Virbhadra should quit seat: Chandel
SHIMLA, April 16 — Mr Suresh Chandel, president of the state unit of the BJP, has demanded resignation of Mr Virbhadra Singh from the Vidhan Sabha for bypassing the constitutional provisions while raising loans as pointed out by Comptroller-General of India in the latest report.

Differences in BJP come to fore
SUNDERNAGAR, April 16 — The absence of Mr Rup Singh, Forest Minister, and other party workers, from the workers' meeting of the Nachan Assembly segment indicates that f-actionalism still continues in the Mandi unit of the BJP.

Deployment of police irrational: report
SHIMLA, April 16 — Indifferent training and irrational deployment of police personnel has been mainly responsible for the ineffectiveness of the Police Department in Himachal Pradesh.

Health camps in rural areas 'must'
SHIMLA, April 16 — The Himachal Governor V.S. Rama Devi has stressed the need for organising frequent health camps in the rural areas of the state for detecting diabetes and educating patients on effective ways of controlling the disease. She suggested that diabetes clinics should be opened in all district hospitals to facilitate diabetic patients.

CITU strike on April 21
SHIMLA, April 16 — The state committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions has given a call for a one-day strike on April 21 in protest against the "reign of repression" let lose by the administration on agitating workers of the Nathpa-Jhakri project.

3-member Cong election panel
SHIMLA, April 16 — Mr Ram Niwas Mirdha, Chairman, Central Election Authority, AICC, has appointed a three-member election authority for Himachal Pradesh.

HP makes water collection compulsory
From Chander Shekhar Sharma

HAMIRPUR: Water is a precious commodity. And if it is not preserved properly, the day is not far off when a war would be fought on the water issue.

The blatant misuse of water and repeated changes coming in the watertable has made experts formulate a policy to make the maximum use of water. Another theory is to preserve rainwater for washing clothes, utensils and to clean the toilets, while tap water is kept only for drinking purposes.

The Himachal Pradesh Government has recently come up with the idea of quenching the thirst of mankind and also thirsty fields. The state government has made it compulsory for all new building owners all over the state to prepare structures on their premises for the collection of rain water coming from the roof tops of their buildings. This order is also applicable to the government, institutional and commercial buildings having a plinth area more than 1000 square metres and located all over the state.

Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, under whose direction this order has come into force, says that once this order comes into being in letter and spirit, the water shortage in most of the parts of the state would come to an end. According to him, only 6 per cent of the total water being supplied to the general public at present is used for drinking purposes while the rest of the water is wasted for performing other household chores.

He says that tap water is costly but supplied on highly subsidised rates to the people as it is the duty of any welfare state to help its residents. But it is the duty of the people also to extend a helping hand to the government to curb its expenses to ensure development in all parts of the state in education, supply of ration, transport, etc.

The roof water collection concept is already in operation in upper Bamsan area of Hamirpur district. The house of Thakur Ganpat Rai of Maahre village in the area ( see photo) shows that the water collected from the rooftops is being collected into a pipe and put into a "khatri" being constructed on a rock near the house. The house owner uses this water for washing clothes, utensils, quenching the thirst of the animals and to pump it to nearby fields.

Dr Lashkari Ram Rathore, an ex-MLA of Bamsan, and younger brother of Thakur Ganpat Rai, says that the family has been able to make full use of the rain water stored during the rainy season. According to him, this water remains ever fresh and does not emit any foul smell. This idea, he says, is the creation of the elder members of the family and has paid dividends. Since this area has no other water source, it was decided to collect the roof water in a separate khatri. The family is having another khatri, the water of which is being used for drinking purposes, he adds.

The Himachal Pradesh Government organised a number of training camps for the people of various parts of the state to provide them know how about the rainwater harvesting schemes in towns. The HP State Council sponsored these camps for science and technology and the main consultant was the Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC) , Ghaziabad.

The SERC experts say that the average rainfall in the state is good and 80 per cent of this occurs during the monsoon ( July to September ) and the rest ( 20 per cent) during the winter. This makes the location of HP towns ideal for rainwater harvesting-based water supply. The SERC has developed several types of rainwater harvesting techniques for the national drinking water mission project and UNICEF. It says that in cities like Shimla, where there is an acute water shortage in the summer season, the quantity of rainwater stored in suitable types of tanks would augment the water availability to a great extent and would reduce pressure on the public water supply system.

The poor want that the government should come forward by providing fiscal help in constructing such tanks so that the government order is implemented in letter and spirit. They want that the government should organise seminars on conservation of water in different parts of state, especially in villages, to make people aware of the urgency of storage of water, a scarce item.

Loans' issue
Virbhadra should quit seat: Chandel
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, April 16 — Mr Suresh Chandel, president of the state unit of the BJP, has demanded resignation of Mr Virbhadra Singh from the Vidhan Sabha for bypassing the constitutional provisions while raising loans as pointed out by Comptroller-General of India in the latest report.

In a statement here today, Mr Chandel claimed that the successive censures of the Virbhadra government by the CAG had proved all allegations of irregularities in raising loans and financial mismanagement to be true.

Mr Chandel regretted that Mr Virbhadra Singh who otherwise claimed himself to be a well-wisher of the tribesmen misused funds especially sanctioned by the Centre under the tribal subplan for other purposes.

He urged the Election Commission to disqualify Mr Virbhadra Singh from holding any elective office for violating the directions of the commission on the use of helicopters during assembly elections as pointed out by the CAG. The Himachal Government should recover full amount of expenditure incurred on such flights during this period from the former Chief Minister, he further demanded.

The BJP leader said the CAG had held the former Congress Government guilty of making "an inadmissible payment of Rs 8.87 lakh to a private agency for hiring a helicopter" despite the fact that it was "grounded due to the fault of the agency itself". Full amount of such illegal payments together with interest should be recovered from the former Chief Minister, he demanded.

The BJP leader said the indictment of the Virbhadra Singh government was another proof that it had been playing ducks and drakes with the hard-earned money which should otherwise have been spent on public welfare.

Canada offers help to fruit industry
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, April 16 — Mr Peter F. Walker, Canadian High Commissioner, said here today that his country could offer the necessary technical expertise for the improvement of fruit industry in Himachal Pradesh.

Mr Walker, who met Mr Narinder Bragta state Horticulture Minister, yesterday said Himachal Pradesh could gain substantially from the Canadian experience especially in upgrading its grading houses, cold storages at terminal places and controlled atmospheric storage facilities.

There was a vast scope for collaboration in the horticulture-based industries and diversification of fruits in the apple growing areas and development of fruit products like cider, vinegar and other items. He said Canada could also assist the state in the improvement of floriculture, exporting markets outside and transportation of fruit products. He advised Mr Bragta to prepare a detailed project for the consideration of Canadian experts.

Referring to the vast tourism potential of the state the High Commissioner said, Canadian help could be sought for providing smaller aircraft which could fly in the difficult areas and land on small strips in hostile weather condition. These aircraft, he said, could serve a number of purposes like flying tourists and transporting fruits form the far-flung pockets of the state.

Mr Narinder Bragta, said processing industries already established in the state were engaged in the manufacture of conventional fruit products which served the domestic market. He said assistance in the form of latest technical knowhow and expertise from Canada could prove useful in the priority areas of horticulture.

He said the state wanted to upgrade technology for the manufacture of value-added products like Pectin besides development or organic products of fruits and its processing for the export market.

He said proper cold storage facilities and proper infrastructural facilities were necessary for agro-horticultural products and sought cost-effective technology for safeguarding the interests of fruit-growers.

HPCC asks state govt to step down
From Our Correspondent

CHAMBA, April 16 — The Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) asked the BJP-led coalition government in the states to step down on moral grounds for not being able to trace six Himachalis kidnapped by the militants eight months ago during Kalaban-Satrundi carnages. Mr Harsh Mahajan, Vice-President of the HPCC, criticised the state government for its inefficiency and for its failure to protect the minority communities living in the border villages of Chamba district.

Mr Mahajan said the incidents of burning of about one and a half dozen huts of Gujjars in Churah sub-division of Chamba district had created an apprehension in the minds of the minorities and had disturbed communal harmony in the area. He alleged that the state government was not taking a serious view of these incidents.

He pointed out that a (CRPF) battalion had been withdrawn by the government from the area (ITBP) battalion which was to take its place, had not arrived there as yet and the people living in areas were apprehensive about their safety.

Differences in BJP come to fore
From Our Correspondent

SUNDERNAGAR, April 16 — The absence of Mr Rup Singh, Forest Minister, and other party workers, from the workers' meeting of the Nachan Assembly segment indicates that f-actionalism still continues in the Mandi unit of the BJP.

A workers' meeting of the Nachan Assembly segment was held at Chowk village on Sunday. It was attended among others by Mr Suresh Chandel, MP and party president, Mr Maheshwer Singh, MP, from the Mandi parliamentary constituency and former minister Mr Dila Ram, who was the BJP candidate in the last assembly elections. Since the last organisational elections Mr Rup Singh, Forest Minister and Mr Dila Ram, ex-minister have not been on good terms.

In March BJP workers of the Sundernagar constituency held their workers' meeting and Mr Dila Ram did not attend the meeting.

The differences between the two leaders all harming the organisation in the district, said a senior party worker.

Deployment of police irrational: report
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, April 16 — Indifferent training and irrational deployment of police personnel has been mainly responsible for the ineffectiveness of the Police Department in Himachal Pradesh.

With an average strength of 2.41 police personnel per thousand of population. The department is indeed short of manpower, however, even the available operation man-power of 13,222 personnel is not being utilised properly.

Interestingly, the deployment of police personnel has not been linked to either population or incidence of crime. In Shimla, Kangra, Mandi and Solan, the four most crime prone districts, the number of people per police personnel worked out to 429, 1,307,1,334 and 550, respectively. The raito of police personnel to population varied from 160 (Lahaul-Spiti) to 1,414 (Hamirpur).

This clearly indicated that there has been no uniformity in the deployment of force. Similarly, the average number of crime cases per police ranged from 0.88 (Kinnaur) and 0.79 (Lahaul-Spiti) to 4.16 (Hamirpur) and 4.20 (Kangra). The wide variation in number of crime cases handled by operational staff in the districts make obvious the scope and need for rationalisation of the deployment. The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India has also taken notice of the irrational deployment in its latest report.

The department had also not been paying due attention to the training needs of the personnel. The Police Training College at Daroh was conducting only 21 courses out of the total 34 designed for police personnel.

Some important training programmes such as intelligence course for constables and head constables, basic course and refresher course for deputy superintendents of police. Probationary course for assistant superintendents of police and wire-less training course were not being conducted as laid down in the schedule of courses. On the other hand the department spent Rs 2.56 lakh on providing training to personnel out of state.

The percentage of personnel imparted in service training from 1995 to 1998 from 7 to 48 in case of DSPs and 9 to 11 per for inspectors and constables.

The three television cameras installed by the department at sensitive points in Shimla at a cost of Rs 4 lakh were not being used since June 1997.

There has been a perennial shortage of operational staff but the government has been expanding the department at the top. It created and filled three posts of additional director general of police without the prior approval of Government of India. The subordinate staff required with these posts was not sanctioned. Similarly, these inspectors general of police (law and order, railway and traffic and vigilance) have been functioning without any staff.

Irregularities have also come to notice in the recruitment of force. Out of the 635 candidates recruited by boards headed by DIGs of respective police ranges, 35 candidates were found medically unfit by the medical board during the second medical check up at the police training college. The department did not even fix the responsibility for this major bungling.

Health camps in rural areas 'must'

SHIMLA, April 16 (PTI) — The Himachal Governor V.S. Rama Devi has stressed the need for organising frequent health camps in the rural areas of the state for detecting diabetes and educating patients on effective ways of controlling the disease. She suggested that diabetes clinics should be opened in all district hospitals to facilitate diabetic patients.

The Governor was addressing a congregation of physicians and medical specialists at the opening session of the three-day-long continuing medical education programme on diabetes at IGMC, Shimla.

Expressing concern over the prevalence of diabetes, Mrs Rama Devi exhorted the medical fraternity to address itself towards controlling and curbing the disease and ameliorating the sufferings of the patients.

She said of the 135 million adult diabetic patients reported in the world in 1995, 25 million cases were recorded in India. This number was expected to go up to 35 million by 2000 A.D. She said there were a large number of undiagnosed cases.

The Governor laid emphasis on health education and awareness programmes for informing, motivating and helping the patients to follow the treatment. She stressed on imparting scientific knowledge on prevention of diseases and disabilities and promotion of health.

She asked for more social care and responsibility towards diabetic patients and underlined the need to keep them away from physical, emotional and social stresses.

HP police stations to have women cops
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, April 16 — The Himachal Pradesh Government has decided to depute three women Constables at each police station in the state. This process has already started and would be completed within a week. The Director General of Police, Mr T.R. Mahajan, stated this, while presiding over a district-level seminar on Security Measures and Traffic Education held at the Bachat Bhawan this evening.

Members of various gram panchayats, leaders of political parties and mediapersons were also present at the seminar.

The DGP said the main aim of the government was to help the people and create an environment of brotherhood and security. He said efforts would be made to encourage interaction between the police and public so that both worked in unison for better law and order situation in their respective areas.

Talking about the shortage of police station buildings in the Hamirpur district, Mr Mahajan said two new buildings would be constructed for the police stations of Nadaun and Bhoranj. The state government had decided to provide latest facilities at these police stations. The Government had also sanctioned a sum of Rs 90,000 for three police stations at Hamirpur, Barsar and Sujanpurtira to renovate the buildings of those police stations.

CITU strike on April 21
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, April 16 — The state committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has given a call for a one-day strike on April 21 in protest against the "reign of repression" let lose by the administration on agitating workers of the Nathpa-Jhakri project.

The members of the union will stage dharnas and rallies throughout the state to press their demand for tracing the whereabouts of 36 workers who have been missing since talks with the district administration on March 19.

The president of the Nathpa-Jhakri Joint Venture Workers Union has filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court regarding the missing persons.

The petition says the INTUC is hand in glove with the management and "sabotaging" the cause of the workers.

3-member Cong election panel
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, April 16 — Mr Ram Niwas Mirdha, Chairman, Central Election Authority, AICC, has appointed a three-member election authority for Himachal Pradesh.

Headed by Mr V. Hanumantha Rao, the authority has Mr Mangat Ram Sharma and Mr Kunj Bihari Butail as members.

He has also appointed Mrs Vidya Stokes as chairman of the Delhi Pradesh Election Authority and nominated Mrs Chandresh Kumari and Mr Anand Sharma, as members of the Pradesh Election Authority of Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir, respectively.