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February brings festivity
Spring
is here and for the people in the cold hilly state of Himachal Pradesh it is time for fun and festivity. This so because the cruel cold of the months of December and January is a thing of the past and it is time to celebrate warm sunny days and pleasant evenings.
Women pradhans doing better than men: Thakur
The
IPH and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Kaul Singh Thakur, urged writers and poets to raise current social issues like female foeticide and women empowerment in the state. He
honoured four writers for their contribution in the field of literature at Mandi recently.
POWER OF WORDS: Mr Kaul Singh Thakur honours four poets in Mandi
vignettes
Shimla in folksongs
 With
Basant Panchami, the common folk of Himachal Pradesh comes out of hibernation and starts singing, dancing and working in the fields and meadows. He sings – sings in gay abandon with cheer up, chin up and never say die spirit. Though Shimla, geographically and politically, joined the rest of Himachal Pradesh in 1966, yet the hilly folks had hitched their wagons to this star-city since long.
SINGING ALL THE WAY: Folks singing and dancing is the fields in a common sight.
— Photo by Anmil Dayal
HAMIRPUR
Diary
Mango shows signs of injury
The
chilly winds sweeping the Hamirpur area have set the alarm bells ringing for farmers as the produce of mango and papaya, besides early-sown tomato, have started showing signs of injury due to the heavy frost that envelopes the region every night.
Agro scientists said it was in 1996 that such extreme conditions were witnessed
last time and a drastic fall in night temperature had become a cause for concern
for farmers in the area.
senior
citizen
Farmers’ woes
We
the farmers of 15 villages request to draw your kind attention towards the irrigation problem being faced by us on a day to day basis. A large part of the land is dependent on rain only but during off season this water is available on rivers and nullahs but since there being no storage facility or proper irrigation system there is no use of this precious water which is simply wasted.
 shimla
Diary
The last holy dip
Pilgrims
turned up in large numbers for what could be their ‘last dip’ in Tattapani during the Makar Sankranti fair. The holy place along with its famous hot springs will be submerged due to the construction of Kol Dam, which is fast nearing completion.
MAKING THE MOST: Pilgrims take a dip on Makar Sankranti in Tattapani which will soon be submerged in the
Kol dam. — Photo by Anil Dayal
Cheap liquor flows back
There is now a reversing the trend in smuggling of cheaper liquor. The number of cases have shown a downward trend this year. According to figures available with the police, as against 264 cases of liquor smuggling registered under the Excise Act in 2005, only 248 have come to the notice in 2006 in the district.
Mixed response to new power policy
The
government officials claim the new power policy is the first of its kind in the country. It seeks to create and ensure 70 per cent employment to Himachalis in each project at all levels. It seeks to revive local ecology and rivers left high, dry and dead by the dams built upstream.
Poet of substance
It
is his hard work and interest in creative writing, which has seen R.S. Harnot emerge as a name to reckon with in the field of Hindi literature.
Harnot has been able to make a mark even outside the country as he was honoured
with the prestigious international Indu Sharma Katha Samman in London in 2003,
for his short story collection Darosh Tatha Anya Kahanian.
R.S. Harnot
 NAHAN DIARY
After the hanging of Saddam
The
hanging of the deposed President of Iraq,
Saddam Hussein, was condemned last week by the office bearers and the president of Himachal Lok Jan
Shakti. Mr Sada Nand, the local MLA and the president criticised the growing US hegemony and feared the imminent widening gulf between the West and Arab.
Mr Nasir Khan, state president of the Lok Jan Shakti Party, Himachal Pradesh
Minority Cell, eulogised the stature of Sadaam who accepted the gallows proudly
with uncovered face.
Students learn about AIDS
Waking
up to the hazards of deadly AIDS/HIV for the impressionable students, students of various schools have come forward, quelling their myths or notion about AIDS/HIV.
Exiled Poet
The
poet and founder president of Panum Kashmir, Mr
Agnisekhar, champions the cause of the exiled Kashmiri Pandits, thus giving an impetus to the Kashmiri literature-in-exile. His poems have been born as an emotional reaction to the ‘guns of terrors’ in the trouble-torn Kashmir valley. They portray a poignant saga of over 7 lakh Kashmiri
Pandits, more particularly 3.5 lakh Kashmiri refugees, who have been living in exile all over the country, including Himachal Pradesh, for the past 16 years after their exodus from the valley.
CRUSADER: Agnisekhar
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