Shimla, August 20
The BJP today demanded that the government should convene an all-party meeting to discuss the issue of revision of relief manual so that the affected people could get adequate help to tide over the havoc wreaked by natural disasters.

In a statement issued here today, convener of the state media cell of the BJP Ashok Kapatia said for the past four years the Chief Minister had only been making statements but nothing concrete had been done so far. “All political parties should be consulted on the issue of review of relief manual so that the relief is proportionate to the extent of damage,” he said.

He criticised the state government for its failure to provide timely and adequate relief to those who had suffered huge losses due to recent rain. “Despite so much of havoc wreaked by rains, the government has failed to provide timely help to the people,” he alleged. He said the Chief Minister had also disappointed the people on his visit to Ghanvi as no concrete steps were taken and mere announcements were made.

He said instead of providing essential items like food grains, bedding, utensils from its own funds, the authorities are seeking help of business community in Rampur. “What can the affected families expect from the government when it is relying on the business community for such small things,” he said. Kapatia also criticised the government for its failure to improve water supply in Shimla even after so many days.

Dharamsala, August 20
Reacting to the BJP’s demand of a CBI probe into the controversy over his birthday party, former transport and tourism minister G.S. Bali said the opposition leaders seemed to have lost faith in the judicial system of the country. He was talking to mediapersons here today.

“When a Division Bench of the high court has already set up a one-man commission headed by a retired judge of the high court to inquire into the matter; there was no reason asking for a CBI probe,” he said.

Lashing out at Shanta Kumar for his remarks that a criminal case should be registered against him and the matter be handed over to the CBI, he said political leaders of his stature should not give such irresponsible statements as they might hamper the process of inquiry.

He said that he would abide by the decision of the judicial commission and if it recommended registration of a criminal case against him, he would abide by that.

Bali went to the extent of challenging Shanta Kumar to test his popularity by contesting the forthcoming Assembly election against him from Nagrota Bagwan.

He said the release of the report by the fact-finding committee of the BJP on the controversy over his birthday party, when the matter was already pending in the high court, amounted to contempt of court. How could the BJP leaders conduct a “parallel inquiry” when the matter was pending before the highest judicial authority of the state, he questioned?

The state unit of the BJP had constituted a five-member committee of its leaders to inquire into the facts of the controversy and prepare a detailed report on it.

Saying that he had full faith in the judicial system, the former minister said the truth should come out and if he was found guilty in the judicial commission’s inquiry, he would sit back at home quietly.

Taking a dig at the Vivekanand Hospital Trust, Palampur, whose chairman is Shanta Kumar, he said a CBI probe was needed to inquire into the wrongdoings in the trust affairs.

Mandi, August 20
Chandra Devi, 40-year-old widow of a CRPF jawan from Dharampur in this district, looked nonplussed and seemed to have lost mental balance. She was united with her two siblings and mother-in-law on Saturday after she was released from a Pakistan jail on August 13.

Arjun, her 17-year-old son, and his minor sister are happy as never before as they had been united with their mother after over more than one year. “We want nothing as we have got our mother,” said Arjun, a BA-I student.

How Chandra crossed the Wagah border and was lodged in the Pakistan jail remains a puzzle for both the police and family members. “I went to Baijnath, then Pathankot and reached Jammu and after that I do not know how I landed in the Pakistan jail,” she told reports.

Chandra was released from the Pakistan jail on August 13 after the BSF authorities took up the matter with their Pakistani counterparts. As she was mentally disturbed, she was admitted to Amritsar mental hospital where she remained under treatment till August 16.

She was discharged from the hospital following orders by a local court after Arjun Singh and his cousin filed a petition in that regard. “The doctors have given her medicine and asked us to bring her back for check-up after three months as she was mentally sick,” family members said. No doctor or official from the district had come to see Chandra so far, they added.

Head constable of the Dharampur police post Ravi Singh, who went to bring Chandra back to her native village, said she did not speak much. She had gone missing from Dharampur on April 8, 2006, after she lost her mental balance on receiving the news of her husband’s sudden death in Manipur sources said.

Mandi CMO D.K. Arora said neither the patient was brought to the hospital nor the family members had requested them to examine her.

Shimla, August 20
Attracting high-end tourists, especially the corporate executives, is the new mantra of the state Tourism Department who will be holding a national-level golf tournament for the corporate high-ups to promote the Naldehra golf course and the suburbs in the business world.

The tournament is scheduled for mid-October as invitations have been sent out to various top executives of big companies in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. It will be a two-day tournament, with the main objective of attracting top executives.

"With golf and business being inseparable, there can be no better way of attracting the business executives by marketing Naldehra, which is one of the oldest and most beautiful natural glades of the region," said a senior official. He said corporate houses would be contacted for holding their conventions and meetings at Naldehra.

The department is keen to develop more golf courses with private partnership at Baragraon in Kullu and near the Baddi industrial belt, as golf is a major attraction and the sport lovers would traverse any distance to enjoy the game. This, in turn, would attract a lot of high-end tourists, giving a fillip to tourism.

As part of its endeavour to upgrade the golf course as well as the facilities here, the department has already begun the process of acquiring 25 bighas of additional land, adjacent to the golf course. The department intends extending it to an 18 hole golf course from the present nine hole and developing additional greens and fairways. The project is estimated to cost Rs 5.5 crore.

The golf course owes its existence to Lord Curzon, who simply fell in love with the place and decided to develop the huge natural glade surrounded by cedar forests into a golf course. The course took shape on a totally natural topography in 1905, which remains unchanged to the present day.

In fact, the department intends seeking funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for upgrading the Naldehra golf course in order to attract the high-end tourist who would love to play the sport in the pristine environment.

The Naldehra Golf Club celebrated its centenary in 2005 and a Shimla-Lahore golf tournament was organised to mark the occasion. 

Shimla, August 20
The government will formulate a plan for harnessing the renewable and non-conventional sources of energy to help reduce dependence of traditional sources, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said at a function organised to mark the 63rd birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi here today. He also garlanded a statue of Gandhi at Sadbhavna Chowk and flagged off a rally of school students. The birth anniversary was observed as “Akshay Urja Divas” all over the state. Prabhat pheries, devotional song sessions and blood camps were also organised on the occasion at various places.

The CM said the government had set up HIMURJA, the state energy development agency, would also help raise the living standards of the people in rural areas. The government was making sustained efforts in this direction and providing solar cookers, solar water heaters and energy-saving equipment at subsidised rates to people.

The government had also reserved the hydel power projects up to 2 MW for the people of the state. While those with projects capacity ranging from 2 MW up to 5 MW were being given to Himachali Entrepreneurs and cooperative societies on priority.

HAMIRPUR: Several programmes were organised to mark Save Energy Day and to celebrate birthday of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi here on Monday. While students took out a rally through the bazaars, youth and women organisations presented a colourful cultural programme. ADM H.S. Thakur said while there was a need to conserve energy, there was also a need to tap new sources of alternative energy like solar energy. The district office of Himurja is observing Akashay Urja fortnight from today to September 3. 

Nahan August 20
The town is facing acute water shortage for the past eight days due to breakage in the Kheri lift water supply scheme on the Laya Devi Hill which could not be restored due to difficult geological conditions on the site. Residents of Govindgarh mohalla here blocked traffic for nearly one hour this evening demanding supply of water in their locality.

The police had to divert the traffic coming from Chandigarh and Dehra Dun via Katcha Tank. After water tanker reached in the locality, the blockade was removed. Residents of almost every locality were fetching water from Kala Amb, Shambhuwala, Markanda River and from the natural water sources in and around the town.

IPH Department executive engineer, B. S. Bhatia said 12 water tankers had been pressed into work in the town and the work was going on at the site day and night to restore the pipe line. He disclosed that two welding sets were working day and night in the thick forest, 150 meter pipes had been procured and hoped that the water supply scheme would be functional within four days by all means.

He added that due to very difficult climatic conditions, silt and continuous land slides on the Laya devi hills the restoration work was very difficult and time consuming.

Nahan Nagrik Sabha president Digvijay Gupta has demanded that the Chief Minister of the state should visit Nahan and hear the grievances of the residents and order effective solutions of water problem on the spot.

He demanded that one new gravity water supply scheme be erected for this town from Panjahal or Nehar Sawar with the initiative of the Chief Minister, as all local political leaders have totally failed to redress major problems of the town, including water problem, he added.

Kangra, August 20
Resentment prevails among the residents of Garli, Nagrota, Nahan and Sakrala villages in Dehra subdivision of this district as there has been no water supply in the area for the past eight days because the IPH Department has failed to restore the Kaloha water supply scheme.

Residents of Sakrala village said the Kaloha water supply scheme was damaged in flash floods on Sunday last but the IPH authorities had not yet repaired the damaged pipes. As a result they had been forced to use contaminated water of “bowries”. They urged the Chief Minister to come to their rescue.

Suresh Mahajan, executive engineer, IPH, Dehra, said that 60 of the 67 water supply schemes damaged in Dehra IPH division on the intervening night of August 12 and 13 had been restored temporarily. The Kaloha scheme could not be restored as pipes could not be transported to the site due to damaged road links. He, however, assured that water supply would be restored in Garli by tomorrow.

Mandi, August 20
Panic has struck villagers living around the jungle of Beed panchayat as a leopard prowling around Diun village near here has mauled one Tara Chand, a local villager, today when he had gone to see his maize crop at around 6 am.

As soon as he reached the field, he was attacked by a leopard, which mauled him in the field. “I was scared, but managed to catch hold of his legs. Its jaws injured my arms before it left me in the field and vanished into the nearby jungle”, rued Tara Chand, who was rushed to the zonal hospital after the attack.

The villagers said it was the first attack on human by the leopard in the village. “We have spotted the leopard in the area few days ago and found carcasses of animals, but its attack on human has scared us now”, the villagers said. They added that wild boars were spoiling their maize crops and they had to lay either live wire or traps to keep them at bay to save their crops from plunder.

Tara Chand had gone to remove the trap in the morning when he was attacked. The attack by a leopard came just a week after when an alleged maneater had killed a girl child at Kharsi village in Dhar panchayat in Mandi Sadar, just 10 km from here.

Divisional Forest Officer Kunal Satyarthi, who inspected the spot today said the leopard appeared to be a different animal and not the one that attacked a child at Kharsi. It was on the prowl attacking wild boars in the maize field but it bumped into Tara Chand.

“We have paid Rs. 5,000 as immediate relief and remaining Rs. 35,000 will be paid later to the victim”, Satyarthi said. The department had laid three traps around the Kharsi jungle to nab the suspected man-eater, he said.

Shimla, August 20
Charmed by its beautiful climate and love and affection of the people, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today said he had been in Himachal Pradesh for the past 48 years and had felt at home while away from homeland.

Delivering his address on the 125the birth anniversary of Satyanand Stokes, the architect of apple revolution in HP, the Dalai Lama said he had been in the state as the state government and its people had given him love and affection all these years.

He lauded the achievements of the state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

He emphasised on the need for educating every child in the state.

Paying tributes to Satyanand Stokes, Governor V.S. Kokje called him an extraordinary personality who had contributed towards social welfare and horticulture in the state.

Virbhadra said Stokes had laid the foundation of modern horticulture to strengthen the agro-economy and the people, and the state was indebted to him for such a valuable contribution.

He said Stokes inspired the farmers of the state to opt for apple cultivation and make horticulture a viable avocation to strengthen their economy.

The horticulture sector is today contributing Rs 2,200 crore to the state domestic product, he added.

Vidya Stokes, HP power minister and daughter-in-law of Late Satyanand Stokes, welcomed the dignitaries. — PTI

Sarol (Chamba), August 20
The state unit of the BJP Scheduled Castes Morcha has flayed the ruling Congress government for exploiting the Scheduled Castes (SCs) merely as ‘vote bank’ to grab power in the state without giving due reservation to them.

Addressing a joint media conference of the morcha , president Balbir Bagga and general secretary Sikander Kumar questioned the ruling Congress government to make it public as to how much reservation had been given to the SCs, while making appointments of JBT, TGT, PTA teachers, multi-purpose workers and nurses and other categories in the state.

Both the leaders accused the ruling government of favouring appointments of PTA teachers, forest guards, anganwari workers and assistants and termed it as ‘backdoor entry’ and said it bypassed the reservation criteria of SCs.

Solan, August 20
The newly elected panel of National Students Union of India (NSUI) today said they would demand starting of MA classes in history and economics in the local degree college.

Jubilant at having dominated the polls, the district president of NSUI Chain Singh along with the newly elected panel comprising president-Vikas, vice-president-Monika, general Secretary-Ajay and joint secretary-Vipan today said they would endeavour to facilitate the student community on the campuses.

Chian Singh and other office-bearers including, Suman and Rajeev Kaura said they would soon meet the Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and seek permission for starting these classes. The students said their victory was attributed to the guidance provide by the Chief Minister, PCC president and their AICC president.

Dharamsala, August 20
The fast track court today declared a person guilty on the evidence of his daughter for brutally murdering his wife. However, the court would award the sentence in this case on August 27.

Jyoti (12), daughter of the convict, was an eyewitness in this case.

Sanjay Kumar had murdered his wife, Sita Devi, at Dhoran village, near Palampur, by brutally beating her up with sticks on the occasion of 'Karva Chauth' on October 10 He was arrested immediately after the incident and produced in court. Since then, he had been under judicial custody.