|
|
|
|
State govt has failed to use Central aid: Arya
Falling trees add to power woes
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Chaos at Haridwar MC Board meeting
Rawanlta-Jaunpur Community Issue
Members of the Rawanlta-Jaunpur Sangharsh Samiti burn effigies of Social Welfare Minister Matbar Singh Kandari and state minister Khajan Das
in Mussoorie on Tuesday.
A convention of the Uttar Pradesh Karmachari-Shikshak Sangh under way on Dharmashala Road in Haridwar on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur
Jal Sansthan PTC Mazdoor members hold dharna
Chief Secy seeks report on water situation
MDDA in spot over demolition of shop
2 youths beat up traffic
cop
HC lawyer takes note of encroachments, plastic ban in Mussoorie
Cash, jewellery stolen from marriage party car
6 blood storage centres to be set up
Meena is IG, Kumaon
|
|
State govt has failed to use Central aid: Arya
Haridwar, May 25 In one such event held at Jai Ram Ashram late evening, achievements of the UPA specifically related with the Congress were highlighted and points were dwelt on the Congress making a comeback in power in Uttarakhand. Speaking to The Tribune, Uttarakhand Congress chief Yashpal Arya highlighted the achievements of the UPA-II and termed these as a milestone considering the back-to-back parliamentary election victories. He emphasised that the past two years, in which the whole world bowed to the recession, it was India only which sustained and maintained the projected development growth rate. Arya also emphasised that under the able leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi UPA had been doing a commendable job putting India on the road to progress. He also urged the party workers to convey to people the achievements and works of the Congress-led government on a war footing. “We need to take developmental works, schemes, projects, achievements to the voters and apprise them that the faith they had put on the Congress candidates is worth every vote and be the chord between government and public,” urged Arya. While on home front Arya lashed at the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for not utilising the funds and schemes being allotted by the Central government for Uttarakhand. “The Central government is sanctioning several welfare schemes for this hilly state, but the state BJP government is failing to utilise these and this has put the wheel of progress in the state in the reverse gear. Whether it is the Kumbh fund or the Jwaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)-like schemes the Centre is providing the state, but in return all it is getting is only criticism from the BJP government which is totally unfair,” said Arya. The Congress state chief termed the failure of the BJP government in the implementation of development as lack of vision among the Cabinet and the internal differences in the party which has seen in less than three years two Chief Ministers in the same government, while another one being shifted to the Upper House of Parliament. At the occasion state vice chief Braham Swaroop Brahamchari, former minister Subodh Uniyal, city Congress chief OP Chauhan, general secretary Santosh Chauhan also addressed the party workers. |
|
|
Falling trees add to power woes
Dehradun, May 25 Lal, who keeps an hawk’s eye on the frequency meter to pass out the instructions to overdraw from the Northern grid at the right frequency, is not getting consistent success in this endeavour also, thanks to the volatile nature of the frequency flow. To assuage the disconcerting voices due to power state, Lal said he tried not to cut power beyond the stipulated hour. “To augment the capacity of the transformer of Patel Nagar from 8 KV to 10 KV, I got the work done during the ‘roasting period’, but unfortunately, the branches and tree felling at many places pulled the wires and disrupted the power supply which led to the darkening of some of the areas in the city at night”. Taking an overall view of the situation, Lal said the situation had fared badly in the past few weeks from the previous patch of good time when the frequency was doing well. Still, he alleged, that by merely monitoring frequency and managing the overdrawing of electricity, he had been able to manage a good show without buying electricity from any outside source at present and saving state exchequer Rs 1,000 crore in 2009-10. “At present, we are paying back 1 MU to Delhi and 1 MU to NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited. In this situation, where demand is crossing 29 MU, we are meeting the demand by depending solely on overdrawing from Northern grid,” he said. Lal also expressed concern over the snow not melting and drying up rivers. “The disappointment will continue until we are not able to churn out power from river water. Instead of getting the expected supply of 14 MU, we are getting only 11 MU,” he said. He stressed three factors to overhaul the somber picture of power situation. Firstly, the Aggregate Technical and Conventional Reduction, whereby, he said, by merely reducing 5 per cent, a difference of Rs 100 crore saving had been made. He is making rural sector, especially the belt in Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar, to fall in line by doing load shedding to the tune of 12 hours. “In these regions, people have not installed meters and continue to benefit unduly by paying a fixed amount regardless of the power they consume. They have hobnobbed with a influential section of the society to keep the official pressure at bay. Not in a position to bear loss at their expense, I am ridding them of power supply for 12 hours”. To nullify the game plan of some UPCL workforce who are hand in glove with them, he had suggested to the villagers that they get meters installed during a camp period under his strict surveillance. The second factor is to keep a tight leash on tariff. By acting in time and hiking the tariff by April 1 with an increase of 3 per cent, he had been able to salvage the pathetic position. And the third is to handle power purchase cost wisely. Initially they were charged overdraw rate of Rs 5.22 per unit in 2008-09 which was reduced to Rs 4.17 in 2009-10. It led to overdrawing frequency even at the low level. He said by merely gauging these three factors, the power situation would remain reasonably under
control. |
|
|
Chaos at Haridwar MC Board meeting
Haridwar, May 25 As the Chairman has been facing, since assuming the charge, dissidents from his own ruling BJP, now after the expulsion of the four dissidents, he has lost majority in the the Municipal Committee House and seeks help from the united Opposition. This was the first board meeting after the expulsion of four councillors by the BJP on the charges of cross voting in the just-concluded District Planning Committee elections. Opposition Congress won comprehensively against the ruling BJP in the elections. There was furore over the government’s decision to cancel the three proposals regarding the elections of sub-committees which were put up and passed in the last board meeting. A notification from Governor’s office by Urban Development Secretary Nidhi Mani Tripathi states that the three proposals passed by the Haridwar Municipality in the last meeting regarding the confirmation of the board meeting, declaration of sub-committee elections and the third sub committee’s election have been deemed void as the meeting was not held in accordance with the municipality rules. What set today’s meeting aside was that all members were given chance to put forward their respective wards’ issues at the meeting. Though the agenda for today’s meeting was the same as the previous meeting that got postponed. Chairman Kamal Johra had on May 1 postponed the board meeting as there was major chaos from a section of dissident BJP councillors on the issue of election of four sub-committees. Meanwhile, all four expelled BJP councillors, Dr Prem Prakash Satlewal, Dinesh Joshi, Shri Ram Ahuja and Rakesh Prajapati, have reiterated their loyalty with the BJP and demanded a probe into the cross-voting issue, stating that they were not involved in any act against the party during the DPC voting. |
|
|
Rawanlta-Jaunpur Community Issue Our Correspondent
Mussoorie, May 25 The members of the Rawanlta-Jaunpur Sangharsh Samiti raised slogans against the draconian move of the government to include persons residing from 2004 and provide them incognito OBC status. The samiti members demanded revoking the directions passed on March 2010 with immediate effect. One of the members Manmohan Singh Mall also said the state minister Khajan Das was misleading people of the community by presenting an incorrect picture. He also said Kandari who had promised to send the proposal in this regard to the Central government in 14 days had also not done so. Mall was of the view that the government had introduced this 2004 clause under a conspiracy to deprive the original members of the community from the benefit of the OBC status. He further said the government was acting at the behest of those politicians and bureaucrats who had bought land in the region for monetary gain and to increase the value of property, such an absurd clause was being promoted deliberately. Samiti members Pradeep Kavi and Amender Bisht also said the government was bent upon in eliminating the identity of the community by introducing such archaic clauses. They also said the community was ready to fight for its rights as they had done in 1930. The community members would hold a massive rally at Tilari Maidan in Barkot to garner support and take this fight till its justifiable conclusion. The samiti has also decided that complete lockout of tehsils in the region will also be carried out on June 1. Soorvir Rawat, Pradeep Kavi, Amendar Bisht, Shailendar Bisht, Ram Prasad Kavi and others were present on the occasion. On the other hand, Khajan Das said the opposition was raking the issue unnecessarily and the direction had already been given by the Social Welfare Minister in this regard to identify the correct persons for the OBC status. Das further said the Congress MP Vijay Bhauguna had promised to include the Rawanlta-Jaunpur community under the OBC’s Central list if the state government sent the proposal to the Centre within three months, but it seemed he had completely sidelined the issue. Das also said a pledge had already been sent to the Centre in this regard and now the ball was in the UPA government’s court.
|
|
|
Federations criticise UPA for charting anti-employee policies
Haridwar, May 25 The All-India State Government Employees Federation and the Uttar Pradesh Employees-Teachers Union (UPETU) has termed the UPA government’s policies as anti-common man and anti-employees. In the three-day convention, which concluded at Rod Dharamshala here today, the federation criticised the Central government policies regarding price rise and termed inflation as a result of UPA’s failed economic policies. Addressing the employees, national president of the federation ML Sehgal termed the UPA government as a total failure in taking decisions and not catering to the employees’ rights. He pointed that both the Central and several state governments were not giving direct permanent appointments to the employees and instead were hiring contractual, shiksha mitra, time bound, anganwadi, ASHA activists and even home guards and more recently the PRD guards. Pointing that Uttar Pradesh alone had over 18 lakh employees, both on salary and contractual in government duty and they could not be ignored, UPETU chief Ajay Singh lamented that the contractual employees were being exploited at various levels by the governments. “The need of the hour is to get these employees under regular pay roll and serious efforts need to be done regarding this otherwise the resentment among the employees will prove quite heavy in the coming elections to the ruling parties,” said Singh. Regarding the norms set by the International Labour Union for a stipulated minimum basic daily wage Jagdeesh Pandey a member of the UPETU said in India the labour laws were being violated and ILU wage norm was not being followed. While Uttar Pradesh Karamchari Sikshak Sangh senior leader Anand Swaroop Saxena put forth his views on employees being united under one banner and to oppose anti-employees policies being charted out by the Central government and state governments too. Among other representatives who addressed the convention were JP Nayak, Dinesh Bhargav, Balasubrahmanyam, Saroj Kumari, K Sudhakaran, Sewa Ram Rathore, Munir Ahmed and various other federation leaders. |
|
|
Jal Sansthan PTC Mazdoor members hold dharna
Dehradun, May 25 The protestors have given a memorandum to the Chief Managing Director demanding increment in the minimum salary of PTC workers which was increased from Rs 250 to Rs 300 from April 1, 2010, by the association. It was coming out be less than Rs 276 as the dearness allowance, while the dearness allowance to unorganised workers had been increased to Rs 500 for the past two years. They also criticised the organisation for not utilising the fund of Rs 1,500 given to the union by Prakash Pant, Potable Water Minister, Uttarakhand. Health workers stage dharna
Under the aegis of the Uttarakhand Matar-Shishu Evam Parivar Kalyan Mahila Karamchari Association, male and female health workers held a dharna at the Gandhi Park here today in support of their long-pending demands. Their main demands include addressing anomalies and that the formula of same work, same pay be taken into consideration for implementing the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, raising of pay for health workers to Rs 1,350-2,200 (consolidated), auxillary nurses and midwives be promoted to the posts of health worker, doing away with district cadre, creation of posts of block supervisor, both male and female, raising of salaries of part-time midwives (dais) from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000 and posts of block supervisor be created at the Community Health Centres. Member, Coordination Committee of the organisation, Ratan Singh Negi said they would be forced to launch a hunger strike if their demands were not met. The agitated members said they had submitted a memorandums to Secretary,Health, Uma Kant Panwar and DG, Health, CP
Arya. |
|
Chief Secy seeks report on water situation
Nainital, May 25 In a meeting held through video conferencing on Saturday, Napalchayal said Commissioners needed to ensure that the District Magistrates monitored the power and water situation on a daily basis and ensure water supply to every area in the state. He said the District Magistrates should set up joint control rooms in the districts where officials of the power and water departments are present round the clock to address the grievances of the people. The Chief Secretary was very particular about the installation and maintenance of hand pumps. He ordered that the hand pumps sanctioned for the financial year 2009-10 that are yet to be installed must be put in place before May 31 since the money required for their allocation has already been sanctioned. It was also stated that the hand pumps that are lying out of order must be repaired at the earliest and areas be identified where water can be supplied through mini tube wells. Napalchayal said the officials of the Power Department must ensure that there was no power cut beyond the fixed roasting schedule. Several areas had been witnessing agitations over the issue of unscheduled power cuts. He ordered that the frequently occurring local faults be repaired on priority and transfers that were lying out of order be replaced immediately. The Chief Secretary was appreciative of the water conservation efforts being made in Almora under the NREGA which is being executed under the Chief Development Officer Dhiraj Garbyal. He said the officials of other districts must learn from the experience and replicate the efforts in their respective areas. Kumaon Commissioner Kunal Sharma apprised the Chief Secretary that water was being supplied in water scarcity-hit areas with the help of tankers and even on mules. He said the faulty hand pumps were also being repaired on a priority basis. |
|
MDDA in spot over demolition of shop
Dehradun, May 25 Dehradun in recent times has been facing a spurt in unauthorised constructions, as even commercial areas like Dilaram Bazar have been a witness to such constructions. The MDDA while responding to a question put up through the Right to Information
(RTI) by Anil Pal, a petitioner, had on August 3, 2009, admitted that the proprietor of the Dilaram shop had been issued a show-cause notice for undertaking unauthorised construction and the shop in question was sealed in process. The owner of the shop
subsequently moved to the commissioner’s court that initially ordered a stay on the seal order. But after
opposition to the stay, the commissioner’s court after hearing arguments from both sides, finally vacated the stay. But despite the vacationing of the stay, the demolition drive was still to be carried out. The MDDA’s intentions over the said property have been questionable and shrugging for conduct of demolition exercise on the said property. Anil Pal has now asked the MDDA to clarify as to why the authority
was not undertaking the demolition exercise. Anil who used the RTI to get to the truth has questioned MDDA’s intention on the matter. He asserted that the authority should have expedited the demolition exercise, but have rather adopted a complacent attitude. “It looks like the MDDA is promoting unlawful constructions rather than going against them,” he added. Significantly, resentment against unauthorised constructions in Dehradun has grown manifold among residents. The spurt in the number of apartments coming up in Dehradun has raised many eyebrows and people have started pointing fingers at the MDDA over the issue. |
|
|
2 youths beat up traffic
cop
Dehradun, May 25 The incident happened when traffic cop Narender Kumar stopped two motorcycle-borne youths for not wearing the helmet while riding the bike. The two started arguing with him over the issue and the cop also got infuriated. The two allegedly beat up and abused the cop in rage. The cop later lodged a complaint with the Basant Vihar police alleging that Shalender Kumar and Manoj Kumar beat up him and a Home Guard while on duty. The two have been caught and a case under Sections 332, 353, 323, 504 and 506, IPC, has been registered. Bank Manager’s bag containing
Rs 2 lakh stolen
A bag containing Rs 2 lakh and other important documents was stolen by breaking the door lock of the car of an IRB Bank Manager on the Rajpur Road here this afternoon. IRB Lucknow Branch Manager Syam Singh Pal alleged in his compliant to the Dalanwala police that an unidentified person took away his bag containing Rs 2 lakh and other important documents. He had gone to an Axis Bank branch near Madhuban Hotel when the incident occurred. A case under Section 379, IPC, has been registered at the Dalanwla police station. |
|
HC lawyer takes note of encroachments, plastic ban in Mussoorie
Mussoorie, May 25 It directed its advocate, who is working on the case, after a PIL was filed on the issue of lackadaisical attitude of the Nagar Palika on banning plastic and stopping encroachments in the town. Senior advocate Ajay Veer Pundir on the directions of the High Court met Pradeep Bhandari, PIL applicant, and conducted a survey to find out what action had been initiated on the issue before the hearing of PIL on June 4. Pundir was appalled at the situation and comparing it with his last visit said the encroachments had increased manifold. He also went to Gaddi Khana and was shocked to see heaps of plastic garbage dumped burning incessantly. He said this garbage dumping issue would be kept before the court strongly as the Palika was playing with the lives of residents and tourists due to emanating toxic waste from the garbage. He also felt that on the issue of encroachments and plastic pollution, officials were taking it lightly, but the High Court was very serious and it would be evident from the next hearing.
|
|
Cash, jewellery stolen from marriage party car
Nainital, May 25 While the driver of the car was busy replacing the tyre, four armed persons encircled the car and robbed the travellers of jewellery and cash. When the groom and his father Siyaram Kashyap tried to resist the attempt, they were beaten up with sticks. One of the fingers of the groom was also broken by the robbers when he showed reluctance in removing the finger ring. The police has taken more than a dozen people in custody for questioning. The jewellery that was robbed is said to be worth Rs 1.5 lakh. The cash robbed was about Rs 15,000. |
|
6 blood storage centres to be set up
Dehradun, May 25 There is a proposal to upgrade the centres at Doiwala, Vikasnagar, Rishikesh and Bhawali. The department is also upgrading the existing centres at Doiwala, Vikasnagar, Rishikesh and Bhawali. Besides, the National Aids Control Society has also provided four vans to the State Aids Control Society and is also preparing a website. |
|
Meena is IG, Kumaon
Dehradun, May 25 Kumaon IGP Jeevan Chander Pandey has been transferred back to the police headquarters, while
Meena, IG, Headquarters and Training, will take charge at his place. — TNS |
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Classified | Suggestion | E-mail | |
