Shimla, November 20
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Kaul Singh Thakur said yesterday that the BJP citadel in the state was crumbling as many of the leaders were deserting the party because of wrong policies being pursued by the Dhumal regime.

Addressing a press conference here, Thakur announced the joining of former Congress leader Inder Singh, son of former minister Hari Dass from Arki in Solan, back into the party fold.

“It is because of the wrong policies of the BJP that their own leaders like former MLA from Renuka Roop Singh and now Inder Singh had joined the Congress, which is an indication of their falling graph and cracks appearing in their party,” he said.

Inder Singh, who joined the party here, along with his supporters, said he had left the Congress after he was removed from the post of state chief of the Sewa Dal in 1993 for no reason and joined the Himachal Vikas Congress and later the BJP.

“Having remained in the BJP, I realised that the Congress was the only party which could protect the interests of the state and its people,” he said.

He added that he would campaign for the Congress candidate in Nalagarh, his home district.

Thakur accused the BJP of misusing the official machinery for election purpose.

“We have made some complaints of ministers, who are pressurising officers to do work benefiting the BJP, to the State Electoral Officer and we have full faith in his integrity,” he said.

The Congress chief also lashed out at Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Mahender Singh for creating a controversy by claiming that he had some facts about the death of former Congress MLA Prem Singh.

“The deceased MLA’s daughter has already made a police complaint and is seeking a probe as her father was never close to the PWD Minister,” he added.

Dharamsala, November 20
The fish farming potential in the state lies unutilised. The Department of Fisheries has failed to motivate farmers, especially in lower areas, to take to fish farming in a commercial manner. Just a few farmers are involved in fish farming in a commercial manner on their own initiative.

One of them, Baljit Singh Tur, a farmer from Una district, was awarded by the state government for carrying out successful fish farming. Baljit has successfully converted his waterlogged land into a fish farm and is earning about Rs 50,000 per acre for fish farming.

Sources said fish farming, if done in a professional manner, could raise the net income of farmers up to Rs 1 lakh per acre per annum.

Baljit Singh said it was boom time for fish farmers in the region. Even the wholesale price of fish had increased to about Rs 50 per kg. However, the farmers of Himachal were missing the revolution due to lack of motivation.

Fish farming is turning into a lucrative venture in the region due to increasing demand for fish in cities of Punjab. Data collected by The Tribune revealed that there was a daily demand of about 4,000 kg fish in the Amritsar wholesale market. A similar quantum was required in Ludhiana and Jalandhar.

Due to lesser production locally, dealers in the region import fish from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

The sea fish is imported from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. However, the sea fish is available just in winters as in summer it is difficult to transport it within the stipulated time.

The varieties that are imported include sangara, mali and sal. Pangas that is commonly known as pyasi, a cheap boneless fish, is imported from fish farms in Andhra Pradesh.

The boneless varieties like sal and mali are sold at rates ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 180 per kg.

In Himachal, however, the Fisheries Department is concentrating on promoting the farming of just trout fish. The trout fish is a high-end product that has its market just in metros. Last year the trout farmers rued the fact they were not finding a proper market for their produce due to decrease in numbers of high end foreign tourists coming to country.

The other major fish production in the state comes from two man-made lakes - the Gobind Sagar Lake on the Bhakra Dam and the Pong Dam lake.

However, the fisheries production in lakes has its limitations. It is supporting fishermen rather than fish farmers. At the Pong Dam lake, the Fisheries Department is also in direct conflict with the Wildlife Department.

The latter claims that commercial fishing cannot be allowed in the lake as it is part of the international wetland area.

If farmers in the state, especially in lower areas are motivated to take up farming of common fish varieties that can be sold easily in the adjoining states, it can boost their income.

The farmers also blame certain government policies that, they say, are a bottleneck in promoting fish farming.

There is no tax on income generated from traditional crops. However, fish farmers have to pay tax on a par with the industry. The hassles of paying taxes desists the farmers from diversifying to fish farming.

The government should give incentives similar to traditional agriculture to fish farmers to increase the production. It will help farmers increase their income and the government can also achieve its diversification targets.

Shimla, November 20
The Himachal Government will permit industrial houses in the state to procure power from other sources, apart from the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board to meet their needs. This was stated by Industries Minister Kishan Kapoor during the celebrations of Himachal Diwas at the International Trade Fair-2011 in New Delhi yesterday.

“Entrepreneurs investing in Himachal can purchase power from the private sector in the state and from other adjoining states as well,” he said.

Kapoor said central industrial units would be allowed to purchase power from these sources and the state would provide its power grid for further transmission, adding that Himachal had surplus power and was providing 24 hours uninterrupted power supply.

“A 30,000-kanal land bank had been identified in Kangra, Una and Solan districts, besides acquiring land from the Punjab Government adjoining Himachal so that entrepreneurs did not face any difficulty in the transportation of their merchandise,” he said.

The minister said the government would provide every infrastructural facility in areas identified for setting up of the land bank.

“The inland container costing Rs 55 crore would be made operational at the Baddi-Barotiwala industrial area next year and a modern trade centre would be set up in Baddi on 24 bighas with an expenditure of Rs 11 crore,” he said.

He added that this would help the existing textile and other consumer units to have an opportunity to display their products.

The Gas Authority of India had agreed to supply commercial and domestic gas in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area and in areas between Nangal and Bharatgarh.

Shimla, November 20
A three-day seminar on “Annihilation of caste” will be held at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS)here from November 21 to 23. It will focus on various themes related to annihilation of the caste system such as discussing Ambedkar’s texts, other texts on abolition of the caste system, including views of Lohia, Nehru and Tagore, anti caste movements in post-Independence India and social engineering being promoted through welfare policies and reservation, and the consequences of these measures on the caste system.

About 25 scholars, sociologists and social activists will ponder over the issue whether caste-based mobilisation lead to the social transformative process eventually weakening, the caste system, or has such process come to an impasse.

The participants include Prof Valerian Rodrigues, JNU, New Delhi; Dr Yasumsa Sekine, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan; Dr Kalpana Kannabiran, Secundrabad; Prof Satish Deshpande, Delhi University; Prof Yogendra Yadav, CSDS, New Delhi; Prof Gopal Guru, JNU; Dr Rajendra P Mamgain, Director, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies; and Sam Gundimeda, Hyderabad. Prof Ghanshyam Shah, National Fellow of the institute, is the convener of the seminar.

The seminar will be inaugurated by Chairman, Governing Body, IIAS, and member, Rajya Sabha, BL Mungekar.

Renuka, November 20
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today began his campaign for the Renuka seat by addressing a series of election rallies where he received an overwhelming public support.

He addressed rallies at Khala Kyar, Barag, Andheri and Jarag, which continued till late evening. He was accompanied by BJP candidate Hriday Ram and Balbir Chauhan among others. While giving due regard to Balbir Chauhan, who had staked his claim to the ticket, the Chief Minister urged the people to support the BJP. He said Balbir would be aptly accommodated and urged his supporters to ensure the BJP’s victory.

As a boost to the BJP, about 150 Congressmen, including representatives of various panchayats, today joined the BJP. They were accorded a warm welcome by the Chief Minister.

Dhumal, while striking a personal chord with the rural masses, said the government had reverted shamlat land to the people and it was committed to the uplift of the area which had suffered neglect at the hands of the Congress with poor roads and lack of drinking water facilities. The BJP, on the contrary, had given a nod to open an SDM’s office at Sangrah and two degree colleges were coming up in the constituency.

Attacking the Congress for raising the issue of corruption, he said several UPA ministers, including A Raja, had emerged as the epitome of corruption and the people had rejected the Congress as its candidates had lost byelections held in four states, including in Hisar in Haryana, while the BJP and the candidates of their allied parties had won the people’s mandate.

He said each and every section of society had been benefited by the government and women had been particularly benefited by being extended free delivery and ambulance facilities. He said the government had enhanced the participation of the women in panchayats by providing them 50 per cent reservation and this had helped raise issues concerning them before the government. The state government was spending Rs 150 crore on providing subsidised ration to all sections of society despite the Union Government having reduced their quota of the PDS.

Others present on the occasion included the Chairman of the HP State Cooperative Bank Chander Mohan Thakur and representatives of panchayats and mahila mandals.

Hamirpur, November 20
The State NGO Federation, led by Purshotam Gularia, has criticised the district health authorities for not making arrangements for the proposed blood donation camp on the foundation day of the federation at Hamirpur today.

Gularia said, “The federation, which is organising a state-level function to celebrate its foundation day today, had proposed to donate about 100 units of blood on this occasion and had informed the district health authorities to make arrangements for the blood donation camp.”

“However, surprisingly the authorities did not make any arrangements for donating blood and informed us at the eleventh hour about it,” he added.

He said, “It’s strange that the health authorities have failed to make arrangements for a noble cause like blood donation, that too when hospitals are facing a shortage of blood and when about 100 members had agreed to donate blood on this occasion.”

The federation has decided to take up this matter with Chief Minister PK Dhumal and Health Minister Rajiv Bindal in Shimla.

The CMO, Hamirpur, Dr SK Soni, said “We had informed the office-bearers of the federation showing our inability to make arrangements for the blood donation camp at their venue since our staff is busy with the ongoing state orthopaedicians’ conference at Hamirpur.”

“However, we had told the organisers that they could hold a blood donation camp on the hospital premises on Sunday or Monday and had informed them accordingly.”

Shimla, November 20
A high-level committee set up by the government under the chairpersonship of the Chief Secretary to monitor unsolved murder cases has not met even once since it was set up about a year ago.

This has been revealed by information obtained by RTI activist Dev Ashish Bhattacharya, who has started a campaign for grant of compensation to dependants of victims who are denied justice due to failure of the state machinery. The committee was set up after Bhattacharya obtained details of unsolved murder cases in the state in September 2010. There were 189 unsolved murders of which 108 were more than five years’ old.

Exactly after one year, Bhattacharya again filed an RTI application with the Principal Secretary, Home, to know what action had been taken in the matter along with a copy of the notification vide which the high-level committee was set up, the number of sittings held by it, details of the deliberations and any recommendation made by it to the government.

In response to his queries, the Deputy Secretary, Home, who is the Public Information Officer, has stated that a committee headed by the Chief Secretary and having Principal Secretary, Home, the Secretary, Law, the Director-General of Police and the Director, Prosecution, as its members was set up on December 31, 2010, to review the status of the unsolved murders. The committee is proposed to meet once in a year and its meeting is likely to be held shortly.

“The response reflects the lackadaisical attitude of the government towards the unsolved murder cases. Setting up a high-level committee is meaningless if its meeting is not held. In fact, the government, it seems, has forgotten about the committee and it thought of holding a meeting only after I filed an RTI appeal,” he laments.

DGP DS Manhas said setting up the committee was the right step as monitoring at high level did help in pushing matters. Ideally it should meet quarterly or at least half-yearly.

Most of the unsolved murders pertained to cases in which either the bodies had not been identified or the accused had fled to a country with which there was no extradition treaty.

Mandi, November 20
Suraj (32), a resident of Tandu in Drang, has been in coma for the past 14 years after he was hit by a vehicle near the Hanogi temple on the Mandi-Kullu National Highway. All treatment failed to bring him back to normal life.

Sanju (30), also from Tandu, has been on the wheelchair for the past 11 years. His scooter was hit by a truck on the Mandi-Pathankot National Highway.

They are just two among thousands of victims of road accidents. In fact, 1,877 people have been killed and 4,557 injured in 2,532 road accidents in the state till October 31 this year.

However, the state government forgot to observe World Remembrance Day for those killed and injured in road accidents in the state.

The police, the PWD, the district administration and the national highway authorities failed to remember the victims. Haryana, however, observed the day today to promote a culture of safety on the road.

Though there is no exact data with the police as to how many road accident victims are rendered with permanently disability, experts estimate that “over 5 per cent to 10 per cent suffer disability for life”.

The number of fatalities in road accidents has risen sharply in the state during the past 11 years. As many as 756 people were killed and 4,029 injured in 2,371 road accidents in 2001. In 2009, 1,140 people were killed and 5,579 injured in 3,051 accidents, the highest number during the past 11 years. This was revealed in a comparative study compiled by the Police Department.