BJP disappointed with Budget, Congress upbeat
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, March 1
While the BJP and the UKD have criticised the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram yesterday for not offering anything to Uttarakhand, there are mixed reactions from the Kumaon region to the proposals.

The Leader of the Opposition in state Assembly, Ajay Bhatt, said the Budget was disappointing as it gave no preference to the Himalayan states in budgetary allocations to reward them for their contribution to nation building. “The Himalayan states should have been given special concession in LPG and diesel supplies as they play a big role in preserving the environment of the country,” he said.

Top UKD leader Kashi Singh Airy termed the Budget as anti-poor and said it had no special proposals for a backward hill state like Uttarakhand. “Previous Union governments used to give preference to Himalayan states in terms of developments packages, but this year the Centre had allocated nothing to a backward hill state like Uttarakhand,” said Airy.

State Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh termed it a common man’s Budget. She said by providing Rs 1,000 crore Nirbhaya Fund and Rs 2.50 lakh interest relief on home loans up to Rs 25 lakh, the Union Finance Minister had given something to the common man. “The provision of the Food Security Bill and a bank for women will further empower women in the country,” said Hridayesh.

Uttarakhand Lok Vahini leader Dr Shamsher Singh Bisht said the Budget was beneficial for the corporates of the country. He added that Uttarakhand should have given a special financial package on the pattern of northeastern states, but the Finance Minister cared only for the corporates and the higher income group of the country. “While the government speaks of giving special preference to Uttarakhand, it has done nothing in Budget proposals in this direction,” said Bisht.

“The Budget has not addressed the special needs of residents of the Himalayan region with regard to energy, food, infrastructure development and employment generation,” said Bhupendra Joshi, a BSP leader in Bageshwar. 

Govt teachers stage protest in front of Assembly
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 1
After their failed talks with the state government yesterday, the government school teachers, under the banner of the Rajkiya Shikshak Sangh, held a demonstration in front of the state Assembly building here today.

President of the sangh Karnail Singh alleged that despite an agreement with the state Education Minister on November 30, 2012, no action had been taken by the state government officials to fulfil their demands.

He alleged that unless the state government agreed to implement their 20-point demands, the government school teachers would be constrained to start an agitation right up to the block level. He also threatened that the teachers would boycott the state board examinations starting from March 4.

Budget denies Green Bonus to state again
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 1
Uttarakhand stood as the biggest loser as General Budget 2013-14 failed to address the long-standing demand of forest predominant states to ensure a compensation in lieu of the forests maintained by them as forest wealth of the country that too at the cost of their development.

Uttarakhand has been constantly demanding a Green Bonus in lieu of its environment conservation efforts for the past many years. Uttarakhand has been making a point that with its nearly 65 per cent of the geographical area under forests, it has been providing the country with oxygen.

Uttarakhand argued that while it had been maintaining these forests at its own level, the state never got any direct benefit for the contribution made by it towards larger cause of environment conservation.

Interestingly, the 12th Finance Commission had given its consent that the states be paid for the maintenance of forests and even come out with an amount of around Rs 1,000 crore for the period 2005 and 2010.

The amount though was not substantial, the principle was established. In 2010, the 13th Finance Commission reiterated the need to compensate the states and enhanced the allocation to Rs 5,000 crore over the next five years. But still, the amount was never provided to the states despite their repeated pleas. Uttarakhand, being one of most affected states, was now looking up at General Budget 2013-14 with much expectation but all its hoped got dashed to ground.

The Planning Commission couple of years back had put Uttarakhand on the first place in the country with best Environment Performance Index (EPI) entitling the state for more central assistance. The EPI was decided on the basis of weightage points given for the various endeavours made by a particular state in the field of environment conservation.

Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ too as Uttarakhand Chief Minister in February 2011 had vociferously sought sanction of Rs. 5,000 crore as Green Bonus to the state, for its contribution towards environment conservation.

He even wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking Rs 5,000 crore as damages for the past 10 years followed by Rs 1000 crore every year as consolidated amount.

Presenting his case, Dr Nishank had then submitted a research paper of the World Forestry Conference at Buenos Aires that had put services provided to the country by Uttarakhand forests to the tune of Rs 31,294 crore per year.

Those working in environment conservation too have been taken aback with the Budget announcing no incentive on green growth. “At the moment, the country has a provision to pay the “net present value” of forests while felling trees. In other words, "We pay to cut. But there is no payment for standing forests. There is no payment for the ecosystem value of the standing resource”, asserts Centre for Science and Environment Director General Sunita Narain, who termed the Budget as a missed opportunity to build a movement for green development in the country.

Students educated about 108 service
Tribune News service

Dehradun, March 1
As part of co-curricular activities, The Indian Academy, Nehru Gram, here arranged for a demonstration of the 108 emergency service for its students.

The team of the 108 emergency service headed by Dr Naveen Pratap, instructor of the Emergency Medical Learning Centre, painstakingly explained to the students the technical aspects of the service with special reference to the medical requirements of the victims.

Sunil Pant explained the modalities of the emergency unit, how it works and what categories of emergencies the service caters to.

Neelam Sharma, principal of the school, expressed gratitude to the team of GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute for coordinating the demonstration. Munendra Khanduri, director of the school, said disaster management should be made part of curriculum in all schools in Uttarakhand.

India needs to take steps for energy security: ONGC CMD
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 1
ONGC Chairman-cum-Managing Director Sudhir Vasudeva today said the energy security was still eluding the nation and asserted that a lot needs to be done to keep pace with the countries like Brazil and Norway, which have made giant strides in the energy sector.

Addressing the inaugural session of a seminar entitled, "Petroliferous Basins of India - Implementation Strategy for Perspective Plan 2030,” ONGC CMD Sudhir Vasudeva pointed out that by 2030, India would be the third largest consumer of energy in the world and stated that the nation needed to take long-term steps to ensure itself an energy security for future.

He said India's quest for excelling hydrocarbon production started along with Brazil and Norway but the two nations had moved far head and today stood among top 10 hydrocarbon producing countries of the world. He strongly favoured more investments in the energy sector in India.

Vasudeva pointed out that while there was no shortage of energy sources in the country, it was only the best of technology and entrepreneurship that was needed to harness this energy.

Earlier, ONGC Director Offshore PK Borthakur spoke on various projects of the ONGC and efforts being undertaken to augment the oil and gas production.

Director Exploration SV Rao and other senior officials were present on the occasion. The two-day workshop is being participated by ONGC geologists from across the country.

ATR on linguistic minorities yet to be submitted
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 1
The Uttarakhand government has failed to submit an action taken report (ATR) mapping out a number of linguistic minorities in the state so that programmes and schemes could be implemented for their development.

Till now, the focus was more on religious minorities and the problems faced by the linguistic minorities were often ignored and neglected. But after the Justice Ranganathan Commission Report emphasized on giving due recognition to the religious minorities in the aftermath of the anti-Sikh riots, the Central Government too began focusing on the development of the linguistic minorities.

While there are schemes and funds to promote cultural and educational rights of the linguistic minorities, the states have not responded by preparing a list of linguistic minorities in the state.

According to the Department of Minorities Affairs (Uttarakhand), while linguistic minorities could comprise people speaking Gorkhali, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Maithaili and other languages, in the absence of proper mapping and collation data, the ATR has not been submitted.

"In order to focus on the education of the linguistic minorities, district level committees were to be set up which could suggest ways for the promotion of education of the linguistic minorities," said MH Khan, Secretary, Minority Affairs.

In case there were schools with less number of students, these students could be co-opted in a single school so that their needs could be addressed in a focused manner.

From time to time, a demand has been raised by the linguistic minorities to allow their wards to study in their mother tongue and so far the state has not taken any steps to access the needs of these communities and then set up schools.

The compilation of the action taken report would have boosted the efforts in this direction and ensured greater level playing field for the linguistic minorities so that their cultural and educational rights were protected.

Officials in the Department of Minority Affairs say after the creation of the department, now greater thrust should also be laid on the linguistic minorities in the state.

Need to conserve biodiversity: Expert
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, March 1
Conservation of biodiversity is the essence of ethno pharmacology as it enriches the environment for the use of the communities, said Dr HR Singh, former vice-chancellor of Allahabad University and a known scholar of ethno pharmacology. Dr Singh was speaking at a three-day national seminar that began here today.

Dr Singh inaugurated the seminar and said, “Biodiversity is important for the ecosystem and human welfare and it includes economic goods, ecological services and intrinsic values of wildlife.” Dr Singh said, “India has big and unique biological diversity as it is situated at the tri-junction of three realms of Afro-tropical, Indo-Malaya and Paleo-Arctic realms biogeographically.” “Due to this distinct biodiversity the country is considered home to 167 plant species, 114 breeds of domesticated animals and 4,900 species of flowering plants that have been distributed in 141 genera belonging to 47 families. These are mainly concentrated in the northeast, western ghats, the northwestern Himalayan region and Andaman and Nicobar islands,” he added.

The protected area concept includes 102 national parks, 515 wildlife sanctuaries, 47 conservation reserves and four community reserves. “The framework adopted under the Ramsar Convention in 1971 for the protection of wetlands is also a good effort towards the conservation of biodiversity as it has not only helped in supporting a huge bird population but also helped in groundwater recharging in the vicinity,” said Dr Singh.

NGO awarded for promoting science
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, March 1
The People's Association of Hill Area Launchers (PAHAL), an NGO working in the sphere of science popularisation among the students in the state, has been honoured with national science award by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.

PAHAL, which has been working with the National Council of Science and Technology Communication and the Uttarakhand Council of Science and Technology for the last 19 years to popularise science among the students and common citizens in the state, was selected among 200 other NGOs for the awards.

“The award, which was given by Science and Technology Minister S Jaipal Reddy on February 28 at New Delhi, carries a citation and a cash award of Rs 1 lakh," said Dr Ashok Pant, scientific adviser to the NGO.

According to Dr Pant, the NGO has been recognised for its work and scientific temper among the students, under its programme of the National Children’s Science Congress at the state level and organising of Vigyan jathas in different part of the state for the last 20 years.

“The NGO has also been instrumental in giving the students science kits for easy study of science and organising eco water literacy programmes at village and school levels,” said Dr Pant.