Paonta Sahib, July 8
The police today recovered the bodies of three more flash flood victims downstream the Haripur Khol khad near the Som river on the Himachal-Haryana border while four persons are still missing. Eight members of a marriage party had been washed away in a flash flood near Paonta Sahib yesterday. The body of one victim was recovered yesterday.

The three bodies recovered today have been identified as those of Mohinder (16), Dakinder (19) and Gurdial (18). Mohinder and Gurdial were brothers. Their father Babu Ram is among those missing.

The four missing persons have been identified as Babu Ram (70), his namesake Babu Ram (50), Gangbir (19) and Rashpal Singh. They were all relatives of the bridegroom.

The missing Tata Sumo (HP-18-0380), which was carrying the marriage party, was also taken out of the slush near the Ranjitpur bridge in Haryana by a rescue team.

A pall of gloom descended on the native village of the deceased at Nalka Samalkha after news of the mishap reached the village yesterday.

The bodies and the vehicle were recovered from neighbouring Haryana as the gushing water had swept the bodies about 25 km away from the Haripur Khol khad where the mishap occurred.

Paonta Sahib DSP NS Negi said search was on to trace the remaining bodies and all vehicles had been taken out of the slush with the help of JCB machines today.

The mangled remains of four vehicles gives an indication of how strong the water current was at the Haripur Khol khad yesterday.

Being the season’s first rain, the drivers had little idea that they would meet this horrific fate. The families of the missing persons are eagerly awaiting news about them though there is little chance of their survival. 

Dharamsala, July 8
BJP president Nitin Gadkari today blamed the Congress-led UPA government for the poor state of the economy of the country. He said the GDP growth in the country had fallen from 10 per cent to just 5.2 per cent during the stint of the present UPA government.

The value of the rupee vis-a-vis the dollar had fallen to a record low. Foreign direct investment in the country had almost been reduced to a trickle, which had badly affected the economy. The interest rates of banks had been changed almost 17 times in the past few years that in turn had affected the domestic industry, he said.

Gadkari was here to address a BJP rally at Kangra today.

Earlier, talking to mediapersons at the Gaggal airport, Gadkari showered praises on Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. He said despite the fact that the GDP had gone down in the country, in Himachal Pradesh the GDP had increased. Himachal Pradesh had also bagged many awards at the national level for the successful implementation of various schemes. The BJP had got a survey conducted and had found that 48 per cent people were satisfied with the performance of the present government in the state, he said.

Gadkari said the BJP would fight the forthcoming elections in Himachal under the collective leadership of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, MP.

On the possibility of taking back HLP leaders into the BJP, Gadkari said there would be no compromise on discipline.

The BJP rally, which was to start at 2 pm, was delayed due to rain. Heavy rain lashed the region between noon and 2 pm that delayed the arrival of Gadkari’s chartered plane.

Gadkari had to wait at Chandigarh due to the bad weather in Kangra. Gadkari arrived at the Gaggal airport at about 2.45 pm. Despite a delay in his arrival and the rain, the BJP managed to put up an impressive show during the Kangra rally.

The rally was organised by Shanta Kumar to signal the active role to be played by him in the coming Assembly elections in the state, especially in Kangra district that is considered to be his bastion.

Addressing the rally, Dhumal alleged that the Union Government had discriminated against Himachal. He said the Centre had filed an affidavit against Himachal in the BBMB case. It was also not supporting the case of Himachal for the recovery of dues from Punjab and Haryana in view of the Supreme Court judgment in the BBMB case.

Shanta Kumar alleged that the UPA government was responsible for price rise in the country and the people had given it a befitting reply in the elections held recently.

Anurag Thakur, national president of the BJYM, chided the rath yatra undertaken by Congress leader GS Bali on unemployment. He alleged that the UPA government had created more unemployment in the state after the end of the industrial package to Himachal.

Gadkari also addressed BJYM workers from across the country, who had gathered at Dharamsala for their national-level meet.

Satpal Satti, state president of the BJP, hit out at Virbhadra Singh for allegedly trying to intimidate police officers who were probing a case of corruption against him.

Meanwhile, Independent MLA from Nurpur Rakesh Pathania, who generally remained at the forefront during BJP rallies in Kangra district, was conspicuous by his absence. Pathania had been the target of Shanta loyalists. He is considered close to Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. His absence at the rally is being attributed as one of the factors behind the patch-up between Shanta and Dhumal.

Manali, July 8
Marred by recurring traffic jams at Rani Nullah near the 13,050-foot-high Rohtang Pass and the controversial Kothi barrier, the summer tourist season in this prime tourist town ebbed out this weekend with hoteliers reporting a “moderate season, but a better inflow of tourist traffic” as compared to last year.

Jeep and motor bike safaris and trekking groups continue to move on the 473-km-long Manali-Leh highway across the Rohtang Pass. Traffic jams at Rani Nullah, 6 km short of the Rohtang Pass, and at the Kothi barrier (non-Himachali vehicles are not allowed beyond this point) remained major irritants for tourists this year.

Tourist vehicles, including a Himachal Tourism bus, got stuck in a blockade at Rani Nullah on the Marhi-Rohtang stretch of the highway for more than 10 hours last night, leaving tourists fuming. “We were able to reach Keylong only this morning,” they said.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), that looks after the road, has failed to “stabilise” the 150-metre-long troublesome spot for the past three years. “Machineries are on the job there. However, boulders and slush continue to slide, blocking the road almost every day,” said BRO engineers.

The ban on the entry of outside vehicles beyond the Kothi barrier has hit tourism. “We cancelled our trip to Rohtang last time because of traffic jams. This time, we were not allowed beyond Kothi by the police. This is not fair as most of the families from Punjab and Delhi travel in private vehicles,” said Pankaj Kalra, a businessman from Ludhiana.

Though the Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation is yet to work out the final figures of tourist arrivals in the state during June, hoteliers and home-stay unit owners say the summer season was better than last year.

During the peak season in the last week of June, the Manali green tax barrier recorded the arrival of over 1,600 tourist vehicles each day. The extension of school holidays in the plains till July 8 came as a windfall for hoteliers this week that kept their cash registers ticking.

“Normally, the summer tourist season ends by June 25, but this time Manali continued to receive a fair number of tourists till the first week of July,” said Gajender Thakur, president, Manali Hoteliers Association.

Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation AGM Mohan Lal Sharma said the corporation “ran a packed house in June”, but now the occupancy had dipped to 60 per cent.

Hamirpur, July 8
The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Employees Union is gearing up to hold a state-level dharna at the head office in Shimla on July 10 to demand a financial package from the state government to save the board from the present financial crisis.

The union is organising this dharna in Shimla after having held rallies at the district level. It has planned to mobilise over 10,000 employees for the Shimla dharna.

The union’s main thrust this time is to secure a financial package from the state government for the board, which is facing a severe financial crisis.

President of the union Kuldeep Singh Kharwara said, “The cumulative loss of the board has touched over Rs 1,400 crore and if concrete steps are not taken, the loss this year alone will be about Rs 700 crore.”

Blaming it on the faulty policies of the state government and the board, he said, “The cumulative loss during the past 40 years was just Rs 300 crore, but the loss during the past two years has crossed Rs 1,400 crore.”

The main reason for the loss, the union says, is that the board is purchasing power at a higher rate from the government and the northern grid, and selling it at a lower rate, thus suffering a loss of Rs 1.10 per unit.

Kullu, July 8
As many as 90,000 schoolchildren in this district will get free uniform under the Atal School Uniform Scheme as 32,000 students in high schools have already been given “free uniform” in the district.

Deputy Commissioner, Kullu, Amitabh Awasthi, said all the 90,000 students enrolled up to Class X in government schools would get free uniform twice a year under the scheme.

The distribution work had started and would be
completed in a few days,
he added.

He said out of the 90,000 students, about 53,000 were in primary and middle schools and fall under the Director, Elementary Education. The rest of the
students were in Class IX and Class X and
come under the Director, Higher Education.

The scheme would benefit all sections of society in the state, he said.

HAMIRPUR: Education Minister ID Dhiman on Thursday launched the Atal School Uniform Scheme in this district by distributing school uniforms at the local Government Senior Secondary School for Girls.

Addressing the gathering, the minister said under this scheme all government school students from Class I to X would be given two sets of uniforms free of cost in a year along with Rs 100 as stitching charges.

He said Rs 64 crore would be spent on the scheme and its main objective was to bridge the gap between rich and poor students by bringing parity among them.

He said the free uniforms had been distributed in six districts till now and the rest of the districts would be covered by July 31.

He said the state was spending Rs 19,000 on each student in the state, which is the highest in the country.

Nurpur, July 8
There is a lot of resentment among vehicle owners in this border subdivision over the slow pace of fixing of high-security number plates (HSNPs). Following the direction of the apex court, the state government had embarked upon replacing the existing number plates with HSNPs in the last week of December by entrusting the task to a Delhi-based private company.

Vehicle owners, who had been issued authorisation letters three to four months back after depositing scheduled charges for HSNPs with representatives of a private company, are thronging the office of the Registering-cum-Licensing Authority to know the fate of their HSNPs. They have to return without getting their number plates replaced. The reason: either their HSNPs have not been prepared or the number plate fixing device has been out of order for the past three weeks.

In Nurpur, there are around 35,000 vehicles registered with the local motor licensing office. Of these, 24,000 vehicles were issued authorisation letters and only 4,500 vehicles have been fixed HSNPs in the past six months. The licensing authority had taken original Registration Certificates (RCs) from vehicle owners while issuing authorisation letters to them until February this year, which raised hue and cry among them as these letters were declared invalid in other states. Vehicles without RCs got challaned while plying in other states. Karan Oberoi from Jassur and Rishi Mahajan from Nurpur had to face embarrassment when the traffic police in Punjab rejected their authorisation letters.

Inquiries reveal that the preparation of the HSNPs is being undertaken at Dharamsala for eight subdivisions and the regional transport office of Kangra district. The slow pace of preparation and fixing of HSNPs have become troublesome for vehicle owners.

Local SDM-cum-Registering and Licensing Authority Rakesh Verma admitted that following complaints of vehicle owners about the rejection of authorisation letters in other states, only photocopies of RCs were being deposited from March onwards. Regarding the slow pace of fixing HSNPs, he said he had taken up the issue with the Director, Transport, and private company’s higher-ups. He also underlined the need of preparing HSNPs at Nurpur at least for two subdivisions.

Mandi, July 8
The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) has termed its recent decision to fix the maximum limit of its contribution to the CPF of its employees at Rs 6,500 in case the corporation goes into a loss as a step in the right direction. However, it has created resentment among the employees, who say it will hit them financially in the long run as they do not even get pension.

At a recent meeting, the corporation decided that it would comply with the decision of the state government to fix the maximum limit of the CPF contribution at Rs 6,500. The government has fixed this limit for all state-run corporations.

“The HPTDC is the only corporation in the state which has recorded a profit of Rs 1.5 crore in the last financial year. The employees will lose if the limit is fixed at Rs 6,500,” said Sita Ram, former general secretary of the HPTDC Employees Union.

He said the employees were opposed to the decision even if it was sought to be implemented when the corporation ran into losses. “We don’t get pension and work for 16 hours a day. If the corporation slashes its CPF contribution in the near future, the employees will be hit,” Sita Ram said.

Managing Director of the corporation Lokinder Chauhan said the corporation was following the norms laid down by the state government. He, however, said the corporation would only implement the decision if the corporation ran into losses.

He said the staff should work hard to keep the corporation in good financial health.

Dalhousie, July 8
With a rare initiative taken by the Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI) to organise a series of survey and study camps for professional universities and colleges from across the country, civil engineering students of Maharishi Markendashwar University, Mullana (Haryana), have been camping group-wise at the youth hostel in Dalhousie.

This camp will culminate on July 31 when students will accomplish the survey reports pertaining to their civil engineering stream.

As many as 250 students of the university are attending the camp. They are daily touring difficult terrains of Chamba district.

Sharing the objective of this camp here today, group leader of the team Ankush Khadwal, with team mates Jaivir Singh and Mukesh Saini, said this rugged hilly region had provided students ample opportunity to draw, design and build roads, bridges, tunnels and houses.

“We have the latest instrument called ‘total station’ which helps us measure angles, distances and reduce levels to analyse the geometry of the roads,” they revealed, adding that the survey reports prepared by them would be submitted to the heads of engineering departments.

“The topographical conditions of the region are such that students are learning intensively the contouring and mapping of the topography provided by the nature in this mountainous region”, they further said.

Manager of the hostel here Capt Rajender Singh Rana stated that theirs was one of the leading youth hostels of the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, which was promoting youth towards various innovative professional and educational activities in addition to tourism-allied activities.

Palampur, July 8
Despite the fact that the entire Kangra valley falls in the most sensitive earthquake-prone areas of the country, haphazard and unplanned construction of residential houses, roads, hotels and other buildings is going on unchecked. In the past five years, Kangra district, particularly Palampur and Dharamsala towns, have turned into concrete jungles.

The entire Dhauladhar ranges in Himachal Pradesh falls in Zone V. Experts of the Seismology Department of Roorkee University have already recommended earthquake-proof constructions for this region of the state. Unfortunately, neither the Town and Country Planning nor the state government has sincerely followed these recommendations and measures suggested by the experts. Most of the buildings plans approved by the Town and Country Planning Department, particularly for Palampur and Dharamsala, lack such norms and huge concrete jungles have come up here which can result in big tragedy at any moment.

The government of Himachal Pradesh has taken serious measures to regulate construction activities in this region and also brought all important towns of Kangra district within the purview of the Town and Country Planning Act. But it is surprising that hundreds of buildings, including residential houses and multi-storey complexes in the district, have come up without the proper approval of the Town and Country Planning authorities.

Not only private parties, semi-government and government agencies have also not followed the norms laid down for the construction. A number of buildings constructed by the government department and other government agencies have openly flouted the norms laid down by the Town and Country Planning Department.

A number of civil engineers and other senior officers have been imparted training for the construction and designing of earthquake-proof structures in the state. Special workshops on this subject were also organised by the government at various levels. Though senior officers like Chief Engineers and Superintending Engineers attended these programmes, still unplanned construction is on the rise.

Solan, July 8
Tomato growers in the district are facing heavy losses due to the delayed monsoon and adverse weather conditions with as much as 25 per cent of the crop having been wiped out.

Though this is the peak season of tomato, the quantity of crop reaching the markets at this time of the season is much less, says Bhanu Sharma, secretary of the local Sabzi Mandi.

Growers rue that though they had started sowing operations for tomato crop in May and invested in seeds and fertilisers, lack of water availability has played havoc with the plantations. As against the daily irrigation requirement, they could barely irrigate the land after two to three days, depriving the crop of optimum moisture.

The plants failed to sustain the high temperatures and at places the crops withered. This has forced growers to re-sow tomato in the fields. With the onset of rains, the farmers are now hopeful of making some gains.

Having invested at least two months in growing the crop and yet failing to get any returns, the farmers are a disheartened lot.

Tomato is grown in Kasauli, Solan, Kandaghat and Arki tehsils and is a major cash crop in the adjoining Sirmaur district. Apart from vegetables, tomato is considered a major source of sustenance for the farmers of the region.

Tomato crop is dependent on irrigation and is a labour-intensive activity involving additional care during irrigation, spraying, harvesting, packaging and marketing.

Tomato comprises 30 per cent of the total vegetable production in the state with Solan accounting for nearly 67,200 metric tonnes, which accounts for 46 per cent of the crop, while Sirmaur contributes 30 per cent of the state’s share with the production being nearly 43,500 tonnes annually. Kullu contributes 10 per cent.

Since tomato is grown as an off-season crop in Solan, its market value depends on its timely sale in the market. But a delay in its production reduces its value as the markets are flooded with crop from other states.

Shimla, July 8
The state unit of the CPM has expressed concern over alleged attempts to undermine the authority of the State Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority by the managements of private universities, which are “directly approaching the government to get their wrongdoings endorsed”. It has reiterated its demand for bringing a White Paper on the functioning of the private universities in the state.

Member of the state secretariat of the party Tikender Panwar alleged that the process of indiscriminate opening of substandard private universities, which were, in fact, “de facto real estate ventures”, was continuing unabated and his party had been demanding an effective regulatory authority to rein in these institutions.

The regulatory body set up by the government was not effective as the government was itself playing the role of a facilitator to “help the private universities plunder the state’s resources and loot the people”.

The state government interfered in the interests of these institutions. The formation of an organisation of the private universities and other institutions provided ample proof of their intentions.

Palampur, July 8
Chief Minister PK Dhumal has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to expedite the Bhanpooli-Bilaspur-Leh railway line project at the earliest keeping in view the defence preparation of China in Tibet bordering Himachal Pradesh.

Talking to The Tribune here recently, the Chief Minister said China had already expanded its rail network up to Lhasa in Tibet and Arunachal, whereas in the past 40 years India had not added even a single brick for the expansion of the rail or road networks up to the Tibetan border, particularly in the state.

On the other hand, there was negligible road network to Leh, which was accessible only during four months in a year.

Most of the defence supplies were lifted by air from Chandigarh and other places resulting in huge financial burden on the state exchequer.

Dhumal said India should never underestimate defence preparations of China.

The Chief Minister said though the PMO had asked a private company to prepare a detailed project report, much required had to be done in this regard. Lack of finance should not come in the way of execution of the project and the Centre should go ahead for global tenders at the earliest.

Dhumal said at present crores were spent by the Ministry of Defence for the movement of troops and supplies to Leh and other forward areas, the same could be saved if a rail track was laid for Leh.

Besides, the project would also boost tourism, as Leh and Ladakh would remain connected with railway line throughout the year.

He assured the Centre that the state would extend full cooperation for the speedy execution of the project.

Chamba, July 8
A labourer of a private company was electrocuted when he was straightening iron rods which touched overhead wires of electricity lines at Bhageigarh in Churah subdivision of Chamba district today, according to an official report.

The labourer was brought to a nearby Civil Hospital where he was declared dead by doctors.

The report revealed that the deceased had been identified as Omar Din, 30 years, a Gujjar, resident of Kengela village of the Bhageigarh area, adding that the body had been handed over to his kin after postmortem.

The police had registered a case in this connection.