Shimla, June 5
Notwithstanding the strained relations between the two neighbours, the people of Pakistan feel that the two nations must encourage more people-to-people contact by way of exhibitions, cultural exchange and liberal visa grant as there is no animosity between the people who want to come closer.

About 30 traders from Pakistan are here to take part in a Tourism Mart organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex. The traders carrying exquisite stuff, including onyx products, suits, dress materials, jutis and jewellery, from various cities like Lahore, Multan, Pindi and Sialkot are exhibiting their stuff.

"I was born and brought up in Mumbai and for the past 26 years I have been living in Lahore after my marriage. Therefore, I know that people on both the sides of the border want an end to the tension as it is in the interest of economies of the two nations," says Nafisa Aslam, who is exhibiting her embroidered Pakistani suits.

She, like others, feels that visa restrictions must be relaxed. "I have visited India on six occasions during the past one year, but I have not been able to visit my mother and family in Mumbai as it is not permissible," she says highlighting the problems faced by many like her. She shudders to think about the post 26/11 attack when people from both the sides feared at the thought of crossing the border, leave aside applying for visa.

She says though both the countries must adopt a more liberal attitude so that winds of peace blow across the sub-continent, a more compassionate stance must be adopted in case of those who have families here in India and Pakistan.

"Only I know how I survived the three years of complete clampdown on cable, road, rail and air routes between the two neighbours in 2001, but still I came to Mumbai via Dubai to meet my ailing father," she says highlighting the pain of many others like her.

Others like Amzad, who has come from Lahore with beautiful handcrafted jutis and artificial jewellery, too, feels that it is frequent interaction and exchanges which will help wipe the tensions between the two nations.

However, Nadeem Ahmed, selling onyx artifacts, including vases, table lamps, bowls, is happy at the response. The stone onyx, found in Baluchistan, is crafted into all kinds of artifacts in Lahore and is exported world over.

For most traders who have visited Delhi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Amritsar on several occasions, this is the first-ever visit to Shimla.

"The business is not great but yes it is a nice pace," says Amzad. The exhibition will be on till June 7.

Palampur, June 5
Traffic situation in Palampur has gone from bad to worse in the past few months since the district administration has failed to make the Holta bypass operational. At present, the Mandi-Pathankot national highway passing through the town has become a major traffic hazard, as all heavy vehicles have been coming to the town through this route.

Though there has been a manifold increase in the number of vehicles in the town, the width of most of the roads are the same as it was 20 years ago. In peak hours, there is always a traffic jam in several parts of the town. The flyover on the national highway is under construction for the past five years and despite public pressure, the PWD has failed to complete it.

Palampur town has witnessed all-round development in the past few years. The population of the town has gone up from 5,000 to 40,000. Many new housing colonies have come up in and outside the town, but the state government had failed to initiate any new plans for its development. No efforts were made for the widening of the roads and construction of parking places. The old parking places were converted into new markets, thus causing a lot of inconvenience to the common man. At present, it has even become difficult to move on foot in the town. Many times pedestrians are hit by vehicles.

The road pattern of the town suffers from inadequate and irregular road width, causing traffic bottlenecks and dead ends. The condition of most of the roads is deplorable. There is a general complaint that the roads are not repaired in accordance with the specification laid down, which resulted in an early damage.

There is no parking place in the town causing harassment to tourists and other people. Many times vehicles are challaned and impounded by the police for wrong parking in the absence of owners as the administration has not specified any parking place in the town.

Though there is a municipal council in the town, it has been facing a lot of difficulties to handle the situation in the absence of adequate funds.

Thakur Balwant Singh, president of the municipal council, said over 300 vehicles were added in the town every month and it was not possible for them to provide parking place without any financial assistance from the state government.

In fact, political parties who ruled the state in the past have completely ignored the development of the town. A major portion of the budget has always been spent on the development of the rural areas. It is an irony that only 4,000 persons live in the municipal limit, while 90 per cent of the town is still outside the municipal limit. They have been crying for amenities like streetlights, metalled roads and cleanliness. However, no efforts were made to extend the municipal limits of the town in the past 10 years. The haphazard growth of new colonies has been turning the town 
into a slum with each passing day.

Solan, June 5
High interest rates and raw material continue to remain issues of concern for the industry as per the latest Business Outlook survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Northern Region.

While stagnancy in reforms is rated as the other most important concern while currency risks and inadequate skilled labour too have emerged as issues of vital concern to the industry.

The survey, conducted from March-end to April 16, is based on responses from 54 organisations across eight northern states, including Delhi, Haryana, HP, J&K, Punjab, Rajasthan,UP, Uttarakhand and UT Chandigarh.

According to the survey, 81 per cent of the respondents expected the GDP growth to be less than 8 per cent for the current financial year similar to the previous financial year while 31 per cent expected less than 7 per cent growth during 2012-13 as against 48 per cent in 2011-12 ,which was in sync with the advance estimates of 6.9 per cent GDP growth of the Indian economy in 2011-12.

On the inflation front, expectations of easing down are low, with 34 per cent of the respondents expecting inflation to surpass the 9 per cent mark this year, as against 29 per cent in 2011-12. Thus, expectations of high inflation continue to persist in the economy which is a worrying trend.

However, the outlook on business conditions for the current quarter (April-June) shows signs of moderate recovery. The expectation for the current quarter is much better for the Indian economy, respective sectors and own companies, with a greater percentage of respondents rating the quarter as ‘better’, as compared to the previous quarter.

The expectations on various elements that build up business confidence , capacity utilisation, sales, new orders and availability of credit are however positive and they have registered a significant growth from the previous quarter.

The positive expectation on the bottom line gets reflected in profitability with 43 per cent expecting increased pre-tax profits as against 36 per cent in the last quarter.

In terms of investment for the current quarter, about 43 per cent expect domestic and international investments to increase in the current survey.

On the job front, expectations are also positive, as 46 per cent of the respondents expect an increase in employment compared to just 31 per cent earlier. Rising input costs continues to be a major worry for firms, as 80 per cent expect an increase in electricity and fuel cost.

On the international trade front as against 58 per cent expecting no change in the volume of exports only 38 per cent expect an increase.

Bilaspur, June 5
The Himachal Pradesh State NGOs’ Federation has urged the government to provide cheaper loans at 4 per cent to the employees to help them construct houses. They demanded this at a meeting of the federation presided by their state president Ram Singh here recently.

The meeting was attended by a large number of leaders, including state senior vice-president Shival Thakur, vice-president Amar Nath Khurana, secretary Chaman Sharma, organising secretary Pradip Chaudhary, press secretary Pravin Thakur and other prominent leaders of the federation.

The meeting adopted an unanimous resolution stressing that the government had totally banned the extraction of all the construction materials from khuds and rivers in the state and these materials had become scarce and costly.

It has become beyond the means of class III and IV employees to construct houses. The construction material like iron rods has also shot up to Rs 5,100 per quintal which reaches at the construction site at Rs 5,500, making matters worse.

The meeting demanded that the government should come out with a reasonable and constructive policy for helping the employees in this matter and should ensure that the employees were encouraged to invest in this facility.

The meeting also called for a complete ban on the extraction of construction materials from khuds and rivers as it has caused incalculable harm to thousands of tractor owners, drivers, labourers and farmers and has also helped in smuggling and enhancement of the prices of these materials in the state.

Dalhousie, June 5
The residents of Dalhousie hill town are not convinced by the report submitted recently by the Commission of Enquiry, Benami Land Transactions, in Himachal Pradesh.

The residents have called it a ‘one-sided’ report which appears to be a clear contradiction between the Revenue Department and the commission.

Opposing the commission’s report, the affected residents of the hill town led by the Municipal Council president Manoj Chadha raised question marks on the report which is politically maneuvered, they said.

Chadha said the lease holders were not heard by the commission and the deceased have also been issued notices.

The state government is the owner of the town, the Municipal Council is the beneficiary trustee and its residents are lease holders as per the law, said Chadha.

The Commission of Enquiry, Benami Land Transactions in Himachal Pradesh, was set up by the state government under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952 through a notification in June last year. The motive was to judicially enquire into all the cases of benami transactions in violation of Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, 1975 from 2003 onwards; the enquiry of statutory provisions and administrative procedure regarding issuance of “Essentiality Certificate” under HP Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 2005 and any other issue pertaining to benami deals.

As far as the land lease cases in Dalhousie are concerned, only long term leases of 90 years exist which are subject to renewal after every 30 years. These leases in the form of ‘indentures’ means agreement between the government and the lessees concerned on the basis of specific terms and conditions enumerated in the ‘lease agreements’.

Under Clause 10 of these lease agreements such lease lands can be assigned, transferred or sub-leased. Under the provision of HP Tenancy and Land Reform Act 1972 (amended 1996), the lease of land is permissible to any person irrespective of being a bonafide Himachali or non-Himachali within municipal area. It appears that these facts have been ignored by the Commission while declaring even such lease cases as ‘benami or unlawful’.

Moreover, the Commission has totally blamed the purchasers and sellers in declaring any sale deed as benami. The fact that has been ignored by the commission is that these sale deeds were registered by the competent authority of the Registrars who have entertained execution of such ‘sale deeds’ after collecting stamp duty and registration fee amounting to lakhs of rupees on behalf of the HP government.

“The Commission has rushed to conclude any transaction as ‘benami’ without informing the purchasers concerned whereas in most such cases the documents of the purchasers have been found legally valid by the competent Registrars at the time of registrations of land transactions,” Chadha said.

Shimla, June 5
The much hyped ‘deodar rejuvenation’ project launched four years ago in Shimla has been reduced to a mere publicity gimmick as a majority of the NGOs, which had taken up responsibility to turn the town green did not bother to take a second look at the saplings after the customary photo shoots nor did they bother to plant new ones.

The responsibility of the entire programme which was to be a people’s movement was laid on the shoulders of the Forest Department. The interest of 22 NGOs, including the Rotary Club, who had shown great enthusiasm when the project was launched, was limited to seeking publicity.

“Barring two NGOs who took genuine interest in planting trees and taking care of them later also, all others forgot about them completely,” rued Nagesh Guleria, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO). He said despite written reminders to these NGOs they did not bother to take interest in the project after the initial launch.

“We do not wish to waste precious plants by giving them to people who only want publicity and have no genuine interest in planting trees,” said another forest officer.

With the survival rate of deodars being barely 30 per cent for the past 2 years, the department has been planting hydrangea, which is not just a hardy bush requiring little maintenance but also bears colourful blue, pink and purple flowers and is evergreen. The plant is especially being planted along roads and within the town precincts.

With many of the century old deodar trees having completed their life span, many of them are drying while a larger number of them are falling prey to rapid urbanisation. A study undertaken by the Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI) had indicated that many trees which had developed flat tops have attained their full age and others were drying due to various factors like dumping of garbage and debris in forests and the roots of trees getting trapped in retaining walls of buildings and septic tanks.

The study also pointed out that chances of natural regeneration of deodars has been reduced to zero as there is little soil and the plants cannot grow on concrete. 

Eurokids Pre-School, New Shimla, has been awarded the “Consistent Performer over the Years” Award in the northern zone, comprising of Chandigarh, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir.

Started in 2004, the Pre-School earned the distinction of becoming the first franchisee of Eurokids in the state to complete 8 years with Eurokids with an average intake of 120 children per year. It has nurtured over 1,100 children during these years.

The franchisee Raveen Singh (see photo) was running her own kindergarten school in Shimla from 1993-2003, prior to joining hand with Eurokids International, the largest service provider in the pre-school segment and India’s number one chain. She received the award at a ceremony held in Mumbai. She gave credit to her staff on this outstanding felicitation.

Palampur, June 5
With summer at its peak, drinking water crisis in this region has gone from bad to worse as the water level in sources has gone down considerably during the past one week, adversely affecting the supply of drinking water.

It is learnt that there is an acute shortage of drinking water in at least 12 panchayats in the Sulaha area of Palampur. The worst affected areas are Sarut, Gadhiara, Rajhoon, Kahanfatt and Bhadrol where residents are getting drinking water once in day, that too for half an hour.

Savita Kumari, panchayat pradhan of Rajhoon, said in her area people were getting water on every third day. She said they were managing drinking water from hand pumps installed on the roadside. Similar was the situation in Bhadrol and other adjoining panchayats.

A senior officer of the Irrigation and Public Health Department said here today that the department was well aware of the situation and was providing drinking water through over 100 hand pumps working in the area. Most of the hand pumps had already been motorised and connected with water supply lines.

He said field staff of the department was working round the clock and all efforts were being made to streamline the supply of drinking water.

Meanwhile, Bipan Singh Parmar, MLA from Sulaha, visited a number of affected villages today. He said the government had planned to spend over Rs 750 crore in the Sulaha area on the augmentation of the existing drinking water supply schemes. Besides, new water supply schemes would also come up in the area.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had laid the foundation stone for this project last month. There would be no water crisis in the next summers, he added. Besides, the government had also planned to install 100 more hand pumps in the water scarcity areas.