Dehradun, November 9
Keeping in mind the forthcoming Assembly elections, the Uttarakhand government on the 10th anniversary of the state today made many populist announcements, including a decision to provide wheat for Rs 2 per kg and rice Rs 3 per kg to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families living in the state. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank made the announcements at a function held on the occasion here. A total of 3.47 lakh BPL families will be benefited by this decision of the government.

A BPL family will be allowed to buy 20 kg of wheat and 15 kg of rice per month. Earlier, these families were being provided wheat for Rs 4.65 per kg and rice Rs 6.15 per kg.

The state BJP government also had something for the Above Poverty Line (APL) families. The Chief Minister also announced concessional wheat and rice for them. Wheat will be provided to APL families at the rate of Rs 4 per kg and rice Rs 6 per kg against earlier rates of wheat for Rs 6.60 per kg and rice Rs 8.45 per kg. A total of 18 lakh APL families are expected to benefit from the decision.

Nishank also announced to provide government employment to 50,000 youth in the coming year. He said 15,000 new posts in group III would be filled and 15,000 employees would be promoted besides the regularisation of services of 6,000 ad hoc employees working since 2000.

Nishank also announced that 5,000 new anganwaris would be set up and each of these would provide employment to two women. As many as 670 Nyaya Panchayats would have their own secretariats and would provide employment to 6,700 more people. In the private sector, he claimed that 70,000 jobs would also be created.

For the rural areas, he announced to give one lakh solar lanterns to the villagers. His government would give Rs 1 lakh for the marriage of a girl from a poor family. The state government also reduced the tax revenue to a nominal rupee one per year and free medical insurance would be provided to 2.5 lakh families next year. In the education sector, the state government decided to provide free education up to the graduation level in government colleges. Already, education up to class XII is free in the state-run government schools.

Pitthoragarh, November 9
“It is a sort of betrayal with people of the state that the people who had opposed the creation of the state captured power after the creation of Uttarakhand,” said Kashi Singh Airy, senior Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) leader and leader of the Separate State Movement since 1979. He was reacting on the 10th anniversary of the state.

Interestingly, Airy, who blamed the Congress and BJP governments, is part of the BJP government as his party shares power with the ruling party in the state.

“When we felt that the development model of Uttar Pradesh was not working in the hilly region due to its separate geographical realities, we, the students of that time, started the movement to separate the hilly region of UP under the leadership of Dr DD Pant, world-known physicist, in 1979,” remembered Airy.

Spelling out the vision of the state, Airy said it was from nowhere a political one. “The movement was to uplift the hills economically socially and culturally and the progress of small states like Himachal and Haryana were the model,” said Airy.

He said the people of Uttarakhand were betrayed as the power in the state was captured by mainstream centrist parties. “Their leaders are being called or being sent in the state by their respective high commands as the Viceroys or Governors were treated during the British era,” said Airy.

Expressing deep dissatisfaction over the direction of the state during the past 10 years, Airy said during this period the respective governments could not even gave a clear direction to the state. “Sometimes they boost of making the state as power state and than shift to make it herbal one or the tourist state. They keep changing their priorities as they have no clear vision,” said Airy.

According to the UKD leader, the movement for separate state was run keeping the interest of common hill folks in mind, but policies after creation of the state went against the interest of those very people. “The policies based on main natural resources of the state, forests, water and lands are against the interest of local people of the state,” he said.

But comparing to two other states created simultaneously, he said Uttarakhand was better placed than Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. “But we have potential to get ahead of others like Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir but that is yet to be happened,” said Airy.

Dehradun, November 9
Owing to the disaster triggered by incessant rains in Uttarakhand, the main function of the 10th State Foundation Day was celebrated with not much fanfare at the Police Lines here today.

Like previous years, an air show and cultural programmes were not organised during the celebrations. However, the impressive parade taken out by the 10 units of the police added to the charm of state’s turning 10 today. State Governor Margaret Alva, who presided over the function, inspected the parade while Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank was the special guest.

In her address, the Governor congratulated people of the state and paid tributes to the statehood activists who had laid down their lives during agitations for the creation of Uttarakhand.

“In the past 10 years, several good works have been done in the state, including construction of new roads, reforms in education and giving a boost to industrial output. Due to all these developmental works, the growth rate of the state has risen to 9 per cent and also the standard of living has improved,” Alva said.

The whole state has been affected by the disaster thus this is the time to celebrate the state foundation day with simplicity and providing succor to the affected people. The Governor said the government should provide better employment opportunities to the unemployed in the state to stop the migration of talented people from here.

Alva also gave away police medals, which were declared to be given to the cops on the occasions of Independence Day-2009 and Republic Day-2010.

Dehradun SSP Ganesh Singh Martolia was the parade commander. He was assisted by ASP Birender Jeet Singh and DSP Manikant Mishar. Police units that took part in the parade were traffic police, civil police, PAC, women PAC, police telecommunication, quick fire action team, dog squad, commando force and fire service.

The parade started at 10 am when the Governor arrived. She reviewed the parade accompanied by DGP Jyoti Swaroop Pandey and ADGP (Law and order) SK Bhagat.

The following cops were given away police medals.

Police medals announced on the occasion of Republic Day-2010: President Police Medal for distinguished service was awarded to MA Ganapthy, IGP (Garhwal region); Police Medal for commendable service was given to Satyaveer Singh, DSP (Tehri); Kumbh Mela Police Medals

were given to Arun Pandey, DSP CID (Headquarters), Mahender Singh Negi, Inspector, Udham Singh Nagar, Ramesh Chander Kukreti, Head Constable, Vigilance Sector.

Police medals announced on Independence Day-2009: President Police Medal for distinguished services was awarded to Devi Prasad Juyal, DSP, Nainital; Police Medals for commendable service were given to Taradutt Vela, DSP, Pauri Garhwal; Sanjeev Kumar Koushik, Inspector, Telecommunication, and Hayat Singh Kaithait, Head Constable, Bageshwar.

Dehradun, November 9
Painting a dismal picture of the state, Dhad, a social and cultural organisation, said successive governments in Uttarakhand had failed to stop migration of people from villages.

At a press conference held yesterday, Lokesh Nawani, Chairman of Dhad, said in the past 10 years, the rate of migration from state villages had gone up. “There are 15,000 villages in the state hills and from each of these villages at least 40 per cent people may have migrated. It is not as if the phenomenon of migration is new, but we had hoped that it would stop with the creation of the state,” said Nawani.

He said far from strengthening the economy of the hills, the lopsided policies of the Congress and now the BJP government had only helped create towns of Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar, and Haldwani, ignoring the needs of the villagers.

“These policies have also weakened the self-sustaining economy of the hills. Now, the villages are acting as raw materials to fulfil the needs of Udham Singh Nagar, Haldwani and Dehradun.

Convener of Dhad Tanmay Nawani said unless the government made villages the main focus of development, people would continue to migrate from the state. “We demand that the government unveil two and three-year plans for the development of villages, and also encourage traditional agriculture,” he said.

Dehradun, November 9
A day before the State Foundation Day, the Samajwadi Party (SP) held a discussion on the topic, “Uttarakhand ki Dasha and Disha”, to deliberate upon the achievements and failures of the state governments in the past 10 years.

President of the state unit of the party Vinod Barthwal said even after 10 years of formation of the state, the state was sorely missing an ideal working culture. It was just emerging as a carbon copy of Uttar Pardesh and adopting a similar administrative setup. “The bureaucracy is working in an anarchic manner. Even Chief Minister’s directives are not taken seriously by it. Ministers have become dwarfed before them. This does not augur well for the state,” he said.

Barthwal also talked about the debt of Rs 18,000 crore mounting on the state out of which it could not wriggle out. Neither could it become independent in meeting its own requirements. He deplored the fact that on every issue, the Chief Minister sought Centre’s help, which did not reflect good on the state.

The ambiguity on the decision of declaring capital of the country too was touched upon, where Barthwal said both successive state governments, the Congress and the BJP, had been hoodwinking the public of the state on this issue. He also slammed the state government for not having any clearcut vision and policy on agriculture, forest, power or any other field in the past one decade.

The others who spoke were senior members of the party namely RK Singh, Hussain Ahmad, Vidya Dobhal and Hema Bora. President of the city unit Subhash Panwar and district president Gulfam Ali were also present on the occasion.

Dehradun, November 9
The Minorities Welfare Association today organised a workshop entitled “progress of minorities in the past 10 years of Uttarakhand State” was held in the Gadarpur area of Udham Singh Nagar district today.

Former Uttarakhand Waqf Board member Munnawar Ali said it had been over 10 years since the formation of the state but there had been no improvement in the state of civic affairs in the minority dominated localities. He said poor sanitation in localities was adversely affecting their health.

Madarasa Welfare Committee’s general secretary Usman Albi said the state had been facing financial crisis and the issues of development of madarasas had been pending for long. He said computer teachers were still to get salaries from the state government.

Association’s state president Sibtey Nabi said all communities were celebrating the 10th anniversary of the state formation day with enthusiasm. He said there had been distinct interest generated within the minorities towards education. He said, however, it was a matter of concern that minorities were still to get an adequate representation in politics.

Nabi reminded that the minorities had overwhelmingly voted for a secular party in the parliamentary elections following which the party has all Lok Sabha seats in the state but this very part did not give any representation to the community in its State Working Committee.

He also pointed out that minorities would be forced to look into other options if they were deprived of political representation in the forthcoming assembly elections by the so called secular party.

The association will also be conducting an awareness campaign for spreading education among the minorities. Hanif Gandhi, Kashipur, Mohammed Faizan, Haldwani, Dilshad Hussain, Jaspur, District Planning Committee member Mohammed Alam were prominent speakers on the occasion.

Dehradun, November 9
IIT, Roorkee, is yet to be out of the lipstick scandal and a student has gone missing. Deepesh Gautam of Kota, a final-year student of MTech, has been missing since October 22. It’s learnt that he mentioned his going to Delhi for some personal work and that he would be back to college in a day or two. When he did not return, his friends rang up his parents at Kota to know about his well being. His parents were alarmed and Deepesh’s father Mohan Lal rushed to Roorkee where at the Civil Lines police station he lodged an FIR on October 28.

According to police reports, Deepesh’s father said sometime in between he had received a call from an unknown person who said Deepesh was in Delhi. A police team was rushed to Delhi to identify the caller, but could not succeed in the case as the documents found against the number were fake.

Failing on this front, the police has intensified its search as now it is tracing his e-mail account and details of his calls as the phone has been in use till October 27 which confirms that the cell has been in use either by Deepesh or someone else, said SP, Rural, RL Sharma.

Commenting on Deepesh’s character, the SP said it had been found through his dairy that he was into spiritualism and maintained a clean college record.

Dehradun, November 9
Dr DS Bhakuni, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, Padam Shri VP Dimri, Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute, Gandhinagar, and BK Gairola, Director of the General National Informatics Centre, New Delhi, will receive science excellence awards at the fifth Uttarakhand State Science Congress beginning tomorrow.

The congress comes up as a joint initiative of Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology (UCOST) and Doon University.

At a press conference here today, Prof Grijesh Pant, Vice-Chancellor, Doon University, said the three eminent scientists of the country would be honoured in the three-day congress.

Dr Rajendra Dobhal, Director, UCOST, said a total of 700 dignitaries would present their papers. He said four parallel brainstorming sessions on climate change, biodiversity conservation, drinking water and renewable energy would be highlights of the workshop. Chief Conservator of Forests Jairaj would moderate the session on biodiversity. Eminent environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Dr Anil Joshi would also take part in the deliberations.

Senior scientists Dr DP Uniyal and Brijmohan Sharma were also present at the news conference.

Dehradun, November 9
Members of the All-India Women’s Conference (AIWC), Dehradun branch, held a legal help camp on the subject of “Violence against Women” in which 200 needy women sought free legal advice.

Speaking on the occasion, Razia Beig, president, Bar Council, said women lacked information on provisions under the Protection of Domestic Violence Act (PDVA) and needed to be educated.

Senior Congress leader and in charge, Media, Surya Kant Dhasmana said the Act was very good in its content, but problems in its implementation needed to be addressed.

The AIWC is an organisation working all over India with 500 branches.

Dehradun, November 9
The police arrested a conman who, posing as an IAS officer, cheated a local NGO of Rs 6,000. According to a police compliant by Maya Rana, secretary of the Moda Dhunpur Kalyan Samiti, Nashville Road, Karan Bahadur duped her of Rs 6,000.

She alleged in her complaint that her NGO wanted to have a monitoring report from the Agriculture Ministry in the Centre for which Bahadur approached them. He presented himself to the NGO as an IAS officer and promised to help them in getting the monitoring report.

He later took Rs 6,000 from the NGO for doing the work on some pretext. However, when he asked for commission for the work, the NGO doubted him and found that he was a cheat, as per the police.

Following this secretary of the NGO lodged a complaint with the police. The police has registered a case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code at the Kotwali police station.

Dehradun, November 9
In a daring daylight robbery, robbers entered the house of Anooj, a jeweller at Purav Dindayal Colony, when the entire family was away in Haridwar. As per reports, the robbers broke open the lock of the house and took away Rs 50,000 cash and jewellery worth lakhs.

The family returned after being informed by neighbours who had spotted the broken lock.

On his arrival, Anooj found that cupboards of his bedroom were open and everything was lying scattered. He found jewellery and cash missing. He immediately informed the police at Gang Nahar police station and lodged an FIR. SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal also visited the site.

According to the police, seven suspected persons were being questioned, including some workers of the family. Their mobile calls were also being traced to know about their presence in the town on that day.

Anooj, who is a jeweller by profession, has a showroom at Ranipur, Haridwar.