Dehradun, May 5
The Annual Plan outlay of Rs 7,800 crore for Uttarakhand for 2011-12 was finalised at a meeting presided over by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, held in New Delhi today, according to an official press release issued here today. The Annual Plan size was agreed at Rs 7,800 crore, more than Rs 1,000 crore than the previous year’s plan outlay, including a special central assistance worth Rs 666 crore, for this hill state.

The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Dr Ahluwalia, complimented the state government for maintaining a steady growth and performance in some important sectors. He said indicators in the health sector were better than the national average. Ahluwalia said the state should continue efforts to create enabling environment for public/private partnership in development of infrastructure.

The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, emphasised that the development strategy in line with strengths and weaknesses of the area would help in accelerating growth and making it more inclusive. He indicated that the Planning Commission was reviewing the performance of centrally sponsored schemes in the backdrop of preparations for the Twelfth Plan and would expect states to bring their experience to the attention of the commission so that better results could be ensured in the future plans from these social sector schemes.

Dr Ahluwalia assured the state that the Planning Commission would take up its request for expansion of the railway network and construction of air strips with the authorities concerned after detailed proposals were received. The commission noticed with concern the slowing down of the hydro-power generation programmes in the state and pointed out that efforts should be made to take it forward without compromising on the other aspects.

The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand demanded that the central government should consider extending its railway network inside the state because China had already constructed a railway track touching the Indian border. He advocated a special policy for the Himalayan states, considering their difficult geographic and social conditions. Nishank also demanded to extend the Border Area Development Plan in all 26 borderline blocks of the state, which were situated on the China-Nepal border. He said setting up of a separate ministry for the states in the Himalayan region would facilitate focused attention of the central government in addressing the problems of this region.

On the other hand, the Chief Minister explained that the thrust areas of the plan would include development of physical infrastructure, agriculture diversification in hills, enhancing livelihood options, greater emphasis on water conservations and mainstreaming private-public system in both physical and social infrastructure.

Nishank added that the Planning Commission should take into account regional imbalances and hill-plane dichotomy for finalising support to the state. A special package for abridging critical gaps in infrastructure was also requested. He also sought special assistance for restoration of infrastructure damaged by disaster as also for rehabilitation of villages rendered unsuitable for human habitation. The Chief Minister also demanded green bonus for the state, claiming that the forest conservation Act was depriving the state from making productive use of land. 

A new machine procured by the Municipal Corporation to clean drains in Dehradun.

Verma said an inquiry should be conducted in to the aspect why this machine was bought without discussion at a board meeting and why th department could not get the old machine repaired. Sources stated the safai karamcharis faced difficulty in operating the machine, as they had not been given demo of the machine. “There is a shortage of drivers in the corporation and it would be difficult to take the machine at various places in the city,” they added.

Talking to The Tribune, senior health officer Kailash Joshi said they would get a carrier made to transport the machine from one place to another. “It would take take 10-12 days,” he added.

Dehradun, May 5
Former Chief Engineer of Uttar Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation Arun Kumar Mishra was sent to a 14-day judical remand by a CBI Court today.

According to the application filed in the court by the CBI, besides abusing his official position in favouring Tronica city project in Ghaziabad, Mishra is also accused of stashing about Rs 350 crore in different bank accounts.

It is alleged that he has about 70 bank accounts in his name and in the name of fictitious persons in different branches of banks in Dehradun, Haridwar and other places.

The CBI had earlier also filed an FIR against five employees of Punjab National Bank, Vidhan Sabha branch, including its manager Manmohan Sharma, and Deputy Manager Harish Kamboj.

Mishra had allegedly kept a huge amount in this branch with the connivance of the bank staff. During the investigation, it also came to light that Mishra had alleged connection with Dehradun-based astrologer Ashish Semwal. He had met him in Delhi, and the two developed friendly relations.The CBI had then questioned Semwal for several days. However, sources in the CBI said Semwal was not questioned today, but if need arose, he would be summoned again for questioning.

Dehradun, May 5
A patwari of the Revenue Department was nabbed by officials of the Vigilance Department, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000 here today.

According to Vigilance officials, Sanjay Uniyal, a resident of Tehri Garhwal had lodged a complaint with the police in this regard. Uniyal had bought a land in Tehri in the name of his wife, Deveshwari

Devi Uniyal, from a person, Shanti Chamoli. After registry of the land, Uniyal contacted patwari of the region Dinesh Kumar Saini for verification purposes. However, vigilance officials said, Saini did not do the work of verification and kept on harassing Uniyal. He asked Uniyal to pay Rs 5,000 to get the verification done.

Dehradun, May 5
Shortage of a radiologist at the Doon Hospital and preference of doctors for a more refined diagnostic tool like the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has reduced the number of patients advised to undergo ultrasound or even CT Scan for their ailments.

Among the different diagnostic tools used by the doctors to ascertain the exact nature of the disease at the Doon Hospital, the ultrasound and CT Scan seem to be the least preferred and as the hospital records indicate, there has been a negative growth for the past two years.

“There has certainly been a decline in the number of patients being advised to undergo ultrasound. We are facing a manpower crunch as a single radiologist, Dr GS Rana, is carrying out the diagnosis and reporting for the past several months as Dr SP Kuriyal has been sent on attachment duty to another hospital. We require at least three radiologists to man the ultrasound set up at the hospital; the shortage has been a recurring problem at the hospital. I have written to the Director-General, Health and Family Welfare, to depute one more radiologist at the hospital,” said Dr BC Pathak, Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS), Doon Hospital.

The number of patients who were advised to go for ultrasound in 2010 were 1,317 patients while in 2011 for the same (beginning of the year), month, the total number of patients who came for ultrasound were 897. During the past two years, there has been a negative growth in terms of number of patients being advised to go for ultrasound. While the number of ultrasounds done in 2009 were 16,377, in 2010, they were 15,485.

However, Dr KC Pant, senior physician, Doon Hospital, said that using ultrasound to scan areas that have air or bone becomes problematic. “That’s why it can’t examine the lung closely as the air inside interferes with the sound waves. This is not a problem with the MRI. The MRI is even preferred over the CT scan because of the information one can glean by using the equipment,” said Dr Pant.

Unlike MRI, ultrasound creates a real-time moving image of what you are looking at. The most common use of the ultrasound is for looking at a foetus inside a pregnant woman where both the mother and the doctor can look and inspect how the baby is doing.

“However, when it comes to cost effectiveness, the ultrasound should be the most used of the two as the cost and complexity of MRI makes it quite difficult for most people to take advantage of,” said Dr Pant. 

Dehradun, May 5
To stem the migration of youths from the state to other parts of the country, the Shiv Sena cadre here today demanded job avenues for them at their hometown or grant them with a regular unemployment allowance.

Members of Shiv Sena, under the leadership of Gaurav Kumar, state head of the party, took a resolution to stage demonstration on May 9. They will also hand over a memorandum listing their demands to the state Chief Minister through the District Magistrate.

Addressing the media, Kumar said the cadre was looking forward to carry on the protest against the government’s failure to give the status of a permanent capital to Dehradun, and also because of the lack of job avenues to the youth, who are migrating to other parts of the country.

Taking both the Congress and the BJP to task, he said both the parties had hurt the sentiments of residents of the city. “They should not have taken 10 years to give it a permanent status. Both the parties were just trying to grab people’s money, and this was the reason corruption was increasing here,” he added.

He further said due to lack of facilities in the hills, the youth was moving to other places.

Dehradun, May 5
Members of Sanatan Dharam Mahasangh today expressed their concern and resentment over increase in the trend of fake persons running business in the name of babas and sants. “Sant samaj needs to identify these persons as soon as possible; then only we can maintain our dignity,” national president of the Mahasangh, Rajyogi Mahant, Rakeshnath Ji Maharaj told the media.

While Dr Swami Premanand Ji Maharaj, national working committee president, Mahamandleshwar, urged the society to come forward in keeping the Ganga holy. “The Ganga is hardly being maintained by the government, he said. He further said that the ongoing projects, like construction of dams, etc, on the Ganga should be stopped immediately or else people would hardly be able to see it in future. He added, “It is only because of the Ganga that people visit the holy city of Rishikesh and Haridwar.”

Acharya Rupender, national general secretary of the sangh expressed concern over increasing 
female foeticide. He said everyone should take an oath to stop it.

When asked if religious people should enter politics, he said, “Definitely. If a person with a good soul enters politics, only he or she can try to change the system.”

Dehradun, May 5
A college student who was allegedly involved in the gang-rape of a tenth standard student was nabbed near the ISBT this morning.The police said Javad planned to leave the city today and the police had prior information regarding this. The police acted after the family and relatives had mounted pressure on it yesterday. They had given a 48-hour deadline to the cops, threatening they would commit suicide if the student was not arrested.

According to the complaint filed by victim with the police, three friends, including two students, had raped the 17-year-old girl on Saturday. Her friend Shiffat Qazi, a BBA II year student of a private university in Dehradun, had called her at the bus stand on the pretext of having arranged her meeting with a tutor for joining tuition classes.

However, he took her to a room of his friends on the Turner road where he, along with Javad, a BBA II year student, and Raja, alias Raees Alam, owner of a restaurant, allegedly raped her.

Two were arrested the same day the crime was reported to the police 
and were sent to a 14-day judicial remand.

Dehradun, May 5
Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE) today got the better of Forest Research Institute (FRI) by seven wickets to enter the semifinals of the ongoing Central Government Employees’ Welfare Committee Cricket Tournament under way at the Survey of India cricket stadium here.

While batting first, IRDE scored 155 runs in 20 overs with the help of a fine half century by Vipin. In reply, FRI was bowled all out for 148 runs in 18.3 overs. The FIR team started off well but lost the tempo and gave away all the wickets.