Shimla, August 30
Discrimination on religious ground has brought the dream of 24-year-old Harshdeep Singh Anand, a local Sikh boy, to find a lucrative job abroad to an abrupt end. He has been virtually stranded for the past three weeks at Abu Dhabi without any money, waiting to return home.

His joy knew no bounds when he was selected for the post of Chief-de-Partie by the Armed Forces Officers Club and Hotel, Abu Dhabi, after a walk-in interview held in New Delhi. However, he had no inkling of what was in store for him when he boarded the plane on July 29 to take up the new job in the oil-rich land. Everything seemed fine as he took up the assignment and started performing his duties. His ordeal started when after a week the director of operations Salah told him firmly that “if you want to continue in the job, you have to cut your hair and become clean-shaven.” He expressed his inability to do so and tried to explain to him that it was against his religion to cut hair. Salah did not relent and asked him to resign from the job forthwith.

Harshdeep drew his attention to the fact that no such condition had been mentioned in his appointment letter and it was known that he was a Sikh with long hair as he was selected for the job after an interview. He was a graduate in hotel management and hospitality on the basis of which he was selected. His plea did not cut ice with Salah who insisted that he should resign.

However, he refused to quit as he was not at fault and had no reason to do so. He flatly told Salah that he would have to terminate his services if he did not want him; he would not oblige him by resigning. Salah lost no time in sacking him. He was asked not to enter the hotel.

His father Paramjit Singh had been running from pillar to post to get justice for his son. He has sent representations to the Indian High Commissioner at Abu Dhabi, the National Human Rights Commission and other organisations. He has also taken up the matter with Sikh religious bodies including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar, and the Delhi Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and urged them to take up the matter at the highest level as other Sikhs also faced the same problem.

Meanwhile, the executive committee of the local Sri Guru Singh Sabha has passed a resolution condemning the action of the Armed Forces Officers Club in sacking Harshdeep and urged the Government of India to ensure that employment conditions which led to discrimination against Sikhs were scrapped. The State Sikh Welfare Council has also sent a representation to the President of India in this regard asking her to ensure justice to the boy. 

Dharamsala, August 30
The issue of central university in Kangra has been simmering since the last Lok Sabha elections. The Congressmen of the district have been breaking news that the Union Ministry of HRD has rejected the site at Dehra that was proposed by the present BJP government.

However, inquiries by The Tribune from officials of the Union Ministry of HRD have revealed that till date no decision has been taken over the location of the central university. A deputy secretary in the Department of Higher Education, Union Ministry of HRD, on the condition of anonymity, dispelled the notion that the union ministry has rejected the Dehra site.

He said, “Question of taking decision over the site of the central university in Himachal does not arise for the time being. Till date the three-member committee of the ministry that has visited the site has not submitted the report. Once the committee submits the report further proceedings in the case will be started.”

He further said the case for central university in Himachal had been delayed as the VC appointed for the university RC Sobti had not taken over as he had got extension in Panjab University, Chandigarh. Now, another panel of candidates for the central university was under consideration. Once the VC is appointed case would get expedited.

The officials also said the union ministry had asked various state governments to suggest sites for setting up central universities. The ministry would have to take the state government into confidence before finalising the site. Besides Himachal, the issue of finalisation of site for proposed universities was pending in many other states also, they said.

Congress spokesperson Kewal Singh Pathania, has, however, claimed that he along with Congress MP Chanderesh Kumari had met the Union Minister of HRD and demanded that the central university should be set up in the vicinity of Dharamsala. The site proposed by the state government included some forest land and it would be very difficult to convert the same for bringing up the university, he claimed.

The BJP leaders on the other hand had been claiming that the university was proposed to be set up in Dehra as no big piece of land was available in Dharamsala. They claimed that they had been trying to find land for bringing up houses for urban poor in Dharamsala. For the purpose about 100-kanal land was required. However, till date no suitable land had been found.

For the central university about 500-acre land was required and no such land was available near Dharamsala, they claimed.

However, in this push and pull between the opposition and the ruling party the state might lose a prestigious project.

Shimla, August 30
The government has decided to pay special attention to the education of physically challenged children under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). It has also launched learning enhancement programmes like 'Aadhar' for primary level and 'Samvridhi' for upper primary level in collaboration with non-government organisations (NGOs) to raise the standard of education at the elementary level.

Special needs of the special children are being addressed through important components of the SSA under which 22,040 children have been identified. Out of these 19,643 children are studying in formal schools. As many as 1,092 resource persons have been trained to teach these children. Each teacher is being given need-based training for about a fortnight in a year for the purpose.

As much as 33 per cent of the total budget is being spent on providing buildings and other required infrastructure. Till date 9,895 classrooms, 56 block resource centres (BRCs), 538 cluster resource centres (CRCs), 10,463 toilets, including separate toilets for girls, 2,312 drinking water facilities, 88 kitchen sheds and 3,607 boundary walls have been sanctioned under the SSA.

Girl education has been accorded the top priority under the programme and free text books are being provided to all girls right from Class I to VIII. Exposure visits are also being organised for selected and needy girls within and outside of the state. The National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level is being implemented in eight educationally backward blocks of Chamba, Mandi, Shimla and Sirmour districts. Remedial teaching is being provided to needy girls in selected subjects for at least three months in a year. Besides 10 Kashturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) are functioning in seven blocks and in all 396 girls have been enrolled in these schools at present.

Imparting computer education is another significant area and so far 282 government schools located in remote parts of the state have been brought under the computer education programme in collaboration with NIIT. Computer-aided learning has also been introduced in all 282 schools in joint venture with the Azim Premji Foundation. During 2009-10, provision of Rs 6 crore has been made for the purpose. 

Shimla, August 30
The state unit of the BJP has blamed the UPA government at the Centre for the unprecedented rise in prices of essential commodities and alleged that it was not doing enough to hold the price line.

Spokesperson of the party Ashok Kapatia said here today that 100 days of the UPA regime had turned out to be an unmitigated disaster for the people who were reeling under the impact of an abnormally high rise in prices. Worse, instead of taking concrete measures to check prices, the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi said she was writing a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who promptly denied having received any such letter. She was just shedding crocodile tears on the issue, he added.

He said the decision to allow export and large-scale hoarding of sugar had led to a steep hike in its price, which had doubled over the past one month. One-third of the total import of pulses was carried out by the private sector but there was no effective check on hoarding.

He alleged that the recent joint statement of India and Pakistan and the refusal of the Swiss government to give details of secret bank accounts had shown the UPA regime in poor light. The failure of the government to act in corruption cases, particularly in the case of leaders like Buta Singh, had also sullied its image, he added. 

Shimla, August 30
An important milestone was achieved in the construction of 775 MW Luhri Hydroelectric Project when excavation of the 528-m long exploratory drift of size 2.5m x 2.5m was completed yesterday.

The Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited, which is executing the project, has managed to accomplish the task in 14 months, ahead of the schedule, and a maximum progress of 51 m was achieved during March and April, 2009.

Geological data available from this drift shall be useful for planning, design and construction of power house complex.

Salient features of this project include a 86-m high concrete gravity dam on the Satluj near Nirath village, 9 m diameter and 38.138-km long head race tunnel and an underground power house in a cavern measuring 156.4 m x 243.5m and 44 m. The power plant will comprise four Francis turbines of 193.75 MW capacity each which will generate 3,152 Gwh energy on 95 per cent dependable year. The project cost is estimated at Rs 5,700 crore as per the revised estimates for a twin tunnel scheme. 

Chamba, August 30
Consequent upon the notification with regard to recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission whereby the Punjab government has sanctioned payment of pensions on central pattern who retired before January 1, 2006, the Himachal Pradesh Pensioners’ Welfare Association has urged the state government to allow the payment of pension to its pensioners and family pensioners from January 1, 2006, on the analogy of Punjab government.

In a hand-out issued here today, PC Oberoy, state spokesperson of the association, said there were approximately 1.10 lakh pensioners and family pensioners in the state.

Chota Dhara (Lahaul), August 30
The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) that assists scientists on gathering data on glaciers and advises the government on mountaineering, have yet to put their act together and study the much-talked “phenomenon of the receding glaciers in the western Himalayas” as the IMF’s three “climate stations” — Chota Shigri (CS) in Lahaul here, Liddar in Jammu and Kashmir, and East Ralthong in Sikkim — remain as good as non-functional.

The CS aims to record temperature, humidity, rainfall, barometric pressure, wind currents, solar and ultraviolet radiation data in the western Himalayas and assist scientists, say IMF experts.

However, Chota and Bara Shigri glaciers have receded but there is no scientific data on the basis of ground study to know its exact magnitude.

The Tribune team found that the Chota Shigri climate station here, at the height of over 3,400 m, is as good as “dead” as the equipment’s battery became non-functional after three months of its setting up in June this year at a cost of Rs 2 lakh.

Significantly, the International Snow and Ice Commission has certified the Chota Shigri glacier as a “benchmark glacier” to carry out scientific study on the retreating glaciers in the western Himalayas.

“This glacier holds a key for scientists, enabling them to explain and confirm locally the much-hyped phenomenon of global warming and the fast melting glaciers,” the experts claim.

At stake is not only the fate of hydropower projects worth 21,000 mw being tapped in a big way in the state, but also fate of Himalayan rivers which support populated valleys in the state.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been keeping track of the receding glaciers through satellite imagery. “But there is no ground work being done in the Himalayan region to confirm scientifically as to what exact changes are taking place in annual amount of snowfall, solar and ultraviolet radiation, rainfall, river discharge, wind-chill, snow-cover in the greater Himalayan region and source of rivers,” experts reveal.

IMF’s adviser PCS Ratoula, here on Friday to monitor the climate station from New Delhi, said, “We could record only three months’ data as the equipment’s battery went out of order. Now, it has been restored.” 

Shimla, August 30
The Himachal Pradesh Employees Confederation has accused the government of handing out a raw deal to the homoeopathic system of medicine and demanded a fair distribution of funds being allocated to the Aush Department.

President of the confederation Vinod Kumar alleged that the government was obsessed with ayurveda which was being promoted at the cost of homoeopathy. He said the neglect was also affecting the careers of the homoeopathic doctors who were not getting enough job opportunities. There were more than 250 homoeopathic doctors in the state who were without jobs.

The extent of neglect could be judged from the fact that there were only 10 homoeopathic institutions in the state as against 30 ayurvedic hospitals and 1,109 dispensaries. Further, there were over 1,200 ayurvedic doctors but only 10 homoeopathic doctors. The directorate of the two systems was common but only three ayurvedic doctors were posted there as officers on special duty and none with homoeopathic speciality.

On one hand the government was not neglecting homoeopathy but on the other it was not able to utilise funds being provided by the Under National Rural Health Mission for Ayush. During the Congress regime Rs 42 crore could not be utilised and under the present government the figure had crossed Rs 27 crore.

Bilaspur, August 30
The Himachal government has sanctioned setting up of 97 big and medium industries in the state. This will attract an investment of Rs 7,938 crore and provide employment to more than 25,000 persons.

This was stated by Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal while addressing a series of largely-attended villagers’ meetings, including those at Jhandutta, Nakhlehada and Behran in his Jhandutta constituency, near here yesterday. These public meetings were organised by gram panchayats to 
honour Kaundal.

Kaundal said the government was striving hard to ensure that a total of 1,200 MW of power was generated up to the year 2012 in the state which would further open floodgates of faster progress.

He said all policies of the state government were oriented and directed towards betterment of farmers, orchardists, unemployed youths, women and weaker sections. The latest Rs 353-crore Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya project for construction of poly houses and micro irrigation projects with 80 per cent subsidy content would usher in a new era of bringing prosperity to all villages in the state soon, he added.

The Deputy Speaker had a special word of praise for Chief Minister PK Dhumal, who, he said, was benevolent in providing funds at the earliest for development works in his backward Jhandutta constituency. He said an amount of Rs 16 crore was spent on construction of roads last year while a similar amount was again being spent on roads this year.

He said Rs 5 crore was being spent on providing drinking water while 47 hand pumps had been set up here against the budget provision of 35 hand pumps. This had helped in easing shortage of drinking water in villages in this constituency, he added.

Hamirpur, August 30
Though the Himachal Pradesh Government has benefited lakhs of state government employees by implementing the Fifth Pay Commission Report of the Punjab Government here and also announced to regularise services of large number of contract employees, hundreds of contractual veterinary doctors are still struggling to get their due from the government.

The long wait for regularisation of services of these doctors is continuing since their appointment in July 2003, despite the fact that according to their contract conditions they were supposed to be regularised after putting in five years of service.

Not only this, they are not even been given any annual increment till today.

The state government had appointed 180 veterinary doctors on contract basis and many of them were posted in hard and tribal areas to serve the people and today 160 (60 per cent of the total strength) of these veterinary doctors were working in the rural areas of the state.

Telling about their problems, general secretary of their association Dr Amit Mahajan said, “We are serving in the difficult areas of the state but the state government has neither regularised our services nor given us other financial benefits like annual increment etc because of which many of them have already quit the jobs.”

Pleading their case of regularisation, the vets said since they were professionally qualified people their services should not be regularised after eight years of service like class four employees.

The vets were also bitter about non-payment of annual increment to them despite a general notification of the Personal Department of the state government dated March 5, 2009, about payment of annual increment to all contract employees.

According to this notification, they should get 3 per cent annual increment on basic pay, which they were being deprived, as a result of which junior doctors appointed in 2007 were being paid higher than doctors appointed in 2003.

Dr Amit Mahajan said, “Its high time that the government looks into the demands of contractual vets and extends due benefits to them.”

Director of the Animal Husbandry BC Bisht said, “The department has taken up case of their regularisation with the state government and we have not received any specific instruction about paying them annual increment.”