The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Himachal Pradesh Edition

Cabinet decisions
Govt to bring apple, mango crops under insurance cover
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 18
The government today decided to bring apple and mango crops under insurance cover to protect interests of horticulturists in the state in the form of a pilot project in parts of Shimla, Kullu and Kangra districts.

The decision was taken by the Cabinet which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister PK Dhumal. The scheme will be implemented as pilot project in Jubbal, Rohru, Theog, Narkanda and Chirgaon blocks of Shimla district and the Ani area of Kullu for apple crop and Nurpur, Indora, Nagrota Surian and Fatehpur blocks in Kangra district for mango crop. It will cover about 25 to 30 per cent of the total horticultural area of the state initially.

The Cabinet also approved the power disposal policy of the state. It has been decided where capacity enhancement of hydro electric project is more than 20 per cent and total capacity, including enhancement, is 5 MW or above, the mode of disposal of power will be that the royalty to the state will be payable on pro-rata basis throughout the year.

The HPSEB will have the first right of refusal of entire power generated during the period from November 1 to March 31 every year, after deducting the royalty to the state during this period. During remaining months of the year, the independent power producer will have open access to sell the power. In case capacity enhancement is more than 20 per cent and the total capacity of the project remains below 5 MW, power will be purchased by the HPSEB as per provisions of agreement.

It was also decided to conduct a consolidated examination, once a year, to carry recruitment for major categories like engineers through the Public Service Commission and for other categories through the Subordinate Services Selection Board. It was also decided that applicants will be required to apply on a plain paper and self certify the eligibility facts and forward the same to the authority concerned without enclosing copies of their testimonials.

It approved allocation of 90 MW Miyar power project in the Miyar valley of the Udaipur area in Lahaul and Spiti in favour of M/S Moserbaer Project Private Limited, New Delhi, on receipt of upfront premium deposit of Rs 18 crore from the company.

It decided to allot 2.5 MW Uhal small project in Mandi to M/S ARHM Power Projects, Chandigarh, and re-allocate 5 MW Koot project in district Shimla to M/S Yadalapatti Agro Products Limited, Guntur, AP. It has been decided to enhance the promotion quota of class IV government employees to class III posts from existing 10 per cent to 30 percent.

Mid-day meal causes food poisoning
Dharam Prakash Gupta
Tribune News Service

Hamirpur, June 18
About 40 schoolchildren from a government school have been admitted in a hospital reportedly due to food poisoning after eating “khichri” in the mid-day meal made from poisonous water from a tank in which a dead snake was found.

The matter came to light when students of Government Primary School, Tikkar Khatriyan, under Bamsan area, complained of loose motions and vomiting after having mid-day meal being provided in the school.

Neelam Kumari, president, village gram panchyat, confirmed the report. “The students were taken to government hospital at Bassi from where they were taken to district hospital at Hamirpur as some students were found to be serious,” she said, adding a poisonous snake was found in the water tank.

Mid-day meal workers Raksha Devi and Seema Devi have also taken ill.

Bassi hospital medical officer Dr Rakesh Kalia said, “We have administered the children IV drip and have referred them to regional hospital in Hamirpur for further treatment.”

Villagers wary of ‘van thanas’
Kuldeep Chauhan
Tribune News Service

Mandi, June 18
Though “van” mafias who had been dominant in the deodar-rich Panarsa-Katola forests over the years, are now on a run, the villagers in the areas have kept their fingers crossed over the setting up two “van thanas” — at Balu and Devkhan — in Panarsa forest range, to deal with “van mafias”.

The van thana at Balu has already started operating from June 16 while the Devkhan van thana will start functioning soon. The government has sanctioned Rs 30.34 lakh for the Balu and Rs. 27.79 lakh for the Devkhan thana.

The opening of the thanas in deodar-rich Panarsa range have come as a major set back for the the van mafias operating from both Kullu and Mandi side on the Mandi-Katola-Bajaura road over the years.

Meanwhile, residents in the villages have taken the opening of thanas with a pinch of salt as most of them fear that they would be denied of harvesting fuel wood, fodder and leaves from the jungles.

Kangra MP talks of amending forest laws
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, June 18
Newly elected Kangra BJP MP Rajan Sushant today held a meeting with district officials for the first time. While talking to mediapersons, he said people were facing problems due to stringent forest and wildlife sanctuary laws.

Unmindful of the fact that felling in notified forest areas and the wildlife sanctuaries has been banned after the rulings of the Supreme Court, Rajan Sushant said he would get the laws changed. He said the laws that were not beneficial for people, should be changed.

However, the MP did not consider protection of forests and green cover to be beneficial in the larger interest of the mankind.

Rajan Sushant also claimed that he would take up the matter of the Pong Dam, Bhakra and Chamera project oustees in the Lok Sabha.

He said there was enough scope for promotion of religious tourism in Kangra and Chamba districts. There were many temples that received lakhs of pilgrims every years. However, enough facilities had not been created to retain those tourists in the state. “I would make efforts to develop the infrastructure to promote religious tourism in both the districts falling in the Kangra parliamentary constituency,” he claimed.

Rajan Sushant also directed the district officials to bring to his notice the schemes and programmes that he could take up in the Lok Sabha.

When asked about his stand regarding the Central university, he said he stood by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal’s decision to bring up the university in Dehra area. He said there should be no politics on the issues of development.

Congress leaders from the Kangra parliamentary constituency are demanding that the Central university be set up at Dharamsala. However, BJP leaders, including party MP of Kangra, are standing by the decision of the Chief Minister to bring up the university in Dehra, which though is a party of Kangra district, but falls in the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.

Girls shine in BSc results
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 18
Girls have once again come out with flying colours by bagging nine of the top 10 merit positions in the BSc-III examinations, results of which were declared by Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), here today.

The pass percentage in the examination conducted in March is 92.36 per cent as out of a total of 3,297 students who took the exam, only 252 failed to clear it. Pooja Rani of Governemnt College, Daulatput Chowk, has topped the exam with a score of 1,705 out of a total of 2,000.

Second on the merit list is Poonam Roshan of Government College, Una, with a score of 1,694. Swati Rana of St Bede’s College, Shimla, with a score of 1,629, has been placed at number three in the merit.

Manisha of Government College, Daulatpur Chowk, has bagged the fourth position with a score of 1,621. Ranjana Kumari of DAV College, Kangra, has been placed fifth on the merit with a score of 1,615.

The lone boy who managed to figure in the top 10 is Vinod Kumar of Government College, Sujanpur Tihra, with a score of 1,614. Prerna Sharma of Government College, Mandi, has been ranked seventh on the merit with a score of 1,524.

Snag in northern grid leads to power crisis
Ambika Sharma

Solan, June 18
Investors in the state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) and Parwanoo have been forced to sit without work with the State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC) failing to provide ample power to the industry.

While a daylong power cut has been imposed from 7 am to 5.30 am in the industrial areas today, low voltage led to the assumption that there was not much hope of the situation improving immediately.

SLDC officials, however, said a major fault had occurred in the northern grid that supplied power to the state and the frequency, which was normally supposed to remain at 49.5 hertz, had touched a low of 49 and at times had gone even below that.

This has created an alarming emergency situation and as a member of the central grid, Himachal was now supplying almost 250 MW power to the grid to help maintain its desired frequency.

In this effort, power cuts had been imposed on major consumers, which comprise the industrial belt of the BBN and Parwanoo, while domestic consumers had been left undisturbed.

A major power cut was also imposed from 1.30 am last night till 5.30 pm this evening.

Officials in the board said as against a demand of 22 MVA and 350 MW in Parwanoo and the BBN, respectively, merely 10 MVA and 100 MW were available. The situation had even reached a stage when two substations at Baddi and Barotiwala had to be altogether shut for an hour or so to maintain the grid.

With barely 40 per cent supply available, there was no option but to impose cuts. They were, however, hopeful of the situation improving in the next 24 hours.

The officials stressed that there was no power shortage but owing to the extraordinary situation, they were compelled to provide power to the central grid leading to shortage in the total supply.

Education Loan
OBC’s demand to remove income anomaly
Kuldeep Chauhan
Tribune News Service

Mandi, June 18
Other Backward Classes (OBC), which have become a pressure group in the state politics, have demanded removal of “income slab” anomaly for availing educational loan for higher or expensive technical education for their children from the OBC Financial Corporation (OBCFC).

Raising the banner of revolt on the issue of the income slab of Rs 40,000 fixed to avail the education loan, are several activists of the OBC front, demanding removal of the income slab as their children whose income exceeds Rs 40,000 would not be eligible for the loan from the corporation.

The state government had fixed an income slab of Rs 4 lakh for the OBC creamy layer to avail OBC quotas in various schemes. But the state government had put an income slab of Rs 40,000 per annum on the OBC families to avail education loans from the corporation, they rued.

Besides this, the corporation remained as good as defunct as the government had neither appointed a chairman nor the MD of the corporation, leaving the OBCs in the lurch, they complained. This showed how serious the present government was on the welfare of the OBCs, rued Surinder Sharma, former vice-president, OBCFC.

The state government has included residents of Chauhar valley and trans-Yamuna areas in the OBC category, but the government has no concrete agenda for their development, villagers complained.

Rajinder Chaudhary, president, state OBC association, said they would take up the matter with the government.

All attempts to contact two OBC leaders — Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Sharveen Chaudhary and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ramesh Dhavala — failed as their mobiles were switched off.

Patient tests negative for swine flu
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, June 18
The samples of a suspected swine flu patient in Kangra district have tested negative. Chief Medical Officer, Kangra, Dr Anil Mahajan said blood samples of the suspected swine flu patient were sent to Delhi and reports were received today in which the patient had been tested negative.

He said now, the district could be declared swine-flu free as earlier an alert was sounded here after the health authorities came to know that one person from the Didasiba area of the district had travelled with another person who was tested positive for the disease in Jalandhar.

Initiative to generate employment
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 18
An initiative of the Unicon Investment Solutions, i 360 staffing and training solutions has decided to open a centre in the hill state to help local unemployed youth get proper jobs by imparting requisite skills.

The group already has its presence in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. As the economy is changing from production-oriented to services-oriented, many new vistas of employment have been generated. Careers in streams like hospitality, tourism, BPOs, retail etc, has gained high prominence.

Chief executive officer of the company Deepanshu Khurana said training would be imparted in English speaking, accounting, retailing and call-centre skills through various programmes.

Cyber café owner booked

Hamirpur, June 18
The police today raided a cyber café and booked the owner, who was reportedly viewing pornographic sites. Police sources said on a routine checking when the police entered the cyber café being run by Sanjiv Kumar at Nadaun chowk, they found a few school students watching pornographic sites.

Later, it was found that many pornographic films were downloaded on computers and a few pirated CDs were also being used.

The police has seized computers and CDs and registered a case against the proprietor of the cyber café under the IT Act. — TNS

Murder accused held
Our Correspondent

Bilaspur, June 18
The police has succeeded in trapping the alleged murder accused, Dhan Bahdur, a Nepali, who had escaped after allegedly killing his wife on the night of June 6 and June 7. A police team grabbed hold of Bahadur near his in-laws’ village at Jamothi today morning.

SP Kuldip Sharma said here today that earlier he had dispatched three police teams to Meerut, Muradabad and Delhi while another police team in civil dress was keeping vigil at his in-laws’ village.

The SP said the accused had confessed to his crime as he said he suspected the character of his wife as she used to talk to some other person which infuriated him and he killed her in a fit of rage.

The police has been trying to find whereabouts of this person.

Dharna staged
Tribune News Service

Mandi, June 18
About 30 customers from Baijnath area today stormed into the Competent Automobile showroom-cum-sale office of Maruti Suzuki and staged a dharna on the premises of the company at Gutkar near here, demanding delivery of the vehicles they had booked through an agent named Anish Acharya.

They had been told by the agent that the company was running a special scheme under which a customer had to pay Rs 1.25 lakh to get the car.

Meanwhile, the company dismissed claims of the customers as baseless. KK Mehta, director, Competent Automobile, said Acharya was neither their agent nor an employee and denied any such scheme.