Shimla, September 18
The state today waived the “tacavi” loans, which had been haunting farmers for the past four decades, gave nod to the implementation of the emergency response and transportation scheme and decided to set up an urban transport society for operating buses being provided to the state capital under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission.

The decisions were taken by the state Cabinet at its meeting held here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister PK Dhumal. Outstanding “tacavi” loans were given to small and marginal farmers in 1950s and 1960s and the total amount along with the interest had swelled to Rs 4.95 crore.

Chief Secretary Asha Swaroop said all farms loans had been waived and only “tacavi” loans were still outstanding. The amount was not huge but the decision would provide relief to a significant number of 43,485 farmers.

Under the Emergency Medical Response and Transportation system, a fleet of about 100 to 150 ambulances, stationed at various locations across the state will be maintained, for providing prompt services to the people.

The GPS-based network would enable the people to utilise the service through a common toll free number. The response time would be 30 minutes for urban areas and 45 minutes for rural areas.

It decided to set up an Urban Transport Management Society for plying buses under the supervision of the State Road Transport Corporation. The society comprising officers of the Transport Department and the local municipal corporation would be responsible for operating the fleet of 75 buses.

It also decided to introduce Urdu and Punjabi as optional subject in Class VI to VIII in 100 schools. While the serving teachers would be given an honorarium of Rs 250 for teaching these subjects, part-time teachers would be paid on period basis at the rate of Rs 70 per period.

It also gave nod to recruitment of 64 dental surgeons on contract basis through the Rogi Kalyan Samiti and gave consent to engage additional manpower of 87 employees of different categories for better supervision works under NREGA.

Shimla, September 18
Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Kaul Singh today gave a new twist to the “call-girl” episode by alleging that media advisory committee chairperson Rajender Rana was sacrificed to shield a minister and asserted that only a CBI probe could unearth the truth.

He linked the infamous incident to hydropower projects and pointed at a “deliberate design” in concentration of powers pertaining to environment-related matters in a particular officer.

Addressing a press conference here he said the hype created by the government over environment conservation and carbon credits was a farce and all that the state had managed was “call-girl credits” as evident from the incident.

Corruption in environment clearance had become rampant. More so because the system checks and balances in the government had been done away with by giving charge of director of environment, member secretary of pollution control board and secretary of the state council for science, technology and environment to one officer, he charged.

There was no dearth of officers in the government and it only pointed to involvement of vested interests, he said.

The manner in which the government had granted permission to Jaypee Industries for setting up a thermal power plant in Nalagarh also exposed the dual face of the government on environment policy.

The Congress had taken action against officers who had granted the no-objection certificate to the company for the purpose and taken a policy decision of not allowing thermal plants in the environmentally sensitive hill state.

However, the Dhumal government had reversed the decision and given a nod to the plant which was being opposed not only by the local people, but those of Punjab. In fact, the government was setting up pithead thermal plant in West Bengal in the joint sector only to protect the environment.

Corruption had become an integral part of government functioning and one of its ministers Krishan Kapoor was in the dock for allotting plots to his own family members from discretionary quota, he alleged.

Besides, three ministers were facing charges of abducting a woman member of Kangra Zila Parishad and the court had rejected the government plea for withdrawal of the case, maintaining that prima facie a case was made out. It was not a politically motivated case as it was registered during the previous term, he said.

Shimla, September 18
The Congress has accused the Dhumal government of politicising the national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) and alleged that norms were being violated in its implementation to keep Congress-dominated panchayats out of picture.

Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh has already taken up the matter with Union Minister for Rural Development CP Joshi and brought to his notice the fact that the government was bypassing the panchayats by setting up local societies for implementation of the scheme.

It was patently wrong because according to the central guidelines, the scheme had to be implemented through panchayats. The party will soon send a written complaint to the minister so that action could be taken, he said.

The party also lambasted the Dhumal government for taking credit for the India Today awards as the Congress was in power for most of the 2003-09 period for which the performance of the state government had been evaluated.

Kaul Singh said the Congress had ruled for almost five years and the BJP little over an year. The award was, therefore, a tribute to the good performance of the previous Congress government.

Things had only deteriorated after the BJP came to power and ambitious projects like central university had been held up because of the biased attitude of the government which wanted to shift the project to the Hamirpur constituency, represented by elder son of the Chief Minister.

He said a part of the land identified near Dharamsala for the university was being given to the state cricket association for construction of a five-star hotel and the rest was being transferred to the industries department. Another piece of land near Shahpur was being given for setting up a battalion of the Central Security Force.

He said the UPA government was stressing on austerity measures but the fund-starved hill state was least concerned. Expensive luxury vehicles were being acquired by ministers and officers and no restriction had been imposed on foreign tours of officers.

As far as Congress was concerned, it would not wait for the government to make a beginning, its legislators would contribute 20 per cent of their salaries to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for the next one year. The objective was to send the right message across to the people in these trying times, he added.

Shimla, September 18
Himachal can finally hope to get help from the Centre in tackling monkey menace as a high-level team from the Ministry of Forest and Environment will shortly visit the state to assess the situation and offer financial and technical assistance.

Even though the state Forest Department had written to the Prime Minister as well as the Planning Commission to provide financial assistance to Himachal to tackle the problem, it was during the recent meeting of Chief Minister PK Dhumal with Union Forest and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh that it was decided to send a central team to the hill state.

The team will comprise senior officials from the Union Ministry of Forest, the National Wildlife Board and the Zoo Authority of India. The team will hold talks with the state government and visit endemic areas so that effective steps can be taken to provide relief to the farmers whose crops are being completely devastated by the simians.

“We are keen that the Centre provides us financial assistance to carry on our sterilisation project and also provide us with technical expertise to go about with the task in a better manner,” said Avay Shukla, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest).

Shukla said since sterilisation was the only viable and socially acceptable approach to tackle monkey menace, the state will seek more sterilisation centres. At present three such centres are functional at Shimla, Hamirpur and Gopalpur in Kangra while one is still in the process of being set up at Una.

The Forest Department has been able to sterilise a total of 9,260 monkeys till now. The estimated population of monkeys in the state is about 3.15 lakh while those of langurs is over 50,000.

“Even if we are able to sterilise 50,000 monkeys within the next two years, we will be able to bring the situation under control as only half of the total population of monkeys causes devastation to crops,” said Shukla.

The damage caused by monkeys is so massive that in many places people have stopped planting maize and vegetables which are completely destroyed by monkeys.

Mandi, September 18
Even as the HP police anti-cannabis drive team has claimed to have destroyed the illegal contraband crop on over 500 bighas mainly in Parbati valley and Malana in the Kullu district in the past two weeks, the team has yet to destroy cannabis in the hidden remote patches of Tosh Kotla, Ougal Thatch and Pinsu in the Parbati valley.

According to sources, the police has yet to reach and destroy the highland spots at Waiching, Chandraghani Pass, Ougal Thathatch, Tosh Kotla, all located in upper reaches of Malana and Parbati valley.

The police has yet to launch anti-cannabis drive in Bali Chowki tehsil, pockets in Seraj, Karsog in Mandi district, Bishladhar-Khanag belt in Kullu district where cultivators almost harvested cannabis plants to make hashish, the sources added.

The police had launched the anti-cannabis drive on September 1 in the Kullu district, pressing more than 70 men into destruction campaign. The team registered just one case after detecting cannabis on the forest land.

Talking to The Tribune, Anurag Garg, DIG central range, said the team had destroyed the cannabis on over 500 bighas of forest and private land in the Kullu district so far. The team destroyed 116 bighas of cannabis in Tosh area, 60 bighas in Mulandar forest and booked a case on which investigation is on, he added.

Garg said the police had no idea as to how much area was under the contraband crop as there was no survey on the ground. Cannabis cannot be detected by the satellite imagery and hence there is no specific information on exact dimension of cultivation, he added.

He said the police would launch a drive in Mandi and cover other areas after Dushehra. The police has sought help of the revenue and forest department in this matter, he added. Garg asserted that the police would destroy the crop so that hashish production was curtailed.

They were rushed to the zonal hospital here. However, Inderdev succumbed to his injuries on way. The condition of other two was stated to be out of danger.

The police has registered a case of negligence against the Satsang owners on the complaint of Nirmal Singh, another labourer.

The Army authorities here are of the view that recent firing incidents by Pak Rangers along the international border might be an attempt to help terrorists cross over to India. This was the third infiltration attempt made by militants in the past five days, they said.

The unit also urged the principal to strictly ban entry of outsiders on the campus and ensure adequate security for students.

Shimla, September 18
The government is examining recommendations made by Prof Yash Pal committee to bring about inclusive growth and qualitative improvement in the education system in the country.

This was stated by Dr RK Chauhan, secretary, University Grants Commission (UGC), while speaking at the two-day national seminar on “Media as a partner in national development” organised by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication here today.

“Since it is for the first time that teachers’ pay scales had been placed higher than that of bureaucrats, there will be even greater responsibility on them to deliver results,” he said.

Dr Chauhan said the endeavour of the UGC was to provide liberal funding to enable inclusive growth and quality education.

“Even though there have been several instances where some of the universities failed to utilise funds allotted to them, we have been very liberal and have given 60 per cent additional funds this time,” he said.

Delivering the keynote address, Amar Chandel, Associate Editor, The Tribune, said media must play a positive role by voicing opinion of the public and not government.

“Public patronises media owing to its credibility and integrity which, if misused, will be lost,” he said. Failure of the grievance redressal system is one of the biggest challenge before the country, he added.

“The three pillars of democracy--- legislature, judiciary and executive---are afflicted with malady and it is the media which must play the role of a responsible watchdog,” he opined.

Prof Sunil Kumar Gupta, Vice-Chancellor, HPU, said the ability of media to deliver accurate and timely news was fraught with challenges even though it was accused of inaccuracies, sensationalism and trivialisation.

Palampur, September 18
At least 30 schoolchildren and a junior engineer of the IPH Department were injured when the driver of a school bus, who was reportedly under the influence of liquor, hit a scooter near Bhawarna last evening.

According to reports, the bus was carrying over 30 children of a local school and was on its way to Bhawarna and its adjoining areas.

When the bus reached near Mansimbal village it hit Satish Sood, junior engineer (JE) in the IPH, coming on a scooter from the opposite direction.

Later, the bus fell on the scooter injuring the JE seriously, who was later shifted to the DMC, Ludhiana.

A police spokesman said the bus driver had been arrested and a case had been registered against him. All injured have been admitted to a private nursing home and the Civil Hospital.

Chamba, September 18
The police has arrested three students of the local Government Industrial Training Institute for creating commotion on the institute premises yesterday.

Some students of the institute had an altercation, which turned into a quarrel. A student of the institute gave a tinkle to the police.

The police arrived at the ITI complex and arrested three students- Amit, Vinod and Praveen- on the charges of creating uproar on the institute premises.