New Delhi, May 2
Himachal Pradesh will soon get another airport at Sundernagar which will entail an investment of about Rs 700 crore to provide an impetus to the state tourism.

“We have submitted the relevant data for the project to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). We expect that the AAI will give its nod by the end of this year,” Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation Ltd (HPTDC) commissioner-cum-managing director Ram Subhag Singh said here.

He said the project would require Rs 700 crore, which would be funded by the state government and the Centre.

He said the project would boost the state tourism. About 8.8 million people arrived in the state during 2007-08, growing at 15 per cent over the last fiscal, besides directly employing about 52,000 people.

The state has 1,890 hotels, with about 45,000-bed capacity. The tourism contributed about eight per cent to the state GDP, he said at the sideline of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) conference.

The HPTDC owns about 56 hotels in the state, Singh said adding that there were plans to revamp about 20-22 hotels that were running in losses.

“We are considering various options for these hotels. There can be some joint venture with private firms for running these loss-making hotels or other step could be disinvestment,” he said.

Singh said the HPTDC also planed to float tender for constructing malls, resorts, and other developmental projects in about 200 acre vacant land in the state through public private partnership model.

“Beside these, tender will also be floated for developing roadways in the state that will help to generate Rs 100 crore revenue,” he said. — UNI

Shimla, May 2
Chief Secretary Ravi Dhingra today stressed the need for proper monitoring and follow-up action so that timely World Bank financial assistance could be received in August.

A high-level team of the World Bank today held a meeting with senior government functionaries to review the progress of the ongoing works for which funds have already been provided. The Chief Secretary presided over the meeting.

He said the World Bank (WB) had sanctioned a development policy loan worth Rs 800 crore to Himachal out of which Rs 400 crore had already been received in March earlier this year.

Talks were held with the five-member World Bank team led by Mohan Nagarajan. The team reviewed the progress of various projects being undertaken in the Power, Public Works, Forest, Tourism, Education, Industries and IPH Departments. The Secretaries of these departments made their presentation before the team.

The second instalment of the Rs 400 crore is to be provided by the World Bank later this year.

Dhingra said 90 per cent of the loan was a grant-in-aid while 10 per cent was a concessional loan.

Hamirpur, May 2
The police has nabbed three migrant labourers (all brothers) for allegedly killing class X student Munish after kidnapping him in Jassai village of Nadaun. The three were arrested after a long chase from a village in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab last evening.

Beeru Kishor, Ranjeet and Kanhya were arrested from Bohni Patti village, 12 km from Hoshiarpur, around 7 p.m. yesterday with the help of the CIA staff of the Punjab police and brought to Hamirpur.

All three migrant labourers, working as sharecroppers with Bahadur Singh and Promod of Jassai village, had kidnapped Munish of the same village on April 17 for ransom and later dumped his body after killing in a forest near the village.

Hamirpur S.P. Asif Jalal said “ All three brothers hatched a conspiracy to kidnap the boy on April 10 for seeking ransom and had moved their families from Jassai village on the pretext of attending a wedding along with Kanhya .”

“On April 17 Beeru Kishor and Ranjeet kidnapped the boy and killed him within an hour (confirmed in the postmortem report also) after tying his mouth, hands and feet with a cloth and buried the body in a trench in the forest which was recovered on April 20” Jalal said.

They had also dug a trench near their residence to hide the body but later chose to dump it in the forest.

Both Beeru Kishor and Ranjeet, haling from Stoli village of Shahjahanpur district of UP, had demanded Rs 22 lakh at Brajghat, near Moradabad, but fled from there after two days.

The police finally managed to arrest them from Bohni Patti where the killers were working with a farmer, Hoshiar Singh.

Beeu Kishor is already facing a case of murder, besides one under the Arms Act, in Shahjahanpur district.

The police is investigating the alleged role of two brothers, Pramod (a teacher at Government Kashmir School) and Bahadur of Jassai village with whom these labourers were working as they did not inform about their criminal antecedents despite having full knowledge. The murderers were also using a SIM card issued in the name of Bahadur’s wife.

Shimla, May 2
India is hopeful that Pakistan would consider converting Sarabjit’s death penalty into life imprisonment keeping in view the emotions and sentiments of his family and people back home.

Talking to mediapersons here today minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma said the Indian Government had sought clemency for Sarabjit from Pakistan Government and he was hopeful of a positive outcome in this direction.

“It is due to the efforts of the Indian Government and all those concerned for Sarabjit’s well being that at least the death sentence has been postponed for another three weeks,” he said.

In reply to a question about Sarabjit’s release he said the first task at hand was to get the death penalty converted into life imprisonment.

The minister said the Indian Government had done its best to plead Sarabjit’s case and the India’s Ambassador in Pakistan was pursuing the matter at various levels.

He said India shared a special relationship with Nepal and had fully supported the restoration of democracy in the Himalayan kingdom. “With the acceptance of Maoists within the political mainstream of Nepal we are hopeful that in the coming years the country will gain stability and witness accelerated development,” he remarked.

The minister said the Shimla Passport office would be strengthened with liberal additional funds and more manpower. “During the past 14 months since the passport office was opened over 20,000 passports have been made and during the initial eight months there was no pendency at all,” he said.

He also disclosed that he was keen to see the setting up of an Old Age Home at the state-level because it would help many needy people.

The minister will lay the foundation stone of a community centre in the Kellston area of the town tomorrow and preside over a review meeting with regard to schemes being implemented under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission with the state government officials.

Kangra, May 2
The Central Tibetan Administration of the Tibetan government-in-exile yesterday alleged that the Chinese armed forces in their attempt to wipe out any kind of evidence related to the recent protests in Tibet were burning all dead bodies of people who had been killed since the March 14 protest in Tibet.

The statement said on March 28, around 83 corpses were burnt altogether in an electrical crematorium, which was built by the Chinese government few years back in Dhongkar Yabdha Shang town in Toelung Dechen County under the Lhasa Municipality.

Moreover, some eyewitness accounts confirmed that on March 17, at 10.30 pm (Lhasa local time), dead bodies of many people were seen in two army trucks near a petrol pump located towards the west of Lhasa, one of the most restricted sites since the protests began in Tibet. Due to a heavy traffic jam around this petrol pump, a few Tibetans reported of having seen blood discharges from the two trucks that were carrying the dead bodies.

In addition to this, the statement added that there were more reports of dead bodies being transported to Toelung Dechen County in the army trucks.

It said on the evening of March 15, an eyewitness confirmed seeing dead bodies being carried in a truck towards Toelung County.

“Many Tibetans, who have been injured since the start of the protests in Tibet, continue to die in hospital with no immediate medical care,” the statement further added.

Shimla, May 2
Heat wave conditions prevailed in the lower parts of the state with Una town sizzling at 41°C following another sunny day today, the Met office said.

Una town was the hottest place in the state at 41°C followed by 39°C at Hamirpur, 37.1°C at Mandi and 36.9°C at Sundernagar in Mandi district, the Met office said.

It said the maximum temperature at Shimla town fell by a few notches to 26.5 °C as against 26.9°C recorded yesterday. Bhuntar recorded a day temperature of 34°C, while Kalpa’s day temperature rose by a few notches to 21.9°C as against 21°C recorded yesterday.

The minimum at Sundernagar was 14.3°C, 10°C at Bhuntar, 4.5°C at Kalpa, 18.5°C at Dharamsala, 15.3°C at Una and 16°C at Mandi town. — UNI

Ani (Kullu), May 2
The apple production in the area is expected to “drop by over 50 per cent this year as compared with the production last year”. Farmers attribute it to the hailstorms that hit the area in the first week of April, which is the flowering time.

Karda Ghai, Amar Bagh, Chai, Kafla and Ani and Dalash areas are the worst hit. “We were expecting a good crop this year as weather conditions were very good initially. However, hailstorms and chilling conditions dashed our hope to the ground,” rued P.S. Jishtu of Shavi village in Dalash.

The crop had been adversely affected in the Ani-Dalash area due to chill and hailstroms, said Ramesh Singha of Throg village in Ani.

Former chairman of the Zila Parishad and apple grower Buddhi Singh Thakur said, “The situation has become difficult for farmers in the middle and higher belts in the subdivision this season. However, no incentive has been announced for the farmers so far.”

Apple growers want that the government should compensate them. “The cost of fertilisers and insecticides has multiplied over the years, but farmers get no compensation for the loss due to natural disasters,” they added.

District horticultural officials said they had assessed the loss and report had been sent to the head office. “The government is including apple crop under insurance schemes,” they added.

Solan, May 2
The forest wealth comprising of pine trees and broad-leaved species were engulfed in a massive fire, which erupted in the forests of Kasauli, Patta-Mehlog, Ghared and its surrounding area last evening.

The fast spreading fire in the forests surrounding the Air Force Station, Kasauli, kept officials in a state of alert as a similar fire had caused widespread damage last year. The entire hillock, which was covered with inflammable dry pine needles, was blazing with flames rising above.

The forest officials said the concerted efforts of 200 villagers guided by the firewatchers helped to extinguish the fire. Stray incidents of fire continued to erupt in various forest divisions throughout the day.

Officials of the Forest Department had a tough time in trying to control the fire, which was spreading fast with the wind too helping the fire. Loss of plantation had been suffered in the forests of Jhojee, Bhojnagar, Chausha, Koti in Solan forest division and at various areas under Kunihar and Nalagarh forest divisions of the district in the past one week.

Nearly, 400 hectares of forests across the district had been raved in the fire.

Assistant conservator of forest P.R. Mahajan, who visited the fire hit areas near Kasauli last night, said the majority of the fires were ground fires and no major loss of fauna and flora had occurred in the area.

Though the department had undertaken the precautionary operations like controlled burning of pine needles since the spilling of these inflammable needles was a continuous process in the pine forests the probability of forest fire always remained high.

Shimla, May 2
UPA chairperson and AICC chief Sonia Gandhi today visited the site for the proposed house to be constructed by her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi, in the Charabra area.

The AICC chief was accompanied by her mother from Italy and daughter, Priyanka Gandhi. Sonia arrived here yesterday and landed at Kalyani airport, close to the resort where the family is staying.

The three women visited the plot purchased by Priyanka and inspected the works that have been undertaken, including the construction of a boundary wall and planting of fruit trees.

Priyanka’s architect from Delhi had also accompanied them. He inspected the land on a small cottage in the hill architecture would soon be constructed.

The three left for Chandigarh in the evening to fly to Delhi. Sonia and her mother are likely to spend another two or three days.

During the past two years, Sonia, along with her family, has made several trips to Shimla. Being fond of the Mashobra area, the family was keen to have a house there which led to the purchase of this plot by Priyanka.

Kangra, May 2
Former transport and tourism minister G.S.Bali today demanded a high-level inquiry into the allotment of two 480-MW power projects to the Brackle Power Company violating the norms laid by the government and demanded action against the bureaucrats who had misled the government and harmed the state interests.

Addressing a press conference at Dharamsala, Bali said this project was conceived by the previous Congress government and the company had to deposit Rs 175 crore as an upfront premium as the first instalment which it failed to deposit.

Bali said that when he raised this issue in the Assembly, Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal assured that he would look into the matter but surprisingly the just after one hour of the assurance, the Cabinet decided to grant approval to these projects at the cost of the interests of the state. The Cabinet granted approval despite violation of the terms by the company.

He demanded a high-level inquiry to unmask the bureaucrats and politicians who had granted an undue favour to the company. The allotment of these power projects should be cancelled and applications sought it again for these projects.

Shimla, May 2
State BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur said price rise was one single issue that would ensure the defeat of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing a press conference here today he said seeing the success of the bandh call given by the NDA against the price rise, one could imagine the plight of the common man. “It was due to the unprecedented price rise that the Congress lost Punjab, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Himachal and now it is the turn of the Centre,” he added.

He said with practically no check on the price rise, people were remembering the NDA regime, which took effective steps to control them.

“As compared to an economic growth rate of 6.5 and inflation of 4.5 during the NDA regime, now the inflation has crossed an all time high of 7.57 per cent,” he said.

He said the BJP government in the state had made a budgetary provision of Rs 90 crore so that subsidised ration could be provided to the people.

“Despite making tall claims about the subsidised ration scheme, the Congress did not make any budgetary provisions and it is Chief Minister Dhumal who took effective steps in this direction,” he said.