The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Mauritian Prez visits yogpeeth Sandeep Rawat Tribune News Service Haridwar, December 17 The President of Republic of Mauritius, Anirudh Jagganath today reached Haridwar on a personal visit. The president along with his family members visit Peetanjali Yogpeeth of famous Yoga guru Baba Ramdev. President Jagganath on his arrival told media persons that he is delighted to be in India and particularly in Uttarakhand. He apprised of the cordial relations between India and Mauritius and said that both the nations are culturally and naturally blessed. A law degree holder, President Anirudh is a popular politician in Mauritius and has served Prime Minister from 1981 to 1995. He held the coveted post of President from 2000 to 2003. This is his second term as president of the Mauritius which speaks highly of his stature in Mauritius. He has also been conferred Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award for his contribution in fostering better ties between India and Mauritius. Anirudh Jagannath condemned the Mumbai terror attacks and said that terrorism has emerged as the biggest threat to the society. He praised the way Mumbaikars and India fought back unitedly after the terror attacks. He expressed his sympathy to the victims and the martyrs. Uttarakhand Health Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, also accompanied the President and said that Mauritius has majority of Hindus. The Mauritian president also went to Rishikesh and will return back to Haridwar tomorrow for a book launch function. Tight security arrangements were made for the visit of the Mauritian President in the city and the scheduled programme changed twice due to the security reasons. He will be visiting the capital city of Dehradun on Thursday.
	Land Act amendment hits revenue collection Raju William Tribune News Service Dehradun, December 17 The sharp decline in revenue from stamp duty and registration fee seems to be the government’s own doing as the measures taken by it since coming to power have restricted land transactions all over the state. Official figures showed that the revenue fell by more than Rs 85 crore till November as compared to the corresponding month last year. Officials are worried that the department may not achieve more than 70 per cent of the target in 2008-09. The decline is being attributed to a fall in sale deeds. As compared to around 60,000 till October this year, the number of registered transactions was more than 90,000 in the corresponding period last year. Till this November, the department earned revenue of Rs 231 crore against Rs 317 crore in the corresponding period last year. The target is Rs 485 crore for 2008-09. The decline had set in since the formation of this government last year. In 2007-08, the revenue was Rs 424 crore against target of Rs 465 crore resulting in decline of Rs 41 crore. Notably, the revenue collection was Rs 546 crore against the target of Rs 400 crore during the last year of the previous regime. The decline of revenue on this account should be a cause of concern for the government as this is the third most important area of revenue collection in the state after commercial tax and excise duty. The Land Act amendment by the government in July 2007 is considered to have had a direct bearing on the dwindling revenue even as the government did this to save agricultural land. Under this, the buyers from outside were barred from buying more than 250 square metres land as compared to earlier limit of 500 square metres outside MC limits. Interestingly, revenue minister Diwakar Bhatt had stated the measure was aimed at benefiting the local people. He had said that the government was more concerned about safeguarding the interests of the local population than earning revenue. “Without any prejudice, I can say that this is not a pragmatic approach as it has affected the outside investment in the residential sector and the resultant loss to the state exchequer in terms of squeezed number of property transactions,” said Pardeep Gupta, president of Outburst, an NGO. “In the absence of outsiders whose presence facilitated competitive rates of land to the locals, the latter are now at the mercy of local builders and land developers,” he observed. Apart from the size of land, the Act also disallowed purchase of land in the names of family members including spouses, minor children, unmarried sons, daughters and dependent parents. Now, they are treated as one unit and one cannot purchase more than one property that too once in a lifetime. Also, the transfer of land was permitted previously in case of a person proposing to purchase land from a local in whose favour the competent authority approved a layout plan. But this was also done away with. “These measures restricted the number of transactions and logically lesser revenue accruals,” said an official.
	Govt denies caning teachers but orders probe Umesh Dewan Tribune News Service Dehradun, December 17 Terming Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj Gen B.C. Khanduri (retd) as more cruel than General Dyer, the leader of opposition Harak Singh Rawat today said that yesterday’s lathicharge on “shiksha mitras” and “shiksha acharyas” has exposed the fascist face of the BJP government. While delivering a fiery speech during the discussion regarding the problems of teachers under Rule 310, Rawat termed the lathicharge as shameful and a blot on the face of the state government. “Whatever happened yesterday was nothing but murder of democracy. The teachers who were raising their voice in a democratic manner had to face the brutality of the cops,” said Rawat during the third day of the winter session of the state assembly. While pointing out that it was the BJP government which had introduced contract system for teachers in 2001, he condemned the state government for overlooking the demands of protesting teachers. Rawat said that for the past two years, the teachers had adopted all democratic channels and time and again urged the government to concede to their demands but to no avail. Launching scathing attacks on Khanduri, he said, “The CM has no control over the bureaucracy. Bureaucrats are running this government as per their whims and fancy.” Rawat demanded that besides ordering a high-level probe into the incident, the government should not waste any time in giving regular scales to teachers on contract. Sharply reacting to the allegations levelled by Rawat, a visibly perturbed Khanduri stood up and said, “I would like to request the leader of opposition to refrain from issuing statements which are leading to negative repercussions. If the Congress has a solution to the problems of teachers, which could be implemented practically, they are welcome to discuss it with me,” he said. After couple of minutes, Khanduri left the House and the discussion continued with Congress legislatures airing their views on the issue. Congress MLA Kedar Singh Rawat also flayed the government for canecharging the teachers. “When the state government has a central budget for education and there are vacancies as well, it is beyond one’s understanding why it is not giving regular scales to teachers,” he questioned. Another Congress MLA, Manoj Tiwari, demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. Replying to the charges, parliamentary affairs minister Parkash Pant denied the lathicharge on teachers. He claimed that when the teachers tried to barge into the Assembly and started manhandling the administrative officials, the policemen were forced to stop them using water cannons. “The police did stop the teachers from entering the assembly but no one was lathicharged,” he claimed. He added that the CM had ordered a magisterial probe into the incident yesterday itself. Education minister Madan Kaushik in his speech said that Uttarakhand is giving Rs 6,000 per month to “shiksha mitras”, whereas states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh were paying Rs 2,500, Rs 3,000, Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,000, respectively, to them. “On December 18, a meeting of officials of the finance department, education department and labour department has been called to discuss if something could be done regarding the issues of the protesting teachers,” he revealed. Meanwhile, undeterred by yesterday’s lathicharge, “shiksha mitras” and “shiksha acharyas” continued their agitation outside the assembly today. They said that unless and until the government accepts their demands, they will continue their protest.
	Winter Session Ill-prepared ministers fail to answer queries Umesh Dewan Tribune News Service Dehradun, December 17 Uttarakhand ministers today failed to answer the various queries related to their portfolios during question hour on the third day of the winter session of the state assembly. Forest and environment minister Banshidhar Bhagat was, in a way, reprimanded as a question pertaining to his department was “suspended” because the minister had not done his homework and was not at all prepared to answer it. Likewise, minister for potable water Matbar Singh Kandari had to face lot of embarrassment on account of questions posed by opposition legislators, which the minister failed to answer. The moment question hour began, Opposition legislators including that of the BSP and Congress started grilling the ministers. When BSP MLA Surender Rakesh’s written question regarding the problem of pollution in the villages in the vicinity of industrial units in Haridwar district came up for discussion, minister for potable water Matbar Singh Kandari tried to downplay the issue by giving “misleading” answers. The minister said water samples were taken from six villages in March and were found fit for drinking. When BSP MLA Qazi Nizzamudin asked the minister to disclose the name of the villages from where samples were taken, initially the minister failed to name them. Gauging that the opposition was in no mood to relent, Kandari named some villages, including Ramnagar, but had to face embarrassment as Ramnagar does not fall under the jurisdiction of Haridwar. Nizzamudin further pointed out that in the written reply submitted before the House by Kandari, the minister had given contradictory statements. Witnessing all this, parliamentary affairs minister Parkash Pant came to Kandari’s rescue. He gave Kandari a list of some villages, wherein water samples had been tested. Pant also said that if opposition legislators have some specific complain, they should tell the minister and he would get water of those villages tested. Forest and environment minister Banshidhar Bhagat was the second minister, who had to face the ire of the opposition legislators during question hour today. Congress MLA Dr Shalendra Mohan Singhal asked the minister that whether the Forest Department had made any policy to generate biomass at the banks and beds of the rivers in the hills. The minister replied that there is no such policy as under different schemes, plantation alongside river banks in hills is being carried out by the Forest Department. The minister was, however, caught napping when Dr Singhal asked him about the figures regarding the plantation being carried out alongside river banks in hills. Bhagat replied that an area varying between 20,000 to 28,000 hectares was under plantation. Despite repeated arguments by the opposition, he failed to give the break-up for the area under plantation with respect to river banks. The minister also failed to give any satisfactory reply to his own party MLA Munna Singh Chauhan whether the Forest Department has made any policy to reclaim the soil which gets washed away with the river during rains. As the House was not satisfied with Bhagat’s reply, the question was “suspended”.
	Vikram Stir Factions disagree on next course Jotirmay Thapliyal Tribune News Service Dehradun, December 17 The stir undertaken by the “vikram” operators in Uttarakhand has crippled road transport services in the cities of Dehradun, Haridwar and Roorkie for the second consecutive day today. The agitating operators burnt the effigies of State Transport Authority at various places accusing it of a one-sided decision vis-à-vis fixing the passenger fare rates for “vikrams”. But a clear divide between the office-bearers of Uttarkhand Vikram Tempo Mahasangh for and against the stir was visible. In the morning, one faction of the Vikram Operators Association, led by general secretary Satish Sharma, suggested calling off the stir asserting that the speaker had assured to take up their issue with the government shortly. The other faction, led by president Vinay Saraswat, vehemently opposed the suggestion and asserted that a verbal assurance was not enough. The two groups had marathon meetings at the Indira Market office of the mahasangh but failed to come to any conclusion. “Vikram” operators also charged the administration of not doing little to check overloading on buses while they had been harassed for the same offence time and again. Meanwhile, commuters faced yet another tough day as buses were packed to capacity in Dehradun and autos proved to be too few in number. “I had to come by foot all the way to the city from Patel Nagar as public transport was difficult to get today,” said Naveen, who works at a courier service in Dehradun city. The situation was more pathetic in Rishikesh and Haridwar where many pilgrims were found stranded due to the strike.
	Cops sensitised about AIDS Tribune News Service Dehradun, December 17 As part of the sensitisation drive on HIV/AIDS, the Himalayan Institute For Environment, Ecology and Engineering (HIFEED) held a workshop at Araghar police post. In his keynote address, Kamal Bahuguna, director, HIFEED, said police officials need to adopt humane approach while dealing with segments of society which are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. He said ignorance is also a factor for the spread of HIV/AIDS. “There are cases when infected persons, who do not know about their infection, have spread it to others.” The HIFEED director held that the police, public representatives and voluntary organisations have an important role in sensitising society on HIV/AIDS. HIFEED’s project coordinator S. Thakur gave detailed information on HIV/AIDS. She stressed on the Police Department adopting a sensitive approach while dealing with women sex workers, drug users and homosexuals. She said that HIV/AIDS was not a contagious disease and every HIV/AIDS affected person should be treated normally. Dhara chowki incharge M.S. Bisht, sub-inspectors M.S. Vidla and K.P. Singh and head constable K.P. Dandriyal also put forward their views on the subject. As many as 35 police personnel and volunteers took part in the workshop.