Dehradun, January 10
Due to implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, Uttarakhand is under a debt of more than 14,000 crore and is fast moving towards a debt trap. To emerge out of the crisis, the state has sought permission of the Central government for additional market borrowings of Rs 750 crore.

“We have sought permission of the Central government for additional money and are awaiting a response,” said state finance secretary Alok Kumar Jain.

The crisis is largely the upshot of the fact that till March 31, 2009, the state government has to pay Rs 3,500 crore in terms of arrears and increased salaries to its employees as per recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. This has put extra burden on the state government, whose total budget stands at Rs 5,600 crore in the current financial year.

The impact of the crisis has resulted in curtailment of developmental plans and all departments have been asked to cut down on their budgets. What is worse is the fact that the state government would be paying 60 per cent of the arrears in 2009-10. This would put tremendous burden on the exchequer and adversely affect various infrastructural and developmental projects, as the non-plan expenditure would increase phenomenally.

Keeping the approaching Lok Sabha elections in mind, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Maj. Gen. BC Khanduri (retd) had earlier decided to give Sixth Pay Commission pay scales to its 163,000 employees and 60,000 pensioners with effect from September 1, 2008. The arrears and Dearness Allowance (DA) from January 1, 2006, till August 31, 2008, would be deposited in their respective provident fund accounts. Notably, the employees have got a salary hike of 25 per cent while pensioners 40 per cent.

“We will be paying 40 per cent of the arrears in 2008-09 and the rest in 2009-10,” the CM had said. The salary hike means an extra annual burden of Rs1000 crore on the state exchequer.

And this does not seem to be the end of financial troubles of the state government, as a large number of employees especially those of state boards, corporations, teachers of government aided schools and colleges are on a warpath demanding Sixth Pay Panel scales.

The economic slowdown has also affected the collection of taxes this year. There has been a 20 to 30 per cent decline in revenue collections in sectors like transport and stamp duty due to the meltdown, according to official sources.

In 2006, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had stated that “an ever-increasing ratio of fiscal liabilities to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) together with a large revenue deficit could lead Uttarakhand into a debt trap.”

Uttarakhand, formed in November 2000 after bifurcation from Uttar Pradesh, inherited a debt of nearly Rs 3,000 crores, but in the next five-and-a-half years the debt from various financial institutions and bodies grew to Rs 9,910 crore.

In 2006, the state was paying Rs 900 crore annually as interest on its loans. The amount has now risen to more than Rs 1,100 crore per annum. The state has to take a loan of up to 45 per cent of its Gross Domestic product (GDP) for annual expenditure. Most of the loan amount is spent on salaries of the government employees.

The state’s total expenditure increased from Rs 3,224 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 6,353 crore in 2004-05. Revenue expenditure also increased sharply to Rs 5,036 in 2004-05, which included salary bills of Rs 1,546 crore. On the other hand, the total revenue receipts that were Rs 2,608 crore in 2001-02 rose to Rs 4,086 crore in 2004-05, the CAG report had said.

State government officials maintain that in a new set up such expenditure is necessary to build infrastructure. However, they claim that the fiscal deficit that was 7 to 8 per cent would be brought down below 3 per cent.

Notably, Khanduri in his first year presented a ‘revenue surplus budget’ for 2007-08 with no new taxes. He had also said that as per the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, the state government has to bring down its fiscal deficit below 4.54 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product.

Accordingly, the fiscal deficit estimated in the budget for 2007-08 was Rs 1,460 crore, which is 4.47 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product. He presented a second successive revenue surplus budget in 2008-09.

However, presentation of revenue surplus budgets looks like mere ‘statistical jugglery’ as the state government struggles to keep itself afloat.

Khanduri had been working on bringing down the fiscal deficit, but the current financial situation seems to have thwarted his plans of economic discipline. And in the end, it’s only infrastructure development that seems to bear the brunt.

Dehradun, January 10
Prem Chand Verma, a veteran cricketer has toiled hard for the past 50 years to nurture budding cricketers in Doon valley. As of now, he is secretary of the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU).

For the past 50 years, Verma has been organising the District Cricket League single-handedly. “His enthusiasm for cricket is unmatched. He watches every game in the league for the past many decades,” said Bhupinder Singh, a close associate of Verma and a member of the association.

Verma now aims to get affiliation from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to facilitate the participation of players from the state in national tournaments. Despite being a state since November 2000, players from Uttarakhand are forced to play national cricket as part of the Uttar Pradesh team in the absence of BCCI affiliation.

CAU is all set to construct an international stadium in 100 bighas of land allocated by former Chief Minister ND Tiwari in village Danda Lakhond, near Dehradun. The association is only awaiting BCCI affiliation. The blueprint for the whole project is complete, with the future plan of starting u-13, u-19 tournaments in every district of the state as soon as affiliation is secured.

Verma said he had the honour of playing in the first edition of UP Sheesh Mahal Tournament, one of the oldest cricket tournaments of the country. He was later employed with the Controller of Defense Accounts (Air Force) and started a tournament with the help of his colleagues, which was known as All-India CDA (AF) Cricket Tournament in Dehradun 1981.

In the initial years, players of CDA (AF) cricket team largely funded the tournament. But it is now supported by IMA, FRI and institutes like Ordnance, Factory, Survey of India, Welham School et al. The tournament has grown in popularity since then, and this can be gauged from the fact that famous players such as MS Dhoni, Virendra Sehwag, Mohd Kaif, Praveen Kumar, Joginder Sharma and others have played in this tournament before shining on the national stage. As many as 16 teams participate in the tournament.

Verma was also a keen footballer and has played at the university-level while representing the Uttar Pradesh team. “I was initially a footballer but decided to shift to cricket. I felt a career in football would be short-lived, but at the same time I wanted to dedicate my whole life to a game. That was the period when I took to cricket.”

Subsequently, Verma first played for Agra University and then for the Eastern Services team in the Ranji Trophy. Later, he was a part of the CDA (Air Force) team, which is among the formidable sides in Dehradun and has won the Central Government Employee Welfare Coordination Committee (CGEWCC) cricket tournament ten times in a row.

“The idea to start the All-India Uttaranchal Gold Cup Cricket Tournament came up after the formation of Uttarakhand as a separate state. As most of the CDA (AF) members retired or were transferred, we decided to keep up the rich legacy of CDA (AF) Cricket Tournament and formed the Cricket Association of Uttaranchal (CAU). The association changed the format of CDA (AF) cricket tournament. And with efforts of the association members, the All-India Uttaranchal Gold Cup Cricket Tournament reached a new high after formation of the state.”

Verma now hopes to see cricketers from Dehradun don the national cap.

It was during the 1890s that the ‘Queen of Hills’ had become a known destination for love, romance and parties. And officers of the East India Company, young princes and nawabs of the Indian states hardly missed a chance to holiday amid the tranquil surroundings of Mussoorie.

Some of the world’s best beers were being brewed in the outskirts of the town and hotels like the Savoy, the Charliville, the Hackmans and the Riviera were the venue for grand parties and ball dances. Except for the Charliville, which was converted into the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration after independence, the rest of the hotels still exist.

Although it was, and still is, very peaceful and safe to walk on the roads of Mussoorie, it was sometimes a tough task for party-goers after a night of revelry. An Indian businessman, Master Mahanand Rohilla, hailing from a village near Saharanpur, came up with the idea of introducing hand-pulled rickshaws for which the British authority instantly gave permission and provided him a workshop on rent near the Charliville hotel.

Soon, the rickshaw became a popular mode of transport and even a status symbol. Ramanand, as Master Mahanand was called by the British, started a bigger workshop in 1903 at Inder Bhawan between the Tati hotel and the Anaar Villa (named after Anaaro Devi, the wife of famous businessman Seth Chamariya).

Ramanand got over 300 rickshaws made and employed many carpenters, blacksmiths and cobblers from Sardhana, near Meerut, and many locals from the towns adjoining Mussoorie.

The strong young men who pulled these rickshaws were called ‘Jhampanies’ and they were provided impressive uniforms. They all lived together at the Ramanand Cottage at Inder Bhawan (Inder Bhawan named after Baldev Inder Singh of Punjab). Five ‘Jhampanies’ would pull a double-seated rickshaw and four a single one. The colonial affair lasted till independence.

Ramanand’s elder son master Harish Rohilla joined Ramadevi Inter College as a teacher while the younger son Rajendra Rohilla worked in the LBS Academy.

After Ramanand’s demise, Bhargava of the Suryakiran hotel carried on the rickshaw trade, but the Rohilla family still possesses the remains of the rickshaw and the uniforms of the ‘Jhampanies’, some of whom later bought their own rickshaws. However, the L.B.S. Academy authorities later abolished the hand-rickshaw and introduced cycle-rickshaws instead.

(The writer is a freelance journalist from Mussoorie)

Dehradun, January 10
With a desire to do something for the girl child, Sunny Singh, a former executive director of General Electric Company, Calcutta, left Delhi to settle in Guniyal Gaon near Dehradun.

"I worked in Calcutta for 34 years, and after my retirement I was living in Delhi with my family but somehow I was not satisfied with my monotonous life. I always wanted to do something for society. As I have been associated with Dehradun, I bought some land in Guniyal Gaon to start a school for girls as I strongly believe that girls are the future mothers and educating them is like educating the whole family,” said Sunny Singh.

Being a product of Doon School, Sunny Singh (70), faced great difficulty in persuading the pradhan of Guniyal Gaon to rent him the school land as well as allow him to start extra-classes in English and computers, so that girls can accept the challenges of life and stand at par with men. “It took a while for the parents to allow their girls to attend classes in my school and to come for tuitions at my home,” said Sunny Singh. Starting with nine girls between the age group of 13 to 21 years, at present there are 53 girls out of which, nine are studying in DAV college.

“Belonging to poor families, they are provided fees, clothes, books, bus fare, quilts and even have insurance policy in case of accident and illness. I have got doctors arranged for them and now girls from almost 10 villages are regularly attending the school,” said Sunny Singh.

Besides education, Sunny Singh is also assisting the families in getting the girls married. “As poor farmers in the villages cannot bear the expenses of marriage, I provide all the necessary items to the girls required to start a family. My student Kanti is getting married soon and I have arranged everything for her," said Sunny Singh.

Sunny Singh is also fighting for the cause of female foeticide. “I keep in constant touch with the state authorities to fight against female foeticide. I also plan to come up with another school for vocational studies so that girls can get easy employment,” he said.