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Politics over Kumbh funds over, at last
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Denmark Climate Meet
CII suggestions on Kumbh traffic
Staff crunch punctures mobile hospital services
Janmashtmi celebrations from Aug 12
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Politics over Kumbh funds over, at last
Haridwar, August 10
An estimated five crore are expected to throng the holy cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh to attend the fair and bathe in the holy Ganga. The central grant comes after much hullabaloo with the central government and the BJP-led state government having a dig at each other. While Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhiryal Nishank accuses the Congress of not helping in the Kumbh preparations, the latter criticises his government for not sending any proposal to the Centre and instead played politics on the issue. Nishank has met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, home minister P Chidambaram and the Planning Commission secretary in this regard and apprised them of the additional amount needed for the Mahakumbh. “We welcome the centre’s help though it came after much persistence. It will help in making the internationally renowned fair a success,” Nishank was quoted while holding meetings on Kumbh preparations in Haridwar. Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath had in Parliament raised the demand for allocating funds to Uttarakhand for the fair. “For the Commonwealth Games scheduled for 2010 in New Delhi, a sum of Rs 3,742 crore has been earmarked but for the Mahakumbh the government has not provided any additional package,” he has said. Haridwar MP and minister of state for employment and labour Harish Rawat had accused the state government of not sending any proposal for help to the Centre. “When the proposal was made and sent via the Planning Commission to the Prime Minister’s office, it did not delay sanctioning a grant,” maintains Rawat. Now, with the state getting additional help and the Mahakumbh funds totalling Rs 750 crore, there are concerns on speedy implementation of projects and quality works. Already, precious time has been lost and taking into account problems and traffic jams witnessed during festive occasions such as Somwati Amawasya and Baisakhi, it’s feared that the highways passing through Haridwar are bound to be choked with the huge turnout for the Kumbh. The mela administration claims all permanent works will be completed before the deadline of October 31 this year. Officer on special duty DD Sharma says the projects are being on the fast track but without quality being affected. As a lot of money is spent on temporary structures and works during the fair, the extra grant will come handy in providing better facilities to saints, pilgrims, mela staff, government employees, security forces, medical staff, and the media. For the temporary works (excluding central grant) Rs 100 crore will be spent, more than Rs 10 crore on tents, barricades and tin shades alone. With security being given special emphasis this time due to global terrorism, the additional grant will be used for procuring state-of-the-art weapons, security equipment and round-the-clock security to visitors and pilgrims for the four-month-long Mahakumbh which ends in April 2010. Specially designated DIG (Kumbh) Alok Sharma says that security is of prime consideration and the mela police is being groomed to meet the arduous task of providing security during the Mahakumbh. Specially designated Kumbh Mela officer Anand Vardhan, who was earlier district magistrate of Haridwar, has welcomed the central grant. “The mela administration is working day and night to complete the projects and we will definitely meet the October 31 deadline,” he said. On specific usage of the grant, he said the allocation was done by the state government and it was not under their purview. He said till July 31 the amount spent on the mela works was more than Rs 10 crore with Rs 200 crore having been released to various agencies.
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Denmark Climate Meet
Dehradun, August 10 At the initiative of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, the six-paged technical paper, the first by any developing country, backs India’s claim of its forest and tree cover being a major mode of carbon mitigation for the country. It gives figures for the carbon stored in India forests. Stating that India’s forests serve as a majorcarbon-dioxide sink, it says the annual carbon dioxide removals by the country’s forest and tree cover have been enough to neutralise 11.25 per cent of the country’s total Green House gas emissions at the 1994 levels. On carbon stock, the paper presents three scenarios for the future. The first talks of the forest and tree cover decreasing at the rate of world average. It says the total carbon stored in India’s forests will go down to 6,504 tonnes in 2015. Under the second scenario, if the carbon stocks in the country’s forest and tree cover continue to increase at the rate of the last decade (0.6 per cent per annum), the carbon stored in India’s forests will increase to 6,998 tonnes. The third scenario, which has been given much importance, is considered most favourable for the country. Under this scenario, while the carbon stock in country’s forest and tree cover increases at a rate higher than 0.6 per cent, the total carbon stored in India’s forest in 2015 will increase to 7,283 tonnes. The country has launched a series of progressive policy initiatives on sustainable management of forests as well as afforestration and reforestation, which involve significant additional resources for sustaining and growing India’s forest cover. This includes the world’s largest forest festitution fund with 2.5 billion US dollars as of June 2009, which is being used for these programmes as well as forestry activities. It includes introducing new forestry schemes on components such as capacity-building. “While these measures will provide an annual public expenditure of 1 billion US dollars on forest activities, it will also lead to an increase in the quality and density of India’s forests as well as the rate of increase of forest and tree cover,” says the technical paper. The paper puts a conservative value of US dollars per tonne of carbon dioxide locked in India’s forests. This huge sink of about 24,000 tonnes is worth 120 billion US dollars or Rs 6,00,000 crore. Incremental carbon under scenario three will add a value of around 1.2 billion of US dollars or Rs 6,000 crore every year to the country’s forest sink. Forest experts, including DG Jagdish Kishwan, Dr Rajeev Pandey and Dr UK Dadwal from the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing have played a pivotal role in coming out with the estimation. They used conversion factors for computing bio-mass and carbon in bio-mass from different studies carried out in the country and abroad. While releasing the paper, union minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh said it would help the country go for a hard bargain in the next round of climate change negotiations. He was all praise for ICFRE director Dr Kishwan for his efforts in coming out with such an in-depth report linked to carbon sink. He said the report would go a long way in strengthening India’s claim at the Copenhagen meet later
this year.
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CII suggestions on Kumbh traffic
Dehradun, August 10 A delegation led by chairman Rakesh Oberoi has presented a memorandum to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to take necessary steps in this regard. “Our recommendations are aimed at finding a permanent solution to the nagging problem due to which the industry suffers heavy losses,” said Oberoi. Every year during the Kanwar Yara, the Delhi-Haridwar highway is closed down for about a week. During this time, the units situated in and around the industrial estates of SIDCUL are neither able to receive raw material for their plants nor dispatch their finished goods. Availability of labour is also affected with workers finding it difficult to reach the units. During the Kumbh, which lasts for about four months, the situation is expected to be worse. The CII has mainly sought that the road connecting SIDCUL Haridwar to Saharanpur via Jassowala and Daalwala be built as a corridor for industry in and around SIDCUL estates. This would ease traffic on the main Delhi-Haridwar highway and insulate the industry in the region from Kanwar Yatra, Kumbh Mela and many other events. As of now, almost 80 per cent of this road has been constructed. As an interim measure, the CII body has recommended gates near the Jasswala and Biharigarh entrances to the road allowing one-way traffic. The alternatinve route along the canal between Roorkee and Moradnagar is operational on
one side. If the other side of the route is also metalled, it can be used for cars and light vehicles to reduce traffic on the main highway.
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Staff crunch punctures mobile hospital services
Dehradun, August 10 The mobile hospitals, which are equipped with X-ray, ultrasound machines, ECG and semi-auto analyser facilities costing Rs 1 crore, are being run in all 13 districts of the state. The two private agencies running the 13 mobile hospitals are finding employing lady doctors and radiologists a perennial problem in the state. Even if the demand for manpower is being met from outside, the agencies are unable to retain the staff. According to the memorandum of understanding reached between the state government and the private agencies, all 13 ambulances should have 10 staff members comprising a lady doctor, physician, radiologist, laboratory technician, staff nurse, pharmacist project coordinator, helper and a driver to be appointed by the private agencies. According to sources, in at least three districts, the mobile hospitals have skeletal staff while in the rest, the agencies are finding it hard to locate doctors and radiologists who will be willing to serve in remote areas of the state. The Health Department has signed an agreement with private partners for a period of five years. In Chamoli and Uttarkashi districts, Rajbhara Medicare has been entrusted with the task of running the mobile hospitals while in the remaining 11 districts, Jain Video on Wheels is in charge. In addition to the vans, the private agencies are allocated funds by the government to run the vans. Their services are monitored on a monthly basis by the managing committee.
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Janmashtmi celebrations from Aug 12
Dehradun, August 10 Nagalia also recalled the contribution of Geeta Bhawan towards betterment of the downtrodden. He said the temple, since its establishment in 1950, has been working to impart education to poor girls and also provide assistance to challenged persons.
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The grant comes as a respite to the mela administration considering the magnitude of the Mahakumbh which is held every 12th year and is the world’s largest conglomeration of people at a single time and place.