Dehradun, March 31
Passing the buck on the Congress Government, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant said the irregularities detected by the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) in the government accounts for the year that ended March 31, 2010, that was recently tabled in the Budget session of the state Assembly mostly related to the works undertaken during the rule of the previous Congress Government.

“The report has pointed out irregularities in 14 accounts that concern the Congress Government, 12 accounts pertain to continuing schemes and only four accounts of works can be attributed to our government,” clarified Pant, while speaking with mediapersons here today.

He also shot down the Opposition’s demand for an inquiry into these irregularities, on the lines of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) constituted for the 2G-spectrum scam. “The presumptive losses in the allocation of 2G spectrum, as pointed out by the government auditors, were huge. The BJP at the Centre did the right thing by demanding a JPC report. The financial irregularities pertaining to Uttarakhand are small and are departmental discrepancies,” said Pant.

However, he said the government was ready for a CBI probe or a probe by any other higher investigating agency into the irregularities highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

“The government is serious on the corruption issue and action will be taken against those found guilty. I will also be taking action against those officers who are found guilty and are working in departments that are under me,” added Pant.

He said after the report was tabled in the Vidhan Sabha, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) would go through the report and the department officials concerned would be summoned.

“We have to take action, as the paragraphs mentioned by the CAG will never be expunged. The PAC is headed by Congress leader Pritam Singh and the Opposition should not have any reason to complaint,” said Pant.

He also complimented the Opposition for extending cooperation in running the House smoothly. “We managed to pass 19 legislations, five government resolutions and two important proposals during the Budget session,” he said.

Nainital, March 31
The Uttarakhand High Court has been witnessing a stalemate for the past two days with the majority of the advocates boycotting the court of Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and another judge Justice Tarun Aggarwal as a mark of protest. The advocates are protesting over a series of issues, including their alleged humiliation by the Chief Justice.

Talking to The Tribune, the advocates said, “The protest was initially against Justice Ghosh. Later, it was also directed against Justice Aggarwal, who has been alleged to treat the lawyers in a similar manner.”

The protest has left the litigants, whose cases are to be taken by the bench headed by either of the two judges, in the lurch. Those leading the protest claim that there are approximately 300 advocates who are regular practitioners at the HC.

The primary grievance of the agitating advocates was that Justice Ghosh has not been giving them proper hearings in various cases and been creating adverse circumstances for them with regards to the language and presentation of the cases.

Advocate Col HS Sharma (retd), who is the coordinator of the agitating advocates, asserted, “The advocates are not allowed to put across their point in a proper manner”.

The advocates have been alleging that the Chief Justice was humiliating them during the hearings. They said the Chief Justice could dismiss the cases being presented before him, but should not humiliate them.

A major issue at the core of the agitation was the problem with regards to the language of documents being presented before the judges. The advocates claim that Justice Ghosh wants everything in English and this was actually the job of the registry to get the papers translated into English from Hindi.

Senior agitating advocate MC Pant told The Tribune, ”Official translators had been hired at the time Justice SH Kapadia, who is now the Chief Justice of India, was the Chief Justice here. But their posts have been abolished and getting the work, which is done in lower-level offices, which is primarily in Hindi, translated to English in Nainital, is a major problem. Besides, the legal documents need to have the certificate of official translators”.

The advocates claimed that the principle of “litigant’s right being supreme” was not being honoured and the status of Hindi was not being protected. Colonel Sharma said the agitating advocates had written on the matter to the Bar Council of India, Chief Justice of India, Law Ministry and President’s office. The High Court was in the process of electing a new Bar Association and it was only the new body that would act further on the issue. Till then the stalemate persists.

Nainital, March 31
The two-day national seminar on “Industry Academia Interface in Tourism Sector” that was organised by Uttarakhand Open University ended here yesterday with a large number of presentations made by the participants who had come from various universities and institutes.

Ironically, these presentations were very broad based and talked of issues at a macro level. Hence, most of the speakers failed to invoke the required response from the audience and were clearly lacking depth. The presentations talked of things like what was the tourism

potential of Uttarkhand and India, what was being done at the government level and what needed to be ideally done. But there was no indepth presentation on the present state of affairs with regards to the pathetic state of infrastructure, particularly in Uttarakhand, why

tourism had failed to take off in the manner it should have and what precisely needed to be done.

A presentation from Kavita Kumari of Uttarakhand Open University called for the use of the social media for promoting tourism. She asserted that organisations should make use of social networking sites, blogs and other interactive sites to promote their properties and locations.

A candid presentation came from Dinesh Kumar of Uttar Pradesh. He accepted the fact that there was a huge gap in what was being taught in various hotel management institutes and the requirements of the tourism industry. He pointed out that there was a dearth of professionals who were required to design the curriculums.

Mohammad Anisur Rehman of Aligarh Muslim University talked about the marketing stregy required to promote tourism in Uttarakhand and said things like yoga and spiritual tourism needed to be promoted amongst domestic tourists as well.

On Tuesday too, at the seminar, experts underlined the need to generate more professionals for the tourism industry, which is among the fastest-growing enterprises across the world. They asserted that India needed to drastically improve upon its dismal performance as far as international tourism was concerned.

In his address, former Deputy Director-General with the Ministry of Tourism Gaur Kanjilal said open universities could help a lot in filling the huge demand-supply gap in the tourism sector in India. He said even at present there was a requirement of 3,50,000 professionals in the hotel industry across the country, while the availability was hardly one-10th of the requirement. He was particularly pointed out, “Students need to be given orientation on the attitude and behaviour. They should know how to receive tourists and must excel in communication skills. They should also be good in public relations so that there can be open-ended linkages”.

Kanjilal said the industry was highly dependent on trained manpower and universities could help by equipping their students with the required backup knowledge of various destinations. People from remote areas needed to be encouraged to take up tourism as a vocation.

Vice-Chancellor, Kumaon University, Dr VPS Arora, underlined that various sectors of the economy needed to collaborate and complement each other to ensure that a high growth rate of the country was sustained over a long period of time.

He lamented that the contribution of the tourism sector in the gross domestic product (GDP) had remained insignificant.

Dr Arora underlined, “Conventional tourism needs to be diversified into streams like medical, ecological and education tourism. A little jump and contribution of tourism would be in double digits as a component of our GDP”.

He made it very clear that the sector needed to be in the hands of the professional people. “The beauty of the sector is that without any reservation it provides reservation to the local people.” He talked at length about the potential of the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) pattern when it comes to providing the required professional manpower in the sector.

Prof OP Kandari of Bundelkhand University talked about why the performance of the tourism sector in India had been dismal compared to China and the European countries. He said every country in the world was trying to harness its tourism potential to the optimum as the tourism resources are universally distributed.

Mussoorie, March 31
While the Board meeting was in progress at Mussoorie, the Electricity Department disconnected the power of the Municipal Council (MC) premises due to the non-payment of dues. Council president OP Uniyal retaliated with locking the premises from where the Electricity Department is run, and demanded MC dues which have not been paid for several decades for using the council property.

Uniyal said a similar situation had arisen last year too and the matter had gone up to the Chief Secretary level. It was decided that the two departments would sit together and solve the non-payment issue amicably. But the meeting could not be held due to unforeseen reasons and now the situation had resurfaced due to March-end account closures, and the Electricity Department disconnected power after the payment due for electricity bills was not furnished.

Officials at the Electricity Department said as they were under pressure to collect the dues, they had no other option.

Power Secretary Umakant Panwar had to intervene in the matter and after several hours electricity to the council premises was restored. The MC claims that the Electricity Department has to pay it around Rs 1.36 crore for using its premises and the Electricity Department dues also run around Rs 1.36 crore.

Mussoorie, March 31
Saraswati Shishu Mandir School celebrated its annual day function here today. The programme began with the lighting of the lamp by chief guest advocate AK Mehrotra that was followed by the welcome song and Saraswati prayer.

Students displayed their talent by presenting various cultural items that including Garhwali dance and songs on the occasion.

Principal of the school Manoj Rayal read out the annual report highlighting the achievements of the school for the year.

The chief guest addressing the students and the staff commended the school on its achievement in the field of sports and academics. He also distributed citations and awards on the occasion.

Manish Singh (pre-primary), Rupendar Singh (primary) and Sunil Kumar (middle) were adjudged the best students in academics. Nishant Tomar, Gaurav Mahendival, Ankit Singh, Pradeep Rawat, Manoj Singh Rawat, Sunil Kumar, Smita Kaintura, Monica Semwal, Priyanshu Nautiyal, Pooja Rawat, Pravin Jasyari, Kusum Bhandari, Divya Tamta, Shivam Kaintura, Tripti Rayal, Prachi Panwar and Riya Bhandari were also presented with citations and awards for excelling in academics.

Dehradun, March 31
Horse polo, a periodic sporting event, was conducted at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) from February 7 to March 31. The thrilling final match was played between Manekshaw Battalion and Siachen Battalion at the Polo Ground here today.

The gentlemen cadets were felicitated by Lieut-Gen Rajender Singh Sujlana, Commandant, IMA, who gave away the Desraj Urs trophy to the winning side. Cadet Sanjay Sheoran of Siachen Battalion was adjudged the most valuable player for his all-round performance in this tournament.

Pitthoragarh, March 31
Villagers from the backward areas of Pitthoragarh and Champawat districts have now demanded the early construction of long-awaited metalled roads in their areas. They have stated owing to the non-construction of these roads, many people have migrated from their villages.

In the Gangolihat area of the district, eight road projects, which will link interior villages of this largest tehsil of the district, have been waiting for approval for the past seven years. “The road project linking the district headquarters to Gangolihat town via Awanla Ghat has been awaiting clearance for the past seven years, denying a population of 40,000 villagers of the tehsil an easy travel to the district headquarters,” said Rajendra Singh Bora, a social activist of the tehsil and senior Congress leader. He said a 15-km motor road, which would link the interior villages of Khati Gaon and Sunkhola to the Gangolihat town, was waiting for the forest clearance. The same is the case with the 7.5-km road to link Dasaithal to Futsil, 10-km road to link Maraknali to Jakhni, 20-km road to connect Chahaj and Sinlekh and 15-km road between Bankot and Batgari. “Residents of these villages are gradually shifting to nearby towns in search for better facilities,” added Bora.

In the Talla Johar area of Munsiyari subdivision where more than 24 villages are still waiting for the construction of a road between Bans Bagar and Kota, which was sanctioned before the creation of the state. “If this motor road project does not get the attention of the authorities concerned till April 15, the people of the area will start a Satyagraha at the Pitthoragarh District Headquarters,” said Rudra Singh Panda, a senior BJP leader of Munsiyari subdivision. “This motor road was constructed up to 6 km in 2001-2002 under a special component plan but later the project had been abandoned,” added Panda.

Thousands of people of the backward region of the Kwairala valley in Champawat district are facing difficulties as despite the area being commercially viable, the 10-km Saindark-Amkaria road is still waiting for approval.

Dehradun, March 31
Balaji Boys defeated Adhoiwala Football Club by a solitary goal to enter the semifinal of the Vir Singh Memorial Football Tournament at OFD grounds here today. In a fast-paced match, Balaji Boys took the initiative and Abhishek Negi scored a field goal in the 15th minute of the match.

The semifinals will be played tomorrow.

Mahesh’s brace downs petroleum institute

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Green Football Club defeated Keshav Dev Malviya Institute of Petroleum Exploration by two goals in the Inter-Department Football Tournament at ONGC grounds here today.

Mahesh scored both the goals - in the fifth and the 15th minute of the game.