Dharamsala, February 19
The state government’s move to sterilise monkeys in Kangra district has claimed the lives of about 700 monkeys. The poor animals are losing their lives due to poor upkeep and unprofessional handling in captivity.

The high mortality rate of monkeys at the Gopalpur sterilisation centre of the Wildlife Department has evoked criticism from animal activists. The activists alleged that the Wildlife Department was violating provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals Act by meting out such a treatment to monkeys being brought here for sterilisation.

Sources in Gopalpur told The Tribune that wildlife officials were earlier burying dead monkeys at the sterilisation centre. However, after religious advice, they were now cremating them.

Villagers said on condition of anonymity that they had repeatedly sought the shifting of the centre from the area. They had complained against the brutal treatment being meted out to monkeys brought to the sterilisation centre.

A visit to the centre revealed that many monkeys had been locked in small cages. In some cages, monkeys were lying dead. Stains of blood could be seen in other cages due to sterilization procedures.

Satish Gupta, DFO, Wildlife, who is the in charge of the sterilisation centre, admitted to the death of monkeys. He, however, claimed that most of the deaths of monkeys were being caused due to mishandling by people who were delivering them to the Forest Department.

The government had announced a reward of Rs 500 for anyone who caught and brought a monkey to the Wildlife Department. Due to this, many people were catching monkeys. After catching monkeys, they kept them unfed for many days. Monkeys were already in a poor state when they were handed over to the Wildlife Department. This caused mortality at the sterilisation centre, he said.

Vijay Bharti, the veterinarian who carries out sterilisation operations at Gopalpur, admitted that there was a mortality rate of about 6 per cent in monkeys being brought to the centre. He, however, said the mortality rate due to sterilisation was just about 1 per cent. Even in that 1 per cent, other conditions in which monkeys were brought to the centre were responsible for the deaths.

He claimed that the centre had the facility to house just 170 monkeys. However, generally at any given point of time there were about 400 monkeys at the centre. Some monkeys might have also died due to overcrowding and trauma in cages. The doctor claimed that most deaths at the centre were pre-operative rather than post-operative.

The sources said sterilisation of monkeys was being carried out in an unscientific manner. According to statistics, there are about 35,000 monkeys in Kangra district. The centre at Gopalpur alone claims to have carried out the sterilisation of 11,000 monkeys.

Dharamsala, February 19
Another teenaged Tibetan in Tibet has immolated himself, sources here said.

Nya Drul (18) set himself on fire this afternoon in Amdo Ngaba. Ngaba is the region which has witnessed the maximum incidents of self-immolation by Tibetan nationals.

The sources said Nya Drul set himself on fire and died on the spot. His body was with the Ngaba Dzomthum monastery. The monastery took the charred body of Nya Drul and performed the religious services.

There has been an increase in incidents of self-immolation in Tibet during the past 11 months. Tibetans-in-exile fear that there will be more loss of Tibetan lives and bloodshed in the coming days coinciding with the Tibetan New Year (Losar), which falls on February 22 and on the anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising in March.

So far at least 24 Tibetans in Tibet have committed self-immolation while at least 12 others have died calling for freedom in Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama from exile.

Meanwhile, the Tibetan parliament-in-exile will observe a day-long solidarity fast for the victims of self-immolation in Tibet on the first day of the Tibetan New Year on February 22.

After the completion of the official ceremony, that is presided over by the Dalai Lama at Tsuglha Khang, Dharamsala, the solidarity fast will begin at 10 am, the sources said.

Shimla, February 19
The BJP has accused Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh of repeatedly making false charges against the Dhumal government and termed it a ploy of the party to divert the attention from the “misdeeds” of the UPA regime at the Centre which is in the dock following various scams.

Spokesperson for the party Ganesh Dutt said the UPA regime was deeply embroiled in corruption and many of its ministers had been arrested in connection with mega scandals like the Commonwealth Games and the 2G scams. It had also been facing the ire of civil society and non-governmental organisations on the issue of corruption, the impact of which was seen across the country.

The state Congress was aware of all this and it had launched a tirade against the BJP government to divert the attention from the mega scams at the Centre.

If the party had any evidence of misuse of Section 118 of the Land Reforms and Tenancy Act, it should file a complaint with the commission set up by the government to look into benami land deals. He advised Congress leaders to file complaints with the Lokayukta instead of levelling false charges before the media.

He said some Congress leaders were celebrating the exit of BJP leaders who floated the Himachal Lokhit Party, but it would soon be rocked as some of its leaders were taking keen interest in the internal affairs of the BJP.

The decision of the Congress high command to quash the election of Vikramaditya, son of Union Minister Virbhadra Singh, as president of the state Youth Congress had brought to the fore the infighting in the party.

Solan, February 19
The district administration has issued show-cause notices to builders in Solan and its surrounding areas for violating various provisions of the HP Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 2005.

M/s BTM Real Estate located on the Kumarhatti-Solan bypass has constructed seven storeys against the permissible four plus one and despite this glaring irregularity in the Town and Country Planning (TCP) norms, its water and power connections have not been snapped till now.

In another case involving Sugandha Apartments in Solan, 47 water connections had been availed from the local Municipal Committee by the builder and 160 flats given water connections. Not only this, no sewage had been laid and the builder was charging Rs 1 lakh for parking and Rs 25,000 each for water and electricity connections from each buyer.

SDM Raman Sharma said a show-cause notice had been served on these builders and they had been directed to file their reply within 15 days, after which due action for violating various provisions of the HP Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 2005, would be initiated against them. Since these builders had failed to provide facilities listed in their approvals obtained under the Act, the district administration had decided to act tough against them.

Even the provision of constructing slanting roofs for water harvesting, which was made compulsory by the TCP, were not complied by these builders.

District Town Planner Sandeep Sharma said a detailed report regarding these violations had been sent to the director after a Vidhan Sabha committee took stock of the situation and six cases of violations had been detected in Solan. He added that show-cause notices had been served and further action, which included forfeiting their security deposited to obtain licence, would be taken. In addition to this, penalties would be imposed and their licence would not be renewed.

The TCP Department had failed to initiate timely action against the erring builders in the town.

Shimla, February 19
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal launched the first phase of the National Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme in the state by administering vaccine drops to children here today.

He urged people to ensure that all the children aged up to five years reached polio booths for being administered the drops. In all, nearly seven lakh children would be administered the drops through 6,000 polio booths in the first phase of the campaign.

He said after the completion of the first phase, health workers would visit every house to ensure that no child had been left out. He said during 2010, 42 cases of pulse polio had been reported in the country, which came down to one in 2011. The last case of pulse polio in the state had been reported in Nalagarh block of Solan district and the infected child belonged to migrant labourers. No case of pulse polio had been reported in the state after 2009.

The second phase of the campaign would be launched in April to ensure that all children in the target age group were administered polio drops in the state. He asked the officials to ensure that children of migrant labourers were also administered polio drops. He also emphasised the need to create awareness so that families could be educated about the importance of vaccination.

The Chief Minister also flagged off the pulse polio immunisation ambulance on the occasion.

Shimla, February 19
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has expressed surprise over the discontinuation of the land acquisition work for the Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri rail line and has sought the intervention of Union Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi for starting the construction work on the project as agreed by the Prime Minister’s Office in August 2007.

In a letter to Trivedi, he pointed out that according to the decision the Railway Ministry, 25 per cent of the project cost was to be borne by the state government and the rest 75 per cent by it.

The cost of land was also to be included in the state’s share, but the cost over-runs were to taken care of by the ministry. However, the decision regarding the funding pattern was changed later by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) without any consultation with the state government, which was unfortunate.

According to this new funding pattern, 25 per cent of the state share will include the cost of land acquisition, assessed at Rs 70 crore, and any increase in the land cost would also have to be met by it.

This was not in line with the earlier decision as per which the total cost of land was included in the state share of Rs 261.72 crore. Also, the cost over-run was to be taken care of by the Railways, but the CCEA decision did not mention this.

The Chief Minister also expressed concern over the discontinuation of the land acquisition work as the process had been completed in 11 villages for the initial track of 20 km. Notifications under Sections 6 and 7 had been issued by the Land Acquisition Officer, Bilaspur, and the discontinuation of the process would only add to the cost as it would not be possible to complete the project by December, 2015.

Dhumal urged the Union Minister to resume the process as the alignment of the line had already been finalised and villages identified for land acquisition up to Beri.

He also urged Trivedi to make adequate provisions for the Nangal-Talwara broad-guage rail line in the coming Budget so that it was completed over the next two years as per the commitment made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the state in 2005. So far only 44 km of the track had been constructed up to Amb-Andora and the remaining 39 km of the line was yet to be laid.

The survey for the Baddi-Kalka broad-gauge railway line had been completed as per which the cost had been estimated as Rs 385.45 crore for which adequate provisions should be made in the Budget.

Shimla, February 19
The move of the government to charge a higher rate for the power available to it from BBMB projects will add to the financial woes of the state electricity board, which is already reeling under a revenue gap of over Rs 1,500 crore.

The quantum of power available from the BBMB projects has gone up almost threefold after the Supreme Court upheld its claim of 7.19 per cent share under the Punjab State Reorganisation Act in September last. Before the verdict, it was receiving about 200 million units annually under 2.5 per cent ad hoc share and with the enhancement in the share, it will get about 585 million units. The power so far is being supplied on the “bus bar rates” depending on the generation cost, which varies from 33 paise to 90 paise per unit.

However, the state Cabinet last week approved a proposal under which the board will be charged the average power purchase cost (APPC), which is currently Rs 2.23 per unit. The increase, as worked out by the government, will put an additional burden of Rs 72 crore on the board. The power purchase cost of the board has already increased by Rs 300 crore over and above the amount approved by the state electricity regulatory commission (SERC) and the move of the government will make things worse. The move is likely to be opposed by the board and its employees as it is not the free power on account of royalty but the share available as the “state of the region” to the board. It has to be charged at the “bus bar rates”.

The government’s move is surprising as tariff determination is the exclusive domain of the SERC and it cannot and should not interfere in the matter. The commission had only last year severely reprimanded the government for undermining its independence by issuing directions on matters pertaining to the fixation of tariff. It rejected outright the directions as ultra vires and in violation of the Supreme Court verdict.

Moreover, the government will not gain by the move as the additional power purchase cost will be passed on to the consumers and as a result it will have to increase the subsidy to the domestic consumers from the current Rs 166 crore as being an election year it cannot allow the power tariff to go up sharply.

Shimla, February 19
The newly elected body of the Himachal chapter of the Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has decided to crack down on dummy chartered accountant firms in the state.

Chairman and vice-chairman of the chapter Sachin Doger and Rohit Karol, respectively, said a large number of firms had filled fraudulent addresses and they were actually not based in Himachal Pradesh. Their new team would launch a drive to expose such firms.

The executive committee would also work for the betterment of the profession by getting more avenues opened in the government sector for chartered accountants.

Solan, February 19
The Barotiwala police today found the body of an unidentified migrant labourer hanging from a tree in the forest area adjoining the Kotla-Haripur road.

The deceased appeared to be in his mid-30s, and since a bag containing clothes was also found lying near the body, the police suspects that he could have paid a visit to nearby Haripur gurdwara.

SP, Baddi, Gurdev Chand Sharma said the body could not be identified as no proof of his identify had been found from the spot. No cash or valuable was recovered.

Information would be sent to police stations in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana in a bid to identify the body as no clue about any missing person had as yet been received from local police stations.

With no visible signs of struggle having taken place, the police was awaiting the postmortem report to ascertain the reasons of the death, though prima facie it appeared to be a case of suicide, the SP said.

This was the third case of hanging which had come to light in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh police district in the past one week. Earlier, a class X student’s body was found hanging at Gujarhatti and a woman’s body was recovered from Bhatoli Kalan. Little breakthrough had been achieved in solving these two cases as no apparent reason of suicide had been detected.

The SP said they were exploring various possibilities to solve these cases. With the BBN being a bordering area sharing boundaries with Haryana and Punjab, foul play could not be ruled out.

Chamba, February 19
There is no letup in charas smuggling going on in the Churah subdivision of Chamba district as about 3.5 kg charas has been seized by the police in three cases detected during the past 24 hours at different points of the region, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kulbhushan Verma said here today.

The DSP revealed that 2.22 kg charas was recovered from the possession of Tej Singh, 700 gm from Ashish Kumar (20) and 700 gm from Hans Raj (21). The last two were stated to be students who belonged to nearby local areas.

Accordingly, cases under Section 20, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act, had been registered against the accused who had been arrested, the DSP said, adding that further investigation was underway.

With this, nine cases under the NDPS Act had been registered at various police stations in which about 18 kg of charas had been recovered during the past few days, the DSP said.

The trade of charas smuggling has been flourishing in Churah subdivision for a long time despite stringent laws.

Chamba, February 19
The recent blizzard in the secluded Pangi tribal valley of Chamba district has multiplied the troubles of the inhabitants of the valley as the prevailing snowy weather has created a scarcity of LPG, besides causing power breakdowns, in villages.

Even though a month has elapsed, roads are yet to be restored for traffic.

A large part of the Pangi valley is facing a power blackout as transmission lines have been damaged in the aftermath of the heavy snowfall.

About 120 cm of snowfall has so far been recorded at Killar, the subdivisional headquarters of the Pangi valley.

The closure of the road connecting the Pangi valley via Kistwar in Jammu and Kashmir due to heavy snow has added to the problems in the valley as cooking gas and other supplies could have been transported through this route.