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Kangra tea production
falls due to govt apathy
Decline in agri growth rate: ICAR official
Save water resources, says Rinpoche
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BJP chief’s poll may be deferred once again
‘Probe purchase of ayurveda drugs’
CPMT: Minister’s brother gets bail
Move afoot to raise freedom fighters memorial
Centre tightens purse strings for yojana
Man immolates himself
Clarification
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Kangra tea production
falls due to govt apathy Chandigarh, November 20 Over the past seven years, the area under tea cultivation in the Kangra valley of Himachal Pradesh has declined by 100 per cent, from 4000 hectares to 200 hectares now. The tea production, too, has decreased from 17 lakh km in 1999 to 10 lakh km this year. This was revealed by Mr K. G. Butail, President of the Kangra Valley Small Tea Planters Association here today. Talking to
TNS, Mr Butail said winter drought in the Kanga valley over the past six years had led to the subsequent failure of ‘first flush’ - the first tea leaves to be plucked from a plantation. “The first flush generally yields the highest price in market - un to Rest 300 per kg. But because of winter drought, the first flush has not been picked and generally the subsequent ea leaves are being picked and processed. Since the price is determined on the basis of the plucking, the tea growers in the valley are getting an average of Rest 70 per kg.,” he said, while adding that a minimum support price for tea fixed by the government would help in its cultivation and enhanced production. As the tea cultivation becomes less remunerative, a large number of tea growers are now abandoning its cultivation. “The base of tea industry-tea plantation holdings stand reduced and 90 per cent of the holdings are now less than two hectares. Of these, 90 per cent are in abandoned state. It is the 10 per cent of the tea holdings which are more than two hectares in area that are contributing to 85 per cent of total tea produce,” said Mr
Butail. He said the government could contract out the surplus barren land around the tea plantations in the Kangra valley to tea growers, thus making it a more profitable enterprise. He said though Kangra valley was favourable for growing productive quality teas- both green and black orthodox - there is little initiative on part of the government to market the produce. “Just as the West Bengal Government and the tea growers in Darjeeling market the tea as Darjeeling tea, the Himachal Government, too, could market the tea here as Kangra tea. Since the tea from here is often being exported by individual traders to Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the brand building of this tea and a marketing initiative by the government for export, could help the tea growers earn more profits,” said Mr
Butail. He said though three of the four cooperative tea factories had closed down in the Kangra valley, these were now being revived by leasing out the factories to private parties. “While the factories at Sidhbari and Baijnath have been leased out and made operational, the one at Beer will be made operational for the coming years’ produce by April. The government could also establish a tea blending unit here, where the tea growers could blend different picks of the tea leaves, so that the uniform quality of tea could be marketed,” he said.
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Decline in agri growth rate: ICAR official
Dharamsala, November 20 While addressing delegates and soil scientists, Dr P.D.Sharma, Assistant Director- General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), said the farm production had reached a plateau and there was a decline in the agriculture growth rate which warrants a serious introspection from scientists of the country. He attributed the decline in crop production and soil fertility to several reasons, including imbalanced and inadequate use of fertilisers. Farmers are using urea in excess whereas the use of phosphorous and potash-based fertilisers are minimal. The soil, in several parts of the country, have become deficient in sulphur, zinc and other primary and secondary elements. This trend has to be reversed by the balanced use of fertilisers, soil testing and proper use of bio-fertilisers. Dr P.D.Sharma emphasised on the importance of integrated nutrient management for bountiful harvests and advised that on-line fertiliser application recommendation should be introduced by the universities. "There is an urgent need to establish soil testing labs in each district of the country as most of the labs have become obsolete," he said. In future the importance of chemical fertilisers in optimum farm production will continue to retain its major role and organic farming can not solve the problem of hunger. Dr D.S.Rathore, Vice-Chancellor of the university, said as long as problems of farming community were not taken up on priority basis, the country could not make a headway in achieving new food production targets. He said natural resources should not be disturbed in an effort to increase the farm production. There was an urgent need to provide employment in agriculture and farm-based avocations for the prosperity of the villages, he added. Mr Rajinder Kumar, officiating Dean of Agriculture College, Dr T.S.Verma, Professor and Head, Department of Soil Science, and Dr Surya Parkash Sharma, organising secretary, also spoke on the balanced use of fertilisers and nutrient management. The seminar has been jointly organised by ICAR and the university.
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Save water resources, says Rinpoche
Reckong Peo, November 20 "We have already started using bottled water for drinking, which should be an eye opener for all those who love nature", he said. He said the time had come for the heads of religious communities to come forward and fight against all kinds of terrorism. Swami Ram Mohan was present on the occasion and stressed upon the need to strengthen national unity. He said India needed to protect Tibet because it was of great importance to India and the whole of South Asia. “China has started constructing dams on rivers and could endanger water resources,’’ he feared.
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BJP chief’s poll may be deferred once again
Shimla, November 20 If postponed it will be for the third consecutive time that the high command will have to defer the poll. The election scheduled for November 9 and 10, 18 and 19 had to be postponed with the state leaders failing to reach consensus on one name. Thus, there is a possibility that the election might be held after the BJP national President’s election on November 26. In such an eventuality it is possible that the State Election Appeal Committee might be asked to dispose off all complaints pending before it. A faction led by the former Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, has demanded that the elections for Kullu district BJP chief should be held before the state chief poll. Due to dispute in Kullu and Banjar Assembly segments, elections could not be held and the complaint was pending before the Election Appeal Authority. There are three candidates from Kullu district. Even though the State Election Authority had upheld the elections of Sirmaur, a complaint is pending before the three member central committee in this regard. With a total of five delegates from Sirmaur, majority being in favour of the Shanta faction, the rival Dhumal camp wants re-election. The Dhumal faction has also raked up the issue of faulty elections of the Kangra unit as in contravention of the party provision there is only one Scheduled Caste candidate when there should have been minimum three. There is a possibility that two new Scheduled Caste candidates from Kangra might be included by dropping an equal number of those who have already been elected, said a senior leader. Interestingly, none of the state leaders, including the state BJP chief, Mr Suresh Bhardwaj, and the state Election Officer, Mr Ashok Sood, had received any official intimation about the next date of elections or a final decision on Kullu, Sirmaur and Kangra districts. Though there was talk of holding elections in Kullu and debarring Sirmaur at the meeting to be held with central leadership in Delhi, but we have not received any official communication so far, he added.
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‘Probe purchase of ayurveda drugs’
Nurpur, November 20 Mr Ashok Sharma and Mr Upender Gupta, president and general secretary of the association, respectively, said in a press statement here yesterday that they suspected gross irregularities in the purchase of medicine. They urged the Chief Minister to order a high-level probe into the irregularities. They pointed out that the annual budget earmarked in 2004-2005 was spent in 2005-2006 by floating tenders and medicines were ordered at an exorbitant rate of Rs 80 lakh from only 12 pharmacies, some of which had not even filled and submitted their tenders to the directorate. They alleged that in February, the directorate had placed orders for medicines worth Rs 1 crore from the same ayurveda units without floating fresh tenders for 2005-2006. "When the association raised this issue before the Chief Minister, he immediately intervened and ordered the cancellation of the purchase orders and asked the directorate to float tenders," they said.
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CPMT: Minister’s brother gets bail
Shimla, November 20 The Additional District and Sessions Judge granted bail to Mr Rao, engineer with the PWD, Mr O.P. Chaudhary, Block Medical Officer, Chail, Mr G.D. Kalia, officer with the State Bank of India, and Mr S.K. Sood, engineer with the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam. The judgement on the bail plea, which came up for hearing on Saturday, had been kept reserved for today. Meanwhile, Mr Dinesh Kapoor, Mr Vikram Singh Thakur, both of Hamirpur, and Mr Swaran Singh Banyal of Kulu surrendered before the police today. They were subsequently arrested. The children of all these three had cleared the pre-medical test, which was later cancelled on the directions of the high court. |
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Move afoot to raise freedom fighters memorial
Shimla, November 20 Mr Virbhadra Singh said his government was also planning to launch a special recruitment drive after carrying out a survey for identifying the families of the freedom fighters who had not received any benefit under the 2 per cent reservation in government jobs for their wards to complete the backlog. If required additional posts would be created. He said the state government was also planning to formulate a special scheme for providing soft loans to the freedom fighters for constructing houses.
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Centre tightens purse strings for yojana
Shimla, November 20 The state electricity board had submitted schemes for all 12 districts, involving an expenditure of Rs 450 crore, for the strengthening, expansion and upgrading of the distribution network to improve the supply of power in rural areas more than six months ago. The Union Ministry of Power even sanctioned the schemes worth Rs 25 crore for Chamba district. However, so far no funds have been released. The board had even invited bids for assigning works on turn-key basis, anticipating that funds would be released shortly. Senior officers maintain that the Centre was giving priority to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal, which have not achieved the targets of rural electrification. Himachal Pradesh had achieved the target of full electrification way back in 1987. They lamented that the state was being penalised for its good performance in the rural electrification sector, whereas those which lagged in the implementation of the rural electricity programme were being given preferential treatment.
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Man immolates himself
Baddi, November 20 Gurbhachan and his brother Babu Singh were too in the home at the time of incident. As per information available with the police, around midnight the man rushed inside the kitchen along with a kerosene filled cane. He bolted the door from inside. He sprinkled kerosene on his body and set himself on fire. On hearing his cries the labourers and Gurcharan, who were sleeping, rushed towards the kitchen. The police and the fire brigade were informed about the incident. The officials, of the fire brigade managed to make their way inside the kitchen after breaking open the window, said the police. By the time officials made their way inside the kitchen the man had got completely burnt. Even the cane lying beside the body melted badly. The body was sent for postmortem at the local Civil Hospital. A team of forensic experts would visit the spot tomorrow, said Mr Sandeep Dhawal, DSP. The man appearing to be a young man having a thin body, the DSP said. The investigations in the case were underway, he added.
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Clarification
Parwanoo, November 20 The news item had reported that Mr Babbar was booked for conspiracy. It was, however, being clarified here that he had only prepared the requisite forms for registering the company of the accused, Mr Mahinder Singh, at Jalandhar. The company, M/s Nalagarh Traders, was registered on the basis of papers supplied by Mr Mahinder Singh, who had been booked for cheating the Parwanoo branch of the SBI. The police had earlier stated that the chartered accountant had also been booked. However, the case was being investigated. The error is regretted. |
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