Shimla, November 22
The Ridge and The Mall, the famous tourist spots of Shimla, are set to be anointed with the vendor-free heritage tag.

Over 300 vendors, including 75 Tibetans, will get their prized shops in the Rs 2.5 crore four-storey shopping complex, which will be constructed near Sabji Mandi facing the tourism lift.

The Ridge from Scandal Point to the Roller Skating Rink and the Ritz Theatre and The Mall from the Central Telegraph heritage building to the Shimla Club is being declared a vendor-free zone. These places are already part of the core heritage zone.

The Shimla Municipal Corporation has received Rs 2.5 crore “Challenge Fund” from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to rehabilitate 304 vendors, including 75 Tibetans, in the city. The road and street paths to the new complex will be beautified that will make it a good shopping experience for the visitors.

“Tibetan markets are haunts for foreign and domestic tourists as they are good salesmen," said Tikender Panwar, Deputy Mayor, Shimla.

The vendors, including Tibetan vendors in the Rivoli Road market, which is sinking, have given their consent.

“We are demolishing the old bakery building facing the lift and will construct a four-storey shopping complex there to rehabilitate 304 vendors,” said Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan.

"The street vendors are an integral part of the growing city life as they provide cheaper goods, fresh fruits and vegetables to residents and have every right to be rehabilitated. But, earlier, there was no policy to settle them and now, the Central Government has framed rules that provide for rehabilitation of 2.5 per cent of the vendors," added Panwar.

The process is on to declare city places vendor-free, partially vendor-free and vending zones to regulate mushrooming of street vends. In a recent drive, the MC found 642 street vendors. “We have videographed the vendors and frozen their number at 601. Now, no new vendors will be allowed and be dealt with as encroachers," said Tikender.

The Lower Bazaar, Lakkar Bazaar and Indira Gandhi Medical College Road could be categorised as partial vending zones.

The Challenge Fund is dished out to the cities which offer prime location to the vendors. “We have a prime location in the city and a complex will be built from pre-fabricated materials, which are earthquake-proof as Shimla lies in the seismic-V zone,” said Panwar.

Assistant Commissioner, MC, Naresh Thakur, said the project was in the takeoff stage as the fund had been sanctioned. The vendor-free zone, partial vending zone and other zones would be notified after the heritage and vending committees give their consent, he added.

Shimla, November 22
The HP High Court today quashed a provision of the state transfer policy vide which there is a provision that on the request of public representatives, transfer of an employee will be considered by the competent authority.

Setting aside the clause 17 of the transfer policy framed by the state government, a division bench comprising Justice Dev Darshan Sud and Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary also set aside all transfers effected on the basis of Demand Order (DO) note or Unofficial (UO) note issued by the public authorities on the request of public representatives.

This judgment was passed by the court on a bunch of petitions filed by the aggrieved employees, challenging their transfers on the ground that they had been transferred from their present place of posting to other place on the recommendations of political persons.

However, the court clarified that if the petitioners or other employees have served at one particular place of posting beyond the normal tenure, then it will be open to the state to transfer them in accordance with law.

A new transfer policy was framed on July 10, 2013, for regulating the transfers of state government employees wherein the state had framed guidelines for the transfers of its employees. 

Shimla, November 22
Hydropower projects and roads are proving to be a big drain on the forests reserves of the environmentally fragile hill state.

The state has been losing green cover despite a moratorium on green felling due to diversion of land for non-forestry use. Power projects and ever-expanding roads are indeed taking a toll on trees and baring the green hills. The latest data reveals that since the enforcement of the Forest Conservation Act (FCA), which debars diversion of forest land for non-forestry use without the prior permission of the government, 1,620 cases involving diversion of 11,628 hectares have been approved. Out of this, over 8,500 hectare forest area has been put to non-forestry use since 2000.

The maximum 7,218 hectare of forest land has been diverted for power projects with 220 cases pertaining to hydropower plants alone accounting for 4,275 hectare. In addition, 2,943 hectare of forest land has been diverted to pave the way for the construction of power transmission lines. Much more area will be diverted over the next few years as so far only projects with 8,400 MW capacity have been executed and projects with aggregate capacity of about 9,000 MW were in different stages of implementation.

Construction of roads, particularly in the high and mid hill areas, involves large forest areas and till date the maximum number of 771 cases of diversion pertains to road projects. In all, 2,185 hectare of forest area has been diverted for roads. Implementation programmes like the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna and the World Bank-funded road project has led to rapid expansion of road network in the hills.

In comparison, the forest area diverted for mining of limestone for cement plants is quite less and so far only 827 hectare has been given away. The large scale diversion is leading to a situation where dense forest areas (density of more than 40) is declining and open forests (density between 10 and 40 per cent) is increasing and it has gone up from 3,931 sq km in 2001 to 11,350 sq km in 2011. Open forests account for over 34 per cent of the total forest area in the state as compared to just 24 per cent in Uttarakhand, indicating the extent of degradation.

Mandi, November 22
The Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) has decided to contest two seats in the state in the coming parliamentary elections.

This was stated by Rakesh Singha, state secretary of the CPM, while addressing mediapersons here today after holding a meeting of the state Secretariat. Singha said: “The CPM has decided to field Kushal Bhardwaj from Mandi and Jagat Ram from Shimla (reserved) seat in the parliament elections.”

He said Left parties would fight the election together and they would also try to rope in other like-minded parties by forging an alliance and would try to present an alternative before people to defeat the Congress and the BJP in the elections.

Commenting on the nine months’ rule of the Congress in the state, Singha said: “The tenure of the Congress government has been dismal and the state government has failed on every front. With the state government toeing the new economic policies of the Central Government, the financial crisis in the state is deepening.” He said: “The public utility services like health, transport, public distribution system and educational institutions have been crippled due to the shortage of staff. Even LPG refills are not properly being delivered to consumers.”

Shimla, November 22
Newly elected Youth Congress chief Vikramaditya today said addressing unemployment would be his main concern. He would also strengthen the organisation at the grassroot level by organising regular training programmes.

Interacting with mediapersons after formally assuming office, he said the previous BJP regime ignored the problems facing the youth and paid for it. Unemployment was a major concern and the Youth Congress would focus on it and make all-out efforts to ensure maximum jobs with the help of the state government and the Centre. Employment camps would be organised in all districts in which companies would hold recruitment camps. It would also work for enforcing the condition of 70 per cent employment to local Himachalis in companies.

Vikramaditya said the system of electing office-bearers in the Youth Congress through democratic process introduced by Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi had infused a new life in the organisation. Earlier, the president and other officer-bearers were nominated. Now any youth could contest and get elected to the team. He said no other political party had adopted such process.

Referring to his plans for strengthening the organisation, he said training camps would be held in the state, Assembly and parliamentary constituencies every month in which resource persons from the party high command would educate the workers about the functioning of organisation, policy and programme of the Congress and its ideology. The workers at the lowest level would be galvanised for the 2014 polls to turn 1.25 lakh strong youth force into a fighting fit unit.

He said the Youth Congress would function in unison with the party and the government. He had already met Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sukhwinder Singh and sought his blessings and ensured him his full support. He would take forward the organisation with the cooperation of all senior leaders, particularly ministers, MLAs and MPs, who were the visible face of the party.

Mandi, November 22
The Union Urban Development Ministry has cleared a drinking water scheme for the town and surrounding areas with an estimated cost of Rs 82.18 crore.

One of the biggest drinking water schemes in the state so far, this scheme will supply 135 litres water per person daily to an estimated population of 68,000 till 2046.

Under the scheme, water will be brought to Mandi from the Uhal river through gravity for which 28-km-long pipeline will be laid from Riagadi village to Mandi.

Surrounding villages of Mandi that will be covered under the scheme which include Nela, Chandyana, Kangani, Sanyarad, Manyana, Talyahad, Madwahan, Panjeti, Bijani, Arda, Badi, Sheel Kippad, Chandyara and Chheepanu.

Rural Development Minister Anil Sharma talking to The Tribune said, “This scheme will provide enough drinking water to Mandi town and the surrounding villages and provide 135-litre water daily per person and water scarcity in these villages will end.”

Thanking Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Mandi MP Pratibha Singh for their help in clearing this scheme, the minister said, “The approval to this scheme is a slap on the face of those who were accusing me for making false promises regarding announcing the biggest scheme involving about Rs 100 crore.”

Executive Engineer, Irrigation and Public Health Department, Arun Sharma said, “The Central Government has given sanction for technical appraisal report, and the work on the scheme will be awarded in March next year.”

Nurpur, November 22
The Vishav Hindu Parishad (VHP) is launching a special health helpline in the country on January 5 to provide free health aid to one crore patients.

Dr Praveen Togaria, international acting president of the VHP, addressing a public meeting here today on the premises of Wazir Ram Singh Pathania memorial, said this helpline would provide health assistance to the needy patients in any corner of the country.

He said earlier during the past two years, the VHP had provided direct health aid to around 50,000 people and arranged blood unit to 30,000 persons through Vishav Hindu Parishad helpline.

He said the Vishav Hindu Parishad had imparted free education to 30 lakh poor children and opened 148 hostels for them so that poor children could not be deprived of their right to education.

Vishav Hindu Parishad central minister Kailash Sihal, regional organising secretary Karuna Prakash and state Bajrang Dal coordinator Dr Rajesh Kumar were also present. 

Solan, November 22
The National-Level Expert Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests has approved the state’s strategy and action plan on climate change at its meeting held in New Delhi recently.

Dr SS Negi, Secretary, Department of Environment, confirming the news said the action plan on climate change had been approved in the first instance and it would now be put forth in the expert committee, which would accept the recommendations to extend an aid of Rs 1,527 crore to the state to implement the policy.

A copy of the action plan on climate change available with The Tribune says the plan has been formulated after a thorough study of climate change in the state. The major indicators of climate change in the state include rise in temperature in the north-west Himalayan region by 1.6°C in the last century, higher rate of warming of Shimla town in the last decade as compared to the earlier decade and about 17 per cent decrease in rainfall in Shimla since 1996.

According to the plan, the decreasing trend in seasonal snowfall in Shimla since 1990 with the lowest snowfall being recorded in 2009, the monsoon discharge in the Beas has shown a significant decrease and winter discharge in the Chenab has shown a significant increase

The quality of apple has been affected and apple line has shifted upwards, thus forcing orchardists to shift to vegetable cultivation due to the rising temperature, the action plan said.

Even incidence of pest and disease were more severe and it had been observed that pine forests were invading heights while kikar, shisham, deodar and ban trees were on the decline. Even the population of birds like water fowls, ducks, birds, house sparrows and vultures were facing a decline, it said.

In case of glaciers, an overall reduction in their area from 2,077 sq km to 1,628 sq km had been noticed from 1961 to 2001 in the Chenab, Parbati and Baspa basins in the state. As much as 12 per cent reduction had been noticed in their total area in these basins while 10 per cent reduction had been noticed in the Spiti basin, it said.

Experts said glaciers in the Himalayan region were in the retreading phase and this could lead to severe water scarcity.

Damages due to droughts, flash floods and widespread rains had been increasing every year, they said.

The impact of climate change noticed in the state included change in precipitation pattern, adverse impact on agriculture production, water resources, forests and natural wetlands, thus causing health risks, the experts said.

They said the policy had recognised deforestation, land degradation, landslide and desertification. Atmospheric and man-made interferences were supposed to be responsible for such adverse environmental impacts, they added. 

Solan, November 22
With a major snag hitting power supply lines in the Kasauli area, a power cut extending for more than nine hours was witnessed in the Kasauli area last night.

Electricity supply was snapped off last night and though power supply was restored at 1:33 am in some areas, a majority of the areas lying in the vicinity of Garkhal did not receive electricity till about 9:30 am. Power supply had also remained suspended from 1:55 am to 3:50 am on November 15 while it had been disconnected from 6:30 am to 7:09 am on November 17 also. Power supply in the Kasauli area has become erratic since the past almost a week with power cuts extending for several hours being imposed almost every night.

The frequent power cuts had also affected lifting of water from the local water lifting schemes and residents at times received water after three days as against the usual supply on alternate days.

Dheeraj Mittal, Superintending Engineer, HP SEBL, while disagreeing with the power cuts, said the water supply in the Garkhal area was affected due to a snag in the operating system of the Irrigation and Public Health Department.

The entire power supply was restored around 11 am and no major fault could be detected, he said.

Several villages lying in the vicinity of panchayats like Kanda, including Shiller, also bore the brunt of darkness till this morning.

Officials of the transmission wing of the Power Department said they had urged the Irrigation and Pubic Heath Department not to lift water in the peak hours.

Superintending Engineer, Transmission, Pankaj Dadwal, said they were trying to avert power cuts and they had, therefore, urged the Irrigation and Public Health Department to ensure that no lifting of water was undertaken within the peak time from 6 am to 9 am and also for the same time in the evenings. This suggestion had been given to ensure that consumer did not face power cuts during the peak hours.

He said once the Gaurda-based new sub-station was commissioned by February, the Solan area would not face any power shortage. 

Kangra, November 22
The Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP), Shahpur, today held the election to the students’ council and elected 20 students, seven of them unopposed.

This was stated by Prof Yoginder Verma, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh .

He said the election process started with the issuance of notification by the Dean Students Welfare on November 13 and 37 candidates filed nomination papers for 20 seats.

He said out of these, eight candidates withdrew their nominations and the nomination papers of two were rejected. He said out of these 20 seats, seven candidates, five from the School of Business and Management Studies and two from the School of Physical and Material Sciences, were declared elected unopposed.

He said Arvinder Kumar, Mohammed Atif, Sahil Dhawan, Shivam Verma and Sudhir Gulia were elected from the School of Business and Management Studies, Arundhati Balouria and Poonam Sharma from the School of Earth and Environmental Science, Manjeet Singh Bansal from the School of Humanities, Languages, Rajesh Badhawan from the School of Journalism, Mass Communication and New Media, Ashish from the School of Life Sciences, Ankit Chauhan, Deepali Choudhary, Deepak and Dipesh Bhardwaj from the School of Mathematics, Computers and Information Sciences, Abhinav Nag and Nitin Rathi from the School of Physical and Material Sciences, Ariz Ahmad and Swarit Sekhri from the School of Social Sciences, Nishant Thakur and Surbhi Soni from the School of Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Management.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor said the polling was held for 13 seats and the results were declared at 5 pm.

He said the overall voting percentage was 87.77 per cent. 

Solan, November 22
An undertrial, Inderjeet Singh, who had been using minor boys to break windowpanes of cars to steal valuables, gave two policemen and a munshi the slip, who were taking him to Baddi from Solan last evening to attend a hearing in a court.

The policemen had boarded a Delhi-bound bus which halted at Parwanoo. Inderjeet fled on the excuse of going to toilet. They informed the Nalagarh police about this incident.

Inderjeet, who was arrested on November 11 at Nalagarh in a snatching case, had been lodged in the Solan jail. He was to be produced in the Nalagarh court today.

Superintendent of Police S Arul Kumar said three policemen had been sent to the police lines and a departmental inquiry had been initiated against them for negligence. He added that a trial would also be initiated if their negligence was proved.

Police officials said the two policemen were nearing retirement and whether they should have been assigned a sensitive duty like this needed to be probed.

Inderjeet Singh was a resident of JJ Colony, Delhi, and the police was trying to trace him. He had been arrested while trying to steal a bag containing valuables from a car at Nalagarh whose glasspanes had been broken by a gang which was using minor boys in such crimes on November 11.

Toki (Dharamsala), November 22
Residents of Toki village today blocked traffic for about 4 hours on the Pathankot - Jalandhar national highway and ransacked the office of the state Excise and Taxation Department.

Sources here told The Tribune that the villagers were reacting to the death of 30-year-old Santosh Kumari, resident of village Toki, who died in an accident near the excise and taxation barrier on the national highway.

Santosh Kumari had come to the main road near the excise and taxation barrier to see off her relatives. A truck (PB-07C-1955) parked near the excise and taxation barrier suddenly started moving on the road as the driver had not applied hand brake for parking.

Santosh Kumari, who was standing on the road, was run over by the truck. The driver was paying tax at the excise and taxation barrier.

As the news of the death of Santosh Kumari spread, residents of Toki village gathered at the spot. They raised slogans against the excise and taxation authorities and ransacked the office of the department on the main road. They then blocked traffic on the Pathankot-Jalandhar national highway for about four hours. The truck driver Sohan Singh saved his life by rushing to the local police station.

The villagers who had gathered on the spot said they had been pleading with the excise and taxation authorities to relocate the barrier as movement of heavy vehicles in the area posed threat to their life.

The villagers lifted the blockade only after assurance by higher administration officials.

The issue has once again brought to the fore the fact that illegal mining has been taking place in the area despite the fact that the green tribunal has put a complete ban on mining in the entire country.

Shimla, November 22
Prof ADN Bajpai, Vice-Chancellor, Himachal Pradesh University, and Controller of Examinations (COE) Narender Awasthi are in a spot for awarding a tender to Perfect Colour Digital Prints, a Gurgaon-based company, for preparing colour-detailed marksheets and university degree certificates for students.

The company has so far prepared just 3,500 marksheets out of 5,500 it was assigned by the university for which it has been paid Rs 12, 79,444 this year.

However, the fate of 6,600 degree certificates remained uncertain as it had not returned the assignment back to the university so far, revealed insiders.

The Vice-Chancellor is "washing his hands off from mortgaging the secrecy of the data of students mentioned in the marksheets and degree certificates, passing the buck on the procurement branch and the Finance Department". But the HP University Students’ Council Association (SCA) and the insiders in the university pointed a finger at him as they said no decision had been taken without the VC’s consent.

Their role has come under the scanner as the university awarded the tender in January 2013 taking advantage of the fluid political period after the change of guard in the state, the insiders charged.

As per official records, the COE and the Perfect Colour Digital Prints signed a “non-disclosable agreement” for a period of three years with terms and conditions that the company would not share and disclose data to others, sources disclosed.

As per the contract, the company would charge Rs 40 per marksheet and Rs 70 per degree certificate, even as a good quality marksheet normally would cost not more than Rs 10 to Rs 15 per certificate as was being done earlier, the insiders charged.

SCA president Rajan Harta, secretary Piyush Sewal, joint secretary Monika Dhada, and vice- president Gopal Singh today claimed at a press conference that the university collected Rs 1.73 crore charging Rs 150-Rs 100 for the marksheet and Rs 50 as processing fee from students.

However, Dr Bajpai brushed aside the allegations and passed the buck on the COE, procurement and finance branches. “These matters are dealt with by them and I have nothing to do with this and am not aware of any such company,” he claimed.

Awasthi remained on leave as the vigilance has been looking for him in an alleged land grab case of the college by the HP Cricket Association in Dharamsala when he was the college principal there.

Chamba, November 22
The annual function of the Chamba branch of Himotkarsh Sanskriti aur Jan Kalyan Parishad has been held on the premises of the local government postgraduate college.

Deputy Commissioner, Chamba, Kadam Sandeep Vasant was the chief guest of the function, which was presided over by the state president of the parishad, Kunwar Hari Singh.

Anath Angikar Yojna was also inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner on the occasion.

Addressing a gathering, the DC said in modern times there were four pillars of democracy - executive, judiciary, legislative and media, but now the civil society was considered the fifth pillar. And if the NGOs in a country were strong and powerful, the country was considered to be advanced, he added.

The DC commended the role of Himotkarsh Parishad on their initiatives like adopting poor students and taking care of their studies and other needs.

Kunwar Hari Singh explained in detail the various activities of the parishad. He said with 12 branches, the parishad was playing its role in the wellbeing of the poor and the sick, without any government grant. The DC also inaugurated another welfare scheme, sponsored by Vishal Strawla, Principal of the local Saint Stephen School, in the memory of his mother Kamla Devi. Under this scheme, 10 students falling under below poverty line would be provided free education at the school.

Kangra, November 22
The future of the country depends on the present generation and schools can play a vital role in shaping up their personality.

Kewal Singh Pathania, vice chairman, Himachal Forest Corporation, said this while addressing students and teachers of Government Senior Secondary School on their annual function at Charri today.

He said providing basic facilities to students studying in government schools was the top priority of the government. He said the government reopened all the 149 government schools which were closed or de-notified by the previous BJP government.

He said from April 1 this year, travel for government schoolstudents was made free in HRTC buses as mark of its commitment to provide all the facilities to students.

He expressed concern over students falling prey to drug addiction and urged them to stay away from drugs as it would spoil their future.

He said sports was important part of education and needed to be taken care of by teachers.

Pathania assured that a hall and a school ground would be constructed for the students. Kuldeep Sharma, Principal of the school, was also present on the occasion.

Nurpur, November 22
The local unit of ex-servicemen league has welcomed the recent decision of the Supreme Court which has dismissed the review petition of the Government of India relating to pension benefits of defence personnel with effect from the date of implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission.

Col NS Pathania (retd), chairman of the league, in a statement here today said following the apex court’s verdict, all pensioners would draw their respective pension in accordance with their pay bands and revised pay scales with effect from January 2006 as per the Central Administrative Tribunal’s decision and would get heavy arrears.

Expressing faith in the judiciary, Pathania exhorted ex-servicemen of the area to be vigilant and not to fall prey to calls of certain elements for holding protest rallies in different parts of the state in connection with ‘one rank-one pension’ demand. 

Mandi, November 22
Activists of the Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS) today held a protest demonstration in front of the DC's office and took out a march.

They also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the Mandi DC. The BMS is demanding construction of a rehari market, removal of encroachment into government land and its utilisation, construction of a taxi stand and provision of an office to taxi operators as also that of an auto-rickshaw stand apart from enhancement of auto rates.

Bilaspur, November 22
The police at Ghumarwin near here have arrested Ashwini Kumar of village Amarpur near here on charges of domestic violence including beating, maltreating and also demanding dowry from his wife Seema Devi.

Reports said that earlier, an FIR had been registered at the police station.

The police has charged the accused under sections 498-A, 504, 506 and 323 of Indian Penal Code and presented him in court where he was sent to 14-day judicial custody.