Shimla, December 3
To combat the effect of global warming and changed agro-climatic conditions, the horticulture department will import new and improved varieties of peach, pear, plum and walnut to ensure good productivity and return to the farmers.

With most parts of the state already witnessing warming, calling for a virtual change in the cropping pattern, the horticulture and agriculture department in association with the University of Forestry and Horticulture, Nauni, and Agriculture University, Palampur, will work out a strategy to provide alternatives to the farmers.

Improved and new varieties of various stone fruits, including plum, peach, pear, walnut and hazelnut, are being imported from Switzerland, Holland, USA and China so that the farmers can take to their commercial cultivation in the most scientific and modern way. The suitability of the new varieties to various agro-climatic zones will first be assessed by the horticulture department before it is distributed among growers.

“The growers can continue growing the traditional crops but as part of our diversification plans, thrust will be on growing imported varieties of hazelnut, walnut, pear and plum to supplement their income,” said horticulture minister Narender Bragta. He said the scientists and other technical experts of the two departments and universities had been asked to reassess the cropping zones to see what are the requirements of the farmers and fruit growers in view of the changed agro-climatic conditions.

Bragta said the government would also get a demand survey done to explore the various options for marketing the produce and ensuring that the growers get a handsome price for their produce. He said the plant material of the new varieties would be provided by the department after its propagation in nurseries and farms.

With much less snow and inadequate chilling requirements of the apple crop, in most mid-hills of the state, fruits like plum and peaches have replaced apple. It is to meet these changed climatic conditions that the government has started preparing an action plan so that the farmers can go in for diversification.

Attempts are also being made to revive the earlier proposal of promoting cultivation of grapes in the lower and mid-hills of the state. The imported varieties of grapes are being propagated at the Bajaura farm so that it can be distributed among the farmers in districts of Bilaspur, Sirmour, Hamirpur and Kangra areas.

The setting up of processing units at various places in the state will help the farmers in cutting down the loss due to short shelf life of some fruits and at the same time save the transportation charges. 

Shimla, December 3
Bowing to pressure from the ABVP and party circles, the government today transferred Mandi deputy commissioner Onkar Sharma, who has now been posted as divisional commissioner, Kangra.

In a major reshuffle, the government today changed the deputy commissioner of three districts and made some major changes at the top bureaucratic level. Solan DC Amandeep Garg has been shifted to Mandi, while Amar Singh Rathore, at present posted as Special Secretary (Redressal of Public Grievances and Sainik Welfare), will replace him.

Deepak Sanan, Principal Secretary (Health), has been posted as Principal Secretary (MPP and Power). Ajay Tyagi, Principal Secretary (Finance Planning), has been given additional charge of Information Technology.

P.C. Dhiman, Principal Secretary (Education), will now look after Health and Family Welfare. Shrikant Baldi, Principal Secretary (Rural Development and Panchayati Raj), will now be looking after Education.

Tarun Kapoor, Managing Director, HP Power Corporation, has been assigned additional charge of Director, Energy. R.D. Dhiman, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, has been posted as Secretary (Rural Development and Panchayati Raj).

T.C. Janartha, Divisional Commissioner (Kangra), has been posted as MD, General Industries Corporation. Jagdish Chander, MD (HP Power Transmission Corporation), has been posted as Excise and Taxation Commissioner. Anita Tegta, Director (Land Records), has been posted as Special Secretary (Revenue).

B.R. Kaundal (HAS), posted as ADM (Development)-cum-Project Director, DRDA, Chamba, has been shifted against the same post at Bilaspur. Ashwani Chaudhary, SDM, Bhattiyat will take up post of ADM (Development)-cum-Project Director, DRDA (Chamba). Rajiv Kumar, HAS, is awaiting posting as SDM in Rampur.

Mandi, December 3
Though more than a year has passed after Chief Minister PK Dhumal and then External Affairs Minister for State Anand Sharma jointly laid the foundation stone of the IIT, Mandi, at Kamand, Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has yet to give environment clearance for the project to take off.

Even though the district administration has already transferred the government land measuring over 2,600 bighas at the nondescript village of Kamand to house the IIT, the IIT management has demanded additional 100 bighas of land near Mandi, which has yet to come through, sources in the IIT, Mandi, said.

On the other hand, the IIT, Mandi, has moved environmental clearance proposal to the MoEF, but awaits its nod. Even the PWD has yet to move the proposal to widen the Kamand-Mandi and Kamand-Bhuntar roads to make it double lane to link it to the airport at Bhuntar as per standard norms of an IIT, the sources added.

DC Onkar Sharma said they have transferred the government land to the IIT, Mandi. But additional demand of land has been reduced to 26 bighas as there is less land available and the IIT is satisfied with it, he added.

Sharma said the land had been identified near the town and would be transferred to the IIT soon. The transit accommodation at postgraduate college, PWD rest house and hotel Mandav has been handed over to the IIT, he added.

Director, IIT, Mandi, Dr SC Saksena said they await MoEF clearance which they would get soon to start the work.

“We have got a good cooperation from the state and central governments,” he added.

He added that road widening and other works would be taken up by the concerned departments.

“We will do renovation and set up labs etc first, but will never compromise on quality as per the IIT mandate,” he added.

Saksena said they expected that they would start classes in Mandi from the next session from the transit accommodation till the IIT campus comes up at the proposed site.

Hamirpur, December 3
The departments of social justice and women empowerment and social welfare jointly organised a programme here today for physically challenged children on World Disability Day.

Several activities, including a painting contest, indoor games and a health check-up, were conducted for differently abled children on the occasion. A number of such children from the district participated in the function, which was presided over by the ADM, Hamirpur, CP Verma.

Speaking on the occasion, Verma said physically challenged children were an important section of society and “it is our moral duty to boost their morale and encourage them to take up different activities”.

He said the main objective of organising the programme was to encourage the physically challenged children. 

Shimla, December 3
The city civil and sessions judge, Bangalore, has restrained a Baddi-based pharmaceutical company Fizikem Laboratories from using the trade mark Beplex Forte Tablets which is similar to that of Anglo-French’s flagship brand.

Using the same brand name for its product by the company is an infringement of Anglo-French rights which had registered the brand name.

The infringing product was also being sold at the same price, though as a therapeutic product it is not meant for it, which amounted to cheating the public by the company by passing its own product in place of the genuine one.

The Assistant Drugs Controller, Licensing Authority-cum-Controlling Authority, Baddi, has suspended the product licence in respect of the brand name till further orders.

DGM, Regulatory Affairs and Secretarial of Anglo-French Drugs and Industries Subbrayalu says “We have filed a suit against the Baddi-based company and obtained a temporary order from the Bangalore city civil and session judge, which disallows it from using the trade name which is similar to Anglo-French brand name. Subsequently, his company approached the Assistant Drugs Controller and Licencing Authority for cancelling the licence of Fizikem Laboratories for the product.

The authority promptly suspended the product licence issued to the company till further orders. 

Kangra, December 3
Kangra Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Jeet Singh Thakur said today that Anjana Kumari (29), a resident of Rajiana village falling under the Nagrota Bagwan police station, consumed poison at her residence late last night and was rushed to the Tanda medical college where she breathed her last this morning. She took this extreme step as she could not bear the shock of separation from her husband who died recently.

In another case, Nirmala (48), consumed poison late last night at her residence in Utrade village falling under the Nagrota Bagwan police station. She was rushed to the Tanda medical college hospital where she died this morning. The SDPO said the cause of committing the crime was not established as yet and investigation was under progress.

Meanwhile, Indra Devi (40) was fighting for her life at the Tanda hospital as she received serious burn injuries at her in-laws’ house last night.

Her condition was stated to be critical.

Shenoo Ram of Jai village, a relative of the victim, had lodged a complaint with the police that she was married to Des Raj in 1999 and just after few months he started torturing her.

The police has arrested the husband of the victim and investigation was on.

Shimla, December 3
With the Centre agreeing to allocate 10.37 per cent of the additional power from the unallocated pool, the people in the hill state are likely to be spared the irritating power cuts during the lean winter months.

The additional allocation will range from 96 MW to 164 MW (7 per cent to 12 per cent) and the weighted average will come to 10.37 per cent, making available over 300 million units of electricity to the state through the winter.

The state will be in a comfortable position as the demand is hovering around 200 lakh units per day whereas the availability is 205 lakh units per day. Last year, the maximum demand during peak winter was 208 lakh units and this year it may cross 210 lakh units. Power regulator Suneel Grover expressed confidence that situation would be manageable without any power cuts.

Last year, the generation from the state’s own projects dipped sharply due to a prolonged dry spell. However, this year the situation is much better and almost 30 lakh units are being generated every day. Further, the Nathpa Jhakri hydroelectric project, in which the state has 25 per cent share, has been doing exceedingly well this year and it has achieved the target of 6000 million units during the current financial year, 52 days ahead of the schedule.

The state is receiving 68 lakh units per day through banking and contra-banking arrangements with the northern states like Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. More than two dozen mini and micro-hydel projects, with an aggregate capacity of about 95 MW, which have been commissioned over the past two years, have also eased the situation somewhat. Above all, the switchover to CFL has also brought down domestic consumption.

The winter shortfall has increased rather sharply due to spurt in industrialisation over the past four years with demand going up from 2800 million units to over 4,800 million units from November 2008 to March 2009. The total availability from the Central pool, state’s share in various projects and own generation has been around 3000 million units, leaving a shortfall of 1000 million units. The peak demand has gone up from 184 lakh units per day to 205 lakh units per day.

Himachal is no longer a power surplus state. It has to purchase almost the same amount of power during winter what its sells during summer. The situation will keep worsening and there will be no respite from winter shortfall till 2012.