THE TIMES OF INDIA, CHANDIGARHSATURDAY, JULY 18, 20156 TIMES REGION

ers ran for their lives. Gush-ing water has caused dam-age to the hydel project as

Suresh Sharma TNN

Kullu: At least four flash-floods hit Kullu districthard on Thursday late eve-ning, claiming the lives ofthree persons. While over ahundred people had a nar-row escape, property worthcrores of rupees was dam-aged in the calamity.

In addtion, gushing wa-ters washed away severalgharats (watermills), walk-able bridges and trees.Heavy downpour in entiredistrict has triggered sever-al landslides and damagedmany roads.

Three labourers, whowere hired by a contractorof state forest department,were drowned in flashfloodin Pancha nullah near Ma-nihar village in Garhsa val-ley. Three other labourersat site fled and managed tosave their lives, sourcessaid. They were campingnear the nullah. Body ofone of the deceased, identi-fied as Vicky from Sirmaur,has been recovered. TwoNepalese Lalpeer Bahadurand Krishan Bahadur arestill missing.

In another incident offlashflood, five houses weredamaged and several appletrees along with agricultu-

ral land were washed awayin Lapas village of Manika-ran Valley. Nearly threedozen villagers, who man-aged to escape from theflood, are taking refuge inneighbouring houses.Sources said that houses ofDine Ram, Daulat Ram, Ka-ramdoot, Deendayal andKhushi Ram were damagedas debris entered the build-ings.

Nearly 100 workers ofHimachal Pradesh PowerCorporation Ltd engaged in100MW hydel project atShainshar and Sambha ar-ea also had a narrow escapeafter a flashflood near Bag-ishali village. As the waterlevel rose suddenly, labour-

well. There are two large res-

ervoirs in Niharni and Si-

und areas and project man-agement kept blowing sirentill late night to alert low-ly-ing settlements includingSainj town. “We were readyto run. Water level in riverwas increasing fast. No-body slept for a moment andwe kept checking the waterlevel with help of a batterytorch,” a resident of Sainj,Saroj Sharma said.

Another flash flood inChhaki nullah near Naggarwashed away forest landand trees. While police issearching for the missingbodies in Garshsa, Kulluadditional district magist-rate Vinay Singh said thatofficial teams are survey-ing the affected areas.

Water WashesAway 3 Lives,

PropertyWorth Crores

Flash flood in Lapas village of Kullu on Thursday night. Heavy downpour has triggered several landslides and damaged many roads

Photos: TOI

FLASHFLOODS WREAK HAVOC IN KULLURakhee Thakur TNN

Shimla: Heavy rainfall in thelast many days has reportedlydestroyed vegetables and cashcrops at many areas of Hima-chal Pradesh. However, troublesare far from being over for thestate farmers as the Shimla me-teorological department haspredicted more rains in Shimla,Kangra, Mandi Bilaspur andHamirpur districts till July 20.

Kamal Thakur, a farmerfrom Devli area of Solan dis-trict, said his tomato crop thatwas almost ready has beenspoiled due to rain. Tomato isone of the major cash crops inSirmaur, Solan and Bilaspurdistricts and is supplied acrossthe country. The farmers areworried as excessive rainfall isdamaging crop, sources said.

Environment head of Y SParmar University of Horticul-ture Nauni, Solan, Satish Bhard-waj said while monsoon season,which is from June to Septem-ber, contributes around 70% ofwater needs for agriculture, butheavy spell of rainfall and hu-midity can also spoil the vegeta-bles. He said due to heavy rain-fall, water gets accumulated inthe field which, if left standingfor long, can lead to several dis-eases in the crop.

“In this season, kharif cropslike maize, paddy, capsicum, to-mato, cucumber, brinjal, ladyfinger and others are sown andthese need water. However, ex-cess of water is not good. More-over, standing water needs to bedrained out from the fields toavoid the diseases like blackspots and root spoiling,” Bhard-waj said.

Heavy rainsdamaging

standing crops

A meeting of nearly 50 searchand rescue volunteers, police

and other officials was held inManali on Friday, where strategywas made to tackle emergencysituations like flashflood, cloud-burst, fire and stranding of tour-ists. Manali sub-divisional ma-gistrate Jyoti Rana said thatsearch and rescue volunteerswould be provided with qualityequipment and mobile numberof all the volunteers and officialswould be made public.

Disaster teammeeting held

Given the swelling rivulets inUdaipur Valley of Lahaul,

Border Roads Organization(BRO) has decided to close theTandi-Sansarimarg Road after3pm every day till July 31. La-haul deputy commissioner H RChauhan said that BRO had no-tified them that water level inMadgran and Dared rivuletswas increasing beyond thesafety level and it was difficultfor them to keep the trafficmoving.

Manali-UdaipurRoad open till 3pm

NAME CHANGE

PUBLIC NOTICE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Sirsa: Farmers of Raniaand Baragura villages inSirsa district are a worriedlot as water level of Ghag-gar river has been rising forthe past two days. Severalfarmers of Rania village onFriday protested againstthe administration for notbeing able to handle the sit-uation.

One of the farmers said,“In 2010, Rania was badlyaffected by floods as Ottubarrage is barely 2km farfrom here. The governmentand the administrationshould take measures wellin time to avert the possibil-

ity of another flood in thearea.”

Another farmer Jai-

chand said, “Our area is sit-uated along the banks of theGhaggar. The water over-

flows temporary embank-ments and enters ourfields.”

According to farmers,more than 100 acres ofcrops has been submerged.

They have also sought a spe-cial assessment of damagefor getting compensation.

In a press release issuedon Friday, Sirsa deputycommissioner Nikhil Gaj-raj stated, “The administra-tion is ready to handle theflood-like situation. Howev-er, the Ghaggar has still notcrossed the danger mark.”

Sirsa farmers worried as Ghaggar inundates fields

Flooded fields in Sirsa’s Rania and Baragura villages

TOI

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Shimla:Even as AICC pres-ident’s daughter PriyankaVadra questioned as to whyRTI activist Dev AshishBhattacharya, who was noteven a resident of Hima-chal, had sought detailsabout her land deal at Chha-raba, near Shimla, the ac-tivist defended his Hima-chal link.

He also sent a letter toadditional chief secretary(revenue) Tarun Shridharseeking issuing of direc-tions to all deputy commis-sioners to upload informa-tion on the departmentalwebsite about the peoplewho were granted permis-sion under Section 118 ofthe Himachal Pradesh Ten-ancy and Land Reforms Actto purchase land in thestate.

After the State Informa-tion Commission directedShimla district administra-tion to provide informationon the land purchased byPriyanka, she had field awrit petition before Hima-chal Pradesh high court.

In her petition, shepointed out that Bhatta-charya was not a resident ofthe hill state and lacked thelocus standi to question theorder granting relaxationto her to buy the propertynear Shimla.

In the petition, she saidBhattacharya was a com-plete stranger to Himachaland lived in Noida, andtherefore could not be ag-

grieved of an order passedby the state in granting per-mission to her under Sec-tion 118 of the Act.

She further submittedthat Bhattacharya’s RTI ap-plication should be dismis-sed on this ground alone.

Bringing out his Hima-chal connection, Bhatta-charya said, “Perhaps shedoes not know that I wasborn and brought up in thisstate as my father was a Hi-machal government offi-cial and died in the state in2004. I completed my entireschool and college educa-tion here.”

He said even names ofpeople from other states in-tending to buy land in Hi-machal and who sought re-laxation under this sectionshould be uploaded on thewebsite.

Under the RTI Act, it ismandatory to upload the in-formation about people al-lowed concession and re-laxation within 120 days.

‘RTI activistnot from HP,dismiss plea’

Shashwat Jindal

Ludhiana: Hard work, dedi-cation and family support iswhat helped in the end, saidthe three youngsters whotopped the Common Profi-ciency Test in Ludhiana onFriday.

With congratulatory mess-ages pouring in since themorning, it was a day of “hap-py disbelief ” for Surbhi Sin-gla (166 marks), Swar Pathak(164 marks), and Gaurav Aro-ra (160 marks), who took thetop-three ranks in the city.CPT is Institute of CharteredAccountants of India’s entry-level test for chartered ac-countancy and comprises a200-mark test.

Surbhi, a resident of FieldGanj, said she would now bejoining Gargi College, Delhi,and pursuing a degree inBCom (honours), along withstudying CA.

Ludhiana CAtoppers did it

with hard work

According to farmers,crops on more than 100acres were already sub-merged. They sought aspecial assessment ofdamage for getting compensation

Sources said that the de-cision to form the com-mittee has been taken

to reduce pending cases ofretired personnel beforevarious military tribunals,high courts and the Su-preme Court.

It will comprise fivemembers who will look intoon MoD’s policies that arecausing heartburn to serv-ing and pensioner soldiersand submit its report with-in two months. They will al-so suggest ways to removeanomalies.

Among the members isMajor Navdeep Singh whohas been a reservist-volun-teer with the Territorial Ar-my and is a supporter of sol-diers’ disability rights. Hehas been associated withseveral landmark judg-ments passed by differentcourts concerning soldiersand veterans.

The committee will alsoinclude Major D P Singhwho is the first Indian am-putee marathon runner ofthe country who runs theNGO ‘The ChallengingOnes’ for shaping the atti-tude of amputees usingsports as a medium. He hadlost a leg in the Kargil war.

Other members includeformer adjutant general LtGeneral Mukesh Sabhar-wal and former militarysecretary Lt Gen RichardKhare. A former judge advo-cate general is also expect-ed to be a member.

Major Navdeep told TOIthat committee would rec-ommend broad institution-al changes to mechanismsto address grievances.

Major General SatbirSingh, chairman of the In-dian Ex-Servicemen Move-ment (IESM), which is at theforefront of the OROP fightsaid, “Any step taken by theCentre towards the welfare

of soldiers is welcome. Thegovernment should be seri-ous about implementingthe recommendations ofthe committee.”

General Satbir, however,said that the governmentshould also pay heed to sol-diers sitting on hungerstrike at 72 places across thecountry and “feeling hurt,injured and bruised be-cause of non implementa-tion of OROP”.

Eminent veteran andformer army commander,Lt Gen H S Panag said that itis a good step by the Centreas pending of litigation is aserious issue. General Pa-nag, who has also served asmember of military tribu-nal, however, favoured in-clusion of a bureaucrat inthe committee so that theMOD’s bureaucracy wouldnot sit over the implementa-tion of recommendationsof the committed after twomonths.

Pending litigation is a seriousissue, says General Panag

Punjab deputy chief ministerSukhbir Singh Badal saidthere should be "no two laws

in the country against cultivationof poppy". "In some states cultiva-tion is legal, and in others it is ille-gal. Punjab is strongly advocatingban on such a bitter harvest."

The 53-year-old, who is also theAkali Dal chief, made these re-marks at the inauguration of AkalUniversity in Bathinda.

Though Union finance minis-ter Arun Jaitley had recently rub-bished reports of a possible splitbetween BJP and Akalis before thecrucial 2017 polls, BJP leaders inPunjab are uncomfortable withthe latest move.

Badal also said that Punjab wasfighting the nation's war againstdrugs. "Some anti-state forces withvested political gains are trying todefame Punjab and brave Punjabisby dubbing them as addicts" hesaid. While both Enforcement Di-rectorate (ED) and Punjab Policeare separately investigating the Rs6,000 crore synthetic drug scam,the high court is also monitoringthe probe.

When asked about shifting ofprisoners to Punjab from jails ofother states, he said there was"clear verdict of the apex court thatno state could release lifetime con-victs, but Punjab governmentwould not allow anyone to disturbcommunal harmony and law andorder in the state".

Akali move makesBJP uncomfortable Ludhiana: A mammoth amount

of around Rs17 crore is in arrearsof various organizations and resi-dents towards the Ludhiana Im-provement Trust, but the trust hasfailed to recover the amount whichis pending for years.

According to information, thetrust had allotted land under vari-ous schemes to educational insti-tutions and others over the pastseveral years, but failed to recoverthe amount from the allottees.This information came to light af-ter an RTI application was filed byGagandeep Singh Threeke, a cityresident. However, the informa-tion was incomplete, as author-ities have failed to keep a record ofthe pending amount. In manycases, they have failed to add theamount of interest which is also tobe recovered from allottees. TNN

LIT yet to get`̀17cr in dues

Priyanka had field a writpetition before the HCsaying Bhattacharyalacked the locus standi toquestion the order

�Continued from P1

�Continued from P1

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Sangrur: Even after 24 hours,Sangrur administration failedto demolish the temporarycheck dam, constructed by vil-lagers nearby Moonak town torestrict the natural flow of floodwater towards their villages.

Residents of Karail and Ball-ran villages had constructed atemporary check dam on Thurs-day, hours after a 200 feet widebreach was reported in Ghaggarriver near Phullad village.

Despite repeated requestsmade by senior officers, includ-ing Patiala division commis-sioner A S Pannu and Sangrurdeputy commissioner A SThind, who rushed to the spot,the villagers didn’t allow policeforce to demolish the dam till fill-ing of this report. “If adminis-tration demolishes this checkdam, thousands of acres of pad-dy crop in our villages will sub-merge under water. We won’t al-low authorities to demolish it,”said Bhalla Singh of Karail.

On the other hand, residentsof Surjan Bhaini, BhunderBhaini and Salempur villagesheld a protest in Moonak de-manding immediate demolition

of the dam that has caused flood-ing in their area. Residents ofthese villages had held proteston Thursday too.

Meanwhile, district admin-istration had to seek help of Ar-my to plug in the 200 feet widebreach in Ghaggar. It took ad-ministration around two days toplug the breach. Sources said

Sangrur administration hadsubmitted a requisition to theArmy authorities in Patiala onThursday requesting assistanceto plug the breach. The Armysent the necessary manpower,boats and rescue equipment. Ar-my flood control rooms havebeen established at Patiala andSangrur.

Govt fails to breach checkdam built by Moonak villagers

Residents of Karail and Ballran villages refused to listen to officials

TOI