Dehradun, April 19
The APMC Bill, which seeks to provide effective regulation in the marketing of agricultural produce as well as the establishment of the proper marketing system in Uttarakhand, today came into force.

After getting the nod from Governor Margaret Alva, the state government also issued a notification following which the new agriculture Act came into force, officials said.

The state Assembly had passed the Uttarakhand Agriculture Produce Marketing (development and regulation) Bill, 2011, during its budget session last month.

The new measure seeks to regulate the sale and purchase of agricultural produces and envisages the establishment of marketing development fund in the hill state.

The APMC Act contains provisions for setting up private markets, enabling contract farming and the constitution of the regulatory authority to ensure a level-playing field between government controlled and private mandis.

Private mandis would mean cutting out extra cess such as the mandi cess and other charges, reducing final costs for consumers and buyers and allowing better gains for farmers. There will be some safeguards in the contract farming process.

It will not be performed unless the buyer has registered himself in that market committee.

The new Act would pave the way for the legitimate establishment of private mandis. The bulk purchase licences will also allow corporate houses to buy directly from farmers in the run-up to the setting up of private mandis in the state. — PTI 

Haridwar, April 19
Reiterating that the state government was commitment towards the welfare of minorities, Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said the government was running various schemes catering to this section.

He was speaking at a convention on “kaumi ekta” at Kaliyar Sharif in Roorkee.

The CM also announced schemes for the area, including Rs 25 crore for scholarship to students of minority communities.

He said efforts were also being made for the modernisation of Madrasas, the formation of a minority commission and a professional training centre for women. He said the government would also make sure that there would be no shortage of Urdu teachers in educational institutions.

“We are trying to make Uttarakhand an educational hub envisaging free education till graduation for all, MBBS course for just Rs 15,000, 104 mobile counseling medical service. A proposal will also be forwarded to the Central Government regarding Kaliyar Sharif railway line till Deo Band,” said 
the CM.

The CM also gave instant cash payment amounting to Rs 75,000 to physically challenged poor persons at a public redressal camp.

Social Welfare Minister Matbar Singh Kandari, National Muslim Ekta Manch founder Indresh, BJP state chief Bishan Singh Chufal and Commerical Tax Advisory Committee Vice-Chairperson Pankaj Sehgal were also present on the occasion.

Mussoorie, April 19
The Uttarakhand Parivartan Party (UPP), buoyed by the response during the ‘Uttarakhand Parivartan Yatra’ that began on Martyr’s Day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh on March 23, is all set to take its struggle right to the door of the mafia in the state.

The UPP Central Vice-President, Jaiprakash Uttarakhandi, speaking at a block-level meeting held here yesterday, said the party, during the yatra, had received overwhelming support in the state and was now in a mood to reject the mainstream parties such as the Congress and the BJP in the coming Assembly elections. Uttarakhandi said the UPP was formed to generate awareness among the masses to bring about a change in the state’s political and social arenas and oust the land, forest, education and liquor mafia from the state and has been successful in spreading the message across the state effectively.

Uttarkhandi, lambasting both the Congress and the BJP, said that these two parties along with the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal in the past 10 years had done nothing but patronised the various mafias, marginalising the people of the state to an extreme extent. A section of corrupt bureaucracy, too, was involved in this loot of resources.

He also said that the stand of the party was clear that the time had come to reject these parties and form a third front of like-minded parties, who were ready to take forward the issue of development in the state. Uttarkhandi clearly said that the party was in favour of making Gairsain as the capital of the state. The ‘Uttarakhand Parivartan Yatra’ that began on Martyr’s Day will culminate on Kranti Divas on April 23.

He appealed to the people of the state to strengthen the hands of the UPP in its ongoing struggle. 

Pithoragarh, April 19
Residents of Pithoragarh, which is also the hometown of Uttarakhand Water Resources Minister Parkash Pant, have decided to start an agitation against the inadequate drinking water supply in the town.

The residents have formed a committee to spearhead the agitation and announced to gherao the office of the Jal Sansthan, the government body responsible for providing drinking water, on April 21.

“ We will block the national highway as the next phase of the agitation and then finally stop the Minister from coming to his residence if the drinking water problem of the town is not solved,” said Bhagwan Singh Rawat, coordinator of the Paya Jal Aaraksan Samiti, Pithoragarh.

Jal Sansthan officials today decided to supply drinking water to more than 80,000 population of the town on alternate days, including the ward where Minister Pant resides.

“Drinking water to the 20,000 population of five wards adjoining the Kharkot ward, in which the residence of the state water Minister is located, did not get water on Monday due to some local lifting problems,” 
said Jal Sansthan executive engineer DK Mishra.

Jal Sansthan officials stated the installed capacity of the drinking water network was only for a population of 60,000.Therefore, more than one lakh population of the town could not be provided with sufficient drinking water. “At present we are pumping only 5 million litres per day of drinking water from our two main pumping schemes whereas we need 11 MLD for the town during the summer months,” said Mishra.

Nainital, April 19
The state government has claimed that its disaster management apparatus is well in place and large-scale improvements are being brought about at a fast pace.

Addressing officials of Udham Singh Nagar at a workshop organised on disaster management at Rudrapur, Dr PD Mathur, Project Officer with the Disaster Management Department in Dehradun, said that an emergency operations control room had been set up in Dehradun and its toll-free number was 1070.

He said at the district level,disaster management personnel could be contacted on 1077.

The officials said a monthly review meeting would be organised both at the state and district levels every month to take stock of

the preparedness to meet the challenges posed by any sort of disaster.

According to him, disaster management work would be carried out at the level of Atal Adarsh Gram for which 60 teams had been constituted and 25 jawans of the Prantiya Rakshak Dal (PRD) had been given 10-day training. Till now training had been carried out in 57 Nyaya Panchayats, he claimed.

Participants in the workshop pointed out that Uttarakhand was a highly sensitive zone with regard to natural disasters and various departments needed to be well prepared to deal with emergency situations.

Additional District Magistrate at Udham Singh Nagar Vijay Chandra Kaushal underlined that while it was difficult to prevent a natural disaster, its impact could be minimised by going in for proper preparations.

Laying emphasis on proper data projections, Mathur claimed that his department had prepared a blueprint for public safety and this could only be implemented with the help of officials.

Disaster Management Officer for the district Anil Sharma and Technical Manager Bhupendra Bhainsauda gave details about disasters and made participants practise mock drills.

In the past, the response of officialdom to disasters and the related emergencies has been far from satisfactory.

Nainital, April 19
The Uttarakhand High Court today directed Alaknanda Hydro Power Company Limited (AHPCL) to seek environment clearance afresh from the Centre for increasing the height and generating capacity of its project on the Alaknanda river at Srinagar in Pauri district.

Hearing a PIL, a Division Bench of Justices PC Pant and VK Bist directed the AHPCL to seek a clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) for raising the height of the project to 90 m and increasing the generating capacity to 330 MW.

The Bench has also directed the MoEF to take a decision on the matter within three months, said Ajayvir Pundir, the counsel of the petitioner.

The court, however, rejected the plea of the petitioner to stay the construction work at the project stating that it was not going to be completed in one day.

Ramlal, a social activist, has contended that the environmental clearance was taken in 1985 by the Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board (UPSEB) for the project, proposed to be built with a height of 60 m and a generating a capacity of 200 MW.

Later, it was transferred to a private company called Duncan Industries Limited and eventually to the AHPCL.

Pundir said the increase in the project’s height and generating capacity was allowed and no further environmental clearance was taken.

The petitioner has contended that the new parameters will increase the height of the dam reservoir that might submerge thousands of trees. — PTI 

Mussoorie, April 19
A team of 25 Tibetan students, along with their teachers, has arrived at Cosy Nook Estate in the forests of Landour, just above Mussoorie, as part of the second leg of an ecology study tour.

The tour has been arranged by the Winterline Nature Trust. It was kicked off from the campus of Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) School at Selakui on April 17 and will continue till April 27. During this, the students will visit various places, including Tehri Dam, the WII, Rajaji National Park and Corbett National Park. They will also visit Jhilmil Jheel and Gujjar Colony in Gaindikhatta.

During this tour, an eminent biologist from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, educated the students on map reading and interpretation, GPS navigation, the basics of wildlife science, including camera-trapping, studying scat samples and identifying pugmarks.

However, students missed out on the physical presence of a leopard as it wandered away before the team arrived at Lal Tibbaa in Mussoorie. But estate manager Tek Bhadur Thapa showed them a plaster of Paris impression of the pugmarks of the leopard.

Trustee of the Winterline Nature Shantanu Sarkar said they had selected Tibetan students for the tour as the Tibetan community had always lagged behind other communities in India in terms of their practical eco-efforts, especially in the Doon-Mussoorie area.

He further said as none of the Tibetan community schools had any practical eco-programs, they initiated this project seven years ago and the results are good, especially at SOS-TCV School in Selakui and Sambhota Tibetan School at Paonta Sahib.

He said the Trust would now involve state government schools in the project and a similar program would be launched at Government Senior Secondary School, Kempty.

Principal of TCV, Selakui, said: “This is for the fourth time that our school has been participating in the tour. I am proud that more than 500 students of our school and teachers have contributed a lot in making the campus of our school at Selakui a model eco-campus, at least among Tibetan schools. All of us spend an hour a week on compulsory eco-programs on the campus.”

Dehradun, April 19
Members of the Chhatra Chetna Sangathan staged a protest over the alleged discrimination against minorities in Pakistan, particularly the Hindu community, here today.

The protesters gathered at Gandhi Park and raised slogans against Pakistan and demanded that the Indian Prime Minister should take up the matter with the Pakistan authorities.

Shivam Kumar, state coordinator of the sangathan, said, “It is sad that minority Hindu girls in Pakistan are facing harassment. We request our Prime Minister to immediately take some action in this regard.” 

Pitthoragarh, April 19
Only 35 forest panchayats in Munsiyari subdivision of the district will be eligible to extract yarsa gumba (Cordyceps Sinensis), a medicinal fungus this year, as the Pitthoragarh district administration, along with the Forest Department and Forest Panchayats of the area, has set the extraction rules for this year. There is a great demand for this caterpillar fungus in China for its aphrodisiac properties.

“According to the new rules, the caterpillar fungus could only be extracted by the registered forest panchayats, which will have to sell it only to the ‘Bheshaz Sanghs’ of the state. The selling price will also be fixed by the sanghs as per the market demands,” said JS Rathod, SDM of Munsiyari tehsil.

“We have issued permits to extract yarsa gumba to all the 35 forest panchayats of the subdivision. They will start the extraction of the herb from the first week of May this year,” said MS Semia, Range Officer, Munsiyari Forest Range.

The properties of the caterpillar fungus were became widely known after the World Athletics Championship of 1993, in which the Chinese women athletes broke records in nine track and field events and their coach attributed their stamina to the regular consumption of this cater pillar fungus. The Tibetan had been using this herb for centuries. 

Pithoragarh, April 19
Sunita Devi took over as the Pithoragarh Zila Panchayat Chairperson, nearly three months after the earlier incumbent was ousted by a no-confidence motion, a first in the history of the zila panchayat .

Sunita (28) was the lone nominee for the post which fell vacant after Ranjana Devi was ousted on January 19 by the members belonging to the BJP, the same political party of which she was a member .

Sunita was nominated to the post on April 11 by the BJP district unit itself and supported even by members of the zila parishad belonging to the Congress.Congress zila panchayat members were expelled by the district Congress president on charges of supporting the BJP during the no-confidence motion.

“I will keep a balance in allocating the development budget funds,” said Sunita on the occasion of the swearing-in ceremony. 

Dehradun, April 19
Employees of the Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan today staged a dharna at water works here. They have been demanding a prompt redressal to their demands, including the state government employee status for them.

Led by their president Surendra Arora, the Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan employees alleged the government was giving them a step-motherly treatment. They said despite repeated appeals, the Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan employees were still to get the state employee status.

In a 14-point memorandum submitted to the Executive Engineer of the Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan, the agitating employees have demanded regular service for all the daily wage earners, removal of anomalies in salaries of head fitter, disbursal of pensions through treasury and providing promotional opportunities for the holders of Industrial Training Institute certificates to the posts of Junior Engineer.

The protesting employees also pledged to continue with their dharna till April 24.

Dehradun, April 19
Tourism in the Purola-Netwar-Har-ki-Dun region has been suffering due to inadequate connectivity and destination infrastructure, weak protection and management of assets of tourism importance and inadequate community engagement.

The destinations in the circuit earmarked for development have been segregated into five categories according to their geographical features like wildlife, adventure, pilgrimage, new destinations and the destinations linked to international events.

The scope of wildlife tourism is quite promising in this belt, given the presence of a wildlife sanctuary, a national park and sufficient endangered species in the area. The adventure tourism has been broadly classified into land, water and aero sports.

The Joint Director of the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) AK Diwedi said special emphasis would be laid on developing campsites on trekking routes and hiking trails and setting up camps in remote areas and near the rock-climbing sites. Beach camps alongside rivers for rafting enthusiasts, camps for kayaking and other water sports such as canoeing, water-skiing, parasailing using motorboats will also be developed.

Regarding air sports, the camps will be set up to promote paragliding, parasailing, hot-air ballooning and micro light flying.

The solid waste will be managed scientifically wherein the waste generated in all the public places, including private houses, will be collected systematically.

The entire accommodation infrastructure comes under pressure whenever there is an international event and festival in the state. The camp sites will therefore be further classified under two categories, deluxe and standard while chalking out plans for these pockets.

Diwedi said: “All efforts will be made to encourage participation of the local community in the tourism-related activities in and around the campsites. Training and sensitisation of the members of the local communities will be undertaken for capacity building and creating awareness on economic benefits of the tourism.”