|
|
|
|
|
Bhatt alloted house vacated by Chuphal
Pension benefits withheld; verification drive incomplete
Conference on global issues begins at UPES
|
|
|
|
Conference on emerging trends in power industry
Demand to make Gairsain permanent state capital
Diploma engineers threaten agitation
Face of the week
|
|
Bhatt alloted house vacated by Chuphal
Dehradun, February 16 The R-5 house fell vacant after Bishan Singh Chuphal, former state BJP president, moved to the MLA Hostels after his tenure ended. It now transpires that as a stopgap arrangement the government has allotted the R-5 house to Bhatt who has been unhappy with the government for changing rules to accommodate Harak Singh Rawat. Bhatt has so far not dropped his claim on the R-2 house occupied by Harak Singh Rawat. “I am not aware that a house has been allotted to me as I am out of Dehradun. I will only know when I come back. As the Leader of the Opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly the R-2 house should be allotted to me. I have not dropped my claim on the house,” he said. Though Bhatt is yet to occupy the R-5 house, over enthusiastic party workers had recently put up posters of newly elected party chief Teerath Singh Rawat thinking that the house vacated by Chuphal would be automatically allotted to Teerath Singh Rawat. “The party workers have on their own put up banners carrying my name thinking that the house vacated by former BJP chief BS Chuphal will now be allotted to me. I will not be occupying the house,” clarified Teerath Singh Rawat. Due to scarcity of ministerial houses, there is always a mad scramble among the ministers for the best house, even if it means bending the rules. While no separate house is allotted to the president of a political party, the former BJP chief continued to occupy a house in Yamuna Colony long after he ceased to be a minister in the previous BJP government. He was allotted the house when he was a minister but he continued to retain it even after he became the BJP chief.
Bone of contention
The R-5 house fell vacant after Bishan Singh Chuphal, former state BJP president, moved to the MLA Hostels after his tenure ended. It now transpires that as a stopgap arrangement the government has allotted the R-5 house to Ajay Bhatt, who has been unhappy with the government for changing rules to accommodate Harak Singh Rawat.
|
|
|
Pension benefits withheld; verification drive incomplete
Pithoragarh, February 16 “As the Central Government has made it mandatory to send this pension money to the persons of these categories in their bank accounts, the cooperative banks assigned by the state government for the purpose are not yet linked with core banking facility, causing delay in sending the pension amounts to the beneficiaries,” said RP Pant, an officer at the Directorate of Social Welfare Department at Haldwani. According to the officer, the verification work of beneficiaries in the state has not been completed by district-level social welfare officers till the assigned date, which has also caused delay to in sending the last instalment. “We have set the date of verification on January 31, which has been extended to February 28. Now as the verification work was not completed by district-level officers in the set date,” said the officer. According to sources of the department, it has 3,68,893 beneficiaries in all three categories of old age, widow and disabled pensions in the state. “After our last date of verification ends on February 28, we will try our best to release the last instalment of pension to these people,” said the officer. |
|
|
Conference on global issues begins at UPES
Dehradun, February 16 It is being organised in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan (UNIC) and is being held under the auspices of the Directorate of Student Affairs (DSA). An MUN is a simulation of the United Nations conference in which each delegate represents a specific country and puts forth his country’s view on the international forum. The conference debates and discusses about global and regional issues and comes up with a resolution that is then forwarded to the United Nations Council. The MUN aims at acquainting the students with a series of global challenges and provide culturally diverse perspectives on a variety of issues. It also aids in the development of public speaking and diplomatic skills of the participants. The committees that will be simulated this year are the General Assembly SOCHUM, United Nations Security Council, United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), All-India Parties Meet (AIPM) and the United States of America National Security Council (US NSC). The issues that will be discussed are the Israel-Palestine situation, reassessment of the Kyoto Protocol and the LGBTQ rights. The US NSC will be a historic council convened in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The AIPM will debate all the burning issues facing the country such as Jan Lokpal Bill, FDI, statehood issue, black money, Women’s Reservation Bill, the Delhi gangrape incident etc. Peter Vrooman, the spokesperson of the United States Embassy in India, graced the occasion with his benevolent presence as the chief guest of honour. He spoke in detail regarding the agendas to be discussed and shed light on the importance of the MUNs. He also shared personal anecdotes of his work in the United Nations. The event is seeing participation from around 39 institutes with student delegates from Delhi University, National Law Universities (NLUs), IITs, NITs etc. Sagar Mehrotra will be the Secretary General for the UPES MUN 2013 with Shubhangni Jain and Ria Tandon serving as Deputy Secretary Generals for the conference. The other members of the core committee that have made this conference possible are Advitya Verma, Aaron Mirza and Nivedita
Giri. |
|
|
Conference on emerging trends in power industry
Dehradun, February 16 Uttarakhand Technical University Vice-Chancellor Prof DS
Chauhan, said such conferences were important to get an update on the emerging trends in power industry. He said more than 50 research papers were being presented at the conference.
|
|
|
Demand to make Gairsain permanent state capital
Haridwar, February 16 Statehood freedom fighters and various organisations are demanding declaration of Gairsain as the permanent capital of the hill state, which was envisaged to cater to needs of the hill people. Eminent statehood freedom fighters, social activists and politicians in Haridwar have mooted Gairsain as the ideal city to be the capital of Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand Kranti Manch, one of the major statehood movement outfits in the 80s and 90s when a separate Uttarakhand movement was at its peak, has urged Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna to declare Gairsain as the permanent capital of Uttarakhand. JP Pandey,veteran statehood fighter, cited the sentiments related with Gairsain during the Uttarakhand movement and also the equidistance from both Garhwal and Kumaon divisions, where this hill town is situated. “When we vied for separate Uttarakhand, in hindsight it was Gairsain as capital of the future state. But respective Congress-BJP governments carried on with ‘interim capital’ Dehradun, which has resulted in migration from hill districts on a large scale," said Pandey. Regional outfit Uttarakhand Kranti Dal too has demanded Vidhan Bhavan to be made only at Gairsain and questioned the state government on the need of identifying Vidhan Bhavan land at Dehradun in Raipur. Congress leader Sanjay Chopra cited veteran Indian freedom fighter Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali's letter, which he had written in 1952 to the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, indicating that Gairsain was the perfect place to be the summer capital of the united province, and even suitable for India’s summer capital. “Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali was one the foremost thinkers of a separate hill state in the early 50s.He was close to Nehru and gave platform for a separate statehood movement. So his vision should be respected by having Gairsain as the full-time capital of the state,” said Chopra. Uday Ram Semwal, general secretary of the labour wing of the UKD, said that aspirations of the people of this state had not been met due to not having a hill town as it's capital. "We need to have a hill town (Gairsain) as capital of this hill state on the lines of Himachal Pradesh (Shimla) and ikkim(Gangtok),"pointed Semwal.
|
|
|
Diploma engineers threaten agitation
Dehradun, February 16 At a meeting of the regional working committee of the federation yesterday, regional president AK Chaturvedi said that the government was hell-bent upon downsizing the department, which would directly affect the recruitment of assistant engineers and junior engineers. “Along with downsizing, the government had begun giving work to outside agencies. The recent case pertains to the work order given to the Uttarakhand Rajya Nirman Nigam for constructing an auditorium in Haridwar. The estimate for the project was prepared by the Rishikesh unit of Pey Jal Nigam,” he said. The employees have threatened to launch an agitation against the government's move to disband Pey Jal Nigam. The engineers also alleged that the Asian Development Bank had not paid the charge fixed for undertaking works carried under phase II, while only 2.5 per cent centage was paid for carrying out works under phase I. |
|
|
Face of the week
Dehradun, February 16 Born on October 31, 1962, in Delhi, Vimal, during his college days, like many other youths, was engaged in tobacco business. But life had something else in store for him. In 1987, he came across Gandhian Indu Behan and Beena Didi, who were actively working for the Dalits and women. He joined them in the day-to-day works of the Gandhi Hindustani Sahitya Sabha. Thereafter, he learnt how to spin and stitch cloth as well as making handmade products like string, mattresses and living a sustainable lifestyle. Subsequently, Vimal met the renowned environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna and then started involving himself with the Anti-Tehri Dam struggle and started understanding environment issues better. He met Medha Patkar in 1989 in Delhi and since then he has been involved in various national movements. In 1996, Vimal was involved with the National Alliance of People’s Movement. He had faced many turns and hurdles in his life as his involvement in struggles has gone deeper and deeper. Today, Vimal is the convener and founder of the Matu Jan Sangathan, which he founded in November 2001, which literally means ‘people of the soil’. The Matu Jan Sangathan has been working incessantly with the mountain communities in the Himalayas in their struggle against destructive dams in the Ganga and Yamuna valley which will have disastrous impact on the communities, ecological and climate of the region. He has been actively involved in education, mobilisation, involving and monitoring legal processes, including environment impact assessment related to the construction of mega dams in the state and filed many cases in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) of the Supreme Court. He works specifically in the Ganga and Yamuna valley of the state, very closely with the mountain communities helping them to assert their rights through non-violent actions, including sitting on fasts, sit-ins and demonstrations. He was arrested and put behind bars many times while undertaking these agitations. The Matu Jan Sangathan has been pushing the state to come out with the people-oriented Rehabilitation Policy (2005). The lobbying resulted in drafting the policy by the government. Vimal has written and published around 14 booklets and also a number of articles addressed to the problems of dams in Uttarakhand and across the country. In 1987, Vimal Bhai came across Gandhians Indu Behan and Beena Didi, who were actively working for the Dalits and women. He joined them in the day-to-day works of the Gandhi Hindustani Sahitya Sabha. Thereafter, he learnt how to spin and stitch clothes as well as make handmade products like strings, mattresses and living a sustainable lifestyle.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Classified | E-mail | |
With two legislative House buildings being made separately at Gairsain (Chamoli) and Dehradun, there is a strong demand to make Gairsain as the permanent capital of
Uttarakhand.
From a businessman to a people’s movements crusader, Vimal Bhai has come a long way.
Born on October 31, 1962, in Delhi, Vimal, during his college days, like many other youths, was engaged in tobacco business. But life had something else in store for him. In 1987, he came across Gandhian Indu Behan and Beena
Didi, who were actively working for the Dalits and women. He joined them in the day-to-day works of the Gandhi Hindustani Sahitya
Sabha. Thereafter, he learnt how to spin and stitch cloth as well as making handmade products like string, mattresses and living a sustainable lifestyle.
