Chamba, July 17
The Chamba Welfare Association has alleged that four pregnant women have lost their lives due to the vacant post of a gynaecologist at Government Regional Hospital, Chamba. The women could not get proper medical treatment in the absence of a gynaecologist in the hospital.

The association attributed these deaths to the sheer negligence of the state government towards the health care of the people living in the far-flung and mountainous district of the state.

Moreover, the patients suffering from various ailments related to ear, nose and throat have also been facing hardship due to the vacant post of ENT specialists in the Regional Hospital for a long time.

Darshan Singh Verman, press secretary of the association, through a press release issued to mediapersons, lambasted the state government for its apathy towards filling the vacant post of the gynaecologist and ENT specialists in the regional hospital.

Verman has sought a probe into the deaths of these women so that the accountability be fixed for the lapse.

Rakesh Verma, Chief Medical Officer, Chamba, however, confirmed only two deaths of pregnant women due to the vacant post of a gynaecologist during the past some years.

Nurpur, July 17
Even after 65 years of Independence, six gram panchayats of the Mand area in Kangra district are still hoping for the government to pay attention towards their problems. None of the previous governments had taken note of the fact that the people of this area usually bear the brunt of the rivulets, Surdwan and Sajwan. No steps were taken to tame these seasonal rivulets by constructing bridges over them.

Inhabitants of Mand-Sanor, Ghandran and Surdwan under the Indora development block and Bhalakh, Bhogrwan and Bhadpur gram panchayats in the Fatehpur development block live a difficult life with the onset of monsoon as the area lacks bridges over the Surdwan and Sajwan rivulets. Due to a rise in the water level, the region gets cut off from the rest of the state and life becomes paralysed as bus services remain suspended for days.

Besides, the people of 25 villages in the region are living under constant threat of floods in the Beas. Last year, BBMB authorities had released excess water from the Pong Dam reservoir into the Beas.

Col Narip Dev Katoch (retd), who hails from Ghandran panchayat, said there was a need to raise ‘dhussi’ bandhs on the critical identified points or canalise the Beas as it had changed its course due to illegal mining. Earlier, people had submitted a memorandum to the state government, but no action was taken.

“The state government is spending crores of rupees for the canalisation of the Swan river in Una district but has never planned such measures for the Mand area,” he rued.

Meanwhile, Anil Gupta, executive engineer, PWD, Fatehpur division, said: “The department has recently approved a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Sundrwan bridge and the DPR of the Sajwan bridge is under process and bridges have been proposed over the rivulets through NABARD funds.”

Bilaspur, July 17
The villagers no longer have to run from pillar to post to get their problems solved now as their grievances are being redressed through “Prashasan, Janata Ke Dwaar” shivirs which are being held regularly at district and sub-divisional level. “They have become very popular in all parts of the state,” said Mansi Sahay Thakur, Sub Divisional Magistrate (Civil), while presiding over a shivir at a remote village, Pantehada, about 65 km from here.

Thakur said that since all state officials are duty-bound to attend such camps, problems of villagers were being solved in these camps near their villages or on the spot. The SDM said that a total number of 144 cases pertaining to different difficulties were presented by villagers drawn from a number of gram panchayats. 104 cases were settled on the spot to the satisfaction of the petitioners, she said.

She said the remaining cases were marked to officials of the concerned department for immediate disposal after due inquiry. Information of the same would be passed on later to the SDM’s office and also to the petitioners, she said.

She said that 33 applications and complaints were also disposed off while 52 affidavits and certificates were attested, 7 land registration cases and 5 land ownership cases were registered and 7 cases of old age pensions were also settled on the spot.

Ghumarwin Block Development Officer Dr Sanjiv Dhiman, Tehsildar Ghumarwin Shashi Pal Sharma, Naib Tehsildar Bharaadi Yash Pal Dhiman and SHO Dhan Raj Singh were also present at the camp besides other officials and large number of villagers. 

Mandi, July 17
Like other years, this year, too, the rain God came to the rescue of forests on fire in the state. While the Forest Department blames villagers for setting triggers to ignite forest fires, the farmers lay the blame at the Forest Department’s footstep.

The villagers believe that the department wants to present a rosy picture of afforestation in the state. The farmers take the Forest Department head on blaming it for forest fires as the department has raised large scale ‘pine’ jungles around dry ghasnis across the state.

“We get neither fire wood nor grass from the pine trees,” say Bhag Singh and Ratan Lal, villagers living in Kataula forest range.

The farmers say that the Forest Department is blaming their ‘ghasnis’ for fires whereas the actual folly was committed by the department. Pine tress were plantd in large scale during 1970-1990 to present a rosy picture of afforestation in the state.

Pine trees are the easiest to grow and have a high survival rate of over 90 per cent, but its dry highly inflammable needles in summer are a major fire-triggering factor, say experts and admit officials. Today, more than 80 per cent of fires have been reported from pine jungles.

The Forest Department has come out with its own investigation according to which 9,369 ghasnis (grasslands) account for 50-70 per cent incidents of forest fires in the state every year.

“These ghasnis are torched during night hours and fire spreads in the nearby fire-sensitive forest area in the state,” says Avtar Singh, Chief Conservator of Forests (Fire protection).

“We have lodged 300 complaints with the police this summer to take action against the offenders,” he asserts.

He says that forest fire incidents this year have decreased as compared to 2009-10. “We regularly organise camps to educate the villagers and to dispel myths about forest fires,” he adds. But the department has failed to create awareness dispelling these myths, environmentalists claim.

The fire task force under a single forest guard is not only ill-equipped, but is caught napping whenever fire breaks out in the jungle during night hours. There is no night patrol set up by the task force in the fire-sensitive jungles as the majority of fire incidents are lighted during the wee hours to avoid detection.

The villagers torch ghasnis in the belief that fire burns the dry grass alongwith other non-grassy weeds and returns a better grass yield next year which serves as fodder for domestic animals.

Fire has burnt 1,268 hectare of wild life area in Shimla, 84 hectares in Dharamsala and 16.5 hectares in Great Himalayan National Park, Kullu this time, revealed official data. In Mandi circle alone, fire consumed 2267.44 hectares of forest area worth Rs 69.46 lakh in 376 incidents of forest fires this season, the highest in the state.

The India International Institute of Fashion Technology (IIFT), one of the leading fashion institutes chain of the country, organised a “Paper Dresses & Products” exhibition (see photo) in the state capital to provide the young designers a platform to showcase their talent.

The “Paper Dresses & Products” exhibition was held for the students of fashion design programme to enhance their creative potential. A workshop was also held during which the students developed dresses and products made from a variety of papers like newspaper, tissue paper, handmade sheets, kite paper, gloss sheets and others. Working with paper gives them a better understanding about handling paper and making its creative uses. It helped in improving their design skills and provided them ideas about making use of waste paper by crating dresses and other products.

Naveen Nayyar, director of the institute, said all the courses were designed in consultation with academicians and industry experts and the students were given exposure by hands-on practical experience. They were taught using the latest teaching computer based e-learning techniques and a variety of designing software. Using the computer-aided-design (CAD) software, the students developed their own innovative digital designs.

I do not understand what did Noorjehan, the queen of Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir (1569-1627), see at Nurpur, erstwhile Dhameri, where she decided to construct a palace. I find Nurpur all roofs and walls from which the spirit of a town is missing. An insider told me that the only worthwhile development in the town after the integration with Himachal Pradesh was the construction of a good hospital building with doctors missing. The natural landscape has the chutzpah missing. There I found a PWD Rest House, but a hotel missing. I had to stay in a hotel at Jassur, 3 km from Nurpur. How I wish that it was named Dhameri again? The name fits the ambiance of the place.

Let me move ahead with the Noorjehan story. Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri reads that when Jahangir returned from Kangra in AD 1622, his wife was pleased with the site and at her behest, Jahangir sanctioned Rs 1 lakh from the treasury for constructing a lofty mansion there. Jagat Singh Pathania, prince of Dhameri, did not like it and, therefore, contrived a device to turn Noorjehan from her purpose. He gave the work of constructing the palace to all ugly people suffering from goitre. Noorjehan enquired the reason for so many people with goitre working there. She was told that it was the effect of the climate of the place. The building operations were abandoned there and then. But Dhameri became Nurpur — exalting Emperor Nuruddin. Cunningham is incorrect in saying that the name was given in honour of Noorjehan. Both Tuzuk-i-Jahngiri and the Badshahnamah confirm that Jagat Singh had renamed Dhameri to please Nuruddin Jahangir as against the popular belief that it was to laud Noorjehan with whom Jagat Singh had affable relations.

When I approached the fort area, I was awestruck by the imposing entrance to the fort. It has two huge turrets or watch towers made of dressed stones. The bailey or the outer wall, which generally is fully covered, has windows in it probably to have an eye on the movements of the outsiders. At the same place existed an old fort also which was captured by Ibrahim Ghaznavi (AD 1058-89) after a long siege. The new fort, built on that very site, now in poor shape, was begun by Raja Basu (AD 1580-1613) and additions were made by several other rajas who ruled after him. History of the Panjab Hill States writes about the fort: “The stronghold is situated on a plateau forming the western end of the ridge on which the town is built, with almost precipitous cliffs of sandstone on three sides, overlooking the Jabbar Khad, a tributary of the Chakki”.

Raja Basu is Bas Dev and Akbarnamah designate him as zamindar of Mau and Paithan, which means zamindar of the Nurpur area and Pathankot. It was this raja who realising the danger of having his capital at Pathankot, so near the plains, is said to have moved it to Nurpur, the then Dhameri.

There runs the oldest school of the region within the fort complex. It was established by the District Board, Punjab, in 1928. I found it in bad shape that required repairs. What attracted me were the liberally decorated carvings of the mixed Hindu-Mughal style, which was prevalent during the times of Akbar, on the basement of probably a temple that was erected during the reign of Raja Basu and was destroyed after the rebellion of Suraj Mal in AD 1618. Suraj Mal was the eldest son of Raja Basu, but was of wayward and unruly disposition. The foundations of the temple were so covered up with debris that people had no knowledge that there existed a temple. It was accidentally discovered in 1886 when CJ Rodgers Archaeological Surveyor to the Punjab Government got it excavated. Some of the carvings appear free from decay and still look fresh (see photo). The fort enlivens the spirit and obliges one to say: “There is, after all, something in Nurpur”.