No HPU convocation for 4 years
SHIMLA, May 5 — The convocation of Himachal Pradesh University here has not been held for the past four years and the meetings of the University Court and the Executive Council were also not being held regularly. All this is causing concern among the employee leaders of the university.

Hydrogeologists to launch stir
DHARAMSALA, May 5 — The decision of the Himachal Pradesh State Hydrogeologists Association to launch an agitation their services are not regularised can prove alarming for the government at a stage when the state is in the grip of a severe drought.

AUSAID to fund project
SHIMLA, May 5 — The Australian Agency for International Development has agreed to provide funds to the Himachal Pollution Control Board for its project for the sustainable development of the Baddi-Barotiwala industrial estate and the catchment area.

No headway in murder case
NURPUR, May 5 — The police has failed to make headway in a case registered under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC regarding the murder of Satpal of Kandrori.

Servants arrested for killing 2 women
SHIMLA, May 5 — The police has arrested the two Gurkhas who allegedly killed two women in Bahali village of Kotkhai yesterday.

Stable govt to be poll issue: BJP
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, May 5 — The vice-president and spokesperson of the BJP, Mr K.L. Sharma, has said that the BJP will not have a separate manifesto in the Lok Sabha elections which it will contest on the basis of a common manifesto of all its alliance partners.

Mr Sharma, who was on a two-day tour here, told newsmen today that the common manifesto would based on the national agenda for governance.

He said the BJP and its allies would contest the elections under the leadership of Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. The main poll issue would be of providing a stable, participative and people's welfare government at the Centre.

He said the Constitution should be amended to prevent non-Indians from occupying the offices of President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Mr Sharma said Ms Sonia Gandhi would not be the only election issue. Besides the achievements of the Centre, other issues would crop up as the elections came. The Congress was bound to lose if it projected Mrs Sonia Gandhi as the future Prime Minister or allowed her to continue to head the party.

He criticised the Congress, the CPM and the CPI for trying to divert public attention from the real issues by raising non-issues.

These parties had already cut a sorry figure and were now in the dock as defaulters for pulling down the government at the Centre without ensuring a viable alternative and thus forcing another costly mid-term poll on the people.

He said it was high time that the Congress spelt out its strategy — whether it stuck to its earlier decision of forming a minority government with outside support after the poll or there was a shift in its stand.

The CPM and the CPI should also spell out whether they stuck to their earlier decision to support a Congress government at the Centre.

While the BJP and its allies were going ahead with clarity and conviction, the Congress, the Left and some other parties were still in a dilemma.

Mr Sharma said it had never happened in the past that the Congress, the Left and other parties supported the Budget of what they called a caretaker government.

These parties wanted to keep the country in a vacuum and were out of frustration criticising the essential day-to-day administrative decisions. The BJP had clarified once for all that this was a full-fledged government and there was no constitutional reference to a caretaker government. The BJP-led government would fulfil its constitutional responsibilities.

Mr Sharma said the BJP wanted early elections so that a duly elected government could come to power. The elections in September would also be advantageous to the BJP.

He said it was out of the question to have an electoral understanding with the Samajwadi Party.

He said it had been left to the BJP President to consider the threat of Mr Om Prakash Chautala of not supporting the BJP in case it had any poll alliance with the HVP of Mr Bansi Lal in Haryana.

The BJP leader said corruption would be an issue in the elections.

Replying to a question as to how the party would continue to accept the support of Mr Sukh Ram and contest the elections with his support as he had been booked by the CBI in cases of alleged corruption, Mr Sharma justified the alliance of the BJP with him and claimed that the Congress stand that nobody could be called corrupt until punished by the court was applicable to all parties.

He said the BJP would repeat its 1977 performance in Himachal Pradesh when it won all four Lok Sabha seats.

NGOs flay Forest Dept
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, May 5 — NGOs working in the field of environment in Kangra and Chamba today criticised the Forest Department for having concern only for timber production and "ignoring" the immense damage being caused to wildlife, biodiversity, aquatic life and soil due to the ravaging forest fires.

While criticising the Forest Department for adopting "a very limited vision", they said the long-term repercussions of these forest fires were not being taken into consideration. They disputed the claim of the Forest Department that the damage due to ground fires was very little as compared to crown fires. "It is a pity that the only concern of the forest authorities is timber production, whereas other vital aspects like the loss of wildlife, fertile soil and biodiversity are being completely overlooked," regretted Mr Rajeev Ahal, who runs the Navrachna NGO in Palampur.

Regarding loss assessment due to the forest fires, the environmentalists felt that the task should be assigned to a competent organisation like the NEERI, instead of making rough calculations. They added that the present calculations were only presenting a conflicting picture.

Mr Kulbhushan Upmanyu, an environmentalist from Chamba, said contrary to the claim of the Forest Department, the loss due to ground fires was much more than what had been assessed by the forest authorities.

Mr Ajit Kumar, who runs the Dhauladhar Education Society in Yol, said the government should declare forest fires a natural calamity and take the matter more seriously. While admitting that the Forest Department was not properly equipped to tackle forest fires on such a large scale, he said this task was difficult to handle without the cooperation of the local people.

Mr Rattan Chand of Chamba said the Forest Department, which was merely the custodian of the forest wealth, needed to change its feudalistic approach and take the local people into its confidence. He felt that the thinking of the government that the TD rights of the people should be cancelled if they did not help control fires was not the solution to the problem. Instead a participatory approach should be adopted. He regretted that there was a passive attitude both on the part of the government and the local people.

They suggested that water harvesting bodies should be created in forests to tackle fires.

Mr Ahal said the approach of having monoculture forests should be discouraged and the existing ones should be thinned by the addition of other species. The creation of "clear lines" could be helpful in preventing the spread of fire.

No HPU convocation for 4 years
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, May 5 — The convocation of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) here has not been held for the past four years and the meetings of the University Court and the Executive Council were also not being held regularly.

All this is causing concern among the employee leaders of the university.

Mr Subhash Puri, member of the Executive Council, and Mr Waryam Singh Bains, member of the University Court, have sought intervention of the Governor, Mrs V.S. Rama Devi, and the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, for immediately organising a convocation of the HPU which is a statutory requirement. The last convocation was held in 1995.

They pointed out that the University Court has also not met for the past two years. The last meeting of the court was held on May 30, 1997. As per the Statute 9 of the HPU, it was required that the court should meet at least once a year. In her capacity as Chancellor, the Governor is Chairperson of the University Court.

Mr Puri has said that although the rules of business provide that the Executive Council should meet every month, but the university authorities have failed to hold regular meetings.

He demanded that the government should increase its grant to the university to Rs 21 crore from the existing Rs 14 crore.

Mr Bains has prepared a separate 23-point charter of demands for streamlining the functioning of the university.

These demands include, implementation of the Wilson committee report pertaining to streamlining of the examination wing and allocation of staff, filling up of all vacant posts, regularisation of daily paid employees and more residential accommodation for non-teaching staff.

Reports on power station denied
From Our Correspondent

DALHOUSIE, May 5 — Despite low discharges in the Ravi which are being attributed to the current spell of drought, 7 to 9 million units of power is flowing daily to the northern grid from the Chamera hydroelectric project in Chamba district.

Denying reports regarding the shutdown of the Chamera power station and that Himachal Pradesh was facing an acute power shortage, Mr S.K. Dodeja, general manager of the Chamera hydroelectric project, clarified that the power station was supplying power commensurate to water availability in the Ravi.

Mr Dodeja further stated that there had neither been any spillage of water from the Chamera reservoir nor any loss of power generation on any account. He affirmed that the low discharge in the Ravi was the actual cause of lesser generation, which was likely to continue till the end of summer.

Mr Dodeja, however, stated that the Chamera project had also set a record generation of 2367 million units during the last financial year, thus surpassing the earlier highest generation of 2307 million units in 1994-95.

Mr Dodeja claimed that during the last fiscal year, the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) had generated 9917 million units against a target of 8520 units.

Hydrogeologists to launch stir
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, May 5 — The decision of the Himachal Pradesh State Hydrogeologists Association to launch an agitation their services are not regularised can prove alarming for the government at a stage when the state is in the grip of a severe drought.

The state President of the association, Mr Kuldip Mandhotra, said despite having worked at the IPH Department for the past eight years, their services had not been regularised. He said they were still working as daily-wage workers getting Rs 143 per day.

He further said it was due to their efforts that Himachal Pradesh had been able to tap its vast underground water and a total of 6,000 handpumps and 500 tubewells had been installed during the past eight years. He added that their efforts had been lauded by the UN, which had appreciated the high success rate in hand pump boring.

Mr Mandhotra said they had approached the state government on a number of occasions, but to no avail. He added that now they had no other alternative but to launch an agitation by holding a dharna in Shimla.

AUSAID to fund project
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, May 5 — The Australian Agency for International Development (AUSAID) has agreed to provide funds to the Himachal Pollution Control Board for its project for the sustainable development of the Baddi-Barotiwala industrial estate and the catchment area.

The main objective of the project is to establish capacity for the preparation of integrated remedial action plans for the control of pollution and the restoration of environmental quality based on consultative processes and agreement with stake holders.

A detailed feasibility-cum-project report will be prepared for technical interventions on the basis of which funds will be sought either from the AUSAID or the World Bank for setting up facilities like a common effluent treatment plant, a sewage treatment plant, a solid waste management plant and a hazardous waste dumping site.

No headway in murder case
From Our Correspondent

NURPUR, May 5 — The police has failed to make headway in a case registered under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC regarding the murder of Satpal of Kandrori.

Satpal had gone to Dharamsala to collect money on April 17. He had been running a small-scale unit manufacturing leather shoes. His family had reported the Indora police when he did not return home the next day.

Resentment prevails among residents of Kandrori over the failure of the police to nab the culprits or finding clue to the murder even after 12 days.

The body of Satpal bore injury marks.

It is suspected that he was robbed before he was killed.

According to the subdivisional police officer due to the gap between the murder and the day when the body was found the police had not yet succeeded in getting clue to the murder but hoped that the police would soon nab the culprits.

Servants arrested for killing 2 women
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, May 5 — The police has arrested the two Gurkhas who allegedly killed two women in Bahali village of Kotkhai yesterday.

According to the SP, Shimla, Mr O.C. Thakur, the two Gurkha servants, Nar Bahadur and Bir Bahadur were trying to flee to Nepal via Tuni village on the Himachal-UP border when they were nabbed by a police party. More details were awaited.

Mr Thakur said that five police parties were constituted to track the culprits.

The two were working as domestic helps with the women. They ransacked the house after murdering them.