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Don’t consider Dalai Lama a separatist: Tutu to China
Lower plant availability factor |
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No question of joining BJP, says Maheshwar
Shanta not to be part of BJP’s ‘mission repeat’
7 lakh children to be given polio drops
Fee hike: SFI, ABVP hold protests
Students hold a protest against the proposed fee hike at Sanjauli college in Shimla on Friday. A Tribune photograph
Technical education govt’s focus: MLA
SFI charges baseless: HPU
Death of Animals in Gausadan
Construct bus stand, HIMUDA told
State has lowest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate
Forest Dept to conduct monkey census
Firm, staff booked for fraud
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Don’t consider Dalai Lama a separatist: Tutu to China
Dharamsala, February 10
Tutu said his fellow Nobel Laureate, the Dalai Lama, had no army. He was loved by the people of Tibet. The Chinese government should understand that “this is a moral universe and injustice with people and violence is not the last word”. “The people of Tibet want the Dalai Lama and I wish next time we meet in free Tibet,” he said. Recalling the move of the South African government to deny visa to the Dalai Lama, who was invited by Desmond Tutu to attend his 80th birthday celebrations, the octogenarian leader said it was after meeting the Dalai Lama today that his birthday celebrations were complete. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama welcomed Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Kangra airport in the morning. He arrived here at about 11 am. Welcoming Tutu, the Dalai Lama said, “I welcome a great person today. His contributions are not limited to just one field. His greatness is accumulated as a result of a lifelong effort to create happiness and well-being for others.” The Dalai Lama said Tutu was a person who strongly advocated the importance of love, compassion and equality. Even in his own country, South Africa, Tutu along with Nelson Mandela, had worked wholeheartedly through non-violence for equal rights and genuine democracy in their country, he said. The most important thing was that even after the victory of democracy and equal rights in his country, uneasy feelings of animosity and ill-will had remained with people. Archbishop Tutu had made special efforts to reconcile the people, and remove the feelings of ill-will towards each other. “Reconciliation is very important because what happens is that sometimes after a problem is solved, feelings of ill-will and hatred still remain. These hidden feelings of hatred may create problems later. So the reconciliation efforts made by Archbishop Tutu are significant,” the Dalai Lama said. The Dalai Lama appealed to his fellow Nobel Laureate to pray for the cause of Tibet. “Tibetans are passing through a difficult period. The sophisticated and compassionate nature of Tibetan culture is really facing a lot of difficulty. So please mention these in your daily prayers,” he said. He presented a stupa as a memento to Archbishop Tutu. The entire Central Tibetan Administration, headed by the Kalon Tripa, Lobsang Sangay, attended the felicitation ceremony. A colourful cultural performance was also presented to welcome Archbishop Tutu on his first visit to Dharamsala.
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Lower plant availability factor Rakesh Lohumi Tribune News Service
Shimla, February 10 The main plea of allowing over-designed projects is to use them for peaking during the evening hours when the demand is the maximum. However, with no storage, these projects will have to store water to run at full capacity for three to four hours in the evening during the lean season, when the discharge in rivers dwindles to almost 20 per cent, instead of running one or two turbines for 24 hours. For instance, the country’s largest Nathpa Jhakri project has enough discharge during the lean winter months to operate only one of the six turbines. Instead, it stores water during the day and operates all six 250 MW turbines for four hours in the evening. If all projects generate power only during peak hours, the rivers will remain dry during the daytime. Some of the rivers will have eight to 10 major projects and they will have to operate in tandem which is not easy. The CEA has already given approval in principle to the Moser Baer company to raise the capacity of the Seli project from the allotted 320 MW to 404 MW and the 90 MW Miyar project from 90 MW to 120 MW in the Chenab basin. Since the Seli project has to be confined within the allotted domain, 2,606 m FRL (full reservoir level) and 24.89 m TRL (tail race level), it cannot increase the height of the diversion structure to increase storage. Even shifting of the dam site will not be possible as a riparian distance of 1 to 2 km has to be maintained from the upstream and downstream project. Of the total 3,008 MW potential in the Chenab basin only 6.2 MW has been harnessed so far and projects aggregating 2,565 MW have been allotted. If all IPPs go for over-designed projects on the pattern of Moser Baer, the total capacity of the basin will be enhanced by 1,000 MW. Normally, the projects are designed for a PAF of 60 to 65 per cent and on an average about 4.5 million units of electricity are generated per megawatt in a year. However, with a PAF of 40 per cent only 3.3 million units per megawatt will be generated. Thus the generation cost will go up as more investment will be required on the electrical machinery.
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No question of joining BJP, says Maheshwar
Mandi/Kullu, February 10 HLP leaders are instead gearing up for the birthday bash of its president Maheshwar Singh at Bhuntar on February 14 to present its “show of strength”. As a former BJP MP from Mandi, Maheshwar Singh has his support base in the Kullu, Banjar and Ani Assembly segments and parts of Mandi district, his anti-BJP posture is bound to damage the party prospects in the Assembly elections, fear BJP men. Significantly, Nitin Gadkari’s two-member damage control team, led by BJP general secretary JP Nadda and Himachal’s BJP in charge Shayam Jaju, has also fixed its meeting with BJP MLAs and dissidents on February 14 just to prevent the potential BJP rebels from visiting Shimla, said insiders. Commenting on Gadkari’s team visit to Shimla, Maheshwar said: “I have left the party forever and there is no question of joining it back now. The HLP has moved ahead and our aim is to bring before the people of Himachal its vision of clean governance.” He said, “the HLP still takes moral support from Shanta Kumar and his statement that there is corruption and nepotism in the BJP is enough for us.” HLP spokesperson Mohinder Sofat said things had gone to a point of no return. |
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Shanta not to be part of BJP’s ‘mission repeat’
Shimla, February 10 The BJP today unveiled its “mission repeat” programme under which several rounds of meetings will be held with ministers, legislators, chairmen of boards and corporations, state office-bearers and district BJP chiefs over a period of three days, beginning February 12, in the presence of the central leaders, who have specially been assigned the task by party chief Nitin Gadkari. With Shanta Kumar likely to return from Bangkok only after February 19, it is certain that he will not be part of this mission. Considering the growing resentment in the Shanta camp for being sidelined, it is uncertain if his loyalists, including ministers and MLAs, will associate themselves with this exercise, aimed at galvanising the rank and file of the party. Shanta had not only given vent to his grouse at a meeting with Gadkari two days ago, but declined to be part of any party programmes in Himachal. Following growing dissidence and the eventual formation of a political outfit by party dissidents, Gadkari deputed BJP national general secretary JP Nadda and co-in charge of the party affairs in Himachal Shyam Jaju to interact with party workers and senior leaders to chalk out a strategy to ensure that the BJP wins the poll and forms the government for a second successive term. State general secretary of the party Ram Swaroop today said Nadda and Jaju would hold three separate meetings with party workers, chairmen of boards and corporations and state office-bearers to discuss the development programmes of the BJP government on February 12. Over the next two days also, they would hold consultations with ministers, MLAs and senior party functionaries to ensure better coordination between the party and the government. Sensing that remedial measures need to be taken in the state party unit in case the BJP has to repeat its government in the hill state, the party high command has started the task of getting everyone together. “With some of the senior leaders already having formed a separate party and Shanta, too, deciding to keep aloof, how can mission repeat succeed when one faction has been completely marginalised,” said a Shanta loyalist. Growing Dissidence
* The BJP on Friday unveiled its “mission repeat” programme under which several rounds of meetings will be held with ministers, legislators, chairmen of boards and corporations, state office-bearers and district BJP chiefs over a period of three days, beginning February 12 *
It is also uncertain if Shanta’s loyalists, including ministers and MLAs, will attend the meetings in the presence of central leaders JP Nadda and Shyam Jaju
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7 lakh children to be given polio drops
Shimla, February 10 Presiding over the meeting of the state-level steering committee of the Pulse Polio Immunization Programme, Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu said in all, 5,855 polio booths would be set up for the purpose and over 11,000 functionaries of various departments would be deployed to cover the eligible children. She said continuous efforts were needed to eradicate the polio disease, which caused permanent disability. Necessary directions had been issued to all the state departments for smooth conduct of the campaign. The Chief Secretary directed the departments concerned to ensure cent per cent participation in training and execution activities so that children falling in the age group of 0-5 years were given polio drops. An aggressive campaign should be launched to motivate parents to bring their children to polio booths. She said a special drive should be launched in high risk areas like the industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala, Kala Amb and Mehatpur to identify and motivate migrant labourers to send their children to the nearest polio booths. |
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Fee hike: SFI, ABVP hold protests
Hamirpur, February 10 About 100 activists of the SFI assembled on the college campus in the morning and raised slogans against the state government and the university authorities. In a press note, SFI leaders said the university authorities were trying to burden the student community by increasing the fees, which would not be tolerated by the student community. They said the argument of the university authorities that the fees had not been hiked for many years and was an effort to mobile resource did not hold ground since educational institutions were not commercial bodies and these should instead plead their case for more funds from the government. The SFI has threatened to launch statewide demonstrations in case the fee hike proposal is not withdrawn. ABVP activists also held a demonstration on the college campus against the proposed fee hike and raised slogans. The organisation also started a signature campaign on this issue and obtained 1,300 signatures of students on the first day. The ABVP has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the fee hike proposal failing which they will start a statewide agitation and resort to traffic blockades throughout the state. |
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Technical education govt’s focus: MLA
Bilaspur, February 10 This was said by BJP state spokesman and Naina Devi MLA Randhir Sharma while presiding over the annual prize distribution function of Government Senior Secondary School, Shikroha, 40 km from here, this afternoon. He said the government was keen to develop
the state into “a centre of technical education” so that youths could get this technical education right near their villages without any difficulty or much expenditure and then
could settle themselves in some good vocation of their choice. He said it was a matter of pride for the state that the BJP government had set up total 39 technical institutes in the state, out of which 14 are engineering colleges, seven pharmacy colleges and 18 polytechnic colleges. He said the Chief Minister has taken special interest for development of the Naina Devi constituency that had remained neglected during the earlier Congress regime. He said total 178 hand pumps were set up during the earlier 17 years till 2007, but the BJP government provided the facility of setting up 218 hand pumps during the past four years of its rule in this constituency. He announced Rs 10 lakh for the construction of the Shikroha ayurvedic dispensary building, Rs 2.65 lakh for levelling of the school playground and Rs 50,000 for provision of drains there. BS Chandel, Principal of the school, read the progress report and talked about issues of the school. |
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SFI charges baseless: HPU
Kangra, February 10 HPU spokesman Dr Ranvir Verma, in a statement here yesterday, said the allegations levelled by SFI state secretary Vikram Singh that HPU were misleading and not based on facts. Hence, they were biased and unethical. He said the university authorities were in no way misleading the public, but in a democratic set up with complete transparency providing an opportunity for all the stakeholders to put forth their suggestions in the report of the Resource Mobilisation Committee (RMC) headed by Dr OP Sharma. He said the university had no plan to provide vehicles to the 80 deputy registrars and sections officers as was being alleged by the SFI state secretary. Verma said the Vice-Chancellor was entitled to a well-furnished residential accommodation free of cost and a meager amount had been spent on its renovation which was in no way wrong. The allegation of spending Rs 1.10 crore on travel expenses by the Vice-Chancellor was “untrue”, Verma added. |
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District admn swings into action
Our Correspondent
Nurpur, February 10 Local villagers and a youth club after holding protest demonstrations gave a seven-day ultimatum to the administration recently to ensure the proper management of the Intriguingly, the state had built this gausadan by spending Rs 1.75 crore and Chief Minister PK Dhumal inaugurated it in February last year. The Animal Husbandry Department had signed an MoU with an NGO in July last and handed over its management to it allegedly without verifying its credentials and capability. Kangra Deputy Commissioner (DC) RC Gupta said recently that the administration was very much concerned with the present state of affairs of this guasadan that led to the death of a number of cattle. “I have asked the higher authorities of the Animal Husbandry Department to either run this gausadan themselves or make proper arrangements. I have no hesitation to say that the MoU signed between the department and the NGO was faulty as the former had failed to verify the credentials and capability of the latter to run the same. Moreover, I had personally visited the gausadan a few days ago and sounded the department authorities in time,” he maintained. Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, HR Sankhyan admitted that the NGO had informed his office in writing about its inability to run the gausadan and he had further submitted his report in this regard to the higher authorities. “Suitable action will be taken after getting directions from the higher authorities. The gausadan can be run either by the department or through a temple trust,” he added.
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Construct bus stand, HIMUDA told
Chamba, February 10 According to official sources, the HIMUDA officials had been directed to undertake the construction of the site development where the new bus stand edifice was to be erected. The Himachal Pradesh Government had approved the construction of a new bus terminus at a site near Tatwani in Chamba town on the right bank of the Ravi with an outlay of Rs 5 crore. Meanwhile, the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) had also released the first instalment of Rs 1.50 crore for the construction of a proposed new bus terminus in Chamba. The NHPC would release the funds in a phased manner taking into account the completion of construction stages, the official sources disclosed. With the construction of a new bus stand, the long-cherished demand of people of Chamba will be fulfilled. The construction work of the bus stand is expected to be completed in a time-bound manner so that people can avail better facilities.
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State has lowest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate
Solan, February 10 This was despite the fact that Himachal fell in the category-III state which had low prevalence, but high vulnerability to the disease due to the large influx of tourists and migrant labourers. Attributing this success to mass campaigns launched in the state, Director, State AIDS Control Society, Dr MK Pathak, said extensive campaigns carried across all districts have encouraged HIV/AIDS testing among people. Effective use of folk media has also been initiated to generate awareness and 30 folk media troupes performed 891 folk shows in the state to create awareness among 1,69,454 persons till December 2011. This has helped 89,272 persons to come forward for screening of HIV/AIDS and 577 positive cases of HIV have been detected. The detection of HIV/AIDS has received a major impetus from service delivery, which is considered a crucial aspect of the National AIDS Control Organisation’s Phase-III Programme. As per this programme, doorstep services are provided for screening through mobile ICTC vans. As many as 49 Integrated Counselling Training Centres have been opened to provide counselling and testing to patients. Besides, 38 staff members from 24x7 Public Health Centres have been trained to facilitate HIV testing among pregnant women. As many as 24 Targeted Intervention Projects are being implemented in the state through state NGOs, which are working among the high risk group population, which include female sex workers, truckers and men having sex with men.
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Forest Dept to conduct monkey census
Shimla, February 10 Chief Conservator, Forests, Faunal Diversity and Protected Area Network, Sanjeeva Pandey, said the census would not be confined to simple enumeration of simian and qualitative information like whether the monkey menace was increasing or decreasing in hot spots or which areas were having high manifestation. The attempt was not to count all the monkeys in the state. A two-step strategy would be implemented for an efficient monkey incidence estimation and a comprehensive monkey estimation in hot spots. Every divisional forest officer (DFO) in field (territorial or wildlife) will be the leader of the monkey incidence estimation and the preliminary observations will be carried out in all the forest beats of the state (except Lahaul and Spiti where monkeys are not found) to ascertain presence or absence of monkeys. In every beat, the forest guard will take cooperation of the local bodies like the Notified Area Committee, panchayats, etc. Preliminary observations will be carried out from February 21 to 23 and, thereafter, the comprehensive monkey estimation will take only half-an-hour on February 24. One observer will cover a distance of two to three km in half-an-hour during the period. |
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Firm, staff booked for fraud
Nurpur, February 10 As many as 28 residents of Baroh village have been duped by the company. Raj Kumar, one of the victims, in his complaint to the police has alleged that 28 investors had deposited around Rs 13 lakh with the company through its branch office at Ganoh. But after the maturity of their deposit terms they neither received the principal amount nor the accrued interest. The staff of the local branch office also approached the company’s head office but the company had closed its office. The investors who had deposited lakhs of rupees with the company were left high and dry after the closure of the branch office. Later, they filed a petition in the court against the company. DSP Rajinder Jaswal said the police had lodged a forgery case under various sections against the Managing Director of the Gaziabad-based company and the five employees working in the local branch office of the company. — OC |
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Hamirpur, February 10
Shimla, February 10
