Una, July 15
Heavy rain wreaked havoc in Una district today with swollen rivulets inundating fields and other properties of villagers. Many villagers blamed the company given the task of constructing bridges on Una-Amb and Una-Bangana roads for mishaps.

Farmers in Jhalera village alleged that the company had created a diversion for constructing the bridge over a rivulet passing through their village. The construction work of the bridge was postponed due to monsoon. However, company officials did not remove the earth put in the rivulet for creating the diversion.

This morning after heavy rains the water in the rivulet got choked due to earthen diversion in it, near the bridge. The water from the rivulet entered the fields and destroyed the paddy plantation. Earlier also, the diversion created on the rivulet was washed away after flash flood. However, the authorities concerned did not take a lesson and left the earth put in for creation of the diversion, on the rivulet bed, the farmers alleged.

Rajesh Sharma, vice-pradhan of Jhalera village and Surinder, Gurbhachan Singh, Bobby and Surinder, all farmers who suffered losses, alleged that they had given repeated representations to the district administration and other officials concerned regarding the threat posed to their fields due to diversion.

At Truri on the Una-Amb road, water from the swollen rivulet entered the houses of the people living near the banks. Here also the rivulet was allegedly flooded due to the diversion on road. Traffic remained suspended on the state highway near Truri due to the heavy flow of water inundating the surrounding areas.

There were reports of disruption of traffic on the Una-Bangana road due to heavy rains and water inundation of certain portions of the under-construction road. In the Gagret area, certain people got trapped in swelling waters of the Swan river, however, there were no reports of casualty.

In Una town, roads and some localities were inundated due to heavy rains this morning. The loss caused due to floods has also brought to the fore danger posed to people living in illegal colonies brought up on the bed of rivulets in and around the town. A nexus of local property dealers and local politicians has led to mushrooming of colonies in and around the river bed of rivulets. At places, the people have encroached upon the rivulets.

The Irrigation Department has been washing off its hands over encroachments on rivulets by stating that the land belongs to private owners. They allege that the land rivulet bed belongs to private owners and they have no authority to stop them from encroaching over it.

Shimla, July 15
The National Commission for the Scheduled Tribes has directed the state government to take steps to check the alleged exploitation of residents of Kinnaur and Lahaul Spiti by companies executing hydro-power projects by ensuring proper compensation and land to those who had been rendered landless.

Addressing a press conference here today, chairman of the commission Rameshwar Oraon said the issue was brought to his notice by villagers hailing from the two tribal districts. “It is an irony that despite the existence of a land protection Act during the British time to protect tribals, today they are being rendered landless with little protection from the government,” he regretted.

“Not only have some of the villagers been rendered landless but they have been provided a meagre compensation of Rs 2,000 per biswa by private power companies as compared to Rs 1.04 lakh by government agencies,” he remarked.

The total ST population in the state is 3.56 lakh, which is about 5.87 per cent of the total state population.

He said he had directed the Chief Secretary to ensure that the tribals were not exploited. “The government must provide “nautor land” to those who have no land for making houses and undertaking farming as there is a lot of resentment among the villagers,” said Oraon.

The second issue which the ST commission took serious note of was the protection of the forest rights of the tribals, both community and individual. “There is simply no justification in the rejection of 51 cases of community rights by the government of a total of 279 which were received and I have asked the Chief Secretary to review the case,” he said.

He said several issues like vacancies in the Health and Education departments in tribal areas had also been brought to his notice.

Paonta Sahib, July 15
The state drug authorities yesterday booked a Paonta Sahib-based drug manufacturer for allegedly making spurious drugs and violating various Sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, by unauthorised manufacture of drugs bearing the names of three other firms.

A case under Sections 17-B and 18-C of the Act has been registered against licensee Atul Gupta, after huge quantities of various unauthorised drugs were seized from the premises of his unit, Himalaya Labs, located at Surajpur village near Paonta Sahib yesterday during a search conducted by drug inspector Nishant Sarin.

The matter came to the fore when the Haryana drug authorities contacted the Drug Controller, Himachal, to look into the issuance of licence for four drugs which were found spurious in Haryana.

Inquiries made by the authorities here revealed that no such licence had been issued to the said unit to manufacture those drugs. The Drug Controller directed that the unit of Himalaya Drugs be sealed.

Assistant Licensing Authority Kapil Dhiman said the unit had applied for a series of approvals, including licence for tablets, capsules, oral liquids and injections, but its case was rejected following non-fulfilment of norms. It was, however, granted a licence to manufacture capsules in 2008. It was later granted a licence for tablets and oral liquids in March 2010.

Drug Controller Navneet Marwaha said action under the said Act would be taken once it was established that the drugs were manufactured in the unit. The owner had leased out the premises to Saurav Behl, who was running the unit.

The unit was allegedly illegally manufacturing drugs of several companies, including NLP Organics located at Bhiwari, Soliance Pharma and also drugs bearing the labels of its adjoining unit, M Sea Pharma. 

Palampur, July 15
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today criticised Congress leaders for criticising the setting up of private universities in the state.

He said with the setting up of these universities, hundreds of students were getting their degrees in various courses in their home state, while earlier they had to go to other states like Karnataka, Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra for the purpose. Besides, with the setting up private universities, education had become cheaper, he claimed.

Addressing a press conference here this afternoon, the Chief Minister said even the UPA government at the Centre was encouraging private universities and it was evident from the recent statement of Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, in which he had stated that 1,000 private universities had been proposed to be set up in the country.

He said the criticism by Congress leaders in this regard was politically motivated. He said the government had granted permission for setting up private universities in Kangra, Mandi, Hamirpur and Kulu districts as in other districts a number of private universities had already come up.

Shimla, July 15
The demand for taking strong disciplinary action against errant party MP Rajan Sushant is likely to echo at the state executive and working committee meeting of the BJP to be held here on July 22 and 23 under the chairmanship of national vice-president and in charge of the state party affairs Kalraj Mishra.

Mishra, along with the co-in charge of the party affairs in Himachal Sham Jaju, will chair the meeting. All senior party leaders, including Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Kumar and state party chief Khimi Ram are likely to attend the meeting.

The meeting is being held at a crucial time when senior party leaders like Irrigation and Public Health Minister Ravinder Singh Ravi and MLA from Nurpur Rakesh Pathania are engaged in a verbal duel with the firebrand leader, who is causing much discomfiture to the ruling party in the garb of his so-called crusade against corruption.

Even though the state BJP has already sent its report on the utterances being made by Sushant, the high command has not yet taken any action. He was issued a show-cause notice by the national disciplinary committee of the party headed by OP Kohli to which he has already responded but no action has been taken so far.

It is expected that the loyalists of the Chief Minister will bring the matter to the notice of the high command and seek action against the Kangra MP. “We will definitely raise the issue before Mishra so that he can convey the sentiments of the party men to the high command and stress the need for reining in the belligerent MP,” said a minister.

Party leaders point out that with elections to the state Assembly due next year in December, Sushant will cause considerable damage to the BJP and will help the cause of the Congress in case he is not restrained by the party now.

Mandi, July 15
The president of the Kuthah panchayat in Seraj, Jassi Devi, today accused Seraj MLA and Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Thakur of “framing her” in cases of misappropriation of funds for which no records were available with the Block Development Officer, Seraj.

Addressing a press conference along with Mandi RTI Bureau president Lawan Thakur here today, Jassi Devi alleged that they had sought information under the RTI Act on panchayat records and expenditure on works executed in the Kuthah panchayat from the BDO pertaining to the 1997-2008 period, but they were given a written statement that no records were available for the said period.

“Then how come I was issued show-cause notices for alleged misappropriation of funds amounting to Rs 1.73 lakh,” Jassi questioned.

She claimed that she had contested the last Assembly elections on the Lok Janshakti Party against Jai Ram and had secured 6,000 votes. “It is because of this political rivalry that the minister is pressuring local officials to frame me in false cases,” she alleged.

Bilaspur, July 15
The Himachal Pradesh State Employees Federation has urged Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to release the remaining arrears of state employees on the Punjab pattern.

This demand was made by a deputation of the federation led by its president Ram Singh and other state office-bearers, who met the Chief Minister recently at Shimla and presented him a memorandum of demands of various categories of employees. — OC

Mandi, July 15
The SFI and the NSUI today accused Manchali Thaur, state convener of the ABVP, of provoking students for violence on the college campus by issuing “inflammatory statements” which were telecast by a local private channel today as well as last evening.

“Manchali, while reacting to the attack on SFI president Vijender Mehra, had stated that she justified the attack and “the ABVP would launch such attacks whenever the situation demanded,” SFI district president Ashwani Kumar and secretary Rajnish Kumar said. They said Manchali had issued inflammatory statements which could trigger more violence on the campus. They have demanded action against her.

Meanwhile, NSUI activists staged a protest march in the college and accused the ABVP of promoting fascist politics on the campus.

The SFI and the NSUI said they were planning to set up a joint front against the ABVP.

Meanwhile, classes remained disrupted in the college as there was no let-up in the slogan-shouting war on the campus.