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DMC to set up animal shelter home
Two batches of Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims stranded
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Rains damage 1,000 water schemes
Dehradun, September 20 If there was scarcity of water last year due to insufficient rains, this year a record-breaking rainfall has damaged around 1,000 water schemes, leading to water shortage in several villages of Uttarakhand.
Turning a Page in Power History
Promoting Second Official Language
Most complaints of enticing minor girls false
Arya asks Cong men to help affected people
Rain makes tourists cancel bookings
Khandari reviews damage
Army Services Corps celebrates Raising Day
Guv mourns former bureaucrat’s death
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DMC to set up animal shelter home
Dehradun, September 20 Chamoli said the employees of Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) were not equipped with the necessary skill to deal with the medication and treatment of sick or injured animals, which was why the corporation tied up with the Animal Husbandry Department. To implement the Sawarn Jayanti Shahri Rojgar Yojana, Chamoli said each ward would be given Rs 5 lakh for the repair of embankments and drainage. The Town Hall will also go for a makeover at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore. Ravi Pandey, Executive Engineer, said the tenders had been invited for these projects and within a month, the construction should also start. It was also discussed to raise the service charges for the revamped Town Hall for its maintenance. The DMC made the saving of Rs 683,366,979 from the revenue generated in 2008-09, and Rs 1,042,123,660 from the revised budget of 2009-10. The actual income from April 1, 2009, to March 31, 2010, was pegged at Rs 733,968,414. For 2010-11, the income was fixed for Rs 1,048,938,124. It spent Rs 683,366,979 in 2008-09, Rs 1,042,123,660 in 2009-10 and Rs 733,968,414 as actual expenditure from April 1, 2009, to March 31, 2010, and Rs 10,489,338,124 was fixed as expenditure for 2010-11. Everyone agreed to seek out novel and smart ways to increase the revenue of the DMC, especially from its core revenue generating areas such as house tax and advertising. |
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Two batches of Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims stranded
Pitthoragarh, September 20 “The 15th batch was trapped at Quarv village, 10 km from Almora, while it was returning to Delhi. The batch had to stay at Chausaly village for two days as the motor road towards Haldwani as well as towards Almora got blocked,” said DK Sharma, Manager (Tourism), KMVN. Owing to the road blockade the batch was late by two days to reach Delhi. “Nigam officials managed the stay of the batch in the village for two days and lodged them in vehicles after travelling 10 km from Chausaly village today,” Sharma added. The last and 16th returning batch, which reached the Gunji camp today, has to extend their stay at Gunji for more than one day as the temporary bridges at Nazan Gar and Malapa have been washed away by the heavy rains the day before. “We have sent a PWD team to the spot and the bridges will we repaired by tomorrow,” said Navneet Pandey,
SDM, Dharchula. All small towns of this border district have been cut off from the headquarters. Heavy rains have damaged the motor roads to Munsiyari, Dharchula, Gangolihat, Jhulaghat, Almora and Tanakpur. “The Tanakpur-Pitthoragarh highway has been damaged at more than a dozen places but our teams have made it easy for light vehicles and by the next day we will made it fit for heavy vehicles as well,” said Major Bose, CO, 65 RCC, BRO. According to the disaster mitigation cell working at the district headquarters, more than 35 houses have been fully damaged in the district during these rains and more than 20 houses are on the verge of collapsing. “The district has also lost crops on 2,972 hectares and seven lives this season. More than 100 people are living in tents provided by the administration,” said RS Rana, a geologist attached with the cell. |
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Rains damage 1,000 water schemes
Dehradun, September 20 At Devprayag village, residents are facing an acute water shortage as both water schemes in the area have been damaged. Similar is the situation in Tehri and Pauri. “Both water sources in Devprayag have been damaged. One source was damaged while the PWD was undertaking repair and the other was damaged due to heavy rainfall. Tankers have been pressed into service to provide water to residents of these villages. In Devprayag, three tankers are providing water to the villagers,” said DD Dimri, Chief General, Manager Jal Sansthan. In rural areas of Uttarakhand, more than 900 water schemes have been damaged and would require Rs 14.60 lakh for repair work. In urban areas, Rs 3.5 crore would be required for undertaking repair work of more than 63
water schemes. More than 3,000 villages have been badly affected and a total of 163 water schemes have been damaged in Chamoli, 101 in Pauri, 123 in Rudrparayag, 124 in Nainital 156 in Tehri and 67 in Dehradun. “We will require at least Rs 25 crore for repair of the water schemes and a proposal has been sent to the government in this regard. For the moment, we have managed to start around 600 water schemes after carrying out temporarily repair work,” said MH Khan, Secretary, Drinking Water. Engineers point out that the damage is in the form of broken pipe lines, blockage at the source due to landslides that results in contamination of water due to mixing of water with mud. In many areas, it will take some days before the Jal Sansthan begin restoring the pipes as accessibility to the spot continues to be bleak due to the incessant rains.
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Pant concerned over declining quantity of water in resources
Dehradun, September 20 He in particular referred to the underground water and said there should be a balance among exploitation and recharge of underground water. In the first technical session, Dr RP Singh, Scientist, Central Ground Water Board, spoke on the basic concepts in hydrology. Bhajan Singh, MD, Uttarakhand Peyjal Sansadhan Vikas Evam Nirman Nigam, deliberated at length on the potable water scenario in the state. The programme is being attended by expert hydrologists, apart from officials of Uttarakhand Potable Water officials. The training programme has come up with the
joint intiative of the Central Ground Water Board and the Uttarakhand Peyjal Sansadhan Vikas
Evam Nirman Nigam, Dehradun. |
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Turning a Page in Power History
Dehradun, September 20 With this regulation, the UPCL will earn extra revenue for facilitating the transmission of power purchase and industries will be able to buy power from sources even outside the state during power shutdowns. By October, the industries will be able to indulge in power exchange under the Act. Many alterations were made to the draft as per the suggestions made by industrialists. Vijay Talwar, Chairman, UERC, said: “Since the UPCL will continue to be the only licencee in the state, the industries, if they desire to continue to get power from the UPCL and opt for power purchase only during shutdowns, will get many benefits. They are also allowed to buy power purchase in normal times, for instance, in the times when the rates are lower than the UPCL. The buyers are free to buy from anywhere any time now”. Since the UPCL will continue to the best bet as far as cheap rates of power purchase are concerned, the industries will gain by continuing their association with the UPCL. “The industries connected with the UPCL need not change their power lines and meter for power purchase from outside sources. They will have to only give a cross-subsidy surcharge and not required to give the original cost. The other charges which the buyers (industries) will have to shell out are purchasing amount to the generators (PE or private sellers) or traders and the wheeling (transporting) charges to all intervening network sources such as Northern Grid and the UPCL, etc,” said Pankaj Prakash, Secretary, UERC. The demand of industries that the UPCL should update them about power shutdown in advance too has been accommodated, as now the UPCL will have to inform about the power cut to the industries a month or at least 15 days in advance, so that they have ample time to arrange for power purcase. UPCL Chairman Jagmohan Lal said: “It is not possible to predict in the rainy season, when a hydro power house come to a halt due to sudden deposition of silt with heavy downpour or even in the case of sudden breakdowns. But, barring the peak hours from 19-22 hours, the rest can
be predicted.” If industries wanted, the UPCL could still provide them power supply for 24 hours at much lower rate, claimed Lall. He said: ”If the industries want continuous power supply for 24 hours or during shutdown period, the UPCL can provide them power at 15 per cent higher tariff than PE which would not be less than 50 per cent of the original tariff.” Lal said the UPCL would pull off this extra supply by adjusting with power shutdown in some regions and power purchase through tenders. The industries, which will have to become a member of the PE by shelling out annual licence fee of Rs 65 lakh or get services through traders may feel tempted to join the bandwagon offered by Lall. Keeping the future prospects of the exchange of power, Managing Director of the UJVNL RL Thapliyal said: “As of now, the UJVNL is not involved in power trading, but in future, we may even sell the extra generated power which we usually give free of cost or at dirt cheap prices to UI (unscheduled interchange).” Jagmohan Lal too agreed to this possibility for the UPCL under this regulation. The industries are indeed jubilant over this revolutionary step. Rajiv Berry, Chairman, CII, said: “It will be a win-win position for both industries as well as the UPCL. The big industries will certainly gain a great deal from it. This will lead to a better economy and increased rate of employment in the state. This year alone 1200 new industries set up business in the state.” Rakesh Aggaarwal, a power seller, said: “It is high time that we not only think of buying but also of selling under these regulations. The state has vast potential but it requires to relax some of its strict regulations to provide an open play field for the stake holders.” |
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Promoting Second Official Language
Dehradun, September 20 Not only his office, all boards put up at the Collectorate and outside various offices will be written in the Sanskrit language along
with Hindi. Uttarakhand is the first state to accord the status of second official language to Sanskrit after Hindi. As of now all names and designations are written in Hindi only. Recently, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has directed all 13 District Magistrates in the state to take steps to popularise the language among
the people. So it has been decided that names of all officials along with their designations and department will soon be displayed in the Sanskrit language as well. Not only this, the board outside the treasury office will read as Koshadhikari Karyalayam, that at the District Supply Officer as Janpadaputyraur Dhikari Karyalayam and fair price shops will also be known as Sarkari Nyunmulyannabhandara. Talking to The Tribune, Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Vinod Kumar Suman said they were yet to receive the instructions from
the administration. “Though the administration has passed the orders for putting up the name plates with designation in Sanskrit besides Hindi, we have not received any general order. Once we get the orders we would get all signboards written in Sanskrit as well,”
he added. Sources maintained that the state government was also taking help from Sanskrit Academy so
that the designations and names were written correctly. |
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Most complaints of enticing minor girls false
Dehradun, September 20 Most of the complaints by parents (the aggrieved party) claiming that their daughters were minor and were enticed to flee by the boys came out to be false. The investigation by the police revealed that not only were the boys and girls major but had fled with their own will. As per the data provided by the Dehradun police, this year a total of 38 cases were registered as “enticing to flee a minor and raping her”. Out of these 10 got expunged after it was found that the girl had gone with the boy with her own will. And her school certificate stated that she wasn’t even minor. The rest of the cases are under investigation or are chargesheeted. While last year nine such cases out of 26 got expunged in which the girl with her will got married with the person she was alleged to be enticed to flee and raped. Almost all rest cases are chargesheeted. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ganesh Singh Martolia confirmed that more than 90 per cent such cases come out to be false. He attributed this high number of cases to love affairs, modern society and wrong impact of films on young minds. It may be mentioned here that if a compliant is found bogus the police can initiate action under Section 182 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against such complainants. The act may invite imprisonment for a term, which may extend to six months or fine, which may extend to Rs 1,000, or both. However, police sources said barring a few of cases the police didn’t initiate such action against complainants. |
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It’s no stopping ‘Dabangg’ black marketeers in Doon
Dehradun, September 20 Chants of “30 ka 60 and 70 ka 140” go unabated outside at least two cinema halls, Natraj and New Empire, where “Dabangg” is running houseful. Two or three sellers can be spotted near the ticket counters holding big bundles of tickets. While the men at ticket windows are busy minting money for the advance booking, other outside the windows are making fast bucks selling tickets on black market. At Natraj, an employee of the theatre was seen selling tickets at the rate of Rs 50 which in actual is worth Rs 25. Sources said the theatres deliberately put houseful boards at ticket counters to make more profits by selling tickets on the black market. “This is a very wrong thing. People who give revenue to them are running here and there to get tickets, while they are getting these sold on the black market,” quipped a hassled movie freak outside the Natraj cinema. |
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List U’khand as calamity-prone state: Ex-minister
Dehradun, September 20 He today submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister through the Dehradun District Magistrate stating that people’s life had been disturbed due to rains, floods and land/mud slides. Not only this, many government buildings had been destroyed, people had become homeless and many roads had got blocked, leaving the state cut off from rest of the country. Rawat demanded that the government should provide special packages to the state for getting rid of these disasters. It should provide basic amenities and tents, food and medical help etc to the local population through helicopters. Surinder Singh, Namendra Puri Maharaj, Bhupal Singh Chaudhary and Jagmohan Singh Chauhan were others who supported him. |
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Arya asks Cong men to help affected people
Dehradun, September 20 “We have already requested the Central government to extend financial and logistic to the rain-ravaged state,” said Arya. The leader today took an extensive tour of the state, visiting affected districts of Nainital, Ramnagar and Haldwani and enquired about the measures being undertaken by the local administration. He instructed the Congress MLAs, district and block-level leaders and volunteers of the Sewa Dal to collect information about the nature of the devastation, number of deaths and the extent of damage caused due
to floods. Meanwhile, RK Dhawan, member, Congress Working Committee and in charge, Uttarakhand, has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sanction amount from Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to the victims of the state. |
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Rain makes tourists cancel bookings
Pitthoragarh, September 20 “Bookings by three Bengali tourist groups, who wanted to visit Munsiyari and Berinag to view snow-clad Himalayan peaks, have already been cancelled by them due to rain,” said Dinesh Gururani, in charge of the tourist rest house, Pitthoragarh. Bengali tourists reach Tanakpur and started their journey from there to Munsiyari via Champawat. On their return, they visit Chaukari (Berinag), Kausani and Nainital, thus completing their Kumaon tour. “Nearly 15,000 tourists from Bengal come every year to Pitthoragarh benefiting tourist rest houses of the KMVN at Pitthoragarh, Chaukari, Berinag, Patal Bhuwaneswar and Munsiyari,” said Gururani. |
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Khandari reviews damage
Dehradun, September 20 He also met
victims whose houses had been destroyed due to the Aasan
river flooding. The minister asked the PWD, Forest Department, Revenue Department and Flood Control and Irrigation Department to stop water entering these areas. He asked Forest Department officials to convert the flowing streams into rivers. Kandhari also told Revenue officials to immediately provide relief to the sufferers and an alternative place for those whose houses had been destroyed. |
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Parishad members burn effigy of BJP
Dehradun, September 20 On the occasion, Laxmi Aggarwal, general secretary of the parishad, said, “It’s shameful for the state BJP government of appointing cabinet ministers at a time when the entire state is trapped by the natural disaster of floods”. Laxmi has also alleged that the ruling party was practising partiality in releasing irregular amount of ex-gratia to the flood affected. |
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Army Services Corps celebrates Raising Day
Dehradun, September 20 The expedition will commence from Dehradun till Sankri and back on vehicles covering a distance of 500 km. Thereafter, a distance of 150 km Sankri to Har-ki-Dun via Taluka, Osla and Ruinsaratal and back to Sankri will be undertaken on foot. The expedition was flagged off by General Officer Commanding, Golden Key Division, in the presence of MG ASC, Western Command. The expedition comprising one officer and 12 personnel below officer rank will cover a distance of 650 km in 10 days from September 20 to 29. |
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Guv mourns former bureaucrat’s death
Dehradun, September 20 “In the passing away of CG Somiah, the country has lost a hard-working visionary among administrators who held important positions in the government, including Secretary (Planning Commission) and Home Secretary. In the latter capacity, he was closely involved in the signing of Punjab, Assam and Gorkhaland Accords.” The Governor has also expressed her condolences to the bereaved family. |
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