The vehicle could be spotted only in the morning. By the time police reached the spot all five person had died.

The accident happened near HRTC petrol pump on Byepass road leading to Tutikandi ISBT.

The deceased have been identified as Vinod, Pankaj, Dharminder and Amit while details about the fifth person were awaited.

An Alto car had went off the road at the same spot a few days back. There were no perafits placed at the spot of accident by the PWD authorities which otherwise could have averted the tragedy.

The entire district witnessed very heavy snowfall during the past two weeks. While DC Shimla today claimed that NH 22 was cleared of snow at Kufri and Narkanda and Theog-Kotkhai and Theog- Chopal has been restored, life remained miserable in the interior villages as link roads were still laden with massive snow.

It has been no better on roads which were cleared. The drive is extremely dangerous as no mud has been put on the highway leading to skidding of vehicles resulting in serious accidents.

Two weeks of heavy snowfall has taken a toll on LPG availability and absence of health services in these areas. Reports of massive shortage of LPG has been reported from the district. With link roads closed people in the area are finding it extremely difficult to reach medical centers for treatment.

In many of the villages electricity supply has not been restored. These villages are facing black out as power supply got disrupted due to uprooting of electricity poles. Many areas are also facing shortage of water supply as water supply scheme pipes have frozen being buried in the snow.

While people in the high hills are left on their own, no minister or functionary has bothered visiting the area to take stock of situation. The step motherly treatment of the BJP government to Shimla district continues as Chief Minister Dhumal shifted his ‘darbar’ to lower areas during this period. There is hardly any minister in Shimla these days who could take stock of the situation.

It seems the only department working during such difficult times is the Himachal PR department dishing out tall claims from the state Secretariat in Shimla. Rest everyone has left the people on nature’s mercy. All this is happening when people of the district handed the entire district on platter to BJP in last elections.

While Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal remained busy with inaugurations and stone laying ceremony in his home district, life continues to be miserable for people in snow affected areas of Shimla district.

The bodies of the victims were yet to be recovered. Those killed were Lal Sen, Yusuf, Rasim Mohammad, Haneef Mohammad and Baghusan. Two of the injured, Haneef and Musa, were being brought to Chamba for treatment.

All the persons were local Gujjars, reports reaching here said.

The district administration had already warned the people in high altitude tribal areas of Chamba, Pangi and Lahaul against avalanche threat and urged them not to venture out.

Meanwhile extreme cold wave spell continued in entire Himachal Pradesh with reports of snowfall around Dhauladhar ranges in Kangra and Chamba districts. Snow fall was reported from Mcleodganj, Tissa and Salooni areas in Chamba district. Chamba Pathankot highway was reportedly closed due to snow fall.

As per reports Shimla recorded 24 cm of snow till today evening. Nearby Narkanda recorded 75 cm of fresh snowfall while Kufri recorded 50 cm of snow.

Tourist town of Manali and Dalhousie experienced the heaviest snowfall of the season. The lower areas of state were lashed with heavy rains and the state remained in the grip of extreme cold wave.

Traffic remained disrupted with NH 22 closed from Shimla onwards due to heavy snowfall at Kufri and Narkanda. Buses to Rampur and Kinnaur were diverted through Basantpur. However traffic remained normal on Shimla Chandigarh route.

Traffic on NH 21 leading to Manali remained disrupted at Patlikuhl due to landslides. Manali recorded 80 cm of snow while Dhundhi, Mari and Rohtang Pass  had 120cm, 150cm and 200cm of fresh snowfall, reports reaching here said.

Kalpa in Kinnaur and Keylong in tribal Lahaul and Spiti recorded 50cm to 70cm of fresh snow. Sangla in Kinnaur, Sarahan and Theog also received 50cm, 60cm and 70cm of fresh snow, affecting vehicular traffic in the area.

Meanwhile the defence ministry warned that a medium danger (yellow stage) avalanche warning exists in some parts of the state till Tuesday 5 p.m., a state government release said.

It advised the people staying in snow-bound areas of Solang, Beas Kund, Nehru Kund, Gulaba, Marhi in upper Manali in Kullu district, and Chamba, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts not to venture in avalanche-prone areas during the period.

The residents were also advised to clean the snow from rooftop of their houses to avoid any casualty due to roof collapse.

Met office said the western disturbance would remain active in the state till Tuesday and more snow and rain was expected.

Director of MeT office, Manmohan Singh said, ”Heavy to very heavy snowfall is likely to occur at isolated places in the higher hills. Heavy rainfall is likely in mid-hills and hailstorms in lower hills during the next 48 hours.” Singh said the western disturbance as an upper air system with its centre over North Pakistan and East Afghanistan will affect the state from Saturday evening onward.

The weather office’s prediction comes at a time when the normalcy is yet to be restored in the hill state after last week snowfall. Snow is yet to be cleared on Shimla roads. The Mall and Ridge have turned into ice rink and scores of people have been injured due to fall on hard ice. The Municipal Corporation and PWD department has turned a blind eye to the plight of residents and tourists in the town.

Traffic has been restored on NH22 but scores of link roads are yet to be cleared. On Friday 15 people were killed near Chopal in Shimla district as a state transport bus met with an accident on snow covered road.

Cold wave prevailed in the state as icy winds continued to sweep the region. Keylong in tribal Lahaul and Spiti district was coldest in the region at minus 12.7 Celsius followed by Kalpa at minus 6 C, Manali minus 4.2 C, Solan minus 0.2 C, Dharamsala and Shimla recorded 3.1 C. The high altitude tribal areas reeled under biting cold wave with the minimum temperatures ranging between minus 17 and minus 28 deg C. As per reports lakes and rivulets were frozen in higher altitude areas of the state.

Shimla (Sept 27): Investigation carried out by Himachal Live on the overall working of the mobile companies in Himachal Pradesh have brought shocking revelations. As per report in Medianama there were 65,86,567 connections in Himachal Pradesh. The report in Medianama mentioned there was a decrease of 1,83,157 connections in the month of January 2011 when compared to the figures of December 2010 which stood at a whooping 67,69,724 connections.

These figures were mind blowing when the official population figure of the state stood at 60,77,248 as per Himachal Government website.

Amazed at the massive figures of mobile connections active in Himachal Pradesh we decided to look into the figures but stumbled on something else – Identity Theft.

We were shocked to learn that identity theft of unaware Himachalis is fuelling the so called number game of mobile companies in Himachal Pradesh.

Number Game of Mobile Companies

You will be astonished to know that there may be multiple connections in the name of an unsuspecting subscriber without his/her knowledge. First player in the Number Game is an outsourced external agency which does the work of verifying subscriber details. The agency in Shimla handles work of at least 6-7 mobile companies.

The subscriber enrolment form (SEF) along with the identity documents submitted at the time of purchasing a mobile connection is scanned by this agency for safe keeping. This agency is supposed to call on customers and verify the details.

The second player in the Great Mobile Number Game is a distributor of SIM cards of these companies. These distributors are offered targets and incentives on monthly basis for the number of SIM cards activated. The target /  incentive varies month to month. Where as it could be 3000 activations during a particular month it gets reduced to 1000-1500 activations in winter months. The incentives too vary accordingly. While it can be Rs. 15-25 in a peak month it goes up to Rs. 30-40 per activation in winter months.

The number game starts

While the distributor has a fair idea of how much real activations he can do in a month, the balance target is achieved by doing false activations. Once the SIM is activated the paper work needs to be completed of such falsely activated SIM. It is here the SEF agency comes into picture.

During our investigation, it came as a shock as a source told us that employees of the SEF agency sell identity documents to the distributors.

This is done very smartly. Suppose a distributor of a mobile company A wants to activate 2000 connections. The SEF people sell him subscriber details of mobile company B. The details are sold for Rs. 3-10 per subscriber depending upon the urgency of the distributor. This cycle is repeated every month for all companies.

The whole process is very simple indeed. Since the entire details are scanned at the SEF agency level, the employee copies the data to a pen drive and hand over to the distributor. The data includes the original form where the photo of the subscriber is attached. The distributor then prints a copy of the photograph and other address identification etc and a new connection is activated without any knowledge of the unsuspecting subscriber.

If you are thinking copying 2000 forms is a big task, the distributor has to print 65 forms per day. Printing pictures is again no big deal. Software like Adobe has made it super easy!

The profit margins for the distributor are huge. By investing a mere Rs. 3-10 per connection he earns Rs. 20-40 upon achieving the ‘target’. No wonder Himachal Pradesh has the highest mobile density!! And all this is done well under the knowledge of the mobile companies. I will come to that later.

Other disturbing fact which came in our investigation was SEF agency is not the only one selling personal details of the public. A source told us that photocopy shops and photo studios too are involved in selling the details.

Normally people go to photocopy shops for taking out Xerox of the address proof. These photocopy shop owners make an extra copy which they later sell to the distributors.

Same goes with the photographers. All passport size photos are now taken in the digital format. These are sold to the distributors.

What happens to the activated SIM?

Majority of the activated SIM are dumped in the market. There is a huge demand of SIM cards among migrant workers in the state who cannot fulfil the required paper work to obtain one . Lakhs of Nepali nationals, workers from Bihar, UP, Jharkhand and Rajasthan are staying in Himachal Pradesh. These are the target customers of these SIM. Retailers are told they can sell the SIM cards without any documents as the formality has already been done at the distributor level.

This poses a greater challenge for the police as no one knows how many of these fraudulently activated SIM has made it’s way to criminal gangs and anti social elements. Imagine the harassment to the unaware subscriber when the police would come knocking on the doors after the crime has been committed.  This is the reality of the future when personal details are on sale and freely available in the state.

Are mobile companies involved?

Of course… from head to toe. They are the one who keep pressurizing the distributors for false activation to bloat their numbers. In fact there was a case with a leading mobile company in Himachal Pradesh, when the CEO and the Sales head were transferred and two smaller employees were thrown out of the company. A Dharamshala based distributor complained against pressure for false SIM activation. While it was the top management which kept pressurizing for SIM activations, lower level employees were asked to leave the company. The higher ups were simply transferred out of the state.

The modus operandi of  the mobile company is that they feign ignorance and put the entire blame on the distributor for any wrong doing. But the fact of the matter is it is these companies who ask the distributors to activate SIM by whatever means.

What is the Police doing?

Police is fed up with the entire mobile business. In fact so fed up is the police that last Friday an Area Head and a Territory Manager of a leading mobile company in Shimla were arrested and locked behind the bars for a night. While probing a blind murder case of a lady in Chamrog area of Shimla, the police investigation came to a dead end to the mobile phone angle of the deceased.

A police team visited the distributor of this particular company and found open SIM cards lying in the office. Upon questioning, the distributor spilled the beans and told the police that company officials had asked him to activate the SIM.

The distributor could not produce the required paper work of these activated SIM. The police later arrested the two company officials. They were released on bail the next day.

One interesting aspect of the whole affair was that though these mobile company officials were arrested on Friday, none of the mainstream newspapers gave coverage to the news. Even such Hindi dailies who don’t fail to report about a dog giving birth to puppies on The Mall, chose to remain silent.

After all working in a top notch company has it’s own perks. And less said the better about Himachal media now controlled by outsiders.

Now what?

Common public is in a great danger of their identities getting misused. Their PAN cards, address proof, photos and all sort of identification is available freely in Himachal Pradesh. Not before long when terrorists or a mafia will come into the picture and make life miserable just for greed of a few and apathy of those who have the powers to stop this and who can report and make public aware of the impending identity theft disaster.

We had earlier done a story about the working of Mobile companies in Himachal. We never knew the racket would be of such massive scale!

Shimla ((July 27): Bowing to the popular sentiment the Himachal Pradesh government today decided to acquire controversial Bantony Castle, an 111-year-old private property located in the heritage zone of Shimla town believed to be worth hundreds of crores.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal directed the Urban Development Department to initiate the process for acquiring the property located near the Central Telegraph Office here. The possession of Bantony Castle, which housed the offices of the state DGP and the DIG, was handed over to its owners recently.

But a controversy erupted as the number of owners of the joint property multiplied during a legal battle with the government for vacating the building. Media reports said a UK-based promoter had sought permission under the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act to purchase the land for developing a tourist resort.

The government’s move was apparently aimed at setting to rest all speculation that some influential persons might facilitate the sale of the prime land and get rules changed for construction in the heritage zone.

Media reports had earlier indicated involvement of an influential BJP leader based in Delhi in the deal which was on the anvil.

The travel forum can be accessed at www.himachaltourisminfo.com

The travel forum follows the Question and Answer format. Anyone can post a travel related query to Himachal Pradesh on the site which can be answered by fellow travellers.

The site aims to be a discussion, travel tips and research forum for travel and tourism in Himachal Pradesh. The forum covers all aspects of travel and tourism in Himachal Pradesh.

A well chosen, compact and nicely trimmed hedge gives neat and tidy look to the garden. The best time for propagation is February-March or during the monsoon season. Dig a trench 30 cm x 30 cm and expose the soil to sun for 2-3 weeks. Add well decomposed farmyard manure to enrich the dug-up soil. A dose of anti-termite is compulsory in the effected area. Firmly settle and level the soil as undulating ground will result in unequal growth levels.

A space of 4-6 cm must be left for watering. Hedges can be planted in single/double row depending on how compact the growth is required. Distance from one plant to another could be 8-12 inches and one row to another 6-8 inches. All the hedges must be trimmed regularly, especially during the early growth period to encourage compact growth. Hedges are also made from shrubs and trees.

While designing the garden, Climbers are used to cover or camouflage a place and sometimes serve to highlight the contours of the building. They require the same care as required by the other plants. Climbers have a natural tendency to grow straight causing the main shoot to get exposed. When it is trained straight its falling branches cover the main shoot but when trained in horizontal position the main stem gets invisible.

Identify plants and places for pots as they form an important component of the garden. A separate location for developing pots in an enclosed area to maintain the supply chain of seasonal flowers in the garden is essential.

Last but not the least is the cost factor. The garden can bear a slash in the budget but will not compromise on any cut in terms of time and labour.

One other important factor to keep in mind while designing your garden is that the gardeners should take caution and take up light warming-up exercises prior to getting involved in the various tasks of gardening to avoid backache, pulling of muscles and ligament-related problems.

Manali recorded a snowfall of 30 cm where as there have been reports of snowfall from Sangla in Kinnaur, Sarahan and Narkanda in Shimla district. Lower parts of the state witnessed heavy rainfall along with icy winds.

Kinnaur and Lahul Spiti  experienced heavy snowfall with reports of telecom lines being snapped off from these areas. Keylong in Lahul Spiti received 45 cm of snowfall with heavy snowfall reports from Rohtang Pass, Mari and Koksar.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district recorded 30 cm of snow where as Kharapathar in Shimla district received 20 cm of snow.

Shimla was lashed with heavy rains during the day recording a temperature of 7.6 degrees while Mandi was at 13 degrees, Bhuntar at 9 degrees.

Air traffic remained suspended to Himachal Pradesh today as flights to Shimla and Manali were cancelled due to bad weather.

A weather warning issued by the IMD said that heavy to very heavy rain or snowfall would occur at a few places over Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh on Monday and Tuesday.

The active western disturbance would continue to affect the western Himalayan region and plains of northwest India at least for four more days from Sunday, the IMD said.