Students perform an item on the 125th anniversary celebrations at Wynberg Allen School in Mussoorie on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph

Stir by retired staff of Peyjal Nigam
Dehradun, October 9
Retired officers and employees of the Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam yesterday locked the gates of the headquarters of the nigam as a mark of protest and then launched a sit-in in support of their demands. The employees are demanding payment of dues pending for several years.

Dehradun, October 9
Congress councillors held a dharna on the premises of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) here today in protest against the deteriorating sanitary conditions in the city.

Councillor Jagdish Dhiman raised slogans against Mayor Vinod Chamoli and said, “The Mayor is supporting SPML company, which is not properly doing the garbage collection work. Garbage heaps can be seen all over the city. People are living a hellish life. They cannot live in their colonies nor can they do business in their shops. They have to cover their noses while commuting due to the stench emanating from garbage littered all over the city.”

Another councillor Dr Vijender Pal Singh said, “Several dengue cases have been reported from the city due to the insanitary conditions in the city.

The Mayor is equally responsible for the situation. He had assured the people of getting cleared mounds of garbage from the road in front of the trenching ground, but the JCB machine had not reached the site for the last four days. The Mayor is deliberately letting things to worsen to show the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari in a bad light and the company as a victim. We oppose this kind of politicking in the DMC.”

Enraged councillor Vinay Kohli said, “The auspicious week of Navratras has begun and people expect the DMC to keep the city clean. But it is offering garbage, stink, mosquitoes and ailments to the city residents. People, who are offering Navratra prayers at home or at temples, are facing the same predicament.”

Dhiman said they held the protest to awaken the DMC machinery. If nothing concrete is done in this direction immediately, they would hold a massive rally against the DMC administration, including the Mayor.

Pithoragarh, October 9
Speaker of the state Assembly Govind Singh Kunjwal has held the state bureaucracy responsible for not starting construction work at Gairsain so that it could be made the permanent capital of Uttarakhand.

He has said the Vijay Bahuguna government did not take the decision in the right time to make Gairsain the permanent capital. He was speaking at a function at Dwarahat in Almora district today.

The Speaker said though the statehood agitators had raised the demand to make Gairsain the permanent capital of the state, successive state governments had been focusing on Dehradun. “We were well aware during the statehood agitation that hill areas will not see proper development until the capital of the state is based there,” said Kunjwal. He was addressing villagers who had come to the Dwarahat block hall to take part in a meeting organized to honour panchayat representatives.

Kunjwal praised the Chief Minister for laying the foundation stone of a Vidhan Sabha building at Gairsain to make it the permanent capital. He, however, said construction work, which was proposed to start from June 1 this year, had not started yet. “The related files are yet to be traced in the Secretariat,” he added.

He said he would make earnest efforts towards making Gairsain the permanent capital of the state. “I believe that hill regions cannot be developed without making a hill town the capital of the state,” he added.

Dehradun, October 9
Residents of Brahmawala Khala yesterday came to the DM's office to air their grievances about non-availability of forms regarding the National Food Security Scheme. They had to return disappointed on not finding District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam in office, who had gone Chakrata.

However, they threatened to sit on hunger strike before the collectorate's office if they were not provided with the forms.

Resident Anil Kumar said they had heard that the forms stock regarding the scheme had finished. He said if they were not provided the forms, they would sit on hunger strike before the collectorate's office. Resident Poonam Kumari said she had been coming to the collectorate's office to get forms but each time she was returned by the employees, who told her that the stock of the forms had finished. Another resident Chanda Devi said that forms were made available to all the residents, irrespective of their financial status in several wards.

She rued that no such initiative was taken in her ward. Shyam Kala said they had been hearing that the scheme was meant for poor people where they would get free foodgrains.

He lamented that it were the poor people who were being left out of the scheme as no one cared to inform them or help them in this regard, while those who were educated were able to get the forms and benefits. — TNS

Dehradun, October 9
Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (MNA) Ashok Kumar of Dehradun Municipal Corporation has taken over 12 sites under DMC’s domain for garbage disposal. Appalled with clashes with SPML Company over garbage collection, Kumar announced going ahead beyond two sites, Dhamawala and Raja Road, and covering 10 more places in the city for daily garbage disposal. Kumar said: “The company is blackmailing us but we are not going to be taken for a ride by it. I am using the resources of the corporation to get the garbage cleared from the city. The company has been debarred from collecting from these areas.”

He said the company which was collecting tipping fee, charges over each tonne of garbage after collection, was bound to lose money with the interference of DMC administration in its work.

“The company has nothing of its own. It neither has its own workers, vehicles or garbage bins. Everything has been provided by us. So we will make best use of our own resources. Sidharth Jain, director of DVWM project, who created all the fuss over tipping fee, would now end up losing revenue by withdrawing from the garbage collection.”

He admitted that the city residents who had nothing to do with the tiff between DMC administration and DVWM staff or the issue of right or wrong between them was suffering without any fault. He assured that he was keeping a tab on the clearance of garbage by taking reports from his officials several times in a day.

Sidharth Jain denied getting affected by the DMC now entering in the arena of garbage disposal.

Dehradun, October 9
An acid attack victim, Kavita Bisht, will undergo treatment at a higher centre for which the Chief Minister has announced a grant of Rs 6 lakh that would go towards her medical treatment.

Kavita Bisht, a resident of acid attack, lost her eyesight and received burn injuries on her neck after unknown assailants poured acid on her in 2008 in NOIDA.

At the intervention of then District Magistrate, a sum of Rs 2 lakh was released for her treatment from the Chief Minister's discretionary fund. She underwent treatment at Krishna Hospital (Haldwani) but for further treatment she has been referred to a higher centre. During the course of her treatment, her medical expenses would be borne from the Chief Minister's relief fund.

Further, the Chief Minister has also asked the Department of Women and Empowerment to give preference to Kavita and other victims.

In view of the poor financial condition of Kavita, the government has also asked the Department of Transport to take suitable steps for the re-employment of her father Dewan Singh Bisht on the post of a driver.