Hamirpur, October 4
The Himachal Pradesh Housing and Urban Development Authority (HIMUDA) is finding it difficult to find a large chunk of land for establishing a satellite township and a housing colony in Hamirpur district, despite heavy demand for plots and flats.

About 8,000 people had shown interest in buying a plot or a flat in Hamirpur during a survey conducted HIMUDA over a year ago.

HIMUDA had invited applications, along with a draft of Rs 5000, from people for plots and flats in various towns of the state and after Shimla, the maximum number of 8,000 applications were received for Hamirpur town.

Following this, the HIMUDA authorities had started finding suitable land for housing in and around Hamirpur.

The state government had also mooted a proposal for setting up satellite townships in several parts of the state to ease out population pressure on the existing towns and to meet the growing housing demand, including in Hamirpur district.

The HIMUDA authorities have identified a few sites, but no site or land has been finalised till now.

As many as 300 kanals had been identified at Sawahal village near Hamirpur where final negotiations with the land owners is likely to be held by the Deputy Commissioner, Hamirpur.

Similarly, a large tract of land has been suggested by HIMUDA officers near Toani Devi. This land is suitable for establishing a satellite township and about 10,000 kanals are available here, but this land is yet to be cleared by the land selection committee of HIMUDA.

Since land is quite costly in and around Hamirpur, the HIMUDA authorities are finding it difficult to find suitable land for the housing colony here as a large chunk of land is required for this purpose.

Superintending Engineer, HIMUDA, Rakesh Sharma said, “We have identified a few locations for establishing a housing colony and a satellite township in Hamirpur district and the process is on to finalise the same.”

Mandi, October 4
In a bid to force the Himachal Pradesh State Forest Corporation (HPSFC) to review the “rate of high-quality rosin from Rs 137 per kg to below Rs 100 per kg”, private traders are dictating terms to the corporation, threatening to buy “cheap and poor-quality rosin being dumped by China in markets in the country”.

According to sources, the traders are using the “cheap-Chinese-rosin ploy” as a pressure tactic to force the state government-run HPSFC to reduce the rosin rates drastically. In the absence of anti-dumping duty on cheap Chinese rosin, China is denting the domestic rosin trade, the traders claim.

The traders have not lifted rosin processed in the state’s two factories at Bilaspur and Nahan since April on the grounds that they are “getting cheaper rosin imported from or dumped by China”. The Chinese rosin is being sold at Rs 100 per kg, whereas the rosin from Himachal is being sold at Rs 118-Rs 137 per kg, depending on the quality of the product, the traders claim.

The demand for the both resin and rosin, a solid form of resin, and turpentine is increasing in the varnish, paint and ink industries in the country. These products are derived from pine trees in the lower belts of the state.

Interestingly, though the rates of rosin, resin and turpentine have been steady for some time, manufacturers are using “cheap Chinese rosin” and despite this they have enhanced the rates of their products drastically over the years, say experts.

HPSFC’s Managing Director Badru Islam told The Tribune that the quality of rosin in Himachal was high and, hence, its rate was higher as compared to the low-quality rosin being imported or dumped by China in domestic markets. “This in turn has hit rosin trade in the state as buyers have been quoting Rs 100 or less rate to buy rosin from Himachal this time,” he added.

Himachal produced 60,000 quintals of rosin worth Rs 57 crore last year. The production this year is expected to be good.

Islam said they could do little to impose the anti-dumping duty on cheap Chinese rosin as “it is a subject to be dealt with by the Central Government”.

“We will start selling rosin this month, but we are yet to revise the rates,” he added.

Sanawar, October 4
The three-day celebrations of the 164th founder’s day concluded at The Lawrence School, Sanawar, with the Chief of Army Staff, Gen VK Singh, presiding over an impressive parade today.

Addressing students, staff and parents on the occasion, General Singh said the school had military moorings entwined in its heritage and tradition. Being true to its credo of “Never Give In”, the school embodied the motto in letter and spirit.

He said the school had a rich lineage of distinguished alumni who had brought glory to the school by achieving laurels in various walks of life. There could not be a relevant epitome of heroism and sacrifice than Second Lt Arun Khetarpal, PVC (posthumous), whose name had been etched as the “bravest of the brave” in the annals of the military history. He said the Army would bequest a statue of Second Lt Arun Khetarpal to his alma mater.

Earlier, welcoming General Singh, Headmaster Praveen Vasisht said Second Lt Arun Khetarpal was the tallest student of Sanawar and the youngest recipient of Param Vir Chakra for the Battle of Basantar. A bravery award had been instituted in his memory by his younger brother, Mukesh, which shall be conferred to a deserving student every year, he said. He expressed concern over the fact that few Sanawarians opted for a career in the armed forces.

The Army chief later gave away medals and trophies to the winners.

Shimla, October 4
The plan of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to create additional capacity of 30,000 tonnes at a cost of Rs 10 crore for the storage of foodgrains in the 11th Plan has come a cropper due to the failure of the government to provide land for the purpose.

The Five-Year Plan is coming to an end, but so far work has not been started in any of the seven storage projects proposed to be constructed at Shimla, Mandi, Nahan, Bilaspur and Nagrota Bagwan (each 5,000 tonnes), Palampur (3,340 tonnes) and Reckong Peo (1,670 tonnes). In fact, in most cases even suitable land has not been identified.

Keeping in view the urgent need for additional storage, the FCI has now decided to construct 15 godowns with an aggregate capacity of 1,24,610 tonnes in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. “The FCI supplies 52,000 tonnes of foodgrain every month and accordingly as per the norms fixed by the government, the state required a minimum storage capacity of 1,75,000 tonnes. However, at present the total capacity is only 25,000 tonnes and there are arrangements with the Central Warehousing Corporation and state agencies for another 20,000 tonnes. If the supply is disrupted for any reason, the state will have less than two weeks’ provision. Hence, the need for quick action on this front”, says Karnam Malleswari, General Manager, FCI (Himachal).

According to the norms, the state must have the capacity to store four months’ requirement and so the FCI had decided to take the PPP route under which godowns would be constructed by private parties and it would have an agreement for hiring the facility for a minimum period of 10 years to ensure viability.

A pre-bid meeting would be held with on October 10 to discuss the modalities. If all goes as planned, the state will have godowns at Hamirpur, Kullu, Mandi, Ner Chowk, Sarkaghat, Una, Nagrota, Palampur, Chamba, Shimla, Rampur, Parwanoo, Solan, Nahan and Reckong Peo by March 2013.

Dharamsala, October 4
The Dalai Lama has called off his South Africa tour after waiting for a visa for that country for over a month. It is for the second time that the South African government has denied him visa.

Representative of the Dalai Lama in New Delhi, in a statement today, said the Dalai Lama was calling off a planned visit to South Africa after continued delays by the African nation in issuing him a visa.

The statement said the Tibetan leader regretted calling off the visit and the inconveniences caused to his hosts and the South African public.

In the statement, the office of the Dalai Lama said the exiled Tibetan leader travelled around the world to promote human values, religious harmony, world peace, and compassion, principles that formed the core of his communications and interactions everywhere. And in doing so, the Dalai Lama did not want to create any inconveniences to anyone.

The Dalai Lama was scheduled to visit South Africa from October 6 to 14, on invitations from a number of universities and organisations, including Stellenbosch University, the Tutu Centre and the Mahatma Gandhi Trust, to give public talks, deliver Bishop Tutu’s 80th Birth Anniversary Inaugural Lecture and receive the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation.

However, till today, the South African authorities neither issued visa to him nor rejected his application.

Earlier, they maintained that the visa of the Dalai Lama was being delayed due to incomplete documents. Generally, it is a practice on the part of the Dalai Lama to submit a photocopy of his passport for visa application when he is travelling abroad.

In the present case also, the office of the Dalai Lama submitted a photocopy of his passport, along with the visa application, when he was on a visit to the US.

However, when he returned on September 20, the original passport of the Dalai Lama was also submitted to the South African authorities.

The representative said the visa applications of the Dalai Lama and entourage members were submitted to the South African High Commission in New Delhi in August end and original passports were also submitted on September 20. The statement said the Dalai Lama’s office was, therefore, now convinced that the South African government found it inconvenient to issue visa to the Dalai Lama.

Solan, October 4
The Baddi police and a team of officials from the drug control administration raided five unauthorised de-addiction centres operating on the sly at Dattowal, Bela Mandir, Chowkiwala, Deerowal and Bhud and rescued 30 youths who had been illegally detained in the garb of providing them relief from addiction.

Baddi SP Gurdev Chand said following a tip-off from an official in Punjab, they raided these centres which were running without any registration, licence and didn’t even have display boards. It is learnt that since these centers had been banned in Punjab, those running these in the adjoining areas of Morinda and Mohali had shifted their base to the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area here.

Interestingly, a head constable, Paramjeet Singh, of the Punjab police, posted at Mansa, was kept captive at the centre at Chowkiwala. He told the police that they were kept like prisoners and were not allowed to talk to anyone from outside or leave the place.

Narrating his tale of woe, he told the police that his wife had sought the help of the centre as he had become an addict.

These centres had allegedly hired goons to beat up those who dared to open their mouth against the “atrocities”. They were given substandard food and were made to cook, clean and do other menial works. A sum of Rs 8,000 was being charged from their families who had contacted these centres to reform them.

The police has registered a case under Sections 342, 323 and 506 of the IPC while officials of the drug control administration have booked these centres under Section 18 of the Drugs and Cosmetic Act as a large number of drugs of various types, including sedatives, were seized from the spot. The police later sealed these centres which were registered as mere societies in Punjab.

Kangra, October 4
During the Sharad Navratas this year, nearly 1.5 lakh pilgrims from all over the country visited the Brajeshwari Temple, one of the 52 Shakti peeths. It remained humming with the pilgrim influx during the first eight days of the Navratras.

Kangra district police chief DS Thakur said thousands of pilgrims visited the Shakti peeths of Brajeshwari, Jawalamukhi and Chamunda temples in the district during the current Navratras. Last year there were fewer pilgrims visiting these shrines because of the Kumbh festival.

The SSP said there was an unexpected increase in the number of yellow-clad devotees from Uttar Pradesh this year. Yellow-clad pilgrims are mostly the followers of Dynoo Bhagat, who had offered his sacrifice in the Brajeshwari temple. They had been thronging this temple, it being their ‘kul devi’, during the past eight days.

SSP Thakur said he had been supervising the security arrangements personally this year and had deployed two armed reserves each at the Kangra and Chamunda temples and three reserves at the Jawalamukhi temple. He said nearly a 100 Home Guards were deployed at each temple. He said police personnel in civil too were deployed.

He said bomb disposal and sniper dog squads sanitised all the three shrines daily and remained in readiness. Metal detectors had been introduced and every pilgrim was frisked and coconut as prasad was banned in the temples.

Pawan Patial Temple Officer, Brajeshwari Temple, said on the eve of Durga Ashtami today Joint Secretary, Home, GOI, Sanehlata Shrivastava and Justice Surender Kumar of the Allahabad High Court too paid obeisance among more than 35,000 pilgrims who visited the shrine today.

Shimla, October 4
The government has declared October 16 as a public holiday in the areas of panchayati raj institutions where byelections are scheduled to be held.

It will be a paid holiday to daily-wage employees and also within the meaning of Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act in these areas.

The Deputy Commissioner, Lahaul and Spiti, has been authorised to declare a public holiday on the actual date of the poll in the areas concerned within his jurisdiction. Special casual leave will be given to employees who are working in different places in the state and have a right to vote in other places on the production of a certificate from the presiding officer concerned that the employee has actually cast his vote.

Dharamsala, October 4
The CSK HP Agriculture University, Palampur, will be opening centres of excellence in agricultural engineering and organic agriculture. The proposal to this affect is being sent to the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) very soon.

Vice-Chancellor of the university SK Sharma gave this information while talking to The Tribune here today.

He said the centres of excellence would help in training farmers and agriculture technocrats in the latest technology in the field of agriculture engineering and organic agriculture. Himachal had been striving to promote organic agriculture in the state and development of centre of excellence would be another step in this direction, he said.

The university was seeking a grant of Rs 50 crore from the ICAR for setting up the centres. Himachal Agriculture University was the first university to apply for centres of excellence in North India, the VC said.

He said his university would focus on the emerging areas of agriculture as approved for the 12th Five-Year Plan beginning next year. He also said work on DNA finger printing of all available crop varieties had been undertaken and farmers would be made aware about intellectual property rights, patents, copyrights, design and trademark to safeguard their interests in traditional varieties. The university had already got approved its own ‘Palam’ logo for farm produce and services, he said.

Sharma said the university would aim at intensifying seed production programme on a massive scale in collaboration with progressive farmers and making contingency plans zone wise to meet the exigency of sudden climate change.

Earlier, the VC, as chief guest, addressed around 200 farm officers from the state Department of Agriculture, university scientists and progressive farmers after inaugurating a state-level farm officers workshop on rabi crops today.

JC Rana, Director of Agriculture, said the state had achieved record foodgrains production and Rs 12 crore plan had been introduced to increase vegetable production. Similarly, an area of 30,000 hectare would be brought under seed village programme. Yellow rust-resistant wheat varieties would be popularised in the coming season. Wheat and barley had been brought under the crop insurance scheme. He advised effective monitoring of poly houses.

Surya Parkash Sharma, Director of Research, said the university had drawn an effective plan for the rabi season. He talked about useful varieties of wheat, oilseed crops, pulses, fodder crops and seed production programme. He also spoke on protected cultivation, organic agriculture and farm mechanisation programmes in the university. The state government had approved many university developed implements for the farmers which would be made available on subsidy, he said.

Desh Raj, Director of Extension Education, spoke about strategies to transfer the latest farm technology to the fields. Due to increased literacy rate and awareness, a large number of young farmers and women were coming forward for training.

Two booklets were also released by the chief guest.

Dharamsala, October 4
When the whole country is gearing up for Dasehra celebrations, the small town of Baijnath in Kangra district shows no signs of celebrations for the festival.

Ramlila pandals and preparations of huge Ravana statues can be seen everywhere these days, but Baijnath is a place which doesn’t celebrate Dasehra or Ravana Dahan. The tradition has been going on from time immemorial.

“Dasehra is not celebrated here since ages. Baijnath is believed to be a place where Ravana worshipped Lord Shiva. No one dares to organise the festival as it is believed that it brings bad luck for them or they die before the arrival of next Dasehra,” said Pt Suresh Kumar, priest at Baijnath Temple.

According to the legend, Ravana worshiped Lord Shiva at Kailash to gain invincible powers. He also offered his 10 heads in the havan kund to impress the Lord. Impressed by Ravana’s extraordinary deed, Lord Shiva not only restored his heads, but also bestowed him with powers of invincibility and immortality.

On attaining this power, Ravana requested Lord Shiva to accompany him to Lanka. Shiva consented and converted himself into a ling. Lord Shiva asked him to carry the ling but he should not place it on the ground on his way. Ravana stared moving towards south and reached Baijnath where he felt the need to answer nature’s call. On seeing a shepherd, Ravana handed over the ling to him and went away to relieve himself. On finding the ling very heavy, the shepherd kept the ling on the ground and the ling got established there in the form of Ardhnarishwar.

Dasehra is therefore not celebrated here as a mark of respect to the devotion of Ravana towards Lord Shiva and also because of bad experiences of locals in the past.

Interestingly, Baijnath has no shop of goldsmiths which makes it unique in its own way. Again, according to the legend and local priest Suresh, “Baijnath is a symbol of devotion of Ravana towards Lord Shiva. It is believed that Lord Shiva hates gold and Ravana’s Lanka was made of gold. Therefore, due to this unique contradiction between the devotee and his Lord, it is believed that goldsmiths used to run into losses whenever they tried to do a business here”.

The local residents go to nearby towns of Paprola or Palampur to witness Dasehra festivities and also to buy gold jewellery.

Chamba, October 4
BJP Scheduled Castes Morcha state vice-president Jai Singh has brought to the notice of the government a bunch of issues being faced by residents of far-flung villages in the Churah sub-division of Chamba district.

He said thousands of residents had to remain cut off from their nearby villages due to delay in the construction of the Dhanjinala bridge.

He said the bridge falls in the Khushnagri panchayat, but no concrete steps had so far taken to undertake the construction of the bridge.

The interior panchayats that Jai Singh visited included Bairagarh, Dehgran and Khushnagari, besides areas of Satyansh, Palyug, Ichhluni, Dauri, Tarwali, Duansh and Ghulei of the Churah region. He also realised the issue of dearth of teachers in schools.