Dehradun February 16
Admitting that the allocation of urea fertiliser to Uttarakhand for public distribution this year had gone down from 57,000 tonnes last year to 42,000 tonnes this year, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) director Pramod Kumar today blamed the practice of sending junior officials to ‘allocation meetings’ for the fiasco.

He blamed weak representation by junior state government officials at the meeting convened by the central government under the Essential Commodities Act.

“It would have been better if our case was put up by senior officers, as is done in the case of other states, but Uttarakhand has been sending junior officers to these meetings,” he said.

Urea fertiliser is totally subsidised and while IFFCO is mandated to provide 12,000 Metric tonnes of urea to the state for public distribution, the rest is sold directly to the farmers.

The demand for urea was high, he admitted and informed that IFFCO arranged 1,21,000 Metric tonnes of urea for open sale even after incurring the freight charges.

IFFCO, which was established in 1967, has been supplying 67 per cent of urea fertiliser to farmers in the country, he claimed. During the last nine years, IFFCO gave the highest average dividend of 20 per cent to farmers and aldo raised 40,000 farmers’ societies during this period.

It was giving medical benefits or timely help during natural disasters under Kisan Seva Trust scheme, and insurance benefits to farmers.

IFFCO, produced a record 108 lakh tonne fertilisers this year against 100 tonnes last year and earned a gross profit of Rs 600 crore.

IFFCO is also getting into the dairy trade and establishing a hi-tech dairy plant at Nellore in Andhra Pardesh, informed IFFCO director Pramod Kumar here today.

Kumar also informed about the tie-up with Airtel under which it established IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited to provide SIM cards to farmers where they were sent five free voice messages regarding important information or updates on weather and agriculture to them.

IFFCO is working on the construction of a coal based power plant of 1320 Mega Watts at an investment of Rs 7500 crore in Chattisgarh in collaboration with the Chattisgarh Electricity Board in which IFFCO has 74% stake. The project will start by 2013-14.

Nainital, February 16
Chairperson of the State Minority Commission Sukhdev Singh Namdhari has called for the immediate implementation of the schemes meant for the poor and the minorities with absolute transparency. With regards to the construction of infrastructure meant for these sections, he has ordered that there should be no compromise on the quality of work.

At a meeting held recently in Rudrapur, Namdhari had ordered serving notices on the officials who had not turned up for the meeting. He asked the officials of the Lead Bank in the district to take all sorts of precautions before sanctioning loans so that the innocent and poor people did not have to face hardships.

Namdhari also took up about a dozen cases pertaining to the alleged wrongs done to people from the minority communities.

In an interesting case pertaining to Haldwani, he ordered issuing notices to both Firasat Hussain, a local resident, and the Municipality for initially approaching the commission and then entering into an agreement over a dispute without informing it.

In a case pertaining to Satnam Singh of Barhaini, it was alleged that he had been accused of power theft by the Power Department whereas he did not own any shop that he was said to own. He was asked to present the facts in writing and the Power Department was ordered to investigate the matter.

A series of orders were given in other cases that were presented before him. Most of these pertained to the complaints against the authorities in the Power Department, sugar mills, local administration and banks from which loans were desired or availed.

Udham Singh Nagar is the district in the region where there is maximum concentration of minority communities. Besides a large number of Sikh residents who have settled here, there is also a high percentage of the Muslim population in the district

Dehradun, February 16
A delegation of the Congress, led by Harak Singh Rawat, Leader of the Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly, today submitted a memorandum to Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva against the Atal Khadyann Yojana, which was launched recently by the state BJP Government.

The Congress leaders alleged that the ambitious project to provide cheap ration to the weaker sections of society was ill-conceived and against the parliamentary norms.

They further charged that the inauguration of such a scheme by national President of the BJP Nitin Gadkari was deplorable. “The scheme has been launched without giving any thought to it and even the ration depot holders are opposed to it,” the memorandum said.

The Congress leaders charged that the state government had reduced the ration quota of the above poverty line (APL) beneficiaries from the earlier 10 kg of wheat to 8 kg per person now. The state government had to give a subsidy of Rs 149 crore per annum, but it had not been made clear that from where the money would come.

The Congress leaders claimed that the Union Government had given a subsidy of Rs 229.88 crore to the state government on foodgrains and had given Rs 173 crore as subsidy in the current financial year. “The state government has also not clarified whether the new scheme will be different from the scheme already run by the Union Government,” it said.

The Congress has also objected to the naming of the scheme after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and not after any stalwart from the state.

The Congress leaders opposed the acquisition of land from St Joseph’s Academy, a leading school of Dehradun, by the district administration. “Already the administration had acquired 2,000 sq m of land from the school and further acquisition of 4,000 sq m will leave the school without any playground,” they charged.

Congress legislators Kishore Upadhaya, Dinesh Aggarwal and Jot Singh Gunsola and other senior leaders of the party, including Surender Aggarwal and former Dehradun Mayor Manorama Sharma Dobriyal, were part of the delegation.

Dehradun, February 16
It was a day of remembrance and internalising Prophet Mohammed’s teachings for the Muslim community observing Milad-un-Nabi.

At a seminar today, Prophet Mohammed’s last sermon asking Muslims to shun enmity, false vanity and superstition was a topic of discussion.

“The Prophet’s character that was based on moderation in spirit, generosity, justice, humility and moral excellence should be emulated by all,” said Dr S Farooq, president of the Seerat-un-Nabi Committee, which organised the seminar.

He said the Prophet loved human beings 70 times more than one’s own parents. “He was a fountainhead of knowledge and wisdom. He gave the concept of one God and said your love towards the nation was your love towards your religion,” he said.

Assembly Speaker Harbans Kapoor said the teachings of Prophet Mohammed should be emulated by all. “He was a picture of compassion and forgave those who were after his life. The birth and resurrection of Prophet Mohammed will continue to inspire one and all,” he said.

While RA Haqquani, Secretary of the Seerat-un-Nabi Committee, recited the Prophet Mohammed’s last sermon in which he dwelt upon the basic message of religion. “The compassion of Prophet Mohammed was evident in the sermon delivered at Arafat in which he pardoned Banu Huzail. He also asked the Muslims to respect women,” said Haqquani.

Acharya Vidyapati Shastri from Arya Samaj Mandir Dhamawala said Prophet Mohammed’s arrival on the earth was meant to reform the Arabs who were bitterly divided and engaged in bloody wars.

Dehradun, February 16
Members of the Confederation Indian Industry (CII) met Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar to present a pre-budget memorandum (PBM) to him ahead of the next state budget. The recommendations in the memorandum focus on infrastructure development, skill development and the rationalisation of taxes and procedures.

Leading the CII delegation, Rajiv Berry, Chairman of the CII Uttarakhand State Council, says the CII believes that focus on these areas is essential to sustain the momentum of industrial development in the state. The rationalisation of tax rates and the simplification of procedures will lead to a better compliance and hence greater revenues. There is also much scope for widening the base of tax collection in many sectors.

The linking of Uttarakhand with Eastern Freight Corridor, addressing the power situation and creating low-cost housing for workers are some of the other issues, which were mentioned in the memorandum.

The memorandum also emphasises the need for improving the infrastructure at the existing industrial estates.

The memorandum lays stress on an IT-enabled single window system (SWS). It recommends the enactment of the Industries Facilitation Act to strengthen the SWS.

The memorandum also suggests promotion of education as an industry and creation of education cities/hubs one each in the hills of Garhwal and Kumaon regions.

Nainital, February 16
The demand for the bifurcation of the Okhalkanda block for setting up a separate Patlot block and the establishment of a separate tehsil at Khanasyun in Nainital district is fast gathering steam. Over the past couple of weeks there have been a series of protests and demonstrations by residents of the region calling upon the local administration to adhere to their demands.

Yesterday, many residents of the villages around Patlot arrived here, while braving the chilly weather, to take up the issue with the administration. They had submitted a memorandum to the local authorities in support of their demands after holding a demonstration in the Tallital area.

The residents pointed out that there were several villages, which were far away from the block and tehsil headquarters. The distance at times stretched up to more than 100 km. Given the difficult topographical and geographical conditions of the area, it was difficult for them to travel to the block and tehsil headquarters frequently.

The villagers also asserted that the villages that were far away had been devoid of the benefits of various developmental schemes of the government. They said because of the immense distance and the feeble monitoring mechanism, nobody was bothered about the proper implementation of developmental projects in their area.

They threatened to launch an agitation if their demands were not addressed by the administration.

They were of the opinion that since the villages of Suakot Pokhri, Amjarh, Padampur, Gauniyaro, Lavad, Adhaura, Harishtal, Kakod, Kaunta and Dholigaon were situated on Chamapawt border, they were devoid of development. They claimed that the proposal for a separate Patlot block was agreed upon by the previous government, led by Narayan Dutt Tiwari, but nothing had come of it till now. They had already decided to approach their public representatives in the state Assembly and Parliament on this issue. Their demand had already got the backing of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Haridwar, February 16
Saints associated with Sadhu Bela Ashram from all over the country participated in a function, which was organised in the memory of saint Rajshree Acharya Swami Ganesh Das Maharaj, founder of Sadhu Bela Ashram, here today.

Remembering Ganesh Das Maharaj for his contribution to humanity, the saints spoke highly of his work and ideals. Mahant Swami Hari Bhajandas Maharaj said the chain of Sadhu Bela Ashram was initiated by Ganesh Das Maharaj to pave the way for service to humanity.

“Ganesh Das was a multitalented personality. He was an intellectual, economist, engineer, architect and a spiritual-religious intellectual. He launched the chain of the ashram to do noble work and his death is a matter of sadness,” said Swami Hari Bhajandas.

Swami Bhajandas was given the seat of Mahant.

Among other present on the occasion were Swaroopanand Maharaj, Shankar Das Maharaj, Harihar Maharaj, Mahant Anantanad, Sukhdevanand, Maheswhar Das, Dr Shyam Sundar Das, Baba Kamal Das, Mahant Ravindra Puri, Mahant Kalyan Giri and Mahamandaleshwar Ram Swaroop.

Meanwhile, the stone-laying ceremony for the construction of a temple by the Shri Balaji Kamdhenu Dharmik Sewa Trust on the Ibrahimpur road in Jwalapur was held. Trustee Pandit Surendra Shukla, vice-chief Komal Prasad Gaud, Mukesh, Satyamitranand Maharaj, Deepak Mani Gupta, Sanjay Goyal, Nishankt Bhakt, Pradeep Chaudhari, Sunil Aggarwal, Sashikant Garg, Mahendra Kumar Mangal, Narendra Aggarwal and Purushottam Sharma were present.

Dehradun, February 16
A city bus conductor allegedly beat and abused an on-duty traffic police head constable at the Tehsil Chowk on Tuesday. The cop had called up the police and the conductor was arrested from the spot.

Head Constable Hardutta Singh alleged in his complaint, that he had asked the bus driver to stop the bus, but the driver did not oblige. On the contrary, conductor Bhim Kumar, a resident of Bhaniawala, started arguing with him. He abused and beat the cop. The police has registered a case.

Haridwar, February 16
The city police gained a major success with the arrest of three contractual factory workers who were involved in the theft of a large number of motorcycles in the district. The three youths arrested were working in the Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) in SIDCUL.

The accused were arrested by a special team during a checking operation at Ranipur. They have been indentified as Anil, resident of Bahadrabad, Manish and Sanjay Prahlad, both residents of Muzaffarpur, in Uttar Pradesh.

The police has recovered 12 motorcycles stolen from Muzzafarngar, Saharanpur and Haridwar from them. The gang members were quite active in the past few months in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal said, “The gang members had an expertise in unlocking motorcycles, and targeted a specific bike model. The police are also looking into other details and connections of the three accused in other theft cases”.