Shimla, February 7
While a large number of schools across the state are without teachers, 20 teachers teach 17 students at the four middle schools in Spiti. There are 21 teachers at eight primary schools with a combined student strength of 77.

The implementation of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan and the enactment of the Right to Education Act have brought about a marked improvement in basic infrastructure.

These steps have also led to an exceptional teacher-pupil ratio of 1:18. It is up from the ratio of 1:22 in 2004-05 while the norm is 1:40.

It is better to set up a few residential schools in and around Kaza, Keylong, Udaipur, Reckong Peo, Rampur Bushahr, Manali and Chamba than running dozens of schools without students.

The upgrade of infrastructure and the deployment of more-than-sufficient teachers has not brought about an improvement in the standard of education. Instead, there has been a constant and sharp decline in academic standards.

Consequently, learning levels are evident from the fact that over 90 per cent of the 13,777 brightest class VI students who appeared in a recent test for getting scholarship failed to secure even the pass marks of 34 per cent.

It is hardly surprising that more people are shifting their wards to private schools. Enrolment at government schools is down by 1.96 lakh in the last five years and the number of students at private institutions is up by over 1 lakh.

Apart from the lack of accountability of teachers, their irrational deployment is another major reason for the rot. Of the total 10,573 primary schools, there are 877 single-teacher schools and 6,405 have only two teachers.

Of the 4,372 middle schools, 50 are single-teacher schools and 173 have only two teachers. The middle school at Manpur Deora in Paonta Sahib has just three teachers for 268 students.

The senior secondary school at Bajaura has only four teachers for 356 students, that at Thatibir in Kullu has two teachers for 175 students and that at Baryogi in Seraj has one teacher for 85 students.

At the primary level, single-teacher schools with high enrolment are at Kuraina in Chamba (87 students), Bara Kamba in Nichar (79 students), Baghi in Kotkhai (77 students) and Dhundanwari in Dodra Kwar (75 students).

Despite a high teacher-pupil ratio, the government has not been able to adopt a mono-grade system (one teacher for each class) and is still following the multi-grade system with one, two or three teachers for five classes.

The teachers are occupied with mid-day meals, construction of rooms and toilets and other infrastructure work. There is no system for assessing the competence of teachers recruited under ad hoc policies.

Apart from introducing a system for appraisal of teachers, the mandate of the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education needs a relook as it does not conduct class V and class VIII examinations.

It has been getting reprinted books of the National Council of Educational Research and Training and does not focus on improving academic standards. With no board examination, a system to assess learning levels of students is needed.

Shimla, February 7
Even though weather in most parts of the state cleared up today, a high alert has been sounded by the authorities in the tribal districts of Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Pangi area for the fear of avalanches.

Considering that the local Meteorological Centre has forecast a clear sky, people in tribal areas have been advised to stay indoors as the possibility of avalanches will be very high. The weather is likely to remain clear during the next few days, but the temperature has declined further, intensifying cold wave conditions.

As a precautionary measure, all the schools in Lahaul-Spiti have been closed till February 11. The warning against avalanches has been issued by the Deputy Commissioners of Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Resident Commissioner, Killar (Pango). There have already been three cases of major avalanches in Spiti and Udaipur sub-division during the last two days.

The temperatures in most parts of the state remained very low with cold wave condition still persisting. The minimum temperature in Shimla was recorded at -0.6°C, Sundernagar 0.7°C, Bhuntar 2.5°C, Dharamsala 3.8°C, Una 4.3°C, Saluni -3.5°C, Nahan 3.6°C, Keylong -9.4°C, Palampur 1.4°C, Solan -0.5°C and Manali -3.6°C.

An 85-year-old woman of the Richmond area in the town died as she slipped from a steep slope while walking downhill. Efforts are on to clear roads in Shimla by the local municipal corporation and the staff of the PWD. A lineman of the State Electricity Board died in Rampur as he fell down from a pole while trying to restore power supply.

Life in the higher reaches of the state, including the state capital, is limping back to normalcy as efforts are on to clear roads and restore water and electricity supply. Vehicular traffic to Kinnaur, Rampur and the upper parts of Shimla district is yet to be restored. Hundreds of buses of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation are stranded at various places in these areas due to heavy snowfall. Power in most parts of Kinnuar and Lahaul-Spiti remained disrupted due to heavy snowfall.

Manali, February 7
After inclement weather conditions and moderate-to-heavy snowfall for a few days in the upper Kullu valley, clear sky and bright sun greeted tourists and local residents today.

Hundreds of tourists visited the Hadimba Devi temple, Manu Rishi temple and Vashisht village, which is famous for the Rishi Vashisht temple and hot water springs.

Despite a clear sky in the morning, temperature of the upper Kullu valley was low. Several localities in the upper Manali region went without water early in the morning as water in pipes froze.

Traffic was also disrupted in several parts of the upper Manali region in the morning. Meanwhile, the Manali-Kullu National Highway and the Manali-Naggar-Kullu road have been opened for traffic.

Traffic on the Manali-Rohtang Pass road was disrupted at several places beyond Bahang in the morning due to a fresh spell of snow. After receiving snow in the upper Manali areas, the HRTC suspended its bus services between Manali-Solang and Kothi. The ski slopes of the Solang valley also experienced a heavy snowfall. The 14,000-foot-high Bhrighu slopes, 12,000-foot-high Hamta slopes and the 13,050-foot-high Rohtang Pass also experienced heavy snowfall.

Bilaspur, February 7
Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Forests) Rajesh Dharmani started an HRTC passenger bus service from Jahu to Chandigarh from Kot village near Ghumarwin yesterday by showing a green flag to it at 4.30 am.

Dharmani said this bus service would start from nearby Jahu at 4.40 am and run via Kot, Tanda, Hatwaad, Ladraur, Dadhole, Ghumarwin, Chandpur, Bilaspur town, Suharghat, Nalagarh, Baddi, Nawanshahr, Shishwan and the PGI, Chandigarh, where it would reach at 11.45 am.

He said this bus then would start from Chandigarh at 12.05 pm and reach Jahu at 7.45 pm the same evening.

He said people of these areas had been demanding this service for long. He expressed the thanks of people of these areas to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Transport Minister GS Bali who had readily agreed for this service as soon as he drew their attention towards it.

SDM Rajiv Kumar, Regional Transport Manager Yog Raj Thakur and Ghumarwin Block Congress president Nand Lal Sharma were also present on the occasion.

Later, Dharmani also inaugurated the Give Fruits To Forests special campaign of the Forests Department near Dangar in the Kamlotti jungle where he grafted a naashpati (pear) on a kainth tree. He said some 500 kainth trees growing in forests in the district would be grafted into naashpati during this season, while plants like harad, behada, amla, jamun etc would be planted in forests of the district during the coming rainy season to detract monkeys and other wild animals from villages and help save crops which are being destroyed by these animals now.

A large number of officers, including Divisional Forest Officer DR Kaushal, were present to help in this special fruit- grafting campaign. 

Mandi/Kullu, February 7
Doctors, mainly general duty doctors (GDOs), have opposed reduction in quota for GDOs from 95 per cent to 66 per cent in postgraduate entrance examination for serving doctors.

This policy would reduce the number of GDOs (specialists) in hospitals and adversely affect the state, which was already reeling under a shortage of specialists, they said.

Chairing a general body meeting of the Himachal Pradesh Medical Officer Association (HPMOA), Kullu branch, its president, PL Thakur, and state president Sushil Chander passed resolutions opposing new norms for PG entrance examinations. They dubbed the move as “anti-public” and demanded a rollback of the move.

They said it was mostly GDOs who came back to state services after doing PG. They said it was likely that all the PG seats would be filled by the GDOs according to the 95 per cent quota policy.

They claimed that the GDOs while doing PG were considered “on duty” as it was through their day and night services that state medical colleges were able to function. “Moreover, the government policy of treating doctors doing PG under study leave will deprive them from pursuing super-speciality courses, which is the need of medical colleges and patients as well,” they said.

The medical officials told The Tribune that patient load in the 200-bedded Regional Hospital, Kullu, had increased from 2,800 in 2007 to 5,225 in 2012. Emergency services existed, but the hospital needed infrastructure like X-Ray, 24-hour lab, ECG and blood bank.

They demanded a clear-cut guideline for the selection of programme officials in each district and block medical officer or senior medical officers should be given these responsibilities. As programme officials were abstained from OPDs, the government should depute extra staff to replace them and all the posts of BMO, CMO and joint director should be filled immediately by conducting regular DPCs.

They said the power of the director, which was curtailed by a notification issued on January 24, be restored for the smooth functioning of the department. If these measures were not taken, they would be forced to launch a campaign at the state level, the HPMOA warned. 

Shimla, February 7
Doctors at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) Hospital successfully used radio frequency ablation (RFA) for the first time to burn an abnormal pathway in the heart of a patient suffering from ‘supraventricular tachycardia’.

The 58-year-old patient from Shimla was suffering from recurrent palpitations for the last 25 to 30 years. During palpitations, her heartbeat used to increase to around 180 beats per minute. Dr Rajeev Bhardwaj, Professor in Cardiology, decided to take her for electrophysiological study (EPS) to ascertain the reason for her abnormal heartbeat.

The EPS induction of her abnormal heartbeat was done by electrical stimulation in atria and ventricals through specialised catheters and a stimulator. It was found that she had an abnormal pathway around the AN node, which conducted impulse from right atrium to the ventricles. In such a condition, known as AV nodal re-entrant tachycardia, during palpitation, the impulse goes down through one pathway and returns through the other leading to a very fast heartbeat.

Dr Bhardwaj decided to burn one of these two pathways and successfully did it with radio frequency ablation (RFA). The patient is now symptom free. “The danger during the procedure is that if both pathways, which are very close to each other, are ablated, the patient develops complete heart blockage and will require permanent pacemaker for stimulation of heartbeat,” he said.

He was assisted by Dr Ravi, senior resident, in performing the procedure. The Cardiology Department only recently procured a machine with a new cardiac catherterisation laboratory.

Dharamsala, February 7
The only regional centre of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) in the state, located here, is being run from a ramshackle building for the last more than 15 years.

It has at least 700 students and courses include bachelors’ in law and masters’ in mass communication. It is being run by the university since 1998.

Thousands of students have passed out of the centre, but the university has neither been able to get a proper building, nor create regular posts of teacher.

Sources say some postgraduate courses are being run by ad hoc or guest faculty. There is not a single regular teacher for masters’ courses in mass communication and Sanskrit.

There are about 45 teachers at the centre. Of them, the Director and 12 teachers are regular employees while the rest are ad hoc or guest faculty who are paid on the basis of number of lectures per month.

The sources say the process of recruitment of teachers has not been started as posts have not been created. Budgetary provisions can be made only after the creation of posts.

The university has entrusted the task of construction of a building to the Housefed Corporation. The building is coming at Khaniara village, 7 km from here. The construction has been going on for years, but is still incomplete.

When contacted over the telephone, centre Director DR Verma said the construction was being monitored by a committee set up by the university.

She said the committee had recently told Housefed to make some alterations in the new building so that all departments could be accommodated here.

The sources say the university has sought the budgetary allocation from the state government, which is evaluating the impact of the Central University Himachal Pradesh on the viability of the regional centre.

A section of the administration at HPU and the state government are of the view that the regional centre may lose significance when the Central University comes up here.

The government has already announced that a majority of the campus of the Central University Himachal Pradesh will come up in Dharamsala. Revenue officials have been deputed to look for extra land for the campus.

Students are suffering due to poor infrastructure at the regional centre. They allege that the Regulatory Commission set up to monitor private institutes should inspect government institutes as well over infrastructure and faculty.

Shimla, February 7
Putting a question mark on the functioning of the Examination Branch of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), the Students Federation of India (SFI) has threatened to launch an agitation if results are not declared on time and examinations forms not made available before the last date.

In a statement here today, SFI secretary Khushi Verma said despite the last date for filing up examination forms for many courses, the forms were still not made available. “Whether it concerns the tall claims being made by the Controller of Examinations of declaring the result within 45 days’ time or providing forms for University Grants Commission (UGC) examinations, the HPU authorities have completely failed,” he alleged.

Verma threatened that in case the examination wing did not shun its slackness and provide forms to students on time and declare results, the Students Federation of India would be forced to launch a statewide agitation. “The last date for filling up of examinations forms for Prabhakar and Shastri to be held in April is February 28, but the forms have still not been made available,” he said.

Khushi Verma further said the rates for University Grants Commission forms had been hiked straight away to Rs 270 from the earlier rate of Rs 5 only. He said the ICDEOL students who had already bought admission form with the prospectus were being made to pay an additional Rs 270, which is a big burden on students.

Solan, February 7
Investors have been eagerly awaiting approval for the much-hyped Intellectual Property Rights Cell which was announced for the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) industrial area in June last year by the then MSME minister.

Once approved, it will be the seventh such cell in North India and given the concentration of industries in the BBN belt, it will go a long way in promoting industries.

This announcement was made by the then Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Virbhadra Singh at Barog in June 2012. Its setting up was, however, delayed after Virbhadra Singh had to resign from the ministry later.

This cell will help investors in filing for patents and verifying trade names in Himachal itself, thus saving the hassle of going to Delhi. Others issues relating to copyrights, artwork, brand names registration and their search etc will be facilitated with the setting up of this cell.

The industry in Himachal which is spread in various districts, including neighbouring Bilaspur, Sirmaur, Una and Kangra, will be benefited from this cell. About 38,000 small-scale units have been registered in the state after the 2003 Central industrial package which have provided employment to about 2.6 lakh youth. It will help boost MSME sector and compete with bigger firms on a global level.

The ministry of MSME has set up various facilitation centres for creating awareness about the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) all across the country.

The IPR is vital for competitiveness of the industry, especially the MSME. Its relevance has increased after India signed the World Trade Organisation Agreement in 1995, thus increasing the need for Indian industries to adapt to the emerging requirements of the global trading.

The Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Industries Association, which had taken up the issue with the MSME ministry and applied for this cell, was hopeful that it would soon be approved as a letter stating principal approval had been received by the association, confided its president Arun Rawat. 

Mandi, February 7
After falling short of the revised target of Rs 4,068 crore, including Rs 850 crore from excise for the current financial year, the Congress government has sought inputs from all stakeholders to chart the new excise and taxation policy to set a “more realistic target” for the coming year. The policy will take the final shape after the council of ministers, chaired by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, gives its nod before the new budget is presented in the Vidhan Sabha.

The government has yet to decide whether or not to allow plastic bottles for the bottling of liquor as the case pertaining to this is still pending in the high court.

Talking to The Tribune, Excise and Taxation Minister Parkash Chaudhary said the government would consider the inputs and suggestions given by various stakeholders to the government. “We will set up more realistic targets and try to consider the demands of businessmen to reduce the quantum of plenty on delay in the depositing VAT,” he added.

On tax evaders, Chaudhary said the department had set up flying squads and were installing CCTV cameras on barriers. “Liquor will be sold at the printed rates and those caught selling otherwise will be punished,” he added.

The previous government had set a target of Rs 4,461 crore from different tax sources, including excise for 2012-13. It has received just Rs 2,900 crore till December 2012 and expects it will get Rs 250 crore more for January.

The government has generated Rs 850 crore from excise so far. As it has failed to achieve the tax collection target of Rs 4,461 crore for the current year, the government revised the target at Rs 4,068 crore. The government expects that it will achieve the target by March 31, said the top officials.

State Excise and Taxation Commissioner RS Negi said they were trying to achieve the revised target. “We have sought inputs from various stake holders to put them before the council of ministers, who will finalise the new policy,” he added.

Negi said the government had held an interactive session of stakeholders and excise and taxation officials at Mandi recently and sought inputs from them. Nothing had been finalised as yet, he added. 

Dharamsala, February 7
Minister for Housing and Urban Development Sudhir Sharma listened to grievances of residents of Sakoh village near Dharamsala today. He announced that the school at Sakoh village would be re-upgraded to 10 plus II level.

The school of Sakoh village near Dharamsala was downgraded to Class X level during the stint of the previous BJP government. This was done on the plea that there were not enough students to sustain the school up to the 10 plus II level. However, the decision was resisted strongly by residents of the village. Due to the decision of the previous government to downgrade the school, the Congress got majority votes at Sakoh village in the last Assembly elections.

Sharma said he had fulfilled the election promise by taking the decision regarding upgrading the Sakoh school back to 10 plus II level from the next academic session in the first Cabinet meeting.

The minister also announced that to tackle the low-voltage problem at Sakoh, the village would be linked to Dharamsala substation within the next three days. However, the Dharamsala town was itself facing low-voltage problem and putting further burden of Sakoh village on the substation of the town might aggravate the quality of power being supplied in the town.

Sharma also asked the panchayat of Sakoh village to provide land for installing a 100-KVA transformer for the village.

The minister also announced that the Rs 12-crore drinking water augmentation scheme was being implemented in Dharamsala town to improve the drinking water supply.

Kangra, February 7
Differently abled athletes of Himachal Pradesh have returned from the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Pyong Chang, South Korea, with the largest haul of medals.

The athletes were accorded a rousing reception here today. Kumud Mehta and Prashant Bhasin, president and vice-president of the coordination committee in Kangra district, and Sanjeev Gupta, district coordinator, addressed a press conference here.

They said 13 differently abled athletes athletes from Himachal Pradesh were members of the 22-member team which bagged four gold, eight silver and nine bronze medals, besides three fourth and fifth positions each in snow events.

Two gold medals were bagged in floor hockey by Dimple (17) from Khaniyara and Babita from Solan. Dimple said her dream was to bag a gold to do her country and state proud.

“I want to give my people the opportunity to prove that they can give something to the world,” she added.

Sanjay (28) from Chowari in Chamba bagged two gold medals in snow boarding. Anyone over 8 years of age with intellectual disability could take part in the Special Olympics, held every two years since 1968.

Bilaspur: Mallika Nadda, chairperson of the Special Olympics Himachal honoured the medal winners who arrived here on Thursday evening. They were given cash prizes. Sweets were also distributed.

Anita Kumari won one gold and one bronze, Pooja Kumari one gold and one silver and Vinod two bronze in alpine skiing. Pooja Sharma won one silver and Sunil Kumari three bronze in snow boarding.

OP Garga, Indu Sankhyayan, Mohinder Bakshi, Surender Sharma, Krishna Bhardwaj, Kamlesh Chandel, BR Sharma, Jagdish Varma, Pramod Sharma, Santosh Joshi, Santosh Mishra, Kavita Sharma and Subhadra Nadda were present.

Palampur, February 7
Senior BJP leader and former IPH Minister Ravinder Thakur has criticised the state government for its decision to shift the HP PWD division from Balakrupee to Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (DRPGMC), Tanda.

Addressing mediapersons here yesterday, Thakur said the decision of the state government to shift the division of the PWD from the Chnager area was an injustice to people. He said during the BJP regime, this division was set up at Balakrupee to gear up development activities in the most backward area of the region.

He said if a PWD division was needed at Tanda, the government should open a new division instead of shifting an existing setup. He said if the state government failed to withdraw this decision, he would stage a protest and not allow the shifting of the division.

Ravinder Thakur also criticised local Congress MLA Yadvender Gomma for his failure to protect the interest of residents of the area. He asked the MLA to take a firm stand on this issue and support the cause of people instead of order of the state government. 

Sundernagar, February 7
In order to protect schoolchildren from the present spell of rains, the Mandi Deputy Commissioner has declared every Thursday as holiday in all the schools of the district.

However, flouting the Deputy Commissioner’s order, all the four schools of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) remained opened in various parts of the district.

At present, four schools are being run by the BBMB in Mandi district, two in Sundernagar, one at Pandoh and one at Slapper. All these schools remained open today and students were seen going to school in the dense fog and chill.

Sources said since the schools were affiliated to the Education Board of Punjab, therefore, they were not bound to obey the orders of the Deputy Commissioner.

They said no order was issued to them to close the schools by the SE, Circle no 1, who was the competent authority.

Bilaspur, February 7
The government will soon initiate steps to control the monkey menace which is resulting in losses to farmers. This was stated by Rajesh Dharmani, Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Forests and Fisheries, during a one-day seminar on fertiliser use awakening organised by IFFCO at Tadaun village near Ghumarwin on Monday.

He said there were no monkeys in villages of the district till some years ago, but the previous government had got released hordes of monkeys in the area. He exhorted agriculture, horticulture and veterinary officers to hold regular camps and seminars in various villages.

Dharmani said farmers should construct rooftop rain-harvesting systems, check dams and water tanks to collect and use water to increase production. He said farmers should vow to plant at least five saplings in their fields or near their houses.

He urged farmers to sow “arhar” as the climate in the area suited it and get kisan credit cards for meeting important needs. He said three hand-pumps would be set up in the area under the Tadaun panchayat and funds made available for the construction of school rooms.

IFFCO Marketing Manager MP Sharma, Senior Manager for Agriculture Services GS Mankotia, district in charge SL Kanwar, adviser BK Sharma, Deputy Director for Agriculture GC Lakhanpal and Barthin Krishi Vigyan Kendra scientists Ravinder Kumar, BK Chaube and Akhilesh Singh also spoke. At least 250 farmers attended the seminar.

Bilaspur, February 7
Newly elected president, Ghumarwin BJP Mandal, Narender Thakur has declared a jumbo-sized mandal executive committee. It has four vice-presidents, two general secretaries, five secretaries and 45 other members.

Ramesh Varma, Ashwini Kumar, Raksha Thakur and Ram Prakash will be vice-presidents, Zorawar Singh and Navin Sharma general secretaries, Bohra Ram, Suresh Kumar, Chuni Lal Lakhanpal, Veena Sharma and Kamlesh Kumari secretaries and Pradip Kumar Ratwaan treasurer.

The executive committee members are Ranjit Singh, Surender Thakur, Vijay Sharma, Virender Singh, Suresh Chandel, Vinod Kumar, Kamal Sharma, Surender Kumar, Baal Chand, Pradip Kumar, Sher Singh, Hem Raj, Pushp Raj Dhiman, Duni Chand, Sunil Kumar, Veena Thakur, Jaswant Singh, Onkar Singh, Tarsem Singh, Kamla Devi, Urvashi Sharma, Asha Kumari, Vyasa Devi, Rajo Devi, Raj Mala, Naresho Dhiman,Surendra Sharma, Rafiq Mohammed and Nand Lal Sharma.

Veteran party leaders Dr Shyam Bihari Sharma, Geeta Chauhan, Usha Thakur, Paras Ram, Uma Sharma, Jeet Ram Thakur, Mohar Singh Thakur, Sita Ram, Jagdish Sharma, Suman Chandel, Sukh Ram, Yogender Singh, Inder Dev, Ram Singh, Sahib Singh, Kuldip Singh, Shamsher Singh, ZA Bhutto, Lekh Raj, Subedar Jagdish Singh, Mansha Ram, Prakash Chand, Jagdish Chand, Jagat Singh, Amar Nath, Amar Nath Mastana, Nand Lal and Jai Krishan Sharma will be special invitees.

Bilaspur, February 7
There have been complaints of loss of wheat crop for some years due to “peela ratua” (yellow rot) spreading in Bilaspur district and farmers should take suitable precautions to control this disease in their fields. This caution was sounded by LR Dhiman, Project Director, ATMA (Agriculture Technology Management Agency), here yesterday.

Dhiman said ATMA had deputed a committee of experts to visit some areas of the district to know if crops were in danger of this disease. This team had visited Barthin, Suharghat, Dabat and Majari areas of the district during the last few days and found signs of this disease in wheat crops in Dabat and Majari areas of the Naina Devi constituency.

Dhiman said those farmers who sowed PVW 621 quality of wheat seed, their crop were more prone to this disease. If they found yellow-coloured lines on leaves of the crop, it confirmed that it was being afflicted with the disease.

He said such farmers should spray on their crops 1 millilitre of propikonazole (tilt) in 1 litre of water. He said this medicine was available at sale centres of the Agriculture Department in the district on subsidised rates.

He said this disease spread in the cold weather and increased humidity and as cold weather was going on, there was likelihood of the disease spreading here.

Dhiman said farmers could contact him on phone No. 01978-222379 or 01978-267194 of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Barthin, or 01978-222454 at the office of the Deputy Director of Agricuture for more information.