We have been able to create keen interest among big industrial houses about Himachal through our ‘Industry by Invitation’ and ‘Invest Himachal’ campaigns. But now it is for respective departments to follow it up and facilitate setting up of units be it any sector. Mukesh Agnihotri, industries minister

Shimla, November 10
Happy over the positive response received from industry bigwigs during the investors’ meet, the state government is contemplating creating a State Investment Promotion Board to ensure the proper monitoring and flow of funds in various sectors such as power, industry, tourism and IT.

Even as various departments, in which the prospective investors have evinced interest in investing, are getting down to preparing the documents for inviting bids and floating expression of interest, the Industries Department is already planning the second phase of the investors’ meet, targeting Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.

“We have been able to create keen interest among big industrial houses about Himachal through our Industry by Invitation and Invest Himachal campaigns, but now it is for respective departments to follow it up and facilitate setting up of units be it any sector,” said Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri.

He said the industry had been assured of cheap and reliable power and clearance within 90 days.

He said the CM was keen on forming a body such as a State Investment Promotion Board which could undertake monthly monitoring of investments pouring into various departments especially power, industry, tourism, information technology and horticulture.

“Though we already have an Industry Promotion Cell at Parwanoo, a state-level body can be constituted to streamline all these proposals in which the industrialists have shown interest,” he said.

He said various departments would now get down to the task of floating expression of interest and invite bids of some already prepared projects.

During the interaction with investors, the two biggest constraints cited by most industrial houses was the problem in acquiring land in Himachal and dealing with truckers’ unions.

Though all industrial units have now been exempted from obtaining permission under Section 118 of the Tenancy and Land Reform Act, even then getting land was a cumbersome process.

It is reliably learnt that keeping in mind the problems cited by investors, the state government could take some decisions in the near future whether these pertained to purchase of land or making other procedures less cumbersome.

The government which is in the process of setting up three new industrial estates at Kandrori, Pandoga and Dhanota is keen that some more big chunks of land are identified so that more industrial areas can be set up in the state. This in turn will ensure easy availability of land to investors.

Shimla, November 10
The state BJP has expressed its doubts over the intentions of the state government on holding investors’ meet to woo industrialists.

Party spokesman Ganesh Dutt said the move of the government is directed at facilitating outsiders to acquire land in the state through backdoor by subverting the provisions of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, which barred any non-agriculturist from purchasing land in the state.

The Congress party had made the alleged misuse of Section 118 by the previous BJP government as a major issue, but failed to establish even a single case of misuse and now it was out to encourage real estate by luring investors with a promise of relaxing norms under Section 118, Dutt said.

The investors’ meet in major industrial states was in fact a sojourn of ministers and officers and exposed the fact that the investors were not keen on setting up units in the state as the atmosphere was not conducive, he said.

Dutt said the government was manoeuvring to dole out scarce land of the state to outsiders in the name of setting up industries under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode which implied that the lands would be auctioned.

BJP favoured setting up of industries by reputed industrial houses in the state, but dome brokers and land mafias were active in the state and the announcement of the government that lands would be sold to mobilise resources was fraught with dangerous consequences.

The BJP spokesman said the industrial growth of the state was halted on the day when the UPA government curtailed the special industrial package for Himachal from 2013 t0 2010 and prospective investors, withdrew from making investments in the state. He asked the government to specifically mention that which major industrial house was keen on investing in HP and in which sector.

Shimla, November 10
The plan to speed up work on Project Rohtang tunnel in Lahaul during winter months has failed to materialise it seems.

Project engineers are facing a series of major roadblocks such as freezing sub-zero temperatures, avalanches, electricity and water problems among other things. Not only this, the gushing water from Seri Nullah has also brought the excavation work from south portal side to a standstill.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had directed the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to speed up work on the strategic 8.82 km long Rohtang tunnel project, which was already running three years behind schedule, sources said.

The work from north portal side would continue till December 31 as planned, but to continue during winter months remained a remote possibility, project engineers said.

The contractors of Project Rohtang have excavated 2.4 km from Sissu side in Lahaul and only 2.2 km at the south portal from Manali side in the past more than three years.

The project was scheduled to be completed in 2015, but it had gone almost three years behind, as not even half of the tunnel had been excavated so far, sources said.

A team of glacialogists from Austria inspected the north portal side recently for danger of avalanches in the area during winters. But joint-venture companies — Afcons Indian Construction and Strabag AG Austria — were divided on whether to continue work during winter or not, sources said.

Some of them wanted that the work should continue till the starting of avalanche season that strikes somewhere in February, as temperature inside the tunnel hovers around 30°C. But others were reluctant as the water had started freezing already in Lahaul and outdoors temperature hits -13° C in January.

“We need air-conditioning to take in fresh air. We need fresh supply of materials such as cement, water and electricity and other support system and safe movement for labour and machineries during winters,” a Rohtang tunnel project official said.

“It is very difficult to work in areas which get six feet snow during winter. It may amount to compromise with the quality of work in adverse conditions,” he said.

Interestingly, most of the skilled and technical workers, most of them from Nepal, are ready to continue work even during harsh winter months from January to April as otherwise they will lose four months’ wages.

This is the period when the work from north portal at Sissu side is closed due to harsh winter months.

The Seri Nullah water ingress has been flowing at 100 litre per second since 2012 and this has brought the excavation work on south portal side to a standstill.

“We excavate just 3m or so a day due to the water ingress. Since 2012 we have been able to excavate just 400 m,” a tunnel engineer said.

Palampur, November 10
Travelling along state roads is nothing less than a nightmare as on an average more than 10 persons die daily in road accidents.

Most of the state roads have virtually turned into a death trap for innocent passengers because of the difficult topography and being full of potholes.

It is evident from the fact that in the first seven months of this year, 1,173 road mishaps were reported from the state in which 705 persons were killed and 2,383 injured. Official sources confirmed that in the past 10 years 30,299 road mishaps were registered in the state in which 10,535 persons lost their lives. This is a high figure as compared to other states.

In 2011, 3,100 roads accidents occurred in the state, in which 1,353 persons were killed and 5,462 injured.

It may be recalled that there has been a manifold increase in light and heavy vehicles in the state in the past 10 years. The volume of state and inter-state traffic has gone up, but the width of most of the roads is the same as it was 20 years ago.

Unfortunately, the government has no agenda in hand for the expansion and improvement of state roads. Successive governments have ignored the road infrastructure sector and no efforts have been made for the widening of highways and internal roads.

Even state and national highways are in bad shape. The condition of narrow internal roads in the state is worse where frequent road accidents take place. There are over 2,500 black spots identified by the state government, but no steps have been initiated to fix the traffic problem.

Despite tall claims made by the Himachal Pradesh Government, nothing worthwhile has been done to ensure passengers’ safety in the state. Hundreds of trucks and buses carrying pilgrims atop the roofs to different places can be seen daily on state roads. Rampant corruption in the traffic police has made the matter worse. Though the state government is aware that 95 per cent of the total population of the state is dependent on the road transport, passengers’ safety has completely been neglected. The state government has granted bus permits for passenger transport only on political considerations without looking into the condition of those roads where buses are to be plied.

Una, November 10
State BJP president and Una MLA Satpal Singh Satti today said rich political and organisational experience of newly inducted Union Minister JP Nadda would be beneficial for people of the country, particularly residents of the state.

He was addressing a meeting of block party organisation here. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had elevated the stature of the small hill state by giving a Cabinet berth to Nadda.

Satti urged party workers to complete the ongoing party organisational membership drive with dedication. He said strict transparency should be maintained in the process of filling up membership receipt books and cautioned that disciplinary action would be taken against defaulters who fail to deposit the collected amounts in the party funds.

Satti said after the nation-wide membership drive, while the BJP would emerge as the biggest political party in the world, it would also become the largest political party in Himachal Pradesh.

He set the membership target of 15 lakh for the hill state.

District BJP president Balbir Bagga, block party president Ramesh Bhadolian and state BJP media co-in charge Hari Om Bhanot were also present besides others. 

Shimla, November 10
The state BJP has raised the membership target to 15 lakh from 10 lakh.

BJP general secretary and in charge of organisational affairs for Himachal, Srikant Sharma, said: “Till the beginning of the drive, the old membership of the party was about five lakh, but the target was increased to 10 lakh in view of the overwhelming response from people. Now, the target has been raised to 15 lakh.” He said: “A feeling of security and optimism prevails in the country and the atmosphere is conducive for the rapid growth of the party in the state.”

The confidence among people that things would change for good under the trusted leadership of Modi has changed the mindset of people who see new hops for better days for the country and its people. “Our aim is to strengthen the sangathan at the grassroots level and the role of members at the mandal and block level is significant in the membership drive,” he said, adding that the target was to win more than 50 seats out of total 68 seats in the next Assembly election. There is 35% reservation for women in the organisation and the focus would be on women and youth in the age group of 18 to 28, he said. — TNS

Mandi, November 10
Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur reviewed the progress of various development projects while presiding over a meeting of the 20-Point Programme at Padhar in the district today.

He said it was important to review the progress and set a target for their completion. He directed officials to complete the ongoing development projects at the earliest so that people could get benefits of various welfare schemes of the government.

He said several schemes worth Rs 75 lakh were still incomplete in the subdivision and the construction of the Hanogi-Bandhi road had been started on which a sum of Rs 3 crore would be spent.

He said 18,583 job cards had been prepared under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and so far Rs 4.61 lakh had been spent on it Padhar subdivision.

He directed the officials of the PWD and Irrigation and Public Health Department to complete the repair and pending works at the earliest.

He also directed the officials of the Agriculture and Horticulture departments to hold awareness camps in remote and far-flung areas of the subdivision.

Chandigarh, November 10
A two-day disaster management exercise, Mountain Rescue, being conducted by the Western Command, will begin tomorrow at the Annandale Ground in Shimla.

The aim of the exercise is to practise the evacuation of civilian population from disaster-affected areas in remote mountainous areas of Himachal. A few helicopters of the Army Aviation Corps, along with the Army’s special forces and regular troops, carried out casualty evacuation drills at Jutogh.

The exercise is being jointly conducted by the civil administration, fire service department and National Disaster Management Authority. More such exercises are planned to be held in the future to finetune disaster response drills.

Natural calamities, that struck the Indian sub-continent during the past decade, have underscored the need for adopting a multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach to disaster management. The armed forces constitute a significant entity for disaster response and relief by virtue of their organisational strength, motivation, discipline and operational preparedness.

Nurpur, November 10
The Archaeology Survey of India (ASI) had in 2010 imposed restrictions on all ongoing construction activities of local residents and development activities undertaken by the state government within the 300-m radius (known as regulated area) of the remains of the centuries old Nurpur Fort. Now, the public demand to relax the restrictions for this urban area has started gaining momentum.

The local Town Welfare Committee and the Nagar Sudhar Sabha have approached and appealed to Kangra MP Shanta Kumar to take up the issue with the Government of India as “this ban is of draconian nature, grabbing fundamental and civil rights of citizens in the town”.

PD Sahotra, general secretary of the committee, and Promod Kumar, president of the sabha, have appealed to the MP to save citizens from such harsh restrictions. They have taken the plea that remains of the Nurpur Fort are not an attraction for tourists and other visitors and citizens are facing repercussions of the “illogical restriction” on carrying out new construction, repair and alteration of their residential and other structures.

All development activities and expansion of government buildings have also come to a halt for the past four years. The construction of the proposed new judicial court complex, expansion of police station and sub jail buildings have been shelved due to the restriction. The construction of the mini-secretariat and additional building of Government Girls’ Senior Secondary School has been delayed by two years for want of permission of the National Monument Authority (NMA), Government of India.

The Nurpur Fort was declared a protected monument in December 1992 and a blanket ban was imposed on any repair, altercation and expansion of the existing Government Senior Secondary School’s (boys) building that had come into existence in 1928, during British rule in this fort complex.

The iron sheet roofs of a number of classrooms of the school had been blown off in 2007 and walls of some classrooms were damaged, but the ASI authorities did not grant permission for carrying out repair, forcing the students to sit in the open. The state government’s earmarked funds for this purpose remained unutilised for years. No state government had taken any step to shift the school premises after the enforcement of ASI restrictions.

Mandi, November 10
To encourage tourism, new tourist spots will be identified and developed in the district so that self-employment opportunities are generated.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sandeep Kadam said this while presiding over a review meeting here today.

He said in the current financial year Rs 13.92 crore had been spent on providing free uniform and books to students of Classes VI to X under the Mahatma Gandhi Uniform Scheme.

The DC said block development officers, village panchayats, National Highways Authority of India and Horticulture Department had been asked to identify areas to plant saplings of flower and fruit plants on the national highway and banks of the lakes.

He said rain harvesting structures were being constructed in schools and 155 such structures had been completed at a cost of Rs 1.95 crore in the district.

The DC said 692 houses were being constructed in the district under the Indira Awas Yojana.

On the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, he said officials must ensure cleanliness in their offices and office premises. He urged non-governmental organisations to adopt a public place for cleanliness.

He said every government employee should have a toilet in their house and action would be taken against any violator.

Among those present in the meeting were Additional Deputy Commissioner Gopal Chand, all SDMs, BDOs, and officials of the other departments.

Shimla, November 10
Even as tribals in the snow-bound Lahaul-Spiti and Pangi subdivision of Chamba rejected the construction of big hydropower projects in the Chenab basin on the ground that these would wreak havoc in the eco-fragile valley, the Directorate of Energy (DOE) yesterday claimed that “public consultative meetings with stakeholders were successful and the draft policy for the Chenab basin would be submitted to the government in 2015 for final approval”.

The tribals, under various anti-power projects sangharsh samiti, told The Tribune that they had rejected big power projects and registered their view before the state panel at Udaipur, Keylong and Pangi for the draft of the Cumulative Environment Impact Assessment (CEIA).

“The government is imposing power projects on the Buddhist minority community in the region and not respecting its viewpoint”, said Ringzin Haryapa, secretary of the Janjatiya Kalyan Samiti, Lahaul-Spiti and Jispa Bandh Jankalyan Sangharsh Samiti. “The panel did not table any agenda in the meeting. We want to keep the valley free from destruction caused by power projects in Kinnaur”, he told the panel.

Meanwhile, the officials claimed that the stakeholders protested in Keylong because they came from the proposed Jispa project. The local people had confirmed their support to the hydro power development but demanded transparency in power projects, the DOE officials stated in a statement yesterday.

These meetings were presided over by Hans Raj Chauhan, DC, Lahaul and Spiti. The meeting at Killar in Pangi was chaired by NC Bhardwaj, resident commissioner, Pangi. The panel elaborated the hydro power policy of the state on environment, socio-economic and technical concerns and got a positive response, officials said.

They had presented the status of the report and the purpose and importance of the study and explained various aspects as to how it would benefit the sustainable hydro power development in the region, the officials added.

The members of state government’s ‘peer group’, including environment experts, SDMs and officers of various departments participated in these meetings.

The study was awarded to a Gurgaon-based company to draft a final report by May 2015. The report will be circulated to every block in the Chenab basin.

The recommendation will be circulated to every panchayat for final objections and will be reviewed by the peer group and social and environment experts before it is sent for government approval, they added.

Shimla, November 10
The Citizens Council, Shimla (CCS) today lambasted the successive state governments and other agencies for their failure to find a solution to the problems of monkey and stray dog menace, failure to rein in private schools regarding fee hike and holiday mess and make the HRTC resume taxi services on several routes to give respite to residents, mainly senior citizens.

Narrating their woes after a meeting chaired by president Ishwar Verma, the members of the council resented that they had sent several reminders to the authorities to mitigate the problems, but in vain.

“Monkey and stray dog menace has virtually made the common man, mainly children and women, prisoners in their own homes. The citizens are facing monkey and stray dog attacks round-the-clock, while the Wildlife Department and successive state governments are beating around the bush,” said Ishwar Verma. The plight of the common public has gone from bad to worse, he added.

“Time has come to take direct action on the problems of the city,” he asserted, seeking participation of all the residents.

The monkey and stray dog bite cases have shot up to 250 in a month, as reported in city hospitals in recent times, said Satyavan Pundir, senior vice-president of the CCS.

The district administration has failed to bridle private and public schools which have hiked the fee and other charges exorbitantly and run schools at their whims and fancies. They have no common holiday calendar, resented the council members. There are public schools which run hostels and charged exorbitantly, but the facilities are not up to the standards, they pointed out.

The HRTC and the Shimla Municipal Corporation, which had started pink taxis and golf carts, have failed to resume the services in the city. The HRTC had failed to start the taxi services on many routes, leaving senior residents troubled, rued Rekha Sood, a senior resident from Chhotta Shimla.

“We have sought participation of the citizens to chalk out a strategy to further the plan of action at the Kalibari conference scheduled for November 18. We will send a memorandum to the deputy commissioner on the schools’ issues,” Pundir asserted.

Kullu, November 10
Mandi MP Ram Swaroop Sharma will visit the old Manali village, which has been recently adopted by him under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana scheme, on November 14.

He said, “Old Manali was the abode of Rishi Manu and has its own significance.”

The major aim was to develop old Manali into a model village by providing measures for sustainable self-dependency for the villagers, he added.

The MP said the village was visited by a large number of tourists coming to Manali and adequate cleanliness arrangements would be provided to ensure proper hygiene. Efforts to ensure a healthy society free from drugs would be pursued. Education and health facilities in the village would also be developed, he said.

Old Manali is a small village located in Manali tehsil of Kullu district, with a population of 831, of which 408 are males and 423 females, as per the 2011 Census.

Most of the people are related with tourism, besides a few practising agriculture and horticulture.

Manali SDM Viney Dhiman said the administration would comply with the directions and guidelines of the scheme and every effort would be made to ensure development of selected village as a role model, as per the directives of the MP.

Manali MLA and Kullu BJP president Gobind Singh Thakur thanked the MP for choosing the Manali constituency, out of the 17 Assembly constituencies falling under the Mandi parliamentary constituency. There was a wave of happiness in the entire township, as the village was adjacent to the town and the move would boost the volume and scope of tourism, he added.

State BJP vice-president Ram Singh praised the efforts of the MP and stated that he was fulfilling promises he made during the Lok Sabha elections. Ram Singh lauded his efforts to mobilise the four-laning of the Kiratpur-Ner Chowk highway and strategic approval of the Pathankot-Manali-Leh railway line. It was a matter of pride for Manali residents to be included in a list of few selected villages throughout the country to be benefited under the scheme, he added.

The residents of the village and town were planning to extend a warm welcome to the MP upon his visit on November 14.

Una, November 10
Punjabi singer Sarabjeet Cheema enthralled the audience during the first cultural night of the three-day Sombhadra Mahotsav, which started yesterday, at the Indira Gandhi stadium here.

Spectators danced to his hit numbers, including ‘Rang rara riri rara’, ‘Billo teri taur vekh ke’ and ‘Rang la Punjab’. He took to the stage at about 9.30 pm and the performance continued till 11 pm. Cultural troupes from Una and other districts of the state also performed.

Earlier, Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri lighted the inaugural lamp along with Chairman of the State Finance Commission and Chintpurni MLA Kuldip Kumar to mark the start of the cultural fiesta. A souvenir was also released on the occasion.

DC-cum-Chairman of the festival organising committee Abhishek Jain, SP Anupam Sharma, district Congress president Varinder Dharmani and former Vice-Chairman of the Agro Packaging Corporation Omkar Sharma were also present.

Mandi, November 10
For the first time, a theatre artiste from the town has got an opportunity to act in a Hollywood movie.

Munish Dev Mohan, who hails from Mandi, has played the role of a police officer in renowned Hollywood director Pan Nalin’s film “Beyond The Known World”. The movie is based on foreigners who went missing in the Kullu valley.

The movie was also shot at various locations in Kullu district recently and Mohan played the role of a Superintendent of Police of Kullu.

Mohan said he got an opportunity to work with “Lord of The Rings” fame actor David Wenhem in the movie.

Mohan, an electrical engineer by profession, said the shooting of the movie had been completed and it would be released soon.

He said several local artistes, including Himani Sharma, Arvind Sharma and Rajiv, got an opportunity to show their talent in the movie.

He said a school at Dhalpur in Kullu was shown as jail. Mohan said most of the shooting of the movie was held in Kullu and Manali.

He said some scenes of the film were shot in New Zealand.

Dharamsala, November 10
Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya (CSKHPKV), Palampur, is in a deep financial mess as it has not paid its employees’ salary this month.

Sources said the university authorities were hoping that the state government would bail them out of the current financial crisis and be able to pay salaries to its employees.

They said the university had been drained out of its meagre financial resources as it was forced to pay 5-7 months’ arrears to pensioners following the HP High Court order.

The agricultural university had not been able to pay pension to its pensioners since March this year. The pensioners moved the HC against the university, after which the university authorities were directed to pay pension to the pensioners.

To comply with the HC order, the university management drained all its resources and paid the arrears. Earlier, the state government had turned down the request of CSKHPKV seeking Rs 61 crore to implement its pension scheme.

This had left nearly 900 pensioners of the university without pension since March. The employees who retired after March have not been given any dues by the university.

Ranjeet Singh, comptroller, finance, of the university, had said the university would not be in a position to pay pension regularly to its employees without the government’s support.

The agricultural university though established by the state government, is autonomous in nature. The university employees are not considered as government employees.

Sources said earlier the university used to have contributory pension. In 1998 the state government allowed the university to implement pension scheme at par with the state government employees. However, the officials at that time allowed the scheme to be implemented since 1998.

The result of implementing the scheme from retrospective effect was that some employees made meagre payments as contribution to scheme and took lakhs as commutation of pension.

By allowing the implementation of pension scheme at government pattern the coffers to university pension scheme went dry.

Now, the university authorities are seeking help from government to continue their pension scheme. The government initially gave a financial help of nearly Rs 35 crore to the university. However, even those funds have been exhausted.

Now, the university is seeking Rs 61 crore from the government to continue its pension scheme, but the state government, itself facing financial crunch, has declined the request.

Sources said the worst sufferers were Class IV employees. The teachers usually get handsome amount as retirement dues. However, Class IV employees require pension to make ends meet.

Hamirpur, November 10
Managements and teachers should join hands to improve the standard of education and bring in excellence in the institutes of higher education.

This was stated by Himachal Pradesh Technical University (HPTU) Vice-Chancellor RL Sharma on the occasion of a valedictory function at the Trisha College of Education here yesterday.

Prof Romesh Chander Kaundal, Dean, Himachal Pradesh University, said private institutions of higher education had failed to implement norms set by the government and universities to achieve excellence in higher education. He said governing bodies, such as the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE), had failed to enforce their recommendations in the institutes of higher education.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Harbans Rana, chairman, Education Department, HPU, said it was unlawful to deny higher education to talented persons only because they could not afford to pay fee.

NK Sharma, convener of the seminar, said HPU should introduce a grading system in educational institutions so that weak students could be encouraged to perform well.

Shimla, November 10
Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) today declared the results of the second, fourth and eighth semesters of MA history, MSc maths and BTech, respectively.

Controller of Examinations Shyam Kaushal said the pass percentage of BTech students was 77 and 84 per cent and 86 per cent of the students passed in the second and fourth semesters of MA history, respectively.

The pass rate of students of the second and fourth semesters of MSc maths was 80 per cent and 78 per cent, respectively.

The result is available at www. hpuniv.in and detailed marks card will be dispatched accordingly.

Kullu, November 10
The last date to apply for Jawahar Navodaya School in Bandrol, about 8 km from here, has been extended till November 15. Earlier, the last date to apply was October 31.

The school principal said students of Class V of the current academic session, studying in government or recognised public schools, could apply for the 2015-16 session. Application forms were available free of cost at the school and at the offices of Block Primary Education Officer (BPEO). The forms could be submitted at the respective BPEO offices or JNV Bandrol on or before November 15, he added.

Solan, November 10
The Kasauli-based cantonment board will auction its 25 shops and godowns tomorrow, paving way for enhancing its income.

The reserve price fixed by the board falls in the range of ~1,500 to ~70,000 which is almost 50 per cent of the prevailing rates. Though the board had unsuccessfully initiated auction proceedings last year too, the allottees running the shops since decades had protested the move and not vacated the premises.

The board officials had served notices to the 59 shopkeepers to vacate the premises in December last year, as several cases of sub-letting and other violations had been made to the higher officials of the board, forcing them to order fresh auctions. The shops had been auctioned several years ago and shopkeepers have been operating from here for decades.

The board officials had also slapped fine on each such shopkeeper at the rate of ~100 per day, since June this year, as they had failed to vacate the shops and only a few had come forward to deposit the fine. But since it was mandatory to participate in the auction, all shopkeepers had deposited the penalty till this evening.

The shopkeepers are now gearing up to participate in the first phase, in which 25 shops will be auctioned.

These shops include those where maximum complaints had poured in due to sub-letting and violations of the other norms.

The shopkeepers were, however, skeptical that they would lose the shops that they had been running for decades and as they had no other source of livelihood, they could face problems in the near future.

With a large number of outsiders also eyeing the auction, it remains to be seen how many locals manage to get back their shops.

Cause of crisis Several cases of sub-letting and other violations made to the higher officials of the board, forcing them to order auctions. Shops had been auctioned several years ago and shopkeepers had been operating from here for decades. Board officials also slapped fine on each such shopkeeper at the rate of Rs 100 per day, since June this year, as they failed to vacate the shops The shopkeepers are now gearing up to participate in the first phase of auction, in which 25 shops will be auctioned. These shops include those where maximum complaints had poured in due to sub-letting and violations of the other norms.

Chamba, November 10
The Women Welfare Committee of the Chamera Power Station-III distributed computers among underprivileged children of Kasturba Gandhi Hostel and Bal Ashram at Mehla in Chamba district on Saturday.

Reeta Kaul, chairperson of the committee, said the computers were provided under the Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Development (CSR&CD) scheme of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC).

Inspiring the children of the ashram, Reeta Kaul stated that the NHPC was making endeavours to impart computer training to the underprivileged children to bring them into the main stream.

The children of the ashram presented folk songs and dances. Besides the hostel staff, the members of the women welfare committee were also present.

Mandi, November 10
In view of the rising cases of domestic violence, social activists have sought special courts for women.

Desh Raj Sharma, a social activist and BR Kaundal, a former HAS officer and legal consultant, said the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, was enacted to provide immediate relief to the victims.

They said the case Bhagvatu Devi, a resident of Khakhariyana village in Balh tehsil of the district, was pending in the court for the last one year and no interim or final relief had been granted to her so far.

“There are provisions in the Act that the magistrate shall fix the first date of hearing, which shall not ordinarily be beyond three days from the date of receipt of the application by the court and shall endeavour to dispose of every application within a period of 60 days from the date of its first hearing,” they said.

Bhagvatu Devi’s step son had ousted her and also demolished her house.

“In this way, the purpose of the Act has failed as the victims are not getting relief within the period specified in the Act. In such circumstances, the government should establish special courts for women to decide their pending cases,” they added.

“The protection officers notified under the Act are supervisors of the Integrated Child Development Services Department who are not well-versed with the law, resulting in delay in court cases. The government should appoint ‘law-knowing persons’ as protection officers,” they said.