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Doon residents wake up to dry taps
Rajaji, Corbett parks closed for monsoon
Slopes turning into plastic junkyards
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When Mussoorie bears took to beer
Reliance to give lessons in finance, retail
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Doon residents wake up to dry taps
Dehradun, June 16 Seeking Sixth Pay Commission benefits, as many as 32,000 employees with Peyjal Sansthan, Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority and zila panchayats went on an indefinite stir on Monday. The immediate fallout is acute potable water scarcity in parts of Dehradun, forcing the state to impose the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). The agitating employees resorted to large-scale vandalism on Monday night in an effort to obstruct water supply to parts of the city. The Jal Sansthan authorities have now asked civil defence wardens and councillors to ensure that the employees do not damage the water pipe line. Harshpati Uniyal, chief general manager, Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan, is confident of the water supply will be restored at the earliest. “We have repaired the pipes damaged by the employees apart from ensuring supply from tubewells,” Uniyual said. Pledging to continue their stir till the government accepted their demands, Chandra Vallabh Gairola, spokesman, Uttarakhand Local Bodies Association, said by imposing ESMA, the government was resorting to coercive tactics. He said Jal Sansthan employees understood the people’s concerns but that they had no other option other than opting for the agitation. Meanwhile, after last night’s arrest of two waterworks employees, Fateh Singh Rawat and Kanak Kishore Kukreti, the administration yet again warned the employees of stern action if they continued to disrupt the water supply. Local bodies employees in large numbers today gathered at the Parade Ground to decide on the further course of action. President of the Uttarakhand Local Bodies Association, Bhupendra Singh Rawat, announced start “Jail Bharo” in a few days as part of the next round of agitation. Reacting to the arrests made by the administration, Rawat said invoking ESMA against the employees was gross injustice. “These employees have been agitating for their genuine demands and their arrest under the Act is uncalled for,” said Rawat. Suryaprakash Ranakoti, vice-president of the Local Bodies Employees Association and president of the Karmachari Mahasangh, Mussoorie Dehra Development Authority, said the employees had completely boycotted work. He said while the state administration was seeking two months’ time to sort out the matter, extending any concession to the government was out of question. “We will not yield on the award of Sixth Pay Commission benefits, come what may,” declared Ranakoti, who said the agitation would be stepped up. Meanwhile, the city continued to reel under acute water shortage for the second day today. Most parts went without water supply. As an alternative, the Jal Sansthan carried water in tankers to certain localities but the supply was inadequate. Dispensary road, Balbir Road, Teg Bahadur Road, New Road, Race Course, Mohini Road and several other localities were the worst-hit. Despite several round of talks between the agitating employees and the authorities, the impasse continued. Sources say while the government is ready to provide the pay commission benefits from January 2009, the employees insist on getting these from 2006. Uttarakhand potable water secretary MH Khan said FIRs had been lodged against those responsible for vandalism, leading to disruption of water supply. He said repair of damaged water pipelines was on and the supply was expected to improve shortly. Potable water secretary today again appealed to the Jal Sansthan employees to withdraw their agitation. The district authorities, in the meantime, are contemplating stern action against the employees. They do not rule out more arrests in order to ensure uninterrupted water supply to residents.
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Rajaji, Corbett parks closed for monsoon
Haridwar, June 16 Chila Ranger MS Negi informed that the closure has been ordered due to the approaching monsoon, which leads to clogging of various roads and tracks inside the Park. Notably, a substantial part of Uttarakhand’s revenue is generated through the tourists visiting Rajaji. In 2008-09, 17,956 tourists visited the Park in a span of eight months. In addition, the Park attracted as many as 1886 foreign tourists this time. The total income generated by the Park authority this year stands at Rs 17,45,730. Park director SS Rasailly, who has been taking special steps to attract tourists, said: “The park area possesses as many as 23 species of mammals, 315 bird species, 40-odd species of reptiles and fish. It is also home to the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). We are taking steps to make the park more tourist- friendly and dividends are there for all to see.” Regarding the reason for closure during the monsoon, Rasailly said due to heavy rains movement inside the Park gets severely affected. “With water-logged roads and muddy terrain, movement inside the Park is very difficult during monsoon. The area also becomes bushy, which is risky for tourists,” he informed. On the other hand, Chila Ranger MS Negi said during the closure period patrolling would be intensified and a certain route would be followed. “This will ensure security during the closure period,” he said. Meanwhile, the Jim Corbett National Park was also closed for tourists from yesterday onwards. In addition, a permanent ban on vehicular movement inside the park could be in the offing. After a two-day visit to Corbett that concluded on Sunday, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests (independent charge) Jairam Ramesh had expressed concern over movement of large number of four-wheelers inside the Park.
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Slopes turning into plastic junkyards
The rejection of mineral water oozing out from natural sources and the increased trust in bottled water has added to the accumulation of such waste across the state, especially in the middle Himalayan belt. Increased consumption of bottled soft drinks also adds to the waste that is dumped on the slopes. Sadly, there is still no provision for “buy back’ of these bottles so that they can be refilled. And brunt of all this is being borne by the mute slopes. One litre of mineral water bottle weighs about 25 to 30 grams. On a normal sunny day, while trekking up the mountains a person can consumes as much as one litre of water per kilometre. So one can well imagine the amount of plastic that is being dumped on the slopes. Multinational and domestic companies hardly bother for the costs in terms of environmental degradation and the longterm impact of such material on the hill slopes. The argument of light-weight packings in contrast to glass and saving fossil fuel costs while transporting such material from the bottling plant to the manufacturer may be true up to some extent, but such a benefit is diluted by the cost of collection and scientific end-use disposal. Further, in the absence of a collection system, burning of such waste adds dioxins to the atmosphere. Plastic manufacturers guarantee non- corrosive packing for preventing contamination of water, but they have failed to realise that the impact of deposition of such waste depletes the groundwater table. Perennial springs are the only source of potable water in the hills and as such the impact is felt downstream, where most of the springs have either dried up or have been reduced to a trickle. Mineral water bottling companies need to place dispensers on way to the hills so that refilling can minimise waste generation. As an innovation, the trek routes need to be augmented in the first phase. The possibility for installing and refilling through reverse osmosis plants also needs to be explored. It is also important that bottling companies internalise the costs of waste-collection and disposal through “extended producer’s responsibility” as a step in keeping with the “polluter pays principle”. — The writer is a waste
management consultant.
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When Mussoorie bears took to beer
Mussoorie, June 16 Cows in slaughter-houses in some far-east Asian countries are given beer for promotion of appetite. But the story of wild bears of the jungles of Mussoorie is different. They have been notorious for gate-crashing parties for some beer! Mussoorie once had abundance of wild flora and fauna. The British took advantage of this and hunted down quite a number of exotic animals. In fact, the first-ever construction by the British on the hills of “Mansuri”, as it was earlier called, was a shooting hut. Almost all wild animals avoid humans as much as they can, but during winters they have to per force descend to the warmer areas, close to humans. The Himalayan black bear, however, is not that shy and is more of a maverick. It has indepth knowledge of rare herbs, which it keeps searching, and the animal is not even hesitant of experimentation. As recalls Raajkumari Neelambari Devi of Katesar Castle Mussoorie, “Last winter, two young bears entered the castle premises and started fighting over a few ripe figs.” Sometimes, the black bear can be more daring. During times of yore, while the British were sneaking into wild territories with loaded guns, one bear family gate-crashed a beer party just for fun. “One snowy evening, a bear with her two cubs entered Hackman hotel’s ball room, where a beer party was at its climax. The smell of beer was so tempting she could not stop herself from gulping a tummy full directly from the huge casks. The cubs followed suit,” informs historian Gopal Bhardwaj. “The humans and beasts went so high that none could chase away any. After a chaotic couple of hours, the jungle friends disappeared without even saying thanks,” he adds.
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Reliance to give lessons in finance, retail
Dehradun, June 16 The academy would be giving programmes in finance, retail and telecom for which registrations have begun. “Despite global slowdown, certain sectors are witnessing phenomenal growth. Telecom, finance and retail are fastest growing sectors that have tremendous opportunity for students looking for a career in these areas in the country and NIS Sparta Academy would fill the gap in terms of providing expertise and training,” said Arif Shamshad, business head of Reliance. He said that in addition to the three sectors entertainment and healthcare are also upcoming industries that would continue to hold lot of attraction and opportunity for the youth. The academy is offering two years dual MBA programme with a graduate programme in business skills and three years BBA programme again with a dual degree in Advanced Programme in Business skills. “The MBA ( 2-year) would cost around Rs 1.20 lakh ( without the business skill programme), the BBA ( 3-year programme) for undergraduates would cost around Rs 1 lakh without the additional business skill progarmmes,” said Pragti, head Dehradun centre, NIS Sparta Academy.
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Haridwar, June 16
Dehradun, June 16