Chandigarh, April 23
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today indicated that the country had not learnt lessons from the 1962 Chinese aggression and that the strategic importance of building a rail network in Himachal Pradesh was being continuously ignored.

Speaking on the sidelines of the national meet of the BJP Kisan Morcha here, the Himachal CM said while China had laid down an all-weather rail network, along with airstrips on its border with India, the country was continuing to dilly dally on the construction of a railway line to Leh.

Dhumal said he had taken up this issue with both the Prime Minister as well as the President, but it was ironical that the policy makers were looking at the issue as one of rate of return rather than its strategic importance. He said a rail network in Himachal would also save money for the country, as a huge amount of money was being spent to airlift supplies as well as men and machinery to Leh on a regular basis. He said Himachal had been able to get only 33 km of railway line since Independence and that only a part of it was electrified.

Meanwhile, in another development, Dhumal said the state had imported three anti-hail guns to protect its apple and other crops. He said the guns, which had been installed at Jubbal, Kotkhai and Rohru targeted cloud formations, which caused hailstorm. Each gun was capable of dispersing hail clouds over an area of around 3 km, he added.

He said the project, which had been started on a pilot basis in Jubbal-Kotkhai belt which produced as much as 45 per cent of the state’s apple crop, would be replicated in the entire state depending upon its success.

Dhumal said other initiatives taken by his government to give an impetus to agriculture included an agreement with Japan under which the state had taken a Rs 321-crore loan for the diversification as well as introduction of organic farming.

He said simultaneously facilities for horticultural producers were being upgraded continuously and now the government was in the process of creating an ultra-modern fruit marketing yard at Parala near Theog to provide marketing facilities to fruit and vegetable growers of the region. The yard would have facilities of cold storage, loading and unloading yards and auction sheds, he added.

Mandi, April 23
The ombudsman or lokpal for the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) who joined here on December 9, 2010, remains as good as non-functional as the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) has not allotted supporting staff to make it operational for the past five months.

The complaints under MNREGA are piling up at the DRDA office and complainants are being forced to send complaints to the ombudsman’s residence as there is no one at his office to receive the complaints.

The ombudsman has been appointed by the Central Government to redress MNREGA complaints providing relief to villagers seeking employment of 100 days under the programme.

The district lokpals will not only ease up burden on the district administration, but also provide relief to the suffering villagers who otherwise go from pillar to post seeking redressal of their grievances.

The story is no different in other parts of the state when it comes to providing relief under MNREGA. The Centre has allocated a budget of Rs 909 crore for the current year and is keen on spending on over 10 lakh poor job seekers in the state, experts said.

CPM general secretary Bhupender Singh said the state government had been deliberately delaying the recruitment of the basic staff for the office of the MNREGA Lokpal to make it a failure. “If the state government fails to provide 100 days work to job card holders, it has to pay an allowance to them under the Act as funds are not provided by the Centre,” he added.

He said the DRDA was sitting on the proposal for attaching staff to the ombudsman. “The complaints are piling up and the victims have no forum to lodge complaints as the Lokpal office remains non-functional in most districts in the state to discredit MNREGA,” he alleged.

MNREGA Lokpal (Mandi) SP Chaterjee said the director (rural development) had directed the DRDA to allot staff, including steno and peon, to make the office functional, but it had paid no heed. The office remained non-functional since December despite reminders to the DRDA, he added.

On the other hand, Mandi DC Amandeep Garg said they had allotted an office in the Zila Parishad building and he had asked the DRDA to attach the existing staff to assist the ombudsman till regular staff was appointed.

“The complaints are being redressed by him from time to time and he has ordered an inquiry into two MNREGA complaints brought to his notice recently,” he added.

Garg said the ombudsman was an important institution as it would reduce the burden of the district administration.

“The office will function effectively immediately,” he asserted.

Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Thakur said office of the ombudsman had been made functional and the MNREGA work was going on in full steam.

Shimla, April 23
While frequent spells of rain made April relatively cool and pleasant providing much comfort to people, it led to a slump in the power market causing concern to the state which earns a huge revenue through the sale of surplus power.

With mercury remaining consistently low through the month, electricity is being traded at the Energy Exchange of India at Rs 2.80 to 3.50 per unit as against Rs 9 to 10 per unit last year. The average rate for the month till date comes to Rs 3.25 per unit as compared to Rs 8 per unit last year. Unlike the past, the state has chosen not to call tenders for the sale of power due to downswing in the market. As the market is expected to look in the hot summer months, the state is trying to have bilateral arrangements for the sale of power at the best possible rates.

The state is likely to have over 3,500 million units of surplus power this year as against 3,031 million units last year with some new projects, including 1,000-MW Karcham Wangtu, 100-MW Malana, 70-MW Budhil and 231-MW Chamera-III to be commissioned over the next few months and 192-MW Allain Duhungan project set to achieve full generation. However, the increase in overall returns from the sale of power may not be very significant in view of the declining market. The increased availability of power in the northern grid due to capacity addition over the past one year has also affected the rates.

Ironically, the commissioning of more hydropower projects will not help the cause of the state much as more than 65 per cent hydropower is generated during the summer months and the generation declines to around 25 per cent during winter. The availability of excess power during summer will bring down prices when the state has surplus power to sell. In winter, the entire power is supplied to the state electricity board to meet the winter shortfall.

The state virtually reaped windfall profits by selling its surplus power with the revenue taking a quantum leap from Rs 29.60 crore in 2003-04 to a whopping Rs 1,255 crore in 2008-09. However, a sharp decline in the average rate of power has changed the situation over the past one year. The revenue came down to Rs 1,214 crore in 2009-10 and there was no increase last year. The government has projected a modest increase in the revenue to Rs 1,400 crore from the power sector in 2011-12 even though projects with aggregate capacity of 2,016 MW are slated to be commissioned during the year.

Shimla, April 23
Forest officers, scientists and other experts have underlined the need to involve people and Panchayati Raj Institutions for effective implementation of any programme to halt the march of weeds into forests which has become a major threat to biodiversity.

Participating in a two-day workshop, which concluded at Sundernagar today, they appreciated the enormity of the problem at hand and suggested that data on the spread of various “alien plant species” (called weeds in agriculture) over the past two decades was far from complete. The workshop called for a specific survey of the infested area at the earliest so that the annual extent of treatment was quantified and budgetary strategy chalked out with timeline.

The unchecked spread of these species was a cause of serious concern from the ecological, biodiversity, socio-economic and health points of view.

Chief Conservator of Forests Dr GS Goraya coordinated the workshop, which was chaired by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Vinay Tandon. Prof RK Kohli, Chairman, botany department, Panjab University, and IUFRO Chair on Invasive Alien Species delivered the keynote address.

The experts favoured only mechanical methods and were against chemical or biological methods.

Mandi/Kullu, April 23
The state police on Thursday intensfied its poppy destruction campaign and destroyed illegal poppy on 68 bighas of private land and booked 10 cases in the opium belt of Kullu district and 3 bighas and six cases in the Chauhar valley in Mandi district. The poppy destroyed by the police and the villagers would have yielded more than 100 kg of opium to the cultivators.

In the Bhalan and Sainj valley villagers fearing police action, destroyed the plants on over 40 bighas of private land before the teams under SP, Kullu, Abhishek Duler arrived there.

Mandi SP DP Prasad said the police launched anti-poppy drive and destroyed poppy on 3 bighas at Kungan village in the Chauhar valley and booked six cases in the district.