Dehradun, March 29
Commencement of services of Jet Airways, Air India and Kingfisher flights from Dehradun has boosted the much-needed air connectivity of Uttarakhand.

Air connectivity has always been a big challenge for the hill predominant state. It has little of air connectivity and the State Civil Aviation Department has been working hard to ensure marked improvement in the aviation sector. Jet Airways came up with ATR 72 and ATR 42 flights and made its maiden landing at the Jolly Grant airport on Sunday, thus creating a milestone in the civil aviation history of the region.

The Jolly Grant airport once a small airstrip has witnessed enormous changes in recent times. Apart from becoming a full-fledged airport, it is now contemplating introducing night landing facility for airplanes. This will facilitate 24-hour landing and takeoff facilities for the airplanes at Jolly Grant making it an important airport of northern India.

“By April end, night landing facility of planes will be in place and the testing even began much earlier,” said Ajay Joshi, State Infrastructure Development Commissioner. After the introduction of planes Jolly Grant airport owes its origin to Birlas who laid the foundation of this airport that time an airstrip in 1974. In 1982, Vayudoot service was started from the same airport but was later withdrawn in 1995 due to technical reasons. There were many who then even questioned the very existence of this airstrip. But things changed fast after inception of Uttarakhand and the Jolly Grant continued as most important to ensure air connectivity for the state. Then came expansion and conversion of this airstrip into airport.

Shortly thereafter Air Deccan started its services from March 30, 2008. Air Deccan was finally amalgamated itself into Kingfisher.

The Air India’s former official Vijay said between the period of 1988 and 1995, there were weekly services for Lucknow and Pantnagar, which too were discontinued after some time. Subsequently, only a solitary service in the name of Himalayan Darshan Sewa was started from Jolly Grant.

Civil Aviation official Pankaj Shah said lack of availability of flights forced people to take to other modes of transport particularly for coming to Dehradun from Delhi. With increasing number of civil aviation companies evincing interest in bringing their flights to Dehradun, the tendency for taking to aerial route by passengers is bound to increase.

Another travel operator Nitin Ahuja too expressed happiness over the increasing number of flights from Dehradun to other parts of the country. He however stressed on ensuring regularity in such flights. He said the Uttarakhand was still to come of age as far as civil aviation sector is concerned. But hoped that landing of 48-seater Air India flight and 66-seater Kingfisher flight is reflection of better days ahead for civil aviation in the state.

Dehradun, March 29
True to predictions, country liquor shops and Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) shops at Raiwala, between Rishikesh and Haridwar falling in Dehradun district, fetched the highest price at Rs 6.99 crore and Rs 4.67 crore for the next financial year. The increase is 20 per cent in comparison to last year.

“For Dehradun district, the government has fixed the highest revenue target at Rs 125 crore from the allotment of country liquor vends Rs 72 crore and Rs 53 crore from IMFL shops for this financial year, a jump of 14 per cent from the last year,” said TK Pant, District Excise Officer.

The allotment of the shops began this morning amid tight security and prohibitory orders were in place at the auditorium of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC). For the first time since the creation of the state, the shops were allotted in a single day instead of three days. Also, a projector too was used for the first time to usher in greater transparency. There are 31 IMFL shops and 35 country liquor shops in the district. The government received a total of Rs 5.63 lakh as license fee from the applicants applying for both these shops.

Though none of the women were visible at the site of liquor vend allotment at the DMC. The district authorities received 950 applications. In all there were a total of 4,331 applicants, of these 77 were cancelled on grounds of non-compliance or technical ground.

Nainital, March 29
The Dineshpur police in Udham Singh Nagar is on the hunt for a self-styled godman, suspect of abducting a girl from Chandan Nagar village. According to the police, Bhola Nath Banerjee, alias Lal Baba, had been residing in an ashram set up by him in the village for the past two years. He was also a frequent visitor to the house of Shankar Bairagi, who works as a labourer.

It is alleged that the accused had physical relations with Bairagi’s daughter and he abducted the girl on Saturday when she was alone at the house.

On returning home, Bairagi raised an alarm. Then, along with other villagers, reached the ashram. But the accused was not there. Instead the villagers came across a whole lot of things used for occult practices.

It is learnt that the accused had sold off the ashram and the adjoining piece of land to two persons sometime ago.

Dehradun, March 29
Improper, crater-filled roads at Saraswati Vihar, Dehradun, speak about the saga of its poor maintenance while residents of E-Block are also in trouble without a proper supply of potable water in their houses. The dwellers of the area are waiting for better management of civic amenities, particularly proper roads and adequate supply of water.

“Every political leader comes up with the assurance and hopes to provide civic amenities before the local elections, but forget all the promises once the elections are over,” said Vimla Bharthwal, resident of Saraswati Vihar.

“It’s been two years since the new councillor took up the charge, but the roads are still not repaired. Small accidents occur every now and then here. The roads need to be metalled before monsoon,” she added.

M Rana, another complainant and resident of the locality, quipped that there was a huge crisis of water in the E-Block. The affected often fetched water from 2 km away or formed queues to receive water from water tankers positioned by the administration.

Udhay Singh Chandel ‘Kaka’, municipal councillor from Saraswati Vihar ward, a representative of the BJP party, said, “Water of the tube well built in 2002 is supplied to Kargi, Chanakpuri, Banjarawala, Mothrawala, Pushp Vihar and other adjoining areas lessening the supply of potable water in Saraswati Vihar”.

“It’s my sincere regret to residents for all inconveniences. We have written to the administration for their immediate support and they had sanctioned us the estimated budget of Rs 1.06 crore for the repairs, but we are waiting for the water line to be laid in the area.

The municipal corporation will soon serve the affected part of Saraswati Vihar. Being common people’s representative, it’s my responsibility to facilitate them with every basic necessity for which I am striving diligently during my tenure,” said Chandel. 

Dehradun, March 29
After creating quite a stir in the domestic market, flower growers of Uttarakhand have been unable to make a splash in the global market by exporting high-quality blooms in European and Japanese markets.

A cloistered approach, lack of organisational skills, coupled with the inability to maintain quality and unavailability of quality material, have relegated the flower growers to the position of non-players in the global market.

The lackadaisical approach of the Uttarakhand government that came up with big plans in the initial years of the Congress government followed by the complete absence of follow-up were discussed today at the Export Oriented Workshop on Floriculture organised by the Agriculture Export Development Unit (AEDU) and sponsored by Agriculture and Processing Export Development Authority (APEDA).

“The floriculture in Uttarakhand has the potential to specialise in cut flowers, planting material comprising flower bulbs, flower seeds and essentials from flowers. There are more than 300 kinds of flowers and about 50 kinds of greens, which can fetch good price at Netherlands and Japanese markets,” said Dr APS Gill, former Professor, Floriculture Punjab Agricultural University, who is credited for preparing a road map for Uttarakhand along with Allan Hegginson.

The problems faced by the growers are the absence of quality planting material, difficulty in soil testing, lack of proper transport mechanism and their inability to create 
federations in order to present a united front and share experiences.

In fact, farmers’ demand for providing cold chain storage and transport facilities were shot down by Aditya Kothari, Vice-Chairman of the Horticulture Development Board, who was also present at the workshop and suggested that the farmers create their own federation so that the government could directly engage with the members. “Such federations should be able to look into running the cold storage units and vans. We will be ready to offer help in establishing the infrastructure, but the responsibility of running and taking care of the infrastructure should be of the federation,” said Kothari.

However, GP Singh, a flower grower from Vikas Nagar, lamented at the unavailability of opportunities as farmers have become government centric depending on support instead of charting an independent course. “We have been repeatedly let down by the government machinery, yet we continue to depend on them. We continue to get poor seed material. The marigold seeds distributed recently were of poor quality,” he said.

Bipin Deo, floriculture consultant and a private company owner, said to access foreign markets, the flower growers should be able to maintain consistent quality and quantity. “Every kind of flower can be grown here due to climatic variation. Only Jammu and Kashmir has this kind of variation, but it is far away. Therefore, Uttarakhand can easily access the market if a hub is created in Delhi and for this they will have go for grading and confirm to international specification and certification,” said Bipin.

He called on the farmers to diversify their products by following international trends. “A flower should have at least a shelf life of seven days, wilting flowers cannot fetch good price. The flower growers should focus on the emerging markets of former East European countries, Spain and the United Kingdom,” emphasised Deo.

After reviving the defunct AEDU, the objective is to develop floriculture in a big way with reference to both domestic and export markets. Already such initiatives have been taken up in Pune and Bangalore to re-export bulbous materials. “With expanding domestic as well as export market, the AEDU aims to promote and scale up the development of the floriculture industry in the state with participation of local hill farmers and entrepreneurs by latest technological intervention and as means for creation of employment and income generation opportunities for farmers in the state,” said Kriti Paini, Manager, Floriculture Export Unit.

The state aims to exploit the temperate Himalayan conditions to carve out a share in the Rs 400-500 crore flower export market most of which is held by the growers of south western India.

Dehradun, March 29
To beat the Concessional Industrial Package (CIP) deadline that is likely to expire on March 31, around 615 units with an investment of Rs 17,000 crore have begun functioning in the state.

Nearly 2,500 units with a total investment of Rs 25,000 crore will have begun production by the end of the deadline at industrial hubs of Haridwar, Selaqui, Kotdwar and Pant Nagar and private industrial areas.

“We are hopeful that the investment may even exceed Rs 35,000 crore at the end of March. Most of these projects are in maturation stage and if the industrial package is extended, it will spur more enterprises to come to the state,” SC Nautiyal, Director, Industries.

A total of 1,480 companies were allotted land at the integrated industrial estates of Haridwar, Pant Nagar, industrial growth centre Kotdwar, Pharma City Selaqui and IT Park Dehradun. While 733 units have already started production, nearly 557 others are still under construction.

Out of 557 units, officials said only 100 companies would be able to meet the deadline. The officials are still hopeful that the rest of the units will also start production to take the benefits of income tax and capital subsidy, which are available till 2012.

Among the top companies, which have already come into production include Tata Motors, Nestle, Hero Honda, HUL, Bajaj Auto and others.

Since the announcement of industrial package, the state has received the investment proposals worth Rs 40,000 crore, which are in the different phases of implementation and have been implemented. “After the creation of State Industrial Development Corporation Limited (SIDCUL), six government industrial estates have been developed. Haridwar, Pant Nagar and Sitarganj industrial estates are attracting huge investments, so also the Pharma City at Selaqui, (Dehradun), IT estate at Dehradun. Here most of the companies are in the last stage of development as these have to avail the package. Because there was shortage of land, 44 private industrial estates have also come in from different parts of the state. Incentive was given to private players who had more than 30 acre of land,” said PC Sharma, Principal Secretary (Industries).

However, on the question of alternative plan in case the industrial package was extended, top officials said the state government would have to focus on providing free power and other incentives.

“There was no economic activity in the state, we have made a good start. Now we need to focus on strengthening our core competencies package or not package. These have a shelf life and would expire one day, in any case. Over a period of time, we need to develop competitive advantage over other states by strengthening our infrastructure by building roads and highways,” said Vibha Malhotra, Director and Head of Uttarakhand Confederation of Indian Industries.

Vinod Barthwal, president of the Uttarakhand unit of the Samajwadi Party, addresses mediapersons in Dehradun on Monday. A Tribune photograph

Dehradun, March 29
Vinod Barthwal, president of the state unit of the Samajwadi Party (SP) said here today that the Congress and the BJP party rather than blaming each other should together put pressure on the Central government for extending the industrial package to Uttarkhand.

Addressing a press conference, Barthwal said in the recently concluded session of the Legislative Assembly no developmental issue was taken up by any of the parties. They just played blame game and tried to put others down.

The Congress kept accusing the BJP of corruption throughout the whole session, while the prime issues like poverty, unemployment and women empowerment were not discussed at all. The BJP also spoke in same voice alleging the Congress of siphoning off money during their rule in the state, added Barthwal.

He held the protest of Punjab and Haryana against the giving of the industrial package to Uttarakhand wrongas it was a newly found state. The president said on April 7, a dharna against deteriorating law and order situation, water-electricity scarcity and price rise will be held in all district offices of the state unit of the SP.

On April 6 all backward people of Uttarakhand and UP would gather at convention in Saharanpur where Mulyam Singh Yadav, national President of the party would take part. 

Dehradun, March 29
Agitated members of the state Pradhan Sangathan held a press conference at their office in Raipur here on Saturday. The association presented a memorandum to the state government stating their seven demands.

Surat Singh Negi, state president of the sangathan, said the government had ignored the committee in the Budget sessions of the Vidhan Sabha by not discussing their issues and problems. The committee also criticised the administration for not providing proper pay and allowances to the pradhans, which were introduced at the time of previous government. Repeated memorandums to the state government had done no good to the committee members.

The committee would call a meeting of Pradesh Karyakarini to set plans and strategies of the movement. “In the first session of the meeting, we would also persuade the public representatives of each block. We will also stage a dharna in support of our demands at the block level followed by gherao at the Chief Minister’s residence”.

Pitthoragarh, March 29
The national census 2011, which will begin on May 1, 2010, will have some unique features those were not a part of the earlier censuses. “This census will include a national population register incorporating unique identity number and finger prints of all 10 fingers of all Indian citizens above the age of 15 years,” said Dashrath Singh, Deputy Director of Census, Uttarakhand.

Dashrath Singh, who was here in connection with a training of in charge officers, SDMs, said the national population registers would include separate details of all members of the family, including his education, profession and relation to the family head.

“This census will also include the condition in which the citizen lives and status he enjoys, besides the facilities available to the family and assets owned by them,” said Dashrath Singh, adding that the facilities would include drinking water, source of light, toilets and fuel used in cooking.

The assets, which would be counted in this census, would include computer, laptop, TV, vehicle and bank services being used by the family. “The members of the family below 15 years of age will not have to give photograph and finger prints. These will be collected after they secure the age of 18 years,” added Dashrath Singh.

District Magistrate NS Negi said the census for people living in high-altitude areas or snow-clad areas of the district would be completed in September and the rest of the census by 2011.

According to the census office, after the in charge officers’ training, the master trainers will be trained, who then will give training to the enumerators by last week of April.

Dehradun, March 29
The Society of Pollution and Environment Conservation (SPECS) in association with the Darohar Pankaj Kshetri held a food adulteration testing for students of the Rajkiya Mahila Udyogiki Parikshan Sansthan.

President of the Kshetri said to check adulteration in food items, the students should be aware of simple tests that could be carried at home. He said more and more people were falling prey to ailments because most shops were selling adulterated food.

Dr Brijmohan Sharma, a scientist, along with Bhupinder Negi, performed simple tests that proved useful for students. They showed experiments to the students like nail polish remover was used to test the purity of turmeric. “If the product is of poor quality, it will effortlessly mix with nail polish remover. To check the purity of fruits and vegetables, these should be soaked in clean water for some time. If the water changes colour, it can be due to the use of harmful agent that may have been used to brighten up the fruits and vegetables,” said Dr Sharma.

Nainital, March 29
District Magistrate (DM) Shailesh Bagauli has called for initiating a drive among hotel and restaurant owners to ensure that plastic bags and fast-food packaging material are not dumped in the sewer lines of Nainital.

Giving a week’s notice for starting the drive, he asked officials of various civic departments to carry out the orders on priority.

With the tourist season slowly picking up, Bagauli also asked for preventive steps to check the overflow of sewer near the Hotel Grand on the Mall Road. He said a survey be carried out to see the hotels and residential areas where rain water enters sewers. He asked the officials to execute works to separate the two lines.

The officials have also been asked to ensure that no plastic bags and fast-food packets are dumped in the sewers.

The DM has also called for silting of the sewer on the Mall Road before April 15 by officials of the Jal Nigam and the Jal Sansthan.

Orders have also been given to get construction material dumped by various shopkeepers on various roads and drains removed at the earliest. The shopkeepers not removing the material will have to face seizure of the material by the authorities, Bagauli added.