Shimla, May 16
With the number of single women, including widows, divorcees and deserted women , being exceptionally high at 27 per cent of the total female population in Himachal Pradesh , the HP Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan has taken up the cause of these women who continue living in misery.

After working under the guidance of the Rajasthan Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan for almost a year, the Himachal unit today became a full- fledged autonomous body working for economic empowerment and social awareness amongst these hapless women.

Within a year of its existence , the Sangathan has its presence in seven districts of the state with a membership of 6,885 in 190 panchayats.

The State Coordinator of the Sangathan, Ms Nirmala , said a majority of these women , were deserted by their husbands for reasons like dowry, giving birth to a female child or their involvement with another woman. "Besides providing vocational training and skills to these girls, a majority of whom have been left alone with children to support, we will provide them legal guidance,” she said. She is herself associated with Sutra, another NGO.

The President of the Rajasthan Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan, Ms Manjula Joshi , who has been the guiding spirit and the force behind the creation of the Himachal unit is all praise for the strong hill women, who are great fighters.

“Within a year the women of Himachal have achieved what we could not accomplish in two years because of a good literacy rate and less poverty,” she remarked.

Ms Manjula said that it was following a memorandum given by their sangathan to the government that the government was in the process of finalising financial assistance to the children of single mothers.“We have been informed that Rs 1,000 per annum will be given by the government , though it is yet to be decided of it will be only for two children or more,” she said. She added that even if this amount was small, at least a beginning had been made .

Giving data , she said out of a total of 14.38 married women in HP, 2.29 lakh were widows. “As compared to 10 per cent of the total female population in Rajasthan being widows, deserted or divorcees, this figure in Himachal is exceptionally high at 27 per cent,” she said.

She said the benefits of some of the government welfare schemes were not reaching the needy women and in a large number of cases, the lawyers had cheated these single women.

Kumarhatti, May 16
The IPH Department has failed to restore water supply to Banasar area since April 22 ,with the taps running dry for the past 25 days.

Over 24 hamlets scattered in the hilly terrain are under a severe water crisis. The Banasar panchayat's repeated pleas to improve the situation have fallen on deaf ears. As a coverup, the IPH officials rather than restoring the water supply have reportedly taken signatures of villagers on a statement that the supply had remained disrupted for a few days alone.

The IPH has launched the signature drive to save face after a story appeared in these columns of the paper under the heading ‘Kumarhatti areas hit by water crisis’ on May 8.

" We have refused to sign and told them to restore the water supply'', said Mr Shakat Ram, Up Pradhan of the Banasar panchayat.

Due to the suspension of water supply, at least 200 people of Naya Gram had to trudge 2 km daily to fetch potable water for themselves, said ex-ward panch of Banasar Amar Singh. The problem has virtual crippled the life of villagers in the area. Amro Ram of Takrota village said the villagers had to use unsafe water from natural sources to meet their requirement.

It may be mentioned here that a few years back the area had witnessed the outbreak of gastroenteritis, diarrhoea and jaundice due to consumption of unfit water by villagers , said Kanti Prakash who prepares khichri under the mid-day meal scheme for schoolchildren at Government Primary School, Naya Gram.

Reckong Peo, May 16
The hill state of Himachal Pradesh is working on a comprehensive policy to introduce snow harvesting in Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts through the Irrigation and Public Health Department for the proper management of natural water resources.

Snow harvesting may be a new concept for the tribal people of these districts that comprise about 40 per cent of the total geographical area of the hill state, but its success in many European countries and worldwide has helped a lot in the management of natural water resources.

The technique of harvesting snow by creating snow reservoirs in the winter months at present, is being pilot-tested by Pragya, a non-government organisation in the Spiti valley. The water from an upstream nullah is being diverted into a reservoir (check-dam) constructed under the natural shadow of a towering rock-face, which begins freezing with the onset of December.

The other three sides of the reservoir consist of crate walls and metal-wire mesh filled with rock boulders having a capacity to store more than 625 kilo litre of snow. Melted water from the reservoir is then supplied to nearby farmers for irrigation purposes when there is a shortage of water.

Besides, the state government has also constructed many watersheds under the desert development programme in Pooh subdivision of Kinnaur district. Natural snow is preserved for months in many of these watersheds situated at heights where sufficient snowfall is recorded during the months of December and January. Later, after the snow melts, water is supplied to the nearby farmers for irrigation purposes.

Environment experts are of the view that the flow of extra water into the rivers with rapid increase due to melting of glaciers could also be checked by snow harvesting. This will help utilise the waste water for irrigation purposes and indirectly help in improving the socio-economic condition of the tribal people.

On the other hand, snow harvesting projects will also help to check the damage caused by avalanches which bring along with it huge amounts of debris. Check-dams could be constructed in the avalanche- prone areas downstream from the point of the movement of glaciers.

On an experimental basis, two check-dams were constructed in the Spiti valley with this very idea that proved successful and helped in stopping the downward movement of glaciers resulting into less fears of snow avalanches.

The Sutlej basin has 334 glaciers spread over an area of about 1515 sq km, out of which, more than 75 per cent of the glaciers are of permanent nature.

Palampur, May 16
The alarming scenario of falling sex ratio in the state particularly in Palampur sub-division has caused concern among the health authorities.

According to a recent survey conducted by the state health department, it has been revealed that the sex ratio of females has come down to 850 as compared to 1000 males in Thural area. Despite best efforts of the state health department, there seems no improvement in the situation. Though the health department says that the female sex ration has gone up from 836 female to 850, various social organisations of the district do not trust this figure.

The survey revealed that various doctors who have installed portable ultrasound scanning machines in the region have been indulging in pre-natal sex determination test followed by unethical termination of pregnancies.

Though there is a provision in the law for regorous imprisonment of six months for someone found guilty of having done sex determination test, but till today police has failed to register even a single case against defaulters. 

Kangra May 16
A controversy has cropped up over the transfer of the 400 kanals belonging to the Dharam Giri Maath at Pathiar in this subdivision to the Patanjali Yog Peeth of Swami Ram Dev following the district Revenue authorities not accepting the documents seeking the transfer permission.

Mahant Karam Giri, the sole owner of the maath following the guru shesha tradition, said here today that he had decided to donate 400 kanals to the Patanjali Yog Peeth as a step towards the preservation of the Indian cultural heritage. He said his decision to get the Patanjali Yog Peeth established here for the over all development, besides strengthening of the traditions of ‘dharma’.

He said the peeth at Pathiar for which the foundation stone was laid by Swami Ram Dev during his visit here on November 2, 2005, would accommodate at least 10,000 local people. Besides generating employment, the peeth would train yoga teachers. It would also train scientists, who work on nature. However, the peeth was facing rough weather now.

Mahant Giri said being a believer in the system of aired the peeth would help in spreading the ayurvedic system of medicines in this part of the country.

Visibly dejected Mahant Giri, who is a disciple of Mahant Perm Giri, said he along with his advocate had gone to the revenue authorities in the district but no one accepted the documents for the transfer of this land to the peeth. He said he conveyed the details to the district revenue officials in presence of the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, during his winter visit to Dharamsala.

He alleged that he was suspecting the hand of a minister in the Virbhadra Singh’s government who had allegedly directed the authorities concerned not to accept the land papers. He, however, did not name the minister.

He alleged that certain officials told him that there was no hitch in the transfer of this land to the peeth but they were helpless. The mahant alleged that soon after Swami Ram Dev laid the foundation stone of the peeth last year he had been receiving threats from different quarters. He further alleged that he was attacked thrice by some vested interests.

He said once he lodged an FIR with the Nagrota Bagwan police after two persons involved in the attack on the swami were caught by the local villagers and more than 50 persons had accompanied him to the police post for lodging the report. He said the police let the duo free after registering a simple case.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, Mr Bharat Khera, told The Tribune that the case of the transfer of the land was not in his knowledge and no body had approached him so far in this connection.

Palampur , May 16
All major and minor surgeries at the local Civil Hospital came to a stand still today as anaesthesia experts proceeded on three weeks leave. The hospital authorities had to cancel all surgical operations fixed for the next fortnight. Official sources told The Tribune that the hospital was facing acute shortage of specialists causing inconvenience to patients. The children's doctor and gynaecology specialist had submitted their resignations and were on long leave. Another expert was transferred a few months ago and the vacancy was yet to be filled.

The worst affected were the women patients as there was none to attend to the delivery cases. Such patients were being referred to the Zonal Hospital, Dharmsala.

Despite the fact that the Health Department is aware of the situation, no efforts have been made in the past three months to fill the vacancies. Over 200 hundred patients daily visit the local Civil Hospital as this is the only health institution in the region that caters to three subdivisions of Palampur region.