Dehradun, April 30
Preparations are complete for holding national house listing and housing census that will be kicked off in Uttarakhand tomorrow. Part of the Census 2011, the house listing and housing census schedule will begin with enumerators visiting Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s house in the morning and gathering information, followed by other officials and the Mayor of Dehradun.

The first phase is expected to provide complete data about the economic status of the people residing in houses their mode of transport and quality of facilities extended to them. Altogether 24,000 field workers are being deployed who will cover each and every house of the state. “The 45-day house listing and canvassing exercise ending June 1 will have 24,000 field workers touching each and every corner of the state,” said Mohammed Ahmed, Deputy Director, Census Directorate of Uttarakhand.

During the training held this month, 4,000 supervisors were trained by 435 master trainers, who, in turn, provided training to field workers. Dr Dilbagh Singh (Secretary Census) has been made the nodal officer while each District Magistrate in the district will act as principal census officer and Chief Development Officers as district census officers.

However, for the snow-bound and remote areas of the state, comprising 150 rural areas and three towns (in all four districts), the housing census will be held between September 11 and 30 this year.

The Census 2011 has an additional agenda of collecting data for national population register, later to be submitted to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI). It will take place in the second phase between February 9 and 28 next year all over the country. “It will involve collection of personal details through 14 questions, capturing of photographs and fingerprints of all residents, paving way for issuing smart card and unique identity number in the later stage to persons above the age of 15 years,” said Mohammed Ahmed. 

Dehradun, April 30
Tourism was disrupted at Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand when agitating forest guards closed all four gates of the park this morning.

It was only after the intervention of higher forest authorities that forest guards allowed the entry of tourists inside the park later in the afternoon.

As per the planned move, forest guards numbering a little over 200 trouped into Corbett in the wee hours today and forced the closure of the gates - Bijrani, Dhikala, Jhirna and Durgadevi - to stop the movement of tourists inside the park. The guards also put locked these.

Tourists found themselves at loggerheads with the agitating forest guards as they reached the park at 6.30 am. This even led to skirmishes between tourists and forest guards.

The forest guards who had come from all across the state also staged a dharna in front of the four gates.

Uttarakhand Forest Guards Association’s General Secretary RR Painuily described the forest guards’ agitation at Corbett a big success.

When asked for the reasons for the withdrawal of stir at Corbett later in the afternoon, Painuily said that they had received an assurance that their concerns would be taken up at the next Cabinet meeting. Thus, they have, for the time being, withdrawn their agitation in the interests of the state.

However, Painuily asserted that that closure at Rajaji National Park would continue and forest guards will continue with the boycott.

Meanwhile, Corbett authorities took a sigh of relief with forest guards withdrawing the stir at this important eco-tourism famous tiger reserve. The agitating forest guards are seeking a salary hike and better promotion opportunities.

Dehradun, April 30
Mayor Vinod Chamoli has taken the sudden stand of shopkeeper associations on widening of Chakrota Road in his stride.

The associations had met yesterday and decided to go only for the guest house land in front of Ghanta Ghar as the right place for their settlement, refusing to buy Mayor’s assertion to provide them land at three-four places in the city.

Chamoli said: “They have all the right to express their notions. I had suggested them land at PWD House, Gandhi Park, near and behind Krishna Talkies in lieu of acquiring land from them for widening of Chakrota Road but in case if they desist and demand for some other place, even that can be looked into. I have no objection in considering their demand with an open mind”.

He said since the MDDA was also involved in the project which had also suggested some places to the associations under its territory, he would talk to the MDDA as well regarding this issue. Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank would also be kept updated, as he is the one who was keenly observing this project.

After burning his hands in hoarding issue, Chamoli is avoiding showing any aggression on another controversial issue of widening of the Chakrota road of big magnitude which had been hanging fire for the displacement of 123 shopkeepers, 65 on one side and 58 on the other.

Taking caution on not getting stuck again, he is taking along the MDDA and the Chief Minister in the bracket. 

Dehradun, April 30
It seems good days have come back for the Irrigation Department, which had been getting good news one after another in rapid succession these days. After getting green signal for the induction of 250 new junior engineers and removal of obstacles for Song dam, the latest addition is the approval of creating a corporation for the Irrigation Department by the cabinet.

This news has invigorated the petrified Irrigation Department which has been struggling with financial crunch for a long time. To improve its battered health which deteriorated further when all hydro-projects were taken away from it to be given to Uttrakhand Jal Vidut Nigam Ltd, the state government gave it the independent charge of two new big hydro-projects, Arakot Tuni, 81 MW and Tuni Plasu, 60 MW costing 1,000 crore.

The department was waiting for the approval of creating a corporation so that it can manage funds from national and international banks and financial agencies on loan to build the projects.

After having achieved this objective, AB Pathak, head of the department a day before his retirement said, “Now, we would start restructuring the layout plan for the projects regarding the number of manpower needed. We will try to get the retired and experienced employees on deputation for the task. This will spare us the pain of regularising the daily/ad hoc workers. The rest will be hired from private as well. After that the next logical step would be to create a legal cell to ponder over the legal intricacies related to the project.”

Pathak said since the state had already established a couple of such corporations in the past, including Drinking Water Corporation, so they would study their functioning and modus operandi in arranging loans on minimum interest.”

According to him, it will take almost a year to go through the basic formalities before project could actually begin on the site. The site has been earmarked at Kalsi, 185 km from Dehradun, at Yamuna-Tons river. Both the projects will be created in close vicinity to each other. 

Dehradun, April 30
Annoyed by the casual attitude of the state government, agitated members of the Rajya Andolankari Manch vented out their grievances by staging protest at the District Magistrate’s office, here today.

The protestors shouted slogans in support of their demands to facilitate the andolankaris with multipurpose cards that enable them to get privileges in medical, education as well as transportation services.

Another demands were to provide some reservation in the government jobs to the andolankaris apart from those got injured or had been sent to jail during the agitation in the past and to allocate fixed amount as their pensions rather than distributing interim relief.

According to Pradeep Kukreti, active member of the Rajya Andolankari Manch, Sainthil Pandeyan, district magistrate had asked for seven days time to enforce all their demands and had assured to release a list of pending andolankaris that are still not on the records of the state administration. Kukreti also told that the District Magistrate had promised to call upon meetings of the district forum and the Rajya Andolankari Manch, once in a month.

Mussoorie, April 30
The Mussoorie Nagar Palika has found a novel way of syphoning off tax payers’ money by passing the proposal of Rs 2.75 crore for carpeting existing roads and constructing new ones that are rarely used by public several kilometres away from the town.

This was decided at a board meeting held on the Palika premises today.

The board unanimously approved the cementing and construction of more than 35 link roads in addition to separate allocation for nullahs, which never see a drop of water around the year. Palika’s affection for cementing these unused roads can be explained by the fact that road leading to Dhudhli village and the Jwala Devi temple area, which have a population of less than 500, have been allocated Rs 35 lakh for this year. In addition to this, Rs 40 lakh has also been approved for the ward of the same member for Valmiki Basti.

This distribution of the work has irked residents who have started questioning the whole exercise. They were of the view that modus operandi undertaken by the board to allocate a huge sum for the projects was only to benefit a few favourable contractors.

The roads sanctioned today are away from the town as also from the direct scrutiny of the media and common man.

Apart from this, these roads have already received a huge sum under the MLA fund and the need to build the road once again is beyond comprehension.

The noteworthy fact is that these far-flung roads receive huge sums every year, the reasons best known to the Nagar Palika. The residents of the town are also of the view that the roads, which need immediate attention, are neglected by the Palika. Mussoorie Nagar Plaika president OP Uniyal said such roads were sanctioned after the consent and proposal of the ward member of that area. He also agreed that only those roads should be constructed which were in daily use of majority of population.

Ward member Jasveer Kaur was silent on the issue. Several other proposal received nod in the meeting today. Sushil Kumar, Jasvir Kaur, Jai Kumar Gupta, Rajeshwari Rawat, Kanta Bisht, Dinesh Badoni, Ramesh Bhandari and Virendar Rawat were present at the meeting. 

Dehradun, April 30
Additional Registrar-General, Census, RC Sethi said today that the Census 2011 when complete was expected to provide ‘mother of all informations’ to act as an authentic frame work for surveys and a barometer for measuring success and failures of government programmes.

“Not only will the information gathered help in developing multi-purpose survey in the country but also help plug leakages in the welfare programmes being run by the government,” said Sethi.

In Dehradun to take stock of the situation for tomorrow’s housing census, Sethi said through the canvassing method, masses accessibility to various services would be known. “The housing census is of utmost importance as most of the rural houses do not have addresses. During the first phase of the census, each house will be given a number,” said Sethi.

While undertaking housing census, 35 questions pertaining to ownership of house, source of drinking water whether treated or untreated, waste outlet, use of the Internet and banking facility, etc, would be put up.

He said the information provided by the residents would be kept confidential, to be used for specific purpose only. He reiterated that most individuals were willing to share and give correct information. “The drive is already on in 18 states and we have not faced any problem about information sharing, the point is we are asking questions pertaining to accessibility. In case some persons are left out, toll free numbers (100,110 and 111) are being activated for taking up the matter in the state,” Sethi said.

Vouching for the authenticity of the Indian census system, Sethi said it was best in the world and had even been appreciated by other countries as well. “Our services officers have even helped other countries in training their manpower,” he added.

Along with Uttarakhand, the housing census would also take off in Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.

Dehradun, April 30
The Social Welfare Department is contemplating a non-lapsing fund so as to ensure that funds meant for welfare of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities are utilised.

Interacting with mediapersons here today, Uttarakhand Social Welfare Minister Matbar Singh Kandari said it had found that most of the funds of the department meant for welfare of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe got lapsed. He said he was also convening a meeting of the officers of all 36 departments of the state in mid-May so as to ensure that budget for social welfare was spent well in time.

He, however, pointed out that while 7 per cent of social welfare funds were utilised last year, this year, too, they were trying to ensure from the very beginning that funds did not get lapse at the end.

Referring to the problem being faced by the beneficiaries in getting pensions from banks, Kandari said he had directed for ensuring that social welfare pensions like disability and age-old pensions were provided directly to the beneficiaries through cheques to be distributed through banks.

Further, the pension amount will be delivered after every three month than the earlier practice of six months.

While responding to a query, he admitted that there were shortage of funds last year linked to Gaura Devi Kanayadan Yojana.

He also reaffirmed the commitment of the state BJP government for welfare of disabled, aged and deprived sections of the society.

Dehradun, April 30
State unit president of the Samajwadi Party Vinod Barthwal has exhorted Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to take all party along and demand the extension of the industrial package from the Centre again.

Addressing mediapersons at the party office on Parade Ground today, Barthwal said not only the state Congress and the BJP, but all parties should be taken to Delhi to mount pressure on the Centre to extend the package.

He added that if the government didn’t extend the package, the MPs shouldn’t hesitate even from giving their resignations. Both the BJP and the Congress had indulged into blame games, but had failed to achieve any success on the issue, he alleged.

Barthwal also said the Education Department should adopt transparency in the transfers of the teachers.

“Transfers should not be done by the Secretary (Education), these should be done by the department itself. The ministers shouldn’t do transfers as the deserving candidates suffer in such scenario. These should be done following all rules and regulations,” he added.

He also criticised the Police Department for “unnecessarily” beating their supporters during a bandh call on April 27 against price rise. “The police thrashed our worker in a car and there was no reason for beating him since he was already rounded up. A delegation of our party would meet the IG in this regard,” he added. 

Mussoorie, April 30
“Maachis” fame film actor Chandrachud Singh was on his visit to Mussoorie. While talking to mediapersons, he said his association with the Queen of Hills was not new, it started since his childhood when he joined Doon School. He, along with his friends, used to visit the town during his school days.

It was the time he fell in love with the town. Chandrachud said he was not taking break from movies but as he had been choosy he was going through the available scripts at present and fans would see him in a fresh role in near future. He avoided announcing the name of the films, but assured that whatever he did would be different and of substance.

He said films of 60s and 70s contained real entertainment value and were worth watching, but as the time moved on the industry also went from its highs and lows.

Chandrachud is inspired by legendary Dilip Kumar and compares him with Hollywood actor Marlon Brando. He started receiving film offers from his college days while in Delhi University. He joined the industry with Amitabh Bachan’s ABCL “Tere Mere Sapne” and shot to fame in Gulzar’s “Maachis”, which is one of best films. Speaking about his journey in films, he said being selective he had done fewer films but it had been a satisfying experience till now.

Chandrachud also informed that he visited Mussoorie to play a cricket match as he was interested in the game immensely. He saddened by the recent IPL controversy and said a game should be conducted with transparency and integrity and the sanctity of the game should be maintained.

He also said he would be involved with the film industry in some or other way but had not yet thought of trying out in television despite many offers. Chandrachud also said until the system was not in place, the artistes from small states would find it difficult to reach at the top. He said Uttarakhand was blessed with beautiful locations and these places could be used effectively by the film industry.

In his message to the emerging artistes, he said opportunities had increased with the advent of television, but the struggle was inherent part of any career and if they work out systematically and diligently, the tinsel town was ready to accept them in its fold.