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Bali, Virbhadra trying
to mend fences? Fires
destroy forest wealth worth Rs 27 lakh HIMFED in a debt trap 4 councillors seek probe against EO New technology to revolutionise solar energy products: Experts |
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State seeks cent per cent assistance
Samiti to launch chain fast on June 6 Una college gets nod for MBA, MCA Summer festival begins
Dalai Lama’s envoys resign
Villagers kill leopard
State leads in tobacco control
Losses mount as industrial units face power blues
Fishing banned in Gobind
Sagar, Pong Dam for 2 months
Students’ summer camp under way at Dalhousie
MP seeks probe into purchase of buses, spare parts Storekeeper booked for embezzlement
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Bali, Virbhadra trying
to mend fences?
The most important development on this front has been a meeting of senior leader from Kangra GS Bali with Union Minister Virbhadra Singh in New Delhi two days ago, giving rise to speculation regarding realignment of equations within the party. The two leaders have been at loggerheads for the past quite sometime, but the fear of a debacle in the Assembly poll has forced them to adopt a conciliatory approach. Bali tried to downplay the move by stating that he often kept meeting senior party leaders. He said he discussed the political situation and what was required to be done to bring the party back to power in the state. He said no hasty conclusion should be drawn. Right now his focus was on making the party rally, to be held at Dharamsala on June 7 instead of Hamirpur as originally planned, a grand success. He had been made the in charge of the rally and one thing he wanted to assure party men was that all senior leaders, including Virbhadra Singh and Anand Sharma, would be given a rousing welcome on the their arrival in Kangra for the rally. It is learnt that the two leaders also discussed the “rath yatra” announced by Bali from Manali, which falls in Virbhadra Singh’s parliamentary constituency, to highlight the problem of unemployment. According to sources, Virbhadra Singh did not like the announcement of the programme without his knowledge. However, Bali was confident that his rath yatra would get under way after the party rally at Dharamsala. He said it would benefit the party, especially in the Assembly constituencies through which it would pass. Hostility between Bali and Virbhadra Singh reached the peak when their sons contested a bitter election for the post of state Youth Congress president a few months ago. In fact, the leaders met for the first time since then. Only last month, Bali organised a rally at Palampur, which was addressed by Anand Sharma and virtually boycotted by supporters of Virbhadra Singh, who held an informal get-together here the same day. In a related development, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh met AICC general secretary Birender Singh Chaudhary in connection with the “parivartan yatra” the party proposes to organise from Paonta Sahib shortly. The party seems to have been caught in the politics of rallies and padyatras with rival leaders trying to project themselves. However, they are coming under increasing pressure from the party workers who want the senior leaders to sink their differences and put up a united face during the run-up to the Assembly poll. |
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Fires destroy forest wealth worth
Rs 27 lakh Dharamsala, June 3 Conservator, Forests, ARM Reddy said with the mercury touching 35°C in Kangra district, forest officials were fighting tooth and nail to douse forest fires, particularly in pine areas. So far, 158 fire incidents had been reported from forest areas of Dharamsala circle. The forest fires this year were taking place at a high pace mainly because there were no or nominal forest fires in the past two years, which resulted in the accumulation of large quantities of combustible bio-mass in the forest areas. The temperatures this year are also unusually high, with little or no hope of rain till the end of next week. He said patrolling by the forest staff is being carried out continuously, but fires were being set intentionally day and night by unknown offenders as forests were spread over 3,270 sq km. The Forest Department had arrested Madan Lal of Rasson village last week while he was setting a forest on fire. Reddy said setting forest areas on fire was now a non-bailable offence and the guilty were liable for imprisonment of 15 days under the Himachal Pradesh Forest Rules, 1999. Madan Lal was caught while setting fire to a forest, but he managed to escape from the scene. After gathering information from resin labourers working in the forest, a team of forest officers raided the residence of Madan Lal and found that he was at large. The department filed a complaint against Madan Lal and produced witnesses in the police post at Yol on May 31. The site was inspected by the Conservator of Forests, who appealed to the Kangra SP to bring the offender to book. The police finally arrested the offender on yesterday. Reddy appealed to the people to bring incidents of forest fires immediately to the notice of the circle/division/range office to protect forest
weatlh.
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HIMFED in a debt trap Solan, June 3 Though the government is now taking credit for having paid the MIS payment to the growers for the last financial year in time, this unpaid amount has aggravated the financial woes of
HIMFED. The federation was forced to take a loan of Rs 2.35 crore after exceeding its credit limit to make timely payment to the growers whose fruit was procured under this scheme in 2010-2011. This has levied an interest liability of Rs 37 lakh per annum on the federation at a time when its cumulative losses are about Rs 6.80 crore till 2011-2012. Interestingly, though the Finance Department had approved and released this amount of Rs 2.35 crore to the Horticulture Department last year, it has not been granted to HIMFED till now. This despite the fact that the Finance Department had granted this amount under the specified head of MIS payment for
HIMFED. With an annual interest of Rs 37 lakh having been added to the principal amount, the total liability on account of the MIS payment has touched Rs 2.72 crore and it will further rise if this payment is not made by the Horticulture Department
soon. HIMFED’s Drawing and Disbursing Authority at the Solan office Amar Singh Verma confirmed that the MIS payment for the financial year 2010-2011, amounting to Rs 2.35
crore, had not been paid as yet and an interest of Rs 37 lakh had been levied on the loans availed to make payment to the growers in time. Federation employees rued that the “inimical policies” of the state government were pushing it in the red. Even in the purchase and distribution of
fertilisers, it barely earned Rs 80 lakh per annum and ended up paying interest of Rs 4.45
crores, Rs 2.38 crores and Rs 3.33 crores in the past few years on loans availed to purchase
fertilisers.
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4 councillors seek probe against EO Palampur, June 3 Addressing a press conference in the office of the municipal council here this evening, the councillors alleged that purchases worth lakhs of rupees were made by the executive officer on high rates without constituting a purchase committee, which was mandatory. He kept the president and the vice-president of the council in the dark. They said in the past six months, no development works were awarded to any contractors by the executive officer despite the availability of funds, affecting the development of the town. The councillors claimed that Shanta Kumar, MP, had given Rs 1 crore to the council six months ago for the construction of Nandan park in the town. An amount of Rs 25 lakh was lying in the bank, but the executive officer was reluctant to take up the construction work. Likewise, the local MLA had given Rs 25 lakh for the construction of a parking lot in the old LIC office, but the executive officer failed to take up the construction work.
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New technology to revolutionise solar energy
products: Experts Mandi, June 3 There is a lot of sunlight available in India and more so in Himachal Pradesh. But this energy remains out of reach for the common man as it is tapped by using silicon-based technology, which is very expensive, say scientists at the sidelines of the national symposium on nanobiotechnology that concluded at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi. But now scientists have made a breakthrough using organics like petroleum byproducts and other materials using plastic as the base, says Dr Kenneth Gonsalves, the convener of the symposium and the visiting professor from the US at the IIT. Dr Gonsalves said the solar photovoltaic cells made from organics using plastic were very cheap, durable, efficient, reliable and user-friendly. The solar cells could be used as portable panels, generators and ‘shamianas’ for any time use. It could be used for domestic household use replacing the use of electricity where sunlight is found aplenty. As these organic solar cells will be cheaper, it will reduce over dependency on electricity. It is a matter of few years as the new solar cells products will be available depending how Indian companies show interest using the new technology, the scientists say. In the US, the new plastic-based solar cells products have hit the markets, informs Dr Gonsalves. But here in India it depends on funding and investments in new technology, he added. Besides, another hitch is that the patent for this new technology has been filed in the US, Dr Gonsalves says. But we have the two scientists at the IIT working on this new solar cells technology and will take a few years to develop photovoltaic materials for this, he adds. Dr Gonsalves says this technology will be feasible for the Himalayan region where sun is available round the year. These solar systems are rechargeable and are long lasting and much lighter than the silicon photovoltaic cells.
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State seeks cent per cent assistance Shimla, June 3 Industries Minister Kishan Kapoor, while speaking at the first meeting of the National Food Processing Development Council held in New Delhi recently, pointed out that the mission was being implemented on a 75:25 ratio by the Central and state governments which was beyond the means of a hill state like Himachal. He underlined the need for uniform parameters for all hill states under the scheme. He also urged the Centre to give a capital investment grant for food processing industries under the mission, besides an interest grant on working loan to improve the financial condition of the industry. He also requested for an enhancement in the capital investment grant and working capital interest from 6 to 9 per cent for eight years. Kapoor underlined the need for giving an administrative grant for implementing the mission and called for simplification of the implementation procedures. He said Himachal had already constituted a state-level committee under the mission and had appointed the Director of Industries as the state mission Director. He said a separate “head of account” had been created for seeking financial assistance from the Central Government. The processing capacity of 150 agriculture and fruit-based units in the state was one lakh metric tonnes and the government was encouraging packaging, storage warehouse and cold-storage units for processing fruit and vegetable produce. The state was producing 14 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrains and 11 lakh metric tonnes of vegetables, besides 13.50 lakh metric tonnes of potato, ginger and other cash crops.
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Samiti to launch chain fast on June 6 Nurpur, June 3 Pathania, who announced having taken full support of Harbans Rana, former MLA from Jawali, said Nurpur would play the role of a host in the agitation scheduled from June 6 onwards. The samiti will comprise members from the four Assembly segments of Nurpur, Indora, Jawali and Fatehpur. Addressing a joint press conference, Pathania and newly nominated samiti chairman Mastan Singh said the samiti had formulated its strategy to launch a stir to press the government to declare Nurpur as a new district. “The samiti, with the involvement of public, will start a seven-day chain fast in front of the office of the SDM, Nurpur, on June 6. A massive rally will be held here on June 12 and an one-month ultimatum will be given to the government by submitting a memorandum through the
SDM.
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Una college gets nod for MBA, MCA Shimla, June 3 These courses will be run under the banner of the Institute of Professional Education in the self-financing mode. The state government has already given an NOC to the college for the purpose. It is the first government college in the state which has been granted approval to start both courses simultaneously. Principal Amarjeet K Sharma said the institution had already been declared as a “college with potential for excellence” by the UGC and a “college of excellence” by the state government. All “pre-requisite admission” to both courses had been completed.
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Summer festival begins Shimla, June 3 Besides his own songs, he also rendered some popular numbers of legendary Bollywood singers like Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar. His own hits included ‘Ae Dil Tham Ja Zara’ from the film Murder 2 and ‘Behne De Mujhe Behne De’ from Ravan. He also sang ‘Sawan Mein Lag Gayi Aag’, ‘Tere Mast Mast Do Nain’, ‘Ek Hasina Thi Ek Deewana Tha’ and ‘Yama Yama’. The festival, inaugurated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal, also featured a ‘hasya kavi sammelan’. Pahari singers Sarita Bushairi, Ram Bhardwaj, Neelam Gandharva and Kamla Mekta were also present. The audience burst into peels of laughter during the poetic symposium featuring Sunil Kumar, Praveen Shukla, Mumtaz Naseem and other poets.
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Dalai Lama’s envoys resign
Dharamsala, June 3 The envoys were earlier directly reporting to the Dalai Lama, who was head of the Tibetan government-in-exile. However, after the Dalai Lama resigned as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, the envoys had to report to the elected Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), headed by Lobsang Sangay. This created discontentment among the envoys, who offered to resign. Special envoy Lodi Gyari, assisted by envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, led the Tibetan team in nine rounds of talks with representatives of the Chinese government, starting in 2002. The last meeting with the Chinese side took place more than two years ago in January 2010. Despite Gyari’s desire to step down in April 2011, the two envoys were asked to continue their efforts to reach out to their Chinese counterparts by Sangay. The envoys met and briefed Sangay on 12 occasions since May 2011. At a meeting of the Task Force on May 30 and 31, 2012, in Dharamsala, the envoys expressed their frustration over the lack of positive response from the Chinese side and submitted their resignations to the Kalon Tripa. “Given the deteriorating situation inside Tibet since 2008, leading to increasing cases of self-immolation by Tibetans, we are compelled to submit our resignations. Moreover, the United Front did not respond positively to the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People presented in 2008 and its note in 2010. One of the key Chinese interlocutors in the dialogue process even advocated abrogation of the minority status as stipulated in the Chinese constitution, thereby seeming to remove the basis of autonomy. At this particular time, it is difficult to have a substantive dialogue,” stated the two envoys in their resignation letter. “I have known both special envoy Gyari and envoy Gyaltsen for many years. They have worked extremely hard in challenging circumstances and made earnest efforts to move the dialogue process forward and resolve the Tibet issue peacefully. Their contributions during their decade-long leadership of the Tibetan negotiating team have been invaluable. The CTA will continue to rely on them for their wise counsel. They will remain as senior members of the Task Force team,” said Sangay. He urged Beijing to accept the middle-way approach, which seeks genuine autonomy for Tibetans within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and within the framework of the Chinese constitution. This is a win-win proposition, which contributes to the PRC’s unity, stability, harmony and its peaceful rise in the world. The Tibetan Task Force on Negotiations will be expanded and will meet again in December 2012 to discuss the Chinese leadership transition with the hope of continuing the dialogue with new Chinese leaders to resolve the Tibet issue peacefully. The Tibetan leadership remains firmly committed to non-violence and the middle-way approach, and strongly believes that the only way to resolve the Tibet issue is through dialogue.
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Villagers kill leopard
Hamirpur, June 3 Later, the village panchayat president and another person went to rescue the youths, but they were also attacked by the leopard, which eloped in the bush after the attack. Scared by the leopard, the villagers called a shooter from the village who shot it down this morning. Mauji Ram, Block Forest Officer, and Kuldeep Singh, Tehsildar, Bhoranj, rushed to the spot on getting the information. PK Thakur, Divisional Forest Officer, Hamirpur, said: “The injured have been admitted to a hospital in Bhoranj and will be given compensation as per the Wild Life Protection Act.” |
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State leads in tobacco control
Shimla, June 3 The anti-tobacco campaign has enabled it to achieve the target of making all district headquarters in the state smoke-free. Its good performance won it accolades from the WHO, which conferred the South-East Asia Regional Office Award-2012 on it for its outstanding achievements in the implementation of the anti-tobacco campaign. As Himachal Pradesh is not covered under the National Tobacco Programme, no financial assistance is provided by the Centre to it for tobacco control. In spite of this, the state government took various initiatives for tobacco control. Shimla city was formally declared smoke-free on October 2, 2010, after compliance of smoke-free rules. Tashijong village in Kangra district has been declared as the first tobacco-free village in the country.
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Losses mount as industrial units face power blues
Solan, June 3 A visit to the industrial area revealed that on an average power trips once every 45 minutes. This is causing losses to electrical appliance manufacturers where large-scale molten material is wasted each time a power tripping occurrs. A manufacturer, while ruing the abrupt rise in the quantum of wastage, said as against a single truckload of wasted material, nearly four truckloads were now lost due to power tripping in a month. This was increasing the cost of production and was leading to continuous losses. Echoing similar sentiments, another investor said electricity board officials should rather effect a small scheduled power cut in a day to deal with overloading rather than let power tripping disrupt industrial production. Such cuts, if scheduled, would allow an investor to plan his production activities accordingly and this measure could save him from undue losses. With the summer season at its peak, electrical appliance manufacturers were working hard to meet their targets as the maximum sales were witnessed in these months. This was also leading to wastage of precious time as one had to restart the process once a tripping occurred and this usually took half an hour. Processes like cutting of metals and joining of wires, if halted in between, made the entire process redundant, thus leading to large-scale wastage of materials. Power board SDO BS Thakur, however, said such trippings only occurred in industries due to their in-house problems as these tried to rationalise load on various feeders by shifting excess load to other feeders.
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Fishing banned in Gobind
Sagar, Pong Dam for 2 months
Bilaspur, June 3 This was stated by Assistant Director of Fisheries Sunil Mehta here. He said any violation of this prohibition order was a cognisable offence and was punishable with imprisonment for three years and fines up to Rs 5,000 Mehta said now all fishing activity, including catching of fish by any method, roasting, frying or selling, carrying, storing or possessing of fish would be illegal till August 1 when all these activities would start again in the district. He said all fishermen registered here would be compensated as they would be provided with a government grant of Rs 1,200 each and this year government would provide this “closed season grant” of Rs 22.14 lakh to 1,845 fishermen here. Mehta said till May 15 this year Gobind Sagar fish catch had touched the figure of 112.3 metric tonnes which was 35 metric tonnes more than that of last year. This, he said, was a result of strict observance of this ban last year supplemented by the release of 39 lakh better quality fingerlings by the department into the Gobind Sagar He said this year also the department proposed to replenish fish in the Gobind Sagar by releasing into it another 50 lakh fingerlings bought from outside the state. He said the department had taken precautions to ensure strict observance of this ban. He urged public to help in this matter and report any violations by anybody on phone Nos. 01978-222568 (office), 94184-65377 (flying squad), 94184-60474 (Jagatkhana), 9817070972 (Bhakra), 9882-730189 (Lathiyani) and 94189-02364 (Mandi). NURPUR: In order to boost natural breeding of fish in the Pong dam reservoir in lower Kangra district, the state Fisheries Department has imposed a complete ban on fishing in this water body for two months from June 1 onwards. The department has set up 17 fish conservation camps on the banks of the reservoir. Three watchmen will conduct round-the-clock patrolling to check fishing and transporting of fish in the area. Besides, a flying squad is also assisting to keep a strict vigil As many as 15 fisheries co-operative societies comprising around 2,000 fishermen are operating in the Pong dam reservoir. Gurcharan Singh, chief executive officer-cum-officiating director, Fisheries department, said fishing with net in any water body was a non-bailable cognisable offence and the department had geared up to check illegal fishing in He informed that the department had issued written instruction to all fishermen of Pong reservoir not to catch fish during the ban period. |
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Students’ summer camp under way at Dalhousie
Dalhousie, June 3 The ICCR organises such programmes for foreign students for cultural exchange. A group of 32 students, including 12 girls, from eight countries, is participating in the camp. Students from Afghanistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Thailand are attending the camp. The camp was inaugurated by member, board of directors of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, Ashish Chadha. While addressing participants, Chadha said it was a big boost to Dalhousie that students from different countries were coming to this small hill town, thereby giving importance to this place as a natural retreat for all types of tourists. “The camp will go a long way towards motivating tourists from abroad to visit Dalhousie, which is a paradise on the earth,” Chadha said. Manager of the youth hostel, Dalhousie, Capt RS Rana said throughout this camp foreigners would be visiting Chamba, Khajjiar, Kalatop, Dainkund, Chamera Lake and also enjoy the rock-rappelling, They would play a friendly basketball match with students of local schools during the camp. They would also have a cultural programme at a nearby Kathlog village and taste Himachali cuisine, which is locally called “dhaam”.
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MP seeks probe into purchase of buses, spare parts Chamba, June 3 Addressing mediapersons at the local Circuit House today, Dr Sushant condemned the attitude of the state government towards the agitation of the HRTC employees. He demanded that the HRTC organisation set up should be converted into “Roadways”, and to regularise the staff who had completed four years of their service on contract basis on Haryana pattern. Dr Sushant also demanded to fill up 3,000 vacancies of the HRTC workforce, which had been lying vacant from long time. Speaking about the arrears of the drivers and conductors and other staff of the HRTC, Dr Sushant demanded to release their outstanding payments, which tentatively amounted to around Rs 30 crore. He announced that to make Himachal Pradesh a model state, he had drawn a 13-point programme. Dr Sushant demanded pension for all senior citizens and disabled persons without any condition and unemployment allowance to 10 lakh unemployed people on Uttar Pradesh pattern. He also demanded the implementation of the encroachment policy, which had been formulated during the previous BJP regime when he was the Revenue Minister in the state Cabinet. |
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Storekeeper booked for embezzlement Mandi/Manali, June 3 Though the Kullu police registered a case under Section 409, IPC, against Tilak Raj posted as a senior assistant at the institute, the police is yet to arrest the accused. In a written complaint, Saluria charged that the accused was given the charge of the mountaineering equipment store from August 29, 2001, till March 5, 2011. But when the Director checked the “charge list, it was found that different types of equipment were found defected. The newer ones were allegedly replaced with the defected pieces and total value of the defective equipment was about Rs 7,98,638”. The accused has been removed from the post pending an inquiry. The Director stated that the equipment had been misappropriated by Tilak Raj. SP Kullu Ashok Kumar said the police had registered a case against the accused and investigation was on. |
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Recent forest fires have destroyed forest wealth worth Rs 27 lakh. The loss is the highest in the past 10 years. The maximum loss has been caused due to the burning of fresh plantations.
The term of two special envoys of the Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, who held nine rounds of unfruitful talks with Chinese officials to resolve the Tibet issue in the past 10 years came to an end today.
Shimla, June 3