Shimla, October 14
Disappointed over the denial of forest clearance to the Renuka Dam Project despite a positive recommendation by the Forest Advisory Committee, Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (HPPCL) has decided to approach the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for a review.

The corporation is preparing a case for requesting for a re-look keeping in view the fact that the clearance had been denied on the ground that a number of trees involved was very high.

Managing director of the corporation said the actual number of mature trees was only 8,034 and the rest belonged to lower classes. Even the plants below ‘Class-V’ had been counted, leading to a false impression that very large number of trees was involved.

Further, the forest department, on the request of the corporation, was carrying out an exercise to count trees falling in a land strip around reservoir. This was likely to reduce the number of trees involved.

Mandi, October 14
The high-profile Raid-de-Himalayas motor sport rally that reached today at Keylong in snowbound Lahaul-Spiti raised the ire of environmentalists, farmers and tribal writers. They said an ear-blowing convoy of over 140 vehicles had created havoc.

Highlighting the impact of the motor rally in the peaceful sylvan valleys of Himalayas, Himalayan Pariavaran Evam Vanya Suraksha Samiti president Kishan Lal, a noted environmental activist from Lahaul-Spiti, said, “The Raid de Himalayas created noise and dust pollution in the name of tourism in the highland valleys. We have decided to move the high court or Supreme Court as noise disturbs ibex snow cocks, snow leopard and birds in the Himalayan region”.

He said they had written to the Ministry of Environment and Forests as it had no permission from the ministry and the rally should be banned. “There are instances where the packs of ibex ran in panic and died”, he charged.

Apple farmers in Shimla and Kinnaur said over 100 vehicles at a top speed raised a lot of noise and dust pollution and thick layers of dust were sprayed on apple trees in the high altitude like Ghansidhar, Umla Dwar, Baghi, Chaim, Khadrala and Sungri on the way to Nogli and other rally route. “It is a big nuisance as houses, trees and vegetation are sprayed with dust that impede photo synthesis process”, said Ganshayan Chauhan and RB Negi, apple orchardists from Shimla district.

Ajay, a poet from Lahaul, said Raid de Himalayas was a product of European mindset to conquer nature, which only hurt sentiments and sensibility of tribals who lived in harmony with nature.

“We welcome the rally as it is promoting the Keylong tourism”, retorted Tashi Deleg, a hotelier at Keylong, which is fully booked for participants.

Vijay Parmar, the brain behind the Raid de Himalayas, claimed that they had mandatory converters to control exhausts. Dust pollution from apple trucks and convoys of the Army was much more than they created during the rally and their routes were approved.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Vinay Tandon said the Raid de Himalayas had no permission from the department. “The high decibel noise disturbs the wildlife in the high altitude but we have to monitor and see the routes do not pass through the ecological sensitive forests or areas”, he added.

Shimla, October 14
Himachal today became the first state in the country to launch an electronic catalogue, showcasing its major tourist destinations at various places in the state as part of its marketing strategy.

Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal launched the electronic catalogue here today.

“With tourism being one of the biggest sectors which has immense potential for revenue as well as employment generation, we need to offer the best to visitors coming here,” he remarked.

He said in the age of information technology, such an electronic version of catalogue was the need of the hour. “Himachal has emerged as an all-season destination with visitors coming here throughout the year except for the tribal areas of Lahaul and Pangi valleys which remained cut off due to heavy snow,” he said.

He said the construction of 9 km-long Rohtang tunnel was in progress and with its completion, the Lahaul and Pangi areas would also be approachable during winter season as well.

“The Home Stay scheme launched by the government aims at acquainting the visitors with the lifestyle, eating habits, custom and traditions of the rural areas,” he said.

Dhumal said the electronic catalogue would showcase the tourism potential available in the state and provide brief information about the important places of tourist interest and facilities available to help visitors plan their holidays. He said the printed versions of the catalogues would also be available in the marketing offices of the tourism department.

Arun Sharma, Director, Tourism and Civil Aviation, detailed the contents of the electronic catalogue.

Shimla, October 14
The Tourism Department has collected a sum of Rs 11.13 lakh on account of the fine imposed on various hotels, restaurants, guest houses and travel agencies for various irregularities.

Tourism and Civil Aviation director Arun Sharma said the department had carried out about 2,000 inspections during the past six months all over the state under the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development and Registration Act.

He added that about 2,000 inspections had been carried out all over the state since April 1, adding that the main objective in carrying out the inspections of various tourism units was to ensure hygienic conditions and protection against fleecing and overcharging.

He further said the inspections would be carried out in the near future also so that improvements were made in the facilities being offered to tourists.

Shimla, October 14
Concerned over the increasing thefts of telecom cables, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has decided to cover major buildings, which have a concentration of subscribers, under the Fibre-to-Home scheme.

General manager of the Shimla telecom district Prem Singh said here today that frequent thefts of cables, particularly in and around the state capital, had been affecting services for long periods. Financial instutions like banks and insurance companies and those provided various online services were the worst hit.

There had been 247 cable thefts so far in the current financial year as against 192 thefts last year. Besides loss of property amounting to Rs 57 lakh, there had also been a loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 8.5 lakh.

In some areas like Himland, cable was stolen within hours of restoration. Over the past five months, there had been as many cases of theft and early this week cable was again stolen within 48 hours of its restoration. The ultimate sufferer was the public as ATMs and other online services could not be accessed. He said the matter had been taken with the police at various levels but so far the situation had not improved.

The BSNL was now implementing the Fibre-to-Home scheme to help replace the expensive copper wires, which attract thefts, with optical fibre. It was an expensive proposition but it would also make far more efficient services to the subscribers by speeding up the broadband connectivity. Equipment had already been received and it would be now installed expeditiously in view of the increasing thefts.

Shimla, October 14
In a minor reshuffle in the state police, the government today shifted the police chief of three districts and ordered promotion of seven IPS officers.

SSP Shimla R.M. Sharma on being promoted as DIG has been posted in the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau at Shimla. Sonal Agnihotri, SP, Mandi will be the new SP of Shimla. Punita Bhardwaj, SP (CID), has been posted as SP, Sirmaur, in place of P.D. Prasad, who has been shifted to Mandi in place of Agnihotri.

The government also ordered the promotion of IG (Law and order), S.R. Mardi, and S.K. Sadyal, IG (Vigilance), to the post of ADGP. Anurag Garg, DIG (Vigilance), has been promoted as IG and posted in Welfare and Administration.

The government also ordered the porforma promotion of four other IPS officers Satwant Atwal, Ajay Kumar Yadav, Abhishek Trivedi, all from the 1996 batch, and Anand Pratap Singh of the 1997 batch to the post of DIG. All four are currently on central deputation.

Bilaspur, October 14
Yoga is a discipline for self-control which makes one perfect in the art of better life, both mentally and physically. This was said by Dr Mallika Nadda, president, Himachal Pradesh State Special Olympics and general secretary of prominent social organisation Chetna, while addressing the concluding function of the two-day state-level yoga competitions organised by the Himachal Yoga Association at the Adventure Sports Complex here today.

Dr Mallika said yoga had always played a very important role in constructing a dynamic society and today it was much in demand as its effective contribution in checking modern diseases and even treating these, had been more than realised everywhere.

She announced a donation of Rs 25,000 for the state yoga association. She also distributed prizes and certificates to the winners of the competition. Yogacharya Mohinder Sharma, president of the association, said 55 youths and children, three best from each age group, had been selected for competing in the National Yoga Competition, which would be held in Goa in December.

He said 425 competitors from 10 districts of the state participated in these competitions. Yogacharya Raman and organiser Krishan Lal Dabra were among those who spoke on the occasion.

In eight to 12 age group in the boy’s category, Rahul Dhiman of Bilaspur and Shubham of Kinnaur bagged the first position, Rishabh Dharmani, Bilaspur, and Yash Kumar, Solan, second and Onkar of Bilaspur and Ismeet of Solan third.

While in the girl’s category, Mamta, Bilaspur and Poshita Sharma of Kangra got the first position, Anchal and Shalini Thapa, both from Solan, were declared second.

In 12 to 17 age group in the boy’s category, Manoj Kumar of Bilaspur, Rohit Kumar of Solan were declared first, Balbir of Solan, Rajnish of Bilaspur got the second position, while in the girl’s category Monika of Bilaspura and Diksha Sharma got the first position and Shivani Thakur of Bilaspur, Supriya Thakur of Solan were second and Malvika Thakur of Chamba, Simran Varma of Solan were declared third.

In 17 to 21 age group in the boy’s category, Ashwini Kumar of Bilaspur, Hanumant of Solan got the first position, Neeraj of Bilaspur, Manish of Kinnaur got the second position, while in the girl’s category, Nikita of Kullu got the first position, Anita of Una second and Savita of Kullu bagged the third position.

In 21 to 25 age group in the boy’s category, Manjit Singh of Chamba got the first position, Pravin Kumar of Mandi second and Santosh Kumar third while in the girl’s category Ruchi Sharma of Hamirpur got the first position, Harpreet of Hamirpur second and Amrita of Mandi bagged the third position.

In 25 to 35 age group in the men’s category, Ram Prakash, Chamba, stood first, Ramesh Chand of Bilaspur second while in the women’s category, Priya, Mandi, got the first position and Nisha of Mandi second.

Dharamsala, October 14
Baba Ramdev, the famous yoga guru who was here today, flayed Rahul Gandhi for his statement equating the RSS with SIMI. The statement was issued by Rahul Gandhi during his recent visit to Madhya Pradesh.

At a press conference held here today, Baba Ramdev said Rahul’s statement was unfortunate and reflects his inexperience. He said none of the RSS chiefs, since the inception of the organisation, had ever involved in anti-national activities.

However, this was not the case with SIMI that had been banned by the Centre due to anti-national activities. Rahul Gandhi should have evaluated the facts before giving such statement regarding the RSS, he said.

About his prospects of joining politics, the yoga guru said, “I would think about it after two years.”

He indicated that he might think of joining politics just before the next parliamentary elections. While responding to queries from newsmen, he blamed corruption for the Kashmir issue.

He said since independence every government at the Centre had poured in unlimited money into Kashmir. The money had, however, been siphoned off by the leaders of the state. It had not reached the common man. Had the development reached common man in J&K, terrorists would not have gained roots in the state.

He also organised a yoga camp in Dharamsala today. Later, he will organise a yoga camp at Una.

Hamirpur, October 14
While providing quality education through government institutions is the top agenda of the government, an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) here is allegedly running two courses without teachers.

Government ITI, situated at Rail in Hamirpur district, is running two technical courses, besides others, and has admitted hundreds of students.

It is also one of the few institutes in the state to be upgraded under the academic excellence programme of the Central government.

During the current academic session, 42 students were admitted for welder and fitter trades. However, there are no instructors in the institute to teach the students since the beginning of the session.

A student of the institute, on condition of anonymity, told The Tribune, “Our academic session has been limited to marking our attendance. However, the classes have not started due to lack of instructors.”

“We have been urging the authorities to appoint instructors on deputation from some other institute so that our studies do not suffer,” said a few other students of the institute.

Meanwhile, institute authorities said they had taken up the issue with the government.

Principal of the institute, JC Vimal, said, “We have deputed qualified staff from other trades to teach the students by giving them incentives. We have also taken up the matter with the Labour and Employment Department to fill the vacant posts.”

Solan, October 14
Even as the stalemate between the four truck unions and management of Ambuja Cements reached its ninth day today, there was little likelihood of any solution till today’s evening.

Though SDM Balbir Singh had directed the unit management last evening to work out freight revision by tomorrow after the latter had decided to postpone it till Dasehra, the administration was yet to receive any feeler from the management in this regard.

The truckers of four transport unions were peacefully agitating over the issue by bringing all transportation work to a halt.

Rattan Mishra, president, Solan District Truck Operators, said it was unfortunate that the impasse had remained unresolved despite a lapse of nine days and truckers were incurring a loss of 82.19 lakh per day. He said it was surprising that the management had failed to appreciate their genuine demands.

The truckers had been incurring huge losses due to the prevailing freight charges and hence they had decided to withdraw all discounts offered on the freight charges. They were given a hike of 59 per cent in 15 years, which excluded the diesel component. The inappropriate rate revision led to a loss of 22.5 per cent on account of diesel alone. Therefore, their deficit worked out to be 47.5 per cent due to which plying of trucks had become uneconomical. The truckers said since the management had stacked adequate clinker to feed all its plants, it had cared little to settle the dispute, thus allowing it to stretch for as long as nine days.

The SDM said he was hopeful that the management would work out some solution by tomorrow. Though they had earlier expressed their will to settle it after Dasehra, this was unacceptable to the administration that was trying to find an early solution.

Chamba, October 14
The state Forest Department has imposed a penalty of Rs 1.23 crore due to dumping of muck generated from the construction of the NHPC’s Chamera hydroelectric project stage-III in the forest land near Kharamukh in Bharmour tribal subdivision of Chamba district.

This was revealed in an information given to Swami Bhuvneshwar Sharma of the RTI Bureau, Chamba, by the Divisional Forest Officer Bharmour under the Right to Information Act 2005 recently.

The information sought by Swami Bhuvneshwar Sharma from the DFO Bharmour said the muck had damaged 1.5 hectare of forest land further revealing that the estimated quantity of muck dumped at unauthorized sites was 1,37,353.50 cubic metres. — OC