Bhapral (Bilaspur), January 23
Seventy-year-old Brahmi Devi, who is also known as 'Victorian', a name given to her by people of her village in acknowledgement of her husband being posthumously awarded George Cross(GC), the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, is fighting a lonesome battle against poverty for the past several years. The GC is the civilian counterpart of the Victoria Cross and is the highest honour that can be awarded for civilian or non-operational bravery.

But the rare honour holds no significance for the aged widow of Naik Kirpa Ram as she has been fighting a battle against poverty for the past 60 years. Living in a simple one-room house in Bhapral village in Bilaspur district the poor widow could not even safeguard the precious GC as it was recently stolen from her house.

"I got married to a soldier at the tender age of 10 and became a war widow within a year. Since then, I have been living in this village, trying to make both ends meet with the meagre pension being granted by the government," she told The Tribune.

"Someone even stole the sole trunk that I had. The George Cross and a little money that I had saved for a rainy day were in the trunk. I lodged a police complaint but to no avail. I don't think they conducted a proper inquiry to locate my belongings. All that I have now is a picture of my husband and a certificate," she rues.

Brahmi Devi has adopted a teenaged girl, who looks after her, besides preparing for her Class XII exams.

Naik Kirpa Ram, G C, 15634 (8th Bn.13th), Frontier Force Rifles, had laid down his live on September 12, 1945 at the age of 28. According to The London Gazette Naik Kirpa Ram was awarded the George Cross "for most conspicuous gallantry in carrying out hazardous work in a very brave manner".

His battalion, having returned to India from Burma, was in a rest camp at Bangalore. During a field firing exercise, a rifle grenade fell short and landed only eight yards in front of Naik Kirpa Ram's section. Without hesitation he picked it up, shouting to his men to take cover. Before he could throw it away, it exploded, wounding him fatally.

"My husband was a brave man and he saved his unit by showing exemplary courage. I was honoured by British officials at a function held in Delhi soon after Independence. A small group of locals had accompanied me and I came back to the village to a warm welcome. But all this is forgotten now," she said.

Capt J.C Katoch, OSD, Sainik Welfare Board, said the case of Brahmi Devi had been recommended for a special family pension to the Record Branch, from where it would be taken up with the British Embassy.

"The Board has given some financial assitance to her but we want that like families of other decorated soldiers, she should also get what is due to her. George Cross is next to Victoria Cross and is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom. It is also considered the civilian counterpart of the Victoria Cross and the highest honour that can be awarded for civilian or non-operational bravery. The George Cross was awarded to Naik Kirpa Ram in the year 1946 in Delhi," he said.

He said he had given directions to his local staff in the area to co-ordinate with the police so that efforts could be made to locate the lost medal. There has been only one George Cross awardee from Himachal Pradesh, even though Military Cross has been awarded to as many as 13 soldiers.

Bilaspur, January 23
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has declared that his government would soon provide residential plots to the remaining Bhakra Dam oustees and officers have been told to provide plots and all basic amenities in two sectors which are being created near the HRTC workshop here.

Addressing a largely attended public meeting at Panjgrain, near here, this afternoon, the Chief Minister said it was only the Congress government which had always solved the problems of the Bhakra Dam oustees and had provided various facilities 
to them.

He said the government had constructed Rs 11-crore Alikhad bridge near Bilaspur town and Rs 25-crore Babkhal bridge was under construction in Bilaspur district.

The government was determined to construct the Beri-Drollan bridge near Bilaspur town on Gobind Sagar.

The Chief Minister took the BJP to task and warned the people against those leaders who raised a bogey of regionalism and casteism and made people fight communalism.

The Chief Minister announced that the public health centre at Panjgrain would be upgraded to community health centre and a tubewell would be sunk at Panjgrain for augmenting the drinking water supply. The middle school at Dhar Tatoh would be upgraded to high school and the primary school at Jungal Jhaleda would be upgraded to middle school.

The high schools at Bandla, Hawan and Koohmanjhwad would be upgraded to the senior secondary level.

Earlier the Chief Minister inaugurated Rs 70-lakh 33-KV power substation at Beri and buildings of the PHC at Panjgrain and Baggi Banola and laid the foundation stone of a school science block at Panjgrain.

He also laid the foundation stone of Rs 5.50-crore Bilaspur drinking water augmentation scheme.

Shimla, January 23
With snow once again eluding the Queen of Hills, the tourism industry has been hit badly as occupancy in most of the hotels is quite low.

With the day temperatures being at least four to five degrees higher than what is normal for the month of January, there is no hope of snow in near future. What is worrying those associated with the tourism industry that if there is practically no snow this year too, the business will be badly affected.

Even though January and February are not good from the tourism point of view but frequent spells of snow are enough to attract hordes of visitors from the neighbouring states.

With hardly any snow last year, hoteliers were hopeful that this year a good snowfall would bring in a good tourist season.

It was on December 9 last year that there was the first mild snowfall of this winter, raising hopes that Shimal would not be left snowless, like last year. However, with the sudden change in weather during the last three-four days, their hopes of a good snowfall seems to be getting dashed.

The maximum temperature in Shimal today was 15.8° C, which was almost four degrees higher than normal. Simlarly the minimum temperature today was 3.5, which again was about two degrees higher than normal January temperatures.

The fact that other hill stations like Srinagar, Manali, Kufri and Narkanda have already had good snow was a cause for worry to all.

The four special trains that were plied by the Railways between Kalka-Shimla during the peak tourist season from end of December to mid January have also been discontinued this season as there are no tourists. Despite there being no snow last year, these trains had continued running through the whole of January.

Baddi, January 23
The industrial area here today received another jolt with the state electricity board instituting 50 per cent power cuts in the entire industrial area of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh and Parwanoo. The power supply would remain suspended every alternate day now. The district houses 80 per cent of the industries.

As against the power requirement of 145 mw in the Nalagarh and Baddi area, only 80 mw was available while the power supply dipped to a low of 18 mw for Parwanoo as against the requirement of 32 mw. The situation was equally bad in the Barotiwala area with barely 27 mw being available as against the usual supply of 54 mw. This has forced the board to take such stringent measures, said an official in the department.

Power Minister Vidya Stokes said it was a temporary phase and some power was being bought at rates as high as Rs 6, which is far above the usual cost. Since no subsidy would be available for this power bought at higher cost, the board had to incur heavy expenditure for buying power now.

Bigger industries like Gujarat Ambuja Cement Limited had to switch over their operations from diesel generation sets as power supply was reduced drastically. ? As against the requirement of 30 mw, we are barely getting half. We are forced to use four DG sets and are generating the required power through them and can only keep our essential operations running. Being a continuous process industry, the use of DG sets has become inevitable. Expenditure of several lakhs is incurred in lieu of these DG sets. Even the peak load of 12 mw, for which we pay double tariff, is not available and only 4 mw power is available during this period,? said Mr Rakesh Sharma, vice-president of the Darlaghat unit.

Others like Vardhman Textiles Mills too had to face inconvenience due to such low power supply. Vice-president of Auro Spinning Mills at Baddi Mr Vijay Arora said it was high time the government took some steps to address the situation. The production was declining sharply and it was difficult to run the industry on DG sets.

Piqued by this drastic power reduction, the Parwanoo Industries Association(PIA) and Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Industries Association(BBNIA) has sought the intervention of the Power Minister, Ms Vidya Stokes. The PIA president, Mr Rakesh Bansal, and BBNIA vice-president, Mr Deepak Bhandari, said the power board was desisting from purchasing power at higher costs now. They said it was unfair to make the industries suffer while the board did not shell out funds to buy power.

Mandi, January 23
Timber mafia has been getting free run in the Nargu wildlife sanctuary and the Barot-Chauhar valley belt in the Jogindernagar forest division as the Jogindernagar police has seized thirtynine deodar sleepers concealed under a foot bridge on the Jogindernagar Barot road recently.

The police in three big seizures caught hold of deodar sleepers last year allegedly smuggled from the division and the Wildlife Sanctuary Areas, revealed sources.

The deodar rich Nargu Wildlife Sanctuary and parts of Barot-Chauhar valley forest belt have been turned into a haven for smugglers as there was not enough staff to keep a watch on the smugglers, revealed inquiries.

The road runs through the Wildlife Sanctuary making it a hassle-free conduit for the timber smugglers at Tikan on the Barot Jatingri road. DFO, wildlife, who looks after the Nargu wildlife sanctuary sits in Kulu town, other side of the mountain range, which has no access to the sanctuary”, revealed sources. “Seven posts of guard are vacant in the Jogindernagar division”.

The Jogindernagar police said it had registered the case after the seizure under 379 IPC and 41-42, of the Indian Forest Act, but no arrest was made in the case.

DFO Jogindernagar DP Chandra said he had surveyed the sensitive beats in the division, but no illicit felling was detected so far. “We put up the nakas from time to time after we get information of timber smuggling. The wildlife area is looked after by the DFO, Wild Life”, he said, passing the buck onto the wing, Kulu and added the department was filling posts of guard soon to make up for the shortage of staff. But Assistant Conservator of Forests, Wild Life, Kulu, K.K. Bhalla claimed they had increased vigilance around the sanctuary. “The road to the sanctuary has been closed. We are investigating as to which place the timber comes from, he added.

Shimla, January 23
Having fixed plaques outside 65 heritage buildings in the town, the local Municipal Corporation (MC) will cover all century-old British time structures in the town so that locals and tourists get to know historical importance and style of architecture of these buildings.

The MC has fixed plaques outside 65 heritage buildings displaying correct information about them. Rupees six lakh has been provided by the State Tourism Department for fixing plaques.

The MC has a list of 165 identified heritage structures in the town, which have been the venues of events of historical significance. Having remained the summer capital of the British, the town has several architectural masterpieces listed amongst the best in the world.

Plaques have details about the year of construction, architectural style, its original occupant and use during the British regime and other details of interest to visitors.

Plaques fixed are made of gun metal and granite depending on the architecture of the buildings. While 22 granite plaques have been fixed on stone pedestal outside important buildings like the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) which has the residence of British Viceroy, Gorton Castle, Telegraph Office building and the Barnes Court.

Gun metal plaques have been fixed on the remaining 43 buildings. In 22 of these buildings two plaques have had to be fixed as the history and details of the buildings was too big and with gun metal plaques coming in fixed size, two plates had to be used.

On the direction of the high court we have fixed plaques on 65 buildings but we propose to cover the remaining 100 buildings identified as heritage structures, said an MC official. The State Heritage Advisory Committee approves the buildings to be declared heritage structures.

The government has declared the entire stretch from Secretariat of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) as heritage zone. Only minor alteration or addition is allowed in the heritage structures and that too along old lines from the conservation point of view.

Though the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) had identified 329 buildings as heritage structures but only 97 buildings are to be notified by the government. The Department of Town and Country Planning Department is in the process of identifying more such buildings.

Shimla, January 23
The Himachal Government today took a step forward in making the hill state a knowledge hub by granting letters of intent (LoI) for setting up three private universities.

The nod has been given to the Chitkara Education Trust,the Amity and the Institute of Chartered and Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) after a scrutiny of their proposals by a committee of experts. However,the proposal of the Shoolini Institute of Life Sciences has been rejected by the committee concerned.

The proposals of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Engineering Studies and the Maa Saraswati Education Trust are under active consideration of the government. Some leading organisations like the Apeejay Satya Group, which proposes to have tie-ups with foreign universities, have certain reservations about the State Private Universities Act.The group has been asked to submit a detailed proposal regarding deviations from the Act and issues like foreign tie-ups.While the government is not in favour of having a separate legislation, it has an open mind on amending the existing common Act to take care of its concerns. The group had identified 400 bighas near Parwanoo.

The promoters who have been granted the LoI will be required to take various steps over the next one year to get the final approval. They will have to set up an endowment fund of Rs 3 crore for the university which will be pledged to the government and create a minimum of 10,000 sq metre of covered space.

They will also have to reserve at least 15 per cent of the seats for bona fide Himachalis in all courses on the basis of merit and give preference to local persons in employment. In case, the sponsoring body fails to comply with the provisions, its proposal will stand rejected and the LoI cancelled.

Kangra, January 23
Christian priests from different parts of the district today deplored the demonstration by some people against the functioning of the Peniel Prathana Bhavan and demanding its closure they said girls getting training in Bible in the bhavan be checked up medically to verify allegations of their involvement in immoral trafficking carried out from the centre and if the allegation was proved false the ‘guilty’ be punished.

Christian priests of different areas state this at a joint press conference at the bhavan at Kachari today. Mr T.C. Chako, Christian priest from Palampur, termed the allegations of forcible conversions and immoral trafficking at the bhavan at Kachari in the outskirts of this town, as unfortunate and serious. He said if a person was produced, who would claim that he has converted after being provided money from the Christian missionaries they were prepared for the consequences.

Mr Sunny George, a priest from Yol said, “The Chief Minister of the state Mr Virbhadra Singh on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha divulged there was no case of the conversion reported to the government so far then how people here claim forcible conversions were taking place.

Mr. T.C. Chako alleged certain foreign-vested interests were trying to divide India on religious and regional bases and the demonstration and protest here on last Sunday were part of such conspiracy. He said we are Indians and would not allow the country to break.

Mr Sam, a priest from Palampur, alleged they were being humiliated and harassed. He condemned alleged harassment. He said conversion was of mind and heart and not of religion.

Mr Sam offered let the seven girls who were undergoing Bible training here be checked up medically in view of the allegations of immoral traffic and added if allegations were proved false the people concerned should be punished.

Captain S.K. Bhel (retd), founder of the bhavan, which has been under a cloud of forcible conversions and immoral trafficking, denied the allegations and said, I am not a religious Christian and not doing rituals but I am a believer of Bible. He said, I have fought for India as a soldier of the Indian Army but I have been made a slave in my own country.

Captain Bhel alleged vernacular media was instigating people against the missionaries, which he said was deplorable.

More than 20 such local people were kept at the press conference, who were preaching Bible and said they were not forced to do so.

The priests said Ms Rajender Kaur Pradhan of Kachari village was free to visit the bhavan at any time and adopt some orphan children from Himachal to serve humanity in right perspective. They said they would, however, not allow anyone to take 44 orphan children from the bhavan to take care of them as all of them belonged to Christian families.

Following a demonstration by 12 panchayats on Sunday last outside the bhavan and the SDM ordered a magisterial inquiry into the allegations.