Dharamsala, February 5
Senior leaders of the Congress from the state seem to be divided over the issue of Karmapa. While Union Minister for Small, Micro and Medium Industries Virbhadra Singh has emerged as an ardent supporter of the Tibetans, other senior leaders, including HPCC president Kaul Singh and AICC member GS Bali, have a different view point.

Adding to the statement issued in favour of the Karmapa yesterday, Virbhadra Singh while talking to The Tribune today flayed Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal for not allowing the Tibetans to carry out processions or protest marches in favour of the Karmapa.

Virbhadra said like any other citizen of the country the Tibetans also had the right to carry out processions. They were carrying out processions in a very peaceful manner carrying candles. They were not even raising slogans against anyone. There was no harm in carrying out such processions, he added.

Kaul Singh, when contacted on phone, however, desisted from making comments regarding the statement of Virbhadra Singh.

He said security of the country was supreme. “Law of land is applicable to everybody. There are certain laws that are applicable in the entire country, while there are some that just applicable in the state. Since the laws are applicable on Indian citizens they have to be applied on the Tibetans also who are staying in the state as refugees,” Kaul Singh added.

Kaul Singh further said the Government of India was seized of the matter and investigation into the Karmapa case was going on. So nobody should hold demonstrations that could affect the investigation. He also added that we respect the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa, however, they are also not above the Indian law.

GS Bali, a former minister and MLA from Nagrota Bagwan, said politicians should not interfere in the matter. He said the utterances of the Chief Minister and Virbhadra Singh could affect the officials investigating the case. The law should take its own course in the case and politicians should desist from making statements, he added.

Shimla, February 5
With the proposal of the government to set up a Rs 25-crore fruit processing plant at Pragatinagar not finding favour with the Centre, the state-owned Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Produce Processing And Marketing Corporation (HPMC) is considering to raise resources for the project by selling off its land in Chennai.

The project formulated with a view to solve the marketing problem of apple growers was submitted to the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industry, which grants subsidy up to Rs 10 crore to set up cold chains to reduce loss caused due to wastage of fruit and vegetables. It involved an apple processing plant of 20,000 tonne annual capacity, a cold store of 1,000 tonne capacity and a network of procurement centres. It was to be set up on a part of the land available with the carton factory of Agro-India Packaging Limited, which had been closed down.

The ministry had received proposals from all over the country which were evaluated by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited, engaged as the consultant for the purpose. The proposal of the state did not fulfil the parameters laid down for the grant of subsidy. It was mainly a processing unit and cold chain only formed a part of the activity. As the ministry had limited funds, only the high-priority projects which fulfilled the parameters were cleared.

The government has now initiated a move to sell off the 2 acre vacant land in Chennai available with the HPMC, which is setting up the plant, to raise the required resources. After getting the value of the land assessed, the Cabinet has given go ahead for its sale with a reserve price of Rs 16 crore. The process for the sale of land has been initiated by the corporation.

The HPMC already had a 20,000 tonne capacity plant at Parwanoo and a small plant at Jarol but their capacity had never been fully utilised. The new state-of-the-art plant to be set up in the heart of the apple belt will not only increase recovery but also reduce transportation cost and time to help maintain the quality of the fruit. 

Dharamsala, February 5
Bhakra oustees from Una district have demanded facilities on a par with the oustees of Bilaspur district. There are about 1,281 families from Una district who lost their land to the Bhakra Dam project in 1960s. Most of their families were allotted land in Hisar district of Haryana at that time.

However, due to various reasons like revenue anomalies and misfit with culture these families did not move to lands allotted to them in Haryana. Most of them belong to the Kutlehar Assembly constituency in Una district. Since the people have lost most of their fertile lands to Gobind Sagar lake of the Bhakra Dam, the Kutlehar is now one of the most backward areas of Una district.

Bhakra oustees, while talking to The Tribune, said the oustees from Bilaspur district have been allotted residential plots. In some cases lands were also allotted to them by the Himachal Government.

However, the affected Bhakra oustees have not been given any benefit by the state government.

They said though they were living on the banks of the biggest man- made fresh water lake of the country, their fields remain dry.

“Our entire agriculture is dependent on rain. We have urged the state government to install lift irrigation schemes from Gobind Sagar lake for our fields so that we are not at the mercy of nature, the oustees said.

The oustees had also demanded that since they had sacrificed their land for the dam that ushered green revolution in the country, the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) or the state government should also give them power at subsidised rates.

They had also put up their demands before the committee formed by the state government to look into the demands of the Bhakra oustees.

Una Deputy Commissioner KR Bharti said the demands of the Bhakra oustees from Una would be put forward before the state government.

Meanwhile, sources here said the state government had requested the BBMB for the installation of the lift irrigation scheme from Gobind Sagar lake in the Kutlehar area several times, but the latter had declined the request.

The BBMB is declining the request as most of the Kutlehar area of Una district falls near the live storage area, the area near the dam structure, of the Bhakra Dam. The BBMB authorities are not in favour of the lift irrigation schemes in the live storage area of the dam.

Shimla, February 5
The sudden rise in mercury over the past three days has brought the ice skating season at the Asia’s oldest natural ice-skating rink, here, to an abrupt end.

There was no ice skating session today and with clouds hovering around in the sky and minimum temperature remaining much higher than normal, there is no possibility of anymore sessions this season.

The city has been reeling under extreme cold conditions throughout the winter and it was expected that below normal temperature will help extend the season by at least two weeks.

However, the weather changed suddenly and the minimum temperature shot up from 2.5°C on February 1 to 10.3°C yesterday, which was 10°C above the normal. The maximum temperature also increased from 11.9°C to 19.6°C, exceeding the normal by 10.5°C.

Bhavnesh Banga, secretary, Shimla Ice Skating Club, said the ice was still there on the rink but it had become soft due to high ambient temperature and ice skating was not possible on it.

However, with 86 sessions in all it was a good season as evening sessions were also held and the two main annual events, the carnival and the gymkhana, were also held on time. Last year, 77 sessions were held, whereas in the preceding year only 27 sessions were held.

Four decades ago, the ice-skating season extended to almost four months commencing from the third week of November. However, in the recent years it has shrunk to two months - December and January. There was a time when over 150 sessions were held during the season. The scenario has been changed due to the changing weather and rapid degradation of the micro-environment due to deforestation, unregulated and excessive construction and sharp rise in population.

Shimla, February 5
The Kheti Bachao Sangharsh Samiti has reiterated its demand for allowing culling of the simians to save the crops and urged the government to move the Supreme Court against the order of the high court in this regard.

Speaking at an interactive workshop organised here today by the Forest Department to ascertain views of various stakeholders and find out a lasting solution to the problem of “human-monkey conflict”, Kuldeep Tanwar, convener of the samiti, said the problem was not monkey-human conflict but rather that of conflict in the policies of the state and the Centre.

The policy regarding the protection of wildlife was being enforced by the Centre without addressing the concerns of farmers and ignoring the viewpoint of the state.

With two-third of the land under forests and little agriculture land available for crops, the main focus of the policies should have been to address the concern of farmers whose crops were being destroyed.

However, that was not the case. The Centre was not even allowing export of simians for bonafide research purpose, as it should have helped in containing the problem.

He said limited culling should be allowed as an immediate measure as steps like mass sterilisation, translocation and setting up of primate parks would take quite some time.

Suditpto Roy, Principal Secretary, Forests, assured that the government would take all possible steps to deal with the issue and apprise the court about their impact. Animal rights organisations were conspicuous by their absence. 

Shimla, February 5
The BJP has criticised Union Minister for Small Industries Virbhadra Singh for giving a clean chit to the Karmapa and calling for regularisation of benami land deals of Tibetans.

Spokesperson of the party Ganesh Dut said the recovery of huge amount of unaccounted foreign currency from the monastery of Karmapa was a serious matter and it could have implication for country’s security if not investigated properly.

He said the BJP government was all for having cordial relations with the Tibetan community but the law of land applied equally to all. It was wrong on the part of Virbhadra Singh to make such statements at this juncture when investigating agencies were busy tracing the source of the foreign money, which included Chinese currency as well.

He said the Congress leaders were speaking in different voices while Virbhadra Singh said the Government of India had recognised the Tibetan government-in-exile, former minister Chander Kumar stated exactly the opposite.— TNS

Hamirpur, February 5
The Hamirpur district administration has banned the use of plastic goods and carrying of arms and explosives during the month-long Chaitra fair at the Baba Balak Nath shrine, Deoth-Sidh, beginning March 14.

These decisions were taken by the district administration in a meeting held here to make preparation for the fair.

To maintain law and order during the festival, DC Rajinder Singh Thakur has banned carrying of arms and explosives on the Baba Balak Nath shrine premises and under Badsar subdivision.

The administration has also decided to enforce existing ban on use of plastic and polythene products in the state during the festival and also launch an awareness campaign asking the devotees not to bring plastic goods here.

The organisers would also issue permits to the vehicles coming here.

The district administration had appointed a fair officer and sector officers to make arrangements during the festival.

Kullu, February 5
Close on the heels of deportation of Orazi Galeno, an Italian, after his arrest from Malana, the police has arrested Kivill Pomerantsev (42), a Russian smuggler-cum-hash addict, who has been staying at a cave in Malana without any documents for the past 20 years.

The police claimed that they were searching for him and he was on the run after the arrest of Orazi from Malana last year. But sources said Kivill was allegedly involved in hashish and had been staying in Malana under the nose of the police for the last over 20 years.

Kivill was nabbed under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act and was sent in the police remand after being produced in a court here today.

Kivill told the police in Hindi that he was a drug addict and had been staying in Malana village since 1995. He confessed to the police that he had lost his passport way back in 1995. He said he stayed in the cave to evade the police and outsiders.

Though it is mandatory for hoteliers or foreigners to report to a police station within 24 hours of their arrival and submit a C-Form, the Kivill and Orazi cases have exposed how blatantly rules are being flouted under the nose of the police.

The police has no clue about Kivill as he has never filled the C-Form. Kivill looks less like a Russian and more like a Malana villager as he has adopted their lifestyle.

The sources said Kivill was involved in charas smuggling and enjoyed the patronage of Malana’s charas mafias, though the police had yet to dig up direct evidence about his involvement.

Kivill’s brother, Victor, was also involved in charas smuggling and convicted in 2000 under the NDPS Act.

DGP DS Manhas and ADGP (CID) ID Bhandari toured Malana in November, 2010, after Orazi Galeno was nabbed from here. He had been staying in the village without a passport for a decade.

The court ordered Orazi’s deportation as the police had failed to find any evidence of smuggling against him.

Kullu SP Abhishekh Duler said they were interrogating the Russian.

Solan, February 5
The imposition of 1 to 2 per cent entry tax on all industrial inputs, raw materials and packaging material, which are being bought from outside the state, has irked investors.

It is interesting to note that on the one hand, the state government is demanding tax holidays by seeking extension of the Central industrial package and on the other hand it is imposing taxes on the plea of generating revenue. The investors rued that instead of facilitating the industry, the move to introduce such taxes would dissuade them from investing further.

Prem Sharma, president, Nalagarh Industries Association, said, “This will increase the input cost and the investors will squeeze their future investments in the state. While curtailing expansion plans, the investors will also be forced to think about shifting their units.”

Explaining its adverse impact on the steel industry, Sharma said, “Since the raw material has been taxed, the manufacturing cost of iron will be enhanced by Rs 500 to Rs 600 per tonne as they get much lesser conversion costs and this will make goods manufactured here less competitive.”

He said they would appeal to all industry associations of the state to unanimously expressed resentment and take up the matter with the government.

With shortage of labour, lack of infrastructure, and stringent town and country planning restrictions already prevailing in the region, this step would further add to the industry’s woe.

Since all industries had now being brought under the ambit of this entry tax, as against the select 13 items included earlier, the investors were gearing up to take it up with the government, he said.

Officials in the Excise Department, however, said the step was taken to check branch transfers as the state had failed to get any revenue from the investors who sold off their stock through corporate offices in other states.

Nurpur, February 5
A number of patients, who cannot afford medical treatment due to lack of money, have seen a ray of hope in the open darbar, organised by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal under the ‘Prashasan Janta Ke Dwar’ programme of the government here yesterday.

He sanctioned monetary succour to the tune of Rs 8.57 lakh to the poor and needy persons of this area in which Rs 3.40 lakh was alone for the treatment of the poor patients. The open darbar of the CM was not less than a boon for over two-year-old male child, Badal, from Ladori village and Jeevan from Sanjoor village for whom Dhumal sanctioned Rs 1.75 for their heart surgeries.

For Urmila, a cancer patient from Sadwan village, Rs 1 lakh was sanctioned on the spot. These patients were unable to undergo their surgeries due to poverty.

Besides, the Chief Minister also sanctioned a requisite monetary assistance to a large number of patients suffering from various diseases and poor families for their child’s marriage.