Mandi, August 25
The landslide at the busy Mandi bypass in this town yesterday and the frequent landslides and potholes that plague the 1,470-km-long national highways (NH) in the state, which have resulted in the death of more than 20 persons during the past few months, have exposed the lack of protection works on most of these highways. Such vulnerable spots have made travel unsafe for commuters.

The massive landside near the rain shelter on the Mandi-Pathankot Highway No. 20 yesterday and on the Chandigharh-Manali Highway No. 21 in this town a few days ago have exposed the danger to the lives of commuters as more than 20 persons, including 10 tourists, had a miraculous escape.

There are 11 national highways, including the Chandigharh-Manali-Leh highway, the Kalka-Shimla-Kaurik highway and the Pathankot-Mandi highway, that carry most of the traffic burden in the state. However, most of these lack proper drains and protection works at the landslide-prone spots.

In the absence of drains, the potholed highways get flooded, making travel miserable.

There are more than 200 landslide-prone spots on the NH-21, the NH-20 and the NH-22, said sources. The NH authorities have failed to carry out proper protection works and to have in place a proper drainage system despite the fact that more than Rs 500 crore has been spent on the tarring and maintenance of the highways, including Rs 150 crore spent by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), which maintains the Manali-Leh and the Hindustan-Tibet highways.

Despite such a huge amount having been spent on the highways, the tarring got damaged within a month at many places.

“This is happening because of rampant corruption in the execution of the works whether roads are manned by the BRO or the NH authorities,” alleged commuters.

The BRO has failed to maintain the Marhi-Rani Nullah-Rohtang Pass stretch of the NH-21 and the Jangi-Pooh stretch in Kinnaur on the Hindustan-Tibet highway, which remained closed for three days till yesterday.

Similarly, the NH authorities have failed to carry out protection works at the Dadour bridge, Dwar, the Hanogi-Aut stretch and the Hara Bagh-Khani Nullah-Guma stretch.

Interestingly, both the BRO and the NH authorities have been blaming the bad condition of the highways on the monsoon and the heavy flow of traffic.

A retired PWD Chief Engineer, associated with the quality monitoring wing of the NH, said on condition of anonymity, “They do not implement the guidelines of the Ministry of Surface Transport while executing tarring or other works.”

Chief Engineer, NH, SR Negi, who assumed charge yesterday, said his priority would be to identify the landslide-prone spots and carry out protection works there.

Shimla, August 25
Cutting across party lines, the Himachal Assembly today unanimously adopted a private-member resolution urging the Centre to hike the import duty on apple to help protect the economic interests of apple growers in the state who are being hit hard by rising imports.

Speaking in one voice, which is not quite often, the ruling and Opposition members expressed concern over the losses being suffered by the growers and called for effective steps to protect them against the “unfair” competition. The resolution moved by senior Congress leader Kaul Singh evoked a positive response from the government and it was put to vote after the reply by Horticulture Minister Narender Bragta and adopted unanimously with a voice vote.

The government was already on the job and he had personally taken up the matter for raising the import duty with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Union Minster for Small Industries Virbhadra Singh.

The government was coordinating with Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir and the horticulture ministers of these two states were present at the meeting convened by Pawar in this regard on his initiative on August 8.

Pawar had convened another meeting on September 24 and 25 to discuss the proposal to increase the duty on apple and other problems of fruit growers. Bragta said a similar situation arose in 2001 when then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee raised the import duty to 50 per cent. He had been pursuing the case of declaring apple as a special product with the minister concerned since 2009 but no step had been taken so far.

Earlier, Kaul Singh said the government should work in tandem with other apple-growing states to get the duty enhanced. He said the Centre was providing all possible help to strengthen the apple economy and it had sanctioned projects worth Rs 25 crore for setting up grading and packing houses and controlled-atmosphere stores. Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes said the import duty could not be raised beyond 50 per cent and the only way out was to get the apple designated as a special product for which the government would have carry out an exhaustive exercise to generate data necessary to establish that the livelihood of people depended on it.

Khushi Ram Balnatah of the BJP lamented that the UPA regime had adopted an indifferent attitude towards the problems of the apple growers and it had not released the 50 per cent amount due to the state on account of losses suffered under the market interventions scheme (MIS) last season when fruit worth Rs 58 crore was procured.

Solan, August 25
With the rains playing havoc in Kamli and Khreen villages, near Parwanoo, where houses and roads have suffered the worst damage, a team of officials led by Deputy Commissioner and Kasauli MLA Dr Rajiv Sehzal today visited the affected area.

The officials took stock of the situation where the Kamli-Bhojnagar road had been rendered unfit for plying vehicles and several houses had been damaged.

DC C Palrasu said the problem arose on account of two reasons - a cloudburst at Kamli and the dumping of muck by the contractor engaged in the four-laning of NH-22.

The Kamli-Bhojnagar road was the worst affected with the road having sunk in at several places due to a cloudburst, thus causing huge amount of muck flowing onto the road. Several houses had also been damaged due to the debris.

The DC said they had extended immediate compensation to the affected families and the PWD had been directed to undertake restoration work at the earliest.

Officials of the National Highways Authority had been directed to remove the muck after September 15 so that more damage could be averted.

Tehsildar Lalit Sharma said five houses at Khreen village and two water mills were damaged due to the largescale debris.

The road joining NH-22 was being carved out above this village and since the entire mud was thrown in the valley, heavy rains coupled with a cloudburst led to the mud flowing down, thus sinking the road.

The officials had to walk through the muck to reach the village to take stock of the damaged houses. Meanwhile, Dr Sehzal said the relief work had been started to restore the road.

Shimla, August 25
The state government granted permission to 1,370 non-agriculturists, including 1,004 non-Himachalis, under Section 118 of the State Tenancy and Land Reforms Act from January 1, 2008, to August 15, 2011.

Giving this information in response to a joint question of Kuldeep Singh Pathania, Kaul Singh and GS Bali (all from the Congress), Irrigation and Public Health Minister Ravinder Ravi said 366 non-agriculturists were also grated permission. He said no separate permission was granted in such cases for change of land use. However, each permission was granted for a specific purpose and this often automatically resulted in change of land use so far as the classification in the land records was concerned.

To another question by Dile Ram of the BJP, he said the government had installed 9,277 hand pumps from December 31, 2007, to June 30, 2011, which was quite an achievement as compared to the 15,393 hand pumps provided in 15 years up to 2007. An amount of Rs 20 crore had been earmarked for the installation of hand pumps during the current year. He said some hand pumps had dried up due to a decline in the water table.

Intervening on the issue, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the government was laying emphasis on rainwater harvesting to address the problem of the declining water table and the plan was to ensure that every house had a water-harvesting structure. Efforts were being made to build such structures under the MNREGA.

He said the government planned to make Himachal an organic state. According to a survey, 5 lakh hectares could be brought under organic farming for which 20 lakh tonnes of manure would be required. At present 4.12 lakh vermi-composting units were functional and producing 16.48 lakh tonnes of manure. The consumption of chemical fertilisers had come down by around 5,000 tonnes from 1,17,398 tonnes in 2008-09 to 1,12,030 tonnes in 2010-11. The consumption was already very low at 62 kg per hectare as compared to the national average of 129 kg per hectare.

Shimla, August 25
Noisy scenes were witnessed in the House today when the Treasury Benches and the Opposition traded charges on the issue of release of water by the BBMB which caused damage to property in 16 panchayats downstream of the Pong Dam.

The matter was raised by Des Raj of the BJP through a call-attention motion highlighting the plight of the people. A war of words ensued while Irrigation and Public Health Minister Ravinder Ravi was giving a reply as the Congress and BJP members started blaming each other. Congress member Sujan Singh Pathania wanted the government to take up the matter with the BBMB for compensating those who lost their houses and belongings in the floods.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the BBMB should have given a timely warning before releasing the water. He said the Congress was responsible for the unending woes of the people as it failed to protect the interests of the state during the reorganisation of the state. Even now the Centre had filed an affidavit against the state before the SC where the matter was being adjudicated.

At this Kaul Singh joined issue and took exception to the allegation and said it was the Congress government which moved the Supreme Court. This led to angry exchanges between the two leaders and other members also joined, leading to noisy scenes.

Earlier, Ravinder Ravi said the BBMB had informed the district administration on August 14 that the water level in the reservoir had reached 1,388 ft against the maximum capacity of 1,390 ft and that it would have to release 1.10 lakh cusecs of water. However, the administration insisted that only 60,000 cusecs should be released as a higher quantum would cause floods in many villages. Thereafter, 60,000 to 70,000 cusecs was being released. The administration had provided immediate relief to the 111 affected families of Indora and Jwali.

Ravinder Ravi also introduced the Himachal Pradesh Pre-Emption (Repeal) Bill seeking to repeal the law passed only last year. He also introduced the State Ceiling on Landholdings (Amendment) Bill to exempt sports, and educational and religious organisations from the provisions of the ceiling Act so that they could hold more land.

Hamirpur, August 25
The abrupt withdrawal of money from online accounts of hundreds of government schools in Hamirpur district out of the grant given to these by the state government has created confusion among school headmasters and members of school management committees.

The District Institute of Educational Training (DIET), Hamirpur, recently withdrew Rs 8,000 each out of the Rs 10,000 paid to upper primary schools and Rs 2,000 each from the Rs 3,000 paid to primary schools from their accounts.

The DIET had paid Rs 10,000 and Rs 3,000 to 779 upper primary and primary government schools, respectively, in the district after getting grant from the state government under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

Since grants received under the SSA in all government schools are managed by the school headmaster and the school management committee, this money was transferred online in their joint accounts.

However, after a few days, Rs 8,000 and Rs 2,000 were withdrawn from the accounts all 779 upper primary and primary schools through online transactions.

Hamirpur DIET Accounts Officer Tilak Raj Sharma said, “We had received money from the SSA with the instruction to deposit Rs 10,000 and Rs 3,000 in the accounts of upper primary and primary schools, respectively, as grant to buy books for libraries and we had credited this money online in the school accounts.”

“Later on, it was revealed that the SSA grant of Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 was to be given to these schools to buy book display racks in the libraries, after which we withdrew the excess money paid to the schools from their accounts online,” he added.

Though the DIET authorities claim to have issued circulars to all schools in this regard, school headmasters and management committees are blaming the DIET authorities for creating confusion.

Bilaspur, August 25
Having failed to get the grievances redressed through “normal request channels”, the HP State Green Growers’ Kisan Union has now decided to launch a statewide peaceful agitation and will first hold a demonstration and day-long dharna outside the state Vidhan Sabha on August 29.

This decision was unanimously taken by the union in its state-level meeting presided by state president Baldev Thakur here yesterday.

Thakur and general secretary Vinay Bhandari told mediapersons that they were fooled by the state Horticulture Department when they were first goaded for setting up of green houses several years ago for growing off-season vegetables and sophisticated flowers. They were given loans from banks at a high rate of 15.75 per cent and were betrayed by giving a subsidy of only 20 per cent (present subsidy being 80 to 90 per cent), which was paid to them after three to four years of start of their green houses.

They said even there was no remunerative system to market their produce and they were becoming victims of machinations of commission agents in Delhi. All of them had now gone into heavy bank debts as they had failed to repay loans and their lands were on the verge of being sold by banks through auction for this default.

They have been demanding that their loans be waived off and their ancestral lands be saved from being sold in auction and they be helped by setting up a foolproof system of marketing their products at remunerative prices.

Office-bearers from across the state, including prominent kisan leaders Ram Krishan Sharma, Ram Lok, Rajiv Kumar, Atul Sharma, Manohar Lal, Kushal Chandel, Yashwant Chandel , Dinesh Sharma , Inder Singh Thakur, Sandip and Kamal Kumar, were also present.

Shimla, August 25
As a major step towards curbing incidents of violence, it has been decided to fence the campus and the boys’ hostels of Himachal Pradesh University and have only one entry point so that entry of outsiders can be restricted.

The decision was taken by Vice-Chancellor Prof ADN Bajpai at an emergent meeting of the executive council, held here today. It was decided that the campus and boys’ hostels would be fenced so that outsiders could not gain admission without going through the security check.

It was decided to have one entry point at the police post to check the illegal staying of students in hostels. Entry of illegal boarders and outsiders will be restricted to avoid any type of tension among students’ organisations.

It was also decided that surprise raids would be conducted in hostels and hostel wardens would hold regular meetings with the chief warden and the Dean, Students Welfare, to discuss the situation in hostels.

The VC also sought the cooperation of student organisations in maintaining academic standards.

He also held a meeting with representatives of the SFI, the ABVP and the NSUI.

He urged them to form a coordination committee so that all student-related issues could be taken up.

Nurpur, August 25
The Himachal Pradesh Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project Daily Paid Workers’ Association has urged the state government to regularise their services on the pattern of other government departments in the state.

Jagmohan Sharma, state general secretary of the association, in a statement here today lamented that daily wagers earlier worked in the Kandi Watershed Project from 1990 to 2005 without any break of service and later shifted to the mid-Himalyan project in October 2005.

He asserted that daily wagers working in the project for the past over 20 years had spent their young age in serving the project and some of them were crossing the upper age limit.

“Even, now they cannot apply for jobs in other government departments,” Sharma added.

Dharamsala, August 25
The government has spent Rs 72 crore over various welfare schemes under the Social Welfare Department in the past three years and Rs 24 crore is being spent in the current year.

Many needy people are availing benefits from various welfare schemes like social security pension scheme, schemes for homeless, Chief Minister Kanyadan Yojna, prize scheme for inter-caste marriages and monetary help for the poor to start self-employment.

Talking about its pension scheme, Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, RS Gupta said, “At least 7,275 new pension cases have been added to 48,559 in the district. The government is spending Rs 20 crore annually on the scheme. Meanwhile, 48,559 pensioners are receiving their pension amounts under various schemes like old-age pension, disabled relief pension, widow pension, Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension or leprosy relief fund,” informed Gupta.

However, talking about the fraud pension cases Gupta claimed, “Kangra is the only district that came across fraud cases and cancelled all the 1,451 cases from its records. Such people will be charged with cheating and fraud cases and the pension cases will be verified all over again so that government scheme shouldn’t be misused. Various ongoing pension schemes will be modified for the welfare of people with only 16,58 cases pending in the district.”

The government has spent Rs 15 crore to provide shelter to at least 3,571 needy under the SC, ST and OBCs in the past three years. And Rs 2.35 crore is being spent in the current year to provide shelter to 292 families by next month.

The government has made a provision of providing monetary help of Rs 11,001 to girls who have lost their father or if he is physically disabled or whose annual income is less than rs 15,000 under the Chief Minister Kanyadan Scheme. The government has spent Rs 34.43 lakh under the scheme in the current year.