Shimla, August 18
Keeping the focus away from bickering within the party, BJP leader LK Advani said he was glad that sensing the mood of the nation Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had finally corrected his stand on the Indo-Pak statement.

Arriving here today for the “Chintan Baithak”, the BJP leader said the statement given by the Prime Minister yesterday was completely different from the one he had made in and outside Parliament on the Indo-Pak joint statement.

“I am glad that sensing resentment and anguish of the public on the issue he has taken a different stand about the possible threat of a terror attack,” he remarked.

He said the Prime Minister had strongly defended the Indo-Pak joint statement in and outside Parliament, which was in sharp contrast to statement he made yesterday.

“Probably the Prime Minister realised that anguish of the nation over his statement was fully justified and now he has corrected his stand,” the BJP leader remarked.

The joint statement had been issued after Singh’s meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Sharm-el Sheikh in Egypt last month. The joint statement had come under all-round attack but Singh had strongly defended it.

Meanwhile, the BJP top brass have started arriving here for the three-day “Chintan Baithak”. Advani was the first to arrive here as he drove to Shimla from Chandigarh.

Later, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi drove straight to a private resort in Mashobra, where he will be staying.

Later in the evening, Rajnath Singh and Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddurappa arrived at the venue of the meeting, Peterhoff.

Jaswant Singh arrived here late in the evening and drove straight to a private hotel close to the venue of the meeting.

Having released his book on the controversial topic of Jinnah and Partition yesterday, he is the man who could be in the focus.

Earlier, Advani had landed in trouble for his remarks on Jinnah with the RSS and some senior party leaders being critical of his views.

With Jaswant Singh’s book being released only yesterday, the issue could be discussed at the meet.

Shimla, August 18
Forest Minister JP Nadda has urged the Centre to include the hill state in the ‘National River Conservation Programme’ and adopt the concept of payment for environment services to provide funds to the state for preserving environment.

Speaking at the meeting of Environment and Forest Ministers in New Delhi today he said almost all the major rivers of northern India originated from Himachal Pradesh but the state had never been included in any of the national river action plan so far.

It was important in view of the erratic rains, depleting water tables, scarcity of potable water, rapid melting of glaciers in the Himalayan region.

Nadda said the cost for maintaining pristine environment in the state was quite high and the Centre must provide funds to “unpaid custodians” of precious environment and forest wealth that influence the climate of the plains. He also demanded setting up of “corpus” fund for development of environment infrastructure.

The minister also made a strong plea for revising existing mechanism for devolution of funds to the Himalayan states and stressed the need for creating mechanism for “green accounting” for the purpose.

He also requested the Centre for delegating more powers to state environment impact assessment authorities as they were in a better position to assess the environment impact and community needs.

He also urged the central government to give interest on funds parked with CAMPA at the rate of 10 per cent.

Referring to initiatives taken by the government, Nadda said Himachal Pradesh was the first state in the country to work for achieving carbon neutrality and had also launched “community-led assessment, awareness, advocacy and action programme” for environment protection and carbon neutrality.

It was also amongst the first few states to introduce rainwater harvesting in all its buildings and reduce energy consumption by promoting renewable sources and the use of clean energy.

Shimla, August 18
Chief Minister PK Dhumal said today that a multi-pronged strategy had been adopted to effectively control drug menace and trafficking by involving police, education, health, revenue and forest departments.

Replying to a debate under Rule 63 raised by CLP leader Vidya Stokes, Dhumal said it was a very serious social problem, which was affecting the most vulnerable section comprising youth and children.

He said the government was seized of the problem and a high-level committee under the chief secretary had been constituted to tackle the problem, besides setting up special narcotic control cells at Kullu, Mandi and Chamba.

“Besides holding awareness campaigns, cannabis and opium cultivation on private as well as government land had been destroyed and the guilty booked under the NDPS Act,” he added.

Dhumal said the police and intelligence agencies had been maintaining vigil outside educational institutions.

“The fact that drugs are easily available at shops even in the Sanjauli area of Shimla points to the fact that drug mafias and peddlers have a strong network, which the police will have to crack down upon,” he said.

Earlier initiating debate on the issue, CLP leader Stokes said stern steps would have to be taken to check the increase in consumption of drugs and liquor among youth.

“It is not that the police is not aware of the problem but even then there is no check on the cultivation of narcotic substances, its trafficking and the worst that a sizeable percentage of youth are addicted to it,” she lamented.

She said drugs were easily available at chemist shops and tea stalls outside schools and other educational institutions.

“Not only is the youth falling prey to it but this is affecting their health and increasing the chances of their involvement in drugs,” she added. She also stressed the need for the police and CID stepping up surveillance.

Participating in the debate, Kuldeep Pathania said what was even more unfortunate was the fact that despite sensing the gravity of the problem neither the police nor any other agency had been able to tackle the problem.

Rakesh Pathania said the problem was not only of drugs but also of illicit distillation of liquor, especially in the border areas like Nurpur.

Rajesh Dharmani said elected representatives like MLAs, pradhans, mahila and yuvak mandals must be involved in tackling with the problem.

He said politicians must also not shield such elements who were even remotely associated with the drug trade.

Hamirpur, August 18
The police has arrested six chemists from different parts of the district in its drive against sale of illicit drugs and recovered large quantities of capsules and syrups being sold to drug addicts during the past 24 hours.

Launching a drive against drug sellers, the police raided premises of six chemists,
which included a medical practitioner also, and arrested them for selling the drugs
to the addicts.

In a raid conducted at a medical clinic run by a medical practioner Ravi Sankhyan at Jahu, the police recovered 4000 capsules of Spasmo-proxyvon. The police has sealed the clinic and arrested Ravi Sankhyan for the sale of illicit drugs.

In another raid the police recovered 50 capsules and 10 bottles of Rexcox syrup from the chemist shop of Sudarshan Kumar at Abahdevi and arrested him.

In yet another raid the police recovered 24 capsules from the chemist shop at Nagrota Gajjian and arrested Devinder Sen in this connection.

Continuing the drive the police conducted a raid today here at the chemist shop of Surender Singh near the bus stand and recovered 2496 capsules of spasmo-proxyvon, 500 tablets of momolit and 79 bottles of Rexcox syrup. The police has arrested Surender Singh in this case.

In another case the police arrested Deepak here after 157 capsules were recovered from his chemist shop. Pritam Chand of Beha under Nadaun police station was also arrested for possessing 175 illicit capsules.

ASP, Hamirpur, Gurdev Singh told The Tribune, “The police had information that many chemists were selling banned drugs to the addicts on high prices after which we launched a special drive against the chemists selling illicit drugs. All chemists have been arrested under Section 21 of NDPS Act.”

Hamirpur, August 18
The body of a sadhu was found at Dhaneta today, giving an inkling of murder. Baba Kailash Giri (65) was found dead with his legs tied with a rope in a water source known as ‘van talab’ by a villager after which the matter was reported to the police.

According to sources, Giri was living in Ban Khandeshwar Mahadeo (Raj Naun) temple from the last six years.

SP Hamirpur Asif Jalal said: “It may be a case of murder. We have detained two persons for interrogation and the body has been sent for postmortem examination.”

Bilaspur, August 18
No case of swine flu has been reported from the district. This was stated by chief medical officer BD Sharma while addressing a meeting of district officials and medical officers under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Nandita Gupta here today.

Sharma said a task force has been set up in Regional Hospital here to monitor the disease while its treatment of Tami Flu tablets is already available here.

A team of doctors and paramedical staff has already been trained to meet any emergency, he added.

Deputy Commissioner Nandita Gupta said a district committee has been formed under the leadership of the CMO. It has been directed to spread awakening among the masses regarding symptoms, treatment and precautions for swine flu.

The Deputy Commissioner said a 24-hour toll free phone number (1800 1808 004) has been made available for consultation and any information regarding the disease.

Shimla, August 18
The government will consider regularising services of Primary Assistant Teachers (PATs) though there was no such provision when their appointments were made.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal stated this during the Question Hour in the Assembly today. “Even though the Congress regime which had made the appointments of PATs during its tenure had made no provision for their appointment, the government will still consider regularising their services,” he assured the House, in reply to the question raised by Suresh Bhardwaj of the BJP.

Dhumal, however, said it would be wrong to equate the case of PATs with Gramin Vidya Upasaks. He accused Congress regime of discriminating with the Gramin Vidya Upasaks simply for the reason that they had been appointed by the BJP regime.

“It had clearly been mentioned at the time of appointment of these vidya upasaks that they will be made to undergo a two-month training for five years at the respective DIETS after which their services will be regularised,” he said.

In reply to a question raised by Rakesh Pathania (BJP) about final decision on the unauthorised structures in the state, PWD Minister Gulab Singh said these would be removed after making suitable amendments in the law.

“There are a total of 1.83 lakh unauthorised structures in the state which will be removed in a time bound manner,” he said.

In reply to a query by Urmil Thakur (BJP) on the damage caused to mango crop and the relief being provided, Revenue Minister Gulab Singh Thakur said a loss of Rs 250 crore had been caused to the fruit crops in the state.

“To provide relief to the farmers some crops have been brought under the crop insurance scheme but there is no provision to give relief for damage to crops,” the Chief Minister told the House.

He regretted that till date not a penny had been received from the Centre against the Rs 2,000 crore request sent by the state.

Shimla, August 18
The Himachal Pradesh Assembly today passed the Himachal Pradesh Electricity (Duty) Bill, 2009, which will enable re-enacting of the law to provide for levy of electricity duty on consumption of power.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal said the necessary amendment had been necessitated on the recommendation of the accountant general where it had been suggested that instead of taking the matter time and again to the Assembly it would be better to enhance it percentage wise.

He dispelled the notion of Congress members Kuldeep Pathania and Rajesh Dharmani about substantial enhancement of duty and said this had been in effect since 1975. He said it would not put any burden on the agriculture sector or the poor consumers.

The House also passed the Shlooni University of Biotechnology and Management Science (Establishment and Regulations) Bill, 2009, Manav Bharti University (Establishment and Regulation) Bill, 2009 and the Arni University (Establishment and Regulation) Bill, 2009.

Earlier, Congress member Kuldeep Pathania urged the government to increase the percentage of reservation of seats for Himachalis from the present 25 per cent in the private universities.

“The fact that the private university can wind up after 15 years and all assets will be vested with it is an issue which needs to be looked into in the interest of the state,” he said.

Rajesh Dharmani stressed the need for including local MLAs and MPs on the governing body of the private university so that the interest of Himachali students could be protected.

With this, a continuous stretch of 5,444 meters of head race tunnel is through between Kajo and Kunni and in all 7,348 meter length of tunnel has been excavated. About 50 per cent of the tunnel work has been completed. 

Solan, August 18
The State Pollution Control Board today clarified that the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the thermal plant being set up at Bagheri near Nalagarh has been made available on their website under the name of JP Associates.

Board officials added that copies are also available at the Deputy Commissioner’s office at Solan and office of the board at Baddi.

The board swung into action after a news report appearing in these columns mentioned today that the affected villagers falling in the 10 km radius of the plant were finding it difficult to obtain copies of the EIA.

The 30-MW plant has been opposed by the villagers who fear it would affect their crops and water bodies. The pollution control board has fixed September 7 as the date for public hearing.