Dehradun, August 27
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has assured employees of redressal of their demands linked to pay anomalies.Inaugurating the fifth biannual conference of the Uttarakhand State Employees Joint Council, the Chief Minister said the state government was committed to protecting the interests of the employees and was making every effort to ensure their welfare.

He also said the government would go through all demands of the employees and whatever best was possible would be done.

Nishank said the contribution made by the employees in the state movement had been unparallelled. “In fact, the state employees are the real planners and pillars of the state government and thus the responsibility of the development of any state lies on their shoulders,” he pointed out. Nishank said Uttarakhand was the first state to extend the benefit of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission to its employees. These recommendations have been allowed to the pensioners as well.

Welcoming the Chief Minister, the president of the Uttarakhand State Employees Joint Council Prahlad Singh said the state had more than 200 employees unions. The government had launched many welfare schemes for the betterment of the employees. Prahlad also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli, Subhash Barthwal, vice-president of the State Youth Welfare Board, Ajendra Ajay, vice-president of the State Media Advisory Committee, along with many dignitaries were present.

Dehradun, August 27
The suspense over the finality of the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) delegates was over with the approval of the list of 160 names by the election authority of the Congress today.

Despite a stiff opposition by the faction led by Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Harish Rawat, the Congress high command has approved the list provided by state Congress chief Yashpal Arya.

The approval of the list indicates that Arya still commands the confidence of the central leadership.

After the election process started a few months ago, there was a lot of hue and cry by the faction led by Rawat.

They challenged the election process and alleged that the election process was unfair and many “undeserving” candidates were put on the list of the PCC delegates.

On the other hand, Arya claimed that Rawat faction did not show any interest in the membership drive and had no locus standi to charge him. Mukut Mithi, election in charge of the state, was also reportedly unhappy with the Rawat faction after he was manhandled at Pitthoragarh by Rawat supporters on the issue of membership.

Later, the Rawat camp in a last-ditch attempt organised a convention of the likeminded Congress leaders and approached the party high command under the leadership of Kunwar Singh Negi, a senior party leader.

However, the release of the list as proposed by Arya indicated that their opposition did not cut much ice with the central party leaders.

Interestingly, all five party MPs namely Harish Rawat, Satpal Maharaj, Vijay Bahuguna, KC Singh Baba and Pardeep Tamta along with all party legislators and a majority of former legislators found a place on the PCC list.

The most surprising entry is that of Capt Satish Sharma, Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh, who is a party delegate from the Sahaspur assembly segment in Dehradun district.

Among the notable omissions are former Minister Shoorveer Sajwan, senior leader Jot Singh Bisht from Tehri, former Dehradun Mayor Manorama Sharma Dobriyal and former party spokesperson Surender Aggarwal. These leaders owe their allegiance to the Rawat camp.

Dehradun, August 27
On September 9, country’s attention would be on the Himalayas and the issues plaguing the Himalayan region. More than 12 organisations in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and even in neighbouring Nepal will observe September 9 as a day dedicated to the Himalayas.

On that day activists, thinkers and academicians would force the attention of the governments, planners and common people to focus on the Himalayas. “In the past few months social organisations have been organising samelans and meetings separately but on September 9 we would all come together to raise a voice for the protection and conservation of the Himalayas,” said Dr Anil Joshi, Patron of the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO).

Even the students of schools, colleges and universities would also be involved in the exercise.

A people’s declaration on the Himalayas would also be made public on the same day. “All major political parties would be handed the declaration, the leaders of political parties would be asked to formulate their policies keeping these comprehensive recommendations in mind, while formulating their election manifestos. For the state government, it becomes more imperative as the assembly elections would be held in 2012.

On the same day, Radha Bhen, Chairperson of the Gandhi Peace Foundation will chair the meeting in New Delhi. “The need to protect the forests, minerals and land is ever the greater and the social organisations would take up issues such as protection of rivers and forests, land rights, construction of small dams etc.” said Dr Joshi.

Besides, women from six districts and 22 blocks in the state will organise rallies to save the Himalayas and hold Jan Sunwani in Nainital against a builder, while in Tehri, Save the Rivers Movement would be organise meetings and in Thalesain and Champawat, discussions would be 
held on van panchayats and their role in saving forests while in Udham Singh Nagar, issues concerning land rights would take place,” said Geeta Gairola, State Project Director, Mahila Samakhya.

Dehradun, August 27
The solid waste management unit of the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board is going to have all four compactor unit at Janki Chatti, Joshi Math, Son Prayag and Badrinath, respectively, functional by September 15, after which it will be able to segregate and process the 210 quintal waste a month from all Char Dham places and fetch good money for selling it in the market, which till now goes unpaid.

VK Sharma, Nodal Officer for the solid waste management, said the board had been painstakingly involved in collecting and processing the garbage collected from the Char Dham and sending it in six trucks a month, each carrying 35 quintal to the Bhandari Bag area, but got nothing in return though the recyclable waste like bottle, plastic, wood, etc. fetched good money to the scrap dealers.

He also informed that the department also asked for private bidders through an advertisement in the local newspapers, who could take charge of this work and earn in return, but nobody came forward. The unrewarded work had dampened the enthusiasm of the board all these years but now they had a reason to put their act together, once the entire system of the solid waste management came in place in another two weeks.

The processing unit in Janki Chatti is functional and the rest three will also become functional by September 15. This will prove to be a big step toward sorting out the garbage disposal in the Char Dham region in a big way and benefiting the board for toiling in this work. At present, the unit in Janki Chatti is not able to give optimum results because the garbage is getting wet and soggy due to the rainy season. It is only when the climate becomes sunny, the garbage is dried and further processed.

Vipin Kumar, advisor, who is overseeing the entire process of setting up the required infrastructure of processing units and further treatment of the garbage from lifting to disposing it, said, “The reason why the board is not getting any monetary benefit for selling its massive garbage in the market is that the most of the recyclable garbage remained soiled with either the human waste or mule dung. No scrap dealer will pay for unclean garbage. But once all the waste is properly segregated, cleaned, dried and treated in the compactor unit then we will be able to get good value addition for the waste. This will compensate the salaries of the staff, expenditure on conveyance and on compactor units”.

Of the four compactor units, the three - Janki Chatti, Joshimath and Son Prayag - will function round the year but the one at Badrinath will be functional only for six months due to the climatic conditions. The hurdles for exclusion of Gangotri, too, stands unsolved, as this important part of the Char Dham route does not have any compactor unit.

Nainital, August 27
Aiming to promote Nainital as a monsoon tourist destination, a Monsoon Marathon is being organised here on Sunday.

Athletes from across the country are expected to participate in the event in which Olympian K Malleshwari will be the chief guest. The winners will be given cash prizes.

Talking to the media persons, District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli said, “Nainital has its own charm during the monsoon season but unfortunately very few tourists turn up during this season. We want to showcase its beauty during the season and by organising such an event, people can be drawn to visit the place even during the rainy season.”

The event is being organised by Run 2 Live organisation. General Secretary of the organisation Harish Tewari informed that a run in three categories would be held.

The first would be an open event in which athletes would be running a distance of 15 kilometres. This would be followed by a competition for schoolboys and girls. They would be covering a distance of about 5 km. However, the main attraction for the common people would be a Run for Fun in which people from all age groups and all walks of life would be covering a small distance in the main town.

The Run for Fun is an event being organised in support of girl child and against the practice of female foeticide.

The participants would be carrying banners and posters in support of the cause. A poster exhibition on the subject would also be held at the Rink Hall.

The local business organiasations like the Stone Crushers Association of Haldwani, Vyapar Mandal, Hotel Association and several public sector banks and Life Insurance Corporation have come forward to organise the event which is expected to become an annual feature.

Various schools have also extended their support for the cause.

Bagauli informed that special traffic arrangements would be made while the Run for Fun is on. Tewari said, “Our purpose is to involve maximum residents of Nainital in the event. We would also be giving scholarships to three girl students excelling in various fields.”

Dehradun, August 27
Zonal Manager, North Central Zone of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), SK Roy addressed development officers and agents yesterday and lauded employees for their respective achievements. He exhorted them to be prepared for the future strategies to sustain their grip over the market.

Roy informed of the closure of the popular scheme Market Plus-1 on August 31. He also talked about the different ULIP policies on the card which would prove expedient for the development of the nation. Roy advocated the extension of life risk cover to grass root level.

Senior Divisional Manger, Anil Khanna, threw light on the achievements and contributions made by the employees who were later rewarded by the prizes. Senior Branch Manager and others were present on the occasion.

Nainital, August 27
The prices of potato produced in the plains is expected to go up to Rs 700 per quintal by March in the coming harvest season that starts from December.This price has been forecast by a team of scientists of the Agricultural Economics Department of the Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology at Pantnagar. The forecasting has been done under a sub-project of the National Agriculture Innovation project entitled, “Establishing and Networking of Market Intelligence Centres in India”.

The main objective of this project is to release price forecasts of selected agricultural commodities before sowing and during harvesting.

The project team of Pantnagar centre had conducted market survey of the Haldwani regulated market, a major market for plains’ potato in Uttarakhand and analysed the wholesale price data for the past 20 years.

The team leader, Dr Jagdish Kumar, said as per econometric analysis, the wholesale prices of plains’ potato in the Haldwani market would be in the range of Rs 425 per quintal to 600 per quintal in January 2011, whereas in February 2011 these are expected to be around Rs 400 per quintal to Rs 550 per quintal.

In March 2011 the prices are expected to be in the range of Rs 450 per quintal to 700 per quintal. Prices of potato from the plains are expected to remain higher in December and increase during April, 2011.

However, the traders of the market were of the view that the prices of plains’ potato would range between Rs 378 per quintal and 860 per quintal during these months. Based on above results the wholesale prices of the plains’ potato are expected to prevail between Rs 400 per quintal to 700 per quintal during January, 2011, to March, 2011.

“Hence, the farmers may decide the area under potato crop and sowing time considering the forecast price for different months as well as other climate conditions suitable for the crop to get higher prices for their crop. Traders of the Krishi Utpadan Mandi Samiti, Haldwani, had reported that Uttarakhand was not self-sufficient in potato and thus had to procure the plains’ potato from other markets like Farukhabad, Sambhal, Ujhani, Badaun and Agra markets of Uttar Pradesh along with Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar markets of Punjab,” a university spokesperson said.

The sowing of plains’ potato starts from September and ends in November. The harvesting of the crop starts from December and lasts up to March. The arrival of newly harvested crops starts from December and ends in April. Thereafter the plains’ potato comes from cold stores. According to the traders’ survey, January, February and March are the peak months and June, July and August are the lean months for arrival of plains’ potato in Haldwani market.

India, standing third in potato production in the world, contributes approximately 7.5 per cent of the world’s total production. The yield rate per hectare in India is quite low that stands at 14.9 tonnes per hectare compared to the productivity in the European countries that ranges between 30 to 40 tonnes per hectare. Potato is most widely grown vegetable crop in India with a share of 25.7 per cent. The area under the potato cultivation was 1.4 million hectare with a total production of 22.9 metric tonnes in 2006-07. Major potato growing states are Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Punjab and Karnataka which together account for about 86 per cent of India’s potato production.

As far as Uttarakhand is concerned, very less area is under the potato cultivation in the plains during normal season, however, potato is arriving in the markets from adjoining areas of Uttar Pradesh.

Haridwar, August 27
On the third Friday of the holy month of Mah-e-Ramzaan the Muslim community in Haridwar offered namaaz at the various mosques here today as the sun appeared on sky after continuous rain for past couple of days.

Namaaz was offered at various mosques situated across the district. In Haridwar city at Jama Masjid situated in Kathaira Bazar thousands of Muslims from Jwalapur, BHEL and nearby areas offered prayers in the afternoon.

In addition to this major mosque prayer was also offered at various small mosques situated around the Jwalpaur and adjacent areas.

Security was also beefed up today with security personnel deployed around the mosques and important areas of the city.

Dehradun, August 27
Releasing the fund of Rs 8 lakh, District Magistrate (DM) Sachin Kurve asked the Public Works Department (PWD) to immediately repair all roads leading to the villages that had been affected due to the incessant rains. He passed the orders while presiding over the meeting to review the progress of the relief provided by the administration to the residents of Matak Majri in Vikas Nagar, who lost their houses due to rain recently.

He also asked the District Supply Officer (DSO) to provide ration and kerosene oil to the sufferers who lost everything to floods on Wednesday. The DM asked the officials of Jal Sansthan, Irrigation Department and Power Corporation Department to camp at the village and solve the problems faced by the residents. He also asked the tehsil administration to release the funds as soon as possible. Kurve asked his officials to continue providing food packs to the residents of Matak Majri for the next two days.

Additional District Magistrate Vinod Kumar Suman informed that six tents were already supplied to the village yesterday and 12 were dispatched today. Suman affirmed that they had arranged the stay of sufferers in the dak bangla of Irrigation Department, wedding point and schools. He mentioned that people want to stay near their houses that had been damaged and were not ready to leave the place. He stated that they had already released more then Rs 3 lakh to the tehsil as the relief amount. SDM Jharna Kaamthan said they had released Rs 82,000 to all sufferers till now.