Koti, August 14
A gurgling seasonal rivulet merrily flowing down the mountain slope proved to be the nemesis of 104-year-old Koti railway station.

On the night of July 13, the rivulet running under the railway track, swelled with a gush of water following a cloudburst.

A view of the damaged railway track at Koti following a cloudburst in the area.

The concrete structure supporting a stretch of the Kalka-Shimla railway track, laid in 1903, spanning the rivulet crumbled into the surging waters.

The trail of devastation that it left behind is evident. The damaged rail track dangles from one end of the rivulet to the other, uprooted trees litter the bed of the stream, a half-washed-away house stands alongside the station and lots of labour is “on the job” at Koti.

The nightmare has passed, but the fear of that night lingers on in the hearts and minds of the railway employees at the station. Panic reigned as nature unleashed its fury by way of a heavy downpour culminating into a cloudburst.

“It was 1 am and the rain was coming down in sheets. All of us, a stationmaster, a pointsman and spare staff, sat huddled at the station, wondering what the night had in store for us. The span in the concrete structure could not take the flow of the water that had started flowing over the track. We feared that the track might be washed away and that was exactly what happened and we could only stand and watch,” recalls stationmaster Sanjeev Singla who joined duty at Koti a couple of days ago.

The railway track hanging in the air. — Tribune photos by Karam Singh

As the water level continued to rise, the staff vacated the station and climbed on to the tunnel to reach a higher level since there was no escape from there.

“Shivram, the pointsman, along with his five children, and the rest of the staff as also Ravinder Rawat, stationmaster, stood drenched as we waited for the rain to abate. In fact, Rawat went to his house to pick up a few important papers. He had barely reached his house when it got swept away by the raging waters that had broken through the concrete by then,” he said.

The staff was saved by the skin of their teeth. “It’s a second life for us and we can’t thank God enough. We have put it all behind us and now the priority clearly is re-laying the track. We don’t know how long it will take because bad weather can’t be ruled out still. Rain means a longer wait to put the train on track,” he explained.

“The first priority, however, is clearing the stream bed of uprooted trees and chunks of concrete before the labour can get going on re-laying the tracks. Though it will take a fortnight before the train can be resumed on the track, the engineering staff on duty said temporary arrangement would be made to run the train initially and work would carry on well after that.

Meanwhile, all along the national highway from Kalka to Shimla, roadblocks continued even today. Men and machines were pressed into action to clear landslides.

With half the road blocked by debris brought down the slopes by the rain, policemen regulated flow of traffic on the highway, allowing only one-side movement.

Nurpur, August 14
Incessant rain has been playing havoc in this subdivision for the past few days. Three persons were injured in two different cases of house collapse at Golwan village.

Houses of Ranja Ram and Suram Singh reportedly collapsed due to heavy rain last night. Those injured were: Anju (40), Sushil (23) and Komal (8). They were admitted to the local Civil Hospital. The administration has released Rs 8,000 as prompt relief to the injured.

With the breach in Dhusi bandh at two places on the Chonchh rivulet at Kandori, water entered 70 houses and go-downs of the HP Food and Civil Supplies Corporation damaging foodgrain stock.

Bara Bagh (Mandi): Even as the national highway No 21 was opened to one-way traffic between Jadol-Bara Bagh and Slappar on Tuesday after 16 hours, the passengers continued to be stranded on the 10-km landslde -prone stretch for four to five hours.

The highway between Thalot and Swarghat has been damaged at over 12 points, stranding thousands of vehicles for four to six hours.

The debris was still sinking on the Jadol-Barabagh bridge stretch where the entire hill has sunk blocking the highway. Slush and debris have flooded the Slappar bridge making it unsafe for traffic.

PWD men have cleared the debris from the bridge. Though most of the damage due to the landslides has been reported at three points between Jadol and the Barabagh bridge, landslips have occurred between Swarghat and Thalot.

Most of the link roads in the district continue to be cut off from the district headquarters for the third consecutive day.

Mandi, August 14
A large part of Mandi town is facing acute shortage of water in the wake of breakdown of the Maigal-Mandi gravity pipeline following incessant rain over the past three days.

Another pipeline supplying water to Tarna Hill tanks has also been disrupted due to landslide near the PWD rest house, thereby further worsening the water supply situation in the town.

According to IPH sources, the pipeline has been damaged at three points. Chief engineer (IPH) D.K. Gupta said all efforts were being made to restore the water supply at the earliest.

The worst-hit areas are Purani Mandi, Upper and Lower Bhiuli colonies. Jawaharnagar is also facing acute water scarcity despite some supply of water from the Bijni gravity line. — UNI

Shimla, August 14
Though there was some respite from rain after three days today most parts of the capital went without water for the third consecutive day.

With the pumps at the Ashwani khud still not being made functional due to excessive silt, certain areas have been without water for the past four days.

The situation is likely to improve in a day or two as four of the five pumps at the Gumma pumping station have started functioning.

Since the water level at the two main reservoirs at Sanjauli and the Ridge is about five feet, very little supply was given. “With the water level at the two places being very low we have to keep some reserve and the supply can be made only after this level is much higher,” said Mayor Narender Kataria.

The Mayor said he had requested the Irrigation Department to start pumping at the Ashwani khad at the earliest so that water supply ccould be restored. “We will try to give supply to some parts tomorrow but it is only by Thursday that the entire capital will get water,” he said.

Though some part of the capital lying in the central zone were given supply for some time today people all over Shimla faced great inconvenience. People could be seen queuing up at the hand pumps and other traditional sources like bowris to fetch drinking water.

The municipal corporation has pressed seven water tankers into service to provide water to people.

With the water level in the Kasumpti reservoir being over 10 feet some water was pumped into the storage tank near the High Court.

Efforts are also being made to repair the pipeline from the Churhat supply at Dhalli.

The water supply to various parts of the capital is likely to be fully restored only by Thursday as pumping at the Ashwani khud might take a day or two due to excessive silt.

The power supply in most parts of the capital has been restored fully and the uprooted trees are being cut and removed.

Shimla, August 14
The high court has issued notices to the state and the Centre Government on a petition challenging the appointment of S.S. Parmar as the state information commissioner and P.S. Rana as the chief state information commissioner.

The court also issued notices to Parmar and Rana and further directed all respondents to file their reply within four weeks.

A Division Bench comprising Mr Justice D.D. Sood and Mr Justice Rajiv Sharma passed this order on a petition challenging the appointment of both officers.

The petitioner alleged that the state government appointed Rana and Parmar as the chief state information commissioner and the state information commissioner respectively in gross violation of the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005.

The petitioner further alleged that while appointing these officials the chief secretary violated the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 15 of the Right to Information Act.

According to these sections, the chief state information commissioner and the state information commissioner shall be appointed by the Governor on the recommendations of a committee consisting of the Chief Minister of the state, leader of the Opposition and a Cabinet minister to be nominated by the Chief Minister.

The petitioner urged the court to quash the appointment of Rana and Parmar.

Dharamsala, August 14
A recruitment scam of appointing clerks has come to light in Kangra Central Cooperative Bank, Dharamsala.

As many as 49 persons were recruited against clerical posts on a temporary basis but their services were later regularised without inviting fresh applications against these vacancies.

The registrar of the Cooperative Department in a letter written to the bank MD has asked the management to look into the matter and take action accordingly.

As per the details available, 49 persons were recruited on a contract basis for 89 days in 2001. It has been alleged that most of these persons were related to bureaucrats, politicians and certain senior officials of the bank.

Later on, without inviting fresh applications against these regular vacancies, the management regularised the services of all 49 clerks recruited through the back door

As per rules, the bank was supposed to advertise the posts and invite fresh applications to fill the regular posts.

The matter was also taken up by the Board of Directors of the bank a couple of years back but the matter was hushed up instead of taking action against those involved in the scam.

A complaint in this regard was also made to the state Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau but its inquiry was still pending.

Now that the Cooperative Department has taken cognizance of the matter, the matter is likely to be taken up by the bank Board of Directors at its next meeting as the management was under pressure to annul these backdoor appointments.

Chamba, August 14
We are celebrating 60 years of Independence, yet inhabitants of Pangi tribal valley in the district are still facing hardships in their daily lives.

Some villages are deprived of basic facilities. It appears that the benefits of country’s Independence have not yet reached these tribal villages.

Punto village located near Killar, the sub-divisional headquarters of Pangi tribal valley, is still cut off from other parts of the state due to non-availability of road network.

The residents have to trudge to Killar through an old footpath of one foot width along the steep hillside.

The track is quite dangerous to tread as the river Chanderbhaga (also known as River Chenab when it enters into Jammu and Kashmir) is flowing beneath the hillside path. The danger of falling boulders continues to loom large over the path.

Some years back, the construction of the road was taken up and several crores of rupees had been spent on the construction work but still it was incomplete.

The residents of Punto village have submitted several representations to Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, local MLA Thakur Singh and other concerned authorities of the state Public Works Department, but nobody has bothered so far

The residents of the Punto village Dheyan Chand, Dev Raj, Hari Singh, Kaushal Chand, and Tek Chand have further urged the Chief Minister to ensure early completion of Punto road and provide basic amenities for the all-round development of the area.

The woes of tribals do not end here, even the health and educational institutions in the valley are understaffed.

There is shortage of doctors, the health services exist in name only and the people living in the valley have no access to them.

Solan, August 14
With virtually no help from the district administration residents of Mangal panchayat of Arki sub-division have been forced to spend sleepless nights in the open after tonnes of debris inundated their houses.

The debris, which is being dumped by the J.P.cement plant at Baga-Ser, led to a flash flood downstream of the nullah last night.

The villagers rued that the officials were not paying heed to their plight and despite such a havoc occurring twice in as many months, the administration had remained a mute spectator.

The villagers had given a representation to chief secretary Ravi Dhingra last week.

The villagers were forced to abandon their houses lying downstream of the dumping site of Baga-Ser where the mining work was being executed.

The villagers residing in Sehnali, Bhalag, Samtiari and Bhumak were facing severe hardships with no power or water availability since the past two days.

Even the ground floor of a B.Ed college located at Baga village was severally damaged its owner Sanjay Rattan said.

As many as six cars were washed away in the muck and flood which flowed down from the dumping site to the villages lying downstream.

Nearly 12 buildings were badly damaged with the muck entering them and making them inhabitable.

Nand Lal Chauhan, a villager, said they wanted that a fact finding committee comprising principal secretaries of industries, pollution control board, forest as well as department of environment to be set up.

The villagers had got a FIR registered against the J.P. cement plant while a cross FIR against the villagers was also registered by the company.

The villagers were objecting to the dumping site as it let the muck flow down from the hill at a steep angle of 90 degrees.

This directly affected their dwelling units as well as fields.

The villagers had gathered outside the company, and they have been protesting since yesterday.

DC Mohan Chauhan said he had directed the tehsildar to take stock of the situation. He said it was the duty of JP officials to provide due compensation as the rights of the villagers had to be protected.

He said after the rains, the company would be directed to construct protection walls so that no muck flowed down in future.

Shimla, August 14
The five-member fact-finding committee constituted by the BJP to look into various aspects of the controversial birthday bash of former minister G.S. Bali will highlight certain facts that were not even aired by the television channel.

The committee is learnt to have included some facts, which were neither aired nor disclosed by the television channel, which led to the resignation of Bali from the Cabinet.

The BJP leaders have reportedly got all details about the arrival, stay and departure of the call girls from Delhi, whose presence at the birthday party at a resort in Dharamsala made national headlines.

The committee, headed by former IPH minister and sitting MLA Ramesh Dhwala, will submit its report within a day or two to state unit chief Jai Ram Thakur.

Though the committee was to submit its report by August 11 the report has been delayed since some of the members had to visit Chandigarh and other spots to collect information.

“Some of the members even met the correspondent who did the story so that all facts are taken into account before preparing the final report,” said one of the members. The presence of other VIPs, including some officials, industrialists, and the owner of a television channel would also find mention in the report.

Efforts would be made to procure cultural troupes from all states as well as from other countries to entertain the visitors. — UNI

Shimla, August 14
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has said that tribal areas have emerged as a model for development of tribal areas in the country.

Addressing a public meeting at Bhawanagar today after inaugurating a Rs 56.24-lakh water supply scheme he said Kinnuar in particular was leading in development on all fronts.

The Chief Minister said the development of tribal areas was priority with his government and it had formulated a separate tribal subplan for the purpose.

As much as 9 per cent of the state Annual Plan was being spent on tribal areas. The government was committed to connecting all gram panchayats with motorable roads and additional funds had been provided to achieve the objective within the current financial year.

Record funds were now available for road construction and more funds were being procured to accelerate the pace of construction work. He said the MoU signed with the World Bank recently which had sanctioned Rs 1365 crore for road construction, would help provide 2500 km additional roads in the state.