Shimla, December 23
The pictures of AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Food and Civil Supplies Minister GS Bali on application forms for getting computerised ration cards of 16.31 lakh families in the state have angered the BJP.

The latest move by the Food and Civil Supplies Department has evoked a sharp response from various quarters, including the BJP. The Congress regime had banned subsidised ration bags bearing the photos of Vajpayee to the consumers.

The Congress made a hue and cry over the pictures of Atal Bihari Vajpayee on bags being disbursed with subsidised ration during the BJP regime.

“It is so strange that the Congress, which decided not to distribute the ration bags bearing picture of Atalji, now considers it fine to have pictures of their leaders on application forms, which will form part of government record,” quips Satpal Singh Satti, state BJP president. He said this was just one example of the political narrow-mindedness, which plagues the Congress.

BJP leaders said the Congress had also changed the names of some schemes with Vajpayee’s name, including the Atal Uniform Scheme and Atal Emergency Services 108 ambulance scheme. Bali could not be contacted as he was busy at a meeting. Director, Food and Supplies, Priyatu Mandal declined to make any comment.

The Civil Supplies Department has launched the project for digitisation of ration cards so that there is no scope for pilferage and only the deserving get subsidised ration. There are a total of 16.31 lakh ration card holders in the state. Out of this, 11.17 lakh are above poverty line (APL) people, 3.16 lakh by below poverty line (BPL) and 1.97 lakh by Antyoday families.

The gap between the actual population and an inflated number getting subsidised food supplies under the public distribution system has been a major headache for the government. Though the government has cancelled those holding double ration cards, even now there is a huge gap between the actual population and those holding ration cards.

Manali, December 23
After a fresh spell of snowfall in Manali and its adjoining areas, clear sky and bright sun greeted hundreds of tourists today who visited here to celebrate Christmas and New Year.

Hundreds of tourists visited the Hadimba Devi temple, Vashisht village, which is famous for Rishi Vashisht temple and hot water springs, and also all nearby tourist places.

Ahead of Christmas and New Year, a festive atmosphere prevailed in and around the town. Meanwhile, hundreds of tourists rushed to Nehru Kund as tourists were seen enjoying skiing, ridind on yak, making snowmen, throwing snowballs on each others and having a photo session.

Due to a fresh spell of snowfall, Manali has become the most popular tourist destination for Christmas and New Year celebrations and this will boost winter tourism. To attract more tourists, hotels in Manali are offering various packages to visitors during this season and also hoping to get more booking.

The upper Manali areas witnessed traffic jam this morning due to a thick layer of snow on the roads and vehicles were moving at a snail's pace.

Shimla, December 23
The BJP has said purchasing shares of a company was certainly not a crime but concealing it from the Election Commission of India (ECI) by not reflecting it in the election affidavit was wrong.

In a statement issued here today, state BJP spokesperson Ganesh Dutt challenged the claims of the Chief Minister regarding the purchase of the shares from the power company owned by Vakamulla Chandershekhar. They demanded that the EC must take note of this and take appropriate action under the law.

“Tarini Infrastructure is an unlisted company unlike stated by the Chief Minister and the shares of the company are not listed in any of the stock exchanges in India,” claimed Arun. He said the Chief Minister must come clean as to when these shares were purchased and through which stock exchange as claimed by him.

“The shares of an unlisted company can only be bought with the consent of the promoters unlike buying from stock exchange wherein promoters consent is not required,” he said.

Dutt said what was the reason that Pratibha Singh had not reflected these shares in her election affidavit. He also dismissed allegations that the BJP and PK Dhumal had hatched a conspiracy to defame the Chief Minister.

“Whether it was the CD case or the latest allegations levelled by Doon MLA against Virbhadra, it is their own party men who are behind them ,” said he.

Kullu, December 23
Three persons were killed and two injured in two separate accidents here after the recent snowfall. Sharif of Chamba was killed on the Manikaran-Barshaini road, about 50 km from here, on Saturday, while Nirdesh of Thoru village, Kangra, was critically injured and admitted at the Zonal Hospital here.

Sanjay Sharma, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kullu, said the body of the deceased had been handed over to his relatives after conducting the postmortem.

In another incident, Raju (28) and Amar Singh (36), both of Joling village in Lahaul, were killed when the car in which they were travelling rolled down a hill, near Joling Nullah at Thirot village in Lahaul district, about 150 km from here, on Saturday.

Another injured Premnath (38) was admitted to the CHC, Udaipur, and his condition is stated to be stable.

Abhay Minhas, SHO, Udaipur, said the injured were rescued with the help of the local people.

Ravi Thakur, vice-president of the National Scheduled Tribe Commission and a legislator from Lahaul, expressed grief and consoled the families of the deceased. He urged people not to commute after sunset as roads becomes slippery during the nights.

Una, December 23
Transport Minister GS Bali said yesterday that a bus stand would be constructed at the Una district headquarters, which would include shopping complex and cinema halls.

While interacting with Industry Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, officials from the district administration and senior district party functionaries at the PWD Rest House, he said the existing bus stand was unable to cope up with the increased traffic and passenger flow.

Bali charged that while the previous BJP regime had laid the foundation stone of a new bus stand at the HRTC workshop in Una city, it was a mere formality as neither the government nor the contractor whom the work was entrusted were interested in implementing the job. He said new tenders would be floated and work would begin at right earnest.

The issue of a new bus stand in Una has been hanging fire for the last many years. At the fag-end of the previous Congress regime, Virbhadra Singh had laid the foundation stone of the bus stand outside the HRTC workshop. However, no work was initiated during the successive BJP regime.

As the five-year term of the BJP was coming to an end, then Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal re-laid the foundation stone of the same bus stand a few meters away from the stone laid by Virbhadra Singh.

However, due care was taken by the department officers to stack a pile of worn-out tyres to conceal the foundation stone laid by Virbhadra Singh five years ago. For the last one year, the party in power has again been issuing statements to start the project at an early date, leaving the people of the district confused.

Meanwhile, the Transport Minister said while 10 districts of the state would have offices of the regional transport authorities, Kinnaur and Lahul-Spiti districts would be attached to the respective regional transport offices of Shimla and Kullu. He said the department had decided to induct 800 new buses into the existing fleet, adding that a 5 per cent concession in fare and one per cent reduction in service tax were being extended to passengers taking the facility of online booking of tickets.

Solan, December 23
Five residents of Gujarat were looted by two youths who served them with intoxicated food and later withdrew lakhs of rupees using their ATM cards.

The incident came to light when the police was informed about this fraud by the Gujaratis. They had come to Solan to meet two youths who had placed advertisements in Gujarat-based newspapers regarding visa for various foreign countries.

The advertisement was placed by a Shimla resident Glen who had invited people to meet him at Solan. Paresh Bhai Soni, his nephew Pritesh from Ahmedabad, Parma Rajesh and his wife Anita from Anand and Sudhanshu from Surat came to Solan where they checked in a hotel and met Glen to discuss the formalities of obtaining a visa on December 20.

The accused directed the Gujaratis to hand them their ATM cards, PIN number, bank statements and other documents and directed them to meet them the next day. They were served with food laced with some intoxicant which left them unconscious. Pritesh Soni, who woke up around 5 pm the next day realised that they had been looted and all five lodged a complaint with the police about this fraud.

A scrutiny of their bank accounts revealed that Paresh Soni and his nephew Pritesh had been cheated of Rs 2 lakh which had been withdrawn in 20 instalments and shopping worth Rs 1,800 had been done in Solan using their credit cards. A sum of Rs 1 lakh had been withdrawn from Sudhanshu and Rs 3,500 had been from Rajesh and Anita. Some more cash had also been withdrawn from other accounts .

The police have registered a case and details such as identity of the accused were being traced on the basis of cellphone details. Preliminary investigations had revealed that addresses of Shimla and Palampur had been used to purchase cellphones.

Shimla, December 23
The Ridge cries for immediate attention as it is sinking and cracking. The Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) has raised wire crates along the northern side. Besides junk and trash, shacks also disgrace its backyard.

The roof of a shopping complex, a softy vendor, billboards and nameplates of advertisers right in what has been declared as the core heritage zone in this capital town are an eyesore.

But the MC has been filling the cracks over the years. It has raised the retaining wall on the same loose strata that is bound to sink during monsoon, say experts. Even tourists suffer the smell of urine of horses catering to joyrides on the Ridge.

The Geological Survey of India in its report submitted to the MC has traced the problem of sinking and cracking to the unstable strata beneath the Ridge. "The structure, including railings and walls between the shopping complex and the public toilets on the northern side, is sinking due to this problem,” observed the report.

The hard strata starts at a depth of 2.5 m to 5 m after digging from the surface of the problematic portion, said HK Gupta, Executive Engineer, Roads and Buildings, MC.

"You find few dustbins here and the backyard of the Ridge presents an ugly picture," said Samir Aggarwal, a tourist from Lucknow.

Even Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, during his recent visit here, had expressed concern over the cracks that had appeared on the northern face and asked the MC to find a solution to the recurring problem.

Mayor Sanjay Chauhan said the GSI report had been examined and they had proposed a shopping complex to be built adjoining to the complex to level the surface of the Ridge. “We have prepared a drawing for the 3-storied complex that will be raised on the hard strata at a depth of 6 m to stabilise the Ridge surface permanently," he added.

Dharamsala, December 23
With the powers of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to regulate institutes imparting technical education being curtailed due to a Supreme Court order, it would be a piquant situation both for technical institutes and the government in Himachal.

The Supreme Court, in an order issued on April 25, curtailed the powers of AICTE and vested them with the UGC.

The Supreme Court had ruled that AICTE had no authority to issue any sanction on universities and the affiliated colleges do not need its approval to run MBA and MCA courses.

As per the Supreme Court orders, the UGC, after about seven months, issued new guidelines last week for regulation of technical education in the country.

As per the newly proposed UGC rules, functions of AICTE now rest with affiliating universities in the states. These include approval for setting up new colleges, change in site or location of an existing college, extension of approval of existing colleges and conversion of women colleges to co-education, increase or reduction in numbers of seats, closure of colleges and all matters related to supplementary or NRI seats.

Now, all the said regulating functions over the technical education institutes would rest with the Himachal Pradesh Technical University set up in Hamirpur district. The university was established during the stint of the previous BJP government in the year 2011.

Since the university is just two years old, it does not have its permanent campus and also lacks basic infrastructure and staff. As per the new UGC guidelines, the ill-equipped university would now have to regulate 17 private and two government engineering colleges, 13 private, one government and one Ayurvedic colleges of pharmacy and 11 private colleges of management.

Interestingly, the university also does not have any permanent Vice-Chancellor. The technical university does not have a permanent campus.

The ill-equipped technical university might find it difficult to develop mechanisms to regulate about 44 private and government technical education institutes. It might create problems both for the technical colleges and the university.

Earlier, the state government had established a regulatory commission to regulate the private colleges of technical education in the state. However, the act though which the commission was set up was scrapped by the High Court.

Minister for technical education, GS Bali, said the state government had received 16 applications for the post of VC of technical university. The selection procedure would be completed very soon. The Hamirpur DC has also been asked to identify land for permanent campus for the university, he added.

Solan, December 23
A beheaded unidentified body of a youth was found at village Thana in the Baddi industrial area today with no trace of the head.

The body was found naked on a link road near a tractor-manufacturing unit and was noticed by the security guard who informed the police.

A team of police officers led by DSP Nalagarh Nishchint Negi rushed to the spot and managed to trace a paper-cutting blade, about 40 feet away from the spot, which had been used to kill the youth. He said since no other clue was available, they were trying to ascertain as to where such a blade is used.

It appears the miscreants had tried to hide the identity of the deceased and thus his head was untraceable.

Since the body had been dumped at a secluded place where several industrial units were lying closed, little clue was available about the identity of the deceased who appears to be in his mid-20s.

Policemen were also tracing the missing persons reports in police stations nearby to help identify the body and taking help from the dog squad.

The DSP said they were awaiting the postmortem report as this would convey how the youth was murdered.

The murder had created a scare in the area, leaving people aghast at the manner in which the murder had been committed and the body had been dumped in the open.

While exposing the lack of effective night patrolling, it has once again brought to the fore the increasing incidents of heinous crimes in the industrial area of Baddi.

Sundernagar, December 23
Electricity generation in the 800 MW Kol Dam Project situated on the border of Mandi and Bilaspur district, the first hydroelectric project of NTPC Ltd, would be further delayed as the process of water release into the Kol Dam reservoir which was started on December 19 failed within three days and the project authorities were left with no option but to drain out the water into river Sutlej again, which was stored during the release process for two days.

According to a source from Kol Dam hydel project, the electricity generation will be delayed by at least 15 days.

The 800 MW Kol Dam project has already been lagging behind schedule as it was to be commissioned in 2008.

A source says due to some problem in the control gates of bottom outlet installed in the middle of the diversion tunnel Lav, the water could not be controlled. As a result, the water started gushing out of diversion tunnel Lav around 8 pm on Saturday and created panic on the spot.

At that time, two persons were working inside the tunnel. They came out of the tunnel using an emergency ladder. No option was left with the project authorities but to immediately open the gates of tunnel Kush.

A visit to the spot revealed that the project authorities had deputed a fire tender at the outlets of tunnels and at present, there was no access to tunnel Lav as it was filled with water and the river was flowing through tunnel Kush; the water flow of the river has been restored. Today, a team of project officials visited the outlet of tunnels but it neither entered the tunnel Lav nor was any repair work on the gates started.

PRO for the project Parveen Ranjan Bharti was not available for any comment.

The GM for the project, Anoop Kumar Nanda, denied any such incident, saying release of water from the gates was a routine process for release of water into the reservoir, which will take 315 days. He further denied any delay in generation of electricity due to this incident.

Manali, December 23
Increasing area under apple and other commercial fruit plants and a booming tourism industry are causing the shrinking of agricultural land in the Kullu valley. A majority of the population here is focusing on fruit cultivation and the tourism industry to generate good income which has had a bearing on agriculture in the valley.

Apple being the main cash crop in the valley, residents are continuously growing its saplings on agricultural land. The growing tourism industry, mostly in the upper Kullu valley, has created vast employment opportunities for residents, which has also put agriculture in a state of neglect.

Elderly in the valley believe the coming generation will not know about kathu (buck wheat), kodra (eleusine corocana), sariara (amaranth), barley and some varieties of pulses which are now being grown by very few agriculturists.

Deputy Director, Agriculture, BL Sharma said at present, 36,224 hectare land in Kullu district was under maize, pea, pulses, wheat and different varieties of vegetables. He added that there was about 10 per cent area under agriculture and the figure was decreasing every year due to the conversion of such land into horticultural land.

A majority of the agriculturists in the upper Kullu valley, who used to sow different varieties of red rice like jatu, mahuri and matali, have taken up fruit production. Similarly, there has been a rise in the number of tourists arriving in Kullu valley. Many of them have built hotels, guest houses, cottages, modern houses and homestays to cater to the tourists. Increasing concrete structures have also swallowed vast part of the agricultural land in the entire Kullu valley.

Deputy Director, Horticulture, BC Rana said 30,000 hectare land in Kullu was under fruit cultivation and 700 hectare agricultural land was being covered by fruit plants every year.

In the past 30 years, conversion of paddy fields into apple orchards has taken a toll on local varieties of rice. People are already missing the aromatic fragrance of jatu variety of rice which was the most popular in the upper Kullu valley. The terraced paddy fields used to mesmerise passersby with their beauty, especially along the Manali-Naggar-Kullu road. Now, one can see only apple orchards and concrete structures spread over the entire area.

With agriculturists turning horticulturists and tourism entrepreneurs, decrease in grain production has left dozens of gharats (watermills) useless, while others are either in shambles or are permanently destroyed. The decline has adversely affected the livestock population in villages. Earlier, agriculturists used to thrash the grain with the help of cattle, but now that very few people are in the profession of agriculture, the practice has almost disappeared from the upper Kullu valley.

Agricultural lands of local residents being located in far-flung areas of the valley, they had built temporary houses locally known as shorn or doghris. They used to live in them during sowing and harvesting period. Most of these structures are either no more now or are in a shambles.

Una, December 23
Pearl farming has failed to pick up in Una district due to the lack of government support. Despite the fact that Dinanath Sharma, a farmer from a remote area of Una district, illustrated that pearl farming with the help of fresh water mussels can be carried out successfully in the lower areas, it has failed to pick up among the farmers of the state.

Dinanath Sharma, a farmer from remote village Ambera in Una district who pioneered pearl farming in Himachal. photo: Lalit Mohan

Inquiries by The Tribune revealed that after reading the success story of Dinanath Sharma many farmers tried to carry out pearl farming in Una. However, due to the lack of proper training, they could not attain any success.

The previous state government had also sent 10 farmers to Odisha for training in pearl farming. However, the training was short and farmers could not gain much from it. Farmers from Una district have been demanding that a camp for training in pearl farming should be held in Una district so that they can learn the most sensitive and technical part involved in it.

According to farmers, the most sensitive and technical part in pearl farming is inducing an incision in a mussel and placing a calcium nucleus in it that later develops into pearl. The farmers are alleging that there is a high mortality in mussels that they rear after the incision of nucleus. Placing nucleus in body of mussel is a technical job and farmers need sustained advice and technical training to do it perfectly.

Pearl farming was first started by farmer Dinanath from Ambera, a remote village of Una.

He successfully carried out pearl farming using fresh water mussels an aquatic bivalve variety of mollusk species.

Dinanath got the idea for starting pearl farming in 2002 after watching a TV programme. He made up his mind and left for Odisha.

“I was the oldest person among the batch of farmers from South India and Gujarat, who were there to receive training for fresh water pearl farming,” he said.

“Initially, I tried to use the local fresh water mussels. However, not much success was obtained. I then procured mussels from Odisha and created a nursery. In the last 2-3 years, I have sold pearls worth Rs 10 lakh despite losses during monsoons,” Dinanath said.

He said unfinished pearls being produced at his ponds were fetching him price ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per piece for a pearl weighing 0.5 gm.

At present, local customers, including ayurvedic practitioners, are buying pearls from Dinanath for use in medicines.

However, he is not being able to fetch good price for his pearls as no polishing or cutting experts are available in the region.

Explaining the method for producing pearls, he said, “A nucleus (a minute piece of fine calcium) is kept in the body of mussel after a small surgical operation. Then the mussels are tied to mesh and bamboo and kept dipped in water. The crop is taken after about 18 months. The longer mussel is allowed to survive, chances of recovering bigger pearl from it increases. Pearl farming is generally carried out along with fish farming that is an added advantage”.

Baljit Singh Tur set up his farm in Khad Panjaur village in Una district after returning from Germany. He and his German wife are now doing fish farming and piggery. Baljit has also started pearl culture farming though not with much success initially.

Bilaspur, December 23
The government is keen to rehabilitate all khoka (kiosk) owners found crowding the main bus stand chowk here in the Diara sector. The site is yet to be selected for resettling the remaining kiosk owners at some nearby place.

This was stated by local MLA Bambar Thakur while inaugurating 27 booths on the top (road height) floor of the District Mandi Committee office at the bus stand here today.

Thakur said 25 vegetable and fruit sellers had been allotted these booths constructed at a cost of Rs 10 lakh. While one booth had been reserved for ATM, another was for selling organic fertilisers and equipments to farmers.

He said a parking facility would be provided by the committee at this spot soon. This small vegetable market would soon develop into a flourishing market as it would give sufficient choice to customers, he said. Earlier, District Mandi Committee president Vivek Kumar gave details of its activities and said steps were already afoot to solve the problems plaguing the committee over the years.

SDM Dr ML Mehta and other officials were also present on the occasion. 

Nurpur, December 23
The Congress has its own political compulsion in passing the Lokpal Bill in Parliament after 47 years. This was stated by Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Kumar, former Chief Minister, PK Dhumal, leader of the Opposition, and state BJP president Sat Pal Satti in a joint press conference at Jawali after convening the BJP’s organisational meeting of the Kangra parliamentary constituency in which office-bearers of the BJP units and its frontal organisations took part.

They asserted that with the Lokpal Bill into existence, the country would witness radical changes in the political system and bring transparency in the system.

The claimed that a strong pro-BJP and Narendra Modi wave was sweeping the country and people wanted to see Modi as Prime Minister of the country.

“The leaders of anti-BJP parties are upset over the popularity of Modi across the country and now they have started giving misleading statements against the BJP and Modi to mislead the masses. But the electorate will not fall prey to such propaganda. The Congress is fully in the grip of a family and people of the country are fed up with single family rule,” they said.

Talking on the organisational meetings of the BJP office-bearers in the state, the BJP leaders said these were being organised to strengthen the party’s rank and file at the grassroot level and gear up its cadre to ensure the party’s victory in the Lok Sabha elections.

Shimla, December 23
A dispute between two rival bodies of churches in the country over the possession of a prime 1.42-hectare Khyber House property at Dalhousie in Chamba district has again erupted as rival groups “enjoy the support of top politicians” in the state.

The tussle over the possession of the property has reached the Prime Minister’s Office, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

The rival bodies of the Indian Church Trustee (ICT) are trying their best to woo the power that be. However, the entry in revenue was still in the name of the Church of London, Zanana Mission, official sources said.

The rival group, ICT from Uttar Pradesh, had made an unsuccessful attempt to take the possession of the Khyber house on May 12, 2012, during the previous BJP regime in the state. The other group under the Bishop of the Diocese of Amritsar, Church of North India, took the matter with the then state government and maintained status quo as they lodged an FIR in Chamba accusing the former of trespassing and stealing house antiques, the charge that the Uttar Pradesh group had dismissed.

In a letter dated December 14 addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a copy of which is with The Tribune, Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy, Bishop of Diocese, Amritsar, claimed that the Diocesan of Amritsar had been managing the Khyber House for the last 100 years.

"Certain self-styled office-bearers of the Indian Church Trustees(ICT) was using all power to change the revenue records of the house in the office of the tehsildar, Dalhousie, a charge that the tehsildar denied when he was quizzed on the issue still pending in his office," he claimed.

Samantaroy claimed that the Bishop of the Diocese of Kolkata was the chairman of the ICT, not certain self-styled office-bearers, who were trying to grab the prime property. The Indian Church Act does not apply to the property as it was in the name of society, he claimed.

On the other hand, the rival group dismissed Bishop’s charges claiming in a representation to the Deputy Commissioner, Chamba, that they were the real office-bearers of the ICT and the Khyber property belonged to them not to the Diocese of Amritsar.

“The opponents of the Bishop of Diocese of Amritsar have sought a ‘correction’ in the entry in revenue records from the tehsildar claiming ownership of the property under the Indian Church Act,” said officials. However, after examination it was found that the tehsildar had to do mutation in the property for which he had fixed the case for hearing on January 3.

Sandeep Kadam, DC, Chamba, said they had got representations from both the groups claiming ownership of property, which was in the name of the Church of London, Zanana Mission. The case was being examined in the tehsildar court and he had to take the final call on the issue, he added.

Panchkula, December 23
Jyoti’s father Buti Ram was a different man before today. He had received many bribe offers and threat calls but did not give up his battle against Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary. Today he seemed to be a tired man who wants to live a peaceful life as he backed out from his earlier statements.

A tailor by profession, Buti Ram ran from pillar to post for a fair probe into the case as an MLA from the ruling party in Himachal was said to be the main accused.

Buti Ram had several times alleged threat to his life and to his family from the MLA’s aides. The Panchkula police had written to the Hoshiarpur police for providing him security. In the transcripts provided by the police, it was stated about Chudhary’s wife Nidhi talking to her maternal uncle. The transcript mentioned that the maternal uncle was talking about giving some money to the victim’s family and settling the matter.

But Buti Ram gave up the battle today. In his statement before the court, he said he doesn’t know who Chaudhary was. Buti Ram was the complainant in the Jyoti murder case.

Buti Ram was the key witness. His other daughter Ishu also formed a part of an important witness, but she failed to depose before the court today. Ram told the court that as his wife was unwell, she could not come.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted after Buti Ram had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court saying that the investigation by a single investigating officer (IO) was not fair. He had demanded a probe by an independent agency.

However, Buti Ram started crying after he stepped out from the court. When asked as to why he turned hostile, he folded his hands and left the court premises.

Palampur, December 23
Rail services on the Pathankot-Jogindernagar narrow gauge railway track remained suspended the second day today following landslides on the tracks near Ranital.

Seven trains ply on this route daily covering 25 railway stations between Pathankot and Jogindernagar. This railway line is considered the lifeline of the Kangra valley.

A railway spokesman said engineers and field staff were working round the clock to remove the debris and rail traffic was likely to be restored by this evening.

Hundreds of passengers, including students, were stranded at different railway stations between Kangra and Baijnath. 

Una, December 23
The Una sewerage system has been lying unutilised ever since it was inaugurated on 12 April, 2012 by the then Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal. The executing agency of the project, the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) department is playing a blame game with Municipal Committee (MC) as the city's residents have been unwilling to make use of the facility.

Work on Una's sewerage system began about a decade ago and the entire area was divided into four zones, namely A, B, C and D. Zone C, covering the most congested areas of the old city, was the smallest one and therefore, the first to be completed. The sewer runs into a septic tank here. Zone D covers wards 4 and 5 and has been designed to utilise 0.65 million litres of water per day (MLD).

It runs into a treatment plant situated in Chanderlok Colony.

Zones A and B have the largest network of pipes and cover most parts of the city. These two zones run into a treatment plant situated in Rampur village, which has a capacity to process 2.53 MLD of sewer. In all, a sum of Rs 11.16 crores has been spent on the scheme, designed to cater to a projected population of 32,790 till the year 2029.

According to IPH Executive Engineer Mukesh Hira, the sewerage treatment plant is capable of handling refuse from 6,500 connections, but a minimum of 1,500 functional connections are needed to make the facility operational. He said till date, only about 150 toilet seats had been given sewer connections, grossly insufficient to put the plant into operation.

Hira said the department had made efforts to persuade people to make use of the facility, but the results had been disheartening. He added that as per the prevailing laws, when a sewerage system was in place, it was obligatory on MC's part to ensure that all private septic tanks were dismantled and household toilet seats were connected to the sewer system.

However, he said, no such action had been initiated by the MC.

Municipal Engineer Suresh Chauhan said most of the connections had been given in Zone C, but the lines were choked, resulting in overflowing sewer. "Such scenes are a deterrent to prospective consumers, who fear the system may not work for long," said MC president Mamta Kashyap.

Kashyap said the main reason for low rate of connections is that the IPH department does not have the staff and infrastructure to give connections on such a large scale. She said there had been instances when residents had dug up pits, but the department failed to give connections.

Meanwhile, the sewerage treatment plants had been filled up with thousands of gallons of fresh water from adjoining water schemes. With not a single drop of sewer ultimately reaching the treatment plants at Rampur and Chanderlok, the facility has proved to be sheer waste of public funds.

Solan, December 23
Several Centrally sponsored projects sanctioned for the industrial area of Baddi have failed to yield any financial benefit to the state government despite grant of land worth crores and investors holding equity shares yielding profits.

Among various projects under way in the Baddi industrial area is the Rs 34-crore hazardous waste management plant where 38-acre land has been provided by the state government on a nominal lease. The project is operational since July 2008 and its profitability is shared in the ratio of 49:51 per cent among the

BBNIA: United Phosphorus Limited (UPL).

Ashok Sharma, CEO, UPL, however, claimed that the company was reeling under losses and was running on a bare 20 per cent capacity. He added that they were ready to surrender the project, but they were no takers.

With the Memorandum of Understanding executed for all such projects failing to set aside any share for the state government, it would not accrue any financial benefit for it.

Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) comprising state government nominees and investors, including equity holders and the executing companies, look after these projects where the state government provides free land worth crores.

A common effluent treatment plant (CETP) is also being set up at Baddi under the Centrally funded Industrial Infrastructure Up-gradation Scheme where the state government has provided Rs 5.5 crore out of its total share of Rs 7 crore. The industries are supposed to contribute Rs 9.22 crore, though till now Rs 5.41 crore has been collected. The Central grant is Rs 58.28 crore.

A SPV, Baddi Infrastructure, is executing this project, which has utilised Rs 49.94 crore till now and the project is slated to be completed by June 2014.

The state government has contributed 96.17 bighas for it. Official nominees have also overlooked this crucial issue till now.