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Great Himalayan National Park set to be UNESCO heritage site
Mankotia set to rejoin Virbhadra
Mining Lease Without Forest Clearance
BSP to contest all 68 segments
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Founder’s Day celebrations at Lawrence School ends
Kangra valley rocked eight times in three days
HIMFED staff go without pay
EC to appoint observers for candidates’ expenditure
Monitoring of expenditure, paid news to be strict
BJP’s final list this weekend
BJP to study Gujarat, MP, Chhattisgarh documents
52 hypersensitive, 141 sensitive polling booths identified
Women seek poll duty exemption on Karvachauth
BJP man for ticket to Ravi
Withdraw amount, Cong tells
Sukhbir'
‘Op night dominance’ in Chamba
Garments shop catches fire
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Great Himalayan National Park set to be UNESCO heritage site
Sai Ropa (Kullu), October 4 The UNSECO team will be led by Dr Graeme L Worboys, vice-chairman of the World Congress on Protected Areas of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They will inspect key locations before declaring it as a UNSESCO heritage site, the first in this category in the country. The GHNP is a biodiversity reservoir and home to 377 documented species of fauna. A research team of the Wildlife Institute of India has identified 832 plant species belonging to 427 genera and 128 families of higher plants. Of those, 794 are angiosperms, 11 gymnosperms and 27 ferns. The species are distributed over 69 trees, 113 shrubs, 28 climbers, 493 herbs, 96 graminoides and 27 ferns. The GHNP is a also a gene pool of western Himalayan flora and fauna. It is home to the Himalayan musk deer, listed as nearly threatened, and the Himalayan tahr, a vulnerable species. The park supports the man-shy snow leopard, an endangered species, and the Himalayan black and brown bear. The western tragopan, a beautiful pheasant that figures in the IUCN’s red list of threatened birds, also thrives here. The GHNP has natural barriers on all sides. It is contiguous to the 675-sq-km Pin Valley National Park, the 503-sq-km Rupi-Bhawa Wildlife Sanctuary and the 61-sq-km Kanawar Wildlife Sanctuary. The GHNP sprawls from an altitude of 1,700 metres to 5,800 metres. There is no village. Its core area is being billed as a UNESCO heritage site, says Dr Ajay Srivastav, GHNP Director. This will exclude the Tirthan and Sainj wildlife sanctuaries, he says. The team will inspect the park and hold interactive sessions with officials in New Delhi and Shimla, he adds. GHNP forests consist of extensive stands of oak, blue pine, silver fir, spruce and cedar. Broad-leaf forests have horse chestnut, rhododendron arboretum, birch, yew, ringal bamboo, juniper, berberis, cotoneaster, vibernum, rosa and a rich variety of shrubs and alpine flora.
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Mankotia set to rejoin Virbhadra
Shimla, October 4 Decks were finally cleared for his re-entry today after he had a meeting with AICC general secretary and Himachal party affairs in charge Birender Singh Chaudhary in the presence of Virbhadra Singh this afternoon. Mankotia and Virbhadra Singh had a one-on-one meeting earlier and issues were sorted out. Mankotia had caused embarrassment to the Congress by releasing a controversial audio compact disc featuring Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha. With Mankotia’s re-entry in the Congress, the party is certain to field him from Shahpur, which is Social Welfare Minister Sarveen Chaudhary’s constituency. With Mankotia and Virbhadra Singh deciding to bury the hatchet, equations within the Congress will change, particularly in Kangra district, where GS Bali has been calling the shots. The Congress will have a leader of stature from the Rajput community, which may help it in the largest and politically important district of the state. Mankotia had been attempting the re-entry for quite some time and the move was scuttled more than once when Kaul Singh Thakur was the state Congress chief. After Virbhadra Singh, who had been opposing the re-entry, took over, the situation changed. It will be almost like starting a fresh political innings for Mankotia, who had announced his retirement from active politics in 2008 after losing in the elections from Dharamsala as Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. He had been looking for a party and the Congress was in search of a formidable candidate from Shahpur. It is not the first time that Mankotia and Virbhadra Singh have patched up. Mankotia levelled serious allegations against Virbhadra Singh after quitting the Congress and joining the Janata Dal in 1988. Virbhadra Singh had filed a defamation case against him in the High Court. They mended fences before the 1993 elections and Mankotia won from Shahpur. They fell apart again after Mankotia was dropped from the ministry during downsizing. He started a bitter campaign against Virbhadra Singh and released the compact disc during the Hamirpur Lok Sabha by-election.
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Mining Lease Without Forest Clearance
Sundernagar, October 4 Acting on a writ petition filed by Sant Ram Pathik of Haripur in Sundernagar, who challenged the granting of a mining lease to Harish Cements Limited without the mandatory forest clearance, a Division Bench comprising Justice RB Mishra and Justice DC Chaudhary asked the respondents to reply within four weeks. This is the second round of litigation. Prior to this, the Green Bench of the High Court had cancelled a number of environmental clearances granted for the project and the notifications issued for acquisition of land. Residents of the area came to know about the illegal granting of the mining lease for 725.85 hectare without the mandatory forest clearance when the matter was highlighted in these columns in December, 2010. The mining lease was granted to Harish Cements Ltd by the Director for Industries in December, 2006. It was alleged in the petition that no notification under the Land Acquisition Act for 1,200 bigha, including the petitioner’s land, was issued, but the land was leased out without obtaining permission from owners. The petitioner prayed for the cancellation of the mining lease, the initiation of an inquiry and the
fixing of responsibility of officials involved.
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BSP to contest all 68 segments
Shimla, October 4 Addressing a press conference here today, national BSP general secretary and MP Narender Kashyap while releasing a list of 32 candidates said here today that his party was likely to field candidates in all 68 segments. “As per our the national policy, we have decided not to be part of any morcha or alliance. So we will field candidates from all segments and consolidate our base in HP,” he remarked. He said the BSP, which had contested 67 seats in the last Assembly elections, had secured 7.26 per cent of the total votes. The BSP had won the Kangra seat with its candidate Sanjay Chaudhray emerging victorious, but he later joined the ruling BJP. Kashyap said the BSP had made inroads into North India and strengthened its base in Punjab and Himachal. He also released a list of 32 candidates which included 17 Assembly segments reserved for the Scheduled Caste. Prominent among those who had been fielded from open seats included ID Bali from Kasumpti and DP Sharma, a retired Inspector General of Police, from Shimla (rural). Kashyap said his party would shortly release a list of candidates for the remaining segments also.
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Founder’s Day celebrations at Lawrence School ends
Sanawar, October 4 Addressing the gathering, he said a sound foundation was laid by good education and the school’s motto, “never give in”, helped attain success. He added that good values and education inculcated in school helped through thick and thin as no one could steal anyone else’s knowledge. Headmaster Praveen Vasisht highlighting achievements of students in academics, sports and co-curricular activities. He said eight students scored a cumulative grade point average of above 9.6 in the class X examinations. He said students won laurels in shooting, sports events and debate, declamation and quiz contests. Students of the 1962 and 1987 batches, which celebrated their golden and silver jubilees, presented a marchpast. Owing their success to their education, the former students, a majority of whom had joined the Army, said it was a nostalgic moment. At least 15 students of the 1962 batch had joined the Army, they recalled. The chief guest awarded medals and trophies to winners. They included Chief of Army Staff trophy for best all-round boy and girl in class XII for 2011-12 to Manvijay Singh Negi and Disha Dobta Chauhan, Yashpal Choudhary gold medal for standing first in class XII to Priyal Mewara, Shadi Ram and Bhagwati Devi gold medal for boy and girl standing first in class X to Areeb Imam and Swati Saha, Thimmaya cup for organisational ability to Samrath Singh, Carlyll cup for progress to Chandni Verma, Chief of Army Staff cup for best cadet to Manvijay Singh Negi, Chief of Air Staff trophy for academic excellence to Nilgiri House, Catherine Longman cup for public speaking to Himalaya House, Khetarpal bravery award for exemplary bravery to Prajesh Jung Bahadur Rana, old Sanawarian achiever of the year award to Gen Gaurav Shamsher Rana of the 1971 batch, Chief of Nepalese army teacher’s excellence award for outstanding efforts to improve class XII results to Dr Praveen Kumar Gautam and Nipman teacher of the year award to Neelam Tahlan. |
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Kangra valley rocked eight times in three days
Kangra, October 4 Dr Susheel Kumar, scientist at the Seismology centre at Dehradun, said today that this morning the magnitude of the quake was 2.5 on the Richter scale. He said last night the Kangra valley experienced tremors three times, at 11.18 pm (3.5 magnitude), 1.36 am (2.3) and 4.29 am this morning (3.6). He said yesterday two tremors were experienced, at 3.34 pm (4 magnitude) and 4.19 pm (3.7). The valley started experiencing tremors since Tuesday morning with the first one at 9.15 am (4.3 magnitude) and another at 2.05 pm (4.5). Kangra Deputy Commissioner KR Bharti said there was no loss of life or property reported from any part of district following the quakes during the past three days.
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HIMFED staff go without pay
Solan, October 4 Powers of the drawing and disbursing officer (DDO) for drawing salaries and making financial transactions have been taken from area managers and given to the general manager, who will receive salary. The general manager will release salaries after assessing performance based on the business report. Even Class IV employees and casual workers are being asked to submit performance reports. Employees rue that this has brought the working of HIMFED to a standstill. HIMFED Managing Director KC Chaman said the measure was introduced to instil work culture. He justified the change in DDO powers. He said the working of each area office would be reviewed on the basis of the business report and this would form the basis of salary disbursement. |
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EC to appoint observers for candidates’ expenditure
Shimla, October 4 He held a meeting with representatives of political parties today and presided over the election expenditure monitoring meeting, in which representatives of banks and post offices were present. He said the EC would appoint expenditure observers and assistant expenditure observers. “Banks will provide daily reports on unusual and suspicious withdrawal or deposit over Rs 1 lakh by any individual, including family members and relatives of candidates, and withdrawal of over Rs 10 lakh by parties,” he stated. He added that they would report any unusual and suspicious real time gross settlement cash transfer over Rs 1 lakh. Chauhan said the account could be opened in the candidate’s name or jointly with election agent in the state, but not jointly with family member. He said the candidate should not use existing bank account for election purposes. He said crossed account payee cheques would be issued by the candidate for expenditure over Rs 20,000. He said flying squads, video surveillance teams and static surveillance teams were set up. He said format for affidavit regarding criminal background, assets and liabilities and education qualification were combined into Form 26. He said Media Certification and Monitoring Committees had been constituted in all district headquarters for paid news. He said election expenditure was classified into two categories. He said expenditure allowed was Rs 11 lakh per constituency, subject to being within limit. He said if a candidate or his agent shared the dais with a star campaigner or a candidate’s name was mentioned by a star campaigner or a candidate’s photographs were displayed at the site of a public rally, the expenditure except travel expenses of the star campaigner would be included in the candidate’s account.
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Monitoring of expenditure, paid news to be strict
Shimla, October 4 Addressing a press conference here, he said the model code of conduct was in force and mechanisms to monitor poll-related expenditure and paid news in accordance with directions of the Election Commission were in place. The observer for expenditure control in Shimla and Kinnaur districts had arrived and constituency level committees were being set up. Keeping in view numerous cases of large amounts of unaccounted-for cash during the Punjab elections, the commission had decided to set up a static monitoring committee in addition to flying squads. The committee would organise ‘nakas’ at strategic points to prevent the movement of cash in vehicles. He said a district-level committee had been set up to keep track of paid news, in which officials of the Public Relations Department and journalists were included. He said all complaints pertaining to expenditure and paid news would be forwarded to the observer for expenditure control for investigation and action. Superintendent of Police Chandershekhar said 2,901 police and home guard personnel would be deployed at 992 polling booths, of which 99 were hyper-sensitive and 195 sensitive. There are 5,14,257 voters in eight constituencies of the district, of which 2,68,683 are men and 2,45,574 women.
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BJP’s final list this weekend
New Delhi, October 4 The meeting was postponed to the weekend and would now be held on October 6 or 7. BJP sources said LK Advani would not be present as he would not return until October 13. Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, who missed the last meeting on account of poor health, would attend it. It was scheduled keeping in mind that filing of nominations would begin on October 10. |
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BJP to study Gujarat, MP, Chhattisgarh documents
Shimla, October 4 The Election Manifesto Committee of the BJP, which met here today under the chairmanship of Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Thakur, deliberated on issues which could help in the compilation of the election document which would spell out priorities of the party in the upcoming Assembly elections. Chief Minister PK Dhumal, state BJP chief Satpal Satti and ministers Ravinder Singh Ravi and Rajeev Bindal were also present. With the total strength of employees being almost 1.9 lakh, enhancing the retirement age from 58 years to 60 years could help the BJP, but could also have an adverse impact among the unemployed, numbering almost 8.5 lakh. “Enhancing retirement age and providing unemployment allowance are under consideration. Since they involve huge financial implications, managing funds will be next to impossible,” remarked a party leader. He added that the BJP had accepted major demands of employees and efforts should be made to woo other sections. A majority of party leaders were of the opinion that thrust should be on the rural populace and welfare schemes in the agricultural and horticultural sectors should be announced. Schemes for farmers and growers could feature prominently in the manifesto. “Since we have fulfilled more than what we promised, we want to include only those things which are feasible and achievable this time as well,” said Jai Ram Thakur. HN Kashyap and CL Gupta were assigned the task of studying the manifestos in BJP-ruled states, especially where it managed to repeat its performance, so that it could be replicated in Himachal Pradesh. They were also asked to shortlist issues which might feature prominently in the manifesto. “Though we found good welfare schemes, those could be impractical here, considering geographical constraints and peculiar conditions,” admitted a member.
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52 hypersensitive, 141 sensitive polling booths identified
Chamba, October 4 Briefing mediapersons at a hurriedly convened press conference in his official chamber today, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sunil Chaudhary, who is also District Election Officer, said 2,750 personnel had been deployed to conduct elections in 572 polling booths of five Assembly constituencies of the district. The DC informed that the five Assembly constituencies of Chamba district were: Churah (SC-reserved), Bharmour (ST-reserved), Chamba, Dalhousie and Bhattiyat, having 572 total polling stations equipped with requisite facilities. He revealed that 52 polling stations had been identified as “hypersensitive” and 141 as “sensitive”, mostly on the border adjacent to Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab states. “No person is allowed to carry firearms and lethal weapons in meetings of political parties and during processions of political parties in the district with immediate effect”, the DC stated. Meanwhile, he has appointed Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Chamba, Ravinder Kumar as district-level nodal officer. He would monitor the production, storage and distribution of liquor and conduct raids to seize illicit liquor. Since the distribution of cash, liquor or any other item for the gratification of voters was bribery and punishable, flying squads had also been formed under each police station, he said.
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Women seek poll duty exemption on Karvachauth
Nurpur, October 4 According to information, the EC will dispatch employees on poll duties on the same day to conduct polling scheduled on November 4. Local women associations have appealed to the Chief Election Commissioner to amend the schedule to enable government employees to remain at home on Karvachauth. Manju Sodhi, Deepa, Swarn, Anju and Asha Dhiman, local government employees, have appealed to the National Women Commission (NWC) to intervene in this connection and plead with the Election Commission to alter the poll schedule in Himachal Pradesh.
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BJP man for ticket to Ravi
Palampur, October 4 Addressing a press conference, Rana said Ravi was a resident of Palampur for the last 30 years and fielding him would be in the interests of the party. Rana said the BJP should reconsider the ticket allotment to ‘weak’ candidates, particularly in Kangra district. He said Ravi was on top in two surveys, but was denied the party ticket at the last moment. Parveen Sharma, MLA from Palampur, who was given the BJP ticket, reacted strongly to the demand. He told mediapersons in Gopalpur that he was selected by the high command after studying all aspects. He added that the local BJP mandal had recommended him. Shanta Kumar, Dhumal and Kalraj Mishra were members of the committee which approved his name, he pointed out. Sharma claimed that a political conspiracy was being hatched against him, but the people of Palampur would give a befitting reply. |
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Withdraw amount, Cong tells
Sukhbir'
Sanawar, October 4 He gave the amount to his old school at its 165th Founder’s Day celebrations. He said he was contributing the amount on behalf of the government and it should be used for constructing common rooms for students, which should be named after martyr Bhagat Singh. Punjab Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira alleged in a press note that the funds had been siphoned off from the Punjab Nirman Programme meant for various development works. With a debt liability of Rs 80,000 crore, there was no rationale in granting the school this amount, he stated. Asked about the diversion of funds, Sukhbir said development funds could be spent anywhere in India. He denied that the funds were meant for this scheme. Asked about the poor financial condition of the state’s economy he said, “Our financial condition is good and better than the Centre’s. Our debt to gross state domestic produce ratio is about 30 per cent and the Centre’s about 50 per cent,” he said. Reacting to Sukhbir’s statement, Khaira said it was sad that the Deputy Chief Minister was hoodwinking the people. He challenged Badal to prove his allegations wrong factually or tender a public apology. Elaborating on the state of government schools in Punjab, Khaira said 18,397 schools in Punjab were in a pitiable condition with children being forced to squat on the floor to study. This grant could have improved conditions at more than two dozen schools in Punjab, he pointed out.
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‘Op night dominance’ in Chamba
Chamba, October 4 Superintendent of Police BM Sharma said here today that during the operation 13 vehicles had been challaned and one motor cycle impounded as its rider was in a state of intoxication.
Garments shop catches fire
Bilaspur, October 4 Reports said most of the merchandise kept in the shop had turned into ashes. Pravin said a loss of Rs 15 lakh had been caused. The police has registered a case and is investigating. —
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The 754.4-sq-km Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) near here is set to be registered as a UNESCO heritage site as a team of experts is coming here tomorrow to inspect the park before declaring it as its site officially.A view of the
The 165th Founder’s Day celebrations of Lawrence School concluded here today with an NCC parade by students with the school flag.
Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab and alumnus of the school (Nilgiri House, 1980 batch), who was the chief guest, gave a cheque for Rs 1 crore to the school.
Shimla, October 4
