Haridwar, November 27
Following yesterday’s terrorist strike in Mumbai, the Haridwar police has beefed up security here. Police patrolling has been increased and major points like Har-ki-Pauri, temples, hotels, bus terminal and railway station have been cordoned off.

Although Uttarakhand has been alien to terror strikes yet the recent terrorist bombings in major cities including the pilgrim city of Varanasi has put the administration and police on alert.

With the Kumbh Mela scheduled in 2010, the police have an arduous task ahead considering crores of pilgrims expected to visit the holy city.

SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal said that security has been beefed up and police personnel have been directed to keep an eye on suspected persons. Patrolling and surveillance on all major points in the city have been geared up.

The police and RPF personnel were seen checking passengers and their luggage at the Haridwar railway station and bus station with metal detectors since last night.

"Though it causes delay, it is in the interest of the people. Everyone should help the police as this will help in the fight against terrorism," said Ranjan Tyagi, a traveller.

The closed circuit television installed at Haridwar is being monitored and recorded videos are being checked to see any suspicious movement.

Alok Sharma, mela security officer, said that more CCTVs have been sought from
the government.

Last month, Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri in a function at police lines in Dehradun had also expressed the fear that since Mahakumbh is to be held in 2010 in Uttarakhand, terrorists might try to disturb the peace.

Meanwhile, several organisations and political outfits have condemned the attacks. "We condemn the terrorist attacks. It is high time that the Centre makes a separate law against terrorism," demanded members of the ABVP here at the party office.

Ganga Sabha and Uttarakhand Sangarsh Samiti also held meetings condemning
the terror strike.

Mussoorie: Security has been beefed up in hotels of Mussoorie. Led by SSP Amit Sinha, a team of policemen visited the hotels here to review security arrangements.

Dehradun, November 27
On account of the inexplicable delay in allotment of land for setting up units in different industrial estates, the state is set to lose investment worth crores as the companies already reeling under the impact of financial crisis, have deferred their investment plans.

At least 102 applications of large and medium enterprises are pending but the allotment committee under the chairmanship of Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri is yet to take any decision even after 90 days.

The government had, through an advertisement, invited applications and the last date of their submission was August 31, 2008.

“Had the government taken a decision on allotments immediately, it would have attracted an estimated investment of around Rs 500 crore.”

“But this is highly unlikely now, as in between the financial markets crashed, forcing the companies to put their investment plans on hold. And nobody knows for how long this situation might continue,” said industry sources.

Principal secretary industries and member-secretary of the committee, PC Sharma, expressed inability to explain the reasons behind the delay: “We held a meeting two months back and will hold another one on the issue soon.”

Sources, however, said in an earlier meeting representatives of the applicant companies were invited and offered one-third of their total land requirements, which was unacceptable to them.

According to sources, Sterlite Technology Limited had applied for 15-acre land for its proposed Rs 50 crore high-tension aluminum cables unit at industrial estate developed by the State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (SIDCUL) at Haridwar, but it was offered just five acres.

Interestingly, around 70-acre land is available here. Similar was the case of Hindustan Zinc Limited, which applied for 25-acre land at Pantnagar industrial estate to set up a zinc-producing unit at an estimated cost of Rs 50-70 crore.

Meanwhile, as only 16 months are left for the expiry of the special package of incentives announced by the Union government in 2003, the chances of change of mind on part of the companies seems bleak even if the state government clears allotments at this stage.

In fact, these incentives, including tax holidays, had lured the industry to invest in the state in a big way.

“It would be unfortunate if the state fails to exploit the opportunity due to inaction of its government, especially as there is yet no indication that the Central government will extend the term of the special package up to 2013,” said a senior industrial consultant.

Dehradun, November 27
A running feud between Uttarakhand irrigation and water resources minister Matbar Singh Kandari and his junior Beena Mahrana, minister of state for social welfare, has resulted in the senior minister losing some of his departments.

Chief Minister Maj Gen B.C. Khanduri (retd) has taken away the Departments of Women Empowerment and Child Welfare from Matbar Singh Kandari.

According to official sources, Beena Mahrana was unhappy with functioning of these departments and had complained to her cabinet minister but without any success.

She was unable to take any action in the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) despite numerous complaints from across the state.

On the other hand, instead of taking action against the erring officers of these departments, Matbar Singh Kandari showed a soft corner towards the officers much to the chagrin of Beena Mahrana.

On her persistent complaints to the Chief Minister, Khanduri decided to take away the departments of Women Empowerment and Child Welfare from Kandari.

Now, Beena Mahrana would report to the Chief Minister and get a free hand in dealing with the erring officials.

During her meeting with the officials of these two departments held today, Beena Mahrana expressed dissatisfaction over the functioning of the ICDS programme and asked the officials to send their reports to her.

She has also sought a report about funding to voluntary groups by these departments. The development is being seen as further proof of rift among party MLAs. The Chief Minister has been trying hard to end intra-party feud.

Dehradun November 27
From a 16-room unit in the year 2000 to a four-room establishment at the Doon hospital in 2004, the working of the tuberculosis unit is hampered by lack of space and scattered arrangement.

Initially only three rooms were allocated for the TB department; another room was added only after the peeved doctors demanded for one more.

Now, a fourth room in the other building doubles up as a set-up for the district TB officer and the computer staff.

The shortsighted approach has even extended to the setting up of culture sensitivity testing facility far away from the Doon hospital at the health directorate, where only official work is conducted.

As part of the World Bank project, the old establishment at the Doon Hospital that housed the TB unit was demolished in 2001, making way for new units but at the cost of the already existing structure - a tuberculosis clinic, which was a boon for the doctors and patients who could be accommodated under a single roof.

“The diagnostic facilities should be present under one roof, precious time is wasted in going from one set up to the other. Despite the expansion, the Doon Hospital is grappling with space crunch,” says Dr V.S Tolia of Doon Hospital.

The shifting goals of the revised National Tuberculosis Programme, which now calls for a decentralised approach, also led to the shrinking of already existing TB clinic.

On the other hand, the door-to-door approach (taking the anti-TB treatment to people) has not reduced the pressure on the Doon Hospital where the number of patients seeking treatment continues to rise.

While the doctors and staff are inconvenienced, the patients too have to wait for long hours to receive treatment.

“I am waiting for my turn since the morning, but have not managed to get a seat,” rued Shanti Devi, a patient waiting at the OPD.

Mussoorie, November 27
Parking problems in Mussoorie would be resolved soon. A proposal by the Nagar Palika to create five new mega parking facilities in the town has been approved in principle by the chief secretary Subhash Gupta.

“The chief secretary will visit Mussoorie on December 4 to visit the sites and grant final approval. In principle, the administration has given its nod to these projects,” O.P. Uniyal, chairman of Nagar Palika, said.

He said that the new parking facilities would be built at various locations in the town in order to resolve parking problems during the peak tourist season.

Over 20 lakh tourists visit Mussoorie each year. During the tourist season, inadequate parking facilities cause headache to the local administration and frustration to the tourists.

Parking by tourists on the roadside also leads to frequent traffic jams. The cost of construction of these parking facilities is estimated around Rs 20 crore and the Nagar Palika is hopeful that the work would be initiated soon.

Moreover, in order to redress traffic bottlenecks, an existing on-road parking at Picture Palace will be discontinued.

“This would prevent frequent traffic jams in that area,” Uniyal said. The locals have also welcomed the news.

“During summers, we have problems finding parking space for vehicles and hopefully now, this problem will be resolved,” said Pankaj Jain, a prominent businessman.

Dehradun, November 27
The sugarcane growers in the state have threatened to take their produce to Haryana if the state government fails to decide on the new support price of by December 12.

The agitated farmers today accused the state government of doing little to announce the new support price for cane.

They said the delays were causing heavy financial losses as farmers were desisting from cutting their sugarcane crop, which was subsequently leading to delay in sowing of wheat crop.

The farmers also alleged that while neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab were providing better prices for sugarcane, Uttarakhand was taking its cane growers for granted.

“In the state of Uttar Pradesh, support price for sugarcane is as high as Rs 170 per quintal while Uttarakhand is offering somewhere between Rs 127 to Rs 132 per quintal, which is not at all judicious,” said Fakrey Alam, national vice-president of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU).

Demanding better facilities for cane growers, the Uttarakhand Bhartiya Kisan Union said emoluments to the tune of Rs 1,000 per month should be provided to farmers aged above 60 as done in other states.

However, the Kisan Union has made it clear that they were in no mood to compromise and would shortly go for full-fledged protest.

“If no solution comes by December 12, we will be forced to take away our sugarcanes to Haryana,” Rao Irshad, state BKU president said.

He alleged that not only were payments of cane quite low in the state, they were also never done in time.

Dehradun, November 27
The garbage bins at Mohini Road are back. Dehradun Municipal Corporation authorities placed the bins at their original place yesterday evening.

The Tribune, in its issue dated November 25, had reported the sudden disappearance of garbage bins from Mohini road in the Dalanwala locality here.

The bins were put in their original places as quietly as they were removed. “New bins have been placed to cater to the residents’ garbage disposal needs,” senior health officer Dr Gurupal Singh said.

Bins in certain areas including Mohini road had to be removed after some residents in these localities had objected to placing of these bins in close vicinity to their houses as most of these bins overflow because they are never emptied on time.

The corporation is now contemplating direct home-to-dump ground garbage collection in the wards that generate high quantum of garbage.

This would solve the problem of overflow of garbage in these bins. “Definitely most of the bins are filled to the brim. This is certainly a major challenge before the municipal corporation,” said Ganesh Dangwal, a councillor.

Haridwar, November 27
Besides cultural programmes and sports events in the three-day festival - “Jyanagini” - held in Gurukul University here, the one event that received a large number of visitors was the science exhibition where students showcased their innovative scientific creations.

The exhibition left everyone, including scientists, in admiration of the talent and skill of young students.

Like the mobile control system in which while away from home, using a cellular phone one can control and operate all electronic appliances in the house.

And all what one has to do is to connect the mobile control system with the main power line of the house and the other with the mobile phone.

“With a coding system in place, as you will press the desired number the appliance connected with the control system will get started itself,” says Shivani Gupta, who along with Nidhi Gupta, Manish Dimri and Ashish Kumar made this system.

Then there was the “automatic switch-off model” created by Gurukul students, which when connected with the water connection and electrical system cuts off the supply when the water tank gets filled.

This results in saving of precious water and if used will not only be helpful at the domestic level, but also the commercial. The team - Vijay, Singhraj and Manvendra - of FET-IIIrd semester made this project.

There were several other models that received appreciation, including utilisation of noise pollution in the generation of electricity, automatic irrigation control, global positioning robot system etc.

“Such events give us a platform to show the people our innovations and the appreciation we get motivates us to strive more,” said Tulika Joshi of Tula Institute, Dehradun, who received accolades for her optical fibre circuit model.

Dean of the faculty of engineering and technology, Gurukul University, Dr. Rajendra Aggarwal was all praise for the students.

“This augurs well for the state and country with such brilliant talent brimming in our colleges,” he said.

Dehradun, November 27
As part of the “Rajiv Gandhi Akshay Urja” celebrations, Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Authority today conducted a rally for schoolchildren with an aim to generate awareness towards importance of renewable energy.

The rally that started from Parade Ground took the Darshan Lal, Clock Tower, Rajpur road and Ashley Hall route before culminating at Parade ground.

The students, who held placards calling for more usage of renewable energy sources, also resorted to large-scale sloganeering.

Addressing the students, district magistrate Amit Singh Negi exhorted the students to work for the promotion of renewable energy sources.

He said the importance of renewable energy sources was increasing with each
passing day.

Additional secretary, UREDA, Saurabh Jain asked the students to promote usage of energy saving equipment. He said equipment like solar cooker and solar water heater have proved to be of immense benefit to consumers.

Chief Project Officer, UREDA, AK Tyagi coordinated proceedings. Development officer Dr R.S. Pokhriya and DEO Ramesh Prasad Chamola were present on the occasion.