Shimla, May 7
Widespread showers over the past 24 hours across the state provided much relief to the people from sweltering heat and dry weather.

However, strong winds and hailing in some pockets caused dodge to apple and stone fruit crops in Shimla, Kullu, Solan and parts of Mandi districts. The maximum precipitation of 50 mm was recorded at Pachhad in Sirmour and Kasauli in Solan district. Una had 42 mm, Narkanda 28 mm, Kufri 22 mm and Dharamsala 20 mm.

Shimla recorded 18 mm of rainfall during the day and the weather cleared by evening. The minimum temperature dropped by 9°C.

KANGRA: The valley on Friday was lashed with heavy rains in the morning and the Dhauladhar ranges experienced heavy snowfall, heaviest of the current season dropping the temperature considerably.

The day started with the sky overcast with dark and dense clouds forcing the vehicles to move with headlights on.

Reports of rain were received from Jawalamukhi, Dehra, Haripur, Shahpur, Dhraman, Nagrota Bagwan, Icchhi, Gaggal, Mallan, Palampur, Ranital, Dharamsala and McLeodganj.

The rains provided a relief to residents of the areas which were experiencing drought-like situation and acute scarcity of drinking water.

PALAMPUR: After a long spell of dry whether the town and its adjoining areas experienced heavy rain accompanied by high velocity wind, dust storm, resulting in considerable fall in temperature. Many parts of the region were also lashed with hailstorm.

Power supply and telecommunication service were adversely affected by the storm.

KULLU/MANDI: Hailstorms and high velocity winds have damaged the apple crop, tomato and cauliflower mainly in Kullu district and mango crop, including the harvested wheat in Mandi. Farmers have demanded free distribution of micro-nutrient sprays from the government as compensation.

According to inputs from farmers and officials of the region, the hailstorms damaged 40 to 80 per cent apple crop in Lug valley, Beasar, Prini, Shuru, Jagatsukh, Sarsei Seri Kothi, Raison, Dharhal in Kullu valley. It damaged over 50 per cent crop in Kuthair and Parsei panchayat in the Dalash area in Ani subdivision.

President of the upper Kullu valley apple growers’ association Prem Sharma said he had requested the Horticulture Department and the district administration to distribute micro-nutrient sprays for free to farmers and compensate them for the loss they were suffering to the crops over the years.

Shimla, May 7
State unit of the Congress has termed the “nyay” rally, being addressed by BJP president Nitin Gadkari here on May 9, as a ploy to deviate attention from rampant corruption under the Dhumal regime and its failure on all fronts.

General secretary of the party Kuldeep Rathore said here today that there was no justification for holding the rally to make discrimination by the Centre against the state as an issue as the UPA regime had provided liberal assistance and sanctioned a number of major projects like the central university, IIT, IRB battalions and the ESIC medical college.

A passport office was also opened at Shimla when Anand Sharma was the Minister for External Affairs, he added.

In contrast, the BJP government had not been able to do anything worthwhile on the development front and its popularity graph had nosedived, he said. It was making non-extension of the industrial package an issue. As far as the package was concerned, it was time to analyse if it had really benefited the state by providing employment to youth, he said.

The Congress would continue to further the interests of the state and Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who was arriving on a three-day visit tonight, was likely to make some important announcements, particularly to help boost industries, horticulture and agriculture sectors, he said.

Shimla, May 7
Education Minister ID Dhiman ridiculed the statement of the CPM which had alleged land scam in opening of private universities. He asserted that the party had no business to criticise the BJP regime as the CPM government in West Bengal had given thousands of acre of land for setting up industrial units.

Reacting sharply to the charges made in an open letter of the CPM to BJP president Nitin Gadkari, he said no government land had been given for the purpose. The allegations were totally false and a futile attempt to mislead people to achieve political ends, he added.

Dhiman said, so far, seven universities had been issued Letters of Intent and none of them had been given government land. As such, the question of scam did not arise. Moreover, the land purchased by these universities from the people was not cultivated land.

He said the present BJP government was committed to make the state an educational hub so that the local youth did not have to go outside the state to pursue professional courses.

During its last tenure, the BJP government had taken up the matter with the Union Human Resource Development Ministry to allow the state to open BEd colleges in the private sector which helped students, who otherwise had to go to other states for the purpose.

He said the first university of information technology was opened at Waknaghat by the BJP which had made its name in the country. 

Dharamsala, May 7
The district authorities had to seek help of the Dalai Lama to motivate Tibetans living-in-exile here for participating in the ongoing census.

According to sources, in current census operation, the government has directed officials to form the National Population Register (NPR). Under the register, anyone staying in India for more than six months had to be registered. It is for the first time that such an exercise is being conducted in the country. It is likely to help the government calculate the number of illegal migrants living in the country.

As per the schedule, the entire exercise has to be completed till May 22.

With the said consideration, officials deputed for census operation started seeking data from Tibetans-in-exile living in Dharamsala and its surrounding areas.

However, according to sources, Tibetans refused to cooperate with the census officials.

The district authorities then contacted the joint secretary, international relations in Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) to motivate Tibetans in divulging the required details.

Meanwhile, the census officials approached the Dalai Lama and registered his details under the programme. The Dalai Lama has also issued an appeal to the Tibetans, living in exile, to cooperate with the census officials.

Kangra Deputy Commissioner RS Gupta said, “We expect that after an appeal from the Dalai Lama, Tibetans would shed their inhibitions regarding providing data under the census programme.”

Data collected under the NPR, that would also provide details regarding the number of households, is likely to reveal startling data in McLeodganj area, the sources added.

There are many encroachments made by Tibetans and locals in reserve forests areas. Many unregistered Tibetans are also expected to be living in the area.

The census officials might have to collect data regarding some foreigners who are staying here for a long period.

Hamirpur, May 7
The Himachal Pradesh Education Department has taken a policy decision to grant funds on consolidated basis for carrying construction in government schools.

Under the new guidelines, the Education Department has asked all schools, from senior secondary level to primary schools, to submit consolidated requirement for providing accommodation in the schools.

According to sources, it was being observed that school administrations were submitting demands for allocation of funds for constructing rooms, providing toilets, school laboratories, playgrounds etc in instalments, which was affecting the aim of providing funds for carrying construction activity.

While carrying construction in instalments was hampering structural designs leading to haphazard construction, it was also affecting quality of construction, leading to problems of water leakages in roofs etc.

Allotting funds in instalments for construction in government schools was delaying efforts of the government of providing basic infrastructure in schools and was escalating construction costs.

Since funds were also allotted under different categories, the construction activity lacked coordinated effort.

New instructions have been issued to streamline construction activity in government schools in a systematic manner to provide adequate accommodation.

Now, every school would prepare a list of their requirements related to accommodation and facilities and submit them to the Education Department on the basis of which fund allocation would be made.

According to the new government guidelines, all senior secondary schools are required to have at least 14 rooms and high schools to have 10 rooms to improve infrastructure in the schools.

Now, the central government, under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMS), has also laid guidelines to provide funds under this scheme.

Director of Higher Education OP Sharma said, “These instructions have been issued by project director of the RMS and basic purpose behind this effort is to provide adequate funds for construction in a coordinated way to improve basic infrastructure in all government schools.”

Dharamsala, May 7
Girls dominated the list of toppers of class X results that were declared by the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education here today. As per the merit list, there are 13 girls among the top 15 candidates.

Rishika Grace from Sarkaghat Public Senior Secondary School at Mandi had topped the class X examination scoring 674/700 marks.

Sunidhi Sharma from Government Senior Secondary School at Bharwain, Una, stood second scoring 673 marks; Neha Kumari of Government Senior Secondary School at Bharwain, Una, was third scoring 672; Naiancy Singh from Hillock Model School Dadaur Mani, fourth scoring 667; Salil SVM (boys) Senior Secondary School Roura, Bilaspur, fifth scoring 665; Sakshi Sharma from Little Angel Public School at Hamirpur was sixth scoring 664; Gitesh Gupta MSC Senior Secondary School at Sujanpur Tihra (Hamirpur), Vishakha Dhatwala Nav Bharat Public School at Kotla (Hamirpur), Yamini Thakur form Divya Adarsh Vidya Public Senior Secondary School and Swati Sharma Little Angel Public School (Hamirpur) all jointly at seventh spot scoring 661; Sudhi Kaushal from SV Niketan High School Batwar, Kangra, eighth scoring 660, Shivani Thakur from TR DAV Public School Kangoo, Hamirpur, stood ninth scoring 659; and Kanika Sharma from Saraswati Vidya Mandir School Mandi and Anuradha from Divya Adarsh Public Senior Secondary School Bhota, Hamirpur, stood jointly at tenth position.

Chairman of the education board CL Gupta, while talking to newsmen here, said many students have done exceptionally well in the class X examinations. 

Solan, May 7
Following blatant disregard of the pollution control norms, the board today ordered power disconnection of Sarvottam Care unit at Jharmajri after its effluent treatment plant was found spilling effluents into a nullah during a raid.

Confirming this, the board’s member secretary Dr Nagin Nanda said the disconnection orders had been passed with immediate effect as violations were found during the raid. He added that directions have been issued to field officials to conduct surprise visits so as to deter any violation of norms, especially in the bordering areas.

The unit manufactures various healthcare, beauty, fitness and range of home care products for a global brand.

The power supply of Pitambari Industry at Barotiwala was also disconnected as it had failed to use dust collector despite instructions. It was known that the unit had been found emitting dust and it had been instructed to use dust collector but after a brief use the facility had been removed adding to pollution.

The measure would help discipline the erring units that falter in abiding with pollution control norms. Though the units were now directed to switchover to green technologies and adopt the latest national air quality standards, such units appear to be evading such directions on the sly.

The board had been forced to adopt strictness after Baddi, Kala Amb and Parwanoo were listed among the 32 hubs declared as “critically polluted” on the basis of the Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index (CEPI) worked out after carrying out a field survey by the Central Pollution Control Board in association with IIT, Delhi.

The three industrial townships of the state with an index of 69.07 (Baddi), 68.77 (Kala Amb) and 63.77 (Parwanoo) were on the threshold of reaching critical level and this meant that its pollution regulation would come under the ambit of central pollution control norms if measures were not taken now.

Solan, May 7
With the foundation stone of the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) for the industrial areas of Baddi-Barotiwala finally being laid tomorrow, the pollution woes of the area will be addressed.

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma will lay the foundation stone of the plant at Kenduwaal village, near Baddi. The plant will be run by the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industries’ Association (BBNIA), for which a special utility vehicle has been formed. The industries will contribute about Rs 8 to 10 crore while a similar amount of loan will be raised from the financial institutions. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry will provide a liberal aid of Rs 62 crore for which the principle approval has already been accorded by the ministry in March.

Deepak Bhandari, adviser of the BBNIA, said about 23 MLD waste would be treated in the plant annually. He added that they would request the ministry to include treatment of civic waste in the project as lakhs of labourers who had come to live in the area was a direct repercussion of the industrial growth.