Haridwar, January 15
In a shocking revelation, trees in most of the city gardens have been cut in the past few years to pave way for illegal commercial establishments and colonies, with recent cases being reported from the Sitapur area, where just in a few days more than 150 trees were logged off illegally.

Despite having knowledge of these facts, the administration has failed to stop such practices, which are having a major impact on the greenery of the city and the builders and the land mafias are having a ball in the city.

Prominent areas being targeted by the land mafias are Kankhal, Jagjeetpur, Subash Nagar, Hazari Bagh, Saptsarovar and the areas situated near the industrial areas. According to the records of the Haridwar Development Authority (HDA), a large number of illegal colonies have mushroomed at the cost of such tree gardens. While the administrative officials accept that a mass violation of the environmental rules has happened at such sites, but failed to take any punitive action so far.

As per secretary of the HDA BS Dhanik, “It is not easy to take action against such violators as such instances are in dozens, wherein several tree gardens have been cut to pave way for commercial complexes in the city and as the constructions run in thousands a massive drive is the need of the hour.”

Taking cognisance of such illegal acts, SDM Harbeer Singh said the administration was quite serious on the issue and would be taking proper action against the violators and would ensure that no such act would be repeated in the future. Nexus of some officials of the HAD, forest department and even public representatives with the land mafia in such illegal acts cannot be ignored, as without their knowledge such acts cannot take place on such a large scale.

Meanwhile, the environmental lovers, social organisations and the common people have strongly condemned the logging of hundreds of trees for commercial purposes and termed it as a failure of the administration in tackling such issues.

Social activist Tej Prakash Sahu termed such a growing number of incidents of tree felling as uncalled for, as already the green cover in the pilgrim city has reduced.

Dehradun, January 15
Bollywood beauty Karisma Kapoor was aggrieved with the security system during her visit here today. “I want to talk to the media, but due to the mismanagement I am not able to speak here,” is what she said during her 15-minute stay in the jewellery showroom located at the Subash Road.

Though the film actor is busy in her family life nowadays, she still remains an apple of people’s eye. This was proved when she visited the capital city to launch a brand of jewellery. Wearing a white suit, Karisma was looking as stunning as ever.

As the news of her arrival spread, local residents started gathering outside the venue. It became difficult for the police to handle the crowd as the latter went berserk on seeing their favourite actor. They also didn’t mind getting on top of electric poles to have her glimpse.

During her stay in the city, the traffic also got disrupted on the main road as her fans were not ready to leave the venue for as long as she was there.

Nainital, January 15
Continuing with its drive against illegal mining in the region, the local administration has recovered a huge quantity of illegally mined material from two stone crushers at Haldwani during the course of raids and has imposed a fine of Rs 1.77 crore against those accused of the act. In addition to this, five stockists have been fined a sum of Rs 1.25 lakh for irregularities in their stock management.

According to reports, the raids were carried out over the past two days by personnel of the Mining Department and the local administration. It was found that the two alleged violators had got huge pits dug without permission and were mining material from these pits.

The five stockists fined were found to have dumped the stocks of mined material very close to the railway tracks.

According to the rules, they have to deposit the stocks at least 50 metres away from the tracks. They have been fined Rs 25,000 each for gross violation of the norms.

Aiming to put a check on the illegal mining activities in the region, the administration had stepped in to carry out surprise raids about a month back.

The action was taken after a massive public uproar over the issue. In an earlier raid more than 11 lakh quintal of illegally mined material had been detected from stone crushers that were involved in extracting material from the ground while violating the norms laid down for mining.

The violators had been slapped with a fine of Rs 50 lakh. The raids are being carried out across the region where mining operations are on.

Nainital, January 15
Fresh recruitments in the Police Department in Uttarakhand began from today. The department plans to enrol 1,450 recruits through this drive.

The police headquarters has ordered the range offices of the Inspector General of Police (Garhwal and Kumaon) to invite applications from across the state, following a clearance by the state government.

According to information from the Kumaon range, Udham Singh Nagar with the highest vacancies of 212 has received 10,720 applications, while Nainital standing second with 130 vacancies has received 6,635 applications against the post advertised for.

Similarly, there are 108 vacancies in Almora, 79 in Pithoragarh, 42 in Bageshwar and 38 in Champawat. The recruitments are being carried out for the Reserved Police, Provincial Armed Corps (PAC) and against the post of firemen.

Once the drive is over, the Kumaon region will get 609 constables. The applications for the recruitment drive were invited till December 31 last year.

Pitthoragarh, January 15
The mother of a freelance journalist Hem Chandra Pandey hoped to get justice from the judiciary after the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday issued notices to the Centre and the Andhra Pradesh police on the alleged killing of Hem Chandra on July 1 last year in the Adilabad forest, along with Maoist leader Cheru Kuri Rajkumar.

“My son was not an anti-national activist. He was an honest and hard-working man,” said Rajeshwari Devi. Social activists of Pitthoragarh, the home district of Hem Chandra, and Kumoan region expressed their satisfaction over the Apex court’s order asking the two governments to clarify their stand on why these two persons were killed from a point-blank range.

The slain journalist’s wife Babita Pandey told The Tribune, on phone from New Delhi, “My husband was killed without any fault”.

Not only the family members, but also the political activists from across the region have expressed satisfaction over the Supreme Court’s order and reiterated that Hem Chandra and Rajkumar were killed deliberately.

Chairman of the Uttarakhand Lok Vahini, a democratic rights outfit based in Almora, SS Bisht said the Apex court of the country would deliver justice this time. Journalist and activist based in Nainital Rajeev Lochan Shah also expressed his satisfaction over the court order.

Mussoorie, January 15
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) workers, braving the biting cold and showers of hail and sleet, celebrated the 55th birthday of their iconic leader, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati by cutting a 10-pound cake and distributing more than 25 blankets to the poor in Mussoorie today. The workers gathered around 11 am at the Indaramani Badoni Chowk, raised slogans and prayed for the long life of their leader Mayawati. The chief guest on the occasion former BSP Tehri Lok Sabha in charge Yog Raj cut the cake on the occasion and distributed it among the workers.

Tehri Lok Sabha in charge Sunil Sonkar distributed more than 25 blankets among the poor on the occasion. Sonkar, addressing the gathering, said it indeed was a day to cherish for all party leaders that they were celebrating the 55th birthday of their leader today. He thanked the party workers for joining in the celebration in large numbers.

Sonkar lambasted the Congress and the BJP for their divisionary tactics in the state. Criticising both national parties, he said the government of both parties in the state had failed miserably on the development and inflation front.

Therefore, there was a need to opt for a stable alternative and the BSP was the best option.

He also said the BSP would be an important player in government formation in the forthcoming Assembly elections. He said the management of the SAF Winter Games was also under scanner as a large amount had been spent unnecessarily that had not yielded good results.

“The BSP is working at the grassroots level and preparation is on in full swing for the next Assembly elections which will lead to startling results,” added Sonkar.

Chief guest Yograj also informed that people would be viewing a film on the life of Bhenji Mayawati soon. He appealed to all workers to work unitedly and strengthen the hands of the BSP if they wanted substantial change in their lives.

City president Saleem said all should resolve to strengthen the hands of Mayawati in her tirade against injustice towards oppressed classes in the state. More than a dozen persons joined the BSP on the occasion.

Dehradun, January 15
The Power Corporation on Thursday launched a statewide drive for releasing payments from defaulter consumers having dues of more than thousands. These consumers have been evading payments of their bills for one or the other reason.

The drive has been launched from Haridwar rural division and will cover all the divisions. The drive will continue till the end of February. To make the drive purposeful, the corporation has geared up its vigilance unit for the task.

The vigilance teams headed by the Inspector (Vigilance) of Kumaon and Garhwal divisions will be associating with the corporation officials. The officials have already prepared the list of the defaulter consumers and the drive is going to enhance the revenue of the corporation. The officials at the corporation derive confidence from the success the corporation has achieved whenever such a drive was launched to get the payments from the defaulters having dues in lakhs.

Highlighting the achievements of the drive, Vigilance Officer PP Thakur said Rs 20 lakh was released in two days in Kashipur division from the defaulters. The drive has also helped in identifying the negligent officials, who have failed to perform their duty sincerely.

“Not only an inter-state electricity theft racket was busted, but also the electricity from Uttarakhand was being sold to the neighbouring villages of Uttar Pardesh at the rate of Rs 50 per hour in Bajpur,” said Thakur.

After taking the due payments from the big defaulters, the corporation has been focusing on those defaulters, whose amount is more than Rs 50,000. Besides earning the revenue, the campaign is giving an opportunity to identify the theft cases also.

Meanwhile, four electricity theft cases were registered by Inspector (Vigilance), Power Corporation, P Dobhal on Wednesday in Bhadrabad, Haridwar.

The consumers, too, benefited from the efforts of the Power Corporation, as the campaign also solved their problems pertaining to proper placements of meters, rectification of wrong billings and change of manual meters to electronic meters, as the corporation also sorted out their demands during the drive.

Dehradun, January 15
Conflicting statements have come from officials of Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited on the recurrent power cuts in the city last week. On the condition of anonymity, an official said a shortage of 11 million units (MU) was the main reason behind the power cuts. Another straightway denied that there was any shortage in the power supply in the city. The latter cited occasional defects in the power equipment at the sub-station level as reasons for power shut down.

The reality is that the state, which has a daily demand of 30 MU, is able to arrange 18 MU only. It is getting 1.4 MU daily from Uttar Pradesh against the power supply it had given to UP in September last year. It will be getting 2.28 MU from Punjab daily till January.

This power supply will be given back to the state in July, August and September. Power purchase of 3.4 MU for the two months of January and February has also been arranged from an outside source, RETL. The rest of the power demand is being met through the Northern Grid or overdrawing, which is 3.23 MU as the average rate of withdrawal and 2 MU for rotational cuts. Despite all these efforts, the shortage of 11 MU of power continues to persist, which, officials maintained, would linger till February 12 due to an increase in the demand because of the severity of weather.

To balance the power supply as per the area, the corporation is implementing power cuts ranging from 3-5 hours for the industries, 5 hours each in Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and the rural belt, which have earned bad name by indulging in pilferage of the power, 4 hours in small towns and 2 hours in big towns. The only region, which had escaped the power cuts, are hilly area of Garhwal and Kumaon for the simple reason of these being the most preferential areas politically and consume less power. The other region is Dehradun for being the temporary capital of the state. At a meeting, which is due to be held by next week, the Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission will decide on whether to impose power cuts on Dehradun or not as for now. Though emergency power cuts are done here in times of power crisis or fault.

Dehradun, January 15
Stringent measures should be taken to check mushrooming of sonography centres in the state. This was stated by experts at a sensitisation workshop “Let girls be born” under the banner of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child organised by Shri Bhuvneshwari Mahila Ashram here today.

Finding a direct correlation between female foeticide and the increasing number of ultrasound centres in the state, experts blamed the lack of will to control the functioning of these ultrasound centres, which are spreading all across the state.

“The day-to-day working of ultrasound centres should be brought under the scanner of the local administration. While undertaking studies, we found maximum cases of female foeticide in the districts that had the highest number of sonography centres and correspondingly low in districts with the least number of these centres,” said chairperson of the Kanya Jeevan Dayini Society Dr Geeta Balodi.

Balodi said unless women were made aware of the rights of the unborn child, women would continue to be goaded by their husbands and in-laws to destroy the female foetus. “It seems that the ultrasound centres in the state are having a free run, what takes place inside the maternity room of a private clinic has to be monitored,” said Balodi.

The 2001 census reveals a decline in the number of female children in the age group of 0-6 in the past decade. The female sex ratio in the age group of zero to six was 932 in Almora, 929 in Bageshwar, 944 in Chamoli, 934 in Champawat, 894 in Dehradun, 929 in Pauri, 862 in Haridwar, 910 in Nainital, 902 in Pitthoragarh, 953 in Rudraprayag, 927 in Tehri, 913 in Udham Singh Nagar and 942 in Uttarkashi.

While the 2001 census reveals the declining number of female children in the last decade in Uttarakhand, the problem is acute in districts with high level of economic activity, comprising Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital and Haridwar.

Nainital, January 15
Social Welfare Minister Matbar Singh Kandari has stated that the state government will launch a scheme soon under which multi-purpose buildings, aimed to be utilised by personnel of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), will be constructed across the state.

According to Kandari, the buildings for the STs will come up in the districts where these tribes are concentrated, including Chamoli, Pithoragarh, Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun and Nainital. These buildings will be called Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Jan Jatiya Bhawans. Meanwhile, on similar lines Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bhawans will be built in every district of the state to be utilised by the SCs.

“For the construction of these buildings, we will initially be giving a token money of Rs 2 lakh each and afterwards grants will be made available for their further construction,” said the minister.

According to him, the ground floors of these buildings will be utilised for various activities related to the SCs and STs. The first floor will be utilised for imparting vocational training to members of these communities.

”We have decided that master trainers for these trainings will be from amongst these communities only. I am of the firm view that the middlemen need to be done away with. These trainers will train them in producing traditional handicrafts and other such commodities,” said Kandari.

When asked about the marketing network required for such produce, he said the government planned to set up permanent outlets for these products at both Dehradun and Haldwani. The minister was of the opinion that this scheme, if implemented properly, would help a lot in improving the condition of the sections within the SC and ST communities.