Dharamsala, February 9
The beat officer of the forest department Des Raj who was found poaching migratory birds in Pong Dam wetland area yesterday is absconding. The wildlife personnel got hold of the gun and poached birds but they allowed the accused to abscond.

The range officer in Pong wild life sanctuary DS Dadwal when contacted said the accused went absconding yesterday. Today teams of wildlife officials raided his house and it was found locked. Later, they also visited the working place of accused officer. It was found that he had proceeded on leave.

It seems that the accused officer is trying for anticipatory bail in the case. As soon as we get hold of him he would be produced in the court, the range officer said.

He also said that the post-mortem examination of the dead bird had been conducted and pellets of gun had been recovered. It established that the birds were killed by gun shots.

The officials would now be sent the gun and recovered pellets to forensic laboratory to establish if they were fired from the same gun.

The bar headed geese are protected under schedule 9 of the wildlife act and offence is punishable by imprisonment up to seven years, Dadwal told.

Meanwhile, showing complacency in the case the forest officials have desisted even from suspending the accused officer.

The conservator forest, Dharamsala, A Rama Mohan Reddy when contacted said that they had not received any official information from wildlife department officials regarding the case. Once the official information is received action would be taken against the accused official, he said.

Interestingly, the matter of accused forest department official Des Raj being involved in poaching of migratory birds has been reported prominently in media. Despite that the conservator is stating that they are waiting for official information in the matter.

The soft attitude being adopted by forest officials in poaching cases is also illustrated by another case. About four days ago the wildlife department officials had caught a person with cooked meat of wild boar. However, since the incident pertained to the area outside the wildlife sanctuary area the case was handed over to the forest department. The forest officials let the accused go after imposing a fine of about Rs 5000.

The conservator, forest, when contacted said since wild boar was protected under schedule IV of the wildlife act the offence was compoundable.

However, the wildlife experts said that in such cases the intention of poacher should be taken into consideration. Under the wildlife act the wild animals are state property.

In the said case the alleged poacher was caught cooking meat of wild boar that spelled his intensions. However, forest department officials let him go with light fine.

Dharamsala, February 9
Politics over zonal status of the Dharamsala civil hospital remained at centerstage during the past fortnight. The Congress leaders, including the HPCC president, sat in dharna in the hospital complex alleging that the government was trying to dilute the zonal status of this hospital. The Congress workers also sat in a chain hunger strike.

Spearheaded by local representative Kishan Kapoor, the minister for transport and urban development, the BJP also went all out to maintain that it had no intention to dilute the zonal hospital status of Dharamsala hospital. Kapoor maintained that all specialist doctors had been posted in zonal hospital and that they had posted more doctors than it was done during the Congress rule.

In this milieu the poor medical superintendent of the zonal hospital was shifted out for allegedly failing to manage the situation. However, none of the political parties placed facts regarding zonal hospital before the people. This hospital earlier used to cater to medical emergencies from the entire zone, including Kangra, Chamba, Hamirpur and Una districts.

However, now a medical college has come up at Tanda that is located just about 15 km from Dharamsala. In Chamba also the district-level hospital has been upgraded up to the level of zonal hospital. Now most of the patients coming from far-flung areas of Kangra or other adjoining areas go directly to Tanda medical college rather than coming to Dharamsala zonal hospital. Even the residents in areas adjoining Dharamsala as Yol or Nagrota Bagwan now prefer to go to Tanda medical college rather than coming to Dharamsala.

The zonal hospital at Dharamsala now caters to just areas adjoining Dharamsala town. Enquires revealed that the number of patients coming to zonal hospital have also come down since the medical college that was earlier running at Dharamsala was shifted to a new building in Tanda.

The doctors on the condition of anonymity said it was practically not feasible even for the government to maintain two super specialty hospitals within a radius of just 15 sq km. They are of the opinion, that rather than playing politics over zonal hospital status, the political leaders should demand that the hospital should be equipped with the best facilities that are required to cater to needs of Dharamsala and its surrounding areas.

Shimla, February 9
As part of its initiatives to bring down carbon emissions, the Industries Department has assessed the power requirement of the industrial and commercial units in the biggest industrial estate of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh at 1,135 MW, which would finally be provided with a gas pipeline by the Gas Authority of India (GAIL).

The government has signed an MoU with GAIL for laying a gas pipeline that will help meet the CNG requirement of the transport sector and gas requirement of the industrial and commercial units all over the state. As per the agreement, the department has completed the task of assessing the gas requirement of the industrial hub.

“As per the survey undertaken by our staff, the power requirement of the 189 large and medium and 886 small industrial units in Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area is 1,135.12 MW,” an official said. He said GAIL had already been intimated about the assessment.

The gas pipeline that is being extended till Chandigarh will be taken beyond to meet the gas requirement of the biggest industrial area of Himachal.

“Our staff is already assessing the power requirement of other industrial estates of Kala-Amb and Poanta Sahib in Sirmaur, Una-Mehatpur and Gawalthi area in Bilaspur,” said a senior official of the Industries Department. The gas requirement of the hotel industry and commercial ventures would be assessed through a separate survey. “On the basis of this data, GAIL will prepare its feasibility report,” he added.

With piped CNG supply being made available to Himachal, carbon emissions will be reduced to a great extent. Thousands of truckloads of cement is transported to other areas from the state daily. “Once the new cement plants become operational, the number of trucks moving out of the state daily will go up to around 20,000,” he said.

Even for the industrial sector, the supply of piped gas would help bring down cost of certain operations, he added. Moreover, it would be a step towards making Hibachi a carbon-neutral state.

Shimla, February 9
The delay in unbundling of the State Electricity Board is likely to cost dearly as the State Electricity Regulatory Commission may not entertain its application for fixing tariff for the year 2009-10.

The commission has so far not admitted the application filed by the board in the last week of November. The main reason for it is that the government has so far failed to respond to the query regarding the status of the board, which ceased to be a legal entity following denial of extension by the Centre for the board to continue in the unbundled form.

In fact, the Union Ministry of Power through a letter had informed the state government that the transmission utility license of the board had expired and it should be ready to face its consequences. The commission subsequently served notice on the government to explain the position.

According to sources, the commission could only determine tariff for a power utility which has a valid license. As such unless the government takes the necessary steps to segregate the functions of transmission, generation and distribution in accordance with the Electricity Act, 2003, and obtains a license the commission will not be able to entertain tariff application of the board.

If stalemate over the unbundling persists the tariff application will not be taken up. As a result the board will be denied the benefit-increased tariff, which will add to its financial woes. More so, as the board has in its application proposed a steep hike in tariff to meet its increasing expenditure and to meet the additional burden on account of the impending pay revision.

The aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) for the year 2009-10 has been projected at Rs 2,853 crore as against the expenditure of Rs 2,021 crore approved by the commission for the current financial year. If approved, the average tariff will shoot up from Rs 3.68 per unit to Rs 4.60 per unit, the brunt of which will have to be borne by the domestic consumers as the power subsidy has been frozen at the level of Rs 140 crore under the agreement signed by the government with the World Bank for availing Rs 900 crore development policy loan.

As such any delay in issuing tariff order by the commission will actually benefit the consumers who will continue to pay at the existing rates until the transmission utility license is restored. However, the financial health of the board will turn from bad to worse.

Shimla, February 9
The state government is considering signing of supplementary implementation agreements (IAs) with independent power producers (IPPs), who were allowed to enhance the capacity of their projects on new terms and conditions.

The move comes in the wake of its decision to retain the “right of first refusal” for power generated in such projects through the year. The government had recently singed 11 implementation agreements in which the right of first refusal was surrendered for the power generated during summer and in its lieu the entire free power was to be drawn by the state during the lean winter months.

However, the government subsequently decided to retain the right of first refusal keeping in view the long-term economic interest of the state. Accordingly, relevant clauses will be incorporated in the IAs for the remaining 10 projects that were yet to be signed.

To ensure uniformity, the government proposed to sign supplementary agreements with IPPs for projects for which IAs had already been signed, Chief Secretary Asha Swaroop said.

The capacity of projects for which IAs have already been singed has been raised from 49.5 MW to 124.5 MW. In case of projects for which IAs are yet to be signed, the capacity has been enhanced from 55 MW to 152 MW.

Solan, February 9
Despite having earned the sobriquet of pharmaceutical hub of the nation, the industrial areas of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN), Kala Amb-Poanta Sahib and Parwanoo-Solan are facing a severe shortage of staff. Though these areas have managed to attract around 450 big and small pharmaceutical units, lack of regulation due to staff shortage has earned them the dubious distinction of manufacturing substandard drugs.

Renowned names that have set up their units here include Nicholus Piramel, Cipla, Cadila, Wockhardt, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Wings Pharmaceuticals, Torrent, Alchem, Panacea Biotech, etc. These units came up after the 2003 industrial package.

The Health and Family Welfare Department has posted drug inspectors to keep a check on these units. On an average, one drug inspector looks after around 150 pharmaceutical units in Solan, Parwanoo and Sirmaur areas, while one person has to keep an eye on around 300 units in the BBN area. Moreover, these drug inspectors are also supposed to inspect retail and wholesale premises of chemists and druggists in their respective areas.

Though the state government sanctioned nearly 10 posts of drug inspector in April last, the recruitment process has not begun till today. Thus, the exercise of enhancing the strength of field staff remained only on paper, while the department continued to battle the problem of staff shortage.

The government has shown no interest in implementing recommendations of a task force constituted by the Central Government sometime ago. The task force had appointed the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as its chairman. Among its several recommendations, the crucial one pertained to making the number of drug inspectors in the states commensurate with the number of drug manufacturing and selling premises. It was suggested that there should be one drug inspector for every 25 manufacturing units and one for every 100 sales premises.

These recommendations assume significance because quality regulation is of prime importance for the pharmaceutical industry and any laxity in manufacturing can prove fatal to the public at large.

Solan, February 9
Peeved at the neglect of a donated piece of land for construction of a new Public Health Centre (PHC) at Chakli village, near Deothi, the villagers today said they would move court if the land which they had earmarked was not put to its use.

The villagers led by Dhani Ram Kashyap, coordinator of the Progressive Farmers Society, said they would oppose the foundation stone laying ceremony at the existing site. Health Minister Dr Rajiv Bindal is slated to lay the foundation stone of the new building tomorrow.

While terming this step of the Health Department as contrary to the public sentiments the villagers said it belied all logic as the same site which had no road access had been rejected for the new building some years back.

They said the PHC originally had about 1.17 bighas of land under its jurisdiction, but some land belonging to it was encroached upon by an adjoining government senior secondary school leaving less than one bigha of land under its control now. While this land was not just insufficient as per the requirement of a PHC but in the absence of any road the patients had to cross the school premises to reach there. This not only inconvenienced the school children, but also the patients.

Roshan Lal, who had donated about 2 bighas of land after representatives of three panchayats pleaded him to do so some years back said it was unfair to leave that land unused. This was more so because the government had already incurred about Rs 15 lakh on levelling it and clearing it of plantations. Instead of appreciating his gesture the department had rather dumped muck in his remaining land lying below.

The budgetary provision of Rs 70 lakh for this PHC was made in the name of the land donated by Roshan Lal, the villagers insisted. While the new site was located barely 500 metres away, it would provide an easy excess road without putting the schoolchildren to any inconvenience.

The irate villagers said if their sentiments were ignored and construction of the new building was undertaken on the old site they would move court and seek adequate compensation.

The PHC would serve hundreds of villagers of the three nearby panchayats of Deothi, Chamat Barech and Bochh.

Bilaspur, February 9
The Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan is trying to activate youth power throughout the country through its various activities and if our nation has to grow stronger the youth have to be oriented towards the goal.

This was stated by Additional Superintendent of Police Pritam Chand Patial as chief guest while addressing the concluding function of the five-day “youth leadership and sports training camp” organised by the district Nehru Yuva Kendra at youth hostel, Jabbali, near here today evening.

Patial said youths should be vigilant and fully cautious of their responsibilities towards society and country if they are to successfully face challenges of times these days.

District youth coordinator Som Dutt Zard said 154 youths drawn from 48 Yuva Mandals from all parts of the district participated in the camp. They were given training in volleyball, kabaddi and athletics apart from apprising them regarding other activities of the Kendra.

Mandi, February 9
One student died and three others, including an employee of the J&K bank posted at Kullu, were injured seriously when an Alto (HP-34-1622) they were travelling in banged into a tree on the roadside of the National Highway-21 near Nagwani, about 45 km from here, on Sunday night around 11.30 pm.

According to police, the victim who was later declared brought dead at the regional hospital, Kullu, has been identified as Balbir Singh, son of Dhyan Singh from Ani, who was a Shastri student at Kullu.

Devi Singh, the owner, who was driving the car, was reported to be unconscious at the hospital today. He was an employee of J&K bank, Kullu branch.

The two other victims have been identified as Rajesh Kumar, son of Daulat Ram from Sainj, Kullu, and Ramesh Thakur, son of Hiralal from Kothi. Both were BA III students at Government College, Kullu. They were on their way from Sainj to Kullu in the car when accident took place.

The police came to know about the accident at noon and rushed them to the hospital within half-an-hour.

The negligent and rash driving was reported to be the cause of the accident. The driver lost control over the car and hit a tree on the roadside, overturning and damaging the vehicle badly, the police added.