Dehradun, February 25
The Uttarakhand Congress today launched a direct attack on yoga guru Baba Ramdev demanding a CBI probe into the assets possessed by the baba in the country and aboard.

Addressing a press conference in Dehradun, Deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party Kishore Upadhaya said yoga guru Baba Ramdev had amassed huge wealth in the name of yoga and his acts needed to be probed in the interests of the country.

Upadhaya even challenged Baba Ramdev’s claim that he has cured many of cancer and other patients with dreaded diseases. “I am ready to provide Baba Ramdev with a cancer patient and a patient affected with kidney failures. I challenge him to cure these two patients and if he succeeds I will become his disciple,” he said. He said even medicines sold by Baba Ramdev were of very high prices and alleged that he feared a large-scale adulteration in these medicines.

Joining the issue, Congress Lakshman Chowk MLA Dinesh Agarwal said even the saint community led by Swami Hatyogi Maharaj had demanded a probe into the assets of Baba Ramdev. He accused Baba Ramdev of resorting to a slanderous campaign against the Congress leadership. Amply hinting at the BJP, he pointed out that there were forces that were guiding Baba Ramdev against the Congress.

Congress MLAs Jot Singh Gunsola and Kedar Singh Rawat too accused Baba Ramdev of utilising yoga to serve his personal interests. He said the baba’s property had grown manifold both in India and abroad within a short period of time and these was need to probe all his assets.

They also accused the BJP of patronising the wrongdoings of the baba.

Haridwar, February 25
After being ousted from the coveted post of chairperson of the Dehradun Zila Panchayat, Madhu Chauhan has lashed out at Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank for allegedly playing dirty politics.

In a conversation with The Tribune, Madhu, who was in the city, denied the charges of financial irregularities, violation of model code of conduct and other charges of corruption, on the basis of which she was removed from the said post.

She pointed that her scintillating victory in the Zila Panchayat elections, which she fought as an independent candidate, irked BJP leaders, particularly the CM. Madhu said Nishank put several hurdles during her tenure as the chairperson, making sure development works being carried out by her get hindered or delayed.

“I was voted by the people, then by the panchayat members, but the grounds on which I have been removed are baseless, untrue and politically motivated. The BJP, saw my victory detrimental to their political reach in the region and thus carried out every illegal move to make sure my tenure got affected or cut short,” said Madhu.

“Public is the best judge to analyse my work, ethics, tenure and allegations levied on me and the nefarious designs of the BJP state government,” said Madhu, who had contested as a legislator from Kalsi in 2007.

Accompanying Madhu Chauhan, her husband Munna Chauhan, a former legislator who had given up his assembly seat to contest as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate from Tehri, also lashed at the Chief Minister, terming him ‘Madhu Koda’ of Uttarakhand, indirectly referring to the former CM of Jharkhand who was charged with multiple cases of corruption during his stint as the state Chief Minister.

Munna Chauhan pointed fingers at local legislator Madan Kaushik, terming Haridwar as the ‘breeding ground’ of corruption for the BJP state unit.

On the clean chit given to the Nishank government by BJP Chief Nitin Gadkari, Munna questioned the position of Gadkari saying, “Is Gadkari the CBI Chief or a judge that has the authority to give clean chits to state governments on various allegations of corruption. If this is so, then every party will look forward to a clean chit from their chief on corruption and criminal charges”.

On the future, particularly on his joining a political party, Munna tried to play it safe by saying that he was in talks with parties having the same political ideology which would be disclosed when something substantial evolved.

Roorkee, February 25
The recently held Zila Panchayat elections in Haridwar district will be remembered in the years to come for two reasons. First, the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) was not able to get a respectable number of seats in the Zila Panchayat board and secondly, a candidate on a Muslim-dominated seat won the poll on a BJP ticket.

Sabnoor, a Muslim, won the Bhagwanpur-Chandanpur seat from Narsan block. The seat is reserved for woman for which there were 14 contestants in this elections.

With her win, Sabnoor, a 22-year-old woman, has stepped into the Zila Panchayat board, which is a theatre for highly experienced politicians. She is the youngest member in the board’s history.

On why she decided to take part in the elections, Sabnoor said that her father Anis Ahmed inspired her to do so. “My father, who is a small farmer, does a lot of social service. He has always played a big role in the developmental work that is carried out in my village. And he always recites a mantra that real satisfaction in life comes from selfless service to society,” said Sabnoor.

The goodwill earned by her father through his social worker came in handy in Sabnoor’s win. “His good image was above party lines,” the proud daughter said.

“My two younger sisters accompanied me during my door-to-door canvassing,” Sabnoor added.

“Anis is always ready to help everyone in the village. He has the determination to run from pillar to post to get developmental work done in the village,” said Islam, a resident of Tanda-Bhandeda village, 10 km from Roorkee.

Life got harder for Sabnoor eight months ago when her mother died. Being the eldest female child of her parents (she has an elder brother), the onus of handling domestic affairs fell on her shoulders. “My two younger sisters study in class XII and VIII respectively.” She herself is a second year BA student.

On being asked how she became interested in politics, she said that she had dreamt of becoming an IAS officer. “As an IAS officer, I would have had more power to work for the poor. Politicians hardly do anything for the downtrodden. Instead, they use them as a vote bank. But my priority now is to complete my education,” underlined Sabnoor. 

Nainital, February 25
The authorities have started gearing up to meet the challenges on the water supply front in Kumaon for the upcoming summer. It is an irony of sorts that despite good monsoon last year and rains during the winter months, people of the region would once again be facing the problem of water scarcity.

The situation has arisen due to the complete devastation of water schemes in the hilly areas during the rain related disaster that had struck the region during the extended monsoon season last year. Ironically, the areas represented by the Cabinet Minister, holding the water portfolio are amongst the worst hit.

However, in order to meet the challenge, a regional level meeting was held in Haldwani, where the officials initiated the task of chalking out plans to deal with the situation.

According to sources, it has been decided that the officials make arrangements at the grassroots level and supply water on mules and tankers to the affected villages. A decision to deploy additional manpower at various drinking water schemes has also been taken.

A total of 111 acute water scarcity zones have been identified across Kumaon. These include 12 residential colonies in various urban areas and 142 villages being covered by 99 Gram Sabhas. Seventy four hand pumps are being installed in different villages while 73 schemes are being reviewed.

It was also decided to propagate the Toll-Free number of the Jal Sansthan amongst the masses so that they may register their complaints straight at the control room of the sansthan in the state capital.

The meeting had been convened by the Chief General Manager, Jal Sansthan, DD Dimri, and officials from Almora, Bageshwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital were also present for the session.

The region, particularly certain parts of Almora had witnessed a series of agitations in the recent past over the administration’s failure to repair the various water schemes. These areas include the Salan area of Almora along with Okhalkanda and Betalghat area of Nainital districts. An area of concern for the rural masses is the devastation of the water mills. These mills do not feature in the compensation norms of disaster relief and people have long been demanding compensation and loans to rebuild these devastated mills that were located along the streams and rivers. Besides being of economic importance, these mills are also of cultural importance as they are a unique device that exists in the hills. 

Haridwar, February 25
In view of various natural and man-made disasters, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has been formed by the Central Government, which is looking into developing a holistic, proactive, multi-disaster and technology-driven strategy.

With Uttarakhand falling in ultra-seismic zone and prone to several types of natural disasters, the NDMA is quite serious in the management of the disasters that occur in the state. A high-level team was in Haridwar to guide, monitor, inspect and draw all the collective agencies under single control. The team will see that the disaster management is being carried out in the district, which saw a massive flood, landslide and industrial fire in the past few years.

At a review meeting of the high-level district administrative officials, core member of the NDMA Jyoti Kumar Sinha praised the efforts pitched in by the district administration as per the guidelines of the Incident Response System (IRS) issued by the NDMA under Section 6 of the Disaster Management Act-2005.

Informing The Tribune Jyoti Sinha said IRS was based on the US-practised disaster management command set up, but has been updated and changed according to the Indian scenario.

“The authority has modified the Incident Command System by incorporating all the duties that may be performed in case of any disaster and incident, compiling a complete team with various sections to attend to all the possible requirements. This is a flexible system that puts down roles and responsibilities of different functionaries, stakeholders at the state level. It also coordinates with the multi-tiered institutional mechanisms at the national and other levels. But the most important aspect is quick, swift and timely action that is the core of the disaster management, be it natural or man made,” said Sinha.

Apprising about the preparedness in Haridwar, the District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram said a full set up has already been put in place in the district as per the guidelines of IRS for working during any eventuality and working swiftly to minimise the impact of the disaster.

Suggesting that common people, particularly those in the disaster prone areas should also be taken into account. SP Dr KL Shaw said, “We are affected mostly in any disaster situation. Therefore, by the time the IRS help reaches us, loss could be averted. We need to generate awareness among people and provide them related equipment. Like in the last monsoon rain, severe crisis of life saving boats and ropes was felt,” added Shaw.

Inputs from the nodal officers in the IRS organisational set-up were taken that would also be incorporated by the district officer concerned, who in this case is the DM, for enhanced management.

“This set-up is quite effective as home guards are from local region and they better know the conditions. By taking the home guards along, the preventive action can be carried out efficiently,” said Commandant, Home Guards, Haridwar, Hema Uniyal.

Head of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, Kush Verma also dwelled on the disaster management methodology taken up by the institute.

Dehradun, February 25
The Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a voluntary organisation, in collaboration with its sister organisation PRAGATI, organised a two-day training workshop on “Leadership and Gender Sensitisation” for around 150 women, including newly elected panchayat members, members of self-help groups (SHG) and other functionaries from six blocks of Haridwar and Dehradun districts, here today.

This is the first one in the series of six workshops, which will be organised in the near future with the aim of promoting community participation and gender equality. The sessions of the workshop comprised the topics of “73rd Amendment Provisions”, “Gram Sabha Functioning”, “Finance Management”, “Records of Gram Panchayats and Committees” and “Women Leadership and MGNREGA”.

MM Khan, District Panchayat Officer, and AK Rajput, state coordinator, MGNREGA, along with RLEK trainers addressed the workshop.

In his address, Khan urged the elected women representatives (EWRs) to be more proactive and participative in their approach especially when gram sabha meetings are held. He also informed the EWRs about the recently launched Panchayat Empowerment Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS), under which the panchayats, which perform well, are rewarded.

Dr Justice VS Malimath, Chairman, Karnataka Law Commission and former Chief Justice of Karnataka and Kerela, will be addressing the EWRs on February 26 and SS Negi, Financial Adviser, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, would be providing an update to the participants on the various developmental schemes.

Dehradun, February 25
If poor visibility has been a bane of the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), even the reforms initiated by the government in consonance with the 74th Constitutional Amendment have been slow. The government has been hesitant to hand over the powers to the representatives of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

Significantly, only 9 out of 18 functions listed in the 12th Schedule in the state have been transferred to the ULBs by the government. Some of the functions transferred to the ULBs through the executive order include urban forestry, water supply and public health.

Though according to the 74th Amendment, the mayor of the corporation has been vested with the responsibility to prepare confidential report of the officials of these departments, but this is not being done.

“The main objective of the implementation of the reforms under the JNNURM is to provide enabling environment for the growth of the cities by enhancing effective urban service delivery, land management, financial management and stakeholder participation in governance,” said programme officer, the State Urban Development Authority, Rajeev Pandey.

As per the JNNURM norms, all ULBs have to disclose various public service initiatives provided by them. But the ULBs have not been disclosing the public services offered to the citizens in the cities. None of the private developers are being forced to set aside 10 per cent of the developed land in the residential layouts for the economically weaker sections in the jurisdiction of all the ULBs.

Besides, the ULBs are yet to open separate zero-balance bank accounts for the funds earmarked for their welfare. The Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) scheme links fund release to the reforms to be undertaken by the ULBs and states and may even stop releasing the funds, if the state and ULBs continue to make tardy progress.

In the fourth year of its inception, residents are yet to make connection with the JNNURM projects underway in the city. Most of the city projects that could have impacted the lives of the residents have not remained true to the mandate.

The city bus scheme aimed to provide the transport facilities to the locals failed to take off in absence of the creation of a separate authority to run the buses. “The buses are not being used for the city, but are running on the Haridwar and Mussoorie routes. The government should have created a separate authority to run them,” said Kishan Rautela.

While the widening of chowks underway in the 16 key areas of Dehradun, earmarked the mission city, under JNNURM are expected to decongest the area. The issue of compensation forced the authorities to scale down the project from 30 chowks to 16 chowks.

“The project has been scaled down considerably, as there were hurdles in acquiring private properties,” said executive engineer, Public Works Department (PWD), Mulayam Singh.

The chowks that would be widened include Vikas Bhawan, Globe Chowk, Astley Hall, Kanak Chowk, Saharanpur Chowk, Dwarka store chowk, Dharampur Chowk, Kargi Chowk, St Jude’s Chowk, Shimla Byepass Chowk, Ballupur Chowk, Darshan Lal Chowk, Tehsil Chowk and Landsdowne Chowk, Sabzi mandi Chowk and Kaulagarh Chowk.

“We have earmarked Rs 8 crore as compensation, to be paid to the private players, whose properties will be acquired for the widening of the chowks. We will not be undertaking widening of the Astley Hall Chowk and Parade Ground Chowk due to the stay order issued by the court,” said Singh.

A portion of the Astley Hall building under private ownership had to be acquired for the purpose. Around 138 trees would have been pulled down if widening of the chowks were undertaken in these areas.

Besides, the Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam is also undertaking water supply reorganisation work in the city, under which 30 tube wells, 37 overhead tanks and 30 pump houses are under different phases of construction.

While the solid waste management project has taken off in Dehradun, but the Kaath Bangla and Khala Basti Projects under the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) have failed to take off.

“The implementation of the projects has picked up pace now and we are in different phases of completion, but by the end of 2012, the impact will be visible,” said director, Urban Development, Nidhi Mani Tripathi.

Nainital, February 25
Three persons suffered bullet injuries in two different cases reported from Udham Singh Nagar district over the past 24 hours. In an incident reported from a restaurant located barely 50 m away from the house of the District Magistrate, the manger was shot at by an irate youth over a petty matter.

According to the information, a group of youngsters had come to the restaurant to have their lunch. Agitated over the delay in being served what they had ordered they picked up an altercation with the manager Dhyan Singh Bisht.

This led to indiscriminate firing by an agitated youth. The youngsters fled from the spot brandishing their arms.

According to sources, accused Pravin Chaudhary was arrested near Matkota. The injured manager is a resident of the Silkhet area of Bageshwar district.

In another incident, an office-bearer of the Pradhan Sangh and his accomplice were injured near Kashipur when two persons fired upon them. According to the information, Sukhwinder Singh of Kanakpur village was going to his fields, along with his accomplice Prabhusharan Singh, when two persons stopped him on the way. This was followed by an altercation that led to the two accused firing on Sukhwinder and Prabhusharan, injuring them seriously.

The police has started looking out for the accused. A car was recovered from the spot. The cause of the tiff was said to be a land dispute.

Dehradun, February 25
The Central Excise Division Office situated at Nehru Colony celebrated its 68th Central Excise Day here yesterday. RB Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax, was the chief guest at the function. He called upon his officers and other employees to work honestly and be prepared to meet the forthcoming challenges before the department.

During the day the staff was also educated about the much-awaited Goods and Service Tax (GST). Other than this, power point presentation regarding the functioning of the Automation in Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES) software was also shown which was followed by a documentary film on the Right to Information (RTI).

The officers were honoured for their contribution towards the department. They included Tapas Chakraborty and JK Rajnish in the Superintendent category, Gajender Singh (Inspector), Mohit Kumar (Senior Tax Assistant (STA) and Mohammad Kamaal and Sajjan Singh Bisht in Sepoy category.

Officers from the range offices at Roorkee, Haridwar, Kotdwar and Rishikesh participated in the programme.