Shimla, March 26
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed the Municipal Corporation (MC), Shimla, to ensure that the entire town is free from stray dogs with in three months. The court further directed the MC Commissioner that he would be responsible to abide with and obey the orders punctually. While passing this order, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice RB Misra and Justice Rajiv Sharma observed that the MC had not discharged its statutory duties to remove stary dogs from the streets of Shimla town.

The bench passed this order on a bunch of petitions filed in this regard wherein the dog menace was highlighted. During the course of hearing, the bench remembered the time when the streets of this town were kept neat and tidy. There was no rubbish and garbage strewn on the streets. It further observed that now the MC even could not control the menace of stray dogs, who are seen in packs on all the streets in the “Queen of Hills”. It further said that there were numerous cases of dog bites in Shimla town. The victims are generally children, women and elderly persons. The presence of stray dogs in the streets is not a happy sight.

While passing this order, the bench further said that it shall be open to the MC to take recourse to the HP Municipal Act and other ancillary laws to eradicate the menace of stray dogs from the town. The bench further observed, “We would like to put a caveat while dealing with the dogs-- mercy, pity and sympathy shall be shown towards them. They should not be subjected to any pain.”

Earlier also the court had directed the MC to make the city free from stray dogs but instead of complying with the order, the MC had challenged the order before the Supreme Court by filing a petition, but the petition was dismissed by the apex court by observing “that the MC, Shimla, which is entrusted with the task of ensuring that stray dogs do not become a menace for the public, failed to take adequate measures, the directions given by the high court cannot be faulted”. The apex court further observed that “the directions are in public interest and there is no valid ground to interfere with the same.” Now once again the state high court directed the MC to make the city free from stray dogs within three months. 

Mandi, March 26
The Public Works Department (PWD) has updated its obsolete 1962 manual and raised the limit from Rs 1 crore to Rs 4 crore for A category contractors and fixed Rs 10 lakh as limit for D class contractors, who have been asked to renew and enlist themselves with the department by March 31. But the HP Contractors Welfare Association opposed the move claiming that “new rules will wipe out smaller contractors from business”.

With the change of the government, the PWD has revised the rules according to its notification issued on December 28, 2012, weeding out the large army of contractors enlisted during the previous BJP regime. The BJP regime had propped up its lobby of small-time contractors in each constituency in the state, said insiders.

The lobby of contractors is understandable as the HPCWA claims that it has over 50,000 contractors of different categories engaged in different civil works in the state.

According to new rules, the PWD has fixed the monetary and machinery criteria for enlisting and renewal of its contractors of A, B, C and D categories or classes. It has enhanced the upper limit for class A contractors to Rs 4 crore from Rs 1 crore earlier, Rs 1.5 crore from Rs 50 lakh for class B and Rs 50 lakh from Rs 30 lakh for class C and fixed Rs 10 lakh as a lower limit for class C, which had no limit earlier, said the contractors.

The new rules also have set standards for the machinery and workshops that the contractors are required to maintain. The contractors have been asked to enlist before March 31 to get the new works under the new rules.

President, Himachal Contractors Welfare Association (HCWA), Dinesh Sharma claimed that the new rules would wipe out the smaller contractors and the hike in limit for renewal was four times. The state has a limited budget and the new rules are guided by the CPWD which is not feasible in a small state like Himachal, he claimed.

He said they had requested Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who heads the PWD, to review the decision in the interest of small contractors.

PWD’s engineering-in-chief Pradeep Chauhan said the new set of rules would be enforced in consultation with the contractors. “We are open to discussion but the PWD has updated its “antiquated” rules in operation since 1962 and the new rules were inspired by the CPWD manual and aimed at transparency and accountability while executing works, he added. 

Palampur, March 26
Situated at the height of 4,000 feet above sea level, Palampur town, a picturesque tourist spot, is loosing its glory day by day. Thanks to the apathy of the state government and local Municipal Council who have not initiated any corrective measures to regulate its growth.

Unplanned and haphazard construction of shops, houses and roads is going on unchecked in various parts of the town.

A number of shops, houses and other buildings have come up here without prior approval of the Municipal Council and the Town and Country Planning Department. In many cases, the local civic body itself has encouraged unregulated growth.

A number of influential persons and henchmen of politicians were allowed to go ahead with illegal constructions. The long outstanding demand of residents for the extension of municipal limit of the town is yet to be accepted by the state government.

It is surprising that not only private persons but various government and semi-government departments have also indulged in construction of buildings without the approval of the Town and Country Planning Department.

Construction of shops by the Municipal Council on a footpath near the Rotary Bhawan and in front of the Tehsil complex in the town remained in the news but the government failed to initiate any action against the same.

The Municipal Council, which is in a state of mess, has also failed to recover the arrears of rent and house tax amounting to Rs 50 lakh from its tenants.

Still the council has proposed to construct new markets in the town keeping aside the norms laid down by the Town and Country Planning Department.

Heaps of garbage can be seen everywhere in the town emitting foul smell. The authorities had also failed to check the stray dog menace.

In the past three years over 50 cases of dog bite were reported from different parts of the town.

There is also a need for setting up a garbage treatment plant near the town. At present, the entire garbage and hospital waste is being dumped into local streams near the town and later its water has been tapped by the Irrigation and Public Health Department for drinking water supply schemes in lower areas of Palampur.

Solan, March 26
Providing a platform to evolve and synergise the young talent, the Baddi University of Emerging Science and Technology (BUEST) is hosting a two-day annual inter-college youth festival, ‘Emanation 2013’, at Baddi. The festival will begin on March 29.

Hundreds of students from various colleges and universities will participate in the festival which will showcase a series of cultural, literary, fine arts and technical events. Elaborating the concept, Dr Lovi Raj Gupta, Vice-Chancellor, BUEST, said it was a diversified cultural event that provides a perfect platform to showcase exceptional talent and outstanding skills in culture, literary, art, fashion, technology and academia.

While such events help foster culture contacts within the region and provide a platform to students to explore their imagination. The festival will also help provide research opportunities to the faculty as well as students. This would further assist in upgrade of curriculum in various universities, he added.

Talking about other facets of the festival, Gaurav Jhunjhunwala, Secretary, BUEST, said besides technology display, a series of events like war of bands, where all renowned bands of the region will compete for a position, fashion show, street plays and art exhibition will bring out the best talent among students. It will give exposure to the hidden talent that was the real driving force behind the event.

The concluding day of ‘Emanation 2013’ will be marked with the performance of renowned Indian pop and playback singers Mohit Chauhan and Prajakta Shukre.

Nurpur March 26
The Nurpur Press Club and the Yuva Shakti Sena, a local NGO, jointly organised a blood donation camp on the occasion of the Martyrs’ Day at the Press Club Bhavan recently. A lot of enthusiasm was witnessed among youngsters for blood donation. About 51 persons donated blood. A team from the blood bank of zonal hospital, Dharamsala, collected blood. Municipal Council chairperson Krishna Mahajan exhorted the youth to donate blood as it was a great service to society.

On this occasion, Anju Puri, a doctor, said the country required 80 million blood units annually but the country was facing deficit between demand and supply of blood. She said only four out of 1,000 persons in the country donate blood voluntarily, whereas in western countries, the ratio stood at 150 perersons per 1,000. She said a blood donor could recover his donated blood within 24 hours and one could donate blood four times in a year. 

Mandi, March 26
Villagers in Muraha panchayat in Bali Chowki tehsil have opposed the three micro hydel projects, 1-MW Ghirda-Gurahan, 2-MW Gurhan-III and 1.20-MW Ghirda, allotted to the independent power producers (IPPs) on the Gurahan stream, on the ground that the projects will wipe out drinking water sources and the water flour mills (gharaats) located on this stream.

These projects had been allotted to the IPPs without getting the mandatory no objection certificates from the panchayat, villagers resented. The three projects will decimate the water sources, IPH schemes and gharaats, depriving poor villagers of their sources of livelihood, they said.

The flow in the Gurahan stream had already been affected by the Gurahan project, commissioned on November 26, 2012, by a Mandi-based company, they alleged.

“With three more projects upstream, this will cease the development of entire Muraha panchayat,” said Hem Singh Thakur, panchayat pradhan.

They resented that they had submitted a memorandum to HIMURJA and the district administration to scrap these projects. But the IPPs were being allowed to go ahead with the same.

“We are poor and nobody listens to us”, said Ram Singh and Chabe Ram, who run the gharaats upstream on the Ghurahan stream.

“It is our traditional source of livelihood and once water is diverted through the project, we will starve to death,” they said.

“We only see whether or not the project will affect the IPH schemes or damage water sources,” said SK Sangrai, executive engineer, IPH, Mandi.

“We will check the matter and get the information regarding the same from the field staff as I am new here. I have directed the JE to get the data from the field,” added Minhas, SDO, IPH.

Project director, Himurja, Mandi, Rajinder Kumar feigned ignorance as to who owns the three projects as everything was done at the higher level.

He said the IPPs have to get NOCs from the IPH, wildlife, PWD and gram panchayat as mandated by the government. But the companies had submitted DPRs to the directorate as implementation agreement had been signed with them last year. He claimed that the panchayats must have given NOCs to the companies as they prepare the DPRs and send them for clearance to the headquarters only after getting the NOCs.

Chamba, March 26
“There is a need to create awareness on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), among the masses, for which the role of the media is indispensable,” said district Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Rakesh Verma, while addressing a media personnel workshop on HIV/AIDS here recently.

The CMO said the objective of this workshop was to give impetus to the dissemination of information, education and communication relating to HIV/AIDS programmes, thereby improving safety measures in society.

Speaking about the deadly HIV and AIDS, the CMO said the Department of Health and Family Welfare had been conducting awareness programmes in society to sensitise women for taking protective measures. Steps were also being taken to spread awareness among people in rural areas about AIDS, the CMO added.

District AIDS Control Officer Ram Kamal explained about the various modes by which a person could be infected by AIDS. He said 136 HIV positive cases and 36 AIDS cases had so far been recorded in the district.

Dr Kamal said 8,429 tests had been conducted through the Integrated Counselling Testing Centre (ICTC) in the district, in which 11 new cases of HIV had been detected.

In addition to this, 1,422 HIV cases of pregnant women had been tested in the district during the past five years. Eighty mobile sensitisation camps had also been conducted last year, Dr Kamal added. At present three ICTCs were functioning in the district.

The workshop was also attended by Dr YD Sharma, Medical Officer (Health), of the Regional Hospital, Chamba.

Nurpur, March 26
A large number of poor and IRDP families in lower Kangra areas have been rendered homeless in the wake of drive against encroachment, launched by the Forest Department recently. These below poverty line families have either been forced to live in the open or shifted in homes of their neigbhours.

The department, however, claimed to achieve its target of removing all encroachments on the forest land, falling under the Nurpur forest division.

The displacement of poor families have evoked sharp resentment, especially in the cases where the state government had allotted land (Pattas) to the poor landless families before the enactment of the Himachal Pradesh Land Vesting and Utilisation Act,1974.

Official inquiries revealed that the then Congress government had allotted these ‘pattas’ to the landless families on humanitarian grounds but after the enforcement of the act, ownership of the gram panchayat land had been transferred to the state government.

The mutation of the allotted land to the landless families was not undertaken at that time. Again, after land settlement operation in 1987, all waste land had been declared as forest land and the allotees were declared encroachers of the land.

Meanwhile, a team of the Forest Department under the Kotla forest range, which had gone to Rajol gram panchayat to demolish the house of a poor IRDP and Antodaya family, headed by Suleman, to take possession of the their land, had return empty handed as Ramna Bibi, Suleman’s wife, fainted on the spot on seeing the team. She was rushed to the Civil Hospital, Nurpur, in an unconscious condition.

According to KD Himachali, Head of Rajol gram panchayat and leader of the Gujjar community, this nomadic gujjar family had been allotted a piece of land by the naib tehisidar, Jawali, in 1987, following the direction of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. The CM had taken the step for the rehabilitation of the nomadic Gujjar families in the area.

He urged the Virbhadra Singh government to save, at least, those families, which had been allotted land by his government in the past. He asserted that this was a sensitive issue relating to the poorest of the poor families in the area and only the state government could rescue these hapless persons. 

Mandi, March 26
Village artisans are fighting for their survival as machine-made agricultural tools and implements have invaded the local markets. It has spelled doom for their age-old source of livelihood.

There was no assured market and government support to bail them out from this crisis, they rued.

The artisans have pitched their tents in the Paddal Maidan selling hand-made axes, sickles, chisels, idols and musical instruments to farmers who come from different parts of the region for the ongoing week-long Mahashivratri fair in this temple town.

“The machine-made agricultural implements and tools are imported from Punjab,” said Mathu Ram, a village artisan from Jhungi.

“We cannot match them as we have to make these tools by hands beating iron, which takes days of hard labour,” he added.

The government had been talking about cluster development, but it had not reached them, rued Meher Singh, an artisan from the same area, who has pitched a tent here to sell his implements.

“The machines are expensive and out of reach for us,” said Ram Singh from Balichowki, who makes agricultural implements and musical instruments.

The prices of iron and steel and other metals have gone up that has made the survival of artisans difficult.

There are in fact over 50 artisans in the Bali Chowki-Thatchi area who depend upon sale of agricultural implements for their survival. The pair of big cymbals, used by the “bajantris”and devlus for the devis and devtas, sell for Rs 7,000 whereas the cost is more, said Ram Singh.

The demand for the musical instruments has increased, but the hard labour and cost of the metal have made the instrument making unprofitable, Ram Singh said.

General Manager, DIC, Mandi, AN Dhiman said they had launched cluster skill development and training schemes for artisans in the district.

“The DRDA and DIC has set up two clusters, which have sheds and machines in the Thatchi area and NABARD is providing them soft loans with 35 per cent and 25 per cent subsidies for the reserved and general categories respectively,” he added. The DIC has registered 15 such artisans in the district so far under the Prime Minister Rural Employment Generation Scheme. 

Solan, March 26
The state as well as the Central Budget have left the industry in Himachal Pradesh high and dry as no provision has been made for laying new lines in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area and no central package has been extended to it.

The Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Industries’ Association has opposed the enhancement of the central sales tax (CST) for the existing industries to 1.5 per cent from the existing 1 per cent for the next financial year.

Deepak Bhandari, adviser, BBNIA, said it was expected that the CST would be reduced to zero level in view of the discontinuation of the central package but the state Budget had dealt a severe blow to the industry, which was already sailing through a tough time.

He added that the industry in Himachal already faced many disadvantages, owing to its location, and if the advantage of sales tax was reduced, the competitiveness of the industry would be affected.

Taking a strong view of the hike, he said, the advantage of cheaper electricity had also been nullified by the progressive increase in the electricity tariff and steep hike in the electricity duty by the state government.

The BBNIA has requested the state government to reconsider the proposal of reducing the CST to 0.5% for the new as well as the old industries till the GST regime was rolled out by the Central Government.

A section of investors from other industrial associations said the CST had been reduced from 2 to 1 per cent in the previous budget and they had expected that the present government would give some relief in the wake of the recession but no such measure was announced.

With no funds for the development of infrastructure in the existing industrial areas, the investors are feeling cheated. The development of new industrial areas in the three districts will benefit the new industry only.

Akash Garg, chairman of CII, Himachal Pradesh State Council, said the tourism sector would receive a boost as waiving off luxury tax for 10 years was a welcome step.

The budget was appreciated for its time bound clearance approach. Arun Rawat, vice-chairman, CII, Himachal Pradesh State Council, said the steps like mechanism for time bound clearance of projects under the Public Service Guarantee Act would improve transparency. He welcomed the concessional CST of 1 per cent for the new investments.

Pikender Pal Singh, regional director, CII, northern region, termed the Budget as a balanced exercise with focus on transparency, inclusion and sustainability. 

Solan, March 26
In a bid to assist physically challenged people, the Indian Association of Muscular Dystrophy (IAMD), in association with physio-therapists from Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Institute, New Delhi, will hold a one-month camp here from tomorrow.

Vipul Goyal, secretary of the IAMD, said such camps proved to be immensely helpful in improving the quality of life of the patients, who are suffering from the disease.

The camp is being conducted for the second year in succession. Muscular dystrophy is a condition where the muscles of body degenerate and the condition is generally undetectable at birth, though, it can be traced through genetic mapping. A series of tests can also help in its early detection.

The IAMD has been working tirelessly since 1992 for creating awareness about the disease. Early detection and enabling care helps extend better care to those in need. — TNS

The literary works of Rabindranath Tagore have been given visual expression by artists pursuing varied art forms ranging from Kangra miniature painting to Chamab rumal. These works were displayed at the historic Gaiety Theatre during a five-day art exhibition.

The initiative in this regard was taken by the State Academy of Language, Art and Culture by organising three different programmes which produced 48 attractive works based on the works of Tagore. An art workshop at the State Museum produced 24 paintings by artists drawn from all over the state.

It was followed by a Kangra miniature painting workshop at Dharamsala where some accomplished and upcoming artists translated the philosophy of Tagore into miniature art, capturing glimpses from some famous literary works. The 12 best works produced during the workshop were put on display.

The third workshop was held at Chamba where Tagore’s literature was given a visual expression in the world famous art of Chamba rumal. In all six pieces were produced. The best works produced during painting competition for children based on Tagore works held at various places in the state were also included in the exhibition.

Most of the works on display focused on nature. The workshops and competition were part of the activities being organised in connection with the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore since May last. The year-long celebrations by the academy culminated with the exhibition, which was inaugurated by Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy. The academy organised a series of other activities which included a theatre festival during which plays of Tagore were staged by different theatre groups.

Global youth film festival

A Shimla-based organisation, “Youth Enlightening Society” organised its first international youth film festival at the Gaiety Theatre at which a large number of people acclaimed films that were screened.

The festival showcased “The Holy Wives”, a film by Ritesh Sharma depicting the life of Devdasis in various parts of the country. The festival had two competitive categories, films based on youth and adaptation from books.

The international entries included “Bat eyes” and “Scruples” by Damien Power (Australia), “el General” by Diego Pino (Bolivia), “Orpheus” by James Button (United Kingdom), “Super Full” by Niam Itani (Lebanon) and “Voiceover” by Huynh Loc (Vietnam).

The entries in student category included “The Book” by Sharda Sood, “Shukriya Zindagi” by Shivam tendon and “The Last Letter” by Balvin Justa. There were some short films too.

Switching sides

The change in government in the state has also brought changes in political equations too. Many people once close to former Chief Minister PK Dhumal are not only turning away from him, but also taking the other way.

Many Congress leaders, allegedly called as “B Team” of Dhumal, after the change in the government in the state, have not only become vocal in criticising him publicly but have adopted aggressive postures. Even some people, who had enjoyed power during the Dhumal regime, are now changing sides.

Rajender Rana, who was once a close associate of Dhumal and was appointed Chairman of the State Media Advisory Committee by Dhumal in the previous BJP government, is among those planning to change sides.Rana won as an Independent from the Sujanpur Assembly constituency, which used to be a part of the Bamsan Assembly constituency represented by Dhumal in the last Assembly. He contested as an Independent after he failed to secure a BJP ticket. He is now getting close to the Congress government and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and may even become an associate member of the Congress Legislative Party.

(Contributed by Rakesh Lohumi and DP Gupta)