Furnishes letter by Union MOS saying no deal has been signed with World Bank by any state or Centre Even as Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his Congress predecessor Virbhadra Singh have already locked horns on the carbon credits issue, a sitting Lok Sabha member, Chander Kumar, today gave a new twist to the bio-carbon project.

To tied-over energy shortfall, the government is planning 40,000 mw of hydroelectric power generation capacity during the 12th (2012-17) and 13th Plan (2017-22). "We are making preparations for power projects in the 12th and 13th Plan, and are planning to add 40,000 mw capacity in the hydro sector,' Central Electricity Authority (CEA) chairman Rakesh Nath said here. Project sites in states with hydro potential are being identified.

Nahan- Former MLA from Paonta Doon constituency, Fateh Singh Mehralu, in a statement today, urged Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to be liberal regarding the development of Sirmaur district. He said Dhumal had assured during the Assembly elections to provide all help for the development of Sirmaur, but in the case of a steel plant by Steel Authority of India, the Chief Minister had opted for Kangra.

A Week back, the rising temperatures in the state had the farmers worried about sowing of kharif crop. Even horticulturists, especially apple and mango growers, were under immense stress over fruit size. But the moderate rainfall that has intermittently continued all over the state during the past three days has ended all their worries. Apple growers in Shimla, who have already suffered a loss of nearly 40 per cent due to a hail storm in April, have been relieved by the rain.

The government will re-advertise five mega projects, including the setting up of a golf course and a health resort, for which bids have been already pending with the government. The aim is to get better response than earlier. With the government deciding to re-advertise these projects aimed at promoting private investment, there is likely to be further delay in the start of work on these projects. The bids that have been pending with the government for the past over one year include big names like the Taj group, Holiday Inn, Ambuja, Skill Infrastructure and the Chokhi Dhani group.

The Forest Department will soon finalise the mechanism for making payments to farmers under the carbon credit scheme for raising forests on private and community land as part of the World Bank-funded Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project.

After Uttarakhand, it is the turn of the Himachal Pradesh government to stop Van Gujjars, nomadic tribals, from migrating to highland pastures in the state despite promulgation of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (recognition of forest rights) Act on January 1, 2008. A total of 432 Van Gujjar families comprising more than 1,000 members and thousands of milch animals are stranded. This year these tribals have been denied entry to their traditional grasslands in Shimla district.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has raised the issue of carbon credits with the Union Government and sought Rs.1,000 crore for Himachal Pradesh every year as compensation for preserving the forest cover in the State. The State can earn a revenue of more than Rs.1,600 crore annually if the

Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal warned today that water scarcity and other environment-related problems were bound to get aggravated unless effective steps were taken to reverse the process of global warming and asserted that the Centre must compensate the hill states that were playing a vital role in reducing greenhouse gases by maintaining forest cover.