Proposed hike in house tax opposed
Dehradun, December 24
The Industries Association of Uttarakhand (IAU) has raised strong objections against the proposed decision of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) to raise the house tax. The President of the IAU, Pankaj Gupta, has said the proposal of fixation of rates of house tax for self-assessment by the DMC is not in the interest of the general public.

Wadali Brothers hold audience spellbound
Dehradun, December 24
Trained in the Hindustani Classical music by their father Thakur Das, the Padam Shree Ustad Puran Chand and Payare Lal Wadali today floored the audience with their performance on the sixth day of Virasat.

Dehradun, December 24
The Uttarakhand Congress Disciplinary Committee today suspended Dehradun Congress president Harish Virmani for his role in violent attack on party leader Deep Vora at Congress Bhawan.

Chairman of the committee Narendra Singh Bhandari disclosed that the decision was taken at a committee meeting today, where statements of witnesses to the incident were recorded.

He held that Virmani had remained a mute spectator to the violent attack on Vora. He said three other party leaders- Pankaj Bhatt, Pradeep Bhatt and Sanjay Bhatt, who were directly involved in the violent attack on Vora, have also been expelled from the party.

In another decision, the committee recommended an immediate expulsion of Srinagar Municipality Chairman Mohan Lal Jain for his role in anti-party activities.

Further, the committee also revoked the expulsion of ex- Champavat block pramukh Bahadur Singh Fartiyal.

Meanwhile, Disciplinary Committee member Dhirendra Pratap said violence had got no place in the Congress.

He also held that the committee had informed about its decision to All-India Congress Committee in charge Chowdhary Birendra Singh and state Congress president Yashpal Arya.

Dehradun, December 24
On the verge of the elections and with the model code in place from today, the state government has failed to make available online the financial details of the movable and immovable assets of it’s officials, a promise that Chief Minister BC Khanduri had made soon after taking over the office the second time. The advertisement blitzkrieg launched by the BJP on television and elsewhere has the party basking in the glory of having tabled a strong anti-graft Lokpal Bill, the Right to Service Act and declaration of the financial details of both movable and immovable assets by its council of ministers and bureaucrats (both state and central).

Eager to refurbish his image as the man of action, especially on the issue of curbing corruption, Khanduri had declared October 14 this year the last date for submitting the details of assets for all his officials and ministers.

While his council of ministers managed to do so and the information was made available online, the details of the assets of foresters, Public Service Commission officers and other middle-level officials have not been made available online till today.

Despite the orders by Chief Secretary Subash Kumar, the personnel department has not made the information available online. Even the government’s website continues to carry only the details of the assets of the council of ministers. The state Information Office, however, is inundated with applications asking for the details about middle-level officers of the state cadre. So far, none of the details of the state officers have been made available.

In a bid to usher in the transparency and greater accountability soon after taking over the office in October, the CM had asked the bureaucrats and his ministers to provide details of their assets. Keeping with the directives of the Centre, the IAS and IPS officers had already submitted the details of their assets to the Department of Personnel (Central Government) in July. The same details have now been given to the Personnel Department of the state.

However, sources claim that several foresters, PCS officials and mid-level bureaucrats have till this day not submitted financial details of their assets and are said to be resisting directives.

Dehradun, December 24
The Industries Association of Uttarakhand (IAU) has raised strong objections against the proposed decision of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) to raise the house tax. The President of the IAU, Pankaj Gupta, has said the proposal of fixation of rates of house tax for self-assessment by the DMC is not in the interest of the general public.

“The rates have been fixed without giving any basis for such fixation. In the public notice, no linkage has been shown between circle rates as fixed by the DM and the carpet area rates. Merely commenting that these rates have been fixed on the basis of the circle rates is not enough. It is expected from any functionary of the government that in respect of fixing any tax, they must show responsibility, must be transparent and the entire exercise should be in public interest,” said Gupta.

He further said the public notice was also silent on the facility which would be provided by DMC in respect of such collection. At present the common citizen is made to pay for any facility provided for common use.

“The provision of allowing deduction on old building up to 20 years is also against public interest. There is a large population of retired and old people in Dehradun who are living in old houses which are 40 for 50 years old. Therefore slabs for deduction in respect of old houses should be increased to include houses of 20 or 30 years old, 30 or 40 years old and over 40 years old with deduction increasing up to 75 per cent in cases of houses more than 40 years old.

The calculation of tax should only be based on covered area and not carpet area as there is no justification for carpet area. House tax can only be collected on buildup area. There is no justification for fixing any rate on open land,” he said.

Dehradun, December 24
Trained in the Hindustani Classical music by their father Thakur Das, the Padam Shree Ustad Puran Chand and Payare Lal Wadali today floored the audience with their performance on the sixth day of Virasat.

Exponents of Gurbani, Kaafi, Ghazal and Bhajans, the brothers hail from Guru Ki Wadali village in Amritsar, which is said to have been blessed by Guru Arjan Dev.

While the younger brother Pyare Lal learnt from his brother Puran Chand, both have been inseparable since they began signing.

“I learnt the basics from my brother who has been trained by our father Thakur Das. We have also honed our skills under Pandit Durga Das and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan,” said Pyare Lal.

At the festival, the Wadali Brothers presented a mix of ghazals and sufiana kalam.

Recently, Lakhwinder Wadali, the younger Wadali and son of Puran Chand, had enthralled the audience with his mix of Punjabi pop music.

Dehradun, December 24
Christmas fervour and enthusiasm has knocked the doors of Doon city. The city is decked up to celebrate the festival tomorrow. The market are flooded with Christmas gifts.

Meanwhile, the Christmas and New Year celebrations were held at Childern’s Academy here today. Prem Kashyap, secretary, Children’s Academy Association, was the chief guest.

Wing Commander Kalpana Chamoli (retd) and Puneet Mittal, president of the BJP, Dehradun city, also an ex-student of the academy, were the guests of honour.

The programme started with the lighting of a traditional lamp. More than 100 students participated in the event. A welcome song was presented by students of the play group. A skit by class I students held the audience spellbound. The skit “Who’s the strongest” delivered the message of being contend with what one has.

Wing Commander Kalpana Chamoli (retd) shared some her of nostalgic moments of her school days with the audience.

Addressing the parents, Prem Kashyap said participation in cultural activities helped children grow confidently and become successful in life. Such moments were very important and parents should encourage their children to participate in them.

HARIDWAR: The Christmas celebrations were held at various schools here today. At Bachpan Play School, a skit based on the life of Lord Jesus and Mother Mary was presented by students. Candle decoration, model-making, gift wrapping, pendant-making and cultural events were also held. Aashqa won the candle-making event while Vaibhav was adjudged the winner in the model-making event. Kapil, Prabal, Gurlin, Pihu, Priyadarshini, Keshwav, Aranit, Gauri and Naina were declared winners in other events.

At Kids Care, Arya Nagar, Principal Tusharika Sharma gave gifts to all students. Play games and fancy dress competitions were also held.

At Little Angels School, a fancy dress competition was organised and a cake was also cut. Principal Monika Dhiman emphasised the need of mutual harmony among all religions. Maha Rishi Vidya Mandir, Doon Cambridge, Saint Mary, DAV, Shiv Dale, DPS and other schools also celebrated the festival.

MUSSOORIE: The Christian community in Mussoorie organised a special Christmas mass and sang carols in various churches of the town this evening. All churches have been illuminated with ornamental lights. According to Father Mark D’Souza from St Peters Church, special prayers are held in the churches on December 25.

He said the festivities would go on whole night today. Eminent author from Mussoorie Ruskin Bond while extending his greetings on the occasion prayed for a peaceful and prosperous year.

Dehradun, December 24
Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Raghu Bir Singh Rawat has made the state wildlife and forest conservation all the more important ever since he came at the helm of the forestry affairs in the state.

The biggest challenge before the forest-predominant Uttarakhand has been the growing man-animal conflict cases. Soon taking over the charge of the PCCF in 2008, Rawat tried to utilise the exposure he got in the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICMOD) in Kathmandu in ensuring livelihood opportunities for the village folks in the state, who had been at the receiving end of hostility with forests in recent years due to stringent conservation rules and growing man-animal conflict scenario.

In an unprecedented development, the state Forest Department, as of now, has paid compensation in cases of injuries linked to wild animal attacks up till December 2010. It is a big achievement in a state like Uttarakhand where the delay in payments of compensation to villagers in the wild animal attacks has been a cause of major resentment.

Furthermore, the compensation for the crop damages is also being disbursed speedily.

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds have been used by the state Forest Department to provide compensation to farmers for crops damaged by wildlife.

Another major achievement of Rawat has been the successful hosting of recently concluded 19th All-India Forest Games in the state which witnessed participation of 2,500 persons.

More importantly, it was for the first time that Uttarakhand stood first in the overall medal tally by clinching maximum points.

The state was on the 15th position in the last Bhopal games, but this year it jumped to the first position. Hailing from Chamoli district of the state, Rawat also gave much importance to the Van Panchayats. He said the Van Panchayats, unique to Uttarakhand, got strengthened and came up with the livelihood opportunities for many in the backward hilly areas of the state. Maximum participation of women has been ensured in these panchayats.

Laying emphasis on the research and development, the state Forest Department, under the leadership of Rawat, has come up with a full-fledged research and development wing.

Dehradun, December 24
Applicants seeking freehold of nazul land (number 285) will soon get the same benefit since the orders to this effect have been released by the state government.

The decision was taken at a meeting held by Housing Minister Khajan Das, Vice-Chairman, Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority, BVRC Purushottam and members of the Sanyukt Sangarsh Samiti. The discussions were also held about those who had been left out in th e proces. — TNS

Dehradun, December 24
The Doon Tigers Cricket Club defeated the Al-Fateh Cricket Club by six runs in a match in the Twenty20 Beehive Challengers Cup Cricket Tournament here today.

The Doon club made 104 runs (all out) in their allotted 20 overs. Opener Sudhir was the top scorer with 43 runs while Sonu of the Al-Fateh team took four wickets for 10 runs.

The Al-Fateh club was all out for 98 runs losing the match by six wickets. Sameer was the highest scorer with 29 runs. Sudhir took three wickets for 30 runs and Rajeev also took three wickets for 11 runs to help their team win by a narrow margin.