Shimla, October 15
Lack of administrative and technical capability of panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) is the main hurdle in effecting speedy administrative reforms in the country. While some states were ahead, others lagged behind due to inherent weakness of the grassroot-level institutions of governance.

These views were expressed by members of the Administrative Reforms Commission during an interaction with mediapersons here today. Led by V. Ramachandran, these members are on a visit to the state to evaluate the progress of reforms.

Ramachandran said delegation of more power and functions to PRIs was the key to good governance. Thus, the thrust of reforms was on delegation of various administrative functions to the local self-governance institutions. However, these were not fully equipped to handle the responsibilities. Besides, strengthening their administrative and technical competence through capacity building, there was also an urgent need in certain states to effect changes in the administrative system.

He cited the example of primary education where frequent transfer of teachers was a major problem. As in many states, the recruitment of the teachers was carried out at the state level, there could be no effective control at the local level. Transfers continued round the year. Similar was the case with health institutions that suffered due to shortage of staff.

The only remedy was to recruit staff at district or block level instead of the state level. Some states had been forced to decentralise the administrative control because of non-availability of manpower and paucity of funds.

The commission had so far submitted nine reports on various important issues, including ethics in governance, public order, and combating terrorism, he added.

Earlier, the team met Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal. He underlined the need for long-term strategies to combat global warming and exploring the possibility of raising funds for the purpose.

He said hill states were plying a significant role in environment protection and there was a need to compensate them for their efforts. He also called for an amendment to the Forest Conservation Act, which, according to him, proved a major impediment in the implementation of various development projects.

Dhumal said the benefits of carbon credits should percolate down to the states in a fair manner. The Centre should adopt different parameters for hill states while sanctioning various projects or laying down norms as their requirements were different.

Shimla, October 15
The Himachal Pradesh High Court is all set to do something it has never done before. From October 18, it will help the rival parties sit face to face for resolving their disputes, even at pre-litigation stage.

For the purpose, the high court is setting up its first ever mediation centre in the state with “total settlement” as its motive. The centre is scheduled to be inaugurated by Justice S.B. Sinha of the Supreme Court on October 18 in the high court premises. Trained mediators are being appointed for the purpose.

The initiative to set up the centre for resolving the disputes even before they reach the courts has been taken by the Himachal Pradesh Chief Justice, Justice Jagdish Bhalla. Such centres were only recently inaugurated in parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

It is eventually expected to lessen the burden of pending litigation on the courts. As of now, the 10-judge high court is working hard to bring down the burgeoning number of cases that registered an astronomical increase due to the scrapping up of the Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal.

In fact, with pendency crossed the 50,000 mark with the transfer of 24,000 pending cases from the administrative tribunal to the high court.

Otherwise also, mediation is considered more effective than arbitration and conciliation in resolving disputes. The method of mediation through nyaya panchayats has rather been in existence before the adoption of the British form of justice.

Justice Sinha too has been laying stress on the need for popularising mediation as a method of alternative disputes resolution. He has been insisting that mediators must be trained persons, with a proper curriculum for their training.

He is also in favour of evolving a code of conduct and for institutionalising the concept of mediation with the Bar supporting alternative dispute redressal system.

The need for creating awareness about mediation to avoid unnecessary litigation was also brought to the fore only recently by Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Nicholas Addison Phillips.

Laying stress on pre-litigation mediation, he has all along been asserting that methods for dispute resolution were extremely successful in England and recent trends showed the Indian public too was inclined to adopt such measures.

The setting up of the centre is part of Chief Justice Bhalla’s resolve to streamline the system of dispensing justice to the masses. The high court has already initiated the process of setting up new district courts complex for Shimla as a part of the initiative.

It is believed that efforts are on to fill the existing vacancy of a high court judge and to possibly increase the strength of the judges for coping up with increased workload following the scrapping of the tribunal.

Shimla, October 15
Higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh experienced snowfall while lower areas of the state received rain since early this morning, bringing a considerable fall in the temperature.

Dhauladhar ranges in Kangra district, Pangi and Bharmour areas of Chamba district and Keylong, headquarters of Lahaul-Spiti district, received light to moderate snowfall since early morning.

The tribal district of Kinnaur was shrouded in thick clouds.

Lower hills of the state, including Dharamsala, received moderate to heavy rain, accompanied by thunderstorm, intensifying cold conditions in the state.

KANGRA: The Kangra valley experienced rains in the wee hours accompanied with high velocity winds leaving roofs of the houses damaged and trees uprooted.

The Pathankot-Mandi National Highway remained blocked at Maranda as a big tree was uprooted, which led to vehicular disruption for a few hours. The authorities were mute spectators to people’s agony to the extent that not even a single policeman was seen anywhere to regulate the traffic.

CHAMBA: The vehicular traffic was disrupted on the Saach Pass situated at an altitude of 4,413 metre in Chamba district following the season’s first snowfall today. The  Chamba-Killar highway, which links the mountainous Pangi tribal valley with the rest of the district crosses over to Killar via the Saach Pass.

The lower areas of Chamba district and the Pangi tribal valley received widespread rain accompanied by thunderstorm.

The pedestrians had been warned not to take any risk by crossing over the Saach Pass to either side during the blizzard, the reports said.

Bir (Dharamsala), October 15
In their zeal to please minister for public health and irrigation Ravinder Ravi, who was to inaugurate the pre-world cup paragliding championship at Billing, police personnel kept tourists, sportspersons and residents of the area stranded on the road leading to the venue for more than one hour this morning.

It was another thing that the championship could not start due to bad weather and persistent rain in the region, although the minister had reached the venue in time.

The take-off point for paragliders at Billing was 14 km from the landing site at Bir. There is a single-lane road in that area. Feeling that the minister could come any time, policemen stopped the traffic on the 14-km road well in advance. They did not allow even the participants from foreign countries, Army personnel and mediapersons to proceed towards the venue.

The result: Many persons could not reach the venue in time. Three Bulgarian paragliders, who had come to participate in the event, failed to understand why they were not being allowed to go to launching site. The policemen, on the other hand, maintained that had orders from their superiors to manage traffic on the road properly.

The minister feigned ignorance about the whole episode. He expressed regret at the inconvenience caused to the commuters.

Kangra, October 15
The first day of the Himalayan Paragliding Pre-World Cup 2008 was today washed out, thanks to inclement weather. It was earlier declared open at Billing by Irrigation and Public Health Minister Ravinder Ravi. This event has attracted 84 pilots from different countries.

It was all raining at Billing accompanied by icy cold winds and hailstorm before the first day’s schedule was cancelled. While declaring the event open Ravi said the government was committed to promote adventure, rural, cultural heritage and religious tourism in the state. He said that Bir-Billing was now recognised as an adventure tourism destination worldwide and was now being developed from the tourism point of view.

He said that a project plan formulated for the development of Billing was being accepted by the government and the Chief Minister would announce it on the conclusion of this event on October 20. He said that for the first time, Hang-gliding was started at Bir-Billing in 1984 and later on paragliding was started in 1992.

Ms Manisha Nanda, Secretary (Tourism), said that 84 pilots including 13 women, were participating in the event. She said among those, 29 pilots (including nine women pilots) were from Russia, 23 from India, eight from Ukraine, five from Britain, four each from Germany and France, three from Czeck Republic, two each from Austria and Kazakhstan and one each from the US, Italy, Bulgaria and Slovenia. In addition to this, five Pakistani pilots were also participating as guest flyers.

Kullu, October 15
Bomb hoax created panic in Kullu town yesterday. Three phone calls were made to a television channel claiming there would be blasts during the Dussehra festival.

The channel started flashing the news. This created panic among the people. They started making phone calls and sending SMSs to their relatives asking them to leave the Dussehra ground immediately.

The prank could have resulted in a big tragedy as there was a huge rush at the Lal Chand Prarthi Kala Kendra at that time. Around 10,000 persons had turned up to watch playback singer Shaan perform there and a stampede could have spelled disaster. Fortunately, nothing went wrong and the people moved out calmly. There was also a huge rush at Dhalpur Maidan at that time.

The district administration convened an emergency meeting to take stock of the situation. The presentation of the playback singer was stopped around 30 minutes before the scheduled time and the Kala Kendra was got vacated by midnight.

SP Jagat Ram said the caller’s number had been identified. Four persons of Mahili village, near Naggar in Kullu district, were detained for questioning in this connection. A case had been registered, he added.

Kullu, October 15
The last day of the Kullu Dussehra has three different attractions. The return of Rath Yatra after Lanka Dahan, sacrifices of five animals and the closing of the International Folk Dance Festival by the Chief Minister today.

The tradition of sacrifices is a common feature in the village temples in the Kullu valley and the ceremony of animal sacrifice during the celebration of festivals is performed at all local deities.

However, the sacrifices given at the end of Dussehra symbolises the sacrifice of five evils - kama, krodha madh, lobha and moha. The Dussehra festival itself symbolises the victory of good over evil.

According to the vedas, puranas and up-nishads, the evils have been matched with animals and birds. The man in the ancient age started sacrificing the animals and the convention continued. The human nature, which is filled with five evils, should learn from these sacrifices given to mark victory over the kama, krodha, lobha, madh and moha.

The ceremony of sacrifice was performed by the head representative of the erstwhile rulers of Kullu at Lanka Baker at the southern end of Dhalpur Maidan on the seventh day of the Dussehra here where he slaughters one male-buffalo (Bhainsa), a symbol of krodha; a he-sheep (Mendda), a symbol of madh; a cock (Murga), a symbol of kama; a crab (Kenkra), a symbol of moha and a fish (Machhali), a symbol of lobha. It is also said that Goddess Kali is worshipped by sacrificing animals to make the culmination of the festival. After the ceremony of the sacrifices, the Rath Yatra, pulled by thousands of devotees, returns to the Northern end of the Dhalpur Maidan from where it started on the first day of Dussehra. The idols of Lord Rama, Sita and Hanuman are taken back in a beautifully decorated palanquin to their sanctum at Raghunathpur here, accompanied by nearly 100 local Devi-Devtas. All 212 gods and goddesses, who assembled at the Dhalpur Maidan, also started their journeys back to their respective villages today.

Solan, October 15
Secretary of the BJP’s state unit H.N. Kashyap here today said it was unfortunate that the Congress MPs did little when it came to seeking liberal aid from the Centre for the damage caused by the recent heavy rain.

Addressing mediapersons, he said D.R. Shandil, who represents the Shimla constituency, limited himself to convening meetings with officials to discuss the progress of his MPLAD fund. He did little for demanding sufficient Central aid for the state.

The state had incurred losses worth around Rs 2,076 crore with 2,780 heads of cattle getting washed away. No discussion was held by Shandil on the relief measures during his meetings with officials.

He merely inquired about his MPLAD fund during these meetings and rather wasted time of the officials who attended these meetings.

Kashyap said the UPA government was prejudiced against Himachal.

Earlier, it had curtailed the industrial package granted by former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee from 2013 to 2007 and it was the pressure posed by the industry that led to its extension till 2010.

Further, the UPA government was endeavouring to bring education under the Central list. This would harm the state’s interests by limiting quota for Himachali students, he said.

Hamirpur, October 15
The Army Recruiting Office, Hamirpur, is conducting an open rally for the recruitment of soldier for general duty, technical, nursing assistants and clerical posts from November 8 to 10 at Luhnoo ground, Bilaspur.

Giving this information to mediapersons here today, Hamirpur branch recruiting officer Col M. Manna said general duty soldier from Una and Bilaspur districts would be selected on November 8, general duty soldier from Sikh community from Bilaspur, Una and Hamirpur districts and other candidates from Hamirpur district would be selected on November 9.

On November 10, soldier for general duty from Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur districts along with soldier clerks and candidates having NCC certificates from Hamirpur, Una, Bilaspur, Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur would be selected.

Solider clerks from the candidates of Bilaspur, Una and Hamirpur districts would be selected on November 11. Soldiers for technical and nursing duty from all over the state would be selected on November 12 and medical of all candidates would be conducted on November 13 and 14.

Col Manna said all transparency is maintained in the recruitment process in the Army and had appealed the parents and the candidates not to fall prey to touts assuring them job in the Army since only performance of the candidates could ensure their selection.

Shimla, October 15
Despite sharing the major burden in animal husbandry, horticultural and agricultural activities, social recognition and the income generated by women through their labour still remains unaccounted.

These are the views expressed by majority of the participants at the function organised by the State Resource Centre and the Himachal Gyan Vigyan Samiti on the occasion of the first International Day for Rural Women here today. Rural women from various parts of the state took part in the function and highlighted their problems.

Speaking on the occasion, the vice-chancellor of Palampur Agriculture University, Dr Tej Pratap said the government would have to come out with a policy ensuring equal educational, health and employment opportunities for women, including those residing in the rural areas. “Till equal opportunities in all these fields are not made accessible to the rural women the nation cannot develop,” he remarked.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Kuldeep Tanwar, president of the Himachal Gyan Vigyan Samiti said rural women, who constitute one-fourth of the total population, must be integrated into the mainstream by giving social recognition to their work and assessing the income generated by them in various activities like agriculture and food production.

Dr Om Prakash Bhureta, director of the State Resource Centre, said in Himachal itself rural women bear 86.2 per cent of the work burden in the animal husbandry sector while in vegetable cultivation they share 45.2 per cent of the workload.

However, despite toiling so hard they get barely 10 per cent of the wages and get only one per cent of the property share. He stressed the need for having a forum for rural women where they could come together and get their due and recognition for their hard work in practically every sphere.

The participants also stressed the need for proving better education and health facilities for the rural women so that they are not denied opportunities for personal growth and betterment.

Sundernagar, October 15
General manager of the Kol Dam Project S.C. Gupta today claimed that the construction of various components of the project would be complete by the end of 2009 and by the end of the next year, the project would start producing electricity.

Interacting with mediapersons at Salapper, he said the work on various components of the projects was ahead of schedule but the construction of the main dam had been delayed due to some geological changes. However, the construction of the 163-m dam had been now speeded up, he claimed.

He said while the work on the dam site was going on, a hillock on the right bank sank and seepage was detected on the left bank. “To ensure quality construction, we removed the constructed portion of around 25 m height. The work was restarted from the zero level and till date we have successfully completed construction up to 30 m,” he said.

He said the construction of the Kol Dam would enhance the life of the Bhakra Dam by 18 years as there would be no flow of silt from the dam site. The state would get 12 per cent free power from the project besides 15 per cent bus bar tariff.

Shimla, October 15
The Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) has bagged three national awards for highest fuel efficiency km per litre, maximum improvement in mileage and minimum operational cost among all the hill states of the country.

With a fleet of about 1,900 buses it operates on 1,967 routes in and outside the state covering 16.01 crore km every day. Its mileage has improved from 3.70 to 3.71 km per litre.

He said the accident rate of the corporation buses had been registered at 0.10 per lakh km, which is the lowest among the hill states of the country.

Managing director of the corporation T.C. Janartha received the trophies from the union surface transport secretary Braham Dutt at New Delhi today. Janartha said the corporation added 269 new buses during 2007-2008 to its fleet, which had 631 zero book value vehicles in the fleet. It paid Rs 32 crore as tax to the state government and other 
neighbouring states.

Bilaspur, October 15
MP Anurag Thakur has declared that steps are already afoot to make Gehadwin reserved constituency as a model in this area and a total of Rs 4.89 crore is being spent on various development works presently under construction in this constituency.

Addressing a series of public meetings at Shah Talai, Gharaan, Jejwin, Kalol, Marottan, Sangaswin, Teehra, Sunahani, Baroha, Dadi Bhadi, Rishikesh and Berri Darolan during his two-day tour of Gehadwin constituency here in district, Thakur declared that the government has regularised services of 13,200 daily wagers during the past nine months of the BJP rule while another 6,000 daily wagers have also been regularised.

Thakur said that the government had decided to open new technical courses in technical educational institutions of the state so that the youth is given training to enable them to get employment in large number of industries and hydel power projects which are coming up in the state.

He laid the foundation stone of Rs 40.39 lakh Tihra drinking water supply scheme and also inaugurated Rs 1.71 crore Ser-Baroha lift drinking water supply scheme which would provide drinking water to 55 villages. He also inaugurated Rs 45.84 lakh Behna Jattan-Berri-darollan drinking water supply scheme and laid the foundation stone of Rs 47.58 lakh Naghyar drinking water supply scheme, which when completed, would serve 12 villages.

Local MLA Rikhi Ram Kaundal thanked Thakur for his declaration for the construction of a cricket stadium at Jhabola with an expenditure of Rs 10 lakh. He said Rs 2 crore would be spent on construction on Kharli road while Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal had sanctioned three more primary health centres for Gehadwin constituency.

Kaundal declared that an amount of Rs 7.84 crore was being spent on the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan while steps are also afoot to bifurcate Sunhani gram panchayat into two panchayats so that development work in this biggest panchayat area are expedited.

Shimla, October 15
The court today extended the police remand of IAS officer Subhash Ahluwalia by another day while the order on his bail application has been reserved till tomorrow.

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau which has booked Ahluwalia in a disproportionate assets case had sought seven days’ police remand for interrogating the officer, the Special Judge (Forests) J.L. Gupta granted a day’s extension in police remand.

With the deposits in his bank accounts during the past five years while he was principal private secretary to the chief minister during Congress regime estimated to be about Rs 1.34 crores, all his sources of income are being closely scrutinised by the bureau.

The vigilance officials maintained that they had calculated the amount in the 16 deposits held by the bureaucrat and his family members after taking into account details filed by them before the income tax and other offices. They added that they stood by the figure worked out by them.

Meanwhile, the medical board at the Indira Gandhi Medical Board (IGMC) today examined Ahluwalia who has been admitted there since his arrest on October 8.

Doctors attending on him said that his blood pressure was still shooting up occasionally but otherwise his condition was much improved.

Shimla, October 15
Having visited the arduous tracks and mountain passes from where the strategic Manali-Leh railway line will pass, an eight-member team of the India Railway Transport Service (IRTS) will submit the feasibility report of the project by the end of this month.

The team visited Manali and Keylong to get feedback about the tourist arrival in the area, Army supplies and places of tourist interest to assess the feasibility of the project.

The project, which had not been taken up till date due to its high cost, is finally beginning to take shape. The railway line, which will connect Jogindernagar, Manali, Keylong, Pang and Leh, will provide the much-needed alternative route for ensuring uninterrupted Army supplies.

A private company, ICC Holdings, has shown interest in executing the project and submitted the blueprint for it to the state government. The company has informed the government that in case it is given the task of executing the project, it will submit the detailed project report (DPR) by October, 2010.

The team, led by chief commercial manager Buta Singh, assessed the feasibility of the rail line across the high mountain passes, including Tanglangla (5,360 m), Lachalangla (5,065m), Baralachala (4,892m) and Rohtang (3,890 m).

The 460-km rail line will have over 200 tunnels measuring around 215 km. The track will pass witness elevations between 1,000 m to over 5,000 m.

The only other route used for taking defence supplies to the border areas through the Kargil area in Jammu and Kashmir is not considered safe at it falls within the firing range of the Pakistani troops deployed on the border. As such, having a railway line up to Leh will be in the national interest.

Himachal has been pleading the taking up of the project so that the inland areas get rail connectivity.

This will help giving a major boost to tourism. So far, rail line is only up to Jogindernagar in Mandi district and its extension will connect Kullu-Manali and Lahaul-Spiti.

Shimla, October 15
As the Himachal Power Corporation gears up to execute Rs 2250 crore Renuka project, people of the area have also intensified their campaign to get the site of the dam on Giri river relocated upstream to avoid submergence of the main road and some villages.

The Renuka Bandh Jan Sangharsh Samiti formed by the people of 14 villages to be affected by the project wants the site of 148 m rock-fill dam shifted from Dadahu to a point 3 km upstream to reduce the impact on their life. Under the present design a 3 km stretch of the Dadahu-Sangrah road and four villages, including Mohtu, will vanish in the reservoir. The samiti is opposing the project in the present shape the alternative road to be built in its place will increase the distance between two places by 18 km. If the dam site is moved upstream, it will also ensure that much less area of the Renuka wildlife sanctuary was affected, Samiti convener Yoginder Kapila points out.

Besides being a protected wildlife area the sacred Renuka lake also happens to be an important religious place and it could be affected due to blasting to be undertaken in close vicinity(250m) for boring tunnels. Any damage to the water body will hurt the sentiments of lakhs of devotees who visit the place every year to celebrate Parshuram Jayanti. The corporation maintains that as per geological reports blasting will not pose any threat to the lake but SIDHI(Social Institute of Deliberate Human Imminence) , a local non-government organisation, places no trust on geological reports. Director of the organisation Sanjeev Awasthy says that similar reports were produced while sanctioning mining plans for the 60-odd limestone quarries which specifically mentioned that natural water sources will not be affected. However, a majority of water sources have dried up due to mining.

Beside shifting of dam site the samiti is also demanding 10 bighas of land for each affected family and job to one member.

Managing director of the corporation Tarun Kapoor asserts that the water storage project has been planned after years of investigations and the best possible site had been selected for the dam. The dam was proposed just below the confluence of Giri and Danoi streams to ensure maximum live storage capacity of 4980 hectare metre (dead storage 2280 hectare metre). Shifting of the dam will not be possible as the valley narrows down upstream which will drastically reduce the storage capacity and as such the basic purpose of the project to supply water to Delhi will not be served.

However, the corporation will address all the concerns of the people and provide a comprehensive package to ensure proper rehabilitation of the affected families. It had already reserved 20 seats in various industrial training institutes to provide young boys ad girls from the affected families necessary training in selected trades so that they could be provided jobs. The cost of their training will be borne by the corporation.

The 40 MW project will generate 221.2 million units of power annually and also help augment the generation of the 60 MW Giri_Bata Project by 93 million units.