Barmana (Bilaspur), November 12
Even as all cement plants should be covered under the Employee Service Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Act, neither the ESIC nor the state government has notified the cement plant area for the ESIC scheme. It has denied health and other benefits to employees, including labourers and truck operators, who are exposed to hazards at the plant sites.

The Department of Labour and Employment has listed cement plants in the list of industries covered under the ESIC Act. But the successive state governments have not cared about the employees. They have not notified the cement plants areas for the ESIC scheme despite their imminent health hazards. There is no proper care for the workers at the plant sites as diagnostic and specialist health services are lacking in the dispensaries being run at the plant sites, said the health experts.

ESIC?s super-specialty medical college and hospital is coming up at Ner Chowk in Mandi and the corporation wants to cover all industries, institutions, truckers etc under ESIC scheme.

According to sources in the Industries Department, the cement plants — Darlaghat, Bagha, Barmana — including the JP Bagheri unit, Ambuja’s Nalagarh unit and the Cement Corporation of India plant — provide direct employment to about 2,700 people out of which about 1,268 are Himachalis. The cement plants also provide indirect employment to over 25,000 people as truckers or drivers and conductors while the government earns Rs 41 crore as road tax. Besides each plant gives a royalty of Rs 92 crore, claim officials in the Industry Department.

The cement companies employ not even 50 per cent of people from Himachal that exposed the government’s hollow claims that cement companies are employing 70 per cent people from Himachal.

The state Industry Department has put ‘clinker’ in the negative list. The labourers, drivers, conductors and local residents are constantly exposed to the hazards of nano pollutants, aerosols and dust while loading and unloading of cement, clinkers, fly ash and coals at the plants, revealed insiders.

A cursory survey among the local old employees who worked in plants revealed that these employees lived a short life after retiring from the plant and many suffered from asthma, TB, bronchitis and even cancer and died a silent death. “There is no health benefit for them as they are not covered under the ESIC Act that provides free treatment once the employee is insured with the corporation,” they rued.

But the companies plead that the state government has not notified the ESIC scheme at the plant sites and there is no question of their violating the ESIC Act and they blame the state government.

ESIC’s regional director PS Negi said they would undertake a joint survey with the state Labour, Health and Industries Departments to cover the cement plants and other industries, private colleges and institutions that employ 10 workers or more under the ESIC scheme. “We are issuing notices to them shortly,” he added.

Labour Commissioner Nandita Gupta said they had issued guidelines and checked violations and complaints by deploying a labour inspector. They were a regulatory body and this initiative was welcome, she added.

Nurpur, November 12
The state Forest Department has succeeded in removing most of the encroachments from the forest land, detected in the Nurpur forest division, thanks to the directive of the state high court that had passed an interim order on August 3 in a civil writ petition Pawan Kumar v/s state. The court had directed the state Forest Department to remove all encroachments by October 31 this year across the state.

According to information, 565 encroachment cases have been detected in five forest ranges, Nurpur, Indora, Jawali, Kotla and Rey, under the Nurpur forest division.

The Divisional Forest Officer-cum-collector passed eviction order against 548 land encroachers under HP public premises (rent recovery cum eviction) Act, 1971. The Forest Department took possession of forest land in 483 cases by October 31, a date fixed by the high court. According to Sanjay Sen, the DFO, Nurpur, the high court has granted extension till March 31 next year to revert all forest land to the Forest Department by taking its physical possession in the Nurpur forest division. “The possession of 65 cases has been delayed due to Assembly elections and 17 encroachment cases are still under trial. The department will complete the ongoing exercise before the deadline rendered by the honourable high court,” he asserted. He also said that according to the court direction, the department had also lodged FIRs against six land encroachers who had encroached over 10 bighas of forest land.

Besides, the department has removed and restored 457 out of 992 forest land encroachments in this forest division which had been found in the wake of the encroachment regularisation policy of the previous Dhumal government (1998-2003). The process of land demarcation in 535 such encroachments is under way. DFO Sen said all forest land encroachments would be removed by the end of March next year with physical possession being restored to the Forest Department.

Chamba, November 12
In order to fulfil its social responsibility, the 300-MW Chamera Power Station-II of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) has so far spent Rs 35 crore on various development schemes in Chamba.

Stating this here on Wednesday, General Manager of the project VK Singh said these funds had been spent under the scheme, Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Development, launched by the Government of India for the all-round development of the surrounding areas of the power station and the well-being of the locals.

Besides other development activities carried out by the power station, the major landmark developments included the widening of the Goli-Chamba-Karian-Jarangla road, Sheetla bridge, an edifice of the Regional Hospital of Chamba and environment management plan in the Chamba region, he said.

He said the power station had kept a provision of Rs 40 lakh to be spent on various activities under the scheme during the current fiscal year. “We are providing assistance to the poor by giving them school uniforms and ambulance to the Red Cross in addition to construction of school buildings, medical camps and various other development activities in the adjoining villages,” he said.

Dalhousie, November 12
Dalhousie is going through a period of rapid change and the people living in this little hill town have always looked forward to development in the town in a new and positive way. Unlike most other towns, Dalhousie has always existed for others to come here and enjoy.

“We are at a turning point in the new millennium and need new ideas and money to develop Dalhousie in an exciting way,” is the thinking of intellectuals living here who also have an emotional attachment for the green hill station.

That was so when the first engineer was sent from Lahore in 1851 to map out a town in the wooded forest of the Chamba Hills and level its three Malls. It is so now when hotels and shops are springing up one after another, and it will be so in the future as long as people from the plains want to visit a hill station.

Let us look at the past. The British planned Dalhousie as a sanatorium where soldiers and civilians from the plains of Punjab could come and restore their health in the summers. In 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru came here and stayed with Raizada Hans Raj Sondhi at his home, Ashiana, on Bakrota Hills.

Dalhousie began to change from a summer resort to a round the year town. The lack of summer visitors was filled in the 1960s by an influx of Tibetan refugees and by hippies in the 1970s who wanted a cheap place to stay.

Eminent personalities were able to buy adjoining houses and founded Dalhousie Public School (DPS) in the 1970s. This brought in a large number of pupils from Punjab. The Canadians, too, who came to build Chamera Dam in the 1970s-80s, added to the town socially and built homes all the year round.

In the late 1980s came, what the people call “Maruti revolution”. Middle-class families were able to buy small Indian-made cars and set off on a holiday.

Dalhousie has responded to the changed idea of a holiday as a “tour”, but not imaginatively. The town has no historic temples or sights and it has become just a stopover between a visit to Vaishno Devi and the historic royal town of Chamba.

There should be some excitement in visiting Dalhousie and there are plenty of sites for a cable car ride or for a toy-train ride through the forests where even bears or panthers might be spotted as the Dalhousie hills are replete with a hill environment, showing tourists the wealth of flora and fauna and the geology of the surrounding area.

Dalhousie has excellent places close to the centre of the town where simple rock climbing could be taught. Besides, there are ideas here for education, entertainment and sport. Is government or any non-governmental organisation (NGO) interested in helping these projects materialise?

Solan, November 12
Akal Academy, Baru Sahib, a co-educational, fully residential, CBSE-affiliated school, located in the valley and deep woods of the foothills of Himalayas, in Sirmaur district, celebrated its 25th annual day recently.

Ajit Singh Kohar, Transport Minister, Punjab, was the chief guest on the occasion.

Dr Neelam Kaur, Principal, in her annual report elaborated on the milestones achieved by the students of various Akal Academies established in north India. She emphasised on the need and importance of value-based education vis-a-vis modern scientific knowledge. Baba Iqbal Singh, President of the Kalgidhar Trust, which manages the school, emphasised on the need of faith and to lead a truthful and spiritual life.

We all know and admire the fathers of various revolutions that changed, if not the face of the earth, then foods that the earth and the animals provide us. The father of green revolution was Dr Norman Ernest Borlaug; Verghese Kurien was that of white revolution; Indian poultry industry was fathered by Dr BV Rao and the father of delicious varieties of apples in Himachal, nay India, was Satyanand Stokes. It is now abundantly clear that these revolutions are becoming cases of diminishing returns. The government has started thinking in terms of second revolutions.

There is, however, one man who could foresee that apple cultivation in Himachal needed a change and took the right initiative at the right time and, perhaps, fathered the second apple revolution here. He is Dr KC Azad. Khushhal Chand belongs to Rohru and hails from a humble background but due to absolute dedication and hard work, he rose to become an ace horticulturist of India. Khushhal was my classmate in college and I remember that his reply to “How are you?” used to be “I am quite Khush Hal (in happy state)”. He remains in that state always. He chose the path of being a specialist earning his doctorate on ‘Litchi’ from the Panjab Agriculture University. He was also the fellow of Food and Agriculture Organisation of UNO for six months. Today, he, by his appearance, defies the 78 years of fruitful life that he has rendered to the cause of horticulture in the state (see photo).

He rose to become the Director of Horticulture to the state government. In that capacity, he visited almost all apple-growing European countries and the USA. His study tour report written in 1981 on ‘recent techniques in optimisation of fruit production in European countries’ emphasised upon the cultivation of spur-type tree in place of tip-bearing one. The former is more dwarf than the latter. It is easier to prune, spray and harvest this apple tree because of its smaller size. Spur apple trees begin to produce fruit at a much younger age than the other, so there is less waiting when a new tree is planted. Also, spur types have more fruit per tree than the tip-bearing trees (see photo). This type of tree gives the orchardist more bangs for his buck. Writes Dr KC Azad in the context of Himachal Pradesh, “There is great urgency in immediate introduction of full range of spur-types of varieties, since these varieties besides being precocious and prolific bearer, colour better under relatively warmer conditions as prevailing in most of our lower apple growing regions where development of colour specially in delicious group is a problem.” When he could convince the authorities with his scientific prudence and vision, he, in 1988, imported over 4,500 plants of spur-type of apples, such as, Red Chief, Oregon spur, Silver spur, Well spur, Bright-n-Early and Starkrimson besides about 200 flowering crabs - Manchurian, Golden Hornet, Snow Drift, Red Flush - as pollinisers and got them planted with spacing of three metres from row to row and 1.5 metres from plant to plant in a row thus accommodating over 2,222 plants per hectare. The work was completed by the spring of 1989. It was the first high-density commercial apple plantation with spur range of apple varieties on clonal rootstock at government progeny-cum-demonstration orchard at Anu in Tehsil Jubbal situated at an elevation of 4,500 feet. When the first commercial crop was harvested in 1993, the fourth year of a tree’s orchard life, the fruit-growers were amazed and astonished! “What bounty of crop! What colour! What size!” they shouted and rushed to procure spur-type varieties of apples and termed the phenomenon as the second apple revolution in the state. Dr VK Sharma, another horticulture expert, minces no words in acclaiming KC as the father of the second apple revolution in the state. Remember, genius always hits a target no one else can foresee.

Jwalamukhi (Palampur), November 12
The bus stand of this important pilgrimage centre of the state is in a bad shape as during the past 15 years, the state government has not added even a single brick for the improvement or repair of this bus stand. Because of poor maintenance of the building and non-repair of floors, the bus stand has lived its life and the buildings can collapse if early steps are not taken to repair these.

The local nagar panchayat that is responsible to take care of the bus stand is unconcerned with the situation. Though the nagar panchyat had an income of over Rs 70 lakh every year from the entry fee of buses and the taxi stand, but no funds are spent on the maintenance of the bus stand and for providing amenities to passengers.

Jwalamukhi is an important religious centre of northern India as the ancient Jwalamukhi temple of Goddess Durga is situated here. Thousands of pilgrims from all over India visit this town of the state daily.

At present over 50 per cent premises of the bus stand has been encroached upon by ‘rehri’ owners and fruit and vegetable vendors. Even the verandah of the bus sand has also been occupied by some influential business men. There is none in the administration to remove the encroachments. The space of the bus stand is squeezing day by day because of increasing encroachments. The encroachers have not even spared the Dharmsala-Shimla highway passing through the town. Bus drivers hesitate to bring their buses inside the bus stand because of the narrow entry and exist points.

There are deep potholes in the bus stand causing large-scale waterlogging during rains making it difficult to walk in the day whereas at night no one can enter the compound. It has become a matter of concern that state authorities are least bothered with the existing situation and no efforts are being made to repair the damaged areas of the bus stand and roads.

There are no toilets worth the name in the bus stand as toilets inside the bus stand have already been closed by the nagar panchyats. The existing toilets are not cleaned regularly and stink all the times.

This bus stand is one of the important bus stands of the state. Thousands of pilgrims daily board buses from here to different destinations. Over 1,000 buses enter and move out from this bus terminal daily.

Local residents said the Temple Trust had an annual income of Rs 7 crore. If the state government or the nagar panchyat had no funds, the trust should maintain the bus stand to provide amenities to the pilgrims visiting the temple.

Local residents have already brought the matter to the notice of the Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal, many times but none in the state government is bothered to take care of this bus stand.

The festival season has brought a different colour to the Tavern Hall of the Gaiety Theatre, the usual venue for art exhibitions, with two enterprising young women artists demonstrating the commercial potential of the growing art bazaar.

Instead of the normal full canvases, Payal Bambah and Priya Baweja came out with 200 paintings, mostly small boards, colourful handmade candles and Divali greeting cards, to take advantage of the festival season. The paintings were based on the theme of five elements of nature and their relationship with human beings. The works reflected the penchant of the two artists for modern abstract art and most of the pieces were suitable for decorating drawing rooms.

The quick sale during the three-day exhibition indicated that more and more people were acquiring art pieces for display and that affordable art had a ready market. Bambah took up fine art as a hobby but it soon developed into a passion and eventually into a lucrative profession. The case of Priya is no different and the two have been holding exhibitions jointly.

Nurpur, November 12
Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) had built the Spain Spa Hotel-cum-Restaurant in the town by spending over Rs 1 crore a decade ago, but it has been wearing a deserted look for a long time now, thanks to the apathy of the corporation.

The property, worth crores of rupees, has been kept locked and a waiter of the corporation is looking after the building nowadays. The HPTDC has failed to give a facelift to this unit and run it.

The local MLA and former chairman of the HPTDC, Rakesh Pathania, had a keen interest in the project and had initiated concerted efforts for its construction in 2001 during the reign of the previous Dhumal government (1998-2003).

The unit has 12 suites, a marriage palace, a health club and a bar. The successive Congress governments had leased the unit to a private party in 2003 without its proper inauguration. No electricity or water connection was provided when it was leased.

A transformer of the state electricity board on the hotel premises had also become an eyesore for customers when it was in use. The tenant withheld the lease money for want of power and water connections and demanded shifting of electricity transformer.

The management of the HPTDC had moved to the state high court against the leaseholder. After litigation for years, the court gave its verdict in favour of the HPTDC in September last year and the corporation took physical possession of the hotel too.

Even after taking possession of the unit, the HPTDC has failed to take any initiative for a facelift and re-starting the unit. The building is in a bad shape and cries for attention.

Lokender Chouhan, the managing director of the HPTDC, said all efforts were being made to bring back the hotel unit into a running condition. An estimate to the tune of Rs 20 lakh has been prepared for undertaking renovation and repair of the building.

He added that the hotel was situated on a prime location and the HPTDC would like to run it, preferably on its own.