The green bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court has imposed a penalty of Rs 100 crore on Jaiprakash Associates Limited for setting up a mega cement plant with means the court described as deceitful, besides a captive, thermal power plant without clearance. The court has allowed the 1.75-million-tonne cement plant to stay but ordered dismantling of the 60MW power plant.

Newly-appointed Himachal Pradesh Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy on Thursday confirmed that all Jaiprakash Associate Limited projects and properties will now come under the scanner after large-scale irregularities by the company were pointed out by the High Court.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court recently imposed a fine of Rs.100 crore on the company's Bagheri cement plant in Solan after discovering that it had flouted environmental laws and wrongfully acquired the land of native people.

Solan: The Chail panchayat has imposed green tax on vehicles entering this town from other states since April 1. Since this was for the first time that such a tax was imposed in Chail, the panchayat has kept nominal fee of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 30 and Rs 100, respectively, for two-wheelers, vehicles having sitting capacity of five, vehicles having sitting capacity between 5 to 10 and buses having a sitting capacity of 30 to 50.

Solan: With environmental pollution becoming a cause of concern for villagers residing on the periphery of polluting units, the pollution control board has adopted a tough posture to keep pollution levels under check. A committee constituted by the state high court is already inquiring into the unscientific disposal of muck allegedly by the Bagha-based JP cement plant where the failure of the plant to take safety measures is leading to muck flowing down and damaging houses, water sources and water mills. Local residents had filed a writ petition in the court regarding this.

Solan: Scientists of the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, have achieved a rare feat by developing high- yielding hybrids of white button mushroom through crossing. The newly developed hybrid-4 is a cross between U3 and A-15 and it has recorded an outstanding average yield of 26.10 kg per 100 kg compost against 22.50 kg recorded in U3 and 14.02 kg in A-15 parents during the cropping period of 60 days on short method of compost.

In less than three years, more than 9,500 polyhouses have replaced ‘terraces’ on nearly 100 hectares of cultivable land on the slopes of Himachal Pradesh.
The innovative and lucrative method of farming inside polyhouses to grow vegetables has turned out to be ideal in harsh winters when little cultivation is possible in the hill state, particularly for farmers with small landholdings.

The HP High Court has stayed the process of acquisition of 1,305 bighas by the state government for the Ambuja Cement Factory for mining purposes in six villages of Solan district.

The interim order was passed by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rajiv Sharma on a petition filed by villagers alleging that no public hearing was offered before issuing the acquisition notification under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act.

The state government has demanded Rs 991 crore from the Central Government as compensation for the loss caused by floods and heavy rain during this year’s monsoon. The state raised the demand during a meeting between the Central team headed by Bhagwan Shankar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu here last evening.

The Himachal Pradesh government today decided to cut VAT on Diesel from 14 per cent to 9.70 per cent and bring down VAT on kerosene to zero with a view to providing relief to consumers from the recent price hike on petroleum products.

Officials in the state government said diesel will be cheaper by Rs 1.60 per litre after lowering of VAT.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabi

The allotment of forest land to private parties for the 10 eco-tourism projects in violation of the Forest Conservation Act and state