Shimla, April 22
The government will soon take a final decision regarding the shifting of the domain of the Youngthang-Khab project on the Spiti river, which will leave no room for setting up a storage dam project at Khab downstream as planned.

The government has asked Gammon India, which is executing the assigned project, to explore various options, including the possibility of using the tail-race water of the upstream Chango-Youngthang project after taking the local people into confidence.

The DC was asked to hold consultations with the local people to ascertain their views on the issue and the exercise was carried out early this week. The local people objected to the proposal to utilise tail-race water of the upstream project on the ground that the river would go dry, affecting irrigation facilities, farm productivity and also the ambient temperature as flowing mass of water cools the environment. The new condition of the minimum riparian distance between two projects imposed by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests was also a hurdle.

The company has submitted a new proposal as per which the diversion dam will be shifted downstream Leo village and the capacity of the project has been increased from 261 MW to 285 MW. As per the revised proposal, the full reservoir level (FRL) will move down from the assigned elevation of 2805 m to 2760 m and the tail water level (TWL) from 2600 m to 2534 m increasing the head from 205 m to 226 m. However, if approved, the 960 MW Khab storage dam with a capacity 500 million cubic metre proposed at an elevation of 2,524 m will have to abandon.

The Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam had in the Detailed Project Report proposed a 275 m high dam at Khab, which will not be possible in view of the fact that the dam site could not be shifted downstream as it will overlap with the domain of the 960 MW Jhangi-Thopan-Powari project. Instead, only a small 450 MW to 500 MW run-of-the-river project will be feasible.

The committee, set up by the government to examine the revised proposal, had suggested that a separate project should be planned to utilise the head available in the Sutlej between Khab and the China border. The elevation of the river at the border was 2880 m and at Khab 2528 m, the available head of over 300m will enable setting up of 360 MW project. However, the government may not be keen to take up a project so close to the border for security reasons.

Dharamsala, April 22
The Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) in a press note issued here today flayed the Nepal police for asking its activist Sonam Cheodon to remove her top.

A TWA spokesperson said, “We are shocked as the 42-year-old Tibetan woman was publicly harassed by the Nepalese police. Choedon was coerced and ordered by the Nepalese police to remove her top in public because of a slogan on her T-shirt which read: “Save Tibet and stop the killing in Tibet”.

She alleged that in Kathmandu yesterday, the Nepalese police disrupted a hunger strike by 30 Tibetans protesting in solidarity for the community in Ngaba and monks of the Kirti Monastery, who had been under siege of the Chinese military for the past weeks.

The Tibetan woman activist also told to remove the top carrying the pro-Tibet slogan. When she refused, the police threatened to put all Tibetan protesters in prison.

The harassment and unacceptable use of power by the Nepalese police, who demanded public exposure of the Tibetan woman, was shameful, the note said.

The TWA blamed the Nepalese police for the harassment and demanded a public apology to Sonam Choedon.

The TWA has drawn the attention of Kyung-what Kang, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)-Nepal, the National Alliance for Human Rights and Social Justice-Nepal, and The Human Rights Organization of Nepal (HRON) to immediately intervene sort our the matter.

Sundernagar, April 22
The negligence on part of court functionaries has led to a bizarre situation in which an accused, who was acquitted on April 11, had to spend another week in Sub-Jail, Mandi, till April 18 for no fault.

The lapse was only noticed when Rahul, one of the three accused in the case, was produced in the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Mandi, along with other accused, on April 18. It was found that the Rahul was wrongly lodged in the jail.

The three accused, Sat Pal, Rahul (both from Palwal in Haryana) and Hem Singh of Kullu, were tried by Rakesh Kainthla, Additional Sessions Judge, under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. They were booked following a recovery of 5 kg of charas by the police from the possession of Satpal while he was travelling in a bus. The other two were nabbed for abetting the offence. While Hem Singh was on bail and Sat Pal and Rahul were in the custody.

On April 11, the court announced the final order in the case holding Sat Pal guilty of the offence and adjourned the case for April 18 for deciding the quantum of sentence. The court further ordered that Rahul and Hem Singh be acquitted. As per the order of the court, the accused Rahul was to be released immediately but in the jail warrants, the acquittal of Rahul was not recorded and it was mentioned that the accused be produced on April 18, 2011.

The accused were produced before the court on the fixed date and it was found that Rahul remained wrongly lodged in the jail and was released only on April 18. The other accused was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 12 years along with a fine of Rs 1.20 lakh.

According to Jail Superintendent BS Saklani, the accused remained in the jail till April 18 as per the order of the trial court. It was further told by Kishan Singh, a jail functionary, that though the accused was saying that he had been acquitted on April 11, there was no mention in the jail warrants and as such his pleadings were ignored.

According to his counsel DC Sharma, he thought that the accused had been released and had gone to his home but he was shocked to see him in the court.

According to senior members of the District Bar Association, such an incident had taken place for the first time. Rahul said he was on the way to his home and would come to Mandi after three days and lodge a formal complaint before the High Court in the matter.

Dharamsala, April 22
Over 3,000 youth of the state could avail job opportunities at the ongoing 5th Job Fair jointly organised by the CII and BBN Industries Association at the indoor cricket stadium here.

Fortytwo companies are participating in the fair from all over the state. As many as 1999 vacancies are available on day one for undergraduates. As many as 4,000 appeared for interviews but only 1,622 were selected.Candidates from the far-flung areas had queued up since morning patiently waiting for their turn.

Vinod Dhiman, director and head of the CII in HP said, “The response is tremendous. The data of how many candidates appointed on the day one is still to be complied.”

Companies were conducting interviews and candidates would be selected on the spot, said Dhiman. In some cases, the final interview would be conducted at the company office, said he.

Tomorrow, 1,242 vacancies would be available for the candidates of technical education, BSc, postgraduates like MBA, MS, MCA, ITI and polytechnic diploma holders.

While disclosing the job opportunities in the state, Minister for Industries Kishan Kapoor said, “For the past three year, the government has approved 3,735 companies to set up business in the state with an investment of Rs 14,259 crore. The arrival of these industries will generate employment for 1,36000 unemployed in the state.”

Charabra, April 22
The walls of Priyanka Vadra’s dream house in this picturesque village are being pulled down - not because of any dispute. Apparently the Gandhi scion is unhappy with the size of the rooms.

“There was some problem with the room size. So a few walls are being dismantled. There is no plan to add any new room,” Congress activist Kehar Singh Khachi, who is supervising the cottage construction, said.

He said the dismantling work started last month.

The house, coming up in typical hill architecture style at a height of more than 8,000 feet amid thick verdant forests of pine and cedar, is to rise from its debris again.

This is the second such dismantling work taking place in the recent past. In September last year, the cottage’s slate roof was totally dismantled owing to some fault in its design.

“There was some fault in the design of the slate roof, it was dismantled. The cottage now has a wooden ceiling with a slanting steel roof,” said Neeraj Saini, who was overseeing the construction work at the site at that time. Apparently, there was a big seepage problem in the slate roof.

In hill architecture style with wooden frames and a sloping roof, the double-storey cottage, spread over a three-and-a-half bigha (one bigha is 0.4 hectare) agricultural plot, is close to The Retreat, which is the summer holiday resort of President Pratibha Patil.

The five-room cottage includes a family lounge and a guest room on the ground floor.

It is located just 15 km uphill from state capital Shimla.

Priyanka, her children and Sonia Gandhi frequently visit the cottage to inspect the construction work.

“It still needs more than a year to complete as construction stops during monsoon (July to September) and peaks during winters (December onwards),” Khachi said. — IANS

Kullu, April 22
An interaction among schoolchildren was organised by the Himalayan Environment Protection Society, an NGO, here today on World Earth Day.

The students were made aware about the major issues concerning environment like controlling of pollution, population control, etc. — OC