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Mining on Gaula Riverbed
Commissions of inquiry useless: Verghese
BJP protest Cong’s step-motherly treatment towards state
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Alok Jain for bringing in new taxes
Naini-Saini Airstrip
Workshop on natural fibres ends
Mahima’s Rape & Murder Case
Ex-Armyman caught with explosives
Govt negligent about menace of food adulteration
IMA displays Gallantry awardees’ info at exhibition
Anti-encroachment drive
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Total bandh in Haldwani
Tribune News Service
Nainital, December 5 The day began with activists of the Gaula Khanan Samiti going around calling for the closure of schools, colleges, banks and other government offices. Thereafter, they held a demonstration in support of their demand for the immediate re-starting of mining operations on the banks of the Gaula river. The agitators gave vent to their ire against the politicians for failing to deliver, despite having made tall promises to them on the issue. During the course of their demonstration, they carried posters depicting pictures of politicians with the caption “Ghumshuda ki talaash”. The posters had pictures of Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, Union Labour Minister Harish Rawat, Lok Sabha member KC Singh Baba and local legislator Bansidhar Bhagat. “We want to ask people as to what kind of treatment these leaders deserve - whether they should be given a treatment that public representatives get or should they be taken to task for having failed the people whom they represent?” said president of the samiti Arshad Ayub. He said having had a successful bandh, the agitators now planned to sit on a dharna on December 7 in the ditches dug by stone crushers. The agitators feel that by allowing the owners of stone crushers to extract stone by digging on the banks of the river, their cause has been further complicated. The agitators have already given a memorandum to the local administration for getting the owners of stone crushers to stop digging the area around the Gaula for stones. “According to the norms, only chugan (mining) is allowed and not the khudan (digging). By allowing this, the administration is further complicating the issue,” said Ayub. The issue of mining on the banks of the Gaula continues to simmer as the permission for re-starting the mining is yet to arrive from the Centre. Over the past few days, various organisations representing people involved in mining and stone crushing operations on the banks of the Gaula river have launched an agitation asking the state government to persuade the Centre to allow the mining operations to start again. The lease for mining at the river bank got over in July 2009. The agitators feel that all political parties are misleading them and are just out to offer them the sympathy. Everyone down from the Chief Minister has assured them that the matter would be sorted out soon, but nothing concrete has come out over the past one month.
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Commissions of inquiry useless: Verghese
Dehradun, December 5 “We will not require commissions in the first place if the government had acted and law-and-order agencies done their duties by not succumbing to any pressure. “It has become fashionable to constitute commissions and look to them to give answers to the systemic failure of our law-and-order agencies at that point in time. The government knows where the malady lies, but will not like to administer the bitter pill,” Verghese emphasised. He was speaking today on the sidelines of consultative Citizen Interface Meetings organised by the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra. He said nobody had read the voluminous report on the Liberhan Commission findings. “It is a tedious task to read a 100-odd-page report. The systematic leaks have only confused people and everybody is interpreting the findings according to their own vested interests,” stressed Verghese. Agreeing that the issue of displacement is a contentious issue, especially in a state like Uttarakhand, he emphasised that the lack of development is a far bigger issue than that of displacement. “A bigger tragedy is awaiting us in the form of distress migration. People are fleeing villages as they have no work and money to feed their families. Development agencies need to ensure that development reaches every corner of the state and disparities are removed,” he said. On the issue of police reforms, he said state governments had been slow in implementing the Dharamveer Committee recommendations with several versions cropping up now and then in the past 20 years. “The Congress-ruled states have shown a lack of will in implementing the reforms, so also is the case of union territories. The force continues to be under-staffed with poor amenities,” he said. Citizens make less efforts to respect law: IG
At the first consultative citizens interface, IG Police MA Ganapathy today made a plea for according respect to the police force that is often at the receiving end of the media and public. “Our good far outweighs the bad and often the performance of the police while managing melas is seldom commended. Citizens make far less efforts to respect the police and the law. We have the highest detection rate in the country, but it is seldom mentioned,” he said. He was speaking today at the first Consultative Citizen Interface meeting organised by Citizen’s Pressure Group with the support of the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK). The meeting was presided over by eminent journalist BG Verghese. He said the police had increased surveillance and intelligence network at the grassroot level in the state as 90 per cent of the crime was committed by outsiders. “But the profile of a criminal is gradually changing in the city. More and more youngsters are taking to crime and they are mostly first timers,” he stressed. On the other hand, ADG Satyavarth Bansal said the police in had increased night patrolling in the city and the effort to set up village-level committees, which would function as grassroot intelligence network system, had been effective. To this, a member of the Citizen Pressure Group, Raj Kanwar, said the police needed to interact with the public on an even platform and get rid of condescending attitude that often came in their way of understanding the problems faced by common man. Putting the ball back in the citizens court, DIG (law and order) Abhilasha Bisht said the Community Policing Initiative that was launched in the state last year to make micro problems of citizens part of policing, did not receive good response as not many citizens came forward with suggestions. The fact that rules were openly flouted to run commercial enterprises in residential complexes and even schools that were creating traffic snarls in Dalanwala was highlighted by Dr Jaideep Datta. In the end, Verghese said the sense of security among citizens could only come if the police performs it’s duty, “otherwise there is fear of state turning into a dysfunctional one,” he said. |
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BJP protest Cong’s step-motherly treatment towards state
Dehradun, December 5 Led by Major Haji Mehtab Hussain Zaidi (retd), the BJP minority cell workers alleged that the Congress-led UPA was intentionally ignoring Uttarakhand and
even reducing the quota of foodgrains provided to the state normally. They also raised the issue of special industrial package asserting that the Centre’s deduction of tenure of package from 2013 to 2010 evidently revealed that the Centre was trying to obstruct the industrial development in the
state. Irfan Querishi, Abdul Rahim, Shakil Ahmed and Mansur Ahmed were prominent among the protesters. |
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Alok Jain for bringing in new taxes
Dehradun, December 5 “The royalty charge on minerals has only been revised after a gap of seven years, but the user charges for irrigation have not been revised for the past 10 years. Event the power sector is incurring line and distribution losses and does not pay any royalty to the state government,” he said. He was speaking today at the Consultative Citizen Interface and tried to demystify the economic planning that the government undertakes for citizens, who had gathered in a large number. Jain said even the asset building exercise such as creating health facilities in Uttarakhand were proving to be futile due to the non-availability of manpower. To get rid of indebtedness, “We need to focus on tourism, power, building infrastructure and increasing connectivity so that industrialists do not face any hurdles in setting up industries in the state. The land clearance has to be quick to keep the prospective industrialists interested,” he said. |
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Villagers disrupt extension work
Tribune News Service
Nainital, December 5 The agitators included residents of Naini, Saini, Kanar, Pabhayan, Sujai and Devat. They forced the JCB machines carrying out extension work to halt and raised slogans against the government. The agitators said the state government had made several promises at the time it acquired their fertile land for making the airstrip and it had not delivered on any front. They pointed the government had promised a 20-bed hospital, a high school, a connecting road to the airstrip, a job to a member of every family whose land was acquired and a stadium at Saini as a part of a special package for the area. They said while none of the previous promises had been fulfilled the government was once again moving towards acquiring more land for extension of the airstrip. The agitators submitted a memorandum in support of their demands to the local administration.
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Workshop on natural fibres ends
Dehradun, December 5 Addressing the valedictory session, state Chief Information Commissioner Dr RS Tolia said Uttarakhand had immense potential in fibres. He called for collective efforts on part of all stakeholders in the state to exploit fibre to its fullest potential. He said Uttarakhand had been first state in the country to come up with the Forest Resource Development Centre and evidently revealed the state’s commitment towards development of livelihood opportunities in the villages. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests said the Uttarakhand Forest Department had been working on fibre and a lot still needed to be done in this regard. —
TNS |
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Ramnagar observes bandh
Tribune News Service
Nainital, December 5 The bandh call given by the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti got support from various organisations like the Vyapar Mandal and the different civil society groups. The day started with the agitators going around the town seeking the closure of government offices and banks. The protesters forced the authorities to shut the Jim Corbett National Park for the day. After getting the offices shut, the protestors held a demonstration calling for the immediate arrest of the culprits in the case. Thereafter, a Shraddhanjali Sabha was organised at the dharna sthal. People from different walks of life came to offer their condolences to the departed child. While talking to The Tribune, the Convener of the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, Prabhat Dhyani said, “We will be having a Mahapanchayat on December 7 to decide the future course of action in the matter. We have a one-point demand that the police should nab the culprits in the case”. “The people are enraged at the failure of the police for not having arrested the culprits as yet. We feel cheated and misguided. The previous Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ashok Kumar had gone around claiming that the case would be solved within two days. “Now the new IGP JC Pande said the police was clueless about the identity of the perpetrators of the heinous act. This is no way of dealing with a sensitive mater like this,” added Dhyani. No untoward incident was reported during the bandh. There was a heavy police deployment in various parts of city for the day. The agitators have already sent a memorandum to Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and are annoyed with the fact that he has not even bothered to come to the town. They have also expressed resentment over his not directing the police to speed up investigations. People are angry at the fact that the police failed to find the child who had been missing for seven days before her body was found in a decomposed state on November 21 from a spot that was not very far from the police station. Mahima’s body had been recovered from a ditch in a house that was under construction after a week of her going missing. The face of the victim had been crushed and her clothes had been blood stained. Sources said her rib cage had been broken and blunt objects had been inserted into her private parts. Her body was discovered by a labourer who then informed the police. The girl was last seen at a marriage ceremony in Paith Padav where she had gone with her parents. It was from there that she had gone missing.
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Ex-Armyman caught with explosives
Dehradun, December 5 The person has been identified as Puran Singh Mehra, a resident of Almora district. He told the police that he was an ex-Armyman, but after the police checked him, it recovered explosives from his possession. The police called the BDS team, which found that the explosives were live. City Superintendent of Police Jagat Ram Joshi said, “After investigations with Puran, nothing has come to light, but we are taking the matter seriously and have sent police teams to different places which we cannot disclose right now”. The police team has been awarded with two cash prizes of Rs 1,000 each by Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police and city Superintendent of Police. The Dehradun SSP announced a cash prize of Rs 2,500, while the city SP has announced a cash prize of Rs 1,000. Three hard-core robbers held
The police has caught three hard-core robbers who were involved in 10 robberies, which they had committed in the past four months after coming out from jail. Four more persons of their gang have fled and the police is on the lookout for them. They had committed four robberies each under the Patel Nagar and Doilwala police stations area and two in the Raipur police station area. The robbers were already booked in 12 cases of robbery and some of them were under the Gangsters Act as well, Station Head Officer (SHO) of the Patel Nagar police station said. Those arrested have been identified as Raju Khurata, alias Rajesh, of Shaspur, Mohan Chetri and Sunny Jatt of Narwala. The four who have fled include Suraj Thapa and Chandan. The names of the two other robbers haven’t been disclosed by the police. According to the police, all robbers were caught near Palm City in a sugarcane field where a passerby spotted them. He found them suspicious and called up the police. The cops laid a trap and arrested three of them while the rest fled. The SHO of the Patel Nagar police station informed that the three had revealed wrong names, but after they were beaten up, they revealed their names and also those of their associates. The police was questioning them for further clues of those fleeing. Man booked for
blackmailing ex-beloved
A jilted lover was booked for allegedly downloading obscene pictures and MMS of his and his old beloved, who is married now. According to sources, the married couple today complained to the police alleging that Manoj, a resident of Ukhimath and who is working as a clerk in the Army, had downloaded her pictures, along with him, by cropping them. She further alleged that it had been going on for a long time and he had also been torturing her over the phone. Sources informed that they had a love affair, but as their horoscope didn’t match their parents didn’t agree for their tying the knot. Manoj couldn’t bear this, even after both of them got married to other partners. He continued calling her over the phone and trying to talk her even when she objected. When none of his ideas worked to come close to her, he started blackmailing her by downloading their pictures on Internet. He had allegedly downloaded the pictures, which they had taken when they were together before marriage. The complainant alleged that he had cropped the pictures and put them on the net to blackmail her. The police said action would be initiated against him. A complaint in this regard has been registered in Nehru Colony police station. |
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Govt negligent about menace of food adulteration
Dehradun, December 5 The Society of Pollution and Environmental Conservation Scientists (SPECS) have once again given shocking results from testing edible substances, this time on the two famous routes of Gangotri-Yamnotri and Badrinath-Kedarnath during the Char Dham Yatra season, from June to November, which suggested 82 per cent adulteration in total edible items. The prasad offered in the temples too was found adulterated and sub standard. Rishikesh has left all behind by taking the lead with 92 per cent adulteration in its food products. This is the fifth year in a row when SPECS has done its moral duty in exposing downgrading in food products. But the state government seems least concerned about its findings. Secretary Dr Brij Mohan Sharma said, “Even last year, we informed the Director General (Health) about food adulteration spreading in the state, but he took no action. We also offered our volunteer services free of cost to the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, but it turned us down for being private player.” He also rejected the excuse of the state government of not having good scientists to carry out research work in this direction saying the state had been blessed to have scientists from 65 per cent international science organisations of the world. He also stressed that the negligence on the part of the state government in preventing food adulteration might cost its aspiration to boost tourism in the state dearly. He said, “Besides beautiful mountain landscapes and spiritual experiences, we are offering poor quality of physical health in terms of adulterated food to our tourists which could dent the image of the state in near future,” he said. He also blamed processing units outside the state for being the real spoilers. He said, “The whole grains otherwise are safe, which are adulterated during the processing procedure. “Since the state does not have any processing unit, so most of the adulteration take place outside the state.” He also added that it is villagers who use more whole food such as turmeric, red-chilli, spices, etc.
in comparison to urban population. He also questioned the veracity of Agmark products. Nevertheless, the apathy of the state government does not dampen his spirit, as every year he brings out new results to spread awareness among masses. He said, “The whole network of adulteration is spreading because we are also negligent in being aware and raising this issue. Unknowingly, we are passing deadliest of diseases to our children also. It just needs little effort to know if we are eating adulterated food”. He also suggested ways to do so saying, “It takes little time and money to do testing at home. One can test the impurities by using either water or lemon or acetone (liquor/nail polish remover) at home. “The milk is tested for water content with lactometer, a small tool costing just Rs 8 which is easily available in all shops selling science instruments. “People can avail our services in gaining knowledge and testing of food adulteration by contacting the Department of Science and Technology situated at Vasant Vihar, Dehradun”. |
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IMA displays Gallantry awardees’ info at exhibition
Dehradun, December 5 The plans are also afoot to make a link of the project to the IMA website and have it in the famous museum of the IMA. “After the exhibition, we are planning to have a link of the project in our official website as it gives a detailed information about the gallantry awards and the awardees with their pictures and personal profile at one place,” said Capt Avinash Rawal, additional office in charge. The official website would also have a link on the right hand side which would show the latest gallantry awardees. “One don’t have to go through different websites to see the real heroes of our nation. Once this project comes up in our official website, one can have all information at one place,” he said. The project, the Indian Army’s Gallantry Awards, gives details of all six gallantry awards, including Paramvir Chakra, Mahaveer Chakra, Ashok Chakra, Veer Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra. The Paramvir Chakra is the highest gallantry award in the war of all military branches of India. While Mahaveer Chakra and Veer Chakra is the second and third highest gallantry in the war, respectively. Paramvir Chakra is the highest gallantry peace award. Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra are second and third highest gallantry peace awards, respectively. The project was the work of the Computer Club which has 72 cadets. Seven of the members of this club, including two gentlemen cadets and five cadets, developed this project, along with office in charge Major Gurpreet Kaur and additional office in charge Avinash Rawal. |
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26 shop owners challaned
Tribune News Service
Dehradun, December 5 SP city said that the drive would continue and encroachments would not be tolerated. The police had started its drive on December 3 and had warned violators to remove the encroachments.
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Dehradun, December 5
Dehradun, December 5
Dehradun, December 5
