Solan, November 30
The byelections to the Nalagarh and Renuka seats witnessed a huge turnout of 83.09 per cent and 75.02 per cent, respectively, according to Narinder Chauhan, Chief Electoral Officer. No untoward incident was reported from anywhere with elaborate security arrangements having been made by the ITBP and the police.

Though polling took off on a dull note with the Nalagarh seat recording a poll percentage of 9 per cent by 10 am it picked up by noon with 34 per cent voters having cast their mandate by that time. It further rose to 53 per cent by 2 pm and touched 77 per cent by 4 pm. It touched 83.09 per cent at the close of polling at 5 pm.

The polling percentage almost neared its last score of the 2007 Vidhan Sabha poll when the Nalagarh seat had witnessed 84 per cent turnout and the Renuka seat 75 per cent.

In the Renuka seat, the polling percentage was comparatively higher at 16 per cent by 10 am, but it showed a similar trend throughout the day as the Nalagarh seat and reached 35 per cent by noon and 57 per cent by 2 pm. Around 72 per cent polling was recorded till 4:00 pm with an hour to go for the close of the polling.

Despite half of the constituency comprising far-flung panchayats, the enthusiasm witnessed among the voters in Renuka was phenomenal. Both men and women lined up in queues in the Badon polling booth as early as 9 am to cast their votes.

In the Nalagarh constituency, Dhana recorded a high polling percentage of 93 per cent, Rampur-II 81 per cent, Saur 85 per cent, Bruna-I 88.56 per cent and Bruna-II 87.47 per cent.

Likewise in the Renuka Assembly constituency, 79 per cent polling was reported from Koti Dhiman, 73 per cent from Rjhana and 78 per cent from Kharotiyon.

In the Nalagarh Assembly constituency, 56,021 votes were polled while in the Renuka Assembly constituency, 38,620 votes were polled.

Chauhan said all 172 polling parties, along with EVMs, would reach their respective collection centres under tight security. Necessary arrangements had been made to keep the EVMs under tight security in the strongroom till the counting of votes on December 4. He said the counting of votes would start on December 4 at 8 am under the supervision of election observers.

Five persons over 100 years of age exercised their franchise in the Nalagarh Assembly constituency. They were Teja Singh (107), who cast his vote at the Jhida polling station, Ruila Singh (106) at Panjehra, Bhagwan Dass (104) at the Ghaeonwal polling station, Rikhi Ram (102) at Kanganwal and Ganga Ram (100) at Panwal.

Shimla, November 30
With no rain since the second week of September, the protracted dry spell is giving sleepless nights to farmers in the hill state, a majority of whom have already completed the sowing of rabi crops.

Barring plains like Una and some other pockets, which have assured irrigation, sowing has been completed in almost 70 per cent of the total rabi area. As there was sufficient moisture in the soil in October, the germination was good, but the subsequent dry spell is causing concern as the entire swan area is rainfed and in some pockets the crop has already come under stress. The area under wheat is 3.58 lakh hectares of which only about 1 lakh hectare is yet to be sown. Besides, pulses like gram and lentil have been sown on 9,000 hectares and barley over 22,000 hectares, mainly in the high hills.

Normally, the region receives two or three spells of rain during October and November, but this year there has been no rain and as a result the crop on about 25 per cent area has come under stress. If the dry spell continues in December, a drought-like situation will be created, which will have a bearing on production, particularly in case of wheat, explains Director of Agriculture JC Rana. Pulses and barley are hardy crops and can withstand dry spells to a large extent and thus will not be affected much.

The department has ensured that the two disease-prone varieties of wheat - PBW-343 and PBW 502 - are not sown as these suffered much damage due to yellow rust in the last season. Besides, it has also constituted teams, comprising scientists from Krishi Vigyan Kendras and its own experts, who will conduct regular field surveys for detecting any outbreak of diseases. The farmers will be supplied spraying chemicals like propaconizole, which is very effective against yellow rust, at 50 per cent subsidy.

The state has harvested three consecutive bumper crops and in case the dry spell is prolonged further, the chain will be broken. The state will not be able to achieve the target of producing 17 lakh tonnes of foodgrain in the current year. The target for the kharif season was 9.10 lakh tonnes and the achievement has been about 9 lakh tonnes. The target for the rabi season is 7.97 lakh tonnes but given the adverse weather conditions, the shortfall in production is likely to be significant.

Last year, the state produced an all-time high of 14.68 lakh tonnes of foodgrains, 28,000 tonnes more than the previous high of 14.40 lakh tonnes achieved in 2007-08, after a series of crop failures. The kharif crop accounted for 7.41 lakh tonnes and the rabi 7.27 lakh tonnes.

Shimla, November 30
Himachal has added yet another feather to its cap as it has become the first state in the country to prepare its green house gas emission inventory where it has calculated its total carbon emissions from various sectors like energy, industry, transport and tourism.

Having already taken the lead in the country by getting a World Bank carbon credit programme approved, the hill state has been able to work out its emissions, which stand at 1.47 million tonnes carbon dioxide per annum. This level of carbon emissions will probably be among the lowest in the entire country with the hill state having an expansive forest cover of almost 14,668 sq km as per the 2007 Forest Survey of India report.

“The Department of Environment, Science and Technology has prepared an exhaustive green house emission inventory which helps us know where we stand today and how we can further cut down on our carbon footprint with the increased use of clean energy,” said Sudipto Roy, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment. He added that the inventory prepared by Suresh Attri, Principal Scientific Officer, and others in the department was greatly lauded by World Bank officials as a comprehensive and in-depth document.

The inventory, yet to be released, gives a fair idea about the green house gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emitted from various sectors like energy, industry, agriculture, waste and land use change and forestry. “Our carbon emissions are likely to remain low in view of various mitigation actions like use of CFLs, installation of solar lights, solar water heating and afforestation,” said Roy.

The inventory work has been undertaken as part of preparedness for the Station Climate Action Plan and has been carried out as per the requirement of the UNDP which emphasises on vulnerability assessment and green house gas emissions inventory to mitigate the effects of climate change.

A scientist pointed out that hydro-power energy component, which in case of Himachal was quite substantial and constituted clean energy, had not been taken into account while preparing the inventory. In case this sector was taken into account Himachal could even claim to be a carbon neutral state, a rare feat.

According to the inventory, it is the industry which has the highest carbon emissions followed by the transport and tourism sectors. With an exact idea about the main carbon emitters, the government can push in measures like encouraging eco-friendly and green industry to keep the pollution levels low and adopting energy conservation measures like use of CFLs and solar lights.

With about six lakh vehicles plying in the state annually, carbon emissions from the road transport sector are also quite high.

The tourism sector, with a sizeable number of hotels, is also a major consumer of energy and it is only a policy decision by the state government which can make it mandatory for hotels to undertake some major energy-saving initiatives.

Hamirpur, November 30
Chief Minister PK Dhumal’s second son Arun Dhumal has started holding BJP meetings at the booth level in the Hamirpur “mandal” to prepare the party for the next Assembly elections and gather important feedback from party activists at the grassroots level.

This exercise is significant since the Chief Minister has not made his choice of the Assembly constituency for the next Assembly elections clear.

Though there is still a year to go for the Assembly elections in the state, political activities in the district are slowly gathering momentum.

Bamsan, the home Assembly constituency of the Chief Minister, which he is representing in the Assembly at present, ceases to exist after the last delimitation exercise.

Since the area comprising the Bamsan Assembly constituency has been merged in three Assembly constituencies: Hamirpur, the newly created Sujanpur Assembly segment and the Bhoranj (reserved) Assembly constituency, Dhumal will have to contest the next election from a new Assembly constituency.

Though speculations are being made about his choice of the Assembly constituency for contesting the next Assembly election, the Chief Minister himself has not made any categorical statement whether to contest from Hamirpur or Sujanpur.

Arun Dhumal has already held meetings at Aghar, Tal, Didwin and Ukhali polling booths, which have been merged in the Hamirpur constituency after delimitation.

He was accompanied by BJP mandal president and Hamirpur MLA Urmil Thakur in these meetings.

BJP sources say, “Arun Dhumal will be holding party meetings in all 90 polling booths to gear up the party for the next election.”

It is not the first time that Arun has become active in the BJP politics in Hamirpur district and has been holding the party fort during the past few Assembly elections contested by his father PK Dhumal from Bamsan and the Parliament election contested by his brother Anurag Thakur from the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.

Dharamsala, November 30
The Congress will gherao the Assembly on the first day of the winter session to be held at Dharamsala from December 19.

GS Bali, senior Congress leader and MLA from Nagrota Bagwan, gave this information while talking to The Tribune.

He said the Congress procession for gheraoing the Assembly complex near Tapowan here would start from Nagrota Bagwan under the stewardship of Barinder Singh, Congress in charge for the state. Besides, the entire senior leadership of the state, including HPCC president Kaul Singh and CLP leader Vidya Stokes, would participate in the protest.

The Congress procession would be a symbolic protest against the policies of the present government. Charges of corruption had been levelled against the present government even by senior BJP leaders in the state. This spoke volumes about the working of the present government, Bali said.

He said the way power and pelf had been used by leaders, allegedly by ministers in the present government during the Nalagarh and Renuka byelections, illustrated the declining standards in state politics.

Bali said the present government had failed to provide employment opportunities to youth from the state and instead helped outsiders buy land here.

Sources here said GS Bali has been made in charge by the party high command for the protest to be Congress during the winter session of the Himachal Assembly starting at Dharamsala from December 19. The Congress leadership would try to manage a good show of strength during the protest to make their presence felt in Kangra, the most politically significant district of the state.

Dharamsala, November 30
Envoys of the Dalai Lama have once again tried to revive the dialogue with the Chinese authorities. They had sent a message for dialogue about two weeks ago in the wake of an emergency situation arising out of the reported self-immolation by 11 persons in Tibet. The Chinese authorities, however, are yet to respond to the request for a dialogue. The talks between the envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authorities have been lying suspended after January 2010 when the ninth round of talks was held.

The Chinese authorities had suspended the dialogue alleging that protests in Tibet before the Beijing Olympics were instigated by the Dalai Lama and his followers. Since then they have been hardening their stance against the Dalai Lama and have augmented their diplomatic efforts against his foreign visits.

The dialogue between the two envoys of the Dalai Lama - Gyari Lodi and Kelsang Gyaltsen - started in 2002. Since then nine rounds of talks have taken place, but no significant progress has been made. The eighth round of talks was the most significant as the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy proposed by the Dalai Lama was presented before the Chinese authorities. It was seen a significant dilution on the part of the Dalai Lama as he sought meaningful autonomy under Chinese sovereignty instead of complete freedom.

Kelsang Gyaltsen, Europe-based envoy of the Dalai Lama, reportedly said that the Tibetan side had suggested to the Chinese authorities certain confidence-building measures such as a request for lifting the ban on photographs of the Dalai Lama, proposal to expand contact by allowing visits between Tibetans living in exile and those in Tibet and to arrange exchange visits by scholars and experts.

However, the Chinese authorities have not yielded any ground. Gyaltsen said since the start of this dialogue in 2002, the Chinese side had been adopting a position of no recognition, no reciprocity, no commitment, no concession and no compromise.

Gyaltsen, in a statement at the Tibet Intergroup Conference on Genuine Autonomy that was hosted by the European Parliament in Brussels recently, said China rejected outright the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy presented during the eighth round of talks held in November 2008. The Chinese authorities even objected to the title of memorandum, terming it as unacceptable. The Chinese authorities maintained that the Dalai Lama had no right to speak about the situation in Tibet, Gyaltsen said.

Gyaltsen was also quoted as saying that right from the start of the dialogue in 2002, their effort was to bring the Dalai Lama and the Chinese leadership face to face. However, the Chinese authorities never accepted this proposal, he said.

Shimla, November 30
The HP High Court today directed the Principal Secretary (Forests) to explain whether any stone crusher in the Sarkaghat area had actually encroached upon government and forest land and the river bed, and if so, what action had been taken against it. The court directed him to file an affidavit in this regard.

The court further directed the Deputy Director (Elementary Education), Mandi, to file an affidavit clarifying if there was any natural barrier by way of a hillock between Ruma Stone Crusher and Government Senior Secondary School at Longni and Government Primary School, Shivdawala.

Continuing the stay on setting up of a stone crusher at Chuhru Ra Balh at Dharampur in Mandi district, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rajiv Sharma also directed the Deputy Director to explain the factual position regarding the distance between the proposed site of Ganpati Stone Crusher and the government primary schools at Longni and Churu Ra Balh.

The court passed these orders on a petition filed by Jagdish Chand and three other petitioners from Churu Ra Balh, alleging that the proposed site for setting up of Ganpati Stone Crusher at Churu Ra Balh did not fulfil the distance parameters contained in the policy guidelines as reported by the Site Appraisal Committee of the Industries Department and the requirements of minimum land area.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on December 21.

Shimla, November 30
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has urged the Centre to establish a brigade-sized military garrison by developing a model military cantonment at Una on the pattern of Mamun or Ambala Cantt.

In a letter to Union Defence Minister AK Antony, he said HP had been a nursery of outstanding brave soldiers who had shown exemplary courage in performing their duties. The state had willing youth to serve in the armed forces and their parents felt proud in sending their children to serve in the armed forces.

He said Una would be an ideal location to establish a model military cantonment since the area had a good road and rail connectivity and proximity to the western frontiers, offering excellent manoeuvrability in terms of deployment of men and machines. The proximity to the China border would be an added locational advantage.

The Chief Minister reminded him that during the meeting of the National Integration Council held recently in Delhi, a proposal to move the Dogra Regimental Centre from Faizabad in UP to Una was discussed. He said the Dogra Regimental Centre had been training recruits, a majority of whom hailed from hilly states of the country, besides serving ex-servicemen and widows from the HP, Jand K and Punjab hilly areas. The relocation of the Regimental Centre would improve functional efficiency of the Army and also enable war widows and ex-servicemen to take better advantage of numerous welfare schemes being implemented by the Union Defence Ministry.

He said Himachal was ideal with a mix of plains, semi-hills and mountainous terrain to cater to the training requirements of soldiers. He suggested that the existing infrastructure at Faizabad could be utilised by other regiments, which were sharing common location and were looking for the establishment of similar centres.

Dhumal assured the Union Minister of making the required land and other infrastructural facilities available for the relocation of the Dogra Regimental Centre and the Military Garrison on priority.

Hamirpur, November 30
A state-level function on World AIDS Day tomorrow is being organised here and Health Minister Rajiv Bindal will be the chief guest.

Giving this information to mediapersons here today, Project Director of the Himachal Pradesh AIDS Control Society MK Pathak said the theme of this year was “Zero spread of HIV virus and zero discrimination towards HIV infected patients”.

He said the number of Integrated Community Testing Centres (ICTCs) in the state at present was 49 and the government had also provided two mobile vans for carrying HIV tests, besides equipping primary health centres with HIV-testing kits.

The state government was also running three Atro-Viral Treatment (ART) centres in the state with 10 ART branches, and 1,571 persons were being treated through these centres.

Two hundred fifty Red Ribbon clubs were functional in educational institutions to create awareness about AIDS and 257 Red Ribbon clubs had been formed with the help of Nehru Yuvak Kender, he added.

Una, November 30
Himachal will soon have a high-altitude hockey stadium. This will be the second high-altitude hockey stadium in the country that will help national and international hockey players train for tournaments in Europe.

Vidya Stokes, patron of Hockey India and CLP leader in Himachal, said this while talking to The Tribune here today.

She was at Una to preside over the concluding ceremony of the national-level sub-junior hockey championship today.

She said Hockey India was also considering the proposal to lay astroturf in the Una Hockey Stadium.

Stokes admitted that hockey sport was yet to be popularised in Himachal. “We need coaches to train youngsters in hockey at the junior level in Himachal. For this, the Himachal chapter of Hockey India will take the services of former international hockey players from the state,” she said.

Later, while talking to newsmen, Stokes accused the present government of blatant use of power and pelf during the Nalagarh and Renuka byelections. She said despite misuse of power by the present government, the Congress would win both the seats.

OP Rattan, HPCC spokesperson, who was accompanying Vidya Stokes, said the party would soon start a campaign in Una district to expose the misdeeds of the present government. He said Congress workers were being targeted by the present government. The development in the villages represented by Congress workers had been stalled at political behest.

Shimla, November 30
Having accorded topmost priority to tourism promotion, the state government has decided to give lessons in the hospitality sector to all its officers undergoing various training programmes at its HP Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) so that every sector, including power, irrigation and public works, can offer the best of services to visitors.

A special course in tourism has been incorporated by HIPA for officers, including IAS, HAS, state police service and those from other departments. As part of this new development, a batch of 26 officers, including some HAS officers, was imparted proper training for making their contribution to tourism promotion.

“The Tourism Department alone cannot promote tourism as it is only the concerted efforts of various agencies which can ensure good roads, proper water supply, uninterrupted power supply and cleanliness to beckon visitors,” said Arun Sharma, Director, Tourism and Civil Aviation. He added that it was with this very objective in mind that it had been decided to incorporate tourism in the training programme schedule for officers from various departments at HIPA.

Dinesh Malhotra, Director, HIPA, said it was with the intention of giving a basic idea about tourism and related activities that it had been decided to include the subject in the training programme for officers. This, he added, would help officers from departments like the PWD, Forest and Power realise the importance of their sector in ensuring a comfortable stay for tourists.

Even though tourism promotion figures top on the priority list of the state government, bad roads, water shortage, erratic power supply, heaps of garbage and traffic congestion prove to be a major stumbling block in promoting tourists.

Popular tourist destinations, including Shimla, Manali, Dalhousie, Kasauli and Dharamsala, face all these problems, especially during the peak tourist season.

“Tourism contributes 10 per cent to the GDP and our endeavour is to take this up to 20 per cent by 2020 and for this we will have to adopt an integrated approach by involving all departments,” said Arun Sharma. He feels that all departments are in some or the other way associated with tourism as it is all about putting your best foot forward and ensuring a good holiday to those who choose to visit Himachal.

With the Tourism Department laying thrust on heritage, temple, cultural, adventure, sports and eco-tourism, all departments concerned will have to put their act together so that Himachal emerges as the most preferred destination in India.

Shimla, November 30
The government will explore the possibility of developing golf courses in the Dharamsala, Dalhousie, Nalagarh and Baddi areas of the state.

Stating this while speaking at the prize distribution function of the Himachal Pradesh Golf Association here late last evening, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said golf had been included in the 2016 Olympics to be held at Rio de Janeiro and the sport was set to assume added significance. Keeping this in view, the Himachal Pradesh Golf Association was seeking affiliation with the Himachal Pradesh Olympic Association and the Indian Golf Union.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the Naldehra Golf Course was being re-designed to match the international standards so that regional and national-level golf tournaments could be organised to give a boost to sports tourism. He said with the development of more golf courses, the youth would be able to take it up as a competitive game and make their mark at the national and international levels.

Shimla had two golf courses, one at Naldehra and another at Annandale, which attracted golfers of all ages. Golf could also boost high-end tourism. The hill state was already doing well with over 1.32 crore tourists, more than double the state’s population, visiting the state last year.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the government had diverted the road passing through the Naldehra Golf Course and the merged portion would also be developed to facilitate the convenient playing of golf.

Earlier, ID Bhandari, Director-General of Police and president, Himachal Pradesh Golf Association, urged the Chief Minister to develop more golf courses in different parts of the state as it would help attract a large number of foreigners.

Bilaspur, November 30
The Himachal Pradesh State Pensioners’ Welfare Association will hold its annual state-level conference in Bilaspur town on its foundation day on December 17.

This was stated by Jagdish Kumar Nadda, state senior vice-president, and Rama Nand Sharma, district president of the association, after a largely attended meeting of their district executive committee held here yesterday.

They said the executive committee unanimously approved the notice of the “plan of action” if the government did not take any action on their demands within one month.

The meeting gave a call to all pensioners in the state to remain prepared for any action on the call of the state executive committee any time after the lapse of the one-month period.

The meeting also urged the government to look into their difficulties in this old age, particularly due to the increasing prices of essentials, and give them all the financial benefits being enjoyed by Punjab pensioners for long.

Prominent leaders, including OP Garga, Jaghdish Dinesh, Hukam Singh Thakur, Sohan Lal, Jaswant Chandel, Kala Chandel, Chambel Singh Dhiman, Swaran Singh, ND Kapil, Prem Singh Thakur, GL Sharma, Roshan Lal, Shankar Dass and Amar Singh, were among those who were present.

Bilaspur, November 30
As many as 89 cases pertaining to public grievances and problems were solved on the spot at a district-level day-long Prashashan Janata Ke Dwar camp held at Padyalg village under Ghumarwin subdivision, about 60 km from here, yesterday.

DC Ritesh Chauhan presided over the camp, while SP Santosh Patial and CMO Sudershan Sharma were also present.

As many as 230 cases were put up by people of which 141 unsettled cases were handed over to the district officers concerned for disposal.

Village leaders said this system was proving to be very useful as it provided easy and cheaper services on the villagers’ doorstep.

The DC sanctioned Rs 2 lakh for completing the construction work of the Panchayat Ghar at Padyalag and Rs 50,000 for the construction of a “pucca path” to the cremation ground of the village.

A large number of district officers, including SDM RK Gautam, Executive Engineer, PWD, PC Sharma, Divisional Forest Officer BR Kaushal, HRTC Regional Manager Yog Raj Thakur and Block Development Officer Sunil Chandel were also present.

Dalhousie, November 30
The annual day-cum-prize distribution function was held at KV, Chamera power station-I, Khairi, today. Chamera power station GM Janardan Chaudhary was the chief guest, while Prabha Chaudhary and Chief Engineer Vineet Diddi were present.

KV Principal Meena Kulshreshtha read the annual report. — OC

Bilaspur, November 30
Onkar Chand Chauhan (43) of Tundwin Tantha village, near here, was killed almost instantaneously when the scooter (No. HP-24A-0576) he was driving was hit by a speeding ambulance (No. HP-63-4239) of 108 Emergency near Dakkadi Chowk when he was coming out to the main road after filling petrol from a petrol pump at the Ghumarwin Bazaar last evening.

The impact was so strong that the scooterist, who was employed as Senior Assistant in the electricity office here, was dragged several metres with the ambulance. He was rushed to nearby Civil Hospital by people, but declared brought dead.

Reports said the deceased was returning after seeing off his son at the Bilaspur bus stand. His son is a student of engineering at Chandigarh.