Hamirpur Shimla

Dhumal pays visit to Command Hospital
CHANDIMANDIR, July 12 — The government should increase the quota of Himachal Pradesh for recruitment in the army in view of the large number of personnel from the state who have been martyred in the Kargil conflict and the large number of youth who are willing to follow in case of any eventuality.

Couple booked for minor's rape
NURPUR, July 12 — The local police has arrested Meena Kumari of Rinna village allegedly for helping her husband Mahinder in having sex with a 12-year-old for three nights from July 7 to 9.

State wakes up to soldier’s plight
HAMIRPUR, July 12 — Lance Naik Bhupinder Singh of Mahre Kaswa, who was injured while fighting infiltrators in the Akhnoor sector of Jammu and Kashmir, is being treated though after some wait at the Barsar Hospital in the district.

Parbati project in doldrums again
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 12 — The prestigious Parbati hydroelectric project in the Kulu valley, which had been hanging fire for the past two decades, is again in the doldrums due to the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll by the Election Commission.

The Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the 2051 mw project at Saij on July 14. However, the ceremony will have to be deferred once again as the model code of conduct, which bars the government from carrying out inaugurations and laying of foundation stones of projects came into force with the announcement of the poll schedule. Although Mr Vajpayee would visit the state as scheduled, he would only address a public meeting at Kulu. There would be no foundation laying ceremony, senior officers said.

Earlier, the foundation stone of the project was to be laid on June 6 but the Prime Minister had to cancel the visit due to developments in Kargil.

The state government had been trying to get the work started on the project during the past two decades. However, no progress could be made as the state did not have the funds to undertake the project. Finally in 1991 the then BJP government signed an agreement involving five states for the execution of the project which will cost over Rs 1500 crore.

The accord faced rough weather with the change of the government in the state. The Virbhadra Singh government, which assumed office in December 1993, decided to review the agreement so that state's share could be increased from 5 per cent to 25 per cent. The project could not make any headway as the partner states neither contributed the funds as committed in the agreement nor agreed for its review.

The BJP-HVC combine, which came to power in March 1998, took up the matter with the Centre and decided to handover the project to the National Hydel Power Corporation. An agreement was signed between the NHPC and the state power board last year. The corporation was all set to start work with the foundation laying ceremony but the announcement of the election schedule has upset its plan.

CM for new technology for road building
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, July 12 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Himachal Chief Minister has underlined the need for introducing new modified bituminous binding materials for road metalling to reduce cost and ensure longer life of roads.

Inaugurating a two-day seminar on use of bitumen products in Road Construction here today he said as cement concrete roads were not feasible in the hill state like Himachal because of high initial cost and the fact that these could not withstand large temperature variations. Bitumen was the only material used in road construction. Since bitumen accounted for 51 per cent of the cost of tarring work, the choice of appropriate type and grade of bitumen to be used was important for its optimum utilisation and durability of roads.

He said research binder modification had made important breakthrough to produce new binders having better characteristics which should be adopted after studying their performance.

The Chief Minister stressed the need for continuous research and introduction of new technology in road construction to keep pace with advanced countries in the wake of globalisation.

Referring to the government's plan to make Himachal a model state by 2020, Mr Dhumal said the objective would be achieved by adopting modern technology and insuring completion of projects within a stipulated time-frame besides, the emphasis, while executing construction works, should be on quality and quantity alone. He also referred to the state's effort to expand and improve the existing network of roads by taking funds from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).

He said the government's achievement in getting four important state roads upgraded to national highways would go a long way in improving surface with transport facilities in the state.

Mr Mohinder Singh, the public Works Minister, said that some new binding bituminous material would help reduce the cost of metalling to one-fourth by ensuring longer life of roads. He said the Public works Department had been focusing attention on the maintenance of roads, which were the lifeline in hills, and it exceeded the targets in this respect last year.

Mr G.S. Bali, Deputy General Manager of Bharat Petroleum, said that new bitumen products like the Hibond series, which contained anti-stripping compound, reduced the cost of road maintenance by 15 to 25 per cent. The saving for a 3.75 metre wide road would be Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 per kilometre per year.

Over more than 200 engineers from the Public Works Department, the State Housing Board, the Shimla Development Authority and Deepak Project are participating in the Seminar jointly organised by the state government and Bharat Petroleum Corporation.

Dhumal pays visit to Command Hospital
Tribune News Service

CHANDIMANDIR, July 12 — The government should increase the quota of Himachal Pradesh for recruitment in the army in view of the large number of personnel from the state who have been martyred in the Kargil conflict and the large number of youth who are willing to follow in case of any eventuality.

This view was expressed by the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, while talking to TNS at Western Command Hospital, here today. He was on a visit to enquire after the well being of the soldiers injured in Kargil who are convalescing here.

He was received by Maj-Gen Virendra Singh, Commandant of the hospital, before being taken to the two wards where the jawans were admitted. Mr Dhumal was accompanied by Industries Minister, Mr Kishori Lal, and Shapur MLA, Ms Sarveen Chaudhry.

He said the state was providing an ex gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh each to the bereaved families. While a cheque or draft for Rs 2 lakh is given immediately after the funeral by the government, the rest of the amount is given in the form of National Savings Certificates.

This was done to ensure that the entire amount was not used at one go by the family as most of the affected families were small units and at present there were no major liabilities. Since the state had also decided to provide free education till the graduation level to the wards of those had made the supreme sacrifice, the real expenditure would be in the next seven to eight years, he added.

Besides this a member of the family would also be entitled for a government job.

The state had announced a compensatory grant of Rs 2.5 lakh to those soldiers who have suffered disability up to 50 per cent and Rs 1 lakh to those whose disability is less than 50 per cent. Besides this, the state government would provide a suitable government job to these personnel on a priority basis.

The state had suffered 42 casualties in the ongoing operation. The largest number of 11 casualties were from Kangra district followed by six in Hamirpur. In fact, all the districts had suffered three to four casualties.

A majority of the families had been given the ex gratia amount and he had been personally visiting the native places and families of martyrs to redress any grievance, the Chief Minister added.

Mr Dhumal also distributed hampers containing tinned fruits, eatables and clothing items to the convalescing jawans.

Lack of political will irks General
From Our Correspondent

KULU, July 12 — Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty — a dictum that the security apparatus seemed to have forgotten, as proved by the abject failure of intelligence leading to the Kargil conflict. In the face of this failure, what occurred in 1962 during the Indo-China conflict may seem like a boy scouts’ adventure. This was stated by Maj-Gen Ashok Kalyan Verma (retd) in an interview with this correspondent at his residence in Bundrol, about 7 km from here.

India has always lacked the political will to convert advantages into victories. The Indo-Pak conflicts in1948, 1965, 1971 and Operation Brasstacks are mute reminders of lack of Indian strategic planning. The Maj-Gen said even now it was not too late to exercise an appropriate strategic option provided we had the political will and prepared an optimum logistic infrastructure for it in Ladakh.

He remarked that Pakistan was unique in that the Army had a predominant role to play in the affairs of the country. Its illogical and unreasonable obsession with Kashmir led to by passing all norms governing civilised behaviour by nations. Pakistan, he said paid a heavy price for its repeated unsuccessful aggressions since 1948.

Pakistan’s gameplan had been visible since 1989-90 when it began the ‘low intensity’ war in Kashmir leading to the present Kargil conflict. It may not be too late even now to take remedial steps to retrieve the situation. A credible strike force should be set up in Ladakh as a counter to Pakistani designs and efforts should be made to upgrade the weapons and equipments of the Indian armed forces. The defensive strategy adopted to contain the Kargil intrusions should logically be carried forward to preparation for crossing the Line of Control (LoC) and recapture the PoK. Pakistan in that case, would have no choice but to call off its bluff.

Pakistan, the Maj-Gen said had laid an elaborate trap which had an element of surprise. Kargil is an area which is sparsely populated, yet it is likely to be viewed by other powers, including the USA and China, with vested interests. He said the nuclear threat held out by Pakistan should not deter us as Pakistan too would be aware about where it could lead to. However, any precipitate, hasty or premature actions on our part are uncalled for.

He suggested that India could restructure the Northern Command by shifting the command headquarters to Srinagar. India should prepare for war with a firm resolve to avert one and prevent a national disaster.

Couple booked for minor's rape
From Our Correspondent

NURPUR, July 12 — The local police has arrested Meena Kumari of Rinna village allegedly for helping her husband Mahinder in having sex with a 12-year-old for three nights from July 7 to 9.

The police has registered a case under Sections 342, 363, 366 and 276 of the IPC against this couple. The victim has alleged that the couple took her to their house when her father Basant Singh was away from Bindravan village on July 4

Basant and Mahinder worked for a contractor. Meena asked the victim to bear a child of her husband. On the night of July 7, Mahinder had sex with the minor with Meena's assistance. On the night of July 9 the victim escaped from couple's house. After refusal of the doctor on duty at the Civil Hospital, Nurpur, she got her medical examination done at the Civil Hospital, Dharamsala. Mahinder has been absconding since.

State wakes up to soldier’s plight
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, July 12 — Lance Naik Bhupinder Singh of Mahre Kaswa, who was injured while fighting infiltrators in the Akhnoor sector of Jammu and Kashmir, is being treated though after some wait at the Barsar Hospital in the district.

Nobody bothered about him for eight days after he arrived from the Army Hospital, Jammu. After his story appeared in the Press, he was given a cheque for Rs 10,000 from the Baba Balak Nath Memorial Trust, Deotsidh. He was assured by the district administration of medicines free of cost till he recovered and a vehicle on every alternate day for visiting the hospital. The local MLA, Mr Baldev Sharma and Mr Virbhadra Singh, former Chief Minister, visited his house.