Shimla, November 13
The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation will introduce five luxury buses on the Manali-Rohtang route to help reduce traffic congestion atop the 13,050-foot-high mountain pass from next summer.

The green initiative has been taken by the corporation to help preserve the highly eco-sensitive tourist destination, which remains under snow for most part of the year, in view of the rapid environmental degradation being caused due to unregulated and excessive rush of visitors. It attracts thousands of visitors daily during the peak summer, making long traffic jams a common feature. The traffic snarls apart, the excessive vehicular emissions in the high-altitude area has been causing concern as it is hastening the melting of snow and also affecting the quantum of snowfall.

“The Kullu valley tourism industry has very high stakes in Rohtang and its degradation will have long- term implications for all those involved in the tourist trade. It is for this reason that the corporation has taken the initiative,” says Vineet Kumar, Managing Director of the corporation.

However, it will be a profitable venture as Rs 1.30 crore has been provided to the corporation from the Green Fund. The corporation had introduced two luxury buses towards the end of the last tourist season and from next summer there will seven buses on the route which will help bring down the number of cars and other tourist vehicles.

The corporation also plans to acquire two more Volvo buses at a cost of Rs 1.52 crore for plying on the Delhi-Manali route as these high-end luxury vehicles have been fetching handsome profits to the corporation. The cost is recovered within two years. The corporation already has four Volvo buses which helped in reducing the loss of the transport wing from Rs 1.25 crore to Rs 26 lakh over the past five years. Vineet Kumar said focus would also be on the maintenance of main complexes as part of which old carpets would be replaced by wooden flooring in view of high humidity and diesel generators would be provided for stand-by power, particularly in hotels affected due to erratic supply.

Shimla, November 13
A group of 60 students from Dalhousie Public School, Dalhousie, in Chamba is all set to begin a journey into the fascinating world of space research and have a lifetime experience.

They have been selected by the Kennedy Space Center under the international camp programme to visit the NASA Space Center at Houston and the Kennedy Space Center in December.

Accompanied by four teachers, the students from classes VI to X will leave for the USA on December 9 to participate in the world’s biggest and most prestigious science and engineering programme, said Dr GS Dhillon, Principal of the school.

The Kennedy Space Center in Florida is the heart of the American space programme .The Kennedy Space Center is the only working space shuttle site in the USA. These students will get a chance to crawl through rocket tunnels, have lunch with astronauts, interact with scientists at NASA and visit the Hall of Fame during their 10-day stay. They will visit the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a huge pool constructed to experience weightlessness, the first step of getting the feel of being in space.

The students participating in the tour will be exposed to the world of space sciences, robotics and nuances involved in designing a space shuttle. They will be taken around NASA and will be explained about how space shuttles are assembled and where the astronauts are trained. They will visit the shuttle landing facility of the Kennedy Space Center to see the vehicle assembly building, Dhillon stated.

The participants will be divided into four teams, senior and junior, and allotted red, blue, white and silver colours after reaching Houston. They will interact with scientists and astronauts and learn how to make rocket ships and Mars rovers. They will also get a chance to launch it themselves in the Rover Obstacle Course.

A graduation ceremony has also been lined up at the Kennedy Space Center on the last day and all the participants will be awarded certificates from the Kennedy Space Center and souvenirs from the astronauts. The group will have an

opportunity of visiting Hollywood studios, Orlando , New York City, Disney’s Epcot and Universal Studios before their return to India.

Kennedy Space Centre’s education tour co-ordinator Hemant Sharma will take the students on a science and entertainment trip to the American space agency and Universal Studios. The programme is designed to provide knowledge to the participants about the latest developments in science and technology. The crew of the shuttle mission to the International Space Station will share their experience with the children about science, education and their passion for space, and to promote the goal of human space flight to India.

Bilaspur, November 13
Anurag Thakur, MP from the Hamirpur constituency and BCCI national joint secretary, who is also Himachal Pradesh State Cricket Association (HPCA) state president, said his HPCA had taken on itself the responsibility of giving financial aid to all financially weaker sports in the shape of developing infrastructure and appointing coaches for their trainees. He said the HPCA was appointing 40 coaches for 12 other sports and games in the state. He announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh for providing fencing for some unprotected play fields at the Luhnu Sports complex.

Anurag, who returned from Israel only yesterday, said it was 11 years ago that he took over the reins of the HPCA as its president and then the budget and total assets of this state organisation was only Rs 20 lakh. He said now the HPCA had total assets and budget worth Rs 200 crore. “We have succeeded in taking our state team to get the first position in the entire country within five years and the second position in women’s cricket within four years,” he added.

Anurag said presently they had the Dharamsala stadium, which was one of the best in the world, and stadiums at Bilaspur, Amtar (Nadaun) and Una in the country. He said a cricket academy with an expenditure of Rs 1 crore would soon start functioning at Shimla, while three stadiums were planned for Shimla district within the next two years costing Rs 2 crore each.

The District Cricket Association, led by its general secretary Vishal Jagota, honoured Anurag for being elected joint secretary of the BCCI, while Anurag distributed cricket kits to 60 trainees of the Bilaspur Cricket Academy being run by the HPCA which has three coaches to train 60 students with modern gadgets.

Present on the occasion were HP Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal, HPCA state vice-president Sureder Thakur, Mandi district Cricket Association president Ajay Rana, BJYM state president Narender Attri, HP state Sports and Youth Services Director JR Katwal and Additional District Magistrate Darshan Kalia and SP Santosh Patial.

Shimla, November 13
A three-day international seminar on “The Home and the World: Rabindranath Tagore” will be held at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) here from November 14.

This seminar is part of the institute’s programme to commemorate the sesquicentennial of Rabindranath Tagore.

The seminar will throw light on Tagore’s idea of “The Home and the World”. The objective is to decode his idea of the two concepts, discussed prominently through the conversations among the three major protagonists in his novel “Ghare Baire” (The Home and the World).

About 25 national and international scholars are participating in the three-day seminar. They include Prof Tapan Raychaudhuri, Prof Uma Das Gupta, Prof Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Prof Arindam Chakrabarti, Prof Sari Nussiebeh, Prof Patrick Colm Hogan, Dr VA Van Bijlert, Prof Manas Mukul Das and Prof Sasheej Hedge. Dr Gangeya Mukherji is the convenor of the seminar.

The participants will explore the possibilities to extend its scope, not only to the other writings of Tagore, but also to an investigation of the unchartered spaces of the idea, through a reconsideration of the issues of belonging and dispossession from the vantage point. It will naturally involve a conversation with other voices speaking of identity and amnesia.

Shimla, November 13
Participants representing various political parties, student bodies, traditions and other sections of society agreed that “one should shun violence and not destruct public property” at a public colloquium organised by the Himachal Pradesh State Legal Authority here today.

The consensus on the vital issue discussed under the title “Fundamental duties - protection of public property and adjure violence'” here today emerged after the participants expressed diverse views over the causes and reasons leading to violence and the consequent damage to public property.

Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Kurian Joseph, who presided over the colloquium, stressed the need for creating awareness among the masses regarding their duties and added that organising of the colloquium was a step in this direction. He said this was the ninth colloquium in a series.

The colloquium was organised in collaboration with the Art, Language and Culture Department, the Public Relations Society of India, the Shimla chapter and the SEWA Trust, a non-governmental organisation.

Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice RB Mishra, a Judge of the high court and executive chairman of the State Legal Authority, while welcoming the participants, detailed about the legal aid being provided by the authority to various sections, especially the poor.

Justice VK Sharma, a Judge of the high court, in his keynote address, dwelt upon various aspects of of the topic by citing various decisions of the judiciary.

An interactive session was also organised in which the Chief Justice and other members of the panel replied to questions raised on the subject.

Dr Prem Sharma, Director, Art, Language and Culture, was also honoured by the Chief Justice on behalf of the organisers for his services rendered for the success of the event.

PCC chief Kaul Singh Thakur, Suresh Bhardwaj, BJP MLA, Tikender Panwar, state secretary, CPM, Vijay Nayyar, state president, BSP, Dr Vikram, state secretary, SFI, Sanjeev Walia, state general secretary, NSUI, and Naveen Sharma, state organising secretary, ABVP, also spoke on the occasion and expressed their views on the subject.

Bilaspur, November 13
The Himachal Pradesh State Employees Federation, led by veteran NGO leader Ram Singh, has given a call to all factions of the federation to come forward to form only one organisation with a view to restore its old strength, honour, dignity in the interest of more than three lakh employees who have been achieving nothing tangible due to divisions in their ranks.

A meeting of the federation here last evening regretted the decision of the factions to celebrate its foundation day on November 20 at various places.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Ram Singh
said the state executive committee of his federation had appealed to all leaders to come to Bilaspur on November 20 and celebrate this day jointly and take a solemn pledge in front of the statue of late Romesh Chandra Sharma, founder president of the state federation.

He said Romesh Chandra first united all employees in the state into one
unit and then fought successfully the 1970 agitation of 35-day strike of state employees, getting the highest pay scales in the country then for the entire state employees and officers, including acceptance of all other demands.

He said one strong federation united under the leadership of Romesh Chandra could achieve such a miracle. The then Chief Minister Dr YS Parmar was forced to accept their demands.

Ram Singh said the splinter groups were now fighting among themselves and wasting their energy and effort on useless pursuits. 

Shimla, November 13
Expressing concern over the inordinate delay in the payment of pension to teachers and the non-teaching staff by Himachal Pradesh University, Chaudhary Waryam Singh Bains, member, Executive Council and Court, has urged the authorities to take up the matter with the state government for an increase in the grant-in-aid from Rs 50 crore to Rs 62 crore.

He said the outstanding liability on account of terminal benefits like gratuity and pension had crossed Rs 5 crore and with a revision of pay scales, the overall employee cost had gone up steeply. The government should provide some funds immediately to clear the outstanding pension liability. Besides, follow-up action on the recommendations of the resource mobilisation committee should be taken to enhance the domestic receipts of the university to reduce the budgetary deficit.

Bains pointed out that the university was also suffering due to indiscriminate opening of private universities and also the state technical university as it had lost over Rs 13 crore by way of affiliation fee and other charges. The government should take effective steps to strengthen the apex educational institution of the state.

He also urged Vice-Chancellor ADN Bajpai to effect promotions at the officers’ levels which had become long overdue, including those of Deputy Registrar (2), Assistant Registrar (4), Section Officer (13), Superintendent (20), personal staff (five) and head cook (one), which were duly approved by the competent authorities. He said the matter also came up for discussion in the meeting of the Employees Grievances Redressal Committee (EGRC) on October 21, but the necessary orders had not been issued so far. He also sought incentive for the staff members who had acquired higher educational qualifications during service.

Other demands raised by him included the regularisation of services of computer programmers (four) who are working on a contract basis in the examination wing and sought the appointment of data entry operators to facilitate timely declaration of results. He also sought deployment of officials as per the recommendations of the Kaw Committee and the Wilson Committee duly approved by the Executive Council so as to meet the shortage of staff which is not in the prescribed ratio to the strength of students. With a large number of retirements taking place, appropriate steps must be taken now to ensure that the functioning of the university was not paralysed.

Shimla, November 13
The CPM has lambasted the government for its failure to control the prices of cement in the state and for allowing cement companies to sell it at much higher prices in comparison to neighbouring states.

The party pointed out that cement was being manufactured in the state at the cost of fragile environment but it was being sold in the state for Rs 25 to Rs 30 more per bag than neighbouring states.

The government had no justifiable reason for this discrepancy in the rate. The attitude of the government was shocking as local people had sacrificed their home and hearth for cement plants.

General secretary of the Shimla district unit of the party Sanjay Chauhan threatened to expose the nexus between various cement companies, including ACC, Ambuja and JP Cement.

He said three more companies were in the process of setting up plants for which the government was giving incentives like electricity at nominal rates and other tax exemptions.

Yet these cement companies had fixed a higher price of cement in the state instead of selling it at concessional rates.

These cement companies were appeasing ruling party leaders by organising cricket matches and giving funds for building parks and playgrounds in the areas of ruling party leaders.

He urged the government hold an immediate meeting with the companies and direct these not only to reduce the price of cement in the state but sell it at rates 20 per cent less compared to the neighbouring states, failing which his party would be constrained to launch an agitation.