Dehradun, June 22
Agriculture Minister Trivender Singh Rawat once again urged farmers to form federations that would act as facilitators, aiding better coordination between them and the government.

“I think the farmers should take a cue from neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, where the federations of different fruit and vegetable growers have become the backbone of the farming community. They are able to raise issues and concerns of the farmers in a conjoined manner and even keep the government updated on their problems and issues,” he said.

He was speaking at the state-level workshop on enhancing productivity and income of farmers organised by the Department of Horticulture and Processing here today.

Rawat said in the past couple of years due to the efforts of the government there had been much more focus on agriculture and horticulture. “We have become the first state in the country that offers services of 18 departments to the farmers, who adopt voluntary ‘chakbandhi’, and are even contemplating giving free planting materials to the farmers so that the onus of assuring quality plant material rests on the government,” he stressed.

The effects of government intervention, he said, were visible as the state had emerged as a hub of frozen pea. “A total of 40 units from Uttarakhand are contributing to the country’s requirement and in the floriculture sector, we have become the first state in the country to announce support price for marigold. Rudraprayag district has become the centre of marigold sale during the Char Dham Yatra, as the demand is huge for these flowers,” he added.

At the workshop, Dr Gorakh Singh, Commissioner (Horticulture), said canopy and meadow farming techniques needed to be adopted to get maximum gains from limited holdings.

He also announced that the Horticulture Mission, government of India, was offering 50 per cent subsidy to farmers taking up mechanised farming and had sanctioned Rs 30 crore for undertaking protective cultivation and also enhanced aid for undertaking research and irrigation.

Commissioner (Rural Development) Subash Kumar stressed on increasing market avenues for farmers so that they got better returns.

Earlier, Director of Department of Horticulture and Processing BP Nautiyal said the focus of the workshop was on to make the farmers conversant with the modern techniques of farming aimed at increasing the quality of the farmers produce. “We have identified 775 clusters, in which 6,000 villages are directly involved for the purpose of six types of horticulture crops under intensive farming,” he said.

Nainital, June 22
Chief Secretary NS Napalchayal has expressed displeasure over the slow pace of execution of development works in Kumaon Division. At an evaluation meeting held at the

Administrative Training Institute here on Saturday, Napalchayal observed that as much as Rs 174 crore that had been allocated for the completion of various works in the last financial year was yet to be utilised.

Against this amount, only Rs 36 crore had been spent in executing various tasks. He has conveyed that this situation is far from satisfactory and has asked officials to ensure that the remaining amount of money is utilised to the optimum by September this year.

He has instructed that Division-level officials must travel for at least 10 days in a month to see the progress of various works being undertaken. These officials have also been asked to recommend adverse action against junior-level officials who are erring in their duties.

Haridwar, June 22
Two of the world’s engineering majors, South Africa-based Alstom and India’s Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), have expressed desire to strengthen their presence in other  infrastructure areas in the country.

Executives of the two companies held discussions this regard at a high-level meeting in Paris in the presence of Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Sectors Enterprises Vilas Rao Deshmukh.

The meeting was attended by Patrick Kron, Chief Executive Officer of Alstom, and CMD of BHEL BP Rao, BS Meena, Secretary, Heavy Industries, and Rajan Mathiah, Ambassador of India to France, and was headed by Deshmukh.

Talking to the media, a BHEL spokesman said at the meeting Kron apprised the Union Minister of his company’s century-old presence in India and expressed desire to strengthen their presence in other infrastructure areas in the country in collaboration with BHEL.

Deshmukh was also apprised of the existing cooperation between the two companies through boilers, including super-critical steam generators. He advised the two representatives to dwell on the possibility of increasing this cooperation to newer avenues of power and transportation sector too.

BHEL has an ongoing technology-transfer agreement with Alstom for design and manufacture of large supercritical boilers. With this agreement, BHEL has gained access to supercritical technology, hitherto the domain of leading players, thereby enabling it to expand its product range.

Alstom provides training to Indian engineers and support them in the design, engineering manufacture, assembly, testing, commissioning, repair, retrofit and upgrade of the boilers.

Notably, Alstom is the world leader in boiler technology having installed more than  4 million MW boilers worldwide.

These once-through boilers due to higher efficiency enable good generation of power despite using the same amount of fuel in comparison to ordinary boilers.

BHEL has been manufacturing different types of boilers like drum type, waste heat recovery boilers and environment friendly fluidised bed combustion boilers, firing coal, ignite, oil  and gas.

Dehradun, June 22
The “jinn” of the issue of change of land use of Sturdia Chemicals Ltd at Rishikesh from industrial to residential has come to haunt the state BJP government. The state government today again clarified its stand on the issue following a spate of stories published in the media.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Parkash Pant was fielded today by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to give clarification on behalf of the state government.

During the Budget session of the state Assembly, the Opposition Congress had raised the issue of change of land use pattern of Sturdia Chemicals Ltd of 10 acres out of total 50 acres from industrial to residential. It was the Parliamentary Affairs Minister who had given reply to the charges of the Opposition. Again today, Pant said the land for the chemical factory was acquired from farmers in 1962 by giving them compensation at the prevailing market price of that time.

The company went into debts in 2000 and went to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 2004 for getting declared as a sick unit.

Pant claimed that in 2005, the BIFR suggested a formula which involved the Central and state governments, bankers and financial institutions involved with the company. It was expected of the state government to allow 30 acres to be used as residential purposes to get the company settle the pending matter.

Pant alleged that the then Congress government of the state failed to reply to the proposal in the required time frame. The BIFR considered the silence of the state government as its consent and allowed change of land use from industrial to residential of 10 acres.

He further said the then Chief Minister ND Tiwari wrote for legal opinion in the case. Later, after the legal opinion, the present BJP government had no option, but to give permission for land use change on September 26, 2009. He also denied the allegations that the permission was granted within one day. “It was a long-drawn case with mandatory clauses of the BIFR,” he added.

Interestingly, he did try to deflect the pressure by alleging that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to Pantnagar on June 19 failed to consider the demands put by the Chief Minister for continuation of the industrial package, increase in the quota of ration, kerosene and foodgrain. “It amounts to discrimination with the state,” he said. 

Dehradun, June 22
Members of the Retired State Pensioners Federation submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal regarding pension disbursement.

They requested him to intervene in the matter regarding their pension which was earlier being paid by the Uttarakhand government, but had now stopped midway, stating that the Uttar Pradesh government would pay them the same.

This had led a confusion as well as anger among them. The members of the federation organised a general meeting today under the leadership of district general secretary RS Parihaar at the Gandhi Park here today.

He informed them that both the Uttar Pardesh and the Uttarakhand governments had recently stated that according to the Sixth Pay Commission, people who were getting the pension before November 9, 2000, would be getting it from Uttar Pardesh now and not from Uttarakhand.

Parihaar claimed that they had earlier agitated for 94 days for Dehradun to get the status of state and now their own state was treating them differently. He said they had been told that they belonged to Uttar Pradesh and would be getting all pension benefits from there only.

Parihaar said if the government would not consider them from the Uttarakhand government, they would start an agitation from July 2, and if then also their demand was not fulfilled, they would wear black badges on August 15. 

Dehradun, June 22
Under the aegis of the Society of Computer Education and Management, DOEACC O-level and A-level institute of Dehradun celebrated its 14th annual function at Hotel Aketa here today.

The programme was conducted to appreciate and encourage students of ET&T computer centres who have shown their calibre in the field of computers. The students have brought credit to the state by securing top positions all over India.

The programme began with the lighting of the lamp by Sunil Gupta and Shashi, Director of the centre. The opening ceremony was followed by Ganesh and Saraswati Vandana performed by the students.

The students of the institute presented colourful cultural performances on the occasion. They also presented a fashion show of the theme casual-traditional and bridal.

An outstanding and rib-tickling performance was delivered by the Dr Mukesh Gautam, comedian and participant of Great Indian Laughter Challenge-3. His hilarious jokes entertained the guests and the gathering.

Chief guest Prakash Pant, Drinking Water Minister, Uttarakhand, awarded meritorious students of the A-level course. Dr Gautam was also felicitated for his amusing presentation at the occasion.

The guest of honour was Suryamani Raghuvanshi, Editor of Chingari, a Hindi daily. Also present at the event were eminent guests such as Shaily Bhutani, Pradeep Sangam, Jyoti Huda and many others. Sanjeev Srivastava, presenter of FM Rainbow India, coordinated the entire programme.

Dehradun, June 22
The Indian Railways is starting with a special exhibition train to promote the forthcoming Commonwealth Games across the country. This special train will reach Haridwar railway station on July 5. The train, which will have a total number of 11 compartments, will have three-day halt at Haridwar railway station i.e. on July 5, 6 and 7.

Chief Public Relation Officer Manish Tiwari informed, “The train will be flagged off by Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on June 24 from Safdarjung railway station in Delhi and will return to the Capital by October 2, before the start of the mega-sporting event”.

“The train will cover 48 stations all over the country and after returning it will be parked at Safdarjung railway station till the completion of the Commonwealth Games. It will halt for two to three days at every station,” said Tiwari.

The ministries of the Indian Railway, Sports Promotion Board and Department of Information Technology have joined hands to inform people about sports and  the history of the Common wealth Games.

The government of India has designed the exterior fabrication of the train. Various coaches of the train will exhibit various aspects and history of the Commonwealth Games and will provide complete information about the events that will be part of the 2010 Games.

One exclusive compartment of the train will have a sports photo exhibition by Sunil Yash Kalra, a renowned sports filmmaker. Some of Kalra’s rare and exclusive collection of photographs will be showcased during the exhibition.

“The whole idea to begin with the promotional train is to make people aware about sports and the need for it, as all will not be able to attend the games in New Delhi.

Everybody will be able to have a glimpse of the exhibitions during the stoppage at a particular station for two-three days through this project,” asserted Tiwari.

“The special exhibition train  will be decorated with the logos of the Commonwealth Games  as well as the Indian Railways,”  he added.