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Stringent rules to check green felling
Five-Star Hotel
Stop misuse of funds, says Congress
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Mother, infant charred to death
Work at cement plant stalled
Commission directs firm to pay Rs 2 lakh claim
Potable Water
Kisan sabha holds protest
Govt’s move flayed
Meeting held
CPI to hold rally on Jan 23
‘Education top priority of govt’
BSNL offers broadband services
Two killed in mishaps
Dhumal’s one-day visit
39,645 kids get polio drops
Sunny day brings relief
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Stringent rules to check green felling
Shimla, January 11 According to the new rules notified by the government to rationalise allotment of trees to right holders on the directions of the High Court, three cubic metre of converted timber will be provided for construction of a new house once in a lifetime or 30 years and one cubic metre for carrying out major repairs once in 15 years. Timber will be supplied at 30 per cent of the prevailing market rates as determined from the sale price of the state forest corporation. However, the below poverty line (BPL) families will be charged only 10 per cent of the market cost. In case of natural calamities, it will be given free of cost. Timber will not be granted for the construction or maintenance of buildings to be used for commercial and hiring purposes. No timber will be granted if trees are available on the land holdings of the right holder concerned. In case trees from private land have been sold, timber will not be granted for 10 years. Similarly, timber will not be granted if a land owner has purchased land after obtaining permission under Section 118 of the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, irrespective of the date of purchase of such land. Timber will be granted only to the head of the family as per the revenue records. Timber will be provided only if trees are available “silviculturally” for extraction as per the forest working plan in the forest concerned. Converted timber of only those species will be provided which are available for felling. The rights could be suspended for a period of upto 10 years if case of mistletoes of allotted timber, involvement in forest offence, failure to perform duties like cooperating in apprehending offenders and extinguishing forest fires come t fore. Applications, duly recommended by the gram sabha, will be received by forest guard upto March 31 and the converted timber will be supplied from August to November 30. No timber will be granted thereafter for that year. Till June 2006, when the High Court imposed a ban on grant of trees, about 45,000 to 50,000 green trees were being allotted to the right holders annually virtually free of cost. In all, 2,10,934 green trees, with a standing volume of 5,49,484 cubic metre worth over Rs 275 crore, were sanctioned to right holders between 1994-99, charging a meagre amount of Rs 2.13 lakh. Further, 1,65,890 green trees, worth over Rs 550 crore, were given to right holders from 2002 onwards till June 2006.
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Five-Star Hotel
Dharamsala, January 11 He alleged that the land on which the hotel was being constructed was village common land. The land, according to the judgment of the Supreme Court, was a forest land. The land could have been diverted for other purpose only after the permission of special empowered committee of the Supreme Court, he alleged. The HPCA is in a hurry to construct the hotel as it has been allotted two IPL matches for Dharamsala for the forthcoming season in April. Five star residential facilities for players is a primary condition for hosting any match. As the time frame for hosting the matches is just two months, the HPCA had contracted a New Zealand-based company for construction of the wooden hotel. HPCA spokesperson Sanjay Sharma, when contacted, said the land on which the hotel was being constructed was not forest land. “We had applied to the state government for allotment of land for the hotel. We have also obtained a no objection certificate from the department of forest and other departments. Besides, the HPCA was paying commercial lease amount for the land. It was paying Rs 13,44,504 per annum as lease money for about 70 kanal land allotted for the purpose, he added. Meanwhile, officials were anxious while talking about the issue. Dharamsala forest conservator, when contacted, said the land on which the hotel was being built was not forest land. However, revenue officials were not available for comments on the issue. The Deputy Commissioner was “busy” in the court and Dharamsala SDM declined to comment. Chander Kumar also alleged that the state government was misleading the Union government over the issue of land availability for central university near Dharamsala. Jodhpur MP and former Dharamsala MLA Chandresh Kumari had suggested land near the Deputy Commissioner’s residence for the central university. However, that land was not being considered. The newly appointed VC of the central university was being given accommodation at Jawalamukhi for starting classes of central university. He could also have been given land in Dharamsala, Chander Kumar alleged. Chander Kumar also alleged that the case for allowing felling of khair trees in the state was moved into the Supreme Court by the previous Congress government. However, the present government had not made any difference between khair trees to be felled from government and private lands. This could lead to illegal felling of trees from government forests, he said.
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Stop misuse of funds, says Congress
Bilaspur, January 11 However, those involved in the scandal must be punished so that the project for which he had made great efforts, as a minister, doesnot end in a fiasco like several other such drinking water projects of the BJP government earlier in the district. Addressing mediapersons at the circuit house here today, Thakur urged Chief Minister PK Dhumalto come forward to order a high-level inquiry into allotting ofseveral works worth crores of rupees of the project to some chosen few contractors from outside the state or district and also for the first time in such works method of giving sub-contracts to the locals was used, thus allowing full scope for misuse and bungling of its ample funds. He said breaking all rules the pipes of the project were being thrown at various placesunguarded instead of firstbringing to the central store atDabhat, thus providing goodopportunity for these costly pipes being sold in the open marketoutside the state. He said one of the officers had already been charged Rs 1.5 lakh, as several pipes of the projectwere caught by the Punjab police being sold in the open marketat Nangal. Thakur said the BJP should tell if it had succeeded in getting any new DPR (Draft Project Report) sanctioned from the central government during its tenure of two years. He said all projects and schemes being implemented now and being claimed as the BJP achievements were actually got sanctioned by the former Congress government of Virbhadra Singh.
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Mother, infant charred to death
Mandi, January 11 According to official report received here today, by the time family members woke up the three-storeyed house was enveloped by the fire. Satya Devi, her elder daughter and her in-laws managed to escape from the fire. But she realised that her infant was left behind in the bed. She plunged into the flames but could not come out as the flames of the wooden house overpowered them and charred both mother and child to death. Her elder daughter sustained minor burns. According to villagers, they came to know about the fire very late. But they managed to control the fire and save the village. The police and fire teams reached very late and by that time the villagers had controlled the fire. A short-circuit was reported to be the cause of the fire. Thirty sheep and six domestic cattle of Manohar Lal, a mule operator, who was out of the village that day, were also burnt alive in the cowshed of the house. The Paddar SDM, who monitored the rescue operations, said the total loss of the fire was estimated to be
Rs 18 lakh. Mandi DC Amandeep Garg said the immediate relief of Rs 50,000 had been given the victim family along with blankets, tents, ration and medicine.
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Work at cement plant stalled
Solan, January 11 The directions, which came on a PIL filed by a villager, has also put a question mark over the role of the administration which failed to check encroachment of the government land. The plant had come up on a government land which had till date not been leased out to the company. Despite this the plant management had the alacrity to go ahead and initiate their operations. This had been termed as encroachment and various other violations, including chopping down of hundreds of trees, exceeding the number which had been sanctioned by the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests, had further put a question mark on the role of the forest department. The court had now sought a reply within eight weeks from the state and central government in the matter. Though the permission had been granted for setting up a 2 MTPA cement blending unit but it was alleged that illegal construction of the 30 MW thermal plant was underway much before its permission had been granted. The plant management as well as the state government had now landed in a soup as it had to explain why it failed to check the illegal operations of the plant. Interestingly, the question regarding its illegal operations had also figured in the just concluded Vidhan Sabha session and the state government had dithered from giving a clear reply. The plant had also witnessed massive opposition during its public hearing in September last year and objections filed by seven of the 10 gram panchayats had not been registered and no heed had been paid to the objections of the 2,500 villagers in the proceedings of the hearing which were later made available to the villagers. Though a show-cause notice had been issued by the State Pollution Control Board after the withdrawal of permission to the plant as illegal construction had been carried on in contravention of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006. But the board had failed to initiate any action against the company. With various departments brazenly giving a miss to these irregularities the villagers had now approached the court for justice.
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Commission directs firm to pay Rs 2 lakh claim
Shimla, January 11 Apart from this, the commission also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the company for not settling the death claim of her husband on time. The order was passed on an appeal filed by her alleging that her husband Durga Nand was working as headmaster in Government Primary School, Chawai, Theog tehsil, Shimla, and her insurance claim was wrongly rejected. According to complainant, Rukmani Devi, the state government with a view to providing insurance cover to its staff had got the deceased along with other persons insured with the company to the extent of Rs 2 lakh in case of accidental death. She further alleged that her husband died as a result of accident and daily diary report to that effect was lodged. Premium had been deducted out of his salary. She had submitted all relevant documents with the company but the company had not settled the claim. The company contested the case on the ground that the complainant had failed to produce the postmortem report. The District Forum, Shimla, also dismissed the complaint on the stand taken by the insurance company. The complainant approached the commission subsequently. While setting aside the order of the forum the commission, headed by Justice Arun Kumar Goel, observed that if the complainant was aware that for want of the postmortem report she would be dragged to litigation by the insurance company and its non-filing would be fatal to her claim, she would have certainly done the needful.
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Potable Water
Shimla, January 11 With all census villages covered, the focus in the last two years has been on extending the facility to 53,205 habitations. As many as 10,520 habitations have already been provided drinking water at a cost of Rs 552 crore in the last two years. A comprehensive plan has been formulated to cover 19,473 more habitations by March 2012. The water supply to Solan town has been augmented with the commissioning of Giri lift scheme constructed at a cost of Rs 65.55 crore. It will provide water to the adjoining 23 urbanised villages and 91 hamlets in Kumarhatti and Dharamspur areas. Two more schemes, partly covering Mewa and Bamsan areas in Bhoranj tehsil and various habitations from Guwardoo to Samirpur in Hamirpur district, have also been completed. The rural sewerage scheme at Sarahan in Shimla and the Rekong Peo Sewerage scheme in Kinnaur district have also been completed. As many as 18,742 hand pumps have been installed in the state out of which 3,349 were installed in the past two years. As many as 1,986 hand pumps have been installed in the drought-prone regions. Further 10,813 hectares of land has been brought under irrigation, 5550 hectares under minor irrigation and 5,263 hectares under major and medium irrigation projects.
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Kisan sabha holds protest
Mandi, January 11 As a result, the protest rally blocked the national highway at Bhangrotu as the protesters stood in front of the company office that jammed the highway for an hour. The police has booked CPM leaders Rakesh Singha, Bhupinder Singh and Paras Ram under Sections 143, 147 and 341 of the IPC for disrupting traffic on the highway. The protesters turned up in large numbers and demanded immediate implementation of the December 14 agreement. The police intervened and opened the highway. The protesters then stood at the gate of the company office and wanted to know as to why they were rejected by the company. The local administration intervened and the SDM mediated the meeting held with the protesters led by CPM leader Rakesh Singha on one hand and the GM of the company on the other hand. The company agreed that it would recruit 50 persons in the first go by January 15 and would re-advertise the remaining posts of carpenter, wire binder and others. The old applicants would be given preference when they would be asked to appear in test and the company would hire private vehicles from local taxi stands, the company agreed. Singha told The Tribune that the CPM was championing the cause of 70 per cent job quota for the people of Himachal in the project. “We support the protest as the company deviated from the terms of the agreement and will never allow company to dillydally on the job quota,” he asserted. He said they had no intention to block the highway but it so happened as the crowd was just standing outside the office of the company along the highway. They did not allow us to put the case of those applicants who were rejected without reasons by the company that might be pressurised to recruit people from outside the state, he added. On the other hand, the company pleaded that they were looking for the right people with right qualifications and experience for the work. Mandi SP Sonal Agnihotri said the police was on patrol when the protesters marched towards Bhangrotu and blocked the highway. The police has registered case of rioting and wrongful restraint at Balh police station on the complaint of head constable Mahant Ram. They set on the road and obstructed the NH-21 at Bhangrotu. They were led by Rakesh Singha, Paras Ram, Bhupinder Singh, he added.
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Govt’s move flayed
Shimla, January 11 General secretary of the association said the move was ridiculous as it would facilitate appointment of candidates without any formal degree or diploma in education and at the same time deprive the unemployed LT diploma holders of job opportunities. The government had cleared the proposal for filling 200 posts out of which 50 posts were kept aside for promotees. Of the remaining 150 posts, 50 per cent were to be filled batch-wise and the rest by direct recruitment through the state subordinate service selection board. However, the board had kept the process in abeyance on the direction of the government which purposed to amend the recruitment and promotion rules. |
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Meeting held
Solan, January 11 The department has also decided to launch a special campaign in the near future to check any such offenders who could be operating nefarious trade on the sly. He directed all officials to nab such offenders in their respective jurisdiction. The step comes in the wake of recovery of banned chemicals from the premises of a pharmaceutical unit at Baddi, which was yet to initiate manufacturing work but had stored banned chemicals. A team of the Jalandhar police has recovered those chemicals in a surprise raid last week. — OC
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CPI to hold rally on Jan 23
Bilaspur, January 11 This was stated by CPI state assistant secretary Pravesh Chandel while addressing mediapersons here yesterday. He said national secretary Amarjeet Kaur would also address this massive rally which would be joined by members of all the sister and aligned organisations of the party. Chandel said failure of the BJP government to maintain regular supplies of cheaper rations in the government depots, increase in prices of some essential commodities, decrease in the quantity of rations, ignoring payment of any compensation for repeated destruction of widespread draught-affected crops since last three years were worrying common man. He said collapse of any government machinery to protect rights of labour in the projects and failure to provide 70 per cent jobs to youths, lopsided and unbalanced financial decisions of both the governments was seriously affecting the livelihood of people. He further added that the government was providing maximum benefits to the multimillionaires at the cost of common man and these would be the major issues of this congregation. Meanwhile, a meeting of the district unit of the CPI, presided by veteran party leader comrade, Shankar Singh Chandel, was held in which it was decided to send the largest ever contingent of the members for this protest at Mandi.
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‘Education top priority of govt’
Hamirpur, January 11 Dhiman said this while addressing a public meeting after laying the foundation stone of a school building at Patta today. He said the state government had been making efforts to create basic facilities in schools through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the government was also trying to build more and more school buildings. The minister added that there was no shortage of teaching staff in the schools and if some schools in the remote area were facing shortage of teachers, more teachers woud be deployed there soon. He said to fulfil this shortage, about 18,000 more teachers were being recruited by the state government. He said the government was committed to convert the state into an education hub and more institutions were being opened to provide quality education here. He also announced a grant of Rs one lakh for constructing a gate at Patta school. |
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BSNL offers broadband services
Bilaspur, January 11 This was stated in a notification issued by the office of the Deputy General Manager of the Hamirpur Telecommunications district here today. The broadband service would be under the USO Fund and a connection could be obtained for Rs 99 and Rs 150 per month and it would be of 400 MV and 1 GV download/ upload. The connections would be provided at first come first served principle, as they were limited. The BSNL would also provide HCL or NOVA computers to the consumers on easy instalments, which would be recovered with the monthly bill of the broadband connection.
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Two killed in mishaps
Bilaspur, January 11 The splinters hit her stomach while she was cleaning the cupboard. No other member of the family was in the house at the time of the incident. The neighbours rushed her to the nearby Anandpur Sahib Hospital from where she was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, but she died on way. The police has registered a case and is investigating the matter. In another accident, Kuldeep Chand, a student of an institute in Una, died as he slipped from a steep hill near Jejhwin village in Kot Dhat area. He was rushed to the nearby health centre and was referred to the regional hospital. However, he was declared brought dead. A case has been registered. |
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Dhumal’s one-day visit
Hamirpur, January 11 The DPRO said the Chief Minister would listen to grievances of people during his visit at the Circuit House here from 9.30 am onwards. |
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39,645 kids get polio drops
Hamirpur, January 11 District health officer PR Katwal said the health department had established 282 booths for this purpose and had deployed 1,164 employees in the district to conduct the process. |
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Sunny day brings relief
Shimla, January 11 Shimla experienced a low of 6.2 degree celsius, almost a degree up from yesterday, the Met office said.Elsewhere in the state too, the mercury registered a marginal rise in night temperatures. Sundernagar recorded a minimum of 0.1 degree while it was 3.1 degrees in Dharamsala and 3.5 degrees in Una, it said. Keylong, the district headquarters of Lahaul-Spiti, was the coldest place in the state at minus 12.1 degrees, while it was minus five degrees in Kalpa, in Kinnaur district. The Met office forecast rain or thundershowers in the lower hills and rain or snow at many places in the higher reaches. — PTI
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