Una, August 13
Heavy rain in the past 24 hours has inundated Una town and its surrounding areas. Official sources here told The Tribune that Una in its 10-km periphery recorded 342 mm rainfall, its highest rainfall recorded in the region since 1988 when it witnessed a massive flood.

Traffic on both state highways passing through Una, including the Una-Amb and Una-Hamirpur roads, was disrupted as the rivulets there were flooded and water had inundated the areas surrounding the roads.

The bridge over the rivulet passing through Tiuri village on the Una-Amb state highway was damaged and the traffic had to be diverted through Gagret.

People from Tiuri sat on a dharna on the state highway. They alleged that their houses had been flooded as the Chinese company constructing the Una-Amb road had failed to develop a proper drainage system across the road.

Farmers from Lal Singhi, Jhalera and Basal villages suffered damages to their crops and infrastructure as the flood water entered their houses and fields. The house of Una Deputy Commissioner KR Bharti was also flooded with water. Many colonies developed by people along the rivulets and in the low lying areas were also flooded.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner said, “I have asked revenue officials to conduct a survey to assess the damage”. He, however, maintained that in many areas damage had been caused in areas where people had encroached upon the bed of rivulets.

However, the sources here said illegal colonisers in the district, who enjoyed political patronage, had developed colonies in the past few years right in the beds of rivulets.

Shimla, August 13
While incessant rains over the past 36 hours threw life out of gear in the northern parts of the state, Keylong, the headquarter of the Lahaul-Spiti district, had an unseasonal snow, causing the mercury to plummet sharply in the tribal belt.

Keylong received 5 cm of snow, preceded by 55 mm of rain, quite unusual for the rain shadowed area, as a result of which the minimum temperature plunged to 4.6°C, 9°C below the normal.

The higher reaches had 10 to 15 cm of snow.

In fact, the Lahaul-Spiti had only 4.3 mm of rain in July and during the current season it had only 42.7 mm till yesterday, which was deficient by 84 per cent.

The mid and lower hills are having torrential rains with Una recording the highest 342.6 mm within the past 24 hours. There were several places which had more than 100 mm or rain which included Sujanpur Tira (288 mm), Nadaun(280 mm), Dharamsala (213,4 mm) , Berthin (193 mm), Mandi (177.2), Sundernagar (157.2 mm), Nagrota Suriyan (149 mm), Amb (14 mm), Dehra Gopipur (144 mm), Baldwara(142 mm), Jogindernagar ( 138 mm), Pandoh(137 mm).

Kheri( 90 mm), Ghamroor (86 mm), Seobagh (83 mm), Gohar(80 mm), Manali( 64mm), Guler (60 mm), Kahu (59mm), Kasol (55 mm), Sunni (43 mm) and Saloni (42 mm) were the other places which had substantial rain. However, the southern parts of the state like including the Solan , Shimla , Sirmour and Kinnaur district had moderate rain.

An apple-loaded truck fell into the Pabbar river, near Hatkoti, while the body of 46-year-old Bhim Singh of Gran village in Bilaspur was recovered from the Pabbar at its confluence with the Samarkot khud in Rohru.

Hamirpur, August 13
With Anna Hazare’s team preparing for its proposed agitation in New Delhi from August 16 to press for opposing the government Bill for Lokpal and demanding a provision in the Bill, a few social activists in the state are also mobilising public support for the agitation.

Social activists, led by Lavan Thakur from Mandi, are touring the state at present, appealing to people to join Anna’s agitation for the enactment of the Lokpal Bill.

They will visit different places and mobilise support by marching through important places, singing patriotic songs and holding corner meetings.

Carrying pictures of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Anna Hazare, the activists burnt copies of the government Lokpal to lodge a protest against the soft provision of the Bill.

They marched through the bazaar of Hamirpur, distributed an appeal among people to support Anna’s agitation.

Addressing a corner meeting here, Lavan Thakur castigated the Centre for allegedly hoodwinking people on the issue of the Lokpal Bill.

He said the Bill had been pending in Parliament for over four decades, while successive governments had been avoiding its enactment.

Talking to The Tribune, Thakur said their team had started its campaign from Shimla. They had already visited Bilaspur, Solan, Ghumarwin and Hamirpur and would be visiting Kangra, Chamba and a few other places.

Shimla, August 13
The Education Department has drawn a revised tentative seniority list of principals school cadre (lecturer) up to December 31, 2006.

An official spokesperson said here yesterday that considering various Civil Writ Petitions and other similar cases regarding seniority and directions issued in this context from time to time by the court, the government has drawn a revised tentative seniority list, superseding the seniority list circulated on October 9, 2006.

He added that in case any of the affected persons intended to represent against the seniority list, he could send the representation to the Special Secretary (Education) within a period of 30 days and thereafter no such representation shall be entertained. — TNS

Hamirpur, August 13
The working of the Directorate of the Sainik Welfare Department has been adversely affected throughout the state due to a shortage of staff.

Files related to cases of ex-servicemen and serving soldiers are getting piled up in the offices of the department in the absence of adequate staff.

The Sainik Welfare Department had been established with its directorate at Hamirpur and branch offices at different district headquarters. Funds to run the department are provided by the Central and the state governments on a 50:50 basis.

At present 50 posts of different categories are lying vacant, which include six posts of deputy director.

Similarly, eight posts of superintendent, 12 posts of senior assistant and 14 posts of junior assistant are vacant. Seven posts of organiser have also not been filled.

The department caters to about 1.20 lakh serving and 1.30 lakh ex-servicemen and their families. Several cases related to pensions, departmental issues of defence personnel, welfare schemes related to ex-servicemen, pensions of war widows and schemes for wards of serving soldiers and ex-servicemen are dealt by this department.

The failure to fill the existing sanctioned posts in the department is not only affecting its functioning, the staff in the department is also facing stagnation for years.

The Sainik Welfare League and other organisations of ex-servicemen have been demanding filling of the vacant posts in the department as they allege that their files have got stuck due to the staff shortage.

Vice-president of the Sainik Welfare League SKS Chambyal says, “Due to several posts lying vacant, several cases of serving soldiers, ex-servicemen and their families are lying pending.”

The Director, Sainik Welfare, said, “We are making efforts to fill all vacant posts and the matter has been taken up with the state government.”