|
|
|
|
Cabinet clears honorarium hike for coaches
SP lashes out at UPA over inflation
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
CPM to protest before House
Ration scam unearthed
Water taps spew out parts of chicken, fish !
6th death due to H1N1 in state
Identify beneficiaries for housing schemes, says Commissioner
Chinese mobile phones banned in city
81 constructions found illegal in Badrinath
Ranbir Case
|
|||||||||||||||
|
Cabinet clears honorarium hike for coaches
Dehradun, December 1 Talking about the decisions of the Cabinet meeting, Chief Secretary Indu Kumar Pandey said a substantial hike in the monthly honorarium of ad hoc coaches had been approved with the new hike slab ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 15,000 from the existing Rs 500 to Rs 1,500. He said for those coaches who had played at inter-university levels, the amount had been hiked to Rs 3,000 from existing Rs 500. Similarly, for the NIS-certified coaches, the amount had been hiked from Rs 1,200 to Rs 7,000. Further for those who have participated in the Commonwealth, Asian and Afro Asian games, the monthly amount had been increased to Rs 12,000 while it was as high as Rs 14,000 for participants of Olympics and world championships. In a major decision, the cabinet, in order to ensure higher revenue earnings, has brought levying of luxury hotels now under the jurisdiction of the Commercial Tax Department shifting it from Tourism Department. “The resource mobilisation committee has found that the state’s luxury tax earnings were quite less compared to states of Goa and Himachal Pradesh. The cabinet approved now making the Commercial Department responsible for levying of luxury tax on hotels,” Pandey pointed out. The new arrangement, while ensuring better revenue earnings would also benefit tax payers as they would not have to deal with two different tax-imposing authorities. Similarly, for an effective implementation of entertainment tax, the DTH transmission service rules were approved. A restructuring of the Uttarakhand Bhasha Sansthan Department has also been approved. A 19-employee structure, it will prominently have a director, deputy director, assistant director and a publication cell. Further enabling tax provision for VAT commodities was also approved by the cabinet, which also approved for amendment of certain department linked to doing away of interviews and inclusion of objective type written examinations. |
|
|
SP lashes out at UPA over inflation
Haridwar, December 1 On a call of Samajwadi Party chief Vinod Barthwal, the district and city units of the party today held a massive protest at the district headquarters and cornered the Congress government terming it as a total failure in nation’s governance. Referring to the rise in the prices of essential commodities and other daily consumer items, Saeed Ahmed, district head of the Haridwar unit, termed the rise as unprecedented and said the government was only focusing on the urban lot, while farmers, middle class and lower strata of society were being utterly
neglected. “The government has become a doll in the hands of corporates and industrialists and, thus, is unconcerned about the common man and poor people. Inflation directly affects the person who buys these items on a daily basis and this doesn’t affect those who throng malls and have income running in
lakhs and crores,” remarked Ahmed. Terming the ideology of the Samajwadi Party as the best for Indian democracy, city head Rajendra Parashar said whether it was the Congress or the BJP, the difference between the rich and poor was
only increasing. Parashar cited the example of Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya who always was for the poor and downtrodden. “It was his belief that industrial revolution alone was no solution for the Third World, and had cautioned about their lives being taken over by big corporations. He called Marxism the last weapon of Europe against Asia and hailed the Samajwad as the ultimate solution,” said Parashar. On the growing incidents of crime against women in the country, the women’s unit of the district said women were living in fear and the government had failed in controlling crime. Rekha Valmiki, head of the women’s unit, remarked that both inflation and crime against women were on the rise. “The Congress it seems is oblivious that women in India are subjected to harrasment, exploitation and physical violence is growing against them,” said Rekha. Among those who addressed the gathering were former district chief Masfoor Kureshi, district general secretary Lav Dutta,vice-president Naushad Ali, Dr VK Rathore, Sanjay Gaud, Manish Rastogi, Umesh Paliwal and other executive members. |
|
|
CPM to protest before House
Dehradun, December 1 The party decided to protest on these issues in front of the Vidhan Sabha during the winter assembly session. They also discussed the campaign of streamlining the system which was started by Dr Tapan Sen, member of the Central Committee and member of Parliament, who was also present in the meeting. They also reiterated the stance of the party on the balance of power in global perspective, new liberalisation and against communalism. State Secretary Vijay Rawat said they would tour the state with the State Committee in December- January. Besides Bachchi Ram Kaunswal, who presided over, many others, including Surender Singh Sajwan, Rajender Singh Negi, Indu Naudiyal and Satya Prakash, were present. |
|
|
Ration scam unearthed
Roorkee, December 1 The raiding team recovered around 10 quintals of wheat and 50 quintals of rice meant for distribution under the PDS from the storehouse. The team also seized paraphernalia along with chemicals, which were said to be used to give ordinary rice the basmati fragrance. Tehsildar Shahid Hussain said the culprits were shifting the ration material from the government marked bags to ordinary bags when the raid was conducted last evening. However, the culprits, who were said to be two in number, managed to flee from the spot. Outside the storehouse, a board of Bharat Gas was put up. Hussain said the storehouse belonged to a Saharanpur-based businessman. “It seemed that the material came from an FCI godown as the many of the bags carried government’s mark. Probably, the seized material was meant for selling in the markets of other states,” said Hussain. “To ascertain the source of the seized material, raids would be conducted on FCI godowns soon,” he said, adding that the team also raided a ration depot in Khubanpur village last night. Earlier, the police
had seized two trucks carrying ration material a fortnight ago. The official hoped that the further inquiries into the case could lead to a bigger scam. |
|
|
Ghee samples collected from two stores
Dehradun, December 1 Chief Food Inspector GC Kandwal picked up random samples of loose ghee from a store located at Dharampur Chowk and another store at Rajpur (Jakhan). The samples will be sent for testing at the food-testing laboratory in Himachal Pradesh as the Uttarakhand testing facility has not started functioning. Since Diwali the authorities have sent a total of 35 samples, the reports of which are still awaited. “We have been given directions by the Central government to maintain checks on the supply of ghee as there have been reports of high adulteration, especially the use of palm oil,” said Kandwal. He said the authorities would also be picking up samples of loose and packed ghee of branded companies. |
|
|
ARM, clerk of transport held taking bribe
Dehradun, December 1 Those arrested have been identified as ARM Brijesh Kumar Pundir, who was posted at Kotdwar, and clerk Vijay Kumar Mukherji from Dehradun. According to the Vigilance Department, in the first case, driver Chatrpal Singh with the Transport Corporation, Kotdwar, complained to the Vigilance alleging that the ARM had shifted him from long route to short route nine days ago for no reason. And when he went to meet him on November 26, he demanded Rs 3,000 to put him on the long route again. The complainant approached the Vigilance on November 30 and apprised it of the matter. In charge of the Vigilance Brijender Juyal directed Inspector Rajiv Dadiyal to do secret investigation. The Inspector after going through the complaint found it to be true and on the direction of the in charge formed a trap team. The trap team at about 11:35 am nabbed the ARM while accepting bribe from a sweet shop near Kotdwar Roadways depot. In another case, on the complaint of Chanderpal, a suspended driver of the Transport Corporation, clerk Vijay Kumar Mukherjee was caught taking bribe of Rs 2,000. The complainant alleged that he wanted to withdraw Rs 1 lakh from his EPF. But the clerk demanded Rs 2,000 for withdrawing the amount. Chanderpal complained to the Vigilance on November 30, following which the Vigilance formed a trap team that caught the clerk at about 12:30 pm from his office premises. The Vigilance in charge announced a cash prize of Rs 1,225 each to both of the trap teams. |
|
Water taps spew out parts of chicken, fish !
Nainital, December 1 They were agitated at the fact that over the past two months, since the flow of water to their taps had been reduced to a trickle following the choking of the pipeline, they were utilising water that was contaminated by the carcasses of chicken and fish. According to the information available, residents of Line No. 16, Kabristan Gate, Safdar ka Bagicha and Gopal Mandir areas had approached the Water Supply Department with complaints that the water supply to their areas had been reduced to a
mere trickle. The department personnel carried out a cleaning operation about a month and a half back, besides opening the main line and digging up four ditches. But the problem persisted. However, when the cleaning was done again on Monday, along with water gushed out parts of chicken and fish carcasses from the taps. Officials, however, reportedly pointed out that since the problem had not been solved satisfactorily earlier, the ditches had not been refilled. The supply to the houses had been disconnected. The garbage must
have fallen in the pipes as the joints had been lying open. However, with the first gush of water the entire pipeline got washed and the garbage was thrown out by the taps. |
|
6th death due to H1N1 in state
Dehradun/Pitthoragarh, December 1 Confirming the death, Dr Pankaj Jain, Nodal Officer, IDSP, said the patient died last night after his condition deteriorated. Meanwhile, one more patient from Roorkee tested positive taking the total number of positive cases to 93 in the state. Dehradun has the maximum number of positive cases at 67, followed by Haridwar-21, Pauri Garhwal-20, Tehri-1, Nainital-1 and Udham Singh Nagar-2. The health authorities today collected 19 samples from different parts of the state. Eleven more samples of family members, including five school teachers, have been sent for testing after the manager of a private school in Pitthoragarh was found positive for H1N1, Pithoragarh CMO Laxman Singh Tolia said. “We have not only sounded a general alert against the spread of this disease, but also borrowed the sample kit from Almora,” said the CMO, adding that there was sufficient stock of medicines and syrup for H1N1. Meanwhile, the patient from Pitthoragarh who tested positive has been admitted to Doon Hospital. |
|
Identify beneficiaries for housing schemes, says Commissioner
Nainital, December 1 At a review meeting pertaining to the implementation of such schemes held here, Raju said that
the implementation of such schemes should start at the earliest. He called upon urban local bodies to get surveys done at their level that would be verified at the level of the Kumaon Commissioner. He asked the officials present to ensure that there was no bias in implementation of these schemes and only the deserving get the benefits. He directed that experts from outside can be used for preparing detailed project reports (DPRs) of these schemes and, for this purpose, local bodies can float tenders at their own level. He directed executive officers of various local bodies to take the help from those bodies where the works have already been started with regard to the said schemes. Raju told the top officials to proceed to Srinagar in Pauri Garhwal district to gather information as it was the first district to have come up with a proper DPR on housing projects meant for the urban poor. The Commissioner expressed his displeasure at the delay in construction of buildings in Birbhatti by the personnel of the Public Works Department and asked them to ensure that the work was completed well on time. The concerned engineer told the Commissioner that the tenders pertaining to the project would be opened on December 16 and work would start immediately. The Commissioner also asked officials of all local bodies to set up neighbourhood cleanliness committees for collection of garbage and arrange for its transportation to the Haldwani-based recycling unit. |
|
Chinese mobile phones banned in city
Dehradun, December 1 “Till now I have sold more than 20,000 Chinese handsets in the city. Mostly, students and labour class people have bought them. “They are cheap and stylish with maximum features,” said Narender Uniyal, owner of the local mobile shop. “I have been getting these cell phones imported from Delhi and sold these for a good amount. But the order of banningcellular mobiles has created a great impact on my business from today itself,” he added. As per the directions of the Ministry of Telecommunication, more than 1,50,000 people are using these less-costly cellular phones with invalid IMEI, which are proving to be a threat to national security. Saurabh, a student of DAV College, said, “I have a Chinese mobile phone the service of which has been disconnected since Monday and now I am experiencing great difficulty to get it reactivated soon” . According to Deepak, owner of another cell phone store, said any subscriber could get their handsets reactivated by getting a new IMEI numbers from the GPO at the Clock Tower. |
|
|
Police conference held
Dehradun, December 1 Later a monthly crime meeting was conducted by the Senior Superintendent of Police, along with
city and rural Superintendents of Police. The circle officers and station head officer of all police stations were also present at the meeting. During the monthly crime meeting, various crime-related issues were discussed, including verification of locals who give bail to outside state criminals, beefing up security of schools and prominent institutions in view of the IMA parade and threatening letters, beat policing to be made more vigilant and initiation of action on the criminal sort of boys who tease the public, especially girls on city roads. Besides this, the “fearless drive” which is being conducted in all 13 districts of the state under the directions of Deputy General of Police Subhash Joshi was also taken into notice. SSP Abhinav Kumar directed the police personnel to take action against the criminals coming in from other states. |
|
|
81 constructions found illegal in Badrinath
Dehradun, December 1 An Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM)-constituted committee findings have made this revelation. The rising number of encroachments in the close vicinity of the Badrinath shrine has been a matter of concern in recent times
and there has been continuous pressure on the administration to act against these encroachers. After ground toothing, the committee has revealed a total of 81 encroachments. Several kiosks as encroachments have also come up in close proximity of Badrinath and most of these kiosks have been rented out. Significantly, the temple committee managing Badirnath affairs has also been putting pressure for the removal of encroachments. Chairman, Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee, Anshuya Prasad Bhatt, however, has expressed ignorance of the committee findings. |
|
Women tea workers demand better wages
Dehradun, December 1 The labourers have also expressed resentment against the administration for not taking immediate action on the enhancement of labour wages the memorandum of which has been passed
since 2008. Ashok Sharma, an office-bearer of the sabha, said, “Labourers working at the tea estate had been promised with increment in their minimum wages from August 2002 by the administration under Notification No. 3780/ OV Branch-2/72-Labour/2001 dated 31.05.2002. But nothing has materialised yet”. “At present they are getting Rs 1,508 per month only as their wage, while additional DA amount of Rs 721.45 makes it a total of Rs 2,229.45 per month. During the era of price hike, these labourers are dealing with poverty and facing famine. In fact, the state government is also not providing any assistance to the labourers. Therefore, we request the authorities to begin immediate work on this issue,” he
added. |
|
Deer crushed by vehicle
Haridwar, December 1 The deer was noticed by some passersby who informed the nearby situated district hospital staff. According to the onlookers, the deer had already died and blood was flowing out of its head. Later, Forest Department officials reached the spot and took away the body of the animal. The age of the deer was about four years and department officials say it had accidentally come into the residential area from nearby forest area and come under an unknown vehicle. A case has been registered by the department officials. The incident has left wildlife lovers and local people in anguish. The area where the accident occurred comes under Haridwar Forest Division, and the Rajaji National Park is just near the road. It’s a common to sight animals like peacock, deer and even elephants at this area as there is no wall or wiring that may stop them.
— TNS |
|
Ranbir Case
Dehradun, December 1 Rajesh Bisht, Nitin Chauhan, Neeraj Yadav, Chandermohan Singh Rawat and Ajit Singh had applied for the bail. Judge Narender Dutt gave the verdict and saved the bail hearing for December 10. Earlier on November 18, the CBI court had cancelled the bail hearing of the then Dalanwala police station in charge Santosh Kumar Juyal and the then Ara Ghar police post in charge GD Bhatt.
— TNS |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Classified | Suggestion | E-mail | |
