Shimla/Keylong, May 25
Backed by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), tribals, including NGOs and hoteliers, have approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) seeking a complete exemption from “permits” to cross the 13,050 foot-high Rohtang Pass for people of Lahaul-Spiti, Pangi, Leh and Ladakh.

The NGT has fixed the date of hearing at its circuit Bench in Shimla on May 29.

“Asking people to get permits to cross the Rohtang Pass while coming from and going back home is the denial of a fundamental right and violation of basic human rights for tribals, who have been using it for over 1,000 years as a traditional route,” asserted Ravi Thakur, vice-chairperson, NCST, who is also a Congress legislator from Lahaul-Spiti. “We have taken up the matter with the state government, which has requested the NGT to give a complete exemption to people from permits to cross the Rohtang Pass,” he added.

Residents said the permit-based entry from Manali barriers had sparked protest and anger in the entire tribal belt as a “permit raj” would result in the feeling of alienation among people living along the sensitive China border.

“Nowhere in the country or the world do people require a permit to go to their homeland. We should not be punished for being born on the other side of the Rohtang Pass,” said CM Parshira, convener, Lahaul-Spiti Janjatiya Kalyan Samiti (LSJKS), which has sought exemption from the NGT in its petition filed on April 24.

“As many as 87.3 per cent of the vehicles at the Rohtang Pass are tourist vehicles, eight per cent are those of the Army and the BRO, while only 4.5 per cent of the vehicles consist of people from Lahaul-Spiti. Secondly, none of the locals stop at Rohtang and indulge in tourism-related activities there as we consider the Rohtang Pass as a heap of dead corpses as many people have perished there while crossing the pass in the distant past,” Parshira added.

There are no carbon footprints left by people there as the tribal belt remains cut off for six winter months due to snow, Parshira said. “There are just two petrol pumps, that too, 112 km apart in Lahaul-Spiti and nowhere in the country do people go that far for a refill,” he added.

“Locals have to transport peas and potatoes across the Rohtang Pass in summer and enterprising youth have set up guest houses for tourists and permits will hit the inflow here,” said Tashi Deleg, president, of the Lahaul-Spiti Hoteliers’ Association.

Himal Thakur, a resident of Sissu, said, “If the state government cannot give us justice, we will seek intervention of the Supreme Court and people will have to resort to agitation,” he added.

To comply with the NGT order, the Kullu district administration has set up barriers on the way to Rohtnag Pass to restrict the flow of tourist traffic. Even residents of nine villages in the upper reaches of Manali and the hoteliers’ association of Manali have opposed the system of entry passes for them and setting up of a barrier at Vashisht.

Lahaul-Spiti Deputy Commissioner BS Thakur said they had sought exemption from permits for people of Lahaul- Spiti by taking up the issue with the government. He said they were awaiting NGT’s order on May 29.

Palampur, May 25
Overloaded trucks plying on narrow Himachal roads have become a major traffic hazard. These trucks are not only flouting provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act, but also resulting in fatal accidents every day. Besides, overloaded trucks are causing a loss worth Rs 100 crore to the state Public Works Department (PWD) every year.

Official sources said the trucks carrying cement, clinker, steel and building material were particularly flouting the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act in the state and carrying goods over the prescribed limit of 9 tonnes, damaging state roads, small culverts and bridges.

Half a dozen cement plants set up in the state and the construction of over 100 hydel power projects have further worsened the situation. At present, there is no check on overloading of trucks carrying cement and clinker from cement factories and equipment for the power projects.

Official sources say over 20,000 trucks and trailers belonging to cement companies and power projects ply on national and state highways every day. Most of these trucks carry a load between 15 and 20 tonnes in gross violation of the Motor Vehicles Act.

A senior officer of the state PWD admitted that failure on the part of the Transport Department and traffic police to deal with this menace has made matters worse.

The national highway wing and the state PWD blame overloaded trucks for the poor condition of different national highways, including the Kiratpur-Bilaspur-Mandi national highway, which is used by 10,000 trucks belonging to four cement plants.

Besides, the Kalka-Shimla (Hindustan-Tibet Road), Shimla-Kangra and Pathankot-Mandi and Pathankot-Chamba national highways of the state are the worst affected. They need crores of rupees for repairs.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that weighing machines installed at a high cost by the government at different inter-state barriers were either out of order or not put to use by the officers posted on the barriers. In the absence of proper checks, 90 per cent of the trucks had been carrying goods more than the prescribed limit, resulting in destruction of roads, culverts and bridges on the highways.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are among a few states in the country where there is a blanket ban on the entry of over-loaded trucks. In these states, no truck can carry a load of more than 9 tonne. If any overloaded vehicle is detected, a minimum fine of Rs 10,000 is supposedly imposed. All inter-state barriers are equipped with latest electronic weighing machines and it is mandatory for every vehicle to pass through these machines, it is stated.

Therefore, the condition of roads is reportedly much better in these states as compared to other states. If Himachal also enacts the same laws, the situation can be improved here too and the state can save crores of rupees being spent on repair of roads year after year. 

Shimla, May 25
An underhand sale deal of the 150-MW Sorang hydropower project, involving Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) and TAQA, an Abu Dhabi-based consortium, has rocked the corridors of power. Officials in the Department of Multi-purpose Power Projects and Directorate of Energy are tightlipped over the deal.

The underhand sale deal of the Sorang project has been unearthed in a letter that a Rajasthan-based former Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Ratan Singh had shot off to the Chief Minister and the Principal Secretary, Power, on May 13, three days before the Lok Sabha election results were declared.

The letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune, stated that the NCC had sold the Sorang project to TAQA.

TAQA is also involved in the “buyout” of the 1,000-MW Karcham-Wangtoo project and the 300-MW Baspa project in Kinnaur from the Jaypee company.

However, both TAQA and Jaypee have kept the government in the dark about the reported sale deal. Jaypee has remained non-committal about this in its reply to the state government so far, sources said.

The MP has cited irregularities in the acquisition of the Sorang project, intervening on the behalf of the NCC. His letter, dated May 13, stated that TAQA had struck the deal with the NCC without the approval from the state government as per the condition of the Implementation Agreement and not paid Rs 18 crore to the NCC.

After receiving the complaint from the MP, Principal Secretary (MPP) SKBS Negi shot off a letter on May 17 asking the Directorate of Energy to examine the complaint and report on the matter to the department.

The sources said the NCC had obtained a permission to sell the 5-per cent equity in the Sorang project despite the fact that the project was still under execution. The NOC to sell the 5-per cent equity was given to the NCC, subject to the condition that the company would submit the supplementary implementation agreement (IA) within two months.

As per the hydropower policy and the IA that the government signed with each company, no company can sell the project 49 per cent of its equity before it is commissioned and is run for six months after this, officials said.

But the NCC has not submitted the fresh IA so far. “We have sought details from the NCC after the complaint was received by us,” an official said. The Sorang project also run into trouble recently after its pen stoke developed a snag during testing.

Director, Energy, RD Nazeem confirmed that they had issued notices to the NCC seeking reply on the matter.

Dharamsala, May 25
The massive landslide on the Dharamsala-McLeodganj road that destroyed 12 Army quarters and four houses at Terra Lines village in August last year has become a tourist attraction this season. Tourists visiting McLeodganj halt here to see the way these houses have slid from the hill.

The Army authorities have not removed the muck so far and the houses are still lying as they are.

Amit, a tourist from Punjab, said: “It is scary to see the force of nature. It is also amazing to see how the houses have come down the hill along with their basement.”

The massive landslide endangered all houses at Terra Lines village, 4 km from Dharamsala, after which the Army authorities provided them with a temporary residence.

The incident had highlighted the threat posed to human life due to haphazard construction. A study conducted by the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, had revealed that several areas in Dharamsala and McLeodganj were active sliding zones. The study had clearly demarcated areas falling under the active sliding zone.

But, the district administration has not taken any steps to check illegal constructions coming up in Dharamsala and McLeodganj. People too fail to follow the Town and Country Planning norms.

The Town and Country Planning Department issues notices to violators, but department officials said they could not act against violators as they did not have the power to do so. Help from other departments that could act against violators was sought generally, they said.

Shimla, May 25
With the change of guards at the Centre, the ~68-crore channelisation of city’s over 67 storm-water drains hangs in balance in the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD).

These nullahs continue to remain choked with stinking trash, junk, filth, debris and weeds despite the fact that the city is celebrating 150 years of its existence this year.

The plight of city’s 68 storm-water drains is worsening every year as the MoUD has sent back the project to the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) after the code of conduct came into force during the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

The SMC had proposed this project to treat and restore city’s 68 nullahs under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), but with the change of guards at the Centre, the SMC project hangs in balance, informed SMC officials.

The nullah that runs from the Richmond-Indira Gandhi Indoor Sports complex to the HPTDC lift through the middle of the city is a stinking graveyard for dirt, trash and weeds and presents a dirty picture, pointed out old-timers. The nullah ends up into the Ashwani khud, which is a source of drinking water for the city residents.

Schoolchildren crossing the Kagnadhar nullah in New Shimla face the ordeal of stink daily, residents complained.

Even the two storm water streams at both sides of the Indira Gandhi Medical College ( IGMC) are no less dirty.

Though IGMC authorities claim they dispose of the solid waste at the municipal dumping sites, a part of the trash and junk from the hospital and nearby houses continue to end up into these two nullahs, revealed local enquiries.

The water drain that runs through the Shimla Barrier, the gateway to the erstwhile capital of the Raj, greets visitors with trash, construction debris and dirt of all sorts as one peep outs into the dirty nullahs.

Despite a blanket ban on plastic in the state, the city nullahs are bearing a major brunt of illegal dumping of trash, junk and constriction dumping under the cover of darkness, revealed residents.

The corporation collects about 80 metric tonne of solid waste daily by the door-to-door collection under its Saheb Society Scheme.

But there are about 15 per cent households which are yet to be covered under this scheme, revealed insiders.

As a result, 15 per cent of solid waste ends up in the surrounding nullahs. “We expect the Centre will consider the project as it is deals with the cleanliness of the capital city,” said Tikender Panwar, Deputy Mayor, Shimla.

The dirty stinking nullahs that once used to flow with clean water during the heydays of the erstwhile British Raj reek of weeds, trash and junk that is dumped into the nullahs by neighbouring residents and hoteliers, walkers, tourists and municipal sweepers, observed caretakers of the city. There is a problem as far as storm water drains are concerned.

“We have proposed to re-send the project to the ministry so that these channels are treated and made cleaner,” said Amarjeet Singh, Municipal Commissioner.

Nurpur, May 25
The indifferent attitude of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in repairing a 25-ft-long portion of the Pathankot-Mandi National Highway (NH-154) between Niazpur and Bodh can be gauged from the fact that even after 10 months it has not been repaired.

The damaged portion of the National Highway-154 near Nurpur. Photo by writer

The portion of the highway had caved in during monsoon last year and the authorities had blocked it with bituman drums from both the sides to prevent any mishap. However, during night the risk of accidents grows.

Hundreds of vehicles, including trucks and tourist buses, pass through this national highway. As the stretch is close to a sharp turn, the threat of accidents rises as drivers from outside the state are unaware of the condition on the road. Meanwhile, unauthorised parking of trucks near the damaged portion in the night has aggravated the threat of accidents. The NH authorities as well as the traffic police have turned a blind eye towards the unauthorised parking of trucks on the highway.

Commuters Vijay Kumar, Sat Pal and Saroop Singh regretted that the highway authorities were the least concerned about the poor condition of the national highway.

Another caved in portion of the road near the Dakki bus stop speaks about the priorities of the authorities. There is demand to repair the caved-in portions of thenational highway as monsoon is fast approaching.

Meanwhile, Pradeep Sharma, assistant engineer, NHAI, Nurpur Division, said an estimate for the repair of the damaged portions had been submitted to the higher authorities.

Solan, May 25
The managements of private polytechnic institutions in the state are up in arms against the state government’s move to allow admissions through the Polytechnic Admission Test (PAT).

Since a majority of the students fail to qualify this test, private polytechnic institutes are facing a sharp drop in admissions for the past two years.

The situation is so bad at some institutes that they have barely received 10 to 25 admissions, as other students have opted for institutes in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.

“Despite a sharp decline in the number of students, the managements have been forced to maintain a complete staff strength as sanctioned for its total intake and this norm has rendered institutes financially non-viable,” a principal of a private institute in Solan said.

He said it was strange that the government had later come out with a direction to regularise the admission of students who were admitted without PAT after charging Rs 13,500 as fee. He said this was a mockery of the so-called quality which the state government was professing to maintain.

He said the institute could fill barely 30 per cent of the total seats last year.

Facing hardships in repaying loans and paying salaries, the managements of some institutes are now contemplating to close their institutes as they cannot bear the overhead expenditure with a few admissions.

Since admissions in the neighbouring states are not regulated through any qualifying examination, there is an exodus of students to Punjab, while the institutes in Himachal have failed to get adequate staff strength.

Demanding relaxation in the admission process, Rajnish Bansal, Chairman, Himalayan Group of Professional Colleges, Kala Amb, said: “The state government should relax this norm keeping in view the undue expenditure being incurred by students seeking admission in such courses in other states after failing to qualify PAT.”

He said as students who opted for such courses generally belonged to rural areas and hailed from lower income groups, the state government should not impose stringent norms such as charging additional fee of Rs 13,500 for their admissions and should ease out the admission procedure.

He said it appeared that only one-fourth of the total number of seats would be filled this year. He said the issue had been taken up several times with the state government, but little had been done to provide relief to the institutes.

Shimla, May 25
Himachal Pradesh University’s haste to implement the Rashtriya Uchhatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and the choice-based credit system (CBCS) to earn the distinction of being the first university in the country to adopt the new system has created a mess in the examination branch, leading to delay in the declaration of results.

Neither the examination branch nor the colleges were consulted to understand the constraints while taking the arbitrary decision that involved the future of lakhs of undergraduates. The examination branch was told that “a self-speaking software” would be provided and all functions would be online.

A computer-generated 14 digit roll number, valid for all six semesters was to be provided to the students for posting all data online as per the requirements in the software.

However, the software, which should have been in place before implementing RUSA, has not been prepared till date and a number of colleges have refused to send the data online and even generated their own series of roll numbers and send hard copies of awards, adding to the burden of the short-staffed examination branch.

Examination branch sources said of 2.45 lakh cases in the first year of undergraduate courses, discrepancies have been detected in 90,000. Some colleges have not generated the 14-digit roll number for conducting examinations, while majority of the colleges have not provided the soft copy as asked.

With students up in arms against the university and demanding a time-bound declaration of results, the Controller of Examination (CEO) has reportedly served a notice to quit.

While the number of subjects in each semester has increased from four to seven under RUSA, a majority of the staff is not familiar with the newly introduced “standard deviation” for giving the grades. There will be seven grades, three each on the higher and lower side of mean, calculation of which is a statistical exercise.

The duplication of “data transfer” exercise has added to the burden and the shortage of trained staff is delaying the declaration of results, executive council member Chowdhary Waryam Singh said.

Another problem with the software is that the entire results has to be prepared at once and there is no scope for withholding some results, as it has no such provision.

The results of most postgraduate courses have been declared through the old process. But the number of students in undergraduate courses is too high to declare the results through manual applications, especially when 333 posts of non-teaching employees are lying vacant in the university.

SCA secretary Piyush Sewal said a payment of Rs 4-crore was due to papers setters and evaluators. He accused Vice-Chancellor ADN Bajpai of not implementing RUSA as a pilot project in some colleges and later implementing it in the entire state.

Mandi, May 25
The Private Technical Institutions Association has decided to approach the Supreme Court (SC) over the alleged apathy of the state government towards it.

The association is irked over the imposition of penalty on private engineering and polytechnic institutions for admitting students, who have not appeared in Joint Entrance Examination and Polytechnic Admission Test, to Bachelor of Engineering (B Tech) and diploma courses.

The state government had given a one-time relaxation to private institutions to such students during the last academic session.

A penalty of Rs 10,000 per students admitted in BTech and Rs 13,500 for every student admitted in diploma courses by the private institutions was imposed by the state government.

The state government has been justifying the penalty saying there is a provision in the norms regulating the private technical institutions, which is clearly mentioned in the admission prospectus itself.

The Private Technical Institutions Association had approached the Himachal Pradesh High Court, which asked the state government to reduce the fine.

The association has also been demanding 33 per cent management seats in every institution, as is being allowed in the neighbouring states.

Nikka Ram Chaudhary, general secretary, Private Technical Institutions Association, said, “We have been urging the state government not to impose penalty for admitting students in various courses since we were given a one-time relaxation in the last session by the state Cabinet.”

“Our request to allow a 33 per cent management quota has also not been conceded to by the state government. Besides, we are not getting a free hand in exercising the exiting 15 per cent management quota seats. In such a situation, we are left with no other option but to approach the Supreme Court of India,” he said.

Shimla, May 25
Tall claims of making Himachal Pradesh an “education hub” by the government notwithstanding, the government which resorted to haphazard expansion and privatisation is now focusing on its quality.

The state, aiming at 100 per cent literacy, is concerned over the learning levels even at the elementary stage and has decided to revive the Class V and VIII examinations.

The government has set up a close network of primary schools to ensure that every child has access to education within the radius of 1.5 km to 2.0 km and free bus facility is also being provided to students of government schools.

The literacy rate in the state at present is 82.80 per cent,as compared to 31.71 per cent in 1971.

For improving higher education, the government implemented the Rashtriya Uchattar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and constituted the State Higher Educational Council. It also submitted a project proposal of Rs 956 crore to the Ministry of Human Resources, Government of India, for approval under RUSA.

However, the implementation of RUSA without proper preparation and planning has created a chaos and both the students and college teachers rue that it had been implemented without increasing the faculty and expanding infrastructural facilities.

The state has earmarked Rs 4,282 crore in the current year’s budget and the Ministry of Human Resource and Development has approved Rs 262 crore to the state for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

The government has launched National Vocational Education Qualification Framework in 100 senior secondary schools for the students of Class IX to XII with the choice of five vocations, including information technology enabled service (ITES), security, retail, automobile and healthcare and 9,000 students have been enrolled under the scheme.

The state government has further decided to extend vocational education in another 100 government senior secondary schools with three new courses, namely agriculture, hospitality and tourism and electronics and hardware to improve employability of students.

As many as 200 vocational teachers are being appointed in these schools during the current academic session and the government has decided to give cash incentive of Rs 75,000 to any student of the state getting admission in prestigious institutions like IITs, IIMs and AIIMs.

To give boost to information technology in schools, 618 government senior secondary schools, 848 high schools and five smart schools are being covered under ICT in school scheme (phase II).

Una, May 25
Prem Kumar Dhumal, former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition, today said the Congress government in the state was facing a "crisis of confidence" situation, which was proved when the Cabinet recently took certain decisions purely aimed at diverting the attention of the public from the historic defeat of the ruling party in the General Election.

Dhumal was addressing mediapersons at Una on his way to Delhi to be present at the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi. State BJP president Satpal Singh Satti was also accompanying him.

Dhumal said the decision to increase the retirement age of the government employees by one year was anti-youth. He charged the Congress party of cheating the unemployed youth.

The former CM said the financial position of the state was very poor and by increasing the retirement age by one year, the government had saved itself from the burden of paying retirement allowances to its employees. He added that the state had even backtracked on its election manifesto promise of giving unemployment allowance to the youth.

Dhumal said despite tall claims by the Chief Minister and the Industry Minister during the last one-and-a-half-year of the Congress regime, the government had failed to check the rising prices of cement. He said with today’s hike of Rs 13 per bag, the total increase in the prices of cement during the Congress regime was around Rs 50. He alleged that while the nexus between the government and the cement companies could not be ruled out, the common man was feeling the heat.

Referring to Virbhadra Singh’s recent statement that the Congress high command had not asked him to step down from the post, Dhumal said, “resignations are tendered on moral grounds”. He said time was not far when either the Congress would have to change the leadership of the state government or there would be mid-term polls.

The former CM said Rajya Sabha member and former minister from state Jagat Parkash Nadda’s elevation to the post of national BJP president was almost decided. Terming this as a matter of great honour for a small state like Himachal Pradesh, he said he welcomed the decision. As regards representation to the hill state in the Union cabinet, Dhumal said it was the Prime Minister’s prerogative.

Palampur, May 25
Prem Kumar Dhumal, former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, today alleged that wrong policies and faulty planning of the state government, led by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, had brought the state on the verge of bankruptcy and complete suspension of development activities.

Addressing mediapersons here yesterday, Dhumal said the Congress government had no agenda for development. This was evident from the fact that in the past one-and-a-half-year, the condition of state roads had gone from bad to worse, there was an acute shortage of essential commodities at fair prices shops, law and order situation had deteriorated and there was a steep rise in cases of murder, theft, dacoity and other crimes.

Dhumal said with the onset of summer, hundreds of villages were facing drinking water crises, but the government was unconcerned with the situation. He said the tourist season in the state was in full swing, but the three important national highways of the state, Kiratpur-Manali, Kangra-Shimla and Pathankot-Mandi, were full of potholes, causing inconvenience to the tourists.

He regretted that the state government was well conversant with the fact that 98 per cent population was dependant on road transport, and monsoon was likely to arrive in the first week of June, but no efforts had been made to repair or carpet the highways.

Dhumal added that in the regime of Virbhadra Singh, the Congress government had failed to get major development projects sanctioned from the Centre. He quoted that during the BJP rule in the state, the Union Government had sanctioned four-laning projects for two national highways of the state.

Dhumal did not rule out the possibility of mid-term poll in the state as the Congress government had a thin majority in the House with the support of four independent MLAs and 14 Congress MLAs had already “conveyed their displeasure to Congress high command against the CM's style of functioning”.

Shimla, May 25
Concerned over the spurt in cases of crime against women, the Himachal Women Commission, which has already sought a status report in the case of a minor’s gang rape from the police, will also seek a report into the murder of a teacher, Sushama Sharma, in Shimla.

Commission Chairperson Jaineb Chandel said, “The rising graph of crime against women is disturbing. We will hold a meeting with the police officers concerned to take stock of the prevailing situation.” “A secure environment for women is a must. There is a need to increase police patrolling in sensitive and deserted areas to prevent recurrence of such crimes,” she said.

A 17-year-old girl was raped by two unknown persons near the railway track in the vicinity of tunnel No. 103 on May 16. Five days later, a teacher in her 50s was shot dead at her residence at Bhanoti near Jutogh. Two cases of heinous crimes against women within a week have caused panic in the state capital, considered to be safe for women.

The police have not been able to solve the cases. In the rape case, there hasn’t been any progress in the investigations except preparing a sketch of the accused. In the teacher’s murder case, the police is still groping in the dark.

There has been rise in crime against women during the past one-and-a-half year as against 183 rape cases in 2012, 250 rape cases were registered in 2013. The number of rape cases in the first three months of 2014 is 54.

Solan, May 25
The bordering districts of Solan and Sirmaur are among those which have the lowest gender ratios in the state, 884 and 915, respectively, which are below not just the national average, but also the state average.

The gender ratio in Himachal was 974 according to the 2011 Census figures and this was higher than the national figure of 940.

Solan had the second lowest gender ratio in the state after the tribal district of Kinnaur and Sirmaur was only marginally ahead, placed at number three.

The low sex ratio has become a cause of concern for the health authorities as apart from the large number of ultrasound clinics in the district, proximity to other states like Haryana, Uttarakhand and Punjab meant people were actively getting sex determination tests conducted.

Though a Pre-Natal Diagnostic Test Committee regularly inspects the records of all private and government-run clinics where this facility is available so that malpractice can be checked, the low gender ratio indicated that this practice was going on unchecked.

Six such clinics were issued notices in Solan for failing to maintain proper records and other irregularities like indirect depiction through pictures in ultrasound rooms in the recent past, but no strict action was taken against any clinic in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial belt where such violations were more.

Committees headed by officials from the Ministry of Family and Health Welfare too have been raiding such clinics from time to time to catch the erring doctors indulging in sex determination on the sly, but little success has been achieved in nabbing the culprits.

All such clinics are supposed to maintain records for five years, but doctors deliberately falter on this, confided a doctor, and added that even the mandatory F-forms, which contained details of individual patients, were not maintained properly.

The Union Government, in a bid to curb this menace, has made it mandatory that no untrained person would conduct ultrasound tests from January 2016 and only

trained gynaecologists, radiologists and technicians would be eligible to conduct the tests, that too after clearing the prescribed examination. Online monitoring of ultrasound machines too would be made mandatory, said Dr Udit Kumar, District Medical Officer.

Palampur, May 25
Despite the fact that there is a complete ban on mining and quarrying in the Neugal river and other tributaries of the Beas, large-scale illegal mining and quarrying is going on unchecked in Palampur. Illegal mining is not only creating environmental imbalances, but also causing huge loss to the state exchequer as the state is losing royalty in crores every year.

Illegal cutting of hills in progress at Palampur. Photos by writer

Illegal and unscientific mining quarrying in the Kangra valley has resulted in large-scale deforestation, landslides and flash floods. Over 20,000 hectares of land have been seriously affected by mining, quarrying and other activities in this region, resulting in drastic reshaping of landscape.

Illegal mining is also posing a serious threat to existence of dozens of irrigation and drinking water supply schemes, local paths, village roads and cremation grounds. The existence of Kirpal Chand Khual, feeding over 30 panchayats comprising 100 villages of Palampur, Bhawarans and Daroh blocks and Charnamati and Lower Baijnath kuhals feeding 15 panchayats of Baijnath block is in danger because of continuous mining in the catchments of Neugal and Binwa rivers.

The issue relating to illegal mining in the Kangra valley is already under the scanner in the HP High Court. The court has treated a news item that appeared in these columns as a PIL. The Kangra DC and District Mining officer have been asked by the high court to file a status report.

In the past six months, the SDM and the DSP of Palampur, along with officials of the Mining Department, have conducted a number of raids, seized tractor trailers carrying mining material and imposed heavy fines. This has not succeeded in checking the mining mafia's ways. In Bindravan, Bundla, Nain, Kandwari, Baijnath and Mehanja areas, hundreds of tractors can be seen in the rivers every day extracting mining material illegally.

The persons involved in this illegal trade have no legal rights to extract the sand, stone, bajri and other raw material from these khuds and quarries.

However, with the blessings of political leaders, the mining mafia has flourished when it comes to extracting mining material without paying any royalty to the state government, but at the same time, the mafia is regularly charging “illegal cess” from hundreds of tractor trailers and trucks lifting material from these rivers.

Shimla, May 25
The Himachal Kisan Sabha (HKS) today demanded compensation for the loss suffered by apple, vegetable and cereal farmers due to hailstorm in the last one month. They also demanded a survey of the loss in the orchards in Rohru-Jubbal-Chopal-Rampur on May 24-25.

In a joint statement issued by the Himachal Kisan Sabha leaders, Dr Kuldip Tanvar and Onkar Shad said the farmers had suffered huge losses for the past one month.

But the state government had not assessed the loss properly, leave alone paying any compensation, they claimed.

Una, May 25
Employees of the local Regional Transport Office (RTO) have lodged a written complaint against the style of functioning of the Regional Transport Officer with the Transport Department.

In a letter, copies of which were released to the media, six signatories (office superintendent, two senior assistants, junior assistant, data entry operator and peon) alleged that they were being mentally harassed by the officer. They were even threatened of adverse entries in their annual reports.

They said ministerial staff was ordered to perform duties of night watchmen, which was against the service norms. Notably, there were reports of irregularities against the Una RTO sometime ago and the government had issued his transfer orders after a n inquiry by the Additional Commissioner, Transport. The transfer was later cancelled. — OC

Shimlla, May 25
Gyalwang Drukpa, spiritual head of Drukpa Buddhists, on Wednesday welcomed the release of a commemorative stamp celebrating 999 years of the Drukpa Lineage.

The stamp was released by SK Sinha, member, HRD, Department of Post, in Delhi. Gyalwang said: “Drukpa Buddhists are overjoyed with the honour and recognition bestowed by the government.” He said: “The Drukpa Lineage predominates in Himalayan regions such as Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Ladakh and we act as a buffer between India and China, protecting the sensitive border region of the country.”

Una, May 25
A woman in connivance with her paramour allegedly attempted to crush her husband and three children to death under a car at the Manohar market in Nari village near Una today.

The victims have been admitted to the Una District Hospital. A case under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code, has been registered at the Una Sadar police station against the duo. The accused are on the run.

According to police sources, Santoshgarh resident Ashwani and his three children Khushi (9), Tamanna (8) and Anmol (4) were going towards a religious place on their two-wheeler when his wife Dimple and her paramour Om Parkash, a resident of Satothar village, came in a car and hit them.

The residents called up the 108 ambulance service, which took the injured persons to the district hospital. The children sustained serious injuries in the incident.

Ashwani told the police that his wife and her paramour even visited the hospital and threatened to kill him and his children.

The victim stated to the police that his wife had left home on May 20 on the pretext of paying obeisance at the Chintpurni shrine after which he did not receive any news of her.

Meanwhile, Una Station House Officer KL Beri said raids were on and they were trying to arrest the accused.

Shimla, May 25
A minor girl was allegedly raped by a her neighbour in the remote Nerwa area of Shimla district.

The 12-year-old girl today reported at the local police station that the accused attempted to outrage her modesty on May 23, but later changed her statement and said she was raped, police sources said.

A case has been registered. The culprit is still at large. — TNS

Kullu, May 25
The police fished out a body from the Beas, 26 km from here, yesterday. It was learnt that victim Sajan (15), son of Dolaram, belonging to Nawanshahr district of Punjab, and his friend was collecting firewood on the river bank yesterday when he was washed away by the gushing water.

It was further learnt that family members had lodged a missing complaint with the police. ASI Kushal Kumar said the body had been sent to a Kullu hospital for a postmortem examination.