Mandi, December 2
The cement plant at Sundernagar has pushed the state’s bigwigs in the ruling BJP and the Congress on the defensive as they have no option than blaming each other for setting up of the plant in the thickly populated area.

Those who are opposing the plant alleged that bigwigs of both parties had been allegedly bribed in some way or other by the company over the years.

In fact, the company has been lobbying hard since 1995 when it had signed an MoU with the state government for setting up of the plant at the Nalni site on the outskirts of Sundernagar during the Congress government.

Meanwhile, Commissioner, Industry, Onkar Sharma clarified that the company had paid Rs 20.70 crore as net present value to the forest department for the diversion of 725 hectares of forest land (284 hectare DPF), 259 hectare private land and 183 hectare government revenue land.

“The lease deed was executed on December 15, 2007, subject to the condition that the company will get the final approval from the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the company will not disturb local drinking water sources and the wildlife”.

He said the ministry had given in-principle approval to the company for the 173 hectare of forest land for the mining site on November 18, 2005. The company had got the environmental clearance on September 15, 2005, for the mining area, he said.

On the other hand, DFO Sundernagar VK Babu said the ministry had not given the final approval for the 1.805 hectare of forest land at Chambi-Khatravari, the new plant site, shifted from Nalni. “The ministry has also not given the final approval for the 173 hectares mining site under the Forest Conservation Act so far”, he said.

Also, the central power committee constituted by the Supreme Court had not given its final verdict for the plant as the mining site was near the Bandli wildlife sanctuary and the Sundernagar Paryavaran Samiti has moved the Supreme Court against the plant, said activists.

The Vikas Samiti, Keran, the Kisan Kalyan Samiti, Chambi, and the RSS-supported Krishak Vikas Sangh and the Sundernagar Paryavaran Samiti opposed the cement plant on the ground that it would destroy the fertile 2,284 bighas of agricultural land, 22 local drinking and irrigation water sources and create pollution from its chimneys and from exhausts from over 4000 trucks to be deployed to transport cement.

Congress spokesperson and former Sundernagar MLA Sohan Lal blamed the BJP for shifting the Nalni site to Chambi Khatravari which is a populated area and affect Sundernagar just to benefit local BJP members.

Rubbishing Congress claims and “freebies” from the company, Industry Minister Kishan Kapur said the Congress had signed the MoU with the company and was responsible for the whole row over the plant. “But we will go ahead when the final approval from the ministry comes and everything is transparent”.

Dharamsala, December 2
The Congress will oppose Grasim industries’ cement plant that has been sanctioned in Sundernagar by the state government. The Congress MLA and former minister GS Bali said this while talking to The Tribune here today.

Bali said the plant was sanctioned by the state government in 1990. For 20 years, the allottee of the project kept sitting on it and did not built the cement plant. Now the conditions in the area in which cement plant was proposed to be set up had changed.

Cement plants had already created traffic congestion on the Bilaspur-Manali road. About 20,000 trucks were plying on the road. He said if additional cement plants were allotted in same area, another about 5,000 trucks would be added on the road. It would destroy the tourism in Manali, Kullu and Mandi areas, Bali said.

Bali further said the allowing so many cement plants within a periphery of 40 square kilometres in Sundernagar was also threat to ecology of the area. So many cement plants in small area would lead to massive mining and degradation of hills that could cause irreversible damage to ecology in Sudernagar and its surrounding areas, he said.

If the government wanted to allow more cement plants in the state, it should allow these in Sirmour or Chamba districts, he added. Both districts were among the most backward districts of the state. Cement plants in these districts would help in economic development in the areas, he said.

Shimla, December 2
Even as the task of preparing the Tourism Master Plan for the state is underway, the tourism department is keen to see special tourism zones (STZ) being created to give a special impetus to this sector on a par with the industry.

Seeing the immense tourism potential in the state, the tourism department is keen that new unexplored areas should be developed in a manner where the local community is involved and the benefits accrue to the people of the area. In fact, a Delhi-based consultant has already been entrusted the responsibility of preparing a 20-year perspective plan where the key areas are to be defined.

The popular destinations like Shimla-Kasauli, Kullu-Manali and Dharamsala-McLeodganj still attract a lot of tourists but the fact is that they are almost saturated. An exercise will also be undertaken to assess the carrying capacity of new areas and develop these accordingly so that they do not exceed their limit.

The thrust will be to develop some of the unexplored areas like Rajgarh in Sirmour, Janjhiali in Mandi, Shoja in Kullu and Pong Dam in Kangra by declaring these as STZ on the lines of Special Economic Zone (SEZ). It is by way of creating an STZ that a particular site can be developed for tourism activities without other activities interfering or adversely affecting tourism potential of the area.

The department is keen on the creation of STZ as this will help in providing all kind of facilities for tourists, similar to the manner in which the government created SEZ to give special space and incentive for private industry in sector like information technology, bio-technology and pharmaceutical.

The tourism department is already pursuing the creation of a separate tourism sub-plan so that coordinated efforts can be made by all departments concerned for tourism promotion. Creation of a tourism sub-plan by clubbing a part of the funds of various departments will help in providing the required infrastructure for attracting tourists whether it is for adventure, winter or water sports, heritage, pilgrim or wildlife tourism.

Another important benefit of creating STZ will be to ensure benefit to local communities, generate employment, improve economy of the state and place the state internationally in the list of high end tourism product. The initiative will involve training of locals to serve in various capacities so that they can derive maximum possible economic benefits as the true tourism potential of the state is yet to be fully realised.

Dharamsala, December 2
The state government has formed a four-member committee under Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu to implement the recommendations of the Onkar Sharma committee in the examination scam. Other committee members are secretary (home), principal secretary to the Chief Minister and principal secretary (education).

The committee under Onkar Sharma, industry director, was entrusted with the job of looking into the loopholes that led to the examination scam in the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBSE) and suggest measures to improve the system.

The committee had submitted its report to the state government about a week ago.

The sources said the Onkar Sharma Committee had recommended against setting up examination centres in private institutions. The committee had based its recommendation on the fact that majority of cases in which students got certificates without appearing in final examinations were from examination centres formed in private institutions or academies.

The committee members also opined that printing of answer sheets should be carried out in the government printing press. It is generally outsourced to private printers by the education board which leads to pilferage.

Board officials, however, termed the suggestion of printing answer sheets from the government press as unpractical. They alleged that the government printing press fails to even deliver the examination and other forms to them in time. It is highly unlikely that the government press can deliver the order of printing more than 10 lakh answer sheets in time.

The Onkar committee in its report also pointed out to various cases brought to their notice during inquiry by the students. In some of the cases, meritorious students were declared fail due to negligence or mischief of evaluation staff. The committee has recommended that inquiry into such cases should be handed over to the vigilance or the police.

The police is conducting an inquiry into the case and has till date arrested four employees of the education board, besides other major accused. However, their probe is facing stiff resistance from the board employees who are out to protect their colleagues at any cost.

Shimla, December 2
Officers and employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited boycotted duties and held protest for the second consecutive day today against the government move on disinvestment in the public sector undertaking.

The agitating staff assembled in front of the Central Telegraph Office (CTO) building and raised slogans against the government. They demanded refund of Rs 18,500 crore paid to the government as licence fee for 2G and BWA spectrum charges, scraping VRS system, implementation of government commitment on financial viability of the BSNL and wage revision.

District secretary of the joint action committee of employees Laik Ram Kashyap said the strike would continue in all district headquarters across the state tomorrow.

Shimla, December 2
A cold wave tightened its grip over the hills of Himachal Pradesh today with Shimla registering a sharp fall of 5.1°C, a Met Department official here said.

“Shimla recorded a maximum decline of 5.1°C from yesterday’s 8.2°C,” meteorological office director Manmohan Singh said.

He attributed the sudden fall in the temperature to the strong northwesterly cold and dry winds.

Keylong, the district headquarters of Lahaul and Spiti, was the coldest town in the state with a low of minus 4°C. It recorded the night temperature at minus 3.7 °C yesterday.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district recorded a minimum temperature of minus 0.5°C against yesterday’s 0.5°C.

Dharamsala in Kangra district recorded a low of 4.9°C while the minimum temperature in Bhuntar in Kullu district was 1.5°C. — IANS

Kullu, December 2
The government has made education a commodity and approved the opening of its commercial outlets so-called private universities in the state. This was stated by Kaul Singh Thakur, state HPPCC president in a media conference at Circuit House here last evening.

He alleged that not even a single government college was opened in the state while 18 private universities were given land to establish their shops during the past three year.

He further said the commercialisation of education would not only deprive many poor students of higher education but also degrade the education standards.

Lashing upon the BJP government, Kaul Singh said the government had failed in all spheres and the development in the state had come to standstill. In reply to a question whether the Congress would support the decision of the Himachal government to fight urban bodies elections under party symbols, Kaul Singh responded positively, but expressed doubts on the decision of the state government in this regard.

He admitted in-principle that there were factionalism in the Congress and claimed that all would be settled before the panchayat elections.

Bilaspur, December 2
Pravesh Chandel, an advocate of the District Bar Association here and state secretary of the CPI, has been selected to represent Himachal Pradesh in the 17th International Conference of the “World Federation of Democratic Youth” being held at Johannesburg in South Africa from December 13 to 23.

This was announced here today in a notification issued by Himachal Kisan Manch state spokesman Kesh Pathania. Himachal Kisan Manch chief convener and former MLA Krishan Kumar Kaushal and Kesh Pathania said Pravesh was the only youth who would represent the state in this world meet which would be participated by thousands of youths of more than 150 countries.

They said Pravesh would deliberate on the concerns of youth like making education and employment available for every youth, effective prevention of exploitation of youth and saving them from the grip of the increasing menace of drugs and other intoxicants etc. — OC

Solan, December 2
The Solan police has arrested an uncle of a minor child, for kidnapping and murdering him, from Muzzafarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh.

The child, Mohhammed Sahil, was kidnapped for ransom and later killed as he fell ill and became a liability for his uncle.

He was kidnapped on October 11 while he was on his way to Government Primary School, Chambaghat, by his paternal uncle Mohammed Gulfam. The parents of the deceased child work as migrant labourers and reside at Kandaghat.

According to DSP (Headquarters) Sushil Sharma, the family of the deceased, who also hails from Muzzafarnagar, was earning good income here and it was the lure of easy money which instigated the child’s uncle to kidnap him.

As per initial investigations, Gulfam had confessed to have killed the child merely a few days after his kidnapping. The child, who was familiar with his uncle as the latter had been visiting them at home, was taken to Muzaffarnagar district of UP.

Though the police is yet to recover the child’s body, according to Gulfam it had been thrown into a canal. He then made calls to the child’s father demanding a ransom of Rs 3 lakh and these calls led the police to detect his presence in UP. The police had earlier registered a case of kidnapping after his parents had lodged a complaint about the child’s missing.

A police party was then sent to Muzarffarnagar district and Gulfam, was arrested after six days of hectic search there.

A case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC has now been registered and further investigations are underway.

Solan, December 2
Driver Krishan Singh, a resident of Aandpur in Punjab, was killed and four persons, including two women, were injured when the truck (HP-12-8795) in which they were travelling fell into a 50-m-deep gorge on the Chowkiwala-Bharatnagar road in Nalagarh this morning.

The injured include Prince, Parveen, Trishna and Anju, all residents of Bharatgarh in Punjab, and were going to attend a wedding at Kumarhatti today. The injured have been referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. They all were relatives of the driver.

According to the police, the accident had occurred due to the reckless and high speed driving. The driver failed to control the speed and first rammed into a wall and then turned around before falling into a gorge. — OC

Shimla, December 2
The Himachal Pradesh High Court today transferred two judicial officers of the State Higher Judicial Services.

According to the notification, LR Sharma, District and Sessions Judge, Chamba, is placed at the disposal of the state government for being appointed as president, Kangra District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum at Dharamsala, against the vacant post.

Whereas CL Kochhar, Additional District and Sessions Judge, Shimla, has been transferred and posted as District and Sessions Judge, Chamba.