Shimla, June 7
Apple growers will not have to pay 6 per cent commission illegally charged by “arhtias” (middlemen) at the Azadpur market anymore with the Delhi High Court directing the government to enforce the amended bylaws, making it obligatory for buyers to pay commission.

The interim order, passed by the court on a petition filed by the state on August 18 last year, has come as a big relief to those who were being made to pay 6 to 8 per cent commission even 10 years after the law was amended.

The state government had been pursuing the issue for the past many years and it was in 1999 when the BJP government succeeded in persuading the Delhi government to amend the Act to spare growers from paying the commission. The amended rules were also notified in January, 2000. However, they could not be enforced all these years because of opposition from traders.

The state government took the matter with the Delhi government repeatedly in vain. Later, Horticulture Minister Narinder Bragta, who himself is a leading apple grower, decided to move the Delhi High Court to get relief and, accordingly, a petition was filed. The court has now directed the authorities concerned to implement the Azadpur Agricultural Produce Market (Amendment) Bylaws, 1999, under which the commission has to be charged from the purchaser and not the seller.

Bragta said the court order had made it clear that the commission was being charged illegally and, as such, there was a strong case for recovery of the amount paid by the growers after the amendment came into force. He urged Congress leaders to support the BJP and help resolve the matter with the Delhi government where the party was in power, so that illegal commission could be recovered through out-of-court settlement.

The order of the high court will benefit all farmers as they will not have to pay commission to “arhtiyas” on sale of the produce.

The BJP could rightly take credit as the party was in power at both Delhi and Shimla when the law was amended and again the initiative to move court was also taken by it last year.

The Azadpur market is Asia’s biggest market where more than 60 per cent of the state’s total apple produce is disposed of.

The net returns will increase with the onus of commission shifting to the buyers, compensating the growers to an extent for increasing cost of production, packaging and transportation of the produce.

Dharamsala, June 7
Tenzin Norzom, a 23-year-old Shastri degree holder (equivalent to Bachelors of Art in Buddhist Philosophy) from Varanasi, was crowned the new Kingfisher Miss Tibet 2010 at a contest that concluded last night. She was selected for her overall performance by a panel of local judges.

Many, including a large number of Tibetan girls, gathered at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) to witness the show and the crowning. However, none from the Tibetan government-in-exile participate in the event.

Due to the earthquake in Tibet this year, there was no display of crackers. Instead, the gathering recited a short prayer.

Two judges, Prem Sagar, an academician and activist from McLeodganj, and KS Pama, an industrialist from Chandigarh, chose the winner.

Priya Arora, director, Can & Able, presented a cheque for Rs 1,00,000 as the prize money to the winner. Yangchen Metok and Rinchen Choden were chosen as the first and second runners up, respectively.

In addition, the annual Free Spirit Award for 2010 was presented to Mahesh Yadav for his blood portraits of world leaders to bring awareness about world peace and freedom in Tibet. The award is presented to those who have contributed for the Tibetan cause in particular, and world peace in general.

Meanwhile, the organisers donated Rs 10,000 to the earthquake victims in Tibet. The beauty pageant, which is an annual feature at McLeodganj, is considered by some as a method adopted by the organisers to highlight the issue of Tibet.

Shimla, June 7
The state will avail expertise of Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh in revival of water streams, bowris and other traditional water sources so as to ensure reliable availability of drinking water even during the summer months.

Singh, who has done pioneer work in the field of water harvesting in Jaisalmer and other parts of Rajasthan, basically lays emphasises on relying more on traditional wisdom rather than the exploitative modern technology. He has also consented to be part of the HP Water Management Board that has been constituted to look into water-related issues.

Narender Chauhan, Principal Secretary, Irrigation and Public Health (IPH), confirmed that Rajendra Singh’s NGOs would be associated in revival of traditional water sources in the hill state. “We have yet to identify the exact areas. However, Singh has agreed to guide us with the active involvement of local communities in reviving streams and traditional water sources so that in the long run, recharging of the underground watertable is also done,” he said.

The government intends to involve Singh not just in revival aspect, but also in educating the masses about the importance of water conservation and the ways to do it. He will soon be holding a series of seminars across the state where engineers, government officials and farmers will be shown ways of incorporating the traditional knowledge in modern schemes as well. Depending on the terrain, farmers will also be suggested ways to store water for irrigation purposes at minimum costs.

More than 2,500 water schemes of the IPH have been impacted due to scant rainfall, resulting in reduced water table. The government had to press into service 680 tankers to meet drinking water requirement of villagers, especially in 12 water-stressed blocks.

Singh undertook water harvesting work in 900 villages in 11 districts of Rajasthan to meet drinking, as well as irrigation needs of people. Though Himachal gets an annual rainfall of about 1,469 mm, on account of uneven and spatial rainfall distribution, certain areas were severely hit.

Reduced rains and snowfall in the recent years not only made an impact on power generation, declining water table is also a cause of concern for authorities. The involvement of Rajendra Singh will enable revival of traditional water sources, most of which are in disuse.

Shimla, June 7
Ruling BJP today said the Congress rather than misleading the people on the issue of securing Himachal’s rights from the Centre should extend whole-hearted support so that the hill state could get its due.

In a statement issued here today, state BJP spokesperson Ganesh Dutt took strong exception to the statement of Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh that Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had caused fissures in Centre-state relations. “The minister is trying to mislead the public on the issue as fighting for the rights of the people in no way amounts to causing rift in Centre-state relations,” he said.

Dutt said right from day one when Dhumal assumed office he had been maintaining very close liaison with the Centre, including the Prime Minister, so it did not behove a leader of the stature of Virbhadra Singh to make such false and concocted allegations.

He said there were several instances of the state getting a raw deal at the hands of UPA-led Congress regime. “Whether it is the issue of extension of the industrial package, reduction in foodgrain quota or according importance to increasing rail network in Himachal, the Centre had always ignored the state,” he alleged.

He said the BJP regime in the state had fulfilled almost 80 per cent of the promises made in the election manifesto. He added that the performance of the state government in seven different sectors had been appreciated at the national level.

Shimla, June 7
Various non-government organisations and action committees of villagers agitating against indiscriminate construction of hydroelectric projects in the tribal Kinnaur have urged the United Nations to grant world heritage status to the Himalayas to help preserve the ecologically fragile mountain ranges in the larger interest of the planet.

They have demanded that the areas above the altitude of 1000 m in the Himalayan region be declared as eco-sensitive zone under the Environmental Protection Act to help regulate development.

Representatives of these organisations assembled at Reckong Peo on Environment Day to express their anguish over government’s insensitive, inhuman, unsustainable and inequitable concept of development for hilly areas, particularly hyper eco-sensitive regions like Kinnaur. They demanded a complete moratorium on construction of mega hydropower projects in Kinnaur till an independent scientific study was conducted to ascertain the carrying capacity of the Sutlej.

Accordingly, various proposed and sanctioned projects should be cancelled. Besides, to protect our existing projects like Bhakra, Nathpa-Jakhari and Kol Dam in the Sutlej basin, India must execute a river treaty with China and till such time no mega hydropower projects be constructed. There were reports that China was constructing big dams across the border and planning to divert the river.

More than 2500 individuals and 24 community claims had been filed by gram sabhas under the forest dwellers Act but process for recognition of forest rights has not been completed. Besides expediting the process, the T.D. and Nautor rights of tribal people be restored as soon as possible.

Due to unscientific construction of underground tunnels in Karcham Wantgtu project, about 1200 houses of five villages above the tunnel alignment had been damaged and also about 140 water sources had either dried up or suffered decline in discharge. The JP Company paid compensation to only 70 families of Urni and Runang villages. In Baspa-II project the company got transferred a big chunk of agriculture land in its own name even though under the State Transfer of Land (Regulation) Act 1968, a non-tribal could not acquire land in tribal areas.

Hamirpur, June7
When many junior basic training (JBT) trainees in the state are observing indefinite hunger strike throughout the state, demanding regular employment bond with the state government for about a week, parents and trainees of DIET, Guana Karor, have lodged a formal complaint with the police about thrashing of girl trainees on Friday by the police in front of their institute.

Dozens of them today met the DC, the SP, and submitted them photographs of police action, submitted memorandums and lodged a formal complaint in the local police station.

In their complaint the parents and teachers alleged,“though no civil or police authority had ordered a lathi charge the trainees, most of them girls, were thrashed

and dragged by policemen present at Gauna Karor. They demanded action against the erring police officials after a thorough probe into this incident.”

Mother of one of the victims Deepika, Meena Gupta, said,” My daughter Deepika was thrown on the road and dragged and thrashed by many men constables who, since then, has been under trauma.” Similarly, other parents and trainees also narrated similar tales of police high-handedness and also produced many photographs showing the police atrocities.

The complainants were accompanied by advocate Madan Rattan, who claimed he was an eye-witness to this incident and told the DC and the SP that they could even produce a CD showing the police action.

The SP and the DC have assured the complainants to inquire into this matter and said action would be taken against those found guilty. DC Abhishek Jain said, “An inquiry would be conducted by the police and departmental action taken if cops were found guilty.”

Solan, June 7
Defending its position, Vice-Chancellor of Manav Bharti University, Dr SP Bhardwaj, said the university had started its session in October last year after it was notified in September, 2009.

Though he agreed that it was well beyond initiation of the academic session, he added this was done so that the university could complete a session before taking admissions in all its courses this year.

He said he had joined the university in September, 2009, though it was in February this year that he took over the affairs on a regular basis.

The VC, however, agreed that the university lacked staff with higher qualification for teaching M Pharma courses and had four faculty members on its rolls. They taught a strength of 52 students out of which only 22 were regular in attending classes. Since none of them remained absent for more than 10 days, no action could be taken against them. The university had also admitted students in pharma ayurveda courses last year.

The VC also defended lack of AICTE approval for various technical courses and said it was according to an apex court ruling. He, however, failed to provide the basis for it.

He agreed that information provided by the chairman earlier was incomplete and the session did not begin in August last year. Further, appointment of faculty was an ongoing process and a few vacancies always existed in various technical courses run by the university, he added.

The university’s credibility was, however, under scanner and a state government committee was already probing into various irregularities highlighted in a section of the media.

Mandi, June 7
Acting on the theme --- “Think Health, Not Drugs” on International Drug Abuse Day, the police is now identifying sources of drugs, including peddlers, victims of drug menace and their parents, to spread the message across the region.

Talking to The Tribune after the workshop on combating drug menace held here today, Mandi SP SM Agnihotri said the police would identify sources of drugs, launch crackdown on drug peddlers, including illegal cultivators of opium, poppy and cannabis, in the district.

“We will hold camps and will involve parents of drug victims and NGOs as this menace is a social problem as well,” he said.

Besides the police, Intelligence Bureau, Naya Savera, an NGO working in rehabilitation of drug victims, citizen councils and other stakeholders participated in the workshop held here today.

The members pleaded that too much focus and awareness also created anxiety among the young children. This could add to the problem of drugs rather than combating it, they asserted.

Arvind Kumar, president, Naya Savera, said the youth should know that drugs were harmful for an individual, parents and society as a whole.

He said the focus should be on rehabilitation of drug victims by involving their parents as well.

“Drug peddlers target ‘problem families’ and hook children from troubled background to make quick money,” he added.

Meanwhile, the SP said the police would customise its strategy to identify the sources of drugs and peddlers involved in smuggling.

Solan, June 7
The government has decided to frame guidelines for regulating clinical trials in the country. Since there is no dearth of willing volunteers and relaxed regulatory mechanism, India was fast emerging as the hub of these unregulated trials.

Expressing concern at the large unregulated market, Drug Controller

General of India (DCGI) Surinder Singh, in an exclusive interaction with The Tribune here today, said according to the guidelines, minimum benchmark would be set to regulate all clinical research organisations (CROs) whereby it would be ensured that adequate infrastructure required for these trials existed. These CROs have already been directed to get themselves registered with the DGCI.

“The government has already tied up with the US Food and Drug Administration and two workshops were conducted in Hyderabad to train people in conducting inspections,” he said.

With a view to monitoring these trials, audits would be conducted to ensure that the laid guidelines were being adhered to by the CROs. Penal provisions would also be incorporated in the guidelines to check violations.

Since India was fast emerging as a major clinical trial market, besides the US the FDA and European Union, there was an urgent need to regulate the process, he pointed out.

It was observed that there were multiple problems plaguing these trials which required immediate attention. While phase zero trials were conducted abroad, the data was transferred to India for conducting subsequent phase of trials and re-exchanged again, leading to the data being exchanged between several countries. It was, therefore, imperative to regulate this process, he added.