Pitthoragarh, April 15
Breaking the record of the past 20 years, the Himalayan meadows above an altitude of 10,000 feet are still under a thick cover of snow because of continuous snowfall in April, sources of the Meteorological Department and the trekkers who visited the area said.

“The most bugyals (meadows) of the region, like Auli, Bedni, Dwali and Khatia Milam and Ralam in Pitthoragarh, Chamoli and Bageshwar districts are under a thick cover of snow and rain is still continuing in the region,” said Desh Deepak Shah, owner of High Adventure Group, Almora, who recently returned from a trekking expedition at the Auli glacier in Chamoli district with the five members of the group from Mumbai. “Owing to continuous snow on our route, the group had to change the route while returning from the expedition,” added Shah.

The snowfall is so severe that the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) advance group, which was sent to know the condition of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra route, had to return midway from Gunji. The snow has reached down to Chiyalekh on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra trek route. “Our team will go beyond Gunji only when the snow on the Gunji-Nabhidhank route melts,” said the ITBP officials at Mirthi, Pitthoragarh.

The tribal herdsmen, who have been returning from the plains to their homes in the higher reaches of the Himalayas in the Johar valley, have witnessed unexpected glaciers on the way to Milam beyond Munsiyari town and other villages of the upper Darma valley.

“For the first time, I have witnessed seven glaciers in April on the route to the upper Johar valley. There are three glaciers at Syuni and one each at Laspa, Rilkot, Nahar Devi and Chhirkani villages,” said Jagdish Singh Rawat, hotelier of Munsiyari town and resident of Milam village.

The PWD authorities, who takes care of the roads in this part of the state, said the residents of the villages of Lwa, Bilju, Tola, Milam, Martoli, Burfu, Mapa, Rilkot and Chilans were facing difficulties in reaching their homes for their summer stay, as the way is under a thick cover of snow. “We have cleared the routes up to Bogdiyar and the work to clear the way beyond it has been hindered by spells of sudden snowfall almost daily,” said a PWD engineer.

Dehradun, April 15
Uttarakhand Forests Authorities never had such a fortunate beginning to the summer season in the state. The first 60 days of the “fire season” in Uttarakhand have recorded just seven incidents of forest fires, while last year a staggering 201 incidents of forest fires had taken place in the corresponding period.

Of the seven incidents of fires reported this year, six forest fires have occurred inside the reserve forests and just one outside it. No fire incident has taken place so far inside the wildlife habitat areas. Last year by April 15, a total of 45 and 60 forest fire incidents had taken place in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions. This, apart from 46 forest fire incidents inside the wildlife areas of the state.

Uttarakhand Forest authorities attribute this phenomenal fall in the forest fire incidents in the state to rain gods. “There have been plenty of rains this year and showers are taking place even during April, thus keeping forest fires to a minimum,” said Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Dr RBS Rawat. He, however, added that the forest authorities were all prepared to meet any eventuality during the remaining part of the fire season as the temperatures were expected to rise in May and June. The Uttarakhand PCCF had, in the recently convened Conservator of Forests Conference, issued directives to the conservators to be alert in the entire forest season.

As part of new initiatives to curb the forest fire menace, the Uttarakhand Forest Department has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with private entrepreneurs towards usage of perul (dry chir pine leaves) for production of biobrickets and power generation. The dry chir pine leaves are a major cause of forests fires in Uttarakhand.

Dehradun, April 15
The Kandi road that circumscribes Corbett National Park may finally see the light of day. The road will link the Garhwal and Kumaon regions within the Uttarakhand geographical limits.

Senior Public Works Department officials accompanied by state forest personnel will begin a survey in this connection tomorrow.

At present a kutcha road — Kandi marg — is used by villagers for day-to-day purposes and there has been a demand for its metalling for a long time.

But as the road falls inside the protected area of Corbett National Park,environment and wildlife concerns have so far prevented the construction of this key road that will be a link to Ramnagar to Kotdwar via Kalagarh.

Uttarakhand Environment and Forest Advisory Committee member Anil Baloni said Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had recently met Union Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh and raised the issue of the construction of Kandi marg on April 4. He said the Union Minister assured him of a solution to the Kandi marg issue after the survey.

Baloni said the survey would look into various technical, geographical and environmental aspects.

Baloni said it was the endeavour of the state government to ensure that Uttarakhand’s key cities like Ramangar and Kotdwar got better connectivity. “We want to convert the Kandi road into a full-fledged national highway.” The people of Kotdwar and Ramangar had been agitating for a long time for the construction of this road.

Significantly, delay in the construction of Kandi road has forced people of the Garhwal division to cross over to Uttar Pradesh before entering the Kumaon region. This increases the distance and also leads to a financial burden. If the state government succeeds in convincing the Union Environment Ministry in its favour, Kandi marg will be a big achievement for Uttarakhand.

Dehradun April 15
The fast being observed by the Uttarakhand Lok Panchayat continued on the eighth day today. The protest is being observed against “widespread corruption” in the state, where president Prakash Tiwari and senior vice-president Sahab Singh Panwar of the panchayat held the fort. Later in the day, they also burnt an effigy of the state government.

Panwar said the state government was colluding with the corrupt because of which it was avoiding any action against those responsible for the Sturdia scam, distribution of mini hydroelectric projects scam and other scams exposed by the CAG report.

He asked Baba Ramdev to expose the name of the minister who had asked for a bribe. He said if state government did not take quick action in these matters, then they would be constrained to intervene on their own. He talked of getting public support for their agitation. The others who supported him were state president Surat Sigh Negi, state spokesperson Mulchand Shirshwal, secretary Sanjay Pokhriyal and Ved Prakash. The Vir Swarkar organisation has also extended their support to them.

Dehradun, April 15
Senior Uttarakhand Congress leader Dhirendra Pratap has urged Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to review the liquor policy of the state in view of a statewide protest against the allotment of shops close to educational and religious institutions.

In a statement released here today, Pratap said women of the distant rural areas across the state had raised a banner of revolt against the allotment of shops in the vicinity of their villages.

He charged that poor villagers were losing their health as well as their wealth to the habit of drinking. “In Haridwar, which is the home district of minister Madan Kaushik, shops have been opened close to Uttarakhand Sanskrit University, which is a shame for the state BJP Government, ,” he said.

Haridwar, April 15
By the end of this year, the multi- crore project of a ‘transport township’ in Haridwar will become functional, reducing major pressure within the city of transport business that is severely affecting the city particularly in the past few years, owing to setting up of a separate integrated industrial estate.

The project being worked on by the Haridwar Development Authority (HDA) will be providing a one-roof solution to the transport industry. The transport nagar will have separate offices of RTO, telephone exchange, police control room, electric substation, water works-cum-pump house, public utilities, fire station, truck union office and a sewerage pump station.

In addition to this, catering to the requirements of transport employees, a separate truck union office has also been put in place, providing the people associated with the semi industry a one-roof solution in the transport nagar itself.

A nursing home has been put in place with 60 spare part shops, a petrol pump, weighing bridge and multiple food eateries and hotels are also on the offing at the mini township.

With the setting up of an industrial estate by the State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand in Roshanabad, Haridwar, in 2004 as well as the growing population and trade within the Haridwar, the need for having a separate area allocation for the transport segment was felt.

Then the proposed Transport Nagar was envisaged at Sarai Road, Jwalapur, in 2006 when the land acquisition was done with the project work entrusted to Haridwar Development Authority. And now within five years, the project is ready.

Talking to The Tribune, HDA secretary BS Dhanik said that till date 72 plots had been sold out of the total 136 plots. The final registration date is April 24. He said that only those people are getting land who are involved in this business directly and will ease traffic congetion.

Mussoorie, April 15
A workshop on methods of teaching emphasising the use of various tools to make classroom teaching an engaging one was held at Oak Grove School in Mussoorie today.

Resource persons from R&G Institute of professional training focused on the 21st century shift in teaching and discussed the pathway of transforming teachers to the next level of guru.

Managing Director Rachna Sharma and faculty training specialist Hariharan from Mumbai said the present education system led to the door of employment but had failed to guarantee jobs. The need was to harness the employability skills among students. The resource persons shared their experience and explained the technique with which the teachers and students could raise their educative skills.

The principal, Oak Grove School, Anurag Tripathi, said the school had taken the initiative to change the mindset of students and teachers alike to an unconventional one and also encouraged out-of-the-box thinking.

Haridwar, April 15
To give solace to the souls of 500 unknown people, a group of social activists from Rajasthan came today to Haridwar to immerse the ashes of these people in the Ganga.

It was, however, 750-odd urns of ashes that were immersed today in the Ganga, making it one of the rare noble acts. The last rites of the deceased were also performed by the activists.

Notably, since its formation in 1925, the Hindu Sewa Mandal has been involved in carrying out the last rites of those who are unclaimed and also perform the last rites.

Talking to The Tribune, the secretary of Rajasthan-based Hindu Sewa Mandal said the society had been created for this very cause of performing last rites. “We are feeling quite relieved today after immersing the ashes in the Ganga as it has immense spiritual significance in Hindu religion and finally the souls of the deceased will get peace,” said an emotional Vishnu, one of the activists from Rajasthan.

Laxmi Chandan Kishnani, another activist from Jodhpur, said the noble act of the Rajasthani activists was appreciated by everyone present on the occasion.

Dehradun, April 15
The faculty of law, ICFAI University, Dehradun, organised a legal aid camp at Haripur village, Vikas Nagar, under the leadership of the Dean of Faculty of Law, Dr B Kumar, here today.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Amrinder Kunwar Singh, Civil Judge, Senior Division, Vikasnagar, Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, Sushma Juyal, advocate of the Supreme Court, Manmohan Khandwal, President, Bar Association, Dehradun, and Anil Gandhi, secretary, Bar Association, attended the inaugural function.

In his welcome speech, Dr Kumar emphasised the need to hold legal aid camps in view of the many laws passed by Parliament of which the downtrodden people are not aware. He said: “There is a great need to organise such camps at each and every village because people don’t have much legal knowledge.”

Amrinder Kunwar Singh said everybody was supposed to know laws and ignorance of law is not admissible in the court of law. He also emphasised the need for creating awareness on the labour laws.

“Such poor litigants should be guided by the NGOs, law students. I praised the efforts of the ICFAI Law Institute in this regard,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Abdul Qayyum explained certain law procedures regarding how and to whom the first information report (FIR) and complaint could be made.

Sushma apprised the gathering of women empowerment, rights of the women and dowry-related laws.

The villagers, along with their Pradhan, aired their grievances and highlighted the problem of pollution due to the establishment of industry in their area. They felt delighted after knowing about the rights of consumer under the Consumer Protection Act-1986 through a street play, which was staged by the students of the university.

Dehradun April 15
A total of 1,220 patwaris, working in the hill areas of the state, handling a unique system of revenue collection and policing, won a long battle, simmering since 1950, by waging a strike for three years to get a dignified designation and pay scale appropriate to their tough working conditions of a dual nature. They met with success by getting a government order to this effect a month ago.

Buoyed over their victory, the Patwari community is still apprehensive about the outcome in terms of enforcement of the Revenue Police Act well in time, keeping in view the code of conduct coming into play just after six months.

Until then, the community feels, they will have to continue to deal with the prevalent system.

According to the government order, a Kanungo has been designated as a Revenue Inspector. Similarly, a Patwari has been designated as a Deputy Revenue Inspector with a revised pay scale of Rs 5,300-20,200 and Assistants/Helpers as Revenue Constables with a revised pay scale of 2,550-4,590.

President of the State Patwari Association, Bhagwati Prasad Jagudi, said, “We wanted to seek solutions for all our problems by reaching a consensus with the state government on our 17-point agenda, but the

state government gave us immediate relief only on two of our main demands and assured us to assimilate the rest in the RPA.”

Clearing misgivings about the enactment of the RPA, Revenue Minister Diwakar Bhatt said, “I have assigned a panel of experts to the task to formulate the RPA in the minimum time possible. I am quite hopeful of tabling it in the coming monsoon session.” — TNS