Mandi, January 8
With its epicentre in northern Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, the western weather disturbance had a “wider cloud cell coverage area” and resulted in snowflakes lashing even places like Chintpurni in Una, Badu in Mandi and Nerwa in Shimla district, taking everyone by surprise.

According to meteorologists, the western disturbance started from northern Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir on January 4 and spread towards Himachal, resulting in snowfall in a wide area over the hills.

The Director, Meteorology, Himachal, Dr Manmohan, said the western disturbance behaved like a “cyclonic circulation activity and its spread depended on the cloud cell area”.

“Though it is a rare phenomenon, sometimes this activity has a wider coverage precipitation area that results in snowfall in the lower surroundings,” he said.

He said the western disturbance had already started scattering and would fizzle out by January 10 in Himachal.

The widespread rain and snow in the state has brought cheer for the farmers. Besides being good for the crops, the rain and snow would recharge water sources, they said.

Meanwhile, over a dozen bus routes in Karsog, Janjheli, the Balichowki Snor valley, Katola and Barot remained cut off from the Mandi district headquaters. Banjar, Ani, Beasar, Manikaran, Gushain, Banjar and the Lug valley remained cut off from the Kullu district headqauters due to snow for the second day today, said officials.

Shikari Devi and the Rairgarh Pass, Tungasigarh and Magrugalla in Seraj in Mandi district experienced over 6 ft of snow.

Mandi, January 8
Residents in this temple town are up in arms against the Mandi Municipal Council (MMC), Town and Country Planning Department, and the district administration for allegedly slapping notices on them for irregularities in construction of their houses.

Mandi Deputy Commissioner Devesh Kumar has asked Urvashi Walia, executive officer, MMC, and Sunil Kapur, town planner, Mandi, to issue fresh notices to all residents in the Palace Colony and Bhiuli, respectively, who had failed to passed their plans either from the council or the TCP Department.

They said neither the TCP Department nor the Municipal Council had any proper system in place regarding construction plans then and they built houses as per the availability of land.

Meanwhile, the residents blamed the TCP and the MMC for not making them aware about the maps when the TCP Act and council bylaws came into force.

Members of Citizens’ Council, Mandi, and councillors termed the slapping of notices on residents as an act of victimising them as they have been demanding regularisation of unauthorised constructions “as it is and where basis”.

Suman Thakur, councillor, Palace Colony ward, said the laws were made for the welfare of residents and not to victimise them as the district administration was bent upon, pressuring the Mandi Municipal Council to issue fresh notices to residents who have no maps with them.

All house owners were paying house tax and have been allotted house numbers as it was the oldest colony in the town with land donated by the then Kings of the Mandi state, claimed house owners.

Walia said the municipal bylaws came into force in this town since 1997, but most of the houses here were built much prior to that as well.

“We have issued notices earlier and now issuing fresh notices to over 250 house owners in the Palace Colony alone who have no maps,” she added.

The residents said they have right to get water and electricity connection since the time the then Kings of the Mandi state had given them free electricity from the Shanan power project. But it is the incompetence of the successive state governments that this oldest hydro power project is still with the Punjab State Electricity Board, said Ranvir Thakur, a local resident.

Meanwhile, the Mandi DC said the idea was to regularise the unauthorised houses in the town that would benefit house owners.

“After we get their replies they will forward the same to the government for making a policy for the house owners,” he added.

Dharamsala, January 8
Life remained hit in many parts of Dharamsala even today as power and water supply remained disrupted for the second day after a heavy snowfall. Due to the heavy snow in and around Dharamsala town yesterday, power transmission lines were broken. At some places even electricity poles were uprooted. In most of the cases, electricity wires were snapped as tree branches were broken due to the deposition of snow and fell on the wires.

Electricity Department officials worked throughout the day today and managed to restore power in the Yol Army area. However, they said it might take them a couple of days to restore power in the entire Dharamsala town.

Weather in the area remained clear for the entire day with the sun shining for sometime in the afternoon. Rain once again lashed Dharamsala in the evening. The upper areas of Dharamsala once again received some snow.

The water supply to most areas of the town remained disrupted. IPH officials blamed it on the power failure. People managed their water supply today from the reserved stock in water tanks.

However, in case the water supply is not restored by tomorrow, people may face an acute shortage of water.

Traffic on road to McLeodganj remained disrupted for the entire day today also as PWD officials struggled to clear the snow on the road.

The sun did shine brightly in other areas of the district that gave people relief from the severe cold wave.

In the Nagrota Bagwan area, that received snow after about two decades, heavy loss was reported to lichi plantations of farmers. Many lichi trees fell due to heavy snow in the area.

The news of heavy snow in the area attracted a large number of tourists to Dharamsala today. However, most of them had to return dejected as hotels were without power and water supply. Just a few hotels in Dharamsala that were maintaining generator sets managed to keep their guests cosy.

In the Chintpurni area of Una district, despite the shining sun, snow could still be seen lying along roads and hills. The snow in the area has perplexed the locals. Even the elderly do not remember any instance of snow in the area.

Shimla, January 8
Having fulfilled almost all election promises within the first four years, the BJP will celebrate 2012 as “Vijay Varsh” and focus on consolidating the gains of its achievements on the development front.

Spokesperson for the party Ganesh Dutt said the team of Chief Minister PK Dhumal and state BJP chief Khimi Ram had taken the hill state to new heights. The good performance would enable the party to win the elections to the Shimla Muncipal Corporation, due shortly. The party stood the best chance to wrest the corporation which had been under the Congress control ever since it came into existence in 1985. More so as direct election for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor was being held for the first time.

The BJP regime had ensured equitable development of all areas and all sections to demolish the bogey of regionalism and casteism. The party had earlier won the panchayat poll and the victory march would continue. No funds were sanctioned for extension of the rail network in the state.

The Congress was on the back foot as the UPA government had adopted a stepmotherly attitude towards the state and it had been discriminating against it. The image of the UPA and the Congress had taken a beating due to unfolding of several scams and many of its leaders were cooling their heels in jails.

In another statement, state secretary Praveen Sharma and former spokesperson said the strengthening of the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission, for which 16 posts had been sanctioned by the Cabinet in its last meeting, would make it effective and put an end to the tirade launched by the Congress and the CPM against the government over the functioning of private institutions.

They also appreciated the effort of the government in persuading the cement companies to reduce the prices of cement by Rs 25 per bag.

Sundernagar, January 8
More than 10,000 families of Sundernagar subdivision are not getting uninterrupted electric supply due to the poor maintenance of lines by employees of the Electrical Division of the HPSEB, Sundernagar. On Friday thousands of consumers of two sections, Mahadev and Jaidevi, remained without power due to irregular power supply.

The residents who live on the outskirts of the town consisting of more than 50 villages from Mahadev to Rohanda village situated on the Sundernagar-Karsog road often complain about poor power supply on a daily basis. Some times they have to spend the whole night without electricity.

Those who live beyond Mahadev village are the worst sufferers in this respect. Thousands of students of a private engineering college, Badu, also face a similar problem.

According to them, their exams are going on these days and irregular supply of electricity is causing inconvenience to them.

Residents of Jaidevi village say earlier they had to spend the night without light as the weather was bad, but now it has become a regular feature. They have complained about it, but the situation remains the same.

According to officials from the sub-station, Sundernagar, on Friday the problem occurred due to a fault in the breaker, but it was restored after about one and half hour. According to an Assistant Engineer, HPSEB, the problem was due to a fault in Ghiri feeder as whenever power is restored from the sub-station, it again goes out of order.

According to a source from the HPSEB, the failure of power supply was due to poor maintenance of power supply lines.

Manali, January 8
Life was thrown out of gear as the entire upper Manali region experienced moderate to heavy snowfall today. Piercing cold wave conditions are prevailing in the entire upper Kullu valley following the snowfall.

Icicles could be seen hanging from rooftops of many hoses in the Manali region. Taps in many areas also remained frozen this morning.

Most of the residents of the upper Manali region remained indoors today. However, tourists had a gala time in the snow. They came out of their hotels to have fun in the fresh snowfall on Mall Road and Nehru Park. A festive atmosphere prevailed there as winter revellers were seen enjoying yak rides, skiing, making snowman, having photo sessions and throwing snowballs at one another.

Due to the fresh spell of snowfall today, all long-route Manali-bound buses suspended their journey near the Aloo ground, about 5 km from here, on the Manali-Kullu national highway. All local buses also remained suspended today on the Manali-Kothi, Solang and the

Manali-Naggar (left bank) road. Only light vehicles were seen plying on the roads.

The PWD pressed snow-clearing machines and labourers into service to clear the snow on the roads. Labourers and snow-clearing machines of the Nagar Parishad also started removing snow in the town in the morning.

The moderate-to-heavy snowfall in the region has brought cheer to apple growers as it is considered the white manure for orchards.

Manali, January 8
After 25 years in the hospitality trade, Manali hoteliers are in a soul-searching mode and want to check “black sheep in the trade”. But the Tourism Department has yet to put in place a “bench-mark certification system for quality and eco-tourism” for hoteliers, home-stay units, restaurant and dhabha owners that will check fleecing and ensure comforts and facilities matching minimum standards.

This soul-searching has come at a time when the 280-member Manali Hoteliers Association (MHA) is celebrating its silver jubilee in Manali tomorrow in which Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal will be the chief guest.

From its four-roomed guest house run by Banons at Manali in 1932 to the present-day proliferation of concrete hotels, guest houses and cottages, the Kullu-Manali hotel industry today boasts of a bed capacity of 21,000 beds. Even today the pace of construction is going on unabated with concrete monsters spreading along the Prini-Naggar road and Manali-Solang highway.

But Manali does not have a single hotel management and catering institute to train local youth in hospitality trade.

The Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation claimed that over 1.32 crore tourists and pilgrims visited Himachal last year, but it has no system of benchmarking hotels, resorts, restaurants, dhabas and home-stay units as per the facilities and comforts they provide to tourists and the tariff they charge from them.

As per a survey, private owners, more than 90 per cent of the hotels, have been leased out to contractors from Delhi, Mumbai and other parts of the country. Their motto is “to make maximum profit from investing bare minimum on facilities” and this mindset is bringing a bad name to the hotel industry in Manali, revealed members of the MHA.

From green tax barriers to The Mall and Hidimba Devi temple and from Old Manali to Vashisht and Solang, an ugly maze of bill boards and banners greet tourists as there is no system of displaying these.

President, MHA, Gajender Thakur said, “It is time for promoting quality tourism. We took up the matter with tourism officials during the board meeting to put in place a system of certification for maintaining standards as Manali has emerged as an international destination”.

He said MHA members welcomed the Tourism Department initiative for benchmarking certification of hotels as per their quality services.

Arun Sharma, Tourism, said, “The department has already had meetings with different hoteliers associations in the state. It will take time before we put in place the benchmarking system, and have asked hoteliers to submit their suggestions.”

Shimla, January 8
The Himachal Seb Utpadak Sangh has urged the government to take immediate steps to protect the interests of apple growers who will be exposed to international competition with the abolition of 52 per cent import and custom duty on apple from 2012-13 under the WTO agreement.

Secretary of the sangh Sanjay Chauhan said the growers of the state were in no position to compete with the apple produced in the USA, New Zealand, Australia, China and other developed countries, where agriculture and horticulture was highly subsidised and productivity very high. As against a yield of around 6 tonnes per hectare, these countries produced 35 to 40 tonnes per hectare.

Moreover, the post-harvest management in these countries was more advanced and packing, grading, controlled atmosphere stores (CAS) and processing facilities were available at the farm gate.

In the absence of these basic post-harvest facilities, Himachal apple could not compete with the imported fruit.

He urged the government to take immediate and effective measures to enable the apple growers cope with the situation and sustain the Rs 3,000 crore economy, which was the mainstay of the people in high and mid-hill areas.

The government must enhance subsidies and other assistance for agriculture and horticulture on the lines of the developed countries. The post-harvest management and marketing facilities should be advanced and infrastructure, including proper roads, grading and packing houses, CAS stores and processing units, should be developed. Besides, the functioning of public sector undertakings like the HPMC and other marketing agencies should be strengthened for efficient post-harvest management.

The universal packaging technology be introduced only after consultation with the growers and studying the market conditions. Packaging units should be established in the cooperative sector to manufacture universal standard cartons of 20 kg, 10 kg and 5 kg.

Secretary of the Himachal Seb Utpadak Sangh Sanjay Chauhan said growers of the state were in no position to compete with the apple produced in the USA, New Zealand, Australia, China and other developed countries, where agriculture and horticulture was highly subsidised and productivity very high.

Solan, January 8
With the Union Government sanctioning a textile park for Himachal, the textile industry, which has been facing the brunt of global recession, will get a major boost in the state.

In all, 21 new textile parks have been sanctioned under the Scheme for Integrated Textiles Parks to be set up at a cost of Rs 2,100 crore and to be implemented over a period of 36 months.

Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma, who is the chairman of the project approval committee under the scheme, accorded approval to the recommendations of an inter-ministerial project scrutiny committee that had examined 55 proposals for new textile parks in the country. The scheme seeks public-private partnership with the objective of setting up world-class infrastructure for the textiles industry.

Director, Industry, JS Rana said a site had been selected at Tahliwal in Una district and the modalities of signing an MoU with the union ministry were under way as per the requirements of the ministry. He said this would help boost employment in the state.

The project would help bring additional investments with the industry utilising the benefits of the Scheme for Integrated Textiles Parks (SITP) for the development of common infrastructure and the Technology Upgradation Funds Scheme (TUFS) for the installation of plant and machinery. The government had enhanced the allocation under the TUFS from Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 15,404 crore under the 11th Five-Year Plan and under the SITP an allocation of Rs 400 crore had been made for the sanction of new textiles parks in April 2011.

With major benefits of the 2003 central industrial package having already expired, the sanction of this project would help draw investment in the form of new industry, including ancillary units, which would help boost employment. It would also help set up infrastructure with the government financing common infrastructure with a subsidy of up to Rs 40 crore per textile park.

Since the state already has a number of major textile units in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area like Vardhman, Birla, Sara, Arihant and GPI with Vardhman alone having an investment of Rs 2,000 crore, the area of Tahliwal in Una district has been chosen for setting up this textile park.

Investors said if garment manufacturers came forward to invest in Himachal, it would boost the production activities of the existing weaving and spinning units as at present they had to sell their fabrics and other manufactured material to far-off areas thus adding to their manufacturing cost.

With stress on timely implementation to avoid cost and time overruns, the MoU will address all such issues.

Shimla, January 8
A one-day training programme for panel lawyers and para legal volunteers at the Front Office under the Free and Competent Legal Services Regulations, 2010, was inaugurated today in the Himachal Pradesh High Court by Justice RB Misra.

In his inaugural address, Justice Misra underlined the advantages of alternative disputes redressal mechanisms. He called upon the panel lawyers and para legal volunteers to take up their duty of generating awareness about resolving disputes amicably through alternate mechanisms like Lok Adalats, process of conciliation, mediation and arbitration.

The training programme was organised by the HP State Legal Services Authority with the objective of training the panel lawyers (retainers) and para legal volunteers to help the litigant public in resolving their disputes amicably through the district and taluka-level legal services committees. These committees will identify 10 and five volunteers, respectively, from all walks of life.

Later, Chief Justice Kurian Joseph held an interactive session with the trainees and motivated them to create an environment for litigants for dispute redressal, where every party is in a win-win situation in such a way that their rights are protected.

High Court Justices Surinder Singh, Sanjay Karol and VK Sharma were also present on the occasion.

The training was imparted by Ruby Alka Gupta, secretary, New Delhi District Legal Services Authority, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi, and Dig Vinay Singh, Project Officer, Delhi State Legal Services Authority, New Delhi. More than a 100 participants, including District Judges-cum-Chairmen, District Legal Services Authorities and Sub-Divisional Legal Services Authorities in HP, panel lawyers and para legal volunteers from different districts of HP participated in the training programme.

Shimla, January 8
The CPM will hold statewide protests over the decision of the government to close down 108 ration shops, exorbitant hike in the electricity tariff and high cement prices in the state tomorrow.

The party maintains that the recent decision of the government to reduce the prices of cement bags by Rs 25 is insufficient and it still costs more than the neighbouring states. This also proves the point that the people of the state have been robbed of crores of rupees during the past four years because of unjustifiably high rates fixed by the cement companies which had been extended various benefits and incentives by the government. The ACC and Ambuja companies had alone availed of a transport subsidy of Rs 247.33 crore (excluding the Jaypee unit and the second unit of Ambuja).

Member of the state secretariat Tikender Panwar said demonstrations would be held in 35 places, including the district, subdivisional, tehsil and block headquarters. Senior party leaders would address protesters. Rakesh Singha would join the protest at Theog, Onkar Shad at Rampur, Tikender at Shimla, Kashmir Thakur at Hamirpur, Prem Gautam at Kullu, Kushal Bhardwaj at Mandi and Kuldeep Singh Tanwar at Shimla.

Mandi/Kullu, January 8
The Central Range Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Mandi, has booked Revenue and Kullu Municipal Council (MC) officials and shop owners under Sections 447 and 120-B, IPC, and Section 30, Himachal Pradesh Prevention of Specific Corrupt Practices Act, for their failure to remove encroachment on the government land near the District Courts complex and near the Regional Hospital, Kullu.

The Vigilance took this action after it received complaints of encroachment on government land.

SP, Vigilance, Virender Sharma said the Vigilance had received complaints that revenue officials and MC had failed to remove the encroachments on the government land near the courts complex and hospitals. “Not only that, certain show owners who were allotted shops by the council, have sub-let their shops and encroached on government land,” he added.

He said certain ex-servicemen were found sub-letting shops allotted to them by the MC in contravention of the MC Rules-1973. “We have booked them and further investigation is on,” he added.

Palampur, January 8
Thakur Gulab Singh, PWD Minister, today said the government would not spare anyone responsible for the collapse of a bridge on the Pathankot-Mandi national highway on December 24 in which one person was killed.

He said the report of the inquiry regarding the bridge mishap, conducted by the Chief Engineer, PWD Quality Control, was still awaited. After the government received the report, it would take action against the contractor as well as guilty officials.

The minister visited the site of the mishap this afternoon along with senior officers of the PWD. He told mediapersons that it was unfortunate that the same span of the bridge collapsed for the second time, killing one person. Earlier, an official of the PWD was killed in December 2010 when this bridge collapsed.

He said the inquiry into the previous mishap in December 2010 had found the contractor along with two PWD officials guilty for not following the norms. The PWD minister assured local residents that the bridge would be completed within six months.

Referring to the poor condition of the Ranital- Mubarkpur national highway, he said this road was transferred to the PWD in September 2011. Till date the NHAI had not released any funds for the road.

Mandi, January 8
Elementary teachers, Bal Sevika, and voluntary teachers held a joint day-long hunger strike under the banner of the Himachal Shikshak Mahasangh here today.

Sunil Rangra, Labh Singh Jambval, Sunita Sharma and Gurdev Singh and other protesting teachers sat on the strike. They demanded that their long-pending demands of regularisation of their services and fresh appointment of trained teachers be implemented soon.

They urged the Education Department to invite the sangh for talks to solve their demands.