Shimla, September 16
The HP Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) is gearing up to tackle the surge of tourist inflow into the state with bookings pouring in as Himachal is emerging as the most preferred destination following flood in Kashmir.

As compared to last year when the tourism sector suffered a major setback due to the floods that wreaked havoc in Uttarakhand and Kinnaur, this year the business has been good. Dharamsala, Kullu-Manali and Shimla are emerging as the most preferred destinations.

The HPTDC, which has 56 units, has decided to refurbish some properties and undertake expansion at several destinations such as Dharamsala, Manali and Kasauli to be able to provide quality services to its guests. The corporation is in the process of constructing a 42-room hotel in Kasauli which is a hotspot for weekend tourists from Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana.

“We are receiving heavy bookings for the next three months so we want to ensure that we put our best foot forward and offer the best hospitality whether it is in terms of the rooms, food, wayside amenities, comfortable travel and sight-seeing,” said Harish Janartha, Vice-Chairman of the HPTDC.

He said it had also decided to launch a special all-inclusive four days and five nights package targeted for honeymooners which will cover transport, stay, food, sight-seeing for flat Rs 25,000 between October 15 and March 31. This will, however, not cover the one-week period between Christmas and New Year.

Janartha also said in the coming days, the HPTDC will closely scrutinise the problems being faced at its loss-making units, especially the highway cafeterias.

“I have already spoken to the HP State Transport Corporation as well as private transporters in Shimla, Dharamsala and Chamba if they can stop their deluxe and volvo buses at these joints,” he said. All efforts will be made to meet the requirements of passengers by making special offers, including quality wayside facilities.

The HPTDC, which suffered a loss of Rs 4.35 crore last year, is hoping to cover up the losses this year. The revenue at majority of the HPTDC hotels and restaurants in the first six months this year has indicated agood business, which is already exceeding the total business done last year.

Shimla, September 16
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today sent a cheque for Rs 1 crore to the government of J&K for relief and rehabilitation works in the flood-hit state on behalf of the people and government of Himachal Pradesh.

He said the people of Himachal Pradesh were deeply pained and concerned at the massive devastation brought by the rains and floods in J&K and expressed their sympathy and solidarity with victims in the hour of distress and calamity.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister GS Bali announced free transport facility to the Himachalis in HRTC buses stranded in Jammu & Kashmir for coming back to the state. The facility would be provided from September 17 and continue for the next 10 days.

To avail this free transport facility, they should produce the certificate issued by the Indian Army Relief Camp, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, or any other authorised officer, he added.

Solan, September 16
The Directorate General of Health Services has directed all states to use antibiotics judiciously for the treatment of ailing food-producing animals and immediately stop their use in animal feed.

It came to know that antibiotics were being increasingly used to boost growth in chicken and other poultry animals and the consumption of such products led to percolation of harmful ingredient of such drugs into the food chain.

Concerns were raised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the rampant use of non-therapeutic antibiotics in poultry, dairy and other animals which are consumed by human beings.

All state governments have been advised, by a letter on September 2, to issue directions to their veterinary officials, feed manufacturers and the officials involved in the treatment of such animals to ensure judicious use of antibiotics and hormones in treating these ailing animals.

The state governments have also been directed to give adequate publicity to this issue to sensitise feed manufacturers and ensure its compliance and alert the inspectorate staff to take stringent steps.

The DGHS has also sought a compliance report from the states in this regard to ensure that they have acted upon the directions by taking up the matter with Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairying Departments.

With health concerns such as the NDM which emerge due to overuse of antibiotics and failure to recover appropriately with treatment, the medical fraternity has been raising concern over the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in poultry and agricultural products. Several new diseases are coming to the fore where drug residues of animals were causing resistance among humans, opined Dr Ashok Handa, former state president of the Indian Medical Association.

The ministry had earlier expressed concern at the overuse of drugs for animals used as food and had prescribed withdrawal period, which was the minimum period prescribed for their use, to be written prominently on all such drugs. This step was also taken to ensure that drug residues do not percolate to the human chain and cause adverse health concerns on the humans.

Shimla, September 16
Former Chief Minister PK Dhumal today refuted the charge of destabilising the Virbhadra government and said the present state of “uncertainty and instability” was the reflection of working of the state government.

“We had announced before the Lok Sabha polls that the BJP would win all four seats and were hoping that then the Chief Minister would resign on moral grounds after losing the mandate. But he did not honour people’s mandate even after losing 59 out of 68 Assembly seats in the state”, Dhumal said in a statement.

Chiding the Congress leaders for accusing him of trying to destabilise the government, Dhumal said even in the Shimla (Rural) constituency, represented by the Chief Minister, the party failed to get lead and lack of people’s support was making Congress leaders jittery.

“The instability has been created by intense infighting in the party and failure of the Chief minister to inspire confidence among his colleagues”, Dhumal said, adding that the Congress government has failed to keep a tab on illegal activities of the mining mafia and construction material was being smuggled and sold in the neighbouring states while flood and rain victims were unable to procure building material for repair and reconstruction of their damaged houses and roads.

“The employees, who are not getting salaries on time, are a harried lot. A large number of people have died in bus accidents and the unemployed youth feel cheated and Congress leaders are making allegations of corruption against each others” he said.

Claiming that developmental works had come to a standstill and indiscriminate transfers of employees on political considerations had virtually paralysed the administration, he said the shortage of staff of revenue officials, especially patwaris, was hampering the relief operations.

The callous approach of the government could be gauged from the fact that the local administration of Mandi district failed to identify the body of one engineering college student from Hyderabad who was drowned in the Beas near Thalot and the real identification of the body was done after DNA test in Hyderabad, he added. 

Una, September 16
Lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur, who is also the Chairman of the district-level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee for Centrally-sponsored schemes of the Rural Development Department, directed department officers to ensure timely implementation of the schemes to make these more meaningful to beneficiaries.

He was presiding over a review meeting of the committee at Bachat Bhawan on Monday.

Anurag directed the officials to ensure that all MGNREGA job card holders, who applied for 100 days employment in a year, were actually given the work. He said during 2012-13, 17,513 had applied, but only 3,957 beneficiaries had got 100 days employment. He added that during the last financial year, 3,197 jobs were sanctioned, but only 1,408 could be completed.

The MP directed the district administration to ensure that all villages with a population of more than 250 were linked with the road network through the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna. He also directed the effective implementation of the various flagship programmes of the Rural Development Department, including the sanitation and the rural livelihood generation programmes.

Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Jain, BJP MLAs Satpal Singh Satti and Virender Kanwar, besides Zila Parishad chairperson Rani Ranaut, were also present. 

Hamirpur, September 16
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) spokesperson Deepak Sharma said today that the results of various Assembly bypolls in the country had proved that the BJP had begun to lose its base in the country.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said it was apparent that the country had finally come out of the “Modi illusion” and had seen the “real face” of the BJP.

He alleged that the public had seen through the false promises made by the BJP and believed that it was only the Congress, which could give good governance.

He said HPCC president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu had directed all state spokespersons to coordinate with him before releasing any statement to the media.

“There are six spokespersons in the HPCC, who are authorised to speak on behalf of the party, including Subhash Manglet, Deepak Sharma, Naresh Chauhan, Sanjay Chauhan and Kuldeep Singh Pathania,” he said.

Statement released by anyone else other than the authorised spokespersons should be treated as their personal opinion and not that of the HPCC, he added. He said the HPCC would initiate disciplinary action if anyone was found violating the party decision in this regard. 

Shimla, September 16
The state BJP today decided to downplay the defeat of the party in the byelections to three Lok Sabha and 33 Assembly seats across the country and dubbed its victory in one Assembly seat in West Bengal as a major achievement.

The BJP which could retain only 10 out of 24 Assembly seats held by it attributed its defeat in Gujarat to “absence of Narendra Modi” from the poll campaign and claimed that the party lost in Uttar Pradesh due to polarisation of votes as the BSP and the Congress did not contest the polls.

“The BJP would have won all nine Assembly seats in Gujarat if Modi had campaigned and the results would have been in favour of the BJP, if the BSP and the Congress had contested the byelections in Uttar Pradesh,” party spokesman Ganesh Dutt said.

Referring to defeat in all four seats in Rajasthan, Dutt said the party lost due to “over confidence” and it would do introspection, but the election result was no indicator of “popularity” of Modi who brought the BJP to power at the Centre, he said.

However, party’s victory in one Assembly seat in West Bengal was spectacular and it had made a dent in the stronghold of TMC and CPM, he claimed.

Shimla, September 16
Dile Ram (74), former state BJP minister and four-time MLA from Nachan in Mandi district, died at his native village Mahadev today after a brief illness. He was suffering from kidney infection and was on dialysis for the past few months.

He was cremated at the Chandupur cremation grounds this afternoon. A large number of people, including former minister Roop Singh, BJP MP from Mandi Ram Swaroop Sharma and local MLA Vinod, attended his funeral.

Dile Ram was elected to the Vidhan Sabha from Nachan for the first time in 1977 on the Janata Party ticket and retained the seat till 1982 and again won it in 1990 and 1998 on the BJP ticket.

He also remained Minister of State for Panchayats and Cabinet Minister for Food & Civil Supplies and Cooperation in the BJP government, led by Shanta Kumar, from June 1991 to December 1992.

He served as Chairman of the state Finance Commission in the PK Dhumal government.

Governor Urmila Singh, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and former chief ministers Shanta Kumar and PK Dhumal and several other leaders expressed grief over the death of Dile Ram.

Shimla, September 16
Nankhari in the Rampur area of Shimla district will be brought under the Special Area Development Authority (SADA) to ensure planned development of the area with proper sewerage system and other basic facilities.

This was stated by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh while addressing a public meeting at Nankhari today.

He said the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Rampur, would be the chairman of the committee and all designs and maps pertaining to construction would be passed by him.

A metalled road would be constructed from Nankhari to the local college and Rs 20 crore would be spent on development of the college to provide better education facilities to the youth, he said.

Stressing that the government was expanding educational institutions network in rural areas, Virbhadra said his government had opened 15 degree colleges in the far-flung and rural areas of the state and made provision of adequate funds to make these functional.

“Quality education is the need of the hour and the government is making a serious endeavour to provide quality education to students to make them stand in competition. Opening of colleges in rural areas will encourage education of girl child,” he added.

He said it was a matter of great satisfaction that 600 children were studying in a college in the remote Shillai area and out of these 400 were girls. “I feel elated to see girls coming forward in all fields and taking keen interest in pursuing higher education,” he added.

He said all functional posts of teachers would be filled and even school management committees were empowered to keep teachers where necessary.

Raising concern over encroachments on government land in a few areas in the state, the Chief Minister said forest land should not be misutilised for personal benefits.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Nand Lal said work on the Tikkar-Kahamadi road would soon start.

Meanwhile, speaking at a public meeting at Khunni-Panoli after dedicating a newly constructed building of Government Senior Secondary School, Khunni, constructed at a cost of Rs 1.90 crore to the people of the Rampur area, he said, “I know the topography of the area and problems of the people and every effort will be made to provide all facilities to them as they are part and parcel of my life”.

Kangra, September 16
Two persons, including a 22-year-old girl, were killed and 10 others injured in three different road accidents in the district during the past 24 hours, the police said today.

Kangra District Additional Police Chief Shiv Kumar said in Dehra subdivision, Ravinder Kumar (27) of Dhugiari village, was killed on the spot at the Dhaliara Ridge yesterday when the crane he was driving rolled down into a gorge. The crane was on its way from Baddi to Palampur. He said two persons, who were sitting with the driver on the crane, jumped off it. They were injured and rushed to the Dehra subdivisional hospital.

A car was hit from behind when it was stopped by the police during a naka near the Shahpur police station on the Pathankot-Mandi national highway this morning. The car was on its way to Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir. Shivam (22) of Baragran Jaisinghpur village, was killed and four others were injured in this accident.

A case under Sections 304-A, 337 and 279, IPC, was registered against car driver Manoj Kumar, a resident of BBMB Colony, Sundernagar, on a complaint of Tibbi Chand, a Home Guard with the Shahpur police station. Four persons were injured and admitted to the DRPGMC, Tanda, when the car they were travelling in dashed against a tractor near the Manji bridge at Gaggal today.

Palampur, September 16
Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir stressed the need for quick disposal of cases pending in various courts through mediation process. He expressed concern over the piling up of a large number of cases in various courts.

He said delayed justice had been termed as justice denied, therefore, the judicial system needed to be more quick in extending timely justice to the public.

The Chief Justice, who is also the Chief Patron of the State Legal Services, was addressing paralegal volunteers here yesterday.

He said economic growth, entry of multinational companies and globalisation had given rise to a large-scale litigation which needed appropriate and judicious handling.

He said though the Indian judicial system was one of the best in the world, it had come under severe criticism because of long delay in the settlement of disputes of pending cases. Therefore, there was an urgent need for an alternative dispute resolution mechanism like mediation, which had proved quite successful to certain extent.

He said at present the judicial system needed other avenues for settling cases.

He said a majority of litigants in the country wanted to resolve conflicts, but they were not conversant how to resolve the same. They needed effective guidance and paralegal volunteers could play a significant role in this respect.

He told paralegal volunteers that during the course of mediation, they had to be careful to follow the judicial process laid down in this regard. Likewise, the involved parties also had to take care of their topics and contents, he said.

He said the settlement through mediation should be voluntary, practical, amicable and fair and must retain the right to decide for themselves.

Justice Sanjay Karol of the High Court, who is also the executive chairman of the state Legal Services, said the services had already set up village legal and care centres in 2,607 panchayats of the state. Besides, in other panchayats formulation of such centres were in process.

He said at present 215 paralegal volunteers were effectively working in rural areas of the state to settle cases through mediation and they had so far succeeded in settling 90 per cent cases through this process.

Justice Karol said the state legal aid services had also launched a massive programme to protect the environment of the state and till date 5,500 schools were involved in this cause where students were being educated about their rights and duties.

Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Sureshwar Thakur, Judges of the HP High Court, were also present on the occasion and expressed their views with regard to settlement of disputes through mediation. 

Panchkula, September 16
Troubles for Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary and others who walked free in the Jyoti murder case are not yet over with the Panchkula police constituting a new Special Investigation Team (SIT). The three-member committee headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Rahul Sharma will not only analyse the judgment from all angles, but also see lacunae in the investigations that led to the acquittal.

Panchkula-Ambala Commissioner of Police Ajay Singhal said, “The SIT will be analysing the judgment from all angles. The two other members are an Assistant Commissioner of Police-level officer and Deputy District Attorney.”

This is the second SIT that has been formed in the case. The first SIT was constituted in April 2013 after Jyoti’s father had alleged that the investigations were not ‘foolproof’ and were not being conducted properly.

On September 11, a fast-track Panchkula court had acquitted all 12 persons in the murder case. The court in its order said there was no legal evidence and it was a ‘shaky’ story of prosecution, which led to the acquittal.

After the acquittal, Director General of Police SN Vashisht ordered a probe and sought a report from the Panchkula-Ambala Commissioner of Police. The report is to be sent within seven days of the receipt of judgment.The report will also point out the role of investigating officers who left out the loopholes in the investigation. 

Kangra, September 16
In continuation with a six-day self-enrichment programme for students of the Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (DRPGMC) at Tanda, a one-day workshop on mentoring skills for medical teachers was held at the seminar hall for the faculty and students’ mentoring cell of the college here yesterday.

Dr Anil Chauhan, Principal, DRPGMC, said the workshop was conducted by G Balachandran, a life skills coach and motivational speaker attached to CREST, Calicut (Kerala).

Dr Chauhan said during the workshop the faculty was trained in effective mentoring skills for the benefit of students of the college.

He said this was the first training programme of its kind in the area and the DRPGMC was the second medical college after AIIMS (New Delhi) in the country to train its faculty in mentoring skills. This was an induction programme that would be followed by similar activities in future too, he added.

The Principal thanked Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Vineet Chawdhary for his efforts and exposing the faculty to such a wonderful concept. He said he, along with 50 faculty members, attended the workshop.

He said now they would be able to improve the student-faculty interaction with more knowledge and training in mentoring methods. The Principal honoured Balachandran with a shawl.

Solan, September 16
To provide time-bound clearances involving stringent provisions of Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act,1972, the state government has finally notified a time-schedule to cut down on delays in granting this approval to non-agriculturists.

Since all non-Himachalis and non-agriculturists are supposed to take this permission from the state government for buying land for pursuing a commercial activity, the inordinate delays extending up to several months had been deterring investors.

In a notification issued by the Principal Secretary, Revenue, on September 12, all processes have been made time-bound. The draft circulation of this notification had been notified early this year and it was after inviting objections and suggestions from the people that the final notification has been issued.

An investor, after seeking an essentiality certificate from the department concerned, will have to apply to the state government which will decide its case within 15 days now.

Further, the state government will send the case to the District Collector if it is sanctioned for examining the provisions of Section 118.

On receipt of this initial sanction, the investor will apply to the District Collector who will examine his case under the provisions of Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, 1972. He will have to report back to the state government within seven days the reasons for granting or not granting permission to any case and following this, the state government will grant permission to outsiders to buy land. The cases were stuck in the initial stages and only a few got the permission.

As against the earlier practice of an investor requiring an NOC from the Forest Department, now the cases where the land falls under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, will an NOC be required.

An NOC from the HP State Electricity Board will also not be required in cases where the approval/clearance for a project has been granted by the State-Level Single Window Clearance Agency.

While it remains to be seen how well this new system will work, the 90-day clearance system adopted by the Industries Department to grant all clearances is yet to be adopted in letter and spirit.

Nurpur, September 16
A four-day youth festival started at Wazir Ram Singh Postgraduate Government College in Dehri near here today. Agriculture Minister Sujan Singh Pathania inaugurated the festival with the lighting of the lamp.

Around 450 participants from 69 government colleges across the state will be taking part in inter-state competitions during the festival.

Presiding over the inaugural ceremony of the festival, chief guest Pathania exhorted students not to fall prey to drug abuse in their lives and avoid use of unfair means in exams. He accepted the college demand of posting of security personnel at the main gate.

Una, September 16
Kewal Pathania, vice-chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Corporation, said today that the Forest Department was mulling over a project to install close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at the inter-state barriers to check smuggling of forest produce outside the state. He was presiding over a meeting of forest officials to strengthen the forest check posts on the bordering areas of the state.

Pathania solicited the support of the police, transport and the district administration, besides Excise and Taxation Department officials to check the flow of illegally felled wood and rosin to the neighbouring states.

He said joint operations of forest officials from Una, Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Nurpur areas would be conducted to check illegal collection and transportation of rosin by unlawful groups.

Pathania said those giving specific information to the Forest Department regarding illegal felling or smuggling of forest produce would be duly rewarded. He said efforts were being made to make the state forest corporation, more profitable, adding that the corporation-owned furniture factories at Shamshi in Kullu district and Baijnath in Kangra district had been restarted.

Deputy Commissioner, Una, Abhishek Jain, Forest Corporation Director, Marketing, Nagesh Guleria, executive director SK Sharma, Director, North Zone, RS Banyal, Conservator, Hamirpur Zone, Pradeep Thakur, divisional managers of the Hamirpur, Dharamsala, Fatehpur and Una divisions, Sudhir Shiwal, VK Khatta, LC Patial, and RS Patial, respectively, besides Una Divisional Forest Officer RK Dogra were also present. 

Shimla, September 16
The Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) has sponsored a training programme for a batch of 18 local youth affected by construction of projects in HP and Uttarakhand.

The trainees, including five women candidates settled in the vicinity of major projects of the SJVN in HP and Uttarakhand are being imparted training of the general work supervisors course at the Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), Faridabad. The candidates are provided a stipend of Rs 1,500 per month.

Chamba, September 16
An exhibition of Indian miniature painting consisting of several Pahari miniatures is on display in the town of Koblenz in Germany.

Concentrated on the theme of Krishna, the show titled ‘Blue God Krishna’ is exhibited at the Mittelrhein Museum in Germany.

Shimla, September 16
The government today appointed former Congress minister Rangila Ram Rao as Political Adviser to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh with Cabinet status.

Ever since the formation of the Congress regime in Himachal in December 2012, there was no Political Adviser to the Chief Minister. Rao, a senior Congress leader from Mandi, has been a staunch Virbhadra loyalist, but had lost the December 2012 Assembly election.

Mandi, September 16
The Karsog police recovered 9,000 ml of country liquor from Yash Pal, a resident of Biran in the district, today.

Karsog SHO Sunil Kumar said a case under the Excise Act had been registered against Yash Pal.

In another incident, the Jogindernagar police seized five bottles of country liquor from Sanjay Pathania, a resident of Jalpehar under Jogindernagar subdivision in the district, yesterday. — TNS

Mandi, September 16
The two-day Shaheed Bishan Singh Memorial District Table Tennis Championship concluded here on Sunday.

In the final matches, Reezul Rana beat Bhavnita by 11-3, 11-5 and 11-1 in the cadet girls’ category. In the cadet boys’ category, Ritvik Rana beat Parth Pandit by 11-7, 11-5, 7-11 and 11-5.

Chief guest Additional District Magistrate Pankaj Rai said most of the sports activities of the state took place in Mandi. — TNS