 |
|
|
Notices to power firms, PWD for polluting Sutlej
Efforts on to drain water from Dehar power house
Mafia ‘grabbing’ land of dam oustees
Probe into sale of
oustees’ land |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Floods upset HP growers’ applecart
Rain damages national highway
CPM MPs’ team to visit Chamba tomorrow
CISF jawan killed in mishap
Post office official suspended
|
Notices to power firms, PWD for polluting Sutlej
Reckong Peo, August 29 Mr A.K. Ravi, Regional Environment Engineer of the HPPCB based at Rampur Bushahr, while talking to The Tribune on telephone, said the notices had been issued to these companies and the PWD following reports of debris being thrown into the Sutlej thus polluting its water. He said the board had asked all these agencies to first identify their dumping sites and then carry on with the construction work. The solid waste should be disposed of in the pre-identified and approved dumping sites, he added. The board has also asked the JAL to strictly follow the provisions made in the comprehensive Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) conducted by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and the subsequent conditions laid down for provisional permission granted by the state government to initiate the construction work. Further, the board was of the view that the debris generated during road construction should be used for filling and leveling the road surface. However, in practical the extra material that remained unutilised was being blindly rolled down by these agencies along the slope. This in turn had also posed danger to the flora along the slopes. Meanwhile, it was learnt that the board had also served notices on the authorities concerned of the 412 MW Rampur Hydroelectric Project under which the construction work on an aided tunnel was presently being carried out and debris thrown into Kaju Khud, near Rampur. Mr Harish Chander, vice-president of the state unit of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), has demanded from the state government to stop all construction work that was going on in violation of the pollution control laws and rules in the already fragile mountainous region of Kinnaur.
|
|
Efforts on to drain water from Dehar power house
Dehar (Mandi), August 29 A BBMB expert committee would visit the power house soon and look into the cause of the sudden bursting of the ‘‘shaft seal ’’ that had caused huge losses to the BBMB. In a meeting chaired by the BBMB Chairman, Mr Rakesh Nath, four teams were constituted to take care of each of the four major components of the power house and to facilitate the re-run one of the six units of 165 MW each of the 990 MW Beas-Sutlej Link (BSL) project within 10 days. BBMB engineers told The Tribune that the third floor of the power house, which was de-watered today, had suffered no “preliminary damage to its machinery”. But according to experts the silted water may damage the motors, generators, transformers and other expensive electrical equipment as these will be underwater for more than 40 hours. Though the BBMB engineers claim that they will de-water the power house by 10 pm today and clean and dry up the machinery and then re-run one of six units of 165 MW capacity each within 10 days time, yet the northern grid would continue to suffer acute power shortage as the BSL will lose over 140 lakh units of electricity every day. It was due to the combined efforts of BBMB workers, engineers and the Mandi district administration and the police that the water level within the power house was brought down from 1654 to 1638 feet. A BBMB member (electrical), Mr Sharad Mahajan, who is heading the task force told The Tribune that they did not find a major damage to the machinery on the de-watered third floor. “There is no significant amount of silt on the de-watered floor. We hope that there is not much damage to the machinery on the lower floors as well though we are yet to find out how much damage has been caused as we have to assess the damage physically”, he added. Mr Nath, who is also the Chairman, Central Electricity Authority (CEA) , has authorised the Chief Engineer, System Operation, BBMB, to make “emergency purchases” for the damaged parts of the machines of the power house to expedite the re-commissioning of the BSL project. Mr Mahajan said the first unit will be re-run within 10 days while the other two units will resume power generation within another two to three days provided there is not much damage to the machinery there. “A slurry pump has been installed to pump out the silt that has settled on the lower floors. There is no leakage of water from Sutlej river into the power house”, he added. The first team of the four-member task force will take care of the six generators, the second will look after the auxiliaries, the third after motors, and the fourth team has been assigned the job of making the electrical system ready for operation.
|
|
Mafia ‘grabbing’ land of dam oustees
Dharamsala, August 29 Mr Rumail Singh Vadyal, a spokesman of the sangh, said the Rajasthan Government was now planning to shift the oustees nearly 1,500 away from where they were originally settled. The new location was close to the Pakistan border and lacked basic amenities like water and power supply. He said if the Himachal Government agreed to any such offer, no Pong Dam oustee would like to go to such a place. He said it was unfortunate that the oustees were being treated worse than refugees and the subsequent state governments had used the issue only to serve their political ends. The oustees who were initially put up in Ganganagar were not provided sources of irrigation by the Rajasthan Government and some of them had now shifted to Mohangarh and Jaisalmer, he
said. He added the sangh would meet the Prime Minister and other national leaders so that a lasting solution could be found to the issue.
|
|
Probe into sale of
oustees’ land Shimla, August 29 The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, today ordered the DGP to constitute an investigating team which would look into the cases of forgery, false deeds obtained through forged power of attorney by land mafia and other suspected elements. The team will also investigate the aspect of hindrances being created in the resettlement of the oustees in both Rajasthan and Himachal. The DGP today constituted a team, including the
DIG (North), Mr P.L. Thakur, the SP, Kangra, Mr Ajay Yadav, and the CIA staff, Kangra, to start investigations into the case. The team has been asked to submit its report latest by October 31.
|
|
No govt structures without sanction Shimla, August 29 The notification issued by Director, Town and Country Planning (TCP) on August 26, clearly states that despite repeated directions, government buildings were still coming up without seeking approval under the provisions of the TCP Act. “Such unauthorized constructions by government departments are setting a wrong precedent and are being quoted by private parties while pleading their cases in the high court,” the notification states. “We have now decided to be very strict and any government construction without approval will be considered unauthorized and will attract action under Section 38 and 39 of the TCP Act,” said a TCP official. He added that violation in this regard by the government departments is talked about by the media, in the state assembly, high court and even public interest litigations have been filed, making the position of the government very embarrassing. A copy of the fresh notification has been sent to heads of all departments, boards, corporations, universities and all central government offices. “These offices have been asked to inform in writing to Director, TCP, along with relevant documents and plans before undertaking any development in the planning area or special areas of the state,” informed a senior official. This is not for the first time that the government departments have been asked to abide by the provisions of the TCP Act, as similar directives had been issued in the past when the Cabinet discussed the matter on a number of occasions in 2002 and 2003. In fact, the committee on estimates of the state Assembly has also taken a serious view of the violation by the government departments. “Seeing construction by government departments in violation of the provisions of the TCP Act emboldens the private parties, who cite such examples before the court as well,” said an official. In the notification it has been mentioned that despite umpteen reminders and directives in this regard, various departments are carrying out construction, mindless of the embarrassment it was causing to the government. In fact in certain places government departments have turned out to be the biggest violators. The TCP Department has asked government departments to set an example by seeking the mandatory approval so that others cannot dare to break the law.
|
|
|
Floods upset HP growers’ applecart Shimla, August 29 The prices of apple in Delhi market, where almost 70 per cent of the total apple produced in the state is sold, have crashed over the past one week due to the lack of buyers. The buyers have reportedly been held back due to floods in some states. The arhtiyas purchase the produce from growers and further sell it to buyers, mainly from the southern and western states, large parts of which are reeling under the impact of floods these days. The best quality royal delicious and other superior varieties of apples which were fetching Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,500 per box in the beginning of the season, are now available for as low as Rs 700 per box. The prices of medium grade fruit have also come down in the same proportion and ranged between Rs 300 to 400 per box. The growers are feeling the pinch all the more as this has been a lean season and the total production was estimated to be around 1.70 crore boxes as against 2.65 crore boxes produced last year. In all over 49 lakh boxes have been sent to various markets so far which is almost 50 per cent of the last year’s figure of 90 lakh boxes. The season began on a promising note with the apple crop fetching record price in the beginning much to the relief of growers whose crop has been affected by unfavourable weather conditions. They expected the high price trend to continue for most part of the season and compensate them for the low production to a great extent. However, floods in the consumer states have upset the market trend. The growers are now hoping for early normalisation of situation in the flood-affected states so that buyers return to push up the prices.
|
|
|
Rain damages national highway
Reckong Peo, August 29 A portion of the highway on one side of the bridge has started sinking, disturbing traffic. On many occasions, the traffic between Reckong Peo and Shimla was diverted through alternate routes to avoid mishap.
— TNS
|
|
|
CPM MPs’ team to visit Chamba tomorrow Shimla, August 29 In a statement issued here today, Mr Tikender Singh Panwar, member, state secretariat, the high-level team would comprise Mr Basudev Acahrya, Lok Sabha member and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Railways, Mr Amitabh Nandy and Mr Tapan Sen, both Rajya Sabha members. “Seeing the police repression and torture of Mr Kashmir Chand while in police custody and of other workers at the construction site of the Chamera-III project, the delegation had decided to visit Chamba and take stock of the situation,” Mr Panwar said. He said that a CPM delegation met the Director-General of Police yesterday, demanding removal of the SP, Chamba, for acting in a partisan manner at the behest of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) which was executing the power project. “We have been assured by the DGP that an inquiry will be held into the case and as an interim measure, the SP, Chamba, has been removed from all investigation pertaining to the problem at the Chamera-III site along with a probe into the triple murder case,” he said.
|
|
|
CISF jawan killed in mishap
Kulu, August 29 Eyewitnesses said that the victim, Rakesh Kumar Chandal, entered the national highway from the right side of the road, while the tanker (HR-68B-0061), which was coming from the Bajaura side towards Bhuntar, hit the scooter (PB-03A-JJ3-4109). The victim was rushed to the nearby SR Hospital where doctors declared him dead. The injured, Alam Chand of Parganoo, Bhuntar, was stated to be stable in the same hospital. The police has registered a case against the tanker driver, Jaswant Singh, and he has been taken in custody.
|
|
Post office official suspended
Reckong Peo, August 29 |
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
