Shimla, January 30
Trout production in the state is all set to get a major boost with decks having been cleared for the setting up of 100 new farms for production of the delectable cold water fish, considered a treat for marine food aficionados.

Till now, the private trout farms were mainly concentrated in Kullu and Mandi districts, but now trout farming will also be taken up in a big way in other potential areas of Chamba, Shimla and Kinnaur under a centrally assisted scheme. At present, there are about 75 private and six government farms in the state, which is number one in trout production in the country.

Director, Fisheries, BD Sharma said trout production in Himachal would go up substantially with the coming up of 100 new trout farms. “It is for the first time that the government has approved a subsidy of Rs 30,000 as the first-year input, besides Rs 25,000 per unit as capital cost,” he said.

The Fisheries Department had already started preparations to meet the enhanced seed requirement due to the coming up of 100 new trout farms. The department was also in touch with the National Fisheries Cooperative Federation (NFCF), Delhi, for exploring proper channels for the export of trout. The sample of the fish from Himachal had been sent to the NFCF. Since it fetched very good price, the possibility of some other marketing channels opening up was also high. However, with trout farmers failing to form a cooperative, they were selling their produce individually, thereby failing to get good price.

Trout production in the private sector touched 67-tonne mark last year while in the government farms it stood at 18 tonne. The Fisheries Department has six farms located at Patlikuhl (Kullu), Barot (Mandi), Dhamwari (Shimla), Holi (Chamba), Sangla (Kinnaur) and Banjar (Kullu). The fish is in great demand, especially in big hotels.

There had been a substantial increase in the number of farmers taking to trout farming over the last three years, mainly in Kullu and Mandi districts. The trout from Himachal fetched up to Rs 400 per kg, but the farmers had to sell it at Rs 220 per kg at their farms during the period when there was slump in demand.

Shimla, January 30
The government has reconstituted the Himachal Pradesh Tea Development Board and the Ex-Servicemen Welfare Board.

The Tea Development Board will be headed by Chief Minister. MLAs from Palampur, Baijnath, Sulah, Dharamsala, Nagrota, Bagwan, Rajgir, Jogindernagar, chief secretary, principal secretaries of agriculture, finance and cooperation, registrar of cooperative societies, chairman of Palampur cooperative tea factory, a representative from the Tea Board of India, director of the IHBT, Palampur, head of the department of tea, HPKV, Palampur, will be its official members. The Director (Agriculture) will be the member secretary.

Its non-official members will be Surinder Singh of Mansimbai Tea Estate, Jai Chand Thakur from Sulah, Sanjay Rathore from Rani-Sidhpur, Vinod Kaushal from Baijnath and Veena Shrivastava from Malahu. The Ex-Servicemen Welfare Board will also be headed by the Chief Minister. It will have the chief secretary, principal secretaries (finance, rural development, food and supplies, industries of irrigation and public health, transport, tourism, cooperation, ayurveda, horticulture, power, home, urban development, town and country planning, health, forests, education, technical education, PWD, revenue and excise and taxation), secretaries (agriculture and animal husbandry), director (sainik welfare), managing director of the state ex-servicemen corporation, as official members. Secretary of the Sainik Welfare Department will be the member secretary.

Its non-official members will include Lieut-Gen HS Kanwar (retd) of Amiehad village, Lieut-Gen RS Dayal (retd) of Mashobra, Brig LC Jaswal (retd) of Shimla, Brig JS Pathania (retd) of Maranda, Brig BD Dogra (retd) of Dra Parol, Col Roop Chand (retd) of Longni, Col Ravi Vaid (retd) of Chamba, Col Daulat Singh (retd) of Neri, Group Captain Bhupender Singh Chauhan (retd) of Dharna, Col Chet Ram Chauhan (retd) of Hamirpur, Col Matwar Singh (retd) of Ghara, Lieut-Col Dharam Singh (retd) of Bharyal, Capt Ram Singh (retd) of Khungan, Capt Pritam Singh (retd) of Budwahar, Capt Chhering Tashi (retd) of Rangrik and Capt Prabhat Singh Chauhan (retd) of Hamirpur.

Shimla, January 30
The local municipal corporation (MC) has finally given the go-ahead for increasing the water tariff by 10 per cent for both domestic and commercial consumers. The hike will come into effect from February 1.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the MC held here today.

The enhancement in water tariff has been ordered after a gap of four years. Barring two CPM councillors, who opposed the hike, the rest of the House supported it and passed the resolution for the enhancement of the tariff.

Deputy Mayor Harish Janartha said only a marginal hike in tariff had been ordered and the consumers would not be burdened much by it. “The government had asked us to order a hike of 40 per cent, at the rate of 10 per cent annually as it had been due for the past four years, but we did not wish to burden the people unnecessarily,” he said.

The hike in water tariff would range between 35 to 55 paise for various slabs.

Janartha said the position of water supply in Shimla had not been satisfactory, so the hike was not ordered for the past around four years. However, now the situation had become comfortable and a hike effected. “We will fix responsibility and ensure that the supply from the IPH and the MC sources is satisfactory so that the people do not have to suffer,” he said.

Shimla, January 30
Tributes were paid to the Father of Nation on his 61st death anniversary here today. Horticulture Minister Narinder Bragta garlanded the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Ridge and paid homage. Other who paid floral tributes included Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes, MLA’s, Suresh Bhardwaj and Sukhwinder Singh, Deputy Commissioner JS Rana, Municipal Commissioner AN Sharma, Superintendent of Police RM Sharma, municipal councillors and other officers.

A two-minute silence was also observed at the Raj Bhawan in the memory of those who sacrificed their lives for India’s freedom on the occasion of ‘Shahidi Divas’.

Officers and officials of the Raj Bhawan also garlanded the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi and paid tributes to him.

Baddi, January 30
Road woes of the state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) would soon be over with progress being made in the ambitious Expressway Project. The centrally-aided project would not only reduce distances between BBN and Mohali but would also lead to an upcoming international airport.

As per the initial understanding between the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB), the nodal agency for the project, and the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Development Authority (BBNDA) the expressway would connect National Highway (NH 22) near Lalru and National Highway (NH 21) near Kharar and this would further connect Baddi.

The total length of the expressway would be 67.7 km with approximately 64.5 km falling in Punjab and Himachal accounting for barely 3.2 km.

The proposed expressway will connect five national highways (NHs) including NH 22 (Chandigarh-Ambala road) near Lalru, NH 64 (Zirakpur - Rajpura section) near Banur, NH 95 (Kharar-Morinda section) near Kharar, NH 21 (Kharar-Kurali section) near Kharar and NH 21A (Baddi-Nalagarh section) at Baddi.

Informing about the latest developments the Chief Executive Officer, BBNDA, Mamta Chowdhary said a team of PIDB had recently come to take stock of the forest area where the road alignment was to be undertaken. She added that process was underway and consequent to a nod from the PIDB the state government would finalise the Memorandum of Understanding. Crucial issues like seeking forest clearance, as nearly 2 km area of forest land was involved , from the Ministry of Environment and Forests would be also be addressed soon, she said.

In an effort to ensure speedy progress a dedicated Expressway Monitoring Committee comprising various officials has been proposed to be constituted which would meet from time to time to review and monitor the progress and status of the project during the validity period of this MoU. The committee would comprise Managing Director, PIDB, who will be the Member-Secretary, with other members, including Secretary, Public Works Department, Government of Punjab, Chief Executive Officer, BBNDA, Chief Engineer (South), HP PWD, chief legal adviser, PIDB and chief general manager, PIDB.

The ground work in the form of a GPS Survey for selecting the actual route has already been done by the PIDB through a USA-based consultant. They have also prepared a feasibility and preliminary design report (project report) which has been agreed upon by the BBNDA.

Investors who are eagerly waiting this expressway said it would not only add value to the BBN area but would help ease traffic congestion on the Pinjore-Swarghat road where thousands of vehicles ply on a daily basis.

Dharamsala, January 30
The Bhagsunag-Dharamkot road would be completed by the end of current financial year. This information was provided by the minister for transport and urban development Kishan Kapoor.

The minister said the road would link the two vital tourist spots of region Baghsunag and Dharamkot. Presently, many tourists do not reach Dharamkot as there is no road link or parking facility in the village. However, the completion of road link would provide boost to the village.

The minister also said that the present government was spending Rs 40 crore on the development of Dharamsala during the current financial year. In Dharamkot alone Rs 35 lakh have been spent in the current financial year for various development works.

A water supply scheme is also being brought for the village at a cost of Rs 40 lakh.

Mandi, January 30
The state police or the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) have not so far initiated investigation into the properties amassed by the two agents from the state named by Sazi Mohan, former NCB zonal director, arrested by the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) in Mumbai last week.

The two agents are: Tek Chand, a proclaimed offender from Mandi, and Tara Chand, a resident of Chalal village in Kullu district wanted in connection with the 155-kg charas haul at Chandigarh in 2005.

Tek Chand was declared a proclaimed offender in connection with a 68-kg charas seizure by the then NCB superintendent OP Sharma with the help of the police on July 25, 2005, in the Chamaj area.

The arrest of Sazi Mohan, who attended a workshop on the NDPS Act in Kullu in 2007-08 and talked big about the NCB’s anti-contraband cultivation campaigns in Kullu and Mandi, had come as a surprise for the police officials in the region.

Though the police claimed to launch anti-cannabis and anti-poppy drives in the region in 2007 and 2008, the NCB strangely did not lead any major destruction campaign in the region during Sazi Mohan’s tenure as the zonal director of the NCB at Chandigarh.

DIG (Central Range) Anurag Garg said the police would take up investigation of the cases involving Tek Chand and Tara Chand. The police already had some inputs that would help it in the investigation, he added.

Nurpur, January 30
As many as 450 families, victims of Punjab militancy who had migrated to this subdivision in 1984 and constructed their houses in a new colony at Mahanta village, have been running from pillar to post to seek justice.

They have sought the intervention of the government against the move of the Indian Air Force authorities to demolish their houses for laying an oil pipe.

Led by former state secretary of the SC BJP cell Manohar Dhiman, they submitted a memorandum to the state government through the SDM on Friday.

They pleaded that they had built their houses on Damtal temple land and the Air Force had no ‘link’ with this land as it was about 550 metres away from their dwellings. They rued that on January 15, the Air Force authorities visited the colony and asked them to remove their houses otherwise they would demolish them.

The victims stated in the memorandum that they had been living under constant threat of forcible action of the Air Force authorities and have urged the state government to ensure that no damage was done to their property. 

Dharamsala, January 30
Amity, a private university, which was allotted 30-kanal land in Khaniara village by the previous Congress government, has locked horns with the present government.

Sources have said Amity had demanded about 125-kanal land in Khaniara village from the previous government for setting up a private university campus in the area. Instead of the demanded land the previous government had allotted 30-kanal land to Amity in Khaniara.

However, Amity failed to bring up any infrastructure on the allotted land. So the present government planned a food and craft institute on the same land. However, the Amity management has written to the district administration and secretary revenue that since the land was allotted to them it should not be used for alternative purpose. They have also claimed that Amity was still willing to bring up private university in Khaniara in case the electric wires passing over the land allotted to them are shifted and some more land is allotted for the institute.

Sources said following communication from Amity the secretary revenue had written to the district administration, Dharamsala, to sort out the matter. Kangra DC KK Pant denied any knowledge about communication from Amity University or secretary revenue.

When asked, however, the DC admitted that programme for laying foundation stone for the food and craft institution is not on schedule.

The district revenue officer said the Amity education society was sanctioned 30-kanal land in Khaniara in July 2007. They society was informed to deposit the lease amount and get the land transferred in their name from the concerned tehsildar. However, for the past more than one-and-half year, the education society had not got the land transferred in its name by depositing the lease money. So, the land continues to be in the name of the government in revenue papers. Now it is for the government to decide on the sanction granted to Amity University.

Shimla, January 30
The foundation stone of the Rs 110 crore steel-processing unit to be set up by the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) at Kandrori in Kangra district will be laid on February 21.

Stating this after meeting Union Steel Minister Ram Villas Paswan in New Delhi today, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the government would provide 7.20-hectare land for the project on 99 years’ lease immediately to the SAIL. The government would provide all tax and other incentives to the plant, which were available to private sector units in the state.

He said the site would be connected by an all weather highway for 60 tonnes trailer capacity and an 11 kV line would be laid to provide 4,500 kW power for the steel unit.

He further said as many as 200 persons would get employment in the proposed unit. The total project would come up in phases and TMT (thermo mechanically treated) bar mill with 20 furnace capacity and production capacity of 1,00,000 tonne per annum would start production in 18 months.