Pithoragarh, May 6
Shooting boulders in landslide-hit Tintola, near Garvadhar, on the Tawaghat-Mangti road, 27 km from Dharchula, has disrupted the journey of the migrating tribal people of the Byans and Chaudans valleys who are returning to their summer homes in the higher reaches.

The tribal people of these valleys are returning home after spending six months in migration in the lower valleys of Dharchula and Jauljivi.

“The road, which has been widened by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for the past six months, has been hit by landslides disturbing the migration of the local people. They will continue to face inconvenience till the remaining 5 km stretch of the road is widened,” said SK Nayar, Commanding Officer, BRO. After remaining closed for traffic for two days, the road suddenly witnessed the sliding of heavy boulders, forcing the authorities to close the road for more days.

The worst sufferer due to the frequent closure of this road are the people of the Byans valley. “The residents of seven villages of the Byans valley and two villages of Chaudans valley travel by road to their native villages. These people are facing a lot of problems due to frequent landslides for the past six months,” said Manoj Nagniyal, gram pradhan of Nagling village, Byans valley.

These migrating people had to stop for hours at Garvadhar. “Some times they have to stay near a landslide-hit spot for two or three days, which will ultimately disturb their routine of sowing crops in higher Himalayan reaches,” said Manoj Nagniyal.

“Not only the migratory people are facing problem due to the landslide, but the local people are also inconvenienced, as the herds of animal face difficulty to cross the damaged road.

The Public Works Department (PWD) and other agencies repair only that parts of the road which fall on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra route while fail to tackle the problems faced by the local people,” said the gram pradhan.

Dehradun, May 6
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Uttarakhand, is jubilant over the stupendous achievement of two of its cluster projects, beekeeping and khadi product development, in Haldwani and Nainital/Udham Singh Nagar respectively, set up under the Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) sponsored by the Centre. 

The scheme has given employment to 2,100 villagers in these regions of the state. The KVIC contributed Rs 16 lakh to bee keeping project and Rs 1.22 crore to the khadi product development project.

Chairman of the KVIC, Uttarakhand, Karnail Singh said: “The eco-friendly products of traditional industries not only have great potential for growth in exports but can also lead to generation of employment opportunities in the rural areas. With a view to making the traditional industries more productive and competitive, and facilitate their sustainable development, SFURTI was launched during 2007-08, and it is doing exceedingly well, beyond our expectations.”

Beekeeping, which was quite raw and unrefined in Haldwani, had been taken to much higher level with training in innovative skills and technical upgrade. Chief Development Executive, CDE, Vinod Prasad Samuel said: “Indica bee, which was on the verge of extinction, has been revived with the growth of their colonies. The beekeepers have been equipped with modern techniques and beehives. A common facility centre has been set up at Simli, near Chamoli, where we have established a honey procurement and packaging plant, bottling upgrade centre and a wax-processing unit. Wax earlier was thrown as waste.”

This programme provided employment to 550 villagers of 40 villages situated in the high altitude areas. In these four years, the revenue has increased from Rs 8 lakh to above 40 lakh.

Similarly, the khadi product development cluster has benefited 1,100 villagers, who were earlier doing spinning and weaving through traditional manner. It has enrolled 550 new entrants as well. Jagat Santhiyal, CDE said, “We have provided the artisans with modern charkhas and looms besides setting up common facility centres equipped with a testing lab, a dying centre at Haldwani and marketing facilities.

Dehradun, May 6
With an Annual Plan outlay of Rs 7,800 crore for Uttarakhand, a whopping Rs 1,000 crore more than the last year’ Annual Plan outlay, the Opposition Congress has got another issue to hit back at the state Bharatiya Janata Party Government in the state. The state BJP Government, led by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, had been accusing the Union Government of discrimination against the state. After such a windfall, while the ruling BJP leaders are silent, senior Congress leaders have come out to welcome the generous annual plan for the state.

In a statement issued here today, Uttarakhand Congress President Yashpal Arya expressed gratitude to the Centre for making such a staggering increase in the state Annual Plan outlay 2011-2012. He asserted that the Centre since 2007-08 had been continuously increasing the Annual Plan outlay for the state.

Arya said while in 2007-08 during the present BJP rule, the Annual Plan outlay was Rs 4,378 crore, it has now increased to Rs 7,800 crore for 2011-2012. He pointed out the state BJP Government had failed to take benefit from increase in the Annual Plan outlay. Arya said the funds are not being spent fully.

Harish Rawat, Union Minister of State for Food Processing and Agriculture, in a statement said the Annual Plan size had exposed the BJP game plan of blaming the Central Government for every ill of the state. “The Annual Plan allocation by the Central Government reflects the concern of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre towards the people of the state and its development,” he added.

Vijay Bahuguna, Lok Sabha MP from Tehri Garhwal, said: “The state government has failed to utilise funds and a large chunk of funds, particularly those meant for the schemes for the minorities, have lapsed,” he alleged.

Dehradun, May 6
Other than building Anganwari centres in Muslim-dominated districts of the state under the Central government’s Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP), the state government is yet to initiate work in other areas of the programme, the term of which will end in 2012.

The implementation of the MSDP for Muslim minorities has been underway in the districts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar, with a sizeable Muslim population, since 2008.

“The total allocation made under the MSDP programme is Rs 5,950 lakh. Against this amount, the total expenses incurred was of Rs 609.3 lakh till March 30 this. A total of 455 Anganwari centres based on the district plans have already been approved by the Centre in Muslim-concentrated districts of Uttarakhand,” said MH Khan, secretary, Social Welfare.

The outlay for the district of Haridwar under the MSDP is Rs 34.80 crore, and for Udham Singh Nagar it is Rs 24.70 crore for building Anganwari centres.

In the first phase (2008-2009), 100 Anganwari centres were built in Haridwar, and 124 centres were built in Udham Singh Nagar. In the second phase (2009-2010), 145 Anganwari centres were sanctioned for Haridwar, and 43 centres were sanctioned for Udham Singh Nagar. For 2010-2011, 43 centres have been sanctioned for Udham Singh Nagar and none for Haridwar.

“The work on most of the Anganwari centres that were sanctioned in 2009 is already complete, while the work on the remaining Anganwari centres is also going on. Atleast Rs 3 lakh is being spent on the construction of one Anganwari,” said VR Tamta, additional secretary, Social Welfare.

While the focus is on asset building in these districts, work in other areas, such as construction of primary schools, colleges, ITIs, Indira Awas (Centre’s rural housing scheme), drinking water facilities, sanitation facilities and health centres in the chosen villages is yet to take off.

“We started with the Anganwari centres on the basis of the directives of the Central Government that found the participation of women very low. In the first phase Anganwari centres were built so that the participation of women could increase; in the second phase we have to build polytechnics. Land has already been earmarked for building polytechnic in Haridwar, while in Udham Singh Nagar, we are still looking for land,” said Tamta.

The government has to build atleast three polytechnics in Haridwar and two in Udham Singh Nagar. But so far as the construction of houses is concerned, the department officials say, it is being covered through the Central government’s housing scheme, “To avoid duplication we have held discussions with other departments and they will be covering these areas,” said Tamta. 

Dehradun, May 6
Ashok Verma, leader of opposition, Municipal Corporation, said today that they had requested the state government to ensure adequate preparations to manage natural disaster.

“The rainy season is about to come, but the government is yet to complete the works in various areas; they should complete the work so that people do not have to deal with the problem they faced due to incessant rains last year,” he told the media while convening a meeting of the executive committee of the Municipal Corporation as well as Vikas Samiti.

Verma further said they had also asked the corporation to make certain that the new embankments required for various rivers were constructed immediately and the requisite repairs done without any delay. Regarding the elections to be held tomorrow, Verma said six councillors for Executive Committee as well as five for Vikas Samiti would be fighting tomorrow. “It has been almost three years that the Samiti is lying defunct due to the absence of a Deputy Mayor, who is the president of the Samiti, but we still are trying to maintain it,” he said.

A new policy was also made during the meeting that those who had fought the elections earlier would not be given the chance this time. 

Pithoragarh, May 6
The businessmen and tour operators active in the Munsiyari and Dharchula areas of the district have expressed concern on the condition of the road linking the tourist place of Munsiyari and Narain Ashram. Two persons died today in a road accident while the death toll in the accidents occurring on the Dharchula and Munsiyari roads in the past few days has reached up to six.

Already a number of tourists have started flocking to these areas. “Two persons died when a Max vehicle fell into a deep gorge near the Kakarsing turn near Tejam, 20 km from Thal town, today. The jeep, which was carrying 11 passengers, was going to Munsiyari from Thal. Nine persons have been injured, some of them seriously,” said Rajiv Mohan, circle officer of Munsiyari. “The injured have been admitted to the community health centre, Tejam,” he added.

According to the police, this is the third road accident in the district during the past one week. “One person had died and four were injured in the Lake valley in Muwani in an accident on May 3 when a tipper fell into a deep gorge. The accident was followed by the death of two youths at Dharchula when their Alto met with an accident,” said Rajiv Mohan. A minor girl died on Tuesday when she fell off a moving motorbike due to the bad condition of the road in the Aincholi area of the district.

“Our association has pleaded to the administration to maintain the road to Munsiyari properly. These accidents could be averted and the image of this one of the most attractive tourist places in the Kumaon region should not be maligned,” said Jagdish Singh Rawat, president of the Hotel Association, Munsiyari.

Dehradun, May 6
The 12th Uttarakhand State Open Junior Tennis Tournament for boys and girls, which is being organised by the Uttaranchal Tennis Association (UTA), kicked off today at Shanti Tennis Academy.

Players from different cities and schools of the state are participating in the tournament.

The players who won their matches entered the second round of the tournament. In the under-10 boys’ singles, Karan Malik (ONGC) beat Raunak S.Negi (STA) 6-0 and Karan Malik (ONGC) defeated Raunak S.Negi (STA) 6-0.

Boys’ singles (U-10 years):Avyukt Kochhar (STA) bt Pranav Kandari (STA) 6-2; Ali Sabri (STA) bt Kartikay Goyal (STA) 6-2; Priyam Jain (ONGC) bt Aryan Mohan (STA) 6-3;

Ritwik Kotiyal (STA) bt Shreyansh Kochhar (ONGC) 6-0; and Kabeer Kapoor (SJA) bt Dhruva Gupta (STA) 6-0.

Boys’ singles (U-12 years):Karan Malik (ONGC) bt Saral Nijhar (SJA) 6-1; Praveen B Singh (STA) bt Priyam Attari (SJA) 6-2; Jain Anand (STA) bt Aryan Mohan (SJA) 6-1; Uday Kochhar (SJA) bt Ritwik Kotiyal (STA) 6-4;Siddharth (SJA) bt Kunal Goyal (STA) 6-3; Prakhar Pal (STA) bt Arindam Sharma (SJA) 6-0; Priyam Jain (ONGC) bt Raghuvansh Parmar (SJA) 6-0; Kanisorn (Kasiga) bt Raghav Negi (STA) 6-2; and Aryaman Shukla (SJA) bt Sparsh Aggarwal (STA) 6-2.

Dehradun, May 6
Welham Girls’ School (Blues) thrashed Welham Girls’ School (Whites) 48-18 to enter the final of the fifth Welham Girls’ School Golden Jubilee All-India Basketball Tournament, here today.

Blues won 5-0, 4-7, 9-3, 30-8 in the quarters. Shonika fashioned this win contributing 21 points, whereas Malvika scored six points for Whites.

In the second semifinals, Modern School, New Delhi, got the better of Motilal Nehru School of Sports (MNSS), Rai, 77-59. Aastha (25 points) and Sarvanta (31 points) were the highest scorers.

Earlier in another match, Welham Blues beat BCGS 43-20 and Modern School, New Delhi, defeated Welham Whites 36-28. — TNS