Dehradun, May 24
Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker and Dehradun MLA Harbans Kapoor has expressed concern over rampant felling of trees in Dehradun.

After Citizens For Green Doon took up the matter with the Speaker, the latter today convened a meeting with the Principal Chief Conservator of Uttarakhand, Dr RBS Rawat, and asked him to take to transplanting of trees that come in the way of road widening works in Dehradun. The Speaker said all possibilities should be looked into for transplanting of trees that are otherwise felled while undertaking development projects in Dehradun.

Taking part in the deliberations, Dr Rawat appreciated efforts by the Citizens For Green Doon towards conducting two successful tree transplants. He assured the Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker that he would ask the officials of his department to take a prompt decision on the feasibility of routine transplantation of trees. He also suggested that the Public Works Department and the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority should also participate in efforts to conserve trees as most of the trees, which are felled for road widening and other public works, came under their purview.

Dr Nitin Pandey, Citizens For Green Doon, argued that over 10,000 trees had been felled in Dehradun in recent years on the pretext of development. He pointed out that many of trees had been felled unnecessarily.

Dehradun city has been witness to indiscriminate felling of trees in the past several years due to widening of roads and other development projects.

Dehradun, May 24
To give a boost to the pharmaceutical sector, the Industries Department is planning to repeat the pharma success story in Rudrapur and Pant Nagar.

The existing pharmaceutical units at these two centres will be given technical support and encouraged to implement good manufacturing practices. “We want to repeat the pharma success story at Rudrapur and Pant Nagar,” said SC Nautiyal, Additional Director (Industries).

The main pharma clusters are present in Dehradun and Haridwar. In all, 200 units exist around Dehradun and Haridwar with a total investment of Rs 500 crore and a total turnover of Rs 2,500 crore.

These are small and medium-scale industries providing employment to 16,000 persons.

Contrary to predictions, especially in the light of the excise holiday coming to an end in the state, pharmaceutical companies are gradually settling down in the state and even looking for an expansion.

The training provided under the Small Industries Development Bank has helped in generating awareness about good manufacturing practices (GMP) and for acquiring international certification that would help in export.

“ A total of 25 units already posses GMP certificates, 15 companies have already initiated the programme and networking is being established among institutions, industries and service providers,” said Pramod Kalani, Managing Director of Oasis Laboratories Private Limited.

The government is also planning to set up two drug testing laboratories in Rudrapur and Dehradun. 

Mussoorie, May 24
The Mussoorie SDM organised a meeting with traders, the Taxi Union and street vendors to discuss various issues concerning the tourist season. It was also attended by the Municipal Council and the police.

Chock-a-Block: A traffic jam at Kempty Falls, near Mussoorie, leaves tourists stranded for hours and (inset) the damaged part of the bridge just above the stream at Kempty Falls

At the meeting, the SDM suggested that the Mussoorie Traders Association should direct its members not to encroach upon roads, especially at Library Bazar.

Executive officer of the Municipal Council said flower vases should be placed on the roadside so that encroachers could not use the space and the MC and traders should bear the cost jointly.

Traders, however, said the MC was capable enough to bear the cost alone as it was earning a huge amount from eco-fee levied at Kolukhet toll gates.

Association MTA president Rajat Aggarwal said the idea of levying eco-fee was being defeated, as officials at the gates were not tending the receipt for eco-fee collected here.

Municipal Council Executive Officer Rohtash Sharma said he was not aware of such discrepancies and as it was a serious matter, he would investigate it and take necessary action.

The issue of dirty public toilets was also raised at the meeting to which Rohtash Sharma said additional staff would be recruited for the season.

Earlier, the SDM, Manoj Kumar, held a meeting with the Taxi Union and raised the issue of haphazard parking at bus stand.

Union president Hukum Singh Rawat said he would direct taxi owners to leave the space for the buses and not to park vehicles towards Mall Road.

Circle Officer (Police), Mussoorie, Shweta Chaubey raised the issue of security and advised the union to click the picture of passengers on long route so that the cases of vehicle theft could be stopped.

She also suggested that the union should take an ID proof of passengers.

At a meeting with street vendors, the SDM warned street vendors not to encroach upon Mall Road and said a drive against encroachment would be launched tomorrow and goods confiscated would not be returned.

Mussoorie, May 24
Residents of the Batagad area near Mussoorie are facing problems due to the overflowing of a septic tank. Kamla Thapliyal, a resident of Batagad, said the septic tank was constructed recently, but it had started leaking from several places, emanating foul smell and making the life of the people miserable.

She alleged that when the contractor concerned was contacted, he refused to rectify the fault.

She further said the entire area was filled with dirt as no sweeper ever bothered to visit the site.

President of the Municipal Council OP Uniyal said he had already inspected the area and directions had been given to officials to solve the problem at the earliest. 

Dehradun, May 24
The Director, Water Quality, Union Ministry of Water Resources, Dr PK Malhotra, said the ministry and the Central Ground Water Board were effectively working together to prepare themselves for the water quality challenges that await the country in the near future.

Dr Malhotra was speaking after inaugurating a state-level training workshop for water managers organised by the Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology at Doon University today. He said providing quality water certainly stood as a challenge and asserted those engaged in the water sector, whether water scientists, researchers and even ordinary people, need to undertake collective efforts to make sure that the masses got a better water quality of water.

He also referred to the central guidelines on water quality. The Director-General, Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology, Dr Rajendra Dobhal, disclosed that at present water quality testing was in progress in all the 13 districts of Uttarakhand at the behest of the council.

Earlier, senior scientist of the council DP Uniyal elaborated on the proceedings of the workshop. He said the workshop aimed at preparing a committed cadre of water experts and managers, comprising both officers and scientists, that could help in meeting out the future water quality challenges.

Dr Girijesh Pant, Vice-Chancellor, Doon University, said the educational institutions had an important role towards maintaining water quality and also managing the water resources. Principal of DAV (PG) College BL Nautiyal presented the vote of thanks.

Dehradun, May 24
Kishore Upadhaya, Congress legislator from Tehri, today staged a dharna at the Bindal police post demanding the registration of a case against the Chief Minister as he feared a threat to his life as well as the lives of his family members.

Dehradun, May 24
The contractual employees of the three power corporations had threatened with mass suicide at the Urja Bhavan on Wednesday in protest against the neglect of their one-month fast by the administration.

The employees said the department did not want to consider their demands and now they no longer wanted to observe peaceful fast anymore.

Around 1,700 contractual employees of the three power corporations, namely the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited, Power Transmission Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited and the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited, have demanded regularisation of their services and equal pay for equal post. The employees said they were given the minimum allowance, which did not include various emoluments and bonus. These employees are appointed through the Uttarkahnad Poorv Sainik Kalyan Nigam.

Dehradun, May 24
The state government is planning to set up a separate adventure sports authority. Tourism Minister Madan Kaushik made a statement to this effect on the occasion of the launching of a quarterly magazine here on Tuesday.

He said Corbett National Park would be opened from the Kotdwar side as well. “The state has great scope for developing adventure tourism like rafting and water sports. Since we have worked on our infrastructure, seven to eight crore tourists visit this state which is seven times its total population. Road, rail and air connectivity has been strengthened. A helicopter service to the Char Dhams has also been started.” Ganesh Joshi, MLA, Rajpur, presided over the function.

Dehradun, May 24
The Air India and North Eastern Railways teams won their respective matches in the All-India Uttarakhand Gold Cup Cricket Tournament played here today. NE Railways defeated Uttarakhand XI by four runs while Air India trounced Rizvi Builders by eight wickets.

In the first match NE Railways won the toss against Uttarakhand XI and elected to bat first. They scored 259 for eight wickets in 40 overs. Tahir Abbas and Deepak Yadav scored 51 and 50 runs, respectively, while Prashant Awasthi scored 42 runs for the Railways. Arvind Sajwan was the most successful bowler who took five wickets for 45 runs. In reply, Uttarakhand XI did well with the help of a brilliant century by opener Harshvardhan, who scored 125 runs in 101 balls. But his valiant effort went in vain as the team lost the match.Uttarakhand XI were all out for 255 runs in 38.5 overs, falling short of four runs. Harshvardhan scored eight sixs and 10 fours in his innings. Neeraj Saini also played a good innings of 67 runs. Deepak Yadav took three wickets for 57 runs and Arish Alam three wickets for 32 runs.

In the second match, Air India defeated Rizvi Builders by eight wickets. Winning the toss, Rizvi Builders scored 120 runs, all out in 35.3 overs. Ravinder Anand was the top scorer with 37 runs. Abid Khan took three wickets for 30 runs while Sonu Sharma, Shakti and Ajit Chandela took two wickets each.

In reply, Air India scored the required runs of 121 runs for two wickets in 18.4 overs. Opener Rohit Parkash and Deepak with unbeaten fifties, respectively, steered the Air India team to victory.