Dehradun, October 8
Harish Rawat, Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment and Lok Sabha MP from Haridwar, has accused the Uttarakhand Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of doing nothing on it own except demanding money from the Central government for disaster relief.

Addressing a press conference here today, Rawat lamented that the Central government promptly gave Rs 500 as interim relief and Rs 100 crore as disaster relief fund, but even after more than 20 days, the state government had failed to even spend 10 per cent of the amount on the ground to provide succour to the affected population.

“The ruling BJP leaders are terming the Central interim relief as inadequate but have failed to announce its own package for the relief of the people,” he said.

Rawat said all other state governments where natural disaster struck announced their own packages besides the Central assistance. “It is perhaps the only state government that has done nothing on its own except demanding money from the Centre and that too they could not spent,” he charged.

The Union Minister ridiculed the statement of the Uttarakhand Chief Minister to shift 250 villages which are disaster prone in the state. The Chief Minister has asked the Central government to permit use of forest land to rehabilitate these villages. “The past experience whether it was Haridwar or Tehri of rehabilitation of people has been sore and no land could be found for such people in the past. The Forest Department is of the state and the Chief Minister should get the land identified for rehabilitation of these 250 villages,” he said.

Rawat said a wrong impression was being created by the state government that the entire onus of relief and rehabilitation of the disaster affected people had to be on the Central government.

The relief and rehabilitation work has to be done by the state government which it has failed to do, he alleged. On the question of relaxation in the norms for grant of relief for disaster-affected people in the hills, Rawat said he was in favour of the demand but the decision had to be taken by the National Development Council (NDC).

He urged Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to immediately announce a package on the lines of Haryana for the disaster-affected people, including farmers who lost crop and land, in the shape of loan waiver and those who lost their hearths and homes to overflowing rivers.

He also charged that only a few people in the state affected by disaster had received Rs 2,000 as immediate relief. “Most of them could only get Rs 500 which is inadequate,” he said. 

Dehradun, October 8
BJP state in charge Thavar Chand Gehlot has expressed hope over the conduct of relief works in the state in the aftermath of rain-linked disaster.

At a press conference here today, Gehlot said the relief works were going on in a right direction and funds being used appropriately.

He said he held meetings with the elected representatives and other officials and found relief works satisfactory.

He said all major relief activities would be completed within next four to six months.

Gehlot yet again reiterated that the 2012 assembly elections would be contested under the incumbent leadership in the state. He asserted that both government and party organisation were working well.

Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank was also present at the conference. He asked the Congress not to resort to politics on disaster and work collectively towards relief and rescue works.

“While I am thank the Prime Minister and the Home Minister for their concern towards Uttarakhand, the ongress leaders in the state, too, should desist from resorting to politics in the relief works,” said Nishank.

He said he had cordial talks with the Prime Minister and hopeful of some major relief for the state within a week.

He also held that the state had sought different set of relief distribution norms for the hills.

BJP state president Bisan Singh Chufal was also present at the conference. 

Haridwar, October 8
Despite the administrative claims of making city garbage free to prevent spread of contagious diseases, on the ground level the claims seem to be contrary to the reality. Heaps of garbage, filth, open drains and choked sewer lines seem to be inviting diseases.

Perturbed by this laxity of municipality and administration, the residents of Jwalapur took to streets today. Areas of sub-urban Jwalapur, particularly Mohalla Ghosian, Paodhoi, Dheerawali, and adjacent areas are living amid filth and garbage as the cleaning of dump yards at these colonies is not being done.

Flies and mosquitoes have made these piles of unattended garbage their home with authorities not serious despite dengue and malaria patients being found in Haridwar in large numbers.

Colony committee members raised slogans against the laxity of the municipality committee for not paying due attention while lamented at the Health Department for risking colony people’s lives as the number of patients of dengue and malaria are increasing day by day, but no effort is being done to address this problem.

“Despite monsoon rains just over and winter season yet to start, during this phase probability of spreading diseases is quite more but authorities seem to be deliberately ignoring the woeful condition of our colonies,” said Amit Kumar a resident of Jwalapur.

Residents also are planning to meet the District Magistrate as well as protesting outside Municipality Committee Chairman Kamal Johra’s house. The Municipal Committee Chairman said sanitation employees were working non-stop post-flood and if some colonies were not being properly cleaned, then as soon as it came to his notice those areas were 
strictly monitored. 

Dehradun, October 8
The hurdle in the way of the approval for the Arakot Tyuni hydroelectric project of 81 MW has finally been cleared with the Environment Ministry of the Central government giving its nod for the same.

The Irrigation Department has agreed to maintain a distance of 1 km between both projects, Arakot Tyuni and Tyuni Plasu-72 MW, at Dak Pathar.

The Cabinet has given its approval to create a corporation for the Irrigation Department to undertake the construction and management of both these projects in April. The detailed project report (DPR) of Tyuni Plasu was cleared with the project costing around Rs 600 crore but when it came to clear the DPR for Arkot Tyuni, the matter got stuck at the Environment Ministry level.

BK Tamta, Head of the Irrigation Department, said with the approval from the ministry, the Irrigation Department could now work out on other modalities for 
the completion of these projects. The department would soon chalk out a plan for Arakot Tyuni and send the estimates to the government, he added.

Amirul Hassan, officer in charge of the project, said by creating a distance of 1 km between both projects, the department would lose a few million units.

The environment ministry had put that condition to let the water of Tauns river flow smoothly citing it was necessary for the survival of aquatic life and ecology of the place.

Dehradun, October 8
The Uttarakhand Poorva Sainik Evam Ardh Sainik Sangathan has thanked the Defence Minister of India for accepting the demand of one rank one pension but regretted the prohibition of any increase in the pension of family pensioners of pay band II. In a letter sent to the ministry, the organisation has emphasised that the prohibition is contrary to the provisions envisaged in para 5 of the GOI, MOD, Dept of Ex-Servicemen letter no 17 dated 11 November, 2008, in which the directions were clear that in no case family pension would be less than 30 per cent.

Lieut-Col Ganga Singh Rawat (retd), central president of the body, also sought attention of all concerned to the canteen inventory system circulated to them. The policy with regard to the structure of various bands (their equivalent ranks in the three services), ORs Band-Sepoy to Havildar, JCO band-NB Subedar to Hon Capt, Officers Band I- Lt to Colonel, Officers Band II- Brigadier to Major-General and Officers Band III-Lt General were suggested.

He has asked not to tamper with the pay bands of rank and file of all three services, as it had been decided after prolonged deliberation by the 6th CPC and therefore any alternation to the pay band may raise many issues.

The band I to V were only suggested by the Canteen Inventory Management System and made effective by the Canteen Store Department with effect from August 1 this year.

Colonel Rawat said his organisation was of the opinion that the Army HQ, QMG, CSD Branch should reconcile on the change of bands of rank and file of the three services and in no case Hon Lt and Hon Capt be clubbed with the JCOs for availing the facilities of Canteen Store Departments.

He asked the Ministry of Defence to address certain anomalies, such as clubbing Hon Lt and Hon Capt with JCOs, should be avoided for providing safeguard to the importance of Hon ranks and these officers to avail CSD (1) facilities as are available to commissioned officers who belong to Pay Band III.

He also asked to keep the monitory limit of Hon Lt and Hon Capt on par with commissioned officers belonging to pay band III and asked for the directions not to curtail the monitory limits of Hon Lt and Capt.

He lamented due to a lackadaisical attitude of bureaucrats and high-ranking officials, ex-servicemen retired on or after January 1, 2006, were not getting their entitled pension.

Dehradun, October 8
The Urban Development Department is planning to introduce accrual based accounting system in 20 more towns of the state.

This is despite the fact that Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) cities in Uttarakhand have been slow in adopting accrual based accounting system despite it being a mandatory condition laid down by the Central government to access funds under its various schemes.

Due to the delay, the funds set aside by the Central government for carrying out reforms got exhausted as the Uttarakhand government did not apply on time.

Now with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreeing to provide Rs 7 crore for economic reforms, the double entry system in 20 towns will be complete by 2016. Even the account manual for this purpose is still to be approved by the Cabinet.

The double entry system allows a degree of transparency as funds can be accounted for and managed at each of these levels starting from state offices, district offices, block and cluster offices.

In fact, the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) is now shifting to the double entry system and has just completed the opening balance along with Nainital. Haridwar is still lagging in this regard.

These economic reforms have to be compulsorily carried out under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Even the office of the Accountant General (AE) has sought information from the Urban Development Department on the number of municipalities and Boards that have adopted the double entry system.

On the other hand, despite the Central government demanding strict adherence on the part of local bodies to set aside 25 per cent of their budget for taking up programmes for the urban poor, the local bodies have still not opened separate accounts for this purpose. 

Doon to get  16 more  roundabouts

Dehradun District Magistrate Sachin Kurve today asked officials to complete construction of 16 roundabouts in Dehradun. These are to be constructed under the Jawharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

At the meeting, the DM said that ONGC has provided 1,800 sq m for the same. The PWD and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited have also been asked to transfer some land so that the construction could be done.

He said that action has been taken to arrange land by the Zila Panchayat, District Supply Department and Municipal Corporation. The DM also asked the Forest Department to immediately give permission for cutting of trees.

He asked MS Rathore, Executive Engineer, PWD, to speed up work. 

Nainital, October 8
Director General of Police (DGP) JS Pandey has stated that his efforts will be to ensure that the state police force does not resort to aggressive policing unless it is the last resort available. He has also stated that the police must not resort to increasing figures pertaining to arrests and registration of cases.

He said it was difficult to implement such a large number of laws that were in existence, particularly the laws in the social domain, adding that the police had to prioritise its area of emphasis. Pandey was on his first visit to Nainital after assuming the office of the DGP.

“Our emphasis will be to check the heinous crime that involves violence. These include instances of loot, murder, ransom killings, etc. As regards the disputes of personal nature, the force must put the matter on the due legal process and avoid aggressive policing,” he asserted.

Pandey said the police force would be laying emphasis on the aspect of maintaining public order which is an important area of its functioning. He emphasised upon the need for proper beat policing while making the constabulary more responsible for the activities on their beats. The DGP stressed the need for the police personnel to maintain a constant rapport with the opinion makers in society.

He was unable to give a convincing reply on the issue of the morale of the police in the state taking a dip with regards to several instances in the past in which the police personnel have been at the receiving end on account of the political interference in its functioning and despite the public opinion being in its favour. All that he could say was that the morale of the force needed to be high in every situation.

“A policeman cannot avoid facing such situations. He has to handle every situation. It is like a soldier cannot refuse going to the front by saying that there is firing or bombing going on,” he said.

When asked about the welfare of the police force, he said efforts were being made to provide housing facility to all personnel. At present only 25 per cent of the force is being provided the facility. He also said: “I have suggested that there should be a moratorium on the sprucing up of the offices and the money should instead be used for maintenance of the houses of the lower rung officials which are in a bad state”.

On the issue of the perceived threat from Maoists in the wake of the state sharing border with Nepal, he said there had been no such threat and even in Nepal the Maoists were turning towards the mainstream of the politics. 

Dehradun, October 8
To increase the number of labourers and to raise the labour budget under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by financial year 2011-12 seems to be the new mission of the district administration. All officials looking after development works in various blocks are geared up for the same. District Magistrate Sachin Kurve has told all development officials as well as programme officials to prepare the plans for development as soon as possible. They have also been asked to prepare a roaster so that a special open meeting could be organised at the gram panchayat level for the next two weeks.

Earlier, lots of problems were faced in the implementation of the MGNREGA in the district due to which the officials were failed to spend the budge of Rs 8 crore that was later on transferred by the administration to other districts on their demand of increasing the budget. The situation was worse until Kurve took the command of the MGNREGA projects in his hands and it was only from last month that the work had showed some progress.

Now, officials have started taking the scheme seriously. And this is the reason that the department started working on the budget six months in advance.

The DM has asked all the BDOs to prepare a representation of works that could be submitted to the administration in the last week of this month.

Talking to The Tribune, District Development Officer RS Pokhriyal said: “All BDOs have been told to prepare the roaster according to which a special meeting will be arranged in all gram panchayats. They have also been asked to include the damage caused due to the recent calamity.” “The BDOs as well as gram pardhans check out that all labourers are registered with them along with their photographs as this would help in increasing the labour budget,” he stated. “We are also trying our best to get back Rs 8 crore that has been transferred by administration to other districts and the work is in progress in this regard,” Pokhriyal added.

Sources maintained that a shortage of engineers and office staff in various blocks in Dehradun district has adversely affected the timely completion of various projects, including the MGNREGA projects and more than Rs 8 crore was transferred to other districts, as Dehradun district had failed to spend the funds on time.

Dehradun, October 8
The IMA Blood Bank, Uttarakhand, has accused the sate government of offering little help to the blood bank even while as the blood bank authorities announced a slash in price of platelets from Rs 1,000 to Rs 600 for the general public in lieu of dengue fever reaching epidemic stages across the state.

Addressing mediapersons, Dr Bhim S Pandhi, patron of the IMA Blood Bank, said the blood bank was a non-profit organisation and the present government had not provided financial aid to the Regional Blood Transfusion Centre despite the fact that the blood bank offered 70 per cent of the blood requirement of the state.

Dr Pandhi recalled that earlier Chief Minister ND Tiwari had promised Rs 4 crore, but only Rs 1.7 crore had been released so far. “Our repeated efforts to request for the release of rest of the mount have fallen on deaf years and the present government has turned its back on the blood bank,” he pointed out.

“We even tried to seek an appointment with the present Chief Minister on number of occasions but our requests have been blatantly refused by the Chief Minister’s Office’ DrPandhi observed.