Shimla, November 4
The state government is planning to expand the century-old Naldehra Golf Course by acquiring more land and have proper certification from professional golf bodies. The move will enable holding of international golf events at the venue.

“Professional golfers from in India and abroad will not come here to play at the nine-hole course so we are keen to expand the Naldehra course to make it a proper 18-hole course,” said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. He said the possibility of acquiring land in the vicinity was being explored so that the golf course can become of international level.

Virbhadra said efforts would be made to acquire land so that it could be expanded and the certification from the Professional Golfers Association be obtained. Some years back, the Club had sought the services of Golf Design India to explore the possibility of its expansion.

The government had even identified huge chunks of land near Baddi in Solan, Saketi in Sirmour and Badgraon near Manali for laying of golf courses. These sites had even been offered to private players but nobody came forward to develop golf courses.

The Naldehra golf course, located 22 km from here, is a very picturesque course at an altitude of 2,200 metre but the limitation of it being a small course with a lot of criss-cross comes in the way of it attracting professional circuit golfers and holding of bigger events. Efforts had been made in the past also to acquire more land to enable its expansion which did not succeed.

The Naldehra Golf Course was laid around 1903 when Lord Curzon was the Viceroy of India. Lord Curzon was so captivated by the scenic beauty of the place that he even named one of his daughters as Naldehra. The design of the course is reminiscent of the Scottish link courses and is surrounded by deodar and cedar. Even today it remains one of the oldest golf courses and is well maintained.

“Plans to expand the golf course to a proper 18-hole course is a welcome step and it will go a long way in ensuring that Naldehra figures on the professional circuit and attracts international golfers,” said AN Sharma, a retired IPS officer who remained the captain of the Naldehra Golf Club.

Some of the locals who are avid golfers say that though expansion of the course will be a big step, acquiring a huge chunk of land is a problem because of paucity of land. The 20 bighas, which had been acquired during the last tenure of Virbhadra Singh, was de-notified later when the BJP came to power. This land has now been purchased by private people and getting it back will be difficult.

Though the golf course was expanded in 2009 by constructing a new road so that the road, which earlier passed through the course, could be closed but more land would be required to make it a proper independent 18-hole course.

Shimla, November 4
After ruling out the possibility of a brief one-week Assembly session in November, the government may promulgate a fresh ordinance paving the way for regularising over 25,000 unauthorised constructions in the state.

Even as the draft Bill to make amendments to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act had been prepared and sent to the Law Department, but with the possibility of holding a brief Assembly session being ruled out, the ordinance has become essential.

The ordinance will be placed before the Cabinet when it meets next.

The Cabinet is likely to be held now only when Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh returns after holding investors’ meet in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru.

“With the Cabinet deciding against a brief session in November, issuing the ordinance has become necessary and will be done soon,” confirmed Sudhir Sharma, Urban Development and Town and Country Planning Minister.

The government had issued an ordinance on September 6, which was later withdrawn as the state government wanted to make several changes in it.

It was felt that the rates for compounding unauthorised structures were too exorbitant and not everybody will be able to avail the benefits of regularisation.

The flip-flop at the government level on regularising unauthorised constructions has not gone down too well with people.

“The government should make up its mind once rather than dilly-dallying and creating confusion among people who had been hoping to get their structures regularised,” admitted a house owner.

Now, the Town and Country Planning Department is preparing to issue the ordinance as the Bill to make amendments in the Town and Country Planning Act will be tabled in the House only in December, when the winter session would be held in Dharamsala. 

Kullu, November 4
The cold wave has tightened its grip in the entire valley with higher reaches experiencing snowfall during the past few days.

The mercury has dipped below zero at many places and traces of frost have started to appear on roads in higher reaches.

It was reported that the road near Baralacha and Kunzum pass on the Manali-Leh route had become very risky for transit after sunset due to frost on the road at various places.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the Manali administration have decided to allow traffic through the Rohtang Pass on Tuesdays as well. Earlier, due to maintenance work undertaken by the BRO, routine traffic and tourist vehicles were not allowed to go beyond Marhi on Tuesdays.

Manali SDM Viney Dhiman said various facilities for tourists were available at Marhi and tourists should go up to the Rohtang Pass after analysing weather conditions.

He said rescue posts would be set up on either side of the pass at Marhi and Koksar after November 15.

The Border Roads Organisation authorities would restore the passage through the Rohtang Pass to enable work on the Rohtang tunnel and ensure the plying of traffic on the Manali-Leh highway, he added.

Shimla, November 4
Nisha (17), a visually impaired girl, became the first special female blood donor in the state. It was at a special blood donation camp organised by the Umang Foundation on The Ridge today when Nisha donated blood.

“It will remove the notion from the society that specially-abled persons cannot donate blood and give confidence to my sisters and brothers”, Nisha said. The society must remove this prejudice against the physically challenged persons, she added.

A team of the doctors from the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla, examined Nisha before she donated blood.

She was accompanied by 24 other special “school sisters” who study in Government Girls School, Portmore. Out of these, 11 were visually impaired and 13 hearing and speech impaired.

“The foundation has given us confidence and we can participate in blood donation camps in the future as well,” the girls said.

Nisha donated blood along with 74 other donors at the camp.

Ajay Srivastva, chairman of the Umang Foundation, said they were happy that physically impaired persons in the state were coming forward to donate blood.

The camp was inaugurated by Vivek Mohan, a documentary film director and producer based in the city.

Shimla, November 4
With a target of registering minimum 10 lakh members, the BJP will formally launch its membership campaign from tomorrow in all four Lok Sabha segments of the state.

State BJP president Satpal Satti has made Chandermohan Thakur, state party spokesperson, the in charge of the campaign. State BJP secretary Vinod Mahajan has been appointed as the co-convener for the task.

State BJP spokesperson Ganesh Dutt said: “Influenced by the dynamism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah, a lot of people from various fields are evincing keen interest in BJP.”

“Seeing the interest among people towards BJP, the party will be holding both online registration as well as door-to-door membership,” he said. He said seeing the response among people he was confident that the party would achieve the target of 10 lakh members in the state.

Srikant Sharma, who is the national secretary of the BJP, will specially be present at the launch of the campaign.

The first workshop under the campaign for the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat will be held at Bangana in Una tomorrow, where former chief minister PK Dhumal, state BJP chief Satpal Satti, Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur and other senior leaders will be present.

The membership campaign for Kangra Lok Sabha seat will be held on November 6 at Mataur. Besides Kangra MP Shanta Kumar, all other senior leaders and former ministers will attend the workshop.

Similarly, the workshop for Mandi Lok Sabha seat will be held on November 7 in Mandi and will be attended by Mandi MP Ram Swaroop. The workshop for Shimla seat will be held on November 8 at Shimla.

Kangra, November 4
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been misleading the nation about one issue or the other. He has put the issues connected with the common man and of national importance on the back burner.

This was stated by state Congress spokesperson Deepak Sharma here today. Deepak said the increasing prices of vegetables were not an issue for Modi as he never paid attention to it. “Now, the country is asking him about the issue of black money through which his government has come to power,” said Deepak while commenting on Modi’s address over All India Radio for the second time on Sunday.

The Congress spokesman said as far as giving scholarships to disabled children was concerned, they were already getting these and even the reservation for such children was already there, but unfortunately there were people still fighting for the same.

He alleged that Modi kept on raising issues as part of his event management and to mislead common people of the country.

Shimla, November 4
The HP High Court today directed the state government and all deputy commissioners of the state to initiate appropriate proceedings against defaulters on the issue of embezzlement under the MGNREGA funds, as per the law.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan passed the order on a petition alleging that the deputy commissioners of the state had failed to make recovery from office-bearers of panchayats, who allegedly embezzled MGNREGA funds as per the audit reports of the panchayats under the MGNREGS rules.

The petitioner said the audit report revealed that 30% of the office-bearers of the panchayats had misused the amount under the scheme by placing on record false accounts and fake attendance certificates.

He said the audit report had attained finality, but despite this the deputy commissioners had failed to discharge their duty under the HP Panchayti Raj Act. Petitioner mentioned that under Section 142 of the Panchayati Raj Act, deputy commissioners were empowered to make recovery of embezzled amount but nothing had been done so far.

While disposing of the petition, the court directed the authorities to do the needful within three months and file their compliance report before the registrar (judicial).

Shimla, November 4
Scientists today said artificial light harvesting systems and low-cost nano-structured organic solar cells promised a revolutionary new technology to harness sunlight energy and offered an alternative renewal source to the world, saving precious, depleting, polluting sources of fossil fuels.

Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of an international conference on the condensed matter physics (ICCMP-2014) here today, Prof Christoph Lienau, Carl Von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg (Germany), said the artificial molecular or nano-devices could harvest and exploit sunlight to benefit the mankind and needed an in-depth understanding of the elementary microscopic principles that governed the underlying light conversion processes. From house heating system to car windscreen energy-saving devices, nano technology-based solar cells were future devices for the mankind, he added.

The government needed political will to invest funds in solar-related research projects to make the technology cheaper and affordable to the common man as India had a lot of sunlight as compared to Germany. Germany had set up a target to increase the share of renewal energy from the present 15 per cent to 50 per cent by 2030, he informed.

He said the carotene-porphyry-fullerene triad, an elementary component for an artificial light harvesting system and a polymer- fullerene blend, was a model for an organic solar cell for harnessing solar light. “It costs less. The solar energy cost would go down once it was commercialised, he said.

Prof Lienau said most recent findings had made it easy to convert light to current conversion in solar cells. 

Kullu, November 4
The Kullu Municipal Committee has decided to impose house tax based on the new survey conducted in 2012.

Rishabh Kalia, MC president, said the tax would be updated according to the new survey. The tax would depend on the average value of the property and income from the commercial property. He stated that 12.5 per cent tax would be charged from the annual income after reducing 10 per cent for maintenance expenses.

The committee is presently earning over Rs 12 lakh per year from house tax from around 5,500 residents and its target is to collect Rs 1 crore annually after implementation of the updated tax. This will help improve the financial condition of the committee, presently striving for funds for payment of gratuity and pension.

However, a few residents have raised voice against the “misconstrued figures” in the new survey and complained against exorbitant increase in the tax.

Shimla, November 4
Taking a serious note of the issue of concealment of information, the High Court today directed the Principal Secretary (Health) to hold an inquiry and fix responsibility against those officials who had concealed availability of two Post-Graduate (PG) seats in Preventive and Social Medicine and Pathology.

The seats, to be filled in the open counselling at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla, and DRPGMC, Tanda (Kangra), for in-service candidates, were allotted to two other candidates who were lower in merit to the petitioners.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan passed these orders on the petitions filed by Dr Disha Sharma and Dr Pankaj Katoch, alleging that the respondents had not disclosed the two seats in the open counselling held on July 8 for in-service candidates and had further illegally allotted these seats to those candidates who were lower in the merit to petitioners.

The court further directed that henceforth the admissions to the PG (MD/MS) courses would strictly be in consonance with the prescribed procedure. The schedule for admissions would be religiously followed and vacant seats of respective courses and quotas would be notified at least a week earlier to the next counselling by displaying the same on the college notice board and its website.

It further directed the authorities to carry out admissions on the basis of merit and in a fair and transparent manner.

The court did not grant any relief to the petitioners observing that there may be more meritorious candidates other than them and noted that the lapses on the part of officials could not be ignored as they acted in the most callous and negligent manner in carrying out admissions.

The court directed the Principal Secretary to hold an inquiry and submit his report by December 31.

Mandi, November 4
The All-Himachal Contractor Welfare Association has urged the state government to take the land devoid of forest cover out of the purview of the Forest Conservation Act.

Association president Dinesh Kumar Sharma today said: “To provide land for development works and mining activities, it is important to take out the existing land devoid of forest from the purview of the Forest Conservation Act.”

With the ban imposed by the court, the construction work had been adversely affected due to non-availability of sand, stone and gravel among other things, he said, adding that the cost of construction material had also gone beyond the reach of contractors and individuals.

He said the Mining Department had also put off the auctioning of minor minerals for long.

“In Himachal, there is no underground mining of minerals and in case of sand and gravel, these are removed from the riverbeds,” he said.

Sharma said: “Except agricultural land, land without forest vests with the Forest Department and it is important to exclude it from of the purview of the Forest Act.”

He also urged the government to relax the limit of land required for the grant of lease for mining or removing minerals. He said the provision of 5 hectare (62.5 bigha) land for the grant of lease would deprive small contractors from getting mining lease.

Shimla, November 4
Former Horticulture Minister and BJP vice-president Narendra Bragta today declared that the party would launch padyatra and satyagrah from November 14 against the delay in the Rohru-Shimla road work.

Bragta declared his war against the Congress government and blamed it for the rising cases of accidents, back and spinal problems and pollution caused by the plumes of dust and bumpy rides on the potholed road. “The things have gone from bad to worse and the public has no way out other than Satyagrah to awake Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Horticulture Minister Vidya Stokes and CPS Rohit Thakur from their slumber”, Bragta said at a conference here today, attended by Shimla BJP MLA Suresh Bhardwaj, party spokesperson Ganesh Dutt and other district unit leaders.

Bragta cited data on the World Bank-funded road charging that the Congress had made it a big issue during the last Assembly election in 2013 and had blamed the BJP for the delay in the completion of work. The Congress should tar the entire road to give relief to travellers, he demanded and warned of the second phase of satyagrah.

But the fact is that the Congress had allotted the work to a Chinese company for ~212 crore, though the cost of the project was worked to be ~350 crore, without getting the mandatory clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) in 2007.

When Chief Minister PK Dhumal took over, it took the government three years to get the clearance from the Centre. The Chinese did good work but they faced Visa problem, he claimed.

Then Congress made it a big poll issue that cost the BJP dearly as Congressmen had promised that they would improve the road in 100 days if they were voted to power. “The Congress cancelled the tender and allotted the work to Chadha and Chadha Company without analyzing its financial balance-sheet”, Bragta charged.

The Chief Minister flies in chopper, Stokes has cancelled many tours of Jubbal-Kotkhai and Rohru while Congress MLA Thakur travel via link road as the travelling on the road had become hazardous, Bragta alleged.

Bragta further dared Virbhadra Singh, Stokes and Thakur to come out with a White Paper on the road so that public knew the truth. There was not more than four men working on the road today, he claimed.

“We have to resort to padyatra from Rohru on November 14 which will be flagged off by BJP president Satpal Satti and go through Hatkoti, Jubbal, Kharapathar, Kotkhai, Theog, Dhalli and conclude at The Ridge on November 20”, he added. He also invited farmers, other party members, traders, taxi drivers, transporters, NGOs and common man to participate in the padyatra.

Former CM PK Dhumal would join the Satyagrah on The Ridge before the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on November 20. “We will submit a memorandum to the Governor later”, Bragta said.

Palampur, November 4
The area under tea in Kangra and Mandi districts is squeezing every year due to large-scale sale of the gardens. Besides, due to shortage of labour, unavailability of subsidy on fertiliser, inputs and other assistance from the state government, a number of tea growers have abandoned their lands.

Lack of cooperation from the state has further worsened matters. The successive governments neglected the tea industry and discontinued all incentives being given to the tea growers.

However, the Government of India had launched a project for the revival of abandoned tea gardens in the valley but its implementation is moving at a snail’s pace. The Centre is yet to allocate funds for the project. The plan for the mechanization of the tea industry has also been left half way.

This year, a sharp fall in the production of green tea leaves has been witnesed. In most of the gardens, the production of green tea leaves was 50 per cent less as compared to last year.

Quality tea leaves, which give maximum return, are plucked in March end and April but their production too remained much below than the expectations of the growers.

Official sources said the production of green leaves had come down to 30 to 50 per cent in the valley. The small growers were the worst hit in areas where the fall in production was up to 70 per cent.

Deficient rainfall this year has further aggravated the situation. In April 2013, the total production of green leaves were 7,00,000 kg whereas this year it came down to 5,00,000 kg. Likewise, the production of processed tea in April 2013 was 23,000 kg, which has come down to 17,000 kg this year, resulting in huge losses to the growers.

Mandi, November 4
Under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, jawans of the 6th battalion of the Himachal Home Guards removed waste from a park near the Bhimakali temple in the town yesterday.

Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kadam, Additional Deputy Commissioner Gopal Chand and battalion Commandant KS Thakur also took part in the sanitation drive.

The DC said the home guards had adopted the park for cleanliness.

The employees of 
the department would remove waste from the part once a week.

He exhorted youth clubs, mahila mandals and other organisations to select a place in the area for sanitation for the success of the mission.

Meanwhile, members of the Bhimakali Swayam Sevak Sansthan also launched a campaign to remove waste from the drains of Bhuili colony.

Shimla, November 4
The need to introduce a computer and animation-based physics teaching programme was underlined during the International Conference on Condensed Matter Physics (ICCMP-2014) here today.

HPU Vice-Chancellor Prof AND Bajpai inaugurated the three-day conference and said there was an urgent need to develop a scientific temper among young researchers. He said the conference would provide them a peep into frontier areas of condensed matter physics, boost research efforts of the Physics Department under special assistant programme of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

He said: “Physics offers easy solutions to complex problems that the world faces today.”

“India has contributed a lot to the science faculty from ancient times by way of new innovations and discovery done by saints, rishis and munis and today we need to preserve them,” he said.

He said India had pioneered and established itself as a Vishwa Guru even in scientific research and extension in the past. The new area of research and advanced technologies related to novel materials such as graphene, layered low dimensional structures and new technology harvesting solar energy and computational methods to design new materials would benefit researchers.

In his key note address Prof Christoph Lienau, Carl Von Ossietzky Universitat, Oldenburg, Germany, said the efficient conversion of sunlight into electrical or chemical energy was one of the most fundamental and relevant challenges in the current energy research.

“To understand complex-world problems, professors need to teach physics with new computer and animation-based learning methods to young students from schools upward and we have already started it in Germany,” he said.

Experts from IIT Bombay, Indian Association for Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, Cambridge University, University of Roma, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, University of Hyderabad, Kobe University Japan, Northeastern University Boston USA, University of Duiburgh Germany, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, University of Lorrannine France, would deliberate on areas of research in the conference.

The event has been sponsored by the UGC, New Delhi, Department of Science and Technology, Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences.

Shimla, November 4
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has started broadband services in the remote Kaza area of Lahaul Spiti.

The BSNL is the lone service provider which has even been providing mobile services in Kaza. The launch of the facility will enable easy national and international access to internet users in Kaza. The launch became possible with the installation of costly satellite system, which has also brought all blocks of the Shimla Circle under broadband coverage.— TNS

Nurpur, November 4
A team of the Excise and Taxation Department, led by Assistant and Taxation Commissioner (AETC), Nurpur, Vivek Mahajan, intercepted and searched a car coming from Pathankot at a naka in Bhadwar on the Pathankot-Mandi national highway and recovered gold jewellery worth over Rs 2 lakh from a person travelling in it near here last evening.

As per information, he was going to sell the gold ornaments in Himachal, but failed to produce any bill. The department imposed a penalty of Rs 52,000 on him and seized the ornaments.

The AETC said the department, in a special drive launched during the festive season last month, had recovered a penalty of Rs 8 lakh from tax evaders under various Acts such as luxury, excise and taxation and passenger goods taxation in Nurpur revenue district. The drive would further be intensified to check tax evasion in the area, he added. 

Una, November 4
Gurjit Singh Sekhon, Governor of Rotary District 3070, covering Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, today stressed the need to channelise the energy of the youth towards nation building.

He was speaking at a Youth Leadership Development Programme for the Rotaract Club members of the three states, organised at Himotkarsh Women’s College in Kotla Khurd village near Una.

Karamjeet Sandhu, District Rotaract Representative, expressed concern on the rising tendency of drug abuse amongst the youth. She said the Rotaract Clubs will make efforts to check the social evil through awareness programmes and also initiate a campaign against female foeticide.

Mandi, November 4
Members of the CPM will discuss economic policies of the state and Centre during its 15th district-level conference here on November 7-8.

CPM district secretary Bhupender Singh said people were not getting any relief due to the same economic policies followed by the NDA government at the Centre and the Congress government in the state.

He said the governments had failed to implement the promises made to the people.

A road map of protests would also be prepared in the conference, he said and added that the party had continuously been fighting for the issues of the people. Various issued faced by the party would also be discussed in the meeting.

Hamirpur, November 4
Computer dealers observed a complete shutdown against alleged unethical practice of companies in online sale here on Tuesday. Raman Sharma, president of the Information Technology Dealers’ Association, said the dealers were under heavy debt due to online sale of electronics goods.

He said the companies were not only evading taxes levied by the government but also depriving consumers of the aftersale service. He said this practice would ruin the future of IT dealers. He said over 45 IT dealers in the district had participated in the complete bandh against the unethical trade practice. — OC

Shimla, November 4
Mamta Sachdeva (51), wife of a local shopkeeper, was killed when she was attacked by monkeys and jumped off the balcony of her house in the Middle bazaar area here today.

According to the police, Mamta was on the balcony when she was attacked by simians. She jumped off the balcony in panic after the monkeys chased her.

The police said she was taken to the IGMC in Shimla where she succumbed to her injures.

Mandi, November 4
The police have registered a case of cheating against employees of a bank here today.

In a complaint to the police, Arun Sharma, a resident of the town, stated that he had applied for a loan amounting to Rs 1.40 lakh to the Himachal Gramin Bank (HGB) in May this year for purchasing a car through Narender Guleria, managing director, High Tech Satluj Motors, Lunapani.

He said loan manager Balbir Verma and manager Santosh Kumar opened an account in the bank.

He alleged that during the course of opening of the bank account, they got blank cheques from him without appending his signature and issued the amount in the name of Narender Guleria, but neither the car nor any document was given to him till date.

The police said a case under Sections 420 and 406 of the IPC had been registered at the Sadar police station against the accused and further investigations were on.

Una, November 4
The police nabbed a resident of Mandi district with 4 kg of charas near the railway station here last night.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Anupam Sharma said a night patrol party noticed a youth with a bag walking on the Hamirpur road. As the man turned back and noticed policemen behind him, he broke into a run.

The SP said the policemen nabbed the man and a search of his baggage led to the recovery of two packets containing 2 kg of the contraband. The accused had been identified as Hukam Singh of Galli village under Nihri post office near Karsog here. The SP said a case under Sections 20, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act had been registered. The price of the seized contraband was estimated at ~4 lakh, he added.

Chamba, November 4
A man was nabbed with 600 gm charas near Bheod, on the outskirts of Chamba town today, a police report said. A police party at a naka near Bheod stopped a bus coming from Praotha and on checking recovered the drug from the possession of a passenger.

The accused has been identified as Vinod Baba of Pathankot. A case under Section 20 of the NDPS Act had been registered at the Chamba police station, the report said.