Dehradun, August 11
Congress general secretary and in charge of party affairs in Uttarakhand Chowdhary Birender Singh today ruled out any change in the existing Pradesh Congress Committee if the Assembly elections take place in Uttarakhand by November.

Interacting with mediapersons on the sidelines of the inauguration of Congress Media Centre in Dehradun, Birender Singh said following recent indications by the Election Commission, the present Uttarakhand PCC would continue if the Assembly elections were to be held in November in the state. “In case the polls are held in subsequent months, we could come up with a new PCC,” he added.

On the party’s criterion for the selection of candidates, Birender Singh said ability to win would be the sole criterion in the distribution of party ticket. He did not deny giving ticket to even losers of the past elections, it they stood a better chance this time. He favoured more ticket for Muslims in the forthcoming Assembly elections. Birender Singh also pointed out that in the next fortnight, the District Coordination Committee will be sending its feedback to the authorities on the potential candidates.

He announced the setting up of the Publicity and Publication Committee of the Congress for the elections. He said the committee would be headed by former minister Navprabhat and would have Rajeev Maharishi as its convener.

Responding to queries, the Congress leader disclosed that some BJP leaders in the state were willing to join the Congress and it was now for the party to decide on them.

Referring to a rebellion within the Congress in last Assembly elections, Birender Singh said he would be very strict this time.

Earlier, apart from inaugurating the media centre, the Uttarakhand Congress in-charge also launched the Uttarakhand Congress website amid the presence of a large number of party leaders. Uttarakhand Congress deputy in charge Anees Ahmed, stat party president Yashpal Arya, Leader of the Opposition Harak Singh Rawat, Indira Hridyesh and others were present.

Dehradun, August 11
After Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank gave his approval to the levying of a water charge on power generation by Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL) at the behest of the Irrigation Department, frantic activities have begun in both the departments to turn the matter in their favour.

The Irrigation Department (ID) had begun its preparation to formulate a draft to be tabled in the Cabinet. Managing Director, UJVNL, has met Chief Secretary and explained to him the pitfalls of the plan to levy a water charge on the UJVNL. This way, the old tussle, which both the departments survived for over a decade before it came to an end a year ago when all the maintenance and repair work of hydro-power projects were taken away from the ID, seemed to have erupted all over again.

Yamuna Projects Chief Amirrul Hassan said they had sent a draft of the plan to the Principal Secretary, ID, in this regard. Now, as the the Chief Minister has given his approval to it, they were redrafting it incorporating all the suggestions and objections.

Assistant Executive Mukesh Mohan, who is in charge of the draft-making process, said J&K had been levying water tax on the use of water for electricity generation at the rate of 25 paise per cubic metre, so in case the ID in Uttarakahnd too adopted the same mechanism, it could earn revenue worth about Rs 1,700 crore from its vast pool of 70,000 million cubic metres of water in the state.

He said if the state government showed urgency, then it could complete all the formalities within three months.

President of employees association of the ID Shekharand Raturi said: “We never contemplated such an idea as till last year, we were maintaining and repairing all the 12 hydroelectric projects in the state and earning revenue until we were dispossessed of all our work by the UJVNL, which was formed in 2003, and it always locked horns with us over the maintenance work.” He also said the other players such as the NTPC, NHPC, Jay Prakash Industries, JVK and others, which generated electricity from water would also have to shell out water tax, once the Bill turned into a law in the state.

Shaken by Nishank’s approval to the plan, Deputy General Manger, UJVNL, Pankaj Kumar said: “It will not be feasible to take a cue from the J&K government, which gets most of its electricity from the free share (12 per cent) of the electricity generated by a large number of private players in the state. If water tax is imposed on the UJVNL, it would lead to an increase in tariff for consumers. It is better to increase the electricity tariff instead. It seems, the ID is trying to recapture its lost hold over the hydro-power projects in order to earn money from it. We have already put the matter before the Chief Secretary and are awaiting his response.”

Haridwar, August 11
In a sensational incident at Roshanabad-situated district jail late last night, hardcore criminal Sunil Rathi attacked fellow prisoner Khushal Singh with the intent of killing him and when police personnel tried to intervene, he threatened them with dire consequences. Following the incident, Rathi tried to commit suicide by hitting his head on iron bars. According to jail sources, Rathi indulged in a brawl with Khushal. Initially, Rathi beat him up but later tried to kill him by forcefully grasping his neck.

Other prisoners pulled Rathi back but this created a ruckus in the jail, as other prisoners tried to take advantage of the situation. The warning siren was blown and Jailor MS Gwal, Deputy Jailor Rakesh Verma, with the jail police personnel, reaching the cell where the incident happened.

Involved in twin murder case as well as multiple criminal cases, Rathi has been one of the dreaded hardcore criminals in the region. His criminal activities also extended up to the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh.

Gwal said the situation was brought under control with deployment of the additional force called from the Ranipur kotwali, as during such incidents many prisoners try to take advantage by creating ruckus. He added that now round-the-clock monitoring was being done on Rathi who had been put up in a secluded cell.

Talking to The Tribune, Senior Superintendent of Police Kewal Khurana said in view of the sensitivity of the matter the personnel of the Provincial Armed Constabulary had been deployed in the prison while Special operations group (SOG) will accompany Rathi during his hearing in court.

“A case has been registered under Section 307/309 against Rathi and any such future misbehaviour by any prisoner will be strictly dealt with,” said the SSP.

It’s learnt that in view of most hardcore criminals serving sentence in the jail, the administration is now contemplating shifting Rathi to another district jail.

Nainital, August 11
The Uttarakhand State Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has taken a 28-member delegation to various industrial facilities at Pantnagar with an objective of learning the best manufacturing practices these companies have adopted which make these leaders in their respective areas of work.

The team visited Bajaj Auto Ltd, Ashok Leyland Ltd, Tata Motors Ltd, Delphi-TVS Diesel Systems Ltd. and Lumax Auto Ltd. According to a CII spokesperson, plant head at Tata Motors Atul P Renavikar shared the vision of the Tata Group highlighting its values and ethics.

Nitin Tilak, who is the Deputy General Manager (DGM) (Plant & Utility), briefed the visiting delegation on the high safety standards being adopted by the company to protect environment and people in and around the manufacturing facilities.

He also talked about the good manufacturing practices adopted for excellence in manufacturing. He apprised the delegation about Taikisha Paint Shop which, he said, was the single largest paint shop in Asia. Head of materials department G S Nadgouda briefed the delegates on the Tata Motors Vendor Park at Pantnagar and how it was mutually beneficial for the vendors and the company.

He shared that the vendor park is the largest in the Indian auto industry with 337 acres of area with 66 vendors.

At Bajaj Auto, plant head P M Dindorkar talked about the total productive maintenance (TPM) - a proactive approach that essentially aimed to identify issues in early stages of the manufacturing process and accordingly took remedial steps to achieve manufacturing excellence.

He also briefed the delegation about the Human Resource and Corporate Social Responsibility practices adopted by his company, including interventions in the areas of health, education, drinking water etc in 43 villages.

DGM, Ashok Leyland, Sunil Kumar Tiwari, gave an overview of the best manufacturing practices and plant head Alok C Gupta apprised the delegates on the Ashirwad Yojana which they hade launched with the Government of Uttarakhand to provide employment to the people of the state.

At Delphi-TVS, plant head Sudesh Sud shared the manufacturing processes and how they had moved towards adopting an approach which was helping them in enhancing their production quality.

Head of Operations at Lumax Industries Anuj Verma showcased their state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and processes.

The visiting delegates were from companies across the spectrum like Hewlett Packard (HP) at Pantnagar, Titan Industries at Dehradun and Pantnagar, Minda Industries at Pantnagar, Kirloskar Oil Engines at Pune, Visteon Climate Systems at Bhiwadi, Supreme Industries at Noida, Chowgule & Co. at Goa, and Akums Drugs, AG Industries & Saraswati Dynamics from Hardwar.

Dehradun, August 11
The model of foodgrain banks set up in 55 villages will now be replicated in 670 Atal Adarsh villages. These are being run by trained women selected from the local communities.

The programme being run under the World Food Programme has been appreciated by other states as well and now the government plans to extend the facility to 670 Atal Adarsh villages.

Chairing a meeting today, Chief Secretary Subash Kumar said a proposal to provide nutritious biscuits to the communities in the hills and fortified wheat to the communities in the plains was also being planned.

These banks would also be set up in calamity prone areas.

Nainital, August 11
The woes of power consumers in the region on account of the poor maintenance of the infrastructure continue unabated.

This time it was the township of Haldwani where people had a narrow escape on Wednesday as a high-tension power line snapped and fell on a low-tension line. Although there was no loss of life, people lost electrical appliances said to be worth lakhs of rupees on account of the voltage fluctuation that resulted from the episode. The cause of the snapping of the wire is yet to be ascertained even as people are alleging overloading and poor maintenance.

According to an eyewitness account coming from the Mangal Padav area, there was a blast-like noise accompanied by massive sparking that was visible when the incident happened in the early hours of Wednesday.

Reports say that the 11,000 volt high-tension line fell on a 220 volt low-tension line after snapping. People lost a large number of electrical appliances ranging from fax machines, closed-circuit television cameras, coolers, television cables, refrigerators, etc.

This is not the first time that such an incident has happened in the area. Incidents of wires snapping and people losing their possessions on account of voltage fluctuations has become a sort of routine in the rural areas of Kumaon over the last few weeks.

Haridwar, August 11
With Rakshabandhan nearing, the activities related to the festival have gain momentum at the local schools.

An exhibition of rakhis was inaugurated today by Swami Sharad Puri at Shiv Dale School, situated at Jagjeetpur village. The exhibition drew a large number of visitors on the first day itself. What is unique about this exhibition is that all the rakhis put on display have been made by the students of the school.

Students had been working for the past few weeks to put their creations on display. What is worth appreciating is the fact that the money collected from the exhibition will be utilised for a social cause.

The sale collections will be used to conduct awareness campaigns on environment and anti-polythene drives. More than 2,00 students from both junior and senior sections of the school participated in the exhibition.

Principal of the school Kiran Sharma said this unique exhibition was part of the school management vision to make sure creativity was imbibed in the students while they also get to know more about such festive occasions.

“Our teachers as well as parents helped us in making such artistic rakhis, which are being appreciated by all. I made a rakhi that displayed the Indian flag and it can be worn both sides. I made this rakhi with unused threads lying in my home,” said Tanya, a student of Class VI.

The exhibition will be open till tomorrow during school hours for the public.

Dehradun, August 11
To improve the functioning of mobile clinics and introduce greater accountability, the Health Department has asked the medical and paramedical staff attached with the ambulances to compulsorily register themselves with the Uttarakhand Medical Council (UMC).

As the ambulances are being run under public-private partnership, the private partners operating the ambulances in the 13 districts have hired most of the staff from outside the state.

“Besides better monitoring, the registration with the UMC will encourage accountability. Since the launch of the mobile clinics in 2009 the monthly bill verification and the monitoring of the functioning of the mobiles are being done by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), which has helped us improve the operational part of the ambulances. Registration will enhance the functioning of the staff who render vital services,” said Dr Asha Singh, Joint Director (Directorate-General, Health and Family Welfare).

The mobile health clinics equipped at a cost of Rs 1 crore offer diagnostic facilities like X-ray, ECG, ultrasound and pathology. The ambulances came as part of the World Bank-funded Health System Development Project and were pressed into service in the hills where diagnostic facilities are almost negligible.

Armed with a 10-member team comprising three doctors, four paramedical staff and others, the ambulances have been giving satisfactory results.

According to the Health Department during the period April 2009-April 2011 nearly 3,91,130 patients had availed themselves of these facilities in the state.

The Health Department has entered into an agreement with Dr Jain Video on Wheels and Rajbhar Medicare for operating the vans. The agreement is for a period of five years. In Chamoli and Uttarkashi districts, Rajbhara Medicare has been entrusted with the task of running the mobile hospitals, while in the remaining 11 districts Jain Video is in charge.

Haridwar, August 11
Twelve contractual workers in Indian Tobacco Company (ITC), situated in Integrated Industrial Estate, 15 km from Haridwar, met SSP Kewal Khurana, alleging exploitation by labour contractor hired by the company.

They alleged that labour contractor Zaheer Hussain force them to work for 9-10 hours daily against the stipulated 8 hours. Their wages had not been increased even after four years of job. When the labourers sought an increase in the wages as well as better working conditions, the contractor didn’t allow them to enter the factory unit.

Dil Nawaz told TNS that when they went to police chowki for registering a complaint against the contractor, a police official threatened them.

After this the affected employees decided to meet the district police chief at Roshanabad-situated SSP office wherein Kewal Khurana assured them of fair investigation into the matter as well as strict disciplinary action against the police official if he was found guilty of threatening the employees on behalf of the contractor.

Pithoragarh, August 11
Supporting Anna Hazare’s proposed fast from August 16 to press for a Jan Lokpal Bill, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Panwar) will stage a dharna at all district headquarters in the state on that day, senior leader of the party Kashi Singh Airy said here today.

A dharna at the block headquarters from August 25 would also be held, Airy said.

“The corruption is rampant in Uttarakhand and Jan Lokpal can root out it,” said Airy.

The UKD leader said the formation of more districts as being proposed by the state BJP government was the basic demand of the UKD. “We had proposed 23 districts in the state in our constitution,” said Airy.

He held the state BJP government responsible for dividing the UKD. “The UKD, led by Trivendra Singh Panwar, is the real UKD as it is standing with the people of the state,” claimed Airy.

He also criticised the state government for its proposed move to do away with the original domicile certificate for government jobs and admission in state professional colleges. “It will belie the concept of a separate hill state,” he added.

“The people living in the hills for centuries have been politically marginalised and again in their own state, six Assembly segments from the hills have been removed to give representation to the Terai areas having more population in the recent reorganisation of Assembly seats by the Election Commission,” said Airy.

Dehradun, August 11
Along with extending areas for sowing pulses and vegetables, the Uttarakhand Government today announced a slew of measures to promote agriculture in the state.

While arhar dal will be sown on a total area of one lakh hectares, new areas will be promoted for growing non-seasonal and spice vegetables (ginger and garlic).

At a meeting of the National Agriculture Development Programme, attended by Secretary, Agriculture, Union Government, V. Venkatchalam, Chief Secretary Subash Kumar said the total production of spices had increased to 60,000 tonnes in the state.

The government has set a target of 22,000 tonnes of vegetables and 3,800 tonnes of masala vegetable production for the coming years. It also planned to make 500 hectares of barren land fertile where 500 tonnes of pulses would be grown.

Proposals for utilising Rs 77 crore under the National Development Programme sanctioned by the Central Government were also passed.

The Chief Secretary said all villages adopting voluntary chakbandi would be given several facilities declared by the government recently. After Lakholi village in Pauri, Bef village in that area has also adopted voluntary chakbandi.

The government will also give 50 per cent subsidy on potato seed to farmers. A total of 7,500 quintals of potato seed would be sown in Munsiayri (Pithoragarh), Kashipur, Rudrapur (Udham Singh Nagar) and Patoria (Almora). The high-yielding potato seed would also be given to 15,000 farmers.

The government has also decided to establish new mandis. Kisan Bazar would be set up in Dehradun. A proposal of Rs 30 crore for establishing a horticulture university has also been sent to the Central Government.