 10 Senior BJP leader and former Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said Health and Medical Services in the state were in mess and the Chief Minister, who is in charge of the Health Department, should improve functioning of this department. Addressing reporters here today Mr Nadda said either the Chief Minister should streamline functioning of the department or he hand over the department to another Minister for better medical care. He said health institutions were without doctors and staff and even medicines and there were District Hospitals where few specialist doctors were posted though the Government was spending crores on such institutions every year. Mr Nadda said the previous BJP government had provided at least two specialist doctors in every faculty here in Regional Hospital and also arranged better facilities and equipment for specialised treatment in several branches and had authorised chief medical officers to purchase and provide life-saving drugs and equipment with 30 percentage of total budget available for this purpose. But all these arrangements have been stopped by the Virbhadra Singh government and specialist doctors had been sent to village stations where such specialist doctors are of no use as they have no facilities. The former health minister also said the Congress government had even failed to continue health facilities initiated or started during his tenure as health minister here with Regional Hospital and, thus, this Government had betrayed people by failing to provide those essential life saving facilities here.
	Akpa Bridge reopened Kulwinder Sandhu Tribune News Service Akpa (Kinnaur), May 10 The General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF) yesterday evening reopened the strategically important Akpa Bridge established over Sutlej on the Hindustan Tibet road. The bridge was washed away in the flash floods on June 28 last year. The bridge has been constructed at a sufficient height so that it can withstand the mighty flow of the river. Meanwhile, an exercise has been initiated by the GREF to withdraw the temporary bridge that was established by the Public Works Department of the State government in an emergency situation so as to restore traffic on this strategically vital road. This bridge was established in a hurry at a lower height. Since, the water flow in Sutlej has begun to rise, there was a danger of it being washed away. This temporary bridge was built at a cost of Rs. 2.02 crore on September 18 last year. The original Bailey bridge here which was partially damaged in the floods could not be repaired immediately by the GREF on the original site due to the fragile nature of rocks and bad weather conditions in the winter season. After launching the bridge, GREF has initiated an exercise to strengthen the damaged road leading to the bridge on both sides. The Commander of the 38 BRTF (Project Deepak), District Magistrate of Kinnaur, Commanding Officer of 68 RCC and other senior civil and Army officials were also present on the occasion of launching the bridge.
	2 patwaris held taking bribe Tribune News Service Mandi, May 10 In an undercover operation, the district vigilance team yesterday arrested two patwaris under sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention Corruption Act. They were caught red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs. 10,000 from a local resident, a complaint in the case. The Mandi DSP Vigilance, Mr Gurdev Singh, said that they had received a complaint from a local resident that a patwari was demanding Rs. 10,000 to register a land deed. The villager had complained that the he had bough 5 biswas of land at Nasloh village and wanted to register it in his wife's name, but the patwaris refused. She allegedly demanded Rs. 10000 to do the needful. But the villager lodged a complaint with the vigilance. The team laid a trap yesterday to nab the patwari. The complainant took the cash and went to the office. He found that two patwaris, Ranjit Singh of the Rehradhar circle and Mr. Ganga Ram of the Shipnu circle, were sitting in the room and handed over Rs. 10,000 to Ganga Ram on the advise of Ranjit, who put the money in his almirah. The vigilance team raided the room and recovered the cash from there and arrested the both patwaris.
	Rs 1.2 lakh stolen from scooters Our Correspondent Baddi, May 10 Unidentified robbers struck twice at Baddi on Monday afternoon and decamped with Rs 1.21 lakh after breaking open the glove boxes of two scooters. In the first incidence, cash was stolen from Narayan Sharma’s scooter (HR-01K-5745). He works as a supervisor with Sim Biotech Limited, Jharmazri. An amount of Rs 75,000 was stolen from his scooter. According to Narayan, he had withdrawn money from a local branch of Punjab National Bank around 12 noon. The amount was meant for paying salary to the factory workers. From the bank, he went to a nearby store for some shopping after parking his scooter near a hospital. By the time he returned, he found the glove box of his scooter open and the cash missing. In the second incidence, Vikas Jain, who worked in a unit here, had withdrawn cash from the Oriental Bank of Commerce around 11.15 am. He kept Rs 4,000 in his pocket and put the rest of the amount in the glove box of his scooter (HP-12-0401). Later, he went for shopping in the subzi mandi. When he returned, he found the cash missing. A few months back, cash was stolen from a scooter in a similar fashion here. The case still remains unsolved.
	Body of foreign tourist found Tribune News Service Dharamsala, May 10 The body of an English tourist, Lucy Hayden, was found at Bhagsu Nag, near here today. She is believed to have fallen into a nullah, 2 km above the Bhagsu waterfall. According to the statement of her husband to the police, the victim used to go to that height every morning to practise music and for meditation. When she did not come back on May 9, he got an FIR registered. Her body was found today. District police chief S.P. Singh said the exact cause of death would become clear after the post-mortem examination but in all likelihood, she must have died due to falling down. Tourists are advised not to venture in the area due to the steep terrain.
	Rs 3 crore released for drought relief Tribune News Service Shimla, May 10 The Himachal Government today released Rs 3 crore to provide relief to the farmers whose crops have been damaged due to drought. Mr Raj Krishan Gaur, Agriculture Minister, said the necessary directions had been issued to the district officers concerned and the amount would be spent on providing 50 per cent subsidy on all types of seeds to the affected small and marginal farmers. He said the department was providing 15,000 quintals of hybrid maize, 800 quintals of pulses, 400 quintals of oilseeds, 5,500 quintals of peas, 300 quintals of vegetable seeds, 1,000 quintals of ginger, 2,500 quintals of fodder seed and 17,000 quintals of potato seeds on subsidised rates to farmers during the season.
	Automatic meters to be introduced Our Correspondent Solan, May 10 With a view to checking power theft and faulty billing due to human error, the state electricity board will soon introduce automatic meter reading in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area. The system will enable the board to display monthly electricity bills of individual industrial consumers on its website. The consumers would be able to obtain details of their bills on the website. This will save delays in the form of delayed distribution of power bills. A hard copy of the bill would also be provided if a consumer desired, senior officials said. The scheme is being launched on a pilot basis initially and would later be extended to other industrial areas of the state. Tenders have been floated for the project. The system, once introduced, would detect tampering of the electronic meters and any attempts of power theft would be duly recorded in the computerised system. With an acute shortage of staff in the electricity board delayed receipt of bills was a frequent complaint of the industrial consumers.
	Encroachments on highway removed Our Correspondent Kangra, May 10 Twentyfive khokas and other encroachments by more than 50 shopkeepers on one side of the Panthankot-Mandi Highway at Gaggal township, 8 km from here, were removed by the National Highway Authority (NHA) with the assistance of the local administration and the police today. The Subdivisional Magistrate, Kangra, Ms Suda Devi, told The Tribune that the national highway was cleared of all the vegetable venders and other encroachments made by more than 50 shopkeepers during a seven-hour demolition drive. She said that two JCBs were pressed into service by the NHA officials and she, along with a police force, was there to deal with any law and order situation.
	Govt misleading public in khair wood case: BJP Tribune News Service Shimla, May 10 The state BJP today accused the government of misleading the public about the Supreme Court judgment on the PIL filed against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in the khair wood allotment case. Addressing a press conference here today, the state spokesperson and party MLA, Dr Rajiv Bindal, said the claims of the government that a clean chit had been given to Mr Virbhadra Singh in the khair wood case were totally wrong.