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Forest nurseries to have compost units, polyhouses
Sushant declares open war
Families of hostages worried after fresh attack
Kullu court accepts Vigilance plea; Indoria declared proclaimed offender
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Middle Examination
Chief Secretary to head Bio-diversity Board
Youth Cong to start anti-BJP drive today
300 participate in Western Command summer camp
Rs 22.5 lakh for tourist info kiosks
Money Collection Racket
Nine jailed for attacking family
35 encroachment cases come to fore
2 held for wood smuggling
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Forest nurseries to have compost units, polyhouses
Shimla, June 15
Further, to keep a record of the growing stock, a reporting system has been introduced under which every nursery has to file a return giving species-wise details of the saplings raised and supplied to field units for planting. The returns are computerised and maintained at the headquarters for easy monitoring. “Despite reduction in the number of nurseries, the number of plants raised annually has gone up from 2.5 crore to 3 crore over the past two years and the quality has also improved”, says Vinay Tandon, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests. The main reason is that only nurseries, which have proper infrastructure and are accessible for effective monitoring, have been retained. The increase in the nursery output has, thus, reduced the cost of saplings, he explains. Proper arrangements have been made for irrigation and the nurseries are making their own vermi-compost. Further, arrangements are being made to provide “mali huts”, proper stores and polyhouses at each nursery in a phased manner. The department has also decided to maintain saplings in nurseries for a longer period to enhance the survival rate. For instance, the saplings of conifer species like deodar will be supplied for planting after 30 months in place of 18 months. Similarly, the sapling of brood-leaved species will also be retained at nurseries for six months more to ensure development of a strong root system, the key to survival after transplantation in field.
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Sushant declares open war
Shimla, June 15 The belligerent Kangra MP, who held a seminar under his forum “Himachal Adhikar Manch” in the state capital for the first time today, also gave a befitting reply to his detractors within the party who had dared him to resign from Parliament before taking on his own party’s government. “I am in the Lok Sabha not because of the mercy of those who are hitting out at me only to please their political bosses, but because of the support of the 17 lakh voters of Kangra-Chamba, so I will continue my tirade against corruption and wrong policies while being a BJP MP,” he announced. Sushant not only hit out at the BJP regime but also at Chief Minister PK Dhumal and his son MP Anurag Thakur without naming them while talking about seniority and his stature in the party. “I became an MLA at a young age of 26 way back in 1982, so how can somebody who came in the scene in 2000 say that he is senior to me,” he quipped. Encouraged by the presence of ABVP, NSUI and SFI activists and some former employee leaders at the seminar, he said he would extend his whole-hearted support to their cause. “I will not let the government wind-up loss making boards and corporations, as efforts should be made to make them viable,” he said striking a rapport with the employees’ section. He said his manch was a completely non-political forum, but he would not hesitate to criticise his own government .He raised the issue of corruption, unemployment, privatisation of education and grave financial crisis in Himachal. “Even Delhi has six universities, while 18 private universities are to be opened in Solan district alone. But I will not let such certificate-selling universities come up,” he remarked. There was a sizeable presence of youth and students at the seminar. NSUI chief extends support
The open support extended by state NSUI chief Yedupati Thakur, a hard-core Virbhadra loyalist, at the seminar organised by the BJP MP came as a big surprise, giving indications of the possible political realignments in the state as a run-up to the Assembly polls, due in December 2012. Thakur said youth, especially the NSUI activists, would always be there to support Sushant in his fight against corruption. The open support by the NSUI chief, a trusted lieutenant of Union Minister Virbhadra Singh, led to speculation of possible third force emerging with disgruntled leaders both from the Congress and the BJP joining hands with Sushant in the run-up to the Assembly polls. |
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Families of hostages worried after fresh attack
Shimla, June 15 The families of the six Indians, aboard the ship which was hijacked on August 2 from the Gulf of Adam, made a fresh plea to the Indian government to rush its warships to escort the ship back home. They said in the cross firing today two crew members had been injured. “It is shocking that the Indian Navy is undecided whether or not to send its warships to escort the released vessel back,” said an agitated Amar Singh Chauhan, father of local lad Prashant, a chef on the ship. Chauhan today got a call from Ravinder Gulia, Third Officer on the released ship, urging them to step up efforts to seek help of the Indian Government. He said the families of the six Indians had made a fervent appeal to various agencies, including the Ministry of External Affairs, Shipping and Overseas to rush its warships. “The ship crew told me that they had food stocks which would last only a day and they were running short on fuel as well,” said the perturbed father. “The India Government is indifferent towards its own nationals’ security and when the ship has been released after paying a ransom of Rs 10 crore, they are still not extending support,” said Chauhan. |
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Kullu court accepts Vigilance plea; Indoria declared proclaimed offender
Shimla, June 15 The Vigilance had moved an application on Monday in the court for initiating proclaimed offender proceedings against the official who has been absconding since the Supreme Court rejected his bail plea almost a month ago. “The court today accepted our plea for initiating PO proceedings against Indoria and the non-bailable warrants are likely to be issued against him tomorrow,” confirmed KC Sadyal. The IPS officer is wanted in a Vigilance case registered against him for alleged financial benefits from a hydropower company while he was the district police chief of Kullu. There was speculation that Indoria, who has been evading arrest, could move a bail application in the Kullu court in a day or two to exhaust all lower court channels so that he could approach the Supreme Court.
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Middle Examination
Shimla, June 15 He had secured 657 marks out of 700, but his score in English paper was comparatively low with 78 marks out of 100. He applied for re-evaluation and as a result of which his marks were raised to 84 in the subject taking the aggregate score to 663 in February. Though still not satisfied with the increase of only six marks, he approached the board to revise the merit list. However, the board refused to do so. Finally, he moved the high court last month seeking re-evaluation of the answer sheets of the 10 toppers, a compensation of Rs 10 lakh and revision of the merit list. The board has now revised the merit list and he has moved up 19 places in the list to earn the fifth position. |
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Chief Secretary to head Bio-diversity Board
Shimla, June 15 Besides, Vice-Chancellors of Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, and HP Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Palampur, head of the GB Pant Institute of Himalayan, Environment and Development, Kullu, Prof NS Chauhan, ex-head, Department of Forest Products and Utilisation, Dr YS Parmar University, and head, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Regional Station, Shimla, will be the Non-Official Expert Members. Joint Member Secretary, State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, will be the board convener . |
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Youth Cong to start anti-BJP drive today
Bilaspur, June 15 He said the campaign would be started under the slogan of “one day, two booths, twenty youths”. A team led by him would tour all the 96 polling booths of the constituency and enrol at least 20 youths as members of the party and then form booth committees with its president, vice-president and general secretary, he added. — OC |
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300 participate in Western Command summer camp
Manali, June 15 Col Arun Kainthla, Adm Commandant at Palchan, 9 km from here, said the camp was conducted every year for the wards of all ranks of service persons and civilian staff serving in the Western Command with the aim of inculcating and developing a flair for adventure, exploration, inquisitiveness and outdoor life amongst them. The camp this year was conducted in Gen Area, Manali, under the arrangements of Raising Star Corps from May 31 to June 14. He further said, “The focus of the camp is to invoke an inquisitive spirit amongst the children. Hence, activities such as trekking, rock-climbing, rappelling, zorbing, paragliding, ropeway ride and zip-line are conducted”. Competitions like dancing, singing, bivouac pitching, cooking etc enable the children in community-living and building the spirit of giving and sharing as well as understanding their peers. Sight-seeing in Manali and educational trips to Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) enthused the children to a new world with different horizons, he added. |
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Rs 22.5 lakh for tourist info kiosks
Dalhousie, June 15 Dr Sharma said out of this, an amount of Rs 20 lakh had been released to the state government and the balance amount would be released in the form of reimbursement on the utilisation of the sanctioned amount. Dr Sharma said the tourist-related information such as important tourist destinations, road conditions, hotel and railway reservation, bus bookings, weather conditions and other facilities would be provided to the tourists through these kiosks. This for the first time that such a unique scheme for setting up of “tourist information kiosks” has been introduced in the state and will prove to be the best “helplines” for tourist influxes. |
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Money Collection Racket
Mandi, June 15 He and his brother Ghaman Singh had been running this NGO like a “parallel financial company as it had opened the regular deposit (RD) scheme in the bank without a mandatory permission from the RBI”. Though the police lodged an FIR under Section 420, IPC, against Director Hemraj at Mandi Sadar police station yesterday after NGO members protested, they suspected that the police was going slow in the case to give more time to Hemraj to fiddle with documents. The NGO had been playing with the health of dozens of children enrolled at the unauthorised acupressure centres being run by untrained persons at Mandi and Bhuntar. These centres charged Rs 4,000 as admission fees, plus a monthly fee of Rs 1,000 per child for the three years course, said the NGO members. After the members lodged a complaint with the DC, Mandi, Hemraj shut his office at Servari in Kullu, branch offices in Rati, Sundernagar, Dhanotu and other places. As per records, the NGO had collected Rs 1 crore from over 2,000 members and 200 coordinators from Mandi alone so far. Hemraj went underground suddenly while his brother Ghaman gave an affidavit at the police station, stating that “he will make all payments and return securities to each member on June 25 at police station here”. The Mandi SP said, “The FIR has been lodged and team has been sent to Kullu to get records and arrest the accused in the case. The inquiry is still on”.
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Nine jailed for attacking family
Sundernagar, June 15 As per the case of prosecution, convicts Shobha Ram (former president of Nagchala gram panchayat), Ram Singh, Bhaghi Rath, Lachaman Dass (a Punjab National Bank official), Chaman, Sakuntla, Hasnu and Kubja Devi, all residents of Daundi village, attacked advocate Bhupinder Singh’s family members and threatened to kill them on the night of January 24, 2005. The court charged the convicts and after going through the evidence produced by the prosecution found them guilty of offences. Afterwards, the courts called for a report of the probation officer to ascertain the previous conduct of convicts. The probation officer gave a report in the favour of the convicts, but the complainant filed objection to this report and tendered the report of the civil court in which the convicts were held guilty of disobeying the order of the court pertaining to litigation going on with complainant. It was also alleged by the complainant that the former president manipulated the report on which the wrong report was issued by the District Welfare Officer at Mandi. The court denied the benefit of probation to the convicts and sentenced them yesterday.
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35 encroachment cases come to fore
Kullu, June 15 The SP said with the joint efforts of the Departments of Forest, Revenue and Police, these cases had been detected and investigations initiated. The alleged encroachments given by the police chief are by Leela Nand of Moul village, Kullu; Gangu of Kasheri village, Manali; Dolu Ram of Kasheri village, Manali; Karambir of Gumidhar village, Manali; Chande Ram of Shegli village, Manali; Dembu Ram of Sumbli village, Manali; Bir Singh of Defri village, Manali; Jalphu of Salingcha village, Dobhi; Dol Dass of Kharihar village, Dobhi; Om Prakash, Dilip Singh and Vijay and Rohit of Salingcha village, Dobhi; Yog Raj and Lupat Ram of Shilla village, Manali; Bhubneshwar, Chet Ram and Gulab Singh of Shilla village, Manali; Jeevan Lal of Dwara village, Dobhi; Pyara Chand of Dwara village, Dobhi; Mangal Chand of Lingcha village, Dobhi; Ramesh Chand, Ghanshyam and Ram Nath of Dwara village, Katrain; Lekhari Devi, PO Katrain; Tulsi Dass of Dwara village, Dobhi; Mehar Chand of Lingcha village, Dobhi; Sobha Devi of Bhujnu village, Dobhi; Mohar Singh and Sunder Singh of Bashkola village, Katrain; Chand Kumar and Puran Chand of Tarashi village, Katrain; Mohar Singh of Jatehar village, Manali; Khem Dass and Kumbh Dass of Dhawansh; Gopi Chand of Khadvi; Tej Ram of Ghaneer; Ses Ram of Tloona and Chambi Ram of Suma.
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Bilaspur, June 15 Reports said the accused were taking this timber without any valid documents and permit from the department concerned . A case under Section 41 of the HP Forests Act and 379, IPC, had been registered against them and the tempo and the timber had also been seized. — OC
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A defiant Kangra MP, Rajan Sushant, has declared an open war against his own BJP regime in the state as he pledged open support to students, employees and other organisations against the wrong decisions of the government
without bothering for party discipline.
Shimla, June 15
Manali, June 15
The department has already taken a number of steps to improve the management of nurseries to ensure proper monitoring of the stock being raised. The number of nurseries has been reduced from over 1,400 to 750 by winding up the uneconomical smaller units which raised only a few thousand saplings. Every nursery now raises at least now lakh saplings and there are six units which produce more than 5 lakh plants annually.