Dehradun, March 2
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nioshank has said Uttarakhand has always upheld the basic values of Indian culture and yoga has been a part of it.

He was speaking after inaugurating the 9th International Yoga Festival organised by Parmarath Niketan at Rishikesh today.

He said his government was committed to promoting ayush and ayurveda and programmes and policies were in place to grow traditional medicinal herbs. Efforts were on to promote yoga in a big way. He said a Bali cultural centre with the aid of Indonesia would be opened in Uttarakhand.

He also elaborated on the Sparash Ganga campaign launched by the state government to highlight the importance of the Ganga, and to clean it he called upon the general masses to participate in it.

On the issue of Sanskrit language, he said Sanskrit is the mother of all languages and his government has given second language status to it.

Tourism Minister Madan Kaushik said such yoga festivals would help in bringing foreign tourists to the land of the Himalayas and the Ganga. 

Dehradun, March 2
In statecraft, politicians usually are involved in power struggles against each other and bureaucrats enjoy these power games, but in Uttarakhand nowadays, senior bureaucrats are engaged in a game of oneupmanship much to the amusement of the politicians.

Four senior bureaucrats are vying with each other for the top bureaucratic job of Chief Secretary of the state. And its a no holds barred fight coupled with intrigue, suspense and deft moves against each other.

The race for Chief Secretary’s post has started as the present incumbent NS Napalchayal will retire on April 30. There are four senior IAS officers of the state in the race namely Bijendra Pal, SK Mattu, Subhash Kumar and Ajay Joshi.

While Bijendra Pal is a 1976 batch IAS officer, Ajay Kumar Joshi, Subhash Kumar and SK Mattu are 1977 batch officers serving as Principal Secretaries. Ajay Joshi is the seniormost among them serving as Infrastructure Development Commissioner.

It was the return of Ajay Kumar Joshi to his parent cadre of Uttarakhand from Uttar Pradesh six months ago that created ripples in the state bureaucracy.

Being among the toppers of his IAS batch, Ajay Kumar Joshi, a native of Uttarakhand, is considered a strong contender for the post against the claims of Subhash Kumar, who is the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, and SK Mattu who is on deputation with the Central government.

Interestingly, the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) met recently to grant the selection grade of Rs 80,000 to two out of these four IAS officers in New Delhi. Bijendra Pal and Ajay Joshi are the seniormost among them.

But the most intriguing part was an adverse entry into the performance appraisal report (PAR) of Ajay Kumar Joshi that was made by Uttar Pradesh Labour Minister Badshah Singh as late as January 2010. Otherwise, he has an embellished service record.

It is believed that the surprise adverse entry was “brought” from Uttar Pradesh to make Joshi’s claim to the top post weak. However, Ajay Kumar Joshi, in his complaint to the state government and well as the Central government, termed the entry by the Uttar Pradesh minister as “baseless, arbitrary and outrightly malafide”.

He stated that the adverse remarks were illegal as these have been given after the expiry of the deadline of December 31, 2009, a provision under Rule 5 (1) of AIS (PAR) Rules 2007.

Acting on his complaint, the Central government wrote a letter to the state government not to record the comments of the UP minister in the PAR of Ajay Kumar Joshi.

While the top bureaucrats are involved in oneupmanship and trying every thing in their arsenal to score over each other, it would ultimately be a political decision to choose the next Chief Secretary.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who would have a final say in the matter, is keeping his cards close to his chest and probably enjoying the fight between his top bureaucrats.

Dehradun, March 2
A CAMPA meeting in Uttarakhand today approved various schemes to the tune of Rs 873.60 crore. This prominently includes Rs 16 crore for Biodiversity Development Centre, Rs 124 crore for Wild Animal Rehabilitation, Rs 80 crore for van panchayats, Rs 10 crore for the Ganga and Plastic Removal Campaign, Rs 11.25 crore for corpus fund meant for forest employees working in risky spheres and Rs 5 crore for shifting of trees.

Chairing the meeting, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal said all schemes would be carried out under strict supervision of forest authorities. He also advocated establishment of herbal gardens at all districts of the state.

The Chief Minister also directed for active involvement of over 2 lakh youth linked to as many as 12 van panchayats in the state. Other projects approved under CAMPA included replenishing of water sources, demarcation of van panchayats, latana eradication and collection of chir leaves.

Chief Secretary NS Napalchayal, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and Forest and Rural Development Commissioner Subhash Kumar, Principal Secretary Finance Alok Kumar Jain and Principal Secretary Dr RBS Rawat were present on the occasion.

Dehradun, March 2
Sukdev Singh Namdhari, a resident of Bajpur in the Kumaon region, was handed over the charge of president of the Uttarakhand State Minority Commission here today.

Addressing the gathering, Sukdev Singh Namdhari said his utmost priority would be to work for the safeguard of the rights of the minorities.

“My agenda is to consciously work for the development of the state and provide solutions to the minority community of our state,” he said.

“As Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has handed over to me this great responsibility, it’s my duty to perform this task earnestly,” he said. He even thanked state BJP president Bishan Singh Chuphal for his support.

Present at the ceremony were MLA Arvind Pandey, Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and other prominent members of the commission.

Pitthoragarh, March 2
The 90-day-long Purnagiri fair was inaugurated by Uttarakhand Planning Minister Prakash Pant at Tanakpur in Champawat district today.

Inaugurating the fair, Pant said from next year the government would avail the forest land for this fair on which a dispute arose recently. He assured the Champawat Zila Panchayat that he would initiate the procedure to transfer the forest land to the Zila Panchayat immediately. “The long-pending demand of a ropeway will also be met to facilitate the pilgrimage,” he said.

“The fair managed by the Zila Panchayat, Champawat, is considered equal to the Vaishno Devi fair in Jammu. Every year nearly 40 lakh devotees of Goddess Puranagiri from western UP, parts of Haryana and Delhi throng this fair,” said Prema Pandey, chairperson of the Zila Panchayat, Champawat.

Last month before the preparations of this fair started, a dispute between the Champawat Zila Panchayat and the Forest Department surfaced on using forest land for non-forest work. “This row has now been settled and a three-member committee comprising the district administration, Forest Department and Zila Panchayat has been formed to help in the organisation of the fair,” said Pandey.

Dehradun, March 2
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has decided to reserve 2 per cent seats in state medical colleges for the wards of ex-servicemen, besides giving 10 per cent reservation in industrial units of the state for them.

The Chief Minister who was presiding over a meeting of the State Sainik Welfare Board also gave approval to enhance the pension of widows of World War II veterans to Rs 3,000 per month, erect a war memorial in the state, give Rs 2 crore for the rehabilitation of ex-servicemen and open more canteens for them in the state.

He also assured his government had been seriously considering enhancement of the reward money for non-gallantry award winners of the state.

The Chief Minister asked the Brig AN Bahuguna (retd), Director, Sainik Welfare, to hold at least two meetings of the state-level Sainik Welfare Board and also ensure that the welfare schemes started by the state government reached each and every ex-serviceman of the state.

He called for a campaign so that all ex-servicemen of the state would be able to avail these welfare schemes and in turn the state could also benefit from the experience of the ex-servicemen whom he described as a valuable human resource asset of the state.

Diwakar Bhatt, Minister of Ex-servicemen’s Welfare, and other senior civil officers attended the meeting.

Dehradun, March 2
Dena Bank will soon be appointing business correspondents in Uttarakhand as part of its nationwide exercise to include rural populace into the banking fold. These correspondents who will be private entrepreneurs will help the bank further its goals.

Disclosing this to mediapersons shortly after inaugurating the Prem Nagar branch of Dena Bank here, DL Rawal, Chairman and Managing Director, Dena Bank, said while the bank had already introduced this service in Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Uttarakhand, too would have similar services as part of the bank’s commitment towards ensuring inclusive growth.

The Dena Bank CMD also held that the bank had taken a lead towards introducing customer-oriented minor saving scheme, Dena Krishi Sakh Patra and Smart Card schemes for its consumers.

He revealed that the bank with its vast 1,207 plus branches spread across the country had further got 104 licences from the Reserve Bank of India for opening of new branches.

Assistant General Manager Dena Bank, Lucknow region, ML Behra disclosed the bank would shortly open branches at Haldwani and Kashipur regions even as all its branches were now on core banking solutions.

He also held that for customer satisfaction, Dena Bank had recruited 1,255 clerks during the current year to meet manpower shortages. He said the bank was also providing incentives to staff, who come up with excellent performances.

Jitendra Joshi, Chairman, Uttaranchal Institute of Technology, RS Chauhan, Branch Manager, Balbir Road Dena Bank, Sanjeev Sharma, Branch Manager, Prem Nagar, and other senior Dena Bank officials were present on the occasion.

The Prem Nagar branch is the third Dena Bank branch in Dehradun city and sixth in Uttarakhand.

Dehradun, March 2
Chennai-based Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE) launched its all-new ‘Loadpathi to Crorepathi’ MF 7250 Power Drive tractor at Rudrapur today.

Positioned as a tractor that meets the customer’s farm requirements and on-and-off-road haulage requirements equally well with TAFE’s traditional focus on cost-effective operation, low maintenance and high degree of reliability, the MF 7250 Challenger in the 47 HP range has exceptional fuel economy, safety, driver comfort and load hauling characteristics.

After launch of this product, a very huge demand from farmers, company delivery of 101 tractors at Rudrapur, Cyril Rex Fernando (Vice President, Sales and Marketing, TAFE) said, “Customers expect tractors to operate cost effectively and reliably, both on farm work and for haulage.

Haulage provides immediate cash realisation for work done unlike in farming where this happens only after harvest. This infusion of cash is critical for the farmer not only for repayment of loans but also for meeting farm input costs. The MF7250 Power Drive is specially designed to meet this need of farmers, offering 30 per cent more torque at lower gear operation to pull heavy loads and 10 per cent higher road speeds at high gear operations for faster movement of loads on roads thus increasing revenues.

“Moreover, the Massey Oil Immersed Brakes offer 60 per cent more brake-lining area prevents entry of mud or water into the brakes and also ensures that the brakes run cooler thereby ensuring effective braking which is necessary while hauling heavy loads on road.

“To top it all, the MF7250 Power Drive is equipped with full Comfimesh TM transmission that enables farmers to change gears on the move conveniently. The side mounted Smartshift TM adds to customer comfort and ease of operation.”

TAFE is among the top six largest tractor manufacturers in the world and exports to over 45 countries, including developed countries such as the USA. TAFE, a part of the Amalgamations Group of Chennai, has business interests both directly and through its subsidiaries in tractors, diesel engines, transmission components, panel instruments, hydraulic pumps, automotive water pumps, fasteners, farm implements and lubes and passenger car distribution.

All three tractor plants comply to ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards and its products comply with relevant emission norms for the concerned markets.

With the addition of the MF7250 Power Drive, TAFE has a greatly enhanced product range that offers tractors in the 24 to 90 HP range in the air and water cooled platforms through its three tractor brands of Massey Ferguson, TAFE and Eicher to meet every possible need of customers.