School students risk lives to attend classes
Pihri (Dharamsala), January 27
About 57 students of a primary school in Pihri village are risking their lives to attend classes. The school building, which is located in one of the remotest areas of Kangra district, is in dilapidated condition. There are holes in the slate roofs of the building. Its mud walls have developed cracks and pillars supporting the roof shake by a slight touch.

Vignettes The lightning-struck castle When one speaks regularly of a building struck by lightning, one’s needle of thought moves towards Bijli Mahadev in Kullu. The other building about which Lord Auckland’s sister Emily Eden writes in her diary in 1839 as a bleak house that nobody would live in and that in general is struck by lightning once in a year is the Sterling Castle in the Longwood Hill. The Sterling Castle is one of the oldest buildings of Shimla.

Mashobra’s unbridled urbanisation pains noted writer
Shimla, January 27

The state government has decided to amend the Town and Country Planning Act to help legalise unauthorised structures even as unregulated urbanisation is taking a heavy toll of the fragile hill environment. Verdant slopes in and around major tourists destinations are losing the green cover at an alarming rate due to “haphazard and excessive” construction activity. Mashobra, which has been transformed into a concrete jungle due to haphazard and excessive construction activity; and (inset) writer  Pankaj Mishra

Struggling textile industry faces another blow
Hike in additional goods tax
Solan, January 27
Reeling under losses due to a decline in exports, the textile sector in the state has been forced to bear another blow with the state government enhancing the additional goods tax (AGT) on yarn from the existing Rs 3 per kg to Rs 4.50 per kg. The textile industry has been opposing 50 per cent hike in the tax, as it had to bear the brunt of an entry tax levied by Punjab.

Census of migratory birds in Pong Dam
Hamirpur, January 27
To gather more authentic information and detailed study of migratory birds of famous wetland in Pong Dam, the wildlife department of the state government has decided to carry a census of these birds.

Shimla diary
IGMC to reduce special wards
Much to the surprise of everyone, the authorities at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) are bringing down the number of special wards to half. This is not because there is no demand of such wards but its been done to have better lighted and ventilated rooms.

• Heaving a sigh of relief
• Col Narender gets Sena Medal