Shimla, September 15
With no effective check on sale of drugs being used as intoxicants by school and college going students, the police has decided to book the erring chemists under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act rather than the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930.

With studies indicating that an alarming 40 per cent of students in the state capital are hooked to one or the other form of intoxication, the district police has convened a meeting which is to be attended by 400 chemists from the town on September 22.

“Our main objective is to make the chemists aware about the legal implications and the fact that from onwards they will be booked under the NDPS Act which is a cognisable offence,” said SSP RM Sharma.

To ensure involvement of other government agencies the Director, Health and Education, has been invited to attend the meeting and highlight the seriousness of the problem. DGP DS Manhas will be the chief guest while experts from the Junga Forensic Science Laboratory will also explain the scientific side.

Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu had directed the police to take effective steps to check sale of drugs being used as intoxicants by youth, which can be easily obtained from chemists.

Though drug inspectors undertake frequent checks to ensure that such drugs are not easily being made available to school and college children, with this being a non-cognisable offence, children can easily lay their hands on them.

Sharma said frequent checking would be done of the unlicenced drugs to check that chemists do not have more than the exceeding limit.

“We will book the chemist under the NDPS Act and, at the same time, recommend cancellation of their licence so that there is check on such free sale of drugs,” he said.

He said the police would also ask the schools to associate the SHO of the area in the Parent Teacher meeting so that issues like drug addiction can be discussed and possible steps taken to save children from its clutches. Various studies by social organisations have indicated that more and more youth are getting hooked to intoxicants, whether it is alcohol, cigarettes or the easily available cough syrups and tranquiliser tablets. Studies had indicating that youth were even hooked to iodex.

Dharamsala, September 15
Gaddi, the traditional sheep-rearing mountain community of Himachal, is furious at the Gujarat-based self-styled godman Bapu Asaram. Gaddis are sore with him over his alleged comment against Manimahesh pilgrim in his discourse at Chamba a few days ago.

They burned effigies of Bapu Asaram today at Dharamsala and Chamba and raised slogans against him.

According to sources, a police complaint has also been filed against him at Chamba for his alleged act of hurting religious sentiments of the community.

He allegedly stated during his discourse that there was no ‘mani’ at Manimahesh and the pilgrim was futile for visitors.

The Gaddi community, that considers Manimahesh as the abode of Lord Shiva, is fuming at the alleged comment of the godman.

Manimahesh pilgrim is located close to Mani Mahesh Kailash peak in Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas. The Manimahesh holy lake is located at an altitude of 13,390 ft.

The number of visitors coming to the pilgrim has increased manifold in the past couple of years. 

Kala Amb, September 15
With the pace of restoration works on the Suketi road being slow, investors fear more damage to the units located along the Markandey river.

Though an executive engineer did visit the place and promised restoration of the then road, the Suketi Road Industrialists’ Association yesterday pitched in to do their bit to restore the road. About 100 labourers were employed along with a JCB machine to avoid caving in of the floor of a rubber manufacturing industrial unit located closest to the riverbed.

With a major part of the flooring of the rubber unit having been sunk and the underground water tank already vanishing into the nullah due to the large-scale erosion, the fear of the compound wall collapsing and disappearing into the nullah has become rife.

The 10 industrial units comprising those manufacturing rubber, cables and copper are facing an emergent situation where the focus has shifted from production to restoration of the road, commented Aalok Sood, the association’s secretary.

According to an estimate, the whole work will take at least two months and the investors fear that the labourers at present engaged will fail to stay on for this time and travel elsewhere for work.

While this will not only cause loss of revenue to the state but also deprive the investors from meeting their production targets. An estimated Rs 12 lakh production loss is slated to be suffered per day apart from 5 per cent VAT and an equal percentage of production cost which the state will tend to lose owing to the non-starting of production activities.

The association has now appealed to the Chief Minister to either spare time and visit the area or direct the Industries Minister along with GM District Industries Centre to expedite restoration works. They have also appealed to the Chief Minister to make available more funds for its proper upkeep.

Shimla, September 15
The apple market has failed to look up despite decline in daily arrivals of fruit over the past one week. The number of trucks leaving the state to various markets daily has come down from over 1,200 to 700, and as such, only about 3.5 crore apple boxes are arriving in market as against over 5.5 lakh boxes a week ago.

However, the fall in arrivals has not led to the expected improvement in rates and the best quality fruit of royal delicious variety is selling at Rs 700 to Rs 800 per box that is about 30 to 40 per cent less than the normal price. The relatively inferior varieties like red golden are fetching Rs 350 to Rs 400 per box.

Besides bumper crop, one of the reasons for low prices is the delay in the fruit reaching the market due to shortage of trucks, bad roads and incessant rains. The quality deteriorates due to ripening of fruit before reaching the market.

In all, 2.59 crore boxes have been exported out of the state so far as compared to 1.58 crore boxes in 2007 when the state had the highest ever outturn to date. Besides, 34,000 tonne of fruit has been procured under the market intervention scheme, of which a large quality has been rotting by roadsides due to failure of the government agencies concerned to transport it. Only about 20,000 tonne of fruit has been transported and the remaining 14,000 tonne is lying in collection centres.

Only a small amount of the procured apple will be processed. The HPMC has a capacity to process 22.000 tonne of fruit and as such it could produce 2,000 tonne of apple juice concentrate (AJC).

However, it had never produced more than 900 tonne. This year is not likely to be any different and only about 10,000 tonne will be processed. Unlike past, the corporation will not face problems in selling the product as Patanjali Yogpeeth of Baba Ramdev has already signed an agreement to produce 700 tonne of AJC at Rs 70 per kg.

Kangra, September 15
Nagrota Bagwan MLA GS Bali accused Health Minister Rajeev Bindal of playing with the healthcare of people of the state and victimising Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, Tanda, with a political agenda.

Bali was addressing a press conference at his residence here yesterday. He alleged that it was the vindictive behaviour of the Health Minister that was spoiling the atmosphere at the medical college. He also sought the intervention Chief Minister PK Dhumal in this regard. 

Shimla, September 15
While good monsoon after almost a decade has brought cheers to the farmers, it has hit power producers as prices have plummeted sharply due to poor demand. The state government will be severely affected as the revenue from power is likely to come down by over Rs 150 crore.

The rates of power, which hovered around Rs 7 per unit, came down sharply with the onset of monsoon as farmers did not require power for irrigation.

The situation has turned worse as fund- starved state power utilities are opting for power cuts rather procuring power which is available in the open market. A few states like Uttar Pradesh purchase power only when it is available at very low rates. They are willing to procure power only when elections are round the corner otherwise the preferred option is to impose power cuts. As a result, the rate has been on the lower side, ranging between Rs 2.50 and Rs 2.75 per unit.

The Himachal government, for which power is a major source of revenue, will be severely hit as it has been forced to sell about 110 MW of power from this month through the energy exchange at very low rates. Besides, another 120 MW is being supplied to the state power utility at Rs 3.19 per unit. Further, heavy monsoon rain led to excessive silt in Sutlej and repeated closure of the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri project from which the state gets 543 MW by way of equity share and free power as royalty.

The project remained shut down for 22 days and generated 320 million units less than the target.

The total revenue from power this year will be about Rs 1,100 crore as against the expected Rs 1,300 crore. Last year, the generation came down because of prolonged dry spell.

However, this year a good monsoon has ensured enough discharge in the rivers to boost generation but there are few takers. It is a paradoxical situation with power cuts being imposed by the northern state even when power is available in plenty. If the same trend continues, the economic feasibility of hydroelectric projects coming up in the state will be jeopardised.

More so, because ultra mega thermal projects will make more power available at reasonable rates over the next two years. The situation can be improved only by carrying out distribution reforms in right earnest.

Dharamsala, September 15
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today announced various schemes for farmers belonging to lower areas. In regard to problems being faced by mango orchard owners in Nurpur subdivision, Dhumal said an experimental farm would be developed to study measures for protecting mango crop from frost. The orchard owners of Nurpur have been complaining of destruction of their crop due to frost since long.

Mango has been brought under the market intervention scheme as apple crop in the state. Crops in four development blocks, including tomato in Solan, ginger in Sirmour and potato in Nagrota in the Bagwan area of Kangra and Una district, have been brought under the crop insurance scheme. The mortgage stamp duty for marginal farmers has also been exempted, he added.

Dhumal was here on a one-day trip to the Fatehpur area of Kangra district. When asked about the destruction of apple crop this year, he said steps were being taken to minimise the loss; Rs 85-crore apple rejuvenation scheme was under implementation that aimed at changing old apple rootstock with high-yielding varieties of apple to increase the yield substantially.

State floriculturists would be supplying flowers worth over Rs 30 crore for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

He said five new national highways had been sanctioned that would connect different parts of the state, both geographically and emotionally. Dhumal participated in the Eid Milan programme last evening, organised by locals at Mand Miyani village. The village is located on Punjab-Himachal border and is dominated by nomadic Gujjar population.

Dhumal added that the state would consider free travelling facilities to Muslim women in HRTC buses on Eid and Bakar Eid festivals at par with other women on the festivals of other communities.

Murid Hussain, chairman HP Wakf Board, thanked Dhumal for honouring the sentiments of the minorities in the area. He is the first Chief Minister of the state who participated in the Id Milan function.

He laid the stone of 45 tubewells in Fatehpur in Kangra district that would benefit 43 villages with 20.54-l/second water discharge to irrigate 1,125 hectares of land that would cost about Rs 24.70 crore. Kangra MP Rajan Sushant, Cabinet minister Ravinder Ravi and other local MLAs accompanied Dhumal.

Shimla, September 15
A visual treat comprising film screening, cartoon exhibition, film-making workshop and discussion by those who make films on environment, will be a part of the Climate Change Forum being organised by the British Council here tomorrow.

The forum will use the persuasive power of visual media for raising awareness and sensitising people to climatic changes. The forum is a part of the Climate Change Project of the British Counil in India and Sri Lanka that aims at raising awareness levels and mitigating the effects of climate change in the urban areas.

A “Cartoons for Climate” exhibition will be organised at Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) tomorrow, which will be inaugurated by its Vice-Chancellor Prof Sunil Kumar Gupta and Charlie Walker, director Programmes British Council - India and Sri Lanka. The Department of Visual Arts, HPU, and the WWF are also associated with the programme. The exhibition will display the 50 best entries from across the country that have been earlier exhibited in eight cities of India and two of Sri Lanka. It will reveal the lighter side of the serious issue of “Climate Change” and will be open till September 17.

There will be film screening and discussion by award-winning filmmaker Vijay Bedi at St Bede’s College. The hour-long screening will showcase a film from the archives of the UK Environment Film Fellowships (UKEFF). This will show stories of how climate change is being tackled in India by seeking local solutions. Another highlight of the forum will be the environment filmmaking workshop that will be conducted by an independent filmmaker Nitin Das who will teach fundamentals of showcasing a film.

Nurpur, September 15
Chief Minister PK Dhumal, while expressing concern over burgeoning threats of anti-national elements and pressure being mounted on national borders by neighbouring countries like China, accused the UPA Government of being indifferent to national security.

Addressing a press conference here this morning, he said the UPA had failed to learn any lesson from the past events like aggression by neigbhouring countries. “The presence of Chinese army in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and its interference in Ladakh and Arunachal is a matter of concern,” he added. Dhumal said he drew Centre’s attention on this issue several times, keeping in view the recent network of roads, railways and helipads on the Himachal-Tibet border and installation of missiles in Tibet. — OC