HIMACHAL PRADESH

Gearing up to manage the massive tourist inflow ahead of the new year, the Himachal Pradesh Police has decided to use drones at the entry points including Shimla, Parwanoo, and Pandoh for accurate estimation of the number of visitors entering the hill state.

For the same, the police headquarters on Sunday issued detailed directions to the concerned Superintendents of Police (SPs) to carry out regular checkings at hotels, guest houses, and other places of stay and take special care that the tourists do not face any inconvenience.

Also, the SPs have been directed to arrange vehicle recovery cranes and place them at significant locations to remove unauthorized parking to avoid traffic congestion.

Delayed by about 10 days, the ice skating season, Shimlas major winter attraction, is expected to start within two or three days at the Asias biggest natural rink, subject to the conducive weather conditions.

A clear sky with minimum temperature staying below 4C to 5C was a prerequisite for ice skating, said Bhuvnesh Banga, secretary, Shimla Ice Skating Club.

The area of the skating rink, which is equal to the size of five tennis courts (58 m X 30 m), has shrunk temporarily by almost 10 per cent as a lift from Lakkar Bazar to Mall Road under the Shimla Smart City Mission is being built at the club entrance.

The HISTORY of the club dates back to 1920, when tennis courts were converted into a natural ice skating rink by Irish military official Blessington. During winter, when he sprinkled water on the tennis court to settle the grass, it froze within seconds and he immediately thought of converting the arena into an ice skating rink.

Responding to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamans assertion that the import duty on apple had been levied at a maximum of 50% as agreed under the WTO pact, growers said the cess on the US produce was 70% since 2019.

The apple growers have been demanding the increase of the import duty on apple to 100 per cent, especially on the cheap produce coming from Iran thats hurting the domestic farmers a lot. If the government wants, it can put apple in the special category status. It can then easily raise the duty, said Lokinder Bisht, president, Progressive Growers Association.

Himachal Pradeshis going to have its secondstate universitywith thecabinet deciding to constitute a committee under the chairmanship of chief secretary to work out the modalities to set up a state university at Mandi.

Himachal Pradesh Universityat Shimla was established on July 22, 1970, and after a wait of 51 years now, the government has decided to have another state university that will directly benefit the students of Mandi, Kullu, Kangra, Hamirpur, Lahaul-Spiti and Chamba districts as students of these districts will not have to travel much distance for higher Education.

Having two state universities will also increase post-graduation seats and students will be able to take admission easily as they will not have to go to private universities. At the same time, thousands of students of Himachal Pradesh will not have to go to other states for the higher education.

Geographically, Mandi is situated in the middle of Himachal Pradesh. Students from tribal areas will be benefited the most with the opening of second university of the state.

Following in the footsteps ofDubaiwhich attracts tourists with its largest or tallest in the world concept,Lahaulaims to attract tourists from across the world with its highest in the world adventure tourism idea.

The plan is to develop Lahaul as a cultural tourism and adventure tourism destination. After a few months, when people will search for any highest adventure activity in the world in online search engines, all the results will direct toLahaul valley.

Thakur said he had recently met people who are seeking the formation of Swarna Aayog and had also held a protest demonstration. He said such matters need to be taken forward in a cordial and raising slogans against other community or categories is not in good taste. I have requested them not to create conflict in the Society and to avoid giving provocative speeches, he said. Only two states in the country have constituted such commissions, he added.

Considering the increase in attacks on human beings, the wildlife wing of the Forest Department will hold a census of Asiatic black bear and common leopard with the help of the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, and formulate a strategy to combat the issue.

The wildlife wing of the Forest Department will soon sign a memorandum of understanding with the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata, for undertaking the Population estimation so that there is an idea about the population of black bears and leopards. A major part of this will be as study on human-wildlife conflict, which will primarily focus on these two species.

Though a census to ascertain the population of common leopards had been undertaken in 2004, it was not done scientifically and its figures were highly doubtful. The Forest Department has undertaken the census of monkey and langur thrice and of the highly endangered snow leopard once. However, it will, for the first time, collect data on Asiatic black bears which are found in the higher reaches of Chamba, Shimla, Kullu and Sirmaur.

Health Minister Dhani Ram Shandil inaugurated the Daughter Empowerment Initiative (DEI) launched by the District Administration here today. The campaign aims at improving the girl child gender ratio in Mandi district and the all-round development and empowerment of daughters.

The minister said, Daughters are an invaluable heritage and mothers of Society and the nation. To build a cultured society, it is our moral responsibility to educate and protect our daughters. Society and men do not exist without daughters.

The government has started many schemes to encourage daughters in every field. Besides, the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act has been implemented to curb female feticide.