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LPG shortage hits Kangra district
Simian count to focus on infant population
Palampur medical college project exhibits BJP split
Vivekananda Medical College and Research Trust at Palampur. Photo by writer |
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Students construct low-cost bamboo wall
Beautification of Jot pass landscape lures tourists
Department gears up to fight forest fire
HIMFED to open C&F agency at Nalagarh
Cong leader rues insufficient aid to accident victims
State a pioneer in development, says Dhumal
Exhibition on works of Deepa Bhalaik held
Govt degree college sought for Jwalamukhi
Delay in Payment of GPF
NHPC’s eco park to come up at Banikhet
UK teachers visit Subathu school
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LPG shortage hits Kangra district
Palampur, April 24 Indane is the main distributor having around 16 dealers in Kangra. In Palampur, Daroh, Jaisinghpur, Nagrota Bagwan, Baijnath, Sahapur and Nurpur areas, consumers had come on roads to lodge their protest against the faulty distribution of LPG. In several places, the situation is alarming as the shortage of LPG has turned out to be a big problem for consumers. In Baijnath, around 100 consumers gathered with empty LPG cylinders on the Chobin road recently and stopped the vehicle carrying LPG cylinders to lodge their protest. Later, the police was called to control the situation. Likewise, agitated consumers also stopped a vehicle near Bagroa carrying LPG supply to Gopalpur and forced delivery boys to deliver cylinders on the roadside. In Baijnath, Palampur, Kangra, Sahapur, Panchrukhi, Dharamshala and Paprola, long queues of consumers can be seen daily in the morning on the roadside waiting for LPG supply vehicle, but they have to go back disappointed in the evening. The situation of LPG supply in Palampur town is also not good as two local LPG dealers have received only 14 truckloads of LPG as against the demand of 30 truckloads in April till date. Likewise in March, only 20 truckloads were received. Meanwhile, state government agencies have become silent spectators and no efforts are being made to streamline the supply of LPG in the district. The State Food and Civil Supply Department blames the IOC for its poor management and distribution of LPG, which had caused immense hardships to the consumers in the district. Enquiries made by The Tribune revealed that there was 40 per cent cut in the supply of LPG in the district, which had resulted in acute shortage of cylinders as dealers were getting only 60 per cent supply of their demand all over the district. Meanwhile, the Palampur Welfare Forum in its meeting held here recently urged the Kangra Deputy Commissioner to intervene to streamline the supply of LPG in the town and its adjoining areas. UC Verma, spokesperson for the forum, said if no efforts were made, they would stage a dharna in front of the SDM office.
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Simian count to focus on infant population
Solan, April 24 Principal Chief Conservator of Forests-cum Chief Wildlife Warden RK Sood said they would keep a track of the population of infants in all the hot spots which had already been identified as per a Census conducted in February. He added that they would assess the data every six months to estimate the success of sterilisation and plan accordingly. A data base of the simian population has already been prepared where various indices like troop size, adult population and infant population of the monkeys across the state have been recorded. With 1,93,225 monkeys in the state, the average of adult: infant population has been found to be 3:1 while the average troop size has been found to be 36. The Wildlife Wing of the State Forest Department was undertaking sterilisation since 2007 and as per a Cabinet decision a target of sterilising 2 lakh simians is supposed to be completed till June 30 this year. As many as 25 sterilisation centres equipped with modern technology are being set up across the state to meet the target. Though the authorities have been discouraging people from feeding bread and other eatables, it was found that tourists visiting the state paid little heed to these directions. This accounted for higher simian populations in bordering districts like Una, Kangra and Bilaspur. The situation appeared to be worst in the Gagret area bordering Punjab where people had set up special kiosks to sell bread to the tourists entering Himachal. While big troops of monkeys were found all along the Gagret barrier, these bread sellers seem to be doing brisk business. With an estimated 3,00,000 monkeys daily damaging cereal and fruit crops in the state, effective strategies to deal with their rising numbers is an issue of utmost concern to the agrarian community.
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Palampur medical college project exhibits BJP split
Palampur, April 24 Differences between Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar has come to the fore as Shanta Kumar has not been attending meetings of the state BJP unit for the past one year. If no early measures are adopted to complete this project, the BJP will have to pay a heavy price in the coming Assembly elections. In the present political scenario, the Chief Minister’s “Mission Repeat” cannot be achieved without Shanta Kumar’s blessings. Shanta faction alleges that the VMRT project has been delayed at the behest of senior leaders of state BJP who never wanted to see this project completed. The JP Group has taken a lot of favours from the state government in the past four years. JP cannot afford to annoy senior functionaries of the government, that is why low priority was given to this project and construction activities remained at a snail’s pace in the past four years despite best efforts of Shanta Kumar. In fact the JP Group had to complete the project as per November 2010 deadline. The proposal to set up this super-specialty institution was mooted by Shanta Kumar in 1992. Earlier, a trust headed by Shanta Kumar was executing this project but in 2008, when the BJP was voted to power, Shanta Kumar at the behest of Prem Kumar Dhumal joined hands with the JP Group for further completion of the project as a joint venture. The entire infrastructure, along with half-completed buildings worth Rs 25 crore and 60 acres of valuable land worth over Rs 100 crore situated in the heart of Palampur town, was also handed over to JP who promised to complete and run this institution within two years. But even after the expiry of four years, JP has done nothing except developing landscape, whitewashing the buildings, constructing a helipad and a VIP guest house. It is on record that the JP Group had already delayed this project by two years and there is no hope of early completion of this health institution. Area residents feel helpless to initiate any action against the JP Group.
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Students construct low-cost bamboo wall
Hamirpur, April 24 The wall was constructed by the students of the institute as part of their project in which teachers of the institute gave their guidance and active support. The bamboos, which are in abundance, are eco-friendly, non-polluting and are a cheap construction material. Talking to The Tribune, the students said this 14-m-long and one and a half meters high wall had been constructed with a cost of Rs 3,700 only and if the same would have been built with concrete, then it would have cost over Rs 50,000. The students who prepared the wall are Subodh Thakur, Sudesh Rathour, Vikas Guleria, Virender Thakur, Sumit, Akashay Bhatia, Sunny Garg, Rohit Chandel and Ankush
Dadhwal. Shiv Shakti Kapoor, head of the Civil Engineering Department, and teachers Sukhvinder Singh, Ashish Sharma and Vipin Bhagat took special pains to help the students in completing this project. Sumiti Thakur, chief executive officer, MIT Group of Institutions, said: “The bamboo retaining wall project will be presented in the international conference being organised by Uttrakhand
Technical University at Dehradun.”
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Beautification of Jot pass landscape lures tourists
Chamba, April 24 A substantial number of vehicles pass through this highway. Tourists visiting the Dalhousie-Chamba tourist circuit are lured to enjoy the magnificent setting of the green forests on the wide-ranging high-altitude areas of the district from the Jot picnic spot. Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife), Chamba, Surjit Kumar Mehra said Rs 20 lakh was being spent on the construction of the viewing points at Jot. These viewing points were environment-friendly and serving the purpose of rain-shelters for tourists visiting the site, he added. With a view to promoting tourism in and around the Jot beauty spot, the Tourism Department has funded Rs 20 lakh to the wildlife wing of the state Forest Department for the beautification activities of the Jot area, the DFO (Wildlife) said. “The wooded area of Jot is replete with fauna and flora that also adds to the attraction of tourists,” the DFO added. Situated at an altitude of approximately 2,500 m, the Jot picnic spot has gradually been gaining popularity as a place of attraction which is being frequented by tourists and naturalists in summers.
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Department gears up to fight forest fire
Nurpur, April 24 According to information, a multi-pronged strategy has been formulated to save precious forest wealth from fire, which has been engulfing forests almost every summer in the past. Recently, the department spent Rs 5 lakh on construction of ‘gang-hut’(field staff hut), which has been converted into a forest fire control room. The control room would function round the clock. The department has also built 4 ‘van sarovars’ (big ponds) which will provide water for extinguishing fire. The nearby fire stations have also been alerted. JC Katoch, local divisional forest officer, Nurpur, recently convened a meeting of officials of all the five forest ranges - Re, Kotla, Indora, Jawali and Nurpur. He said that the Forest Department machinery had been geared up to control forest fires. “The holidays of the field staff have also been suspended barring emergency situation. A 60-km long fireline has also been maintained,” he said. It is notable that in the Nurpur forest division, 55,000 hectares land is covered with forest area out which around 40 per cent has been identified fire prone.
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The churches of Ani
by Shriniwas Joshi The lines of ‘Paul Clifford’, a novel written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, came to my mind when I landed at Ani, the capital of erstwhile state of Sangri and now a sub-division in Kullu district. “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets, rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness”. In my case it was flame of the candles that the guesthouse owner had put in my room. There was no electricity because a huge tree had fallen on the transmission wires and had snapped those. The only alternative for me was to sleep early so that I could get up early in the morning and take a round of the township. I knew from my last visit, sometimes in 1992, that there existed an old church here which had surprised me that a place of Christian worship existed at such a remote place. I blended the task of locating the church with my morning walk. I met a senior citizen and asked him, “Where is the church here?” He replied in a query: “Which one - Sunday Church or Saturday Church?” I was surprised that there existed two churches in this small place. I told him that I wanted to see the one that was older. I followed his direction and passed through the office of the naib tehsildar which was located in an old, dilapidated building, but had the beauty of architectural grandeur. Later, Jiwanand Jeewan, who was the SDM here in 1975-76, told me that the building used to be the palace of the Rai of Sangri. The title of the ruler of Sangri was Rai after 1887, till then he was addressed as Thakur. I could see the church from a distance and I trudged the lonely kutcha path to reach there. The Krista Mukti Church appeared to me in a much better condition than I had expected (see photo). I talked to Reverend Beacon Vinod Kumar Lall, who had been a pastor here since April 6, 2010. He told me that Dr Marcus Carleton, an American Presbyterian missionary, who shifted here from Kullu to grow fruits for commercial cultivation in the 1870s, also started teaching the gospels of Christianity to the locals. Vinod told me that Annie was the name of one of the daughters of Carleton, after whom the town is called Anni or Ani. Carleton is the person who started a leper’s colony at Sabathu that had attracted Samuel Evans Stokes in 1904 to India who later became Satyanand Stokes. The building of the church was raised in the year 1905 (see photo) by Rev A Solomon after purchasing a six bigha land for Rs 26 only from the forefathers of one, now, Rev Sohanlal. It was renovated in 2004. The particular area where the church is located is called Naldehra. The Rev told me that there were 32 families in Ani who attended the divine service held in the church every Sunday. When I asked him about the other church in Ani, he said the Seventh Day Adventists had a church here that had a following of about a dozen families. The third church, he said, was that of Believers to which five-six Nepali labour-families are attached and it functioned from a rented building. The HPPWD Rest house here has an imposing building and a good place for a night’s rest (see photo). The executive engineer, who issues the permit for stay here, is located at Nirmand so the permit needs to be arranged earlier for a hassle-free stay. Ani is fit springboard for further hike to Jalori pass (3,223 metres), Sereolsar, a lake of placid and crystal clear water at a height of 3,560 metres and Khanag, a beautiful village situated among the lush green woods.
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HIMFED to open C&F agency at Nalagarh
Solan, April 24 The federation was preparing to set-up a carrying and forwarding (C&F) agency at Nalagarh to facilitate the supply. Reeling under the cumulative losses that have been stabilised at around Rs 5 crore, this would help to generate revenue for the federation. The IOC will provide salaries to its staff comprising manager, accounts officer, operations in charge, data entry operator and loading unloading in charge. Unskilled labourers would be stationed to handle the operation, including the supply of at least 250 kilo litres of products and a storage capacity of 300 kilo litres of products every month. The federation was awarded this contract on February 23 this year through competitive bidding and this would help generate business to the tune of Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore. Apart from this, it will also get commission on the sales made in the state as it is the only C&F agency in the state to supply lubricants by the IOC. The IOC has granted 120 days to the federation to set up this agency at Nalagarh. The contract has been initially granted for five years and it can be extended for another three years depending on the performance. HIMFED would be required to provide servo lubricants to various institutional customers, IOC stockists, IOC’s centres within the state, other C&Fs as well as to the SSIs and SSAs. Requisite arrangements, including laying of equipments for storing and supplying lubricants, were underway at Nalagarh where two godowns of 250 tonne capacity were being converted into required stores. Funds worth Rs 6.50 lakh have been sanctioned by the HIMFED to set-up racks to handle various containers and another Rs 10 lakh for trucks to transport the required products. The federation will also look after the inter-state supply to J&K, Punjab and Chandigarh. As per the agreement, 900 square meters of area was required for the C&F operations. The contract will generate smooth revenue operations, but lack of adequate staff will be a major issue before the management.
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Cong leader rues insufficient aid to accident victims
Bilaspur, April 24 Talking to mediapersons here recently, Thakur said after the Kharotta van accident a few days ago, it was shocking to find 22 injured women, most of them serious, lying helplessly on the floor as neither an ortho specialist nor a surgeon was available to attend to them immediately and they were being administered first aid by the Class III staff. Thakur said that the emergency ward lacked space and medical facilities. Except four patients, all others were being given medical aid on the floor. The only comfort was that Chief Medical Officer, who is a surgeon himself, immediately rushed to do the needful at the crucial hour. Due to absence of duty doctors, most of patients were referred to the PGI and consequently two of them succumbed to their injuries on way. Thakur said that the hospital had sufficient space and wards to arrange for a suitable and a larger emergency ward, but for mismanagement. He said that old, broken and obsolete equipment and furniture, which is filling some three big halls, should be immediately disposed off or at least rearranged to make space for a large emergency ward. Thakur said that all the injured women were from scheduled castes and poor families and they were each given a petty amount of Rs 5,000 and were asked to rush to the PGI for treatment. He said the government should not only provide liberal financial help in such circumstances, but should also liberally use the Chief Minister’s Relied Fund in public interest. He demanded that officials should ensure full payment of entire treatment and food to the patients and their attendants at the PGI Chandigarh and also in regional hospital here so that they do not face any difficulty.
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State a pioneer in development, says Dhumal
Bilaspur, April 24 While addressing the people, Dhumal said the state had emerged as a pioneer in development and the government had catered to the interests of every section of society, along with giving special attention to the backward areas. He said the government had taken special care to protect the people from corruption and had adopted three important social measures namely - Himachal Pradesh Public Service Guarantee Act - 2012, Himachal Pradesh Special Courts (Attachment and Confiscation of Property) Bill - 2011 and Himachal Pradesh Lokayukta Act - 2012. He said under such laws, officials had been compelled to provide services to the people within time and courts had been authorised to confiscate property of anybody found guilty of amassing illegal wealth. The Chief Minister presented 32 title awards like Civil Service Awards, Prerna Shrote Awards and Parashu Ram Awards for various achievements and distinctions in various fields to individuals and institutions. The coaches of the Parashu Ram Award were also awarded a cash prize of Rs 50,000. Others honoured by him were the members of gold-winning 37th National Women Kabaddi team. Mahinder Singh and Sandip Kumar were also honoured for kabaddi, Pawan Kumar for handball, Sushil Kumar for athletics, Sanjiv Kumar for boxing and Sonu for his PYYKA achievements and silver medalists of National Junior Handball championship. The chief Minister gave cash prizes of Rs 50,000 each under the Total Sanitation Programme at the district-level to Government Senior Secondary School, Barmana, Government Middle School, Behran, and Government Primary School, Reeh Khaas.
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Exhibition on works of Deepa Bhalaik held
A five-day exhibition at the Gaiety Theatre featuring the works of Deepa Bhalaik provided a peep into the life and culture of the people of hills. As many as 30-odd paintings on display (see photo) covered varied aspects, from a flock of sheep moving on a steep slope to typical hill village typified by a cluster of slate roofed houses. The predominance of birds, animals and landscapes provided ample evidence of her love for nature and wildlife. In fact, she is a keen photographer and this hobby helped the artist in her to blossom. She hails from the upper Shimla area and later settled in Chandigarh where she produced most of her creative works. However, the imprint of the region where she was born and brought up has been so strong that her works are entirely inspired by the hills. She has captured on the canvas the splendour of the nature in her works characterised by snow-capped mountains, lush green meadows, azure lakes and other such natural hill features. She was pleasantly surprised to find that a large number of people in the city were interested in art. Shimla FM radio to broadcast “Hidimb”
SR Harnot’s popular novel “Hidimb” has been adapted in the form of a drama for broadcast from Shimla FM radio. The drama is being aired every Sunday under the newly introduced programme entitled “Katha
Kahani” under the direction of Devendra Mahendru, Chief Programme Executive of AIR
Shimla. The rendering of Hindi novel in drama form is the first-of-its-kind for AIR
Shimla. The first edition of the novel was published during 2004 and recently the 2nd edition has also been published and featured at the World Book Fair in Delhi. The novel has been evaluated by critics and reviewers in different literary journals of repute. The novel brings to fore the plight of suppressed people in the remote areas of Himachal Pradesh who are subjected to discrimination on the basis of caste by the rich and powerful in the conservative society and nurturing of the spirit of rebellion against exploitation.
Earth Day observed
Earth Day is the largest civic event in the world, celebrated simultaneously across the globe by people in various ways. The staff of Radisson Hotel in Shimla undertook a series of activities to mark the day and reaffirm their commitment to preserve environment. The employees took part in restoration and beautification of the famous tourist spots of Kalibari and Sankat Mochan temples under the Community Green Project. Besides carrying out a cleanliness drive, they also placed dustbins with “Go Green & Save Earth” logo. The hotel adopted a bird in the Himalayan Nature Park,
Kufri, for one year wherein all expenditures of feeding and maintenance of the bird are undertaken by it. They took a pledge to plant trees on the birthday of every employee and procured special “Go Green Diaries” for the managers and executives with go green tips. A documentary movie show on Earth Day was also hosted for the staff as well as guests. Various activities such as collage making on environment-related theme were
organised.
INIFD students design kids wear
The students of the Institute of Fashion Designing
(INIFD), Hamirpur, have been making special efforts to design clothes for different age groups and on different themes. The first-year students came out with a wide range of kids wear during a recent workshop. While baby frocks were the main attraction of the presentation, the students also designed attractive jump suits, romper suits, dungaree suits, top skirt suits and other apparel. They used stone work, pearl work and artificial flowers to embellish the frocks. The students of the institute have also made dresses using the traditional fabric and designs from the Himachali folk costumes. These include ghagra
cholis, caps and coats from different regions of the state. Designs from Himachali shawls were also used by the students to design the
dresses. Himachali Patti, which is commonly used in Himachali dresses, various stones, silver ornaments and other such items were extensively used to lend a typical Himachali touch. (Contributed by Rakesh Lohumi and DP Gupta)
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Govt degree college sought for Jwalamukhi
Kangra, April 24 Sanjay Rattan was talking to mediapersons at the PWD resthouse at Jwalamukhi recently. He was critical of Dhawala, who represents the Dehra constituency in which Jwalamukhi falls, for allegedly betraying the people of the area by starting a degree college to be financially sustained by the Jwalamukhi Temple Trust. He said he had promised during the previous Assembly poll that a government degree college would be set up at Jwalamukhi, but nothing was done in that direction. He added that it was merely a political gimmick the BJP played during the poll to get political mileage. He said that setting up a degree college funded by the Jwalamukhi trust had hit the temple development as well as the activities of the college. He demanded that the state government should take over the present degree college to provide better education to the students.
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Court directs officials to submit reply
Our Correspondent
Sundernagar, April 24 Shyam Lal retired after 34 years of service in HPSEB on October 31, 2011. The board was supposed to pay Rs 15 lakh (approx) as GPF within one week of his retirement, but the retiree did not get the payment by the end of November 2011. On this, he contacted the accounts office, Shimla and he was told that sanction of payment had been sent to the office of the senior executive engineer, Sundernagar, on November 9. But when he did not get payment till December, he again visited the office of the senior executive engineer on December 17 and enquired about the payment. On this, the superintendent said it was not his duty to send the cheque to the retiree. Afterwards the retiree got a cheque of Rs 15 lakh on December 21 after a delay of more than one and a half months after his retirement. The retiree has filed a case for compensation of Rs 1 lakh on the accounts office for delayed payment and harassment caused to him.
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NHPC’s eco park to come up at Banikhet
Dalhousie, April 24 Surrounded by deodar, oak and pine forests, the eco park will be the first-of-its-kind in the midst of salubrious climate in a magnificent setting. The work to develop the eco park in line with the tourism angle is underway. NHPC Region-II Executive Director Sharat Chander Sharma said Rs 22 lakh would be spent in beautifying the spot. The land covered an area of 4,000 sq m in which fountains of different types and multi-play equipment were being installed. At present, the park contained a rope climber, merry-go-round, slides, toy trains, etc. “We intend to do landscaping and develop several other facilities for visitors and tourists on the proposed park and have a plan for installing decorative lights and benches on it,” the Executive Director explained. To keep harmony with nature, the area was being provided with a green cover, flower beds, pathways, pitch slopes etc along the
nullah. The lighting around the boundary wall, along with pathways, were being fitted. In addition to this, pictures of various hydropower stations and historical sites of Chamba had been installed, he added.
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UK teachers visit Subathu school
Solan, April 24 The UK teachers, Ms Kent and Ms Lauren, attended Pinegrove for a whole week and had healthy interaction with teachers and students. Earlier two teachers from Pinegrove School, Subathu had visited Claverham School under the same programme in November, 2011. Both the schools are working on a project on sustainable development which has been integrated into their curriculum in various subjects including geography, science and English. The visit was successful as the review of the project work was very positive and planning work for the next term and following year was completed. GSP is an educational initiative run by British Council to encourage cross-cultural exchange at the school level to facilitate learning for students and staff.
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The
failure on part of the JP Group of Industries to complete senior BJP leader
Shanta Kumar’s dream project Vivekananda Medical College and Research Trust (VMRT)
has virtually rocked Himachal BJP.
Vignettes
