Shimla, November 6
The government has decided to adopt an integrated tripartite approach by involving the local community, main stakeholders and power companies to ensure more effective implementation of the catchment area treatment (CAT) plans.

The issue was discussed at a workshop presided over by Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu earlier this week in which officers of the departments concerned and the representatives of power companies also participated. It was agreed that the Forest Department would formulate master CAT plans for all the five river basins and efforts would be made to obtain environment clearance on their basis for the projects located in the basins. The CAT plans for individual projects would emanate from them and prepared keeping in view the site specific requirements by fine tuning them. The implementation would be carried out by involving the local people for which village committees would be formed. Since the Forest Department did not have the competence to undertake large civil works, these could be handed over to the Public Works Department.

Additional Chief Secretary, Forests and Environment, Sudripta Roy said the basic objective of the CAT plan was water and soil conservation so that hydropower projects had adequate discharge sans silt for smooth operations of the projects and as such they all had a stake in them. So far works were being carried out piecemeal and confined to silt-retention structures and afforestation, but now a holistic approach would be adopted and factors and activities leading to degradation of catchments would also be taken care of. For instance, measures of crop diversification, closure of areas and avoiding deforestation helped in checking soil erosion and thus reduced the silt content in rivers and streams.

The World Bank and independent power producers (IPPs), the stakeholders, have been unhappy with the implementation of CAT plans and want a more focused approach. While the World Bank has been insisting on the formulation of the Master CAT Plan for the entire river basin, the IPPs want reduction in the funds to be provided by them for its implementation and also for expediting the process for environment clearance. They are of the view that the 2.5 per cent of the project cost for the CAT plan was on the higher side and that the payment of the amount should be staggered.

The focus of (CAT) plans will shift from eco-goods to eco-services with enhancement of water sources.

Kangra, November 6
Thousands of pilgrims from within and outside the country started visiting the Jayanti Mata temple in the town in connection with the five-day festival of Panch Bhisham which started here today.

The pilgrims started climbing the hill from wee hours of this morning on the first day of the festival and reached the temple reciting Vedic hymns, singing bhajans and chanting “Jai Mata Di”.

The Panch Bhisham festival will conclude on November 10, coinciding with Kartik Poornamashi. It is celebrated as the marriage of Tulsi and Saligram and also to remember the great warrior and guru of the Pandavas, Guru Bhishampitama. Bhishampitama lay on a bed of arrows during the Mahabharata during these five days.

The famous Kangra Fort, which has been a witness to the victories and defeats during the Muslim rule, is on the one side of the Manji river and on the other side on top of the hill is an ancient temple of Mata Jayanti.

The pilgrims are provided with langer prasad by a philanthropist family on all the five days of the festival.

People in this valley solemnise the marriage of Tulsi and Saligram during these five days at their homes and bhajan and kirtan are performed to mark the occasion. Tulsi is worshipped by women in every home.

Long queues of the pilgrims were seen today on the entire route from Purana Kangra to the temple site on the first day of the festival and there were adequate police arrangements made by the authorities to maintain law and order and keep a vigil on anti-social elements, besides regulating vehicular and pilgrim traffic.

Mandi, November 6
Local MP and Union Minister Virbhadra Singh’s “Youth Congress brigade”, supporting his son Vikramaditya Singh, almost swept the Youth Congress block president polls for which counting was completed in all the 10 Assembly block segments in the district today.

On the other hand, state Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur’s supporters made counter claims saying that Thakur’s candidates won in his Dran and other segments.

In the first rounds of the polls for block presidents, most of the Youth Congress leaders supported candidates of Virbhadra Singh - Rangila Ram Rao in Sarkaghat, Surinderpal in Jogindernagar, Anil Sharma in Mandi Sadar, Parkash Chaudhary in Balh, Harinder Sen Sundarnagar, Chander Shekhar in Dharampur, Chet Ram Thakur and Prof Virsingh Chauhan in Seraj, Tek Chand Dogra in Nachan, claimed supporters of Virbhadra Singh.

On the other hand, Kaul Singh’s supporters claimed that Thakur’s men have won in many segments, including Drang, a claim contested by Virbhadra’s supporters.

In the 40-year history of the Youth Congress, it is for the first time that the Congress conducted Youth Congress polls on democratic lines.

Vikramaditya, sitting Youth Congress chief Manmohan Katoch and Raghuvir Bali, son of Kangra Congress leader GS Bali, have emerged stronger and high-profiled contestants for the post of new Youth Congress chief as compared with 11 others seeking votes on “Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s political gospel of roping in the common man in the organisation”.

Kuljit Singh, election convener, Mandi, said the counting was complete and list was being finalised. The Mandi Parliamentary seat election would be held tomorrow, he added.

But most of 10,500 delegate-voters of the state Youth Congress have not opened their cards.

As a result, the election has sparked off a fresh factional fight in the state Congress with Mandi MP and Union Minister Virbhadra Singh, who has thrown his might behind his son Vikramaditya to make his entry into a “third-line Congress leadership”, facing competition from his party rival Kaul Singh, who is tacitly supporting Bali’s son, claimed insiders.

For Vikramaditya Singh, 22, this is going to be a big entry into the state politics.

The bigwigs have been focusing mainly on the Mandi Parliamentary constituency, which has the largest 3,275 voters, Kangra (3,240 voters), Shimla (2,785 voters) and Hamirpur ( 1,311 voters). The new chief will be elected on November 8, when all the counting will be completed.

Dharamsala, November 6
Factions of the BJP, led by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and former Chief Minister and national vice-president of the BJP Shanta Kumar, have hardened their stance against each other.

Sources said after the Chief Minister met national president of the BJP Nitin Gadkari, along with Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, at Nagpur, his group decided to take their opponents head on.

The fact was evident during the visit of the Chief Minister to Palampur on November 4.

While most of the Shanta faction leaders, including two ministers from Kangra, Minister for Industries Kishan Kapoor and Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Ramesh Dhawala, were absent during the function, the leaders owing affiliation to the Dhumal faction were present in full strength, along with their supporters. The only Shanta faction leader present at the Chief Minister’s function was local MLA Parveen Sharma. However, even he was feeling marginalised due to overwhelming presence of members of the Dhumal faction and their supporters.

To display their strength in Palampur that has been the bastion of Shanta Kumar, leaders of the Dhumal faction, led by Minister for IPH Ravinder Ravi, gathered their supporters in large numbers and welcomed the Chief Minister with drum beats. The leaders of the Dhumal faction present at the function included Ravinder Ravi, Minister for Social Justice and Women Empowerment Sarveen Chaudhary, independent MLAs from Nurpur and Kangra Rakesh Pathania and Sanjay Chaudhary, Vice-Chairman of the Forest Corporation Bikram Thakur and Chairman, Woolfed, Trilok Kapoor.

The Chief Minister, when asked about the absence of leaders of the Shanta faction, said it was a university function and probably some leaders were not invited.

About the leaders of the Shanta faction targeting some of his close associates, the Chief Minister said if they had something concrete, they should have brought the facts to his notice.

When asked if the non-completion of Vivekanand Hospital that was pet project of Shanta Kumar was a bone of contention between the two groups, Dhumal said, “Good development works can never be a reason for negative politics.” He said the work of Vivekanand Hospital would be completed very soon.

Meanwhile, sources revealed that some members of the Shanta camp also met Nitin Gadkari at Ludhiana, where he had come to attend the state executive meeting of Punjab.

Shanta Kumar had already urged the party high command to intervene in the matter.

Mandi/Ladbharol, November 6
The death toll in the clash at Kutla village today rose to three as Bhopal Thakur, an Assistant Professor posted at the Government Degree College, Baijnath, succumbed to injuries at the PGI, Jogindernagar.

Gulab Singh Thakur, PWD Minister, promised that strict action would be taken in the case in which two brothers had died on Friday night.

On the other hand, Virender Singh, brother of Bhopal Singh, today lodged an FIR at the Jogindernagar police station charging the family of Kalyan Singh of provoking the fight and accused the other party of attacking them. The police registered a case under Sections 341, 323 and 34 of the IPC.

The two brothers, Anil and Onkar, who had died on the spot on Friday night in the clash between two families, were brothers of Kalyan Singh, local BJP Yuva Morcha leader, who was also injured in the fight. Anil and Onkar used to work in some private companies in New Delhi and had come to attend a marriage in the family early this week.

Gulab Singh, who visited the victims’ family today, promised employment to their widows and gave a financial help of Rs 1 lakh, raised by the local BJP unit and Vice-Chairman, HP State Cooperative Bank, Kashmir Pandit, to the victim’s family members.

Meanwhile, all other injured persons, Sunil, Kalyan, Virender and Surinder, all admitted to Tanda Medical College, are reported to be out of danger.

SP, Mandi, Pupul Dutta said the police had lodged a second FIR today and four members of Bhopal’s family, arrested yesterday, were being interrogated. No weapon had been recovered so far, he added.

Bilaspur, November 6
Achal, five-year-old son of Daxendra of Bhapral village near Ghumarwin, was saved from being carried away by a leopard by his mother and grandmother when it pounced upon him while he was playing in his courtyard on Thursday evening.

Reports said the leopard attacked Achal from behind and tried to lift it away, but Achal fell down from his clutches.

Hearing the boy’s shrieks, his mother Anupama and grandmother came to his rescue and the leopard ran away.

The boy had received injuries and was being treated.

Just 10 minutes after this incident, the leopard attacked farmer Lekh Ram’s pet dog in the same village, but villagers scared it away by exploding crackers.

Accompanied by gram panchayat leaders, BJP Ghumarwin unit president Kishan Singh Thakur met Divisional Forest Officer DR Kaushal and said earlier this leopard had killed a number of pets of villagers, but now as it has started to attack humans. They said it must be caught and carried away to a zoo. They were assured by the DFO that it would be soon caught.

Shimla, November 6
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has appealed to various non-government organisations and people to encourage and adopt Sanskrit from which all other languages had originated.

Speaking at Sanskrit Utsav organised jointly by the Department of Language, Art and Culture and the Sanskrit Bharti, at the historic Gaiety Theatre here today, he said Sanskrit was the traditional language of India since time immemorial and it later became the source of all other languages. It was so popular once that even people from other countries were doing research in the language.

Besides, all our epics and scriptures, including the Vedas and Puranas, were written in Sanskrit. He said it was heartening to know that scholars in countries like Germany were doing research on Sanskrit, but in India youth seemed indifferent towards it.

Dhumal said though the state government had made Sanskrit a part of the school curriculum, there were few students opting to study the language. Private schools were laying stress on English. As a result more and more students were attracted to these schools, leading to low enrolment in government schools. He said there was a need for mass movement for propagating and publicising Sanskrit to help preserve the rich tradition, culture and customs.

Dr Ganesh Dutt, Secretary, Himachal Pradesh Sanskrit Academy, appreciated the efforts of the government in the preservation of the language.

President, Sanskrit Bharti, Dr Bhakt Vatsal Sharma, stressed the need to bring changes in curriculum by including old education system. He said there was a need for strengthening existing Sanskrit institutions.

Chamba, November 6
The Sansari Nala-Killar bridge in the far-flung Pangi tribal area of the district collapsed yesterday, according to a delayed report reached at the district headquarter today. However, there is no report of the loss of any human life so far.

The report revealed that 140-foot-long bridge collapsed due a huge landslide.

The link of eight panchayats of the Pangi tribal valley with the Pangi valley subdivisional headquarters at Killar has been cut off due to the collapse of the bridge. Officials have rushed to the site to take stock of the situation.

It was the only link for the inhabitants of the eight panchayats of Purthi, Mindhal, Saach, Kumar, Sahli, Shoor, Shour and Sechu with the Pangi valley subdivisional headquarters at Killar.

The bridge was constructed and being maintained by the General Roads Engineers Force (GREF).

Meanwhile, residents of the eight panchayats demanded that an alternative arrangement be made to enable them cross the river so that the normal life was resumed in these areas.

Solan, November 6
With thousands of people having turned up at the Mall Road to catch a glimpse of Bollywood film actress Karisma Kapoor, her short 10-minute appearance to inaugurate a jewellery showroom here today turned out to be a fiasco.

Though she was supposed to be at the jewellery showroom for half an hour, with no security arrangement and people jostling for space to gain proximity to the cine star, all she did was inaugurate the showroom and make a hasty exit before agog fans could even think of getting themselves clicked with her. She did not even bother to see the jewellery collection displayed at the showroom leaving the owners disappointed.

She arrived in the afternoon due to a delayed flight and seeing thousands of people on the Mall Road jostling each other to catch a glimpse of her and a packed showroom, she restricted her visit to a just few minutes.

The trip, which was supposed to bring business worth lakhs from the jewellery sale, turned out to be an ill-organised show lacking meaning as neither did the actress speak a word for promoting the jewellery nor glance at the collection.

Hamirpur, November 6
Sainik School, Sujanpur Tihra, is soon going to have its own indoor shooting range for its students in the school complex.

The shooting range has been sanctioned for the school by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and work has already begun.

Since most of the students of the school opt for career in the armed forces, the shooting range in the school will be quite beneficial for them.

This shooting range will have all modern equipment required for the shooting practice and all guns, which are used in the shooting events in the Olympic Games, are being imported from the USA.

The MoD has already sanctioned about Rs 65 lakh to Sainik School, Sujanpur Tihra, required to set up the shooting range and drawings have been prepared, besides identifying the place for setting up the range.

The shooting range could also be used by the students of the school opting shooting as a sport to compete in national competitions.

Several shooters from the state have excelled in the national and international competitions. Samresh Jung has won medals for the country in international competitions and subedar Vijay Kumar, who hails from Badsar area of Hamirpur district, has won dozens of medals in international competitions.

In the last Delhi Commonwealth Games, Vijay Kumar had won three gold medals and two silver medals for the country.

Moreover, after Abhinav Bindra won the maiden gold medal in shooting in the last Olympic Games, the craze for shooting has increased among the youth.

Principal of Sainik School, Sujanpur Tihra, Group Captain Surender Singh said, “The MoD has sanctioned an indoor shooting range for our school, which will benefit our students a lot and we have already started work on the project and the range will be operational in the next about four months.”

Bilaspur, November 6
The Himachal Pradesh State HPPWD Draughtsmen Association has launched a strong protest against, what it called “sheer injustice” done to the category of draughtsmen under Punjab pay scales. It said it was for the first time that their category, along with some other low-grade categories, had been ignored in such a way, while Class I officers, who also included IAS officers etc, had been provided with exorbitant pay scales.

A meeting of the state Executive Committee of the association presided over by state president Ram Singh, which met here on Friday, adopted a resolution urging the Punjab Government and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to appoint a high-powered committee to go into this matter and decide these pay scales of lower categories, including draughtsmen, purely on merit and their work and multifarious duties.

The resolution said this committee should invite suggestions from all these categories which had been ignored under these pay scales to represent their case and the committee should also hear their representatives so that justice was ensured to them.

The meeting urged the Punjab Draughtsmen Association to take this issue seriously with their government and the HP association would stand firmly behind them and support them in their this struggle against this injustice.

Hamirpur, November 6
The Rajinder Rana Friends Club today organised a state-level open marathon competition at Sujanpur Tihra for boys and girls and cash prizes of Rs 1 lakh were given to the winners.

The cash prize of Rs 20,000 each in the 10-km race for boys and 6-km race for girls was won by Rakesh Kumar of Mandi and Reeta of Hamirpur, respectively.

The second and third prizes of Rs 12,000 and Rs 8,000 were won by Dinesh Kumar of Hamirpur and Ashwani Kumar of Mandi, respectively, while both these prizes in the girls category were won by Manju and Kanta from Mandi district.

Consolation prizes of Rs 1,000 were given to other winners in these races.

President of the Sarv Kalyan Kari Sabha Rajinder Rana presided over the function and assured the gathering that these races would be held every year to promote athletics in the state.