Dehradun, April 7
The dependants of the Uttarakhand’s seven jawans, who died in the Maoist massacre at Dantewada in Chhattisgarh yesterday, will be paid Rs 2 lakh each by the state government.

In this fierce Maoist attack, in total 73 CRPF jawans had been reportedly killed and seven out of them were the native of Uttarakhand.

Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank condemned the attack of the Maoists. Terming the incident as a cowardly act, the Chief Minister expected from the Centre to deal with the situation seriously and sensibly.

Vinod Pal Singh (Tehri), Tikam Singh (Chakrota, Dehradun), Manoj Naungai (Bhimtal, Nainital), Brijanand (Udham Singh Nagar), Lalit Kumar (Haridwar), Mahesh Singh Bhateri (Pitthoragarh) and Rajender Singh Rana (Udham Singh Nagar) were the martyrs from the state.

Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand Punjabi Sangathan paid tributes to martyrs of Dantewada massacre. Sanghatan members today gathered at Clock Tower and observed a two-minute silence.

President of the sangathan Devendra Sethi, who led the mourners, said the Naxalism today stood as a greater threat to the country. He called for focusing efforts on part of the Centre and the state government to wipe out the Naxalism from the country.

Vijay Singh, Vijay Bagga, Deep Vohra and Sonia Anand were among the sangathan members present on the occasion.

Out of 76 CRPF jawans that attained martyrdom, seven belonged to Uttarakhand.

Haridwar, April 7
Though just three weeks are to go for the completion of the Maha Kumbh in Haridwar and mela administration is terming the mega fair a success, the All-India Rahul Gandhi Youth Brigade of the Congress has attacked the administration for providing facilities on the papers only. The brigade has termed the fair as harsh on pilgrims and saints while easy on the pockets of the state government and the mela administration.

Led by brigade state chief Sunit Singh Rathore, a delegation today inspected the Kumbh mela area core zone and found various irregularities, which, according to Rathore, “didn’t seem to get noticed by the state government and mela officers but were easily visible to everyone else”.

A detailed report is being compiled by the delegation about the problems and irregularities in the Kumbh mela area and will be meeting mela in-charge officer Anand Vardhan in this regard and if not satisfied by his explanation, then will be taking out a mass awareness campaign to expose the frailties and corruption vis-a-vis Kumbh organisation among public.

“We visited the Khalsa camp fire area and found that from the state government and administration side no one has addressed the blast affected people’s woes. Nothing has been given to the victims, stated Rathore after visiting the three main camps that got reduced to ashes in a major fire three days ago.

The delegation also found that several saints and religious camp owners spoke of a biased attitude of the mela administration in the allotment of land and other basic facilities in the mela area.

Sachin Chauhan, vice-president of the state brigade, said most of the mela camp area is unhygienic with filth littered everywhere. “Sanitation is in poor state, roads are in shambles, fire precautions are nowhere to be seen, and the Chief Minister is advertising Kumbh’s organisation as its flagship work,” said Chauhan.

“We will also be sending the whole report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi as the Kumbh has national and international significance,” said Pankaj Maheshwari.

The delegation also comprised Vinit Dhiman, brigade’s district head, Rakesh Aggarwal, city chief, Anurag Sharma, Jwalapur head, and Sunil Goyal, convener.

Haridwar, April 7
After Right to Education, the proper implementation of the Right to Child for Free and Compulsory Education 2010 for children between 6 and 14 years is the need and assumes greater importance.

Though the Act has been passed in the Parliament yet Central government is also not quite sure of full implementation of this Act. Apart from strict legal implementation of the Act provisions the need is also of having a sufficient number of universities and colleges in the country.

Expressing concerns, Union Minister of State for Employment and Education Harish Rawat cited the need of having a large number of secondary schools, colleges and Universities to ensure the act practically gets implemented too.

Doubting over the lack of number of higher educational colleges and institutions in India the minister of state advocated for the need of manifold number of these to be set up across the country.

“If we want to see the Right to Education Bill gets fully implemented then at least 450 Universities are needed in addition to at least 40,000 higher educational colleges. Educational infrastructure needs a mass and rapid change to see that a child apart from basic education gets higher education too,” said Rawat.

The state cabinet minister was today in Gurukul Kangri University and came out in support of the century old University despite the Ministry of Human Resources stripping it of the deemed status. Lending support Rawat who is also an MP from Haridwar advocated for need of Universities like Gurukul which not only have educational but historical significance also.

“Gurukul Kangri University is a rare Univeristy which caters to moral standards of students too while other modern institutions are catering to money and placements only. It (Gurukul) represents the real form of Indian education-producing morally and academically strong students,” remarked Rawat.

Assuring the agitating University employees he said at Central level he is constantly in touch with the related ministries but cited restrictions as the deemed status issue is sub-judice.

“Law will take its own course but we have to make sure that any frailties if be should be removed to ensure the world famous status of the University which gave several freedom fighter is not only maintained but taken a notch higher.”

“The University which is century year old, a proponent of Arya Samaj, where Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi got the name of Mahatma Gandhi by Swami Dayanand cann’t be any other University and needs special privilege,” said Rawat highlighting the historical significance of the University.

A memorandum was also given to the minister by the University’s agitating union, which is on agitation for past 45 days pressing for first restoration of deemed status and then simultaneously turning it into a Central university.

Among the University officials present were Dr AK Chopra, Dr Pradeep Joshi, BD Joshi, RKS Dagar, US Bisht, Shravan Sharma, Rajneesh Bharadwaj, Deepak Anand, SP Singh, SK Shrivastava, Sangeeta Vidyalankar, Mahavir Yadav, Rakesh Sharma and non-teaching staff employees.

Haridwar, April 7
Even after completion of 10 years after the creation of separate Uttarakhand state from the erstwhile Uttar Pradesh, demands from several areas for their inclusion into Uttarakhand have been arising from time to time. Though if this may be a parameter to gauge the development index then the hilly state of Uttarakhand scores over its big brother Uttar Pradesh.

No area in Uttarakhand has demanded its reinclusion in Uttar Pradesh while from Uttar Pradesh several areas and regions are demanding inclusion in Uttarakhand. A one such demand is fast gaining pitch from Muzaffarnagar district where the Majlispur Taufir gram sabha has sought inclusion in Haridwar district of the hilly state.

On the grounds of development and geographical conditions, the villagers are stirring their agitation and have also apprised the Haridwar and Muzaffarnagar district administrations of their demand. The residents of these villages point out that after the boundary of this village sabha several kilometres of forests start while it is nearly situated with Haridwar’s populated areas making it more convenient to be with Haridwar.

Leading the agitation is the Uttarakhand Krantikari Manch, which is carrying out several agitations and a signature campaign to press for their demand. Recently 60-odd village panchayats had passed a resolution of their inclusion in Uttarakhand state and as geographically Majlispur is secluded from these panchyats, villagers feel they should be also included in the 60-odd cartel.

Nawab Ali, executive member of the manch, says villagers are quite serious about their inclusion as they are facing several problems since 2000 when Uttaranchal was carved out of Uttar Pradesh.

“We have given a memorandum to Lakshar SDM too in this regard with hundreds of villagers and nearby residents accompanying us. Our demand is just as there is no development witnessed in our area while the nearby villages of Uttarakhand are buzzing with development,” said Istiyak Khan, a Majlispur resident.

A signature campaign is also being carried out by the gram sabha which will be sent to both Chief Ministers of the states concerned, parliamentarians, legislators, commissioners and district magistrates. 

Dehradun, April 7
After making commuters suffer and incurring a loss of crores to the state government with its three-day-long strike, the Transport Department today called off the strike.

The employees of the department had gone on strike demanding revocation of suspension orders of JK Pathak on Sunday. He was suspended following an alleged attack on journalists by the employees of Transport Department on April 2.

The employees were given an assurance by the authorities after which they agreed to call off their strike.

Meanwhile, a core group of journalists met Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank at the Secretariat. After the meeting, the CM ordered the DGP to revoke the cases filed against journalists by the roadways employees.

Nishank said that the incident would be probed and the guilty would be dealt with sternly. In the incident on Friday, over a dozen journalists got injured after they were allegedly beaten by roadways employees at their workshop and at Doon Hospital. 

Dehradun, April 7
The rapid pace of urbanisation is also bringing with it set of biological and psycho-social problems. The shifting of rural communities to towns and cities due to rapid urbanisation is putting pressure on shrinking physical resources.

“On one hand there is a problem of malnutrition in the country, on the other hand there is the prevalence of diabetes among most urban Indians, the contradiction between scarcity of food in rural areas and problem of excess is all too evident,” said Dr Vinit Kumar Gupta, Consultant Psychiatrist, while delivering a talk on “Urbanisation and Health” on the occasion of the World Health Day today, a talk was held at Indian Medical Association (IMA) auditorium.

He said as the rural communities adopt urban lifestyle the nutritional component comprising cereals begins to disappear from the dietary plan, with stress on fatty and sugars that, “In turn leads to several disease and diabetes is a primary cause,” said Dr Gupta.

Mass migration to cities puts pressure on limited resource, the quality of water, sanitation, quality of air, living and working conditions get affected.

“Communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes may be due to overcrowding and poor diet,” said Dr Gupta.

The psycho-social consequences of migration, Dr Gupta said, were far too many, these might include stress, mental disease and inability to adjust.

Col (Dr) Rc Joshi, MD, SHO, Military Hospital, Dehradun, in his talk said, “While urbanisation has helped us control several outbreaks, but we are also encountering new diseases that may put further strain on us.”

Earlier, Dr Alok Semwal, IMA Secretary, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) too was focusing on urban health.

Pitthoragarh, April 7
People of border sub division of Dharchula today submitted a memorandum to the Central government through the District Magistrate demanding early execution of proposed hydro electric schemes in the border tehsils of Dharchula and Munsiyari. The demonstration was led by Dharchula MLA Gagan Singh Rajbar.

“There are five hydro electric schemes on rivers Gori and Dhauli in the area, which have been cleared by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, but the Centre is not speeding up to start these schemes resulting in mass unemployment in the area,” said Rajbar.

The lone tribal MLA from the district demanded that these hydro electric projects, which were of more than 1,000 MW capacity, be started soon otherwise he would lead the tribal people of this border area to New Delhi to stage agitation.

“Out of these hydro electric schemes Tawaghat Garva Scheme will generate 680 MW of electricity while the NTPC-owned Rupasiabagar Scheme would give 280 MW of electricity to the nation added by 280 MW from Dhauli Ganga Phase-II Scheme and two other minor projects on Gori river,” said Rajbar.

He said more than one lakh people from 45 villages in the region would be benefited out of these schemes since most of the villages were dry and without sufficient agriculture economy.

“If the Centre does not start these schemes, the people from the villages will migrate to big cities as they are already doing, because after closure of the Tibet trade and finishing of woollen products in the area no other employment substitute was left for the border people,” complained Rajbar. 

Dehradun, April 7
Annoyed by no provisions, funds or facilities allocated for the gram pradhans in the budget passed by the state government, the agitated pradhans of the state held a meeting at Ladpur Panchayati Bhawan to discuss the further course of action of their protest against the state government.

In the meeting held, Surat Singh Negi, state president of the Pradhan Sangathan said the association would give memorandums on April 15 to every department of the administration, stating their demands and hassles faced by them.

The association would also give a month’s time to the administration and if nothing gets materialised till then, the pradhan sangathan would stage dharnas and protest against the state government.

He also said, “We have already spoken to the Chief Minister regarding the same and he had assured us to ponder over the issue, but till date nothing has been materialised yet. We would request administration to set up new Panchayati Raj Act for the Uttrakhand state rather than following the amended act of Uttar Pradesh.”

Shravan Sati, district President, SP Chamola from Rudraprayag, Atul Desai from Tehri, Hatim Singh from Uttarkashi, Kamla Barmola, Haridwar, Kuber Bargali from Nainital, Anil Singh Chauhan, 
Udhamsingh Nagar, Anita Bhatt, state vice-president and Sanjay Singh Pokhariyal, State general secretary were present at the meeting.

Haridwar, April 7
Apart from being a world-famous pilgrim city, Haridwar is now fast growing into an industrial hub. It has received a further boost with the entry of multinational company SKF, a global leader in vehicle aftermarket segment, that inaugurated its Haridwar Green Plant today.

The state-of-the-art factory situated in Salempur Mehdood in Industrial Integrated Estate will be having a production capacity of 45 million bearings annually with an envisaged investment of about Rs 1,500 million.

The Chief Executive Officer and President of the company Tom Johnstone said India was rapidly growing as an auto and auto spares market and the SKF group started India operations way back in 1923 in then Calcutta city. “At present, there are two fully operational manufacturing plants of the company in Pune and Bangalore while two new ones in Ahmedabad and Haridwar are being opened simultaneously,” said Johnstone.

With these two plants, the company targets to double its market share, which currently stands at 30 per cent catering to the needs of specific industry segments varying from automotives, electrical, industrial and service sector.

The company has made sure that the Haridwar plant conforms to energy emission norms and is eco-friendly with global standards adhered to.

“Haridwar unit has been strictly built as per the recommendations of Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) for energy efficiency where the architectural structure, business processes and solution is developed to minimise the environmental impact. We also have a unique rain harvesting system for better water conservation and utilisation in the premise itself,” said Shishir Joshipura MD SKF India Ltd.

Initially, the company will be generating 200 jobs and will gradually increase as plant reaches its full capacity. Present at the occasion were various executives from worldwide units of the company.