Dharamsala, December 9
The statement of IPH Minister Ravinder Ravi in favour of the creation of new districts has started gathering political heat. Ravi had advocated the formation of new districts and the reorganisation of the existing districts while talking to mediapersons at the Dharamsala secretariat on December 7. He was responding to queries of mediapersons whether there was any government move to create new districts out of Kangra.

The statement has created an apprehension in political circles that the present government may go in the for the bifurcation or trifurcation of Kangra district before the Assembly elections next year.

Any move for the creation of new districts out of Kangra is likely to be resisted strongly by the Shanta faction that holds sway in the area.

The first indication to this effect was given by Minister for Industries Kishan Kapoor, a staunch Shanta loyalist. While talking to The Tribune, Kishan Kapoor said he would strongly oppose any move to create new districts out of Kangra. Kangra was one of oldest and biggest districts of Himachal. Many districts, including Lahaul and Spiti, Una and Hamirpur, had already been created out of Kangra. Any further division of Kangra would threaten the existence and political significance of the district, he said.

Chander Kumar, senior Congress leader and former Kangra MP, was more critical of any move to create new districts. He alleged that the present government wanted to finish the political identity of Kangra. Already many government offices had been shifted from Dharamsala, the district headquarters of Kangra district. Almost all offices located at Dehra subdivision of Kangra had been attached with Hamirpur. This clearly indicated that the government had been planning to create new districts out of Kangra since long.

He said any such move would be purely political as the present government considered itself weak in Kangra district. It wanted to divide the district with an impression that it would get political mileage just before the next Assembly elections, he said.

GS Bali, another prominent Congress leader from the district and MLA from Nagrota Bagwan, said the Central University campus was shifted to Dehra from Dharamsala on the plea that it was part of Kangra district. However, in case Dehra was made a district, the Central University campus would move out of Kangra. “We will launch a strong agitation in case Central University moves out of Kangra,” he said.

Bali alleged that the creation of new districts in the state in the election year was a pure political stunt and the Congress would oppose it tooth and nail.

Rakesh Pathania, Independent MLA from Nurpur and Dhumal loyalist, said he was in favour of the creation of Nurpur district out of Kangra. “I have proposed that Nurpur district should include four Assembly constituencies from Kangra - Nurpur, Indora, Jawali and Fatehpur - and one Assembly constituency of Bhatiyat in Chamba.

The people of Bhatiyat are located at a distance of just half an hour’s journey from Nurpur, but have to travel for about five hours to reach Chamba.

Since Nurpur has infrastructure in place, the state government would not have to spend anything in case a new district was created, he said.

Pathania said he would raise the issue of the formation of Nurpur district in the forthcoming winter session of the Assembly in Dharamsala.

Manali, December 9
The tourist town of Manali and its adjoining areas experienced season’s first snowfall this morning, while the lower parts of the region were lashed by rain, resulting in a considerable fall in the day temperature. The snowfall started in the wee hours today.

The entire Manali region was covered with a white blanket. Tourists and the locals were in for surprise when they woke up to see the town under a white mantle.

Hundreds of domestic tourists, who have converged on the famous tourist hill station of Manali from across the country, were delighted to see the town doming an impeccable white mantle. Tourists came out of hotels to have fun in the fresh snowfall on the Mall Road and the Nehru Park. The thick white layer covered the deodar trees, apples trees, roofs and the ground.

The vehicular traffic in the upper Manali region was also disrupted and motorists had a tough time in the morning due to the fresh spell of snow on road.

Traffic on the Manali-Rohtang Pass road was also disrupted at several points beyond Nehru Kund, 5 km from here. Tourists going to sight-seeing to the Snow Point and the Solang valley had to stop at different places between Bahang and Nehru Kund this morning.

Meanwhile, the people in the tourism industry were happy with the snowfall as they are expecting a rise in tourists inflow to Kullu and Manali.

The 13,050-foot-high Rohtang Pass, the gateway to Lahaul-Spiti valley, experienced heavy snowfall today, snapping the road link between Manali and the Lahaul valley.

The famous ski slopes of the Solang valley also experienced season’s first snowfall. The snow on the Solang ski slopes brought smiles on the faces of the winter sports lovers.

Due to fresh spell of snowfall at the Rohtang Pass, the Pir Panjal ranges and the entire higher reaches surrounding the valley, the upper Manali region was in the grip of severe cold wave conditions.

Icy winds that lashed the areas throughout the day led to further decline in the day temperature. However, the sun appeared in the afternoon after which local residents and tourists got some relief from the cold conditions.

Shimla, December 9
The outsourcing of the taxi service, introduced five years ago to provide connectivity to senior citizens on restricted roads of the city, has not only improved the services but also increased the revenue of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC).

The corporation, which had been facing problems in operating the service efficiently and economically due to pilferage and shortage of drivers, had privatised all 18 routes and had allotted three more routes. As a result, the annual revenue of the corporation from the taxi service will jump from a meagre Rs 13 lakh to Rs 69 lakh from private operators. The private operators have offered as much as Rs 36,000 to Rs 53,000 per month for various routes in the latest tenders.

The government had initially granted permission to the corporation to ply services on 18 routes, but it was able to operate only on 13 routes because of a shortage of drivers and vehicles. As it was incurring losses in a majority of routes, it decided to outsource the services. It retained the four profitable routes, Sanjauli-Lakkar Bazar, Dhali Tunnel-Sanjauli, Nav Bahar-Sanjauli-Lakkar Bazar and Annandale-CTO and awarded 14 routes to the highest bidders, of which one could not be made operational.

Now, the corporation has privatised all 21 routes, including the three new routes connecting Bhattakufer-Dhalli- Sanjauli-IGMC, KNH-Oakover-Sanjauli-IGMC and Kusumpti-Shimla Club. The success of the first phase has led to increased competition as evident from the fact that the number of operators has gone up from two to seven and the revenue has also gone up sharply.

Outsourcing has increased the revenue and enabled the corporation to operate cab services on more routes and has spared some drivers, whom it urgently needs for operating its bus services. More importantly, people are getting better services as private operators are running services on schedule.

The only problem is that the service was introduced for senior citizens, but they are mostly crowded as college students and employees, who earlier used to walk, are now availing of the taxi service. During peak hours, there is too much rush and the vehicles are overloaded, which causes inconvenience to women and elderly persons. The government should consider allowing 18-seater high-end buses in place of 10-seater cabs on the Sanjauli-IGMC, Kusumpti =Shimla Club and the Chakkar-CTO routes as the gradient is not steep and roads are quite wide. It will also help in solving the parking problem as daily commuters will not have to travel by their personal vehicles if a reliable service is available.

Shimla, December 9
The state high court has directed the Director, Technical Education, and the Secretary, HP Takniki Shiksha Board, Dharamsala, to apprise the court about the action taken to de-affiliate technical institutions admitting unqualified students with impunity.

The court also directed the Secretary, Technical Education, and Director, Education, to be present in the court on December 14 to explain what was the cut-off date for admission to government and private polytechnics and if the date was extended for admission to management quota seats.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rajiv Sharma passed these orders on the petition of a student, Khwaja Bahuddin, who had alleged that he was studying in a private polytechnic institute at Kala Amb, where he was admitted without passing his matriculation examination.

He alleged that he had paid the fees, but he is not being assigned the roll number to sit in the first semester examinations scheduled to be held this month.

It also directed officers to explain whether the candidate who qualified during the extended period could be treated as qualified for admission in the same session.

The court also asked who are the persons under Government Directorate to decide these issues regarding regularity and legality of admission and in case any polytechnic student has been found to have been admitted after the cut-off date without eligibility, what action the Director, Education, has taken.

The court also asked them to explain whether there was relaxation in qualification from 50 per cent to 35 per cent in case of admission to the management quota and reasons thereof.

Dharamsala, December 9
The alleged involvement of BJP leader Anita Sandal in a recruitment scam in which more than 100 youths were duped of about Rs 2 crore on the pretext of getting them jobs in the Assam Rifles has given another rallying point to the Congress against the ruling party.

GS Bali, senior Congress leader and MLA from Nagrota Bagwan, while talking to The Tribune, alleged that Anita Sandal was the BJP candidate from the Pragpur Assembly constituency in 2003. The government should come clean on her involvement in the recruitment scam in which over 100 youths had been duped.

He said the recruitment scam had illustrated that unemployment was growing in the state. It was unfortunate that certain leaders of the ruling party were taking undue advantage of unemployment among the youth in the state. The state government should take the strictest possible action against such leaders, Bali said.

Anita Sandal, her husband Kuldeep Sandal and brother-in-law Ranjeet Singh have been booked by the Kangra police in the recruitment scam. While Anita Sandal has been granted anticipatory bail by a court, the other two are in police custody.

Anita Sandal was given the BJP ticket from Pragpur during the Assembly elections in 2003 after ignoring the son of the BJP MLA from the area, Naveen Dhiman.

Naveen Dhiman contested the elections as an Independent and won while Anita Sandal lost her security deposit.

Mandi, December 9
Fear stalks residents in the Sakaryar-Nablaya and Saigli panchayats in the Katola range as the “man-eating bears” have been on the prowl in the jungle, which mauled its third victim Ram Chandra, a resident of Sakaryar in broad daylight yesterday. He is yet to come to terms with the bear attack and is recovering in Mandi Zonal Hospital.

The Forest Department’s team deputed in the area has failed to nab the beast as it remained clueless about its movements in the area. Chandra said he was working in the field yesterday when a bear pounced on him and inflicted serious injury marks on his face and body. He was saved by villagers who had gathered at a village function at Sakaryar.

Earlier, the bear had mauled Jai Dev, a local farmer, on November 23 and Man Chand on November 17. Both of them were admitted to Mandi Zonal Hospital with serious injuries.

Panic has gripped the area as women and children have confined indoors fearing the prowling beast. The bears move between Saigli and Nabalaya panchayats attacking humans even in broad daylight.

Kanshi Ram and Labh Singh, pradhans of the Nablaya and the Saigli gram panchayats, said the bear attacks have made the life of villagers unsafe as the Forest Department has failed to nab or kill the beast.

DFO, Mandi, Anil Joshi said they were tracking the movements of the animal, which appeared to be a furious she-bear.

“We have paid Rs 5,000 each as compensation to the victims and sought a help from the Wildlife Department to trap the animal as it was the third attack on humans in the same area,” he added.

Shimla, December 9
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has underlined the need for making preservation of environment a people’s movement in the state.

Addressing a gathering after flagging off an environment rally organised by the State Pollution Control Board to mark the conclusion of “pollution prevention week” from the the historic Ridge here today, he said the state had imposed a complete ban on plastic and polythene bags. He said the plastic collected was being used in the construction of roads.

The Chief Minister said the state’s efforts in the conservation of environment had been appreciated at the national level and the state had been given the Prime Minister’s Award in this regard.

The Chief Minister also administered the oath on a nine-point conservation code on environment.

The rally passed through the city with those taking part in it carrying placards and raising slogans, underlining the need to for preservation of environment. The rally later concluded at the Ridge.

Sanjay Sood, member secretary of the board, gave details of the programmes organised during the week.

Local MLA Suresh Bhardwaj, Chairman, Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee, Gian Chandel, Deputy Commissioner Onkar Sharma and Superintendent of Police Sonal Agnihotri were also present on the occasion.

Mandi, December 9
Residents of 18 gram panchayats in Sundernagar, Balh and Sarkaghat, including 12 members of the Mariari Mata temple, recently trashed the clean chit given to the temple committee in the management of funds worth Rs 40 crore, as a cover-up exercise.

District language officer (DLO) and inquiry officer RK Saklani submitted his report to the Mandi DC in this regard.

Residents have demanded a CBI probe and threatened to move the high court.

The DLO report claimed that “there is no major irregularity in the use of temple funds. DLO has addressed just three-year period from 2008 to 2011 and the inquiry report is just an advisory on how to manage accounts despite the Principal Secretary, Art Language and Culture, Manisha Nanda, has also ordered a probe.

But residents and other 12 committee members demanded a probe in the period starting from 1992 to 2011 in a charge-sheet submitted to the Mandi DC on July 15, 2011.

The key committee members have been running the temple like their personal fiefdom and have amassed properties disproportionate to the known sources of income, they had alleged.

Talking to The Tribune, former BDC member, Jahmat ward in Gopalpur, Malari Ram Thakur and his supporters said: “The key members have been hiding temple’s income and expenditure from 1992-11 and a clean chit is an eyewash. We demand a CBI probe or we will move the HC as the records of donations and income and expenditure worth crores have been burnt by certain members.”

They charged that there is a close nexus among the key temple committee members and some politicians from Sundernagar, Rati and Mandi whereas the temple falls in the jurisdiction of 18 panchayats, which has no major representation in the committee.

But Saklani claimed that annual average income of the temple comes to around Rs 30-35 lakh. But he maintained his silence on the expenditure saying that the committee was tallying heads of expenditure for the same period.

Mandi DC Devesh Kumar said: “The inquiry has given a clean chit to the committee, but is has advised it to maintain all income and expenditure of the temple. We will submit the report to the government.”

Hamirpur, December 9
RTI activist Debashish Bhattacharya has urged the state government to recover expenses incurred by the Police Department for providing security arrangements during IPL matches organised at Dharamsala from the BCCI.

Information obatained by the activist under the RTI Act from the SP, Kangra, has disclosed that the police had spent Rs 1,64,36,270 on making security arrangements for three IPL matches organised by the BCCI in Dharamsala from May 12 to May 22 this year.

The main argument of Bhattacharya for the recovery of the expenses from the BCCI is that since the organisation has plenty of money at its disposal, the cash-strapped state government should not burden the public exchequer and the BCCI should be told to bear this cost.

He says, “Since the BCCI has kept itself out of the purview of the RTI Act, saying that it does not take any aid from the government and IPL matches are not held for charity, the state government should recover the expenses from the cricket board; even the Kolkata and Mumbai administration have been charging the BCCI for making arrangements during cricket matches there.”

The Kangra police had deployed 22 gazetted officers, one SP, 11 ASPs, 10 Dy SPs, 134 non-gazetted officers, 272 head constables, 1,124 constables and a staff of 71 personnel for wireless arrangements.

He said, “I will approach the high court if positive results do not come on this issue.”

The DGP, Himachal, DS Manhas, said, “It is for the state government to decide whether to bear the expenses or charge these from the BCCI.”

Shimla, December 9
The Himachal Government has decided to put an embargo on companies selling compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) within the state to come out with a buyback arrangement so as to ensure its proper disposal, keeping in view the toxicity because of the mercury used in it.

Sensing the impending environmental threat that could emanate from improper disposal of power saver CFLs, the government today held talks with some manufacturers and assemblers to coerce them to evolve a mechanism where they would shoulder the responsibility of its scientific disposal.

Manufacturers have been given a deadline of December 27 to come out with a disposal method or else the government could be forced into bringing in legislation as a last resort.

Simultaneously, the State Pollution Control Board has been asked to undertake an exhaustive study of the life cycle of a CFL right from its manufacturing, lifespan, toxicity, use and disposal in the state. The approximate life of a CFL is estimated to be about 1,000 days or three years if it is used for an average of six hours daily.

“Even though there is no immediate environmental threat yet sensing that we could be faced with a sudden glut of abandoned CFLs as their lifespan is roughly three years, we need to have a mechanism in place to ensure their scientific disposal,” said Sudipto Roy, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest and Environment).

He added that manufacturers had been given time till December 27 to report back with a buyback kind of arrangement where it would be their responsibility to dispose of the CFLs.

At present, there is no laid down mechanism for collecting and disposing the CFLs, six lakh of which were distributed by the HP State Electricity Board almost three years ago as part of the Atal Bihari Bijli Bachat Yojna.

According to the government estimates, there are over 10 lakh CFLs in use at the moment as a large number of people have bought them on their own as well.

Even though there is a unit at Dhanota, near Nalagarh, under the private public partnership, which is disposing of CFLs, but with reports of these being recycled for being sold in the grey market, it is not considered a foolproof system.

Moreover, it is felt that glass is not really a landfill site material like other waste so there has to be a proper disposal.

There was also a suggestion to ask the 1,000 panchayats running the Community Advocacy Environment Programme to take on the responsibility of collecting the CFLs but then it was thought that transporting it from every village would be too much of a task.

Shimla, December 9
Taking a serious note of the issue of dumping of muck/debris unscientifically by JP Cement Company at Bhalag and Baga Ser villages, and the surrounding areas in Solan district, the state high court has constituted a three-member committee to look into the matter and apprise the court of the factual position.

A green bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Rajiv Sharma passed this order on a petition filed by Dharma Pal and others alleging that the company, which had set up a cement/clinker plant, was generating muck/debris, which had affected water sources, irrigation channels, “gharats”, residential houses, schools, temples, rain shelters, roads, paths, agricultural fields, shops and the bus stand at Bhalag and Baga Ser villages, and the surrounding areas. The allegations of the petitioners are that the muck being generated by the company was not being dumped at the designated area and the dumping was being done unscientifically as a result of which their land and property had been destroyed.

They have prayed that the respondents be directed to remove the muck and compensate the petitioners for the loss allegedly caused to them.

The company, however, denies that any damage has been caused to the land and property of the petitioners or any other party.

While constituting the committee the court observed that the first requirement was to take actual steps to ensure that generation of muck, if not already stopped, was stopped forthwith and the muck already generated was disposed of in a scientific manner and the muck/debris was removed/reutilised in such a manner that the land and property of the villagers could be restored and put to proper use. The court directed the committee to look into the measures taken by the company to prevent the overflow of muck and to inform the court whether the measures taken were sufficient or not.

The court directed it to file its preliminary report by January 9.