Dehradun, January 13
The Central government’s plan to strengthen the village economy by bringing development and employment through MSME (Micro and Small Medium Enterprises) under the Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) is in bad shape in Uttarakhand.

The Khadi Village and Industries Commission (KVIC), the nodal agency of Uttarakhand, funds these projects. It has failed to utilise Rs 10.5 crore given last year to establish 500 small units. It is also struggling to utilise the allocation of Rs 13 crore, including Rs 7.5 crore left unutilised from the last financial year, to establish 1,300 units in the state.

These projects, which are estimated to give employment to at least 20,000 to 30,000 villagers and strengthen their financial condition are directionless in the absence of proper planning and implementation of the scheme.

Director, KVIC, blamed the delay in fund release due to which the set targets could not be achieved. He said, “We were given a budget of Rs 6 crore to establish 500 units in financial year 2008-09 in January. This made it impossible for us to utilise the funds and set up units by March 31.

“First, we got the funds late and then the parliamentary elections which went on from March to May spoilt the rest. We could manage to set up only 384 units and spend Rs 2.5 crore by March 31.”

As other schemes cry for lack of funding, here the Central government was quite keen to see this project successful at any rate. It sent an additional package of Rs 4.5 crore on March 31 last year while the state KVIC could not fully utilise its budget of Rs 6 crore of the first phase and had a surplus of Rs 3.5 crore left with it. Obviously, there was no need for the additional package.

The director said that when the project was mooted, the planners might have felt some finance crunch that made them demand additional money.

But he did not explain why the fund was not stopped when the KVIC could not achieve its target and utilise the amount.

This goes to show how monitoring agencies at the Centre are kept in the dark by state agencies and the Centre too leaves the plan on autopilot after it prepares it and leaves it in the hands of various states.

This total unutilised package of Rs 7.5 crore has been carried forward for the next phase of the current financial year 2009-10. The KVIC has now been given new budget of Rs 6 crore and this makes the total budget Rs 13.5 crore.

The commission seems to be heading for a repeat as it has been able to get only 746 units cases approved out of the target of 1,300 units. It claims that it will be able to utilise the Rs 7.5 crore lying with it.

“We are yet to receive Rs 3 crore for this financial year. We hope to receive it on time and meet our target by March 31.”

There are a few months left in the end of the current financial year and the process of fund release has not been completed yet.

The director blamed it on the tardy pace of planning and execution saying, “When we talk of planning from one financial year to another, then the process of file-moving actually starts in July. Various administrative departments take at least three months to prepare the project.

“The decision-making committee meets in September and takes two more months and it reaches us by January. By this time, the current financial year comes to a close.”

After getting the funds, one has to achieve the whopping target of first approving and then setting up 554 units in a month.

Haldwani, January 13
Reminding newspaper owners and the government that they form an integral link in the dissemination of news to the masses, newspaper hawkers of Kumaon have sought social security benefits and a status of being organised labour force.

The hawkers in the region have consolidated themselves under the banner of the Devbhoomi Patra Samvahak Kumaon Mahasangh. They held a convention here on Monday afternoon which was attended by senior BJP leaders of the state and the region.

Talking to The Tribune, president of the organisation Chandra Shekhar Kandpal said, “We form an integral part in the media set up and yet we have always been at the receiving end. Very often we are victims of apathy from both owners of newspapers as well as the government”.

He said the primary demand of the hawkers was an increase in their commission on the number of newspapers they circulate. “Every segment has seen an increase in its wages except us. There are pay commissions in place for employees in the government sector and there is a system of increment in the private sector. We want that our commission should also be increased as we too are equally affected by inflation,” he said.

The hawkers have also demanded that proper centres be developed for them to carry out their work like acceptance and segregation of newspapers. They mentioned that they just have to sit on the pavement in the early hours of the day under extremely harsh weather conditions to do their work.

They have sought that press owners and the government should come forward to provide them certain social security benefits in the form of an insurance cover and medical facilities.

Kandpal asserted that the hawkers should also be given an annual bonus by the newspaper owners. He further added that there should be Hawker’s Clubs at various levels that should be developed on the lines of Press Clubs.

Talking about the organisation, he said this was the first-ever

attempt to bring together the hawkers. “In smaller places it is the hawker only who also acts as the agent and the stringer for the newspaper. His contribution deserves to be acknowledged,” he added.

At present there are 200 hawkers in Haldwani alone and their number is more than 700 in the region.

Dehradun, January 13
The Bar Council of Uttarakhand today made an appeal to the state government for extending material and infrastructure help to it so that the welfare schemes could be undertaken for lawyers.

Addressing a press conference here today, newly elected Chairperson of the Bar Council of Uttarakhand Razia Beig said the council’s financial condition was weak, but it had to initiate welfare activities for the lawyers in the state. “These can only be started with a financial assistance from the government. In Uttar Pradesh, too, the government gives generous aid to the Bar Council. We have also requested the government to allocate a suitable place for establishing a camp office in Dehradun. It will greatly aid the advocates who have to travel to Nainital,” said Beig

She said at the first meeting of the council, important decisions were taken regarding raising of death claim for advocates, a yearly budged provisions be made in the state law budget and provision of five-year stipend for junior lawyers. “We have even put forward these demands during our meeting with Secretary (Law) RD Paliwal,” she added.

She said under the Advocates Act of 1961, not only was the registration of advocates carried out, but also punitive measures can be undertaken for misconduct. “We want to enlighten as many people as we can regarding the Act so that the judiciary is cleansed of corrupt persons,” Razia said.

Nainital, January 13
The Bagh Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, an outfit floated by tourist guides and vehicle drivers at the Jim Corbett National Park, along with others whose livelihood is linked to the park, while expressing concern at the growing number of tiger deaths in the sanctuary, has sought a high-level probe into these deaths.

Talking to The Tribune from Ramnagar on the phone, senior functionary of the samiti Madan Joshi said: “After staging two protests, we held a meeting here to show our concern and shock at the latest incident of a tiger dying from consuming a poisonous substance. We want to know who is responsible for these deaths. Whether it is the poachers at work or it is residents of the adjoining villages who are doing this. There should be a thorough probe and the guilty must be punished”.

The samiti had staged a protest on January 7 and later on January 10 in Ramnagar. Hundreds of people had marched through the township starting from the Lakhanpur locality. They raised slogans and were carrying banners depicting photographs of tiger with the slogan “We were 40,000 at the time of Independence and now we are just 14,000….who is responsible.”

Besides a probe into the tiger deaths, the activists of the samiti have demanded that the post-mortem reports of the dead animals be made public. It has been demanded that the post-mortem examinations of the dead animals be conducted by experts.

They said the farmers incurring losses on account of wildlife activity must be compensated for. These losses could be in the form of damage to their crops or killing of their cattle by tigers.

The samiti has sought that the tourism and the conservation aspects of the wildlife should be taken care of by separate departments. They have also demanded that the hike in charges for visiting and staying in the park must be withdrawn immediately.

The samiti activists have suggested that experts and public representatives be designated as honorary caretakers of the park.

They have been pointing that even as the government is spending more and more funds on the protection of tigers, the number of their deaths continues to spiral.

Nainital, January 13
Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal, who is better known as Prachanda, with regards to the Indo-Nepal border, Hindutva organisations in the region have launched a series of protests.

Agitated over the reported claims made by the Maoist leader with regard to a certain area at a public rally at Mahendranagar which borders Khatima in Uttarakhand, the Hindutva organisations in Khatima marched to a border post on Tuesday and resorted to slogan shouting against the Nepalese leader.

They also burnt an effigy of Prachanda and in their speeches asked him to refrain from making claims on those parts of the land which they said were an integral part of the Indian territory.

The slogan-shouting session continued for hours. The speakers said Prachanda had hit on the centuries-old relations between India and Nepal by making such claims.

They said Prachanda had been misleading people living on the Nepalese part of the border. The agitators demanded that the Indian government take up the matter with its Nepalese counterpart.

A similar protest was also held at Almora in the Chaughanpata area where an effigy of the Maoist leader was burnt. The protestors said Prachanda was acting like a puppet in the hands of China and was towing its line blindly.

They pointed out that the 54-point territory which Prachanda reportedly claimed to be Nepalese territory, were very much a part of India and the Indian people would never tolerate such claims.

The agitators were members of the Bajrang Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.

According to official claims, the border dispute between India and Nepal has been sorted out and awaits ratification at the highest government level.

A senior official who had recently visited Nepal for talks as a part of a Home Ministry delegation had told The Tribune sometime back that 95 per cent of the matter had been resolved.

Both countries had conducted surveys along the border starting from West Bengal to Uttarakhand and had reached amicable decisions.

Only the ratification at the topmost level needed to be made. The only issue that remained to be resolved pertained to Susta and Kalapani areas.

Pitthoragarh, January 13
Mixed reactions have surfaced in Uttarakhand on the allegations of Nepali Maoist leader Prachanda that India had occupied Nepali territory at 54 places on the India-Nepal border and that the land till Pilibhite district of Uttar Pradesh is a part of Nepal.

Prachanda made these allegations during an outburst in a meeting on January 11 at the India-Nepal border town of Mahandra Nagar in Nepal.

Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and BJP Rajya Sabha member, said as Prachanda was not in power in Nepal, his statement should not be given importance.

“After the Nepalese authorities compile their Constitution and an elected government comes to power, statements of members of that governments will have weight. Prachanda is preparing for elections in Nepal. His outburst against India is an election gimmick” said Koshiyari.

Lt Gen MC Bhandari (retd) saw a Chinese conspiracy in Prachanda’s outburst. “By speaking against and making allegations against India, he and his party cadre is harming the interests of the Nepali people as they are paving the way for China to get involved directly in Nepal”.

“Neighbours like Bangladesh are making efforts for a mature political relationship with India and even Pakistan is thinking about permanent peace with Indial,” said General Bhandari.

Dehradun, January 13
Ministerial staff continued with their strike today to press the government for the fulfilment of their demand for pay hike. The employees of the Uttaranchal Federation of Ministerial Services Association were invited by the Principal Secretary of the state government for a meeting to resolve the issue, but a consensus eluded the meeting.

“We will continue with our indefinite strike as the state government has failed to stand by the agreement signed with the association on November 9 for the implementation of increment in the salaries for all categories of the employees of the ministerial services,” said Sunil Dutt Kothari, regional general secretary of the association.

“The strike will now only be resolved after receiving the government order in hands otherwise none of the employees would resume work at their respective departments,” he added.

Nainital, January 13
Taking a step ahead in e-governance at the grassroots level, the district administration is going ahead with the plan to link six major public-dealing sections at the district collectorate here. The sections will be linked through the local area network (LAN).

According to District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli, this will be a major step towards the early disposal of public works which get delayed without any rhyme or reason.

He said now it would be easy to trace where a particular file was held up and which section was sitting over the proposal. This would also help in taking to task the officials who were causing delays in matters of public interest.

Once a file is moved, the person concerned will be told a number pertaining to his file. Thereafter, if there is any unnecessary delay on the collectorate’s end, he can get the file traced easily and will know the proceedings and what notings have been made on the file.

Bagauli also said it would be easier to get data on the number of pending files and their status while the software was at work. The functioning of the LAN would be through the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

In the second phase, the collectorate will be linked to the tehsil offices and later at the block level also.

This will help in serving the people sitting in remote parts of the district and they will not have to make repeated rounds to the district headquarters.

This will also help officials in monitoring the progress of various works being executed at the lower levels. The networking at this level will be done through the state-wide area network (SWAN).

Officials said at a later stage, the software would be programmed in a manner that the people would be able to know the status of their works online. 

Dehradun, January 13
Fifteen persons were booked yesterday for allegedly beating and stealing ornaments from a house at Bahat village in Sahaspur last month.

According to the police, the 15 have been identified as Rajkumar Dogra, Ramesh, Murari, Brijmohan, Radhesyam, Kalu, Shakati, Ravinder, TC, Nirmala, Devender, Babita, Nirmala, Vidya Devi and wife of Kalu.

Ravi Sharma complained to the police alleging that the above-said persons had beaten his family members and snatched a necklace and ring of a woman of the house.