Dehradun, April 16
The Uttarakhand Wakf Board has decided to dissolve 80 per cent of the Wakf committees out of a total of 2,800 operating in the state.

The Chairman of the board, Haji Rao Sharafat, Ali said the decision had been taken due to the “clandestine” functioning of the caretakers of certain committees. He said they were not providing any information about property and details of income despite repeated warnings. Following this, it had been decided to dissolve these committees and appoint new office-bearers, he added.

He also stressed that the tenure of a committee should not be more than one year. He claimed of getting two wakf properties, Wakf-55 and at Kulhal, liberated from illegal possession.

Contrary to the minutes of a Wakf Board meeting held on April 13, which confirmed of turning down a proposal of giving absolute powers to the Chairman under Section 32 of the Wakf Board, Ali placed his own version of obtaining these powers at the board meeting.

Belying the fact, he said the board had seven elected and three nominated members and thus the elected members were defeating all his efforts at the board meeting. He also described the re-election of Razia Begh and Mohd Shahzad, elected members, illegal saying members of the former board, which was dismantled, could not be re-elected again.

He also made the charge of perpetuating the dynasty in the allocation of contracts at Piran Kaliyar, saying in any profession, be it politics or business, people favour their families and he was no exception.

An amount of 4 lakh, which he received from Wakf-55, would be distributed among the poor and the destitute, he added.

Dehradun, April 16
The Uttarakhand Forest Department is finally all set to get its new joint state forest headquarters building. The department has already started holding consultations with architectural engineers and aims to come up with a green building.

According to the Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Dr RBS Rawat, sanction has been received from the state government for the construction of the joint forest headquarters building in Dehradun and the foundation stone expected to be laid next month in May.

He said that the Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam had been entrusted with the task of construction of the building that would incur an expenditure of Rs 12 crore. The Uttarakhand Forest authorities had already studied several green buildings in the country and aspired to make the joint forest headquarters building a model green building in the state.

The existing State Forest Headquarters on Rajpur road is an old British bungalow and lacks basic infrastructure. Apart from the office of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, the campus houses offices of the Chief Conservator, Garhwal, Chief Conservator, Planning and Financial Administration, and Conservator of Forests, Yamuna circle.

The new green building will be on the very existing campus due to its prime location and will come up after demolition of some of the old structures plus the available vacant space inside the campus.

Certain key forest offices, Human Resource Department, Eco-tourism and Land Survey Directorate, are at present situated at various locations in Dehradun other than the Rajpur road headquarters. Similarly, an important office of Uttarakhand Chief Wildlife Warden is based in

Nainital and not in Dehradun. The wildlife authorities in the state have been thus forced to operate from a camp office in Dehradun. Despite practically all work now being carried out from Dehradun, Nainital continues to occupy the Chief Wildlife Warden Office status.

"As our various state-level offices are spread all across and a need was being felt for a Joint State Forest Headquarters building for quite some time. The shifting of these offices to a single campus will be in the interests of the overall working of the department," RBS Rawat, Principle Chief Conservator of forests, observed.

The joint state forest headquarters building that will come within two years will have all necessary architectural designs of the green building. Apart from insulation provisions that will keep the building warm during winters and vice versa, it will also have ample natural light.

Dehradun, April 16
Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha Speaker Harbans Kapoor inaugurated a multipurpose camp in Sahashpur block here today.

Talking to the locals he said to make the state the best, it needed the support of its people and such camps were organised by the government to help provide details of the facilities being provided to the residents.

It also helped solve their problems at a single place.

Ganesh Joshi, MLA, said many persons were not able to take benefit from such seminars as people hardly came to know about these in advance.

As many as 12 complaints were recorded during the seminar out of which seven were from the Gramya Vikas Department, Sahaspur, and five related to the Social Welfare Department.

Gram Vikas officials gave a copy of family registration to 150 families. Various departments, including Revenue and Tourism, had put up their stalls to provide information to people.

Dehradun, April 16
Though there is still time for the Uttarakhand Assembly elections, the State Election Commission has managed to distribute EPICs (elector photo identity cards) to 99 per cent of the voters in the state.

In Tehri the commission has managed to distribute 100 per cent voter identity cards, while in Uttarkashi the coverage is 99.79 per cent, in Haridwar 99.67 per cent, in Pauri Garhwal 99.11, in Pithoragarh 99.80 per cent, in Champawat 99.83 per cent and in Rudraprayag 99.96 per cent.

“The commission will receive last-minute requests for the inclusion of names in the voter lists even a month before the elections.We hope to achieve 100 per cent Id-card coverage before the poll,” said Radha Raturi, State Electoral Officer.

In Uttarakhand the total number of EPIC holders is 5851014 (as on January 1, 2011) while the number of those without identity cards is 63347.

Radha Raturi said the commission had taken several steps to issue error-free cards to all eligible voters by organising awareness camps from time to time.

Pithoragarh, April 16
Almora MP Pradeep Tamta today flayed the Uttarakhand Government for being partial to allocating professional institutions, which has been approved by the Centre.

He said: “The Centre has approved various institution like the IIM, the NIT, the NIFT, the AIIMS and a central university for the state, but while allocating these institutions, the state government did not keep a balance between plains and hilly regions and Kumaon and Garhwal.”

The MP also lashed out at the government for its stand on the implementation of the Right to Education Bill in the state. He said despite instructions on the Bill, the government was “playing politics”.

“The Union Government has given five years’ time to the states to develop infrastructure to be able to implement the Bill. But the state government has been playing politics by creating confusion among the youth on the Teachers Eligibility Test,” said Tamta.

The MP further alleged that the government had also failed to develop the Naini Saini air strip in this district. It had also not initiated the process for the exclusion of affected villages from the Askot wildlife sanctuary.

The MP said even a proposal on making Almora a tourist circuit has not been sent by the government despite the fact that the Union Tourist Ministry had continuously been writing to the state government to do the same,” said Tamta.

Pithoragarh, April 16
To acquaint jawans from the plains, serving in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), with Himalayan terrains and to identify the problems of the people living on the Indo-China and Indo-Nepal border, a 24-member SSB expedition was flagged off for the Nabhidhang valley at the Indo-China border on the Kailash Mansarowar Yatra route, by the SSB IG, Shyam Singh, on Friday from Dharchula. “The jawans included in the expedition will prepare a report on the condition of the villagers living on this 102-km long Himalayan trek and after 10 days’ expedition prepare a report on their experiences of the condition of the villagers living at high altitude villages of the border, which will be sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India,” said Bhagat singh Tolia, commandant of the 11th battalion, SSB.

“At present the expedition will only visit up to Kalapani as beyond it, thick snow layers are not feasible for trekking,” said Tolia.

According to the SSB sources, the team will also report about the condition of the Kailash Mansarowar route as the pilgrimage will start from June 1 this year. The main purpose of the expedition is to know about the living conditions of the border people, the facilities of communication and advance farming technology available with them as well as the morale of the villagers at the border,” said the commandant. 

Bilaspur, April 16
A case of impersonation and deception has been registered at Talai police station here at the instance of representatives of the Paplaah gram panchayat under Jhandutta Development Block in the district.

Superintendent of Police Santosh Patial said here today that a deputation of the Paplaah gram panchayat had met him and complained against Raj Kumar Vardhan. They said he had visited them on April 6 and, claiming to be a correspondent of several reputed dailies, demanded Rs 2,500 for getting news of the panchayat gram sabha meeting published.

On his insistence, they had given him the money, but the news did not appear in any newspaper. They enquired about him from several persons and places and learnt that the person actually did not represent any newspaper and that no newspaper asked its correspondent to collect funds for getting news published.

Patial said prima facie it was found that the person was in the habit of posing as a press correspondent and deceiving people for getting various benefits from them. He said a case had been registered against him under Sections 170 (impersonation) and 240 (faking as a journalist) of the IPC. He seemed to have absconded, but would be apprehended soon.

Meanwhile, the Himachal Pradesh State Journalists Federation has welcomed the registration of the case against this person and said the police should also check all vehicles of the state and outside, which are inscribed with the words “Press” and search these thoroughly if the occupant did not provide his “Press I-card”. This will help save journalists’ image which is being spoilt by such persons who indulge in objectionable and illegal activities under cover of this “Press” label, which normally inhibits the police from checking such vehicles.