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Monday,
December 24, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Slate
mining hits power projects HP not
getting due share in power, says Dhumal Stokes,
Virbhadra share dais Health
Dept ills due to ‘ad hoc policies’ |
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Kashmiri
migrants flay govt decision INTUC to
move SC on high court order ‘No
move’ to replace Himachal YC chief Block
Mahila Cong chief refuses to step down Rs
1-crore project to promote tourism ABVP to
stage protest today Software
park at Hamirpur sought WB
approval for hospital 144 cr
sanctioned for Shah Naher project 350
posts of Headmaster to be created Uproot
caste system, Meira tells youth
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Slate mining hits power projects Chamba Lack of implementation of afforestation schemes on
slopes in this region has aggravated soil erosion as the hills in the catchment areas of the Ravi and its tributary, the Siul, have been cleared of slate. This has led to silting of dams and tunnels of various hydroelectric and other projects. Moreover, the location of the projects in areas facing seismic activity has added to the risk. Experts and geologists working with hydroelectric projects and doing research on ecology, see these activities as a great menace of the power projects like the 540 MW Chamera and 198 MW Baira-Siul projects. And if this mining goes on unchecked, these hydroelectric projects would be endangered and face recurring siltation. According to the mining department, there are more than 12 major slate quarries operating at an altitudes ranging from 1200 to 3350 metres. The state government earns revenue of over Rs 13 lakh yearly from the auction of slate quarries in Chamba district, which provide employment to more than 1,000 people. Some of the quarries extract superior slate. Locals say that slate is required for constructing roofs of houses but experts say that tin can easily serve the purpose, consequently protecting the ecology of the area. The forest officials, however, maintain that slate quarries would not be allowed to expand and the state government no permitting opening of any quarry under the Himachal Pradesh Land Preservation Act which states that whenever, in the revenue records, land is shown as part of the forest, no mining lease can be granted without permission. But no such entry has been made in revenue records in the case of quarries operating in the district, the officials say. In the alpine region of Chamba, the hills are being dug up to a great depth to mine slate. As a result, debris from quarries at different points of the catchment area of the Ravi and other streams have covered the slopes which flows down during the monsoon. The havoc caused by quarrying is an eyesore to the environment. For Dalhousie one can see the hills covered by gray debris, specially at Kunna Behani. Besides this, there are numerous mining sites along the hydroelectric projects, which are a major setback to dams, reservoirs, tunnels and powerhouses of ongoing projects. Meanwhile, an official spokesman of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation states that with a view to preserving the ecology of the Chamba hills, the Union Ministry of Energy has already launched various schemes under the environment management plans such as treatment of eroded hills and revival of green belts, with an outlay of Rs 14 crore to mitigate the environmental damage caused over the years. The Himachal Pradesh Government has also put into operation a ‘‘sanjhi van yojna’’ to restore the green cover by checking soil erosion, and also to treat the catchment basins of the Ravi and its tributaries besides the denuded tracts of hills. Four integrated watershed development projects with a total outlay of Rs 30 crore had been allotted for Chamba district recently. The chief objective of these projects is to provide a thrust to water management and its retention, thereby stabilising the hill slopes. |
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HP not getting due share in power, says Dhumal New Delhi, December 23 Addressing a function of the Himachal Kalyan Sabha here, Mr Dhumal said though the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 envisaged the distribution of assets and liablities according to population ratio, Himachal Pradesh had not got its due. He said Chandigarh, got a larger share of power from Bhakhra project than Himachal Pradesh. He said that the state was getting about 2 per cent power from Bhakhra project against its due share of 7.91 per cent. In Pong Dam case, Mr Dhumal said 16,000 families of the state had been ousted but the state was not getting any power. Blaming the Congress governments for failing to protect the interests of state, Mr Dhumal said it was the Janata Party government led by Mr Shanta Kumar which got 15 MW power on ad hoc basis from Beas-Sutlej link. “It is continuing at the same level even now,” the Chief Minister said. He said the state government was pursuing the issue of the rehabilitation of Pong oustees and land was being allotted to them in
Rajasthan. The Chief Minister said the Centre was showing special interest in the development of Himachal Pradesh and money had been sanctioned after several years to improve rail links with Una. Mr Dhumal said the state government was taking rapid strides towards achieving self-reliance and 2100 MW additional power would be available in the state by the end of 2003. The government had added 2,100 km of new roads in the past three years, Mr Dhumal said. He said with efforts of Union Minister for Food and Consumer Affairs Shanta Kumar, who was present on the occasion, people in state were getting more
quantities of sugar and ration. The Chief Minister released a souvenir brought out by the Himachal Kalyan Sabha. Mr Shanta Kumar complimented the sabha for bringing together the people of the state living in Delhi and keeping the cultural traditions alive. He said the Vajpayee government was taking keen interest in the progress of Himachal Pradesh and Centre had started power projects worth Rs 13,000 crore in the state. The Minister said as a result of the Vajpayee government’s decision to implement pending reports on the Centre-state relations, allocation of a small state like Himachal Pradesh had increased by Rs 2,700 crore. He urged people to generously contribute towards speciality hospital being set up at Palampur by the Vivekanand Medical Research Trust. Mr Shanta Kumar also gave away prizes to the winners of sports and cultural events organised by the sabha. |
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Stokes, Virbhadra
share dais Shimla, December 23 The two leaders who are engaged in a bitter leadership
tussle are rarely seen together at party functions. Although Mrs
Stokes has completed one year in office, the Virbhadra faction has not
as yet reconciled to her elevation to the top party post and has been
persistently raising the issue of irregularities in the organisational
poll. While Mr Virbhadra Singh has been avoiding the rallies organised
by the Pradesh Congress Committee, the Stokes group has been staying
away from the public meetings of the former. The party high command,
which had been concerned at the unending factionalism in the party,
recently constituted a coordination committee to help bridge gulf
between the two factions and ensure the smooth functioning of the
party in the state. The coordination committee held its first
meeting in Delhi early this month under its chairperson Mrs Mohsina
Kidwai who is also the in charge of the party affairs in Himachal
Pradesh. The meeting, if the presence of the two leaders at the
conference is any indication, has had the desired effect. The
conference devoted ample time to the infighting in the party and
underlined the need to maintain discipline and projecting a united
image of the party. Mr Prahlad Yadav, chief organiser of the Sewa
Dal, said the dal had been playing an important role in building
disciplined party cadres which were essential for party’s electoral
success. The conference took a serious view of charge and
counter-charges being levelled by certain office-bearers of the party’s
front organisations and passed a resolution in this regard. |
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Health Dept ills
due to ‘ad hoc policies’ Shimla, December 23 The department has been without
a regular director for the past over five years. Instead of holding
Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings, the post has been
filled on an ad hoc basis to suit the powers that be. Even 50 per cent
of the Chief Medical Officers and a majority of block Medical Officers
have also been appointed on ad hoc basis. In the situation, it is
hardly surprising that scandals have been surfacing in the department
with unfailing regularity. The situation turned worse after the BJP
came to power. The scale of irregularities in purchases crossed all
limits and the amount involved in the scams ran into crores of rupees.
The government was forced to register a case after the audit revealed
grave irregularities in purchases and the dissidents made it an issue
during a revolt against Mr P.K. Dhumal, the chief minister. No action
was taken against erring officers on the basis of the audit report. Now
two of the directors, Dr Sukh Ram Chauhan and Dr K.S. Rana, who were
handpicked by the present government, have been arrested. Dr Chauhan
was made director ignoring about 12 senior doctors. On his exit
following the registration of a vigilance case in the multicrore medical purchase scam, Dr Rana, who was already facing charges of
irregularities, was given the charge. The government had referred the
charges of bunglings in the purchase of medicines under the ESI scheme
to the vigilance department in 1999. It was, thus, intriguing why he
was given the charge on an ad hoc basis. The Himachal Pradesh
Medical officers association has also blamed the prevailing ad hoc
functioning for scams in the department. Dr Jiwanand Chauhan, general
secretary of association, said the organisation favoured action
against the corrupt provided all cases were thoroughly probed up to
the highest level. More importantly, all posts right from the Block
Medical Officer to the Director should be filled on a regular basis
after conducting the DPC meetings to ensure that those holding key
posts were not subjected to unwarranted political pressure. Besides,
all medical purchases, including those made by Tanda Medical College
and the State Civil Supplies Corporation be probed. The practice of
making purchases through favoured retired officers, re-employed on
contract basis, as was the case in Tanda Medical College, would only
encourage corruption and irregularities. He demanded that such
purchases be probed from the point of view of quality, requirement as
well as the price. The association fears that the spate of vigilance
cases against medicos could be used as an excuse by the government
to impose an IAS officer as the head of the department. Mr Vineet
Chaudhary, Secretary, Health, when contacted said there was no such
move and the government had already initiated the process of holding
the DPC meeting. It had also sought vigilance clearance certificates
for the officers falling in the category of consideration for the post
of Director. It could take a month after which the Department of
Personnel would conduct the DPC meeting. |
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Kashmiri
migrants
flay govt decision Kangra, December 23 Mr
Satish Koul, general secretary of the Kashmiri Migrants Welfare
Association, said here today that the Kashmiri pandits had high hopes
from the present government. Mr Koul said less than 80 families who
migrated to the state had been demanding for quite some time that they
be declared bonafide citizens of the state as they had been living in
the state for the past seven years and-a-half. He said Kashmiri
migrants today organised a meeting here in wake of the Cabinet’s
decision to reject the order of the commission for reservation in
professional institutions and universities. The migrants passed a
resolution demanding that the state Cabinet should revoke its decision
and also provide citizenship to them. The copies of the resolution
were sent to the Prime Minister, Mr A.B. Vajpayee, the Home Minister,
Mr L.K. Advani, the HRD Minister, Mr M.M. Joshi, the Union Minister,
Mr Shanta Kumar, and the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, Mr Koul said. |
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INTUC to move
SC on
high court order Shimla, December 23 Ms Kanta Sood, President of
INTUC said the verdict would hit poor workers hard as the labour court
took a long time to decide matters. At present over 2,000 cases were
pending in the court. The inordinate delay in the settlement of
disputes by labour courts was one of the main reasons for the wide
spread resentment and unrest among workers. She said INTUC would
convene a joint meeting of major trade unions, including AITUC and the
BMS, to pursue the issue at all levels. She demanded enhancement of
the income tax exemption limit for the salaried class besides
withdrawal of the power tariff hike. Ms Sood said INTUC had nothing
to do with the rally being organised by the self-styled leader, Mr
Amarjit Bawa, at Baddi on December 28 and warned that the organisation
would oppose it. If something went wrong, the responsibility would
rest with Mr Bawa who was “misusing” INTUC’s name for the rally.
INTUC proposed organising a rally on May Day for which Ms Sonia Gandhi
would be invited. She declared that the organisational elections of
the state unit of INTUC would be held as soon as the stay obtained by
Mr Bawa from court was vacated. She said she would continue to head
the outfit till the next election. She lamented that the Dhumal
government had not taken any action on the demands raised by her
organisation. These included raising of daily minimum wage to Rs 100,
grant of house rent on the Punjab pattern, increasing capital
allowance and regularisation of daily wage workers. |
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‘No move’ to
replace Himachal YC chief Shimla, December 23 Mr Jagat Singh, who is also
the in charge of Himachal Youth Congress affairs, said the
organisation had done rather well under the leadership of Mr
Sukhwinder Singh. He said there were reports in the media about the
possibility of a change in leadership and some persons had approached
the party high command in this connection. However, after assessing
the performance of the organisation, the party had come to the
conclusion that there was nothing wrong with its leadership. Moreover,
with just a year to go for the elections in the state, a change in
leadership was unwarranted, he said, adding that the present set-up
would continue till the Assembly poll. A section of the Youth
Congress and certain other groups of the faction-ridden Congress have
been gunning for Mr Sukhwinder Singh. Mr Jagat Singh blamed the
policies of the Vajpayee government for the attack on Parliament
House. He said the Youth Congress would demand 20 per cent quota of
party tickets in the Assembly elections in all states. The Youth
Congress leader also presided over the meeting of the district and
block Youth Congress office-bearers at which it was decided to
organise statewide protests to highlight the coffin scam, the Tehelka
issue and other failures of the Central Government. |
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Block Mahila Cong
chief refuses to step down Nurpur, December 23 Intriguingly,
Ms Saini is a staunch supporter of the former PCC chief, Mr Sat
Mahajan, and Ms Sharma is a confidant of the former local MLA, Mr
Ranjit Bakshi, the political detractor of Mr Mahajan in his native
Assembly segment. The Aruna Sharma faction of the Mahila Congress
met at the residence of Mr Bakshi yesterday and decided to continue
their work in the Assembly segment to strengthen the Congress. It was
also decided that national and state Mahila Congress Presidents would
be appealed to reconsider their decision and regularise the
appointment of Ms Sharma in party’s interest. It is pertinent to
mention here that Ms Aruna Sharma was issued a letter by the district
president on November 23 appointing her the new president of the
Mahila Congress. This had created a controversy between the two
factions of the Congress and intensified their infighting. |
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Rs 1-crore project
to promote tourism Chamba, December 23 In a press note
issued here today, Mr Kashmir Singh Rana, chairman of the state-level
high-powered committee for temples maintenance and management, said
that the project had been drawn up by the state government and
submitted to the Central Government by Mr Maheshwar Singh, MP. Mr
Rana said the project would pave the way for the expansion of tourism
industry in the mountainous tribal valley of Bharmour in Chamba
district throughout the year. For this, the committee had also
explored possibilities of inviting donors who are able to contribute
towards creating basic amenities for devotees and tourists, he said. Mr
Rana said that the proposed project would provide opportunities of
employment to the local tribesmen. The project would give an impetus
to adventure tourism such as trekking and mountaineering. The
committee had also suggested formation of Manimahesh Samiti by
including local panchayat pradhans, to monitor the activities of the
project, he added. Mr Rana said the committee had taken a serious
note of the move of the state government to transfer land of some
temples to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Since people
of Chamba had opposed the move, the committee had recommended that the
land should not be transferred to the ASI, he said. Mr Rana said the
committee had also expressed deep concern over dilapidated condition
of some ancient temples of the Bharmour Chaurasi complex in Bharmour. The
committee had recommended that the temples trusts in the state be made
democratic and local people inducted in these. The committee had
also recommended that the priests be nominated as members of the
temples trusts to ameliorate the management of the temples. Members
of such trusts were often nominated from the political circles thereby
politicising the temple affairs, he added. |
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ABVP to stage
protest today Shimla, December 23 Mr Virendra Thakur, president of the unit, said there was a
chaos on the campus and the candidates had a hard time in locating
their respective examination centres. Most of them came to know that
the centre has been changed only after reaching the university due to
which they reached the examination centres late, he added. He said
members of the parishad would gherao the university Administrator
tomorrow to register their protest. |
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Software
park at
Hamirpur sought Hamirpur, December 23 Talking to reporters here last night, he said,
there was ample scope for IT-based industries at Hamirpur. Mr Katoch
demanded land on a priority basis for the NRIs who wanted to set up
industries in the state, besides extra tax concessions. Mr Katoch,
a former student of Hamirpur Regional Engineering College, expressed
concern that no convocation had been held in the college for the past
several years. |
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WB approval for
hospital Kangra, December 23 This was
stated by Mr Satish Sharma, a non-resident Indian from Nigeria and
Managing Director, Agro-Allied Human Resources Development, West
Africa, while addressing a press conference at Dharamsala yesterday.
He said the state government had assured him of providing land for
this project. He said the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, and the
Excise and Taxation Minister, Mr Parveen Sharma, had shown keen
interest in the project. The medical college will be named Sister
Nevadita Teaching Hospital and the state government, in collaboration
with the Central Government, will contribute 25 per cent of the cost
of the project while 75 per cent will be provided by the World Bank,
he added. Mr Sharma said he had spent $ 18,000 in preparing the
case for getting the approval in principle from the World Bank. “This
is a humble contribution towards my birth place, Daneta, as I am
emotionally attached to it”, he said. |
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144 cr sanctioned
for Shah Naher project Shimla, December 23 He said while the Punjab government would
spend Rs 88.49 crore, the state government’s contribution would be
Rs 54.83 crore. As much as 75 per cent of funds will be provided as a
loan by the Centre, he added. He said on completion, the project
would provide irrigation facilities to 15,287-hectare area, adding
that two main channels of 48.85 km and 33 km would be constructed.
Apart from this, 46 hand pumps will also be installed under the
project, he added. Mr Chaudhary said the Punjab government recently
released an amount of Rs 11 crore taking its total contribution till
date to Rs 14.50 crore. |
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350 posts of
Headmaster to be created Hamirpur, December 23 Mr
Dhiman said the post of Headmaster would be created in 100 senior
secondary schools during the first phase. |
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Uproot
caste
system, Meira tells youth Una, December 23 Ms Kumar said youth must come forward to uproot
the caste system from the country. In reply to a question she said
that creamy layers who had enjoyed reservation and are well settled
must now let the poor enjoy the benefits of reservation in government
jobs. Later on Ms Kumar addressed a seminar on human rights in the
local town hall. |
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