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Cabinet decides to improve rural transport service
Gondhla Hydropower Project
Solan Land Deal
Rs 594 cr for Scheduled Caste sub-plan
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Farmers get Rs 25.62-cr loans
Rs 2.95 crore for developing eco-tourism circuits
Concern over slow development of power projects
Manali-Leh Rail Line
Discontinuing MDR treatment dangerous
School building portion collapse
Plea to revive ex-servicemen welfare board
Low yield of vegetables hits vendors
1 lakh devotees visit temple
Rajnath to address party seminar
7 anganwari appointments annulled
Encroachments: HC warns shopkeepers
Drivers with defective eyesight
Seminar on media
MC strategy to recover dues
Woman killed
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Cabinet decides to improve rural transport service
Shimla, August 27 A decision to this effect was taken by the Cabinet that met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal here today. Under the scheme, route permits will be granted for plying passenger transport vehicles in rural areas. The operators will be given tax concession up to 85 per cent as incentive for providing services in rural areas. The Cabinet also took stock of the damage caused by rain in the state. It directed the departments concerned to carry out repair and restoration work of roads, water supply schemes and other infrastructure on a war footing. A sum of Rs 105 crore has already been released to the Public Works Department for the purpose. The Cabinet also directed the Revenue Department to immediately compile details about the loss caused due to rain and prepare a consolidated memorandum for submission to the Centre to get funds to undertake restoration work. It decided to requisition services of an expert consultant for promoting clean development mechanism (CDM) in the state to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. The Department of Environment and Scientific Technology will be the nodal agency for routing the proposal for further approval under the CDM regime. A committee consisting of the additional chief secretary (forests), the principal secretary (environment) and the principal secretary (power) will suggest further action to be taken in the matter. It approved new school timings for government schools in the state from September 1 onwards. These will be 9 am to 3 pm for summer closing schools and 10 am to 4 pm for winter closing schools. It will be applicable throughout the year. It decided to institute Prerna Strot Samman Puruskar to honour organisations and individuals for exemplary philanthropic works. It will carry a cash prize of Rs 51,000 in the individual category and Rs 2.5 lakh for organisations. It granted permission to Lucky Power Project Cooperative Limited to set up 500-kw mini hydropower plants based on effluents of sewage treatment plants at Lalpani and Badagaon in Shimla. It decided to reduce VAT from the existing 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent on wood-free agro-board being manufactured by various industries to promote conservation of forest resources and ecology of the state. It also permitted lease of 25 hectare of land at Pandoga village in Una district to the ITBP for establishing its battalion. |
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Gondhla Hydropower Project
Shimla, August 27 Chief executive officer of the company Awadh B.Giri, accompanied by vice-president N.K. Chaudhary, presented a draft to Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal for the amount that was 50 per cent of the total upfront premium. The project is located in the Chandra river basin in Lahaul valley. The Chief Minister hailed the decision of the renowned IT company to enter the hydropower generation sector and taking up a project in an area having difficult geo-physical conditions. He said the government had decided to allot every project above 5 MW capacity through global bidding to attract best companies that could execute projects within the given time frame. Further, projects up to 2 MW were exclusively reserved for Himachalis and preference was being given to them for projects up to 5 MW. He said the aim was to generate about 12,000 MW additional power in the coming five years. The government was exploring possibilities of generating solar and wind power and experts had been invited to help identify suitable sites for the purpose. The Chief Minister said the project allotted to the Moser Baer was the first in the Chandra Bhaga river basin. It would pave the way for executing other projects in the valley, he added. The company might find some practical difficulties in execution of the project initially, but it would prove beneficial ultimately. He said the company should honour the provisions of the power policy of the state and provide all benefits to the people of the area as per specified norms, which included 70 per cent employment to the local people, proper relief and rehabilitation package to the affected families, providing 1.5 per cent of the project cost for development of the local area and social welfare activities. Awadh B.Giri said the project, which was likely to cost Rs 1,000 crore, would provide direct employment to over 400 persons and generate indirect employment for over 600 persons. He said the company had set a target to complete the project in five year from the date of start of work. He informed the Chief Minister that the company was also generating solar power in Noida and said it would be interested in creating solar farms to generate power in the state on the pattern of Rajasthan. |
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Solan Land Deal
Solan, August 27 Sharma said he was looking into procedural lapses, if any, and various other aspects, including the presence of buyers at the time of the execution of the sale deed and the role of officers scrutinising the case at the field level. He said he would also visit the disputed site to find out the nature of the land and assess its market value. Denying that the 18 buyers would be called to present their case during the inquiry, he said it was not possible to associate them in the inquiry as it was not a judicial probe. The paramount issue of inquiry was whether the officers at the district level, who were supposed to process the case at the field level, had committed any laxity. He would visit the site at Rehun village on the Kumarhatti-Nahan road tomorrow and record statements of the officials involved in the execution of the deed, including naib tehsildar Narayan Chauhan and the patwari concerned. He held a series of meetings with tehsildar Bishamber, the naib tehsildar and other revenue officers to discuss the case that had put a question mark over the working of the revenue authorities. |
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Rs 594 cr for Scheduled Caste sub-plan
Shimla, August 27 Stating this here on Monday while chairing a review meeting of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, chief minister
P.K. Dhumal yesterday said Rs 176.41 crores had already been released which would be spent on various schemes for the rapid economic upliftment of the Scheduled Caste population in the state. He reiterated the commitment of the government to protect the interest of various sections of society, especially the vulnerable ones. “An increase of 157 per cent has been made in the budgetary provision enhancing it from Rs 231 crore last year to Rs 594 crore during the current year,” he said. The chief minister said Rs 6.50 crore had been released to all deputy commissioners of non-tribal districts for the construction of Bhimrao Ambedkar Bhawans in every assembly segment and the process of land acquisition was being expedited. He said as a step towards fulfilling social commitment the government had increased social security pension from Rs 200 to Rs 300 per month, which would benefit 2.38 lakh deserving families. This, he added, would put an additional financial burden of Rs 30 crore per annum on the government. |
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Farmers get Rs 25.62-cr loans
Shimla, August 27 This was disclosed by deputy commissioner J.S. Rana while reviewing the progress of the scheme at the district consultative committee meeting held here today. “Loans up to Rs 3 lakh have been provided under the scheme at seven per cent interest rate, which is the lowest besides an accident insurance cover of Rs 50,000,” he said. Rana told the banks to make the agricultural loans more liberal. He also stressed the need for organising more awareness camps at the block level to popularise various banking schemes. “The district credit plan for the year 2008-09 has been approved for Rs 878 crore out of which loans worth Rs 32.37 crore had been distributed during the first quarter achieving 37 per cent target,” he said. In the agricultural sector, the achievement was 30 per cent as loans worth Rs 55.48 crore had been distributed. R.K. Kaushik, chief officer of the UCO Bank, informed that financial eligibility under the Indira Awas Yojna had been revised. “Now loans of Rs 20,000 at 4 per cent interest rate will be provided to persons with annual income of Rs 18,000 in rural areas and Rs 24,000 in urban areas,” he said. |
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Rs 2.95 crore for developing eco-tourism circuits
Shimla, August 27 Stating this at a high-level meeting of the forest department to review the progress of eco-tourism activities in the state, here last evening, forest minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said that the state government was committed to protect the fragile hill environment and promoting eco-tourism was major step in this direction. The state had a vast potential for eco-tourism to harness which the state had decided to strengthen the existing sites and circuits in Great Himalayan National Park
Kulu, Chamba and Shimla. He said that the forest department would collaborate with the tourism department for promoting eco-tourism activities. The forest corporation would manage seven eco-tourism sites, it was already in the process of developing an eco-tourism site at
Narkanda, which would be operational by the first half of September, 2008. He said that the remaining new sites would be made operational before the next tourism season. The forest minister said that it was the scenic splendour and salubrious environment of the state, which attracted tourists from all over the country and abroad, and it should be protected at all costs. He stressed upon the need to formulate guidelines for protecting the natural environment at the eco-tourism sites as it was the top priority of the state. |
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Concern over slow development of power projects
Shimla, August 27 The hydro-imitative to harness 50,000 MW of power launched in 2001 could not be implemented in the right earnest due various impediments like lack of infrastructure, non-availability of detailed project reports, inadequate geological investigations and delay in resolving resettlement and rehabilitation issues. Out of the total identified potential of 1.48 lakh MW, only 35,909 MW had been harnessed so far. As a result the ratio of thermal and hydropower had veered to 75 is to 25 per cent as against the laid down policy of 60 is to 40 per cent. However, in Himachal Pradesh, where most of the projects had been awarded for execution, state is facing an acute shortage of civil engineers which is likely to upset plan to expeditiously harness the hydropower potential. With projects having an aggregate capacity of 5,962 MW under various stages of execution and work on projects of 6,500 MW, already awarded to private and public sector companies, set to get underway shortly the state will require about 4,000 civil engineers over the next five years. The gravity of situation could be judged from the fact that only 65 candidates appeared for written test conducted for the 15 posts of civil engineer as against over 2000 candidates for 10 posts of electrical engineer in response to recruitment being carried out by the state power corporation which has six projects with aggregate capacity of over 900 MW in hand. Managing director of the corporation Tarun Kapoor says that shortage of civil engineers is indeed a major problem faced by the hydropower sector. Further, there is also a dearth of quality contractors and executing agencies which could handle such large projects. Latest data reveals that at the current pace of infrastructure growth over 50,000 civil engineers will be required annually, whereas only about 12,000 civil engineers are passing out of colleges. Besides surge in demand, the main reason for acute shortage of civil engineers is that most of the private engineering colleges that have come up in recent years have completely overlooked the discipline. They have been focussing on computer science, information technology, electronics sector and other IT-related disciplines. |
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Manali-Leh Rail Line
Shimla, August 27 The company has already submitted preliminary project proposals to the government. The matter will be discussed with Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal on Friday. The Centre has already granted approval in principle to the project that will provide an all-weather road for carrying defence supplies for the troops deployed along the border. As per their report, they have made three proposals with different options for the execution of the project. Besides the existing alignment between Pathankot and Jogindernagar, the rail line will have four other stretches. This includes the 95-km stretch from Jogindernagar to Manali, with the height likely to go up from 1,500 m to 2,050 m. The elevation in the second stretch of 75 km, between Manali to Keylong, will go up to 3,400 m. The third stretch between Keylong and Pang will measure 130 km and will take the height up to 4,500 m. During the last and the longest stretch from Pang to Leh, the elevation will come down to 3,500 m but with the intervening height at certain places will go up to 5,000 m. As per one of the proposals, in case most of the track is on surface and passes through tunnels wherever required, the cost will work out to be around Rs 53, 500 crore with the project completion period being 96 months. In case the entire alignment is laid underground, the cost will come down to Rs 42,000 crores and the completion period would be 48 months. The third option offers a judicious mix of the first two with the cost being pegged at Rs 65,050 crore and the completion period being 72 months. The total length of the track that will go under tunnels will be around 215 km and the remaining 245 km track will be elevated or at the surface level. The state government had vociferously pleaded for the taking up of the Manali-Leh rail line project in view of its strategic importance. It was highlighted that with China having rail links close to the Indian border in Tibet, India must take up the project despite the high cost. |
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Discontinuing MDR treatment dangerous
Kumarhatti, August 27 Inquires with the TB Sanatorium at Dharampur, 4 km from here, showed that there were high chances of a normal TB patient to turn MDR case. The MDR is an advance stage of TB where patients do not respond to conventional medical treatment prescribed either under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) or the National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTCP). These cases require multi-drug medical treatment involving high expenditure. With the implementation of the RNTCP, a very few patients were admitted to health centres as the programme emphasised on providing door-to-door medical treatment to the patients. According to an official of the MDR TB Treatment Society at Dharampur Sanatorium, 80 per cent of the registered MDR cases have no link with the society, since they left the sanatorium after getting indoor medical treatment. The official said according to a study, an uncured MDR patient can turn 20 healthy persons into MDR in a year. The discontinuation or delay in the treatment would mean TB bacteria infecting more healthy persons, then the bacteria becoming more resistant to drugs, and ultimately some of the cases not responding to any known anti-TB drugs. |
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Anti-climax to apple fest
Manali, August 27 On the second day officials of the department of tourism and civil aviation and the HPTDC took a bus full of tourists to Buruwa village apple orchard uphill
Manali. The idea was to give tourists a real feel of the apple orchard village, Kullu Nati and hopefully ‘pahari’ cuisine to make the festival click among walk-in tourists. But the rich apple flavour laced with the pahari cuisine and culture turned out to be an anti-climax for them. Tourists enjoyed Kullu Nati dancing with a Kulluvi cultural troupe and the host, staff of the tourism department and the HPTDC apple festival team. “We get a good feeling in apple orchard and danced with Kullu
Nati, a scene we have seen in film Kudrat, but we got the flavour of the mango juice and stuffed paranthas that gave flavour of Punjab,” said Nalath
Vadvankar, a web-designer from Mumbai. Three Czechoslovakian tourists tasted the same mango flavour of apple festival but they enjoyed the dance. But
Samir, a businessman from Ahmedabad and Jasvinder Sandhu and his wife said that they enjoyed the countryside, Kuluvi dance, apple trees laden with apples as they saw it for the first time. But it would have been more exciting if the host had served them apple chutney, apple juice, cider with ‘Pahari’ or Kulluvi or Himachali cuisine, they quipped. Even the café was run by an Australian on an ad hoc basis. Martin said he was more or less a local as he married locally. “I open this café on Sunday only when a select few tourists come here for night stay.” |
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School building portion collapse
Hamirpur, August 27 Head teacher of the school Trishla Katoch said the school building was very old and other two rooms were also in bad shape. The room that collapsed had a slate roof and was leaking for quite some time. With the collapse of the portion of the school building, the issue of constant danger to lives of thousands of students studying in these buildings has once again come to fore. The issue is more serious than the Education Department is taking it, since as per its own records, out of total 507 primary schools, 128 are damaged and need immediate repairs in Hamirpur district. As many as 50 schools buildings out of total 100 schools under the Hamirpur block are damaged where 4,275 students are studying. In the Bhoranj block, 44 out of 102 schools, in Bijarhi block 7 out of total 107 schools, in Nadaun block 12 out of 122 schools and in Sujanpur block 15 out of 75 schools need repairs. Interestingly, the government has spent several crores under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan during past few years, but still many school buildings are in bad shape due to poor-quality construction. Deputy director of the Elementary Education Bheem Singh Rana said “We sanction the money for the repair of the damaged buildings after receiving proposals from the respective schools and have recently allocated Rs 40 lakh by the government for this purpose.” |
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Plea to revive ex-servicemen welfare board
Shimla, August 27 A delegation of the committee headed by Sq Leader Brij Lal Dhiman (retd) met Dhumal here today and apprised him of various demands of the ex-servicemen. Members of the delegation suggested that ex-servicemen could be deployed for providing security in temples. They also drew the CM’s attention to the neglect of sainik rest houses and urged him to renovate and upgrade these. The delegation thanked the Chief Minister for creating a separate department to deal with issues pertaining to ex-servicemen and expressed hope that it would help in speedy redressing of grievances of soldiers and their families. Dhumal appreciated the services rendered by ex-servicemen to the nation. He said the state had taken up the issue of “one rank, one pension” with the Centre. It had created a separate department of sainik welfare to cater to the rehabilitation and other requirements of ex-soldiers. He said the state ex-servicemen corporation was playing a big role in the rehabilitation of ex-servicemen and their wards and they were availing themselves of the loan facilities to set up their own ventures. The state had raised eco-battalions where ex-servicemen were being engaged to protect environment, he added. |
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Low yield of vegetables hits vendors
Kumarhatti, August 27 A couple of sites near this town have developed as roadside vegetable markets where local youths as well as the Nepalese migrants could be seen selling local vegetables. Earlier, by this time, there was usually a vegetable boom on the highway, but this year things are quite different. Unlike previous years, these markets now have worn deserted look with vendors’ presence reduced to almost half as against it used to be in the past. This year the losses are quite high, pointed out a Nepalese couple, who took fields from locals on contract basis. They further said usually by this time, on an average, the daily vegetable sale was used to be anything between 75-kg to 1-quintal. |
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1 lakh devotees visit temple
Kangra, August 27 The Guga temple had been a major attraction for the people who were suffering from psychiatric diseases, evil spirits and snakebites. This time also thousands of the psychiatric patients and those suffering with snakebites were treated in the temple. The sacred water from natural sources in the temple and temple clay were used as medicines for the ailing patients. An old tree, within the premises of this 200-year-old temple, was witness to thousands of those patients, suffering from psychosomatic diseases, cured by the blessing of Guga Baba. Faith was seen among the people towards this deity of the temple who visited the shrine 200 years ago. Manu Bala (16) of Gloat village said she had been suffering with psychological problem for the past three years, but got cured after visiting this temple. |
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Rajnath to address party seminar
Shimla, August 27 Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal, party’s national vice-president and MP Shanta Kumar, vice-president Bal Apte, national organising secretary Ram Lal and in charge of party affairs in Himachal Pradesh Satya Pal Jain will also be present on the occasion. The three-day event will involve various sessions on topics like “Vision for future of country and state”, “Ideology of the party” and “Election and party management” will be held. Special care will be taken to ensure that there is coordination between the party and the government so that party cadres are taken
into confidence. |
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7 anganwari appointments annulled
Nurpur, August 27 |
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Encroachments: HC warns shopkeepers
Shimla, August 27 The court also directed the commissioner of the Shimla Municipal Corporation to check their area at least three times within the next month and file its report on or before
September 21 with regard to encroachments on municipal land. The court passed this order after perusing the affidavit filed by the commissioner in compliance of the court order, wherein he had filed a list of 118 persons. The court warned those shopkeepers who have filed undertaking before the court that they will remove encroachments or overhanging, if any, on the municipal land that in case of violation of undertaking would amount to contempt of court. |
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Drivers with defective eyesight
Kangra, August 27 The eye testing camp was jointly organised by local unit of Sewa Bharti and the Kangra police. Tilak Raj Sharma general secretary of Sewa Bharti said nearly 100 drivers were tested free at the Kangra bus stand. Sharma said O.P.Jamwal DSP, Kangra, inaugurated the camp and S.B.Sood district eye mobile officer, checked the eyesight of the drivers. |
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Seminar on media
Bilaspur, August 27 According to a federation spokesman the chief minister will also honour 25 personalities of the state for their contribution. About 700 journalists from all over the state and outside will attend the seminar. |
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MC strategy to recover dues
Nurpur, August 27 |
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Woman killed
Sundernagar, August 27 According to information, Satya Devi (40), a resident of Nalani village near Sundernagar, was protecting her maize-crop fields from the monkeys and in process she slipped in her courtyard and suffered injuries, including head injuries. She was immediately taken to civil hospital, Sundernagar, as her condition was stated to be critical. She was further referred to PGI but she succumbed to the injuries. Her body was handed to her relatives after a post-mortem. |
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