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Valley of adventure
Bir-Billing, a perfect paragliding destination in Kangra is all set to organise the Himalayan Pre-World Cup paragliding competition. The event will be held from November 14-17 and is expected to draw participation from pilots all over the world. The tourism department of the state has taken approval from Aero Club of India, Department of Civil Aviation and Paragliding World Cup Association (France) for holding the same. The event ranks top among the adventure sports events held in the country.
The Western Himalayan Mountaineering Institute-Manali will also be contributing to the show. The trials for the events will be held on November 12 and 13 in the presence of a technical committee appointed by the Aero Club of India. The committee will inspect the equipment, monitor the clearance of landing and take-off sites and look into matters related to liasoning with rescue, retrieval and the safety of the teams. The weather conditions in the valley in November also suits the holding of such events. The take-off point will be Billing, which is at a distance of 14 km from Bir, the landing point (at a height of 2,080m). Bir, a small village is surrounded by tea gardens and has emerged as an importance venue for paragliding events, after Manali in HP and Gulmarg in J&K. The valley offers excellent opportunity for high-altitude and cross-country flying and its name is now included in the international paragliding circuits. It may be mentioned that paragliding was introduced in the hill state way back in 2001 and it was decided to exploit the adventure sport to the benefit of the valley. The first pre-world cup was organised here in 2002 and has been a regular annual feature since then.
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Folksy vs Filmy
The newly emerged ‘pahari pop’, filmy numbers and music-based television shows have pushed folk numbers out from the cultural programme organised by Lal Chand Prarthi Kala Kendra. This week-long International Folk Festival at Dhalpur Maidan that started on October 21 will continue till October 27.
The cultural pundits say the real folk element is missing from the programme. Its place has been taken by the popular pop and filmy numbers. The programme was inaugurated by the state governor V. S. Kokje. It was a mixed bag of entertainment that started with Kulvi Natti. Troupes from Kerla, Punjab and Arunachal Pradesh performed. But these cultural performances were more pop-oriented than folk. Though Kullu Dussehra is known as International cultural and folk festival, not even a single international troupe has participated this year. Besides, the same performances are being dished out every year and at each festivals — be it Kullu Dussehra, Shivratri of Mandi, Summer festival, Shimla, Lavi of Rampur, Minjar of Chamba, Dharamshala Festival or Hamir Festival. “If you see any one of them, you have seen all. They all are similar. N there is no new pieces or innovations,” comments Lekh Raj Thakur, who is doing his research on folk theatres of Himachal Pradesh. “The Dussehra committee must involve folk artistes and experts to decide the programmes. In fact, the real artistes are being ignored as they have no one to speak for them,” he adds. However, there is ray of hope as the committee has started giving patronage to the artistes from the state by featuring two nights — Pahari and Himachali Nite. “But the committee has to work harder and discover folk artistes from remote villages,” says Thakur. Then Laughter Nite on October 25 will feature 18 performers from the state. The night will feature a Himachali Fashion show and cultural troupes from Ladakh and Maharashtra. There will be a Punjabi Nite on October 26 in which Harbhajan Mann will be the star performer. The concluding day will be the Bollywood Nite in which Shreya Ghoushal will be the star performer.
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Mission: Reaching Out
Young additional chief organiser of Congress Sevadal Chander Sekhar’s efforts, however, have gone unnoticed. But he went ahead with his mission tirelessly, meeting all types of people — the sick, the ignored and poor — in the remote areas during his padyatra. He touched each nook and corner of 45 panchayats, which have a tough terrain to walk on foot. Fired by the zeal to champion the cause of his people in his home constituency, Sekhar had embarked on the Sanklap Padyatra from Torkhola Panchayat on May 31, celebrated as the Balidan Divas of late Rajiv Gandhi. He concluded his padyatra at Sakreni Mata Temple in Tanher Panchayat on October 14. Sekhar feels charged and has emerged as a strong contender for the party ticket from Dharampur, one of the weakest segments for the Congress in Mandi. Sharing his experience with Himachal Plus, Sekhar says he was bowled over by people’s response to his padyatra, which he started keeping in mind the party mantra of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi — “to serve the neglected and poor backward areas and take Congress gospel of welfare and programmes to the people.” He has sought the blessings of chief minister Virbhadra Singh when he stared his padyatra on May 31. Sekhar met over 3,000 patients suffering from paralysis. “They suffer silently as they live in the belief that there was no treatment,” he says. “We organised medical camps and sent them to hospitals.” Not only this, padyatris met over another 300-400 old and helpless people who sought old-age pensions. “We helped them in this regards,” he adds. Residents of the remote villages gave them the warm reception in a true Mandyali tradition. “We made people aware of government schemes and programmes. Meeting people do make a difference,” he says. Sekhar is doing his groundwork to stake his claim for the party ticket from Dharampur, one of weakest Congress segment. Rather than making rounds of 10 Janpath, residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi or the Holy Lodge, residence of chief minister Virbhadra Singh, he prefers making personal rapport with people of all sections. Earlier, former Prime Minister Chandersekhar had undertook a padyatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Then Ajit Jogi, Jharkhand congress leader did the same in the tribal areas covering 1500 km. Now this small town Congress soldier, has also created history and set standards for others. Will party ignore this young upbeat ambitious young leader or he will be appreciated for his historic padyatra and would be rewarded for endeavour, only time will tell.
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Vignettes
BARNES Court, from where the governor wields power in this state, is one of the most famous old houses in Shimla. The Department of Language and Culture is celebrating its 175th anniversary by holding a seminar in the majestic complex on October 25.
Dr J. Ludlow, while purchasing the 200 square yards of land in January 1830, could not have possibly dreamt that the house to be built on the land would attain international importance when Indira Gandhi and Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto signed the historic Shimla Agreement there at 12.40 a.m. on July 3, 1972. The world acknowledged India’s magnanimity in releasing about 56,000 PoWs and the captured areas. No doubt, the proudest possession of Barnes Court is the table on which the agreement was signed by India and Pakistan (see photo). The building earned its name from Sir Edward Barnes, commander-in-chief, who had joined the office in January 1832 and immediately purchased the right and title of this plot of land and added 42 acres of the surrounding wasteland to the estate after constructing Barnes Court. The property then quickly changed hands from Edward Barnes to Major S.B. Goad to Major General Sir Peter Lumsden and finally to the Punjab government in May 1879. Since then it remained the seat of the Punjab governors till 1966 and the residence-cum-office of the governors of Himachal Pradesh from 1981 onwards with a short break of five months in 1993 when governor Gulsher Ahmad had carried the office to Peterhof. At the time when the Punjab government had purchased it, it was ‘a partly single and partly double-storeyed building facing west and south… The building is so arranged as to have a good view on three sides, viz, on the west, south and east.’ The most catching description of its architecture is given by Jan Morris in Stones of Empire: “This was remarkably like curiously re-constructed kind of English manor-house. Its gardens were landscaped in English style, its trees were cunningly disposed, and the whole house was built in nostalgic half-timbering. Patterned dark woodwork beneath its eaves gave it, it is true, something of the air of a Swiss hotel, a gabled verandah acknowledged that this in fact was India, but a cunning sleight of hand or trompe l ‘oeil from some angles the octagonal steeple which stood at one corner of the house looked tantalisingly like an English steeple, and made one think that the squire might easily emerge from Barnes Court on Sunday morning to chiming bells across meadows, to walk through his private wicker gate to morning service.” Its layout went on modifying with times but the ambience has remained undisturbed. The road leading to Sanjauli passed by the side of its northern gate. It was closed in the mid 1980s when a new road on that side was built veiling the mansion by an unsightly cemented wall. Flowerbeds in the front were widened in the 1990s, an elevator and a fire escape staircase were added in 1994 and names in Hindi were given to various suites and office rooms in 1998. Barnes Court has also added to the academics of India. On October 14, 1882, the first meeting of the senate of the Panjab University, then at Lahore, was held here under the chairmanship of first vice-chancellor Borden Powell, thus establishing the first teaching university at Lahore in north India. The convocation functions of Himachal Pradesh University in late 70s were held in its Durbar Hall designed in eastern Moorish style by Lockwood Kipling. The wife of Sir William Gomm, commander-in-chief residing in Barnes Court, had buried her favourite bloodhound ‘Coonah’ in the open space north of the building in 1851. The grave still exists and people crossing the side at night say they often hear fierce bark of a dog there. Is Coonah a phantom bloodhound now? Tailpiece Sir Louis Dane, the lieutenant governor of Punjab, set up beehives at Barnes Court in 1908. The bees dodged him and preferred syrupy dishes of halwais at Chotta Shimla to the flowers in his garden. Pestered by the bees, the sweetmeat sellers refused to pay taxes and started making a noise. The first ever apiary of Shimla had to be closed and the ‘Governor’s honey’ bottled out as ‘Governor’s hooey’.
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SHIMLA DIARY
During the study, additional director general of police D.S. Minhas interacted with police officers and people of Punjab, Haryana and
Chandigarh, besides his own state. He has also proposed an effectiveness model to measure the “organisational effectiveness” from the perspective of the general public and also from that of police officers. As per the study, effectiveness from two different perspectives is different. The leadership style does affect effectiveness from the public perspective. The public found Shimla police least effective. Not surprisingly, the rich and powerful found police to be more effective as compared to the poor people. While availability of service round-the-clock along with impressive uniform were the main strength of the police, discourteous
behaviour, corruption and reaching late on the scene of offence were the weaknesses. In addition, authoritative style was found to be the least effective leadership style. Education and experience were found to be positively correlated to organisational efficiency and effectiveness of police station in the scholastic study. The findings of the study, which earned Minhas a Ph.D (business administration) from the Aligarh Muslim University, will be useful in framing a suitable training programme to help improve the organisational effectiveness of police as a whole. A postgraduate in Physics from Delhi University, Minhas has been engaged in scholastic pursuits through his career and had acquired an MBA degree from the University of Hawaii, followed by an advanced diploma in German. He also obtained diplomas in yoga studies and operational research. He is the first IPS officer of the state cadre to earn a doctorate.
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Tribute to bravehearts
The police chiefs of all districts celebrated the Police Commemoration Day on Sunday. The families of the deceased policemen were invited on the occasion. Superintendent of police Diljeet Singh said, “We are ensuring requiste assistance for their immediate families”
Of the total number of casualties in the police forces, it’s the paramilitary forces that suffer maximum loss. These forces, comprising Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Security Guards (NSG) and SSB, have lost 346 of the total 711 losses in the past one year. The remaining casualities of men belonged to the police forces of various strife-torn states like Uttar Pradesh (125), Jammu and Kashmir (68), Chattisgarh (52) and Jharkhand(24). Additional director general of police, D.S.Minhas who presided over the function held at police lines lauded the efforts of those men in uniform who held their duty supreme and did not hesitate to give away their life in hour of need. He also honoured 23 civilians who had been assisting the police in maintaining law and order. Those honoured included pradhan of Salogra panchayat Kanti Swarup, Sanjay Awasthi general secretary of district congress committee, Vijay Aggrawal vice-chairman BDC Kandhaghat, Prabhu Dayal up-pradhan Garkhal-Sanawar panchayat, Ram Sarup, Parmanand and others who are also members of police community schemes
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BSP makes little impact in Solan
Despite registering the highest SC population growth of .27 per cent in the district, BSP appears to have made no impact on the political scenario of the constituency.
Considering the highest growth rate of SC population, the Delimitation Commission has declared it the state’s seventeenth reserve constituency. This, however, will remain unimplemented in the ensuing assembly poll due to the sudden announcement of elections. The district presently has a lone reserve constituency (Kasauli) and this number will rise to two in the next assembly polls, if the new delimitation notification is implemented. Though the BJP is all set to field it’s two time MLA Dr Rajiv Bindal and the congress may field a new face, the victory would be limited to merely one term. With the new delimitation notification getting through, those desirous of gaining party tickets here feel it will seal their future prospects after a maiden contest. Despite the presence of a large number of SC population, no political leader having a sizeable influence has joined the BSP till now.
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Chamba VDCs demand honorarium
Village Defence Committees constituted after the August 1998 massacre of 35 labourers in Chamba villages that share the border with Doda have demanded honorarium.
While special police officers appointed in the wake of the Kalaban-Satrundi carnages have also asked for regularisation of their services. Nearly 159 VDCs comprising of 1440 members and 476 special police officers had been trained to handle weapons and combat terrorism. The government has been using their services for the past decade along the 265 km border to gather intelligence inputs and assist paramilitary forces. It may be mentioned here that about 60 villagers were selected to VDCs from Priyungal, Jasaoh and Sanghni areas in Bhandal panchayat. The first VDC was also constituted in this area.
— TNS
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Virbhadra to contest from Rohru
Chief minister Virbhadra Singh will be contesting his last election from the Rohru constituency. By the next assembly poll the report of the delimitation commission will be implemented and election will be held on the basis of delimited constituencies. The Rohru segment has been reserved for scheduled castes (SC), while Kusumpti, currently reserved for SC’s, has been thrown open.
The face of the state assembly will be changed significantly as the delimited segments may end the political career of many leaders. For instance, the Solan segment will also be reserved which will take the number of constituencies reserved for SC’s from 16 to 17. With this two of the five segments in the Solan district will be reserved. The Baijnath segment will be reserved and Pragpur opened in the Kangra district. Similarly, in the Una district Chintpurani will be reserved and Gagret will be opened to the general category. Panjiri for child nutrition
The state cooperative milk producers federation has bagged an important supply order to provide nutritional supplements to the children through integrated child development project of the welfare department. It will help the loss-making unit to improve its financial position. In the first phase it will supply 1041 qunital of panjiri to 15 blocks in the Mandi district at the rate of Rs 89 per kg fixed by the government. The federation will set up a manufacturing unit at its milk plant in Chakkar near Mandi town. The order is to be executed by March next.
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Maiden Magic
The four-day district-level sports meet held at Hamirpur came as a boost for the private schools in the district. Organised by the Himachal Board of School Education, this first-ever district level meet saw participation from 1,531 students of 52 schools. The students registered themselves for competitions in kabaddi, basketball, volleyball and badminton. Separate cultural competitions were held for girl students. The students in private schools felt they were deprived of sport opportunities and brought the matter to the notice of the chief minister, who entrusted the responsibility of the sports meet on to the board.
The maiden meet that concluded on October 15 witnessed an overwhelming response, but complaints regarding poor arrangements too followed. Board chairperson B.R. Rahi who inaugurated the meet said, “We would ensure fairness in the games and the drawbacks of this year would be taken care of next time”. Next, the board will hold state level competitions for Palampur’s private schools from November 12 –14.
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Sherwood lifts hockey trophy
Sarvesh scored the first goal for Sherwood in the 13th minute of the first half and Abhay scored the second goal in the 19th minute. Pinegrove reduced the margin in the second half when Nischay Kapoor scored the solitary goal for the hosts in the 13th minute. Pinegrove lads missed many opportunities while Sherwood capitalised on all that came their way. Earlier, in the first semi final Pinegrove defeated YPS, Patiala, by 2-1. YPS was leading in the beginning but Pinegrove hit back and equalised the score. Scoring one more goal in the last few minutes Pinegrove glided to victory. Salil and Nikhil of Pinegrove scored one goal each while Sukhraj was the only scorer for YPS. The second semifinal was between Sherwood and YPS, Mohali. In a closely contested match, Abhay of Sherwood scored the only goal leading his school to victory by 1-0. Prateek Romana of Pinegrove was adjudged the best player; Sukhraj of YPS, Patiala the highest scorer, Rohan Suri of Sherwood the best goalkeeper of the tournament and the most promising player award was given to Nabhdeep Singh of the host school. Cmdr I L Sayal, principal, Punjab Public School- Nabha, was the chief guest on the closing ceremony. He stressed on giving importance to sports in schools and said that such tournaments help in building the character of the
children.
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Wash & Eat
A leading British microbiologist has warned that ‘ready-to-eat’ food products are not devoid of the risk of salmonella infection, and suggested that consumers wash the packaged contents again before eating them.
Professor John Threlfall of the Government’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) says the incidences of salmonella infections, which are associated with ready-to-eat salads and herbs, have been rising. “People could be putting themselves at risk by not washing these vegetables. There have been a lot of outbreaks linked to ready-to-eat vegetables and herbs, often those shipped in from other countries,” the Scotsman quoted him as saying in the agency’s magazine, Health Protection Matters.
— ANI
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He is an unsung hero. He created history by walking over 2,300 km during his Sankalap Padyatra in 147 days, contacting over 20,000 households in Dharampur constituency in Mandi.
Top cops are known to be authoritative in their attitude and behaviour towards the public. However, their subordinate officers do perceive them not only as “more authoritative” but also less participative and less nurturing. Interestingly, this finding is the outcome of a police related research study conducted by a top cop of the state for his doctorate degree.
Sherwood College, Nanital, lifted the 10th Sub-Junior Inter Public School Hockey Trophy after defeating hosts Pinegrove School, Dharampur, in a keenly contested match by 2-1.