Shimla, July 24
The state government today reviewed the progress of the Rs 228-crore Thoeg-Jubbal-Hatkoti road project under the World Bank being executed by Logijian Road and Construction Company, a Chinese firm, as it has failed to show any tangible results despite being given an extension.

The decision to rescind the contract has been put on hold. The matter was discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy here today. The country head of the Chinese firm is scheduled to arrive here tomorrow to meet senior functionaries of the state government.

The possibility of the cancellation of the contract for the construction of the Theog-Jubbal-Hatkoti road is high as the company has only completed 2 per cent of the work, which has come to a complete halt for the past 15 days. The work had been awarded through global tenders for the construction of the 81-km Thoeg-Jubbal-Hatkoti road and the Mehatpur-Amb-Una road. With the pace of work on the Una road being better and almost nearing completion, the contract for only the Theog-Jubbal road is likely to be cancelled.

“Since we have already given them enough time in the past to speed up work, which they have failed to do, we are considering cancelling the project,” said Roy.

He said the immediate concern was to keep the road in a working condition so that commuters did not face inconvenience. “We have already informed the World Bank about the tardy progress. However, till a decision is taken by it on the future course of action, we will ask the Public Works Department to take maintain the road,” he said.

The contract for the construction of the road, which was to be the lifeline of the apple belt of the state, was awarded in June 2008 and the completion date was fixed for June 2010. The deadline was extended to June 2013 after the company, reportedly facing financial problems, sought some more time.

The fallout of the decision to cancel the contract will obviously be huge as global tendering and completing all formalities take a lot of time. Added to this is the problem of cost escalation, which could take the total cost of the project well over Rs 250 crore.

Though the task of construction of the two roads was awarded to the Chinese company almost four years ago, owing to strict visa restrictions imposed by the Ministry of External Affairs, a majority of the Chinese workforce had to leave abruptly. Ever since, work has suffered and the firm has not been able to speed up work despite giving assurances that it will complete the project as per the extended deadline.

Mandi, July 24
The Centre’s decision to withdraw the tax holiday given under a special industrial package to industries seeking to set up units in Himachal has hit the arrival of fresh units in the state.

Interestingly, though a “good industrial climate and assured subsidised power supply” to the industry makes Himachal an ideal industrial destination, industries, mainly pertaining to the pharmaceutical sector, have come up on the periphery of main cities in Punjab and Haryana.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal, who was on a tour of the district, said the tax holiday for industries had been withdrawn by the Centre since March 31 this year. This had impacted the arrival of fresh units in the state, he added.

The special industrial package was sanctioned by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on January 4, 2003. The UPA government had been discriminating against Himachal as economic packages had been given to UP, the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir, the Chief Minister alleged. He said the government might have to seek justice from the Supreme Court as it had done for getting the state’s share in BBMB power projects.

The special industrial package had spurred industrial growth in the border belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh in Solan, Paonta Sahib and Kala Amb in Sirmaur and Mehatpur in Una.

“More than 8,576 new units with an investment of Rs 13,679 crore were set up which generated employment for 1.12 lakh persons till May 31 this year. Of the 1.12 lakh persons, about 89,000 were from Himachal,” officials of the Industries Department claimed.

The withdrawal of the special industrial package has hit industrial growth in the state. In 2011-12, only 16 big industrial houses set up their ventures in the state against 46 in 2008-09. Similarly, 856 small-scale units came up in the state last year against 1,032 in 2009-10.

“Economic slowdown and withdrawal of incentives have hit industrial growth. However, investors are still coming in and the older ones are expanding their units in the state,” said Rajinder Chauhan, economic adviser in the Industries Department.

Industry Minister Kishan Kapur, who was in Mandi to inaugurate a CII seminar on the food-processing industry last weekend, said, “Multinationals and big investors are ready to come to Himachal as we have created an investor-friendly climate. However, we are the mercy of the Centre as far as the railway network and air connectivity are concerned, which are of prime importance to the investors.”

Shimla, July 24
The expensive and time-consuming experiment to discover the “God particle” may not have been required at all had scientists been well-grounded in Vedic literature which provides a deep insight into the mystery of the universe and related phenomena, asserts Om Prakash Pandey, an eminent astrophysicist and former scientific adviser to the Prime Minister.

The entire Vedic knowledge was the outcome of the search for the absolute truth of our existence, relentlessly pursued by the mystic rishis who explored the “subtle” to uncover the mysteries of the “manifest”, which baffled modern scientists, said Pandey while talking to The Tribune. Pandey was in the city to deliver a lecture at Himachal Pradesh University.

In fact, there was a full treatise on the subject entitled “Ansh Bodhini” by Rishi Bhardwaj which provided deep insight into the subject and seen in its light the recent success of the experiment leading to the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle (dubbed as the God particle) only indicated that scientific research was moving in the right direction. The manuscript of the ancient text was available in Oriental Library at Baroda and it elucidated the entire process how the entry of consciousness into the “stillness” (vacuum) led to “spandan” (vibration) in the galactic space creating pranic urja (energy) and, in turn, matter, he explained.

Scientists could have discovered this long ago had they studied Vedic literature on the subject, which many of them have been doing of late. Vedic knowledge could enable scientists to take a quantum leap in research. Rishis adopted a holistic approach and used their spiritual insight to explore the mysteries of the manifest and whatever conclusions they arrived at were final and no subsequent rishi contradicted the finding and they only explained things better. However, this was not the case with modern scientific research based on the “reductionist” approach with every subsequent discovery contradicting the earlier findings. Vedic knowledge could help overcome such pitfalls and speed up research.

However, the lack of proficiency in Sanskrit was a big obstacle which kept Vedic knowledge away from scientists.

Unfortunately, Sanskrit was included in the humanities stream and science students could not study it even if they wanted.

It was high time that the curriculum was revised and the ancient language made compulsory for science students right from the school level. This would enable Indian scientists to study Vedic literature and provide them advantage over their counterparts the world over, he said.

Shimla, July 24
The country’s largest 1,500-MW Nathpa Jhakri Hydropower Station of the public sector Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) has achieved the highest Plant Availability Factor (PAF) of 108 per cent during the quarter ending June 2012 as against the 103.6 per cent during the corresponding period of last year.

Chairman-cum-Managing Director RP Singh said as a result the company earned an additional income of Rs 14.61 crore in the shape of unscheduled interchange (UI) charges.

During the last fiscal, this income stood at Rs 8.51 crore. During the first quarter, there was a decrease in the average discharge of water in Sutlej by 36 per cent. However, the total generation was reduced by 21 per cent. The overall profit after tax decreased by only 9.46 per cent, mainly due to increase in PAF and UI charges and better management of funds, he said.

The generation achieved during the first quarter was 2,091 MU and the power station had been targeted to generate 7,000 MU electricity during 2012-13.

With technology innovations in repairs and maintenance of underwater parts, substantial savings had been affected during the period.

Not a single component was sent out for hard coating during 2011-12 and all the repair was carried out in the in-house coating workshop at the project site in Jhakri.

Singh said the company's 412-MW Rampur Hydroelectric Project was nearing completion and it was scheduled to be commissioned in September 2013.

The 162.5 m-deep surge shaft had already been completed and the 15.177-km headrace tunnel was nearing completion. Erection of the first generating unit was scheduled to be completed in December 2012.

In the 2011-12 financial year, the SJVN registered a net profit of Rs 1,068.68 crore against the Rs 912.13 crore in the previous fiscal.

The company’s profit before tax stood at Rs 1,927.50 crore in 2011-12 as against Rs 1829.74 crore in 2010-11. 

Solan, July 24
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Meera Mohanty said today that the Chikni bridge in Nalagarh sub-division would be completed by March 2013.

The construction of this bridge, which had collapsed in August 2007, had begun last year. Its slow pace of construction is not only a cause of concern for local residents but it was also posing hardships to commuters, who were forced to travel through the Chikni khad, thus exposing themselves to risk during rain.

While addressing the media here today during the meet-the-press programme, the DC directed officials of the PWD to take stern action against persons who encroached on roads both in rural as well as urban areas.

She said not only should the encroachments be removed but the tendency to encroach on the government land should also be checked by field officials.

Mohanty said all 211 panchayats in Solan district had been linked with roads and asked officials of the PWD to ensure proper maintenance of roads, especially in rural areas, during the monsoon season and clear the slips immediately for smooth passage of traffic.

She said during the past over four years Rs 217 crore was spent on the construction of roads and bridges in the district and 1,869 villages out of the 2,388 had been connected with roads.

Road connectivity will also be provided to 15 new villages this year while 99 villages had been connected with roads in the past over four years.

SE, PWD, DK Nayar, said 385 km new roads were constructed in the district. Metalling and tarring was completed in 333 km roads.

As many as 77 road projects worth 207 crores were sanctioned during the past over four years. Fortythree projects were sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojna.

In this category, road projects worth Rs 60 crore have already been completed.

The department constructed 53 km new roads in the Solan constituency, 97 km in Nalagarh, 97 km in Doon, 27 km in Kasauli and 112 km in the Arki constituency.

Kangra, July 24
The Students Federation of India (SFI) today threatened to hold a 24-hour dharna in MCM DAV College here on July 27 if its demands were not met by the college management.

In a statement issued here, Abhishek Chandel, secretary of the local unit of the SFI, said over 1,000 students today held a meeting on the college premises in which the problems being faced by students were discussed. He said a signature campaign was launched today in support of their demands.

Chandel alleged that the college did not even have a first aid box to provide immediate medical help to students. He said for the past four days, the restaurant on the campus was closed, resulting in inconvenience to students and the staff.

He said water coolers were not available in the college. Even fans were not in a working condition. Chandel said the college management was charging Rs 11,000 as annual fee from each student. Despite this, even blackboards in classrooms were not worth using. The old campus was in a dilapidated condition.

The SFI criticised the management for not utilising Rs 15 lakh donated by Shanta Kumar, MP, for the college conference hall a year ago.

Neelam Mahajan, Principal of the college, said she had received a memorandum from the students and would call a meeting with the SCA tomorrow so that the genuine concerns of the students could be addressed. 

Nurpur, July 24
The Flame of Truth relay commenced by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile on July 6 entered the Kangra valley from the neighbouring Chamba district today.

The relay, led by Tibetan settlement officer Sonam Dorzee, was accorded reception by local MLA Rakesh Pathania here on the premises of the Nurpur Press Club Bhawan.

He lauded the efforts creating mass awareness against “China’s atrocities” by commencing the worldwide Flame of Truth relay. He said the state was too concerned over the burgeoning fortification by China on Himachal borders.

Dorzee said the relay had been commenced on July 6 across the world on the occasion of the 77th birthday of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama.

“Three separate relays commenced in India from Ladakh, Shillong and Kochi and these will conclude in the UN information office at New Delhi on the World Human Rights Day on December 10 this year, he said.

“Whereas relays commenced from North America, Europe and other countries where offices of representatives of the Tibetan administration-in-exile have been set up will also culminate on that day with the submission of appeal letters and signatures simultaneously to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City and UN Human Rights Council in Geneva,” he said.

Briefing demands of the relay campaign, Dorzee added that the UN must discuss the issue of the Tibet based on the resolutions that it had passed in 1959, 1961 and 1965, and independent international fact-finding delegation immediately be dispatched to investigate the ongoing crisis and plight of Tibet and the UN must take responsibility to ensure fulfillment of basis aspirations and rights of Tibetans in Tibet.

Mandi, July 24
In a special drive to book reckless offenders, mainly youngsters, on the National Highway-21 today, the police challaned as many as 111 motorcyclists under the Motor Vehicles Act and collected Rs 63,000 as fine from them and impounded six bikes.

The police launched a special drive to check increasing incidents of snatching, eve-teasing, noise pollution and violation of traffic rules by motorcyclists on national highways mainly on the stretches on the school and college roads.

The bikers used to drive rashly not only on the highway road around the college campus, but also through Samkhetar Girls’ School, School Bazaar and DAV School at Khaliar daily to tease girls, said parents.

Even there are offenders who even lure school-going students into taking drugs by frequenting areas around schools on their bikes, they resented.

Superintendent of the Police (SP), Mandi, Abhishek Dular said the campaign was launched to check offenders.

“We have also informed the parents of these offenders how their wards are creating public nuisance and violating traffic rules. Students driving motorcycles without licence and helmets will be fined and bikes will be impounded in case of a minor and campaign will go on from time to time,” he added.

Dharamsala, July 24
Judicial employees today staged a protest at the District Courts complex in support of their demands.

The protest was held under the banner of the Himachal Pradesh Judicial Employees Welfare Association. The employees demanded that the government should implement the first judicial pay commission, generally referred to as the Shetty Commission.

State president of the association Suresh Thakur said the association had apprised the government of their problems several times. However, the government did not seem to be interested in resolving the issues of the judicial staff.

“The government has implemented the Shetty Commission for judicial officials. However, lower-rung employees are being given a stepmotherly treatment,” said Thakur.

It also amounted to contempt of court as the Supreme Court and the High Court had ordered the implementation of the Shetty Commission, he said.

Thakur said the association had submitted a demand charter to the Chief Minister on May 6 and a legal notice was also served on the government through the High Court to resolve the issue. The government was still reluctant to accept their demands.

Mandi, July 24
The police has yet to recover the bodies of the three persons who were reportedly washed away in the surging waters of the Chandra-Bhaga river after the 70-m-long cable jhula (ropeway) they were using to cross the river collapsed near Trilokinath in Udaipur subdivision last night.

Deputy Commissioner (DC), Lahaul-Spiti, SS Gularia has constituted a committee to technically examine all 15 jhulas in the district to avoid tragedy.

The police said three persons had been identified as Prithvi Chand (30) of Kishori village, Udaipur town, and Prahlad (28) and Tek Chand (27), both from Churah tehsil in Chamba district. They were working as labourers with a private contractor.

Though there was no eyewitness to the incident, the police and locals suspected that the trio fell into the river after the jhula collapsed under their weight at around 9.30 pm.

They were using the jhula to reach Kishori village in the late evening hours. The villagers came to know about the incident when they searched for them during the night and saw the collapsed wire of the jhulas hanging in the river.

The villagers said the jhula was set up in 1996. It was old and used sparingly by villagers to reach Kishori village from Udaipur town side.

Sachin Punwar, SDM, Udiapur, said on the phone that the bodies were yet to be retrieved. At prima facie it appeared that the trio tried to cross the jhula together and it collapsed under their weight. “We could not get in touch with the families so far,” he added.

Hamirpur, July 24
Education Minister ID Dhiman said the state had allocated a budget of Rs 224 crore in the current financial year to promote cattle rearing in order to supplement the income of farmers by adopting this profession.

The minister said this while addressing a public meeting after distributing cattle treatment kits among livestock owners under the National Agriculture Development Scheme in Kharwar village under Bhoranj block today.

He said animal treatment was provided through various animal hospitals in the state and in Bhoranj block animal dispensaries in all the 230 panchayats have been opened.

He said under the National Agriculture Development Scheme, animal treatment kits were being provided in every panchayat and in Hamirpur district alone 2,900 kits had been distributed by spending Rs 20 lakh and every effort was being made to help farmers.

Later, he also launched a free uniform scheme in Bhoranj block by distributing free school uniforms to students of several schools at Mahal and Kharwad.

Dhiman said this scheme would benefit about 10 lakh students studying in government schools and the main purpose of starting this scheme was to bring parity among students.

Shimla, July 24
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today urged doctors to work with dedication and volunteer to work in rural areas so that people get better health care facilities on their doorstep.

He was speaking at the annual function of Government Dental College, Shimla, at the Gaiety Theatre. He said the government had provided adequate budget for the creation of quality infrastructure, both at the dental college in Shimla and at Tanda Medical College.

He accused the previous Congress regime for starting Tanda Medical College with 50 students without the approval of the Medical Council of India. He said his government finally got the approval and secured the future of the students. Similarly, the dental college could be started only in 1994 though approval had been taken from Dental Council of India in 1998 by his regime, he said.

Dhumal said the government had been considerate towards the genuine demands of medical students. He said the stipend of interns of medical colleges had been enhanced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 per month and PG students, who were earlier getting Rs 25,000 to Rs 27,500, were now getting a stipend of Rs 30,000 per month. He said the honorarium of senior lecturers had now been enhanced to Rs 35,000 while other specialists were now getting Rs 40,000 during the first year, Rs 42,500 during the second year and Rs 45,000 during the third year.

The Chief Minister conferred the KR Bhardwaj Memorial Gold Medal and Award on Dr Sunil Kumar, a student of the dental college. Local legislator Suresh Bhardwaj also spoke on the occasion.

Dr Jaishri Sharma, Director, Medical Education, welcomed the Chief Minister and thanked him for his patronage of medical education.

Bilaspur, July 24
Inordinate delay in laying the foundation stone of the first “hydro-engineering college” of the country at Bandla Hill in Bilaspur for which the state had allotted land long ago and for which it has also signed an agreement with one of the two partner central corporations involved in exploiting river water for hydel power production, is now developing into a full-fledged election issue.

Addressing a series of largely attended public meetings at Deoli, Maakadi-Markand, Kuddi, Baamta and Raghunathpura in the Bilaspur Sadar constituency here today, which he has been representing as minister and MLA till a few weeks ago before becoming a Rajya Sabha member, BJP national general secretary JP Nadda alleged that it was Congress leader Virbhadra Singh who had been obstructing this project as he had been using his influence at the Centre to ensure that it was not done now as this would give credit to the BJP government.

Nadda said earlier in this month he, along with all other BJP MPs of the state, had met Central Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in Delhi and urged him to come to Himachal for this ceremony as his repeated schedule for this purpose had been postponed at the eleventh hour several times during the past three years when Chief Minister PK Dhumal had declared this project.

Nadda said Shinde regretted his not coming to HP for the same. Shinde, according to Nadda, said he also had to take care of opinions of prominent party leaders from the state.

He alleged that Virbhadra had asked him not to attend the ceremony.

A few weeks ago when mediapersons at the Circuit House confronted Virbhadra with this charge of top BJP leaders against him, he categorically denied it and called it a white lie, adding that this canard was concocted to pollute his image among people.

Shimla, July 24
The HP High Court today sought response from the state on the issue of implementation of the Control of Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) at public places across the state.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice DC Chaudhary passed these orders on a letter written by the Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association to the Chief Justice alleging that violations have been observed under COTPA at all public places of the state.

It directed the state to file its response on these issues within eight weeks and listed the matter for October 1.

It is further alleged that despite the ban imposed by the state on smoking in public places, many public places were still hot spots for the sale of cigarettes or beedies and people continue to smoke at all places.

The petitioner organisation also urged the court to issue direction to the state authorities to take corrective measures under the Act to ensure no selling of tobacco product within 100 yards of educational institutions.

It further urged that directions be issued to remove display boards promoting tobacco products from public places. The petitioner also raised the issue of banning other tobacco products like “gutka” in the state.

Kangra, July 24
Two more pilgrims from Punjab, who were in the Kangra valley to pay obeisance in different shrines of the goddess during the current Shravan Navratra, died during the past 24 hours, taking the number of deaths during the past three days to three.

The Kangra police said Bhola (22) of Suraj Nagar, Moga (Punjab), who along with co-pilgrims, was on the way to the Brajeshwari temple from Jawalamukhi. He decided to take a bath in a khad at Bhaloogloa, 27 km from Kangra, yesterday and got drowned in the khad. The police said the youths who were accompanying him rushed him to a Jawalamukhi hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead.

The police has started investigation under Section 174, CrPC, and handed over the body to his parents after postmortem today.

Another pilgrim Dinesh Kumar (20) of Ropar (Punjab) died in Kangra in wee hours today. He was accompanied by some other pilgrims of the area. When he started shivering during the night he was rushed to the DRPGMC, Tanda. Doctors on duty declared him brought dead.

The body after postmortem was handed over to his relatives today. The police is investigating the case under Section 174, Criminal Procedure Code.

Meanwhile, the body of Rakesh Kumar of Ludhiana (Punjab) who was drowned in the river while taking a bath on Sunday last, could not be traced even on the third day today.

Tilak Raj Chauhan, SHO, Dehra, said parents and relatives of the drowned youth had arrived here on Sunday. He said efforts were being made to search out the body of the youth, and help of local fishermen and divers had been sought in this connection.