Shimla, June 22
The state government has sought immediate help from the Centre under the National Disaster Relief Fund as an interim measure with the total losses due to rains in the tribal district of Kinnaur being pegged at over Rs 1,450 crore, which is likely to increase manifold.

The state government today sent a report to the Union Home Ministry, based on the preliminary information of losses incurred to buildings, roads, horticultural and agricultural produce, water supply schemes and power projects.

This is the first formal report of the preliminary losses that has been sent by the state to the Centre.

The state authorities have intimated the Centre that Kinnaur district is likely to remain cut-off for another month as the damage to roads is unprecedented.

The road damage has been assessed to be over Rs 600 crore with 2,200 roads being affected. With a large section of the National Highway-22 from Wangtu to Kaza in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti being damaged, the restoration process will be an uphill and a time-consuming task.

The state has also requested the Centre to direct the Border Road Organisation (BRO) to utilise their resources to the fullest to restore the national highway and depute a chief engineer to pace up the restoration work.

The state authorities have made a special mention of the shortage of diesel being faced by the BRO and urged that helicopters be provided to them as and when required.

So far, 20 persons have lost their lives in Kinnaur and two each have died in Shimla and Sirmour districts.

More than 10,000 animals are feared to have perished due to the untimely snowfall and heavy rains in Kinnaur.

Incidentally, the rains in Kinnaur were 1,229 per cent more than normal at this time of the year, followed by Sirmour which received 151 per cent more rainfall than normal.

The estimated damage to over 600 houses, which were fully or partially damaged, is worth over Rs 60 crore. Apple production, too, has suffered a huge long-term loss as trees have either uprooted or given way under the weight of snow.

The loss to apple orchards is pegged at Rs 300 crore and to agricultural crops at Rs 200 crore.

More than 50,000 hectares of agricultural land has been severely affected while the pea crop, which was ready for harvesting, has been totally damaged.

The damage to the electricity infrastructure is about Rs 200 crore and to 900 water supply schemes over Rs 100 crore.

The damage to community assets such as Mahila Mandal Bhawans, community centres and village paths has so far been assessed at over Rs 50 crore. 

Shimla, June 22
Indian Air Force (IAF) and state government helicopters today evacuated 100 persons, including 16 foreigners, taking the total number of persons airlifted since disaster struck Kinnaur to 902 during the last five days.

While one IAF helicopter rescued 83 persons from various locations in Kinnaur ravaged by rains since June 16, the state helicopter could airlift only 17 persons as it had been deputed to carry election material and polling staff for election duty. Those rescued today include seven foreigners each from Tabo and Nako and two from Pooh. The other Air Force helicopter has been grounded due to technical snag since yesterday. It is expected to be ready for operation tomorrow.

The IAF helicopter, which evacuated the stranded persons today, had returned as it had completed its flying hours and needed necessary maintenance. “We are hopeful that the helicopter, which developed a technical snag, will be repaired as the required component will reach here,” said an official.

About 400 persons still remain to be evacuated from various locations. “Six bodies of Nepali migrants were recovered from the debris of a collapsed house at Lippa in Kinnaur district raising the death toll in the district to 20,” said Superintendent of Police, Kinnaur, G Shiva Kumar said. 

Shimla, June 22
Chief Electoral Officer Narinder Chauhan today said the Election Commission of India (ECI) had prohibited the publication and dissemination of results of the exit poll between June 23 and 27 with regard to the Mandi Lok Sabha by-poll.

He said the ECI had made an amendment in its earlier notification regarding the ban on the exit poll. He said under the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 126-A of the Representation of People Act, 1951, the ECI had notified a new ban period - from 8 am on June 23 to 5.30 pm on June 27.

The Chief Electoral Officer said elaborate arrangements had been made to ensure peaceful and fair elections in the Mandi constituency. He said 10,72,425 electorates of five districts — Bharmour in Chamba, Lahaul-Spiti, Kullu, Mandi and Rampur in Shimla — would cast their vote tomorrow.

He said a total of 1,921 polling stations had been established in the Mandi constituency. Out of these, 137 are in Bharmour, 89 in Lahaul-Spiti, 474 in Kullu district, 967 in Mandi district and 136 were in Rampur. A total of 256 polling stations had been declared sensitive and 82 polling stations hypersensitive.

He said four candidates were in the fray in the Mandi constituency. He said border areas with neighboring states had been sealed as a preventive measure to avoid infiltration of undesirable elements. He said about 7,684 polling personnel had been deputed.

While Joginder Nagar segment has the highest number of voters at 86, 495, the Lahaul-Spiti constituency has the lowest number of voters at 22,513. Hikkam is the highest polling station at a height of 14,567 ft with 335 electorates. Dehar in the Sundernagar constituency is the lowest station at the height of 1,600 ft with 991 electorates.

Palampur, June 22
Senior BJP leader and Member of Parliament Shanta Kumar today donated Rs 25 lakh to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund from his MP fund and Rs 1 lakh from his pocket for disaster-hit areas of Uttarakhand.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Shanta Kumar made an appeal to the residents of Himachal Pradesh to donate liberally to the PM's National Relief Fund so that assistance could be provided to Uttarakhand flood victims.

He said it was one of the worst tragedies of this century in which thousands of innocent people had lost their lives and property. He urged the Union government to send more helicopters for the rescue of stranded pilgrims and local residents.

Shanta Kumar pleaded for stringent environment laws to check large-scale cutting and destruction of hills which had allegedly caused the mayhem. He said the hill states should encourage expansion and development of the tourism sector at par with that in Switzerland and Austria. "The tourism industry, if developed properly, can easily fill the coffers of the hill states," he said.

Nurpur, June 22
The Kangra district authorities of the Health Department has taken a serious note of bottles of expired medicine thrown in roadside bushes here yesterday.

Following the direction of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Kangra, the Block Medical Officer, Gangath, swung into action last evening. He visited the spot and took possession of the pile of medicine bottles.

CMO DS Gurung said a team had been sent today for conducting an inquiry into the matter and the next course of action would be taken after getting its report.

Hundreds of bottles of cough syrup (Ascozen) and antacid (Anacid) with batch Nos. ZAS-11053 and BANS-129 and expiry dates January 2011 and March 2012 were found piled in roadside bushes on the housing board-Chinva road in the town yesterday.

These bottles bore remarks "Not for sale" and "For HP Government BPL supply".

The dump of the expired medicines was first noticed by some morning walkers who informed mediapersons about it.

Inquiries revealed that these medicines were for free distribution among poor BPL patients visiting government health centres.

Dr Neerja Gupta, Block Medical Officer, Gangath, confirmed that medicines of the said batch numbers had been supplied for Gangath medical block in 2011 and were further distributed as per requirement among health centres in small quantities in the block in the same year.

“There is no chance of medicines supplied in the health institutions getting expired as surplus medicines are supposed to be shifted to other institutions before three to four months of expiry where the consumption of the respective medicine is more,” she asserted.

Shimla, June 22
Three students of bio-technology in theHPU were killed when their Alto car (HP-22-0266) rolled down 500 ft from the road today. Two of them, Rohit Bhatia and Shourya Sood, died on the spot.

The mishap took place this morning when the three students were on their way to the Hanuman temple at Dhar Kufar, 5 km from the university.

The villagers rushed injured Arpit Sharma to the Indira Gandhi Medical College here, where he died. All three were in their final year and had to appear for a practical today.

A condolence meeting was held at the HPU to mourn their death.