Shimla, August 30
The government has decided to set up eight more “van thanas” in the state and framed rigid guidelines to lay down the manner in which forest offences will be dealt with, to ensure accountability.

The guidelines will make the “van thanas” to function on the pattern of police stations, the only difference being that they will enforce the Indian Forest Act. Each “van thana” will register “forest offence report” (FOR) and maintain record of it like FIRs in the police stations. All thanas will be provided a vehicle, a pistol and two rifles so that staff was well-equipped to take on forest mafia.

The eight new thanas are proposed to be set up at Theog in Shimla, Puruwala in Sirmaur, Naggar and Jhibbi in Kullu, Kalel in Chamba, Nankheri in Shimla, Bhagarwan in Kangra, Talhera in Una and Ropa in the Great Himalayan National Park. With this the total number of such thanas will be raised to 17.

The Forest Department has also formulated rigid guidelines to deal with various types of offences in an objective and time-bound manner which will also ensure that lower rung forest officials are not able to compound cases after striking deals with offenders. For instance, cases pertaining to encroachment of forest land, illicit transport of resin, timber, katha and bamboo (irrespective of the magnitude), activities of habitual offenders, illegal sawmills, possession of unaccounted timber, deliberate causing of forest fires and defacing of hammer marks will not be liable to be compounded.

Petty offences, involving an amount of less than Rs 2 lakh, will be liable to be compounded if committed by right holders for bona fide domestic use. However, no petty offences involving illicit felling will be compounded without inquiry and investigation by an official not below the rank of Forest Ranger and weak cases will be compounded only after examination by the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) on the advice of the district attorney. The cases of damage caused by companies will be compounded only after ascertaining it by an officer not below the rank of the DFO that damage was unavoidable.

The cases involving amounts ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh will be taken to court and those of higher amount will be assigned to the police. The market rates will be fixed every year and in case of non-timber forest produce the rates will be fixed at the circle level. Encroachment in a protected wildlife area will always lead to registration of FIR. No case of violation of the State Land Preservation Act will be compounded, except where there is no element of trade and unauthorised felling from private land is for bona fide domestic use, not involving more than five trees.

Shimla, August 30
A court in Shimla on Monday extended the interim anticipatory bail granted to an Indian Army officer who was caught by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) allegedly selling diesel from the Army stocks.

District and Sessions Judge BR Chandel extended the interim pre-arrest bail of Captain Vikalp Purohit till September 6, but asked the officer to cooperate with the investigating agency.

Purohit of the General Reserve Engineering Force, a wing of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), was posted at Koksar in Lahaul-Spiti district and was caught on August 20 by CBI sleuths who posed as decoy customers.

The diesel was meant for the BRO’s Project Deepak, which maintains a 222-km stretch between Manali and Sarchu, part of the 475-km Manali-Leh National Highway-21.

The CBI summoned Purohit last week to its office here and grilled him. It could not arrest him as the accused got the anticipatory bail on August 23.

CBI Superintendent of Police R. Upasak said the Army officer was trapped by two decoy customers, who presented themselves as contractors of the State Public Works Department. — IANS 

Shimla, August 30
The 1,500-MW Nathpa Jhakri hydroelectric project has generated a record 38.5 million units of electricity in a single day. The country’s largest hydroelectric project is designed to generate 36 million units in a day and 6,950 million units in a year. No other hydropower project in the country has achieved such high-level of generation till date.

It achieved another milestone yesterday when the total generation from the project commissioned in 2003 crossed the 4,000 crore units.

During the current year, it has generated 3,838 million units so far which was about 400 million units short of the target assigned by the Union Power Ministry. The shortfall has been on account of repeated shutdown of the project due to high-level of silt in the Sutlej river. The project remained closed for 22 days.

The situation has improved since last week as discharge in the Sutlej declined to 850 cumecs and the level of silt has come down to 2,200 ppm (parts per million) which was well below the permissible limits. Last year, the project generated a record 7,012 million units against a target of 6,600 million units. The target for the current year is 6,700 million units.

Shimla, August 30
With irreparable damage to environment having been caused on account of power projects and cement plants in various river basins, the forest department is getting individual master plans prepared for the Beas, Ravi and Chenab on the lines of the Sutlej.

The task has been entrusted to a consultant. The deadline is 18 months.

Till now the government had been focusing on the Sutlej basin, which has suffered extensive damage because of mega power projects and road construction. The draft master plan for the Sutlej basin is ready and after certain additional suggestions are incorporated, it is likely to be ready by the year-end.

With studies pegging the loss of trees during the past 15 years to seven lakh, concern has been voiced not only by environmentalists and voluntary organisations, but also government officials.

As such efforts are on to put a permanent system in place wherein steps to mitigate the effects of environmental damage can be taken.

Once the master plans of all major river basins are ready, the government may declare vulnerable areas as “eco-sensitive zones” so that no more projects are allowed to come up here. Examples of some such areas include the Spiti valley and most parts of Kinnaur where people are up in arms against the damage being caused by mega projects.

“Having a master plan for each river basin will help us adopt a comprehensive approach rather than preparing individual catchment area treatment (CAT) plans for each project, as is the practice now,” said a senior forest official. He said the master plan would entail the task of identifying each micro shed and preparing a management plan for treating it.

The master plan would suggest ways and means to tackle degraded areas through varies approaches like plantation, civil works, agriculture and horticulture.

Shimla, August 30
The state government has decided to institute awards to encourage youth clubs and individuals to work for various social causes and create mass awakening among people on important issues.

Announcing the State Youth Award Scheme while presiding over the meeting of the State Youth Board, here today, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the awards would be given from the current financial year in recognition for outstanding performance in creating mass awareness in the areas of environment protection, disaster management, family planning, AIDS control, organic farming, dairy farming, floriculture, water conservation and prohibition.

Underlining the role of youth in nation building, he said the government instituted awards with a view to motivating youth so that they came forward to play an active part in the implementation of various programmes. The best youth club in the state would be awarded a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, the second best Rs 60,000 and the third best Rs 40,000. In the individual category, the first prize would be of Rs 25,000, second of Rs 15,000 and third of Rs 10,000. He said committees headed by Principal Secretary Youth Services and Sports at the state-level and Deputy Commissioners at the district-level would select the winners.

The government proposed to provide training in various activities like organic farming, dairy farming, floriculture, water conservation, mushroom cultivation, horticulture and bee keeping on experimental basis for which 40 youths would be selected from every district.

Based on the success of the programme, more youth would be selected to undertake training to help them undertake self-employment ventures. He said 664 playgrounds had been developed over the past two years to promote sports in the rural areas of the state.

Shimla, August 30
Keeping in view the difficult terrain and geographical constraints, the state has urged the Centre to make relaxations in norms for setting up of medical colleges in terms of land requirement, student-teacher ratio and other such parameters.

The request was made by Health Minister Rajiv Bindal, while speaking at the 11th Central Council Conference of the Health and Family Welfare Departments at New Delhi today. He said though land requirement for medical education had been reduced to 20 acres from 25 acres in hilly states, it should be further reduced as per norms for metro cities.

The minister said to meet out the shortage of specialists, the teacher-pupil ratio had been increased from 1:1 to 1:2, which needs to be further increased to 1:3. He said the maximum distance between hospitals and medical colleges should also be increased from 10 km to 15 km.

Bindal urged the Centre to grant permission for starting of postgraduate-level course in Mental Health at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC). He said all codal formalities for starting the course had been completed at the IGMC, and urged the Medical Council of India (MCI) to give its approval.

He said the state had also made progress under the National Rural Health Mission and added that 75 hospitals had been brought under the Mother-Child Scheme in the first phase.

Kullu, August 30
A subdivisional-level legal literacy camp was held on Saturday at Shilla village, 20 km from here. While addressing a rural gathering, Rakesh Kainthla, Additional District and Sessions Judge, Kullu, said women and those below the age of 18 belonging to the SC and ST categories and those having income below Rs 50,000 per annum were entitled to free legal aid.

He said there was a panel of lawyers formed by the government to ensure free legal aid to the needy.

Gaurav Mahajan, Civil Judge, Manali, while expressing his views, said litigants must receive summons issued by the courts. He said in case of refusal to accept the summons in civil matters ex-parte proceedings were initiated against the persons evading the service of summons.

CS Thakur, president, Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, threw light on female foeticide and acquainted the people with Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act.

The camp was attended by more than 100 villagers, including women.