Kangra, March 29
Thousands of pilgrims from all over the country visited the Bajjreshwari temple here, one of the 52 Shakti peeths, amid tight security in connection with the Cheitra Navratras despite cold weather.

Kangra District Police Chief Atul Phulzale said today that thousands of pilgrims have thronged Bajjreshwari, Jawalamukhi and Chamunda temples in Kangra district during the last three days to pay obeisance.

He said two armed reserves have been deployed in Kangra and Chamunda temples each and three reserves in the Jawalamukhi temple.

He said to regulate pilgrim traffic and maintain law and order in these temples, besides the police, nearly 100 Home Guards too have been deployed in each temple.

He said the police personals in civil too have been deployed to keep a vigil on anti-
social elements.

He said bomb disposal and sniffer dog squads have also been deployed at these shrines. Metal detectors have been introduced and every pilgrim is being frisked.

Coconut as prasada is banned in the temples. Pilgrims from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir visit the Nagarkot Dam, during the Cheitra Navratra to pay obeisance to Goddess Bajjreshwari.

Pilgrims attired in yellow clothes mostly followers of Dynoo Baghat, who offered
his sacrifice in the Bajjreshwari temple, visit this temple in large numbers as it being
their “Kul Devi”.

The temple management has established two information centres in the town to
guide visiting pilgrims to the shrine. These centres are located at Tehsil Chowk
and the Kangra bypass.

Solan, March 29
The Election Commission (EC) has finally granted permission to the State Pollution Control Board to issue consent to operate to hundreds of investors whose permissions has been put on hold following its earlier directions.

A letter in this regard was received by the board late last evening. The Election Commission had earlier refused this permission in view of the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct after announcement of the Lok Sabha polls.

It, however, reconsidered its decision after the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA) along with the State Pollution Control Board gave a detailed representation to the EC explaining how investment worth crores would be held up for one-and-a-half month.

The BBNIA in its representation asserted that it was a retrograde step in view of the ongoing recession and would hamper industrial growth in the state.

The investors also explained their viewpoint citing timely procurement of consent to operate once an industrial project was granted permission by the state’s single window clearance agency.

Since this permission did not involve any political decision-making and was
purely an administrative approval the investors felt there was no rationale in
keeping them waiting.

What had caused maximum annoyance among the investors was the fact that after grant of approval an investor was given 90 days to avail power availability certificate and in case he failed to seek all approvals, including consent to operate within 180 days, his approval would lapse.

This relaxation would now also allow the investors to seek power availability certificates from the state electricity board that had stopped issuing these certificates after the poll announcement.

Only those units that had procured the consent to operate were granted the PACs. The investors had planned to approach the court in case the earlier decision was not reversed. This relaxation, however, come as a major relief to such investors.

Hamirpur, March 29
While uproar in the Congress meeting on Saturday at Hamirpur and move to expel Narinder Thakur has widened the chasm between Congress groups in the party, it has put a question mark on the efforts of the Congress to put up a united fight in the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

More so since Congress leaders after losing the seat for five consecutive terms were making an effort this time to give a tough fight to sitting MP Anurag Thakur, who had won the seat last time with a whopping margin of 1,74,666 votes.

Though the meeting was convened to introduce party candidate and former cricketer Madan Lal to the party workers and chalk out a strategy for the elections, it turned out to be a public show of chasm between two groups of Congress men.

Instead of using the forum to put up a united front in the elections, most of the leaders used the occasion to bash up leaders of the other group.

That was the reason why leaders present in the meeting wasted more energy in moving a resolution to expel few leaders instead of bridging the chasm so as to put up a united front for the forthcoming election.

This also exposed the weakness of district leaders to maintain decorum due to heightened ill will against each other.

Washing dirty linen in the open by some party men has must have made party candidate Madan Lal wary about putting up a strong challenge to Anurag Thakur.

While top party leaders have already started damage-control exercise and there are reports that a meeting will soon be held at Hamirpur to bring rapprochement among the warring factions.

The meeting will also be attended by HPCC president Kaul Singh Thakur and CLP leader Vidya Stokes.

Hamirpur, March 29
Shopkeepers of the Hamirpur town have resented the manifold increase in the licence-renewal fee for shops and business establishments effected by the Hamirpur Nagar Parishad.

According to the new rules, the minimum fee for the renewal has been increased from a uniform rate of Rs 30 per annum to a minimum of Rs 150 per year. There are higher slabs for bigger business establishments.

Expressing resentment over the move, shopkeeper Krishan Chand said, “The recession has not only affected our sales, but also reduced our margins. In such a situation, the manifold increase in the shop licence fee seems pinching.”

A few other owners of small shops maintained, “We are already finding it difficult to make two ends meet and this increase in the licence fee is adding to our woes.”

On the other hand, president of the nagar parishad Deep Kumar justified the increase in the licence fee.

Deep Kumar, who is also the president of the Hamirpur Beopar Mandal, says, “The last revision of fee was done many decades ago. At that time, a uniform rate of Rs 30 per annum was fixed for all business establishments. However, as the prices of all items have gone up, we discussed the issue in the House and fixed slabs for licence fee for small, medium and big business establishments on the basis of rates prevailing in Solan and Mandi towns.”

“Despite a uniform nominal licence fee of Rs 30, only 300 business establishments obtained the licence over the last few years, while there were about 2,900 establishments in all,” nagar parishad authorities said.

“With a lot of persuasion and ground-level exercise, we have been able to issue about 2,200 licences recently,” they added.

Executive officer of the Hamirpur Nagar Parishad Vijay Sharma said, “The increase in licence fee was effected by the House after a debate. Three slabs have been fixed for licence fee: Rs 150 for small establishments; Rs 500 for medium establishments, including hotels and restaurants; and Rs 1,000 for big establishments.”

The telecast shall be monitored by the commission in conformity with the Cable Television (Regulation) Act, 1995.

Shimla, March 29
While the delayed spell of widespread rain in the state has provided much-needed relief from dry spell, it will not help the rabi crop, almost ready for harvesting.

In fact, it is has caused some damage to the already poor crop in the lower areas of Kangra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh. Director (Agriculture) JC Rana said the wheat output might go down by another 5 per cent as a result and total production would range between 4.5 lakh tonne and 5 lakh tonne as agent the target of 6.8 lakh tonne.

However, rain would be helpful in meeting the fodder shortage as farmers could grow short-duration fast-growing crops like chari in the area. The Agriculture Department had already arranged 4,000 quintals of seed for the purpose.

If sowing was completed by the first week of April, the farmers would be able to get up to three cuttings of fodder. In all, about 25,000 hectare of such area would be available for sowing.

The rain would be beneficial for kharif sowing also as it would restore soil moisture. A few more spells of rain would be welcome, he added.

Rain had brought cheers to apple growers whose orchards had been severely affected due to prolonged dry spell.

Lack of moisture in the soil was affecting uptake of nutrients as a result of which plants were losing vitality.

Rain would also help maintain the temperature that had started shooting up. Clear weather over the next month would help flowering and fruit setting.

Meanwhile, the higher reaches of the state had another spell of snow leading to a dip in temperature. Kalpa in Kinnaur was the coldest in the state with minimum temperature plummeting to 1.2°C, followed by Keylong (2.1°C).

Shimla was comparatively warm with a minimum of 9.9°C and maximum of 16.3°C. It also recorded 2.2 mm rainfall.

Shimla, March 29
The Himalaya Niti Abhiyan (HNA), a forum of non-governmental organisations, has urged the government not to go ahead with the acquisition of land for the pooling station being set up at Panarsa for evacuation of power till the election is over.

Convener of organisation Kulbhushan Upmanyu said the election commission had given nod for starting the process of land acquisition, but the people of the area had been vehemently opposing that.

As the government could not negotiate with the affected people and take any major decision due to the model code of conduct, it would be appropriate on the part of the authorities not to go ahead with the land acquisition proceedings.

If implemented in the present shape, it would lead to destruction of over 1.5 hectares of thick forest that served the needs of people of five panchayats.

It was allotted to VIMCO in 1984, but the villagers fought a protracted battle to get the decision reversed.

Further, the proposed site on the right bank of the Beas was in a populate area
and as such the radiation emanating from the high-tension pooling station, which
will help evacuate thousands of megawatt of power, would affect the health of
the people. Studies had indicated that such radiations caused depression and
other problems.

He said no forest areas should be transferred for non-forestry use until the rights of the people were settled under the Forest Dwellers Act, which was not being implemented in letter and spirit in the state.

While it covered all forest dwellers, the government was implementing it only in the scheduled tribal areas.

The people were demanding that the pooling station should be set up on the left bank of the river where plenty of land was available.

It would not only save villagers from health hazards, but also did not involve any
green felling.

Banala (Mandi), March 29
Even as the Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) has given its nod to go ahead with the process of land acquisition for setting up “pooling station” here, Banala villagers said today that the Rs 5.73-crore award to be given to 26 beneficiaries on March 31 at Aut would influence the voting outcome in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and violate the code of conduct.

Though most of the villagers, who have given their land measuring 23.18 bighas for the “pooling station” being set up by the Power Grid Corporation of India, are ready to part with their land, others have formed the Jhor-Bhuvneshwari Mahila Mandal Samiti opposing the project.

Mandal president Leela Devi said they have demanded that the project should be shifted out from the populated area to some barren location across the Beas river.

Moreover, we are filing a complaint through the Mandi DC that the process violates the code of conduct as ward can influence the voters.

The environmentalists’ plea that pooling station would subject the villagers to danger of leukaemia and magnetic field had been rejected by the high court on May 12, 2008, ruling that the petition stands dismissed in national interest.

The state government sought clearance from CEC when the code of conduct came in force and it gave its approval for the land acquisition process, revealed officials.

Interestingly, a few outsiders from the Balichoki area first bought land from poor locals for peanuts here and then erected the tin-roofed houses overnight in their bid to get compensation from the PGCI.

Power grid officials claimed that the project had been fire since 2005 as the transmission lines are being set up for the 2,051 MW Parbati, 800 MW Kol Dam, 105 MW Malana II, 86 Malana II and 192 AD hydro etc as they would pool power at this pooling station.

District officials are tight-lipped over the issue. Chief electoral officer Anil Khatchi said he would look into the complaint when its given to him in writing.

BR Bhatia and Lekh Ram Kayath from Solan district and Karam Chand Bhatia from Shimla, Karam Singh from Chamba and Chaman Lal from Hamirpur district are also members of the samiti.

Kangra, March 29
More than 100 ENT patients were examined and 23 of them selected for surgeries during a free camp held in the Gopal Bagh locality of this town today. The camp was organised by the Vivekananda Kendra and the Repudhaman Charitable Trust.

Dr Sanjay Sachdeva, director and head of the ENT department at the Fortis, New Delhi, examined 109 patients and identified 23 for surgical intervention, sources said.

The surgeries would be conducted in the last week of April at the Civil Hospital here. The Vivekananda Kendra organises one such camp every month in rural areas.

Despite inclement weather, patients from far-flung areas of Mandi, Chamba and Hamirpur districts came to the camp to get themselves examined and treated for various ENT complications.

Kangra, March 29
Resentment prevails among residents of Dharman and Dukroo villages in this district, as nearly 100 kanals of land is turning barren for want of irrigation facilities, as these villages have no connectivity with the Brahal Lift Irrigation Scheme.

Harbans Lal, a resident of Dharman village, said nearly 100 kanals of land in Dharman and Dukroo villages falling under the Manjgram village panchayat on the lower side of the Pathankot-Mandi National Highway had no irrigation facilities.

He said the irrigation pipes had been laid in these villages and the channels constructed four years ago, but it still remained to be connected with the Brahal Lift Irrigation Scheme across the National Highway, thus leaving residents of these villages in a lurch.

The villagers alleged that they had approached the IPH Department time and again but of no avail. They demanded irrigation facilities be provided to the affected areas.

He said Mayawati had provided jobs to one lakh unemployed youths of Valmiki Samaj in UP, besides, allotting land to the landless members of the samaj in the state.

Shimla, March 29
Himachal Pradesh University will implement anti-ragging instructions received from the state government in affiliated institutions and incorporate them in prospectus.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the executive council (EC) of the university chaired by Vice-Chancellor Sunil Kumar Gupta here yesterday.

It was decided that anti-ragging measures would be taken at all educational institutions and put up on notice boards.

The council also approved the budget estimate for 2009-10 to the tune of Rs
76.82 crore.

The VC informed that the departments of mathematics and physics had received a special grant of Rs 40.5 lakh and Rs 48 lakh, respectively, from the UGC under a special assistance programme.

The council also gave an approval to start MPhil course through the International Centre for Distance Education and Learning (ICDEOL) in mathematics and education. It also approved items recommended by the academic council on March 25.

Shimla, March 29
Leader of Opposition Vidya Stokes has lambasted the BJP for blatantly pursuing its communal agenda using the furore over Varun Gandhi’s venomous CD as a prop.

In a statement issued here today, she said the development plank had failed to work for the party as the achievements and performance of the UPA government had been better than the NDA regime on every front.

It had been left with no option but to revert to its communal and divisive agenda to
polarise voters.

The UPA government had arrested the growing unemployment by introducing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.

The country’s economy was in much better shape than despite global meltdown because of the deft handling of the situation by the Centre.

She took Chief Minister PK Dhumal to task for blaming the Congress for inflation and said the prices of essential commodities had increased because of the collapse of the public distribution system in the state under the BJP government.

She said while inflation rate had dipped to an all time low of 0.25 per cent, Dhumal was blaming the Congress for price rise.

She said he was making such baseless charges to divert the attention of the people from his unpopular decisions and failure to deliver.

Nurpur, March 29
Kangra district BJP Mahila Morcha president Malvika Pathania today revolted against the party high command for nomination of local MLA Rakesh Pathania in the newly constituted Lok Sabha election campaign committee for the Kangra constituency.

In protest against the nomination, she had submitted her resignation from the post of the morcha president to national BJP vice-president Shanta Kumar and Chief Minister PK Dhumal and appealed them to review the decision.

Confirming her resignation, she said it was an unfortunate decision and there was no justification of nominating an independent MLA who had revolted against the party during the last Assembly elections and contested election as a rebel.

She made it clear that she had resigned only to honour the feelings and self-respect of the BJP cadre in the area.

When asked what would be her action if the party high command did not adhered to her appeal of reviewing the decision, she parried a direct reply.

She added that she was confident that the party would review its decision in larger interest of the party cadre.

In this connection the state BJP president Jai Ram Thakur said he was unable to react as he had not received any communiqué as yet.