Haridwar, August 22
After a whirlwind of discussion between Union Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh and agitating scientist Prof GD Aggarwal, which started with exchanging of pleasantries and reached stalemate midway, finally in the end reached a semi-conclusion mostly based on future course of actions from the Central government.

Union Minister Jairam tried to convince agitating Aggarwal at the Matra Sadan situated in Jagjeetpur to abandon his indefinite fast. But initially Aggarwal even declined to hold a closed-door meeting.

But a cool Jairam showed his diplomatic skills and pacified Aggarwal quite a bit. He said tomorrow evening’s letter signed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee regarding the scrapping of the Loharinag Pala project in Uttarkashi was a legal document emphasising the decision in this regard was taken keeping in mind not only socio-religious aspect only but the prime consideration was ‘aastha’ (faith).

While totally giving up fast the agitation would depend on the Central government’s decision of calling a high-level meeting of the National Ganga Basin River Authority as soon as possible with the date announcement before the festival of Janamashtami which falls on September 2.

Professor Aggarwal’s demands of formation of a bi-partite meeting between the government and Ganga activists should be held on the lines of historic 1916 bi partite meeting between Britisher’s and Ganga Sabha activists and inclusion of saints-social activists in high-powered standing committee of the NGBRA were termed too unrealistic by the Union Minister.

Speaking to The Tribune, Union Minister Jairam just said the talks were fruitful and he had not only come as a representative of the government, but also as a friend knowing Aggarwal for the past few decades.

Meanwhile, the minister also stated that to maintain the sanctity and purity of the Ganga in Uttarakhand the 135-km stretch between Gangotri and Uttarkashi will be declared as eco-sensitive zone with special emphasis on making this zone hydel-project free.

A specific Ganga Basin Management Plan is also being prepared which initially was being given to an American firm via a global tender, but is now being given to the 7 Indian Institute of Technology to prepare the plan.

Accepting that the Ganga Action Plan has majorly failed Union Minister said individual responsibility to make sure one doesn’t pollute Ganga is imperative with government trying to incorporate social organsiations, people like the proposed Ganga Mahapanchayat formation nationwide by Magsaysay awardee Rajendra Singh.

He also informed that not only on the Ganga, but also on Alaknanda and the Bhagirathi river the ministry is quite serious on maintain the sanctity of these rivers as well as the environmental-ecological aspect on the adjoining areas. Late evening Jairam left for New Delhi to foster the procedures and assurances given at the Matra Sadan agitators.

Dehradun, August 22
With festival season round the corner, the Health Department and the district administration conducted raids at several establishments, sweet and dairy shops in Dehradun collecting around 15 samples comprising mostly milk and food samples.

The joint drive led by City Magistrate MS Bisht, Chief Food Inspector GC Kandwal from the Health Department and City Health Officer Dr Gurpal Singh was initially met by resistance, but once the Food Inspectors began checking the establishments the resistance 
subsided.

The officials from the Health Department led by Kandwal Food Inspectors Sharda Sharma and PC Sharma covered the Clock Tower, Rajpur Road, Jakhan, EC Road, Tyagi Road and Dharampur areas collecting samples of sweet and milk from Ahuja Sweet Shop, Chanchal Sweet Shop, Anadam Sweet shop, Ganpati Sweet Shop, Nany's Bakery, Kumar Sweet Shop (Clock Tower) and Anjali Dairy (Rajpur Road).

The items were checked according to the provisions in the Food and Drugs Act.

At several shops, namkeen packets did not carry proper list of contents and the material used for cooking. These and milk samples produced by a top multinational company were picked up.

The samples of the food items would be sent to the Food Testing Laboratory in Himachal Pradesh for testing.

The Food Inspectors inspected the cooking area and said, "At several places the cooking area was not up to the mark, with poor hygienic conditions. We have been receiving complaints about the quality of milk and fatty products that is in great demand due to the festive season," said Kandwal.

Dehradun, August 22
Now private doctors too will help the State Health Department in curbing the spread of tuberculosis in the state. To reduce the number of tuberculosis cases in the state, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and State Health Department have joined hands making the tuberculosis programme a public health initiative.

Speaking today at a workshop on the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) organised today under the aegis of Global fund and Indian Medical Association, Dr HC Bhatt Director General Health called for launching a peoples’ campaign and said despite spending crores of rupees we have not been able to get rid of it. "Along with medical, it requires a social response and unfortunately we have not been able to get rid of overcrowding, nor create smokeless environment for our residents. We need to create awareness to tackle the problem," said Dr Bhatt.

He said undetected tuberculosis cases continue to pose a problem and the problem is bound to turn serious as more deadly forms of tuberculosis such as the Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) and XDR (Extreme Drug Resistance) attack human beings. "We need to follow a protocol for TB programme religiously and vigourously. As most often it has been found that complete dosage of medicines too are not given to patients," he stressed.

He also assured the members that action would also be taken against substandard medicines being sold in the state.

Dr MN Kaul, IMA State President, said there was need to take the Directly Observed Treatment (DOTS) for Tuberculosis to the door of patients. "With the private public initiative we will be able to tackle the emerging MDR and XDR strains," said Dr Kaul.

While Dr Bhim S Pandhi, Patron, IMA, said because correct dosage for administering medicines was not followed, there was relapse of TB cases. He also cautioned the Health Department against the proliferation of substandard drugs that needed to be addressed.

Dr (Major) Nand Kishore, President-elect, IMA, said the workshop was organised to sensitise delegates to adopt the concept of DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment).

Earlier, Dr AP Mamgai, State Tuberculosis Officer and Director, National Programme, while answering to the queries raised by the doctors said once the suptum testing laboratory began functioning, the MDR and XDR strains of TB would be easily detected. He also stressed on treating hidden cases that continued to pose a challenge to the TB programme. 

Haridwar, August 22
Though for the past two days the wheels of anti-encroachment cell bulldozers were stalled, it was time for demolished encroachers to remove their debris, picking leftover materials while for traders the day was spent in removing illegal structures by themselves or shifting their goods.

However, for political parties it was a day of gaining political mileage with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seen as divided within on the encroachment issue. As most of the executive party office holders in the district are from the traders community, there was resentment among them against the administration. Many felt it was not the right time for the encroachment drive as the Assembly elections are due in 2012 and the drive will certainly have serious repercussions then.

District party chief Om Prakash Jamdagni said they would take to the streets if the drive was not halted, and had even apprised Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank of the harsh and violent approach of the administration.

But the Congress party has sharply condemned state Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik for pressurising the administration to halt the drive midway when it had reached his ward area.

City Congress chief OP Chauhan said while the encroachment drive was on hapless and small-scale and medium traders, no one came, but when it came to BJP office holders who had commercial establishments in the Ranipur area, where the state minister resides, not only the BJP traders came to oppose the drive, but also the administration was being put under pressure by the 
local minister.

A massive rally was taken out by the Congress party in which all units, district, city, women, student and other frontal organisations, took part. It started from Devpura and passed through the city streets. Kisan unit chief Poonam Bhagat said it was quite discriminating that while on the one hand poor traders suffered wholly, big traders affiliated to the ruling BJP were being spared. 

Dehradun, August 22
"The saint community has colluded with anti-Indian international forces to mobilise the closure of Loharinag Pala hydro-power project. The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) does not accept their intervention in political matters," UKD President Trivender Singh Panwar made the scathing remark while castigating the Centre's directive to close the project, succumbing under the pressure mounted by saints.

This was clearly not Panwar's day as he continued making embarrassing remarks to defend his party's position on various issue before the media which too was unrelenting in trapping him in his own confounding replies.

His assertion that the Central committee never came to visit the site of the project was rebuffed by media telling that twice such a committee came to visit and, submitted its report to the Centre. He too could not clarify as to how the project would not have harmed the environmental prospects of the region.

Panwar was also left to brush up his geographical know how when he said the proposed Pancheshwar Barage would lead to the displacement of people from close by regions, namely Pithoragarh, Champavat and Bageshwar, whereas Bagheswar, as pointed by journalists, did no where came in the picture as far as the project was concerned.

Panwar favoured the idea of making small hydro-projects which would neither affect the environment nor involve displacement of natives.

The media also pulled him for making his party's position clear so late, as the party kept mum when the Chief Minister recommended to close the Loharinag Pala project on August 3. He was also targeted for slamming the BJP on every podium while sharing power with the party. Panwar tried to hit off with a slick remark saying, “It was an onus on the UKD to save the state government by lending it the much-needed support at the time of government formation to avoid election. But we have not surrendered ourselves to the BJP”.

When further probed that the party could have opted for support from outside in such circumstances, he replied that the UKD wanted to have experience to run the government. Further, he could not answer satisfactorily whether the UKD had enough experience or wanted to have some more while continuing its tirade against the government side by side. On Panwar's remark that the BJP did not consider the UKD even his ally, he was asked what his party was waiting for, he retorted saying that on September 20, the party would constitute new working committee which would decide the matter on extending support to the state government. His conjecture on leaving this task to new faces was found laughable.

Indeed, this issue of condemning the state government on its policies while sharing power with them is becoming a bitter pill for the UKD to swallow.

Panwar once more reiterated his party's stand that if the UKD came in power in 2012, it would make Gairsain capital of the state.

Pushpesh Tripathi, MLA, threw light on issues related to bureaucrats stating that the senior lot should make their property details public. He also indicated toward the open negation of the IAS Payroll Amendment made in 2007 citing that recently, four IAS officers were promoted without adhering to this policy. 

Mussoorie, August 22
In a simple ceremony held at the Radha Krishan Temple, the BJP Women’s wing workers gathered to celebrate Raksha Bandhan much before the actual date that falls on August 24 here today.

Chief guest on the occasion Rajpur MLA Ganesh Joshi had his hands full as more than 100 BJP members tied rakhi to him. The first to tie a rakhi on the hand of the MLA was Sarojini Kaintura. Palika President OP Uniyal and Rajya Yuva Kalyan Parishad vice-president Subash Barthwal were also tied rakhis by women members.

Subash Barthwal speaking on the occasion said the function was being held early as most of the sisters would be busy on August 24. He also said such festivals should be celebrated as they would help in providing due respect to womenfolk in the country.

Ganesh Joshi said Raksha Bandhan was an auspicious occasion on which brothers took a pledge to safeguard their sisters.

Later, speaking to the media on the allegation levelled by Mussoorie MLA Jot Singh Gunsola that he was interfering in his constituency, Joshi responded by saying that such remarks by a seasoned politician were unfortunate.

Joshi further stated that as he was in charge of Mussoorie, so he had full right to distribute the amount for disaster relief given by his government. He was of the view that the MLA should protest on various problems of the town and he would support him wholeheartedly.

Anil Godiyal, Kushal Rana, Seeta Panwar, BJP president and others were present on the occasion.

Dehradun, August 22
Thousands of devotees gathered all over the city to take part in the Tapkeshwar Shobha Yatra. The yatra, which is an annual feature in the district, began from Shivaji Dharamshala on the Sarangpur Road here today. More than a hundred of gods and goddesses were displayed in the form of tableau.

The yatra crossed the Saharanpur Chowk, Jhanda Bazar, Ramlila Bazar, People Mandi, Dhamawala Bazar, Paltan Bazar, Clock Tower, Chakrata Road, Bindalpur, Cantt Road and ended at the Tapkeshwar Temple near here.

Devotees take out this yatra in the middle of August every year to mark the celebrations of Shiv Barat. They also put colours on each other to celebrate the day.

People along with the artistes from Mathura-Vrindavan were seen dancing along with the tableaus.

Most of the residents witnessed and paid regards to the yatra from their balconies.

Though it was a Sunday, people had to face lots of problems as the traffic was jammed everywhere due to the 3-km-long yatra. 

Dehradun, August 22
The Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) which has spent a whooping sum of Rs 19 crore in the past six years on electric equipments has not been able to meet its target of providing proper lighting system to its 60 wards. Most of its wards are in the pitch dark at night.

The DMC has three stores to stock up the purchased electric equipments, but these are hardly ever open. The new one opens at times, but it has no space to store even a pole. Not only do this, the electricity wing of the DMC too does not have a single conveyance because of which all electric equipments are directly sent to the wards. This way the matter, at large, remains confined to documentation only.

It was just sometime back, Mayor Vinod Chamoli was taken aback when he got to know that some of the councillors, such as Deepa Shah, were installing electric poles on non-permitted locations. The Electricity Department had no knowledge of the matter as the electric poles were directly supplied to the location from the source.

Not only this, questions on the quality of the electric equipment had been raised many times. Be it on switches or poles or timers, something or the other needed repair. The DMC blamed Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited for failing to operate timers properly due to which they got out of order so frequently.

There is no authority to keep account of the discarded electric material. What happens to the large quantity of such items which are changed with new ones, no one knows. Even a minor used part of an electric pole sells for a minimum fifty rupees. But till date for all these years, DMC never held any auction of such a material, which is shocking in itself. 

Dehradun, August 22
Officials of the District Cooperative Society (DCS) have fined more than 200 persons for littering in prohibited areas in Dehradun district during their surprise visit at various places. This was disclosed by DCS officer Ramindri Mandrawal.

The DCS conducted a surprise checking as they were instructed by District Magistrate D Senthil Pandiyan. They were assigned places from Ward No. 1 to Ward No. 15, including Hathi Badkala, Rajpur Road, Sahastradhara, Krishna Nagar, Karanpur, Ghantaghar, Indra Colony, Rispana and other places.

“More than 200 people were penalised for throwing garbage in the prohibited areas,” Mandrawal said. “We want people to be conscious regarding the cleanliness of the city. We try to inform them that if they keep their surroundings and environment clean they would stay healthy,” she maintained. “It is not in the hands of one person to keep the city clean,” Mandrawal affirmed. “This is the reason we are creating awareness about sanitation rules as well as how to keep the city and environment neat and clean,” she said and added, “People will definitely try to keep their surroundings clean if they are fined for littering here and there”.

“Penalty charges vary from Rs 100 to Rs 5,000 as it depends upon the severity of the cases. Maximum Rs 500 has been charged as fine from the people so far who were caught for littering in their ward,” Madrawal clarified.

“The society is conducting a drive on priority basis and 15 supervisors are appointed and they will also be responsible for it,” she said.

District Panchayati Raj Officer MM Khan said the authority had conducted surprise inspection along with the supervisors in the assigned areas, which also included Mata Mandir Marg, Rita Mandi, Lakhibag, Patel Nagar, Brahampuri, Ajabpur, Deepnaar, Defence Colony, Nehru Colony and other places.

Former District Magistrate D Senthil Pandiyan has appointed four-members task force, including DRDA Project Director RS Pokhriya, District Cooperative Society Officer Ramindri Mandrawal, District Panchayati Raj Officer MM Khan, District Youth Welfare Officer Shakti Singh for maintaining hygiene in the city.

Mussoorie, August 22
The lean monsoon period has forced hotels to rethink their strategy by offering economy packages to attract tourists in Mussoorie. The hotels are offering heavy discounts on lodging and boarding and have come out with innovative programmes and itineraries to increase the inflow of tourists in the monsoon season.

Jay Pee Residency Manor located at Barlowganj has come out with a package for the population from Dehradun and Mussoorie. According to Jaypee Residency General Manager Anil Sharma, they are offering not-so-lazy Sunday Brunch for families from Dehradun looking for a relaxed afternoon and enjoyable time with their children.

The package costing Rs 650 per head for adults and Rs 400 per head has been designed to suit the budget for the upper middle-class families. The brunch is followed by a game of bowling, video games, play station and air hockey all included in the package.

Sharma was of the view that consumers who are looking for a relaxed Sunday afternoon could also enjoy golf and swimming also available at the hotel. He further said the offer was opening this monsoon season from 9 am to 12 pm. Head chef Anurag Mathur and Sidharth Aggarwal had created a gorgeous spread of continental and Indian treats at Captain Young’s Café.

Other hotels in the town are offering discount worth 50 per cent on their regular tariff this monsoon and tourists are not complaining either.

Mussoorie, August 22
Residents of Mussoorie gathered at the Lakshi Narayan Temple Hall to participate in a talent hunt contest organised by the Michael Shadow Dancing Club from Dehradun.

The organisers had claimed that the talent hunt audition was being held for Zee TV and candidates selected in Mussoorie would be given special training at the cost of Rs 2,000. The 10 winners of the contest in the town would be trained for Boogie Woogie, Indian Idol and Sa Re Ga Ma.

However, some residents sought an agreement letter from Zee Telefilms of conducting such a talent hunt which they were unable to produce.

Residents of Library Bazar, Bharat and Geeta Kumain said it seemed that whole exercise was eyewash with the intention to collect money and runaway. He said the organisers should clear the bad air before starting the audition.

The organiser Michael said they would train the winners from the talent hunt contest for the various talent shows on TV and verbal talks were on with Zee TV regarding organising such talent contests.

One such talent organiser was arrested in Dehradun a few months back who had duped many in the name of training them for the Indian Idol. The administration was unaware of such a talent contest being held in Mussoorie.