Udaipur/Keylong, May 17
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today promised that the state government would develop hydro power projects while protecting the environment and interests of the public.

Addressing two public meetings at Udaipur and Keylong today, the Chief Minister said the government would construct more tunnels in the snow-bound tribal belt.

He said the isolation of the Lahaul valley would end soon as a 3.5-km stretch of the 8.82-km Rohtang tunnel was complete. He added that tunnels would provide all-weather connectivity and give a boost to tourism. The Chief Minister said at Udaipur that construction of the Tissa- Killar tunnel under the Chaini Pass and of the Karsehar-Telang tunnel under the Bhubujot mountain would be taken up with funding agencies.

Referring to projects like the Jispa dam allotted to independent power producers, Virbhadra Singh said the government would safeguard public interests and protect the environment while constructing projects in the Lahaul valley.

They should not raise unnecessary objections to projects as those were sources of income for the government and of economic development for the country, he added.

"We will ensure that the local youth get adequate employment in the projects," he asserted. He said there was no hurdle in providing funds as the state government had increased the tribal area sub-plan by 11 per cent over last year by allotting Rs 369 crore.

"A provision of Rs 764 crore has been made under the tribal area sub-plan during 2013-14 which includes Plan and non-Plan allocation," he said.

Addressing the gathering at Keylong, the Chief Minister referred to the Forests Rights Act, saying the government had implemented the Act regularising encroachments as per the Act.

The government would provide subsidised timber to residents, he added. The priorities of the government were irrigation, drinking water facilities and 100 per cent literacy, he asserted. He upgraded the Chimret middle school in the Miyar valley to a high school and the high school at Goshal to a senior secondary school.

He promised to provide funds for renovation of the senior secondary school at Udaipur and to fill all vacant posts of teacher in the tribal belt. He said the government would try to post a gynaecologist and a paediatrician with the Regional Hospital at Keylong. Local legislator Ravi Thakur, Tribal Advisory Committee member Pyare Lal Sharma, Adviser to Chief Minister TG Negi, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister VC Pharka, Deputy Commissioner BS Thakur and Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar were present.

Shimla, May 17
The government will revive the ropeway project to link the new bus stand at Tuti Kandi with Shimla which had been shelved during the Bharatiya Janata Party regime.

“The objective is to ease traffic congestion in the town by restricting to the outskirts entry of tourist vehicles. Tourists can use a ropeway to reach the town,” Transport Minister GS Bali said while inspecting the bus stand with senior officials.

“A multi-storeyed modern parking lot will be constructed at Tuti Kandi near the base of the ropeway. The ropeway will have stages to enable passengers to board and disembark en route,” he added.

Transport Minister GS Bali addresses the gathering on the inauguration of the SRS Multiplex on the premises of the new bus stand at Tuti Kandi in Shimla on Friday. Photo: Amit Kanwar

Referring to the long-term plan to improve financial health of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation, Bali said focus would be on asset creation by building valuable property through the bus stand management corporation.

A number of modern bus stands with shopping malls, restaurants, multiplexes and other facilities would be constructed in the design-build-operate-transfer mode under the public private partnership, he elaborated.

The first such bus stand build was operational in Shimla and the second would come up at Dhalli which would cater to traffic to and from Kinnaur and the upper Shimla region, he said.

Bus stands would be constructed at Manali, Kullu, Hamirpur and Una, he added. The bus stands had a maximum concession period of around 15 years after which the property would revert to the state corporation, he stated.

This would go a long way in improving the financial health of the corporation which was deep in the red with accumulated losses crossing the Rs 650-crore mark, he further said.

Bali inaugurated the SRS Multiplex with two screens on the bus stand premises. SRS Group president Tinku Singh said they had 35 screens in 13 locations with a seating capacity of 8,962.

He said they had set a target of 100 screes by August 15, 2015. He added that the first 75 screens would come up in North India and North-West India after which the company would extend operations to South India.

He said its subsidiary, SRS Real Estate Limited, had been developing group housing projects, townships, corporate towers, information technology parks, farmhouses, a five-star hotel, colonies with plots and several other projects.

Mandi, May 17
The 14-member Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) election committee today shortlisted Jai Ram Thakur, Ajay Rana and Ram Swarup Sharma as its candidate from Mandi and authorised state president Satpal Satti to recommend the name to the parliamentary board.

In a meeting convened by Satti, the 14-member Bharatiya Janata Partycommittee discussed all pros and cons and shortlisted the three names. Thakur is considered the strongest candidate, but he is unlikely to be fielded as he has expressed reluctance, party sources said.

Party spokesman Rana had a clean image and he had been a state Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha chief. State unit vice-president Sharma is from Jogindernagar, the Assembly constituency retained by Gulab Singh Thakur.

Both Rana and Sharma are willing to throw their hat in the ring but the party has yet to make up its mind. The meeting continued till late in the evening.

It was attended by national general secretary Jagat Prakash Nadda, state president Satti, former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and former state BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur.

Notable absentees were former national vice-president Shanta Kumar, Hamirpur Member of Parliament Anurag Thakur, Lok Sabha member Birender Kashyap, Shimla legislator Suresh Bhardwaj and Naina Devi legislator Randhir Sharma.

Dalhousie, May 17
One person was killed and four others injured when their car rolled down a hillock near Kholpukhar, Dalhousie, last evening.

BM Sharma, Superintendent of Police, Chamba, said here today that the driver of the vehicle was killed on the spot and the four others received injuries when their car went out of control and rolled down the hillock.

He said the driver had been identified as Gian Chand of Lahri village. The injured had been admitted to the Civil Hospital, Dalhousie, he added.

A case was registered against the driver and investigations were on.

Shimla, May 17
The state will import new and healthy genetic strains of trout from countries like Norway and Hungary with advice from experts at the Directorate of Cold Water Fisheries at Nainital so as to enhance its trout production.

The State Fisheries Department has approached the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) to send its team of experts to Himachal to study and suggest fish species that can be introduced in various rivers, tributaries and estuaries. The experts will not just suggest the species of trout that should be introduced but also other kind of fish in various water bodies in the state.

“Over a period of time, the genetic stock of fish gets adversely affected, so we propose to introduce new species of trout, common carp, rohu, katla and mahasheer as per the advice of experts from the ICAR,” Tarun Sridhar, Principal Secretary, Home, Horticulture and Fisheries, said. He said possibility would be explored to introduce snow trout and other fish which could bring in good returns to farmers.

Sridhar, who has served as the Joint Secretary, Fisheries, at the Centre, said funds would be provided by the National Fisheries Development Board for various projects under fisheries in the state. “We also propose to introduce the concept of ranching, where seedlings are put into running water,” he said.

“At present the annual fish production in the state is barely 8,500 tonnes. With there being immense scope for trout farming in the state, the government is keen to encourage farmers to take to it in a big way,” he said.

Unlike Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand where there is very little private participation, in Himachal, a lot of trout farms have come up in districts like Kullu, Mandi and Shimla.

Solan, May 17
The total sanitation campaign, initiated in 2007, has led to a marked improvement in the sanitation level in the district with 90 per cent of the households having a toilet.

Deputy Commissioner Meera Mohanty addresses mediapersons at Solan on Friday.

This figure stood at 60 per cent in urban areas and 50 per cent in rural areas prior to the launch of this campaign. Not only has the number of toilets in the government schools increased but more anganwaris have been provided this facility.

To create awareness among the urban dwellers the district administration has initiated a three-day campaign to undertake cleanliness activities.

Addressing mediapersons here today, the Deputy Commissioner, Meera Mohanty, said Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment DR Shandil inaugurated this campaign today with stress on undertaking a cleanliness drive in all the 13 wards of the town.

Apart from a rally supported by the NGOs, schoolchildren and anganwari workers, various public places like religious places, schools, hospitals the railway station would be included in the drive.

She said with a view to roping in the support of the maximum people it would be a month-long exercise where ward committees would be constituted to oversee cleanliness work in various wards of the town.

Contractors employing labourers would be urged to provide hygienic toilet facility to the workforce and exemplary work would be awarded in the Shoolini Fair.

With the industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh being prone to the malaise of open defecation the objective of attaining open defecation-free status was being defeated.

This had prompted the district administration to explore the possibility of constructing low-cost housing for the labourers where each family could get a decent dwelling for Rs 750. The Deputy Commissioner said the Chandigarh model for this purpose was being explored to be replicated.

Deputy Director, DRDO, SD Negi, said adequate funds were available for setting up solid waste management projects in villages and financial aid was available for constructing toilets. While the panchayats which carried out exemplary work in cleanliness were awarded, schools had been brought under this purview to encourage maintenance of cleanliness.

Shimla, May 17
The HP State Secretariat of the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) has asked for an immediate resignation of the IPL chairman after the T-20 spot fixing sting operation by the Delhi police and a probe into the affairs of the HP Cricket Association.

In a statement issued here today, member of the State Secretariat of the CPM Tikender Panwar said when two Cabinet ministers, whose ministry were involved in rail and coal scams had to resign, then why should the IPL chairman be allowed to continue. He supported the demand of banning the IPL and said any further ruining of the game should be stopped

Demanding the immediate stepping down of the IPL chairman, Panwar said the IPL series right from Lalit Modi's period was a slur on the game and was nothing beyond a money-laundering machine. “It has always been and has truly turned into a symbol of corruption where a good chunk of black money is pumped in through different quarters,” he said.

Panwar also demanded a thorough probe into the alleged connection between the IPL and the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) and bookies who were involved in buying the players. “Right into the footsteps of the IPL, the HPCA too has ruined the game and has turned it into a commercial activity as there is a strong nexus between the land estate mafia and the education mafia that needs to be exposed,” he said.

He said the Congress government too has failed to get its due from the HPCA, which was supposed to pay for Rs 2-crore security cover being offered in the past for the IPL matches. “Similarly the Congress has failed in reclaiming the land that has been offered to the HPCA for building a five-star hotel in Dharamsala, which is a community land,” he added.

Palampur, May 17
Two houses were destroyed in fire in Matiyal village of Chadhiar block,35 kilometres from here, this afternoon.

According to reports the fire was noticed in one part of the house of Kesav this afternoon and in a short span it engulfed the adjoining houses. Villagers made efforts to douse the fire but to avail. Official sources said the loss had been estimated at Rs 4 lakh. SDM, Baijnath, O P Thakur visited the spot and provided financial relief.He said the revenue authorities had been directed to send him a detailed estimate of loss so that the case was sent to the government for sanctioning of additional relief as per the HP State Relief Manual. — OC