by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Shimla : Acting tough on forest land encroachments, mainly by apple growers, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed the state to remove all these, including by cutting power and water supplies, and to ensure that no one is allowed to enter the affected area for cultivation purposes.
It also directed the governments to use drones not only to keep vigil on encroached areas but also to detect any fresh cases.
A division bench of acting Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan passed the directions in a resumed hearing on encroachments in forests, according to the court order released to media on Friday.
The court, in its earlier order, had directed snapping of the electricity and water connections provided to all illegal structures raised by way of encroachment over the forest land in excess to 5 bighas.
It also directed to remove the encroachments, destroy the crops and plants on the encroached land and to fence the vacated land, all at the costs and expenses of the encroachers.
Listing the matter for next hearing on December 20, the court also observed it would be the personal responsibility of functionaries of the Gram Panchayat, Gram Sabha, Panchayat Samiti, Zila Parishad and the Forest, Revenue and Police Departments to ensure that the orders were complied with.
The bench directed the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests to place on record the half-yearly report submitted by forest guards with respect to the number of encroachments, and the state, the Forest Department and the Deputy Commissioners concerned to submit a report regarding recovery of undue profit made by encroachers.
It also asked the state to file status and compliance report clearly stating the action taken in ensuring compliance of all the court orders passed from time to time.
In April, the high court allowed the state to frame a policy to regularise small encroachments, mainly by growers, on government land with a rider that it did not compromise with its legality and validity.
Official sources said it came as a big relief for thousands of small growers, who have encroached upon forest and revenue land by illegally extending their orchards.
“The state may proceed with the policy but it should not be construed that we have upheld the legality and validity of the proposed policy.
“If the policy is made, its validity and legality can be tested at any time, if questioned,” the court had said.
An encroachment is an encroachment and the encroachers are liable to be evicted, the high court ruled on August 6, 2015.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its report tabled in the assembly in March said the state has not been able to demarcate 54 per cent of its forest area in 28 years and there are over 15,409 cases of encroachments despite high court strictures.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
(Himachal Polls)
By Vishal Gulati,
Shimla : The electorate in Himachal Pradesh wear their loyalties not on their sleeves but on their heads. In other states, voters may prefer to maintain silence about their affiliation to a political party during the polls. But in this hill state, they pronounce their loyalty and support through their headgear.
If your cap is maroon in front, then you must be a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter. And if it’s green, then you are with the Congress.
The round Bushehri cap — named after an erstwhile princely state in the state — has a green front flap.
The concepts of “green” and “maroon” stem from upper and lower areas of the state. The green symbolises descendants of upper Himachal, while the maroon one represents lower Himachal.
It started with six-time Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who loves to don a green flap headgear almost throughout the year. His supporters too prefer to wear this colour of cap to express their political solidarity with him.
Likewise, BJP leader and two-time Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has made the maroon flap his trademark.
“Donning caps has been a round-the-year tradition in the interiors of Himachal Pradesh where the winter spell is too long,” Roshan Lal Manta, 75, a former state government employee, told IANS.
But now people, including government employees, are wearing it to extend their affiliation to a particular political party.
He said since ‘Raja Saab’, as Virbhadra Singh is popularly known due to his roots in the erstwhile princely state of Bushahr, started wearing the green flap cap, the BJP’s Dhumal promoted the maroon one.
Manta, a former employee leader, said if the Congress is at the helm most of the employees start donning the green cap and if there is the BJP the maroon will be their first choice.
The BJP is garnering support on the social media through photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi wearing the traditional Himachali ‘topi’.
The photo of Modi wearing the maroon cap during the remembrance ceremony for the Holocaust victims in Israel in July is taking a political hue in this election.
“Prime Minister Modi made the Himachali cap the crown in Israel. Thank you, tweeted Anurag Thakur, the BJP Member of Parliament from Hamirpur and former BCCI president — and Dhumal’s son.
Of course, there is a war over the colour of caps.
In the run-up to the polls, a cap reflecting the other’s political ideology infuriated Virbhadra Singh at an official function, but Prime Minister Modi maintained calm at another public function.
At a function in the state capital last month where Union Minister J.P. Nadda was also present, state Health Minister Kaul Singh welcomed Virbhadra Singh by donning a Himachali maroon flap cap and presenting a shawl, a common practice at all official functions.
Seeing the BJP’s trademark colour, the infuriated Chief Minister removed it immediately and wore his own green flap cap that he was holding.
Contrary to this, Modi didn’t lose his patience when he was offered a Congress ‘ideology’ cap by Virbhadra Singh at the foundation laying ceremony of a Rs 1,350 crore 750-bed hospital in Bilaspur town.
From the colour of passion maroon to the shade of envy green, Modi immediately changed the colour of his cap while addressing a public meeting just after the official function.
But it had more to do with political ideology than changing moods, remarked a political observer.
Elections to the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly will be held on November 9.
The votes would be counted on December 18, the day that will decide which “riot of colour” — green or maroon — will flutter again in the secretariat.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Commodities, Commodities News, News
Solan (Himachal Pradesh),(IANS) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Sunday launched a online portal of local fruit and vegetable market that will enable the farmers to sell their produce directly to wholesale buyers.
He said state’s two prominent vegetable and fruit markets — one in Solan and other in Shimla — have been linked online with the National Vegetable Market Portal, which would facilitate the timely and online sale and purchase of the produce of the farmers.
Virbhadra Singh said the farmers would get adequate price for their produce and would be able to know the day-to-day rates of fruits and vegetables of national markets while the payments would directly be deposited in their bank accounts.
Himachal Pradesh annually earns Rs.2,500 crore from the cultivation of vegetables, while horticulture generates more than Rs.3,200 crore annually.
The cultivation of exotic vegetables and flowers in poly-houses and setting up of controlled atmosphere chains is expected to add to earnings for growers.
