 |
|
|
Rs 106 crore for disaster management
39 years on, Suketi awaits treatment
Fish
Mortality Issue Order on Vohra, Amarinder plea reserved
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Presidential Poll: NDA MLAs meet today
Faulty BSNL Services
Chamera Project
HC notices to chief secy, ex-DC
No new distt: Government
Rs 25 lakh for industrial training centre
Warrant against BJP legislator
4 unconscious after smelling acid gases
Firm selling substandard glucose fined
Man duped by Mumbai firm
School short of lecturers
|
|
Rs 106 crore for disaster management
Shimla, July 7 Reviewing the preparedness to tackle natural disasters at a meeting here today, he said capacity building was a prerequisite for efficient handling of disasters and asserted that task forces comprising local people should be constituted so that they could play a significant role in rescue operations. Training in disaster management was already being imparted to officers of various departments. He said awareness was very significant for mitigating loss to life and property for which disaster management had been included in educational curriculum at the school level. Control rooms had been set up at district level to tackle emergencies round the clock and disaster management plans had also been prepared for the same. He said danger points had been marked on the banks of the Sutlej and necessary directions issued to the district administration regarding alertness during emergency. The government had set up a rehabilitation and disaster management department for effective tackling of natural disasters. A disaster management authority had been constituted at the state level under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister. Divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners and senior officers of the state government were present in the meeting. |
|
39 years on, Suketi awaits treatment
Mandi, July 7 The CAT plan has been prepared recently by the state government after the high court has directed the government and the Bhakhra Beas Management Board (BBMB) to treat the river catchment and the cultivable areas in the Balh valley along the Suketi, a tributary of the Beas, which carries heavy amount of silt ejected from the BSL project every year. The BBMB which dumps the silt in the river every year would fund the CAT plan. The BSL project was commissioned in 1978, but neither the BBMB nor the state government had a CAT plan for the Suketi till recently. The silt pumped out by the BSL project deposited silt on the cultivable land along the Suketi in the fertile Balh valley every year, causing hardships to farmers. Following the court’s direction, the Central nine-member expert committee inspected the river site recently and sought certain “site-specific amendments in the CAT plan prepared after the court’s order by the state government. The committee suggested that the catchments would have plantations, pastures for cattle and medicinal plants, including link roads and checkposts for proper monitoring by the Forest Department. Mandi conservator of forests B.D. Suyal said, “We have implemented the amendments in the CAT plan, which now awaits the approval from the Central Government. The CAT plan will cost about Rs 10 crore depending on the approval of the expert committee. The losses to the farmers due to the deposition of silt is assessed and sent to the BBMB for compensation every year”. BBMB chief engineer R.R. Dudeja said the expert committee had sought site-specific amendments and the BBMB would fund the project as and when the committee would recommend the project. “We pay compensation to farmers every year after we get the loss assessment report from the revenue authorities. Last year, we paid over Rs 4 lakh compensation to them”, he said. Dudaja said the committee was also exploring a possibility of finding a long-term solution to the silt problem. “ |
|
BBMB dumping silt
Sundernagar: Come July and the BBMB has once again started dumping silt into the Suketi khud in violating of the Forest Conservation Act. As the Suketi khud is classified as forest land none can use forest land for non-forest purpose without permission of the Centre. The BBMB has never bothered to seek permission from the Centre. The BBMB started throwing silt into the khud by dredging operations in 1980. While initially one dredger was used for this purpose, the board has now purchased the third dredger for silting operations. The Forest Department and the Ministry of Environment and Forests started sending notices to the BBMB for violation of the Forest Conservation Act.
— OC |
|
Six pesticide units ‘powerless’
Our Correspondent
Solan, July 7 The action, initiated after direction from the newly-created Department of Environment, has sent panic waves among the unit owners, while the environmentalists have welcomed the step. The units whose power connection was disconnected, included Krishi Rasayan, Hem n Noble, Vijay Remedies, Agri Sales, Pioneer Pesticides and Ajay Fertichem. According to the enquiry report submitted by a high powered team of the Pollution Control Board a toxic chemical ‘chloropyrefor’, which is produced in large numbers as a termite control, was being manufactured by the units. In the absence of or improper effluent treatment plants (ETPs), this found its way in the water, adversely affecting aquatic life. Interestingly, at least three of these six units had not even installed proper ETPs. Though the PCB had devised norms for maintaining fish ponds, only one unit, Pioneer Pesticide, had maintained it. Even this unit had been served power disconnection orders. The PCB had directed maintenance of this norm after another fish mortality incident had occurred last year. This was supposed to be a viable option of judging the quality of effluent emitted by a unit as fish can survive only in toxic free waters. Intriguingly, the local officials paid no heed to maintenance of fish ponds despite strict instructions from the then member secretary, last year. Some units had been operating surreptitiously in the evening to escape punitive action for not having installed ETP and fish ponds. Local executive engineer of the board, Chetan Joshi, when quizzed said all units had maintained fish ponds and further all of them had installed ETPs. He however, added that only Ajay Fertichem, which had not come into operation ever since it’s power supply was disconnected last year did not have the requisite system.
|
|
Order on Vohra, Amarinder plea reserved
Shimla, July 7 The application urged that instead of their personally appearing in the court, their lawyer should be permitted to reply to the charges on their behalf. Former advocate general of Punjab R.S. Cheema, who appeared for both of them, said because of certain reasons, Capt Amarinder Singh and M.L. Vohra were unable to appear in the court, therefore, they should be allowed to reply to the charges against them through their counsel. Senior advocate Satya Pal Jain, along with Sandeep Kaushik, who appeared for the complainant, opposed the application and said under the law, the person was required to appear personally to reply to the charges against him. There was no justification in deviating from the law in the present case. After hearing both parties, the judge reserved the orders and fixed July 28 for pronouncing the order on the application. In another case filed by P.K. Dhumal against Anand Sharma, external affairs minister for state, the court adjourned the hearing till August 18 for recording the statements of the witnesses on behalf of Dhumal. |
|
Presidential Poll: NDA MLAs meet today
Shimla, July 7 In charge of the party affairs in the state Sat Pal Jain said here today that the party would also discuss the action plan to press its demand for a CBI inquiry into the audio CD containing conversations pertaining to money transactions and other demands in the memorandum submitted to the Governor on June 28. The meeting of the executive would be preceded by a meeting of the state office-bearers on July 13. Rajnath Singh would address the meeting on July 15. The national organising secretary of the party Ram Lal would also be present during the two-day meeting. He said the party had launched a campaign to set up committees right down to the polling booth level and effort was to ensure that at least 50 per cent of booth committees were headed by women. Referring to the presidential election, he said the BJP legislators and MPs from the state would attend the joint meeting being held under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister P.S. Badal at Chandigarh tomorrow for mustering support for Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Besides MLAs and MPs of the BJP and its NDA partners of northern states, representatives of the Panther Party would also attend the meeting. Senior BJP leaders Arun Shourie and Vijay Kumar Malhotra would also address the meeting. He said Congress candidate Pratibha Patil must come clean on charges against her and merely dubbing the charges as concocted without any facts to counter the documentary evidence would not help. The BJP and the NDA had not levelled any charges against her, but she must answer them. |
|
Faulty BSNL Services
Kullu, July 7 The fire in Chandigarh exchange was a sigh of relief to the local BSNL officials as they had a better excuse to give the subscribers in the past one week. The broadband services were still not available here, though the Chandigarh systems were rectified and restored in the
region. Chandigarh deputy general manager Kamal Kumar said regarding broadband and internet services of Kullu portal that there was no fault at their level as all “36 notes” had been “okayed” by the respective areas after the fire incident. He lamented that it was unfortunate that they were passing on the buck, “which is the easiest way to get rid off the complaints”. He assured that the broadband system would start functioning after discussing the problem with the Kullu BSNL officials. One of the broadband subscriber on the condition of anonymity said he had asked the BSNL authorities on Friday the problem of the internet services, and the answer was the same “fault was at
Bangalore”. When the authorities were told that services at Mandi and other areas were functioning well, the BSNL authorities said that the Kullu portal was separate. The people in the tourism trade, particularly the travel agents at Kullu and
Manali, whose total bookings were online were affected the most. Vipin
Verma, Manager, handling agents of Indian Airlines here said the BSNL services were miserable for the past one month. Bhupinder Singh, owner of Travel Planet, said even though the department had been facing competition from private operators yet the “work culture of the BSNL remained that of a monopolist. He said that their office has been using the GPRS service of Air Tel as the BSNL was no more
reliable. Gurbux Singh, TDM here said he had taken up the matter with the higher authorities in Shimla and things would be alright soon. |
|
Chamera Project
Chamba, July 7 Disclosing this here today, chief engineer (Incharge) of the project, K.K. Joshi, said the ongoing erection work on the upstream coffer dam at Churaid Bagda dam site was expected to be completed by the end of this month. And simultaneously, the work on downstream coffer dam would be taken up soon on a war footing so that the construction of 68 metre high gravity concrete dam could be started immediately after the completion of the coffer dam, Joshi stated. The waters of the Ravi have already been diverted through a 366 metre long diversion tunnel at Churaid Bagda dam site in mountainous Bharmour region, Joshi claimed, adding that construction activities on various fronts of the project were going on at a fast pace. Joshi claimed that three of the six adit tunnels had already been completed. “The 231 MW Chamera stage-III project is located on the Ravi in Chamba district which is a run-of-the-river scheme. The project envisages construction of 15.93 km long headrace tunnel (HRT), 5.8 diametre and 110 meter high surge shaft, 5.8 diametre and 450 m long pressure shaft. It will have 125 metre long tailrace tunnel (TRT) for discharging the waters into the river course of the Ravi”, Joshi detailed. Joshi said the excavation of underground powerhouse cavern of 100 x 18.6 x 40 metres to house three Francis vertical axis turbines at Dharwala village was in progress where three generating units of 77 MW each were to be installed.
— OC |
|
HC notices to chief secy, ex-DC
Mandi, July 7 The petitioner in the case has alleged that Nazeen, as the chairman of the Red Cross Society, Kullu, during his tenure as the DC there, had allegedly misused society’s funds for paying salaries to his two servants, besides making payment of bills of the DC’s driver and his mobile phone on forged documents. Petitioner Yadvinder Singh, a life-time member of the society, has alleged that R.D. Nazeen, (who was the DC from 2002 to 2005 and is at present serving with the Tami Nadu Government) paid salaries of his two domestic servants, Inder Singh and Hari Singh from the society’s funds. He has further alleged that the DC not only paid salaries of his two servants, but also bought his mobile handset and even paid phone bills from the society’s funds. He paid Rs 3 lakh from the society’s funds through cheque as donation to the Kullu Dasehra committee, which amounted to misutilisation of funds. He has alleged that a complaint was lodged with the Vigilance Bureau, but the Mandi divisional commissioner, who was the inquiry officer, had dismissed the complaint on the ground that the complainant did not have sufficient documentary support to substantiate his allegations. The petition has made 10 persons respondents in the case, but the court, while admitting the petition, served notices on only four respondents and directed them to reply in six weeks. Nazeem and Mandi divisional commissioner K.J.B.V. Subramanyam could not be contacted for comments. |
|
No new distt: Government
Shimla, July 7 An official spokesperson said the government had received a large number of requests from the general public and public representatives for creation of new patwar circles,
tehsils, subdivisions and new districts. These were processed in the normal course and got examined by the departments concerned. The exercise was undertaken to honour public sentiments and ascertain the justification and feasibility of the case. It did not in any way imply that there was a proposal underway to that effect. A public representation was received from the Dehra nagar panchayat in February last, pleading for carving out new Dehra district besides other demands. It was sent to the Revenue Department to be examined at their level. There was no proposal of creating any new district. Similarly there was no proposal to upgrade Rampur as a district.
— TNS |
|
Rs 25 lakh for industrial training centre
Bilaspur, July 7 Presiding over the annual prize distribution function of the government ITI here, local Congress MLA Tilak Raj Sharma said Rs 10 lakh would be spent on repairing of the institute building and purchase of some essential instruments. He said an amount of Rs 1.50 crore had been spent on the extension of facilities like drinking water, internal roads and drainage etc. in the government industrial area here. A total of 18 new private industrial training centres have been opened in state during this year, including those at
Aanni, Balh, Ghumarwin, Nachan and Gagrate, he added. Himachal director of Technical Education
K.R. Bharti said the government had received financial aid from the World Bank worth Rs 8.24 crore for upgrading the quality of technical education in industrial institutes at
Sundernagar, Hamirpur and Kandaghat. |
|
|
Warrant against BJP legislator
Shimla, July 7 CJM Yashwant Chogal issued a bailable warrant against Baldev Sharma for allegedly demonstrating against the state government in 2003 at the Ridge Maidan where organising protests was prohibited. Cases were also filed against party leaders Prem Kumar Dhumal, Sharma and others who were part of the gathering. Leader of the BJP legislative party Ishwar Das Dhiman and some leaders prayed for exemption from hearing today which was granted by the court. One of the accused Vikram Singh was granted bail by the court in the case after he furnished a personal bond of Rs 10,000 with one surety of the like amount. Dhumal was also present in the court.
— PTI |
|
4 unconscious after smelling acid gases
Baddi, July 7 Gulshan had gone inside a pickle storage tank in a basement of a unit of Hira Moti Group of industries. He fell unconscious. Later, three other labourers went inside the tank. They, too, fell unconscious. The labourers were rushed to the local Malhotra Hospital, from where they were referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. Gulshan’s condition is stated to be serious. The labourers were in the age group of 20-21 years. They hailed from Saharanpur in UP. The police has registered a case and started investigations. |
|
Firm selling substandard glucose fined
Shimla, July 7 The forum also imposed a cost of Rs 1,500 on the said company for rendering deficient service and indulging in unfair trade practice. The forum passed the order on a complaint filed by Bedi, wherein he had pleaded that he purchased medicine for his mother-in-law. Out of the medicines so purchased, the bottle of glucose was found adulterated and not fit for human consumption. The forum said the medicine sold was an essential drug and as such due care was required to be taken on behalf of the said company before consignment of such supplies for distribution and sale to the public. |
|
Man duped by Mumbai firm
Parwanoo, July 7 The firm had asked for Rs. 4.20 lakh as total expense. As per Sharma, he had deposited Rs 50,000 and Rs 85,000 twice as instalments against the expenses. The firm then asked him to pay the full amount. The firm repeatedly asked him to pay the full amount. Sharma became suspicious about the functioning of the firm. He enquired about the firm and found it be fake. The police has registered a case under Section 420 of the IPC against the firm. |
|
School short of lecturers
Bilaspur, July 7 In the memorandum, they said though 10+1 and 10+2 classes begun in the school, yet no lecturer and other staff had been appointed or posted in the school up till date. Only a lecturer had been deputed temporarily from Namhole School. It was impossible for a single teacher to teach the senior secondary classes. The villagers warned that people of the area would agitate if their demands were not met. |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
