Dehradun, May 1
Thousands of labourers assembled at the Gandhi Park here today to celebrate May Day by remembering the sacrifices of scores of labourers, opposing the liberalisation policy of the Central government, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and privatisation in a programme which was organised by the Sanyukt May Diwas Samaroh Samiti Uttarakhand.

Tributes were paid to the labourers slain and injured in Chicago, America, for demanding fixed working hours in 1886. The youths who were arrested during the Bharat Bandh on April 27 were also felicitated.

Virender Bhandari, convener, said, “Socialist countries are all set to gobble Third World countries. They are fabricating policies which will make them richer at the expense of the hard work of labourers. Since 2009, the whole world, including France, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Spain, Portugal, England and America, has been lashed by a series of strikes and bandhs by the labourers”.

He said countries like China, Vietnam, Cuba and North Korea had exemplified by giving quality life and rights to their people by strengthening communism in their domain. He blamed capitalism for throwing a major part of the world in global recession which affected India also. He blamed the UPA government for resorting to privatisation.

The speakers demanded minimum fixed wages for tea garden workers, implementation of a committee for 49 schedule employment, insurance policies for labourers, PDA facilities, regularisation of daily wagers, among many other demands.

The committee also passed two resolutions: the first urged the Central government to start Pala Maneri and Bairon Ghati hydro-electric projects and the second welcomed the Centre’s policy to extend the gratuity limit for employees of private and public sector to Rs 10 lakh and demanded minimum wages at the national level which should also include a revaluation period of three years and made mandatory to all state governments.

Nainital: Employees of various departments, along with people from other walks of life, participated in a programme organised at Mallital to mark the International Labour Day. Various leaders from different employee and labour organisations urged upon the need for unity amongst workers to deal with the ‘anti-labour’ policies of the government and certain private enterprises.

The speakers said the employees had to come together to ensure that there was no disparity in the wages given to them by the government. They alleged that employees working in private factories in industrial hubs of the state continued to be exploited and under paid. They demanded an end to the contractual mode of employment being promoted in both government and private sectors.

Pitthoragarh: Construction workers from across the country working in various sites in this border district under contractors today demanded appropriate wages for their work and facilities announced by the Union and state governments for their welfare. The workers took out a demonstration and held a mass rally on the occasion of the May Day here today.

“Our labourers are victims of exploitation by contractors who carry them from the local mart and force them to work up to 10 hours and give them sometimes less than minimum wages,” said Chanchal Ram, president of Parvatiya Mazdoor Kalyan Samiti, an independent labourers’ organisation working for the past 10 years in the district.

“We also demand providing facilities near the local bus station where more than 10,000 workers gather daily looking for work and increasing minimum wages for these construction workers so that they can get some relief from rising inflation,” said Chanchal.

Uttarakhand government employees also took out a procession today on the occasion of May Day under the banner of the Rajya Karamchari Kalyan Samiti and gathered at the Ram Lila ground protesting against Uttarakhand government policies of not giving wage hike as per the Sixth Pay Commission to some of the departments.

“We have also handed over a memorandum to the District Magistrate, Pitthoragarh, to be sent to the Uttarakhand government demanding that long-pending issues of daily wage workers in Jal Nigam, PWD, forest and various corporations of the Uttarakhand government be sorted out soon,” said Dinesh Gururani, a leader of the union.

Various other departments and agencies held meetings on the occasion of the International Labour Day.

Mussoorie: Thousands of trade union activists from various hotels, restaurants and construction workers gathered at the Anupam Chowk to hold the May Day rally here today.

The activists marched from Landour shouting slogans against the capitalist class and the exploitation by the rich. Workers joined in to support the rally which culminated at the Library Chowk.

Trade union leader RP Badoni said the minimum wages of the workers should be raised to Rs 8,000 considering the inflation in the country. He also said the government should provide other basic rights to workers with immediate affect.

Criticising the role of police station in charge MC Joshi, he said the officer of law was inconsiderate towards workers and bent upon harassing them from time to time. He warned that if Joshi was not removed from the post, they would start a protest campaign against him and call for a bandh in the town in June.

Dehradun, May 1
In protest against the anti-people’s policies of the Uttarakhand BJP government, the Mahanagar Congress Committee today started its signature campaign against the state government. As many as 10 lakh signatures will be taken during the campaign in a period of three months.

Congress leaders at the launch of a signature campaign against the state BJP government in Haridwar (left) and Dehradun on Saturday. Tribune photographs

Former Congress minister and Dehradun district in-charge Narendra Singh Bhandari inaugurated the campaign in Dehradun by signing the flex at the Gandhi Park here. He was joined by other Congress leaders who too signed up the flex.

The Congress leaders on the occasion accused the ruling BJP of failing to provide civic amenities like potable water, power, health and education. They also criticised the BJP for its failure to check the deteriorating law and order in the state.

Former minister Tilak Raj Behad, Congress spokesman Surendra Singh Arya, Ram Sharan Nautiyal, Shankar Chand Ramola and MN Farooqui were among prominent participants at the inauguration ceremony of the campaign.

Mahanagar Congress President Harish Virmani conducted the proceedings.

Haridwar: With the Maha Kumbh just over and political parties now focusing on the next Assembly elections, the Congress has started cornering the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government on various issues.

So while the state government is touting the Kumbh as its major achievement, the Congress is countering it with corruption and April 14 tragedy.

Initiating a mass signature campaign, which the Uttarakhand Congress is carrying out, Congress state vice-president Subodh Uniyal has termed the BJP government as a mass failure on all issues.

Terming the BJP as a party devoid of any developmental ideas, Uniyal said while the state cabinet failed to properly perform its duties, a cabinet meeting was held at the Ganga ghats in Haridwar yesterday to divert the people’s attention from core issues.

Urging party workers to focus on the next state Assembly elections, Uniyal emphasised on reaching out to the maximum people in the state.

He said that the more the number of persons contacted through the signature campaign, the more number of seats they would get as people were fed up with the state government. The Congress was the only party which could provide good governance.

Meanwhile, party district workers were quite optimistic about the signature campaign and wanted to have lakhs of signature from Haridwar district. City chief OP Chauhan said while the state target was of 5 million, party workers in Haridwar wanted to contribute a major portion of the signatures.

The campaign which started today will be carried on till July 31 and then will be submitted to Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva.

“The people of Haridwar made Harish Rawat win by a record margin of votes. This time too the signature campaign will have record participation from the common man as they are already reeling under problems for which the state government is responsible.

“We will try to cover most of the villages and spread the message that development is possible in Uttarakhand if the Congress is in power,” said party leader Poonam Bhagat.

Among those who addressed the campaign programme were Paras Kumar Jain, Purushottam Sharma, Santosh Chauhan, Iqbal Qureshi, Anju Dwivedi, Rajesh Rastogi, Jagdheer Singh, Ashok Sharma, Balram Rathore and Sanjay Paliwal. 

Dehradun, May 1
The Housing Census kicked off today with Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank giving House details to enumerators, who visited his House in the morning, followed by Speaker of the House Harbans Kapoor and other important government functionaries.

Later making an appeal to people of the state, Dr Nishank said all of them should participate in the Census of India, 2011.

Governor of Uttarakhand Margaret Alva was left out of the exercise as she was out of town. Altogether 24,000 field workers are deployed in the exercise who will go from house to house and gather household details.

According to reports wherever the state government employees were unwilling to report, they were persuaded to report for duty. “We are in constant touch with them and they have been asked to carry the census work in the evening or at night,” said Mohammed Ahmed, Deputy Director, Census (Uttarakhand).

Adding that in all districts a cell of national census has been districts to get an overview of the drive.

Pitthoragarh, May 1
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which provides security to pilgrims undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra beyond Gunji, will this year depute special disaster squads which will work to rescue pilgrims during natural calamities on the treacherous route.

“Nearly 50 trained jawans from the ITBP will be deputed between Gala and Lakhanpur areas of the Kailash Mansarovar track route which are considered most-calamity prone,” said Anil Bisht, Deputy Commandant of the 7th BN of the ITBP.

The preparation for this year’s yatra has begun after the route chart issued by the Ministry of External Affairs reached the ITBP.

According to the route chart this year, this pilgrimage will begin on June 1 from New Delhi. The first batch of pilgrims will reach base camp Dharchula on June 2.

After that, subsequent pilgrim batches will leave New Delhi on June 8, 14, 20 and 26, July 2, 8, 14, 20, 26 and August 1, 11, 7, 13, 19, 25 and 31 from New Delhi.

“The KMVN advance team, besides the team of Pitthoragarh district administration as well as PWD, Jal Nigam, has already been dispatched to the track route after the KMVN and Pitthoragarh district administration flagged off the preparation for this year’s yatra,” said DK Sharma, Manager, KMVN.

Mussoorie, May 1
GVK EMRI 108 service entered an agreement with the Mussoorie Hotel Association (MHA), along with the state association, to popularise 108 services among tourists in the state. It was decided in the meeting held at Madhuban Highlands yesterday that the MHA would install promotional material at every hotel so that tourists were able to call the service in any emergency.

Considering the popularity of the service, 31 additional ambulances will be introduced in the state till August this year. This was stated by GVK EMRI Chief Operation Officer Anoop Nautiyal, who also commended the efforts of the team involved with 108 Ambulance service. He thanked the MHA for agreeing on promoting the service among tourists by providing them information through publicity material in each hotel of the state. He informed the mediapersons that the service which began two years ago had turned into a major success story. He said 108 had received around 4,1,16,355 calls from May 15, 2008, to April 29, 2010, and 2,6,36,658 emergency calls were received in the given period. More than 1,56,676 emergency patients, out of which 3,030 were police cases and 34 fire incidents, were attended. More than 1,44,118 patients were admitted in the hospital, of which more than 3,085 were administered first aid. He also said the services attended more than 34,562 delivery cases, of which 1,336 were born in ambulance which was a record of a kind in itself.

Nautiyal also affirmed that more than 3,977 heart patients also received immediate relief from the service.

Uttarakhand Association president SP Kochar said the service had benefited patients not only in urban areas, but in also in the rural areas. He said all hotels would carry the posters depicting the 108 number. He demanded one more mobile 108 van for Mussoorie and a mobile health clinic so that the injured in accident cases could receive immediate assistance before reaching the hospitals, which were usually far off.

MHA president RN Mathur, secretary Ajay Bhargava, GVK EMRI 108 marketing head Dalbeer Singh, regional manager Manish Tinku and others were present on the occasion.

Pitthoragarh, May 1
Hiltron, an Uttarakhand government enterprise, has come up with a new proposal which can not only produce electricity in the state, but can also free the state from plastic garbage, Kashi Singh Airy, Chairman, Hiltron, said here yesterday.

“We want to establish mini-plants in the state which can produce furnace oil and LPG by using plastic garbage in municipal towns,” said Airy adding that the technology which has been developed by Prof Alka Jadguankar from an engineering college of Nagpur is working successfully there.

“The plant for Dehradun will cost Rs 15 crore and produce 90 per cent furnace oil, 8 per cent LPG and 2 per cent coke out of 10 tonnes of plastic garbage,” said Airy.

The Hiltron Chairman said even in a municipal body having 500 kg of plastic garbage, this plant could be installed. This project would help free the state from plastic garbage and create energy and employment.

“More than 100 tonnes of plastic garbage produced in the state per day can be utilised in these plants,” said Airy.

Subject to the permission of the Uttarakhand government, Hiltron has also consulted a Bangalore-based firm which produces bulbs light emitting diode (LED). “If installed in civic bodies, these bulbs can save 80 per cent electricity. For every 100 watt light, a CFL bulb saves 60 per cent power compared to an ordinary bulb. An LED bulb saves 80 per cent energy for the same light,” said Airy.

Airy said if the state government permitted, Hiltron could manufacture these bulb in collaboration with the Bangalore firm.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has called the Hiltron Chairman in the first week of May to discuss these technological innovations that the state can propel through Hiltron.

“We want to strengthen Hiltron. The government should make us a nodal agency in IT training in the state and give us exemption in the procurement policy of the state,” said Airy.

Airy said Hiltron recently tied up with the Uttarakhand Open University to allow the university to utilise the 60 centres of Hiltron Calc in the state to run their courses.

“We have plans to start BCA and MCA courses in Hiltron Calc for rural youth in the state,” said Airy.