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Saturday,
December 15, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Need to build quake-resistant structures in Kangra
Cong
‘politicising’ attack on House Dhumal’s
‘darbars’ boon for people |
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Pandits
see govt as anti-Hindu
Concern over indiscriminate mining
Temperature
plummets Shooting
by police, but of different kind REC
interviews under CAS begin Bandh
over school wall demolition One dies
as truck falls into khud BJP to
decide floor strategy tomorrow Student
leaders’ suspension revoked Cartridges
found 
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Need to
build quake-resistant structures in Kangra Dharamsala, December 14 This was stated by the Director, Town and Country Planning, Mr Manoj Kumar, while addressing the participants at a three-day seminar on “Spatial Planning and Integrated Planning of Kangra” at McLeodganj yesterday. “It is high time that we put an end to all the haphazard concrete constructions before our future generations have to pay a heavy price for it,” he opined. Mr Kumar said during the past 90 years, the Himachal area had experienced more than 250 earthquakes reflecting the high vulnerability of Kangra, Chamba, Mandi and Shimla districts. “The entire Alpine Himalayan belt remains unstable making us virtually sitting on a volcano which had almost wiped off Kangra and Dharamsala in the 1905 earthquake killing 20,000 persons,” he said. He said nobody could predict the timing and scale of the earthquake, but “we can at least go in for houses having structural stability, light construction material and seismic bands which can reduce the loss of life and property.” He said the observations made by a study conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development with regard to the seismic-prone areas of Himachal was frightening. “In case there was an earthquake like the 1905 Kangra tremor today, the loss of life would be around 65,000 with an accompanying loss of Rs 5,000 crore,” he stated. He added that proper planning and structurally stable buildings could reduce the damage to a great extent. He said another cause of worry was the fact that Shimla, which till recently fell in the Zone IV seismic-prone area, had not been put in the high risk Zone V. Mr Kumar further said that with major hill stations in Himachal fast turning into concrete jungles, the Town and Country Planning Department was considering creating more Special Area Development Authorities (SADA), so that there can be planned development in towns with the involvement of the district administration, local bodies, NGOs and the local people. “The Town and Country Planning Department will no doubt continue providing technical guidance but it is ultimately the people themselves who will have to be more disciplined and responsible,” he said. Mr Kumar said we must save our fragile eco-system, forest wealth and natural beauty as these were Himachal’s unique selling propositions to attract tourists. He suggested that the Town and Country Department could create more SADAs in Himachal besides the present 25 apart from planning areas. Speaking at the inaugural session of the seminar, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Prabodh Saxena, said their planning was still passing through a transitional phase and they had started focusing on urban development planning. The seminar has over a hundred participants from the School of Planning and Architecture, Amritsar, Guru Nanak Dev University and Chandigarh. |
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Cong ‘politicising’
attack on House Shimla, December 14 Party spokesperson Randhir Sharma said instead of extending support to the government for facing the new challenge thrown by the terrorists, the Congress was using the issue to achieve narrow political ends. Mr
Sharma said the Congress leaders should take a lesson from their American counterparts who extended unstinted support to the Bush government following attack on WTC towers. None demanded the resignation of the President. Meanwhile, the state unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has urged the government to crush terrorism with all its power. |
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Assault
on Parliament cowardly: CPM Kumarhatti, December 14 The parties have expressed sympathies with those who were killed during the attack. The time has come to show national unity and counter such attacks, asserted the leaders. |
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Protesters
demand George’s resignation Shimla, December 14 Mr Rakesh Singha, state president of CITU, Mr O.P. Chauhan, Mr Tikender Panwar and other leaders of the Left organisations, who addressed the rally, lambasted the government for large-scale corruption in defence deals. They said the country was not safe in the hands of the Vajpayee government. The damning indictment by the comptroller and Auditor General of India was an eye-opener. More so as even after the Tehelka expose the government had reinducted Mr George Fernandes as the Defence Minister. The Venkatswami Commission had still not exonerated Mr Fernandes of the charges. |
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Dhumal’s ‘darbars’
boon for people Hamirpur, December 14 He had taken this decision to have an interaction with the masses and for this he had fixed the first Sunday of every month. In the beginning, he organised four darbars, but due to a heavy rush of people the number of darbars per day has been brought down to two. These darbars have helped the people to get their problems solved on the spot. Pramod Singh of the Bamsan area approached the Chief Minister during a function of Jangelberi and told Mr Dhumal that he had not received the subsidy for a loan taken by him to run a tiny shop under the Intergrated Rural Development Programme. The Chief Minister immediately issued orders and the shopkeeper got the subsidy amount of Rs 833. Mr Bidhi Chand of Malag village in Hamirpur district was unable to marry his daughter due to poverty. He approached Mr Dhumal, who is also the local MLA, during a programme at Bohni village last month. The Chief Minister announced a grant of Rs 1500. Similarly, Sunita Devi was given a cheque for Rs 25,000 at a function at Panjot village. Her husband had died and there was no one to look after her family. She got this amount under the Matri Shakti Bima Yojna. Similarly revenue chowkidars got their salary after the Chief Minister’s intervention. Under this programme, as many as 4,000 complaints of the people have been decided by the Chief Minister on the spot. Talking to this reporter recently, the Chief Minister, said he had started the programme to help the poor who had no resources to meet top functionaries of the state government both at Hamirpur and in Shimla to get their
grievances redressed. |
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Pandits see govt
as anti-Hindu Kangra, December 14 Dr
Agnishekhar, convener of the Pannun Kashmir, who returned yesterday from England after addressing the House of Commons on human rights violations faced by Kashmiri Pandits told this correspondent today that though the BJP claimed to be a well-wisher of the Kashmiri Migrants, yet its actions were anti-Hindu. He said many states in the country, including Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, were providing reservation to the Kashmiri Migrants in view of their sacrifice for the country. Dr Agnishekhar said 108 families of Kashmiri Pandit had migrated to Himachal Pradesh in 1990, but now many of these had left due to the government “apathy”. He said the government should review its December 12 decision and provide facilities to this community which had been suffering since many years. Meanwhile, the state chief of the All-India Hindu
Mahasabha, Mr Narinder Gautam, has also criticised the government’s decision to reject the orders of the National Commission for minorities. |
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Concern over indiscriminate mining Baddi, December 14 In an emergency meeting of the Society for Action and Protection of
Environment convened yesterday evening at the local rest house the society has decided to adopt a more stringent posture to bring the guilty to book. A strong exception was taken to the fact that the ban imposed on the use of JCB machines in the area last year was being violated with impunity by the stonecrusher owners as well as the lessees but despite this the mining department failed to initiate any punitive action against them. The members alleged that the junior mining officials were hand in glove with the offenders and hence the illegal trade flourished unchecked. The members expressed concern over the indiscriminate quarrying going on in the Sarsa, Balad, Ratta and Chikni riverbeds where even the adjoining shamlat land had become the area of illegal operation. In addition to this at least half a dozen lift irrigation schemes had also become defunct causing concern among the farming community. It is noteworthy to mention that in a letter to industries minister about three months back the society’s president, Mr Gyanendra Bhardwaj, had apprised him of the harmful effect of this on environment here. He had urged the minister to take a befitting action in the form of conducting surprise checks and impounding the JCB machines found operational in the region in addition to cancelling the permits of the stonecrushers violating the norms. The society has warned the government that it would adopt a more aggressive attitude to root out the menace if the government failed to take suitable action. It has also decided to put pressure on the local administration as well as the police to take action against the offenders. The general secretary of the society, Mr Balkrishan Sharma while expressing concern over the proliferating quarrying operations stated that although the state geologists had visited the area in September this year on the instructions of the High Court and even caught one illegally operating JCB machine from one site nothing substantial had been done after that to check the offenders. The illegal traders have now started operating on holidays and at nights to escape the legal hassles. The harm that they inflict on the riverbeds can be evinced from the fact that within a short period of 10-15 minutes the use of JCB machines enables the illegal operators to fill as many as half a dozen trucks. This is leading to further widening of riverbeds and khuds adding to the environment hazard. He also stated that when the Sub Divisional Magistrate was apprised of this offence earlier this week be had promised to initiate action against the offenders immediately. |
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Temperature
plummets Shimla, December 14 Lahaul, Spiti and Kinnaur and Pangi valleys in Chamba district had another spell of snow since last night. Keylong had incessant snow since morning, recording four inches of snowfall so far. A cold wave swept Shimla and its adjoining areas with temperature plummeting to 10°C. Wildflower Hall,
Kufri, Naldehra and Narkanda in this district and Manali in Kulu district were also lashed by piercing cold
wave. MANALI: Rohtang Pass experienced heavy snow while the lower reaches were lashed by rain. Lahaul-Spiti remained cut off from the rest of the country. SKI slopes of Solang
valley, Dhundi, Marhi, Gulaba including Hamta Pass and Bhrighu slopes, also
experienced heavy snow since Thursday night. The higher peaks of Lahul-Spiti and the Pir Panjal range also had heavy snow. Vehicular traffic on the
Manali- Leh highway was disrupted near Kothi 18 km from Manali. |
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Shooting
by police, but of different kind Kumarhatti, December 14 The main aim of the project is to educate the schoolchildren about various functions of the police so that they could be helpful in the better maintenance of the law and order, besides highlighting the role of the police in curbing social evils. According to the film director, Major H.K. Sharma, the project would be completed in six schedules and half of the work would be completed in the coming two days. The project is the brainchild of Mr S.Z.H. Zaidi, SP, Solan, who has also written the script. It is the first of its kind project in India in which six modules of 25 minutes each will be filmed both for the junior and senior schoolchildren segment, Major Sharma said. He said the video films would be shown in each school of the district during the week-long classes and would be made a part of the school curriculum. The local artistes have been chosen to perform in the films, he said, adding that the films would also be helpful in improving the image of the police among the society. The technical aspects of the project are being financed by T-Series and the Vardhaman Group is sponsoring the project. |
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REC interviews
under CAS begin Hamirpur, December 14 Earlier, the college authorities had cancelled the direct interviews for these posts following orders of the state government on the plea that Himachal candidates were ignored by the screening committee. An official spokesman here said this afternoon that all those persons who were earlier rejected by the screening committee were also allowed to take part in the interview as per the orders of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. The court had allowed these persons to appear for the interview under the CAS on the condition that the report of the committee regarding their cases would be sent to the court in a sealed cover. |
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Bandh over school
wall demolition Manali, December 14 Many parents of Government Senior Secondary School, children, members of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), pradhans and up-pradhans from the adjoining panchayats gathered at Nehru Park in the town. They were demanding the registration of and FIR against those involved in the demolition of boundary wall. The parents also marched in procession on the Mall here. They also demanded and amicable solution to the disputed playground of the Government Senior Secondary School, Manali. The district administration with consultations with officials of the departments concerned and residents of the area had decided to construct Mini-Secretariat building in a corner of the play ground. The school authorities and the PTA claim that the present site was in possession of the school, since 1978, and it was being used as a playground by the school authorities. On August 18 hundreds of students of the school assembled at the site and started filling up pits excavated for the construction of the proposed Mini-Secretariat building. A case has been registered against 11 persons, including a few traders in this connection. |
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One dies as truck falls into
khud Nahan, December 14 According to information received here the truck was going to the Barag mining area and the place of accident is just 2 km away from the Rajana village. The injured persons said the truck rolled into 800-foot deep khud and driver of the truck Prithvi Singh (33) died on the spot and Balbir Singh (21) of Kakog village in Sangrah tehsil, Shvanand (30) of Mothu village and a Nepali worker Vijay Chetre were injured. All injured were admitted in the Dadahu hospital, while Shivanand has been referred to zonal hospital Nahan. He has been stated out of danger. A case has been registered Mr Rakesh Kaushal, Deputy Commissioner Sirmour sanctioned Rs 10,000 to the next kin of deceased Prithvi Singh Rs 2000 to one of the injured
Shivanand. The truck belongs to mining firm Ahuja Plastics. |
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BJP to decide floor strategy
tomorrow Shimla, December 14 The severe indictment of the Union Defence Ministry by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for various irregularities in the Kargil war purchases, particularly the coffin scam, has added to the woes of party. The general house of the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC), the coalition partner is also scheduled to meet on December 16. |
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Student
leaders’ suspension revoked Kangra, December 14 Mr S.K. Sharma, Principal, of the college, said the suspension was revoked following the unconditional apology by the students and an assurance not to indulge in the acts of indiscipline in future. He said the decision was considered keeping in view the career of the students. |
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Cartridges
found Dharamsala, December 14 PWD labourers working in the area spotted the cartridges lying near a bush along the roadside. The police was intimated and took the cartridges into its possession. The Army authorities are being contacted to identify the weapon for which these cartridges could have been used. The police suspects that these are old cartridges, which may have been left here during Army training. |
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Rs 5-lakh grant for school Shimla, December 14 |
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