Shimla, August 10
Keen to cash-in on the nostalgia associated with the old buildings of the city to give a boost to tourism industry, the government has brought out a coffee table book “Har Ghar Kuchh Kehta Hai” which provides a peep into the eventful past of the erstwhile British summer capital with its rich collection of rare pictures, anecdotes and important happenings.

While much has been written about its majestic heritage structures, which are a fine specimen of the imperial architecture, the book provides interesting information about lesser-known buildings and adds to existing knowledge about the famous structures. It also provides a fair idea of how the city evolved over the years, particularly in the pre-Independence era. It throws light on eminent personalities and events that the town has witnessed in the past 188 years of its existence.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal unveiled the book compiled by the state Tourism Department at a function here last evening. The facts and figures pertaining to more than century-old houses will enable one to connect with the heritage of the city and develop interest in visiting the famous tourist destinations.

The research carried out by director of tourism and man behind the coffee table book project Arun Sharma has brought out some important facts which makes it a valuable document even for researchers and historians. For instance, not many know that Major Roy Alexander Farran, a British-Canadian soldier, who was born in this city, became the world’s most decorated officer during the World War-II. The book also narrates the bravery tale of another World War-II decorated soldier Guy Gibson, who was born in Shimla.

The first house built by a European in 1822 was “Kennedy House” near the Vidhan Sabha building and till 1841 there were only 100 houses. The population in 1881 was only 13,258 which increased to 43,333 in 1921. Lord Combermere built the first bridge, which still bears his name, to link the main town and Chotta Shimla.

Solan, August 10
The police has registered a case of ragging against students of Manav Bharti University at Ladoo village, near Sultanpur, after Ankush Sharma, a first-year BTech student, lodged a complaint with the police today.

According to Additional SP Ramesh Pathania, Ankush complained that he was ragged and beaten up by senior students, including Prashant Kashyap, Chetan, Hardesh and Madan Lal, who along with local youth Richu had come to his hostel room last night. They ragged other students too.

The police arrested Chetan, a resident of Riyog village in Shimla district and a student of BTech second-year. A case under Sections 452, 143, 147, 149, 323 of the IPC and Section 3 of the HP Educational Institution Ragging Bill was registered against the students. The other students were, however, on the run and failed to be located.

University’s Vice-Chancellor Dr SP Bhardwaj said since the episode took place in a private hostel outside the university campus, the student had directly approached the police. However, as soon as they learnt about the incident the university suspended all four of them and debarred them from appearing in the next examinations till they proved their innocence.

He added that the four students were in an inebriated state and had taken a local youth along. All five had entered the hostel around 11.30 pm last night and slapped junior students to prevail upon them.

Bhardwaj said they were taking it seriously and no compromise would be made on the issue in the future as such incidents vitiated academic atmosphere. He said efforts to contact other students proved futile, as they did not attend to the phone calls made from the university.

Solan, August 10
With the National Highways (NH) wing of the Public Works Department (PWD) failing to initiate construction of a new bridge across the Chikni river despite a lapse of three years, daily commuters have been forced to face hardships in the ongoing rainy season.

The Chikni bridge had given way in August, 2007, and ever since temporary arrangements had been made by the authorities to enable movement of vehicles across it. Employees of major industrial units such as Greenply, Jindal Mactech, Unitech Rubber, Indag Rubbers, etc, who were located across the river faced maximum hardship while taking a detour through Dhabota, which was an additional drive of 45 minutes.

“It was lamentable that despite a lapse of three years the authorities had failed to pursue the case effectively and since the alternative road was marred by big potholes and poor maintenance it was a risky proposition to travel in the evenings. Especially risky was a patch of 6 km lying between Dhabota-Jhiriwala where a part of the road was sinking and since it was marked by deep gorges on either side travelling was an arduous task,” confided Rajnish Kumar, a senior HR executive of a unit located across the river.

He added that several large sized potholes marked the NH-21A and these were not visible from a distance thus making the road vulnerable to fatal accidents. The poor maintenance of roads was an open invitation to accidents.

“Since the alternative route through Dhabota increased the distance by 20 km it leads to wastage of fuel and time. The narrow link road is often choked with traffic thus making travelling an inconvenience experience,” added Anil Sharma, secretary, Nalagarh Industries’ Association.

Nalagarh MLA HN Saini said he would raise the issue of inordinate delay in constructing the new bridge in the forthcoming Assembly session as it was causing hardships to the public.

Officials said initially an estimate of Rs 7.73 crore was prepared, but this was revised to Rs 8.1 crore after a team of officials from the Centre remarked that in lieu of abnormal receding of the riverbed, deep foundation of 15-16 m would be required to construct a sustainable structure.

While expressing concern over the illegal mining, they added that it had led to colossal damage to the bridges which led to revising its estimated cost.

Executive Engineer SD Sharma said the a detailed project report of Rs 8.1 crore had been worked out and sent to the Ministry of Roads and Surface Transport for approval. Once approved the bridge would be put in place within a year.

Manali/Keylong, August 10
The cloudburst and flash flood at Leh that has so far killed over 165 people has spelled doom for the tourism industry not only in the Leh region but also in the Manali-Lahaul-Kaza cold desert circuit, considering that August-September is a peak tourist season here.

Even the Embassies in New Delhi have sounded their citizens not to venture into Ladakh sector till the situation normalises. The alert has hit tourist arrivals in Lahaul-Spiti due to cloudbursts in the Chaglansar area to east of 19,000 ft Kardungla range in Ladakh.

More than 200 foreigners and 200 domestic tourists who were stranded at various locations between Leh and Serchu, Bharatpur and Keylong and Kaza in Spiti have returned to Manali after the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) restored the Rumse-Serchu-Manali stretch of the highway for traffic two days ago.

The Leh-Rumse section of the Manali-Leh highway remained unrestored as the flash floods have washed away the 8-km-long road stretch and three bridges between Pang and Leh on August 5-6. The BRO has been restoring this section on a war footing, BRO engineers said.

However, the locals are using the 80-km-long bypass single lane district road via Karu to Himis monastery to reach Leh, informed Tashi, an hotelier in Keylong. “We have contacted friends in Leh as BSNL and Airtel have restored its network in the Ladakh area,” he said.

August-September is a peak tourist season in Lahaul-Ladakh, but it will take another 10 days to restore the bridges and the Manali-Leh highway for traffic that in turn has hit arrivals of tourists.

The Lahaul-Manali circuit had expected a rise in foreign and domestic tourist arrivals this season due to trouble in Srinagar. “July was good with 50 per cent occupancy in Keylong and about 70-80 per cent in Manali, but rains and bad condition of the highway somehow shielded away potential number of tourists,” hoteliers said.

President, Manali Hoteliers’ Association, Gajender Thakur said the occupancy in Manali had nosedived to 20 per cent as the peak summer season in Manali was over.

District tourism officer Rajeshwar Goel said the tourism had cancelled its bus service to Leh due to the flash flood.

BRO commander SK Doon said the Manali-Serchu section was opened for traffic. The Zing-Zing bar bridge has been repaired and restoration work is on in the Serchu-Leh section, he added.

Hamirpur, August 10
Lack of annual confidential reports (ACR) on the service books of many employees working in different institutions run by the Baba Balak Nath Temple Trust at Deoth-Sidh is not only causing anxiety among them but also they are being deprived of many financial benefits.

About 150 employees are working in the three institutions run by the temple trust i.e. Degree College, Sanskrit College and Model School at Chakmoh.

Many employees appointed after 2000 in these institutions are quite concerned since their service books and ACRs are not available in their offices or office of the chairman of the temple trust (Badsar SDM).

According to sources, “While many employees got their service books prepared and ACRs signed by the officers concerned, working at that time and at their own initiative, but record pertaining to many other employees had never been prepared and ACRs signed.”

An employee working with one of these institutions said, “While it is a matter of serious concern that our service books and ACR had not been prepared and written by relevant officers, but lack of these reports had deprived us from many benefits.”

The service books and ACRs are considered as most important official and personal documents during the service of an employee and the head of the institution also evaluates an employee through ACRs, which also determines financial benefits and promotions.

Chairman of the Deoth-Sidh temple trust (Badsar SDM) OP Thakur said, “The ACRs are signed on the service books of employees by respective head of the institutions which are reviewed by the chairman. Only a single case of absence of service book has come to my notice, however, I will inquire into this matter,” he added.

Bilaspur, August 10
Two men and a girl were drowned in the Gobind Sagar in two separate incidents in this district during the past 24 hours. The reports said two men, related as uncle and nephew, Nathu Ram(35) of Jajjar village and Mahender Singh (28) of Kaahali village in Daahad gram panchayat in Jhandutta tehsil, were drowned when they unknowingly went into deep water as they felt the sweltering sun overhead and started to bath after fishing near Tikkari village.

Nathu Ram was a tailor while Mahender Singh worked as a hair dresser. Villagers rushed to the spot, but were failed to save their lives. A case has been registered in this regard.

In another incident, Reena Devi (16) daughter of Biru Ram of Badgaon village of Badgaon Galu gram panchayat, and a student of class X, was drowned when she was washing clothes on the bank of the Gobind Sagar. A 13-year-old boy, who was her relative, accompanied her to the river.

As per reports, the boy started drowning and screamed for help. Not bothering that she herself did not know swimming, Reena immediately jumped into the water and pushed the child to shallow water, but was herself drowned as she went into the deep water in the process. Later, villagers recovered her body from the river.

Several village leaders, including Fishing Cooperative Society president Ram 
Narayan, former BDC member Avtar Chand, former panchayat president Des Raj, BDC member Bal Kishan and panchayat member Parwati Devi urged the district administration to give Reena Devi a reward posthumously for saving the life of the boy and sacrificing her own life in this attempt.

Shimla, August 10
On a pity affair of Himachal Roadways Transport Corporation (HRTC), the district consumer forum has directed the Managing Director of the HRTC to remove the deficiencies in Volvo luxury buses so that passengers may not experience any discomfort in such buses in the future.

While passing the directions, the forum also directed the HRTC to pay Rs 7,500 as compensation to the complainants for causing them pain sufferings and trauma by the shortcomings existing in a Volvo bus in which they travelled from Delhi to Shimla.

The forum, headed by Sureshwar Thakur, also imposed Rs 1,500 as costs on the HRTC for harassment to the complainants during the journey. The forum passed this order on a complaint filed by Rajinder Kumar Aggarwal, his wife and son-in-law.

As per the complaint, the complainants had boarded a Volvo bus at Himachal Bhawan, Delhi, by spending an amount of Rs 2,040.

It is averred that they got shocked to see the condition of the bus, as seats were so dirty and broken, which caused discomforts to them. The front wind screen of the bus was also cracked. It is contended on behalf of the HRTC that 10 passengers boarded the bus from Himachal Bhawan and none of them made any complaint regarding the bad condition of the bus.

It was further contended that their was no imperfection and shortcomings in the Volvo bus service, being plied by them, on the Delhi-Shimla route.

Shimla, August 10
Fruit growers of Jubbal-Kotkhai have drawn the attention of Govenor Urmila Singh towards the dismal conditions of roads in the upper Shimla area due to which they are facing all sorts of problems in marketing their produce.

The growers submitted a memorandum to the sub-divisional magistrate, Rohru, in this regard under the leadership secretary of the PCC Rohit Thakur today. It was pointed out in the memorandum addressed to the Governor that unending traffic jams due to slush and landslides on the Theog-Hatkoti road were causing great inconvenience to the people as it was taking eight to 10 hours to cover the journey which normally took two hours. Truck operators were not willing to come to the area as a result of which growers were not able to transport their produce to market in time.

The gravity of situation could be judged from the fact that over 1.5 crore boxes of apple was to be transported through this road only.

The growers were being charged double the normal rate as freight and they had no option as otherwise their produce would never reach the market and rot in the orchards. Worse, the collection centre under the market intervention scheme had also not been opened as per announcement.

All centres had not been opened and even those made functional were without adequate staff as result of which the growers had visit the centres repeatedly to sell the produce under the market intervention scheme.

Shimla, August 10
The Himachal Pradesh Fruit and Vegetable Growers Confederation has expressed resentment over the market fee being charged for apple to be sold outside state markets. Sanjay Chauhan, general secretary of the confederation, said as per law, market fee could be charged only at market where the produce was sold. However, the government had allowed the state marketing committee to charge the fee even for the produce being sold outside the state, which was totally illegal.

The fee running into crores of rupees was being collected at barriers set up at Shimla, Kiratpur, Parwanoo and Kuddu adding to the losses of growers.The government had failed to protect the interests of growers and the fee was being charged illegally without developing requisite marketing infrastructure, which reflected its anti-farmers attitude. The confederation demanded that illegally charging of market fee for the produce being sold outside the state should be stopped immediately and the amount already collected be refunded.

If it was not possible to do so, it should be utilised to develop good markets within the state. It further demanded that to save state growers from exploitation of market forces, state agencies like the HPMC, Himfed and the Agro Industries Corporation be put into service to purchase apple directly from growers.

The Mother Dairy, Railways, Adani Group and other agencies are making direct purchase from growers and such intervention by the state government would go a long way in protecting growers from exploitation.