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UPP seeks committees to monitor relief work
Disaster also on 108 call list
Delay in setting up info system hits MNREGA progress
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World Tourism Day
River rafters of Rishikesh at a press conference in Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph
Jobless teachers burn govt effigy
Harak Rawat visits flood-hit
areas
Leader of the Opposition Harak Singh Rawat listens to flood-affected people in Haridwar on Sunday. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur
Unexploded bomb found in Hassanpur-Madanpur village
An unexploded bomb set in a pit for explosion in Roorkee on Sunday.
Health adviser turns up in place of Chief Minister for function
Muslims at a training camp in Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph
Various organisations back gram pradhans’ protest
One-way traffic plan successful
One-way traffic enforced on some roads in Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph
Sidhpeeth Ashram volunteers distribute relief material at Dallawala village in Laksar on Sunday Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur
Sanitation drive to mark Gandhi Jayanti
Rally by physically challenged ends
Jain community programme ends
World Heart Day
Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank inaugurates a heart institute in Dehradun on Sunday.
Forum for social justice holds annual meeting
Leaders spread message of harmony
Education fair today
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UPP seeks committees to monitor relief work
Nainital, September 26 The party has stated that the constitution of such parties is pertinent to check the misuse of money meant to provide relief to the suffering masses. Party president PC Tewari has demanded that criminal proceedings be initiated against those involved in usurping the aid meant to combat the disaster and provide relief to the people. He also appealed to people to be alert and check the misuse of the funds. In a meeting of the party held in Almora, the party leadership condoled the loss of lives in the recent disasters and landslides. It has asked the government to take back the land given to big industrial houses, builders, ashrams and trusts, along with those usurped by “land mafia” and use the same for rehabilitation of disaster-affected people. The party has asked people, social activists and political activists to identify such lands in their respective areas and start an awareness drive to get the disaster-affected people rehabilitated on such pieces of land. Stating that it has no faith in the working of the parties like the Congress and the BJP, the UPP leadership has accused them of creating a corrupt setup dominated by politicians, capitalists, bureaucrats and mafias. It has stated that the corrupt practices coming to light with respect to the power projects and land scams in the state, along with those in the organising of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi have exposed the BJP and the Congress, respectively. “In such conditions it is necessary to prevent misuse of funds coming for the disaster mitigation and ensuring qualitative reconstruction efforts,” said a party statement. The party has also asked the people to ensure that the political forces in the state do not make use of the present conditions to make electoral gains in the forthcoming state assembly polls in 2012. |
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Disaster also on 108 call list
Dehradun, September 26 Officials of 108 Emergency Services said in the event of disasters and emergency situations arising thereof due to landslides, earthquake, floods etc, 108 would be able to render services. 108 number has already started receiving calls from Nainital, Rudrapur, Tehri, Haridwar and Dehradun. |
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Delay in setting up info system hits MNREGA progress
Dehradun, September 26 For the past three months no funds were released, forcing the programme implementation agency to speed up the MIS adoption in the state. The MIS is a single-track system facilitating placement of all critical data on the web allowing cross verification of records and generation of reports on parameter of the Act. For greater transparency, the Central government is releasing funds to only those states that are fully implementing the system. “We did not receive funds for the past three months and in August and September, very less amount was released. We have begun implementation of the MIS only now and it is taking time as we began doing since the inception of the
programme. Only 50 per cent of the MIS is complete, as it has to be done at the gram panchayat level. However, now we have begun concentrating on the financial year 2010-2011,” said NREGA state coordinator AK
Rajput. Among the districts, Dehradun is lagging behind with 14 per cent of the MIS undertaken, while Pitthoragarh with 87 per cent and Udham Singh Nagar with 82 per cent are leading. Besides, two court cases pertaining to recruitment of gram rozgar sewaks putting a halt on recruitment on the NREGA functionaries is also proving problematic as the state is already short of staff. “The two court cases pertaining to service provider have led to ban on recruitment. As per the MNREGA guidelines, recruitment of the MNREGA functionaries was done through the service providers, however, people who were recruited went to the court demanding permanent employment, the cases are still pending,” said
Rajput. As of now, out of a total of 18, 011 gram rozgar sewaks, only 634 are working in the state. |
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Rafters threaten to disrupt celebrations
Tribune News Service
Dehradun, September 26 Bhatt also alleged that the state forest authorities intentionally wanted to destroy rafting adventure tourism in the state adding that increase in taxes evidently hinted at this fact. He, however, added that rafters were ready to defy all rules of the Forest Department as they were now inclined to take their fight with the Forest Department to a final conclusion. Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand government is all set to celebrate World Tourism Day tomorrow and has also convened a mega function in Dehradun. The programme is to be addressed by Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and other senior forest officials of the state.
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Jobless teachers burn govt effigy
Dehradun, September 26 They shouted slogans against the administration and protested in favour of their pending demands. Mahender Chauhan, state coordinator, said the federation had given several memorandums to the Chief Minister, Secretary, Education, and to the Education Minister, but except fake assurances nothing had materialised yet. In fact, the affected were facing such a financial crisis that there families were at the state of starving. Chauhan also criticised the state government of making similar announcements in this regard many times in the past that were yet to be fulfilled. “Instead of increasing the number of seats of unemployed trained BEd and BPEd teachers, the administration has failed to fill in the existing seats. Nothing for the trained unemployed teachers has been done yet by the state government,” added Rakesh Nautiyal, treasurer of the association. The pending demand of these teachers includes the opening of 8,000 vacancies of special BTC teachers and 5,000 for the LT teachers. The protesters also observed strike and fast unto death to press their demands on the administration but nothing has been materialised yet. “We request the state government to immediately take action in favour of our demands or else we would be compelled to take lethal ways of protest,” asserted Nautiyal. |
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Harak Rawat visits flood-hit
areas
Haridwar, September 26 Today, Leader of the Opposition in state legislative Assembly Harak Singh Rawat visited flood-affected areas and listened to the woes of affected families. Rawat visited the major flood-affected areas of Bairagi Camp, Chandighat, Mazra Grant and adjacent villages from where about 1,500 persons have been saved from drowning. While assessing the damage, many affected villagers complained that they were not being provided with proper relief aid as well as alleged disparity in compensation for which they had even taken to streets. On this, Rawat assured of taking this matter to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and raising this issue with other political party leaders so that they could pressurise the government to ensure no anomalies arise in compensation packages so that the affected people could again live normal life. Rawat said a grant of Rs 500 crore had been given to the state while another additional grant would be allotted after gauging the total damage. “The state is passing through one of the toughest phases with the hilly regions affected by rain fury, landslides while plain regions are dipped in floods. People should stand united in this testing time and donate as much as for the relief funds so that normalcy was restored in the affected people’s lives once again,” said Harak Singh, who is a legislator from the Lansdowne assembly, where rain fury has severely affected the lives of the people.
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Unexploded bomb found in Hassanpur-Madanpur village
Roorkee, September 26 The youths hurriedly carried the unexploded bomb to the outskirts of their village and tried to separate the fuse from the unexploded bomb. Observing this, village elders cautioned them not to fiddle with it and informed the nearest police check post at Mondware of the Bhaganpur police station. SP, Rural, RL Sharma contacted the Bengal Engineer Group (BEG) and the Centre for specialised technical assistance to destroy the unexploded bomb. Immediately a bomb disposal team was sent by the BEG and the Centre to the site comprising one Junior Commissioned Officer and two trained soldiers in bomb disposal, who after accessing the unexploded bomb, informed their Chief Instructor that the tip of the unexploded bomb was compromised with a nail. The Chief Instructor advised the team to destroy the unexploded bomb in a pit. The sound of the explosion was heard over quite a distance creating panic in the nearby villages. The SP said a team of the District Bomb Disposal Squad was also rushed to the site, but to be on the safer side the assistance of the Army was sought. Commenting on the nail forced in by the youths on top of the unexploded bomb, he said the villagers generally did such acts
to take out certain amount of copper. It was really fortunate that nothing went wrong, as many times such acts could trigger a blast
ausing fatal incidents, too, he added. On enquiring about the presence of such an old unexploded bomb in the area, he said the villagers said during the British rule these areas were transit
for them to reach hills, though there were no records available with the department. He added that it seemed that the floods eroded the soil, which must have exposed the buried unexploded bomb. Sharma appreciated the timely action of the villagers in informing the police and also instructed them that any object of suspicion should be informed to the police to avoid any kind of mishap. |
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Health adviser turns up in place of Chief Minister for function
Dehradun September 26 Arun Khatri, senior member of the organisation, said they had been trying hard to get time from the CM for past six months for this annual function. They were given September 25, which they confirmed time and again before inviting people from far-flung areas, but their fears came true when the CM did not make it to the function. Shamsher Singh Bisht, president of the organisation, asked Jain to submit their memorandum to the CM. Bisht also demanded one rank, one pension. Decrying the shifting of three army training centres from Dehradun, he stressed on opening recruitment centres for all three wings of defence. He also asked the state government to establish a PBOR institute where families of its members could hold their social functions. Bisht also sought relaxation in domicile certificates for ex-servicemen which required a soldier to submit documents/property proof of the past 50 years. Dr Rakesh Kumar Jain assured the members that he would do his best to get the demands fulfilled. He called on PBOR members to participate in disaster management operations in the state. |
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Vaccination drive for Haj pilgrims begins
Dehradun, September 26 Twelve vaccination and training centres have been set up throughout the state. Two books, Rehber-e-Haj and Haj-2010, were also released today and distributed free of cost among the pilgrims. Maulana Altaf, Chairperson of the State Haj Committee, said it was deplorable that the Centre was decreasing the number of Haj pilgrims every year. “This year, too, the number was fixed at 787 by the Central government against the registration of 3,326 aspirants, but thanks to the Chief Minister’s intervention, it was escalated to 1,165. Not only this, the cost of pilgrimage, too, has gone up to Rs 5,530 per person; airport tax rose to Rs 1,530 and airfare increased to Rs 4,000; and the Saudi government too increased 500 Riyal for allocating 1.5 metre extra space to the devotees. The rise in the cost is regrettable in the times of inflation,” said Altaf. He informed that people in green would have to pay Rs 8,263 more, white category Rs 7,350 more and azizia Rs 6,331 extra against the last year. He termed the Congress an anti-Muslim political party. But he derived satisfaction for the providing insurance relief of Rs 2 lakh to the pilgrims without taxing them for premium. Altaf said the state government was making all efforts to arrange a direct flight from the Jolly Grant Airport, Dehradun, to Saudi Arabia to lighten the discomfort faced by the pilgrims at the Delhi embarkation point which got crowded with the Haj pilgrims from all over the country. The matter was under consideration of the Haj Committee of India and the External Affairs Ministry, he added. He said till the time all pilgrims left for Haj, the Uttarakhand Haj Committee would continue to hold a camp at Haj Manzil, Turkman Gate in New Delhi, to solve the problems faced by the pilgrims. Altaf demanded completion of the construction of Haj House in Roorkie. |
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Various organisations back gram pradhans’ protest
Dehradun, September 26 The association organised a group meeting today in front of the Vidhan Sabha that was joined by a large number of gram pradhans from different districts and other supporters. Pramod Khanduri, Satya Pal Singh, Virender Singh, Sita Devi, Kalawati Devi and Ved Prakash Gwadi also continued with their personnel hunger strike. The protesters shouted slogans raising their demands in front of the Vidhan Sabha. The protest was held in continuation of the meeting and dharna staged by association in the past. Members from across the state have participated in the protest highlighting the issues of their respective block or constituency. According to Surat Singh Negi, state president the association, they have given several memorandums to the Chief Minister, but the administration has paid no heed to their demands. “We are striving at pressurising the state government to agree on our nine-point demands, including the framing of the new Panchayati Raj Act in the state and increasing the honorarium of the gram pradhans from Rs 600 to the respectable amount,” added Negi.
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One-way traffic plan successful
Tribune News Service The traffic police said, it being a Sunday, there was less traffic pressure on the roads and the plan came out to be successful. Now the plan would be tried on some working days to gauge the correct impact of it. “We had implemented the plan at about three or four new one-way routes and it was successful. The traffic pressure was low as compared to other days and that really helped. Now, we will try it on some working days, may be tomorrow, when the traffic flow is high. And if it goes well, we will make it a permanent feature,” Navneet Singh Bhullar, Circle Officer (Traffic), told The Tribune. “We have made a few new one-ways out of the proposed eight roads and we are concentrating on these only right now. Due to a shortage of manpower, we cannot put into practice the all proposed one-ways simultaneously. However, during school hours we do convert the rest roads into one-ways,” Traffic Inspector Virender Rawat said.
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Sidhpeeth Ashram provides aid to flood-hit villagers
Haridwar, September 26 Under the aegis of Vishwa Ekatm Mission, renowned spiritual Guru Pushpnandan Maharaj of Sidhpeeth Ashram has sent a 25-member group to the flood-affected areas of Laksar to provide help and relief to the victims. Ashram volunteers provided food items in several villages, particularly to the residents of village Dallawala that had been inaccessible to relief supply vehicles for the past few days. Around 8,000 bananas, 2,000 bread packets and clothes were distributed among the flood-affected people. Among the volunteers were ashram trustee Rajesh Angira, Rajeev Kapur, Dileep Kumar, Ashu Chauhan, Sardar Beer Singh, Anil Kumar, Ravindra Nagar, Mayank Chauhan, Chaudhari Beer Singh and Yusuf
Pathan.
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Sanitation drive to mark Gandhi Jayanti
Pitthoragarh, September 26 According to the District Magistrate, after hoisting the national flag at 6.30 am, all educational institutes will organise prabhat pheri to sensitise the patriotic feeling among the citizen. “Special programmes on khadi weaving and elaboration of the Gandhian philosophy, along with the thoughts of Lal Bahadur Shastri, will be organised at various places in the district which will be followed by the Savra Dharma Sabha and related programmes by schoolchildren,” said
Negi.
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Rally by physically challenged ends
Dehradun, September 26 The rallyists comprising members from deaf and dumb communities and orthopaedically handicapped came together on one front and silently marched through the streets of Dehradun. There were athletes, professionals and businessmen urging the society to be sympathetic towards their needs. “Public places lack ramps. The government is apathetic to our needs,” said Prem Kumar, one of the
participants in the rally. |
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Jain community programme ends
Dehradun, September 26 The programme initiated with the enchantment of Mahavir’s prayer, followed by lighting up of the ceremonial lamp by chief guest Naresh Bansal, president of the Awas Vikas Parishad. A total of 208 people, including children who have attained 90 per cent and above marks in high school and intermediate, were honoured.
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World Heart Day
Dehradun, September 26 The Chief Minister was speaking at a programme held at the Bharat Heart Institute on the occasion of World Heart Day today. He said at times heart attacks could prove fatal, but prompt treatment could prove to be helpful. “Stress, a byproduct of modern living, is also responsible for heart-related diseases and more and more individuals are falling prey to the disease. For this, we need to launch an awareness campaign,” said Dr Nishank. Chairman of State Media Advisory Dr Devender Bhasin said heart disease was posing a serious challenge to the nation. Chetan Sharma, CEO, Bharat Heart Institute, said consumption of alcohol and tobacco should be avoided completely if one was to keep heart disease at bay.
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Forum for social justice holds annual meeting
Dehradun, September 26 A large number of members from Dehradun and other districts gathered to participate in the convention. A periodical on related issues of the forum, achievements and future works was also distributed during the meeting. Nanak Chand, Chairman , expressed his gratitude to the members for making the projects of the forum run very well. He congratulated the newly elected office-bearers and blessed them to carry on the same work in future with dedication and devotion. |
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Leaders spread message of harmony
Roorkee, September 26 The meeting was headed by the former Nagar
Palika Parishad Chairman, Dinesh Koshik. People from Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Christian communities gathered and exchanged their positive thoughts over the coming Ayodhya verdict. A gathering of 300 people listened to the speakers. Koshik appealed to the gathering whatever the verdict came and in whosoever’s favour, it must be accepted. Speakers at the gathering were Father M Dayal, Dr Ramesh Samwal, Molana Azhar, Maulana Eliyas, Harbhajan Singh of the BT Ganj gurdwara and freedom fighter
Satyawati Sinha.
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Education fair today
Dehradun, September 26 Addressing mediapersons during a press conference, Nidhi Vij, event head of SIEC, said, “Keeping with up the tradition and to acquaint students with different study destinations globally, the organisation will bring six prestigious New Zealand universities in Dehradun, including Massey University, Auckland University of Technology, Victoria University of Wellington, Lincoln University, University of Canterbury and University of
Otago”.
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Dehradun, September 26
Haridwar, September 26
To be tried on working days
