P R A D E S H
Saturday, June 5, 1999
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H I M A C H A L P R A D E S H |
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Saturday, June 5, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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CM visits village of
soldier |
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Beautiful valley with a problem |
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Stir by HPTDC staff
continues HP to streamline drug purchase Governor: re-employ ex-servicemen ‘Freedom can’t be
achieved overnight’ PM cancels visit to Himachal Transmission of PTV banned |
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CM visits
village of soldier DHARAMSALA, June 4 — As a damage-control measure, the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, today rushed to Nandloo village, in Dehra subdivision to offer condolences to the family of 24-year-old Bajinder Singh, who was killed in the Dras sector, on the Indo-Pakistan border, while fighting infiltrators. Bajinder Singh, was cremated in his native village on Wednesday, in the absence of any civil or military officials. None of the politicians, too, bothered to attend his cremation. There had been widespread criticism of the indifferent attitude of the state government and the district authorities, for not giving full honours, during cremation. The Chief Minister today visited the village along with the IPH minister, Mr Ramesh Chaudhary and Technical Education Minister, Mr Ravinder Thakur, to offer condolences to the bereaved family. He announced that three new rooms in the primary school would be named after the brave soldier. The road between Bane-di-Hatti amd Darkata, would be metalled and named after him, National Saving Certificates worth Rs 1 lakh would be given to his family. The government would give a job to the brother of Bajinder. The Chief Minister along with the Chief Secretary flew down from Shimla to Sapri, from where he proceeded to the village of Bajinder. Pride, anger and grief mingled in equal measures in this village as a large number of mourners gathered here on the second day of his cremation today. "He died so that we may live," his mother, 60-year-old Santosh Devi said, a debt acknowledged in ample measures by villagers who had turned out in hundreds for expressing their condolences. The Pradhan of Naushra Panchayat, Mr Avtar Singh, condemned the administration said though Bajinder had died on May 27, the family was not informed about the death by the Army or the administration till the body was brought to the village. The body was also highly decomposed. The Chief Minister placed wreath on his photograph. He regretted that certain public figures mislead the people by raising baseless issues to tarnish the image of the state Government. He said those who have laid down their lives for the motherland were national heroes. The question of ignoring martyrs did not arise. SHIMLA: Mr Shan Mohammad and Mr Sanjeev Kuthiala, Congress leaders, have criticised the Himachal Pradesh Government for showing disrespect to Bajinder Singh. In a statement here on Friday, Mr Shan Mohammad and Mr Kuthiala held the district administration of Kangra responsible for this. They said such attitude of the local authorities would demoralise soldiers of the area. Mr Atul Sharma, President of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), has also criticised the state government for not giving due honour to Bajinder Singh, who sacrificed his life in the Dras sector. He said the nation was
proud of heroes who were engaged in flushing out the
Pakistani infiltrators. |
House
retention plan fails to take off HAMIRPUR, June 4 — The much publicised house retention scheme of the HP Government allowing people to regularise their unauthorised constructions by paying a small amount of money to the local body concerned has proved to be non-functional as far as Hamirpur town is concerned. Despite the lenient view taken by the state government, the haphazard construction of new buildings in the town is going unabated without building plans getting approved by the local civic body and the Town and Country Planning Department, Himachal Pradesh. Though construction activity has been banned in the district these days owing to shortage of water, yet it is in full swing at about more than two dozen places in the town these days. Moreover, the house owners are openly doing construction work by using tap water, which is a scarce commodity in Hamirpur district in general and the town in particular. A round of various parts of the Hamirpur Nagar Parishad area reveals that many house owners have not only encroached upon the land of their neighbours but also the land of the Department of Public Works. In most cases, they have broke the drain constructed by the PWD and have also raised "chhajas" on the government land. This has been done at a time when the central government has decided to provide a national highway through Hamirpur town. It was found that while there was no water available to those living in top floors of the existing constructed buildings in the town, a number of persons constructing new buildings were using the tap water by installing tullu pumps. Under the existing rules, these persons are not to be given power and water connections by the departments concerned but how they managed to procure both connections is a matter to be discussed in detail. Highly placed sources in the administration told this reporter today the total number of buildings in Hamirpur town at present is about 5,000, including 2,000 government houses. There are 2,529 persons who pay house tax to the local Nagar Palika Parishad. The parishad collects about Rs 20 lakh as house tax from them every year. No house tax is collected from those who have constructed the buildings without approved plans, as completion certificate is needed from them before they are provided with all sort of basic facilities by the parishad. A spokesman of the
parishad told this reporter that only a few people have
so far taken benefit of the retention of houses scheme
launched by the state government last month. According to
him, there are as many as 659 unauthorised buildings in
the town and cases against them are in progress in
various courts. He was pained to tell that people were
reluctant to take benefit of the scheme that was for
their own welfare. |
Beautiful
valley with a problem LAHAUL VALLEY: Lahaul is a remote Himalayan valley lying on the Indo-Tibetan border. This valley is unsurpassed in mountainscape, rugged beauty of its rocky escarpments and the splendours of its snow-covered peaks. To enter into the Lahaul valley, one has to cross the Rohtang Pass (3,978 metres) from the Manali side. The headquarters of this valley Keylong are 117 km from Manali. The valley lies at an altitude of 2,745 metres. Summers in the valley are cool and pleasant with green grass and alpine flowers and abundance of crops. There is no monsoon in Lahaul and this enables climbers and trekkers to enjoy a long and unbroken season in perpetual sunshine and dry crisp air and explore the wilderness and grandeur of the inner Himalayas. But the winters in Lahaul are quite severe and unpleasant. The temperature goes down to 0°C and life without proper heating system becomes quite difficult. People burn firewood for keeping their houses and workplaces warm. Sad to say, the firewood is not available locally in sufficient quantity and is supplied from Kulu and other parts of the state. Lahaul has two parts — Chamba Lahaul that has a good forest area and British Lahaul or Punjab Lahaul that has almost no forest. To cope with the demand of the area, firewood is carried to Lahaul through trucks. Since the Rohtang Pass is open only for a limited period, it becomes an uphill task to make a complete supply of the firewood. According to official sources, there are, five firewood depots in Lahaul — Keylong, Gamur, Sissoo, Jahlama and Udaipur. Of these five, Udaipur falls in Chamba Lahaul and the remaining four are in British Lahaul. On an average, 17,000 quintals of firewood are supplied and sold through these depots to the local people at prices fixed by the government every year which is Rs 152 per quintal (for conifer firewood) and Rs 154 per quintal)for kokath/coppice firewood) irrespective of the actual extraction cost of the firewood. The carriage cost of this firewood to Lahaul is enormous. It comes to Rs 30 to 40 lakh per annum which is ultimately borne by the Tribal Department of the state government. Although the cost of useful energy obtained from firewood is very high as compared to other fuel like kerosene and LPG, fuel-wood is used abundantly. The cost of useful energy from firewood comes to Rs 1,600 per million kilo-calories (taking Rs 1.50 per kg as the cost of fuel-wood) whereas from kerosene it come to Rs 600 per million kilo-calories (taking price at Rs 2.80 per litre). The difference is almost three times. If the transportation cost is also included, the difference will be much more. Hence, the calorific value of kerosene is more and it would be wiser to provide kerosene and kerosene heaters in the tribal areas instead of supplying firewood. On the one hand it will reduce expenditure and on the other hand it will be saving the valuable forest wealth and preserving the ecological balance. Therefore, it is high
time that the government should seriously think over this
enormous problem and change the present system from
firewood to kerosene in the state and the national
interest. |
Rain hits
life, snow in Kangra HAMIRPUR, June 4 — Normal life remained paralysed throughout the district today following heavy rains lashing the area since last night. Attendance in the government offices and the educational institutions was poor. Cool showers were lashing the area compelling the people to remain indoors. Power and water supply and telecom services were affected. Road traffic was also affected in the remote and interiors of the district. Labourers of the Public Works Department were busy clearing the roads of debris that had fallen on roads due to heavy landslides. Road traffic in the town remained affected due to the ongoing digging of trenches by the Department of Telecommunications and it took hours to clear the traffic. About 100 telephones remained dead for the eighth day. Farmers have welcomed the showers claiming to be beneficial for the sowing of Kharif crops. KANGRA: The Dhauladhar mountain range over looking the Kangra valley experienced a heavy snowfall this morning dropping down the temperature considerably. The valley was lashed down by heavy rains today and cold winds following the snowfall. Last night the valley
experienced hail with high velocity winds uprooting trees
some slate roofs of the houses were also reportedly
damaged. No loss of life was reported from any part of
the district. |
Stir by
HPTDC staff continues SHIMLA, June 4 — Class III and IV employees of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) continued their strike for the second day today. A spokesman of the action committee of agitating employees claimed that functioning of almost all establishments of the HPTDC was paralysed. KULU: Four hundred employees of the catering wing of the HPTDC remained off their duties for the second day on Friday. Mr Narayan Dutt, General Secretary of the employees union, claimed that the strike in Kulu-Manali was complete. Employees sat on dharna near the tourist officer’s office here. Mr Roshan Lal
Upadhayaye, Area Manager, HPTDC told this correspondent
that alternative arrangements had been made to deal with
the situation. He alleged that the employees had tried to
sabotage the water supplies in Kulu and Manali but it was
restored to the Employees took out a procession at Kulu
and refuted the charge of sabotaging. |
HP to
streamline drug purchase SHIMLA, June 4 — The Himachal Government had decided to steamline the system of purchase of drugs under the newly adopted rational use of drugs policy. Mr J.P. Nadda, Health Minister, during a meeting with the World Health Organisation sponsored delegation led by Prof Ranjit Chaudhary, said here yesterday two workshops would be held to sensitise doctors of the state regarding the rational use of drugs programme. The delegation informed the minister that inspection of various pharmaceutical companies would be conducted under the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Act to ensure supply of quality drugs. Besides, strengthening and upgradation of the drug testing laboratory in the state would be done in a phased manner. The minister told the
delegation that soon the drug policy document and a
consolidated list of essential drugs would be circulated
to all health functionaries. Besides, to facilitate the
implementation of the new drug policy in the state
Himachal Pradesh Society on Promotion of Rational Use of
Drugs was being registered. |
Governor:
re-employ ex-servicemen SHIMLA, June 4 — Mrs V.S. Rama Devi, Governor, has called upon private sector organisations to come forward in supplementing the government's efforts to ensure speedy resettlement of former defence personnel. She said that about 60,000 defence personnel were retiring every year at an age of below 45 years and efforts required to be coordinated to provide re-employment to them in public, private and self-employment sectors. The Governor was addressing serving and retired defence officers at a seminar on "human resource in ex-defence personnel" organised by the Directorate-General of Resettlement, Ministry of Defence here today. Mrs Rama Devi said that the state government was providing 15 per cent reservation to exservicemen in all direct recruitments and recently it had decided to recruit them into the police for guarding various vital installations and deployment in the sensitive border area of Chamba district. She suggested private organisations to engage ex-defence personnel in their security wings. She suggested giving soft loans to ex-defence personnel for building infrastructure and organising training camps and expeditious in mountaineering trekking, paragliding, aero-sports, rafting, etc. The Governor said that the state had a rich human resource of 1.12 lakh serving and 78,000 retired defence personnel and reiterated the government's resolve towards the welfare of their families. Major General Urgasen
Yadava, Director-General, Resettlement, detailed the
endeavours of the Directorate General in the field of
resettlement of ex-defence personnel. |
‘Freedom
can’t be achieved overnight’ DHARAMSALA, June 4 — The Dalai Lama has said that a solution to the Tibetan problem is not only in the interest of Tibetans but also of the Chinese people. In his message on the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Movement, the spiritual leader said the events that occurred in June, 1989, had not only been a turning point in the political history of China but also in social history. "I have always maintained that it is in the interest of a nation to respect the fundamental rights of its citizens, for the well-being of the country", he stated. He regretted that it took the lives of innocent persons for the message to be brought to the attention of the Chinese leadership. He was touched by the courage and determination of young Chinese people who were challenging the might of the leadership in their effort to uphold freedom and democracy and values important to all human beings. The Tibetan leader said democracy and freedom could not be secured overnight, but through persistent efforts. "Given my own experience with the Tibetan struggle for the past 50 years, there will be occasions when you will feel discouraged or people will lose interest", he stated. He felt that the
Tiananmen Square events brought a better understanding of
the Tibetan issue among the Chinese people. It was for
the first time that they realised that the concerns and
issues the Tibetans were raising were not mere
propaganda. It was encouraging for the Tibetan people to
see that there were voices in China urging the leadership
to pay attention to the Tibetan problem. |
PM cancels
visit to Himachal SHIMLA, June 4 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has cancelled his three-day visit to Himachal Pradesh from June 6. The state government has received a message that the Prime Minister has called off his visit toKulu where he was scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the 2,051 MW Parbati hydroelectric project. It is believed that the visit has been cancelled due to the situation in the Kargil area. The Energy Minister, Mr P.R. Kumarmangalam, will lay the foundation stone of the 300 MW Chamera project in Chamba tomorrow. Execution of the project
will be undertaken by the National Hydroelectric Power
Corporation at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore. |
Transmission
of PTV banned SHIMLA, June 4 — The transmission of programmes of Pakistan TV has been banned in the district. The Deputy Commissioner,
Mr Ram Subhag Singh, today said that action would be
taken against those cable operators who violated the
orders. |
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