Dehradun, March 20
Bankers today bitterly complained about the pending subsidy that the Tourism Department has not released for the past six years under the Veer Chander Singh Garhwali Scheme.

At the 32nd bankers meeting organised today by the State Bank of India that was chaired by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and officials from different banks, the lack-lustre performance of Veer Chander Singh Garhwali, a self-employment scheme for the youth, came to light. Close to 97 subsidy cases pertaining to Uttaranchal Gramin Bank (SBI) are pending in the districts of Pauri, Nainital and Almora, also in other banks in the state. The scheme has been specially designed to provide employment opportunities to unemployed youth in the tourism sector.

To this the only explanation the representatives of the Uttaranchal Tourism Board could muster was lack of funds. It was pointed out that for 2009-2010, a budget of Rs 4 crore had been approved for this scheme, while they had demanded Rs 12.50 crore.

Finance Secretary Radha Raturi and Principal Secretary Alok Jain said as such there was no shortage of funds.

Taking the officials to task, Dr Nishank said coordination among various departments was missing that was affecting the progress of several schemes meant for unemployed youth and weaker sections of the society. He asked his officers to ensure that the matter was sorted in the next 15 days.

While evaluating the progress of several schemes for the poor in rural areas, the Chief Minister said loan disbursement target at 62 per cent was unimpressive. “We need to adopt a coordinated approach to meet most of our targets till December. We have managed to disburse only Rs 3,778 crore when our target was of Rs 6,044 crore,” said Dr Nishank. The Chief Minister also emphasised on the need to work on credit deposit ratio that stood at 48 per cent in the state.

During the meeting, Raturi urged Reserve Bank of India officials to revise the norms for opening banks in Uttarakhand so that these were in tune with the geographical conditions of the state.

The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary NS Napalchayal, Commissioner (Forest and Rural Development) NS Napalchayal, Principal Secretary Alok Jain, Secretary Finance Radha Raturi, CGM of the State Bank of India Sunil Pant, GM of the State Bank of India D Mazumdar, GM of the Reserve Bank of India S Bajwa.

Dehradun, March 20
In yet another property dispute, a property dealer was allegedly shot at by another property dealer and his men in Subhas Nagar locality here last night. The victim, who is in a critical situation, was taken to the Doon Hospital from where he was referred to the Combined Medical Institute (CMI) Hospital.

The miscreants fled the spot after the incident and the police has launched a manhunt to look for them.

According to the police, the incident happened at about 11:30 at night when victim Prince Tyagi and Pawan with his men gathered at the house of one Sunil to resolve a property dispute. The dispute was over property, which was bought by Prince’s brother in Sevalakala.

They were all having drinks and dinner together when suddenly a heated exchange started. The argument led to a fist fight between them. In a fit of rage, Pawan allegedly took out his licensed pistol and shot at Prince.

The latter tried to run away, but he was hit on his shoulder and got another bullet in his back. Pawan had supposedly fired four shots, out of which two hit the victim.

At the sound of gunshots, nearby people gathered there and the police was informed of the matter. But by that time Pawan, along with his men, had fled the spot. The injured was taken to the Doon Hospital, but was referred to the CMI Hospital by the doctors.

He has been admitted to the intensive-care unit (ICU) of the CMI Hospital.

Dehradun, March 20
Since the creation of the domestic cells under the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act, 2005, three years back very few women are coming to these cells with their complaints.

Lack of awareness and inability of the state government to publicise about the existence of the cells created in each district under the Protection of Women from the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, is acting as a hindrance for women and this is reflected in the less number of cases being taken in most of these cells. In a study conducted by Sajha Manch, these findings were brought forth at a meeting of women activists.

“In the past three years not a single case has been taken up in Chamoli, Tehri Garhwal, Bageshwar and Uttarkashi, while in Champawat only one case and Rudraprayag three cases were registered. In all only 392 cases in the state have been disposed of,” said Renu Thakur, an activist of Sajha Manch.

Not only are the cells fund starved, but no new service providers have been appointed. Most of these cells are being managed by a single district protection officer, who has been given additional responsibility.

“All these officers are not full time in the state and the government has also failed to allocate a separate budget hampering the functioning of the cells,” said Ravi Jeena, member of the team that undertook the study. Besides, other provisions of the Act too are not being fully implemented in the state.

Dehradun, March 20
Social worker and president of the Gramin Vikas Samiti accused the jail administration in Dehradun of fleecing money from prisoners as well as visitors.

Addressing a press conference, Kunwar Singh alleged that when friends and family of the prisoners came to meet their wards, they gave them fruits and money, but after they left, the jail authorities snatched that money from the prisoners.

He further alleged that this work was being done under the eyes of the jail administration, but they were just a mute spectator to it since part of money went to their pocket as well.

Dehradun, March 20
The matter of wrongfully and illegally placed seven poles in the middle of the Bindal river took a new twist on Thursday when the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) removed not only these seven poles, but also five poles near Gurukul School.

Deepa Shah, councillor who had threatened to commit suicide if the poles were removed from the site, installed wooden poles as a face-saving exercise.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli said, “The poles had to be removed as these were illegally placed there. It also sullied the image of the DMC. Now since the councillor has installed wooden poles, this is entirely her own decision and the DMC has nothing to do with it. The Electricity Department too has refused to give electricity supply to the poles”.

Shah is trying to salvage her image. She said, “The DMC should remove these slum dwellers who have been living near the bank of the Bindal river for two decades and have voting rights and ration cards. It is not fair to take the mileage from their presence in the area, but hesitate from giving them amenities.”

She expressed ignorance about the Electricity Department’s decision not to supply electricity to these poles, but showed her determination saying, “I will not back out from my promise and get the poles function as soon as possible.”

Dehradun, March 20
Fund crunch seems to be hitting the forestry annual plantation drive hard in Uttarakhand. While on an average 20,000 to 25,000 hectares are being covered during plantations every year by the state Forest Department, the target this year could not well exceed the 5,000 hectares mark.

The Uttarakhand Forest Department every year undertakes a plantation drive in various forest divisions of the state. This exercise assumes much significance towards the fulfilment of the department’s efforts to promote forestry conservation. But fund crunch is proving to be a stumbling block for the forest authorities this year.

Targets have been reduced substantially solely due to paucity of funds. Many of the forest divisions will even had to go without plantations this year. Significantly, the funds for plantation come through various heads and provisions are quite less this time.

The plantation entails tasks such as soil working, fencing, nurseries and finally planting saplings in the forest areas and it comes to be an year-round activity.

Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Uttarakhand, Srikant Chandola admits lack of funds for plantation. “These plantations are as per the availability of funds,” he observes. However, he hopes for an improvement on plantation targets with a week or more still left for the existing financial year.

The financial crunch for an important exercise like plantation is even being felt at the government level. Responding to the concern, Additional Secretary, Wildlife, Sushant Patnaik says the plantation funds have been given as per the existing budget provision. He, however, adds that more of budgetary arrangements are being done to make up for plantation funds.

Interestingly, on the other side the plantation undertaken by the state forest authorities has always been challenged.

According to the department statistics from the period 1998 to 2008, the department has planted over 12 crore plant saplings, but the credibility of these plantation have often been questioned.

But then the poor rate of survival has been a key factor. Those working in the forestry sector argue that had these plantations matured, the forest cover would have recorded a substantial increase, which today stands quite contrary to the ground realities.

However, the recently released state of forest report prepared by the Forest Survey of India has put the forest area almost stable with no glaring changes. The Forest Department, on its part, asserts that it is only 70 per cent of a plantation that survives while the rest is bound to be annihilated due to varied reasons.

Dehradun, March 20
Claiming to solve your personal and family problems with the way of witchcraft, the centres being operated by so-called tantriks, babas and sadhus are turning out to be in thick of criminal activities in Dehradun.

With several complaints pouring into the state capital, fraud, extortion and undesirable activities with women by such fraud babas, the police has pulled up its socks to start a drive against this menace.

In its drive the police will remove such non-registered and unauthorised centres after identifying them. The police is going through the advertisements given by these centres in the newspapers to reach out to them to confirm whether they are registered and genuine ones.

“We got to know through the media and victims about this menace that these centres are indulging in undesirable activities with women, extortion and fraud. On Friday, a woman complained to me of being duped of Rs 40,000 and undesirable activities with her by a baba. She said she had been going to the centre for some family problems for the past few days, but after noticing his activities, he turned out to be a fraud,” said Jagatram Joshi, Superintendent of Police (City).

“We are trying to identify such illegal centres and in a day or two will start a drive against them. We have had several such complaints earlier also and after gathering information about them, we will precede legal provision against them,” added the SP.

The police sources said this business was booming and people, mostly women, got entrapped in it. Besides Dehradun, Haridwar had a big number of such centres being run by tantrics and babas, most of them were just fooling people.

Shedding light on one such incident, a senior police officer said, “An interesting case came to our notice in which two of the terminated employees of a post office started a business by opening one such centre posing as tantrics.

One used to sit at the reception while another inside the room. The receptionist would get details of the customer before sending him to the tantric and by way of thumping his table at the time of information gathering, would give a signal to the tantric. And when the customer would go inside, he would be astonished to know how the tantric knew about him”.

Dehradun, March 20
The women’s club of the State Bank of India distributed blankets, bedsheets, towels and fruits to poor and needy children of Cheshire Home at their guest house in Indira Nagar here today. On the occasion, Lily Pant, president of the State Bank Ladies Club (Delhi Circle), was invited as the chief guest who presented the items to the kids.

While addressing the gathering, Pant said, “It is a humble gesture of the members that can bring a little happiness into the lives of the unprivileged. I appreciate the initiative of women members and would ensure to work always for the development of children, people and the society”.