HP horticulturists given fungicides
SHIMLA, April 8 — With a view to containing the apple scale and mite diseases, 143.44 metric tonnes of fungicides and insecticides have been made available to the horticulturists through various plant protection centres in Himachal Pradesh.

Water supply affected
MANDI, April 8 — Water supply to parts of the town was completely disrupted following the breakdown of 9-km gravity mainline between Mandi and Maigal.

HVC leader dead
NAHAN, April 8 — Former MLA and State Vice-President of the Himachal Vikas Congress, Ram Jakhmi died here yesterday. He was 67 and a bachelor.

Local bodies 'not' starved of funds
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, April 8 — The Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, today refuted the Opposition charge that the government was tampering with the panchayati raj institutions and local bodies and categorically stated that it would deal firmly with corruption at all levels.

Replying to a debate on the motion of Mr Virbhadra Singh, leader of Opposition, on the issue, Mr Dhumal said the government had not passed any orders to withdraw the vehicles of chairpersons of the zila parishad. The village committees had been elected by the Gram Sabha and not nominated by the government, as alleged.

Referring to the affairs of the Shimla Municipal Corporation, he said the government had received reports pointing out glaring irregularities to shower benefits on influential persons. Regarding the resolution passed by the Congress ruled corporation for the recall of the municipal commissioner, the government would act against the officer if found guilty but if the corporation was on the wrong the government would take a strict view of it.

Denying the charge that panchayati raj institutions were being starved of funds, Mr Dhumal said as against Rs 17 crore allocated during 1997-98, Rs 19.35 crore were disbursed to these institutions last year. A provision of Rs 21 crore had been made in this year's Budget.

He said works up to Rs 50,000 would be carried out by the village committees, from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh by assistant engineers and beyond that by executive engineers.

Introducing the motion, Mr Virbhadra Singh alleged that the present government was not allowing the zila parishads to exercise control over employment assurance scheme and the Deputy Commissioners were committing serious irregularities by sanctioning funds for various works, ignoring the approval of the parishad and the governing body of the District Rural Development Agencies.

Even funds were not being released as per the recommendation of the state finance commission. An amount of Rs 16 crore — about Rs 8 crore for works and the remaining for maintenance of infrastructure for all three years — were still payable to the panchayati raj institutions. The amount should be released immediately, he said.

It was learnt that the government had issued directions that vigilance committees elected by Gram Sabhas should inspect the works before releasing the next instalment of funds was released to the panchayat. He said this was not only hampering the smooth functioning of the institutions, but also affecting development activities.

The government ordered the withdrawal of the vehicles given to zila parishad chiefs. Such acts undermined the status of the elected panchayat functionaries.

Mr Gangu Ram underlined that the need for providing training to panchayat functioning and immediate constitution of district planning committees. He said the government should provide an assistant engineer for every two development blocks.

Safety plan for Gujjars' huts
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, April 8 — The police has ruled out the possibility of the hand of militants in the burning down of over 12 "kothas" (huts) of Gujjars in the Tissa area of Chamba.

The police has attributed the burning of the "kothas" to the traditional fight among Gujjars, Gaddis and the locals over the pastures.

The DIG, Mr I.D. Bhandari, ruled out the possibility of the involvement of the militants behind the incident as the area was far away from the J and K border.

The Superintendent of Police, Chamba, Mr Atul Verma, when contacted, said a police team had already visited the place where the "kothas" had been burnt down. "It is definitely not an accidental fire and some mischievous elements seem to be behind it", he said. Some people had been rounded up and brought to the Tissa police station for interrogation.

Mr Verma said it was a dispute over the grazing rights that had led to the incident. He disclosed that since the government had decided not to give grazing permits in the bordering areas, there seemed to be a fight over the issue.

CHAMBA (FOC): The police had drawn an action plan for the security and safety of Gujjar huts, their families and livestock.

He stated that under the action plan, peace committees consisting of local residents, shepherds, Gujjars were being constituted. So far, 18 such committees had been formed.

The police would take the help of panchayat pradhans and village-level mandals in maintaining vigil through "thikri pehras" in the border villages.

J&K team first in water sport
From Our Correspondent

KANGRA, April 8 — The Directorate of Youth Services and Sports of Jammu and Kashmir bagged the first and the third positions in wide water kayaking (WWK II) for women on the second day of the 4th National Invitational Water Regatta at Maharana Partap Sagar Dam here on Tuesday.

Ms Resat Jan and Ms Aliya, representing the directorate, bagged the first position in the WWK II for women while Ms Saroj and Ms Monika, representing the DWF, Bilaspur, got the second position.

The third position in the same event was bagged by the Directorate of Youth Services and Sports, represented by when Ms Abida and Ms Nilofar.

Earlier on, Himachal Pradesh won the first and the second positions in the country boat women race. Ms Suman Kumari and Ms Sarla Devi of HP Amateurs Sports Club of Sansarpur Terrace bagged the first position in the boat race for women. The second position in the same event was bagged by Ms Kiran Bala and Ms Anuja Chandel of the DWS Association, Bilaspur.

Twentyone teams from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Orissa, Haryana, Assam, Maharashtra, Bihar and Rajasthan are taking part in the regatta.

Bank’s plan to boost tourism
From Our Correspondent

UNA, April 8 — The Vice-Chairman of the HP State Cooperative Banks, Mr K.K. Kaushal, has said that at least 132 new individual schemes have been launched in the state cooperative banks to reduce unemployment and to help rural poor.

He was talking to newspersons at the PWD rest house here yesterday. He said irrigation, hotel, motel and small tourism projects will be given a boost under the plan.

Mr Kaushal said of the about Rs 1200 crore revenue earned by the bank annually, only 10 per cent was being utilised in the state through loans to various corporations and boards while the rest was being lent to nationalised banks as per NABARD guidelines. He said considering the financial status of the people, the banks should be allowed to disburse the excess amount among the people of the state which will help to generate job opportunities.

He stressed on the need to set up an agriculture cooperative with the support of Irrigation and Public Health and Agriculture Departments so that the cooperative banks could provide big loans for irrigation schemes and other projects like transport.

HP horticulturists given fungicides
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, April 8 — With a view to containing the apple scale and mite diseases, 143.44 metric tonnes of fungicides and insecticides have been made available to the horticulturists through various plant protection centres in Himachal Pradesh.

Stating this here yesterday, a spokesman of the Horticulture Department said adequate arrangements had been made to provide fungicides and insecticides in sufficient quantity at all sale depots in the state. A target of 220.84 tonnes had been fixed up to June.

The spokesman clarified that all sale depots were smoothly functioning in the state and sufficient quota of essential medicines were also available there.

Denying any shortage of horticultural medicines in pockets of Ani and Nirmand in Kulu district, the spokesman clarified that for containing the scale disease 4.61 metric tonnes of medicines had been supplied, and 1,400 litres of medicines for the control of the mite disease. Besides this, 3,500 kg of other medicines had also been made available to the horticulturists.

He said 8.18 metric tonnes of anti-scale medicines and 700 of anti-mite medicines had been supplied in the Rampur area of Shimla district.

Water supply affected
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, April 8 — Water supply to parts of the town was completely disrupted following the breakdown of 9-km gravity mainline between Mandi and Maigal.

Residents of Jawaharnagar and Purani Mandi had to undergo lot of hardships as the taps went dry yesterday. Officials and workers of the Irrigation and Public Health Department toiled hard during the night to restore the water supply, but failed.

Mr P.D. Sharma, Chief Engineer, Irrigation and Public Health, told the Tribune that a bulldozer of the PWD working on the road threw a big boulder on the pipeline which got badly damaged.

HVC leader dead
From Our Correspondent

NAHAN, April 8 — Former MLA and State Vice-President of the Himachal Vikas Congress, Ram Jakhmi died here yesterday. He was 67 and a bachelor.

Jakhmi was elected Members of the Legislative Assembly of Himachal Pradesh in 1977, from Pachhad assembly constituency of Sirmaur district. Later, when the Shanta Government was toppled by the Congress, he was appointed Vice-Chairman of Nahan Foundry. For a long time he remained in the Janata Dal and joined the Himachal Vikas Congress last year.

He was suffering from throat cancer for the past six months and was under treatment at the PGI, Chandigarh.