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Indian Forest Act
Low Production
State to promote organic farming
Admn building constant hazard
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BRO project adds to Rohtang Pass woes
Reduction in power tariff hailed
Declamation contest held
Association rues removal of PTA teachers
Baralacha Pass reopens
Teachers to be honoured
Centre includes HP in river plan
Man swims to safety
5-day remand for Gupta
Police recruitment test
Surveyor held
Lightning kills 7 sheep
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Amendment Bill raises legal issues
Rakesh Lohumi Tribune News Service
Shimla, September 4 Section 29 of the Act, under which wastelands have been declared as “protected forests”, has been amended by the Bill. It will become a law only after the Governor grants her assent. The section empowers the state to notify any land as protected forest. However, after the enforcement of the Forest Conservation Act (FCA), it could not de-notify a forestland. Moreover, the Supreme Court had, in December, 1996, ended all ambiguity by clearly defining forest land. It laid down that the term ‘forest land’ would not only include forest, as understood in the dictionary sense, but also any area recorded as forest in government record, irrespective of the ownership. The apex court had also directed that the order be implemented, notwithstanding any order at variance. As such the Bill not only goes against the provisions of the FCA but also contravenes directions of the apex court. The state government had issued a notification on August 24, 1998, vide which certain categories of wasteland were excluded from notified forest areas, circumventing the FCA. However, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests did not approve of it and asked the state to immediately withdraw the illegal notification. This time it has brought a Bill to achieve the same objective. Additional chief secretary Avay Shukla asserts that the decision to amend the Act was taken after obtaining advice from the Law Department, which said the state had the power to legislate. He says the Bill has been passed; it will be implemented only if the Centre gives the nod. The state’s plea that it only wanted to de-notify ‘wastelands’ does not carry any legal force as once it is empowered to exclude wasteland, it could de-notify any forest land, making the FCA redundant. The state may have been facing difficulties in implementing development works as with wasteland declared as forests, virtually no other land is available for the construction of educational institutions, dispensaries, hospitals and other developmental activities. However, it should have adopted a legal approach and taken up the matter with the Supreme Court to settle the issue once and for all.
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Move to replace existing apple trees Tribune News Service
Shimla, September 4 Out of a total of 94,000 hectares under apple cultivation in the state, almost 25 per cent of the plantation has outlived its life and needs to be replaced. To meet the requirement of the growers in replacing the old plants, American rootstocks are being multiplied in 700 private and 70 government nurseries in Himachal. Though apple production this year has been hit in the entire state, it is the low-height orchards, which are the worst affected. “The American rootstocks will be of great help to apple growers in the low and mid-hills, who have, of late, suffered huge losses due to vagaries of weather or other factors,” said a senior horticulture official. With the Himachali apple facing stiff competition from the Chinese fruit, it is felt that efforts will have to be made to enhance quality as well as quantity. The fact that despite an increase in the area under apple, the production has gone down, which is a cause of concern. As compared to apple production of over one crore boxes till September 1 last year, this year the figure has just touched 49.81 lakh boxes. In 2008, this figure was 1.07 crore. Even though apple growers are getting very good prices for their produce, growers whose entire crop or most of it has been damaged, have been hit very badly especially in the low-height areas. It is in view of this grim scenario that growers in the low and middle heights have shown a keen interest in replacing their old plants with the imported American rootstock. The experiments undertaken by the department with regard to American rootstock have been highly successful, both in terms of quality and quantity. “At present, the nurseries of the Horticulture Department are providing about 20,000 American rootstock annually while the private nurseries are providing about 25,000 plants to the growers so that the old plants can be replaced all over the state in a phased manner,” said an official. Another major advantage of the American rootstock is that it is self-pollinating and one does not need to have a plant of a different species in the orchard to facilitate pollination.
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State to promote organic farming
Shimla, September 4 The government had decided to motivate every farming family to set up vermi-compost unit. At present, around 1.50 lakh units were being set up in the state annually. The plan was to bring all families under the scheme by the end of the 11th plan. The government was already working on a plan to make the state a “herbal bowl” of the country and it had launched a number of schemes like the “Jan Jan Sanjivni Abhiyan” to motivate people to cultivate medicinal plants in
the state. He said one crore medicinal plants would be planted during the current financial year. The state forest corporation had been appointed as the nodal agency for marketing medicinal and herbal plants produce to ensure remunerative returns to the growers. The state had signed an agreement with Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar, for supply of various organic and medicinal produce
at fixed rates. Effective steps had been taken to make state carbon neutral and the government was in the process of preparing a climate change policy and an action plan for achieving the objectives. A state-level governing council and an executive council on climate change had been constituted and a long-term master plan for environment was being formulated keeping in view the fragile ecology of the state. Dhumal said the government had launched Rs 353 crore “Pandit Deen Dayal Kisan Bagwan Samridhi Yojna” to bring 15 lakh sq m area under protected cultivation. Water Management Board had been set up to coordinate, plan, develop and manage water resources in the state. Soil health cards would
be provided free of cost to all farmers of the state in the next three years to ensure efficient nutrient management and to select
the right crop. |
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Admn building constant hazard
Mandi, September 4 Even as there is no signboard warning commuters not to park the vehicles on the post office road, office-goers and residents rue that the LIC agents and other employees of the company have turned the public relations office parking space, meant for the media and other officials, into their own fiefdom. The building owners have not made any provision for parking for the LIC staff. The LPG company stocks dozens of gas cylinders right in front of the DC’s office, posing a constant threat to the employees and nearby dhabas on the post office road. Even the fire-sensitive wooden post office building, a heritage building in the town, runs a high risk. Traffic cops have become notorious for choosing “soft targets” for issuing challans on this road, targeting vehicles that carry number plates other than those from Mandi for violations like ‘wrong parking’. Sonal Agnihotri, SP, Mandi, said the police had been accommodating and only challaned vehicles when it was a blatant violation of the traffic rules. Onkar Sharma, DC, Mandi, expressed ignorance about the problem, but said that he would take action. Meanwhile, HR Vaidya, president, MMC, said the council would take remedial measures and take up the issue with private building owners. The owners of the building claimed that they were not aware of the Municipal Act as nobody told them to provide parking facilities. |
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BRO project adds to Rohtang Pass woes
Rohtang, September 4 But the “unscientific” widening of the road between Marhi from the Manali side and Gramhu from the Lahaul side has turned into a sliding zone at many places. Unscientific cutting of slopes has breached natural drains of the Rohtang mountain, sinking its fragile land, observe ecologists. The BRO has set up 2012 as the deadline for completion of the double-laning of the national highway between Manali and Keylong. Despite five months long working season in the Lahaul valley, the BRO is moving at a slow pace on the highway. No active machinery engaging in the widening work was observed except that the BRO labour force was doing the road surfacing from Rohtang top towards the Marhi side. There are over a dozen spots between Marchi and Grmabhu, which have become a nightmare for the travellers going to the Lahaul valley. The soil is eroding and several stretches are sliding as the stream water rushing down on steep slopes flows freely through the road or onto the road as the BRO has not constructed proper temporary drains or culverts, taking water through course of streams. It takes five or six hours during peak traffic hours for a visitor to reach Gramphu or Marhi, a 30 km-long road stretch, rue visitors. “The road is littered with deep slushy potholes, boulders that make journey even hazardous,” they say. More than 500 tourists and other transport vehicles, oil tankers and Army vehicles that cross the Pass daily put breaks on the work as the traffic jams have become the order of the day, rue BRO engineers and workers. BRO Commander SK Doon says that BRO it taking utmost care in ensuring smooth flow of civilian vehicles and keeping the pace of work of double-laning moving. The machinery being used in cutting and widening is bound to destabilise the land strata, he explains.
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Reduction in power tariff hailed
Solan, September 4 “The reduction in the power tariff by 7 per cent will definitely help the industry in the state to stand tough against the present economic slowdown,” opined Alok Sharma, president, Parwanoo Industries Association. He further stated that the reduction in the cross subsidy was a welcome step although industry was still a subsidising
category. Rakesh Bansal, PIA’s general secretary, said, “Reduction in energy charges will definitely help the industry to become more competitive and this initiative by the commission will help attract fresh investments to the state besides helping in sustaining the existing industry.” “Though the PIA recommended abolishing the demand charges in total for the small and medium scale sector, the reduction in demand charges for such industry by Rs
50/kva from existing Rs 100/kva would give a boost to this sector. Simultaneously, the commission had also reduced the energy charges by 15
paisa/unit for the large industry and hence by and large it had tried its best to reduce cross subsidy burden on all segments of the industry in the state,” opined
Bansal. He said focus of the commission on power sector reforms such as phasing out of cross subsidy and encouraging efficiency in operations, had brought down the average cost of supply by 8
paisa/unit which was appreciable. |
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Declamation contest held
Solan, September 4 Aishwarya Chauhan of Chaman DAV School, Panchkula, won the gold medal while Neha Chawdhary of St Soldier’s School, Panchkula, and Veronica of St Kabir School, Chandigarh, shared the silver medal in the
Hindi section. The top honours in the English section were bagged jointly by Bir Sukhman of St Kabir School, Chandigarh, and Ishaan Joshi of Chaps Lee School, Shimla, while Gurmehak of Pinegrove School, Subathu, won the bronze medal. Brig Pankaj Arora, Brigade Commander, 95 Infantry Brigade,
Kasauli, who was the chief guest, gave away prizes to the winners. Pinegrove Headmaster Capt AJ Singh, while addressing the students, said such events helped in the personality development of a student.
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Association rues removal of PTA teachers
Shimla, September 4 State president of the association Vivek Mehta said today that despite assurance from Chief Minister PK Dhumal, the PTA appointees were still being removed either by way of fresh appointment or by way of transfer. “With this over 1,000 of the 6,806 PTA teachers had been removed and it appears that this process is likely to continue,” he said. He said the PTA teachers had called off their agitation after an assurance that those removed would be taken back and the pending grant-in-aid would be released. “None of our demands have been met and on the contrary today itself teachers in Chamba and Shimla have been given marching orders by way of fresh appointment as well as through transfer,” he said. Mehta lamented that it was unfortunate that the government was indulging in double speak as its actions were contrary to the assurances given by it. “The state body of the association will hold a meeting on September 12 to chalk out the future strategy as the government has failed to honour its commitment,” he said.
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Baralacha Pass reopens
Shimla, September 4 Disclosing this at Keylong today, P Paulrasu, DC, Kinnaur, said the road was likely to be cleared even for heavy vehicles soon. “About 40 light vehicles, which were stranded at Bharatpur and 282 passengers, including 60 foreigners, had started moving towards Keylong,” he added. He said there was no fresh information about marooned passengers at any tourist spot either on the Manali-Leh road or at the Rohtang Pass (3,978 m) and the Baralacha Pass. Paulrasu said any information regarding routes and passengers could be obtained from the control room. The number of control room set up in the DC office is 01900-222501. He advised tourists not to venture out in bad weather conditions. MANALI:
The Manali-Leh highway, which was closed on Thursday for vehicular traffic due to fresh snowfall on the Rohtang Pass, was reopened on Friday, according to SK Doon, Commander of 38 Task Force, (GREF). He said the snow clearing operation on these passes was being undertaken on war footing by Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel, as hundreds of persons, including vehicles, were stranded there. |
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Teachers to be honoured
Shimla, September 4 Governor Prabha Rau will honour the teachers with a citation, medal and cash award of Rs 25,000 each. Eight teachers to be honoured on the occasion include Susheel Pundeer, Government Senior Secondary School, Soldha, Ashwani Kumar, GSSS, Dehlan, Amar Lata Thakur, Government High School, Prohi, Man Chand Rana, PET, GSSS, Irra, Chopal, Geeta Ram, CHT, Government Primary School, Bandla, Surjeet Singh, CHT, Government Primary School, Jhandiwin, and Hem Lata, Government Primary School, Rampur Bushehar. Sohan Lal Sharma, Government Middle School, Dhaman, and Kamlesh Chandel, Government Primary School, Chandpur, have been selected for the National Award for the year 2009 and will be honoured at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
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Centre includes HP in river plan
Shimla, September 4 This was stated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal after meeting Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jai Ram Ramesh in New Delhi today. He said the state government would soon submit a proposal about the Yamuna under the programme. Dhumal said the final notification regarding rationalisation of protected wildlife areas would be issued by the second week of September. The Centre had agreed to provide technical support to the state for combating the monkey menace. The Union Ministry would arrange consultants for the state government for preparing the detailed project reports of the forestry-related schemes to be posed for funding to the international agencies. It had agreed to pose the project on “programmatic climate change and environmental development policy” to the World Bank. The government would undertake a study on environment load of all projects sanctioned in the state and formulate the state action plan for climate change. |
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Man swims to safety
Kangra, September 4 Susheel Kumar, a resident of Old Kangra, had gone for fishing in Banner river when the river experienced flash floods following heavy rains. Susheel jumped on the other side of the river where he got trapped. Local residents and the police managed to throw food and an umbrella to protect him from rains. However, rescue operations were hindered due to heavy rains.
Kangra SDM LR Negi and SDPO Jeet Singh Thakur arrived on the scene with police force and fire brigade authorities. However, Susheel jumped into the river and swam to safety, much to the surprise of people and waiting
mediapersons. |
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5-day remand for Gupta
Shimla, September 4 The Vigilance Bureau sought custody of the officer on the plea that he needed to be questioned with regard to his properties in the disproportionate assets case registered against him. He was produced in court today after he surrendered yesterday when the high court rejected his bail plea. Gupta has also been booked by the Vigilance Bureau under the Prevention of Corruption Act after he was arrested while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh at Parwanoo. At the time of his arrest, he was posted as MD of the Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDC). |
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Police recruitment test
Bilaspur, September 4 This was stated by SP Kuldip Sharma here yesterday. Sharma said all selected candidates must bring allow their identity proof, one passport size photograph, paper board and blue and black ball-point pen.
— OC |
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Surveyor held
Shimla, September 4 Surveyor Prem Raj was arrested by the Vigilance team outside the office of the engineer-in-chief, PWD, in the US Club area, here today. The complainant had approached the VB that the surveyor had been demanding money to approve his building plan. He had told the complainant that since he would be coming to Shimla for official work, the money should be delivered to him here only and not his place of posting. He has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act. |
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Lightning kills 7 sheep
Dalhousie, September 4 Jagdish, the owner of the livestock and a resident of Jangla village, reported the incident to revenue officials of Bhattiyat but no immediate relief had yet been disbursed to him, the report said. More reports of damages caused due to downpour during the past two days received at the district headquarters today revealed that a rural drinking water scheme near Snuh had been demented with the flood waters in the Dibri nullah.
— OC
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