|
|
|
|
Kangra admn, locals join hands to save lake
Women take out silt from the Dal Lake near Dharamsala. A Tribune photograph
From pillar to post for relief
Life in Dodra Kwar set to change
|
|
|
Palampur faces degradation
vignettes
Shortage of docs ails Chamba hospital
Himachal diary
Blood bank not operational
|
|
Kangra admn, locals join hands to save lake
Dharamsala, June 30 The lake, situated at a height of 1,775 m above sea level, is a tourist spot. The locals, who organise a festival on the banks of the lake in September every year, consider it sacred. There is also a small Shiva temple located near the lake. However, continued silting from adjoining mountains has reduced the depth of the lake. About half of the lake area is now filled with silt and converted it into grassland. SDM Dharamsala DC Rana says as per the revenue records, the area of lake was about 1.22 hectare or 12,200 sq m. However, due to silting, it has been reduced to half. The depth of lake, which was about 10 ft, has also been reduced. A massive operation with the help of locals has now been launched for resurrecting the lake before monsoon, the DC says, adding that the silt being taken out is being used to create a parking lot near the temple area. The locals working at the site say they have volunteered for the job as the lake is sacred to them. Over 100 women from the nearby areas are now engaged in the task of digging silt. The administration has planned to remove maximum silt before the offset of monsoon. However, till check dams are constructed in the surrounding mountains to stop the silt from flowing into lake, its degeneration cannot be stopped. The locals say about a decade ago the lake used to remain filled with water all through the year. However, due to its reduced depth water now recedes to a small portion during summer.
|
|
From pillar to post for relief
Mandi, June 30 Their plight is worse than that of Tibetan refugees who have been rehabilitated at the BSL site.The BBMB earns Rs 1 crore per hour from the project, but the hapless oustees roam around helplessly even today like refugees seeking “nautaur land, jobs, water, health and other facilities” even after 47 years of their banishment from the homeland in 1962. “The Punjab and Himachal governments did not sign any written agreement as to how to rehabilitate the oustees”, rued villagers, and added “ there is no revenue records of 13 oustee families and they cannot get even an agricultural certificate from the government to prove that they are Himachalis”. The oustees have now formed the Beas Satluj Link Pariyojna Visthapit Kalyan Samiti(BSLPVKS), demanding 486 bighas of surplus land of the BSL project be restored to them and water sports and fish licences be given to them in the Pandoh dam area after training the unemployed youth. They also demanded that villagers should be allowed to retain the land they had acquired and be allowed to cultivate land around the Pandoh dam as was being done in Bilaspur. BSLPVKS) president Balak Ram and convener Jahli Ram said the state government had constituted two special committees for the Pond dam and Bhakhra oustees, but they had been left out. The government should constitute a committee for the BSL oustees
also and include their demands in the relief and rehabilitation policy, 2005, and the power policy, 2008 so that they could benefit from these, they demanded. The villagers demanded the BBMB should regularise the labourers and give pension to the retrenched employees. The residents said the PWD rest house building built in 1922 be acquired from the 3rd Battalion and be declared a heritage building. Deputy commissioner Onkar Sharma said the government had been considering their demands from time to time. The government would issue agricultural certificates to all project-hit families,
he said. BBMB officials said the villagers’ demands could be looked into only by the top state and central government authorities.They said they took welfare measures whenever the administration brought any proposals to them.
|
|
Life in Dodra Kwar set to change
Shimla, June 30 Hitherto, the people had to trek 33 km from the Rohru side and about 20 km from the Uttrakhand side to reach the twin areas. The 61-km road from Larot through the 12,600-ft Chanshal pass will open up new vistas for the growth and prosperity of the local people. There is a vast scope for development of horticulture, off-season vegetables, eco-tourism, medicinal plants and adventure sports. The people have been growing vegetables, apples and other fruits but on a small scale as in the absence of a road link, the produce could not be transported to the market. In fact,government agencies have been procuring apple under the market intervention scheme every year and incurring losses as it could not be sent either to the market or for processing. The farmers will now be able to grow various crops on a commercial scale, as the road will remain open most of the time except during the winter. Moreover, a road is under construction from the Uttrakhand side too, which will further improve connectivity.It will also open up the possibility of developing the Chanshal ski slopes into an international-level winter sports destination. The 11-km ski slopes are among the longest in the world and the government had prepared a project for the purpose in 1996, but it did not make much headway. However, the government will have to come out with a development plan to ensure the regulated growth of the “unspoilt” area, which is endowed with valuable medicinal plants, rare Bhojpatra forests and immense natural beauty. Roads are indeed the lifeline of people in the hills, but they also have a negative impact on the ecologically fragile pockets like Dodra Kwar. They provide a convenient mode to forest mafias to carry out their nefarious activities. In the past, forest wealth has been plundered in the remote areas after the construction of roads and there has been haphazard urbanisation. As usual, the new road formally opened by Chief Minister PK Dhumal has led to charges and countercharges between the BJP and the Congress. Union Minister of Steel Virbhadra Singh in whose Assembly segment Dodra Kwar falls, maintains that it was completed in 2007 but could not be inaugurated due to the sudden announcement of elections. The subsequent BJP regime deliberately not only delayed the opening of this road, but also 29 other roads in the segment just to deny the Congress government the credit for it. Now that a byelection was due following his election to Parliament, the roads are being opened. BJP general secretary Khushi Ram Balnatah, who has been contesting Assembly elections against Virbhadra Singh since 1993, asserts that Dhumal not only speeded up the work on the road during his earlier term in office, but also took up the matter of the construction of the road from the Uttrakhand side. He said a lot of work was done to complete the road over the past 18 months and it would take another two years for strata to settle after which the surface would be tarred. He said the newly opened area should be developed as a model of sustainable development in the high hills by making it an exclusive organic farming zone and encouraging cultivation of high-value crops like medicinal plants, besides promoting eco-tourism. Organic farming would add premium to the agriculture and horticulture produce.
|
|
Palampur faces degradation
Palampur, June 30 The town is also known as the land of brave soldiers, who laid down their lives for the country in various wars fought before and after Independence. Maj Som Nath (PVC), Capt Vikram Batra (PVC), Capt Sorbah Kalia and Maj Sudheer Walia (Ashok Chakra) who belonged to the town sacrificed their lives for the country. However, the successive state governments have failed to recognise their supreme sacrifice and kept extending step-motherly treatment to this town. Today, the people here are devoid of all basic amenities. The town is plagued with potholed roads, overflowing drains and contaminated drinking water. There has been a manifold increase in the population, but the government has failed to extend the municipal limits of the town. At present, only certain areas, comprising a population of 4,000, fall within the municipal limits while over 35,000 people are living outside the municipal limits and thus, devoid of amenities. Almost all interior roads are in bad shape. The overflowing of drains in the rainy season makes it difficult for the residents to move out. The roads and streets in Ghuggar, Tikka Aima and Bundla, which were dug up for laying water pipelines, telephone cables and sewerage pipes, are yet to be repaired. The busiest Ram Chowk-Palampur and Cinema roads leading to the town and the inter-state bus terminal are in the worst condition. Heaps of garbage can be seen in every nook and corner of the town. In many areas, garbage is not collected for days. The unplanned and haphazard construction of housing colonies has become common. Since all these colonies have come up on the panchayat areas, they lack basic amenities like streetlights, roads, sewerage and drinking water supply. In the absence of any appropriate authority to deal with the planning of the town, illegal colonies are mushrooming. Ajit Bagla, president of the Palampur Municipal Council, says only 20 per cent area of the town falls in the MC limits, while the rest of the town is governed by six panchayats. He says unless the MLC limits are extended, no improvement can be expected. A proposal for the extension of the MC limits is pending with the government.
|
|
Englishmen’s homes in ‘adopted land’
by Shriniwas Joshi The road on which you and I travel to Shimla from Kalka was designed by Major Kennedy and executed by Lieutenant Briggs in Lord Dalhousie’s viceroyalty in 1856. The 69-km road to Shimla, prior to that, was a wide track via Kasauli, Kakkarhatti, Hurreepore and Syree (spellings of the places are as were used then), which sometimes owing to excessive rains resulted in landslides and sliced Shimla off the rest of India. Hence, the new road, circuitous and 14 km more in length, was constructed. The Englishmen wanted to establish Victorian homes in their adopted land and they wanted to show-off the splendour in Shimla, as the town had earned the reputation for a vigorous social life and adulterous liaisons. Ladies and gentlemen were carried up in the local jhampan sedan chairs. What about their luggage? A list of the luggage has been drawn by Alex Von Tunzelmann, “dispatch boxes, carefully packed crockery, musical instruments, trunks full of theatrical costumes for amateur dramatics, crates of tea and dried provisions, faithful spaniels in travelling boxes, rolled-up rugs, aspidistras (house plants), card tables, favourite armchairs, basket of linens and tonnes upon tonnes of files, all other paraphernalia of the Raj.” The tenacity of these Englishmen had to be admired as for spending the summer months, they would bring so much of luggage to the hill station to avoid the heat of the plains and have a playful life in Shimla. Hundreds of coolies had to be press-ganged from the surrounding farms into the services of the white-skinned for their pleasure. It may surprise many Shimla residents that in those days, besides mules and bullock-carts, camels were also used for the transportation of goods. These camels had their halting ground at Edwards’ Ganj (Ganj Bazaar). SJ Duncan writes in ‘The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib’ that a typical family consisting of a mother, three or four children and an ayah would transport their luggage as under: “First camel load: Two large trunks and two smaller ones with clothing; second camel load: One large trunk containing children’s clothing, plate chest, three bags and one bonnet box; third camel load: Three boxes of books, one box containing folding chairs, light tin box with clothing; fourth camel load: Four cases of stores, four cane chairs, saddle stand, and mackintosh sheets; fifth camel load: One chest of drawers, two iron cots, tea table, and pans for washing up; sixth camel load: Second chest of drawers, screen, lamps, lanterns and hanging wardrobes; seventh camel load: Two boxes containing house linen, two casks containing ornaments, ice pails and door mats; eighth camel load: Three casks of crockery, another cask containing ornaments, filter, screens, and tennis poles; ninth camel load: Hot case, milk safe, baby’s tub and stand, sewing machine, fender and irons, water cans and pitchers; tenth camel load: Three boxes containing saddlery, kitchen utensils, and carpets; and eleventh camel load: Two boxes containing drawing room sundries, servants’ coats, iron bath, cheval glass and plate basket.” Besides the 11 camel loads, a piano was carried to Shimla on the back of coolies - 14 to 16 in number. An interesting fact is that a few families would take their cows also with them and these were milked the night before the start of the journey, which could be in stages too. The weighty schedule was customary followed to be present in Shimla during the summer simply to make an impression on the men who mattered and offered caressing hands to the ladies. The ‘wildness of spirit and lax notions of discipline and decency’ and houses full of furniture and other accessories was the hallmark of living there. This attraction of Shimla diluted all hurdles, including the Ambala-Kalka strip. The railway network to Kalka from Ambala was extended in 1889.Till then, those proceeding to Shimla had to face the wrath of the Ghaggar, a few miles away from Kalka. During rains, the luggage and the travellers would cross the river on elephants. Once the water in the river rose so rapidly that even the huge animal could not ford it and remained stranded for 14 hours - famished and fuming. The humans also, perforce, remained saddled on its back - hungry and angry.
Tailpiece
Wyman writes about walking in Shimla, “The exercise at any rate seemed healthy, for everybody had the rosiest of complexions, and the cheeks of the young ladies absolutely invited kisses.”
|
|
Shortage of docs ails Chamba hospital
Chamba, June 30 On an average, 500-600 patients come to the OPD daily while 45 admissions are done every day in the 200-bedded hospital. Even against the 22 sanctioned posts, there are only 15 doctors, who are overburdened and cannot examine each patient thoroughly. These doctors apart from attending to patients have to attend court cases, organise family planning camps and other allied health programmes in the district. Due to staff shortage, most of the serious cases are referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, or the IGMC, Shimla, which makes treatment inaccessible for poor patients. The district having a population of more than five lakh is mainly looked after by the regional hospital. Out of the sanctioned posts of doctor, seven, including an ENT specialist and an anesthetist, have been lying vacant for a long time. Besides, more than 40 per cent posts of paramedical staff are lying vacant for the past several years. The posts of physiotherapist are also lying vacant. Agreeing to the prevailing staff situation, Dr Vinod Pathak, chief medical officer, says despite the fact that we are overburdened due to the shortage of doctors and other staff we are doing our best. Dr Pathak says the situation has been brought to the notice of the state health department.
|
|
Police band regales
The local police band is becoming popular among locals as well as tourists who sing and dance to its music at the Ridge every evening. One of the best police bands in the country, which also bagged the first prize during the all-India band display last year, has recently evolved into a professional orchestra. With modern instruments like guitars, keyboard and electronic drums, it can play all popular Hindi film numbers. The band is not only providing entertainment to the public, but also raising funds for the Red Cross. Those keen to sing with the orchestra have to pay Rs 20 per song. The money thus collected goes to the Red Cross. The band has its own team of talented singers led by DSP Bupinder Negi. It also provided musical support to singers during the recent Shimla Summer Festival. Negi said the orchestra had been doing well under the guidance of head constable Vijay Kumar. The recent performance of the band at the Shoolini Festival in Solan won wide acclaim, he added. Tourism festival gains popularity
The two-day Sangla Valley Household Tourism Festival drew a large number of foreign tourists. The initiative of local tribal people, who have formed the Sangla Valley Sustainable Society to promote sustainable tourism, has started yielding results. The festival is gaining popularity and was apparent from the presence of foreign as well as domestic tourists. The Himalayan Research Group (HRG), an NGO, along with CSK Krishi Vishvavidlaya, has been instrumental in galvanising the locals to save the scenic but environmentally fragile valley from becoming a victim of commercial tourism. In fact, the tourism was only a part of the larger plan the scientists of these two institutions have worked out to promote sustainable livelihood for the locals. A seminar on “Climate change - challenges and opportunities” was also held. A large contingent of the scientists of different research streams from the university led by PK Sharma, dean, postgraduate studies, explained the opportunities that the ongoing climate change will bring to the valley in terms of growing of apple in Chitkul and cultivation of highland pastures due to early melting of snow.
Fight over fodder in Hamirpur
With the extended dry spell in Hamirpur district, scramble for toori (fodder) has become so intense that farmers are resorting to forcible grab. For the past few days, there have been reports of forcible capture of toori-loaded trucks by farmers at several places. Even women not lagging behind in this grab are forcing diversion of toori. While gram panchayat presidents have become most important person in the distribution of subsidised toori, many of them are acting on their whims and fancies. Some of them are showing their true political colours by distributing toori to their favourites and denying the share of people of their dislike. The demand for toori and urge to have the lion’s share in the subsidised fodder has created a law and order problem in many villages as people are resorting to forcible capture of toori-laden trucks and some time even manhandling the truck drivers. The district administration is finding itself in a difficult situation as toori-related complaints are poring in on a daily basis.
Cricket stadium gets floodlights
The Dharamsala international cricket stadium is now equipped with floodlights, making it ready for holding day-night cricket matches. President of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Board Anurag Thakur termed it as a landmark for state cricket. He said an indoor practice facility was also being created at the stadium, which would help players to practice even during rainy season. The four floodlights due to their commanding position are visible from the entire area. People from Dharamsala and its adjoining areas are descending to the stadium every night as the lights are being tested. —
Contributed by Rakesh Lohumi, DP Gupta and Lalit Mohan
|
|
Blood bank not operational
Nurpur, June 30 The posts of pathologist and supporting staff are yet to be filled. Intriguingly, the posts of surgeon, gynaecologist and anaesthetist are vacant. The previous government had upgraded the hospital from 50 to 100 beds and created 59 posts of all categories just a few months before the last Assembly elections in December, 2007. However, instead of recruiting the staff, the present government de-notified the posts and also downgraded its status from 100 to 50 beds. All this has taken its toll on the blood bank which has remained non-functional. The hospital caters to a large population of Nurpur, Jawali and the neighboring Bhatiyat subdivision and the patients are forced to go for private and costly hospitals in Pathankot in Punjab.
|
|
||
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
The Kangra district administration has launched an initiative to save the Dal Lake, situated in Tota Rani village, 11 km from here.
The road on which you and I travel to Shimla from Kalka was designed by Major Kennedy and executed by Lieutenant Briggs in Lord Dalhousie’s viceroyalty in 1856. The 69-km road to Shimla, prior to that, was a wide track via Kasauli, Kakkarhatti, Hurreepore and Syree (spellings of the places are as were used then), which sometimes owing to excessive rains resulted in landslides and sliced Shimla off the rest of India.
The local police band is becoming popular among locals as well as tourists who sing and dance to its music at the Ridge every evening. One of the best police bands in the country, which also bagged the first prize during the all-India band display last year, has recently evolved into a professional orchestra. With modern instruments like guitars, keyboard and electronic drums, it can play all popular Hindi film numbers.