Dharamsala, July 17
A Senior Congress leader, Major Vijai Singh Mankotia, has submitted the much-hyped list of corrupt bureaucrats and politicians in the state to the part high command.

In an exclusive interview with The Tribune today, Major Mankotia said, “All issues that I have been raising in the recent past now rest with the party high command and it will deal with them appropriately to find a solution.”

He said the issue of discrimination by the government against the lower Himachal areas, which he had raised from time to time, had also been brought to the notice of the high command. He expressed the hope that the issue would also be suitably addressed.

However, Major Mankotia, who has been a vociferous critic of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, refused to disclose the names of the bureaucrats and politicians included in the list. He said the people of the state would gradually get to know these names.

He said some recent scams, which had got exposed, had proved that there was corruption at different levels in the state. “I had a meeting with the party high command last month to appraise it of all such issues,” he said.

Reacting to the list, the Chief Minister, during his previous visits to Dharamsala, had said even if the list of corrupt bureaucrats and politicians was handed over to the high command it would still come to the state government for necessary action.

Referring to the issue of the new Trigartha cap, which he got designed as a symbol of identity for the lower Himachal region, Major Mankotia said it would gradually gain popularity. “The weather conditions are warm these days and you will find people, especially the youth, sporting the cap the moment it turns a bit cooler,” he said.

Major Mankotia said an order had already been placed for the cap with tailors in UP as there was a huge demand for the cap even outside his constituency.

Meanwhile, Major Mankotia inaugurated the recently notified government degree college, which is at present housed in Government Senior Secondary School in Shahpur. He said with an area of 126 kanals, most of which had been donated by the locals, the college would have a big campus. To be built at a cost of Rs 14 crore, it would also have a model building.

“We have invited the Chief Minister to lay the foundation stone of the new building and participate in the bhoomi pujan ceremony,” he said.

The college, he said, would attract students from Chamba, Nurpur, Kotla and Jwali. It would cater to the educational needs of the rural population of the areas and the economically weak. 

Kulu, July 17
The fisheries staff has been accused of running the fish breeding farm at Patlikuhal in the district arbitrarily.

Fish farmers said they had to wait for a week or more even to get “substandard feed with high moisture content.” The staff was also forcing the farmers to either buy the fingerlings now or never, which had resulted in huge losses, they complained.

“Over 50 fish have died as I did not get the fish feed from the Patlikuhal farm in time over the past 15 days”, rued a trout fish farmer from Kulu. “The weight and size of a fish remains less than 300 gm as compared with the market standard of over 350 gms as feed ingredients like soyabeen and alci oil are not being added in the feed”, he added.

The staff was careless in maintaining the feed store properly. “Water entered the feed store and destroyed feed worth Rs 15,000-Rs 18,000 a few days ago. The feed was dumped into the nearby Beas”, insiders alleged.

“Over 1,000 fingerlings died on the way as they weighed less than 3 gm. The standard fingerling is of 5 gm, which has better chances of survival in tanks”, the farmers said.

The Trout Fish Farmers Union had invited the Deputy Director, Fisheries, Kulu Mr R.K. Korla, to attend a meeting convened recently in this regard “but he did not attend it. Who will listen to us?” they asked.

When Mr Korla was contacted he said they faced shortage of feed during summer as it was the only agency to provide feed to all five government-run farms and private farmers in the state.

He blamed the farmers for the underweight fingerbugs but admitted that they faced a shortage of ingredients as nobody had responded to the tenders called for the same. “Due to rains, the feed does not dry up and is sometimes unfit for fish. I had called a meeting with the farmers, but only 15 farmers turned up. They should bring the problems to my notice”, he added, denying the charges of the farmers.

Shimla, July 17
The government today announced the national, state and district-level awards for development journalism for three years from 2002 onwards.

The national award has been given to Sourav Sanyal of The Indian Express for his story, “Where rainwater washes away caste divide”, describing the journey of development at Joharpur village in Solan, breaking the barriers of caste. The award carries Rs 25,000.

Shashikant Sharma of Dainik Tribune has been chosen for the state-level award for “Logon ki mehnat ne badla hai dharti-asman”. The write-up depicts the successful implementation of the government’s policies and programmes and the changes in the tribal areas due to people’s participation. The award carries Rs 20,000.

Vijay Puri of Divya Himachal has been chosen for the state-level award for his story, “Bhagyarekha sabit ho rahi hai watershed pariyojna”, based on the implementation of the watershed and desert development programme in 147 villages in Kinnaur.

The district-level award has been given to Kuldeep Chauhan for his write-up, “Rural women breaking shackles of poverty”, for the year 2004. Chanchal Pal Chauhan of Hindustan Times has been given the district-level award for his story, “Kyari leads the way in rural development”. Birbal Sharma of Dainik Jagran has been chosen for the district-level award for “Jahan thoothon bhari ghasniyan wahan lahlahaye baan ke jungle”.

Shimla, July 17
Himachal Pradesh has achieved the first position in the implementation of the 20-Point Programme in 2005-06 along with Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttaranchal.

An official spokesperson said that in all the rankings under the programme, the achievements of the state were more than 100 per cent. The state had maintained an excellent track record in the implementation of various development programmes and the Planning Commission had appreciated its plan performance at recent review meeting.

The state provided drinking water facility to 1,950 villages against a target of 1,336 villages during the year and provided assistance to 48, 135 Scheduled Casts families against a target of 45,000 families. Similarly, 6,058 Scheduled Tribe families were assisted against a target of 4,700 families.