Shimla, June 12
Maintaining that the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and (EMP) were separate detailed documents not required to be a part of the Detailed Project Report (DPR), the Himachal government today refuted the allegations of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal that the Himalayan Ski Village Project had been cleared in haste without waiting for the required clearance from the Government of India.

The fact that the government took almost three months to scrutinise and approve the DPR showed that the decision was neither delayed nor  taken in haste

An official spokesman asserted that the allegation were factually incorrect and the ‘Implementation Agreement’ of the project which was signed on June 5, 2006, provided a maximum of 9 months for submission of the DPR by the developers and it was submitted to the state government on March 3, 2007.

The spokesman said the DPR was scruitinised in detail and the company was asked to provide certain additional information and commitments which it provided on May 1, 2007. The matter was again examined and finally approved by the Cabinet on June 5 with some more conditionalities. He said it was a fact that the government took almost 3 months to scrutinise and approve the DPR and the decision was neither delayed nor taken in haste.

He said the EIA and EMP which required specific approval from statutory agencies under the relevant legislation were required to be cleared by the Ministries of Environment and at the Centre under the Environment Protection Act and by the State Pollution Control Board under the Air Act and Water Act.

He said no project could proceed without these approvals and the project developers had to submit the EIA and EMP for approval and it had been mandated in the Cabinet approval that these reports would be made available by the end of June.

He clarified that the project did not require FEMA approval from the Reserve Bank of India as FDI investment in tourism projects followed the automatic route. As such no approval of the defence ministry was required for this report, he added.

He said the project developers were required to invest $135 million in the project within a period of 5 years which came to Rs 553.50 crore at current exchange rate. The total investment in the project in the first 5 years would be Rs 1,581.10 crore.

Manali, June 12
Activists of the Jan Hit Sangharsh Smiti(JHSS), Jan Jagran and Vikas Manch (JJVM), Kullu, and the Himalayan Ski Village Private Company, which is setting up the $ 350 million ski village between the Allian and Duhangan streams on over 90 hectare area are heading for a major showdown on June 18, as the country's top environmentalists have decided to join the activists, opposing the ski village project. Though the state government has given its nod to the detailed project report (DPR) submitted by the HSV company last week, the opponents of the ski village project, who have formed JHSS and JJVM have warned that they would never allow the ski village to come up in the valley as it would 'ruin the local ecology and culture'.

Noted environmentalist and Chipko movement leader Sunderlal Bahuguna, Narbada Bachao Andolan activists and others would join the protest by the activists here on June 18.

Principal secretary tourism Avay Shukla said the state government had safeguarded the interests of people, their rights, local culture and ecology, all ensured in the implementation agreement signed with the company.

The company will not make artificial snow as it is ensured in the clause. It will have to submit a separate project report for doing so", he clarified.

Shukla said the company would invest $350 million in the first phase, would set up a vocational training centre at Manali in the first week of August to ensure that 70 per cent of the 3,500 jobs created in the ski village go to the Himachalis.

"The company will not set up the sewerage treatment plant upstream and will get the NOC from the IPH Department which will ensure that no local water sources is touched or affected".

President, JHSS, L.C. Thakur said they would never allow the foreign company to set up the ski village in Hampta valley which is the seat of the 'Athara karlu' (18 deities) which gave rise to the 'devtas'. He said the valley was a rich biosphere of wildlife, birds, rare herbs, pastures, wildflowers, plant and trees.

He said the ski village would render the locals landless and would provide them only semi-skilled jobs. 

Solan, June 12
In gross violation of the prescribed norms, including an NoC from the Pollution Control Board, a brick kiln has been functioning illegally since last year at Billawalli village near Baddi. Since it is owned by the family members of the local MLA, the officials have failed to enforce official orders.

Despite the complaint being made more than three months ago, the Food and Civil Supplies department is yet to initiate action

The brick kiln is located in the vicinity of a housing colony and has become a major cause of concern for it’s residents.This was despite non-renewal of the old kiln and it’s illegal declaration by the Pollution Control Board.

As per the norms laid since the earlier brick kiln was dismantled and another kiln was set up at a new location, it was supposed to seek fresh NoCs from all departments concerned, including the Pollution Control Board, Food and Civil supplies Department, Agriculture Department and the local gram panchayat. Being located within a distance of 1 km from the housing colony it could not be granted the NoC status.

The Pollution Control Department swung into action after complaints were received from the residents. The department ordered the brick kiln to be closed on August 2, 2006. Notices were served to it under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and the Water(Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, in September last year.

The aggrieved residents of the nearby housing colony rued that their small children were the worst sufferers as the dust led to lung related diseases. The board’s XEN Chetan Joshi when contacted agreed that the brick kiln was functioning without any NoC and was illegal. He added that they were awaiting action from the Food and Civil Supplies Department as they were the registering authority.

The board had written to the Food and Civil Supplies Department on February 28 to discontinue the supply of coal and oil to the kiln. But despite the lapse of more than three months, the department is yet to initiate action.

The district Food and Civil Supplies controller K.K.Sharma when contacted said they had sought a report from the field staff and it was to be verified which khasra number was shown in the old kiln and the new kiln. 

Shimla, June 12
While rain brought down temperature by around 4.5°C in Shimla, the mercury remained on the higher side in Manali and a few other parts of the state today.

Shimla had received 28.2 mm rain since last night, met office sources said.

Sundernagar received 62.2 mm rain during the same duration. The day temperature in Shimla was 24°C in comparison to 28.5°C yesterday. There was a drop in temperature in some other parts of the state, too.

While the day temperature was 32.8°C at Sundernagar, around 4°C less than yesterday, it was 25.2°C at Kalpa.

While Shimla and some other parts of the state cooled down after rain, other parts continued to face the heat condition.

Manali continued to witness hot conditions with mercury reading 28 °C during the day.

High altitude areas of Lahaul and Spiti, known as ‘cold deserts’, also recorded high temperature in the absence of rain.

Meteorological Department director Manmohan Singh attributed rain in Shimla to cyclonic circulation over the state and Uttaranchal. He forecast light to moderate rain in the capital and other parts of the state tomorrow. — PTI

Shimla, June 12
On the issue regarding the alleged theft of Rs 50 lakh from the office of the Chief Minister under mysterious circumstances, the High Court was today informed that no such incident took place as was alleged in the petition.

As per the earlier directions of the High Court, the secretary home, DGP and SP, Shimla, have filed their affidavits before the court and have stated that no such incident took place in the Chief Minister’s office.

After taking the affidavits filed by all the officials on record, a Division Bench, comprising the Acting Chief Justice Deepak Gupta and Mr Justice V.K. Ahuja granted 3 weeks time to the petitioner to file a rejoinder.

The court passed this order on a PIL filed, wherein, the petitioner had alleged that mysterious theft had taken place in the Chief Ministeris office. He further alleged that according to a news item published in an English daily, no FIR or complaint was 
registered.

The petitioner further submitted that whatever had been reported in the news item was a serious matter and the general public had the right to know as to what the truth was.

Palampur, June 12
Carrying forward the legacy of her father, Gurcharan Kaur, daughter of renowned painter Sobha Singh, plans to set up a museum to preserve and showcase her father’s personal belongings within the complex of Sobha Singh Art Gallery at Andretta, 12 km from here.

She has not put up any request for the purpose before the state government for she plans to do it on her own. “I have several things that my father used which I have preserved. I want these items to be displayed there so that his admirers are able to take a peep into his life,” she explained.

Listing a few of these items, she said that she had her fathers’s camera, radio, pens, brushes, imported oil paint tubes and homeopathic medicines which were imported from Germany.

“My father was very fond of expensive perfumes and soaps. He would use these many times in a day,” she said pointing towards the half-used bottles of Brute perfume and an Imperial Leather soap that he used more than 30 years ago.

Out of the many other things preserved, she pointed out at a huge portrait of Guru Ravi Dass ji that lay close to his bed. “This is one incomplete painting that my father left in a stand here.”

She also revealed the other forte of the Padam Shree painter. “My father also made beautiful sculptures out of plaster of paris”, pointing towards his sculptures which included Sohni Mahiwal made out in a round plate, M.S. Randhawa, the first VC of the Punjab Agricultural University, and another one that he had titled “Devil and Angel” depicting the two faces of humanity.

Herself a painter, she also showed the portraits made by her father of Guru Nanak Dev ji, Guru Gobind Singh ji, Bhagat Singh, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr Rajendra Prasad and most distinguished one being of his own.

Nurpur, June 12
The Himachal INTUC, a front organisation of the ruling Congress, has urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to tame the bureaucracy as it had been sabotaging the policies framed for the welfare of workers.

State INTUC general secretary Rajnesh Sharma said here last evening that the bureaucracy was victimising the workers by not regularizing them even after 12 to 14 years' of services, the state government's policy to regularise workers after eight years notwithstanding.

He alleged some government officers were engaging workers for domestic use.

He warned that if the government failed to tame the bureaucracy INTUC would gherao the Assembly during the forthcoming monsoon session.

Bilaspur, June 12
The Himachal Pradesh State Employees' Confederation has criticised the government for having failed to provide even committed allowances and financial facilities based on the Punjab pattern, apart from fulfilling its own obligations and declarations.

Addressing mediapersons here today, confederation chief adviser Ram Singh, who is also a former NGOs' state president said the Chief Minister had announced 5 per cent interim relief to Himachal employees due since January, 2006, during his budget speech but it has not yet been released. Ram Singh said that 6 per cent dearness allowance due from January 1, 2007, was still anxiously awaited by the employees.

He said that the government continued to pay a monthly medical allowance of Rs 40 to its employees as against Rs 350 in Punjab for the past three years. The government was also refusing to introduce the assured career progression scheme and provision of one additional increment after service of four years, nine years, 14 years and 17 years. It had also stopped appointments on compassionate grounds on the death of a breadwinner.

As the government was not formulating any transfer policy, transfers had become a scandal as a section of the employees' leaders were indulging in a lucrative transfer trade earning lakhs of rupees.