Dehradun, January 24
To examine the ongoing preparations for the Republic Day, the Principal Secretary, Home Affairs, Forest and Rural Development Rajeev Gupta surveyed the Parade Ground here today.

Today, different nodal officers of 11 participating departments of the state government sought detailed information of the tableaux and cultural events, which would be presented on January 26. The officers also asked the artistes about enhancing their presentation and making it more attractive.

Gupta has instructed all the nodal officers to complete the preparations of the event by January 25.

Dehradun, January 24
The proposal of carrying out Republic Day parade from the Rajpur Road till the Parade Ground this year has been withdrawn by the Department of Information and Public Relation.

According to officials of the Department of Information and Public Relation, “The decision has been taken to avoid chaos and traffic diversions on city’s busiest Rajpur Road. The whole procession requires ample time to rehearse, which could have brought city’s traffic at unrest,” he added.

However, to celebrate the notable and incredible day of India’s Constitution on the Republic Day, 11 departments of the Uttarakhand Government have geared up to present their art through tableaux at the Parade Ground. The tableaux for the Republic Day are based on the grand celebrations of festivals, decoratively symbolising the culture of Uttarakhand.

The 11 participating departments are state’s Education Department, Culture Department, Tourism Department, Forest Department, Census, Health Department, Rural Development, Disaster Management, Energy Department, Industries and Ayush Department. Different nodal officers of different departments have been appointed by the state’s Information Department to manage the Republic Day’s event. Moreover, local artistes are busy rehearsing to entertain people of Dehradun during the extravagant the procession. Not only this, young NCC cadets and NSS volunteers of different colleges have also joined the bandwagon. With the presentation of a cultural programme and enchantment of patriotic songs, the participants have begun with the rehearsals.

The dress rehearsal of the Republic Day’s celebration is scheduled on January 24 at the Parade Ground from 9:30 am. All the nodal officers of their respective departments will also examine the tableaux on the same day before the final presentation.

Dehradun, January 24
Policemen and other officials who operated in the disaster relief work will be honoured on the Republic Day.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Premendra Singh Dobal will be honoured with the Governor’s Meritorious Service Medal. Constable Sunil Jirvan of Chamoli district will be bestowed upon with Chief Minister’s Commendable Service Medal.

Inspector Dinesh Chander Tiwari, Station House Officer (SHO) of Tankpur police station, Champawat district, will also be honoured on the Republic Day.

Jagdish Chander Pathak, SHO of Kotdwar Pauri Garhwal, has also been named among those to be honoured.

Some other cops will be rewarded with cash prizes and other medals.

Dehradun, January 24
With just two days left for the Republic Day, busy bees in the town are all set to celebrate the festivity in a musical style. These days Dr Manoj Kumar Gupta, a surgeon and urologist, Kumar Vishwajeet, Deputy Inspector General, Kunal Mallah, academician, Alok Lal, Additional Director General, Hemant Kocchar, a hotelier, and Nitin Gupta are busy shooting the video of a patriotic rock song, “Lakshya itna ho prabal, Kalpanaye ho jaye safal, Ho prabhu ashish tera, Khil uthe abhinav savera...”, which is scheduled to be aired on local cable channels on January 26.

The above-mentioned personalities are a part of a local rock band, Lok Dhwani, that has composed a patriotic song appealing to the public to lend their hands towards anti-terrorist drives and maintaining world peace. The band is quite enthusiastic about the video.

“The song is dedicated to our India and to the martyrs who laid down their lives while safeguarding the borders of the country. The song is primarily focusing to the youth with very catchy lyrics that will infuse nationalistic feelings in them and create awareness about social evils. Let’s see what response we get for the song,” said an elated Seema Kapoor, managing director of the band.

When asked about any vocal training given to the singers, Dr Manoj said, “None of us had taken professional training in singing. We are just music lovers and received the opportunity to be a part of the musical band. We won’t be benefiting anything financially from the video, but want to contribute from our end for the noble cause”.

Answering to the question of how do they spare time out of their busy schedule for the shooting of the video, Alok Lal, said, “The video is entirely dedicated to the mother country and when it comes to participating in the noble cause, every one can spare a few hours of their busy schedule”.

Other members of the band are Abhishek Mehar, bassist, Vipul Mohriyal, lead guitarist, Vaibhav Dhasmana and Ravinder Pal on the rhythm, Rajesh Thakur on the drum, Sagar Adbi and Amit Kapoor as music scorers and Amit Kapoor as composer.

Haridwar, January 24
Now that the nomination phase is over, political parties have started organising strategic campaign programmes and booth management workers’ convention for party workers to ensure the success of their supported panchayat candidates.

Taking the lead, the Congress has started its booth training convention on a largescale in Haridwar, which is being specially mentored by Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Harish Rawat, who is also Parliamentarian from the region.

Giving tips to the party workers, the veteran politician termed booth management as a vital aspect in any election, but more important in the panchayat election, which was centered on villages and rural-semi urban areas, as reaching out to the masses without proper planning may go against the candidate.

Directing the booth agents, he said good knowledge of minute aspects and managing the election affairs was very important and they could be decisive, particularly in the case of low turnout of voters or where the number of voters was quite less.

The Haridwar Parliamentarian at the booth convention organised by the City Congress unit in Kankhal also urged the party activists to take the 83rd resolution of the party to people with full details of the various developmental schemes, rural agricultural programmes and the work done at the panchayat level by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Central Government.

He also advocated a higher price of sugarcane to farmers saying, “In the market, sugar price is quite high in comparison to the sugarcane price given to farmers by the state government. This wide gap should be bridged. But the BJP-led state government has failed to do so. If the Congress comes to power in the upcoming Assembly elections, a bonus sum will be allocated to the farmers”.

Mussoorie, January 24
The Mussoorie BJP unit led by Municipal Council (MC) president OP Uniyal came on the road yesterday in protest against the recent hike in prices of oil and other commodities. BJP workers gathered at Picture Palace and burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, raising slogans against the UPA government and Sonia Gandhi in particular.

The MC president alleged that the Prime Minister was a mere puppet in the hands of Sonia and, therefore, redundant in acting upon the acute price rise in the state and country. Uniyal also said Sonia was much more concerned about Italy and forgetting the “aam aadmi” (common man) in the process.

Uniyal, accusing the UPA Government of being responsible for the price rise, said it had failed to check unimaginable levels of inflation and now the common man had to pay the price. He further said petrol prices had been increased six times in the past six months. This would have an adverse affect on state tourism.

He opined that Dr Manmohan Singh despite being “billed” as an eminent economist by the UPA Government had failed on all fronts, be it curbing the price rise or corruption.

On the other hand the Nishank-led BJP Government had introduced several policies like providing Rs 2 per kg rice and cereals to BPL families, which was an example of proactive attitude of the government toward the poor of the state.

Uniyal asserted that if the situation did not improve, there would be no one to take the name of the Congress as it would be wiped out completely from the country in the next elections. He said Chief Minister Nishank had directed his officials to visit villages and solve problems faced by the common man.

Senior BJP leaders like Kushal Singh Rana, Radhey Shyam Tayal, Dinesh Badoni, Vijay Ramola and others were present on the occasion.

Dehradun, January 24
Members of the District Rural Development Authority (DRDA) Employees Union of Uttarakhand submitted a memorandum of their demands to the Chief Secretary and other officers of the state.

The DRDA union demanded that officers and employees recruited directly be made employees of the state in the Rural Development Department and the Panchayati Raj Department as per the wishes of the Centre. They asked the government to provide benefits of the ACP like other states, hike in salaries according to the Sixth Pay Commission and daily wagers be made regular.

Mussoorie, January 24
The callous digging being carried out by the Pey Jal Nigam has cost the BSNL dear, as more than 100 telephone lines were damaged and two exchanges went out of order in Mussoorie.

The nigam, which was assigned the work to lay down the sewerage pipeline across Mussoorie under the JNNURM scheme, has dug up the roads callously and damaged telephone cables in the process.

Despite repeated instructions from the BSNL Department, the nigam, to meet the target, has been using JCB machine for digging and this move has played havoc not only on BSNL cables, but also on the drinking water supply.

BSNL Exchange, Mussoorie, SDO Ganesh Kothari is angry at the attitude of the nigam and said more than 200 phones and an equal number of broadband services had become redundant due to the carelessness of the nigam.

Speaking to mediapersons, he said there was no control over the work as the officials visited the site rarely leading to more problems. He said the damage was insurmountable and they had demanded the loss amount in this period from the nigam.

On the other hand, the Pey Jal Nigam junior engineer said the department was sorry for the damage, but the placing of the sewerage line was also important work. He said the department had ordered its contractors to work carefully in the near future.

He said, “As they have no space on the road, it is difficult to bypass the telephone cables. However, they are trying their best”.

Residents of the town are of the view that since the start of the sewerage pipeline project, the town has been facing immense problems and telephone connections have also been damaged. They have demanded that senior officials of the nigam should reassess the whole strategy in the larger interest of the town.

Pithoragarh, January 24
Despite Pithoragarh falls under zone V of the earthquake-prone region, the houses being constructed in the town area are violating all the norms laid down by the regulating authority in the district.

“Nearly 400 houses are being constructed in the town every year and most of them are violating earthquake norms laid down by the disaster mitigation management unit in the town,” said specialist disaster management at district unit Dr Manju Pandey.

“More than 40 houses coming up in the town are violating disaster norms every month and construction is going on without approval of the prescribed authorities, even they do not go to the panels of expert architecture assigned by the government at Roorkee, Pantnagar and Dehradun,” said Manju.

According to the authority controlling the construction of the houses in the regulated areas under the town, “They are not authorised to permit more than two-storeyed houses in the town as the area is earthquake prone.

“From the past 18 months, since the norms to regulate the construction of houses in the area have been enforced by the government, we have taken action against 300 such violations and issued notices to these house owners,” said SDM Sadar and regulating authority chairman RD Paliwal.

The Pithoragarh Nagar Palika Parishad in also worried on the regular violation of the disaster norms in the houses constructed in the town.

“In our board meeting held on December 22, 2009, the parishad has passed resolutions that the regulating authority should take no-objection certificate also from the parishad, as the parishad is morally responsible for the disaster security of all the houses in the town, but the authority is not taking the NOC from the palika from the past one year,” said executive officer, the Nagar Palika Parishad, Pithoragarh, KN Joshi.

The EO said in such a condition, the Nagar Palika could not take stock of the situation in case of any natural calamity like earthquake.

Mussoorie, January 24
In a review meeting held in the Nagar Palika, Mussoorie, headed by Chief Secretary Subash Kumar, various development works regarding the town keeping in view the summer tourist season ahead were discussed in detail.

The Chief Secretary directed all officials that the decisions taken in this meeting should be taken seriously and expedited on an urgent basis. He also stated that the progress would be reviewed in April too.

Municipal Council president OP Uniyal, welcoming Subash Kumar on his maiden meeting in Mussoorie, said the immediate problems faced by Mussoorie were those of parking, housing and drinking water. He also apprised the Chief Secretary that work had not begun on the Chief Minister’s announcements as yet.

MDDA Vice-Chairman Sudhanshu responded by saying that it was not the case and parking at the Landour Bazar was complete and functional. A decision was also taken on the issue of health that a medical officer of health would be instated soon to overlook the health and hygiene in the town.

Tourism Principal Secretary Rakesh Sharma said as the department was busy with the SAF Winter Games, development work had suffered a bit, but next year the focus would be on developing the tourism circuit around Mussoorie. He also said the Dehradun-Purkul Project had been delayed due to the change in the technology as now the department had decided to use a trolley that could seat more than 25 persons along with luggage, and instead of 40 minutes it would complete the journey in 20 minutes. He said it would not be a hanging ropeway, but a much better technology. The Municipal Council would be provided with a bus for local transportation.

The MDDA Vice-Chairman said he would let residents of the town construct small houses and provide sanction at the earliest. He also said hotels interested in rain water harvesting would be allowed the sanction for building tanks etc on a priority basis. The survey work for de-notifying the forest land had also begun and initial money had been already given to the Survey Department, added Sudhanshu.

The long-standing demand of high-power line over Kolti pumping station for continuous drinking water was also met and the Power Corporation informed that work would be completed by March 31.

The Chief Secretary, speaking to the media, said the government was keen on developing Mussoorie and areas around as a major tourist destination and another meeting would be held in April to assess the work again.

Principal Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh and Programme Director ADB Nidhi Mani Tripathi was also present on the occasion, along with MC ward members, officials of the department and various dignitaries of the town.

Dehradun, January 24
A two-day workshop on physiotherapy education on motor control (neurological and musculoskeletal perspective) conducted by the Department of Physiotherapy concluded at the Dolphin PG Institute of Biomedical and Natural Sciences here on Saturday.

A large number of delegates participated in the workshop where they discussed the rehabilitation treatments and various technical subjects on advanced treatment interventions. Hands-on training on the subject was also given like pressure biofit back, physiotherapy ball, theraband and theratube.

Addressing the students at the workshop, Dr Sunil Bhatt said, “It is an important tool for the assessment of the patients with neurological and musculoskeletal impairment, until and unless the actual problem of the disorder is diagnosed, which can be controlled otherwise by the nervous sub-system by not recognising the goal of the treatment. This kind of improper treatment protocol may delay the improvement”.

The chairman of the institute presided over the closing ceremony of the workshop and congratulated all the members of the organising committee. The ceremony ended with the distribution of certificates to the participants.

Pitthoragarh, January 24
Taking lessons from last year’s row after the Forest Department objected to installing shops on reserve forest land for the Purnagiri fair, the Champawat Zila Panchayat this year has started a process to take land from the Forest Department on lease for three months’ duration of the mela which starts from March 15 this year.

“As 95 per cent of the mela area falls under the reserve forest, we have prepared three lease proposals of 1 hectare each to be sanctioned by the forest authorities at the state level,” said Rajesh Kumar, Upper Mukhya Adhikari, Champawat Zila Panchayat.

According to the AMA, even essential activities to run this three-month-long mela, which is attended by more than 25 lakh pilgrims every year, can not be fulfilled without the forest land spread in 12 km area of the mela. “We need land to construct temporary parking, sheds for pilgrims, make-shift offices for government officers, health camps and temporary residence for officers and employees participating in the mela,” said Rajesh Kumar.

But even after that the revenue losses to the Mela Nodal Agency will continue as the Forest Department has fully banned using its land for commercial activities in the mela area during mela period. “Before 2009, we used to collect the money for mela expenses by auctioning shops to various traders on forest land, but after the Forest Department banned the using of its land, we are in no position to collect nearly Rs 40 lakh from the mela thereafter Champawat DFO SP Singh again asserted that no non-forest activity would be allowed in the forest area which fell in the Punnagiri Mela area. “Such violation either from an individual or from the Zila Panchayat will not be allowed any more,” said SP Singh.

Dehradun, January 24
Members of the Rashtriya Sikh Mahasabha distributed blankets among leprosy-affected people at Shri Ram Mandir Kustah Ashram, Chand Nagar, here today.

National president of the association Harpal Singh Sethi said it was the aim of the Mahasabha to provide blankets and clothes to the poor in this cold weather. The Mahasabha was determined to help the poor and would continue with its work even in future, he added.