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Rashtriya Samrasta Manch focuses on downtrodden
Rainfall to increase fruit, vegetable yield
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Devotees celebrate foundation day of Sai Baba temple
Stop exploiting nature recklessly: Digvijay Singh
Make testing mandatory for thalassaemia patients: Expert
Cong stages dharna against BJP, corruption
MPLAD funds remain unutilised
Emulate ideals set by Cong stalwarts: RK Dhawan
Govt hands over hydro projects from Irrigation Dept to UJVNL
Atal Adarsh Gram Yojana moves at snail’s pace
Society raises voice against urbanisation
Tube well boring work suspended
I CARE to plant 2,000 saplings
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Rashtriya Samrasta Manch focuses on downtrodden
Dehradun, May 8 Talking a day before organising a first such workshop in the state at Tilak Nagar branch of the RSS, Ramesh Patange, thinker and writer associated with the Mumbai wing of the RSM, refused linking the organisation to the RSS. He said, “The RSS just ingrain the basic value system. After that the respective members go on forming their own groups based on their priorities. That way the RSM cannot be called an offshoot of the RSS. It is an individual organisation in itself”. Patange said, “Seeing the caste and class-based clashes erupting now and then, more recently in Haryana and engulfing a large part of the society under its wave, we thought of floating such an organisation which can swiftly swing into action to nip it in time. The action thus taken will be apolitical in nature such as filing report in the police, enquiring about it, spreading mass awareness, all that without taking any political party or activist along”. Patange said the one-day workshop held at their office at Tilak Nagar would have an attendance of 50 activists of the organisation across the state, where a number of issues pertaining to the subject would be mooted. The members would also be briefed about their course of actions in such instances. Refusing it be an RSS attempt to get free from its stereotypical image of catering only to the Hindu community, he said, “We have been quite actively involved in our mission to serve the society in removing caste-based bottlenecks for a long time. It was because of our efforts that 340 police personnel were suspended at Gumantu village. Similarly in Tamil Nadu we came to the rescue of exploited non-brahmin groups”. The RSM also held such workshops in Gaya (Bihar), Jaipur, Hyderabad and Guwahati.
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Rainfall to increase fruit, vegetable yield
Pitthoragarh, May 8 “This rainfall minus hailstone has come as a boon not only to the vegetable belts of Dhanolti-Chakarata, Purola Naugaon, Karntal, Garam Pani and Batalghat, but also to the fruit belts of Nainital, Ramgarh, Mussoorie-Chamba and Mori which will be able not only to increase the size of fruits, but also the growth in the vegetables grown commercially in these areas,” said Dr Nautiyal. According to agriculture scientists, these rains have increased the land moisture for 10 days added with the atmospheric moisture which will have a miracle effect not only on the vegetables, but also on the kharif crop to be sown these days. “This rainfall has created congenial atmosphere for sowing the advance varieties of paddy as will as for soya bean and other local pulses,” said Dr AK Singh, a Dr Singh said due to the non-occurrence of hailstones this time, the vegetable cultivation in the Kumoan region would have extra production of vegetable crops this year. According to the Uttarakhand Horticulture Department, this rainfall has also increased the capacity of the water storage for those who have created the rainwater harvesting devises, to store water in their fields or rooftops. “The farmers, who have 1,000 square feet of rain water storage facility, have been able to store 10,000 litres of rain water during these rains, which was sufficient enough for their fields or kitchen gardens for next 20 days, after May 15 they can use this stored water up to May 30 for irrigation,” said Dr Nautiyal. The horticulture scientists also said this timely rain would also help in less drop out of fruits this year. According to the Director, Meteorology, Uttarakhand, the rainfall this time were light to medium which are helpful not only for crops, but also for moisture. “The pleasant climate created by the rainfall will last for one week, in between the possibility of another rain fall is expected from May 12 onward,” said Anand Sharma, Director, Meteorology, Uttarakhand.
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Devotees celebrate foundation day of Sai Baba temple
Mussoorie, May 8 The celebrations began from Anupam Chowk from where the devotees marched in procession decorated with various religious tableau and the palki of Shirdi Sai Baba. Some devotees marched bare feet singing bhajans and songs in praise of the lord on the occasion. The devotees and tourists standing on the side of the road sought blessings and prasad from Shirdi Sai Baba. Members of the temple committee informed that a bhandara would be held on Sunday.
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Stop exploiting nature recklessly: Digvijay Singh
Dehradun, May 8 “We should not exploit Mother Nature recklessly. Most of the past civilisations were completely wiped out from this earth due to their reckless destruction of nature,” he said. Digvijay Singh was on a daylong visit to the Himalyan Environmental Studies and Conservation organisation (HESCO), a voluntary organisation engaged in promoting science and technology in On his arrival at the Jollygrant airpor,t near Rishikesh, Digvijay went to see a watermill that has been developed as a multipurpose mill to generate power and also to do its traditional job of grinding the grains. Later, he went to the HESCO campus at Shuklapur village near Dehradun and was briefed about the various projects like water recharging, food processing and lantana furniture making by Dr Anil P Joshi. He also interacted with Sunder Lal Bahuguna, eminent environmentalist Bahuguna warned him that bigger projects could only bring havoc for the environment as well as people and have a life span of not more than 50 years. Digvijay later commented that bigger projects should only be made after a sound environment impact assessment. “Smaller, mini and micro hydel projects like gharats should be Impressed with the rural technologies being propagated by HESCO, he said, “We should think globally, but act locally with He went to Fatehgram village near Vikasnagar and went round the village development project undertaken by HESCO in collaboration with Doon School. School students are making several buildings for the villagers and undertaking several other developmental activities. A large number of Congress leaders flocked to meet Digvijay Singh, including legislators Pritam Singh, Kishore Upadhaya and former minister Shoorveer Sajwan. Hundreds of Congress workers followed him from the airport and continued to surround him till he returned by train late at night.
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Make testing mandatory for thalassaemia patients: Expert
Dehradun, May 8 He was speaking at a workshop organised on awareness building on thalassaemia held jointly by the IMA Blood Bank and the Uttarakhand State Aids Control Society. While Dr Meenakashi Uniyal, Joint Director of the Blood Safety, said a society created by the family members of the patients would be able to address the problem in a much “Though haemophiliac and thalassaemia patients are being provided with free blood transfusions, the other therapies that the patients have to undergo to reduce excessive quantity of blood tests are quite costly. These can be subsidised if the demand comes from society members,” said Dr Uniyal. A suggestion also came up for providing leucocytes filters on subsidised rates. The IMA Blood Bank is already providing free blood to 50 thalassaemia patients in Dehradun district. It has also decided to start a regular antibodies screening for these patients while the government will provide free leucocytes filter to patients.
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Cong stages dharna against BJP, corruption
Hardiwar, May 8 The party workers gathered at the Gobind Ballabh Pant Park and took out a rally up till the magisterial office raising slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led ruling Uttarakhand government. City chief OP Chauhan said in the name of Maha Kumbh ruling politicians and bureaucrats took in their stride massive Kumbh funds. Taking a dig at the Chief Minister seeking a Nobel Prize for successfully conducting the Kumbh, Chauhan said sarcastically, “On mass corruption of Kumbh budget nearing Rs 565 crore, Nishank may be eying the Nobel Prize on this aspect, and who knows he may get it”. He said people were perturbed by the BJP governance and that’s the reason why it suffered massive defeat in the last parliamentary elections everywhere in the state, including a shattering defeat in the Haridwar constituency. Tej Prakash Sahu, party spokesperson, sought a CBI investigation into Kumbh funds utilisation and Birla Ghat incident on April 14. Present among others were Sanjay Chopra, Meera Raturi, Indu Pandey, Sita Ram Prajapati, Arthur Masih, Shankar Pal Tomar, Thakur Malla Singh, Rajeev Chaudhari, Ravish Bhatija, Dr Shyampuri, JP Pandey, Kailash Pradhan and hundreds of party activists.
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MPLAD funds remain unutilised
Dehradun, May 8 Leading the pack is heavyweight MLA and Minister of Food and Civil Supplies Diwakar Bhatt, MLA from Devprayag, has submitted zero proposals to the department concerned for initiating development work. Kishore Upadhyay,Congress and Tehri MLA, Prem Agarwal, MLA from Rishikesh, Harbhajan Singh Cheema, MLA from Kashipur, Govind Singh Bisht, MLA from Dhari, Surinder Rakesh, MLA from Bhagwanpur, Vijay Singh Panwar, MLA from Pratap Nagar, and Pritam Singh, MLA from Chakrata, have failed to open their accounts and have not utilised the funds earmarked for them. The top spenders among the MLAs are BSP leader and MLA Mohammed Sajjad and BJP MLA Balwant Bhoriyal who have spent 68 per cent of their funds, followed by Rajkumar, MLA from Sahaspur, Haridas, MLA from Landhor, and Kazi Mohammed Nizamuddin, MLA from Mangalour, spent 65 per cent and 63 per cent of the funds. Since his election, Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal, MLA from Thalesein ,has spent 24 per cent of the funds, Rural Development Minister Vijay Bartwal, MLA from Yamkeshwar, has spent 14 per cent of the funds and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant, MLA from Pithoragarh, has spent 27 per cent of the funds.
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Emulate ideals set by Cong stalwarts: RK Dhawan
Dehradun, May 8 Tehri Garhwal MP Vijay Bahuguna, National Congress spokesman and secretary of the All-India Congress Committee Mohan Prakash and Opposition leader Harak Singh Rawat were other dignitaries at the programme. It was an evening of patriotic songs presented by the orchestra team. The presentations were highly appreciated by the audience. Famous Dehradun orchestra singer Alexander also gave a guest performance. Anil Jaggi, Head of Congress IT cell, gave a slide presentation on the freedom movement highlighting the role of the Congress in the freedom movement. The presentation in particular focused on episodes of history like the Jaillianwala Bagh incident.
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Govt hands over hydro projects from Irrigation Dept to UJVNL
Dehradun, May 8 These projects are Chibro (240 MW), Khodri (120 MW), Dhalipur (51 MW), Kulal (30 MW) and Dhakrani (33.75 MW). The UJVNL is already looking after a complete maintenance work of other hydro-electric projects, namely Maneri Bhali I (90 MW), Maneri Bhali II (304 MW), Chilla (144 MW), Mohammad Pur (9 MW), Pathri (20 MW) and Khatima (42 MW). The last three falling more in the Uttar Pardesh territory are maintained by the department of the UP government, whereas their power houses are situated in Uttarakhand. Elated over the last ditch removed in gaining control over the state-run hydro projects, UJVNL Chairman Yogender Prasad said, “Now we will be able to supervise and maintain our all hydro projects independently. The tardy and faulty working mechanism of the department was costing us dear as most of our hydro projects under these needed massive repairs, but the department was not willing to expedite in the name of shortage of funds. This resulted in considerable loss of electricity generation. With this last straw removed, we will be able to remove all glitches”. Newly appointed Head of the Irrigation Department BK Tamta too accepted this new government order as policy matter saying, “The department has nothing to say in this matter because if the government has taken away these five projects, it will give us some other projects to do”. Tamta, at his position, may not like to earn the wrath of the government by speaking against it, but employees are quite candid in expressing anguish at this new turn of events. General secretary of the Employees Union of the Irrigation Department, Ramesh Ramola said, “It is sad that the government is snatching work from skilled and experienced employees of the department who had been doing maintenance work of these hydro-electric projects at nominal rates ever since these were set up. The UJVNL lacks such expertise and will have to depend on hiring private players at higher rates for civil and mechanical maintenance of these projects. Still the government is paying heed to their arbitrary demands”. Even when the charge of the Chilla Project was taken from the department to be given to the UJVNL two months ago, employees of the department, who had gone on an indefinite dharna, had to finally bow before the government. The government too relented on the complaints filed by the UJVNL against the department which were negligence in timely repair of water leakage from gates, delay in garbage removal from trash screen, arbitrariness in holding and releasing water as and when required, repair of canal of the power house and many more. UJVNL Adviser SC Jain said the move was precipitated after the UJVNL lost electricity worth Rs 6 crore during three days when the Chilla Power House (36 MW) remained closed due to the breakdown of a gate four months ago. The delay in the repair work was blamed on the department. President of the union at Chilla RP Gaudiyal, who headed the agitation, had rued that if the department had remained in Uttar Pradesh, it would not have seen such bad days as they controlled the reins before the UJVNL was floated in the newly formed state Uttarakhand. Ramola also decried the fact that this development would give setback to the department which was already struggling with a huge idle-sitting, trained manpower due to lack of work and financial crunch. He also questioned the efficacy of the UJVNL ever since it took back projects from the department previously. Prasad said, “We have improved power generation to a great deal with an increase of 300 MW after taking over charge of the Maneri Bhalli Project. As per my assessment, with the control of all hydro-electric projects under me, the UJVNL will produce 5,000 MU electricity by this year in comparison to the current generation of 4,000 MU which will go up to 6,000 MU by 2012. That too, at the cheapest rate of Re 1 per unit to UPCL. It had to buy electricity at exorbitant rate from other sources”.
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Atal Adarsh Gram Yojana moves at snail’s pace
Dehradun, May 8 Under the scheme, 670 Nyay Panchayats (95 development blocks) primary schools, aganwadi centres, rural electrification, houses for economically weak, clean water supply and roads have to be compulsorily built. Followed by health facilities, aganwadi centres, fodder banks and Panchayat Bhawans by the end of March 31, 2012. Some other targets are yet to be realised due to lack of coordination between the various departments and inability to allocate budget on priority basis for the programme. A total of 193 villages are still to get junior schools and health department too has to establish mother and child care centres in 210 villages. “The wholly funded state programme is aiming to develop model villages that have all the basic facilities, in the latter stages disaster management committees too will be formed. We are facing problems at the ground level due to budget allocation that will be sorted out soon, ” said Vijay Barthwal, State Minister (Independent charge) for rural development. Work on road connectivity in 88 villages, banking facilities in 344 villages and post offices in 173 villages have only started in this financial year. Besides asking departments to allocate certain budget on priority basis for Atal Adarsh Gram Yojana, funds are also being utilised under Tribal Sub Plan and Special Component Plan. A total of Rs 90 crore have been allocated for the gap filling plan aims plans to strengthen village level infrastructure.
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Society raises voice against urbanisation
Dehradun, May 8 “Rising pollution levels and stress caused due to increasing rural migration are all proving to be counterproductive and volunteers are being trained to handle these pressures,” said Dr IS Pal, secretary, Red Cross ( Uttarakhand Chapter), while speaking at a function at Guru Ram Rai Medical College here today. The concept of the society was put forward by Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, who had gone to see the French Emperor and confronted with the suffering of thousands of wounded and dying soldiers on the battlefield of Solferino. The Uttarakhand branch has in all 8,000 members in the state with the Governor of as the president of the society. |
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Tube well boring work suspended
Pitthoragarh, May 8 “Our boring machine tried down to 200 m, which was suggested by IIT Roorkee engineers, but we could not find water deposits even for hand pumps,” said DK Mishra, EE, Jal Sansthan. Minister of State for Drinking Water Prakash Pant had inaugurated the tube well digging work on May 4 saying that this tube well would pour out 150 litre of water per minute round the year which would be sufficient for 500 persons. |
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I CARE to plant 2,000 saplings
Dehradun, May 8 “Dehradun has natural resources in abundance, but it’s sad to experience such a drastic and rapid green cover degradation in the valley. It is imperative as responsible citizens to launch such a green cover restoration drive to save further disintegration of the resources. I am thankful to I CARE to have created this platform for awareness and participation,” asserted Tarit Mohan, General Manager, IMSI India Pvt Ltd, Doon Express Business Park. The programme aims at stressing the importance of planting trees and spreading awareness across Dehradun and adjoining areas. The drive involves people from various schools and colleges. |
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Extending further from its Hindu centric ideologies, the Rashtriya Samrasta Manch (RMS), an RSS branch, is focusing on taking swift action against atrocities perpetrated on any section, especially downtrodden and weaker sections of the society, as and when it happens.
Digvijay Singh, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress General Secretary, today called for a sustainable model of development to preserve the precarious environment.“We should not exploit Mother Nature recklessly. Most of the past civilisations were completely wiped out from this earth due to their reckless destruction of nature,”
he said.
As a part of the series and a chain of protests against the alleged irregularities in
hydel-projects on various rivers in Uttarakhand and the Maha Kumbh corruption, the city unit of the Haridwar Congress today held a protest here and staged a dharna at the City Magistrate’s office situated in Devpura where the unit leaders demanded the resignation from Chief Minsiter Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into both matters.
Dehradun, May 8
