Dehradun, June 28
The new Chief Minister of the state Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has made a flying start by calling a meeting of his three cabinet ministers to discuss the immediate problems facing the state, including power and water supply, here today. ‘Nishank’, who took over reins of the state from Maj. Gen. BC Khanduri (retd), was sworn in on Saturday along with three others.

Later, he also held a meeting with senior officials of the state asking to them to ensure round-the-clock power and water supply to residents of the state. The state has been reeling under the worst-ever power and water crisis since it came into being in November 2000.

‘Nishank’ instructed senior officials to visit various blocks in the districts from June 29, gather first-hand information of the prevailing situation and take effective steps to provide respite to people. He directed the officials that all damaged power transformers should be immediately repaired on a war-footing.

Taking cognizance of the delay in laying the power lines in Chifalghat village in Pauri Garhwal district for the past many years, the CM asked senior officials to take action against the guilty officers and also blacklist the contractors responsible for the delay.

He also took stock of the ongoing power projects and wanted that power production should be 6,000 million units in the coming days as compared to 4600 million units now. Emphasising on the speedy construction of various power projects and greater cooperation between power and Jal Sansthan, ‘Nishank’ said water-pumping stations should be exempt from power cuts.

In another development, the Chief Minister repatriated Parbhat Kumar Sarangi, an IAS officer, to his parent cadre of Uttar Pradesh. Sarangi, a close aide of former Chief Minister Khanduri, was in the eye of storm since Khanduri took charge after the assembly polls in 2007.

BJP party legislators complained that Sarangi was not at all listening to them. The allegations also gave fuel to the opposition who took up the issue in the state assembly and even demonstrated with ‘Sarangis’ (a musicial instrument) in their hands outside the state assembly last year.

With Khanduri’s ouster, the exit of Sarangi was imminent, but ‘Nishank’ decided to publicise it to his party legislators, leaders, workers and even to the common man that the old regime had changed. 

Haridwar, June 28
Leader of Opposition Harak Singh Rawat today termed the change of guard in the ruling BJP as a mere veil to hide the factionalism prevailing in the BJP's rank and file.

Rawat said changing faces would not help usher in development in the state. "Nishank is only a mask, while everyone knows Koshyari has the hand in the ouster Khanduri. But, Koshyari faction is still unhappy and more trouble is in store," said Rawat, who is legislator from Lansdowne assembly.

Rawat said the public has rejected the BJP as was evident from the results of the recent Lok Sabha elections.

He said while Khanduri was made the scapegoat for the party's failure in Uttarakhand, Raj Nath Singh was still the national president even as BJP was wiped out in the entire country. Local Congressmen also apprised Harak Singh Rawat of the irregularities and snails pace in the ongoing work.

Meanwhile, led by youth leader Sanjay Chopra, a delegation of local Congressmen, apprised Rawat of the snail's pace at which work for the "Mahakumbh Mela" was progressing in Haridwar and Rishikesh. They also brought to his notice the contradiction in the amount released and actually spent by the administration.

The delegation demanded constitution of a committee for monitoring Kumbh Mela expenditure. "There should be a monitoring committee to look after the work and ensure transparency in expenditure being done for the Mela," said Chopra.

On his part, Rawat, who was on his way to New Delhi, assured that he would apprise Central leaders of the situation.

Among those who met Rawat were Tej Prakash Sahu, Rakesh Aggarwal, Hitesh Sharma, Vijay Chauhan, Vinod Rawat and Furkan Ali. 

Dehradun, June 28
The revamped state government’s Universal Health Insurance Scheme for persons living Below Poverty Line (BPL) may get delayed further with the central government’s decision to take up fresh enumeration of criteria to measure poverty.

After it decided to implement scheme in private public mode, in February 2009, the private insurance companies were given six months to cover all BPL families for issuance of photo identity card and passbook and empanelment of hospitals.

“Going by the memorandum signed by the Uttarakhand government, The Oriental Insurance Company has to provide a list of BPL families along with addresses and facilitate in the implementation of the scheme within six months,” said Dr Sudhanshu Bahuguna, additional director, Directorate of Medical, Health and Family Welfare.

The company has to submit the detailed block wise/village wise action plan to cover to the BPL families of state under UHI policy and implementation of issuance of photo identity cards and passbook.

According to reports the companies have not been able to complete a single district so far, with the decision of the central government to start the enumeration exercise the process may further get delayed.

The brainchild of the central government was started for Below Poverty Line (BPL) population, in the absence of appropriate identity such patient do not receive adequate attention.

As also the benefits related to health cards are immense, all the BPL families bearing cards are entitled to free medical and health services. A cardholder gets facilities to obtain assistance under State Ailment Fund constituted for Tertiary Care treatment of chronic disease and also provide assistance under the Janani Suraksha Yojana.

Under the scheme, the patients are initially tested at the PHC then sent to network hospitals that forward reports to health insurance companies after the admitting them. Surgeries are undertaken after getting approval from health insurance companies.

In the state the scheme was initially started by the Congress government in 2006, during which 6,23,790 cards were distributed among BPL families.

As of now the health authorities have no account of the beneficiaries.

The Oriental Insurance Company has been entrusted with the task of implementing the scheme in districts of Pauri, Uttarkashi, Champawat, Bageshwar, Almora and Nainital and United India Insurance Company would implement the scheme in the districts of Tehri, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Haridwar and Pitoragarh. While the remaining districts of Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar are being covered under Rashtriya Swasthiya Yojan by United Insurance Co Ltd. 

Haridwar, June 28
Residents of Sarva Priya Vihar today staged a protest against polluted water supply. The protesters alleged that first, there was water shortage. Now, when supply has been restored, the water is contaminated.

Residents of ward number 4, with buckets in their hands, had staged a massive protest yesterday over water shortage in the area.

Residents continued their protest today as there was no change in water supply.

Led by ward member Geeta Chanchal, the protesters raised slogans against the administration and government.

“If the authorities can’t provide a basic amenity like water to the residents, then they have no right to continue on that post,” said Geeta.

The residents also alleged that while Jal Sansthan authorities were providing ice factories at Pav Dhoi proper water supply, there was not even a bucket of water for common people.

They have also given a memorandum to the magistrate and urged the administration to take steps to immediately restore water supply in the city.

The areas severely affected by water crisis are from Idgah Road, Kazivali, Ram Rahim Colony, Masjid Road, New Valmiki Colony and Balmiki Basti.

Subodh Kumar, executive engineer, Jal Sansthan, said that water supply has been affected by low voltage. As soon as proper power supply is restored, water supply will become normal, he said.

Dehradun, June 28
The rains gods have finally blessed the capital city. After a long dry spell, Dehradun today got much respite with pre-monsoon rains bringing cheer to residents. Rains that were caused due to easterlies led to a dip in mercury.

Rain that started at around 1.45 pm continued for nearly 50 minutes and certainly brought relief from the heat.

The rain also acted as scavengers helping in cleaning off the dust from the air. While on Saturday, there were light showers in some parts of the city but today, rain drenched the entire city.

Hardly a day back, there were efforts to please the rain gods and a ‘yagya’ was held at Panchayati temple by Congress workers.

Similarly, a batch of women had ploughed the field at Harrawala on the outskirts of the city.

Rain was also reported from other parts of Uttarakhand. Rain is expected to arrest the decreasing volume of water in the rivers in the higher reaches of Garhwal and Kumaon.

However, it may still take some time before the monsoon finally hits Uttarakhand. 

Dehradun, June 28
For the first time boys of Rasulpur, a Dalit village in close proximity of the protected area of Rajaji National Park, have succeeded in getting jobs after undergoing vocational courses, including the traditional livestock based self-employment opportunities to modern day courses like retail management.

Eight boys of Rasulpur village have undergone a retail management course, under Swarn Jayanti Swarojgar Yojna, conducted by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Union government. They also took a three months Certificate in Computer Operations course from Lal Bahadur Shastri Training Institute, Dehradun.

Apart from this former head master of Doon School John Mason, voluntarily taught spoken english to these boys.

While two boys have already joined Vishal Megamart, Roorkee division, one boy has taken an initiative to open a retail shop in his village, few have taken to self-employment like milk business and others are again going to continue their education which they left few years back. “A course in retail management has been of immense help to us in getting employment. It is difficult to get an opportunity to undergo such a course particular when you are residing in a backward village like Rasulpur,” said Sethraj, one the beneficiaries of the course.

It all started 3 years before when Friends of Doon Society (FODS), in collaboration with Rajaji National Park Directorate decided to set up a model village at Rasulpur in district Haridwar.

On the southern side of Rajaji National Park there are as many as 66 villages, adjacent to the park boundary. These villagers are mostly scheduled casts and they belong to below the poverty line, and are heavily dependent on the forests for grazing their cattle, firewood & other forest products.

“The primary intention of the project is to raise the living condition of the marginalised villagers, and to save the forests and wildlife of the park from further degradation,” said Arijit Banerjee, vice president, FODS. To serve these objectives, the society drafted a project plan, which is funded by Sir Ratan Tata Trust and United Nations Development Programme.

With the help of Elephant Family Multy Fund, UK and Sir Ratan Tata Trust, two youths who had completed six months course in Para Vet from Uttaranchal Live Stock Development Board are working in the village and helping the society in artificial insemination.

Already they have artificially inseminated 21 cattle, which produced three female and a male high breed calves in the village, which will certainly improve the milk production in the future.

Further, three boys of Rasulpur were trained in three months House Wiring course from Kanhaiya Lal Polytechnic, Roorkee and six boys were trained in three months Welding Course from Gurukul Kangri Prasar Prashikshan Kendra Haridwar. CII is helping the society to create job opportunities for the village youth.

Through these kinds of trainings, village youths have been filled with new skills and capacity, thus opening opportunities providing extra income to improve their living conditions and fulfill the basic requirements of their livelihood. These kind of activities is definitely assuring the availability of trained professionals in rural apart from rendering a solution to long-standing problem of man forest divide. 

Dehradun, June 28
Tabla player Jai Shankar Mishra has been selected for Sangeet Natak Akademi’s prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan ‘Young Award’. He has become the first Hindustani instrumental musician from Uttarakhand to be nominated for the award.

He will receive the award at a function to be held in Delhi in August. Jai Shankar Mishra is from the Benares gharana. He has received several awards and has performed in Europe and USA. The tabla player has also established an academy for young aspirants. 

Roorkee, June 28
Swift action by the police foiled the attempt of dacoits who struck three stone crushers in Bhogpur village in the wee hours today, around 25 km from here. Three dacoits were arrested by the Laksar police while the rest managed to flee.

The arrested dacoits have been identified as Rajesh, Sanjay and Brijpal, all residents of Bijnaur (UP). The police confirmed that about 12 miscreants were involved in the incident.

The police has seized three country-made firearms, live cartridges, three mobiles and cash worth Rs 72,000 from the culprits.

The police said that around 12 dacoits struck around 3 am at the Shivalik stone crusher, Swatantra stone crusher and Shiva stone crusher. When they were about to loot Shiva stone crusher, the police reached the spot.

“On seeing the police, the dacoits fled to the nearby woods from where we caught three of them,” said Sadanand Date, a senior police officer.

The rest of the miscreants have been identified and they would be arrested soon, added the officer.