Rs 4.4 crore for distribution of 20,000 solar lanterns to victims
Dehradun, July 8 The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned central assistance of Rs 4.4 crore for the distribution of 20,000 solar lanterns to the flood-affected people.

Haridwar,July 8
Over two lakh devotees today took dip in the Ganga on the occasion of Somwati Amawasya here. Despite the temporary closure of the Char Dham pilgrimage and heavy flash floods in the state, there was a heavy rush of pilgrims on the occasion.

As per the administrative figures, pilgrims from other states and Uttarakhand touched two lakh mark. From wee hours, people could be seen thronging Braham Kund, Har-Ki-Pauri, and adjacent ghats like Malviya Ghat,Nai Sotta, Gau Ghat, Kusahwrat, Birla, Alaknanda, Rishikul and Prem Nagar Ghats to take a holy dip.

At the bus stand, railway station as well as private vehicle stands, more rush was visible campared to the crowd in Haridwar since the June flash floods. Haridwar roadways bus depot employees said additional buses where plied in the city.

"Till now, more than two lakh devotees have taken the dip and the number is likely to increase by the night. Elaborate security and traffic managements were made in and around the mela zone and no untoward incident has been reported. In all, the occasion has been peacefully conducted," said SP Jagdeesh Singh, nodal officer for the fair.

On the occasion of Somwati Amawasya, teerth purohits, also observed special rites known as Kushotpatni Amawasya. In this, teerth purohits pluck ‘kusha’ saplings and then perform rituals which they preserve for a year. Women offer special ritual ‘parikrama’ of trees to pray for long life of their husbands.

Dehradun, July 8
Three persons died at Dakrani Vikas Nagar in the morning today. The rubble of a vacant house situated at the high pedestal fell down on the house of Harish Kumar at lower plinth after torrential downpour,killing Savita, wife of Harish Kumar and his two children. Harish Kumar and Ghanshyam Das,a relative got badly injured. The injured were admitted to a hospital at Harbartpur.The District Magistrate, BVRC Purushottam,

visited the family and gave Rs 15 lakh to the family members of the deceased and Rs 7,000 each to the injured.

Complaints came in from different parts of the district with regard to the damage due to heavy rain. At Naishvilla Road, residents complained about embankment developing cracks and about to fall in time. They said, the electrical transformer kept above the embankment too could fall into the river along with it. SDO, Power Department, was directed to take urgent step. Forest department was also informed about a huge tree which was hanging down near Kendriya Vidyalaya at Hathi Badkala

which could harm the commuters. Many residents of Harbanswala, Indira Enclave, Vani Vihar, Yamuna Colony, Wadia Institute, Ekta Enclave and Banjarawala complained of waterlogging, about which Dehradun Municipal Corporation was informed to do the needful. Not only this around nine roads have got blocked in Rishikesh. JCB machines had been engaged in opening the roads. —TNS

Schools closed

The District Magistrate has directed government and private schools to remain closed for two days on Tuesday and Wednesday in the wake of heavy downpour in the district.

Dehradun, July 8
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned central assistance of Rs 4.4 crore for the distribution of 20,000 solar lanterns to the flood-affected people.

The ministry will be meeting the full cost of solar lanterns to be distributed. Each lantern costs Rs. 2,200. The project will be implemented by the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency, Dehradun, a Press Information Bureau press release said.

Immediately after the calamity that struck the Himalayan state on June 15, the Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah, instructed his ministry to enquire from the Uttarakhand government about the ways in which the ministry could help the affected people. The state government’s request for solar lanterns was immediately approved by the ministry.

These solar lanterns will serve in far-flung and badly affected areas that have been totally cut-off from the grid and where the extension or repair of grid lines is likely to take several months.

The ministry had earlier given funds for 14,000 solar lanterns for the Aila-affected people in West Bengal during 2009-10. It has also funded 1,000 solar lanterns in Leh during 2010-11. —TNS

Dehradun, July 8
Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (MNA) Ashok Kumar today gave in to pressure from by MLA Rajkumar and former Leader of the Opposition in the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) Ashok Verma and revoked the suspension of four employees of the corporation. Councillor Anand Singh Kathait and Neenu Sehgal were also present there.

The four employees, who were reinstated, are draftsman Chander Mohan Ahuja, assistant draftsman Dinesh Khanna and clerks Rajender Uniyal and Rajender Singh. The first two were suspended for being irregular in attending office while the two others were punished for forging a letter for leave and faking signature on Thursday evening.

Members of the Nagar Vikas Karamchari Mahasangh, the union of DMC employees, created a ruckus over the issue. They demanded an unconditional revocation of the suspension of the employees. When the MNA said the employees would be reinstated but an enquiry would also be conducted into their irregularities the union members got enraged and left the office raising slogans against DMC officials.

Rajkumar and Verma then persuaded the MNA not to press for an inquiry and the latter announced the reinstatement of the four employees. The union members still did not relent till Rajkumar and Verma persuaded them and brought them to the MNA office. After a truce, the union members, who had locked offices on the DMC premises, called off their strike.

The MNA said, “I took the decision of suspension with a heavy heart to ensure discipline. The DMC is already facing a shortage of employees and if in-service employees do not work, it will be difficult to run the corporation.”

Verma, however, suggested to the MNA to be lenient as the DMC had a lot of work to do with regard to the rain-related disaster and hence it could not afford to keep work suspended for three to four days.

President of the union Naam Bahadur lashed out at the MNA for suspending employees. He said the MNA should have called the employees and gave them a notice and opportunity to explain themselves before suspending them.

Today, councillor Anand Singh Kathait slammed him for suspending the employees while blaming him for complaining against them. The MNA had mentioned in the suspension orders that Kathait had complained about the irregularities committed about the four employees.

Kathait chided the MNA and said he did not ask him to suspend the employees. He advised the MNA to use his own wisdom instead of taking a decision on somebody else’s views on a matter.

MLA Rajkumar had given the MNA a warning to improve his working or else he would be transferred out of the DMC.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli said, “It does not behoove an officer to change his stand under pressure. If the MNA had decided to suspend employees, he should have stuck to his decision regardless of opposition.”

He said the MNA had earlier taken a decision to hold the election of the sanitary workers’ association on the persuasion of Congress leaders. Later he changed the date of the election in the face of opposition. 

Dehradun, July 8
A crisis created by SPML company, which runs the Doon Valley Waste Management (DVWM) project in the city, by dumping garbage collected from the city on the road near the entrance of a trenching ground seems to be nearing an end. Mayor Vinod Chamoli today promised to provide additional JCB machines to the company to enable it to start the work for clearing the garbage from tomorrow.

A huge quantity of garbage dumped near the trenching ground has made travelling and life difficult for locals. It has become equally difficult for the DVWM team to go in the trenching ground, as vehicles cannot cross the mound of slippery garbage at the gate itself. As a result, the company is dumping 200 tonnes of garbage collected from the city every day outside the trenching ground for the last 15 days.

When MLA Rajkumar and councillor Meenu Sehgal raked up the issue today after visiting the site, Mayor Vinod Chamoli too joined the issue. Chamoli said he himself would lead the work for the clearance of the road near the trenching ground from tomorrow morning. He ordered for four or five JCB machines to help the company clean the road. He said the work would continue there till the road was fully cleared of garbage.

Director, DVWM, Siddharth Jain expressed his inability when he was asked by the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (MNA) to deploy Poclain, a bigger version of JCB machines, to clear the garbage from the road. Jain said he had deployed one JCB machine at a cost of Rs 600 per hour since January and the DMC did not help him despite having four JCB machines on its premises.

He said Poclain would cost him Rs 2,200 per hour, which he could not afford. When Rajkumar asked him to bear the expenses of Poclain for 15 days in one month while the DMC would defray the remaining, he still refused.

Jain later took up the matter with the Mayor and asked him to provide four or five extra JCB machines to clear the road. The Mayor agreed to provide him the JCB machines.

Dehradun, July 8
In view of the incessant rains in Dehradun district, the Dehradun District Magistrate has ordered that all government as well as private school in the district should remain close on July 9 and 10.

He said all necessary instructions had been issued to the officials of the education department. 

Dehradun, July 8
In the second phase of its relief operations, Oxfam India has established distribution systems in the state and is in the process of reaching out to 1,500 affected households of Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi.

Oxfam food rations are being loaded onto the helicopter at Guptkashi for airdropping to inaccessible villages. Presently, 1,200 households have been provided food in affected villages by Oxfam.

Oxfam officials said the goal was to lay a foundation not only for rebuilding homes, feeding children and saving lives, but also to ensure health, restoration of livelihood and proper shelter to the affected. Loss of livelihood and restoration of immediate income was critical, said an official.

“There is an urgency to rebuild livelihoods and ensure that people have means to earn regular income, failing which there will be a likelihood of food insecurity at the household level,” said Zubin Zaman, humanitarian response manager, Oxfam India.

“Households that have lost their bread earners in the tragedy are most vulnerable and need a long-term solution to ensure a source of income,” he said.

For those who have been displaced due to the floods, Oxfam India is ensuring adequate protection from rain by provision of tarpaulin sheet for cover, renting of houses for the displaced and providing tents. It is also providing household emergency support to help families get back to normal ways of living and practice hygienic ways of handling drinking water and food.

The Oxfam India website has been updated with the emergency appeal to donate for the crisis.

Dehradun, July 8
A justifiable compensation should be provided by the government to the disaster-hit families after assessing the real loss of each family. This was stated by Suresh Satapathy, senior programme coordinator of Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), after returning from Uttarkashi.

He said weaker and backward sections of the society should be given priority in relief and rehabilitation programmes by the government, as these families had limited access to government support.

Satapathy said, “A total of 87 families in Uttarkashi town belong to Valmiki Samaj (Schedule Caste) and they mainly work as sweepers. Their houses got filled with debris during the calamity and it is very unsafe to live in there at present. They have taken shelter in relief camp, which is temporarily established in Government Inter College. When we talked to these families, they said in the name of compensation from the government, they were given Rs 8,000 which is very inadequate.” Satapathy said initiatives needed to be taken to mainstream this section of society. He also shared the issue with the district administration.

He said a survey on the affected families had been conducted in three districts with the help of members of Mountain Collective, a conglomerate of voluntary organisations under the guidance of CASA. The survey included local villages, where 7,247 families from 71 villages in Uttarkashi, 7,070 from 29 villages in Rudraprayag and 2,929 of them from 58 villages in Chamoli districts are affected from the disaster. They will be provided with shelter material, dry ration, medical kit, solar lamp and tarpaulin sheets.

Satapathy said CASA would work with 5,000 families from three districts for the relief and rehabilitation of affected families. Over 1,500 families from 19 villages of Uttarkshi, 2,000 from 20 villages of Rudraprayag and 1,500 from 31 villages of Chamoli will be provided with relief material and their rehabilitation would be worked upon through Mountain Collective.

He also said for the relief and rehabilitation of the affected families, a strategic meeting had been scheduled on July 11 at Dehradun. It would be attended by 110 voluntary organisations under the banner of Mountain Collective, he said.

A future intervention strategy would be prepared at the meeting, he said.

Suresh Bhai, a Mountain Collective member, said a relief camp was operational in Uttarkashi, where food was being provided to 600 families. 

}A total of 87 families in Uttarkashi town belong to Valmiki Samaj and they mainly work as sweepers. Their houses got filled with debris during the calamity and it is very unsafe to live in there at present. They have taken shelter in a relief camp, temporarily established at a government college. When we talked to these families, they said in the name of compensation from the government, they were given Rs 8,000 which was inadequate~

Suresh Satapathy, senior programme coordinator, CASA

Dehradun, July 8
A chowkidar guarding a private property was allegedly killed by some unknown persons in Balawala area of Raipur police station last night. According to police officials, Om Parkash, a 55 year old private guard, was found dead with grievous head injuries.

The police team found that the deceased was attacked by a heavy blunt weapon which caused his death. Investigations are on to ascertain the cause of his murder. The body has been sent for post mortem.