Dehradun, July 4
Due to the rapid price rise in the country, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has joined hands with national Left parties in the mass protest of Bharat Bandh on July 5.

It was on this occasion the local wing of the SP held a meeting at their office here today. It was presided over by state unit president Vinod Barthwal.

Barthwal criticised the Congress party and ridiculed the name of the party as “mehangai party”. He said the Bharat Bandh was the only way to bring the problems arising from the price rise into the notice of the Central government. Price rise was an acute problem that pulled middle-class citizens to the level of the below poverty line.

He assured the Left parties of full support of the SP and further appealed to businessmen and owners of transport groups to lead a peaceful strike.

Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly Harak Singh Rawat stage an agitation in Haridwar on Sunday. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Dr Harak Singh Rawat, who was in the city attending various programmes, pointed that in the past three years development had suffered in the state as the projects that were started by the Congress had been put on halt by the present government.

Addressing Rishikul Vidyapeeth protestors, who are protesting against the decision of Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank for establishment of Ayurvedic University at Rishikul, Dr Rawat said while on the one hand Dr Nishank took pride in declaring Sanskrit as the second official state language, in this case Rishikul Vidyapeeth, which was the learning centre of Sanskrit, was being rooted in the name of Ayurvedic University.

“Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya had laid the foundation of Rishikul for spreading of Sanskrit language, but the now state government is adamant to make this epicentre of Sanskrit extinct by allotting the land to people having a vested interest in the BJP in the name of establishment of Ayurvedic University,” said Rawat.

At another function of the Vendor-Hawker Association, the legislator from Lansdowne sought the implication of national vendors policy which the state BJP government was not implicating deliberately exploiting the mini traders’ interests. He said small traders in the state were at their own peril and the state government seemed to be unconcerned about their woes. Submitting a memorandum to the Leader of Opposition, small vendors association convenor Sanjay Chopra urged for the allotment of a separate hawking-vending zone for Haridwar hawkers as they were regularly shifted during the Kumbh Mela, yearly Kanwar Mela and other religious occasions.

Accompanying Dr Rawat were former state Women Commission chief Dr Santosh Chauhan, former cabinet rank minister Dr Sanjay Paliwal, Bhoopendra Rajpur and dozens of party workers.

Nainital, July 4
The district administration has drawn up an impressive road map to complete various water conservation projects by making optimum of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) during the monsoon. These projects include rain water harvesting, water conservation, storage facilities, etc.

At a meeting held here yesterday to evaluate the implementation of MNREGA, District Magistrate (DM) Shailesh Bagauli ordered that the money sanctioned under the scheme till now must be utilised by the end of this month.

He said while keeping in mind that it was the monsoon period, emphasis must be laid on planting trees, water storage, conservation and rain water harvesting.

He also ordered that officials must make, at least 100 proposals for jobs which could be completed through MNREGA by the end of this month so that these proposals could be forwarded for clearance and subsequent sanction of money for execution of the proposed projects. He said Self-Help Groups (SHGs) should also be involved in carrying out developmental works under MNREGA.

It was suggested that in areas, where people were into horticulture, the potential of construction of individual tanks must be tapped and when it came to more than one village, emphasis should be laid on the construction of roads.

Bagauli also ordered that a special awareness drive be carried out from July 5 to 9, under which officials must visit, at least three villages in every block.

He also ordered the Uttarakhand Tea Board to put forward a proposal for developing tea estates in the region through MNREGA. He said the proposals should cover the areas where there was potential for growing tea.

Emphasis was also laid on carrying out the social audit in the villages where works were being executed under MNREGA.

The officials present were told that the persons registered under MNREGA must be given proper job cards failing which the guilty officials would face strict action.

It was also decided that a special cleanliness drive be carried out in the villages under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) from July 12 to 15.

Dehradun, July 4
Senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana today asked his partymen in Uttarakhand to give a befitting reply to the BJP misinformation campaign against the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

Addressing a Sewa Dal training camp at the state Congress headquarters in Dehradun, Dhasmana said the BJP workers in Uttarakhand were falsely blaming the Congress at the Centre for all the ills in the state.

He alleged that the state BJP government was neck deep in corruption.

He said the hydropower allotment scam followed by the Ceturdia land scandal evidently revealed the level of corruption in Uttarakhand.

Dhasmana said people had completely rejected the BJP in the last parliamentary elections and would teach a lesson to it again during the next Assembly elections. Congress Sewa Dal leader Ram Vilas Rawat said the Sewa Dal was fast expanding its base in Uttarakhand. He said the Dal units were actively functioning in each and every district. He said the Dal was ready to extend necessary support to the party for the 2012 assembly elections.

Nainital, July 4
Owing to its being prone to natural disasters on account of its fragile mountainous landscape and high seismic activity, Uttarakhand will soon have two companies of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) posted in the state permanently.

Additional Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar said, “Very soon we will be having two companies of the NDRF deployed in the state. The Centre has agreed for their permanent deployment in the state”.

The decision to set up the NDRF was taken in 2005 for the purpose of specialised response to natural and man-made disasters. The vision of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is to build a safer 3 and disaster-resilient India by developing a holistic, proactive, multi-disaster and technology driven strategy for disaster management.

This has to be achieved through a culture of prevention, mitigation and preparedness to generate a prompt and efficient response at the time of disasters.

The government claims that the NDRF has proved its importance in achieving this vision by highly skilled rescue and relief operations, regular and intensive training and re-training, familiarisation exercises within the area of responsibility of respective NDRF Battalions, carrying out mock drills and joint exercises with various stakeholders.

Kumar further said although there was the Disaster Management Department at the state level, it needed to be provide a proper structure for which steps were being taken. He said the presence of the two NDRF companies would further strengthen the disaster management set up in the state. Besides the state apparatus, Uttarakhand also has the presence of a large number of personnel from the Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP) and the defense forces, who are well trained in disaster management.

The NDMA has expressed in the past that Uttarakhand requires preparedness of the highest order with regards to its location in the high seismic zone in the Himalayas.

At a recent workshop held at the Administrative Training Institute, experts from the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) had pointed out that although there had been considerable improvements with regards to spread of awareness on disaster management, awareness of community, formation of teams to deal with an eventuality of earthquake and landslides, there were still miles to go.

They had asserted that people must understand that they were residing in a high-risk zone, hence, they should desist from construction of high-rise buildings. It was suggested that the authorities concerned should ensure that there was a proper enforcement of laws related to the construction activity in places in and around towns like Nainital.

Dehradun, July 4
GVK EMRI 108 Emergency Services yesterday provided training to visually impaired children at the National Institute for the Visually Challenged. A first responder bulletin in Braille was also released.

The training was given in basic life-support technique, cardio pulmonary resuscitation and providing mouth-to-mouth artificial breathing techniques and management of emergencies.

On the occasion, Anup Nautiyal CEO of 108 Emergency Service released a first responder bulletin composed in Braille.

A total of 75 visually impaired children were given training in emergency care. Through live models and mannequins, they were made familiar about handling patients who may suffer from fits or experience choking before emergency ambulance services are called in.

As the visually impaired have a high degree of tactile sensation, special ergonomically designed mannequins were used for demonstration purpose.

Dehradun, July 4
An afforestation movement in Dehradun gained momentum when 120 saplings were planted by the Kaash Society at Mohkammpur, near railway track No. 35, here today. Around 60 persons from the organisation and village participated in the noble cause. Through this drive, the Kaash Society has pledged to plant 1,000 saplings in and around the city by July this year.

Sadhna Sharma, President of the Uttaranchal Mahila Association (UMA), was the chief guest of the occasion who also planted saplings. Sadhna said, “Today morning is a dawn for our environment with the future of our country taking the responsibility and I appreciate the initiative taken by the organisation”.

Dehradun, July 4
On the completion of 61 years, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhrathi Parishad (ABVP) is commencing the Vidhyarthi Vriksha Mitra Yojna.

July 9 is the foundation day of the association, where the programme will initiate with an aim to spread the awareness of saving environment and conserving trees.

State president of the ABVP Umed Singh said, “We have decided to plant 61 trees on the day of the centenary, while 61 vriksha mitras will be appointed to safeguard these. The party is also determined to plant more 5,000 trees in the entire state”. “Rallies, cultural programmes, shobha yatra, felicitation ceremony and various competition will be organised.

Nainital, July 4
A newly opened mini bank at Chhoi village near Ramnagar has become a centre of controversy with villagers having locked up the bank immediately after its inauguration. The villagers are agitated over the deployment of a person from another panchayat in the bank.

The drama began when local MLA Diwan Singh Bisht left the premises after the inaugural ceremony of the bank on Friday. Agitated villagers created a scene and did not allow the bank to start functioning and instead locked up the premises much to the annoyance of the local co-operative that is supposed to run the bank.

The similar situation continued on Saturday as the villagers were adamant that no one from another panchayat would be allowed to work at the bank. This reportedly led to the co-operative registering a complaint with the police who promptly broke the lock open.

A case has also been registered against some of the villagers in this matter. However, the protest by the villagers continued outside the bank. It remains to be seen whether the bank can start functioning from Monday or not.

The Uttarakhand government aims to set up 500 mini banks across the the state over the next couple of months to give a major boost to the co-operative sector. These banks are initially to be set up at the Nyaya Panchayat level and villages chosen under the Atal Adarsh Gram Yojana.

Each of these 500 banks will recruit an accountant who will be paid a remuneration of Rs 2,000 per month and the government claims that this will help in generating employment at the rural level.

These banks are being opened with the view that the accounts of the beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and various pension schemes will be maintained here.

It is a well-known fact that the people residing in remote areas are facing problems with regards to opening and operating their bank accounts as the branches of various banks are located in places that are far off from their villages and since most of the pensioners are old and disabled, they face an additional handicap.

To woo rural people towards these banks, the government is offering them half per cent of additional interest than what is prevalent in the market to the depositors.

Mussoorie, July 4
The issue of Autumn Festival 2009 tender scam has raised the political temperature of the town with the demand for immediate action against the perpetrators of the scam after SDM Manoj Kumar submitted his report indicating major financial irregularities in organising the festival.

Mussoorie MLA Jot Singh Gunsola has also joined the fray demanding immediate action on the report submitted by the SDM. Gunsola said reading media reports, it was evident that embezzlement of the public fund had been done by the Mussoorie Palika and the seriousness of the matter could be gauged by the fact that the investigation in the tender scam case had been done twice on the direction of the administration.

He said the administration should punish the perpetrators immediately to restore confidence among people and also so that such scams were not repeated. He also said the question would be raised in the next session of the Vidhan Sabha.

Sources say that the scam occurred to serve the interests of a few participants, who eventually bagged the tender for the festival. The Palika officials, to safeguard the interest of the firm in question, did not allow other organisations to participate in the procedure, and thwarted their attempts to put the seal tenders in the box, despite reaching the venue on time.

Only three tenders were accepted, out of which two were rejected due to lack of experience certificate. Thus, by default the Sinmit Communication was granted the tender.

According to eminent Garhwali filmmaker Pradeep Bhandari, the fact that the Palika had pre-decided to award the tender to the Sinmit Communication can be believed as no event management company can organises the festival of such stature within three days. Moreover, a few artistes, who participated in the festival, have already mentioned in the media that they were booked nearly a month in advance by some persons, thus corroborating that some kind of the dubious means were undertaken in whole tender process.

After the local artistes raised the issue in various forums, an immediate investigation was ordered under then Mussoorie SDM Jharna Kamthan, who also found irregularities in the process, but the administration shelved it under the carpet for several months. The scam resurfaced once again after reminders were sent to the Urban Development Department and the administration was forced to act on it.