Nainital, June 23
Turning on the heat against the Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank-led BJP government in the state on the issue of alleged change of land use of Sturdia Chemicals Limited at Rishikesh, the Congress has sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the matter.

Senior Congress leader from Udham Singh Nagar Tilak Raj Behed said, “Nothing less than a CBI probe will be acceptable to us. If the government is clean on this issue, why does it not allow a CBI probe”.

Behed said he had even raised the issue in the state Assembly in the past and it was pertinent that people of the state got to know the truth in the matter. There had been numerous protests in the region by Congress activists who had been resorting to burning the effigies of the Chief Minister and the state government on this issue.

The state government has been trying to clarify its stand on the matter following a spate of media reports on this issue that has rattled the BJP set up in the state as well as the Centre.

During the Budget Session of the state Assembly, the Congress had raised the issue pertaining to the change of land use pattern of Sturdia Chemicals Ltd. The issue pertains to change in usage of 10 acres out of total 50 acres from industrial to residential.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant has reportedly told the media that the land for the chemical factory was acquired from farmers in1962 by giving them compensation at the prevailing market price of that time. But the company had gone to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 2004 for getting itself declared as a sick unit.

Pant reportedly claimed that in 2005 the BIFR suggested a formula and 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.

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

Unconfirmed reports of the BJP’s central leadership seeking a detailed explanation on the matter from the state government are also doing the rounds. The issue has caused a major dip in the popularity graph of the government led by Nishank.

Pitthoragarh, June 23
Newly inducted women constables in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) will only be assigned soft duties like looking after women pilgrims during the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. “We can not give them the tough job of border guarding on the Indo-Tibet border,” said Inspector General (IG), ITBP, MC Bhatt.

Bhatt was talking to mediapersons after inspecting remote posts of the ITBP on the 
border.

“The border police has provided a opportunity to women by recruiting 400 women at the level of constable this year. These constables, who will join the force in October, will be given mostly office jobs and soft jobs at field posting,” said the IG.

According to ITBP sources, one platoon of women constables will be deputed in all three valleys of Johar, Darma and Vyans across the border in Pitthoragarh district and from next year they will handle the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. “At present, we are in the process of developing infrastructure for these women constables at our border posts situated in higher valleys for which money has been sanctioned by the government,” said the IG.

Nainital, June 23
Governor Margaret Alva released three booklets and a photography guide on the birds, mammals and flora found in the sprawling 55-acre area of the Raj Bhawan here yesterday.

These booklets and the photography guide have been brought out by Indian Forest Service officials Amit Verma and Neha Verma with the help of the Uttarakhand Forest Department to mark the International Bio-Diversity Year.

These will be helpful to the people visiting the Raj Bhawan for providing them general information of the bio-diversity of the place.

In addition to this, an orchidarium and fernatum will also be developed at the Raj Bhawan to conserve the rare ferns and orchids that are displayed on the premises. The orchidarium and fernatum will be open for common public. 

Dehradun, June 23
After yesterday’s alleged attack on some lawyers in Jyolikote, Nainital, lawyers today observed strike in Dehradun as part of the statewide protest. However, the stir was limited for today keeping in view the late night arrest of the policemen that pacified the lawyers to a big extent.

Lawyers in Dehradun boycotted all work and expressed strong resentment over the incident. The Dehradun court presented a desolate look with lawyers completely keeping off from all work.

Bar Association, Dehradun, president Manmohan Kandwal said the association had strongly condemned the attack on lawyers in Nainital and had given a call for strike for today. He, however, added that with the arrest of the policemen responsible for the attack, the lawyers had limited the period of stir till today and would join duty tomorrow.

A day earlier, a meeting of the Bar Council of Uttarakhand under presidentship of Razia Beg had strongly condemned the incident and sought strict action against the policemen responsible.

It may be recalled that lawyers Ravi Babulkar, Sushil Vashist, Yogesh Pancholiya and Anil Bisht were returning to Nainital from Haldwani on Monday. A police constable and another home guard confronted these lawyers midway and when they protested, the former allegedly manhandled advocate Babulkar.

This infuriated the lawyers. Yesterday, they staged a massive protest at the Nainital High Court and also resorted to road blockade. The lawyers since then had been seeking action against the policemen responsible.

Dehradun, June 23
The strike by Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife (ANMs) in the state going on since June 1 has begun to have its impact on the immunisation programme in the state heavily dependent on them.

In Dehradun district alone, more than 200 ANMs are on strike and parents of children requiring immunisation are fervently praying for the ANMs to resume their duties so that their children get the much-needed vaccination.

The agitating ANMs are demanding revision of the existing pay band of Rs 5,200-20,000 and arrears as compensation as in Uttar Pradesh. Since 1979 till today, the salary revision has taken place four times. Every Wednesday and Monday immunisation is carried at District Women’s Hospital and on an average around 50 to 75 children are vaccinated on these days.

On Sunday, the ANMs managed to prevent even Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers from administering pulse polio drops and willy nilly they too are extending support to the strike.

Unable to tackle the situation, the Health Department has not made any alternative arrangement to tackle the situation which has precipitated further due to the government’s inability to respond in kind.

If the government were to heed to their demands, it would require at least Rs 62 crore to pay around 200 ANMs who run 168 centres in Dehradun district and more than 4,000 ANMs in the state.

The budget is shared by the Cente and the state government in the ratio of 90:10.

Officials in the Health Department said a proposal had already been sent to the Finance Department and everything depended on the approval of the budget. 

Mussoorie, June 23
Anita Desai (Mazumdar), one of the great novelists India has ever produced, who is noted for her sensitive portrayal of the inner life of her female characters, was born 
in Mussoorie on June 24, 1937.

Eminent authors from Mussoorie Stephen Alter and Ganesh Saili have extended greetings on her birthday which falls tomorrow.

Stephen Alter was of the view that if she would have been in Mussoorie, it would have been a grand event. According to him, many believe that she was born at the Landour Community Hospital near the Tehri bus stand.

The remains of her house are not visible now, but her Mussoorie birth must be recorded somewhere in hospital documents.

Her Bengali father had met her German mother, a teacher, while an engineering student in pre-war Berlin.

They married when it was still infrequent for an Indian man to wed a European woman, and moved to the "neutral territory" of Old Delhi. She was the youngest of three sisters with an elder brother.

Anita began to write in English at the age of six and published her first story at the age of nine. She was 10 when India became independent and has accounted for her vivid memories of Partition in her books.

Anita was educated in Delhi at Queen Mary's Higher Secondary School and Miranda House, Delhi University, where she received in 1957 a BA in English literature.

In the following year she married Ashvin Desai, a businessman. They had four children.

As a novelist Anita made her debut in 1963 with “The Peacock”. She had started to write short stories regularly before her marriage. Her book, “Voices of the City” (1965), was a story about three siblings, Amla, Nirode, and Monisha, and their different ways of life in Calcutta. Her book “Fire on the Mountain” (1977), set in Kasauli focused on three women and their complex experiences in life.

Anita’s attraction to failures and wrecks as characters comes from being very lost at school and not being popular or successful. The great need for privacy helped her in becoming a writer.

She has been compared to European women writers of the last century or early 20th century. Tensions between women and society also run through the book “Clear Light of Day”, where unmarried college lecturer Bim wrestles with family bonds while resenting her brother and sister who have both.

Her book “In Custody” is set in the ’60s, the tragi-comic tale of a small-town Hindi lecturer. The book was also nominated for Booker prize in 1984 and converted into a Merchant Ivory Production Film in 1993 with Om Puri and Shashi Kapoor in the main star cast. Her other books are “Where Shall We Go This Summer?” (1975), “The Zigzag Way” (2004), “Baumgartner's Bombay (1988) - Journey to Ithaca” (1995), “Fasting, Feasting” (1999).

Since the 1950s Anita has lived in New Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and other Indian cities. She has been a member of the Advisory Board for English of the National Academy of Letters in Delhi and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1993 she became a creative writing teacher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in London. She received the Guardian Award for Children's Fiction for the novel “The Village by the Sea” (1982) and the 1978 National Academy of Letters Award for “Fire on the Mountain”.

Mussoorie can take pride in being the birth place of the novelist of such repute. Mussoorie wishes her on 74th birthday that falls on June 24. Anita’s daughter has also won a Man Booker prize for “Inheritance of Loss” in 2006.

Mussoorie, June 23
Eminent writer Ruskin Bond has left Mussoorie for Pondicherry to act in director Vishal Bhardwaj’s forthcoming film “Saat Khoon Maaf”. He will be acting in the role of a priest and is cast with tinsel town heartthrob Priyanka Chopra. Ruskin has penned down the story of the film called “Seven Husbands”.

According to sources, the shooting of the film is on at Ooty since last month.

A close friend of the writer opines that it will be great to see Ruskin in this new avatar at the age of 75.

Two of his stories have been made into films. These are Shyam Benegal adapted “The Flight of Pigeons” into “Junoon” in the ’80s and recently Bhardwaj made “The Blue Umbrella” into a movie.

The latest film is about how the heroine, in this case Priyanka Chopra, works her way through seven husbands.

Dehradun, June 23
The National Tidal Data Centre at the Survey of India, Dehradun, is reported to have suffered a heavy loss due to the burning of computers on Sunday.

The burning, which was a result of short circuit, led to extensive vital data losses stored in computers linked to tidal database.

The centre that forms a part of Geodetic and Research Branch of the Survey of India comes up with advance tidal predictions for 30 Indian and 14 foreign ports.

The foreign ports fall between Suez to Singapore and the prediction responsibilities of these ports lie with the Geodetic and Research Branch.

It undertakes publication of the Indian Tide Table for 76 ports, in which 44 ports prediction are being done by Geodetic and Research Branch and predictions of rest of 32 ports are published under exchange programme.

G Varun Kumar of the National Tidal Data Centre, Survey of India, Dehradun, however, described the incident as linked to minor fault.

Sources disclose that the Survey of India authorities have also set up an inquiry into the reasons behind the incident. Survey of India officials also desisted from sharing much of information.