Shimla, December 4
The Himachal Pradesh Police will take a final decision on activating Village Defence Committees (VDCs) and retaining the 12 high-altitude posts in border areas held by Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel on the recommendation of the committee specially constituted to assess the threat perception from insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir.

The committee headed by Inspector-General of Police (North) has been directed to assess the situation so that a final decision can be taken by the state police whether or not to retain the posts at a height of above 10,000 feet in the Padri Gulli, Kehar, Langera and Bhandal areas overlooking the Doda and Kishtwar areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

In winter, these posts are moved down. Once snow starts melting, the posts are taken to their original locations. The committee will also look into the aspect of activating VDCs, which were constituted in the 1990s, when the threat perception was high. With panchayat representatives and other local residents as members, VDCs maintain surveillance and keep the police informed. VDCs are lying defunct, but have not been disbanded.

The committee has senior officers from the Intelligence Bureau, the state CID and the Chamba police as other members. It has been told to submit its report by December 10 so that steps can be taken to put in place alternative measures once the ITBP withdraws from the area.

The battalion of 600 ITBP personnel guarding the 245-km-long boundary between Chamba and Jammu and Kashmir will be withdrawn completely by December-end. The ITBP had set up 12 posts at heights ranging from 10,000 feet to 13,000 feet to check the infiltration of insurgents from across the porous border, which is sparsely populated. Following the Centre’s evaluation that there was no further threat perception, it was decided to withdraw the ITBP battalion.

Though the Himachal Pradesh Police is of the opinion that there is no real threat from the inter-state border, it will want to go by the opinion of the committee and its recommendations. It will assess various aspects, including the likely threat, population and means of communication and transport in the area. The Centre is bearing an expenditure of Rs 2 crore a year on ITBP forces manning the Chamba border.

The state police has decided to deploy its India Reserve Battalion (IRB) along the border between the two states. The Centre’s decision to depute one IRB for duty in Jammu and Kashmir, which has started moving out, seems to have compounded the problem of the state police.

There were several instances of infiltration by militants into higher reaches of Chamba district in the 1990s, but those were primarily carried out with the objective of seeking a safe haven on account of the pressure exerted by security forces. Militants struck on a few occasions, with the Kalaban-Satrundi massacre on the night of August 2, 1998, in which 35 labourers were shot dead, being the most gory one.

New Delhi, December 4
Himachal Pradesh has emerged as the worst performer in the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, which recognises the right of tribals on the land they inhabit and their right to collect, process and sell minor forest produce in the said area.

The state received 5,409 claims for land titles under the said law, which came into operation four years ago when its rules were notified.

So far, only seven titles have been granted, while a whopping 3,072 claim applications are pending and 2099, almost half of all the titles filed, stand rejected.

The state has approved only 238 applications but on ground it has actually awarded only seven titles for the ownership of forest area of 0.1436 hectares.

Uttarakhand, another hill state, which has a sizeable population of forest dwelling tribals is no better.

Uttarakhand received 885 applications for ownership titles of forest land under the law and has so far decided only 192 applications; 412 are pending.

The deficiencies were discussed threadbare today at the national meeting of the government called to review the status of implementation of the Act, which sought to correct the historical blunder of not recognising the right of tribals on forest lands they had inhabited for years.

Speaking to The Tribune, Tribal Affairs Minister KC Deo admitted: “Himachal is certainly lagging behind. When I asked state government representatives regarding the reason for delay in the award of titles, they said they were not giving rights to applicants since many were paying Income Tax.

That’s a strange excuse. Who said Income Tax payers cannot be given titles under the law?”

The minister added that Himachal representatives cited the excuse of elections when asked how many villages had applied for titles under community forest rights that the law guarantees.

Documents with The Tribune show the state's vague reply to the question “how many villages claimed community forest rights (the law provides for individual and community rights).

The reply was, "no information could be collected on account of elections.”

A whopping 3,092 gram sabhas in Himachal are yet to claim community forest rights in the state.

“The excuse of elections may be valid today. But what about the past four years since the law has come into force? Were they all election years?" Deo asks.

So far under the law, 12.77 lakh titles have been issued for individual and community ownership of forest land across the country.

The law was passed to vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land to forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights were never recorded.

The law also confers governance powers on the right holders and recognises their individual or collective and community rights such as the right to collect, process, sell and trade minor forest produce in the area. Recently, the government listed bamboo and tendu leaves also as minor forest produce.

Shimla, December 4
With the weather playing truant, the ice-skating season has failed to take off as scheduled on December 1. Overcast skies over the last one week prevented the freezing of water, as a result of which an ice sheet of the requisite thickness could not be set up at Asia’s oldest natural ice-skating rink here.

Trial runs are generally held towards the end of November and the regular skating season commences in December. Mercury dipped sharply around the middle of November, raising hopes for a normal season. The ground staff started preparing the rink.

A spell of rain, followed by days of cloudy weather, put all their efforts to nought. They had to virtually start afresh two days ago after the sky cleared. Water started freezing again under the clear sky and a layer of ice was visible on the rink this morning, but its thickness was not enough to start skating.

A member of the executive body of the Shimla Ice-Skating Club, Manpreet Samby, expressed the hope that the rink would have a sheet of ice of the requisite thickness by tomorrow morning and the season might commence if everything went well. The local meteorological office has predicted clear weather for the next couple of days, which augurs well for ice-skating enthusiasts, who have been eagerly waiting for the session to begin.

With snow becoming increasingly scarce in hill stations due the change in micro-weather caused by indiscriminate and excessive construction and wanton deforestation, ice-skating is the main attraction for both tourists and local residents during winter. Erratic weather and ever-rising ambient temperatures are posing a threat to the sport. The snow season and the ice-skating season are shrinking gradually.

The club has been pursuing the matter of the installation of a freezing plant with the government to reduce the dependence on weather. This can help increase the season to at least five months, from November to March, says Bhuvanesh Banga, secretary of the club. Not much progress has been made so far.

Until the 1970s, ice-skating could be done for almost four months and between 120 and 150 sessions in a season was the norm. A season with between 60 and 70 sessions is considered a good one nowadays. Last year, the season was delayed and only 56 sessions were possible. Favourable weather conditions led to 86 sessions in 2010-11.

Kullu/Swarghat, December 4
Overloading of trucks on National Highway 21 by project and cement companies remains unabated under the nose of Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) of Kullu, Mandi and Bilaspur in violation of the apex court order that prohibits overloading and directs the transport authorities to impose a penalty on and issue a challan to violators under the Motor Vehicle Act.

Two cases of overloading came to light in the Parbati-II project yesterday. A truck (HP62A-4312) with a permit to carry 21.5 metric tonne was carrying 600 cement bags weighing 30 metric tonne. Another truck (HP11A-4649) with a permit to carry 9 tonne was carrying 320 cement bags weighing 15 tonne.

Both trucks were sent from Chandigarh on December 1 and delivered the supplies at the Soma Ropa store of the 800-MW Parbati-II being executed by the National Hydroelectric Power Company (NHPC).

There are only an unarmed home guard jawan and a clerk at the Swarghat barrier in Bilaspur district to check thousands of trucks that cross the barrier at night. Located two km from the township, the barrier has a staff strength of three home guard jawans and three clerks. Swarghat Assistant Regional Transport Officer Vidya Devi said they challaned violators, but they had just a clerk and a home guard jawan to check violations. At times, truck drivers sped away, she lamented.

Over 8,000 trucks are used to carry cement from the plants in Barmana, Bagha and Darlaghat and project machinery to the NHPC’s Parbati-II and Parbati-III, the NTPC’s 800-MW Kol Dam and small projects. Most trucks are overloaded and go unchecked at the Swarghat barrier. Insiders allege a nexus among RTOs, transporters and truck operators. The state Transport Department says it checks overloading and runs a flying squad to book violators.

Mandi, December 4
Besides banning the use of portable X-ray and mobile ultrasound machines, the state Health Department has cancelled licences of eight ultrasound clinics and has empowered block medical officers (BMOs) and health officers (HOs) to inspect diagnostic centres to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act and Rules in the state.

Of the eight diagnostic clinics sealed under the PNDT Act, six are in Mandi district and out of these six, four are private and two are government centres located in the Paddar and Jogindernagar areas.

These centres had been sealed as these did not have radiologist, which was mandatory under the Act, said health officials.

The inspection and monitoring by the Health Department is understandable as not even a single ultrasound clinic has been punished under this Act.

The Act provides for jail for three to five years and fine from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000.

However, the private diagnostic and ultrasound clinics are doing brisk business considering that the Health Department has registered over 243 diagnostic and ultrasound clinics concentrated in towns in the state.

The compliance with the provisions of the PNDT Act remains shoddy as these shady diagnostic and ultrasound clinics flourish in nexus with government hospitals in an alleged commission basis system, said insiders.

Though BMOs and HOs have been directed to inspect the centres once in three months, inspection remains almost a formality.

There were allegations that certain ultrasound centres indulge in sex determination test and abortions in the main towns of the state and others bordering the neighbouring Punjab, sources said.

Chief medical officer, Mandi, Dr AB Gupta said they inspected the 21 registered ultrasound and diagnostic centres - 15 in the private and six in the government sector in the district - as per government direction.

“We have received no complaint of any sex determination test so far. But we have sealed around six private centres and two other centres in government hospitals at Paddar and Jogindernagar as these do not have a radiologist,” he claimed.

State programme officer for the PNDT Act, Dr Surekah Chopra said they had sought the compliance report from each CMO once in three months.

“We have cancelled licences of eight centres so far and await compliance report from all CMOs under the new regulations and take action against violators,” she claimed.

Director, Heath Services, Dr DS Chandel said no mobile ultrasound clinics or portable machines would be allowed in these clinics under the new guidelines.

“It is mandatory to have a radiologist or they will seal such clinics. BMOs and HOs have been authorised to inspect these centres to ensure better compliance,” he added.

Dharamsala, December 4
The suspense over the land to be allotted for Himachal Pradesh Central University has been persisting for the last seven months. The file for the clearance of about 700 acre of forest land in Dharamsala and Dehra for the university campus proposed by the state government is lying with the Ministry of Environment and Forests since May.

The ministry has not taken a decision on the matter, that has delayed the establishment of the university campus. Sources have said the file may be cleared after the declaration of election results on December 20. If the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retains power, the campus will come up in Dharamsala and Dehra.

If the Congress is voted to power, it may try to establish the university only in Dharamsala. Sudhir Sharma, the Congress candidate from Dharamsala, and other Congress leaders had announced during the elections that the university would be established in Dharamsala and the bifurcation of its campus would not be allowed.

University Vice-Chancellor Furqan Qumar said they submitted the case for the diversion of 700 acre in Dharamsala and Dehra to the Union ministry in May. He said the Forest Advisory Committee of the ministry had made some observations and a reply was sent to the ministry, but no communication was received thereafter.

Asked if the idea to develop two campuses of the university could be changed after the announcement of the election results, he said the decision in this regard was taken by a committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development which was accepted by the state government.

He said the state government would have to move a case before the Centre to change this decision. He added that the blueprints for campuses in Dharamsala and Dehra were ready and construction would be begun as soon as permission for land transfer was received.

Shimla, December 4
Expressing concern over the prolonged suspension of flights to the state, Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Virbhadra Singh has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ask Air India to restart flights immediately to all the three destinations.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, he said the suspension of flights was not only affecting business of hoteliers and others connected with the tourist trade but also causing inconvenience to the public, especially during medical emergencies.

He said regular flights to Himachal Pradesh were not operational for the past four months and the tourist flow to the state had come to a standstill. With Kingfisher and Air India suspending operations, air link to the state had been completely disrupted.

As such, the airports at Bhuntar in Kullu-Manali, Gaggal in Kangra and Jubbarhatti in Shimla had not seen any flight over the period. He said Air India used to provide services between Delhi and Kullu.

Virbhadra said at present Shimla was the only state capital without an air link. This was adversely affecting the public and corporate and government officials who used to travel regularly.

The Manali Hoteliers Association had reportedly written to the Union Tourism Secretary seeking air connectivity to the state, but to no avail. He said in case flights were not restarted, the tourism industry would suffer huge losses. Manali had 620 hotels and the region attracted huge crowds during the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Some hotel owners complained that they had started getting telephone calls for the cancellation of bookings for Christmas-New Year celebrations due to the absence of flights. He further said the tourism industry in Dharamsala was also likely to be hit as several disciples of the Dalai Lama used to visit him during winters to seek his blessings.

He said as an immediate solution Air India should be asked to restart flights immediately to all the three destinations.