Shimla, June 22
Facing problems in procuring seed from outside the state, the Fisheries Department has initiated a process for setting up a Rs 5-crore seed farm near Pong Dam to meet its own requirements.

The department has identified nine hectares tract near Pong Dam, located above the maximum water level.

With a requirement of three crore seeds in both governemnt and private sector, the seed farm is expected to provide quality seeds and help in attaining self-sufficiency.

The department is presently procuring fish seed of different varieties of Indian major carp, including “catla”, “rohu” and “mrigal”, from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, but problem is being faced as the seed size is very small.

In fact, the National Fisheries Development Board has directed the state Fisheries Department to use a seed of minimum 100 mm size whereas the one available in the market is barely 40 mm.

Revenue papers for enabling transfer of land in the name of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) to the department, have be prepared.

The department has completed the soil-testing process, which has indicated clay content of 40 per cent, ideal for setting up a seed farm.

There are over 4,000 fishermen who are engaged in reservoir fisheries in Gobindsagar, Pong and Chamera dams.

“With the setting up of a big seed farm, we will be able to achieve self-sufficiency and provide seeds to farmers,” said BD Sharma, director, Fisheries.

He said requirement of the governemnt farms was about two crore seeds while that of private farms was close to one crore.

With natural breeding being almost negligible, the need to have adequate seed is
being felt.

Factors like heavy silt load, coming up of power projects and other developmental works like road construction, are adversely affecting breeding in the water bodies.

Meanwhile, the Fisheries Development Board has approved a Rs 5-crore project for Reservoir Seed Stocking and fishermen farming. The first installment of Rs 1.63 crore, spread over a period of five years, has been received.

Presently, barely one hectare of area all over the state, including the nurseries and the farms, is under seed farm. With only a small supply of fish seed being made available from here, the department, as well as fishermen, face great inconvenience.

Now, with the setting up of a huge seed farm, the problem of procuring seed would be solved and help many others to take to fisheries.

Shimla, June 22
Instructions have been passed to field staff of the Public Works Department (PWD) for the supply of material like cement, steel, explosives etc to contractors well in time and in sufficient quantity to ensure timely completion of ongoing works.

An official spokesman said here today out of the total 1,867 roads, 1,195 road projects have been completed while work on the remaining 672 roads under the PMGSY were in progress.

He said 33 roads projects are held up for want of forest clearances and 25 are held up for non-payment of net present value (NPV).

The spokesman said necessary instructions had been issued to field staff to make final payment to contractors as early as possible after fulfilling all codal formalities.

He said payments regarding deviations would also be made after obtaining approval from the competent authority.

Shimla, June 22
Taking a cue from Maharashtra, the hill state has decided to introduce “farming projects” for undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the agriculture universities which will not only help generate authentic data, but also enable young scientists to earn while learning.

Under the programme, students will be allotted a piece of cultivable land or poly  house for growing various crops to carry out research studies as part of fieldwork.

Such projects will provide farm scientists-in-making to have a “hand on experience of soil and land” and generate a variety of useful data to optimise agriculture produce in different agro-climatic zones of the state.

The required farm inputs will be provided by the university. On harvesting the crop, returns from the sale produce will go to the student concerned after deducting the cost of inputs.

Chief Secretary Asha Swaroop said the idea was to shift the emphasis of various programmes being run by the two farm universities in the state from theoretical studies to practical training.

They would be in a better position to appreciate the difficulties faced by farmers in raising crops and to come out with effective solutions.

Vice-Chancellor of Chaudhary Shrawan Kumar Agricultural University Tej Pratap is already on the job and the new concept is likely to be introduced by December, 2009, with a batch of 25 students taking poly-house cultivation for field experience.

The universities have also been asked to introduce courses like agri-business, agriculture biotechnology, environmental economics, dairy engineering etc being offered by various international universities to meet the challenge of globalisation.

Ram Subhag Singh, secretary, Agriculture, said the state had recently undertaken a study to identify and bridge the mismatch between demand for trained manpower and availability of jobs. The new course was aimed at meeting the skill-gap.

Solan, June 22
Sudden reinstatement of Subhash Ahluwalia, Principal Secretary to former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, has given rise to speculation about the reinstatement of former drug controller Sher Singh Thakur, who was suspended after being booked in a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, in February last year.

The fact that the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau is already investigating cases of disproportionate assets against both officers, the government could consider revoking the suspension of Thakur as well. This was more so since Thakur had moved his case for revoking his suspension.

Health Minister Dr Rajiv Bindal, while confirming that such an application had been received, said he would deal with it as per the law.

Brushing aside any negative publicity this step would evoke, he said it was not the first case as officials in several departments had been reinstated until the court proved them guilty.

He added that even in the health department, various officers, including the then drug inspectors Kapil Dhiman and Nishan Sarin, were reinstated after being suspended briefly after being caught in corruption cases.

Interestingly, the health department has remained controversial more than any other department as far as such cases are concerned.

While a drug inspector being posted at Bilaspur was suspended after he was caught taking bribe, he was reinstated within a period of few months and had been rewarded now with three districts, including the Chief Minister’s home district.

The department was battling staff shortage and this was the common plea put forth by the officials.

But the multi-crore pharmaceutical industry, to which these officials will cater, was compelled to ask why new appointments could not be made.

Though it had sanctioned nearly 10 posts of drug inspectors in April last year, these appointments were yet to be made.

This spoke volumes about the half- hearted approach of the state government to spruce up its most crucial department which catered to the pharmaceutical hub of Asia, housing more than 350 pharmaceutical units.

Dharamsala, June 22
The death toll in the accident near Kunal Pathri temple at Dharamsala has risen to 11. Till last evening, seven persons were reported dead at Dharamsala Zonal Hospital and Tanda Medical College.

Four more persons, including three at Tanda Medical College and one at the PGI, died till the filing of this report.

Many of the injured have been taken by their kin to various medical institutes in Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Shimla.

Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended at Kot Kohai village, about 5 km from Gaggal, when The Tribune team visited the area today.

Shops in the village were closed and most of the residents were participating in the last rites of the deceased whose bodies had been handed over to the kin.

Villagers said about 55 persons of a clan from the village had gone to Kunal Pathri temple to celebrate the birth of the son of one Megh Raj.

Meanwhile, the district administration has announced a grant of Rs 10,000 to the kin of the deceased and free medical aid to those injured. District administration officials said grant of Rs 2.34 lakh had already been distributed among the affected families.

Sanjay Chaudhary, Kangra MLA and GS Bali, Nagrota Bagwan MLA and former Congress minister, also expressed grief over the incident.

Meanwhile, police officials were waiting for information from the PGI and other hospitals in Punjab where the injured had been taken.

The deceased in the accident include Rukmani, Ashish, Kakrita, Geeta Devi, Kaushalya, Sabeena, Madhu, Arpana, Reena and Mehri Devi.

Dharamsala, June 22
Laparoscopies will now be available to Army personnel and ex-servicemen at Military Hospital in Yol cantonment.

The Army spokesperson in a press release issued here recently said the technique of laparoscopy was not available in this hospital.

Serving soldiers, their dependents and ex-servicemen were referred to Jalandhar or
Chandigarh. Now due to this facility, both time taken for surgery and recovery has
been shortened.

After the installation of machines here several successful and complicated operations have been performed for laparoscopic removal of gall bladder stones, appendix and tubectomy. All surgeries have been successful.

With laparoscopy patients are more satisfied because they get very small scars over their body and pain after the operation is minimal.

Shimla, June 22
The state government will soon implement the ‘Van Sarovar’ scheme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) to harvest rainwater.

Stating this while addressing a meeting of senior officials of forest, animal husbandry and rural development, here today, Forest Minister JP Nadda said constructing rainwater harvesting structures for conserving water were necessary.

To begin with, five ‘van sarovars’ would be constructed in each forest division
across the state.

It would go a long way in recharging the fast-depleting water sources and help raise the water table.

Plantation activities would also be carried out by the Forest Department under NREGA for which Rs 36 crore had been approved by various gram sabhas under this component for the year 2009-10. He directed the department to prepare plantation scheme for private lands also.

He said three monkey sterilisation centres at Tutikandi in Shimla, Sastar in Hamirpur and Gopalpur in Kangra district had been made operational where 5,000 monkeys had been sterilised during the current year.

Another sterilisation centre in Una district would be made functional within six months. A target of sterilising 20,000 monkeys had been fixed for the year.

Nadda said the state had the unique distinction of bringing about 13 per cent of the geographical area under protected wildlife network as against the national average of 4.7 per cent.

Effective wildlife conservation was being ensured through 33 wildlife sanctuaries and two national parks.

Shimla, June 22
There are no statuary provisions or restrains for a journalist but they must respect norms and practices followed by the constitutional authorities.

This was stated by Justice Rajeev Sharma in a seminar organised by the Press Club of Shimla on the subject “Reporting of Parliament and State Legislative Assembly proceedings and legal aspect.”

While addressing mediapersons, he said the media must follow the rules framed by Parliament in this regard. A journalist must act fearlessly, but with self-restraint and the reporting should be based on facts.

Sharma stressed the need to raise the issues of poor and downtrodden living in the interiors of the state.

Senior journalists Sushil Kumar and Ashwani Sharma also expressed their views and shared the problems faced by scribes while covering the state Assembly.

Shimla, June 22
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has urged Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee to make adequate provisions of funds for various ongoing and proposed rail projects in the state.

In a letter, he urged the minister to do justice to the hill state, which remained neglected all these years, by allocating funds for the Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri broad gauge rail line, Ghanauli-Baddi rail track, Nangal-Talwara rail line and Bilaspur-Mandi-Manali-Leh rail projects in the budget for the year 2009-10.

He has also written to the two Union Ministers from the state --- Virbhadra Singh and Anand Sharma --- and requested them to use their good offices to secure a fair deal for the state in the budget.

He said Rs 1,046-crore Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri line was included in the railway budget for 2008-09.

A Rs 350.33- crore package for construction of the first 20 km of line had already
been approved.

Sufficient funds should be provided for it in the budget so that work could be started at the earliest, he added.

Referring to construction of Chandigarh-Baddi broad gauge rail line, Dhumal said the project was sanctioned in the year 2007-08 but the Chandigarh Administration expressed its reservation in providing land for this purpose on the ground that the surveyed land had already been allotted for other developmental activities.

Now, to connect the industrial area of Baddi, the Railways had given an alternative proposal to provide a link from Ghanauli in Punjab.

He requested that this project be fast-racked by provision of sufficient funds so that rail connectivity was provided to the state’s major industrial area.

He drew attention of the minister to the Nangal-Talwara rail line which had been under construction for the past almost 30 years.

He sought sufficient funds so that the project could be completed within two years.

The government was pursuing a proposal to connect the border area of Leh-Ladakh by providing a broad gauge rail line and technical survey for the construction of Bilaspur-Mandi-Manali-Leh rail link was being undertaken by the Railways.

It would give a tremendous boost to tourism and serve needs of the Indian Army.

The Chief Minister has also made similar request to the Members of Parliament from the state --- Shanta Kumar, Viplove Thakur, Anurag Thakur, Rajan Sushant and Virender Kashyap --- and urged them to raise the issues of the state in Parliament.