Palampur, October 2
Overloading of trucks in Himachal Pradesh has become a matter of serious concern. These trucks are not only flouting provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act but are also involved in fatal accidents daily. In past few years, state and national highways have become worst victims of overloaded trucks.

Trucks carrying cement, clinker, tiles and steel are particularly flouting the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act in the state and carry more load than the prescribed limit of nine tonnes, resulting in heavy damage to roads in the state.

The four cement plants set up in Bilaspur and Solan districts of the state and construction of a 100 small and major hydel power projects have further aggravated the situation. There is no check on the overloading of trucks carrying cement, clinker from tiles, building material and other equipment for power projects. These trucks have caused heavy damage to internal link roads and culverts used by truckers to avoid tax barriers.

Official sources said over 20,000 trucks and dumpers belonging to Gujrat Ambuja Cement Plant, Darlaghat, and ACC Cement Plant, Barmana, JP Cement Plant, Bagga and Arki use the national and state highways daily. Most of these trucks carry loads between 15 to 20 tons, openly violating the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.

While the state has failed to deal with this menace, the National Highway Authority of India and the State Public Works Department have found themselves helpless and the damage to roads is going on unabated. The Kalka-Shimla (Hindustan Tibet Road), Kiratpur-Manali, Shimla-Kangra, Pathankot-Mandi and Pathankot-Chamba national highways of the state are the worst affected.

According to the existing provisions of law no vehicle can carry more than nine-ton load, but there is no check on overloading in the state. The weighing machines installed at a high cost by the government

at different entry points of the state are either out of order or not put to use by officers posted at the barriers. Officers do not bother to repair these machines. In the absence of proper checks, over 90 per cent of the trucks have been carrying goods more than the prescribed limit, resulting in the destruction of roads, culverts and bridges on the highways.

Because of excessive use of roads by these cement-loaded trucks, the national highway between, Kalka-Shimla, Bilaspur-Kiratpur, Mandi-Kulu, Mandi-Joginder Nagar, Pathankot-Chamba has become prone to landslides and soil erosion. It is on record that over a 100 small and big culverts have been badly damaged by overloaded trucks. The total loss caused to the highways in the state has been estimated over Rs 1500 crore.

The State Transport Authority and the Traffic Police, the major law-enforcing agencies in the state, have failed to fulfil their duties. Official figures reveal that out of a 100 traffic challans filed by these authorities in various courts of law in the state, only 5 per cent pertain to offences relating to overloading while 95 percent are of the other offences. The rampant “corruption” in the State Transport Authority and the Traffic Police has made the matter worse as posting in these two wings has proved to be a gold mine for corrupt officers, which has encouraged the defaulters.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnatka are the three states in country, where there is a blanket ban on the entry of overloaded trucks. In these states no truck can carry more than nine ton of load. If any overloaded vehicle is detected, a fine of Rs 10,000 minimum is imposed. All inter-state barriers are equipped with the latest electronic weighing machines and it is mandatory for every vehicle to pass through these machines. An officer of the rank of District Transport Officer mans all such inter-state barriers.

Kangra, October 2
A misleading signboard put up on the National Highway-88, connecting Dharamsala and Hoshiyarpur near the Kangra bus stand, by the National Highway Authorities is putting pilgrims and tourists to a lot of inconvenience. The signboard indicates a right turn for going to Una and Chintpurni and directs the drivers to go straight for Shimla, Nadun and Jawalamukhi. Whereas these indications are suitable to be put up at Ranital, 17 km from Kangra, to divert people to Una and Chintpurni on the right side via Bankhandi and straight for Shimla, Nadun and Jawalamukhi.

The signs on the board should be straight for all the three destinations, including Una and Chintpurni. The pilgrims and tourists visiting the Kangra valley for the first time, after coming across this board, take the first right turn near Polytechnic College which leads them to Zamanabad and ultimately connects them to Pathankot-Mandi National Highway at Icchi and after completing a 10-km turn, they return to the same signboard. There is none to take notice of the wrong indications which make pilgrims and tourists suffer.

Dalhousie, October 2
The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) has been executing flagship environment management plans, reinforcing the banks of the river Ravi and its feeding brooks and the catchment area treatment plan of widening and construction of link roads and bridges, spending more than Rs 56 crore.

Disclosing this here today, the NHPC’s Region-II Executive Director SC Sharma said the NHPC had been spending adequate funds continuously on the wellbeing and upliftment of the local people and other developmental activities in the environs of its hydropower projects under the ‘corporate social responsibility and community development’ programme.

Sharma said the NHPC Region-II comprised of four power stations with an installed capacity of 1251 MW power being produced from the 180 MW Baira-Siul, 540 MW Chamera-I, 300 MW Chamera-II and 231 MW Chamera-III power stations operating in Chamba district; adding that the state government was getting a royalty of 12 percent free power from these projects. “The NHPC, with an authorised share capital of Rs 15,000 crore and an investment base of about Rs 48,998 crore, the NHPC is ranked as a premier organisation in the country for the development of hydropower”, Sharma revealed.

Hamirpur, October 2
“Each time a seed drives its way through the soil in order to survive, each time a river overcomes a big rock on its path, each time a wiggly caterpillar transforms itself into a beautiful butterfly, nature inspires you to excel. The next time you want to be inspired, all you have to do is to look deeper into the natural world and hear the secret message,” said Neha Kumari, a Class VIII student of Government Middle School, Neri, in Hamirpur, during the presentation of her model, “A Power House in Low-Earth Orbit”.

This young girl had presented the model in the second state-level “Inspire Model Exhibition” held at Hamirpur, recently.

Neha had also won an award for her model, which has been nominated for the National Inspire Model Exhibition to be held from October 21 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, after scoring the highest marks among the 400 participants from all over the state in the exhibition. This innovative model has been developed on the guidance of her teacher, Sanjeev Kumar, to find a solution for future energy needs. Through this model, Neha has envisioned to set up a power house in the low-earth orbit, which starts with a speed of 200 km per hour and will move in the orbit with the speed of 27,360 km per hour. It takes only 90 minutes to complete one revolution around the earth helping in gaining power generation at a lightning speed.”

For constructing a power house, the student suggests installation of two satellites in the low-earth orbit which are static Generator Loop Satellite (GLS) and Generator Shaft Satellite (GSS) made of magnetic material to move it at a speed of 27,360 km per hour, leading to magnetic induction in generating enormous power. This power could be stored in a super capacitor on board powering emitter of microwave transmitter or laser emitter by focusing its beam towards a collector on the earth.

Neha said this could provide unlimited source of green electricity and could be an alternative for meeting future energy demands.

Kangra, October 2
Students and teachers of GAV Public School here visited Leeds, England, under the Global Educational Partnership Programme with Crawshaw School in the UK.

Sukhvinder Singh, principal of the school, said a seven-member team of teachers and students of GAV Public School visited Leeds recently.

She said there the teaching methodology was more practical, adding that each classrooms had smart classes, computers, Photostat machines, etc. Sujata Sharma, a teacher who visited the UK under the programme, said for teaching science, they had classes and laboratories together so that students could do practicals along with theory classes.

She said apart from maths, science, social studies and English, the students were taught Hindi, French, German, Spanish and Chinese right from the junior classes according to their aptitude.

Mehak, a Class XI student, was highly influenced by the hygiene and cleanliness there and wished her country to be pollution free. Sarvesh, another student of Class XI, said he felt as an international football player after he played at the International Stadium there.

He learnt some French, Spanish and Chinese words after attending a few classes and wished all schools in India too should make children learn various languages right from the school level.

Yukta, another Class XI student, said she was impressed by the traffic rules, their implementation in letter and spirit, besides clean and beautiful roads. Shubham, a Class XI student, said he was impressed by the team work and dedication towards work among the students there.

Palampur, October 2
The Palampur region of the state has been facing a power crisis following the sudden breakdown of half a dozen transformers installed in the rural areas.

It is learnt that a private firm had supplied 10 transformers to the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) in Palampur, which had manufacturing defects and had failed to function. Though the HPSEB authorities had asked the company to replace the transformers or repair them, neither the transformers were repaired nor replaced, resulting in a severe power crisis. The company had already received the payment for these transformers from the HPSEB, making it reluctant to replace the transformers.

A senior officer of the HPSEB said one of the 250 KVA transformers installed near Bhawarna Senior Secondary School had caught fire and was returned to the company. Likewise, two transformers installed at Thakurdwara and Sulaha also failed to function and the company was immediately informed about the defects, but no one bothered.

In the absence of transformers, there was low-power voltage in many villages around Palampur. Residents of 24 villages of the Paror area had lodged a strong protest over power failure and low-voltage problems.

Talking to mediapersons, Block Development Committee member Dinesh Kumar said the villagers had been facing unannounced power cuts and low voltage for hours daily.

RS Jarial, Assistant Engineer, HPSEB, admitted to power crisis in the Paror area. He said the area needed a transformer with 100-KVA capacity, but at the moment it was not available. Therefore, there was low voltage and frequent power failures. Till date, the HPSEB has failed to initiate action against the company.

Solan, October 2
More than 100 orthodontists from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana gathered for a symposium on “Diagnosis, Decisions and Dilemmas of Class II Malocclusion”, conducted by Bhojia Dental College and Hospital, at Baddi where they deliberated at length on the problem of the lower jaw set back, especially among growing children, which leads to multiple disorders like snoring and sleep apnoea.

The head of the Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics at Bhojia Dental College and Hospital, Dr Sarabjeet Singh, who was also the organising secretary of the symposium, emphasised that parents should be sensitised to get this problem rectified among growing children at an early stage and not wait till they attain the age of 10-12 years after losing all their milk teeth.

The orthodontists stressed on the need for the parents to start monitoring these jaw disorders among children at the age of seven to eight years so that they are put under the care of specialists at an age considered ideal for rectification. Dr Sarabjeet Singh also added that apart from affecting the aesthetic beauty of a child, this problem could lead to breathing through the mouth which further leads to frequent throat and ear infections in a child apart from gum inflammation. Among other speakers were Dr Ashok Utreja, Professor and Chairman and head, Department of Orthodontics and Oral Health Sciences Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh, Dr SP Singh, Additional Professor, and Dr Ashok Jena, Assistant Professor from the Department of Orthodontics and Oral Health Sciences Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh, and Dr Gautam Munjal, Director, Indian Board of Orthodontics.

Experts have underlined the need for early detection of children suffering from autism and intervention to deal effectively with the growing problem of autism and enable them to lead a dignified life.

The issue was discussed at the workshop (see photo) on “Autism spectrum disorders” organised by Udaan, which is also the nodal agency for the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities for the state, early this week in collaboration with the Bangalore-based Com Deall Trust.

Experts from Bangalore Tanushri said one out of every 150 children was autistic and it was emerging as a serious problem. The incidence of autism among males was four times more than females. Bringing up an autistic child was a challenge for the family and the only way out was early detection of the problem and intervention like training of the parents.

Secretary of Udaan RS Rana said the problem could be effectively addressed by setting up an intervention unit at the Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital.

Additional Director of Health Rajesh Rana said although the state did not have an early detection and intervention unit, it 
had taken a number of steps to improve the life of persons with disabilities, including those suffering from autism.

The workshop was inaugurated by the director of health services, Dr DS Chandel, and attended by doctors, representatives of non-government organisations and teachers engaged in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Mandi, October 2
The plot owners in the local HIMUDA colony, Sinyardi, have accused the Housing Board of “illegitimately” increasing the cost by Rs 44,000 per biswa in a year’s time, which has made them pay through their nose, even as basic amenities like streetlights, roads, water supply and sewerage line are not in proper shape.

Talking to The Tribune, members of the Residents’ Welfare Association said HIMUDA had charged Rs 22,000 per biswa from the plot owners, but now they were charging Rs 22,000 more per biswa. “We had bought a plot at Rs 1 lakh per biswa from the Housing Board, but we are now being made to pay Rs 44,000 per biswa as an extra cost which is not justified,” they resented. HIMUDA had spent Rs 1.45 crore on site development, but it is yet to develop a proper road, drainage and retaining walls. The debris were being dumped on the roadside posing hazards to the residents in Magwani locality downstream, the residents said.

The 57 plot owners have paid Rs 1,200 per biswa for land development and landscaping but to no avail, they added. The housing board had given Rs 65 lakh to the state electricity board for laying of underground cables for streetlights. “But the cables are as good as defunct as only three streetlights work. All pleas with the board to rectify the cables have fallen on deaf ears,” they said.

There are no proper side drains and the roads are littered with boulders and potholes, they added. The IPH line and sewerage line run along the same drains posing a health hazards. “We have told them to separate the IPH line from sewerage, but nobody listens,” they charged. The chief executive officer, HIMUDA, BB Kalra, said they had increased the price due to the extra cost that the board had to pay to the landowners after the latter moved the court. “We take remedial measures when things are brought to our notice,” he added.

Solan, October 2
The Kafota area of Sirmaur district might be counted among the backward areas of the state, but the residents of the area have set an example of new-age thinking by vowing to take steps to put an end to wasteful extravaganza at marriages.

A lead has been taken in this direction by the Regional Development Committee, Kafota, in the Aanj-Bhoj area, by convening a cultural seminar on October 3, where a decision to reduce marriage celebrations to a single reception from the present four to five days celebrations will be announced publicly.

Guman Singh Chauhan, president of the committee, said this would not only reduce the burden on the poor but also set a healthy tradition of putting ‘wasteful’ extravaganza associated with marriages to an end. The committee, which has been endeavouring to sensitise people against social evils, has invited Gian Singh Chauhan, a social worker from the area, working as a senior official of the Industries Department, to address a gathering on the occasion.

Rajinder Sharma, general secretary of the committee, said they would stress on observing January 11 as ‘Bhatiyog’ festival or fixing a single day for its celebrations so that a poor person should not be compelled to spend heavily on goat sacrifices.

Kangra, October 2
The Department of Psychiatry of DRPGMC, Tanda, observed World Suicide Prevention Day-2012 at the Psychiatry OPD recently. The theme of the year was “Strengthening Protective Factors and Instilling Hope”.

Dr Sukhjit Singh, HOD, psychiatry, said as per a data analysis from January 2011 to August 2012, a total of 101 patients were referred from various departments of the institute to the Psychiatry OPD with suicidal attempt, of which 51 were males and 50 females.

He said there was a need of more vigilance on the sale and storage of pesticides and to improve better coping skills among people. — OC

Chamba, October 2
In order to get education in the hilly terrains, students have to trudge along through the steep hillside more than four-five km to and fro from their schools in the remote Chamba district.

Among the lesser-known schools are Government Senior Secondary School, Luddo, and high school, Jamuhar, that fall within the precincts of hardly 12 km from Chamba. For students, the distance of about four-five km in the inaccessible hilly regions is arduous. The transportation services are rare and bicycling daily to the school is impossible. Moreover, woes of students multiply when there is a pressure on them to perform well in the examinations. The students are unable to cope with this burden, which reflects in their poor performance.

Zila parishad member Raj Singh has urged the state to upgrade all middle and primary schools functioning in the area so that the students could get education above Class V class on their doorstep. The district project coordinator of the Zila Saksharta Samiti, SK Minhas, has also confirmed the problems being faced by the students.

Sainj (Kullu), October 2
All is not well with the 2051-MW Parbati project. After it was postponed twice, the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had laid the foundation stone of the project here on December 12, 1999, announcing that the 800-MW Parbati stage-II project would be ready in 2008. He had also said the state would earn Rs 400 crore as revenue as its share of 12 per cent free power and 15 per cent as its share of generation cost.

But it did not happen even after 12 years. First, Asia’s second biggest project is plagued by cost and time overruns and a series of “steel and cement scams” still under the CBI scanner. Second, Himachal is losing gross revenue worth Rs 960 crore on account of its 12 per cent free power share in 3,100 million units of electricity that the 800-MW Parbati stage-II is likely to generate every year.

Even the capacity of the Parbati project has been reduced from 2,051 MW to 1,320 MW. The 731-MW Parbati stage-I has been abandoned on environmental ground by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). And the 520-MW Parbati stage III is also three years behind schedule and is expected to generate 1963.29 million units of electricity in a year at 60 per cent plant load factor.

The work on the project has been going on at a snail’s pace. As many as 20,000 cement bags, about a year old, at Sainj store are suspected to be “unfit for use” and 180 metric tonnes of steel bars have been rusting in the Soma Ropa store since 2005. As many as 160 metric tonnes of beams (Gadar), all worth crores of rupees, are of no use though NHPC managers say they will use the material after testing.

The CAG report, 2012, has nailed the Parbati project in its report on hydro power projects executed by central public sector undertakings. The report was tabled in Parliament last week. The NHPC awarded the head race tunnel work to a nondescript HJV company, which failed to complete the work. When the NHPC found out the company’s incompetence in 2006 even then it allowed it to continue the work that ultimately resulted in a cost overrun of Rs 243.54 crore and delay of over 99 months, the CAG audit observed.

The work on Parbati II has come to a standstill as the NHPC has rescinded the head race tunnel contract from the company in March. But the NHPC has yet to award the contract to complete the remaining five-km long tunnel. It said civil works were complete and 85 metres-high Pulga dam is ready. As a result, the cost of Parbati-II has shot up from Rs 3,919.59 crore to Rs 5,353.21 crore according to its revised estimate and Parbati stage II will not not be ready before 2016, said insiders.