Dehradun, January 27
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, while inaugurating Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay Tourism Bhawan at Garhi Cantt here today, said Uttarakhand had been fast emerging as an international snow, water and adventure sports destination.

The CM said the water sports competition to be organised at Tehri in the first week of February would prove to be a milestone in this regard.

“Village tourism is being promoted in the state and 30 helipads at the remote tourist destinations are being made accessible through the helicopter services. The night-landing facility will also be provided at the Jolly Grant Airport soon. Chinlyanisaur and Gauchar airstrips will be developed for the landing of small airplanes,” he said.

“The headquarters of the Sparsh Ganga, a programme launched for ensuring cleanliness and incessant flow of the Ganga, will be set up at the Tourism Bhawan,” he said. “Along with the Indian Management Institute, Himalayan Culture Centre and Culture Directorate would also be developed on the Tourism Bhawan campus,” he added.

Minister for Tourism Madan Kaushik said new tourism circuits were being developed in the state. “The government aims at attracting more tourists. Religious tourism and other tourism activities are being developed,” he said. Referring to the successful organisation of the South Asian Federation (SAF) Winter Games at Auli, he said Auli had scaled new heights of skiing infrastructure.

Mussoorie MLA Jot Singh Gunsola hoped that setting up of the Tourism Bhawan would accelerate the pace of the tourism activities in the state.

Principal Secretary, Tourism, Rakesh Sharma said the Himalayan Cultural Centre would be constructed on 68 acres of land. The office of the ADB projects would also be set up in the Tourism Bhawan and all the tourism offices would be linked with it through video conferencing.

Dehradun, January 27
Director General of Police- Prosecution (DGP), Uttarakhand, Aloke B Lal has challenged the appointment of Jyoti Swaroop Pandey as the Director General of the state police.

Admitting Lal’s appeal, the principal Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), New Delhi, has issued show-cause notices to the Home Ministry, Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary and DGP Pandey directing them to file their respective response by February 3.

The CAT will issue ex-parte order if no reply is received by the given date. According to sources in the Secretariat, the three officers have received these notices.

Pande was appointed DGP on July 28, 2010, two weeks after Subhash Joshi, the outgoing DGP, was relieved to join the Central Government on deputation. In the interregnum, junior officer Vijay Raghav Pant was given the officiating charge.

A reply under the Right to Information Act had revealed that the screening committee headed by the then Chief Secretary had recommended a panel of three names for the appointment to the top police post in the state.

Aloke Lal was the first in the panel, followed by JS Pande and Satyavrat Bansal. Lal is of 1975 cadre, while the other two belong to 1976 cadre.

It is not the first time that Lal was superseded. Earlier, Subhash Joshi, a junior to him, had, too, superseded Lal. It was expected that Lal would be the obvious choice this time for the post of DGP after Joshi’s departure on deputation to the Central Government. But that was not to be. Lal was again sidelined, while a junior was appointed DGP.

An officer in the police headquarters, on the condition of anonymity, said the appointment of the DGP or the Chief Secretary or any other senior officer was always made on the basis of seniority alone, unless there were specific reasons for overlooking the seniority and the appointing authority was required to record such reasons in the file, while superseding the senior officers. He further disclosed that no such reasons were given in the file for ignoring the practice of promoting the senior officers. Lal confirmed that he had challenged his supersession and now, the matter rested with the CAT.

Mussoorie, January 27
The Uttarakhand Parivartan Party (UPP) sounded the bugle for the next elections from Mussoorie by extending support to the protesting Avalon Resort employees today.

The party workers, led by central vice-president Jai Prakash Uttarakhandi, central spokesperson Rajiv Kothari, Central member Youdhraj Tyagi and Mangal Singh Panwar, marched to the Collectorate premises raising slogans against the state government and presented a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokriyal Nishank via Nayab Tehsildar Matadin.

The party demanded that the poor and lower-income group of employees should be granted permission to construct two-room sets for living in Mussoorie. Housing colonies should be established for the homeless in the town and slums should be converted into permanent settlement with basic amenities.

Uttarakhandi further said the party demanded that the BPL survey should be conducted once again in the town. The people who had been left out at Shifon Court from the disaster management survey should be included in it and compensated adequately. The protesting employees of the Avalon Resort should be reinstated without conditions to retain the peace of the town and eminent journalist and author Sudhir Thapliyal should be provided adequate medical relief by the government.

Earlier, speaking in the meeting held at Hakmans Hotel where the local unit was formed, around 17 persons joined the party. Rajiv Kothari, speaking to the media, said a campaign called “Ouster Mafia Save Uttarakhand” would be launched from January 27 and the beginning had been made from Mussoorie.

He also said all the leaders of the UPP had experience of 25 years in politics and were ready for any eventuality. He said their party was not interested in usurping power; their main intention was to clean up Uttarakhand from mafias of all types and bring back the state that was dreamt of by people during the years of struggle. He said the party would struggle against land allotment for houses to MLAs in the state.

Yudhraj Tyagi said the state was playing in the hands of capitalists and was not implementing the existing labour laws in the state. He said their party would emerge as the better option than the Congress in the state.

Mussoorie, January 27
State Congress vice-president Jot Singh Bisht on his visit here yesterday said the government was violating rights of panchayat representatives by not implementing the Panchayat Act in the state. He said it was unfortunate that even after 10 years of the formation of the state, the Panchayat Act had not been implemented. He also said the government had pledged to identify Tehri, Chamoli and Champawat districts as backward and allocated funds under the BRJF scheme, but it had not be done till today.

Bisht said the government had taken three years in deciding on the introduction of the 73rd Amendment and formed DPCs and, furthermore, the government had not been able to allocate funds under the Panchayati Raj from the Centre to the panchayats and had forgotten its pledge completely.

He asserted that this showed the state was not in the hands of public representatives, but of bureaucrats who were misleading the government due to vested interests. He warned that if the government did not address the woes of 62,000 panchayat representatives in the state, it would have to face dire consequences.

Dehradun, January 27
Members of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) staged a dharna in favour of their demands at the Gandhi Park here on Tuesday.

A large number of protestors gathered and shouted slogans against the casual attitude of the state government in the rehabilitation work in the villages that got affected by the landslide, triggered by rain-related disaster.

As many as 332 villages are to be rehabilitated, but the state government has failed to do the needful.

Dehradun, January 27
Demanding revision of minimum wages, tea garden workers owing allegiance to the District Chai Bagan Mazdoor Sabha today held a rally in support of their demands.

In the morning members gathered at the Gandhi Park and then took out a rally that ended at the Secretariat where a memorandum was handed to the Principal Secretary (Labour).

Secretary of the sabha Ashok Sharma said the issue had been hanging fire since 2009. “We have held several rounds of meetings with the state and Central governments representatives, but they have been futile. A majority of the work force comprises women and manage to earn Rs 2,229 per month only, and the last wage revision took place in 2002,” he said.

He said the tea workers had been denied wage revision slated for 2008. “In keeping with the inflationary pressures, wage revision was mandatory. but the government has failed to do so. The minimum wages for all workers should be fixed at Rs 10,000,” he said.

Dehradun, January 27
Government doctors owing allegiance to the Provincial Medical Health Services (PMHS) have for the time being postponed their strike after the Uttarakhand Government announced DPC of around 400 doctors.

The doctors had given a strike call for three days beginning tomorrow, but after Additional Secretary Ajay Pradyot agreed for the DPC, the members of the PMHS decided to postpone the stir.

“Promotion was one of our key demands and the government has agreed, though the exact number will be known in a day or two. At least 400 doctors are expected to benefit. Besides, the issue of cadre allocation is also being looked into,” said Dr SD Joshi, president, PMHS.

Dehradun, January 27
The slide in onion prices in Doon markets has given wings to the hope that the crisis will end soon. As a big respite to consumers, onion prices that had touched Rs 60 per kg crashed to its lowest ever this season reaching a retail price of Rs 25 per kg to Rs 30 per kg.

With the arrival of onions from Nashik, the prices are bound to go down further. The wholesale market rates of onions in the Dehradun vegetable market ranged from Rs 1,270 to Rs 2,160 per quintal today.

Sources revealed that the onion supply from Nashik to Dehradun had resumed a day back, which had resulted in a check on soaring onion prices.

Expressing satisfaction over availability of onions at the Dehradun vegetable market, secretary of the Uttarakhand Kirshi Utpadan Mandi Samiti Vijay Prasad Thapliyal said prices of the onions were almost normal now. He said with the onions continuously arriving from Nashik, the prices were expected to come down further in the days to come.

The Dehradun administration, too, heaved a sigh of relief with increasing availability of the onions in the market.

Haridwar, January 27
Acknowledging their role during the monsoon floods in Haridwar last year, social activists, 200 odd officers and employees were honoured by the administration here today.

Commissioner, Pauri Garhwal, Ajay Singh Nambiyal and District Magistrate, Haridwar, R Meenakshi Sundaram gave away the certificates. Nambiyal lauded the efforts of the officers, employees and the citizens, who were felicitated on the occasion.

He also said, “Haridwar is a world-renowned pilgrim city and millions of pilgrims and tourists come here. Despite limited resources, the government staff, social activists and citizens came forward to help in the rescue operations and distribution of the flood relief, which is quite commendable.”

DM R Meenakshi Sundaram, SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal, ADM SN Pandey, Ranveer Singh Chauhan, Roshanlal Sharma, Harveer Singh, Uttam Singh Chauhan, HC Kandpal, Dev Moorti Yadav, Indian Red Cross Society secretary Dr Naresh Chaudhari, 40th PAC Battalion for rescue efforts and distribution of the aid, Ved Mata Gayatri Trust, Shantikunj, 1,090 Engineering Regiment Dehradun, BEG Roorkee and representatives of the other organisations were honoured on the occasion.

“It is an honour to get felicitation, as it motivates us to work harder. During the flood, we remained in makeshift camps for a week to carry out the rescue operations in Roorkee. We faced several problems, but continued to carry out the rescue operations,” said Naresh.

Dehradun, January 27
Despite several districts boasting of higher female population, the percentage of girls keeping off school continues to be high in rural Uttarakhand.

The Annual Status of the Education Report (ASER)-2010 released recently should act as a wake-up call for the government, as the percentage of the girls out of school continues to hover between 3 per cent and 9.7 per cent in the foundation years that could seriously impact the percentage of the girls taking up higher education.

Though the percentage of children out of school in India is at it’s lowest ever, in Uttarakhand the proportion of girls (age 11-14), who are still out of school has changed from 3.4 per cent in 2006 to 4.1 per cent in 2007, 2.7 per cent in 2008, 3 per cent in 2009 and 4 per cent in 2010.

At the same time the number of girls (age 15-16) not in school is 9.7 per cent and the percentage of boys is 7.9 per cent in the same age group.

Significantly, the Education Department will also have to take a reassess at the way arithmetic is taught in government and private schools. In all the schools, 3.5 per cent students in Class III cannot recognise numbers between 1-9, 18 per cent can recognise numbers up to 10, 38.9 per cent can recognise numbers up to 100, but cannot do subtraction, while 24.9 per cent can do subtraction, but not division and 14.7 per cent can do division.

Similarly, craze for enrolment in private schools is also growing in rural Uttarakhand. In 2010, 32.2 per cent boys (age 6-14) and 25.3 per cent girls (age 6-14) were enrolled in private schools.

However, the ASER report also indicates that the performance of students enrolled in private schools is slightly better. While 34 per cent of the students in class III could not read class I text, it was around 58 per cent in private schools.

“The education of girls continues to figure high on our priority list and the Uttarakhand Government has launched several schemes. We have to encourage parents to send girls to schools and for this, we are constantly organising awareness camps through panchayats.

“The school dropout rate among the boys and girls has to be addressed,” said state project director, Uttarakhand Sabhi Ki Liye Shiksha Parishad, Sowjanya.

Significantly, to make children computer literate, the Uttarakhand Government will have to allocate a considerable amount of funds for the education sector, as in classes between I-V, 93.6 per cent of the schools do not have computers in the rural areas of the state.

Dehradun, January 27
Members of the Retired ONGC Officers’ Association gave a farewell to CMD of the ONGC RS Sharma and Director (Exploration) DK Pande, who are retiring on January 31.

President of the association KL Goyal described Sharma as a man with a golden heart, who had brought international fame to the ONGC during his tenure, lasting more than four years.

Goyal said as a former president of the Association of Scientific and Technical Officers, Pande was very well aware of the problems of his colleagues and took pains to sort them out at the board level. — TNS