Dehradun, March 17
Proposing no new taxes, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today presented a revenue-surplus budget for 2010-11 in the Assembly.

The budget has an estimated revenue surplus to the tune of Rs 162.10 crore against the revenue deficit of Rs 213.44 crore during the budget of 2009-10. Further, the fiscal deficit for 2010-11 has been estimated at Rs 1447.15 crore whereas it stood as Rs 2070.99 crore in 2009-10 budget estimates. An increase of Rs 200 crore has been made in gender budgeting this time compared to last budget.

Making announcements in his budget address, Dr Nishank, who also holds the finance portfolio, has brought in rationalisation of tax rates while coming up with several of key infrastructural projects. Improvement in health facilities, tourism promotion initiatives, welfare of ex-servicemen, betterment in education and hydro power sectors stand as some of the important highlights of the budget.

Reducing VAT charges on a number of products, the tax on kerosene has been reduced from existing 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent. Similarly VAT on thrasher, writing ink and products made by Khadi Gramodhyog Industries have been abolished to the interests of farmers, students and common man. Stamp duty on purchase and sale of immovable property has been reduced to 6 per cent from 7 per cent.

On entertainment tax, the Chief Minister announced a reduction of entertainment tax for residential cable connection to Rs 20 per month and for commercial connection Rs 40 per month.

For betterment of connectivity, the budget has made a provision of Rs 20 crore as state’s share for the construction of the Muzaffar Nagar-Roorkee rail line. “Railway over bridges at Luxar and Doiwala will also be completed soon,” Dr Nishank said, adding that apart from it construction of more such over bridges at Mohakumpur in Dehradun and other places will be expedited.

As part of his commitment for providing quality education to boys and girls of poor sections of society, Dr Nishank announced the setting up of Nanaji Deshmukh Adarsh Awasiya Madhyamik Vidhyalaya at the tehsil level to provide quality education to talented students from poor families living in far-off places. He said an Indian Institute of Management would also be established soon. For improvement in higher education, Doon University has taken up the study of two schools in 2009-10 and would conduct a similar study on three more schools in the next financial year.

For promotion of tourism, Dr Nishank said tourists circuits and mega circuits would be started in addition to other schemes to make the state an important tourist destination. He said country’s first and largest Food Park along with a Herbal Park had been established.

Referring to hydro power sector, the Chief Minister held that small hydro power projects had been allotted under the policy of 2008 with preference to locals in the allotment. He said the Central clearance for Jamrani Dam had been a big success as the project had been hanging fire for the past many decades. It would cater to water and power needs of both Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

On the industry front, the Chief Minister expressed concern over delay in the extension of industrial package for Uttarakhand. He said the industrial package must be extended up to 2020. “If not 2020, at least it should be extended till 2013 as earlier proposed by the then Vajpayee government,” he added. He said the state was going to suffer much if the package tenure ended this April.

The Chief Minister said an amount of Rs 25 crore had been provided for welfare of minorities under the Multicultural District Development Scheme. Similarly, Rs 16.35 crore have been provided for scholarship to minority students apart from Rs 25 lakh for the Muslim Education Mission.

Interestingly, the budget has also made provision for establishing of Patrakar Puram meant for providing residential facility and land to journalists.

Earlier, before Dr Nishank could start delivering the budget speech, Opposition members, led by Dinesh Agarawal and Harak Singh Rawat, asked him to announce a probe into alleged irregularities in the recent allotment of hydro power projects.

Haridwar, March 17
The charm of cine star Hema Malini and her two daughters Esha and Aahna Deol has gripped the holy city, Haridwar, after the completion of the Shahi Snan.

After the outstanding classical performances of Hema Malini and Aahna at various functions, both daughters, along with their mother, visited akhadas here.

Yesterday at the Sanskritik Auditorium at the Kumbh Mela area both Hema Malini and her younger daughter Aahna, gave a classical performance, which outshone every other performance of the night.

Clad in a white dress, Aahna in tandem with her mother performed with élan and this can be gauged by the fact that after the performance everyone present in the audience gave a standing ovation to both.

Aahna looked every bit of her mother’s replica in her classical stage performance, and as soon as Hema joined in, for a short span, it was only whistles, claps and a gala Kumbh treat for the audience.

On the sidelines, Aahna said her mother was her only inspiration and nothing gotsbetter than sharing the stage with her. A self-learned fashion designer and trained at Whistling Woods, Aahna due to her simple yet shy nature had tried to avoid the cameras and media from the past two days, but her splendid performance put forth her dance prowess.

Elder sister Esha was busy in religious works today along with her mother. Both Hema Malini and Esha reached the Swami Avdeshanand Giri Maharaj Ashram in the morning and had talks with the spiritual guru.

Both spent quality time at the ashram and also gave the sadhus ‘dakshina’ and took blessings from the saints. Hema Malini was seen interacting with saints more, while Esha was thronged by the media and people. Clad in a white-top and black trousers Esha only smiled as flashes clicked her every movement in the ashram premises.

On the question when will the fans see all three (Hema-Esha-Aahna) in a film, Esha just smiled and said it all depended on good script and time availability of all three of us. Terming Aahna as more emotional of the two.

“This is a dream come true, I had watched her in ‘Sholay’, ‘Dream Girl’, ‘Burning Train’ and still she looks same, while Esha-Aahna too are replica of their mother. I have got twin benefits from Kumbh darshan and Dream Girl’s darshan” said Umesh Dimri, a Hema Malini fan at the stage show.

Haridwar, March 17
After taking part in back-to-back festive baths of Somvati Amawasya Shahi Snan and the Nav Samvastar bath, devotees and tourists have now nearly left the Kumbh city of Haridwar and normalcy has returned to the pilgrim city, which had been receiving influx of millions of people for the past few days.

On the Shahi Snan of Somwati Amawasya 65 lakh people took holy dip in the Ganga while on Nav Samvatsar bath 30-odd lakh people bathed in holy waters.

This number is just enough to gauge the magnitude of the Maha Kumbh in Haridwar and the enormous responsibility and pressure on the mela administration.

According to mela in charge Anand Vardhan, both festive baths were a major success and it could be achieved due to the hard work of mela administration employees and the police with the cooperation of people.

The Railways Department has made a huge profit on the two festive baths with ticket sales revenue touching Rs 60 lakh figure. Similarly, every bus of the state roadways plied full to its capacity.

At Rishikul inter-state terminal Nos. 1 and 2, which have been specially created for the Maha Kumbh, there were more buses than commuters. ARM Hari Mohan Dabral said the state depot provided 415 buses, the Uttar Pradesh Transport Corporation 1,200, Himachal Pradesh Transport Corporation 125, Haryana Roadways 150, Punjab Roadways 25, Chandigarh Transport Undertaking 35, Delhi Transport Corporation 10, Jammu and Kashmir Transport Corporation 40 and the Rajasthan Transport Corporation provided 40 buses to meet the devotees’ rush on these two festive baths.

Mela Officer (Railways) Manoj Sharma said the Railways had been running 17 special trains for the twin baths. A special shuttle train was also operated between the two pilgrim cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh.

Meanwhile, Vardhan lauded the efforts of railway personnel saying that it was only due to their efficiency that more than 100-odd trains operated on this single track line.

Meanwhile, room charges of hotels and guest houses have come down. An executive member of the Haridwar Hotel Association said the Kumbh occurs in six or 12 years and if we make some profit, it should not be made an issue.

Nainital, March 17
Divisional Railways Manager KB Nanda has asked officials of various wings of the Railways to speed up work on different up gradation projects undertaken in the Kumaon region. After the inspection of works being done at the Lal Kuan railway station that the Railways wants to develop as a gateway to Kumaon, Nanda also called for elaborate security arrangements at the railway stations in the region.

He made it clear to the officials that the Railways would not compromise on the quality of works being executed at various places.

He also said an additional platform would be built at Lal Kuan railway station, along with an additional storage facility in co-operation with a paper mill in the area. The mill has proposed to send out its produce to other parts of the country through the rail network.

He also held a meeting with the officials of the Indian Oil Corporation, who wanted an early distribution of oil that comes to Lal Kuan by train.

Nanda informed that the rail link between Bareilley and Lal Kuan would be blocked in October to carry out gauge conversion on this stretch.

Once completed this link would have additional trains plying on it. 

Dehradun, March 17
Uttarakhand may be in the midst of a looming water crisis, with the summer months fast approaching the situation may further get aggravated as a total of total of 783 areas, 606 in rural and 177 in urban areas, are expected to face severe water shortage. In most of these areas, taps may run dry.

The Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan has prepared a detailed survey on possible areas that are likely to face water shortage. In Pauri-97-areas, Kotdwar-49 areas, Nainital-46 areas, Haldwani-56 areas, Ramnagar-31 areas, Almora-40 areas, Raniketh-39 areas, Bageshwar-32 areas, Pithoragarh- 47 areas, Didihat-17 and Champawat-32 areas are facing water shortage. In Dehradun a total of 75 areas, 41 in urban and 34 in rural, are likely to face water shortage.

The rising gap in demand and supply is also proving to be problematic and the government has taken several measures to handle the problem. In the past five years, 40 mld of water supply has been increased. The demand fluctuates between 275 mld due to pressure on demand and supply, especially in the summer months. The state has also drawn a contingency plan to tackle the problem.

Since the creation of the state, the government has taken up several steps to tide over the problem of water scarcity, consisting mainly of large-scale reforms through Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission ( JNNURM) and approval of special projects under the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Under the ADB and JNNURM, the authorities are engaged in initiating sectoral reforms in Dehradun, Haridwar and Nainital. In the next phase 39 more cities of the state will be covered.

“We are continuing to meet the demand of people of the state and surveys like these help us to tackle the problem areas. We had poor rains for the past two years and erratic and delayed winter rains. The water sources would naturally discharge less and already alternate arrangements are being made to tackle the water problem for the summers, as the demand usually goes up in these months,” stressed DD Dimri, Chief General Manager, Jal Sansthan.

Dehradun, March 17
Anupama Joshi, retired Wing Commander, is now happy to be flooded with appreciation mails, messages and calls for having won a fight which she had fought for four years in the Delhi High Court and much before that under Air Force mechanism to get permanent commission for women in defence services.

Anupama, who now works as CEO for Regional Rural Financial Services, lives in Dehradun with her 12-year-old son, whereas her husband Wing Commander Ashok Shetty is posted in Varanasi. In town to be with his family, her husband was very much in town when the news of verdict broke out and he pasted a long message eulogising his wife’s grit and determination on the Face Book. Anupama gives credit to her husband for standing by her in her battle.

Anupama, officer of the first woman Short Service Commission (SSC) in defence services, had waged this battle when despite her outstanding performance fully backed by an appreciation letter from the Chief of Air Staff she was not given permanent commission whereas her men colleagues were liberally given the same as per the policy.

She says: “I will squirm to think that men even if they were not performing well were given permanent commission, rather the reluctant ones were asked to continue under permanent commission to make up for the acute shortage of officers in the Air Force. And I who was performing exceedingly well and was very much interested in continuing the services was not allowed, just because I was a woman. I was not ready to put up with this utter bias, which was based on gender not on efficiency”.

As per the rules, she exhausted all attempts to get justice as per the system prevailed in the Air Force, and also sought information under the RTI to know if the Defence Ministry is actually doing anything or not.

She says: “I met the Chief of Airstaff who passed the buck to the ministry for not having made such a policy for women. I tried to meet the President, Supreme Commander of Defence Forces, under the rules, but did not succeed. As a result of all my attempts, my service was enhanced in bits and pieces and I worked for 15 years. When I asked for pension benefits, which are given to civil employees after 15 years, they reduced the working years for women in the SSC to 14 years”.

Not only this, the force also twisted its other rule to prevent women from getting any benefit from it. When Anupama approached the High Court in 2006 and questioned the biased approach about giving permanent commission to SSC men officers after five years and not to women, then before placing its counter argument, then respondent retracted its policy. But, she questioned them in face on the base of its past record, which exposed the gaping hole of giving permanent commission to 179 men vis a vis not a single woman”.

For pension benefits, she has asked the ministry to either let women complete 20 years of services under permanent commission or give them the same benefits after 15 years under short service. As per the High Court ruling, she hopes to get that as well.

Others also followed her in when she began getting victory. “I was the only one who approached the High Court in 2006, when the court ruled that those who are serving or are the petitioners will get the benefits of retired officers. After it was published, many women serving in defence forces also filed the cases. Nevertheless, it added mileage to my own case”.

While laughing away the literal tag of “fighter pilot” given to her by her men colleagues for fighting out injustice by writing long letters and meeting people of influence, she said: “I would detest the term ‘lady officer’ whenever I was introduced. I wanted to be treated equal and desired to be just referred as officer”.

Reminiscing about one such incident, she said: “Women as per the common psychology are not considered fit to face difficult tasks, so I would fight to get such assignments. Overriding my super senior’s directive in Coimbatore, I once carried out night duty and he was astonished to get the message, ‘Sky is blue’, which means ‘everything is ok’, from me at night. But, so many of my seniors supported me in my fight”.

Not ready to throw in her hand, she is determined to continue fighting it till the end, in case the judgment is further challenged. At this moment, she is not sure if she would opt to join the Air Force ahead, as she is happy in her present job, which is challenging and well paying, but it is only for the sake of finishing bias against women in defence forces she wanted to win this battle.

Dehradun, March 17
Parliament Committee on Defence (Permanent) chairman and Garhwal MP Satpal Maharaj has said recruitment rallies for the Army will be held in April and May.

These rallies will be held in Almora, Joshimath and the Berinag area. It may be mentioned that Satpal Maharaj had requested the Defence Ministry for organising recruitment rallies in Garhwal.

The recruitment rally in Joshimath will be held from May 1 to 5 and the rally in Almora between April 1 and 8. However, the second phase of the recruitment will held at Joshimath from May 1 to 5 under the supervision of additional recruitment officer of Lansdowne, whereas the third phase of the recruitment will be held in Berinag under the supervision of additional recruitment officer of Pitthoragarh from May 7 to 9.

He said the Defence Ministry had also accepted all seven recommendations put forward by the M Chandrashekhar Committee and 12 lakh ex-servicemen pensioners whose pension had been enhanced, had benefited from the recommendations.

Below officer rank ex-servicemen, who retired before and after October 10, 1997, would equally get benefited from the committee recommendations.

The District Basketball Association has released its annual calender for the year 2010-11 in its annual meeting at St Thomas College.

The association will be organising numbers of camps for the national level tournament this year.

It the month of April and May, the association will conduct four All-India Basketball Tournament for boys and girls. Four age group District Basketball Championships and tournaments along with four Pre-Uttarakhand State Basketball Coaching Camps and players’ development clinics and workshops will be organised.

Four Pre-National Basketball Coaching Camps, for Uttarakhand state team that will participate at the National Basketball Championships, is to be organised on behalf of the Uttarakhand Basketball Association.

Dehradun district boys and girls teams will participate in four Uttarakhand State Basketball Championships in sub-junior (u-14 years), youth (u-16 years) junior (u-18 years) and senior (open) age group categories.

The District Basketball Association will also be conducting referees’ clinics and workshops, referees’ examinations and coaches’ clinic on the new techniques of the game.

The association also declared its annual performance report. The reports showed various achievements of the association. —TNS

Dehradun, March 17
The HCA registered a 164-run victory against the Biharigarh Cricket Club at the Uttarakhand-Up Real Host Cricket Tournament here today.

Batting first, the HCA team piled a modest total of 163 runs in 20 overs. Opener Shristhi gave a fine start to the team. He played a knock of 21 runs off 36 balls, and Shekhar made 10 runs.

But it was the middle order batsman Vijay who smashed 79 runs off 43 balls hitting three sixes and seven fours in his innings. Lower order batsman Vikas made an important contribution making 27 runs off 14 balls.

It was his knock that helped the team reach the target of 164 runs.

For the Biharigarh team Rohit took two wickets while Moni and Kuldeep took one wicket each.

Chasing the victory target of 164 runs, the Biharigarh team was all out for 51 runs. M Osman was the highest scorer for the team with 8 runs.

None other batsman clicked for the team and the whole team fell as a pack of cards before the disciplined bowling attack of the HCA.

For the HCA team, Shekhar took four wickets, whereas Keshav took three wickets. 

Dehradun, March 17
Producer-turned-director-turned-writer-turned-lyricist-turned-actor Kamaal Rashid Khan was here in town to select locations for his upcoming Hindi film, “Aarushi”, based on the 2006 Nithari incident. “I’ve come here to figure out a few spots in Dehradun and Mussoorie to shoot for our upcoming movie. The city is good and the crowd is supporting too. We aim to begin with the filming of the movie by the next month as the cast and crew has been finalised for it,” quips Khan over a coffee with The Tribune correspondent.

Kamaal said, “I am playing the lead in the film opposite to actress Nisha Kothari. Other co-actors in the movie are Kabir Bedi, Anupam Kher and Gulshan Grover. Sameer has contributed with his lyrics, while Anu Malik is the music director”.

Kamaal himself is the producer of the film. Anant Mahadevan, will be directing the venture.

Kamaal is reportedly working on a sequel to “Desh Drohi”, titled “Desh Drohi-2”, based on 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. The first part was a representation of the alleged discrimination of north Indians in Maharashtra.

Kamaal, who owns business firms in construction and garment, export started his career in the film industry five years ago, but gained recognition for his appearance in the third season of reality television show “Big Boss”. He was considered most controversial on the show and also evicted early from the house for his violent behaviour with inmates.

“Big Boss in itself was a great show and important for me. Frankly speaking, I am from showbiz and went there to play an entertainer. Well, I got a whole lot of new experiences on the show. ‘Big Boss’ was the first reality show that brought me face to face with the common man as in the form of a daily soap,” asserted Kamaal who is once again going to join the league of a reality show in May (name of the show and channel undisclosed).

Kamaal said, “My upcoming projects that are in the pipeline are two reality shows, ‘Desh Drohi-2’, ‘Aarushi’ and a movie under the banner of Ram Gopal Verma”.

Kamaal added that another reason for his visit to Dehradun was to set up a part of the film industry here that would surely provide opportunities to the young generation to work in films and curb down the menace of unemployment to a certain extent.