Dehradun, February 4
The Uttarakhand cabinet today passed a proposal for the constitution and formulation of rules and guidelines for District Planning Committees (DPCs) in all districts.

The state government was forced to take the decision after the Central government threatened to stop funds if the DPCs were not constituted under the 74th amendment to the Panchayat Raj Act (243 Z-B). The state had already passed the Act but failed to constitute the DPCs.

Addressing a press conference here today, Chief Secretary NS Napalchayal said the committees would be constituted under the Uttarakhand Act of 2008.

“In each district according to the population the minimum members of the committee will be 15 and maximum 40, 4/5 members will be elected and 1/5 members will be nominated. The MLAs and MPs would figure among invited members. The state Election Commission is expected to start the election procedure for the DPCs by March,” Napalchayal emphasized.

Significantly, the cabinet also took the decision for making registration of marriages compulsory in Uttarakhand, the Act would be passed whenever the Vidhan Sabha is convened.

“It has been proposed to make registration of marriages compulsory in Uttarakhand within 90 days, beyond that period a fee of Rs 100 will be charged. It has been done to curb bigamy. There is also provision for summoning the couple by the registering officer in case wrong information is provided and a penalty of Rs 1,000 will also be imposed on the officer,” said Napalchayal.

He said efforts would be made to make registration facility available at the local village level.

It was also proposed to bring in rules that would be binding on the MLA to vacate the official residence within one month of losing the membership of the Vidhan Sabha. At the most, 15 days would be given under extreme circumstances.

The cabinet also decided to enhance the ex gratia amount paid to police men who suffer injuries in the line of duty from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000.

Further Nagrik Police would hence forth receive Rs 350 towards motor cycle allowance in place of the bicycle allowance that has now become outdated.

The issue of Non Practise Allowance (NPA) of allopathic doctors has been resolved. The Chief Secretary announced that henceforth they would be getting 25 per cent NPA of the grade and band pay scale.

The government also decided to reduce the entertainment tax slab of 125 per cent levied on the housie/tambola game since 1981 to 30 per cent. 

Roorkee, February 4
The ‘special gift’, which local residents were expecting from Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank during his first visit to the city in the form of district status for Roorkee, eluded them today.

Everyone here, including the local politicians, were in the hope that Nishank, who came in the town for the first time after becoming the Chief Minister, would make an announcement for the elevation of Roorkee as a district headquarters from the tehsil level. But, the Chief Minister touched every achievement of the BJP government in the state and future plans, but the demand for the district status to Roorkee.

The hopes for getting the district status for Roorkee had rekindled when cabinet minister Madan Kaushik supported the demand from the dais at Subhash Ganj here this afternoon.

Addressing the gathering for about one hour, the Chief Minister told the people to wait as the state was on the track of being an ideal state in the country. “Very soon Uttarakhand would be one of the top states of the country,” said Nishank, amid applause.

“We got the third position in GDP in the country which is a reason for us to be proud of being Uttarakhandis. Among all Himalayan states and the two other states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh our progress rate is the highest,” said the Chief Minister.

Revealing his Vision 2020, a road map for the development of the state, Nishank said the state had “jawani and paani” (youth and water), the necessary ingredients for the development. “We are banking on yoga, ayurveda, water and other natural resources for the development of the state.

“At the time when Uttarakhand came into being, the revenue was only Rs 165 crore and now it has touched the figure of Rs 2,003 crore in just nine years, said the Chief Minister.

He also said the announcement of the maximum state support price for the cane crop by the newly formed state in the country is also an achievement.

“This shows that we are concerned for farmers’ problems. The farmers’ demand for the waiver of the surcharge on electricity bills will be addressed very soon,” said Nishank, adding, “We are on the right track. Building confidence in ourselves is our main aim”.

Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated several developmental works after giving Rs 22 crore to the Roorkee constituency from the Maha Kumbh funds.

Other dignitaries present on the occasion were former minister Prithvi Singh, district party president Rajesh Saini and Swami Yatindra Nand Giri.

Dehradun, February 4
The strike of the Uttaranchal Federation of Ministerial Services Association entered the 25th day today.

On February 1, the association had a meeting with the officials of the state government. After two meetings, the eyes of the perturbed employees are fixed on to the next round of talks on February 5.

Even though the employees are in a state of dismay due to the long strike, the association is determined not to back out till they receive government orders.

“Let us see what the state government has in the kitty for us. All of us are expecting a positive response in the next meeting on February 5,” said Sunil Dutt Kothari, Regional General Secretary of the association.

Dehradun, February 4
Yesterday’s demolition drive carried out by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) on the Sahastradhara road has evoked an agitation by residents of the locality.

Members of the Uttarakhand Bhumiheen Sangharsh Samiti today burnt an effigy of the DMC at Orient Chowk here. They raised slogans against the authorities for carrying the demolition drive, which has rendered many residents of Aman Vihar homeless.

The anti-encroachment drive, which was carried by the Municipal Corporation along with the police, saw bulldozing of the houses of a number of families who had been residing in the locality for the past eight years. In fact, the residents who resisted the drive were allegedly beaten up and cases were registered against 300 persons at the Raipur police station.

Meanwhile, residents of the locality alleged that employees of the Municipal Corporation were having relations with land mafia.

The residents have made a plea to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to ponder over the issue and take immediate action.

Haridwar, January 4
A gang of thieves belonging to Bihar has been nabbed by the police in the Kumbh Mela area here. It had till date carried out more than 100 odd mobile, laptop and camera thefts. This gang used to steal these three items only and was quite a headache for the police department.

DIG Alok Sharma gave the details of the thieves and their arrest here yesterday terming it as a major success for the SOTF. The gang had been quite active for the past few months in Uttarakhand, particularly in Haridwar, Rishikesh, Saharanpur and Haldwani cities.

On a secret information received by RB Chamola, SOTF in charge, a joint team comprising SOTF, mela and district police nabbed the 21-member gang of thieves near the Bilkeshwar temple. During the operation, items related with thefts were seized from their possession.

The arrested persons belong to Champaran district and have confessed that about 500 odd people are involved in carrying out thefts in various parts of the country.

This group had been targeting Uttarakhand for the past few months after commiting thefts in Mumbai, Delhi, Ranchi, Haldwani, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Ranchi, Jaipur, Nashik and nearby places since 2008.

They had also devised a code language for carrying out their thefts, such as they used to say “book” for laptop and “mela” for theft. They usually targeted showrooms and specialised shops of cellular phones, cameras and watches only.

After carrying out thefts, two members used to take most of the stolen items and move to Champaran the very next day. Then they used to hand these over to Jitendra, a resident of Ghodasahan, who used to buy the stuff at half rate and then take it to Veerganj in Nepal.

All members have been booked under Sections 398 and 401, IPC, at Haridwar Kotwali.

DIG Alok Sharma has lauded the team’s efforts and rewarded them with a cash prize of Rs 5,000 and also written a letter to Director General of Police Subash Joshi for sanctioning Rs 20,000 additional to the team.

The team comprised police officers and personnel Bhoopendra Singh Dhoni, Nadeem Athar, Pradeep Rawat, Ved Prakash Bhatt, Omkant, Deepak Arora, Manoj Kumar, Chandra Prakash, Mahesh Kumar, Sunder Lal, Rampal Singh, Roshan Kheda, Sudesh Kumar, Iliyas Ali, Manoj Negi, Prem Singh, Shailendra Nautiyal, Bharat Vyas, Vinay Gusai, Tarun Kumar, Anil Kumar, Ramesh Kumar, Surendra Patwal and RK Kannaujia.

Nainital, February 4
Unplanned growth, accompanied by inadequate road safety measures, led to the death of a school boy at Haldwani yesterday when he was crushed by a speeding car. His elder brother was also injured in the accident. There was public furore after the accident.

The accident occurred on the Rampur road, which has earned the notoriety of being the accident zone of the township. A speeding car hit six-year-old Deepansh. Just as his eight-year-old brother Yash tried to save him, the car dragged him for a considerable distance before speeding away. The boys were waiting for the school van to take them to school.

Deepansh succumbed to his injuries while being transported to Bareilly where he had been referred to. Yash continues to fight for his life in a private nursing home. Sons of Anup Tripathi, both boys were going to Kendriya Vidyalaya.

The incident has once again brought to light the failure of the administration to construct things like road dividers, speed breakers and zebra crossings in several parts of the town. It has also failed to check the growth of unplanned and illegal colonies along the highways.

Nainital, February 4
The woes related to the supply of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) continue unabated in parts of Kumaon. Haldwani is the worst affected where consumers are resorting to protests and traffic blockade on a daily basis.

Taking a serious note of the inconvenience being caused to the consumers, the administration has once again warned the managers and contractors responsible for making a timely delivery of the cooking gas, to put the chain of supply in order, failing which they will face legal action.

Things have come to such a pass that in places like Sitarganj in Udham Singh Nagar district, cooking gas cylinders are being distributed under police presence.

It was on January 19 that while responding to the large-scale hue and cry over shortage of LPG, Nainital District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli had called for restoration of proper supply system.

Bagauli had convened a special meeting on the issue and an interaction with officials of Indane, Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN), that runs a large number of LPG outlets, and officials of the District Supplies Department.

He had asked those present to oppose misuse of domestic gas cylinders in commercial establishments and had sought maintenance of a record pertaining to commercial establishments to see after how many days they got their cylinders refilled.

Even President of the state unit of the BJP Bishan Singh Chauphal claimed here on Wednesday that effective steps are being taken to address the issue.

However, things are yet to come on track and agitations and protests galore across the region.

Dehradun, February 4
The Central government has temporarily imposed a ban on any construction, repair and renovation activity within 300 m of ancient or protected monuments.

The notification, though temporary, was issued by the central government in the backdrop of the Delhi High Court case to the Archaeology Survey of India, Dehradun circle, on January 27. The order is bound to affect private buildings falling in that range of 47 protected monuments in the state.

“Owners of private and old buildings will not be able to take up construction, repair and renovation activity till the ban. The ramifications of the notification have to be examined before drawing a conclusion about its impact,” said Dr DN Dimri, Superintendent Archaeology, Dehradun Circle.

According to the Central government notification issued in 1992, no construction activity is allowed within 100m of ancient or protected monuments. The Ancient Monuments Archaeo logical Sites and Remains Act of 1958 describes the 100m limit as “prohibited area”.

As per the order, no person, including the owner or occupier of a protected area shall construct any building within the protected area or carry any mining, quarrying, excavating, blasting or any operation of a like nature in such area or utilise the area or any part without the permission of the Central government. 

Dehradun, February 4
Khadi Aur Gramodyog Maha Kumbh 2010 being organised in Dehradun showcases various works by Khadi India centres. Apart from shirts, jackets, caps, sweaters, rugs and carpets made of Khadi Gramodyog's patent “khaddar” material, herbal tonics, fruit juices, clay pottery items, organic pulses and handloom silk saris are also available there.

On the second day of the khadi exhibition today, the ayurvedic cough syrup of VK Himalayan Herbal Lab, Almora, was a popular choice with the customers. Glasses made of the Vijaisar wood, an excellent cure for diabetes, sarp sanjivini, an ayurvedic medicine, which is used to neutralise snake venom, tulsi tea, rhododendron juices, herbal shampoos and other herbal medicines are available at the exhibition.

The stall from Haldwani has the bees kept in bee houses advertising for their honey themselves. BD Kanpal, the stall in charge, explained the intricate process of honey production to the customers. He said: “We manufacture various types of honey, which can cost anywhere between Rs 70-200, depending upon the breeding environment of the bees".

Organic pulses from Harsil, Munsyar, Chakrata and others grown sans the use of urea are also on sale there. Kala bhatt, soyabean, jhangora, Munsyari rajma, gahat and local turmeric are being appreciated by customers. The Uttarakhand speciality, mandua flour ground on water mill is also in demand.

To emphasise the need of energy conservation, Khadi Gram Udyog uses the Bagasuri charkha that runs on solar energy. It is on display at the exhibition. Pushpa, a worker from Haldwani, said: “The cloth material spun on the Bagasuri charkha is better than that produced on the traditional charkha. Moreover, larger quantity is spun in less time.”

TRIFED, an organisation for the development of the Indian tribal community, has displayed items like shawls made by the tribesmen from Himachal Pradesh, T-shirts made on Manipur pattern and brass showpieces from Chhattisgarh. The exhibition is on till February 15.

Dehradun, February 4
Members of the Mahanagar Yuva Morcha Congress today burned the effigy of Shiv Sena at Clock Tower here against its anti-people activities.

City president of the morcha Rahul Sonkar said the Shiv Sena was following such policies which were going against public interest and also against the Hindi language in Maharashtra.

He said it was wrong on the part of the Shiv Sena to asked North-East people to speak Marathi. He alleged that the Shiv Sena had earlier beaten up people from the North-East forcing them to leave Maharashtra state. — TNS