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Cong, BSP create ruckus in Vidhan Sabha
Cong leaders submit memo to Guv
Varsity develops new varieties of crop
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Pending Bills of DMC
Hotel employee found dead
Cong slams govt for Kumbh ration irregularities
Stop polythene use, says Eco Man
Samajwadi Party cadres pedal against price rise
PWD employees stage dharna
Free books, not notebooks, for poor, says minister
Yet another child killed by leopard
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Cong, BSP create ruckus in Vidhan Sabha
Dehradun, March 19 Both Congress and BSP legislators entered the well of the House forcing the Speaker to go for an adjournment. During zero hour, Congress legislators under Rule 310 sought a discussion over the issues of utilisation of Kumbh funds and permission for an asbestos cement product factory in the Luxor area of Uttarakhand. On the other hand, Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs accused the state government of non-implementation of the 85th constitutional amendment that calls for higher preference to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotions in government service. Opposition leader Harak Singh Rawat could be heard shouting at the top of his voice that while countries across the world have banned installation of any asbestos cement product factory, Uttarakhand was facilitating it. He said pollution from such factories caused lung cancer. He also alleged large-scale anomalies in the utilisation of Kumbh funds. In this pandemonium, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister could be seen making a point to the Opposition that only issues of immediate concern could be taken up under Rule 310. Both Congress and BSP MLAs were adamant on seeking a discussion on their respective issues leading to pandemonium and the Speaker ultimately adjourned the House till the post-lunch session. 25 units dumping untreated waste
In Haridwar, there are a total of 25 industries that are dumping untreated effluents on the ground against whom action has been initiated by the State Pollution Control Board. In a written reply to the question posed by Surinder Rakesh, member of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha, Prakash Pant, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said during a routine inspection in Haridwar district of 611 units, the State Pollution Control Board ordered closure of four industrial units, three units were issued show-cause notices and 18 were given notices for not working as per the norms. The minister said of these units a majority were pharmaceutical units. Industrial package extension
The Uttarakhand Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday seeking extension of special industrial package for the state till 2020. The industrial package for the state will end on March 31 this year. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has also reiterated that he would shortly be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with his entire cabinet and, if necessary, a delegation of the entire House for pleading the case of the state. He alleged that the state might find itself in problems if the package was not extended beyond 2010. Dr Nishank, along with Congress MPs from Uttarakhand, had met the Prime Minister on the same issue earlier. Tributes paid to ex-MLA of UP Assembly
Uttarakhand Assembly today offered rich tributes to former member of Uttar Pradesh Assembly and Rudrprayag resident Pratap Singh Puswan, who passed away recently. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank recalled the role of Late Badri Kedar MLA Pratap Singh Puswan in some of important agitations of Garhwal region. He said his role towards establishment of the Hemwati Nandan Bahuhuna Garhwal University has been unparalleled. He in particularly lauded his contribution towards growth of Jan Sangh in the region. Leader of Opposition Harak Singh Rawat said Puswan had always inspired him as he always stood with the people’s issues. “I was a student of Garhwal University and was greatly inspired by his works for the betterment of the region,” Rawat said. Uttarakhand Kranti Dal leader Diwakar Bhatt said Puswan was not only instrumental towards setting up of Garhwal University but also facilitated creation of Kumaon University. He said Puswan was always concerned with the plight of poor hill people. While offering tributes, the Congress MLA Kishore Upadhayaya demanded handling over at least Rs 10 lakh to the widow of late MLA. BJP legislator Premchand Agarwal recollected Puswan’s association with Jansangh. The Bahujan Samaj Party legislature party leader Mohammed Shahzad too offered homage to Puswan. |
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Cong leaders submit memo to Guv
Dehradun, March 19 In a memorandum submitted to the Governor, the INTUC members alleged they had held a series of protests seeking strict implementation of labour laws in industrial areas but the government had failed to take any action. — TNS |
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Varsity develops new varieties of crop
Pantnagar, March 19 This was spelt by Vice-Chancellor Dr BS Bisht at the two-day “Media Meet and Showcasing of Technology” that concluded at the university here today. A large number of mediapersons of regional and national newspapers, along with professionals from television channels, participated in this event under the sub-project “Mobilising Mass Media Support for Sharing Agro-information” of the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR), New Delhi. Dr Bisht, while delivering the inaugural address, highlighted the major contribution of Pantnagar University in agriculture, human resource development and development of society. While underlining the importance of agricultural technologies, he said out of 32 new technologies selected for display at Rastrapati Bhawan this year, 18 were from agriculture. Assistant Director General of the ICAR Dr TP Trivedi presented a brief on the National Agricultural Research System of the ICAR and the NAIP Project and their achievements. He said, “Despite many achievements we could not convince people about the contribution made by the ICAR and its institutions.” He emphasised that the media could play very important role to meet the information needs of both farmers and scientists. A progressive farmer and an agri entrepreneur, Sudhir Chhadha, rued that besides having a huge potential, India is lagging behind in agriculture. He emphasised on the need of collaboration between agriculture scientists and media so that the farmers could improve the face value at the international level. Director of the Experiment Station Dr SK Saini presented a brief account of few selected technologies developed by the university while Dean (Agriculture) Dr JP Tewari highlighted the contribution of the media in promotion of agriculture technologies of the university. A showcasing of selected agri-technologies was also organised in the lawn of College of Agriculture. |
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Pending Bills of DMC
Dehradun, March 19 Referring to the provisions of the Telegraph Act, Power Corporation also belied Mayor’s version of extracting pending dues from the power corporation for using its land. Jagmohan Lal, Managing Director, UPCL said, “Since DMC has raised its hands in helplessness in paying the bill so, now the state government should come forward to reach to a common consensus. In my view, the government should offer considerable subsidy to DMC to enable it to pay its liability.” Welcoming Lal’s suggestion, Mayor Vinod Chamoli who has repeatedly been talking of state government to take onus of paying the bills of streetlights said, “The streetlights are things of public amenities. DMC neither maintains them, nor uses them and above all does not earn from them. Therefore, either the state government should pay the bills or can evolve a way out by levying a surcharge on users to get funds for the billing. Unless government comes to our rescue, this problem will continue as it is.” He reminded of UP government’s initiative in waiving off all the pending dues of electricity in year 1999. Mayor’s contention of charging UPCL for its pending dues which would run into crores for using Nigam’s land for electricity poles has been disapproved by MD UPCL as he said, “Under the Telegraph Act, power corporation is not liable to pay Nigam for using its land for electricity poles, transformers and any such activities.” He refused of any pending billing on behalf of UPCL. Informing about the softness in UPCL’s stance, he said, “We have no alternative than to cut electricity supply from the streetlights. But then each time it is done, we have to retract under pressure from political galleries.” He blamed government departments for not doing their bits in paying the electricity bills for years together which has dented the existing deplorable condition of UPCL. “The collective dues of Jal Nigam and Jal Sansthan stands Rs 40 crore. Then jail, government hospitals, office of District Magisterate, police offices which come under non-government category are also under the radar of billing. “Non-payment of electricity bills by government and non-government bodies for many years is continuing to make matter worse for the battered UPCL which is already under acute debt of Rs 900 crore.” |
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Hotel employee found dead
Nainital, March 19 Nandan had retired to his room after performing his duties on Wednesday night. His colleagues found him lying unconscious there early Thursday morning. He died while being given medical treatment at the government hospital. Incidentally, he had not given his genuine address to his employer. It was with great difficulty that his family members were traced. The family members informed the police that Nandan had been away from his house for the last eight years and was taking up odd jobs here and there. Rs 3 lakh stolen from car
Dehradun: A bag containing Rs 3 lakh was allegedly stolen from a car of a man in Niranjanpur here today. He was reportedly going to buy furniture with the money for his new house in Subhash Nagar. In his complaint to the police, SP Sharma, a resident of Merath, said he had kept his bag containing the cash on the backseat. But when he came out of a shop he saw the window and the back door of the car were opened and the bag was missing. Sharma is a whole seller of medicines and has a shop in Chandal Nagar. A case of theft has been registered in the Patelnagar police station. The police said the allegation of Sharma seemed to be dubious considering the situation and it needed to be find out that whether such incident happened or not. Rs 14,000 stolen from shop
Mussoorie: Thieves decamped with cash worth Rs 14,000 from a shop situated near the parking lot just below Nagar Palika building by breaking the tinned shed from the back tonight. According to the police, it received a call around 10 am today that a burglary had taken place at the tea shop near the parking lot. The shop belongs to Virendar Dimri, a resident of Mussoorie. A case has been registered. |
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Cong slams govt for Kumbh ration irregularities
Haridwar, March 19 Pointing out at irregularities in the allocation of the licences to PDS shops in Haridwar city, senior party leader Haji Naeem Kureshi said if the rampant corruption continued so in Haridwar then what image the devotees and tourists coming from outside would form about it, specially during the Kumbh. Youth Congress vice-president Amit Saini asked the district supply officer to carry out an inspection at all PDS shops and make sure that apart from availability of food grains these are sold at government rates. A memorandum has also been forwarded to the state government in this regard. Among others who signed it were Rajendra Jatav, Rajbir Kamboj, Dinesh Pundir, Vinod Kumar, Ram Avtar Verma, Telu Pradha, Raju Gaud, Sanjeev Bhatnagar, Ashraf Ali Abassi, Jhangi Ram and Daya Ram Chanchal. |
Stop polythene use, says Eco Man
Dehradun, March 19 Mehta, in support of his mission “True Biologist”, said: “I have listed to the authorities concerned for our 10 environmental demands that includes of banning polythene.. All the members of this mission are determined to keep the flag of their protest high till the government makes any move towards it.” Moreover, in support of his mission true biologist, Mehta keeps on conducting camps, surveys and programmes to bring his demands to the notice of the district administration, government and the Pollution Control Board. He alleged that government was doing politics in the name of conservation and was doing nothing to sort the problems relating to the environment. |
Samajwadi Party cadres pedal against price rise
Dehradun, March 19 The Central government has completely failed to put a tab on the inflation. The Prime Minister seemed to be helpless with the situation and on the contrary the PM along with Sonia Gandhi were supporting the price rise, alleged Barthwal. He further said to divert the attention of people from inflation, corruption, unemployment and other problems, the government has put forth a Women’s Reservation Bill. Barthwal opined that this Bill would only help the influential and the rich women while the poor section of women wouldn’t get any chance. He added that in the ongoing session of the legislative Assembly the issues of education, unemployment and development should be discussed rather than commotion. While Gulfam Ali of the party alleged that the Central government was looting the consumer in markets and farmers in fields. |
PWD employees stage dharna
Dehradun, March 19 Babu Khan, state president of the association, said, “The state government is adopting two different policies for the non-regular employees of two departments. On the one hand they are regularising non-regular employees of the Irrigation Department and on the other hand they are not giving the same treatment to the PWD employees. This is instigating us to opt for protesting.” He said non-regular employees, who came in the PWD through a selection committee, were not bound to be regularised as per the ruling given by the Supreme Court under Uma Devi case. Association general secretary Jai Pal Singh urged upon the employees to stay united for the cause. |
Free books, not notebooks, for poor, says minister
Dehradun, March 19 During question hour today, Opposition leader and senior Congress MLA Harak Singh Rawat alleged that it was strange that poor children were not being provided with writing material. He said that if they have to buy these, it would put unnecessary financial burden on them. He was joined by other Congress legislators on the same issue. The Congress legislators finally staged a walkout from the House accusing the ruling party of doing little to improve the education standard of the poor in the state. Earlier responding to queries, State Education Minister Govind Singh Bisht pointed out that only books were provided free of cost and there was no provision to provide writing copies to students under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. However, Congress legislators, led by Harak Singh Rawat, were not satisfied with the minister’s response and entered into the well of the House creating a ruckus. |
Yet another child killed by leopard
Pitthoragarh, March 19 Later, her body was found by villagers, said Nishant Verma, District Forest Officer, Pitthoragarh.
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