Shimla, February 29
The Congress has hailed the General Budget presented by union finance minister P.C. Chidambaram as “exceptional”, with a plethora of concessions for various sections of the society and taking care of the most pressing problems like inflation and farmers’ distress.

State party chief Viplove Thakur said it was a growth-oriented budget with a human face that would help maintain the pace of economic growth, while keeping inflation under check. The Rs 60,000-crore loan waiver for farmers was a bold measure that would help pull out the financially distressed marginal and small farmers out of the debt trap.

The concessions announced by Chidambaram had brought cheers to senior citizens, women, Scheduled Castes and other marginalised sections. The raising of income tax exemption limit to 1.50 lakh would provide the much needed relief to one and all.

Leader of the opposition Vidya Stokes said it was a historic budget in many ways. The waiving of loan would put an end to the seemingly unending woes of farmers. Besides various concessions announced in the budget, the reduction in duties would help contain inflation. The measures to strengthen the health infrastructure and concessions to the pharmaceutical industry would help bring qualitative and quantitative improvement in medical care. Life-saving drugs would become cheaper.

General secretary of the party Kuldeep Rathore said a striking feature of the budget was that it provided concessions to most of the sections. It reflected the commitment of the UPA regime to the masses.

Shimla, February 29
Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal today said the General Budget proposals for 2008-09 had once again disappointed the people of the hill state as their expectations had not been met.

He said it was anti-poor, anti-employee and anti-ex-servicemen. “After being ignored in the Railway Budget, Himachal has once again being given a raw deal in the General Budget that has nothing concrete, except jugglery of figures,” he said. Even the power reforms would benefit multinational companies with the hill state gaining very little, he added.

He regretted that the finance minister had not even honoured the commitment that he had made on behalf of the Prime Minister with regard to the opening of an IIT in the state.

He said states like Himachal and Uttarakhand deserved adequate compensation as they had imposed complete ban on green felling. “Even Himachal’s request for giving permission for imposing hydropower generation tax had not been accepted despite recommendation of the Pranab Mukherjee committee,” he said.

He said the Budget speech made no mention of Himachal’s request for bringing apple and citrus fruits under the crop insurance scheme. Even the request for extending the special industrial package till 2013 finds no mention in the Budget. It indicated no benefits to the ex-servicemen, who constituted a sizeable chunk of the population of Himachal, he added.

He said the budget had completely ignored the interests of the common man.

State BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur said no steps had been initiated to check price rise.

Shimla, February 29
The Municipal Corporation of Shimla today passed its annual budget of Rs 120.57 crore with no fresh taxes, despite its poor financial health.

Mayor Narender Kataria presented the budget for 2008-09. The proposed income of the MC for the period has been shown as Rs 9,401.77 lakh, which includes Rs 7,977.02 lakh as revenue income and Rs 1,424.75 lakh as capital income.

The total proposed expenditure is Rs 12,057.76 lakh, including Rs 3,196 lakh capital expenditure. The opening balance is Rs 2,680.66 lakh. This includes the money received by the MC under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) from the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

A sum of Rs 16.4 crore has been approved for the setting up of a solid-waste management plant at Tara Devi. The MC has so far received Rs 72.18 lakh out of the approved money.

Similarly, Rs 9.99 crore have been approved for the urban housing scheme at Totu for BPL families. Out of this amount, the MC has received a sum of Rs 1.82 crore.

The proposed amount indicated in the budget for the construction and maintenance of roads, railings and retaining walls is Rs 4.9 crore. A sum of Rs 6.5 crore has been earmarked for payment of electricity bills on account of street lighting, along with Rs 50 lakh for street lighting. A sum of Rs 49 lakh has been shown in the budget as the amount for construction and maintenance of MC property.

A sum of Rs 95 lakh has been earmarked for the construction of toilets and laying of sewerage. A sum of Rs 70 lakh has been kept for laying water supply lines and installation of meters along with Rs 18 lakh for the construction and repair of nullahs.

Shimla, February 29
Forest minister J.P. Nadda today said the government would soon review the policy for exporting Khair wood and kuth to help protect the economic interests of the farmers.

Presiding over a meeting of senior officers to review the functioning of the Forest Department here he said the government would consider relaxing the restriction on export of Kuth and take effective steps for proper management and exploitation of herbal plants.

It would also take a decision regarding the rights of ownership on the trees grown on uncultured land, after considering all related aspects into consideration and in consultation with the Revenue Department. He said steps would be taken to exploit the state’s immense potential for eco-tourism to help generate self-employment avenues for unemployed youth.

Referring to the plans to deal with the monkey menace, Nadda said the government had decided to set up two primate protection parks and a number of centres for mass sterilisation of the animals, which were not only creating nuisance in towns but also causing extensive damage to crops in villages.

He said a sterilisation centre was already operational at Tutukandi in Shimla and two more would be set up at Gopalpur in Kangra district and Tal in Hamirpur district at a cost of Rs 2.6 crore. He said these centres would be made operational within six months and a target had been set up for sterilising 5,000 monkeys in two years at each centre.

The forest minister said the primate protection parks would be set up on the lines of Asola wildlife sanctuary in Delhi. One such park would be started next month at Tara Devi near Shimla, whereas, the other would be set up at Jheen in Hamirpur district.

He said Rs 1.51 crore would be spent on the construction of each park. Youth were being imparted training for catching monkeys so that they could earn from the government scheme.

He said encouraging cultivation of herbal plants on commercial scale could strengthen economy and the effort would be that each family in the local panchayat was associated in the venture. He said the Forest Department would develop plant nurseries in every district depending upon the climatic condition and mater would be discussed with the Ayurveda Department.

He said peoples’ participation was an important aspect of forest management and asserted that policy decisions should be taken keeping in view the public grievances. He said regular discussions would be held with field the officers for effective implementation of projects.

Additional chief secretary, forests, Avay Shukla, gave a detailed account of the activities of the department. He said the policies were framed keeping in view the public interest.

Gudah (Mandi), February 29
For local villagers, the 16-MW Patkari power project, which will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on March 2 has come as harbinger of miseries as the blasting has triggered cracks in many house and land is sinking and “gharats”, sources of livelihood, have been destroyed due to the project work. It has multiplied their problems like shortage of drinking water, fodder and fuel wood over the years.

“The project has done nothing for the local development. We have to go three km to fetch water every day, rued Kaushlaya and Rombi Devi, the two women from Jhaunt and Mazaran villages. “No one has solved the water problem. The company has chopped down trees and removed grassland where we used to get fodder and fuel wood”, the women added.

The blasting by the company has resulted in cracks in many houses and ruined the cultivable land and gharats (water run mills) along on the Bhakhla khad, complained Chet Ram, Saran, Nant Ram. “My house has cracks but the company has given her nothing, rued Roma Devi, of Chanaira village. The powerhouse has been built at the spot blocking the possibility of constructing the road to several villages in Bada panchayat beyond it.

The villagers said the company had filled the potholes on the 8-km-long Kuklah-Pandoh-Gudah road just to make way for Dhumal’s visit. In the rainy season, it turns into a pool of water. The company built the Kuklah-Gudah road, company sources said. The villagers rued that in the project more than 50 percent were employed from outside, violating government’s condition under which each company had to employ 70 per cent from the state at all levels.

Villagers charged that the company bribed “local activist-cum-leaders” and had awarded “project works” to them and they had no body to voice their concern. As per the government policy, 15 per cent of the project cost was to be spent on the local area development.

DFO Nachan Sunil Mudgil said the company had deposited a sum of Rs 14 lakh under the CAT plan to the department and Rs 34 lakh was yet to be deposited. They had made the plan for the local area development but it had no funds, he added.

In charge at the project site Moorthy said that concreting work will be over within a few days and refused to comment on other queries on villagers’ problems. Even spokesperson of the company J.C. Sharma said the company had employed most people from the state and had given compensation to villagers.

Sundernagar, February 29
Despite the Himachal Pradesh High Court issuing a ban on felling of trees the state forest officials of Mandi district have been flouting the directions issued by the court.

As the official has issued the felling order vide which the field officials cut down as many as 14 trees in violation to the court order. The civil writ petition vide which the court has issued direction for not to fell trees was heard recently and the judgement has been reserved.

Recently a case of felling deodar tree by the staff of Forest Department from Pandar Range of Sundernagar Forest Division came into limelight, the Forest Department has already lodged an FIR against deputy ranger Pandar Dinesh Kumar and has suspended him from services as it was found that he had felled the trees from different locations. But as per order of the high court the DFO was not competent to issue any felling order and has flouted the order of the court.

As per information, DFO Sundernagar accorded permission to fell 14-dry/uprooted deodar trees (volume measuring 34.804 cubic meters, about 350 slippers), from Manjhki, Kanon and Ringi Forests vide letter number 4066, dated 4-10-07. These timbers were to be used in the construction of forest huts. At three different locations, the value of timber comes out to be about Rs 12 lakh. Interestingly, the total cost of construction of three buildings comes out to be about Rs 14.50 lakh.

The state high court has imposed a ban on felling of trees within the state. Even in the past the government could not distribute timber to the affected people whose houses were gutted at Malana village and Mohini village in Kullu district.

The Himachal Pradesh Forest Department aggrieved with this order proffered petition before the high court to relax the order. The state high court issued an amended order on 29-12-07 vide which the felling of dried and uprooted trees was allowed only for the department use that too after an Expert Committee framed by the state (consisting of representatives of the state government, representative of ministry of environment and forest, two private experts and MD of the State Forest Corporation) to recommend the felling after evaluating the qualitative and quantitative norms.

Till 29-12-07 the order of blanket ban on felling was in force but in the present case the DFO issued the felling order on 4-10-07 keeping aside the high court order.

DFO Sundernagar Pardeep Thakur said since the trees were dried and uprooted and were being used by the department so he was competent to issue the felling order.

Conservator forest Mandi circle B.D. Suyal also endorsed the view of the DFO Sundernagar.

According to legal experts, the order of felling issued by the DFO was clear violation of the high court order even if it is admitted that the trees were dried up and were used by the department, the recommendation to fell was not made by any Expert Committee and furthermore in the present case the felling order was issued on 4-10-07 and the order to fell the dried trees for department use was amended on 29-12-07 by the Division Bench of the state high court.

Mandi, February 29
BJP and Congress leaders have come down heavily on union finance minister P. Chidambaram for ignoring Himachal Pradesh when it came to setting up three new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

They said it was P. Chidambaram himself who had announced an IIT and a central university for Himachal when he launched the Aam Adami Bima Yojna at Shimla in 2007. But in his Budget speech, he announced IITs for Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and ignored Himachal.

Former IPH minister Kaul Singh Thakur said Chidambaram should have fulfilled his commitment. However, he went on to add that Chief minister Virbhadra Singh had decided to open an IIT at Mandi. It reflected that the BJP government had failed to bargain hard for translating the announcements into the Budget. On the other hand, PWD and revenue minister Gulab Singh Thakur termed Chidambaram’s announcement of opening an IIT in Himachal as an eyewash to lure voters. “It shows the Congress-supported UPA government at the Centre says something, but does something else,” he said.

Shimla, February 29
It was a night-long ordeal for the villagers of Aberi, near Rampur, when a leopard entered houses and labour huts, injuring about 20 persons, with one of them struggling for life at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) here.

It was at about 3 am last night that a leopard entered a house in Aberi village and injured two women, Meera Devi and Dou Devi.

After attacking the women the leopard entered the cowshed, where the family members bolted the door from outside.

The village located across the Sutlej, opposite the Nogli area of Rampur falls in the Ani subdivision of Kullu district. According to forest officials, the leopard almost 10 feet-long broke open the door of the cowshed and fled.

It was after leaving a trail of injuries through the night that that the leopard was finally tarnquilised by the wildlife wing of the Forest Department late in the evening today.

After breaking open the door of the cow shed, it was the turn of the labour engaged by Gable India Ltd, who became the victim of the leopard.

The labourers, working on the Rampur hydroelectric project were fast asleep when the predator attacked them, leaving 15 of them injured.

One of them has been admitted to the IGMC in a critical state, while the remaining have been admitted to the Mahatam Gandhi Hospital at Rampur.

The villagers finally managed to put an end to the terror of the leopard, when he entered a concrete house.

The villagers locked him up and summoned the forest and local administration.

However, it was only after injuring a forest guard, Jia Lal, who had entered the room to shoot at the animal with a tranquiliser gun that the leopard became quiet.

The Ani SDM and the Rampur DFO along with other staff arrived at the spot to bring the animal under control.

Kumarhatti, February 29
Making a breakthrough in the murder case of tractor driver Prem Lal, the police yesterday arrested three persons, including a woman, in Baddi. Mahaveer Singh and Om Prakash, both from Uttar Pradesh, and Lakshmi, who hailed from Bihar, were arrested for allegedly murdering Prem Lal whose body was found in a tractor trolley on February 19.

As per information available, the deceased was with Mahaveer Singh and Om Prakash on February 18. They had worked together as tractor drivers with the same employer.

On February 18, the trio planned a small liquor party. Mahaveer had called Lakshmi to join them. Lakshmi, who was married to a labourer, allegedly had an illegal relationship with Mahaveer.

Around midnight, Mahaveer reportedly started getting intimate with Lakshmi, which prompted Prem Lal to make some objectionable gestures to Lakshmi. This led to a scuffle between Prem Lal and Mahaveer, which turned bloody as Mahaveer, with the help of Lakshmi and Om Prakash, murdered Prem Lal.

After allegedly killing Prem Lal, the trio dumped the body in his tractor. The body was noticed by a passer by in the trolley that was parked at Doon Tempo Union office on Baddi-Barotiwala road few metres away from slum area where the deceased resided.

A police team, which consisted of SHO Rupinder Singh, ASI Gulam Akram, and head constable Harpal, arrested the accused.

Hamirpur, February 29
A special police campaign to check crime in the district is in progress these days. It was launched on February 1 and will continue till March 31.

Addressing mediapersons here today, additional superintendent of police Sumedha Diwedi said the campaign was launched on the initiative of the state police headquarter, Shimla. She said an exercise to identify anti-social elements was in progress so that their activities could be checked. An eye was also being kept on liquor, forest, drug and mining mafias, she added.

Women, children, victims and witnesses were being given special protection under the campaign. All cases of theft and burglary reported during the previous year would be reviewed and even untraced cases were being looked into again to know the modus operands of criminals, she said. “Community liaison groups have also been formed. These have women, nagar parishad and panchayat samiti representatives,” she said.

She said Hamirpur and Bilaspur districts had been selected under the capacity-building scheme of poverty alleviation programme and beat in charges had been designated. 

Shimla, February 29
With a record apple crop this season the hill state is all set to cross the barrier of 7 lakh tonne in fruit production in the current financial year.

The highest production recorded till date was in 2005-06 when the state produced 6.95 lakh tonnes of fruit. Apple had contributed 5.40 lakh tonnes, which was the highest ever. It was a lean season during 2006-07 when the apple production came down to 2.68 lakh tonne as a result the total fruit production also slumped to 3.89 lakh tonnes. However, this season the state has harvested a bumper apple crop with an output of 5.92 lakh tonnes, surpassing the previous high of 5.40 lakh tonne achieved in 2005-06 by a substantial 52,000 tonne.

Apart from apple other major contribution comes from the citrus fruits with production ranging from 25,000 tonne to 29,000 tonne. Other fruits have contributed well over 1 lakh tonne. The exact output of the citrus fruit will be available towards the close of the year but it is quite clear that even a nominal production will be enough to break the 7-lakh tonne barrier.

The increase in apple production in recent years is a good sign for the economy of the state as the area under the fruit had started declining in the 1990’s because of declining yield, which had come down from 9.5 tonne per hectare in 1970’s to 6 tonne per hectare. In fact, the production had not touched the 4-lakh tonne mark till 2002-03. It is only in 2003-04 that the state produced 4.59 lakh tonne of apple, which was followed by successive bumper crops in 2004-05 (5.27 lakh tonne) and 2006-07 (5.40 lakh tonne).

Over the past six years there has been only one crop failure in 2006-07. The rising trend in production will certainly lead to gradual increase in the yield.

This winter too the apple belt has received adequate and timely snow raising hopes of bumper harvest next summer. The snow is considered as white manure for the apple orchards as it ensures minimum chilling of 1600 to 2000 hours essential for a good crop. Besides, it also helps in maintaining moisture content in the soil.

The government plans to bring another 7,000 hectare under fruit during the next financial year and increase production to 7.7 lakh tonne.

Besides, under the horticulture technology mission the apple production is to be increased to 8 lakh tonne by 2010, which still seems to be a tall order.

Solan, February 29
With the Union Budget curtailing the excise benefits for the pharmaceutical industry in the state by one half from the existing 16 per cent to 8 per cent the industry has termed it as an attempt to dilute the 2003 central excise benefit.

The central industrial package had drawn the largest number of pharmaceutical units in Himachal as the effect of CENVAT had made drug manufacturing as the most profitable venture here. Now this has been reduced with a clear-cut reduction in the equation between the excise free and excise laden zone changing drastically by this Budget. An analysis reveals that there will be a clear cut difference of barely 3 to 3.5 per cent between the excise free and excise laden zones. This will be reduced to negligible amount given the high cost of wages, cost of transporting raw materials from the non-excise zones to these incentive states as well as transportation of finished goods.

Chairman, CII (Himachal chapter), R.S.Guleria, however, said certain changes were expected as there was a lot of pressure from the on-concession states. Contemplating little change in the pharmaceutical sector he said since more than 80 per cent of manufacturing takes place in the concession zones there wouldn’t be much of an impact but reduction of other taxes would bring some relief to the common man.

Reacting to this announcement made today by the Union government the chairman of the Federation of Indian Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs and president of Himachal Pradesh Drug Manufactures Association R.K. Arora said this has diluted the central industrial package and the benefits have been substantially reduced. While a mere difference of 4 per cent has remained between the pharmaceutical units in the excise free and excise laden states it is a severe blow to the existing industry.

The industry was, however, anticipating some drastic curtailment for the pharmaceutical manufacturers as pressure had been exerted by the UPA and its allies, including the DMK, CPM, Rashtriya Congress, RJD, Lok Jan Shakti and other parties. The pharmaceutical manufactures have termed it as a direct repercussion of the pressure imposed by their allies from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala as well as West Bengal. They added that earlier benefits were withdrawn from the non-manufacturing units involved in peripheral activities in Himachal and Uttrakhand only and now these benefits have been reduced from the core-manufacturing sector.

While pressure from these states had been on right after investment in Himachal, which touched an all time high of as much as Rs 10,000 crores with nearly 300 units in the pharmaceutical sector coming into operation, the issue had reached the Apex Court.

Manali, February 29
As many as five women skiers from Manali in a press note issued here today have blamed the state government and the HP Winter Games Federation for its alleged indifferent and irresponsible attitude towards them.

Those girls namely Bhuvneshweri Devi, Nirmala,Urmila and Gita represented the state in the 5th National Winter Games-2008 held at Gulmargfrom February 17 to February 22. Bhuvneshwery Devi got a gold medal in nordic skiing, free style (women) 5km and 10 km, while in alpine skiing Nirmala was adjudged second. Besides, Jai Devi, alias Minakshi, was declared third in the giant slalom race. Urmila and Gita too performed well in the skiing events.

They alleged that they were paid the expenses only to reach Gulmarg, while they were not provided any expenses for their return journey.

Surprisingly, on their way back from Gulmarg to Jammu, they were accompanied by two managers and in Jammu they were dropped at the bus stand in the night hours. They then called up the management committee of the winter games federation to seek help but no step was taken to help the skiing participants.

On reaching Manali, they spoke to the president and secretary of state winter games federation about the hardship the girls faced during the night and journey but no action was taken alleged the girls skiers in the press note.

For their better performance these girls were awarded gold, silver and bronze medals in the games. The skiers said in future those participating in the national games should not be meted with this kind of treatment. All five participants also sent a complaint to the Himachal Pradesh Government in this connection.

They have said if no appropriate action was taken within a week against the management they would be left with any option but to return the medals they were awarded at the games. They said they would suggest women not to participate in this kind of events.

Nurpur, February 29
Vacant posts of different categories in the Agriculture Department has not only been affecting implementation of various schemes formulated by the state government for the welfare of farming community but also depriving the farmers of timely technical guidance in lower Kangra district comprising Nurpur, Indora and Fetehpur agriculture blocks.

The state Agriculture Department has opened its block offices headed by subject matter specialists (SMS) at Nurpur, Indora and Fetehpur. The department used to organise awareness camps in villages to educate farmers about farming techniques but due to vacant posts of SMS the awareness campaign has hit badly in lower and border areas of Kangra district.

According to information, the posts of SMS at Nurpur and Fetehpur blocks have been lying vacant since a long.

Significantly, most of the posts of agriculture extension officers (AEOs) in three agriculture blocks have been lying vacant. The AEOs are considered as a close link between the Agriculture Department and farmers. Inquiries reveal that 52 gram panchayats in Nurpur are being run only by three AEOs whereas five posts of the AEOs are lying vacant. Even the post of agriculture development officer (ADO) is also lying vacant here. In Jawali area 54 gram panchayats are being run by only five AEOs. In Fetehpur block six posts of AEOs are lying vacant. In Indora block only three AEOs are rendering their services against eight sanctioned posts.

Deputy director, Agriculture Department, Brij Bala Sood admitted that due to vacant posts of AEOs and SMSs the office as well as field work was suffering and added that she had submitted a detailed report to the director agriculture, Shimla, about the skeleton staff in the lower Kangra district.

Shimla, February 29
An international film festival ‘Pratyaksh Kala Mahotsav’ with participation from six countries and 15 states, focusing on films, documentaries, theatre and folk music will take off here on April 15.

Having earned the distinction of being the man behind the first film of Himachal in Hindi, Sun Jay Veer Sagar, the multifaceted artist intends to bring together about 175 artists from countries like Russia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal along with people from within the country. The festival will be held under the banner of Sun Jay Veer Sagar Art Empire.

With no financial help from the government it is a gigantic task but it is with the help of sponsors he intends to make his dream come true. The launch of the film festival on April 15 coincides with Himachal Day.

It was the response and support that Sagar received after holding the premium of his first Hindi film of Himachal ‘Aadhaar’ in five states of North India last year. There will be different categories paintings, films, documentaries, drama, dance, stage plays, debate and other performing arts.

He also announced the creation of a Film Federation of Himachal, with a seven-member jury from eminent fields, a Music Federation of Himachal and a state writers association.