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Weather pleases, puzzles
It’s a busy time for farmers in the state. Ever since the record-breaking snowfall of February, they’ve been trying to assess its damage and benefit to agricultural and fruit crops.
The hill state — particularly Shimla, Manali, Dalhousie and Dharamsala — are known for the uncertain weather, but not as this time around it has been rather unusual. After a lean monsoon season that created drought-like conditions in most parts, the state is experiencing continuous snow and rain since February 11 and the weather gods seem to be in no mood to reconsider! The 163 mm of snow and rain during February is more than three times the normal precipitation of 48 mm. The Queen of Hills experiences four days of snow in February but this season there were nine such days. The trend continues in March. There has been rain and snow on five days till March 13 — 95 mm snow and rain as against the normal precipitation of 65 mm for the entire month. Last year, the state capital recorded the warmest day and night during January. Lack of snow or white manure, as orchardists call it, ruined the apple crop. Only 1.25 crore boxes were produced as against the output of 2.63 crore in the preceding year. With Shimla and Kulu districts, which account for 95 per cent of the total apple production, experiencing widespread snow hopes of a bumper crop have been raised. Delayed snow has also improved the outlook for hydroelectric generation that had suffered due to the dry spell. Snow also gave winter sports enthusiasts a reason to cheer. Apart from Narkanda and the Solang nullah, skiing was also made possible in Kufri after almost 15 years. Prolonged rain and snow will also help mitigate the problem of
water scarcity this summer, music to the ears of residents of the 7,000-odd parched
villages.
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Mushroom city to concrete jungle
Battling the population growth of a staggering 57.26 per cent, Solan, which is rated as the fastest growing towns in the state, is now bursting at the seams. The haphazard and unplanned constructions have converted this town, known as the Mushroom City of India, into a jungle of concrete.
The town once boosted of lush green hills enveloping its roads, a variety of fauna that included the endangered pheasants, which twittered fearlessly in the green canopies, the migratory bulbuls which had made the town their annual sojourn, the majestic panthers which leisurely strolled in the wild, are now only in the memory of people here. The most telling effect is the reducing water level that becomes acute with the approaching summer. The population has risen from 21,751 in the year 1991 to 34,206 in 2001. Its growth has bypassed the growth rate of bigger towns like Shimla. Even towns like Hamirpur with a growth rate of 36.37 per cent are far behind. The high growth is attributed to people coming from the nearby districts for either employment or education. Its proximity to both Chandigarh and Shimla has led to an added influx of tourists here. This has introduced the town to an apartments culture where multi-storey high-rise buildings are seen coming up at every corner of the town. Despite the existence of certain norms to regulate the growth, the lack of proper implementation has defeated the very purpose of it. The defaulters conveniently escape action as the Town and Country Planning Department maintains that being a municipal committee area, the latter should check for such violations. Indiscriminate chipping of the steep hillsides, having angles more than 50-80 degrees, have destabilised the hill strata. Though cutting of slope having an angle of more than 45 degree is against the norms of the town planning department, nobody seems to be following it. Interestingly, a fresh proposal of the department proposes to restrict construction on slopes having angles more than 30 degrees. An area of about 20 bighas lying near Shamlech on the NH-22 has been cleared off for an automobile showroom. This is despite having an acute slope of more than 45 degrees. This area had as many as 55 trees. The forest officials pass the buck by pleading that the land had more than a dozen owners and each was allowed to cut five trees per year for domestic use. Successive governments have turned a deaf ear to the numerous violations to gain political mileage. The most glaring violation was an overnight approval granted to as many as 222 building plans in the year 1998. This was done just before the enactment of the Town and Country Planning Act. This has not only emboldened the political cohorts but they went a step ahead and gave the norms a go-by. According to a report submitted in an earlier session of the Vidhan Sabha, as many as 36 buildings have violated four-and-a-half storey norm. It is The municipal committee is now shrugging the onus of punishing these 36 violators. First the case was referred to the director, Urban Development. But the directorate simply referred it back with the directions to take appropriate action. B.R. Negi, executive officer of the municipal corporation, while cutting a sorry figure says, “Had the 222 maps not been cleared overnight without proper papers, the construction violations would not have been so large. Not only this, a few buildings were given approval by the administrator before the municipal committee came into being.” Though the authorities have made the laws stringent to reduce disasters, but their lack of implementation has nullified the very purpose. A concept of soil testing and getting building maps approved from a structural engineer was put in place. This has, however, remained only on papers. While the rules are being enforced in government buildings, the private builders pay little heed to their adherence. A leading builder says, “With no soil testing facility available here for the private builders, we have to bring the machinery from Chandigarh. A single testing incurs an expenditure of Rs 15,000.” The residents face an acute water shortage during summers so much so that sometimes the officials forced to release water only twice a week. The officials of the Irrigation and Public Health Department said they had barely sufficient water to meet the requirements of the town in summers. The requirements multiply several times with the rush of tourists. People here feel it is high time that the government agencies woke from their slumber and took steps to save this hill town and also for the authorities to enforce their rules and regulations.
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Frosty future
Drought in the months of December and January followed by severe frosts has wiped out almost half of the fruit crop and newly planted saplings in the Kangra district. As per a recent survey conducted by the Horticulture Department, the total loss due to drought and frost, has been estimated at Rs 56 core and Rs 25 crore, respectively.
The statistics have shown that about 2.3 lakh saplings of mango had been damaged due to drought. After this, the impact of frost had also resulted into a loss of more than 18 lakh saplings. Similarly, the total loss of litchi plantation due to draught and frost was 1.16 lakh and 38,400, papaya 37,890 and 22,590, citrus fruits 1.91 lakh and 28,908, amla 84,000 and 19,300 and other fruit crops 55,000 and 18,389, respectively. Apart from this, 1.49 lakh and 1.96 lakh seedlings and saplings of fruit crops in private nurseries had been damaged. Similarly, 2.24 lakh and 6.68 lakh seedlings and saplings in government nurseries run by the department had also been damaged. Horticulture experts said the frost freezes the cells and damage the leaves and shrubs making the tress vulnerable to bacterial diseases. It puts an extra burden on the farmers as they have to of spraying some expensive anti-bacterial sprays. On the other hand, the flowers and fruits of mango and litchi were also hard hit by the adverse weather conditions. Their production is likely to come down by over 40 per cent, say the horticulture experts. Losses to the tea plants have also been reported from Palampur and its adjoining areas. Vishav Sagar Sharma, deputy director of the Horticulture Department, while talking to The Tribune said he had constituted few teams to apply certain paste on the saplings that were partially affected by the drought and frost. “We have also asked these teams to cut the dead shrubs and branches and apply the paste of copper oxy-chloride mixed with linseed oil as this can help in re-growth of the main stem.” he said.
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vignettes Were you in Shimla of 1874, you would have visited ‘Hamilton and West’ for clothing, got yourself photographed at ‘De Russet’ and carried cakes and pastries home from ‘O’Connor and Peliti’ – all this at the ‘Upper Bazaar’. Where was the ‘Upper Bazaar’ located? It was where at present the wide, open Ridge is. There were marts on the sides of a narrow street. Besides ‘a crowd of native shops of the ordinary kind’, there was the kotwali, office of the Revenue and Agriculture Department of the Government of India and the established firms of Hussain Bakhsh, Ahsanullah and Alif Khan. A fire broke out in the premises of ‘Hamilton and West’ in 1875 and the upper bazaar was totally destroyed. Thanks to the wise decision of S.B. Goad and C.A. McMahon, presidents of the then municipal committee, that the rebuilding of shops was prohibited and the crest was leveled down. It is because of that decision the denizens and visitors today enjoy the vista of snow-covered ranges in the north and the verdurous valley in the south. On the northeast of the Ridge there stands a horse chestnut tree old enough to have seen many children grow. Under it sits Ratan Lal Gautam, a first-division matriculate from Jhanduta, Bilaspur, who has been selling tasty and spicy peanuts, grams, potato-chips and mix-o’-three in hand-folded paper pouches since the last thirty-two years. He had followed his village-mate Jamna Dass who was in the same business for sixty years. Ramzan, who gives pony-rides on the Ridge since 1977, stands next to the huge tree with his clan of pony-wallas. A pleasure trip of pony-ride on the Ridge is an old sport and had started in 1911 with the restriction that ‘from the 15th March to 15th October, both days inclusive, and between the hours of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. no horse dealer, syce, jockey or other native servant shall lead, drive or ride a horse, pony, or mule or other animal used for riding.’ The rule evaporated with the British leaving India. An agreement, signed in 1981 between the pony-wallas and the municipal corporation, fixed the number of ponies to nineteen and an annual fee of Rs.200. Besides the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the east of the Ridge has two heritage buildings, a neo-Tudor style public library that housed the health wing of the Municipality and a neo-Gothic Christ church opened on 10th January, 1857. The south-side has ‘Ice n’ Spice’, a kiosk built in eighties that sells HPMC products and a twenty-eight year old rare tree ‘Chinar’ (Platanus Orientalis) in Daulet Singh Park. This park was built in the memory of Lt. General Daulet Singh who was chief of the western command and had died in a helicopter crash in 1963. The Band Stand built in 1907 was the gift of Kanwar Jiwan Dass of Jubbalpur to the municipality. Band-play was a regular feature in the evenings. It was rented out to HPTDC in 1975, which converted it into Ashiana and Goofa restaurants during the early eighties. The statues of. Y.S. Parmar and a graceful hill woman with a pitcher in hand are the sculptural beauties here. The west of the Ridge has a rain shelter built about 50 metres away from where its foundation stone was actually laid. When you stand on the Ridge, you actually stand on Shimla’s water supply system that stores 46 lac litres of water in a tank 45 m. in length, 32 m. wide in the east tapering to 14 m. in the west and 8 m. deep. The tank has nine chambers and was probably built in 1883 alongwith Sanjauli reservoir. May it be known that Shimla before this system was dependent for its water supply upon over seventeen natural springs and baolis and in absence of pipelines, bhishties used to take water to houses! The Ridge, today, is witness to two most popular events of north India, one is New Year’s Eve and the other is beauty decked up in their best waiting for the first glimpse of moon on the ‘karva chauth’. Tailpiece Victor Jacquemont once said: “Simla is the resort of the rich, the ill and the invalid.” I wonder where I stand.
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To start or not to?
Members of the Citizens’ Council, Mandi, various sabhas, NGOs and the medical associations in Mandi have hailed chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s announcement to open a government medical college at Mandi and a private medical college at Hamipur. But medical experts take it with a pinch of salt.
Though residents have hailed it as a landmark decision as the government has fulfilled their long-pending demand, but medical experts opine that the decision is a populist step, for “four medical colleges in a state with 65 lakh population will make a mockery of the medical profession in the long run, as the existing two medical colleges are facing an acute shortage of manpower. But the supporters outweigh the opponents. The proposed government medical college, attached to the zonal hospital Mandi, will provide quality health care to the people in the central zone of Mandi-Kulu-Bilaspur-Hamirpur-Lahaul-Spiti region. Second, doctors say, the two new medical colleges will come as a boon for the students who otherwise have to go out for their degrees. Besides, patients who are otherwise referred to either Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) or the PGI Chandigarh, will get health care locally once college is put in place equipped with staff and facilities,” says Tarun Pathak, a local lawyer from Mandi. They reason that the 872-bedded IGMC, which has 65 MBBS seats, is a tertiary care hospital in the upper region. Dr Rajindra Prasad Medical College, Tanda, near Dharamshala, provides quality care to patients in the Kangra region. But no medical institute in the central zone in Himachal. Under the Medical Council of India (MCI) norms, the government needs the requisite 25-acre of land and 300-bededd hospital to start the medical college with 50 MBBS seats. “The government already has the 300-bedded hospital at Mandi that is being attached to the proposed medical college. The health department already has the land for the college,” say doctors. The medical experts voice their concern. “The government has difficulty in running the two colleges—the IGMC and Medical College at Tanda, near Dharamshala, due to the shortage of qualified staff, including teachers in 34 teaching faculties.” The third medical college in the government sector will add an additional burden on the manpower available in the state, fear some, citing medical norms as laid down by the MCI in running the medical colleges in the country. Dr B.L. Kapur, retired chief medical officer, says the four medical colleges in the state with a population of over 65 lakh are not justified as far as quality of medical profession and norms are Concerned. Experts say even MCI has been pulling up the state government time and again to put in place dedicated staff at IGMC and Tanda. “To make up for the shortage of staff the teaching faculties are shifted from IGMC to Tanda during the mandatory MCI inspections by the authorities to save its wrath”, reveal doctors. They also cite that the fresh doctors after fulfilling the required tenure desert government service and join the private sector, which offer them better pay packets and facilities. “We have not got the PG increment since 1996 and house rent of 10 per cent. These are reasons doctors desert government services as bureaucracy is dictating terms and condition for them,” say a few members. Dr H.D. Vaidya, General Secretary of Indian medical Association, however, says government medical college in Mandi will boost health services in central zone in the state.
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Targeting pensioners
The fast-growing global insurance sector is targeting the pension funds in India and is awaiting a nod from the Centre. Since pension industry has not yet been opened to the insurance sector, the global players feel this virgin sector will lead to immense gains. These views were expressed by Rene van der Poel, vice-president of ING Vysya. He said while every foreign player was keen to invest in India as its rural segment offered huge returns.
He said the insurance sector requires a local approach. While terming the current economic policies as a balanced one, he said it augured well as the foreign players were not allowed a total control. “With the foreign insurance companies being required to tie up with the local companies, a balanced approach had been adopted,” he said. He, however, said more could be achieved by allowing freedom of resources and knowledge exchange between the domestic and foreign players. This would bring more funds to the country and facilitate an average man, he said. Predicting an immense growth in this sector, he said the world’s largest financial services company, having assets of Rs 61.5 lakh crores, which is 174 per cent of the country’s GDP, is slated to grow at a faster pace in the near future. They specifically targeted cooperative banks in the rural areas to perk up their customers, he added. While the global insurance scenario was bright, he said countries like the USA had gained due to a strong thrust on insurance. It was, however, the lack of awareness in India which kept an average man out of the insurance cover, he said.
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Tale of Trilokpur
The 15-day fair attracts over 15 lakh devotees who come to pray to Bhagwati Shri Tripur Bala Sundri. Trilok Pur village is situated at a distance of about 22 km from Nahan. This year Chetra Navtratra Fair will start on March 19 and will conclude on April 2 after the Chetra Purnima Pooja in the temple. Normally, Navratra fair starts on the first Navratra and conclude on the ninth day, but in the Shri Tripur Bala Sundri temple, it takes 15 days to complete. On this special occasion of Chaudash and Purnima Lacs, people come to pay obeisance to the goddess. However, the heaviest flow of devotees is seen on the Saptami and Ashtami day. People have to stand in queues for the darshan for more than eight hours. Devotees from Haryana, Punjab, Himachal, Uttranchal, Uttar Pradesh and New Dehli throng this village to worship the child incarnation of Bhagwati Durga. The traditional poojari of the Bhagwati belongs to the business community and Vaish by cast, which is another unique feature of this famous Shakti Peeth of North India. According to history of Sirmour (Tarik-e-Sirmour), the pindi of Goddess Tripur Bala Sundri appeared in a bag of salt brought from Devband in Uttar Pradesh by a local trader from Lala Ram Das village. To the trader’s surprise, the quantity of the salt in the bag remained undiminished in spite of its continuous sale. There after the Goddess appeared in his dreams and asked Lala Ram Dass to set up her at the same place under the tree of peepal where the bag of salt was kept by the trader. In the morning the trader found a pindi in the bag of salt. Short of means Lala Ram Das approached the then ruler of Sirmour, Maharaja Pradeep Prakash and explained him the situation. The king invited some artisans from Jaipur in 1570 AD and a beautiful marble temple dedicated to the Goddess Tripur Bala Sundri came into being by 1573 AD. After the temple was completed, to worship Goddess Bala Sundri became a tradition with the royal family. The temple was renovated by Maharaja Fateh Prakash in 1823 and by Maharaja Raghubir Prakash in 1851. The temple is an example of exquisite workmanship and is an amalgam of Indo-Persian styles of architecture. As the name Trilok Pur implies there are three Shakti temples in the area, each depicting a different face of Goddess Durga. The main temple situated at Trilok Pur is the Temple of Bhagwati Tripur Bala Sundry, which depicts the childhood image of Goddess Durga. Another Shakti temple, dedicated to Bhagwati Lalita Devi, depicts another image of Goddess Durga. It is situated on a hillock located at a distance of 3 km in front of the main temple. The third Shakti temple of Tripur Bhairavi is situated at a distance of 13 km north west of the Bala Sundri temple. At present the temple is being run by a trust headed by the Deputy Commissioner of Sirmour. The trust has been executing several developmental works in the village during the past three decades. Roshan Singh, a regular visitor of the temple, said due to traffic hazard and miserable condition of the Kala Amb-Trilok Pur road, the visitors are stranded for hours together on their way to temple. Residents of Trilok Pur village were also concerned about the situation. They say that hundreds of trucks are always parked on the Kala Amb-Trilok Pur road causing traffic jams.
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Seeing red
Despite all the loud talk about restructuring, disinvestment and other reform measures to improve the financial health of Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) - the losses are mounting with each year.
The 23 PSUs employing over 49,711 persons on rolls are proving to be a big drain on the financial resources of the state government. Out of these as many as 18 PSUs are perpetually in the red and the cumulative loss amounted to 917 crore rupees by end of March 2006. The total loss increased by 22 crore rupees over the year. The state road transport corporation had accumulated maximum loss of 405 crore rupees; followed by the state power board (Rs 239 crore), state financial corporation (Rs 89 crore) and Agro India Packaging (Rs 57 crore). The total investment of the government in these companies increased from 726 crore rupees to 744 crore rupees. The state civil supplies corporation was the only unit to earn a substantial profit of 12.81 crore rupees, followed by the state ex-servicemen corporation which posted a profit of 2.72 crore rupees. Concerned over the mounting losses, the government had initiated an exercise for the merger of various corporations engaged in similar activities. It was also announced that the PSU’s beyond redemption, would be either closed down or merged into some other unit. The objective was to bring down the unproductive expenditure and to prevent overlapping of functions. Besides effecting economy, the merger would have improved efficiency of these undertakings as they have been working with skeletal staff all these years. The plan was to amalgamate the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes development corporation, the backward classes finance and development corporation, the minority’s development corporation and the women development wing are being amalgamated. These undertakings have been mainly engaged in advancing loans to the members of various communities for starting their own ventures. The welfare department was asked to submit a proposal in this regard. Similarly, a proposal to amalgamate the HPMC, the Agro Industrial Packaging India Limited and the State Agro Industries Corporation - which are engaged in agriculture-related activities, like supply of farm inputs and procurement of fruit - was also mooted. In between efforts were made to lease out the packaging unit to private parties so that some part of the losses could be recovered. Bids have been invited five times over the past two years but no final decision has been taken so far. The government had enhanced the annual grant to the state road corporation from 27 crore rupees to 48 crore rupees on the condition that it will reduce the strength of its bus fleet from 1780 to 1500 over a period of three years. However, the period has elapsed but the strength of bus fleet is still 1750. Similarly, nothing has been done to reform the state electricity board. Its unbundling in accordance with the Electricity Act 2003 has been repeatedly deferred under pressure from employees.
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Election 2008
The political temperatures is hot up here as the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP have launched the populist image-building political campaigns to grab the limelight, keeping in mind the upcoming Assembly elections in February 2008.
The Congress cited their ‘four years of achievements and pro-poor budget reasons for celebration’. On the other hand, the BJP leaders led a protest march here against rising prices, describing four-year-long Congress rule as a ‘complete failure that made mockery of the common man in the state’. The Congress workers held a free snack campaign, dishing out chana-bun and halwa along with the posters carrying pictures of Virbhadra Singh and Mandi MP Pratibha Singh to celebrate government’s achievements. They even had a DJ to attract the passersby and residents. The supporters of Virbhadra Singh also launched a SMS campaign, sending mails carrying slogans in the local Mandiyali dialect. Leading the promotion-campaign from the Seri Munch included former Mandi Municipal Council president Pushp Raj, Kisan Sabha leader Tarun Pathak, Rajinder Mohan, and Amit Pal. DD Tahkur, district Congress president described the BJP protest rally as flop show as it had not more than 30 persons, including the former Sundernagar BJP MLA and former forest minister Roop Singh Thakur. He claimed the budget had taken care of each section in the state and will provide employment to 33,000 youth this year. On the other hand, BJP leader Roop Singh, after leading the protest march, claimed that the four years rule and the budget was a failure. He added that the budget had made a mockery of the common man. The government has burdened the state and have done a little to raise sources in the state, he claimed.
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A world of colour
A three-day painting exhibition of women artists was organised by the Language and Culture Department in Kangra Museum at Dharamsala last week. The exhibition opened up a different world of colours, sensibilities and sensitivities. Vatsala Khera’s painting of Lord Krishna and Radha signifying the ‘future life’ was a great attraction. The painting work done on a ply-board with perfect choice of colours reflected realism and naturalism as well. The works of Madhu Vast, Rashmi Nag, Aruna Sareen, Jaya Saini and other artists also reflected intense realism. They were decorative, refreshing in conception and execution. The beautiful Kangra paintings were displayed by Rajni and Anita, keeping alive the local tradition. One of the major highlights of the exhibition was the Kangra paintings by deaf and dumb students- Anita, Pappi, Seema and Anamika. Amidst all this, jostling for space were photographs of the unset and sunrise by 11-year-old artist Sagrika.
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Women are active here
Winds of change are gradually sweeping across the Kangra valley with women’s participation in social and political development increasing at a rapid pace beyond expectations.
Interestingly, the changes are not confined to urban areas. The 33 per cent representation for women in the panchayati raj and local self-governments has, to a great extent, helped empower women. Urmil Bhuria, vice chairperson of the Kangra Zila Parishad, says that women have found a voice and are coming out openly against social evils like female foeticide, dowry, domestic violence and sexual abuse. She was addressing women gathered in Dharamsala inn a function to commemorate Women’s Day. The function was organised by Society for Participatory Research in Asia — a non-governmental organisation — in collaboration with the local unit of the Nehru Yuva Kendra. The presence of a huge gathering of women particularly from the rural areas has not only given them the courage to have their say but also a task with responsibility to educate the less-fortunate women around their localities. Anup Kumar of Jagori — a local NGO — educated the hill women on the ill effects of sex determination tests and female foeticide while Vijay Bhardwaj, Vandana Kumari and Ramesh Mastana, residents of Khaniara village, presented a play on women-related issues in local dialect. A cultural troupe of Gaddis, a tribal community from Deol-Fatahar village near Baijnath, also performed a stage show on issues related to women and their empowerment for development of a healthy society.
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SHIMLA Diary
The issuing of a charge sheet by the BJP, levelling corruption charges against ministers, officials and Congress leaders has generated a lot of heat in the otherwise cold environment of the hill state.
With elections less than a year away, the charge sheet highlights the alleged corruption charges during the four-year rule of the Congress. Most of the ministers have been charge sheeted which has lead to leveling of counter allegations. This is the fourth charge sheet by the BJP, each coinciding with the completion of year’s rule of the Congress Government. Passport office
It is after a long wait that the Regional Passport Office will be opened in Shimla. Union minister of state for external affairs, Anand Sharma will inaugurate the passport office here on March 16. It has been a long and pending demand that would be fulfilled with the opening of this office. Prior to this, it was through the Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh that the passports of people belonging to Himachal were made.
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Society for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies (SDRS), Himachal Pradesh chapter, with the support of the Rehabilitation Council of India, conducted a state level workshop on “Human Resource Development in Disability Sector” in Shimla. As many as 150 representatives of NGOs from various districts participated. The governor V.S.Kokje, inaugurated the workshop and H.K.S. Sharma, C.M.D. of Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam presided over the function. The main highlight of the inaugural session was honouring of 10 visually impaired and five mentally challenged children, for their special achievements in sports at national and international level. The mentally challenged children Pranav (Badminton), Bharti (Bocce game), Nauni Sahny (Softball), Vera (Volleyball) had won gold medal in the Special Olympics at national level and would go to China, to participate in the Special Olympics World Summer in October this year. Deepak Sharma had won Gold Medal in World Cricket Tournament for Special Children last year. — TNS
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During Navratras, which comes after every six months, fairs takes place at 14 Shakti temples in Sirmour but the biggest Navratra fair is organised at Trilokpur village where the ancient temple of Mahamaya Shri Tripur Bala Sundri is situated.