Shimla, February 26
The state continued to remain in the grip of severe cold wave conditions with most parts of the state, including Shimla, receiving fresh snowfall.

The residents woke up to see the town under a white mantle as there was light snowfall last night. The higher reaches of the state, including Kinnaur, Lahaul Spiti and Pangi have been experiencing heavy snowfall.

The state capital, too, has had frequent spells of snow this month though not so heavy. The upper parts of the town had 1 cm of snow last night, which melted very fast. The temperatures too have plummeted with the minimum in Shimla touching zero and the maximum being recorded at 4.4 degrees Celsius.

As per the forecast by the local Meteorological Centre, the weather will remain dry today but once again there will be more rain and snow in the higher reaches from Monday onwards.

Manali: Meanwhile, normal life was disrupted at several places in the entire upper Manali areas today following a fresh spell of snowfall and cold wave conditions in upper Kullu valley.

The tourist town of Manali and its adjoining areas also experienced snowfall today. The snowfall in Manali town and lower parts was mild. The entire upper Manali region has been covered with a thick blanket of snow.

The long winter season with snow and rain in the Kullu valley has brought cheer to the apple growers as the fresh snowfall is considered as a white manure for their apple orchards. The lower parts of the Kullu valley has also received widespread rain in the winter season, which was also considered good for the rabi crops.

The vehicular traffic on the Manali-Rohtang Pass road was disrupted near Bahang, about 4 km from here, due to thick layer of snow this morning. Hundreds of tourists made a beeline to see fresh snowfall near Bahang.

All tourists going for their sight seeing tour to Solang valley had to stop at different places between Bahang and Nehru kund this morning. Nowadays, the influx of tourists consists of newly wed couples and students.

The famous ski slopes of Solang Nallah, which are used nowadays for different skiing courses by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali, also experienced fresh spell of snowfall.

Due to fresh spell of moderate to heavy snowfall in the entire higher reaches in Kullu valley, including Rohtang Pass, Pir Panjal ranges, Bhrighu slopes, Hamta ski slopes, Marhi meadows, Gulaba, Kothi, Dhundhi, the upper Manali region was in grip of severe cold wave conditions leading to further decline in the day temperature as icy winds continued to lash the areas all through the day.

Shimla, February 26
In a sharp contradiction to the policy of successive regimes to decongest the “core area” of the town, including the Mall and Lower Bazaar, the government proposes to pave the way for commercial activity by changing the land use from “residential” to “mixed”.

Despite successive governments emphasising the need for decongesting the already saturated core area of the town, the state government is likely to allow new commercial ventures, restricted here since 2002. The notification in this regard is likely to be issued by the Town and Country Planning Department in a day or two as all formalities in this regard have been completed.

All the areas of the town located in various localities above the Cart Road, also known as the Circular Road, had been declared the core area as per a notification issued on August 22, 2002. To reduce congestion in the core area, it was decided to keep the land use strictly residential and allow no fresh commercial ventures.

There is speculation that the move is aimed to benefit some influential persons, including politicians and bureaucrats, who own property in the core area or are keen to acquire one so that they can rake in good money through commercial activity. Notwithstanding the rhetoric of successive BJP and Congress regimes about decongesting the core area, the present move is being viewed as a complete U-turn to the agreed-upon policy which is also highlighted in the Shimla development plan.

Senior officials, while defending the move to allow commercial activity in the core area, said only small-scale activities like health club, clinics and offices would be allowed to come up, some of which are already existing before the land use was changed to residential. The main parts of the core area, including the Mall, Lower Bazaar, Jakhu, Lakkar Bazaar and Sanjauli, have witnessed excessive construction activity and there is hardly any scope to allow commercial activity even on a small scale.

Shimla, February 26
The state government today granted approval to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2011, making it mandatory for every child in the age group of 6 to 14 years to get free education and in a congenial academic atmosphere.

The approval was granted by the state Cabinet which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister PK Dhumal. The Act will ensure that every child is eligible to take the benefit of education near his home while all mandatory infrastructural deficiencies will be removed during the next three years.

An adequate number of teachers would be made available in all schools and all under-qualified teachers would be required to meet the minimum eligibility conditions in the next five years. The Central and State Level Advisory Committees would be constituted to monitor the implementation of the Act.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal presided over the meeting.

The Cabinet also approved the HP State Litigation Policy, outlining broad guidelines on litigation strategies to be followed by the government or its agencies in order to reduce litigation and save avoidable costs on unproductive litigation.

Shimla, February 26
The interviews for selecting the Controller of Examinations (CoE) at the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) was today held amidst protests by students, teachers and employees.

A total of six people appeared for the interviews. The selection process for the post of CoE has been shrouded in a controversy since the post was re-advertised in January. The outcome of the interviews will be known on March 5 when the Executive Council will hold its meeting.

The present CoE, Naresh Kumar Mahajan, whose appointment on secondment basis has been opposed by students as well as teachers, appeared in the interview. It is being alleged that the entire selection process is tailored to benefit Mahajan.

While the Non-Teaching Employees Union and Himachal Pradesh University Teachers Association registered their protest by holding a demonstration outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office, the students led by the Students Central Association (SCA) leaders raised slogans near the entrance to the university.

The unions of teachers and employees had even submitted separate memoranda to Governor Urmila Singh, who is the Chancellor of the HPU, demanding that the interviews be put on hold till the new V-C takes over in April.

Kangra, February 26
In order to bring the youths closer to issues related to them, including AIDS awareness, a two-day ‘Vibration 2011’, a congregation of the Red Ribbon Clubs of this district, was organised by the State AIDS Control Society at a local Polytechnic College today.

Dr R.K.Sood, Kangra District AIDS Control Program Officer, said there were 56 Red Ribbon Clubs (RRC) in different educational and technical institutions in the district besides 45 such clubs were aliened with Nehru Yuva Kendra and 15 with the Youth and Sports Department. He said 14 such Red Ribbon Clubs participated in ‘Vibration 2011’. He said ‘Vibration 2011’ provided a plateform for the youth to discuss issues related to them, which included drug abuse and AIDS control.

Dr Sood described ‘Vibration 2011’, which was inaugurated by the Additional Deputy Commissioner Kangra Priyatu Mandal and presided over by Dr K.S.Dogra, CMO, Kangra, as highly encouraging Red Ribbon Club exchange program based on the innovative methods, where youths exhibited their talent.

The youths connected to these Red Ribbon clubs today participated in skits, songs and quiz competitions besides holding a ‘Vibration rally’, which passed through the main markets of the town and participants raised slogans regarding AIDS awareness.

Dr Sood said more than 200 youths participated from 14 RR clubs. He said it had become imperative to penetrate among the youths as there were 4,998 HIV positive cases in the state, which included 1,279 full blown AIDS cases whereas 1,347 HIV positive cases were in Kangra district, which included 362 full- blown AIDS cases.

Priyatu Mandal, ADC, stressed on the youths to help country in creating mass awareness among the common people regarding AIDS. He asked more and more youths to join this crusade in controlling AIDS.

Besides, Dr Anne Norton and Dr Sopme Norton, both from England, Dr Preet Kanwal Singh and Dr Sandeep Mittal from Chandigarh AIDS Control Society, participated in the programme.

Solan, February 26
A Special Investigative Team (SIT) of the Solan police today seized two leopard hides from two brothers, Prem Dutt and Om Prakash, valued at more than Rs 1 lakh in the market from Basal village, near here, last evening.

According to the police, the two brothers, one of whom is a mason and the other an agricultural worker, were trying to sell the hides and had fixed a price of Rs 90,000. The SIT team, led by DSP Puneet Raghu, on a tip-off managed to arrest the duo red-handed with the two hides.

The police officials said one of the leopard was a fully grown adult measuring 5 feet 11 inches while the other was a cub of 44 inches. The hides seem to be fresh and were less than two months old. Though the duo said they had found a dead leopard in the forest area but the manner in which they were bargaining for the teeth at a price of Rs 20,000 each and did not give away the nails proved that they were not new in the trade.

They were produced in a local court today which remanded them in police custody.