Shimla, June 13
The state government today created a post of inspector-general in the CID wing to exclusively look after the intelligence work in accordance with the Supreme Court judgement.

Ban on transfers goes The government has lifted the ban on general transfers from June 12 to July 11. An official spokesman said that the necessary directions had been issued to the departments in this regard.

The CID will have two IGPs, one for investigation of cases and the other for intelligence work.

BNS Negi , IGP, anti-corruption , has been transferred and posted as IGP(intelligence) in the CID. IGP( headquarters) O.C.Thakur has been posted as IGP (crime) in the CID vice I.D.Bhandari, who takes over as IGP (anti-corruption).

Commandant 3rd IRB Asif Jalal has been posted as district police chief, Hamirpur, vice Gianeshwar Singh who takes over as the district police chief, Kangra. The district police chief of Mandi M. Chandersekhar will hold additional charge as the commandant, 3rd IRB.

Bilaspur ASP Chhaju Ram and Deputy Commandant 1st IRB Vimal Kumar Gupta swap places. DSP (anti-corruption), Shimla,Virender Kalia and Bhagmal subdivisional police officer(SDPO) ,Rajgarh, exchange places. DSP (leave reserve) 1st battalion ,Junga,Vinod Kumar has been posted as SDPO,Kaza, while the transfer of Anupam Sharma as SDPO ,Kaza, has been cancelled.

Hamirpur ASP Hardev Singh goes to Kullu in the same capacity while Swaran Singh DSP, CID, takes over as DSP(anti-corruption). Kulu DSP Amarnath goes as DSP, Rohru.

Shimla, June 13
The Himachal government will develop more forests on the lines of the Shimla catchment area to preserve the ecology and protect water sources.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh stated this, while discussing his government’s plans with Delhi Chief Minister Sheela Dixit, when they visited the Shimla Water Supply Catchment Area today.

The Chief Minister informed that the Shimla Water Supply Catchment Area had been declared as a protected area way back in 1952 and in 1982 a wildlife sanctuary was set up. He said that it was considered the best maintained forest in Asia.

The CM said his government was implementing a number of CAT plans with internal and external financial assistance with a view to create natural environment for increasing the green cover and preservation of the natural water resources in different parts of the state. He said efforts were being made to implement such plans in water scarcity areas.

He said with the increase in population, water had been the most pressing demand for which a number of new augmentation schemes were being executed. The Giri Water Supply Augmentation scheme would further improve the water supply to Shimla.

He said his government had banned green felling way back in 1980’s and recycled polythene bags during the beginning of the present tenure. He has directed the authorities concerned to make a detailed plan to restore the forest rest house at Seog so that people visiting the catchment area had a comfortable stay.

Both the CM and Sheela Dixit planted saplings of cedar near the rest house premises.

Jhakri, June 13
The expertise gained in tackling the problem of excessive silt in the country’s largest Nathpa Jhakri Hydroelectric Project has enabled the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) to emerge as a leading organisation for research and development (R&D) in the field of “silt management” in the country.

Success achieved by SJVN engineers in extending the life of vulnerable parts of turbines, which were being eroded at alarming rate by silt-laden water of the Sutlej, has prompted the Union Ministry of Power to establish an R&D centre at the project.

SJVN engineers will work in collaboration with experts of the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), Bangaluru, and the National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, to develop the best alternative materials and hard-coating solutions to protect turbines.

A number of hydroelectric projects have been plagued with the silt problem, but no concerted efforts were made on the R&D front to find a solution. The problem at Nathpa Jhakri was peculiar as the silt in the Sutlej contained around 80 per cent quartz, one of the hardest materials. The enormity of the problem could be judged from the fact that 320 kg silt passed through each turbine every second at a slit level of 4,000 ppm (parts per million). The high velocity silt particles created deep cavities in cheek plates, guide vanes, runners and other vulnerable parts of the turbines. In the first year, the turbines got damaged within three months of starting the operation. Obviously, the project could not function to its full capacity. Till date, over 100 days generation has been lost due to shutdowns forced by high silt levels, which in monetary terms amount to over Rs 900 crore.

After three years of trials, the SJVN engineers succeeded in increasing the life of erosion-prone parts by more than two-and-a-half times. Initially they tried to hard coat the machine parts using the “plasmanitriding” heat process. Subsequently, high velocity oxy fuel (HVOF) process was used to coat the parts with tungsten carbide-based material. Chairman-cum-managing director of the SJVN H.K. Sharma says turbine parts have been covered with a much thicker (500 micron) coating this season which will enable the machines to withstand at least 9 to 10 lakh cubic metre of silt. If this happens, it will be possible to operate the turbines right through the season without any problem.

If things worked out as expected the machines will be eventually provided 1 mm thick protective coating to further enhance the life of the erosion-prone parts.

Shimla, June 13
Even though the fish production in the state is getting adversely affected due to the coming up of power projects, yet the government has given concession to power producers by reducing the Fisheries Development Fund by 50 per cent to be paid by them.

The worst affected is the ‘migratory fish’ like the silver carp whose production has come down from 1,200 tonnes per annum in 2001 to 484 tonnes in 2006 from the Gobindsagar reservoir alone. With such a huge catch in the past, this was the record highest production per hectare per year in the country. The production per hectare per year has come down at Gobindsagar from 120 kgs to merely 30 kgs.

Despite this negative trend the government has given further concession to power producers who are setting up micro and mega power projects upto 5 MW by reducing the compensation they have to pay as the Fisheries Development Fund.

In a recent meeting the state cabinet has fixed a rate of Rs 50, 000 per km to be paid by power producers executing micro and mini hydel projects upto 5 MW for the length of the river from the diversion weir to the tail weir. “Earlier we were charging Rs 1 lakh per km as the Fisheries Development Fund but with the recent cabinet decision the power producers will have to pay half the amount.” informed a senior official.

It is only recently that the government had made it mandatory for power producers to obtain an NOC from the Fisheries Department for the setting up of power projects. The entrepreneur or the executing agency setting up the power project has to deposit a Fisheries Development Fund, assessed by the Fisheries Department on the basis of the damage that would be caused to fisheries due to the coming up of the project.

Within the last 1 year, a sum of Rs 3.08 crore has been received by the Fisheries Department, which is being spent on upgrading farms and other development works. The biggest contribution to the department has come from the Kol Dam, who have to pay a sum of Rs 2.25 crore out of which Rs 1.10 crore has already been paid.

Despite the government directing the power projects to ensure that there is atleast 15 per cent discharge, there is no regulatory authority which is ensuring this.

Shimla, June 13
Newly elected mayor, Narinder Kataria, today visited the Mall and the Lower Bazar area of the town and directed the municipal authorities to remove all encroachments by vendors within a day.

Kataria was accompanied by the municipal corporation (MC) officials directed that the area should be free of all encroachment by vendors. Though there are less than 100 registered tehbazaris (vendors) in the town but their actual number is over 2,000.

The problem of vendors sitting on the road, especially in the Lower Bazaar area, has been a major headache for the MC authorities.

Kataria directed the officials not to be lenient with the encroachers and they should be removed within the next 24 hours.

Solan, June 13
Alleging politicisation of the affairs of Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, vice-president of the BJP unit and local MLA Rajiv Bindal today demanded an inquiry by a sitting judge of the high court into the grant of degrees on unchecked answersheets.

He said VC Jagmohan Chauhan’s working reflected his allegiance towards the ruling Congress. He said this was a bigger scam than selling or leaking question papers as it reflected the deteriorating academic standards of the university.

He said the grant of a higher pay scale to the comptroller of the university G.C. Raita, which surpassed the prevalent scale of comptrollers of two other universities, was a glaring irregularity.

He further said that office-bearers of the ruling Congress and contractors, including Krishna Mohini, Ramesh Chauhan, Anant Ram Chaudhary, Chatar Singh and Vijay Rathode, had been nominated as members of the executive and research council, whereas these posts are supposed to be filled by outstanding social workers and progressive farmers.

He alleged the VC was acting under the directions of Congress men and instead of watching the academic interest, he was serving their political interests.

Palampur, June 13
BSNL telephone subscribers are a harassed lot here. There are over 25,000 telephone lines and around 1,000 are still in the waiting list. The authorities have not been able to clear even the 20 per cent of waiting list in past one year.

The services in the area are in a state of mess. Though the department has opened an office of the divisional engineer (telephones) here, it has failed solve the problems of hundreds of subscribers who run from pillar to post to get their telephones operational.

There is an acute shortage of equipment. Whenever there is a fault in the cable or telephone instrument, the telephone remains dead for months together. The requests made to the officers concerned also go unheard, as the department does not have the required manpower to keep the phones in order. Most of the subscribers say the indifferent attitude of the telecom authorities is another reason behind poor services in the area.

There are a number of persons in Palampur, Baijnath, Panchrukhi and Bhawarna who applied for new connections five years ago, but they could not get the same till date. A senior official of the department said under the new policy, department had discontinued laying underground cable for past five years. Therefore, no new connections could be given now. Likewise, many people had applied for the shifting of their telephones, but the shifting could not be effected in the absence necessary infrastructure.

The telephone exchanges in rural areas are the worst hit. Even in Palampur town, the situation is no better and a large number of BSNL subscribers are switching over to private companies like Airtel, Tata Indicom and Reliance.

An official of the BSNL said there were only 15 linemen in Palampur for the maintenance of over 10,000 lines. There are many exchanges that are unmanned. Similar is the situation at Baijnath, Panchrukhi and Bhawarna.

Nurpur, June 13
Hamirpur MP and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal claimed today that the state government had failed in pleading long-standing issues like one rank, one pension, expansion of railway service and additional allocation of funds for the centrally sponsored schemes with the union government.

Prem Kumar Dhumal said he would raise issues serving the interests of the state in the Lok Sabha by rising above party politics.

He lamented that unlike NDA government the present government had failed to release any financial package to Himachal though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced a special package during his visit in the hill state.

Denying any involvement in the CD episode Dhumal dared Virbhadra Singh either to give an affidavit in the court and deny that voices in the CD were not his and his wife’s or order a CBI inquiry to prove his innocence.

Ridiculing the Chief Minister’s statement that a case could be filed against him for intimidating the government officials, Dhumal said expecting fair and impartial working from the bureaucracy was not an offence and if some officials kept on functioning like agents of the ruling Congress they would surely face the music.

Bilaspur, June 13
The Geharwin Assembly BJP mandal unit has presented Sukh Ram of Kothi village across the Sutlej Rs 31,000 in cash and clothes to help the poor farmer solemnise the marriage of his daughter scheduled for June 19.

Led by former Co-operatives Minister Rikhi Ram Kondal and unit president Rakesh Gautam, the mandal executive committee presented this amount to Sukh Ram at his village.

It may be recalled that jewellery and dowry items collected by the family for the marriage was destroyed in a devastating fire in the house of Sukh Ram on April 12.

The BJP has also formed a committee to ensure smooth marriage.

Nahan, June 13
As a gross violation to Supreme Court order no. 548 vide civil writ petition 202/95 which prohibits non-forestry activities, felling of trees, bamboos, removal of biomass and miscellaneous construction activities in the wildlife sanctuary at Renuka, the deputy commissioner Sirmaur, is continuing the construction unabated.

President of the local Sanjeevani Jan Kalyan Samiti, Parveen Kumar, yesterday strongly flayed the role of the chairman for undertaking repair and construction of the Renuka Vikas Board which was in good condition.

He said not only the spending of temple funds was sheer wastage but also an illegal act as per the order of the apex court as Negi had not obtained permission from the wildlife authority based at Shimla.

The chairman of the Renuka Vikas Board, Negi, has already been charged by the gram panchayat for the unwarranted demolition of important structures at Tilokpur.

The newly constituted committee had a lot of times issued caution on the incurring heavy expenditures which did not have any locus standi as the money belonging to the Public Trust, Tirlokpur.

The standing order of the Divisional Forest Department stipulates that no repair, construction activities are permissible without the approval of the competent authority.

Manali, June 13
Thousands of tourists thronging Manali to beat the heat of the plains had a harrowing time today with over 1,000 taxis keeping off the roads demanding a ban on taxis from outside Himachal in this famous tourist spot.

None of the 500 small and big hotels here were provided with taxi service due to the strike as a result of which thousands of tourists, domestic as well foreigners, were stranded in their place of stay.

The strike came to end in the evening after talks between delegation of the Himachal Taxi Union and the district administration.

Sub-divisional magistrate Vinay Singh said, “We assured the taxi union to seek instructions from the higher ups on their demands.”

Taxi union president Puran Chand said the administration sought time till September 15 to look into the demands after which we withdrew our strike.

The SDM said besides, seeking ban on outside taxis in Manali and also on 54 km long Manali-Rohtang stretch as it affected their livelihood in the tourist season, the protestors also demanded the administration to penalise private vehicles used as taxis on the route.

After a cordial talk with the administration, the taxi operators resumed services in the evening.

Today's strike followed a police complaint filed by 2 taxi operators from Haryana and Delhi yesterday against the local taxi union for forcibly stopping their taxis to enter Manali. — PTI