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Kinnaur project damaging endangered chilgoza trees
IGMC gets hi-tech scanning machine
Illegal Sale of Fuel |
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CM promotes govt schools
Farmers take to production of hybrid maize seeds
9.4 lakh families covered under MNREGA
CRI offers to sell encephalitis vaccine to health ministry
No decision yet on salaries
for surplus staff
Damaged roads cost state Rs
332 cr
Traders rue Industries Department apathy
3 pilgrims killed in car mishap
LPG theft racket busted
DC reviews pilgrimage arrangements
Now, 635 schools offer Scouting
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Kinnaur project damaging endangered chilgoza trees
Shimla, August 29
As against the approval granted for felling of 1,261 trees, the project being executed by the Hyderbad-based Nuziveedu Seeds Company has already taken a toll of 1,851 trees. As per the revised assessment of the forest department, destruction of another 4,815 trees is inevitable if the construction of the surge shaft road is allowed any further. More importantly, out of these 2,803 are the chilgoza pine trees which are already heading for extinction. The one-man Shukla committee appointed by the high court to look into the environment-related issues and other matters pertaining to big projects of more than 100 MW capacity has severely indicted the company in its report. Stating that the company may have deliberately understated the number of trees involved in the application just to get forest clearance, it points out that the number of trees (1,261) for which ‘felling’ permission was granted is itself very large. If the forest department had been aware that the actual number of trees involved was 6,666, it may not have given approval for the project at all. So far only 1.8 km of the total 6.2 km surge shaft road has been completed and in the process 590 additional trees not approved for felling have been irretrievably damaged. Given the damage already caused by road cutting and the further damage likely to be caused in the future, it is environmentally unsustainable and unacceptable. Even if the assessment of the forest department is reduced by 50 per cent, it is still unsustainable in the extremely steep terrain with hardly any top soil, the report asserts. The committee observes that in the normal course it would have recommended a review with a view to cancelling the project but this may not be practical considering that Rs 50 crore had already been invested. Instead, it has recommended that approval for surge shaft road should be withdrawn as the damage being caused to forest land and trees was too massive. The company should be directed to install a ropeway for accessing the surge shaft and the head race tunnel. This is technically feasible and already being done in some projects. The delay of few months in commissioning of the project on this account and the consequent increase of cost is a small price to pay for preserving what remains of the pristine and fragile environment. Moreover, the project developers are themselves responsible for the situation by not preparing a proper DPR and adopting environmentally hostile road-cutting practices, the report says.
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IGMC gets hi-tech scanning machine
Shimla, August 29 These equipments were formally inaugurated here today by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who dedicated projects worth Rs 17.16 crore to the people of the state. He also inaugurated the first nursing college in the government sector named Sister Nivedita Government Nursing College and the state’s first Eye Bank costing Rs 40 lakh as well as laid the foundation stone of a new college complex to be constructed at a cost Rs 5.20 crore and a Rs 1.60-crore married doctors hostel. He said the IGMC had been provided with the latest 64 slice MDCT machine which would facilitate fast scanning of the body parts. The new machine was capable of scanning the complete human body within 10 seconds and 30 CT scans of the patients would be possible every day. The radiation exposure would be considerably low as compared to the existing old machine and the facility of angiography, bronchography, enterography and colonography would also be possible with the new set-up. It was capable of doing triple rule out scan to visualise the coronary arteries, pulmonary arteries and aorta. Brain perfusion study could be done in one setting to assess the salvageable parts of brain. The machine had 3D reconstruction of the scan facility to provide better visualisation of the body parts which was an added feature of the machine. The Chief Minister said the telecobalt unit machine installed in the Regional Cancer Centre would be convenient for both the patients and the operating technical staff and provide advantage of quality assured delivery of precision radiotherapy to tumour with minimum possible radiation to normal tissues or vital organs in the vicinity. It was capable of treating 120 to 130 patients daily as compared to 60 to 65 patients by the earlier machine. He said with the installation of the new machine, the latest facilities would be available to the patients. He said the first eye bank in the IGMC in collaboration with eye bank of Government Medical College, Chandigarh, had been established at a cost of Rs 40 lakh. Henceforth, eye donation, processing, preservation and transplantation of cornea facilities would be available, he added. |
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Illegal Sale of Fuel
Manali, August 29 Seeking bail, Capt Purohit will be produced before the CBI special court of DR Chandel at Shimla tomorrow. The CBI could not arrest him as Capt Purohit had availed anticipatory bail when he was summoned by the CBI to Shimla early this week. It grilled Purohit for the last five days and summoned documents and records of fuel supplies from the BRO office which maintains the Manali-Serchu part of the Manali-Leh National Highway-21. The CBI has received some documents, but awaits more documents related to fuel supplies. The CBI sources said he would be produced in the special CBI Sessions Court at Shimla tomorrow. “We will oppose his bail as still Capt Purohit is evading specific answers from the CBI,” it asserted. On the other hand, BRO pleaded that Capt Purohit was not caught red-handed selling the fuel, but was trapped by the CBI. The CBI said it had received complaints that the BRO official sold fuel illegally in the tribal belt. “There were other allegations as well and if need be will probe those allegations as well,” a top CBI sleuth asserted. Chief engineer, BRO, Depak Project, ID Mathur, when quizzed on the illegal sale of fuel supplies, claimed that nobody had ever brought the matter to the notice of the BRO. We would have taken action, he added. The BRO vigilance has also initiated an inquiry into the case and other allegations. “The allegations were never brought to his notice and law will take its natural course,” Mathur added.
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CM promotes govt schools
Shimla, August 29 The participants, including intellectuals , educationists and students, asserted that opening of self-financing institutions and mushrooming of Central universities will not help raise the academic standards. They called for introducing the concept of teacher evaluation, a review of the current education policies to make quality education accessible to the rural people and the poor. They also stressed the need for optimum utilisation of resources, given the financial and geographical constraints the students and teachers faced. The conclave was attended by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, former Vice-Chancellor of Kurushetra University B.S. Dahiya and former Dean of Studies, Himachal Pradesh University, Lokesh Kaul. Addressing the conclave, Dhumal focused on the positive spin-offs from the policies framed and implemented by his government. While conceding that various factors were limiting the reach to quality education, he asserted that situation was quite encouraging in Himachal with 99.99 per cent enrolment at primary school level. He said the Centre should extend more financial help to the state so that the education schemes could be properly implemented. He also underlined the need to develop mechanism to ascertain the aptitude of a school student so that he could be made to pursue education in the direction of his interest. He requested parents to get their wards admitted to government schools and said all efforts would be made bridge the gap between private and government schools in terms of basic facilities and the teaching quality.
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Farmers take to production of hybrid maize seeds
Dharamsala, August 29 At present, farmers are using the “Sankar” hybrid variety of maize, the seeds for which are being provided by private companies. These seeds not only come at a higher prices when compared with the varsity’s hybrid seeds but there were also complaints from farmers regarding the supply of spurious seeds that led to heavy losses for farmers. The university authorities, as an experiment, outsourced technology to produce seeds of HQPM-1 single cross hybrid variety of maize to farmers in the Bajora area of Kullu district. The experiment has yielded good results for farmers as well as the university. The seeds produced by local farmers can be bought by agriculture department at Rs 40 per kg. Vice-Chancellor of the university SK Sharma recently visited the farms producing hybrid maize seed and expressed satisfaction with the results. With the success of the experiment, the university authorities now plan to have the hybrid variety across the state. Maize is grown in about 3 lakh hectares in Himachal. The per hectare yield of maize in the state is 23 quintals, which is 3 quintal more than the national average. If HQPM-I hybrid maize variety seeds are made available to the farmers, it can further improve the production of crop in the state. The university authorities are of the view that in the first phase the farmers can be motivated to meet the demand of hybrid variety seeds in their own state. For this, they say, the agriculture department should also play a pivotal role by buying the seed produced by the farmers and then supplying it in the state at a reasonable rate. The sources said besides maize, the farmers of Himachal could take to production of seeds of flowers.
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9.4 lakh families covered under MNREGA
Shimla, August 29 In hilly areas where job opportunities are lacking, the MNREGA is indeed proving a boon. Already more than 9.40 lakh families, which comes to around 78 per cent of the total rural families, have been covered under the scheme. The rural development department has set a target of bringing another 4.5 lakh families under the scheme during the current financial year and earmarked Rs 909 crore for the purpose. Irrigation and horticulture activities have also been included under the scheme to help marginal farmers improve their small land holdings. Kangra district has taken the lead in implementation of the scheme for which it has been awarded the National Excellence Award. Development schemes such as the Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna, Watershed Management, Indira Aawas Yojna, Atal Aawas Yojna, Total Sanitation Campaign are not only ensuring speedy development of the rural areas but also creating avenues of self-employment for the people. The rural development department has sought approval from the Centre for Rs 4,688-crore schemes for watershed management, agriculture development and employment generation. Professional agencies are being involved in preparation of detailed project reports (DPR) of watershed projects. The objective is to ensure integrated development of natural resources like land, water and the green cover through watershed development projects. The government has launched a comprehensive strategy to tackle the sanitation challenge based on motivating rural communities to end the unhealthy practice of open defecation through the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC). The state is poised to become ‘open defecation’ free by the end of this year. There has been a remarkable increase in rural sanitation coverage from less than 30 per cent in 2001 to close to 85 per cent in 2009.
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CRI offers to sell encephalitis vaccine to health ministry
Solan, August 29 Since the CRI was the lone institute manufacturing JE vaccines in the country, it was awaiting directions to sell its stock. Nearly 2,33,750 doses were in the final stage of manufacturing with an additional 6.6 lakh doses being in the bulk stage. These vaccines were manufactured in 2007 after which the process was put on hold as its licence was suspended due to non-compliance of Good Manufacturing Practices as per the World Health Organisation’s norms. These vaccines would expire in December 2012 and the institute had now put forth a proposal to sell them at a subsidised rate before the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Officials in the CRI said this would help them put these vaccines to good use as if left unused they would expire causing wastage of funds and resources. The CRI was the sole supplier of JE vaccines until its licence was suspended in November 2007. This forced the institute to halt all its manufacturing processes and the Union Health Ministry then imported Chinese vaccines to meet its requirements. Sources said though the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine had not been tested on Indian populations, it continued to be exported in India. Since the Chinese vaccine, which was in a liquid form, was a cheaper option over the costlier vaccine manufactured here, the CRI was forced to shut down its production. “A single vial which has five doses is priced at Rs 277 while the Chinese vaccine is much cheaper.” Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh is a key area where the epidemic strikes each year and malnourished children succumb to the virus. It is transmitted by mosquitoes from pigs to humans. Termed as the worst epidemic in recent years, the health officials at Gorakhpur said the death toll could raise further as hundreds of sick were admitted to various hospitals. A total of 1,299 patients have been admitted in hospitals in Gorakhpur till Friday. Health officials fear that the total number of encephalitis cases would go up to at least 3,500 and the death rate would be at a ratio of around 20 per cent.
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No decision yet on salaries
for surplus staff
Hamirpur, August 29 The forest authorities at Shimla had declared 20 of these employees surplus in Hamirpur circle as 36 employees were working against the sanctioned strength of 16 employees for this category. Since salary bills of all these employees were drawn from the treasury, it would be difficult to draw their salary after this order of the department. The employees have been declared surplus in Una, Dehra and Hamirpur forest divisions under Hamirpur circle. Many departments have been deploying extra employees than the sanctioned posts as per their requirement and in some cases even employees manage their postings at stations of their choices. To curb this practice, the government departments have been carrying rationalisation process and declaring the staff working over the sanctioned strength as surplus. However, as the employees declared surplus were from the class IV category surviving without salaries would be quite difficult for them unless the department takes some step. The conservator of forest, Hamirpur circle, Sanjay Sood, said, “Such orders are routine departmental exercise and I have taken up this matter with the higher authorities as we are having less staff of guards against the sanctioned strength.” He said, “There is no need to panic and we will find solution to this problem and ensure payment of salaries to the staff declared surplus, next month.”
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Damaged roads cost state Rs
332 cr
Shimla, August 29 Public Works and Revenue Minister Thakur Gulab Singh said this, while presiding over the meeting of Public Works Department here yesterday. He said the rains had resulted in heavy damage to the roads and bridges in the state. “Emphasis now is to ensure that roads damaged due to heavy rains are restored immediately so that people, especially the apple growers, do not face any inconvenience in carrying their produce to the market,” he said. The government had released an amount of Rs 10 crore to take up restoration work on war footing. He said 137 bulldozers, 99 JCBs and 144 private JCBs have been pressed into service in different parts of the state. He assured that the entire public works road in the state would be restored within the next two days to facilitate fruit growers. He said the government had deployed a record number of machinery through the state to ensure smooth plying of vehicles and early restoration of roads. He said even the far-flung hinter land of Dodrakwar in the Rohru area would be re-opened for jeeps within the next two days, which speaks about the endeavour being made by the department. He said jeep-able road had been made operational as an alternative road for Ghanvi road in Shimla district so that apple growers could transport their produce to the market. Thakur said the condition of roads was being monitored on a day-to-day basis by the Principal Secretary, PWD, and engineer-in-chief. “All the executive engineers in the state have been directed to daily furnish their report so that necessary directions are passed to the concerned,” he added. |
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Traders rue Industries Department apathy
Kangra, August 29 A group of industrialists filed a complaint to a local SDM Neeraj Kumar alleging that the industrial estate had adversely affected its production due to the callous attitude of the GM of the Industries Department at Dharamshala. They alleged that the department had failed to provide them with proper facilities to run their industrial units. The dirt, filth and polluted water of the drains enter their sheds leaving the industrial activities withheld, they complained. The roads passing through the industrial area, leading to the HPSEB Complaint Cell, Telephone Exchange besides the residential areas, remain water-logged almost the entire year with the officer concerned remaining a mute spectator to the trauma of the industrialists. They alleged that during rains, the electric current gets earthed into the floor that poses a threat to the workers. |
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3 pilgrims killed in car mishap
Chamba, August 29 They were returning after taking a dip in Manimahesh lake. According to a report, the deceased had been identified as Sanjeev Thakur (31), his wife Neesha Thakur (28) of the Ghumarwin area in Bilaspur district, and Vijay of Baluganj in Shimla district. The injured included Kinjal (1), daughter of Sanjeev Thakur, Sunil Kumar (22) of Ghumarwin and Mahesho (27) of Baluganj. They were rushed to the regional hospital where condition of one of the
pilgrim was stated to be serious. |
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LPG theft racket busted
Dharamsala, August 29 Kangra SP Atul Fulzele said they had information regarding the racket in the Damtal area of Kangra, near Pathankot. A raid was conducted last week and four trucks carrying 330 LPG cylinders each were found parked at Annapurna hotel in the Damtal area. It was found that the accused in the hotel were stealing LPG from the cylinders being brought to the Baijnath and Sahapur areas. The gas was being transferred into other cylinders from the filled cylinders loaded in trucks. The entire equipment used for the purpose was confiscated from the hotel. The police detained the drivers of the trucks that were bringing LPG cylinders to various agencies in Kangra district. Later, investigations revealed that the accused were stealing 1 kg of LPG from each cylinder. The SP said investigation was still going on to verify from where the LPG cylinders in which gas was being filled were brought. The cylinders were either in the custody of users, agency holders or the company. The presence of large number of LPG cylinders in which stolen gas was being transferred indicted to involvement of some agency holders in the racket. The SP said anything further in the case could be said after investigations were completed. |
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DC reviews pilgrimage arrangements
Manimahesh Lake (Chamba), August 29 The DC said the makeshift toilets had been constructed by Sulabh International, an NGO, which would continue to function till the end of the pilgrimage. He asked officials to adhere strictly to the cleanliness of the lake and its itinerary. The Chamba Welfare Association and the Chamba District Progressive Council, both leading NGOs of the area, have expressed applause to the endeavours of the DC for excellent arrangements of the ongoing Manimahesh pilgrimage. |
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Now, 635 schools offer Scouting
Shimla, August 29 Addressing the meeting of the state council of Bharat, Scouts and Guides, of which he is the president, he said it was heartening to note that the Scouting had increased from just 190 schools to 635 schools. He said scouting being an international movement was responsible for inculcation of moral values, bringing discipline in life and instilling spirit
of patriotism during young age. He directed the organisation to hold regular meetings of the council so that its activities continued uninterrupted. The Chief Minister was presented a draft of Rs 11,000 by the State Chief Commissioner, Bharat Scouts and Guide, Dr OP Sharma, as contribution towards the Chief Minister Relief Fund on behalf of the organisation. The Chief Minister honoured veteran Bharat Scout Shanta Seth for winning President of India’s ‘Silver Elephant Medal’ and Neelam Sharma and Durga Dass for bagging the ‘Silver Star Medal’. Education Minister Ishwar Dass Dhiman expressed satisfaction over expansion of scouting activities in the state and said it had already been started in 216 countries in the world. Dr OP Sharma thanked the Chief Minister for
Rs 20 lakh grant to the organisation.
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State’s apex health institution Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) today became the first medical centre to have the 64 slice MDCT machine, the first of its kind in South East Asia, and a state-of-the-art telecobalt unit.
Pinus gerardiana for the botanists, chilgoza pine grows wild in the high altitude of areas of Kinnaur, mostly in Kalpa, Pooh, Riba and Moorang ranges. The cones yield the edible nut chilgoza, an expensive dry fruit also called neoza, which sells at Rs 500 to Rs 700 per kg in the market. The villagers who collect the nuts under the forest right are able to earn Rs 300 to Rs 400 per kg. However, the forests have been shrinking as large-scale collection of nuts leaves no seeds for regeneration. The forest department recently held a meeting to discuss new planting techniques of chilgoza saplings so that natural regeneration could be supplemented by artificial regeneration. It has now hired the services of a consultant to study the whole issue.