Dehradun, January 9
Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank met Governor Margaret Alva at the Raj Bhawan here today to extend New Year greetings.

In a courtesy meeting, they also took stock of the Maha Kumbh arrangements and other development works in progress in the state.

The duo later inspected the site of Raj Niwas, the construction for which is already in the concluding stage.

Nishank on the occasion directed the PWD XEN for the timely completion of the works.

Officer on Special Duty to the Governor Ashok Pai, ADC Neeru Garg and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Subhash Kumar were present on the occasion. 

Haridwar, January 9
The Haridwar police has begun its special drives in various parts of the district in order to host the Maha Kumbh peacefully.

Intense checking is being done at entry points of the district border with Uttar Pradesh and night vigils are also on in interior parts.

Under the instructions of Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjay Gunjiyal special monitoring and checking drive is being carried out in the district. At Mangalore, Deoband, Jhabreda and Landaura rural areas are also being covered along with the 
Kanwar routes.

At the Raiwala police station, a bomb disposal squad frisked the whole area and the area police in charge Raiwala J Pangti has directed hotels, dhabas and shopkeepers to keep a vigil and inform the police in case of suspicion.

He has also directed that a hotel room should be allotted only after taking the identification proofs from the guest.

Meanwhile, at Har-ki-Pauri, Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel have been carrying out a flag march and taking stock of the geographical conditions of the area. With their deployment along with CRPF and ITBP forces, the whole area seems to be filled with police and paramilitary personnel.

DIG Alok Sharma informed that till the completion of the mega fair in Haridwar, the flag march of paramilitary forces would be a norm.

Nainital, January 9
Kumaon Commissioner S Raju has asked people of Uttarakhand to shake off the baggage of Uttar Pradesh and develop a work culture of their own.

Addressing representatives of civic bodies from across the state, he said, “It is time to shake off the culture of how things were done in Uttar Pradesh. Develop an indigenous work culture that is new in nature”.

The representatives of the civic bodies have been participating in a five-day workshop on Issues in Municipal Solid-Waste Management through People’s Participation.

In his valedictory address, the Commissioner underlined that people always remembered the public representatives who laid maximum emphasis of waste management.

He asserted that the difference one felt between India and any developed country on a visit abroad was that of cleanliness.

“With growing urbanisation, the challenge of waste management is bound to go up,” said Raju.

Talking about the concept of community participation, he said this was not a mere fashionable term, but something that had been a part of the Indian social system for ages.

“Community participation was India’s soul. The British used the weapon of dividing people so that they do not consult one another and ensured the continuance of their rule in India,” he said adding that when it came to waste management, women had always been in the forefront and had shown more sensitivity towards the issue.

Talking about the success of Mission Butterfly in Nainital, he said in the beginning, the project was questioned by many people and it even got adverse publicity. But since the intention was clear and the determination was there, it became a success.

“Today I am accused of not facilitating the start of a similar project in other townships of the region. People want it replicated,” he said.

He said civic bodies would have to get their act together and could not be totally dependent on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for everything.

Underlining that the NGOs were the best when it came to controlled execution, he said. But when it came to deliverance on a large scale, government bodies came into the picture.

Raju said there was no dearth of funds, but it was for local bodies to avail opportunities by coming up with good proposals and impeccable detailed project reports (DPRs).

Asking the participants to realise their power, he called for submission of DPRs from every participating civic body within the next 10 days. He promised to take up the proposals with the 
state administration.

Highlighting the importance of segregation of plastic waste, he said every civic body could earn up to Rs 25,000 a day by selling the segregated waste for recycling at the plant set up at Kathgodam.

Dehradun, January 9
Two councillors who have been indicted and questioned by the Secretariat for encroaching upon the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) land are the least intimidated by the query. Indicted for constructing a shop on the Kaulagarh road by encroaching on the land on the road and narrow drain and, thereupon, hiding this fact in his nomination paper, Ward No. 8 Congress councillor Mohan Joshi has been asked to file his reply within a fortnight. If he does not reply, he will be considered guilty and removed from his position.

When asked about the matter, he appeared nonchalant and said, “The charges against me are completely false. I have not done any construction on DMC land and have filed my reply to the Election Commission in this regard and am awaiting its reaction”.

Joshi said the land in question was mere 1.5X2 ft in the name of Madan Sood and Leela Sood, landlord of his brother, and the land was not in the name of the DMC.

Joshi is the second councillor to be enquired by the secretariat, whereas Rajkumar, councillor of Ward No. 27, has of late been entrapped in the inquiry for many months. He has been accused of usurping a lot of DMC land by constructing shops, houses and other buildings. Not only this, he is also blamed of doing the same in Ward No. 26 where he made his sister-in-law Beena fight and win the councillor’s election.

It is he who is running the real show in her ward, and she is merely a rubber stamp.

Rajkumar dismisses the query from the state government saying, “I am already fighting this case in the district court. Therefore, I am not answerable to the government. I will go up to the Supreme Court to fight for my point”.

He denied having done any construction in the posh Lonawala area or building a huge house on Moni Road, which he said, was 50 years old and belongs to his mother. He puts up his point saying, “I belong to a slum colony. When I filed for my nomination, I had clearly mentioned my assets. Despite that I was not disallowed to fight the election. As soon as I got elected, BJP leader Rakesh and Independent candidate Harish Sahni became hell bent on declaring my election null and void on the basis of my property. If such was the case, I should have been debarred beforehand. I have been maligned for being from a slum colony”.

It is not only these two, but almost a dozen other councillors out of a total of 60 who are facing similar charges in various petitions which are pending in the secretariat, district and state election commissions.

The Mayor too expresses concern over such a sorry state affairs and said, “As per the rule 25(1) (T) of the Municipal Act 1959, if any councillor usurp MC land, he is bound to lose his position. But such matters are further challenged in courts and take long years to settle down. Till then, the guilty persons continue to enjoy the perks and privileges of their positions as well as revenue from the encroached sources”.

That is the reason, a number of encroachments by guardians of the MC, who should have been on the other side of the wall, are on a constant rise. By making his position clear, he acted spontaneously as and when such cases came to his notice in the very beginning.

Dehradun, January 9
Like every year, to help outstation cadets to reach the Indian Military Academy (IMA), a three-day reception counter has been made at the city’s railway station.The initiative has been taken by the academy to escort the fresh batch of cadets to reach their reporting venues without inconvenience and will continue till January 11.

As prior records, auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers often duped outstation cadets.

“The cadets were charged with high rate of fares. These counters are prepared to avoid the hassle at the station,” said IMA Subedar SS Chauhan.

He further added, “We have positioned two vehicles outside the railway station to drop the entrants at the academy. Three officers and six GCs are being deployed at the reception counter to receive as well as check out the smooth assistance of the new cadets”.

According to IMA, APRO, Prasoon Goswami, this will be the 128th regular course batch and 125 cadets have been reported till now.

Dehradun, January 9
The rape allegation against property dealer Navnit Kumar Sharma of Jamaalpur a couple of days back has turned out to be false, according to the police.

The Raipur police station SHO told The Tribune that both had a property dispute and with the intention to grab the land, the woman of Baerja Colony, Haridwar, had filed a false rape case.

There are over 20 witnesses in favour of the dealer, said the SHO adding that there was no authenticity in her allegations.

Dehradun, January 9
A stone-laying ceremony of a newly built passenger shelter of Ritha Mandi Mandir was held at Bhandari Bagh in Dehradun today.The stone was laid by Laxman Chowk MLA Dinesh Agarwal. Mahant Devender Das Maharaj was to attend the event, but he couldn’t make it.

Residents gave Agarwal a warm welcome by presenting him garlands. Agarwal thanked people and said this shelter would be of a great help to the visitors.

This shelter was made by the Tourism Development Board under the state scheme with Rs 19.3 lakh.

Office-bearers of the temple association gave special thanks to women of the area for putting in their long and continuous efforts to make it a great temple.

Nainital, January 9
Almost two years after its approval, the training of officials for the execution of the Sector Wide Approach Programme (SWAP) on water supply and sanitation has finally started. The World Bank-funded project had been approved in 2007 and was started in 2008, but the selection of the agency to train the officials caused an uncalled-for delay.

With several agencies vying to train the officials, the eventual choice fell on the Administrative Training Institute (ATI) at Nainital, which is best equipped for such training. Owing to the delay, the challenge before the trainers at the ATI is to complete the training within one year so that the programme can be executed in time.

Talking about the training aspect, the monitoring and evaluation specialist KS Puri said, “The emphasis of the training on mobilising and ensuring the participation of communities through assimilation. The whole aim is to take the people into confidence and convey that this is going to be a programme that will be managed at their level in a totally decentralised manner”.

He disclosed that various departments like Jal Sansthan and Jal Nigam were working in tandem on this project, which had been approved for all 13 districts of the state.

A total of 26,812 human settlements are to be covered under the programme.