Shimla, September 7
The Congress will institute criminal defamation proceedings against the television news channels which blamed the party's "samarthan rally" for the death of a seriously ill four-year-old child who could not be taken to hospital due to a road blockade on August 29.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh told mediapersons here today that the report of DIG R.L.Sood, who probed the incident, had made it clear that the child was being taken in a private car to the hospital and not in an ambulance as "shown" repeatedly in some electronic news channels. Further, the car got stuck up on Cart Road near Hotel Cecil as the procession of BJP workers who were marching towards the Vidhan Sabha caused a traffic jam. At that time some people suggested that the child be taken to the nearby Sanatorium hospital. The child was taken to the hospital where the doctors declared him "brought dead".

It was evident that the Congress rally or workers had no role in the entire episode but still some news channels and the BJP put the entire blame on the ruling party. He said some television channels crossed all limits and aired a totally baseless and fabricated report blaming Congress workers for holding up the car. They showed video clippings of an ambulance caught in a crowd along with Congress flags in support of their misleading news story that mislead the people to believe that the child was stuck up in the party rally.

He said the electronic media could not be allowed to get away with such irresponsible and motivated news stories and the party would sue the channels for damages.

There were three rallies on that day and all of them were held at their designated venues. The Congress held its rally at Kennedy Chowk ,the BJP at Ambedkar Chowk and the DYFI at the AG Office chowk.

The trouble started only when BJP workers led by its senior leaders after the conclusion of their rally started marching towards Kennedy Chowk where the Congress rally was in progress. The police tried its best to stop them but failed. Had the BJP workers dispersed peacefully after the rally there would not have been any clash or police action.

Virbhadra Singh, who later proceeded to Kangra for the party meeting to be presided over by R.K.Dhawan, in charge of party affairs in Himachal, said the objective was to gear up the workers for the coming Assembly poll. Besides presidents, general secretaries and heads of frontal organisations of the party in Una, Kangra, Hamirpur and Chamba districts, office-bearers of the block Congress committees will also attend the meeting.

Shimla, September 7
The havoc caused by rain during the current monsoon season claimed 96 human lives and caused losses of around Rs 1,250 crore to public and private property in the state.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who took stock of the situation at a meeting of revenue officials and deputy commissioners here yesterday, said he would personally apprise Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the losses shortly and request him for liberal financial assistance to set the things right.

He said the maximum number of people were killed in the cloudburst at Ghanvi. In all, 3,524 cattle heads perished, 4,000 houses were washed away, 7,000 houses were damaged severely and 8,200 cowsheds were razed to the ground. A vast chunk of the farmland was also washed away.

He said the Central committee would visit the state soon to assess the losses. The government had set up round-the-clock control rooms at district headquarters to monitor the situation.

These control rooms forwarded daily reports to the state headquarters. He said every eligible family would be allotted two biswas of land in rural and one biswa in urban areas for house construction. Applications for the purpose would be received by the deputy commissioners concerned up to September 30.

He said his government would cover all eligible persons under the Indira Awas Yojna, the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojna and other schemes to make funds available for the construction of their houses. Efforts would also be made to compensate the families whose houses were washed away in floods and provide them financial assistance over and above the provisions of the relief manual.

He said a special drive needed to be launched to implement the housing scheme for urban Balmikis. He also directed the deputy commissioners to expedite the nautor allotment to the tribal landless in a time-bound manner.

He said the naib tehsildars in sub-tehsils would be delegated the powers to carry out partitions and office kanungos to carry out demarcation in their respective areas. He emphasised the need for early disposal of revenue cases by preparing a panel of lawyers at district and subdivisional levels to save government land from the illegal occupancy.

He directed the divisional commissioners to periodically review all such cases and report to the government. He also directed the authorities to dispose of demarcation, partition, mutation and other minor revenue matters on priority.

Removal of encroachments from government land should be pursued on a campaign basis so that the land could be allotted to landless and needy persons, he added. He said the state government would charge a minimum of Rs 50,000 per bigha from hydroelectric project developers as one-time lease charges depending on the market value of the land.

He said the state government would also consider bringing a legislation to fix the minimum market rate of land, especially in urban areas after observation of all formalities to prevent evasion of the registration fee.

Dharamsala, September 7
The one-man judicial committee headed by Justice O.P. Garg conducting probe into the alleged behaviour of former transport and tourism minister G.S. Bali has asked Star News through its chief executive officer and a correspondent to produce the original CD recorded by them during the sting operation.

Amrit Lal Sharma, assistant commissioner, Kangra, who is assisting the probe panel said the correspondent of the news channel had been asked to appear before it on September 10 for personal hearing. The chief executive officer of the channel and Bali would appear before the committee on September 11, he said.

Seven persons had filed affidavits to provide crucial information related to the moral conduct of Bali. One CD had also been received which would be placed before Justice Garg for his perusal, he added.

He further said that lawyers of the legal cell of the BJP had also approached him to provide certain matter and CD related to the controversy but the date of accepting the material and affidavits had expired, therefore, he could not accept anything from them.

He said the BJP men had been advised to appear in the court on September 10 with an application seeking permission to allow them to submit material related to the issue. “If Justice Garg allows them to submit the material, we will accept it from them,” he added.

Shimla, September 7
A reciprocal transport agreement was signed between the Governments of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab at Chandigarh today for operating buses in each other’s territory.

Himachal will operate buses in Punjab covering 62,731 km, while the latter will cover 48,836 km in Himachal. The new agreement will enable the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation to introduce new bus service to Katra, Delhi, Jammu and Amritsar from important places in the state covering 10,000 additional km in Punjab.

Additional chief secretary Avay Shukla signed the agreement on behalf of the Himachal Government and principal secretary, transport, D.S. Jaspal, on behalf of the Punjab Government.

Avay Shukla said the aim of the agreement was to encourage long-distance inter-state transport services between the two states and to regulate, coordinate and control their operations. Himachal had already signed transport agreements with Rajasthan and Uttrakhand and looking for signing agreements with UP, Haryana and other states in a phased manner.

Shimla, September 7
Director-general of forest survey of India (FSI) Devendra Pande said here today that the establishment of geographical information system(GIS) for management of forests on scientific lines would be one of the priorities in the 11th plan.

Delivering the keynote address at the one-day workshop on “sustainable land use, planning through GIS application” at the Himalayan Forest Research Institute, here today, he said the use of digital technology would go a long way in ensuring proper planning and sustainable management of forests.

He said state like Himachal Pradesh which had almost 67 per cent of the total geographical area under forest should have the GIS in place at the earliest. The FSI would provide all possible help to enable the state to develop the GIS. Besides providing funds, it would also impart training to the staff for the purpose.

Principal secretary forests Ashok Thakur underlined the need for working out a road map for the application of GIS technology in land use planning in the state. Principal chief conservator of forests Pankaj Khullar said adopting modern technology was essential to meet the challenge of sustainable management of depleting forest resources.

Director of the institute Mohinder Pal said the deliberations at the workshop would be helpful in finalising the road map for switchover to GIS-based mapping of the forest land.

In all about 50 forest officers, scientists, and representatives of various government departments participated in the workshop.

Yol (Kangra), September 7
Coming down heavily on the BJP, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the party was trying to disturb peace in the state. It was misleading the people with the motive of attracting the attention of the media and the people of the state, he said.

He was addressing a gathering at Army School here this evening after opening a bridge on the state highway.

Referring to the Shimla incident, he said the people of the state, particularly those of the lower areas, should be aware of the motives of the BJP as the elections were drawing near.

He claimed the Congress government had done a lot of development in the state setting milestones before the nation. Certain people were overlooking these developmental issues for their vested political interests, he added.

Lashing out at former CM Shanta Kumar, he said the BJP leader was making a drama on the issue of his injury in the lathicharge at Shimla by manipulating with the doctors so as to gain sympathy of the people. The CM said the doctors who attended him revealed that the BJP leader had got only minor injury on one of his fingers.

In a challenging tone, he asked Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal to stop such dramas and fight the political battle in a dignified manner on issues related to the common people.

Earlier, he dedicated a 50-m span bridge over Daroon Khad on the Dharamsala-Yol-Dadh-Palampur road constructed at a cost of Rs 1.25 crore. Revenue minister Sat Mahajan said unprecedented development had taken place in Kangra during the tenures of successive Congress governments.

Chandresh Kumari, former minister and local MLA, also addressed the gathering. Later, the CM also dedicated the new Bal Bhavan building, constructed at a cost of Rs 1.53 crore, to the disabled and aged people at Dari besides the regional employment office building constructed at a cost of Rs 35 lacs in the Shamnagar area.

Solan, September 7
With limited ammunition available with licensed shooters, the district kisan sabha has been forced to bring its monkey culling campaign to a halt. The sabha that begun the campaign on September 3 in Bharti, Deothi and Shadyana panchayats had initially decided to continue it till September 10. This campaign was brought to a halt today with no ammunition left.

The sabha has demanded enhancement in the ammunition quota, but the administration has failed to come up with any decision on the issue till now.

The sabha had identified 26 shooters to carry out the campaign, but majority of these licensees were old and thus unable to chase monkeys. They could kill only 70 monkeys in the three panchayats over the past five days.

District head Pyare Lal said the work done through shooters should be brought under the ambit of the Rozgaar Guarantee Scheme and young shooters should be employed for the job. There was also a need to reconsider enhancement in the ammunition quota, he said. Mamlig, Vakna, Deothi, Bharti, Delgi and Chadiyana panchayats were among the worst affected, he added.

Sabha members said the DC had assured them of considering the matter in the next three days. They were hopeful of a favourable solution, they added. In case, the district administration failed to act in the next three days they would step up their agitation to press for their demands.

Shimla, September 7
Himachal Pradesh has bagged the first position in implementation of the 20-Point Programme for the year 2006-07. An official spokesperson said here today that Himachal had achieved more than 100 per cent targets in various components under this programme. Against the target of providing the drinking water facility to 3,000 villages, 3275 villages had already been covered.

Similarly, as far as the immunisation of children was concerned 1,27,322 lakh children had been immunised against the target of 1,27,000. Under the programme, 8,819 families had been given assistance against the target of 5,000.

The government was encouraging private landholders to plant more trees on their land and under the 20-Point Programme, 50 lakh trees had been distributed among private landholders to bring more land under forest cover. 

Shimla, September 7
The government would explore the possibility of boring a tunnel to connect Holi area in Bharmour subdivision with Utrala in the Baijnath area of Kangra, connecting the two areas with a motorable road. This was stated by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh while presiding over the ninth meeting of the State Gaddi Welfare Board here .

The CM said efforts were being made to improve connectivity in tribal areas to ensure that the benefits of development reached the remotest corners of the state.

He said the state government would implement the provisions of the Scheduled Tribe and other traditional forest dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, for the benefit of the Scheduled Tribe community so that they could get ownership of land under their occupation.

The CM said the government had earmarked nine per cent of the annual budgetary provisions for the development of tribal areas. He said this allocation was over and above the regular budgetary provisions aimed at speedy and intensive development of the entire tribal area.

“The government had fixed the minimum support price of sheep wool at Rs 35 per kg in spring, Rs 25.50 during the winter season and had provided quality species of 1,624 rams to shepherds by the State Wool Federation,” he said. 

Kumarhatti, September 7
Acting on a high court order, the PWD has finally started work to rebuild an overbridge on the Kalka- Shimla rail line. The bridge on the Dharampur -Subathu road was closed to vehicular traffic by the Railways in January, terming it unsafe for the rail line.

A sum of Rs 10 lakh has already been deposited with the Railways by the Solan DC for the bridge. — OC