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In search of drier pastures
The changing weather pattern has a new casualty – the prestigious Raid de Himalaya. One of the toughest motorsport events in the world, this edition of the event had to be to cancelled midway due to unseasonal snow in the higher reaches of the state.
Now, the Himalayan Motorsport Association is looking for new terrains in a bid to skip snow-prone areas and insulate the rally from the vagaries of weather. “The association cannot afford premature conclusion of the event. Not only does it take away the thrill, but also sponsorship money,” says association vice-president Manjiv Bhalla. “The only option is to find new routes without compromising on the toughness of the event.” The association is planning to have the initial leg of the raid in Rajasthan and increase the cold desert route of Spiti instead of passing over to Ladakh from Lahaul valley. The association is also keen to extend the duration of the six-day event to at least 10 days to catapult it into the league of the five top cross country events in the world. “We were particularly disappointed as Simo Lampinen, an observer of the Federation Internationale Motorcyclisme (FIM), had been specially deputed to assess our capabilities and the status of the event to ascertain if it could join the big league,” says Bhalla. The raid has not been snowed in for the first time. Heavy unseasonable snow forced the raid to be abandoned on Day 5 in 2004. This year, the raid was virtually over in three days. Heavy snowfall and blizzard beyond the Baralacha Pass forced cancellation of legs four, five, six and seven. Participants could not even enter Jammu and Kashmir as the highway came under 50-60 cm of snow near Patseo. Only jeeps driven by experienced drivers could navigate the snow-covered patches. The raid can be organised only during off-season as there is too much vehicular traffic on the highways during summer, the peak tourist season. Monsoons see roads frequently blocked by landslides. The rains earlier used to withdraw in the first week of September but now in recent times, monsoon continues till the end of the month. The heavy rush of trucks taking apples from the interiors is also a hindrance. The first half of October is the only time when a clear 10-days window is available but the erratic weather is creating problems here too. Of late, the mercury dips suddenly and whatever precipitation takes place in October is in the form of snow and sleet which make the road slippery and unfit for the event. And the winners... Defending champion Sunil Rana of Kulu retained the overall championship trophy. The result was declared on the basis of three legs. Ashish Saurabh Maudgil was declared the champion in extreme two-wheeler category, while Rajesh Chalana bagged the title in adventure four-wheeler category.
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The controversial 192 MW Allian-Duhangan Power Project at Duhangan may be pushing the valley to the brink of disaster, but who cares?
The Duhangan valley in Kullu, which has been a home to the hermitage of Domya rishi (worshipped locally as the guru of exiled Pandavas), is literally bleeding. Today, the valley resounds with the reckless blasting being carried on for the construction of a project road and an intake tunnel here, sending the valley’s monal, snow cock, tangrol and hundreds of grazing animals for cover.
Terror has been unleashed in Duhangan valley since 2004, when the Central Environment and Forests Ministry gave its nod to the Rajasthan Spinning and
Weaving Mills Ltd to construct the controversial 192 MW Allian-Duhangan Power Project by joining the two streams of Allian and Duhangan, without assessing its full environmental implications on the valley. Local residents demand that the project road and the diversion of Duhangan to Allian should be scrapped as otherwise, the entire valley and downstream vegetation will starve to death. They worship Duhangan as the Domya Ganga, named after sage Domya (who is believed to have mediated at Chhikka, in the upper reaches of the valley, about 7,000 years ago). The trek from Jagasukh, now plundered by project road, is still used by shepherds, nature lovers, trekkers and mountaineers, who make a beeline for the 19,000 ft Deo Tibba and the 17,000 ft Indra Sen peak. However, it’s the bulldozers, JCBs and the drilling machines that now roar in the valley, raising plumes of smoke and chlorofluorocarbons. “The road has destroyed the beauty and adventure tourism potential of the valley”, rued trekkers from Kolkatta, who were on their way to Seri and Chandertal, the base of the Deo Tibba. The project has been dogged by controversy as a PIL filed by the Sangharsh Samiti is pending in the High Court. The court had constituted a six-member judicial committee, which inspected the hydro project sites and submitted the report to the High Court on October 5, 2007. Meanwhile, the villagers of Jagatsukh have formed the Domya Ganga Sangharsh Samiti, opposing the construction of the project road and diversion of the sacred Domya Ganga to the Allian river. They plead that the project road will kill the entire Duhangan valley and the diversion of Duhangan through a tunnel at Shage Ri Shadi will starve over 4,500 bighas of agricultural land to death, as Duhangan supplies water to the area. The project road has almost destroyed the pasture-cum-camping site at Khanoon and Shage Ri Shadi. Mounds of debris blasted off from the steep hillsides to construct the road have destroyed Dugangan river between Jagatsukh and Shage Ri Shadi. Thousands of species of small plants have been buried under the road debris along the Dhangan river between Khanoon and Shage Ri Shadi. The government’s high-power committee has counted over 862 big trees that have been damaged by the falling boulders from the hillsides. They labourers are not only using local wood for fuel but also killing the wild animals for meat. Trash and sewage from the temporary labour tents are going into the Duhangan river, violating the conditions outlined in the implementation agreement and the environmental clearance given by the environment and forests ministry to the company. The company is also constructing the 15 km long Jagatsukh-Chor Pani-Khanol — Shage Ki Shari, a garden of the aromatic vegetables on the project site. Sources revealed that it took the road construction machineries by constricting the road along the riverside from Khanol through JCBs to start the work from both sides of the mountain. There are no crate walls and strictures to stop the boulders and debris from falling into Duhangan river, which feeds Jagat Sukh and irrigates over 4,500 bighas of land downstream. The dumping of road debris into the Duhangan is going on unabated, violating the Forest Conservation Act, Indian Forest Act, 1981 and Water (prevention and control of pollution) Act, 1981, despite the notices issued by the government agencies. The road between Jagat Sukh and Khanol at more than four points remains shaky as crate walls are bulging out. At three points, they have crumbed down due to shaky foundation. The crate walls have also crumbed at the tunnel site, raising questions about the quality of materials used. Though the company reasons that the debris falling from mountainsides was inevitable and penalty worth Rs 5crore has been paid to government, it hasn’t taken any preventive measures like raising crate walls along the riverside or using a more scientific cut- and -fill method of road cutting. The question that still hovers in the Duhangan valley is that will the company make amends and restore natural beauty and sanctity of the valley? And will the High Court cancel the permission for road as pleaded by the Sangharsh Samiti?
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BJP: We will oust the Cong
A sound methodology for distribution of tickets for the ensuing Vidhan Sabha polls would be soon devised to curtail undue factionalism among the aspirants. The decision was arrived at during a two-day training of BJP office bearers held on 6-7 October at Kumarhatti.
A team of BJP leaders have been given the task to finalise the parameters for ticket distribution in the next few days. The parameters would primarily include issues like clean image, mass base and past background. A senior BJP leader also said that the process would ensure that there is no favouritism or sidelining of genuine candidates. Addressing the BJP activists, senior leader and co-incharge of the state O. P. Dhankar made it clear that from now on no issue
on Giving a lesson in media management the senior leader instructed his partymen to ensure that internal infighting does not spill over in the media and all issues of discontent are addressed within the party. As a facilitating measure the media in charges have been directed to issue press notes in Hindi and English to respective media persons. Also only authorised office bearers have been directed to talk to the press. The leader also said that action would be taken against those partymen who take their personal issues to the media. On the concluding ceremony of the two-day workshop former central minister Shanta Kumar exhorted the leaders to shun infighting and work in unison to oust the Congress government. Further he said, “It was the leaders who fought among themselves and this feeling got translated down to the workers.” Former chief minister P. K. Dhumal informed the workers about various corruption related issues and asserted them to make public the misdeeds of the present government.
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vignettes
It is, however, a fact that barring Annie Besant, Madeleine Slade (Mirabehn) and a few like them, most memsahibs ignored India. They bothered not to learn the language of this country except a few words of ‘kitchen Hindustani’ and bragged at Home that they knew India. With scandalised giggles they would pass on this inside information, ‘never shake hands with an Indian, because you never know where his hand has been’ though Indians use only their left hands for ablutions and keep their right hands clean. Most of them were ordinary middle-class women put into an extraordinary situation. These women wanted excitement of a different kind in India — the excitement of hill stations. And each government had its own hill station: Bombay had Mahableshwar; Ooty was for Madras, United Provinces had Nainital, Bengal government went to Darjeeling and the Governments of the Punjab and India had the grandest hill stations of all, Shimla. Coming to a hill station, the uttermost ends of the earth to be pursued by the latest Paris fashions, satins, velvets, the newest thing in bonnets, white satin boots, which had just been sent direct to the wearer by pattern post appeared absurd to Constance Gordon Cumming, the Victorian traveller. The government was censured for being run through picnics in Shimla. Even Lady Canning, wife of the Viceroy, found Shimla ‘very questionable: It is such a sea of hill tops, and the snow mountains are so far off, and the dryness makes all look wintry’. These protests did not make any impression because likes of Lady Dufferin found themselves in ‘tally-ho’ frame of mind here. “Mothers saw their listless pale children growing plumper and rosier and more energetic day by day. After the sun-dried plains, the very look of the hills was refreshing, with streams, green grass, and flowers – and not just any flowers but the delicate flowers of the Home”, writes Margaret MacMillan in Women of the Raj. Barring the native bazaar, the Hills, for these women, smelled like Home. Anne Wilson was happy that the air around her cottage in Simla had scent of roses, verbena, mignonette and sweet peas. Women ‘galloping down the street, followed by a train of three or four elegantly equipped officers’ in Shimla of 1845 was a common sight. The memsahibs also used to play lawn tennis here or do ‘rinking’, the nineteenth century term for roller-skating. The childish games like egg and spoon races or a chasing game ‘tiggy, tiggy, touchwood’ would also interest them. A masked ball was a bright and merry party to rush about in great polkas with zeal for many sprightly old ladies loaded with flowers. Vicereines and other ‘creamy’ women used to hold feasts and parties. The memorable feast of Lanterns was organised by Lady Reading in Simla in 1924. She sits resplendent in the photograph here like the Empress Dowager. Margaret writes, “A favourable type of dinner party in Simla, at least before the First World War, was the alphabetical: all the people with names A to B were invited to one, the Cs and Ds to the next — so that nobody would be excluded by mistake.” Ladies who remained uninvited to such parties would often bribe the clerks for obtaining invitations. Shimla was a great centre for flirting and gossiping. Men on leave coming to Shimla used to pay court to grass-widows. It was dull for those who had nobody to flirt with. Val Princep, a fashionable artist, visited Shimla in 1877 and said, “If you have not a pair, as in my case, you are likely to die of inanition.” Even the Gaiety Theatre had a perfect setting for flirtation. Iris Portal recalled, “Hearts were broken and mended again on that stage and many riotous parties took place on it and in the Green Room.” Tailpiece In British Simla, ‘young officers believed that no matter how happily a woman might be married, it always pleased her to discover that there was a nice man who wished that she were not.’
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A poet tries to give a boost to the local dialect by portraying its beauty
His aim is to keep the local literature and the pahari dialect alive. Meet veterinary officer Dr Kushal Katoch, who pens down poems in the local dialect pahari.
Dr Katoch, who works as a senior veterinary officer in Himachal’s state animal husbandry department, was born in Garh Jamula village near Palampur. He served as the in charge of the local veterinary hospital, the assistant project officer in the district rural development agency and also as the technical assistant to the district’s animal husbandry officer. The avid poet took to writing at the age of 12. After joining service at Gurdaspur, he started writing poems in Hindi. The veterinarian’s interest in the local dialect stemmed up after a meeting with Prem Bhardwaj, a pahari and Hindi poet. In 2006, Badlonday Rishtay came into being. This composition stresses on the importance of human relationships. One of his well-known lines is, ‘Upra tai hun aunday rishtay, inhan ni takronday ristay’ (relations come from heaven and not come by chance). Through his writings, the poet has tried to give a boost to the otherwise deteriorating pahari language by portraying its beauty and also stressing on the local way of life. Some of Dr Katoch’s Hindi poems are Mrig Trishna and Lamhain and a poetry book in Hindi is presently in the process of publication. He has written in Hindi “sulagtay cigarette se dhuan ban dheerai dheerai huva sai mil adrishya hoti yeh zindagi,” that means (like a burning cigarette, life is finishing and vanishing in the air as the smoke of cigarette). He writes on the happenings of daily life and society. His way of expressing things in words in local dialect is very appealing. His poems have been published in many magazines and newspapers also. He actively takes part in inter-state kavi samelans and also in the radio shows and television talks. He was awarded the Himachal Kesari Pahari Sahitya award in January 2007. He writes stories and prose also but they are yet to be compiled in a book.
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Chinks in the system
Despite a high court ban on mining in riverbeds, the industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh is facing worst kind of damage from illegal mining operations.
What is baffling is that the authorities have accepted the fact that such illegal mining is well beyond their control and hence make little effort to curb it. The riverbeds have become deeper by 25 to 30 feet, which is evident in Chikni, Mahadev, Kundlu as well as Balad riverbeds. The unabated mining in the form of extraction of stones can be gauged from the deteriorating condition of the spans supporting the bridges. Most of the spans are worn down due to the removal of stones from their periphery and also the level of riverbeds has been reduced by several metres. This illegal quarry material is then loaded in tractor-trailers and transported through various routes to the nearby Punjab. All the administration has done now is to levy an annual fee of Rs 1,500 per tractor for it’s commercial use in transporting quarry material. This provision was introduced in 2002 after the state government realised that the tractors were paying no tax. Though they were registered for agricultural use but transported quarry material and paid no tax. According to an estimate, there were about 5,000 tractors plying in the area, with each tractor making three to four trips daily. While standing at Sobenmajra, near Panjera, one could see one tractor crossing the road every minute. Use of escape routes leading to Punjab like Nathu Plassi, Dhabota, Flahikotla, etc was common and the tractors- trailers openly carried quarry material to Punjab. Sub-divisional magistrate Manmohan Sharma said the vast area with numerous khuds and riverbeds made it difficult to catch hold of such illegal activities. Though the mining department had increased the number of guards, it was still difficult to curb this illegal trade, said Sharma. He further added since the tractors paid taxes it was not easy to impound them. Though he added that on an average about 40 to 50 tractors were booked every month for illegal mining. As a deterrent, a tractor was fined Rs 5,000 if caught for the first time and this amount increased if caught again. But officials said the fine was too little in proportion to the gains. So pitiable was the condition of riverbeds with excess mining that deep fissures had crept up at a number of places along the bridges. It also resulted in the steep difference between the bed levels on either sides of Mahadev and Chikni bridges. Stones up to 25 to 30 feet had been extracted from the proximity of the spans of these bridges. This is why Chikni bridge collapsed during last rainy season and others like Bagvania and Balad faced excessive damage which led to their closure.
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A fight for survival
In a crusade against hunger and poverty at the world level, Art of Living and United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) have decided to mobilise over 4 million people to observe ‘Stand up and speak out’ campaign to draw the world’s attention towards this problem on October 17.
In this campaign the participants would stand for two-minutes and take a pledge on this day to defeat extreme poverty from the busiest New York’s Time Square to smallest schools world over, including those in the remote areas of Himachal Pradesh. The spirit behind this campaign is the commitment 189 countries had made to the United Nations in 2002 summit for building a safer, more prosperous and equitable world for all by 2015. This summit had set eight millennium development goals (MDG’s) — to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to promote gender equality and empower women, to reduce child mortality, to improve mental health, to combat HIV/ AIDS, malaria etc, to ensure environmental sustainability and to build global partnership for development. The thrust would be on the eradication of extreme poverty, since five years have already elapsed after the summit. The organiser of this programme in the state, Kamlesh Barwal says the idea behind the campaign is to remind the world leaders of their promise of achieving the MDG’s by 2015.
They will start with asking the rich countries to give more aid, debt cancellation, adopting fair trade and save the lives of poor. The state unit of Art of Living will mobilise more than 20,000 participants on October 17.
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SHIMLA DIARY
The cluster approach being adopted by the government to promote handlooms as a cottage industry has been a big success. This became evident from the products displayed at the 10-day exhibition-cum-buyer weaver interaction, which commenced on October 4.
The whole exquisitely designed Kullu shawls, jackets, caps, socks, gloves and other products had been produced by just 27 families, forming part of the first such cluster of weavers in the district which is being promoted by the state handicrafts and handloom corporation. There is a wide variety of shawls ranging from ones made from ordinary wool priced at Rs 300 upwards to the high-end Pashmina shawls costing around Rs 10,000 a piece. Each family on an average produces 30 to 50 shawls, depending on the intricacies of the design and the skills of family members. Thus, the annual production ranges between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh per family, which enables them to earn a substantial amount sitting at home. The success is remarkable considering that the cluster is just two years old. Production is not a problem, the major bottleneck which discourages the weavers is the lack of assured market, says Durga Dass, a member of the cluster from the remote Mathar village in Banjar area. The corporation has been with the assistant of the Centre organising such exhibitions to provide a market platform to the weavers. Besides free transportation, boarding and lodging the participants are also provided a daily allowance of Rs 100. However, weavers want marketing through regular channels and also want the government to explore the possibility of exports, which will certainly help increase the returns. The corporation is aware of the marketing problem and has decided to organise exhibitions more frequently. After Shimla exhibitions will be held at Chandigarh and Jaipur. It also proposes to promote a second cluster of weavers in the Mandi district. Virbhandra lures NRIs
The longest serving chief minister in the country, Virbhadra Singh, has been at the helm for over 16 years but this is for the first time he has proceeded on a foreign tour on an official visit. He has been abroad several times on private visits and as a member of parliament earlier. It is quite surprising, considering that many of his ministers and senior officers have over the years made numerous visits to various countries at the state expense. During his weeklong sojourn in New York and Washington, he will be interacting with top executives of the World Bank, which is keen to help the hill state in finding a permanent solution to the financial crisis plaguing the state. Besides a development policy loan over Rs 850 crore to push forward fiscal reforms, it is also providing funds for upgrading the road network and to develop hydroelectric power as main resource. The chief minister will also interact with captains of the industries, particularly the non-resident Indians, to help bring foreign investment to the state. The abundance of power, industrial peace and high percentage of educated population makes the state an ideal destination for foreign investment, particularly in the hydropower, tourism and IT sectors. IT catching up
The integrated BCA-MCA course introduced by the Bells Institute of Management and Technology at its centre here five year ago has been a resounding success. It was the first course of its kind to be introduced in the state and its biggest advantage was that it helped save one year of IT industry aspirants. The success of the programme could be judged from the fact that the number of seats has been doubled to 60 over the period. According to director Sandeep Gupta, the course was highly structured and designed to suit the requirement of the IT and related industries.
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Rajputs threaten to launch stir if their demands are not met
The Rajput Kalyan Sabha of the state has criticised the government for not providing compensation to affected land owners, whose lands were vested in favour of the tenants after the implementation of the state’s chapter of Land Reforms and Tenancy Act-1974. The Sabha has also raised its voice for provision of adequate job opportunities for the youth and constitution of a welfare board for community development.
The land owners have threatened to launch an agitation if their demands are not met at the earliest. Leader Rajput Kalyan Sabha Col S.C. Parmar alleged, “Virbhadra Singh’s government in 1997-98 had promised adequate compensation for landowners for which Rs 30 crore was also earmarked, however, no compensation has been released till now.” The Rajputs had also demanded that recruitment for armed forces and para-military forces should include the youth from the state. As per an estimate, around 70,000 soldiers from armed forces and over one-lakh soldiers from para-military forces retire each year. “The state government should demand special quota for the recruitment of its youth keeping in view the vast number of vacancies created each year, “ said Parmar. The Rajputs were also of the view that the policy of the central government on reservations in castes has been responsible for social disparities, discrimination and injustice leading to loss in land and job opportunities. The below poverty line figures in the state and the country are indicative of the fact that the current reservation policy is not beneficial for the poor and downtrodden. “It’s therefore demanded that the reservation should be based on economic criteria and not on caste or creed”, said Parmar. Further, the Sabha has also demanded a setting up of a Rajput Welfare Board. “This would ensure social justice for all members of the community,” said Parmar. The Rajputs also complained that their demand of declaring Maharana Pratap Jayanti (birthday) as a state function and marking it as a state holiday too has not been met.
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The Afghan Connection
Sitting thousand of miles away, here, he can feel the pain and suffering of the innocent laborious Afghani people as he shares a special bond with the man who is leading the war-ravaged nation on the path to peace and prosperity.
Local businessman Shyam Khanna, who shares a three-decade-long friendship with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, is confident of a bright future for the country, which has witnessed endless turmoil and bloodshed. Back after a week-long visit to Afghanistan, he is confident that the brave Afghanis would not take too long in rebuilding their nation. With the friendship dating back to 1979, when President Karzai came to Shimla as a student, the two have kept in touch and shared their moments of joys and sorrows despite the distance. It is for this reason that Khanna keeps a close watch on the developments in Afghanistan and of course on his friend. In fact President Karzai got a poem penned by Khanna published in the Afghanistan Times, a leading English daily of his country. “I wrote the poem after I saw Karzai overcome with emotion and grief during a BBC interview at the death of innocent girls in a bomb blast near Kabul,” says Khanna. To his utter surprise the President presented him with a copy of the newspaper in which the poem had been published when he visited Afghanistan, last month. “When I asked him if he had read the poem in his e-mail, he gave me a pleasant surprise by showing the newspaper,” he says. Khanna says considering the extent to which the country was devastated due to the continuous war, Afghanistan has come a long way. “The power projects, excellent road network, mobile phone services and educational institutions are a proof of the tremendous development that has taken place in the last four years,” he says. “Karzai still considers India his second home and loves the country which he wants should play a bigger role in reconstruction of Afghanistan,” says Khanna. Despite shouldering an enormous responsibility of leading his nation on the path of development, Karzai remembers old friends and keeps up with them. He loves Shimla and does not miss out on any opportunity to visit the place where he did his college and studied at the Himachal Pradesh University. “He often recollects his Shimla days with great fondness and remembers every moment of
his stay at the YMCA and later in the university,” he says. Karzai had visited Shimla in November last year. This is the poem Khanna penned on meeting, Mirwais, the seven-month-old son of Karzai. With the sincere wishes that peace is restored in Afghanistan and the people can lead a happy and normal life on the horizon of hope
and faith.
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10 visually-impaired children of Dhalli School do state proud, win 19 medals at national athletics meet
Being tough and hardy comes naturally to them. It is for this very reason that the 10 visually-impaired children from the Dhalli School were able to excel at the Fourth National Blind Athletics Meet held at Ludhiana.
The 10-member team from the institute for visually and hearing impaired won a haul of 19 medals and the best athlete of the meet award was also given to one of the boys, Anil Sharma. The team won 11 gold, seven silver and one bronze. Anil Sharma, who was adjudged the best athlete, won gold in long jump, javelin throw and 100 mt race. A total of 19 teams from various states and union territories had taken part in the meet held at Ludhiana last week. The meet was organised by the Punjab State Association for the Blind. It is these rare moments of accomplishment and success that these children relish and remember for long. “Being from a hill state where life is tough, our boys are much stronger and will powered than others,” says Deep Ram Sharma, their coach, who was also given a special honour for the brilliant performance given by his boys. Despite the outstanding performance given by these children at the national meet, the fact remains that they are not getting the kind of facilities and coaching that their counterparts from other states get. Most of the athletes rue that not much attention is paid towards their coaching, diet and equipments. Being their first participation at such a big meet, the children want that the government should provide liberal fund for promoting sports. “If we could beat teams from states like Delhi and Punjab, who are being given much better facilities and training, why should the government not spend more on us,” quips Dayawant and Anil. The Himachal chapter of the Society for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies has decided to honour all team members on World Disability Day on December 3. “These children have brought honour to the state by giving such a brilliant performance so we must make them feel special and important,” says Ajai Srivastana, chairman of the society. He said all the team members would be given a citation and a cash award of Rs 1,000. Other students who have won medals, include Suraj Kumar, Deepak, Dharmendra, Sanjay, Shishu and
Joginder.
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Memsahibs were magnificent. Memsahibs were awful. They wore voluminous clothes hostile to Indian climate. They wore little to cover their skins. They sauntered sporting broad-rimmed hats protecting their rose-petal cheeks from the alien sun. They roamed about bare headed. They were well behaved. They were arrogant. Such controversial statements qualify memsahibs or the masters’ women in British India.
