Shimla, March 30
With the government agreeing to a substantial increase in their stipend, the striking resident doctors at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) today resumed work.

The resident doctors called off their strike and agreed to withdraw their resignations after a meeting with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in the morning. The government has agreed to give a stipend of Rs 12,000 in the first year, Rs 13,000 in the second year and Rs 14,000 in the third year of postgraduation.

Besides, the government also agreed to enhance the stipend of interns from Rs 3,200 to Rs 5,000. The house surgeons would also get Rs 8,000 as compared to Rs 6,300 given earlier. Officials said the government had agreed to enhance the stipend so that the patients were not put to inconvenience due to the strike.

After their meeting with the Chief Minister, a majority of the 300 resident doctors resumed work within an hour, restoring normal functioning of the hospital. “We are grateful to the Chief Minister for agreeing to enhance the stipend to resident doctors and interns following which we have called off our strike and resumed normal work,” said president of the Resident Doctors Association (RDA) Rajesh Sood.

He said the Chief Minister had also assured the RDA of looking into other demands of the doctors like grant of PG increments.

The resident doctors had been observing a pen-down strike for the past four days and after they observed a day’s mass casual leave the government issued them show-cause notices. The resident doctors, in turn, retaliated by submitting their mass resignations. IGMC medical superintendent Hardyal said the hospital was functioning normally and all services, including OPDs, were held today after the resident doctors resumed work. He added that routine surgeries would be held from tomorrow.

The patients heaved a sigh of relief as they had been facing inconvenience for the past one week.

Solan, March 30
Taking note of violations of land use, the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department has served show-cause notices on at least six units here. These units, which were being run from the Rabon area of the town, were flouting various norms like running industrial units from premises that were given NOCs for residential use. Owners of these units have been granted a fortnight to explain their position following which action would be initiated against them.

While mixed land use was a violation of the Act, it created multiple problems for the regulatory authorities. Sources said these units, including Kenis Parentarals, Aromatic Pharmaceuticals, Bharat Organics, Rosgate Medicare , Swarna Printing Press and Prasad Foil Industries, were operating from Rabon. These are being run from buildings that had were given NOCs for residential use, but parts of these have now been let out to these industrial ventures.

Shimla, March 30
The Himachal Vidhan Sabha today passed the Rs 9,684-crore budget for 2007-08 and also adopted the relevant appropriation bill authorising the government to spend Rs 10,432 crore from the consolidated fund.

While the demands pertaining to health and family welfare department and the irrigation and public health departments were discussed and voted, the demands of the remaining departments were guillotined.

No fresh tax was proposed in the budget in which Rs 100 crore had been allocated for providing subsidised foodgrains, edible oil and salt to all categories of people for the first time.

Almost 25 per cent of the budget will come through SLR borrowings. The highest outgo of 37 per cent will be on salaries and pensions, followed by 28 percent on debt servicing. The total loans of the government will increase from Rs 18,233 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 20,399 crore in 2007-08.

Replying to the debate on demands of the irrigation and public health department, Kaul Singh, the minister concerned, said all partially covered and non-covered habitations would be provided drinking water by 2008 for which a Rs 683-crore plan had been formulated under the Bharat Nirman Yozna. The Centre had sanctioned Rs 54 crore over and above the budget allocation keeping in view the good performance of the state.

Regarding the complaints of hand pumps going dry he said it had been observed that the pumps installed during the rainy season when the water table was high went dry during the summer. The department had now decided not to install any hand pumps from July to September.

Shimla, March 30
The executive council (EC) of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) passed a budget of Rs 58.51 crore, with a deficit of Rs 8.50 crore, for 2007-08 today.

The budget proposals were placed before the EC by vice-chancellor Anil Wilson.

He said a five-member committee had been constituted to make recommendations for making the posts of deans and chairpersons more effective and functional.

The EC also decided to give an opportunity of personal hearing to five employees who had been served charge sheets on the charge of alleged irregularities by them. The replies filed by the five employees were placed before the ED and it was decided that in the interest of natural justice, they be given a chance of personal hearing.

The five employees facing termination include the then Pro-Vice Chancellor J.B. Nadda, the then deputy registrar J.S. Verma, the then regional director of the DCC O.P. Saraswat, public relation officer Ranvir Verma and Suresh Kapoor from the Department of Law.

All these officials have been charged with committing financial and administrative irregularities, mention of which has been made in the CAG report as well.

The EC also approved the starting of BEd course for commerce and home science graduates and postgraduates.

Stating that attendance rules must be adhered to strictly, he said it should not be treated as a mere punitive action but the students who were regular with their attendance and classroom work should also be encouraged.

The EC also removed the restriction placed on the number of functions that could be held by the SCA, increased the ceiling on remuneration to guest lecturers from Rs 8,000 to Rs 12,000 per month. It also approved imposing of penalty on dental colleges that had violated the admission norms.

Kumarhatti, March 30
In a major relief to striking workers of the PA Group of Industries, Dharampur, the Labour Court yesterday stayed the order of their transfer to Nalagarh. A notice to this effect was served on the company management late this afternoon. The presiding judge of the HP Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court, Shimla, has stayed the transfer till further orders. Over 500 workers engaged in unit 1 and 2 of the PA Pinions and the PA Time Industries went on strike last week over management’s decision to transfer 80 workers of unit 1 to Nalagarh.

The stay on transfer was a victory of the workers, claimed Jagdish Bhardwaj, president of the state unit of the AITUC. Bhardwaj said with the recent court order, the earlier issued two orders from the lower authorities asking workers to stage protests at least 50 m away from the unit gate and prohibiting the strike had come to end. The striking workers would join their duty from tomorrow morning, he said.

The workers were welcomed to join their duty, maintained G.S. Purewal, chairman of the PA Group of Industries while confirming the receipt of stay orders. However, he said that the infrastructure of the unit 1 had already been set up at Nalagarh. There was no work for unit 1 workers at Dharampur, he said. 

Shimla, March 30
The government will take up with the Centre the state’s case for increasing the quota for recruitment in the defence services which had come down drastically ever since the criterion of population had been adopted, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said in the vidhan sabha while replying to a question by Major Vijay Mankotia concerning per capita income of various districts. He maintained that the per capita income was not an index of development of a district as the gross domestic product presented a true picture. Moreover, as per norms the income of those working outside the state was not taken into account while calculating the per capita income. This was one of the reasons why some districts like Hamirpur, where a large number of persons were in defence services and other jobs outside the state, were having a low per capita income.

Kangra was at the ninth place in the per capita income but it was at the top when its domestic product as a percentage of the state domestic product, which came to 20, was taken into consideration. Similarly, Mandi was tenth in the per capita income and fourth in contribution to the state domestic product.

Lahaul-Spiti district had the highest per capita income of Rs 62,188 , followed by Solan (Rs 58,218), Shimla (Rs 48,454),Kinnaur(Rs 48215), Bilaspur(Rs 36,620), Kulu(Rs 35,844), Sirmour(Rs 34,931),Chamba(Rs 30,630), Kangra(Rs 28,987), Mandi (Rs 26,016),Una (Rs 21,671) and Hamirpur (Rs 21,255).

Replying to another question the Chief Minister said that the vigilance case against former vice-chancellor of Himachal Pradesh University S.D.Sharma was being expedited. Already two challans had been put up in the special court. 

Jawali (Nurpur), March 30
The sudden closure of the agriculture extension offices at Kerian and Trilokpur gram panchayats in the Guler Assembly constituency has left farmers of as many as 30-gram panchayats in lower Kangra district in a lurch.

These offices catering to the needs of farming community of Jawali subdivision were closed about four years back. Falling under the Nagrota Surian agriculture block, the offices had been housed in the Agriculture Department’s own buildings, constructed a decade ago. The buildings were lying vacant in a dilapidated condition, as the state Agriculture Department which had closed these offices, had abolished the posts of agriculture extension officers (AEOs).

In the absence of the AEOs, the farmers have been facing inconvenience in getting technical know-how about their fields and crop. The farmers of this area alleged that the government schemes of agriculture sector rendered no benefit to them, as office of the AEOs had been closed. There is a demand to re-start the offices of the AEOs in larger interest of the farming community of the area.

In this connection when local MLA Harbans Singh Rana was contacted, he lamented that the government had closed these offices without any reason against the interest of the farmers. “I have taken up the issue of restoration of these posts in my native Assembly constituency with the state government as well as with the director of the Horticulture Department,” he added.

Dharamsala, March 30
Azim Ahmed, a resident of Palsora village of Chandigarh, has claimed to have developed a low-cost earthquake-warning electronic device that could be deployed by individuals at their homes in the earthquake prone areas.

One such earthquake warning electronic device was today installed at a private residence in Dharamsala. The Kangra district falls under the high seismic zone and is prone to frequent earthquakes of small and big intensities.

A dropout from electronic engineering, Ahmed said he started making the instrument in the year 2001 after a powerful earthquake shook Gujarat, claiming hundreds of lives.

Three years of practical testing, the electronic device has successfully proved that it responds to vibrations under the earth’s crust. The green light of this electronic device starts blinking as soon as the movements begins under the earth’s crust and if the underground vibrations are strong the red light starts blinking followed by a huge noise of the hooter attached to it, signaling to leave the building immediately.

Ahmed said the electronic device developed by him is basically a ‘life saving system’. It does not give prior warning of the earthquake but reacts to even slight vibrations immediately giving enough time for people to leave their houses, in case the vibrations indicate that the earthquake is fierce, he said.

This electronic device operated by a six-volt battery is deployed on any of the walls of the building at a height of six or seven feet. The interesting thing about the instrument is that it responds to the vibrations that occur only under the earth. It does not respond to the vibrations created on the upper crust of the earth like the passing of a train near the railway line or the low and medium intensity blasts, claims Azim Ahmed.

The young guy who is also running an Ayurvedic drug manufacturing company at Chandigarh by the name of ‘Nafis Care’ has applied for a grant of approval to this instrument to the Geological Survey of India at Dehra Dun, so that he could get a patent on this product.

Ahmed has decided to develop a chain of marketing for selling this electronic device that has been priced at Rs. 3,500.

Shimla, March 30
The cabinet has decided to transfer the administration of passenger and goods tax from the excise and taxation department to the transport department. It also decided to exempt vehicles of army personnel and their families from toll tax. The army personnel will not be required to pay toll tax even if they were travelling in their private vehicles.

It also approved the creation of 4,148 posts of various categories in different departments which included 4,002 posts for the newly opened and upgraded elementary, high and senior secondary schools, upgradation of 43 posts of veterinary pharmacist to chief pharmacists and 14 posts for the Baddi-Barotiwala Nalagarh Development Authority. It also sanctioned three posts of professor, seven of assistant professor and 15 of lecturer for the government dental college and one post of professor in nuclear medicine for the IGMC.

As per another decision, the Kol Dam oustees will be given land on a 99-year lease for Re 1 per bigha instead of Rs 200 per bigha.

The cabinet authorised the chief executive officer of the Himachal Pradesh State Khadi and Village Board to sign the genuineness certificate in the relevant format in respect of industrial units assisted by the Khadi Commission.

It also sanctioned the purchase of 20 vehicles to various departments, besides increasing the fleet of Governor from five to six. 

Shimla, March 30
The enthralling spectacle of blood red rhododendron in full bloom may become a thing of past in the “queen of hills” if the area where it is blooming, continues to shrink at the present alarming rate. Like the Himalayan yew and neoza pine (pinus gerardiana), rhododendron arboretum, as the botanist call it is being threatened due to abject lack of natural regeneration.

Once found in abundance right from Shoghi hills to mount Jakhu, the rhododendron trees have been vanishing from the forests in recent years. Thanks to the unregulated and excessive commercial utilisation of its flowers for making juices and other products.

Worse, the local people while picking flowers, cut the whole branch, which damage the trees, some of which dry up in due course. With no flowers left on the trees for seeds to develop, there is little scope for natural regeneration of the species. The area where these species thrive has come down drastically as it does not figure anywhere in the afforestation programme of the Forest Department. Species like deodar, pine and oak are being regularly planted by the department, but so far, there is no nursery of rhododendron. As per the estimates, the area under the species has been reduced to almost half over the past three decades.

The changing climate, with snow becoming irregular and scarce, is also affecting regeneration. At times, like last winter when the snow eluded the region and temperature rose to record levels in January, rhododendrons bloomed in the first week of February as against the normal March-April period. Earlier, the flowers bloomed in May in higher reaches like Jakhu. For a change, this year the region received adequate snow and the temperature remained low to ensure timely blooming.

The local divisional forest officer R.K. Raj concedes that the number of rhododendron trees has declined sharply in recent years and asserts that the department is alive to the problem. It has already imposed a ban on plucking of flowers.

Mandi, March 30
The Jatingri-Ghogardhar Road, linking the Norgu wildlife sanctuary and the adjoining Luhardi forest area of Palampur subdivision, has become a major conduit for the forest mafias operating in the Drang-Jogindernagar belt as the flying squad sealed 28 sleepers of deodar one of kial, today around 3.30 am on the road.

The 5 members unloaded the timber on the roadside and decamped from there before the flying squad reached the spot. The timber sealed was worth Rs 60,000.

The deodar and walnut rich forest areas of the Norgu wildlife sanctuary has become the hot haunts, More than 200 deodar sleepers and more than 130 bags of walnut wild produce (dandasa), which is used for medicine, have been seized by the forest and police teams from Jogindernagar, in recent months. The forest mafias get a free-run in the Drang-Jogindernagar belt, as there is no timber barrier at Jatingri, where the Jatingri-Ghogardhar road meets other links. Interestingly, the barrier has been laid at Khatsni, which is serving no purpose to the forest department.

The forest mafias use this road as a safe conduit for smuggling as the road is linked to the Norgu wildlife sanctuary and forest-rich Luhardi area of Palampur.

It runs through the Jogindernagar forest division towards Drang and Paddar, linking the Mandi-Pathankot National highway, revealed sources.

The timber smugglers send the consignments of walnut produce smuggled from Norgu wild life sanctuary to Amritsar markets and timber is sold in the local market, revealed sources. But the wildlife department is yet to wake up to check the menace.

The divisional forest officer, Jogindernagar, D.P. Chandra, said that the department has constituted a flying squad, which has sealed consignments of dandasa, including 29 sleepers of timber today, to check the timber smuggling.

He said that department has asked the forest authority to shift the barrier from Khatsni to Jatingri to cover the Jatingri-Ghogardhar road used by the timber smugglers.

Shimla, March 30
In a major reshuffle, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has transferred 35 judicial officers of the state judiciary.

As per the notification issued by the high court Mukesh Bansal , civil judge (sr. division), Dehra(1) has been transferred and posted as such at Una (1). Padam Singh , civil judge (sr. division), Baijnath, has been transferred to Hamirpur. Prem Pal Ranta, civil Judge (sr. division), Una (1) has been transferred to Nurpur.

While Rajiv Sood , civil judge (sr. division), Kasauli, has been transferred to Paonta Sahib. Devinder Singh, civil judge (sr. division), Indora, has been transferred to Dehra. Whereas Yogesh Jaswal, civil judge (sr. division), Palampur, has been transferred as such at Kasuali. Bahadur Singh, civil judge (sr. division), Ghumarwin has been transferred and posted as such at Mandi. While R.K. Tomar, civil judge (sr. division), Jawali has been transferred to Rampur Bushar. Ajay Mehta, civil judge (sr. division), Theog, has been transferred to Baijnath. Rajiv Bali, civil judge (sr. division), Dalhousie, has been transferred to Rohru. Whereas Pawanjit Singh, civil judge (sr. division), Manali, has been transferred to Palampur.

Jaswant Singh, civil judge (sr. division), has been transferred to Theog. Whereas, Barender Thakur, civil judge (sr. division), Arki, has been transferred and posted as such at Shimla against a vacant post. Anuja Sood, civil judge (jr. division), Nadaun, has been transferred to Hamirpur. Vivek Sharma, civil judge (jr. division), Amb, has been transferred to Shimla.

Gaurav Mahajan, civil judge (jr. division), Barsar, has been transferred to Jawali. Naresh Kumar, civil judge, (jr. division), Mandi (1), has been transferred to Mandi (3). Whereas, Ranjit Singh, civil judge (jr. division), Gohar, has been transferred to Manali. Aneesh Garg, civil judge (jr. division), Palampur, has been transferred to Indora.

Rajesh Chauhan, civil judge (jr. division), Hamirpur (1), has been transferred to Ghumarwin (1). Praveen Chauhan, civil judge (jr. division), Hamirpur (2) has been transferred to Ghumarwin (2). Sachin Raghu, civil judge (jr. division) Mandi, has been transferred to Palampur. Whereas, Mr Rajinder Kumar, civil judge (jr. division), Rohru, has been transferred to Barsar.

While Abira Basu, civil judge (jr. division) Shimla has been transferred to Una. Pratap Singh Thakur, civil judge (jr. division), Una, has been transferred to Dharamshala. Mr Arvind Kumar, civil judge (jr. division),Chamba, has been transferred to Dehra (2).

P.S. Arora, civil judge (jr. division) Dehra, has been transferred to Amb. Yajuvinder Singh, civil judge (jr. division), Dharamshala, has been transferred to Gohar. Whereas, Hitender Kumar, civil judge (jr. division), Rampur Bushar, has been transferred to Chamba. H.S. Verma, civil judge (jr. division), Nurpur, has been transferred to Nadaun. Pankaj, civil judge (jr. division), Paonta Sahib to Una. Sheetal Sharma, civil judge (jr. division), Una (3), has been transferred to Paonta Sahib (2). While Vivek Khenal, civil judge (jr. division), Ghumarwin, (2) has been transferred to Hamirpur (3). Anil Kumar, civil judge (jr. division), Hamirpur (3), has been transferred to Dalhousie and Ramnik Sharma, civil judge (jr. division), Paonta Sahib (2), has been transferred to Arki.

Solan, March 30
The state's liquor policy appears to be ill-conceived with major problems coming to the fore at the inception. Since the state has affixed VAT of 20 per cent as compared to 4 per cent and nil in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh respectively immense losses are likely to be suffered in lieu of excise duty.

The traders fearing losses have now demanded that the VAT should be brought at par with the neighbouring states. This would otherwise lead to influx of cheaper liquor from the neighbouring states leading to a direct reduction in the excise duty. With traders from Uttranchal, Punjab, Haryana and UP having dominated each allotment, it is these big players who have captured the lion's share. A survey of the liquor licensees proved that a number of shady liquor barons having illegal distilleries in the adjoining states have made it to the state. The local traders felt the department should have disallowed the large number of outsiders by stipulating only those traders who are either local or who have worked in the state for the past about 3 to 5 years. This would have helped provide employment to the Himachalis. Figures revealed that more that 70 per cent of the vends in Solan alone have been bagged by outsiders.

The policy has left much to be desired felt the traders who added that with stipulations like fixing maximum quotas on Indian Made Foreign Spirits (IMFS), the trader would not be able to meet the requirement. The fixing of Maximum Retail Price (MRP) appears to have solved no purpose. Since the freight charges of transporting liquor to far-flung places falling in remote districts like Lahaul Spiti, Kullu and Kinnaur would be much more than the districts located on the main roads leading to straight losses. There are places like Gurukund in Ramshehar area where liquor has to be transported on animals. This not only adds substantially to the cost. Similar situation existed in Bagha area of Arki tehsil.

The senior officials of the excise and taxation department however said they were contemplating to make VAT at par with the adjoining states. Further a possibility of giving a 25 per cent additional quota was being contemplated. With such glaring flaws left in the policy there appears to be an attempt to defeat the very purpose. 

Chamba, March 30
Despite the formulation of “River and Stream Bed Mining Policy for the State of Himachal Pradesh-2004” and its stringent implementation by the state government, reckless mining and quarrying for slate in the fragile geological formations of the green Chamba hills have been continuing unabated thereby flouting the policy of the government.

Geologists working with various hydroelectric power projects here and those involved in research on the ecology are of the view that it poses a serious threat to ecology and hydropower projects.

Despite massive exploitation of hills in the catchment areas of the Ravi and various rivulets of the region, one cannot deny the fact that slate is required by the local population for constructing roofs of their houses. However, the ecology of the green cover of Chamba faces a major threat from mining, which is eroding hill slopes.

Environmentalists contend that tin roofs can easily meet the need of the local population, thereby protecting the ecology of the area. They say the destruction wrought by the slate quarrying is visible to all. But, no attempt to check it has been made so far.

According to officials of the Mining Department, there are slate quarries at Gehra, Trilocken Mahadev, Kupwara, Chura Ghrat, Tur, Piura, Kandla, Sukrahal and Sajot in Chamba tehsil, Kunna Behani, Suhagulu, Khera Khumb, Gular in Bhattiyat tehsil and Kunna Nala in Churah tehsil of Chamba district.

The slate quarry at Banbas, which is at an altitude of around 3,200 m in Churah tehsil, has been lying closed for auction by the government for the past few years. Good quality slate is being extracted from Sajot quarry of Chamba tehsil situated at an altitude of around 2,800 m.

Forest officials claim slate quarries are not being allowed to expand, nor is the state government allowing any new quarry under the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act and the Environment Protection Act, which prohibit creation of new quarries. The Act provides that whenever in the revenue record, the land is shown as forestland, no mining lease should be given for that area without the prior approval of the Centre. But, no such entry has been made in the revenue records in case of quarries operating in the district.

The massive operation of quarrying in the forestland can be attributed to the lapse of the state government, which has goofed up in implementing the forest settlement of 1960 to 1972 in entirety. Sources say the settlement relating to reserve forests, demarcated protected forests and undemarcated forests has not been given final approval, thereby putting the mining and forest departments in an embarrassing situation.

Quarrying plays havoc on the ecology of hills. A glimpse from the Chamba-Bharmour highway shows grey portions of hills. These portions on a closer look appears to be slate quarries with debris covering the fragile hillslopes. There are a number of such sites all along the highways of the beautiful region replete with vast perennial tourism potential.

Devastation of the fragile hill slopes does not end with this, even inhabitants of the Gehra belt maintain that ‘illegal mining’ is going on clandestinely at odd hours.

Shimla, March 30
Three members of a family were killed while another was seriously injured after their car fell into a gorge in this district today, the police said.

The accident occurred at Chol, near Kotkhai, about 65 km from here, 8.45 am while the car was on its way to Shimla from Rohru.

Rohit (22) has been referred to the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC) here.

The deceased have been identified as Raja Ram and his two sons, Lokinder and Harvinder. A case has been registered. — UNI