Nalagarh, October 16
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today said the Himachal Pradesh Apartments and Property Regulation Act, 2005, would be scrapped in the ensuing winter session of the state Assembly as largescale irregularities had come to the fore in an inquiry conducted by a seven-member Joint Assembly Committee.

He said it was surprising to note that the Congress, which was making a hue and cry on the issue, had not only passed this Act in its tenure, but had also granted as many as 72 permissions to non-Himachalis to buy 2,071 bighas of land in the state as against 11 granted by the BJP to buy 371 bighas of land.

He was addressing a public meeting today after laying the foundation stone of a Rs 17-crore sewerage scheme for Nalagarh town, which will be constructed in four zones and benefit over 50,000 people. He also dedicated a newly constructed bridge on the Gurukund-Tali road constructed at a cost of Rs 77 lakh, the Gurukund-Talai road completed at a cost of Rs 1.80 crore and also laid the foundation stone of the Jogindra Central Co-operative Bank building at Nalalgarh to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.4 crore.

He said development had been given a big boost by giving special attention to infrastructure development and Rs 20 crore had been sanctioned for the improvement, maintenance and repair of roads here, out of which about Rs 9 crore was being spent in the Nalagarh area alone.

Dhumal announced the upgradation of the First Referral Unit to a 100-bedded hospital from the existing 50-bedded and sanctioned Rs 1.03 crore for the construction of staff quarters. He said an ambulance under the Atal Swasthaya Sewa would be provided in the Ramshehar area soon.

The CM lauded the services by late HN Saini, former MLA, to the Nalagarh constituency and urged people to vote for the BJP in the ensuing by-poll. But he desisted from announcing Saini’s wife as the party nominee.

Giving a Diwali bonanza to the JCCB, he announced a bonus of Rs 38 lakh to the employees and said 107 vacancies in different categories would be filled up by this year end. He said bank employees would get bonus of Rs 38 lakh before Diwali.

Earlier, he dedicated the newly constructed ITI building, completed at cost of 52 crore, to the students and laid the foundation stone of an ITI for girls estimated to cost of Rs 2.50 crore.

Narender Bragta, Horticulture and Technical Education Minister, Dr Rajiv Bindal, Health Minister, MLAs and various officials were among those present on the occasion.

New Delhi, October 16
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has cleared the proposal for setting up an ultra-modern plant in Bharyal village at the Tara-Devi-Totu Bypass for the safe disposal of the huge solid waste generated by Shimla city every day.

In an order passed by Justice AS Naidu and Dr GK Pandey (Expert Member), the NGT, however, directed the Municipal Corporation of Shimla to set up the plant strictly following the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, and after obtaining clearance under the amended Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006.

“We also direct the MC, Shimla, to plant at least two times of the trees i.e. 219x2 and double the saplings i.e. 1055x2 of the same variety which have been felled by the project proponent to maintain ecological balance,” the NGT ruled last week.

The tribunal also directed the corporation to adopt and implement all necessary preventive and control measures to avoid any adverse impact on the environment, specially on the groundwater and water bodies, keeping in mind the provisions of Article 12 of the Constitution “which mandates enjoyment of pollution-free air and water.”

The gram panchayat, Totu (Majthai), and two individuals had approached the tribunal, seeking prevention of the setting up of the landfill site and the waste disposal plant in the village.

Arguing for the corporation, counsel Anil Nag had assured the NGT that the proposed processing plant “is an ultra-modern one and is technically sound” and would take care of the day-to-day collection of solid waste from Shimla. The plant would function without any problem for 20 years.

There would be hardly any “leftover at the site” and as such the plant would not attract birds which were a threat to flights. Also, there would be “zero discharge” of effluents from the processing plant and therefore the water bodies and streams situated in the area would be safe, Nag said.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court had directed the shifting of the Solid Bio Waste Management Plant located at Darni-ka-Bagicha after a major fire at the landfill site in 2009 that raged for more than three days, emitting obnoxious smell and smoke that engulfed not only the surrounding areas but also the entire town, including the HC.

The area was on the outskirts of the city when the plant was set up, but as the township “grew all around the place” over the years the landfill is now in the middle of the town.

Shimla, October 16
The need for amending the “audit mandate” of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) to bring all public expenditure within its ambit and greater interaction with audittee institutions was underlined at a two-day seminar, which concluded at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts here today.

The central theme of the seminar was “audit mandate”, and a presentation on this subject was made by Gurveen Sidhu, Principal Director (Strategic Management Unit Office) of the CAG of India. The participants of the seminar agreed that there was an urgent need for using audit for better governance and that it was possible only by enhancing the scope of the audit mandate and making the executive become more responsive to the audit. They also concurred on the need for appropriate legislative initiatives in this regard.

Inaugurating the seminar, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh stressed the need for efficient systems of audit for successful delivery of government services. He said public demand for transparency in government programmes, including those in the Public-Private Partnership mode, was likely to increase manifold in the days to come.

Executives should interact with auditors and use the audit recommendations as an input for good governance, while the auditors must appreciate and be sensitive to the genuine constraints faced by the executives in implementation, “keeping in mind the demands of competitive environment”.

In his opening remarks, the CAG, Vinod Rai, asserted that the auditors laid great emphasis on interaction with the auditee institution while carrying out the audit. Dialogue, he stated, was absolutely essential, both for the smooth conduct of audit and for the successful outcome of the audit. He also brought to the attention of the participants the need for amending the audit mandate to bring all public expenditure within the purview of public audit.

Rekha Gupta, Deputy Comptroller and Auditor-General, introduced the theme of the seminar. A presentation was made by ANP Sinha, a former secretary, Panchayati Raj Department, Government of India, on the role of audit in the social sector and its synergy with social audit. The feedback of the IAS officers who attended the training at Mussoorie on the performance audit in the civil aviation sector was presented by Sanjeev Chopra, Joint Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. Ashok Chawla, a former Union Finance Secretary and Chairman of the Committee on Allocation of Natural Resources, shared the findings of the committee.

Chief Justice of the high court Kurian Joseph addressed the participants on the concluding day of the seminar which was attended by seven secretaries to the Government of India and the principal secretaries (Finance) of some states. 

Shimla, October 16
The plan to convert the record apple procured last year under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) into organic manure has come a cropper. In fact, the record procurement in the wake of an all-time high production of 8.92 lakh tonnes is likely to result in a record loss.

More than a year has passed but so far not a single bag of organic manure has been produced.

Normally, vermi-composting takes three to four months and the bacterial process is even faster; as such the process should have been completed latest by March. However, the 2011 apple harvesting season is drawing to a close but the manure is still in the making.

A record 1,11,000 tonnes of fruit was procured of which a meagre 8,000 tonnes was processed by the HPMC and another 45,000 tonnes sold in the market, leaving over 55,000 tonnes to rot. The government decided to convert the rotting fruit into organic manure and it is quite evident now that only a small part of it will be actually composted. The HPMC is composting about 12,000 tonnes of which not even 1,000 tonnes are being vermi-composted. HIMFED is composting 18,000 tonnes.

The plan was to convert the entire stock, which could not be transported to the market, into organic manure through vermi-composting under the guidance of the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry. However, inadequate availability of worms forced the authorities to go for bacterial composting for bulk of the fruit.

A team, headed by a senior scientist of the university, Dr GP Upadhyaya, who is overseeing the vermi-composting part, will visit the composting sites next week to ascertain the status.

However, the bacterial process, through which bulk of the 30,000 tonnes of fruit was to be composted, has not been very encouraging. Procurement of 1 kg of apple under the MIS costs over Rs 7 and as such the failure of the organic manure plan will result in a loss of over Rs 21 crore. The total loss for 2010 may exceed Rs 35 crore.

Shimla, October 16
The highest number of tourists may be visiting the “Queen of Hills” during the summer, but it attracts more winged visitors during the lean autumn season.

A second survey conducted last week by Himachal Birds, a forum dedicated to the conservation of avian habitat and bird-watching, has revealed that the hill station plays host to more birds during the autumn. In all, 20 more species were observed compared to the summer survey conducted in April early this year, which is a significant development.

The important species recorded in the survey included eurasian jay, black-chinned babbler, booted eagle, eurasian sparrow hawk, chestnut-belied nuthatch, white-tailed nuthatch, upland pipit and hill partridge.

As many as 136 bird species were recorded as against 116 in the previous count. Some of the birds conspicuous by their absence were drongos, finches, buntings and wall creepers. Drongos and wall creepers are seasonal migrants, while the absence of the others needs more study, explains Somesh Goyal, founder president of Himachal Birds and the moving spirit behind the initiative.

The first exercise was carried out in April to create a baseline data of the winged residents since surveys like this were done only by the British in the pre-Independence era. After the summer and autumn counts, the next survey will be conducted in January to have a comprehensive list of the birds seen in different seasons. The data will be shared with the wildlife wing of the Forest Department and local birding enthusiasts. The exercise will help provide a better understanding of the migratory pattern of birds due to a change in the weather, Goyal adds.

The survey was carried out by 30 experienced bird-watchers from Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. The bird count was done over a single day (October 9) by dividing Shimla into eight segments, each scanned by a team of four or five experts, along with officials from the wildlife wing for a period of 12 hours. The segments were carved out keeping in mind the geographical flora and fauna uniqueness of the areas.

Mandi, October 16
In a crackdown on substandard sweets ahead of Diwali, a team of the Heath Department officials, led by Food Inspector LD Thakur, raided a godown of a Delhi-Manali transport company here today and seized non-branded sweets weighing 6 quintal. The team also took samples of the sweets and sent these for testing to the state composite testing laboratory.

Acting on a tipoff, Thakur raided the godown of the company run by Rakesh Kumar of Mandi. The sweets packaged in 100 packets of 6 kg each carried no mention of the manufacturers and address, Thakur said.

The team also found that the sweets consignments did not carry contents and manufacturing and expiry dates. The sweets packets had become stale.

The sweets had originated from Chandigarh and were sent at the address of Dharampal Traders, Mandi.

The sweets were ready to be delivered to local sellers in Mandi, Kullu, Manali and other places, the team said.

Thakur said they had sealed the consignments as these violated the provisions of the amended Food Adulteration Act. It was now mandatory under the Act that sweets carried the proper brand name, address and dates of manufacturing and expiry, he added.

The case would be put before the ADM or the Heath Secretary after they received the report on the samples from the testing laboratory. The challan would be put in the court after sanctioned by the authorities, Thakur added.

Dharamsala, October 16
With speculations that Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Virbhadra Singh’s son will enter the fray, the elections for the state Youth Congress president have started generating heat.

About 275 forms submitted, allegedly by leaders belonging to the Virbhadra Singh faction in Kangra on Friday, have drawn controversy. Rinku Dhiman, Youth Congress leader, has complained that the forms were submitted after the 8 pm deadline. So these should not have been accepted.

Dhiman alleged that it was an attempt to rig the democratic election process set by Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi. Rahul has introduced the present system of election in the Youth Congress so that the common youth can get representation in the organisation. However, in the present case 275 forms were submitted in bulk by rich and influential people after the deadline. They also did not submit the Rs 10 per form fee for membership and Rs 100 per form fee for the elections. The fee was submitted later.

Dhiman also lodged a complaint with the Election Commissioner for the election.

Deepak Sharma, Lok Sabha Returning Officer for the Youth Congress elections from Kangra district, admitted that a complaint in this regard had been received. State president, Youth Congress, Manmohan Katoch had expressed apprehensions that influential political leaders might try to rig the election process.