Shimla, May 6
After exceeding the kharif target for the first time with a record production, the state is heading for a record rabi crop.

The harvesting of wheat is over in lower areas adjoining the plains of Punjab and crop-cutting experiments indicate that the production is 10 to 15 per cent higher than the last year. The state produced 6.32 lakh tonnes of wheat in the last season and the total rabi production was 6.78 lakh tonnes.

“Thus, it is likely to cross 6.75 lakh tonnes this season and with 32,000 tonnes of barley and 8,000 tonnes of pulses, the total rabi production is set to cross the 7 lakh tonne mark for the first time,” JC Rana, Director, Agriculture, said.

Weather plays an important role in the rabi season as only 23 per cent of the total cultivated area has irrigation facility, while the remaining 77 per cent is rainfed. The weather conditions have been more than favourable through winter, which saw frequent spells of rain. It will be the sixth bumper crop in a row. Earlier, the state achieved a record kharif production of 8.90 lakh tonnes, exceeding the target of 8.87 lakh tonnes. The turnout was good despite a delay in the arrival of monsoon as late rainfall in the second half of the season made up for the loss in the first half.

Apart from favourable weather conditions, yellow rust, a fungal disease which infected large areas in the state four years ago, has been fully contained. Barring sporadic outbreaks in some pockets of Kangra, the state has largely remained free from the disease during the current season. The disease had been stamped out by phasing out 13 varieties of wheat like PBW-343, PBW-346 and Raj-3765, which had become highly susceptible to yellow rust. These varieties have been replaced with 16 yellow rust tolerant varieties, including DBW-621-50, HPW-42, VL-829 and HD-29.

The last two years have been exceptionally good and the total production has been increasing. In 2010-11, the production was 6.75 lakh tonnes, with wheat accounting for 6.15 lakh tonnes. The year was an exceptionally productive year when the state almost touched the 15 lakh tonnes mark (14.94 lakh tonnes) for the first time, surpassing the previous high of 14.40 lakh tonnes achieved in 2007-08. It further increased to 15.10 lakh tonnes in 2011-12.

The target for the ensuing kharif season has been enhanced marginally to 8.96 lakh tonnes, including 7.42 lakh tonnes for maize and 1.33 lakh tonnes for paddy. The target for vegetable production for the current financial year has been increased to 13.80 lakh tonnes.

Shimla, May 6
Cracking the whip on lower rung leaders, who allegedly worked against party candidates during the Assembly polls, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Sukhvinder Singh today issued show-cause notices to 85 partymen.

The prominent leaders against whom disciplinary action has been initiated include Natha Singh and Satya Prakash Thakur, both former ministers, Ram Nath Sharma, a former Deputy Speaker, and Roop Singh, an ex-MLA. Several past and present office-bearers of the district and block Congress committees have also been issued notices. The party had received complaints against over 300 lower rung leaders from candidates who contested the polls. Names of about 140 partymen were shortlisted for initiating disciplinary proceedings after going through a documentary evidence provided by them to support the charges. They have been given two weeks time to submit reply after which further action will be taken.

Party sources said this was the first list and about 50 more party men would be issued notices soon. The party had expelled 24 rebels who had contested against official candidates soon after election result was declared. It also dissolved the block party units in Una, Bangana, Seraj and Poanta Sahib, where a majority of the lower rung leaders had revolted. The large scale rebellion in more than 24 constituencies prompted the high command to initiate stern action to curb indiscipline and send the right message to the rank and file.

Constituencies like Ghumarwin, Nalagarh, Arki and Doon, where a maximum number of five leaders each are facing action, were the worst hit. In Chopal segment, notices have been issue to four leaders, while there are 13 constituencies where three leaders each are on the firing line.

Party spokesperson Naresh Chauhan said the action was in line with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s directions to ensure zero tolerance towards indiscipline and corruption. The PCC chief had earlier suspended Doon MLA Ram Kumar, who was booked in a murder case, and the state INTUC president Hardeep Bawa after he was arrested in connection with an old case. 

Shimla, May 6
There are a total of 46.18 lakh voters registered in 68 Assembly constituencies of the state with the highest number of 87,929 voters in the Sulah segment in Kangra district.

Chief Electoral Officer Narinder Chauhan said here today that revision of photo electoral rolls of three Assembly segments of Bharmour, Lahaul Spiti and Kinnaur had been completed. “There are a total of 1,36,810 voters in these segments with 4,022 new voters being registered and 1,420 names being deleted due to death, migration or double registration,” he said.

He said as such there had been an increase of 2,602 voters in the electoral rolls in these three Assembly segments. “There are a total of 46,18,537 voters registered in Himachal out of which 23,60,829 are male and 22,57,708 are female voters with January 1, 2013, being the qualifying date,” he said.

He said Sulah had the maximum number of 87,929 voters, while the tribal segment of Lahaul-Spiti had the lowest electorate of 22,079. “The revised photo electoral rolls of all the three constituencies are available on all the polling booths with booth-level officials, offices of district electoral officials, electoral registration officials or assistant electoral registration officials for inspection.

Hamirpur, May 6
The All-India Hill People’s Welfare Society has thanked Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for relaxing marks percentage from 50 to 45 per cent for OBC candidates seeking admission to BEd.

In a press statement, working president of the society Gian Sagar Prashar said, “This issue was pending for long and it was with the Chief Minister's intervention that the marks percentage has been relaxed.”

The society has also demanded waiving off entrance test for BEd as this condition has put BEd institutes at a disadvantage as admission seekers will not like to come here as neighbouring states do not hold entrance tests for BEd admissions.

Kangra, May 6
The Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP), Shahpur, organised a lecture on "Contemporary issues in tourism" here today.

“Tourism is a thread that connects different people and cultures, but more than that tourism is about experience. In this world of fast-changing cultural trends and varied interests, it is really challenging to attain complete guest satisfaction through innovative techniques,” said Prof Deepak Raj Gupta, Director, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Jammu University.

Professor Gupta shared his experiences concerning various aspects of tourism like infrastructural development, employment opportunities, marketing techniques and their beneficiary effects.

He laid emphasis on consumer’s perception about the materialistic aspect of tourism products, individual and community behaviour towards tourists and the strategic steps needed to be implemented to achieve a higher success rate as far as tourism entrepreneurship was concerned.

Pro-Vice Chancellor, CUHP, Yoginder Verma, faculty members and students were present on the occasion.

Professor Verma said the session was an inspiring one for the students, as it was purely based on practical experiences shared by the speaker.

He said since the inception of the Department of Tourism and Travel Studies under the aegis of the CUHP in 2010, it had been organising workshops, events and guest lectures to develop interpersonal and professional skills among the students and make them aware of the current trends and practices in the industry.

Oneil Sharma gave a vote of thanks.

Kangra, May 6
The Medical Council of India (MCI) started a two-day inspection of Dr RP Government Medical College (DRPGMC) at Tanda in view of the third intake of 100 MBBS students from the coming academic session here today.

Two MCI inspectors, Dr Bharat Chander Choudary, Professor, Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, PRPV, Uttarakhand, and Dr JG Bhatt, Professor, Department of Surgery, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadia Medical College, Rajkot, Gujarat, on the first day of the inspection today, visited all departments, hostels, laboratories, casualty wards, operation theatres inside the medical college.

The duo visited the urban medical centre of the college at Nagrota Bagwan and rural medical centres at Shahpur. The MCI inspection was in connection with teaching and training being imparted to the medical students and the facilities and infrastructure for the intake of the third group of 100 students in the coming academic session.

The team would continue with their inspection tomorrow before they submit the report to the MCI. According to sources, the MCI team has expressed satisfaction over the facilities and infrastructure in the college for the intake of the new batch students.

The team was happy with the over all activities of the DRPGMC, Tanda, said the sources. 

Hamirpur, May 6
Chairman of Kangra Central Cooperative Bank (KCCB) Jagdish Sipahya has said the bank will soon organise loan fairs to attract small farmers and businessmen.

Addressing mediapersons here today, he said, “This is being done to create employment opportunities through self-employment and the bank will render loans to these categories”.

He said the bank would also be soon opening all women branches in every district of the state to patronise women customers and a drive would be started to open separate accounts of women in each family.

Talking about other measures, he said, “To strengthen cooperative movement, the KCCB will also link all the cooperatives societies with the bank and every effort will be made to establish greater coordination between the bank and the cooperative societies”.

“At present there is no plan to close down any loss-making branch of the bank, but certain branches may be relocated in consultation with the local people in the common interest,” he said.

Talking about expanding ATM facility, he said, “The bank has got approval from the Reserve Bank of India to start this facility through our bank branches and ATM facility will be started by June 15”.

The chairman said the management of the KCCB had agreed in principle to give pension to all its retirees and after consulting them the bank had decided to give lump sum pension ranging between Rs 3,000 and Rs 12,000 per annum to the retirees.

He said the bank had created a corpus fund of Rs 36 crore to give pension. Anil Verma, director of the bank from Hamirpur, was also present there. 

Palampur, May 6
Speaker of the HP Assembly Brij Behari Lal Butail organised a "khula darbar" at his residence to listen to public grievances here today. Officials of different departments like the PWD, IPH, Agriculture, HP Power Board and local municipal council were also present.

Over 200 persons met the Speaker and apprised him of the problems being faced by them. The Speaker patiently listened to the problems.

Talking to mediapersons at his residence, Butail said 90 per cent grievances of the people were solved on the spot and necessary directions were issued to the departments concerned to implement his orders under a time-bound plan. He said most of the problems were related to development works like construction and repair of roads, sanctioning of water supply connections and some matters related to the Revenue Department.

He said he had already directed officials of the PWD, IPH and other departments to gear up the development activities in the areas. He said there would be no shortage of funds.

Assuring better health facilities to people, he said all efforts were being made to provide maximum medicines to patients free of cost. He said a CT scan machine in the town hospital had been made functional. Besides, a post of gynaecologist would also be filled in the next two months, he said.

Butail categorically stated that there would be zero tolerance for corruption and if any complaints were received, action would be initiated against the guilty. He asked the officials to give patient hearing to the public and be present in their offices to listen to their problems.

The Speaker said he was making serious efforts for the expansion of municipal limits of Palampur town.

Sundernagar, May 6
The District Red Cross Society, Mandi, organised a multipurpose awareness and blood donation camp at Karsog today. Pratibha Singh, vice-chairperson, HP Red Cross Society, was the chief guest on the occasion.

She said the Red Cross had been helping all sections of the society and was a social non-political organisation. Red Cross Societies formed at district and sub-division levels had been doing excellent work in serving the poor, she said.

The Red Cross Society, Mandi, had donated lakhs of rupees and other things for the poor, she added.

She dedicated an ambulance and a blood analyser machine on the occasion.

She appealed to the youth to come forward for blood donation. Moreover, donating blood was a noble act. She thanked the youth who had donated blood at the camp.

Wheelchairs, tricycles, hearing aids and spectacles were distributed. Disability certificates were given to disabled persons.

Pratibha was accompanied by local MLA Mansa Ram and Congress workers of the Karsog Assembly segment.

Kangra, May 6
Under the National Health Insurance Programme, people belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category in the state will be provided free health services on their old smart cards till new smart cards are prepared. The process for new smart cards will be initiated by the government shortly.

Stating this here today, vice-chairperson of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation Kewal Singh Pathania said under the National Health Insurance Programme, Rs 38 crore would be spent on providing free medical and health care to 93,000 smart card-holders in the state.

Pathania said besides BPL cardholders, people with MNREGA job cards, those running their businesses on ‘rehris’, other workers and people with 70 per cent disability had been included in the scheme.

He said DRPGM College, the brainchild of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, would get the status of AIIMS in September when a Rs 150-crore super-speciality hospital would become functioning at Tanda. The super-speciality hospital would provide specialised and latest medical facilities to people of the state, he added.

He said in 1997, Virbhadra Singh as the Chief Minister had laid the foundation stone of the DRPGMC at Tanda and initially, there were only 50 medical students getting training. However, now the MBBS seats had been doubled and there were 38 post-graduate seats. Besides, the college was rendering 24-hour medical services in the state.

Dalhousie, May 6
The third batch of nature study-cum-trekking camp organised by the Youth Hostels’ Association of India (YHAI) concluded here today. The camp was started on May 1.

Over 50 participants from Gujarat and Maharashtra, including 19 visually impaired girls, participated in the camp. The girls are from the Pragnachakshu Mahila Seva Kunj, Surender Nagar, Gujarat. Of them 10 girls are completely blind. They all participated in activities like rock climbing, river crossing, trekking, drawing competition, camp fire etc.

Dr Bipin Thakur, noted eye surgeon and Medical Superintendent of the Dalhousie Government Hospital, was the chief guest at the valedictory function of the group. He gave away prizes and certificates to the participants.

He said, “Trekking keeps a person mentally fit and fine. It helps defend oneself from many diseases.” He further said interaction of students with one another developed confidence and gave way to cooperation and national integration. He appreciated, especially the visually impaired girls, for completing all activities of the camp successfully.

Dr Thakur laid emphasis on precautions for the eyes. He said there were 37 million blind people in the world and of them 15 million were from India. So 40 per cent of the world’s blindness was in the country. Luhar Hardi T was master of the ceremony.

Group escort Tripathi Nainesh R proposed a vote of thanks. Field director of the YHAI nature study camp Capt RS Rana, manager of the Youth Hostel, Dalhousie, Sunil Pitre, co-director Rupesh Nandy, resource person Kunal Joshi and camp leader Sarvesh also attended the function.

Chamba, May 6
The Chamba District Progressive Council has urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to resolve the issue of the proposed new bus terminus at Chamba which had reached a contentious phase under the previous government.

Hari Ram Puri and Gurmukh Singh Bedi, president and general secretary of the council, respectively, in a letter to the Chief Minister today said the proposed bus stand should be constructed at any location in the town where the public could be served.

The council apprised that the existing bus stand was unable to cope with the load of increased fleet of buses, including private buses, resulting in traffic jams at the bus stand. There had been accidents too in which commuters and others had received severe injuries, the council said.

The council hoped that the Chief Minister would be kind enough to resolve the issue of the bus terminus as early as possible and direct the authorities to undertake the construction of the bus stand edifice.

Bilaspur, May 6
The cricket academy started here in 2010 at the Cricket Stadium in the Luhnu Sports Complex, under the patronage of the Himachal Pradesh State Cricket Association (HPCA), has created a record of achievements in training good players who have been selected even in national teams. Earlier, it was rare that players of the state were selected in national teams in any age group.

This was stated by District Cricket Association secretary Vishal Jagota while talking to mediapersons here yesterday.

Jagota gave credit of all achievements to the keen interest of HPCC president Anurag Thakur and academy coach Krishan Mohan Sharma of Hamirpur district, a former Punjab Ranji team captain, who has been giving training in the academy for the last two years.

Jagota said last year two students of this Bilaspur Cricket Academy (BCA) were selected for the national teams - one each in Under-14 and Under-16 category.

But this year, five students each in these two categories of the academy had been selected in the state for national teams and this was a unique achievement.

He said in the Under-14 category, five selected students were Anshul Thakur (Rishikesh), Shriyans Sharma, Ankit Sharma, Sugan Sharma and Abhishek Bhanu Singh.

He said five players selected in the Under-16 category national team were Anshul Thakur (Chandpur), Ravi Sharma, Mudit Shukla, Dipak Chauhan and Karan Raghu.

Jagota said the selection for the new session of the academy would be held at the Luhnu Stadium here on May 12 while the prospectus for the same had been released. He said training would start from June 1.

He said only 50 students were admitted to this academy and each student must pay registration fees of Rs 1,000 and monthly fees of Rs 300, while five BPL family students would be trained without any monthly fees.

Bilaspur, May 6
A wrestling bout was organised by the Peer Lakhdaata Akhada Committee at Diara sector here yesterday.

Chairperson, State Planning Development and 20-Point Implementation Committee, Ram Lal Thakur was the chief guest on the occasion.

Addressing a large gathering, he said, “Wrestling bouts, popularly called ‘dangal’ or ‘chinj’, is an old sport of our culture and we should strive to keep this entertaining and healthy game alive and lively as ever.” People in large numbers gathered to witness the day-long ‘dangal’.

Ram Lal said, “The presence of a large number of people of different faiths and communities here is a proof that such programmes promote feelings of brotherhood among people and also help in national integration, which is a hallmark of our national culture and the main reason behind our survival as a united nation.”

Local MLA Bambar Thakur, who was also present at the function, congratulated the organisers and said it was a reminder of teachings of great saints of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths that God is one and all are born equal.

Chairperson of the committee Hussein Ali honoured both the distinguished guests and a number of other social and cultural personalities who excelled in their fields of work through selfless service.

The main title of Mool Samraat was won by wrestler Soni, as he downed Jagdev, both of Ludhiana, Punjab, in the final bout. The winner got a cash prize of Rs 21,000 and a silver mace and the runner-up Rs 11,000. The Rustam-e- Kehloor title for young wrestlers was won by Yugvir, who excelled over Chaman Lal. The winner was given a cash prize of Rs 7,100 and a trophy. The title of Baal Kesari for boys till the age of 15 years was won by Maan Singh, who defeated Ram Kumar in the final bout. They were given cash prizes of Rs 2,100 and a silver mace and Rs 1,100, respectively. 

Chamba, May 6
Veteran Congress leader Balwant Singh of Chamba town died last evening after a prolonged illness. He was 99 years. He is survived by his wife, five daughters and a son.

Sardar Balwant Singh remained the cashier of the DCC for several years. He was the founder chairperson of the local Urban Cooperative Bank. He was also a freedom fighter.

His mortal remains were consigned to the flames at the local crematorium today. Leaders from different walks of life attended the funeral procession. — OC