Shimla, January 2
The Himachal Government will soon formulate an environment master plan to effectively address sensitive ecological issues and pave the way for sustainable economic development in the fragile hill environment.

Stating this while delivering his presidential address at the Interactive Meet on Governance, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said Himachal Pradesh was the first state in the country to formulate such a plan in consultation with the environmental experts. He said there was need to undertake a campaign to sensitise the common man about the drastic impact of environmental degradation across the world. Unless there was awakening at the grassroot level, the impact of the climate change and global warming would not become everyone’s concern.

The government had taken several initiatives to make the state carbon neutral and address environment-related issues. It had decided to conduct environment audit of all departments with a view to ensure that no activity hazardous to environment was undertaken by these. The government was also preparing a climate change policy and an action plan. The state had also taken initiative to constitute an “environment fund” to encourage people’s participation in protection of environment. He said 50 per cent of the donations would be spent on the maintenance of environment and reduction of carbon emissions, 25 per cent on creation of infrastructure and 10 per cent on environment education activities and awareness programmes.

Forest and Environment Minister JP Nadda underlined the role of public representatives in furthering the cause of environment by motivating people to join the movement to reduce greenhouse gases. He said payment for environmental services was one of the other issues raised with the Government of India to compensate the state. He said a road map for environment protection had been prepared to undertake various activities in future.

Director of the Centre for Science and Environment Sunita Narain appreciated the initiative taken by the Himachal Government to switch over to low carbon economy and achieve carbon neutrality. It was a big challenge and if successfully met, it would help show the way to others. She emphasised on the need to formulate a plan in association with experts to maintain harmony between development and environment.

Noted geologist Ritesh Arya underlined the need to tap groundwater in mountainous terrain as surface water sources had been overexploited, contaminated and were also drying up due to climate change. He said he had harnessed groundwater in cold desert of Ladakh and it could bring a green revolution in the tribal Lahaul-Spiti district. He said global warming and cooling were cyclic events and instead of raising alarm, effort should be on mitigating its impact.

Principal Secretary (Agriculture) P.C. Kapoor gave a presentation on “Pandit Deen Dayal Kisan, Baagwan Samridhi Yojna for Faster and More Inclusive Growth in Agriculture”. All Cabinet Ministers, MLAs, political thinkers and senior bureaucrats attended the meet.

Shimla, January 2
Switchover to clean processes, fuel-efficient vehicles, energy-saving devices and other such steps will not be enough to avoid the catastrophic consequences of climate change. The developed countries will have to effect a “deep cut” in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to combat the challenge posed by global warming, asserts Sunita Narain, noted environment scientist and director of the Centre for Science and Environment.

“There has been a lot of talk about global warming over the past two decades, but not a single concrete step has been taken to arrest the dangerous trend. The time is running out and if the present trend continued, the temperature could rise by 5°C by 2050 with far-reaching implications for life on the planet. The gravity of the situation can be judged from the fact that it took 3 million years since ice age for the mercury to rise this much (5°C). The average temperature has already increased by 0.7°C and with the environmental pollution already caused, a further increase of 0.7°C is inevitable. Hence, there is a need for wide-ranging urgent measures to cope with the problem,” Narain said. She was here to make a presentation on climate change at the interactive meet on governance issues organised by the government.

The situation could still be saved if the average increase in temperature could be arrested to 2°C. It was, however, a huge task for which the planners would have to re-invent the process of economic development. The switchover to low carbon economy will require developed nations to cut GHGs by at least 30 per cent by 2020. The developing countries could contribute not by legal binding, but through strategies to avoid future emissions.

Warning a note of caution, she said a rise of 5°C would mean an unacceptably high level of suspended particulate matter (550 ppm). The current levels are already touching 430 ppm and the effort should be to contain it at 450 ppm.

However, this could be achieved only by effecting 85 per cent reduction in the GHG level by 2050. Energy, transport and industrial sectors were major contributors to CHG emissions. “In a city like Delhi, 1,000 new vehicles hit the road daily and it already has 45 lakh vehicles. Private vehicles need to be replaced with efficient public transport. The construction of metro rail and the introductions of bus rapid transport system are major steps in that direction,” she said.

She disapproved of the CDM mechanism and said it required major reforms to ensure prompt realisation of carbon credits.

Shimla, January 2
The state government has decided to repeal the Himachal Pradesh Sports (Registration, Recognition and Regulation of Association) Act and grant one time relaxation in upper age limit of 45 years prescribed in the recruitment and promotion rules of the ayurvedic medical officers to facilitate batch-wise recruitment.

The decision was taken by the cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, here today. The law was enacted by the previous Congress government to tame the state cricket association headed by elder son of Dhumal and MP from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur. The BJP had while in opposition termed it as a draconian law purposely enacted to undermine the autonomy of sports bodies. The Indian Olympic Association had also called for scrapping the Act.

Relaxation in age will be granted up to a maximum of five years to fulfil the long pending demand of the unemployed ayurvedic graduates.

It decided to name the micro irrigation and other infrastructure development diversified agriculture special project as “Pandit Deen Dayal Kisan-Bagwaan Smridhi Yojna” which would be implemented from the current financial year. Under the scheme 80 per cent subsidy will be granted to farmers for installing drip irrigation system and 50 per cent for construction of farm water storage tanks, bore wells and pumping machinery. It aims to bring 20,000 hectare of land under irrigation.

The cabinet decided to lease 139 bighas of land along with built up infrastructure in Ner Mohal in Sadar Tehsil, Mandi district to the Employees State Insurance Corporation to pave way for opening of the proposed medical college and hospital.

Dharamsala, January 2
A former President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, today called on the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetans, at Mcleodganj today. The former President reached the Kangra airport in a regular Kighfisher flight at about 3.30 pm.

He was welcomed at the airport by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Prime Minister in exile Samdhong Rinpoche, a member of the district administration, including deputy commissioner KK Pant and SP Kangra, Atul Phulzele. The former President interacted with the Tibetan leaders at the airport over a cup of tea.

In a brief interaction with the media Kalam said that he was fascinated by the spiritual system of the Tibetans. The values in the system should also be followed by others. I am here just to meet the Dalai Lama, he said.

Later the former President drove with the Dalai Lama to his residence at Mcleodganj. He left the place after having lunch with the Dalai Lama.

Kalam is on the two-day visit to Himachal. He is scheduled to take part in a convocation of the National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) at Hamirpur tomorrow. He will also interact with the students of NIIT and other schoolchildren, the sources here said. This is the second visit of Abdul Kalam to Himachal. He had earlier visited the state in 2004 as President.

Bilaspur, January 2
Advocate Bhagat Singh Varma, a prominent Congress leader of the district and also chief adviser of the Joint Action Committee of 11 gram panchayats of the Baga-Balag area where the JP Industries is setting up a cement factory, has joined issue with DFO Pushpender Rana, who had claimed that only five trees have been axed by this factory management and action had been initiated against them.

Addressing mediapersons here this afternoon, Varma, accompanied by several other leaders of this joint action committee, said the Forest Department is side tracking the main issue of massive encroachment on the government forest land and felling of hundreds of trees by this factory without any permission.

They alleged that the Forest Department and its high officers were actually “protecting the real culprits” and making the lowly forest guards and deputy ranger as scapegoats by suspending and threatening them. They said it was just an eyewash and the action of suspending two forest guards is a clever attempt of the high officers to save themselves.

Varma said a lot of construction work had taken place on the encroached government forest land. They demanded strict action under the HP Forest Act against the factory immediately.

Kullu, January 2
The applicants renewing their ration cards were put to great inconvenience by the District Food and Civil (DFC) Supplies Office here. They were given instructions in various steps and forced to make repeated rounds of the DFC office.

The authorised person at the desk asked the applicants to get the form attested from the municipal committee members in the first step and submission of affidavit in the second. The third step of the instructions was to take the authorised officer to the applicant’s place for physical verification.

One of the applicants on the condition of anonymity said he had made four visits to the DFC office, but could not find the concerned authority to guide him for the application.

He further said he had to visit the office many times to clear the objections raised in various steps, however, he had fulfilled that too.

It is pertinent to say that the ration cards were being renewed after 2005 and people were not given ration and LPG cylinder without fresh ration cards. However, the cumbersome procedures have put the citizens into harassment or forced them to use “convenient means” to get the things done easily without facing the “babugiri”.

The District Inspector of the office said the LPG dealers had been directed that consumers should not be forced to produce the ration card as the government had withdrawn the directions earlier issued in this regard. But the formalities prescribed under the rules have to be completed.

Moreover, the government should provide a single window system for getting the ration cards renewed and enabling people to escape the “babugiri”.

Shimla, January 2
With the Rs 16-crore funding likely to come through from Asian Development Bank (ADB), the State Council for Science, Technology and Environment will set up a planetarium, a butterfly park and a science city at Anandpur, near Shoghi.

Poised to be an added attraction along the UNESCO world heritage site Shimla-Kalka rail line, the site of the planetarium is barely 3 km from the Shoghi railway station on the Shimla-Kalka rail track. The planetarium will be the first one in the western Himalayan region.

“We have put up the project before the ADB for funding and we are hopeful that it will come through,” said Nagin Nanda, Director, Environment and Scientific Technology and Member Secretary of the Council. Being located near the Kalka-Shimla world heritage site, it would prove to be an added attraction for the tourists and create scientific temper among the masses, he added.

A high-level ADB team visited the proposed site for the planetarium at Anandpur during its earlier visit on October 2 last year. The project is likely to be approved by the ADB team arriving here on January 6.

The planetarium would be set up under the guidance of J.J. Rawal, former Director of the Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai, and the president of the Indian Planetary Society.

“Experts in the field will be associated with the project to help create audio-visual marvels of space flights, inter-planetary travels and panoramas of planets, a major attraction for students, researchers and tourists,” said S.S. Chandel, principal scientific officer in the council.

Land had already been acquired for the proposed planetarium, while the process for acquiring about 4.2 hectares of adjoining land for the butterfly park and the science city was under way. The planetarium would have a sitting capacity of 250 and was likely to attract a large number of tourists.

Though the project had been in the pipeline for the past some time and land had also been identified, paucity of funds remains the main problem. Now with the ADB likely to approve the project, an added attraction will be created. It is likely to create indirect employment for local people as the place will be visited by a large number of tourists.

Shimla, January 2
Senior engineer BS Negi took over member (projects) of the state electricity board, here today.

He replaces Arun Sharma, who retired on December 31. Negi, who hails from Pooh village in Kinnaur, is the first engineer from the tribal area of the state to become a technical member of the board. A graduate from Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra, he had held several important positions and had been actively involved in the investigation and execution of small, medium and large hydroelectric projects.

During his last assignment as chief engineer, private sector projects, Negi handled the processing and allotment of hydroelectric projects of more than 5-MW capacity to private sector and preparation of power purchase agreement.

Hamirpur, January 2
Resentment is brewing among employees of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) as it has failed to provide them winter dress despite the fact that a major part of the season has already passed.

The corporation provides woollen dress to its more than 5,500 employees every winter. These employees include drivers, conductors, workshop staff and others posted at 23 depots of the corporation.

As a matter of policy, the dress should be given to them before the onset of winter (end of the September or beginning of October).

Sources in the corporation say the delay in providing woollen dress has been due to procedural lapses and late finalisation of dress material by the committee formed by the management. Staff members say the dress will be of little use if not given in time.

According to a staff member, the committee takes too much time in finalising things, leading to such situations.

Managing Director of the HRTC TC Janartha said, “We have approved the samples and the dress material will be provided to the staff soon.”

Bilaspur, January 2
The state unit of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) has strongly protested against ‘harassing’ of some 217 SCVT institutes in the state by the BJP government and has threatened statewide action if the government does not immediately revise its policy towards these professional institutes.

Addressing mediapersons here today, NSUI state spokesman Tilak Raj Thakur accompanied by some other leaders Narvir Singh, Ankur Sharma and Rajan Shaan said that thousands of youths who had taken training from these institutes were not sure about the government policy of employing them while thousands of unemployed youths who aspired to take training this year from these SCVTs had been left in the lurch only because the government has not yet allowed and conducted counselling for these courses even uptill now.

Thakur said these institutions were being harassed by repeatedly sending enquiring teams to their premises and their functioning is being obstructed over flimsy grounds and rules were being changed every now and then. Instead of encouraging them for taking the initiative to open such avenues through which they can train youths to get self-employed and help state improve their economic lot.

They said these SCVTs trained Himachali youths for Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 while the training cost them between Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000 outside the state.

Mandi, January 2
The Mandi Medical College Sangharsh Samiti(MMCSS) will launch a mass arrest in front of the DC office on January 16 protesting against the government’s stubborn attitude on the issue of government medical college in Mandi as it has not invited protesters for talks.

MMCSS convener Sunder Lohia stated that the samiti had been on chain hunger strike since October 20 but the state government had crossed all limits of democratic norms as it had not invited the protesters for talks. The samiti will never give up the struggle till their demand for withdrawal of the July 15 notification proposing to attach three zonal hospitals of Mandi, Hamirpur and Una was met, he asserted.

Lohia said the samti had decided to give mass arrest in front of the DC office on January 16. The government was hell bent on mortgaging the interests of common patients and long-standing demand of the people of Mandi for the government medical college, he asserted.

Lohia said the resentment among people of Mandi district had reached the village level as they felt cheated by the BJP government. Shimla and Dharamshala regions have government medical colleges, but central Mandi region has been denied this facility.

He said the joint action committees of Mandi, Hamirpur and Una would launch a joint protest at the end of this month to mark the 100 days of protest of MMCSS.

Bilaspur, January 2
The BSP has taken exception to meddling by ruling political leaders, including the Chief Minister and the BJP ministers, into affairs of the state Federation of NGOs in an attempt to install their own men and party followers as so-called leaders of the federation.

Addressing mediapersons here this afternoon, BSP district president Kesh Pathania objected to the fact that the Chief Minister took personal interest in affairs of two diametrically opposed groups of the federation and manipulated to ensure installation of a couple of his supporters under the cover of so called unity among these two factions out of total five factions of the State Federation of NGOs.

Pathania also objected to the direct interference of two cabinet ministers who attended a so-called foundation day function of a faction of the Federation of NGOs at Solan. He said it is for the first time that any government leaders have directly interfered in employees’ trade union matters and have tried to install their own supporters so that recognition can be manipulated in their favour in lieu of their return support for the government.

Palampur, January 2
The Baijnath police today arrested two persons in connection with dowry death of Billo Devi of Sagoor village.

Talking to mediapersons this evening, Baijnath SHO Om Parkash said Sanjay Kumar and Rameshwari Devi, father-in-law and mother-in-law, respectively, of the deceased had been arrested.

The SHO said Satya Devi, mother of the deceased, in a statement before the police had alleged that her daughter was being maltreated by her in-laws for the past five years, for not bringing appropriate dowry.

It is revealed that Billo Devi was married six years ago, but her family life was miserable as her in-laws were torturing her. On earlier occasion, the village elders also persuaded her in-laws not to harass Billo Devi. Even the village panchayat intervened on many occasions.

Last evening there was some altercation in the family on the issue of preparing tea. Thereafter, Billo Devi set herself on fire. Satya Devi alleged that her in-laws first tied Billo Devi with a chair and later she was set on fire. She said it was not a case of suicide.