Dharamsala, July 16
The state government decision to hold roadshows to attract investment for Himachal is a step too late. Those who have already invested in the state said until the state government removed the existing bottlenecks, hardly any new investor would risk his investment here. Providing hassle-free land is the biggest bottleneck for industry.

Shimla, July 16
To regulate the transport of nearly 2.30 crore apple cartons this year, the district administration has set up a control room at Fagu and declared 12 per cent hike in freight charges for truckers from different key locations to the markets.

The apple season, mainly the low-grade early June varieties, has started coming in and agricultural produce market committees (APMCs) in Rohru, Dhalli, Rampur, Parwanu, Solan and at other places have been directed to inspect fruit arrivals and check overcharging, over-grading and overweighing of apple cartons.

The government has notified that each carton will contain 22.5 kg apple, while half carton will contain 11 kg fruit, including the weight of carton, the officials said.

As many as three main police barriers have been set up at Charabra, Shoghi and Mehli on NH-22 to regulate apple transport to avoid traffic jams and congestion.

“As many as 180 policemen will man the barriers ensuring safe transport, while recovery vans will be available at every 15 km distance on the main Theog-Hatkoti-Rohru highway and other main roads so that road blockades or jams can be taken care of,” said Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, Dinesh Malhotra, while talking to The Tribune here today.

He said: “We have set up main control room at Fagu to regulate the transport of apple from orchards to markets in the region. We have set up sub-control rooms at Ferach in Chopal, Naina near Balag on the Chaila-Yashwantnagar-Solan road, Narkanda and Rampur, which will be manned by policeman and other staff for smooth transportation.”

Malhotra after reviewing the arrangements further said: “The trucks being operated during the season are being inspected and registered properly to ensure the safe and theft-free transport to growers. Moreover we are issuing identity cards to each truck operator.”

Meanwhile, the Horticulture Department has estimated production of about 2.30 crore cartons this year as compared to 3.60 crore cartons in 2013.

But growers’ are worried over pathetic condition of roads, including link roads in the apple belt, considering that the monsoons could add on to their miseries, as it happened in 2010.

On this, Malhotra said: “The PWD has been directed to take care of potholes on the road, while the private C and C construction Ltd, which was awarded the contract of the Theog-Hatkoti-Rohru highway, has been asked to gear up the work.”

He said the SDMs had been directed to implement the orders on freight charges and coordinating with apple growers’ associations and truckers’ unions and keep a watch on wrong doers.

Dharamsala, July 16
Sushma Verma has become the first woman cricketer of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) to have been selected in the national team for the England tour. Sushma, a right-hand batswoman and wicket-keeper, has represented India and Himachal Pradesh in various tournaments.

Anurag Thakur, HPCA president, said, “It is a proud moment for all of us at the HPCA that Sushma has been selected for this team. We congratulate Sushma on her achievement and wish her all the success and luck for this tour. This has been possible due to the consistent efforts of all the stakeholders coaches, members, support staff, infrastructure and facilities created in the last 12 years by the HPCA.”

Other members who have been selected for this tour include Mithali Raj (captain), Karuna Jain, Smriti Mandana, Thirushkamini, Poonam Raut, Harman Preet Kaur, Jhulan Goswami, Niranjana N, Shubhlakshmi Sharma, Rajeswari Gaekwad, Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav, Swagathika Rath and Vanitha VR.

Transport Minister GS Bali

Una, July 15
Transport, Technical Education and Food and Civil Supplies Minister GS Bali today said 20 new air-conditioned (AC) buses would soon be inducted into the existing fleet of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC).

Addressing mediapersons here, he said passengers today were demanding better facilities. However, the fare of these buses would only be about 15 per cent more than the ordinary ones. Also, the process for filling up 700 posts of bus conductors would be initiated soon, he added.

Bali said the biggest project for the merged areas during the current plan was the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) to be set up in Una district.

The classes had already begun at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Hamirpur, and these would be shifted to a permanent building in Una once it was complete, he said.

He added that the governing body and the standing council for the IIIT had been constituted and these consisted of prominent educationists.

The minister said nine posts of principal of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) would be filled up directly, while one new course had been started at the Rohru, Kangra and Chamba Polytechnic institutes. Students would be admitted to this course on the basis of special counselling.

Deliberating upon the National Food Security Act, Bali said the state government had relaxed the norms for setting up new fair-price shops. The population norm for a fair-price shop had been reduced from 2,000 to 1,500 for general areas and to 1,000 in tribal areas. 

Solan,July 16
Small-scale pharmaceutical units in Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh will soon have testing facilities at their doorsteps with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh laying the foundation stone of a Rs 6.5-crore testing lab at Baddi tomorrow.

The Himachal Drug Manufacturers Association (HDMA) has secured Rs 6.5 crore from the Ministry of Micro and Small Enterprises under the Cluster Development Programme and it will operate this lab.

Association president SL Singla said 20 per cent of the 350 pharmaceutical units were small-scale enterprises which lacked adequate testing facilities. These were forced to outsource their testing work to labs located in other states and apart from spending time, the credibility of their results and high cost was an issue which always remained questionable.

Certain testing procedures include costly equipment such as HPLC machines which were priced in crores and since small pharma units could not afford such investment, these are dependent on private labs for meeting their requirements.The lab will be run on a no-profit, no-loss basis and a mechanism be evolved where the expenditure will be incurred from the minimum testing fee.

The state government has already granted 700 sq m land near the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Development Authority for this lab. 

Solan, July 16
A case of violation of Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, 1972, has come to fore in the Dattowala area of Nalagarh industrial area, where a stretch of 10 bigha land which was bought for industrial use was used for constructing a housing colony violating various norms of the Revenue and Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department.

According to a complaint made to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, the TCP Department had permitted a steel unit at Dattowal to raise a housing colony on 62 bigha land in 1998. As many as 160 plots were carved out of this land and a housing colony was raised over it.

Out of this 62 bigha land, 10 bigha was bought by the unit management under Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, 1972, in July 1979 and December 1984 and it was meant for industrial use only. This transaction is duly recorded in six sale deeds.

The unit management, however, procured permission to raise a housing colony over the entire 62 bigha land and the officials of the TCP and Revenue Departments, while ignoring the type of land that was involved, accorded their permission. This was despite the fact that the land bought under Section 118 could not be sold without taking permission from the state government as the permission was granted for a specific purpose only.

Since raising a housing colony also involves change of land use policy, this aspect was overlooked by the TCP Department while according permission for the housing colony.

Ramesh Chajta, Superintendent of Police, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, confirmed that the bureau sleuths were inquiring into the matter after the receipt of a complaint.

Interestingly, not only was a housing colony erected over this land, but it was sold placing an erroneous fact on record that Section 118 was not applicable over this land with the help of field officials of the Revenue Department.

While pointing towards the connivance of the Revenue and TCP officials, a written complaint was lodged with the chief minister, revenue and town and country planning ministers as well as the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Special Investigating Unit (SIT) of the bureau is now inquiring into the matter and they have already procured revenue records pertaining to the sale and purchase of this land, where flagrant violation of Section 118 is being looked into. The role of the officials of the Revenue and TCP Departments has also come under scanner.

Kangra, July 16
State government pensioners today demanded that 10 per cent of Dearness Allowance (DA) from January 1, this year, be released in their favour and monthly medical allowance be enhanced from Rs 350 to Rs 500 on the Punjab pattern. The demands were raised by pensioners during a meeting held at a local gurdwara under the chairmanship of PR Agnihotri, president, Kangra block unit of the Himachal Pradesh Pensioners Sangh.

OP Guleria, general secretary of the sangh, said it was demanded that 5, 10 and 15 per cent allowance should be merged with the basic pension and not be treated as allowance. Guleria said after every two years Leave Travel Concession (LTC) facilities should be provided to the pensioners of this hill state on the Punjab pattern.

During the meeting, the pensioners expressed resentment over the delay in clearing the reimbursement of medical bills as old pensioners. They further demanded that the HPSEB should enhance the basic pension of retired Board employees by 10 per cent at the age of 70 years and by 15 per cent at 75 years on the pattern of other state departments. 

Chamba, July 16
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is going to hold a public hearing of the problems and grievances of Scheduled Castes of the states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh in Chandigarh on October 29.

An official communiqué issued here today said it was intimated that those persons belonging to Scheduled Castes, who had a complaint of atrocity committed by a public servant or of negligence by a public servant in prevention of atrocity, may send their complaints to the commission by registered post or speed post.

Shimla, July 16
The state has experienced the wettest day during the current monsoon season with several areas in mid and lower hills experiencing “very heavy” rain during the past 24 hours.

Renuka in Sirmaur district recorded highest rainfall of 300 mm in 12 hours, while Paonta Sahib, Sangrah and Nahan recorded 126 mm, 82 mm and 56 mm rain, respectively. Rain triggered landslides in interior areas and disrupted normal life. The heavy rain also disrupted normal life in Kangra, Mandi and parts of Una districts causing sharp fall in the maximum temperature.

Kangra, Guler, Dehra Gopipur and Palampur were soaked with 152 mm, 145 mm, 139 mm and 107 mm rain, while Una and Bharwara received 130 mm and 119 mm rain.

Baijnath recorded 90 mm rain, while Pandoh and Mandi had 89 mm and 84 mm rain followed by Nagrota Suriyan 77 mm, Jogindernagar 71 mm, Nahan 56 mm and Dharamsala 48 mm.

Manmohan Singh, Director local MeT office, said: “The monsoon has intensified and it will remain active till July 18 and heavy rain at isolated places will continue till July 22. The downpour will also help in covering the deficit which was 43 per cent in June and 40 per cent in the first fortnight of July.”

Meanwhile, the downpour caused a steep fall in the day temperature and Una which received 130 mm rain recorded a high of 30°C against 36.6°C yesterday.

Dharamsala recorded a high of 30.2°C, followed by Sundernagar 27.1°C, Solan 25.5°C, Nahan 25°C, Shimla 24.1°C, Manali 20°C and Kalpa 19.4°C, a drop of three to five degrees.

Una, July 16
The first downpour has exposed the unpreparedness of the district administration in facing a flood-like situation.

Heavy rainfall, measuring 130.4 mm lashed most parts of the district, including the headquarters today morning.

Consequently, water entered the residential and commercial buildings in the lower areas of the town, including vegetable market, old Hoshiarpur road, old bus stand and the adjacent colonies.

Like previous years, water entered the mini-secretariat building and the tehsil office. There was a traffic jam on the state highway at the old bus stand where water was knee deep in some areas.

Transport Minister GS Bali, who was travelling from Dharamsala to Una, got stuck in the traffic jam near the old bus stand area.

On seeing the minister, locals complained about water entering their establishments and blocking vehicular traffic on roads. It took about half-an-hour for him to convince locals that the government would take action to solve the problem.

He assured the people that he would come back to them on the issue after a fortnight and directed the administration to sort out the issue during that time.

He was heard telling the Deputy Commissioner that he was diabetic and had to wade through rain water during the traffic jam.

Reports of damage to some shops due to flooding was reported in some industries situated in Bathu and Bathari, while about a dozen shops, including a liquor vend, were damaged in Baduhi village.

Some persons, who were caught in the fast currents of a rivulet in Amb, were saved by locals. 

Hamirpur, July 16
The Town and Country Planner, Hamirpur, was found absent from the office yesterday during a surprise raid by Sandeep Kumar, Director, Town and Country Planning Department.

The raid was conducted after getting several complaints from the public of the official being absent from the office.

During the raid, the Director found the Town and Country Planner absent from duty without seeking any leave or informing officials concerned. It was also found that the officer was not attending the office for about a month.

The office of Town and Country Planning, Hamirpur, covers Hamirpur town and recently 52 new areas, including Sujanpur, were brought under this office.

Sandeep Kumar said, “The officer is not supposed to mark her attendance and she took benefit of this. Files of work were piling up in the office for quite some time. I have recommended strong action against the officer and the charge has been given to the Assistant Town and Country Planner,” he added. 

Shimla, July 16
Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur today said nobody was above law and all options were open to deal with the controversy involving affiliation of Maharishi Markandehswar Medical College and University (MMU) even as the state has asked the Centre to resolve the issue as the Medical Council of India (MCI) had no mandate on it.

Addressing a press conference, Kaul said Himachal had written to the Centre to resolve the issue as the MCI had no authority in deciding that the medical college would be affiliated to the MMU. “Though the MMU is contesting that the colleges are affiliated to their own university, under the statutes these have to be affiliated with Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) and we have made this clear,” he said.

“It does surprise us when we see that private medical colleges being allowed to fill 150 seats in the beginning, on the other hand 85 seats in the two medical colleges are reduced,” he said. He added that the state government would write to the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister to involve the state government
when the MCI team inspected private medical colleges in Himachal.

Additional Chief Secretary Vineet Chawdhry said the state government could exercise various options as the essentiality certificate for running the medical college was issued by the state government. “One of the ways if a medical college falters is that we invoke the bank guarantee paid by the medical college and refer the shortcomings pointed out in various complaints to the Private Universities Regulatory Commission,” he said.

Chawdhry admitted that certain complaints had been received against the MMU and these had been referred to the regulatory commission. “The plea being taken by the MMU is that its trust has the permission to run as a university but the fact is that the trust and the university are two separate entities,” he clarified.

He also said steps had been initiated to appoint two nominees from the government as members in the MCI. 

Dharamsala, July 16
The failure of the government to post a regular divisional commissioner in Kangra was causing harassment to litigants of revenue cases in Una, Kangra and Chamba districts.

For the past about six months, the government has not posted any regular divisional commissioner in Kangra. The additional charge of the Kangra revenue division has been given to Divisional Commissioner, Mandi, Onkar Sharma.

Onkar Sharma is now looking after the revenue cases of eight districts, five districts in Mandi and three in Kangra division.

Sources here said there were about 6,000 pending revenue cases in the court of the divisional commissioner, Kangra. Out of these, more than 60 per cent cases pertained to revenue cases of Una district. Some cases were over a decade old.

Satpal Satti, state president of the BJP, said many people met him daily and reported regarding the harassment they were facing due to the failure of the government to post a regular divisional commissioner in Kangra. He alleged that the government was not serious about the welfare of the people.

The post of divisional commissioner does not seem to be a coveted post for the state bureaucracy. The records here reveal that for the past about 10 years, no officer has completed one year on the post. Even during the previous BJP government regime, thecondition remained the same. In many cases, the post of Dharamsala divisional commissioner is given to the officers as punishment posting.

However, people of Kangra division, that includes Una, Kangra and Chamba districts, are feeling the pinch due to the failure of the government to post a regular divisional commissioner. Ram Kumar, a farmer from Una district, alleged that the appeal regarding the demarcation of his land had been pending in the court for the past more than six years. He had not been able to do anything on his land. “Neither I have been allowed to construct anything on my land, nor sell it as the boundaries of the land have been fixed due to pending case,” he said.

Divisional Commissioner, Mandi, Onkar Sharma, who also has the additional charge of Kangra division, said he was doing his best to reduce the pendency of revenue cases in both Mandi and Kangra divisions. However, there were about 10,000 pending cases in both courts.

Shimla, July 16
The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) is set to start pink taxis and diesel-run golf carts on key routes doing away with the old transport system of Himachal Roads Transport Corporation-run taxis as these have failed to provide “quality services to residents”.

The golf cart and pink taxis will not only provide easy service to different localities and suburbs to the city centre, but will also become a much-needed source of income for the fund-starved corporation.

The HRTC has failed to reach out to many localities in the city causing a lot of hardships mainly to women and senior citizens, seeking to visit the city centre like The Ridge and The Mall Road and hospitals as well, said councilors.

Mayor Sanjay Chauhan and Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar today met Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma and the Principal Secretary, Urban Development, who gave nod to the corporation to go ahead with starting pink taxis and golf carts in place of HRTC taxis.

“The pink taxis will be started in each ward to key locations and the city centre for the smooth transport of the public,” said Sanjay. The battery-run or diesel-run golf carts will be launched between the shorter and restricted routes like the CTO to the Advanced Study and the like, he added.

The new transport system would be run by the corporation on professional lines, added Panwar. These were being launched on public demand as residents were not happy with the HRTC services, he claimed. 

Shimla, July 16
Taking a serious note on the lack of basic facilities in Government Degree College, Jhandutta, the HP High Court today issued notice to the Chief Secretary.

The court also directed the Principal Secretary (Education), the Principal Secretary (PWD), the Secretary (Finance), the Director (Higher Education), DC, Bilaspur, to file their replies along with the present status and steps required to be taken by or before August 4.

A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan passed these orders on a petition taken up suo motu by the court as PIL on a letter written to the Chief Justice by 108 students of the college.

It was alleged in the letter written to the Chief Justice, mostly by girl students, that the stone of the new building of the college was laid in September 2008 by the then Chief Minister, but since then the construction of college building had been incomplete. The college was still running in two rooms of a government school, two rooms of the BRC building and three rooms hired by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA).

It further alleged that there was no toilet and they had to go to the school’s toilet, to which the school authorities sometimes objected.

It said the college was opened in June 2007 in two rooms of the senior secondary school, Jhandutta. Since the students had been deprived of the basic facilities even as they were paying PTA fund. They had requested the State government many times to address the issue, but to no avail.

Chamba, July 16
The Minjar Fair Celebration Committee has invited famous playback singer of the film industry Sadhna Sargam to perform on the last mega cultural night of the Minjar fair in Chamba on August 3.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Kadam Sandeep Vasant said here today that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh would grace the occasion on the concluding day of the fair and the cultural night.

Governor Urmila Singh would inaugurate the Minjar fair on July 27, the DC informed. A popular Punjabi singer Roshan Prince had also been invited to entertain the audience. Besides this, preference would also be given to local artistes of Himachal Pradesh, the DC further said.

The DC said the eight-day-long Minjar fair was being celebrated at the district headquarters town of Chamba from July 27.

Shimla, July 16
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has upheld the conviction and sentence awarded to a rape accused by the additional sessions judge in Hamirpur, wherein it had awarded 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment to one Desh Raj for raping a minor.

While dismissing the appeal filed by the accused, a division bench comprising Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice PS Rana observed: “From the material placed on record, it stands established by the prosecution, beyond reasonable doubt, by leading clear, cogent, convincing and reliable piece of evidence, that the accused committed the charged offences.” It further said: “We find no reason to interfere with the judgment passed by the trial court. The trail court has fully appreciated the evidence placed on record by the parties. There is no illegality, irregularity, perversity in correct and complete appreciation of the material so placed on record by the parties.”

Shimla, July 16
As directed by the High Court, the 30-member House of the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) will meet to discuss bylaws on the new property tax on the unit-area method (UAM) here tomorrow.

The High Court has fixed August 13 as the next hearing on the issue. The House had rejected UAM thrice earlier and all political parties were seen adopting a wait-and-watch policy on UAM, which they said would shift the burden from the rich to the poor once it was adopted by the corporation.

But CPM, which heads the SMC, has upped its ante on the property tax and blamed the then Congress-dominated SMC and the then ruling BJP government for it.

The SMC is to yet collect property tax worth Rs 2.5 crore in the city on an old pattern and Shimla Hoteliers’ Association and residents in the merged area have opposed any hike in property tax.

The House passed the buck on the state government on the proposed tax reforms and other urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state.

The tripartite agreement on UAM was signed among the SMC, state government and the Centre after the Centre gave funds to SMC under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) scheme as SMC had paid Rs 50 lakh to an Ahmedabad-based company for UAM survey.

Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan said: “We took up the matter with Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma today and he has agreed to bring in some amendments to the Municipal Act so that residents are not burdened with tax. The House will decided the matter tomorrow.”

The HC had asked the SMC to finalise bylaws on property tax, list of defaulters and to submit its reply by July 19. Municipal Commissioner Amarjeet Singh said the bylaws would be discussed tomorrow in the House. “The corporation is recovering house tax from defaulters and is preparing the list of defaulters,” he said. 

Una, July 16
The first haemodialysis centre of the district was inaugurated at a private hospital here today. Kanwar Hari Singh, president of the Himotkarsh Parishad, a voluntary organisation, inaugurated the facility.

Dr Jagdishwar Kanwar, proprietor of the hospital, said the facility had two haemodialysis units and could provide services to six patients a day. Patients with kidney failures presently have to travel to dialysis centres outside the state.

Shimla, July 16
The Himachal Government will urge the Centre to develop any of the three medical colleges in Shimla, Kangra or Mandi as a premier health institution.

“With the management of the ESIC not keen to run a medical college in Mandi, we are keen that the possibility of setting up an AIIMS-like institute should be explored here,” said Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur. He added that he was, however, open to the AIIMS-like institute being opened up anywhere out of the three locations.

The minister said the land requirement for an AIIMS-like institute was about 1000 bighas which was available at a site close to the ESI hospital. “I will write to the Health and Family Welfare Minister that since the ESIC has already spent almost ~800 crore in setting up the hospital and it is not keen to run the medical college, it should either be taken up by the Centre or allow the Himachal Government to take it over,” he said.

Thakur said with three more medical colleges being sanctioned for Chamba, Sirmour and Hamipur, quality health services would be provided to the people. “Two exclusive cancer hospitals will be developed in Shimla and Mandi as ~45 crore each had been sanctioned by the Centre and 16 new-born care centres will be opened,” he said.

He said with ~150 crore each being sanctioned for super-specialty hospitals at Indira Gandhi Medical College and Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, Tanda, people would not have to go to Chandigarh, Delhi or other places for treatment. “Shortly 10 diagnostic units, having a mini operation theatre and most other facilities, will be launched so that people get the best facilities,” he said.

He said several health institutions had been upgraded and 412 MBBS doctors and 48 specialists had been recruited to improve health services. “The supply of generic medicines will be made at all government health institutions and to begin with it will start at the two medical colleges in Shimla and Tanda,” he said.

Two exclusive cancer hospitals will be developed in Shimla and Mandi as Rs 45 crore each had been sanctioned by the Centre and 16 new-born care centres will be opened.
Kaul Singh Thakur, Health Minister 

Kangra, July 16
Members of the Dronacharya team, which bagged the Senior State Power Lifting Championship trophy, were honoured at Rait yesterday. The team also won four gold, three silver and one bronze medals in eight categories during the championship held recently.

Kewal Singh Pathania, president, Himachal Pradesh Power Lifting Association, honoured the team members and announced that Drow, Jeevan and Ajit would participate in the National Power Lifting Championship, being organised in Goa from September 17 to 20. He honoured Ashish Manhas for bagging the title of strong man of the championship.

Pathania said to encourage the rural youth and push them to power lifting was the priority of the state government and was showing encouraging results.

Una, July 16
A blood donation camp was today organised at SVSD College in Bhatoli, under the aegis of the Health Department, the Rotary Club, Una, and the college management. Twenty persons, including three college students and Rotary Club members, donated one unit each of blood.

Speaking on the occasion, college Principal KK Sharma expressed the need to give a fillip to the blood donation movement, which he said was a noble deed, resulting in saving precious human lives.

District Blood Bank officer Dr Nikhil Sharma, senior Rotary Club president Sanjeev Agnihotri and members Kanwar Hari Singh, Yashpal Thakur and HN Cheetu were also present. 

Hamirpur, July 16
A workshop was organised by the district administration to check domestic violence at Bijahdi today in which anganwadi workers and local women participated.

In this workshop, women resolved to raise voice against domestic violence and create awareness among their counterparts in rural areas.

Rohan Chand Thakur, Hamirpur DC, said a special campaign against domestic violence had been launched.

He said training camps and street plays would also be organised, besides creating awareness about the issue as a majority of women were not aware about legal remedies available to check it.

Domestic violence is a curse for any society and it is absolutely necessary to overcome this evil, he added.

He said participation of maximum women would be ensured in the campaign.

The DC also discussed various provisions of the Domestic Violence Protection Act, including physical violence, sexual violence and economic violence, besides harassment for dowry and procedure to lodge a complaint.

Srikantha Chaudhry, district programme office, also discussed causes of domestic violence against women.

A street play on the theme “Break the Silence, Do not Tolerate Domestic Violence” was also organised by artistes of the Public Relations Department.

Solan, July 16
With the Union Budget including slum development as an additional activity under the mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR), there is some ray of hope for the state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) where the increasing slums have become a cause of concern.

The new norm will not only ensure that the corporate firms invest funds in rehabilitating slum dwellers, but since it has become a mandatory norm, they will have to spend funds for their betterment.

Slums have crept up all over the BBN area. According to an estimate, there are nearly 73 sites where slums exist.

With the CSR norms having been revised last year, the corporate firms having a net worth of at least ~500 crore or a minimum turnover of ~ 1,000 crore or a net profit of Rs 5 crore are required to spend at least 2 per cent of their profit on CSR works every year.

Earlier, various social works which contributed towards livelihood enhancement and rural development, protection of national heritage, art and culture, setting up public libraries, etc were included in the CSR activities. Issues like slum development, considered a fallout of industrialisation, has been included in the list for the first time.

Though efforts have been initiated by the administration of Nalagarh sub-division along with the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department to rehabilitate the slum dwellers, little success has been achieved.

The incorporation of slum development in the CSRhas come as a shot in the arm in furthering this objective, said Lalit Jain, SDM Nalagarh. He added that the TCP Department was mooting a proposal to draw up a policy to develop these slums.

Terming it a positive step for the development of this marginalised section, SL Singla, president, Himachal Drug Manufacturers Association, said it will help provide hygienic living conditions to thousands of slum dwellers.