Shimla, March 8
Position of women in the hill state is far better than other states of the country and they are contributing a lot in all areas.

Stating this while presiding over the state-level function organised at the Ridge Maidan, here today, to mark the International Women’s Day, principal secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment, Rashima Gupta said Himachali women were on top in health indicators and men-women ratio and women literacy rate was also much higher as compared to most other states of the country.

The government had already established the State Women Commission to help check violation of the rights of women and providing speedy justice to the suffering women.

She said there was a dire need to change attitude towards women as they made a mark in almost every field and there was no area where they had not made their presence felt. Women were the pillars of the family and now they were also contributing in various sectors of business, commerce, engineering, Army, art and space science. They were also playing their role effectively in the panchayats at village-level, she added.

A blood donation camp was also organised on this occasion. People showed keen interests in the exhibition stalls put up by women self-help groups.

Students of Anganwari, Portmore School, Balika Ashram and artists of Himachal Gyan Vigyan Samiti presented colourful cultural programme based on girl child and women empowerment. Quiz, sack race and musical chair for women were also the main attractions of the day.

Rashima Gupta honoured ICDS workers and women entrepreneur Prema Thakur of Solan district and Jagdamba Devi and Lata Katoch of Kangra district.

Joint director, Social Justice & Empowerment, Prabha Rajeev presented a vote of thanks.

NURPUR: A programme was organised to celebrate the International Women Day at the Health Sub-centre, Rinna, near here. In the programme rural women were educated about women empowerment and menace of domestic violence.

Block medical officer BM Gupta apprised them of their rights for health, education and legal rights.

A local NGO, Smarapan, also educated women about complete sanitation campaign and called upon them to keep their house surrounding clean.

Shimla, March 8
Lack of moisture in orchards because of inadequate snow and rain during the winter season is causing worries to apple growers. They are now praying for a good spell of rain for a good harvest.

The manner in which the day temperature increased suddenly over the past fortnight does not augur well for the crop as there is not enough moisture in the soil. A temperature of 15 to 18°C is considered ideal during bud-breaking period, but it has already crossed 22°C this year. If there is no rain over the next two to three weeks, the plants will come under stress as lack of adequate moisture in soil affects uptake of nutrients and in turn their overall vitality. As a result, the buds are rendered weak and fragile. Bud-breaking has already started in lower areas.

Snow is considered “white manure” for apple crop as it not only helps in meeting the minimum chilling requirement, but also maintains the required level of moisture to see the crop through during the summer.

However, it has been virtually a snow-less winter in the apple belt this season.

There were only two token snowfalls, one in January and the other in February, which together resulted in less than 10 cm snowfall. Worse, even the rain has been scanty that barely helped in ensuring minimum chilling hours for the orchards in mid and higher hills.

Director for horticulture Gurdev Singh says, “It is a difficult situation as in case there is no rain over the next three weeks, flowering will be affected. However, if the region gets belated snow, the mercury will drop suddenly, making things worse. Only widespread adequate rain is required to make up for the lack of moisture and prevent quick and abnormal rise in mercury.”

He advised growers to make arrangements for irrigating crops and carry out mulching to retain whatever moisture was there.

With snow becoming increasingly scarce, they must put in place drip-irrigation system in their orchards.

Orchards on the shady north-eastern aspects will be less affected as the temperature remains low there, but those in lower hills or on the sunny south-western side will be severely hit.

The apple crop suffered maximum due to lack of snow in 1999-2000, when production came down to 90 lakh standard boxes. The production was 2.55 crore boxes during the last season, while the maximum outturn of 2.86 crore boxes was recorded in 2006-07.

Mandi, March 8
Despite the CPM fielding Onkar Shad as its candidate from Mandi, the main contest here is likely to be between former five-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, present scion of erstwhile Rampur Bushair, and BJP’s two-time MP Maheshwar Singh, present scion of the former king of Kullu.

Congress stalwart Virbhadra Singh will be contesting the Lok Sabha election from Mandi after a gap of over 26 years. The constituency comprised 16 assembly segments spread over Mandi, Kullu, Shimla, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts. The presence of stalwarts has made it one of the most prestigious contests in the state.

Virbhadra Singh’s name came as no surprise for the party workers. He has already hit the campaign trail starting from his home town Rampur Bushair.

However, with CPM’s Onkar Shad in the ring, Virbhadra Singh will have to work hard as the CPM can cut into the Congress vote bank, observers say.

Except on two occasions, Congress has dominated the region since the formation of the state in 1971. Virbhadra Singh is comfortably placed in most of the assembly segments, but the CPM is likely to make a dent in the Congress vote bank in certain areas.

BJP’s Maheshwar Singh is trying to exploit the anti-incumbency factor against the sitting Congress MP, Pratibha Singh. However, this factor seems to have been neutralised by the party by fielding Virbhadra Singh from Mandi this time. Secondly, the delimitation has included the Dharampur segment in Hamirpur, which will benefit the Congress in Mandi as BJP MLA Mohinder Singh has been retaining that seat for the past five terms.

Virbhadra Singh contested from Mandi for the first time in 1971 and got over 71.95 per cent of the votes polled in the election, defeating Mandhar Lal of the LRP. He tasted defeat during the “1977 Janata wave” when late Ganga Singh defeated him by about 12,000 votes. However, he won the seat in 1980 by defeating Ganga Singh by over 58,000 votes.

After Virbhadra Singh came back to state politics, when he became the Chief Minister in April, 1983, Sukh Ram defeated Madhukar (BJP) by 1.32 lakh votes in 1984.

On the other hand Maheshwar Singh contested the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in 1989 and defeated Sukh Ram by 28,000 votes. He lost to the latter in 1991 by 27,000 votes.

Maheshwar Singh lost the seat to Pratibha Singh, wife of Virbhadra Singh, in 2004 by a margin of over 66,000 votes. He had won the seat in 1998 by defeating Pratibha Singh by around 54,000 votes.

Dharamsala, March 8
Corruption in general and charges against former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh were main poll planks of the BJP in its election campaign during the previous Assembly elections. Congress rebel and later BSP state convener, who has now quit politics, Vijay Singh Mankotia and former IAS officer SM Katwal provided the BJP with damaging material against Virbhadra that was used in the election campaign.

However, a year later and once again facing Lok Sabha polls, the BJP might find it hard to use corruption as poll plank. On the contrary, the party leaders now in power might find it difficult to answer as to what action they have taken against the accused in the alleged corruption cases.

Katwal said the jobs for chit scam was brought to the fore in 1993. About 2,800 persons were appointed illegally in the scam and charges were levelled against Virbhadra.

The BJP government after coming to power in 1998 formed two committees headed by Harsh Gupta and Abhay Shukla, the state cadre IAS officers.

The Harsh Gupta Committee submitted its report in which senior Congress leaders were allegedly accused. However, the report of the committee was not provided to me despite the fact that I was the main complainant. No action was also taken on the committee report by the BJP government. I have been told that the other committee was not provided material by the government to reach the conclusion, Katwal added.

The CD released by Vijay Singh Mankotia in which conversion of Virbhadra Singh and his wife in shady deals was recorded was used by the BJP as poll planks and copies of it were distributed among the common masses. After the BJP came to power the CD was got examined from forensic experts. The report of Chandigarh-based forensic laboratory established that voice on the CD was that of Virbhadra Singh. Still no action had been taken against the leader by the present government in the last one-year.

In other corruption cases also like grease scam or bitumen scam no senior government official or politician has been brought to the book.

Katwal said it raises serious apprehensions regarding intentions of the present government regarding corruption cases. There seem to be two sets of rules existing in the state while dealing with corruption. One applies to common people of the state and other to the influential politicians and bureaucrats, he said.

Mandi, March 8
In its bid to gear up its support base among the ex-servicemen and the serving soldiers in the state, the Congress Ex-servicemen League today accused the BJP of misleading the ex-servicemen on the issue of “one rank, one pension” and made a fervent appeal to them to take all UPA polices like NREGA, the Right to Information Act and its big projects like IIT and ESIC medical college hospital among voters to ensure a win for the Congress.

Addressing the ex-servicemen rally here, All-India Congress Ex-servicemen chairman Capt Pravin Dabar condemned the acts of certain misguided ex-servicemen of giving back medals and other honours bestowed on them for meritorious services by the government and accused the BJP of misleading the ex-servicemen on the issue of “one rank and one pension” as this demand had been rejected by none other than the Supreme Court.

Dabar, who presided over the ex-servicemen rally in support of the Congress here, claimed that certain misguided ex-servicemen league had also come to Himachal spreading propaganda against the UPA government. He added that it is the UPA government that has enabled to achieve over 70 per cent pension for each rank and all discrepancies in the pay scales were being sorted out by the Defence Ministry.

On the demand of a separate Himachalis battalion in the Army, more quota for Himachalis in the Army, full pension to veer naris, Dabar said he would take these with the Defence Ministry when the UPA forms the next government at the Centre. BJP president Rajnath Singh’s move to include “one rank one pension” in election manifesto was misleading the soldiers of the country as the Supreme Court had rejected this demand.

Chief guest on the occasion state Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur charged that the previous Virbahdra Singh government had sanctioned all demands of the ex-servicemen like opening of legal cells, more canteen facilities, poly-clinics etc but the present Dhumal government had put them in cold store.

He went on to claim that all big projects like IIT, ESIC medical college, Jogindernagar-Manali-Leh rail line, Bhanupali-Bilaspur rail line, central university, NIFT and water road links to each household and village, the midday meal, NREGA, RTI are achievements of the UPA government and urged ex-servicemen to take them to the voters as all four seats would be won by the Congress. The Congress would ensure that ex-serviceman get quota in each election, he added.

Dharamsala, March 8
The Tibetan would hold prayers for the long life of their spiritual head, the Dalai Lama, at McLeodganj tomorrow.

In a press note issued here today, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) authorities said the ceremony would be broadcast live on tibetonline.tv. It would begin at 8 am. The CTA and the people of Tibet would jointly offer prayers for the long life and fulfilment of all his wishes. Heads of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon religion would attend the ceremony, the press note said.

Senior officials of the CTA, including the supreme justice commissioner, justice commissioners, the speaker and deputy of the Tibetan Parliament, Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche and members of the Kashag would also attend the ceremony.

The commemoration ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the exile of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people would also be telecast live on March 10.

The Dalai Lama would address the gathering on the occasion.

Palampur, March 8
The recent decision of the Forest Department to block the road leading to the Institute for the Furtherance of Study in Buddhism and a gurdwara at Gopalpur, 16 km from here, has led to widespread resentment among the people.

A Tibetan trust had purchased 400 kanals of land after approval from the state government in 2003. The trust headed by Tibetan guru Dorzang Rinpoche was setting up the Institute for the Furtherance of Study in Buddhism there. The then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had laid the foundation stone of the institute. He had assured the Tibetan guru that no hurdles would be created in coming up of the institute and it would be allowed a clear approach road.

Till date, the trust has spent over Rs 5 crore on the institute and hundreds of foreigners visit the place every year to complete their doctorate in Buddhism.

The same road also leads to a gurdwara set up here in 1920 by Baba Nand Singh of “Kaleran Wale”. The cave where Baba Nand Singh used to worship was still in intact near the gurdwara. A big function is held there on every Purnima in which devotees from all over Punjab and other states participate. The closing of the road has created problems for the devotees.

Monastery head Dorzang Rimpoche had been reportedly ailing for the past few days and officials had been finding it difficult to even shift him to a hospital as the Forest Department had not removed the barbed wire even for the entry of an ambulance to the monastery.

All construction and other religious activities in the institute had come to a standstill. Though Tibetan officials had approached the administration in that regard, but in vain. It was alleged that some high-ups of the ruling BJP were behind the closure of the road leading to the monastery. Over 40 local persons working in the monastery had been rendered jobless.

Residents of Gopalpur said Sikh devotees had been using this path since 1920. “It is regular path in the revenue records and nobody has the right to block it,” they say. They said the decision of the forest department had hurt religious sentiments of the people and the government should intervene and restore the path.

Divisional Forest Officer AS Baniyal said he had sought a report from the range officer. He said he did not know much about the issue. If there was a path in the revenue records, he would direct the authorities to remove the barbed wire, he added.