Dehradun, March 18
Uttarakhand Congress MLA Kishore Upadhyaya has asked the Uttarakhand Chief Minister to declare his assets and liabilities along with those of his kin.

Addressing a press conference at the Vidhan Sabha, Upadhyaya said that this had become all the more important as the CM owns a publication and a non-governmental organisation.

He said that as per the record of the District Industries Centre, Kotdwar, Nishank Prakashan, owned by Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, has a plot number 33 in Sitavpur Industrial Area in Kotdwar. Upadhyaya claimed that the plot, which was nearly a bigha was allotted to Nishank Prakashan in 1992, but no work has been done on that piece of land till date.

He added that the NGO Navrah Nai Chetna Sansthan was allotted 20 nalis of land in Kotdwar. Upadhyaya claimed that the price of both pieces of land was nearly Rs 5 crore. “These acts have created doubt about the Chief Minister integrity. So we appeal to him to declare his assets,” Upadhyaya said.

Tehri Garhwal MLA Kishore Upadhyaya criticised the state government in failing to identify and help families of Uttarakhand that are in Japan. He said that in the aftermath of the tsunami, the Uttarakhand government should have taken some initiative to enquire about their well being.

Dehradun, March 18
The president of the State Media Advisory Committee of the BJP, Dr Devendra Bhasin, has refuted Congress MLA Kishore Upadhyaya’s charges levelled against Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Addressing a press conference, Dr Bhasin said the accusations made by Upadhyaya are politically motivated and nowhere near truth. He said the Congress MLA was trying to mislead the people and must apologise.

Bhasin said Upadhyaya must first tell as to why he had just spent 19 per cent of his MLA discretionary fund. He said the MLA must also clarify as to who he was staying at an accommodation meant for ministers while he was just an MLA.

The BJP leader said the Congress was worried about the success of Chief Minister’s Vikas Yatra and was resorting to such cheap politics.

Referring to Upadhyaya’s allegation linked to Nishank Prakasham, Bhasin said the land was allotted to Nishank way back 1989 when he was neither an MLA nor a minister. He said the allotted land along with the seven other pieces of land are entangled in legal hassles and as such the matter was subjudice. “Neither is this land in possession of Nishank Prakasham nor has he got a patta for it,” Bhasin said.

Bhasin said similarly, the land being claimed by Upadhyaya to have been allotted to the Nav Raj Chetna, an NGO, was provided to the organisation in 1992 at an annual land tax of Rs 1,200. He said as the organisation wanted to go ahead with the construction, the Forest Department claimed the land belonged to it. He said the Nav Raj Chetna was already in loss as it was paying the land tax regularly.

Haridwar, March 18
All eyes are set on the announcement of the official party candidates of the three major parties for the zila panchayat chief election. Though no less is the stance of the independents, who almost have thrown the political parties to next bracket owing to their hung political verdict and their sizable presence.

Just concluded three-tier panchayat level polls have shown that the voters have reposed faith in candidates potential rather than swaying away in the name and status of the political party. Most to suffer was the BJP, who almost got washed away in several rural segments, despite it having government in the state.

In the 42-member zila panchayat with both the Congress and BSP having same number (13) of winning candidates and with the BJP dipping down to a meagre eight, despite aided by other party bigwigs, the CM had termed massive development works being carried out in the region as a single factor that would make the BJP emerge as the winner.

But with neither the BSP, nor the Congress gaining absolute majority, the independent members have the driver’s seat in deciding the fate of the coveted zila panchayat post. Though, much will also depend on the inner party factionalism as both the parties have a couple of self-proclaimed candidates vying for the post officially from their respective parties.

While the Congress has faired much better in comparison to the previous elections, yet the factionalism in the party seems to be putting up its claim over the chairman seat, a bit awry as district party chief Rajendra Singh and Lakshar legislator Kunwar Pranav Singh were going all out to make sure their family members be made the official party candidate.

Chaudhrai Rajednra Singh has been trying to convince as many zila panchayat members and independents to make weight for his group candidate, while Kunwar has also been leaving no stone unturned to make his wife princess Devyani, who won from Dalla walla ward as official candidate.

Similarly, the BSP is also bifurcated into two factions, one under legislator Mohammed Shahzad and other of Surendra. Ousted by public mandate, the BJP has been facing the dilemma of wait and watch as they could not do much with the independents having a major bargain these days not only from one party, but from the two groups within a single party making it almost sure that independents would be playing a vital role in the election process as well as operation of the zila panchayat board.

As per the administrative sources the notification will be issued post Holi with probably by the end of the month the election for the district panchayat post be done. 

Dehradun, March 18
Upset over the recognition given to Diwakar Bhatt as a leader of Uttrakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) Legislature Party, Trivender Singh Panwar, president of the other faction of the UKD, has announced that he would launch a campaign to expose the anti-public policies of both the BJP and the Congress from March 25. The campaign will be kicked off at various religious and historical places in cities and villages and will culminate in Gairsain on April 3. Fortythree leaders and workers of the party will launch the campaign from as many pockets of the state.

Furious over the recognition accorded to Bhatt, Panwar said with this move the BJP had bared its conspiracy to divide the UKD. He questioned the ground for declaring Bhatt as leader of the UKD Legislature Party when he had been expelled from the party. He also talked of approaching the court to get this declaration quashed.

He said the numerous protests triggered by various employees association against the state government were the signs of growing discontent among people against the BJP Government in the state.

Dehradun, March 18
The Ministry of Power, Government of India, has launched the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) in the 11th Five-Year Plan. Power Financial Corporation Limited (PFCL) has been designated by the Centre as the nodal agency for the programme.

The programme spans from data acquisition at the distribution level to the monitoring of the results of steps taken to provide an IT backbone to the Power Department and strengthening of the Electricity Distribution System across the country under the programme.

The objective of the programme is a reduction in the AT&C losses to the extent of 15 per cent in the areas to be covered under the project. The Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) has prepared the detailed project report, which has been divided into two parts A and B, with an estimated project cost of 125.82 crore.

Part A aims at establishing the base-line data for accurate measurement of losses at various levels and improving customer services for the utilities. The scheme covers consumer indexing, GIS mapping and asset mapping of the entire distribution network, etc. The IT-enabled consumer services centres have also been included in the scheme.

The UPCL has appointed Infinite Computer Solutions Ltd in association with the Phoenix IT Solutions as the IT implementation agency (ITIA). The company has started its work and set the deadline for the completion of the plans for the pilot town, Dehradun, and all the other identified towns by September 2011.

Chairman, UPCL, Jagmohan Lal says the corporation will complete all civil and other infrastructure works relating to the customer care centres in a month or two.

According to the UPCL officials, the civil work for the construction of the building of Disaster Recovery Centre in Haldwani too has been started. Similarly, the development of subdivision offices and other offices for providing requisite IT infrastructure, network connectivity is in progress and work at all the offices of the pilot town, Dehradun, are expected to be completed soon as well.

The work of boundary metering/ ring fencing of 31 selected towns has been completed and for the rest of the towns, the work is in progress.

“The survey work for ground control points for all the towns is on the verge of completion and the asset and consumer indexing has been taken up in Dehradun. The investment approval for the other supporting works, to be accomplished by the UPCL, has been obtained from the Regulatory Commission and the financial closure is in progress.

The training of the core/middle/senior-level executives has to be facilitated by the PFCL while training in hardware and basic computer applications by the ITIA,” said a senior official.

The towns which have been selected for the R-APDRP project are Almora, Bazpur, Gopeshwar, Dehradun, Gadarpur, Haldwani, Haridwar, Jaspur, Joshimath, Kashipur, Khatima, Kicha, Kotdwara, Laksar and Landhaura, Manglore, Mussoorie, Nainital, Pauri, Thoragarh, Ramnagar, Ranikhet, Rishikesh, Roorkee, Rudrapur, Sitarganj, Srinagar, Tanakpur, Tehri, Uttarkashi and Vikasnagar.

The DPR was sanctioned by the steering committee, Ministry of Power, at its 12th meeting in 2009. The project cost (163.42 crore) consists of loan component of Rs 125.82 crore to be funded from ministry through PFCL.

Nainital, March 18
With just a day left for Dhulendi, the Holi celebrations across Kumaon have reached a feverish pitch with people of all the communities celebrating the various forms of the festival. The region has been experiencing a festive season over the past one week with everyone attending the Baithaki, Khadi and Mahila Holis that are the unique aspects of the Holi celebrations in the region.

Holi presentations are being organised in every nook and corner with people greeting each other with gulal tikas and offering of “gujiyas” and dry potato-peas, the special cuisine for the festival in Kumaon.

The Lake City has witnessed some excellent presentations over the past three days from both the local artistes as well as those who have come from outside. The people got to see the Khadi Holi from a troupe that had come from Kanikot in Champawat district on one side and the Holi of Barsana on the other that was presented by a team of Song and Drama Division, Kasganj-Etah, Uttar Pradesh. The two main public celebrations in the town have been organised by the cultural organisation Yugmanch and the Ram Sevak Sabha. The Yugmanch has dedicated this Holi Mahotsava to Bollywood actor Nirmal Pande and the folk poet Girish Tiwari who is fondly remembered as Girda.

After the presentations till Friday night, the town will be organising a Holi procession and Swang on Saturday. People would be playing with colour on Sunday and the festive celebrations would conclude on Monday with the tika ceremony.

Dehradun, March 18
Film and music company T-series has begun filming the video based on Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s musical CD titled Eey Vatan Tere Liye.

A shot was okayed in the presence of the Chief Minister at the Bijapur Guest House today. Famous writer Shaliesh Bhatt gave the mahurat shot of the video. Members from the Raath community of Uttarakhand met the CM there and conveyed their Holi greetings to him. 

Dehradun, March 18
Ordnance Factory, Dehradun, today celebrated Ordnance Factories Day. Senior General Manager Arun Khanvalkar flagged off the Sadbhawna run that was part of the celebrations.

He called upon the employees to set high standards of working. He said Ordnance is facing challenge from the private sector and asked the employees to work with more dedication and sincerity.

He said the Ordnance was successfully meeting its targets every year. General Manager also honoured the employees who had shown excellent work performance.

Deputy General Manager Amit Singh accorded the vote of thanks. Additional General Manager Rajeev Gupta, Dr JJB Prasad and other senior officials of the factory were present on the occasion. A cultural programme was also organised on the factory premises. 

Dehradun, March 18
The Forest Research Institute Deemed University, Dehradun, is conducting a 10-week induction training programme for scientists and research officers of the ICFRE from March 21 to May 27.

Dr SS Negi, director of the FRI, will be inaugurating the course. The inaugural function will be attended by around 300 officers, scientists, research officers and students of the university. The training programme has two weeks module on management and administrative skills, three weeks module on forestry, one week on research methodology and two weeks of tours to north and south India.

Meanwhile, as the World Forestry Day-2011 observations on March 21, the FRI will be organising special exhibitions on the activities and research works of various divisions in the Information Centre of the main building. The entry to all the museums of the institute will be free for the general public. The university will also be conducting Forestry and Environmental Quiz in the convocation hall. Dr AK Sharma, Executive Director, Metrological Department, Dehradun, will be conducting the quiz.

There will also be a poster presentation by the students of the university on the theme forestry and environment.