Solan, February 16
As many as nine industrial units, including pharmaceutical, packaging as well as auto part manufacturers, have been found violating the employment policy by employing less than 70 per cent Himachalis.

Finding these units flagrantly violating various acts, including the Industrial Policy 2004, Minimum Wages Act 1948 and Employment Exchanges Compulsory Notification Act 1954 the district employment officer D.K. Manta today issued notices to these units.

A copy of this report has also been sent to the Labour and Employment Directorate, GM, District Industries Centre, director of industries as well as the DC for further action.

Since violation of this crucial norm will prevent these units from availing any benefit under the 2003 central industrial package. It now becomes the duty of the Industries Department to proceed with further action.

Confirming the development, Manta said that these revelations had emerged from the field inspections of nearly 48 units conducted in January-February.

It was for the first time that such a large number of cases had been detected violating the employment policy. Interestingly the Chief Minster only yesterday reiterated his stand that any violation of 70 per cent Himachali intake would attract curtailment of incentives.

These units include Alpla Industries Private Limited, which manufactures plastic bottles for packaging, based at Thana village near Baddi, where only 52.5 per cent Himachalils were found working as against the requisite norm of 70 per cent.

Another such unit was Theon Pharmaceutical based at saini Majra village, where this per cent was as less as 52, while in Vapi Care Pharmaceuticals, unit-II located at Pelikhol village, it was 57.6 per cent. Still worse was at Cosmo Life Sciences near Baddi, it was 56.4, an auto parts unit Fiem Industries located at Bhatian had merely employed 61 per cent Himachalis. In Dabur India’s Kisenpura unit, the intake of Himachalis was merely 42 per cent, while R.M. Chemicals, which manufacturers detergents and is located at Bhatoli Kalan, the percentage of Himachalis was 44.5 per cent only.

A Solan-based Alchemist, which came into production in June 2006 had employed merely 63.8 per cent Himachalis, while Hetero Drugs located at Baddi could muster barely 38 per cent Himachalis.

While all these units have come up in production after the 2003 central industrial package, they have been clearly violating the employment norms.

Solan, February 16
Acceding to the demand of the pharmaceutical manufacturers the government has finally de-notified the three-member drug licensing authority and restored the earlier arrangement of single-member licensing authority.

The constitution of this committee had complicated the licensing procedure and the Himachal Pradesh Drug Manufacturers Association (HPDMA) had been resenting it ever since it was notified in March last year by the previous Congress government. They had earlier met the Chief Minister and requested him to annul the three-member committee. This change has come as a major relief to the manufacturers who rued inordinate delays due to few meetings of the committee.

Confirming the de-notification health minister Dr Rajiv Bindal said more changes were on the anvil in the health directorate, as a complete restructuring was required. He said more positive changes would follow this de-notification.

Though the previous Congress government had been professing that the committee would meet every fortnight so that licenses and approvals were not put on hold for long but it belied reality. The fact that the three members of the committee could not meet even once every month it had created a huge backlog. The last meeting of this committee had convened on November 30.

This had created a long list of pending drug licenses as well as approvals for various drugs. The state had received investment worth crores in pharmaceutical sector alone with nearly 350 big and small firms setting up their operations here. With renowned names like Nicolas Piramal, Cipla, Cadila, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Morepan, Ranbaxy, Glenmark, Wings etc., having invested in the state the constitution of this committee had cast a negative impression about the government’s concern towards providing a facilitative regime.

Kullu, February 16
Putting the travellers to inconvenience and to bear the monopolistic fares of Air Deccan in this sector Air India has suddenly curtailed its flights from four days a week to twice a week from today.

It had been operating on Delhi-Kullu-Delhi sector on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with its 48-seat capacity ATR-42 aircraft.

The Hoteliers’ Association of Kullu and Manali had requested the Union Government to let Air India operate on this route on a daily basis but the request in vain.

The sudden decision of Air India to curtail the flights was resented by all in the district.

Gautam Thakur, president of the Manali Hoteliers’ Association said the Indian Airlines had been operating seasonal flights to Kullu from Delhi since 1959 and in the eighties. The third airlines Vayudoot had up to eight flights a day from Kullu to Delhi, Chandigarh and Shimla.

He said now Kullu was connected to Delhi only by air.

Subhash Malhan, general secretary, Kullu Hoteliers and Guest House Association, condemned the decision of the Air India management to curtail the flights. He said the tourist season was in the offing and the airlines, instead of increasing its frequency, had curtailed from four to two flights a week.

He demanded that the national carrier should operate daily on the Delhi-Kullu-Delhi sector and also connect Kullu with Chandigarh and Shimla.

Subhash Chander, president of the Travel Agents Association, here said the Air India had been changing its schedules every now and then.

Satish Kumar Sharma, area marketing manager, Air India at Bhuntar, said the change was for a short period as Air India had started new sectors in other states. Another reason he sited was the weather conditions. He said the flights would be regular after two months or so. 

Shimla, February 16
The government plans to bring 7,000 hectares of additional area under horticulture during 2008-09.

Stating this while presiding over a meeting of horticulture officers convened to review schemes under the horticulture technology mission and state plan here today, horticulture minister Narender Bragta said government had decided to accord special priority to strengthening horticulture sector in the state.

It was only the viable mean for the economic uplift of the people, he added. The centrally-sponsored scheme was launched by the NDA government in 2003 for sustainable development of horticulture. The state was allocated Rs 80 crore during the 10th plan and with an assistance of Rs 24 crore during 2007-08.

He said emphasis would also be on ways and means to tackle natural calamities. Training programmes for farmers, especially for women, would be reoriented for skill formation and skill improvement in rural population, he added.

Private nurseries would also be encouraged in place of rootstocks so that demand of the people could be fulfilled and youth could get self-employment opportunities at village level.

He directed officers to implement result-oriented programmes with dedication and renewed zeal and visit fields to impart technical know-how to the farmers in the state.

He asked the departmental officers to convene regular meetings at all levels to review progress of various programmes.

He said he would himself visit all districts and review the implementation of the schemes and programmes personally.

Earlier, director of horticulture Gurdev Singh said 77,333 fruit growers had got benefited under the horticulture technology mission so far and 14,333.2 hectare additional land was brought under horticulture.

Una, February 16
Despair was writ large on the wrinkle-ridden face of octogenarian Chinti Devi as she waited to handover her application to Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal during his visit to the district today.She failed to give her application to Dhumal.

In a small hand written application that seemed to have been penned by some other person of her village, she had pleaded for a monetary grant for the marriage of her granddaughter.

However, due to huge rush of BJP workers seeking audience of Dhumal at Una rest house, Chinti Devi failed to register her plea with Dhumal. She returned home disappointed.

While talking to The Tribune she said her village, Nahari, was located about 40 km from Una. It fell under the Kutlehar constituency, one of most backward areas of the district.

All residents of the village are Dalits. None of them is employed in government job or has agriculture land. All families are dependent on labour and are living in abject poverty.

The son of Chinti Devi, who is the only earning member of the family, is physically challenged. She said the grant from the government was the only hope of financial help they had to marry her grantdaughter.

The Kutlehar constituency to which she belongs is being represented by the BJP for the past more than about 20 years now. However, still the resident of the area are bereft of basic facilities as drinking water.

To add to it, the common people are finding it difficult to meet Dhumal to speak of their problems.

Meanwhile, Dhumal today inaugurated the new indoor stadium at Government College, Una. The indoor stadium has been made at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore.

While addressing the meeting, Dhumal urged the workers of the party to exercise discipline in their conduct. He urged them to first bring the grievances of the common people to the notice of local authorities.

In case the local authorities did not take appropriate action, the matter should be brought to the notice of the government. If proper procedure was followed action would be taken against local authorities who ignored justified complaints.

Dharamsala, February 16
The state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau would inquire into the allegations of fund misappropriation by Malaan panchayat pradhan. The allegations were levelled by residents of the village.

They had alleged that the pradhan had misappropriated funds meat for various development projects. A departmental inquiry ordered by the Panchayat Department was also in progress.

The villagers had alleged that a room was built in a school at Buli Majhetli and its dimensions were shown as 14x16 feet in papers, but the actual size of the room was 6x8 feet.

They had also alleged that some village streets were constructed and repaired only in papers. The Kalri-Garhwali Mata lane was not constructed at all even as a sum of Rs 50,000 was sanctioned by the previous government. From the Chamunda-Malaan road a pavement leading to the house of one Dhyan Singh had been shown constructed at a cost of Rs 45,000 in the record of the panchayat, but this pavement did not exist.

A sum of Rs 3 lakh was sanctioned for the repair of a pavement leading to Garhwal Basti, but the panchayat did not carry out any work. Recently, the PWD had carried out the repair work.

They have also alleged such irregularities in some other projects.

Shimla, February 16
The Himalayan Adventure Sports and Tourism Promotion Association has urged the government to implement a project to promote mountain terrain biking in the state with the financial assistance being offered by Asian Development Bank.

President of the association Mohit Sood said mountain biking was an eco-friendly activity that could be used for promoting village tourism in the state. The state already had about 400 km of forest trails in patches that could be connected by developing another 200 km of mountain trails. In the process, two MTB circuits, one from Shimla to Manali and the other form Manali to Dharamsala could be developed.

This way, virtually the entire state would be connected through mountain biking tracks. The new trails could be created by spending just Rs 3 to Rs 4 crore which was not a huge amount, he claimed.

Una, February 16
The traffic rules are being thrown haywire by the private bus operators in the district. Even life of the school children is being put to risk almost everyday both by the careless school authorities and the private bus operators.

A survey in the area revealed that at many places the school children hang at the back railing of private buses to travel back to their houses. Hanging from back railing puts life of school students at risk on the busy Una-Nangal state highway almost everyday.

The bus operators allow the passengers, including school or other students, to sit at rooftop or hang from back or side railings just to make some extra money. They are loading buses beyond their capacity.

Such acts of private transporters are liable for criminal action. However, the police and the transport authorities seem to turn blind eye to such illegal activities. The police action or transports officials are seem in action only when some higher authority comes on surprise checking. On such surprise checking almost all passing vehicles are stopped for checking leading to traffic jam on state highway.

On the remaining days the traffic police or transport officials turn a blind eye to violation of traffic rules. The sources available here also told that influential local political leaders own most of private buses. Due to their sway over the administration, the illegal operations of private buses go unnoticed by it.

The school authorities are also liable to provide transport facilities to students. It is mandatory for them to ensure that student do not risk their life travelling on over loaded buses on state highways.

At many other places also carrying passengers in over loaded buses at rooftop is a common practice. At some of places lesser availability of buses is the reason used for justifying the over loaded private buses. However, in this era of privatisation when the government can allow private buses to operate, lesser availability of transport avenues can just be attributed to mismanagement.

The local police authorities when asked said they would take action when the matter comes before them.

However, the life and limbs of school children seems to be too heavy price for forcing the authorities enforcing law on private bus operators in case of accidents.