Solan, September 24
Taking strict note of the preliminary findings of large-scale fish mortality in the Kenduwalla area of the Baddi-Barotiwala industrial area, additional chief secretary J.P. Negi today constituted a high-powered committee to inquire into the matter. The committee, comprising officials from the Pollution Control Board and the Department of Environment, has been directed to visit the affected area tomorrow and submit a report in two days.

Sources said bodies of smaller fish recovered from the site were found ripped apart and it appeared as if an explosive had been used there. Intriguingly, the bigger fish species were found missing. Officials expressed doubts of some highly toxic industrial effluent being discharged into the water leading to large-scale fish mortality. Dead fish was found floating in an area of around 250 sq m downstream the Sandholi nullah.

The officials of the pollution control board today collected 29 samples of effluents discharged from various units located in the catchment area of the Sandholi nullah. These units comprise paper units, spinning mills, pharmaceutical units and pesticide manufacturing units. Samples of dead fish were also collected and sent to the board’s Parwanoo-based laboratory and the University of Horticulture and Forestry.

This was the second major incident of fish mortality in the past three months. Though the board had snapped power connections of 11 units and issued notices to 122 others to upgrade their treatment plants, this incident once again exposed the deteriorating pollution condition of the industrial area.

In a recent meeting of the committee, it was pointed out that the Baddi-Barotiwala industrial area (up to Ratta nullah) had reached saturation point as far as pollution was concerned. The committee had suggested that industries bearing heavy pollution load should not be allowed to set up their plants here. Only light industries like information technology or biotechnology-based units should be allowed to be set up there.

The committee had pointed out that the water quality of the Sarsa reached level E in 2007 indicating that it was fit only for industrial washing. It was at level A in 2004 wherein it was considered fit for drinking. Though board’s officials had been attending meetings of single-window clearance agencies for clearing industrial proposals, they failed to apprise the government about the deteriorating water quality of the Sarsa.

Now things had come to such a pass that there was virtually no control on units that off and on showed laxity in abiding by the norms. Officials said at least two pesticide units whose power connections were snapped in July had not even bothered to get it restored, thereby lending credence to the fact that they did not care about the norms.

Dharamsala, September 24
Taking a serious note of the reports that the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995 was not being properly implemented in Kangra district, the district magistrate Ashwani Kapoor has summoned all cable operators of the district to Dharamsala tomorrow.

They would be asked to implement the Act properly; otherwise stern action would be taken against them.

There were reports that viewers across the largest district of the hill state were deprived of the regional news and other programmes being broadcast by Doordarshan from its regional station at Shimla.

The cable operators were also not properly showing the two main satellite channels of Doordarshan (DD-1 and DD-2) on the prime band, thus violating the Act.

Station director of Doordarshan based at Shimla had requested the district magistrate and the Public Relations Department several times during the past few months to implement the Act properly, but hardly any steps were taken in that regard by former district magistrate Bharat Khera, who was recently transferred from the district.

As per Section 11 of the Act, it is mandatory for every cable operators to show DD-1 and DD-2 besides one regional channel. The Act clearly specifies that any violation of the provisions therein will invite penal action, including confiscation of the operator’s equipment and imprisonment up to six months. However, most of the cable operators in the district continue to avoid transmitting the regional channel during the specified time.

Thirtyeight cable operators of the district are registered with the state government. They charge Rs 300 to Rs 500 from each consumer at the time of installing a new connection apart from the monthly rental ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 300. There are no uniform rates of the cable operators in the district.

Sundernagar, September 24
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the state government would consider opening of the Himachal Pradesh PWD division in Gohar after observation of all codal formalities to cater to the needs of the people of the area and to speed up bridges and roads construction in the Nachan Assembly segment.

He said that one ITI would be opened in the area and three bridges would be constructed at Jachh, Sainj and Nandi. This was stated by Virbhadra while addressing an impressive public meeting on the closing of a week-long district level, Nalwari fair at Basa in Gohar subdivision of Mandi District, after he dedicated the new science-block building completed at a cost of Rs 1.90 crore to the students of Government Degree College, Gohar at Basa, last evening.

The Chief Minister said the decision of making medical college functional at Mandi and another medical college in the private sector at Hamirpur was being implemented on priority. He said an impressive self-contained Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru Government Engineering College, Sundernagar was coming up in an impressive manner. He said a degree college had also been sanctioned for Lamba Thach in Chachiot segment which also got Rs 5 crore for buildings etc. The Chief minister said the state government had created higher-education facilities in rural, remote, tribal and difficult areas to honour peoples’ right to education, especially girls had been benefited with the higher-education facilities which was near their homes. He said 22 degree colleges had been opened in the past two years, all of them in the rural and difficult areas.

He said Rs 5 crore each was also sanctioned for the infrastructure building of the newly opened degree colleges. He said educated girl means - an entire educated family and his government was committed to educate girls by implementing various schemes, including free education up to the highest level.

Nahan, September 24
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today fulfilled all major demands of the residents of Pacchad tehsil, including the opening of a degree college at Sarahan, in one go that they had been putting up before every government for the past over 40 years.

According to political observers, he seemed to have strengthened the position of Assembly speaker Gangu Ram Musafir in the constituency besides snatching major issues from the BJP in this important Assembly segment.

He announced the opening of a government degree college and an ITI at Sarahan, a PHC at Naina Tikkar and a GNM educational institution in the private sector in the area besides announcing Rs 5 crore for the construction of the college building. He said the college and the ITI would be made functional from the next academic session.

He was speaking on the occasion of the inaugural ceremony of the district-level Baman Dwadashi fair at Sarahan in Sirmaur district today. Earlier, he dedicated the Rs 4.35-crore lift augmentation water supply scheme for Sarahan to the public. It would benefit around 8,500 residents of 18 villages ensuring 70 litre water per person per day for the coming 20 years.

He also announced the opening of new government primary schools at Patta Kuffar and Saroj, upgrading of government primary schools at Kuffar Pal, Kala Ghat and Cheola to middle schools, and Chalki government high school to a senior secondary school. He also announced construction of a helipad in Sarahan on priority. He said shamlat land would be returned to the deserving and eligible families.

He attacked the BJP on different issues and asked people of the state not to believe that party alleging that it spread casteism and regionalism. He spoke in detail on various development projects undertaken during his present term.

Vidhan Sabha Speaker and local MLA G.R. Musafir welcomed the Chief Minister. He said Rs 120 crore had been spent on roads in the district besides Rs 50 crore under the DRDA programmes, Rs 18 core on social welfare schemes, Rs 187 crore on the DWSS. As many as 44 senior secondary school had been opened in the district, he added.

Irrigation and public health minister Kaul Singh Thakur thanked the Chief Minister for dedicating Sarahan augmentation water supply scheme to the people of the area. He said Rs 150 crore had been spent under the irrigation and public health activities in the district and the government was committed to provide drinking water facilities in every village.

Renuka MLA Prem Singh, ex-MLA and president of the Sirmaur unit of the DCC Rattan Singh, ex-MLA Ajay Bahadur, chairperson of the zila parishad Manju Sharma, vice-president of the HPCC Kunjna Singh, HPCC member Nayan Singh Tomer, chairperson of the Sarahan panchayat samiti Rama Devi, vice-chairman of the ARDB Roshan Lal Sharma, deputy commissioner R.S. Negi, SP J.P. Singh, chief engineer (IPH) R.K. Sharma, senior officers and many prominent persons of the areas were present on the occasion.

Shimla, September 24
In a major initiative to impart hands-on computer training to students, irrespective of the academic stream, the government has decided to set up common computer laboratories in all degree colleges.

The objective is to impart basic computer skills to each and every student so that he could take up a job in the growing BPO (business process outsourcing) and ITES (information technology enabled services) sectors. In the first phase computer laboratories are being established in 56 government colleges where suitable built-up space is available. The laboratories will start functioning in 26 colleges by the end of next month and in the remaining colleges by December.

As per the programme worked out by the Information Technology Department each student will be provided hands-on-computer exposure for a minimum of one hour in a week. The colleges are being supplied hardware accordingly. They will be equipped with printers, scanners, web cameras, LCD projectors and Internet. The common computer laboratories will be in addition to the one set up for imparting education in computer science, information technology and various other specialised computer courses. The common laboratories will remain open for 24 hours a day through the week including Sundays so that students take full advantage of it.

The entire expenditure of Rs 10 crore on the hardware will be borne by the IT Department. It proposes to use the laboratories for providing specialised BPO and ITES training after college hours by involving the private sector. It has invited bids from private companies for this purpose. The companies will use the laboratories to impart training to interested students on payment of a nominal fee.

The main advantage of the arrangement is that students pursuing any academic stream will be ready to join the BPO industry by the time they pass out from college, says secretary information technology Sanjeev Gupta. 

Bilaspur, September 24
Himachal government is providing special incentives to encourage sports and games in the state with a 3 per cent reservation in services in government departments to sports persons who get positions at National and International levels along with cash prizes and awards.

Presiding over the concluding function of the four-day state-level girls annual sports tournaments (under-19) of government senior secondary schools and high schools here today evening, Himachal forests, youth services and sports minister Ramlal Thakur said the government had provided employment in government departments to 960 sports persons during the past four and half years while 92 sports persons had been provided employment during the current financial year and 3 per cent reservation for them was being ensured in all recruitments including those in the presently going forest department and police department recruitments.

Thakur said the state was proud of shooters Shamsher Jang and his wife Anuja Jang of Sirmaur district and Subedar Vijay Kumar of Hamirpur district who brought laurels to the state at Common Wealth Games winning three golds, one gold and two golds and one silver. He said the government gave away cash prizes of Rs 30 lakh to Shamsher Jang, Rs 10 lakh to Anuja Jang and Rs 25 lakh to Subedar Vijay Kumar for their achievements.

Thakur said during the current financial year, the state had given cash awards of Rs 79.46 lakh to 96 sports persons for their achievements at National and international levels.

He said a multipurpose sports complex was being developed at Luhanu maidan here in town and apart from constructing 400 meters Athletics track, a Rs 1.87 crore outdoor stadium was also under construction. He announced that for the first time Himachal Pradesh would host national water sports games in Govind Sagar here in Bilaspur in November.

Thakur distributed trophies and certificates to winners and runners up of this state Championship in which Solan district were champions in volleyball and Kho-Kho, while Sirmaur and Bilaspur were runners up in these events respectively. Shimla won Kabbadi and Basketball Championships in which Mandi won the runners up award. Mandi was also Hockey Champion with Una runners up. Una won the Handball championship with Shimla as runners up while Sirmaur was declared Badminton champion with Una runners up. The march-past shield was won by Solan.

Among state hostels, Dharmashala SAI sports hostel won Volleyball, Kabbadi and Basketball Championships while Majra won the Hockey championship. Deputy director physical education S.S. Kanwar said 835 senior girls drawn from all the 12 districts and 4 government sports hostels of the state participated in these competitions. Local MLA Tilak Raj Sharma and deputy director of education S. R. Kondal were also present at the occasion. 

Shimla, September 24
The Rs 4,000-crore plan which is being implemented to expand and upgrade the road network will help connect remote panchayats in the state. Roads are the life lines of people here where there is limited rail and air connectivity.

In fact, roads are the only mode of transport and provide connectivity to remote corners. In order to strengthen and extend the road network the government is implementing the State Roads Project with the financial assistance from the World Bank. It envisages improvement, asset maintenance and management of about 2,500-km length of state highways and major district roads under two distinct components.

The total size of the project is about Rs 1365.435 crore out of which the loan component will be Rs 990 crore and 90 per cent of the proceeds of the loan amount will be made available by the Government of India as an outright grant. The first component of the project will focus on core network improvement by way of upgrading works, including widening of formation, realignment, new structures and pavement strengthening over 447 km of road length.

The roads being covered under the component include Mehatpur-Una- Mubarikpur-Daulatpur-H.P. boundary road (Mehatpur-Una-Amb), Una- Aghar-Barsar-Jahu-Bhambla-Mandi upto Ner Chowk road (Section Una-Kalkhar), Theog-Kothkhai-Hatkoti-Rohroo road, Jogindernagar-Sarkaghat-Ghumarwin road (Section Ghumarwin-Sarkaghat), Kumarhatti-Sarahan-Nahan (Dosarka) road, Shahpur-Sihunta-Chowari-Jot-Chamba-Bharmour road (Section Draman-Sihunta), Mubarikpur-Dehra-Ranital-Kotla road (Section Ranital-Kotla), Bhawarna-Lambagaon-Jaisinghpur road.

The 2nd component will take care of maintenance and management of the core network. It includes periodic maintenance and minor rehabilitation of about 2,000 km of road in accordance with the agreed environmental measures set forth in a model environmental management.

The periodic maintenance works will be implemented through four annual maintenance programmes and would accelerate the removal of existing backlog to allow the state government to reach a steady state of the renewals on its core network.

All works are to be supervised by the government’s own staff with the assistance of an independent technical examiner. The state has a network of 30,000 km of roads, including 1,236 km of national highways. Over the past four years, Rs 1,600 crore have been sanctioned under the Bharat Nirman Yojna for 1,348 road projects envisaging construction of 8,000 km of road to benefit 3,000 villages. In terms of connectivity out of 17,449 census villages 8,531 stand connected. In all out of 3,243 panchayats in the state 484 panchayats were yet to be connected by motorable road. Work is in progress to connect 412 panchayats and the remaining 72 panchayats will be connected in a phased manner.

Kumarhatti, September 23
Residents are sore over the authorities’ cold response to their long-pending demand to shift Dagshai police chowki here. The police chowki is currently running in an old building at Dagshai, serving little purpose to check anti social activities.

Over the years, Dagshai has lost its commercial viability. Most of the activities are now centerstaged around this town that is situated along the Kalka-Shimla national highway. Around 100 villages fall under Dagshai police chowki. For most villages, Kumarhatti is the centre point rather than Dagshai. Lack of transportation to Dagshai is another problem. Presently, there is only bus service available to Dagshai. To reach the police chowki one has to either trudge 3-km up hills or pay exorbitant rates to taxis.

The odd location of the police chowki has led to increase in anti-social activities. It is hard for police personnel to maintain law and order by sitting at an isolated location on the hill top.

During any mishap, they have to waste their time to reach down town from Dagshai. On many occasions, the police assistance is delayed due to outer location of the chowki. The local panchayat has sought the shifting of the chowki on many occasions but to no avail.

It is virtually illogical to keep the chowki at Dagshai, the residents pointed out. In some cases, the police intervention was timely required but was not possible, they maintained. Sources in the police said due to the location of a helipad at Dagshai, the shift demand was ignored. 

Sundernagar, September 24
Chief Minister Vir Bhadra Singh has accused the previous BJP govt for changing the proposed site of the cement plant from a far-off area to the present site (Chambi-Kharwari area) which was close Sundernagar, while talking to media persons here today. He said after seeing the opposition of local residents against the setting up of the Plant the govt had decided to hold talks with local residents and their representatives to finalise the site.

He said the Congress govt had signed the M.O.U for setting up the plant at Nalni which was far from Sundernagr but the previous BJP govt, for reasons best known to it, had changed the site and proposed the setting up of the plant in Chambi-Khatrwari area which was closer to Sundernagar and was a populated area, due to which the local residents were opposing the decision.

He further said Harish Cement Ltd in whose favor the MOU was signed had already agreed to leave 200 bighas of land and further take responsibility to use the latest technology to reduce the pollution caused by the plant.

Nurpur, September 23
Thousands of farmers of Kangra district comprising Kangra, Hamirpur districts and Bangana tehsil of Una district are struggling for their legitimate right of ownership as they have trees growing on their private land thanks to the apathy of the state government which failed to present their case before the Central Empowered Committee effectively keeping in view the larger interest of the farming community of the merged areas of the state.

Inquiries reveal that the a law known as “Khudrao Drakhtan Malkiyat Sarkar” (KDMS) had been enacted during the British rule before 1945 is prevalent only in Kangra district depriving farmers of their right to utilize the land for cultivation as they have no right to remove trees grown spontaneously on it.

According to the prevailing British law, the farmers have the ownership rights on their land but no right on the spontaneously grown trees. According to. P.C. Kaushal the divisional forest officer, here, the then Punjab Government had issued a notification on January 11, 1919 vesting the ownership rights of spontaneously grown trees to the government and now these were being regulated and managed through the working plan of the state forest department.

The regional farmers and the Mazdoor Sabha headed by Sukhdev Singh Jamwal of Lodhwan in the subdivision has been battling for the past four years for the abolition of anti-farmer British law and vesting of ownership right on the trees grown on farmers’ land to them.

He lamented that owing to the prevalence of the British law, the farmers were unable to cultivate their own land or raise orchards because of the thick growth of the trees especially khair, kahmal and krambal trees grown on the land. 

Sundernagar, September 24
Irrigation and public health minister Kaul Singh Thakur thanked the Chief Minister for dedicating 126-MW Larji HEP to the people, which was a step towards self sustenance. He said that PTA appointments had helped in providing teaching facility in the remote and far flung areas.

He said that quality education infrastructure was being created. He said the state government was providing subsidised domestic power and essential commodities.

He added that Rs 12.5 crore-temple corpus had been created for preservation of prominent shrines in the state.

Mandi MP Pritibha Singh said the State had witnessed a record development the past four years. She said the state was the first to regularize daily wagers, provide land and money to the poor for house building and ensuring uniform and balanced development in the state. 

Shimla, September 24
An ambulance was handed over to Governor V.S. Kokje by General Manager of the State Bank of Patiala for the Red Cross Society at Raj Bhavan today.

Kokje appreciated the gesture of the bank and said it would motivate other organisations to come forward and help the needy. — TNS