Big rise in salvage marking
SHIMLA, Feb 11 — The abnormally large increase in salvage marking in the Chamba forest circle in 1998 has raised eyebrows and given rise to apprehension that fellings are taking place in the garb of "salvaging dry and fallen trees".

DoT to release 59,000 connections
HAMIRPUR, Feb 11 — The Department of Telecommunications has decided to release 59,000 new telephone connections in the state by adding 93,000 lines of switching capacity during the current fiscal year in the Himachal telecom circle.

Big rise in salvage marking
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Feb 11 — The abnormally large increase in salvage marking in the Chamba forest circle in 1998 has raised eyebrows and given rise to apprehension that fellings are taking place in the garb of "salvaging dry and fallen trees".

Until 1996, on an average between 20,000 and 25,000 cubic metre of standing volume of trees was marked annually in the circle under salvage lots. However, the figure increased to over 60,000 cubic metre last year which is more than double the average. In real terms, 25,000 to 30,000 trees were marked for felling against the average of 12,000 to 13,000 trees. Such an abrupt and extraordinarily high increase in the "salvage marking", senior forest officers say, cannot be explained rationally. There have been no unusual rain or snow over the past two years which could have damaged such a large number of trees.

Thus, there is every reason to suspect that healthy green trees might have been marked for felling under "salvage marking". Some glaring instances of it have already come to light in the Parbati and Lag valleys of Kulu district and the Rampur area of Shimla district.

Of late, it has become a practice to mark green trees under salvage lots. The officials of the department and the corporation, who were hand-in-glove with contractors operating as labour supply mates, have been marking healthy trees for felling in utter disregard of the Supreme Court's order and the instructions issued by the department subsequently.

The loss in such cases was two-fold. On the one hand, green trees were being axed illegally and on the other hand the government was losing precious revenue. In salvage lots, the conversion percentage of standing volume into timber and firewood was only around 20 per cent to 25 per cent, whereas it was as high as 80 per cent in case of healthy deodar trees and 60 per cent for kail trees. It is common knowledge that 40 per cent to 60 per cent of timber extracted from healthy trees was being pilfered by contractors in connivance with officials.

It has not been a sudden development. The functioning of the department has been deteriorating eversince the Forest Corporation was set up to eliminate contractors. The officers of the department who were in no position to exercise any effective control over their counterparts in the corporation, started neglecting their duties and responsibilities which allowed scope for all kinds of malpractices in the felling work.

For instance, divisional forest officers have virtually stopped preparing the annual marking programme as prescribed in the working plans. They are supposed to make a detailed programme, including names of the marking officers and the special hammer to be used for the purpose. Normally, no officer below the rank of Forest Ranger was entrusted the job.

These days the marking is being mostly carried out by deputy rangers. Worse, in many cases the marking is being done using the personal hammers. As per the norms, the personal hammer is used only for marking trees to be allotted to the right holders under timber distribution rules and the special hammer is deployed for marking trees to be handed over to the corporation for felling. Senior officers are required to inspect the marking after which the special hammer is destroyed so that it could not be misused for illicit felling. This practice is not being followed any more.

Besides, marking was carried out only twice a year — from September to November — in the lower hills and January to March in the higher hills. In the absence of the marking programmes, the exercise these days continues round the year. In fact, supplementary markings are carried out even while the lots are being worked. This only allows more opportunities for green fellings.

Intriguingly, most of the cases of unauthorised green fellings are in the knowledge of senior officers of the department, but still no action has been taken. In the Parbati valley, 60 green trees were felled on the flimsy pretext that they were likely to fall. In the Lag valley, 47 per cent of the total trees marked under the salvage lot were healthy green trees and in the Pandrah Bees area of Rampur, the percentage of such trees was over 25. The department is seized of all these cases. Yet nothing has been done to fix responsibility and bring the guilty to book.

DoT to release 59000 connections
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Feb 11 — The Department of Telecommunications has decided to release 59,000 new telephone connections in the state by adding 93,000 lines of switching capacity during the current fiscal year in the Himachal telecom circle. This was stated by Mr R.K. Madhvan, Chief General Manager of the Himachal telecom circle, while addressing members of the state-level Telecom Advisory Committee at Shimla last evening.

The GGMT informed the members that the main exchanges of 3.5 K at Paonta in Nahan, IK at Sanjauli in Shimla, RSUs at Nadaun in Hamirpur, Bhuntar in Kulu and Paraur in Kangra has been commissioned. The other exchange 3.5 K at Nahan, 4 K at Sundernagar and 2 K at Ghumarwin were to be commissioned shortly. He said 4K equipment for Shimla expansion and 2.5 K equipment for Baddi in Solan would be received soon and commissioned by March 31, 1999.

He said the equipment for the 1K DTAX each for Hamirpur and Kulu had been received and system were under installation. Both these new exchanges would be commissioned later this month.

Mr Madhvan said the department had prepared a very extensive plan for providing cent per cent reliable medium for all existing exchanges at present on unreliable media. He said reliable media would be provided and better STD services given by the end of the year 2000 in the whole of the state.

He said Internet services which were introduced on October 2, 1998, had received good response from the people. There were 300 Internet subscribers in the state at present. About 10 requests per week were also being received and connections released accordingly.

A cross-section of members raised their areas and demanded from the department to take timely and suitable action to their complaints and suggestions. The CGMT informed them the department would take suitable action regarding their suggestions.

Dhumal denies misuse of helicopter

DHARAMSALA, Feb 11 — The Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, has said that a deliberate attempt is being made by some vested interests to defame his government regarding the use of helicopter.

Talking to mediapersons at Nurpur today, he said while some persons were defaming the government due to ignorance, others were doing so deliberately.

He said that out of the Rs 3 crore bill for helicopter, only Rs 45 lakh had been incurred due to the use by him. "While a bill of Rs 25 lakh had been incurred on the use of helicopter by the Governor, a bill of Rs 4 crore had been pending on the use of air services by the previous government," he said.

Mr Dhumal said his government had never been critical on the proper use of chopper by the Congress government, but it was the misuse and extravagance for which the BJP criticised Mr Virbhadra Singh. He justified the use of helicopter for evacuation purposes from the tribal areas and for administrative purposes.

The Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of a tourism hotel, to be built at a cost of Rs 70 lakh at Nurpur.

He also inaugurated a Forest Corporation Depot at Nurpur.

Later, he laid the foundation stone of the office of Deputy Commissioner, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Pong Dam Oustees.

Mr Dhumal announced the opening of three new revenue courts for solving the pending cases of the Pong Dam oustees. He said courts would be opened at Dharamsala, Dehra and Raja-Ka-Talab for solving 20,000 pending cases of the oustees. He also announced that Rs 5 lakh each would be given for the construction of serais at Anupgarh, Gharsana and Raja-ka-Talab for the convenience of the oustees.

Mr Dhumal announced the decision of the government to open two new sectors at Bilaspur for the rehabilitation of the Bhakra oustees.

Mr Dhumal announced the upgradation of Mehra and Banauli primary schools to middle-level, and Sthana high school to senior secondary level. He also agreed to open a veterinary and ayurvedic dispensary at Raja-Ka-Talab.

Annuity benefits extended

SHIMLA, Feb 11 (UNI) — The Himachal Pradesh Government has decided to extend the benefits of annuity for life instead of 30 years for all recipients of different gallantry awards and medals in the state.

Stating this here today, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said that the amount of annuity had been increased by two-and-a-half times to 10 times, ranging between Rs 1500 and Rs 4500 with effect from April 1 this year.

He said that annuity in respect of Paramvir Chakra had been enhanced from Rs 1000 to Rs 4500, Ashok Chakra from Rs 800 to Rs 4000, Sarvotam Yudh Seva Medal from Rs 600 to Rs 1500, Mahavir Chakra from Rs 400 to Rs 3600, Kirti Chakra from Rs 350 to Rs 3300.

Similarly the annuity in respect of Uttam Yudh Seva Medal had been increased from Rs 350 to Rs 1500, Vir Chakra from Rs 300 to Rs 2700, Shaurya Chakra from Rs 250 to Rs 2400, Yudh Seva Medal from Rs 250 to Rs 1500, Seva/Nao Seva/Yaju Seva Medals from Rs 250 to Rs 1500.

The winners of Param Vishisth Seva Medal would now get Rs 2700 instead of Rs 400, Ati Vashisth Sewa medalist Rs 2400 instead of Rs 300 and Vishisth Seva Medalist Rs 2100 instead of Rs 250.

Attacks on Christians 'engineered'
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Feb 11 — Mr Suresh Chandel, president of the state unit of the BJP, today said that the attacks on Christians in various states were being engineered by foreign agencies to malign the Vajpayee government.

Addressing a workers' conference here today, he said the BJP and its sister organisations had nothing to do with the attacks, which appeared to be part of a larger conspiracy. He took the Congress and the Left parties to task for blaming the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for these incidents without verifying the facts.

He said the Vajpayee government had been, to a large extent, successful in containing the activities of the Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI. This was evident from the sharp decline in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

Mr Chandel said it was only because of the sympathetic attitude of the Centre that Himachal Pradesh had received a special financial assistance of Rs 300 crore. Besides, it had agreed to execute the Parbati project, which had been hanging fire for the past two decades. The Centre had also approved three new national highways in the state and sanctioned Rs 30 crore for the purpose, he said.

Mr J.P. Nadda, Health Minister, urged people to take politics as a mission to serve the people.

Oustees' woes far from over
From Rajiv Mahajan

NURPUR: The proposal for formation of an independent corporation for oustees by the Himachal Pradesh Pong Dam Oustees Rehabilitation Advisory Committee (PDORAC) at maiden meeting in Shimla recently has brought a ray of hope to the hapless oustees seeking rehabilitation since 1973. Over 16,000 Pong Dam oustees have been moving from pillar to post to get justice from the Rajasthan Government.

About 30,000 families were displaced on the construction of the Pong dam out of which 16,000 were found eligible for the allotment of land ('murrabbas') in Rajasthan as per the agreement between the Himachal Pradesh Government and the Government of India. But only 9,100 oustees have been allotted 'murrabbas' there. The Rajasthan Government had earmarked 2.25 lakh acres for oustees in Sriganganagar district. The allotment of the murrabbas was made to 9,195 families until 1981. The rules of allotment framed by the Rajasthan Government were so rigid that they added to the woes of oustees.

As a sequel, about 4,500 allotments were quashed under the pretext of amended rules. Besides 500 to 600 'murrabbas' were forcibly possessed by locals. Only about 4,000 oustees remained in vital possession of their allotments.

Intriguingly, the Himachal Government remained dormant whereas the Rajasthan Government enforced its one-sided, amended new rehabilitation rules. As a result, the rehabilitation of a majority of the oustees has become a virtual nightmare for them.

Suddenly a new amendment to the land allotment rules badly hit the oustees which increased the period of 'khatedari' (ownership right of allotted 'murrabbas') from 20 to 25 years. But the then Himachal Government evinced little interest in it.

The oustees who had already borne the brunt of various amendments to allotment rules received a major setback in 1992 when the Rajasthan Government enforced Notification 6-A, which deprived 1731 allottees of their murrabbas. It seemed the Rajasthan Government was out to throw out the oustees.

In order to protect the interests of the oustees in Rajasthan, the Pong Dam Oustees Action Committee filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court of India which gave a verdict in favour of the oustees in 1996. The Rajasthan Government was ordered to appoint three judges and to submit a detailed report on the cancellation of 'murrabbas' to a three-member high- powered committee consisting of the Secretaries of Himachal, Rajasthan, and the Government of India. The special District Sessions courts set up in Sriganganagar reviewed the cases of oustees who had been deprived of their allotments through Notification 6-A. The Supreme Court also declared the said notification as null and void.

Another problem facing the oustees is that the enhanced claims had yet not been awarded to the oustees even after 25 years. Just one Land Acquisition Office (LAO) with skeleton staff has been posted at Talwara for this purpose. The advisory committee has demanded that at least three LAOs should be deputed there. There is also a demand for shifting the LAO's office from Talwara to Fatehpur or Jawali in Kangra district for the convenience of the oustees.

Another grouse of the oustees is that despite having resided in Rajasthan for over 25 years, they are being treated as outsiders. They can neither get bona fide resident certificates for their children from the Rajasthan Government nor have the right to purchase land there.

Bioinformatics centre for Parmar university
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, Feb 11 — The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, has sanctioned a bioinformatics centre for Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof L.R. Verma, told mediapersons here yesterday that the first instalment comprising Rs 7 lakh had already been received by the university. He said the new centre would be linked with the National Biotechnology Information Network, which had been designed to access the latest information pertaining to genetic materials, published papers and books, relevant patents and allied information at institutional levels throughout the country.

He said the centre would develop a suitable support system to make the flow of information relatively smoother and easier.

Mandi Shivaratri fair on Feb 14
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, Feb 11 — The biggest Shivaratri fair in the country begins here on February 14 with traditional "pooja" in the temple of Bhutnath.

A Shobha yatra, led by Madho Rai and followed by over 150 hill-gods and goddesses, will march to the Padal ground, the venue of the fair.

Mr Prabodh Saxena, DC, of the Shivaratri Fair Committee, said a special attraction of the eight-day fair would be a galaxy of 50 artistes of Gramshri and a group of Russian artistes.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal will formally inaugurate the fair on February 15, while the Governor, Ms Rama Devi, will preside over the closing function on February 22.