Dharamsala, October 6
To boost tourism in the McLeodganj circuit, the state government has decided to connect it to Una by four-laning road network from Dharamsala to McLeodganj for more vehicular traffic load, the pot-holed narrow road link to McLeodganj has been a nightmare for tourists, who are held up in traffic snarls during the peak season.

Mr K.K. Kampani, Superintending Engineer, National Highway Circle (Shahpur) said the proposed highway would start from Mehatpur, near Una and lead to Mubarakpur, Ranital, Malan, Dharamsala and finally McLeodganj.

“This would cover 171 km and the proposal in this regard has been sought by the government from our department,” he said.

The status of a national highway to this important route that connects Punjab and Himachal would mean construction of better bridges and widening of roads to remove bottlenecks.

“Work has begun on studying the feasibility status of the proposal, which would also look at double laning of the entire stretch,” he said.

At present there are two roads to reach McLeodganj from Dharamsala, Cantonment road and the shortcut ‘khada danda’ road. Since shortcut makes tourists reach McLeodganj is less than give minutes, it is prone to traffic jams and the terrain is very tricky.

During peak tourist season, scores of tourists converge on Dharamsala and McLeodganj to escape from scorching heat in Punjab and Haryana and bottlenecks become the order of the day on all main roads.

Owing to lack of parking lots and traffic management, traffic comes to a standstill on the road leading to McLeodganj and the Bhagsunag waterfall. Unchecked parking of vehicles, especially government vehicles, on both sides of the road leading to Bhagsunag has made the situation worse.

“Tourists should be made to park vehicles a little before McLeodganj, Bhagsunag and Naddi by making available sufficient parking space. No attempts are made by the authorities to regulate traffic on the roads leading to the tourist places in McLeodganj,” said Vijay Karam Singh, owner of pong View hotel on the McLeodganj road.

Shahpur Circle of National Highway takes care of NH 20 from Pathankot to Mandi; Chandigarh-Mandi-Manali NH 21; NH 88 from Shimla to Kangra and Mandi-Kotli-Jalandhar NH 70.

Dalhousie, October 6
The Himachal government is contemplating linking Chamba valley of Himachal by a railway line with Pathankot, main railway junction of the northern India.

Mrs. Asha Kumari, a former education minister and a Congress MLA of Banikhet constituency, said yesterday that the Chamba-Dalhousie tourist circuit had vast tourism potential as well as potential of religious tourism because of Manimahesh holy centre in this alpine region.

She said the railway link to this valley would boost tourism of this region thereby revitalising economy of inhabitants of this region.

Mrs Asha Kumari stated the government was keen on making endeavours for fast development of Chamba district. “The development was the result of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s awareness of problems and difficulties of people of Chamba, she said.

Mrs Asha Kumari said the Chief Minister had always impressed upon improving the eco-system in the alpine state and for his concern for environment, the Chief Minister was honoured with “golden Peacock” award by an international organisation.

Shimla, October 6
Having extracted a lot of information about the persons involved in the HP-CPMT question paper leak from the main tout, Munir Alam, the police has succeeded in establishing the identity of the kingpin and have clues about his whereabouts and links.

The biggest tout operating in Himachal, Munir Alam during interrogation has revealed the names of persons he was working for. Though not certain, in all likelihood a Bihar-based doctor was running the entire racket. The police already has record of telephonic conversation of Munir Alam with this doctor, who is based in Bihar but has been operating through Delhi mobile numbers.

Police sources said that the arrest of Munir Alam, resident of Goplaganj in Bihar and a central government employee, has helped them establish the identity and role of a large number of persons in the case.

“Munir Alam has personally known the persons who leaked the question paper from the printing press in Lucknow for the past some years ,” informed sources.

The police, has found out that tutoring was also done a day prior to the PMT examination which was held on May 26. “Some students were also tutored at Delhi on May 25.

The police has also identified some second and third year medical college students, who undertook tutoring at various places like Delhi, Dehradun and Mussorie.

A majority of the students who undertook tutoring were the ones who had cleared the PMT exam only recently.

Solan, October 6
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today announced 70 per cent reservation for forestry graduates of the Dr Y.S.Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, in the recruitment of range officers and granted a one-time age relaxation by increasing the prescribed age limit from 26 to 31 years.

He was addressing a gathering on the occasion of a state-level farmer- scientist interaction function organised on the university premises today.

Earlier, he dedicated the Jawaharlal Nehru Communication Centre to the farmers of the state completed at a cost of Rs 93.38 lakh and laid the foundation stone of an international students hostel to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.69 crore.

Emphasising the need for 100 per cent renewal of apple orchards in a phased manner, he said the old root stock should be replaced with high-yielding and fast-growing species.

He said with a view to encouraging private participation in the field of education, a universities Act had been put in place.

Mr Singhi Ram, Minister for Horticulture, said scientists had been contributing significantly to transfer technology from the lab to the farm.

The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jagmohan Singh, said the university scientists were making consistent efforts to train farmers in the latest technology. Dr N.K. Jhulka proposed a vote of thanks.

Dharamsala, October 6
“All members of the Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies (ATPD) are representatives of the public. Therefore, they should commit themselves to the welfare of the Tibetan people. They should not talk of different provinces and religious denominations on this platform. Instead they should focus on our common cause”, said the Dalai Lama in his address to the Tibetan Assembly here yesterday.

Highlighting the importance of universal responsibility, he said he felt it was not right to think only of the Tibetans. “We have to think in broader terms, and for this compassion is the key factor, he said.

He said his position was that of a semi-retired persons. All political responsibilities were in the hands of Tibetan Prime Minister Kalon Tripa, who was directly elected by Tibetans in exile, he said.

“Our struggle is neither a struggle of over 100,000 exiled Tibetans, nor that of the Dalai Lama alone, rather it is a struggle of the Tibetans to survive as an equal member and to preserve the Tibetan identity,” he said.

“Therefore, we have to produce a collective potential and should bear our responsibilities to work hard at this critical time,” he added.

He said democracy was very important. “Our society is democratised and it has a strong base. Yet we have to work for its improvement”, he said.

He said Tibetans were in exile because of the political problems and thus they had more responsibility towards resolving it while being in a free country.

Shimla, October 6
The government has declared gazetted holiday on account of “Karva chauth” on October 10 for women employees working in all government offices, boards, corporations and educational institutions in Himachal Pradesh.

It would also be a holiday for daily wage employees under Section 25 of Negotiable Instruments Act, an official release here said.