Shimla, April 12
Decks have been cleared for the construction of a second tunnel to circumvent the four mountain passes after the Rohtang Pass to make strategic Manali-Leh highway an all-weather road.

The Centre has approved in principle the proposal of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to bore a tunnel under the 15,920 ft Shinkula Pass and given the go-ahead for preparing the feasibility report for the same. The work is already underway to construct a tunnel under the 13,050 ft Rohtang Pass at a cost of Rs 1,410 crore.

The new alignment from Darcha to Padam via Shinkula, along with the two tunnels, will make the 470-km highway shorter by around 100 km. The benefit in terms of travel time, wear and tear of vehicles and maintenance will be manifold as the realigned highway will pass through a much lower altitude. Its maximum elevation will not exceed 12,500 ft at any point, whereas the existing highway runs through four mountain passes with altitude ranging between 15,000 ft and 17,000 ft.

According to Brig K.P. Singh, chief engineer of the BRO, bids have already been invited for carrying out feasibility studies and the work is likely to be awarded later in the year. The alignment of the existing highway will be changed after Darcha. The new road will take a left bifurcation to Nimu via Shinkula to circumvent the mountain passes of Baralacha, Nakila, Lachungla and Tanglagla and rejoin the highway at Padam. These passes remain snowbound for seven to eight months in a year.

The 9-km Rohtang tunnel will help reduce the distance between Manali and Koksar in Lahaul valley by 46 km and will remain open for most part of the year. The 3-km tunnel under the Shinkula Pass will shorten the distance between Darcha and Padam by around 50 km. The new road will help circumvent the stretch that received maximum snow during winter.

To ensure that the highway remains open through the year, the engineers of the BRO propose to construct snow galleries at avalanche points for the first time in the country. They have identified nine avalanche points on the 24-km approach road to Dhundi portal of the Rohtang tunnel. The country’s largest traffic tunnel with a diameter of 30 m is likely to be completed by 2014.

Shimla, April 12
The government has finally registered an FIR against Alian Dohangan Hydro Power Ltd for damaging hundreds of trees. The company is executing the 192-MW Alian Dohangan power project in Manali.

Surprisingly, the case has been registered under Sections 32 and 33 of the Indian Forest Act rather than the Forest Conservation Act.

This is despite the fact that during the execution of work the company was charged with over 100 violations of the Forest Conservation Act and the forest authorities had issued a show-cause notice to it.

It is on the basis of the report submitted by the high-level committee constituted on the directions of the Chief Minister to look into the violations that the forest department has got the case registered.

Seeing the damage being caused to trees and the blatant violation of the regulations, locals had approached the Chief Minister, demanding action against the company.

The members of the committee headed by additional deputy commissioner, Kullu, had visited the spot and submitted the report to the government.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that the company has been found to be at fault as an FIR was registered against it while executing the 86-MW Malana power project earlier. The company is owned by the Bhilwara group.

Despite the forest authorities recommending to the government cancellation of the MoU signed with the company for causing large-scale damage to trees, no action had been taken against the company till recently.

In January this year, the forest department had imposed a fine of Rs 3.23 crore on the company for causing damage to 723 trees.

The company has already paid Rs 2.70 crore and has decided to contest the case for the payment of the remaining amount.

The company was again found guilty of causing damage to 116 trees for which a fine of Rs 2.23 crore was imposed by the forest department. The company has already paid Rs 1.11 crore out of this amount.

Shimla, April 12
The process of recruitment of forest guards will be started afresh as per the amended rules. The recruitments will now be carried out on the pattern for the police constables.

The candidates will be first required to clear a physical test. Thereafter, they will undertake a written test.

Principal Secretary (forests) Ashok Thakur convened a meeting of conservators of forests here today at which the mode of recruitment and procedure to be followed was discussed in detail. He said the process initiated earlier to fill 447 posts of the forest guards had to be cancelled in view of the increase in number of vacancies to 661.

Principal chief conservator of forests Pankaj Khullar said one-time relaxation in age limit would be granted to those who appeared in the 2006 interviews for recruitment of forest guards that had been cancelled. He directed the conservators to advertise the posts along with the venues for holding the recruitment tests.

The interviews were cancelled after the completion of recruitment process and only the result was to be announced. The conservator of forests, Dharamsala, had even appointed six forest guards selected under the ex-servicemen quota. Although the results of interviews for other categories had not been declared, appointments were made in accordance with the instructions of the General Administration Department that appointment letters to ex-servicemen be issued in 15 days of the selection.

Over 55,000 candidates had applied for 447 posts. They would have to undertake the physical and written tests again. 

Mandi, April 12
DGP Ashwani Kumar today ruled out that the drug mafia was involved in the contraband trade. He, however, said, “Drug menace is a serious social problem and the government has constituted a special task force with the Chief Minister as its chairman to curb the contraband trade in the state.”

“The CM will be the chairman of the committee and the DGP and other officials its members,” he said. “The police will assist the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the anti-cannabis drives in the coming season,” he added.

Talking to The Tribune at Pandoh here while on his way back to Shimla from a police federation function at Kullu, he said the police had no information that “any drug mafia or the locally married foreigners were involved in charas trade in the Kullu-Mandi belt.

“It is mainly the lure for easy money that attracts villagers and the Gorkhas to cultivate cannabis in the hidden patches on the forestland in the belt. There is no mafia involved in the trade,” he asserted.

When pointed that more than 25 other foreigners have married locally in Kullu district and they might be involved in the trade, he said, “We are checking their antecedents, but there is nothing wrong if they marry locally.”

On the cultivation of imported hybrid seeds of cannabis in Malana and Malunder forest areas in Kullu district, he said, “It is serious problem that gets compounded by problems of unemployed youth and drug addiction.” He said the police had “intelligence cells” in each district to keep watch over the smugglers. 

It is the lure of easy money that attracts villagers and the Gorkhas 

Dharamsala, April 12
The government agencies having failed to tackle the dog menace issue, incidents of attacks by stray dogs in Himachal Pradesh have been haunting the hill folks for the past many years.

Thousands of cases of dog-bite have been reported during the past year from across the state. The people are baffled by this increased ferociousness among the growing canine population in the state.

As per the details available, the maximum numbers of 2,082 persons were bitten by dogs in Shimla district followed by 1,312 in the Kangra district, in the past year.

Reports from other districts revealed that 375 cases of dog-bite had been reported in Bilaspur district, 684 in Chamba, 411 in Hamirpur, 63 in Kinnaur, 292 in Kullu, 16 in Lahaul-Spiti, 1,149 in Mandi, 1,134 in Sirmaur, 1,243 in Solan and 647 in Una district in the past year.

The general perception among the public is that the mushrooming of illegal slaughter houses and meat shops in the state have led to the increase of dogs here.

The state government has come in for severe flak as local bodies and non-government organisations have failed to check their growing population. They receive grants for the animal birth-control programme each year, but still the canine population has increased many folds during the past couple of years.

"They are just filing reports stating that they are actively involved in controlling the canine population", alleged Hemant Singh, a resident of Dharamsala. If their reports of animal-birth control exercise are true then how come hundreds of pups are roaming everywhere one goes?” he questioned.

In fact, the state government, executing agencies, non-governmental organisations and local bodies are slowly eliminating the dogs following opposition from various animal rights organisations.

Irony of the situation is that, there is no anti-rabies vaccine available in the government dispensaries, primary health-care centres and hospitals across the state.

Kangra district chief medical officer Dr Jaswant Singh Chandel said since the cases of dog bites in the recent past had increased, he had requested the directorate of health to provide anti-rabies vaccine so that victims lives could be saved well in time.

Shimla, April 12
The CPM has demanded that the voter list must be provided to all national political parties free of cost and only nominal charges should be taken from the general public for it.

In a complaint sent to the state election commissioner, secretary of the Shimla district committee of the party Sanjay Chauhan today said Rs 5 per page was being charged by the administration for these list.

“Those wanting the complete voter list of 25 wards will have to pay at least Rs 10,000, which is too exorbitant,” he said. He said all national political parties must be given a copy of the voters list free of cost and 50 paisa per page must be charged from the general public.

He said during the state and parliamentary elections, 50 paisa per page is charged for getting a copy of the voter list.

Mandi, April 12
The district police today claimed to have busted a gang of cable smugglers and arrested the father-son kingpin duo dealing in stolen cable and utensils in Mandi and Sundernagar towns. Around 91 kg copper extracted from cables, 28 kg bronze and 18 kg aluminium was seized from them at Sudnernagar.

Acting on tip-off, a police team checked items packed in gunny bags to be loaded in a vehicle for sale outside the state. These bags contained a heavy consignment of copper, bronze, and aluminium.

The arrested persons have been identified as Om Parkash, and his son Deepak Kumar, who run a utensil shop in Sundernagar. The police claimed the items were procured from cable thieves active in the district.

DSP (headquarters) Kishan Chand said the smuggled items were being taken to Jalandhar for selling. “These arrests can help solve several cases of cable theft in district,” he added. The duo had been booked under Sections 411 and 414 of the IPC. “The copper was extracted from wires and bronze and aluminium from pipes and sanitary wares stolen from different parts in the district,” he said.

The accused were produced before the Sundernagar judicial magistrate, who remanded them in police custody.

Nurpur, April 12
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh criticised the previous Dhumal government for its failure to protect state's interest while signing MoU with the NHPC for the execution of Kol and Parvati hydropower generation. They have generation capacities of 800 MW and 2,100 MW, respectively.

Addressing a press conference at Satya Sadan here this morning, he alleged that the then government had failed to ensure equity participations in these projects, notwithstanding its provision at that time. "As a sequel the state will have to suffer a loss of Rs 80,000 crore within scheduled lifespan of 40 years of these projects", he added. Singh said contrary to this, his government had not only ensured equity participations but also secured Rs 483 crore as upfront money for the three power projects for which a MoU had been signed recently.

He said the BJP in the state was a divided house, its leadership had disintegrated and its cadre was desperate due to infighting in the leadership.

Commenting on the release of controversial CD on the eve of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Chief Minister alleged that the BJP senior leaders were present when it was released.

Kumarhatti, April 12
The industrial progress in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh and Parwanoo industrial belt has witnessed rise in crime graph. The presence of a large number of migrants from UP, Bihar and MP has made this belt more prone to crime.

Earlier, the crime rate was restricted to petty thefts, smuggling of liquor and other narcotic drugs and assault. Now serious cases like ransom threat, snatching of cash and murder have been reported.

Besides, accidents and traffic problems have emerged as a major problem in the area. The police is understaffed and ill-equipped. Hence the crime graph has achieved new dimensions.

Investigations show that the present police strength deployed is not enough to check the rising crime.

The belt has 60 cops of the constable rank deployed in four police stations. Police sources said the area should have at least more than 50 constables to maintain law and order in one police station. The police has limited number of vehicles for patrolling. Moreover, the sanctioned monthly consumption of diesel for a four-wheeler was just 50 litres. However, the police needed 300 to 400 litres of diesel per month to perform its routine duties properly.

Despite instructions from top officials to cut down landline phone costs, telephone bills in all police stations were running almost double the permissible limits. In some cases, the phone bills were even three times the limit.

Accidents have increased considerably in the Baddi area. The reasons have been attributed to bad and congested roads, no proper parking places and lack of traffic police. The traffic management has virtually crippled in the belt for want of adequate traffic personnel.