Nainital, September 4
The misery unleashed by incessant rain on residents of Kumaon continues unabated with the rain not willing to stop.

After a fortnight of problems on account of flooding, water logging and washing away of land and infrastructure, people of the region are now having to cope with an outburst of diseases.

Heavy rain was recorded in the region since Friday night, throwing life out of gear once again.

Two persons were washed away while they were trying to cross seasonal nullahs near Dharchula on Friday. While one of them was rescued, there is no clue about the other, who has been identified as Navin Singh Karki.

Meanwhile, the residents in the area around Gadarpur in Udham Singh Nagar got panicky after a woman from Pipaliya died of dengue while she was returning from Delhi after taking treatment. She has been identified as 42-year-old Prem Lata who had fever since August 28.

Another patient displaying symptoms of dengue has been admitted to the Sushila Tewari Hospital. The hospital authorities claim to be well-equipped to provide treatment to patients of dengue.

A separate ward has been set up for patients of dengue in the government hospital in Rudrapur.

While no cases of dengue has been reported in the hospital as yet, more than 1,000 persons are reporting at the hospital on a daily basis seeking treatment for various ailments.

Instances of diarrhoea continue to be reported in various hospitals across the region. An outbreak of viral fever is also being reported from Lal Kuan where steps are being taken by the administration to provide instant relief to the patients.

Makeshift dispensaries have been set up in areas where the incidence is high and there is water stagnation. Ambulances have also been deployed in these areas.

Lack of proper sanitation and constant water logging in Haldwani is causing problems to residents and the threat of outbreak of diseases looms large on the town. A large number of drains across the town are choked and are emanating stench. The water bodies have become massive breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

In Bageshwar district, some families at Liti village and Jakhera panchayat have moved to safer places with their residences becoming unsafe on account of the rain. Similarly, 10 families of Adichaura panchayat have been moved to a panchayatghar.

Several roads in the region continue to be blocked due to massive landslides and commuting from bigger urban centres to villages has become extremely difficult and expensive.

Minister of State for Education Gobind Singh Bisht has said 542 schools in the state had been declared unsafe. The students of these schools will be shifted to schools in nearby regions that are safe.

Dehradun, September 4
A bridge connecting residential colonies of the Vani Vihar area in Raipur has got severely damaged due to a flood-like situation arising out of a downpour in the region. The state administration has directed the Public Works Department (PWD) to repair the bridge tomorrow. Until then the residents are bound to face a lot of difficulties.

Assistant District Magistrate Vinod Suman said, “We have given direction to the PWD to repair the bridge in the shortest possible time. Since it will take time, therefore, the administration will do all the needful to help people of the area”.

Pitthoragarh, September 4
The 48 members of the 13th batch of the Kailash Mansarowar Yatra coming to the base camp after completing the pilgrimage will have to stay probably more than two days at the Bundi camp as the only crossing bridge at the Nazang fall has been washed away by a local rivulet.

“We could hardly cross the 16th ongoing batch to the next camp but our pilgrims of 13th batch were to be taken back to the Bundi camp from where they had started to reach Gala,” said DK Sharma, Manager, Tourism, Kumoan Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN).

According to KMVN sources, two bridges at Malpa and Nazang, 48 km from the Dharchula base camp, have been washed away by a local rivulet that swelled due to heavy and continuous rain in that area. “Labourers and a rescue team have been dispatched to the place by the Dharchula tehsil administration, and the PWD)has promised to build a temporary cause way at the place in one or two days,” said BR Arya, yatra officer at the base camp.

“The pilgrims are in a good condition and safe at the Bundi camp. The PWD engineers have promised to make them cross that place by Monday and we hope that all 48 pilgrims will reach the Dharchula camp by Tuesday,” said Navneet Panday, SDM, Dharchula.

“In case the bridge can not be built in a stipulated time or the pilgrims crossing the place will find it difficult, they will be brought to Chiyalekh, 5 km onwards the Bundi camp, and will be air lifted,” said the KMVN sources. 

Dehradun, September 4
Carrying on their hunger strike, the city women wing of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) took turns today to observe this method of registering a protest against the closure of the Lohari Nagpala Hydro Project by the Central government.

Asha Sharma, city president, said it was unfortunate that activists like GD Aggarwal never sat on hunger strike for the pollution in the Ganga, but he did so for the closure of the hydro project, which was 65 per cent complete.

She said if the move to cancel the project was not revoked, the UKD would stage an aggressive moment till the 
Centre decided to restart work on it.

Haridwar, September 4
With less than two years to go for the state Assembly elections in Uttarakhand, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started gearing itself up for the poll battle and started giving lessons to party workers so that they are well prepared to propagate government’s development works as well as party agenda.

In this regard, a three-day BJP party workers’ training camp is being organised at Kankhal-situated Param Dham Ashram wherein the executive members are giving tips to party activists.

Party organisational member Teerath Singh Rawat urged party workers to work hard in a disciplined manner to help Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in achieving Mission 2012 and Vision 2020.

Teerath cited examples of other state BJP governments like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh wherein party cadre ensured party regains faith of public by becoming a bridge between state government ministers and public.

Earlier, former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari inaugurated the training camp and urged the party workers to have higher goals that supersede personal interests as the BJP is a party with difference and no person is above party ideals.

“You have to have a broad thinking, wider vision, higher goals and a will have to serve the party and public. One doesn’t get associated with the BJP for few generations but it’s for life as nation is supreme in our party’s vision,” said Koshiyari who is also BJP national vice-president.

Nainital, September 4
Small and marginal farmers producing coriander leaves in the region are caught in a peculiar situation.

With the Haldwani mandi unable to procure their entire produce, they are compelled to travel an additional distance of more than 120 km to Bareilly, in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, to sell their remaining produce, which is not much viable economically.

The farmers are seeking intervention at the government level to address their problem. They want that the entire produce be procured at one mandi and then supplied further to the others, as per the consumption in various areas.

In the monsoon season farmers of the Nainital region, especially on the outskirts of Nainital town, have an opportunity to earn a quick buck from the crop of coriander leaves that gives them handsome revenue. The climatic conditions are ideal for the large-scale production of the crop even on small patches of land.

Farmers from the villages of Kunjkharak, Vinayak, Bagad and Pangoot move down every day to sell their produce.

Talking to The Tribune a farmer said he was compelled to take his stock to Bareilly as the merchants at Haldwani mandi purchased only a small portion of his produce and he had problems selling the remaining lot, which often got perished. He said on the other hand, in the Bareilly mandi the merchants were requesting them for more produce and were paying them in advance.

But taking the entire crop to Bareilly was not economically feasible as the rate of the produce was not very high and at par with the Haldwani mandi.

The added transportation cost and security issues prevented the farmers for being more enthusiastic to sell their produce in Bareilly.

Dehradun, September 4
A safai karamchari of Cantt Board died after he was crushed by a truck in the Premnagar area this morning.

According to the police, Harish Chand, who was in his early 40s, was sitting on the front seat of a Vikram beside the driver. The Vikram stopped near a sabzi mandi to drop the man. However, as he stepped out of the vehicle, he was hit by a truck that was coming from behind.

The man died on the spot. The truck driver fled from the spot and members of the safai union staged a protest on the road which caused traffic jams for a few hours. The police had a tough time managing the crowd and the traffic.

Circle Officer and Station House Officer of Patelnagar police station were also present at the scene.

MLA Dinesh Aggarwal and senior Congress leader Suryakant Dasmana also reached the spot to pacify the protesters.

They asked the police to arrest the truck dirver. The callousness of the Virkam driver can also not beneglected.

Dehradun, September 4
Other than the shortage of staff, time-consuming meetings at the Collectorate, Directorate and Secretariat have been hampering the redressal for public grievances. Consequently, aggrieved people have to make several rounds of the district headquarters.

Sources in the Collectorate stated that all departments had a strength of 50 per cent sanctioned by the government who were working, and the remaining posts were left unoccupied. Other than this, most of the staff remained engaged in dealing with the pending work in the district creating problems for the visitors.

One of the district officials claimed that there was shortage of at least 50 per cent staff in all departments. It had been long that people kept on getting retired, but new posting was not done. “Not only this, the remaining staff remain busy with there own work and when they have to do others’ work its obvious that both staff as well as people would have to suffer,” he mentioned.

“It is not just that they are found busy in office work, but their engagement in the meetings held in Collectorate, Directorate, Secretariat and frequently held multi-purpose camp disable them to address public grievances on time,” he added.

Recently, the Chief Development Officer (CDO) had sent a show-cause notice to the District Development Officer (DDO) for not completing the documentation work of the funds released under the MLAs Local Area Fund.

According to the department officials, 29 posts of engineers/technical assistant have been sanctioned under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and there should be at least one engineer in each Nyay Panchayat in Dehradun district, but the ground reality is that the district has only got 12 engineers for completing the MNREGA project. One of the officers in Kalsi block said there were nine Nyay Panchayats, but these had one engineer in each block.

“Insufficient number of engineers causes delay and extra burden of completing the work on various civil work projects on time,” he added.

The Irrigation Department has been suffering from acute shortage of junior engineers as well, said an official.

In Dehradun district, out of the sanctioned strength of 130, only 60 Junior Engineers are working. But the department is managing somehow to complete the project on time, added the official.

However, denying the complaints by the officials, Dehradun ADM Vinod Kumar Suman said there was no shortage of staff in the department. Officers were supposed to perform official as well as fieldwork and the issue raised by them was baseless.

Dehradun, September 4
Uttarakhand’s ambitious corporate-backed ringal bamboo project linked to wildlife conservation has entered its second phase.

Started in 2008, the Ecological Rebuilding through Hill Bamboo (Ringal) Plantation Project aims at conserving habitats of Uttarakhand’s state animal and bird - the musk deer and monal - apart from creating livelihood opportunities for locals.

The project has been sponsored by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. Now, the Bamboo and Fibre Board, which has been executing the project, is seeking ONGC’s support for the next phase.

Both endangered species - musk deer and monal - mostly feed on ringal. Hill people use this species as a raw material for a number of products used in daily life.

Hill bamboo or ringal, as it is popularly known, is a reed-like bamboo species found in the upper Himalayan zone (1500 to 2800m altitude). In Uttarakhand, four species of ringal are known to grow naturally.

According to STS Leptcha, Chairman, Uttarakhand Bamboo Fibre Development Board, 230 hectares of ringal plantation was done in 2008-09 while another 200 hectares has been covered with ringal in 2010-11. Thus, 430 hectares of land have been planted with ringal.

Initially, plantation sites were selected in two divisions of the reserve namely Nandadevi National Park Forest Division, Joshimath, and Kedarnath Wildlife Forest Division. Few sites in the Pitthoragarh Forest Division were also subsequently added.

To supply plants for plantation sites, nurseries and ringal rhizome banks have been established in different van panchayats with the help of women self-help groups.

In Nanda Devi National Park, 11 women groups are involved who have established 11 nurseries with a stock of 210,000 plants. Similar nurseries have also been established in the Kedarnath Wildlife Division.

“Mature ringal will be made available for bonafide use by local people. This will create livelihood opportunities,” said Vimal Dhiman, Manager, Programmes and Forestry, Uttarakhand Bamboo and Fibre Development Board, who has been supervising the project.