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Power Reforms
Research institute’s licence revived
Costa Rica team to visit HP
Stress on irrigation to increase production
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Politics casts its shadow on Shivratri fair
Dhiman: Need to raise academic levels
Growers flay carton factory sale
Panchayat members undertake trip
Panchayati Raj bodies to be strengthened
Virbhadra’s son-in-law dies
Bandh observed over firing incident
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Power Reforms
Shimla, February 16 The commission has been anguished over the failure of the government to respond to its repeated queries regarding steps taken by it to validate the action of the board in the absence of extension from the government of India prior to vesting of the assets in the state. “There seems to be no rationale towards negating the process of national mainstream in respect of electricity reforms as mandated by the Act passed by Parliament. A majority of states took upon themselves the onerous task of carrying out the tenets of the Act. However, the wisdom of Parliament has been negated successfully by a small set of state governments which were striving to perpetuate the status quo in a system crying for competitiveness and commercial attenuation” it observed in its interim order. The government has taken the first step towards subsuming the board under Section 131 of the Electricity Act, 2003. The rationale of taking the first step and then sitting to wait out has no logic. It has posed some questions to the Principal Secretary like whether or not the government wished to join the mainstream. There seems no rationale in the extension granted to the process under Section 131 as there was no guarantee that the extension process will not be extended ad infinitum. It drew attention to the fact that the dichotomies prevailing in the status quo led to large cost enhancements. For instance, the transmission corporation had ADB funding but no staff. The subsumed entity had the staff but was unable to post any to the corporation because of extraneous factors. The board’s transmission component itself had meagre funds and could not undertake evacuation works on the IPP structure and in terms of the state transmission plan. There was similar dichotomy between the board and the power generation corporation. The matter, being important, a copy of the order has also been sent to the Chief Secretary. |
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Research institute’s licence revived
Solan, February 16 The license has been revived using extraordinary powers by the ministry and it was known that the issue to revive it, along with the license of two other institutes, comes in the wake of a mention in the presidential address where an assertion in this regard was made. Officials in the institute said this would enable them to initially start the processing of pipeline vaccines whose manufacturing was put on hold after the license was suspended in January 2008. A direction has also been issued to test the potency of the pipeline vaccines to ensure whether they were fit for vaccination or not following two years shutting down of the manufacturing process. Some vaccines could have outlived their shelf life and they would have to be destroyed as the manufacturing process was suspended midway, said officials. Since there were large stocks of DT group vaccines, Japanese Encephalitis, etc, the first priority would be to test them. CRI would now be able to manufacture various vaccines, including DPT, DT, TT, yellow fever, Japanese Encephalitis, typhoid and various serum, including rabies and anti venom. The institute manufactured 6 lakh doses of DT group vaccines, 50,000 doses of JE vaccines annually among others when its license was suspended. The Central Drug Licensing Authority had suspended the licence of the 104-year-old institute following the non-compliance of schedule-M norms as the facilities had failed to adhere to good manufacturing practices (GMP) norms laid down by the WHO. While the revival of the license brought good news for the employees, but it was worth mentioning that not much progress had been made to adopt the GMP norms. Though a budget of Rs 40 crores had been set aside and a contract to refurbish the new building was awarded to Hindustan Latex Limited, not much had been done as yet in the case. It would, however, take long before the institute could fall in track as various operations like breeding of animals for vaccine manufacturing had been put on hold after suspension of its license. Earlier, a six-month period was granted by the WHO in March last to upgrade its manufacturing standards to the requisite norms after a visit by a team of WHO consultants. |
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Costa Rica team to visit HP
Shimla, February 16 This was revealed by Chief Minister PK Dhumal on the conclusion of his visit to Costa Rica last evening. He extended invitation to the Costa Rican environmentalists, government authorities and said the state would eagerly look forward to the proposed visit of the high-level delegation of Costa Ricans to exchange views, programmes and take stock of the same through field visits aimed at preservation of ecology of the Himalayan states. The Chief Minister said people-oriented Community Led Assessment, Awareness, Advocacy and Action Programme (CLAP) for environment protection and carbon neutrality at the grassroot level was fully state-owned programme and Costa Rican authorities had shown keen interest to take first-hand stock of the programme by paying visit to the gram panchayats and see for themselves the impact of the programme contributing towards environment protection. He said people of Himachal were environment conscious and had been lending their support in successful implementation of various programmes in the rural areas. He said the CLAP was a mission being implemented through educational institutions and civil society to create mass awareness about environment protection. Dhumal said all government departments had also been directed to carry out energy and environment audits and introspect on actions and policies for mitigation and adaptation measures. He said the experience earned during the visit to Costa Rica would give renewed boost to different environment protection activities, besides envisioning new programmes keeping in view the ecological conditions in the state. He said Himachal was bound to emerge as the flag-bearer state in the country and inspire rest of the country to accord top priority to environment protection to avert the drastic impact of climate change and global warming. Mutual exchange of experience and information would add to the initiatives being taken by different countries in this direction, he added. |
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Stress on irrigation to increase production
Shimla, February 16 Out of the total geographical areas of 55,672 sq km only 5.42 area is under cultivation due to the hill topography. Further, almost 80 per cent of it is rain fed and farmers are at the mercy of weather god. The government is now focusing on bringing maximum area under cultivation so that farmers could get remunerative returns from their small land holdings. It is estimated that the ultimate irrigation potential of the state is about 3.35 lakh hectare, out of which 50,000 hectare can be brought under irrigation through major and medium irrigation and 2.85 lakh hectare can be covered by minor irrigation. Irrigation facility will enable farmers to diversify from traditional crops to off-season vegetable cultivation and other high-value cash crops. An amount of Rs 216.38 crore is being spent for expanding irrigation facilities during the current financial year and the target is to bring 3,600 hectares of area under minor irrigation schemes and 3,000 hectares under major and medium irrigation schemes in the state during the current financial year. Over the past two years irrigation facility has been extended to over 10,813 hectare land, 5,550 hectare under minor irrigation and the rest through major and medium irrigation projects. Work on the Rs 62.25 crore Balh valley (left bank) project to cover 2,780 hectares is in full swing. The project is being executed by a private company on turnkey basis. |
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Politics casts its shadow on Shivratri fair
Mandi, February 16 Inputs gathered by The Tribune here revealed that factionalism within the BJP was writ large as Transport Minister Mohinder Singh Thakur, whose name figured as one among special guests for the “inaugural Jaleb from the bottom of the VVIPs list”, did not turn up. He, instead, kept himself busy in a seed distribution camp in Dharampur, his home constituency. In fact, in the absence of Chief Minister PK Dhumal, who was out on a foreign tour, PWD Minister and Joginderngar BJP MLA Gulab Singh Thakur was the chief guest while Chachiot MLA and Rural Development Minister Jairam Thakur and Mohinder Thakur were named as special guests for the inaugural function by the mela committee. However, Mohinder was conspicuous by his absence at the state-level function because “he represents the anti-Gulab-Jairam lobby and his name did not figure as the chief guest for the other two traditional Jalebs”, revealed insiders. It is the pro-Dhumal lobby under Gulab Singh Thakur which is calling the shots in the Mandi BJP. Even Mandi MP and Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, who would visit the Shivratri fair on February 17 here and would inaugurate the exhibition put by the steel ministry in Paddal Maidan, does not figure in the traditional jaleb because “it is BJP which holds power in the state”. The concluding Shivratri jaleb, as a tradition, would be led by state governor Urmila Singh here on February 19. The importance of being VVIPs is understandable as the mela committee has turned the fairs into the VVIP showpieces, sources added. This has been happening over the years as the Seri Munch, the venue for the cultural nights and the Paddal stadium, the venue for the Jaleb procession ceremonies have become the venues to promote political agenda rather than culture, alleged devlus and karkoons of devis and devtas. |
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Dhiman: Need to raise academic levels
Hamirpur, February 16 Addressing a gathering at Government College, Tarkwari, today while presiding over the annual prize distribution function, Dhiman said, “The state government is committed to make the state a knowledge hub of the country and 16 new universities are being opened in the state besides a technical university in Hamirpur district.” He said special emphasis was being laid on providing quality education in Himachal which had bagged country-wide appreciation as the state had been adjudged as the best state in the survey conducted by a prestigious weekly magazine of the country. The minister also asked educational institutions to inculcate moral values and discipline among the students for enabling them to survive in this era of cut-throat competition. He said students should be prepared in such a way that they do not run after government jobs and learn to get self-reliant. Dhiman also appealed to the parents of the students to be present themselves during such functions and their other activities to encourage them. Earlier, college principal CL Sankhyan presented the annual report. The Education Minister also gave prizes to meritorious students while a cultural function was also organised by the students on the occasion. |
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SFI stages dharna outside DC office
Hamirpur, February 16 SFI activists, carrying placards, marched through the market and later staged a dharna before the DC office, raising slogans against the Centre and state governments, criticising the policy of privatisation of education. In a joint statement, state Secretariat member Joginder Kumar and SFI district secretary Suresh Kumar came down heavily on the state government for providing government land at throw-away prices in the name of opening private universities. SFI leaders alleged, “Most of these new universities are being opened in Solan district and other peripheral areas where land prices are quite high and these institutions are being provided large chunks of land. Land mafias are active in these areas and trying to grab land under the garb of opening private universities to subvert Section 118 of the Land Tenancy Act of Himachal, while many farmers are becoming landless by acquisition of their agricultural lands.” The SFI also condemned the alleged “loot” of students by private universities and demanded immediate regulation of fees in all private educational institutions.
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Growers flay carton factory sale
Shimla, February 16 The protesters raised slogans against the government and alleged that auction of the factory machinery as scrap literally amounted to selling off the vital interests of growers. They urged the government to review the decision failing which, they would be forced to intensify the stir. General secretary of the federation Sanjay Chauhan said the factory was established in 1987 and the machinery, which was being auctioned, was imported at a cost of Rs 24.88 crore. If one took into account the rate of inflation, its value came to Rs 83 crore. However, the government had no qualms in selling it as scrap. Once the factory was closed, fruit growers would be at the mercy of the private units who usually exploited them. The management of the corporation assured the protestors that a final decision on the tender invited for the sale of the factory would not be taken today and it would be referred to the government for taking further action. |
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Panchayat members undertake trip
Shimla, February 16 The villagers saw the mining operations, transportation of material and reclamation methods adopted for restoration of the mined area. They also went around the plant, understood the process of cement manufacturing where engineers of company clarified their doubts on levels of air and noise pollution and the type of controlling devices used for the purpose. They also visited nearby villages to see community development activities undertaken by the company, which included a vocational training centre, computer centre for schoolchildren, knitting and tailoring centre, hospital, school, tree plantations. |
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Panchayati Raj bodies to be strengthened
Shimla, February 16 He was presiding over a meeting of chief executive officers (CEO) of zila parishads of Karnataka here yesterday. A 17-member team of the CEOs of zila parishads of Karnataka are on a tour of Himachal to study different aspects of total sanitation campaign being implemented through gram panchayats. Thakur said technical wing of the Panchayati Raj would be strengthened besides delegating three-tier power to Panchayati Raj system. He further said disbursal of grants to panchayat samiti and zila parishad, so as to enable them to carry out developmental works in their respective areas, would be considered. He said additional manpower and budget would be delegated to the panchayat samitis and zila parishads. |
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Virbhadra’s son-in-law dies
Mandi, February 16 Gohil was survived by his wife and a son. Virbhadra, who was expected to arrive here tomorrow for the Shivratri fair, has cancelled his tour following the death of his son-in-law. The party men have expressed grief over Gohil’s death. |
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Bandh observed over firing incident
Chamba, February 16 A massive rally demonstrating slogans against the accused of the incident was taken out in the main bazaars led by prominent leaders, including state secretary of CPM Rakesh Singha, chief of the Himalaya Bachao Samiti Kulbhushan Upmanyu and environmentalist Ghuman Singh, who later submitted a MoU to the government through the Chamba DC, seeking action against the accused.
— OC |
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