Tunnel opened to traffic
Chamba, July 12
A half-kilometer-long tunnel aligned with the Chamba-Bharmour highway near Kharamukh in Bharmour tribal sub-division leading to the famous pilgrimage centre of Manimahesh was opened to vehicular traffic last evening. It is the first tunnel on any tribal highway connecting the Bharmour tribal region with the rest of the country.
— OC

Bilaspur, July 12
New plantations on 30,000 hectare of land costing Rs 50.14 crore will be done during the current financial year in Himachal Pradesh which will also include plantations of trees in 10,000 hectare of land under the CAT planning on expenditure of Rs 38 crore.

Addressing mediapersons here this afternoon at the Circuit House, Himachal forest minister Ramlal Thakur said the Forest Department would spend Rs 12.14 crore on planting saplings in 20,000 hectare of land.

He said up till now in the past 4 years, survival rate of these plantations had varied from 70 to 75 per cent and the credit went to the Forest Department.

He said the government was keen to grow plants in new forests which would provide fodder for cattle, and also provide survival food for wild animals, including monkeys apart from growing medicinal plants.

He said presently, the Forest Department was fully equipped to meet all the targets of the new plantations and the plants were available in its own nurseries.

The forest minister said Rs 54.41 lakh was being spent in planting 623 hectare of and with saplings this year in Bilaspur forest division while total of Rs 64 lakh were being spent on the maintenance of earlier grown plants.

Thakur said 50 lakh plants of Jetrofa were being planted in the entire state with the expenditure of Rs 1.5 crore and last year 4 lakh Jetrofa plants were grown in Bilaspur division and this was also the target for this year on which an amount of 12 lakh was being spent during the current financial year.

The forest minister declared that a new campaign for improving environment in Bilaspur district named “Harit Bilaspur” was being launched from July 17 and Rs 34.5 lakh would be spent on it in the next 3 years.

Thakur said common farmers, panchayats, yuvak mandals, mahila mandals and even school and college students would be involved in a big way in the campaign and farmers would be encouraged to plant saplings in their own land while plants and technical know-how would be provided by the Forest Department.

He said the trees would belong to the farmers who would grow them on their land.

Thakur said the government had taken a policy decision to remove an anomaly regarding the government ownership of trees growing on personal grasslands of farmers in Bilaspur district and now henceforward only farmers would be owners of these trees and government would have no control on them.

He said these trees, however, would only be allowed to cut according to prevailing government rules.

Thakur said the decision would provide relief to thousands of farmers of district in 19,000 acre of land on which 80 lakh trees costing more than Rs 10 crore were growing.

Shimla, July 12
Those seeking government approval for reconstruction or relaxation in construction in the core, restricted, green and heritage zones in the state capital, will no longer have to wait endlessly for disposal of their cases as the government has prescribed six-month time limit for the same.

The Cabinet approved an amendment in the interim development plan (IDP) for Shimla at its meeting held here yesterday to ensure that all such cases were disposed of in six months.

Earlier, there was no such time limit. However, the cases had to be processed within two months with observation at the level of the director, Town and Country Planning.

Although there are a lot of restrictions on fresh construction or alteration in these areas, the few cases that are submitted to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department are cleared first by a subcommittee and later by the Cabinet itself.

Since there was no time limit for disposal of such cases, at times these would remain pending for very long.

“Although a large number of no-objection certificates (NOC) and clearances are involved in processing such cases, six-month time is more than sufficient,” said a senior officials.

While dealing with such cases, various departments like revenue, forest, PWD or others could be involved.

As far as the 17 greenbelts in Shimla are concerned, there is a complete ban on fresh constructions. Permission can only be taken for reconstruction along old lines and for construction of educational, health and other services in public interest.

The greenbelt cases are forwarded by the local municipal corporation to the government department concerned.

In case of houses or any other structure falling in the heritage zone, only reconstruction along old lines is permissible.

The area on both sides of the road from the state secretariat till the Indian Institute of Advance Studies has been declared as heritage zone.

In the core area of the town, only doubled-storeyed structures are allowed and that too, for personal use only. In most of the cases pertaining to restricted area, permission is sought for relaxation as certain violations have been made.

Shimla, July 12
The local municipal corporation building will be the second heritage structure to be taken up for restoration after the completion of ongoing restoration work of the historical Gaiety theatre.

This was stated by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh while inspecting the restoration work in progress at the Gaiety theatre. He said the government planned to undertake restoration of major heritage monument of the city in a phased manner.

He said a similar campaign was also likely to be started in other parts of the state where such monuments were in dire need of restoration. He said efforts would be made to bring back the old glory of the towns.

He said that the building had been restored to its original architecture and all later additions removed from its face so that coming generations could see the original structure that was unique in all respects.

He also made a surprise inspection of the Sanjauli bypass under construction and directed the PWD to speed up the construction work by deploying more manpower, machinery and allied accessories. If required double-shift working be started for completion of the bypass.

He said that quality construction must be ensured and the road should conform to the national highway norms so that it could take the increased pressure of vehicles for a long time.

He said proper drainage, breast walls and abutments must be constructed and parking facilities created wherever space was available. He directed the PWD to ensure completion of the bypass by year-end.

Shimla, July 12
The “Himalaya Niti Abhiyan”(HNA), the apex body of NGOs fighting for the conservation of the fragile hill environment, has urged the government to declare the higher hill areas above the altitude of 1000 metres as an eco-sensitive zone and impose complete moratorium on cement plants, hydroelectric projects and mega-tourism ventures like the Ski village.

It also demanded a white paper on the shrinkage of agriculture land due to the construction of mega projects, urbanisation and implementation of development schemes.

A resolution passed at its two-day meeting, which concluded here today, pointed out that the policy of setting up mega projects was taking a heavy toll of the hill environment.

The impounding and diversion of rivers, displacement of poor farmers and drying up of sources of livelihood had caused extreme misery to the hill people. There was urgent need to review the policy.

To begin with, the provisions of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, should be invoked to declare ecologically fragile mid and higher hill areas as an eco-sensitive zone.

It should be ensured that at least 60 per cent of the water flowing through river basins should remain intact to sustain life.

Coordinator of the campaign Guman Singh said that representatives of the HNA would meet leaders of all political parties and the Central government and apprise them of the environmental problems of the Himalayan region to help formulate a comprehensive policy.

He maintained that large-scale acquisition of land for development projects had deprived farmers of their means of livelihood instead.

Shimla, July 12
Modern scientific psycho-forensic tests are the only way to effectively deal with the hardboiled terrorists who are trained to endure traditional methods of interrogation, including the third degree torture, according to Malini, head of psycho-forensic division at the Karnatka Forensic Science Laboratory, which has done pioneering work in the new emerging field.

Psycho-forensics has taken a quantum leap with the introduction of advanced techniques like brain mapping and narco-analysis that are being carried out at present with judicial consent. These have helped in cracking important cases like the Mumbai train blasts and more recently the Hyderabad bomb blasts.

These techniques had been standardised and were yielding good results. The accused could not dodge the investigators while undergoing brain mapping and narco-analysis, Malini, who was here to deliver a lecture on the subject at a vertical interaction course on white-collar crimes.

She explained that in brain mapping various parts of brain are monitored using sophisticated scientific equipment while the accused was questioned or confronted with evidence pertaining to crime.

If the information was already stored in the brain a wave would be generated within 210 mili-second. It had been named P300 positive wave. It was totally a non-invasive technique that provided highly accurate results.

On the other hand, in narco-analysis a drug, pentatol sodium, was injected into the body of the accused to send him into a state of trance that made him lose voluntary control over his mental faculties. In such a state, only the truth came out from him.

He is virtually incapacitated to tell a lie. The entire process was videographed and a CD was also presented to the court along with the report. The clues provided during a narco-analysis led to recoveries and helped in solving cases.

Mandi, July 12
In a tragic incident, Sanjay Kumar (12), a student of class VI, and Pankaj, a student of class VI, were killed and Manoj Kumar (13), a student of class VII, injured after they were hit by stones that fell from the steep hillside and hit their heads near Ropa village in Sundernagar subdivision this morning.

All of them belong to Ropa village. The children were on their way to school, when the incident occurred. “I do not know what happened as we fell on the ground after the stones hit the umbrella,”, recalled Manoj, who was rushed to the zonal hospital here, where doctors attending on him said that his life was out of danger.

Sundernagar Additional SHO Prem Das, who examined the spot and said stones fell from the steep hillside due to rains and hit the victims.

“The blow was so hard that Sanjay, who bore the maximum injury, died on the spot, while Pankaj succumbed to head injuries on his way to the civil hospital, Sundernagar, where he was declared brought dead”.

The children were spotted by their schoolmates and they were rushed to the Sundernagar hospital

Sundernagar MLA Sohan Lal Thakur visited the families of the victims and expressed his grief over the tragic incident. He said the administration had given an immediate relief of Rs 10, 000 each to the families of deceased and Manoj would get free treatment.

The police has registered a case under 174 of the CrPC.

Janjheli (Mandi), July 12
Thanks to political bickerings and bureaucratic red tape, 20-bedded trekkers’ hostel in this hitherto lesser-known tourist destination await inauguration even after their completion last year.

There are other four projects that await inauguration in the Chachiot constituency.

The HP Tourism and Development Corporation (HPTDC) built the 20-bedded trekkers’ hostel at a cost of Rs 38 lakh here last year but the neither the Tourism Department nor the corporation has bothered to inaugurate it in the interest of tourists, rued Lawan Thakur, a local resident, who has been organising workshops on folk arts for local youth in Gohar subdivision.

Residents rued that apart from the trekkers’ hostel, four other projects await a VIP to inaugurate them. The girl students from the remote Seraj valley have no hostel to stay as the one at the Bassa college awaits formal inauguration.

Similarly, patients in the valley continue to suffer as the building of the community health centre at Thunag, awaits inauguration.

The senior secondary school building at Janjheli and the Gohar-Kandah road have also not been dedicated to the public just because of “bickerings among local politicians”, pointed out residents.

Despite good treks and ancient temples like Shikari Devi and Mahunag, Janjheli presents a picture of neglect as its tourism potential has not been fully exploited by the Tourism Department, rued a local hotelier.

Solan, July 12
The Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board, which had served notices on nine factories in the Baddi industrial area to snap their power connection from today for polluting the Sarsa river, has given 10-day breather to them.

While six factories have been given time till July 20, three others have got time till July 25 to stop polluting river water, subdivisional officer L.C. Thakur said.

Taking strong note of death of over 1,000 of fish in the river on June 14 night due to discharge of chemical waste by factories in the area, the board had recently served notices on these factories to snap their power connections today.

Clinical test of the river water had revealed that pollution by chemical waste was the reason of fish death. — PTI

Chamba, July 12
The Sadar police station in this district has been adjudged the best police station in the state for 2006-2007 for the second time with an impressive double conviction rate and detection of cases in comparison to other police stations.

While the average conviction rate of other police stations in the state is around 10 per cent, it is 20 per cent in the case of the Sadar police station, Chamba SP Shivpal Singh Verma said today.

The overall management of registers, cleanliness and individual performance of the policemen posted at this police station also helped it in winning the award, he added. — PTI

Saju Ram Rana, additional SP, Bilaspur, who was under transfer as deputy commandant, Ist IRB, Una has been posted as additional SP, Chamba.