Haridwar, May 26
Once again, the focus has shifted on the ongoing agitation by former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti with Vishwa Hindu Parishad international chief Ashok Singhal visiting the venue of the agitation and holding a closed-door meeting with her. Though none divulged a word about their conversation.

Both the firebrand leaders talked for almost an hour probably on Uma Bharti’s current agitation regarding the holy Ganga while speculation was rife that Singhal visited her with the intent of knowing the future course of action of the movement, the base of which will shift to New Delhi.

Though the visit of the VHP chief was kept a low-profile one, as soon as the news of his arrival spread, leaders of the VHP, RSS, and the BJP gathered at the venue.

Uma Bharti said Singhal visited her in order to enquire after her health and not much should be read into their closed-door conversation, as anyone was welcome at Divya Sewa Mission Ashram.

Prior to the monsoon session of Parliament, Uma Bharti, aided by religious leaders, social activists and the organisations and environmentalists working for the cause of the Ganga, will be staging the agitation at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to press the Central Government to give the Ganga Basin River Authority more teeth, and for steps to make sure the Ganga remains clean from Haridwar till Ganga Sagar.

Dehradun, May 26
The state-level committee, which has been constituted to implement the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme for the minorities in the state, last met in July, 2010. It has been about 10 months since the last meeting was held. The delay in the holding of meeting of the panel has put a big question mark over the commitment of the state government towards the welfare of the minorities.

Setting up definitive goals that have to be achieved in a specific time frame, the 15-Point Programme calls for holding the meeting of the state-level committee every three months. The last meeting was presided over by then Chief Secretary NS Napalchayal. The present Chief Secretary Subash Kumar is yet to hold a meeting of the committee.

Besides strict directives regarding the holding of meeting, a quarterly progress report has to be sent to the Union Ministry by the 15th day of the next quarter.

“The meeting has to be held as per the schedule to monitor the decisions taken regarding the implementation of the programme. During the last meeting, the problem of shortage of teachers at Urdu-medium schools in the state was brought to light. Since then there has been no follow-up action on this front and the Urdu-medium schools continue to be in the doldrums,” said Mohammed Abdul Aleem Ansari, Secretary, Uttarakhand Muslim Education Mission, who was also nodal officer for the programme in 2010.

He said when the matter was raised at the meeting three primary schools at Bulawala, Telwala and Jewan Garh were facing the shortage of Urdu teachers.

The programme specifically calls for enhancing opportunities for education for the members of the minority communities through scholarships, for which the Central Government makes financial allocations.

The Social Welfare Department claims that a proposal for post-matric scholarship to the tune of Rs 12.43 lakh was approved by the Central Government in 2010 while that of 2011 was still awaiting approval.

“As stipulated in the 15-Point Programme, the state government has to make 15 per cent allocation for the welfare of the minorities in the key areas like education, women empowerment and child welfare but most of the departments fail to present required reports, hindering the implementation of the programme.

To encourage regular reporting of programmes, a nodal officer was appointed. No person has been appointed to fill his place after he moved on to join another organisation,” said BR Tamta, Additional Secretary, Social Welfare.

Dehradun, May 26
It has been more than a year now that all the rooftop hoardings and banners were declared illegal, but the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) has failed to take any action.

Though the officials claim that the task of removal of these hoardings is getting delayed due to the shortage of staff, but others avow that it the political pressure that is stopping them to remove the hoardings. The hoardings not only lessen beauty of the capital city, but could also cause serious accidents during the heavy storms.

Declaring all the hoardings that were displayed after March 31, 2010 illegal, the court had asked the corporation to float the tender.

After this, the DMC gave the permission for putting up the hoardings but the rooftops were still kept at bay. The corporation earned about Rs2 crore from the same. A notice was issued to all the building owners to remove the same but without any response.

Several people, including the councillors of the corporation, have also agitated for the removal of the hoardings in the past. Some of the councillors, including Govind Mohan, Ajay Singhal, Surinder Khukreja, Dr Brijendra Pal, Ashok Kohli, Sanjay Gupta and Abdul Azia met HR Rawat, Assistant Executive Engineer, DMC, today and asked him to ensure the removal of the banners immediately.

“The hoardings should be removed immediately or else we would come on streets to protest,” Mohan stated.

“Due to the dust storm on Wednesday evening, many of the hoardings fell down damaging the electrical wires and poles. The corporation needs to take a heed immediately or else will have to face tricky circumstances in future,” he affirmed.

The councillors also demanded ‘black listing’ of the companies that were given the tenders to put up the hoardings, but botched to remove the displayed ones.

“The corporation should tell us where the money earned by putting up the hoardings is going as none has been deposited in the corporation since last year. This means that the officials are involved and the money is going in their pockets,” the councillors claimed.

Rawat said, “We have already passed the order related to the removal of hoardings. But due to the shortage of staff the work is taking some time.”

Dehradun, May 26
The Uttarakhand Chief Secretary, Subhash Kumar, has expressed concern over the delay in the release of the cash-credit limit by the Irrigation Department even after the release of budget in April. While reviewing the progress of potable water and the Public Works Department, he expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of work during April and May. He directed senior officials of all departments that they should fix a monthly target of physical progress and report to the head of the departments accordingly.

Subhash Kumar, who was reviewing the work of the various departments, while implementing public welfare schemes under the current annual plan, asked the officials to speed up the works under the current financial year. He directed that the stipulated target of electricity, road, irrigation, health, potable water and education departments should be achieved by the end of June this year. He further said that departmental secretaries should hold a fortnightly meeting to review the progress of works.

During the meeting, the Chief Secretary asked the status of sanction, release and expenditure of the budget in April and May. He directed that the tendency to release the budget at the concluding months of financial year should be checked. “Besides, on-the-spot inspection should be ensured to access the physical progress of works and redress public grievances,” he added. He directed principal secretaries and secretaries to hold fortnightly meetings to review the expenditure against the released budget and sort out problems.

Those who attended the meeting included Principal Secretary, Finance, Alok Jain, Tourism Secretary Rakesh Sharma, Irrigation Secretary PC Sharma, PWD Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh, Secretary, Power, Health and Information, Dr Uma Kant Panwar, Rural Development Secretary Om Prakash, Forest Secretary HM Khan, Education Secretary Manisha Panwar, Food Secretary Ajay Nabiyal and other senior officials of the state government.

Haridwar, May 26
Strong winds accompanied by hailstorm that hit the city last evening put life out of gear in Haridwar. In many colonies water and electricity supply remained off the whole night and was restored only by noon.

A couple of trains had to be stopped at the Motichur railway station as the trees fell on the railway track apart from mudslide from the nearby hilly terrain affecting the train timings. Instantly, railway staff employees pitched in to clear the fallen material from the track and after one hour the track was cleared of the debris.

While uprooted trees, street light poles, hoardings were seen lying on the roads and highways in the morning affecting the traffic flow, particularly at highway wherein at several stretches huge branches of trees and huge signboards disrupted the flow of traffic.

Two girls riding a two-wheeler suffered injuries after they hit a pothole around 8:30pm. Nearby residents and local traffic police personnel rescued them.

At the Rishikul Ayurvedic College intersection, a signboard of the MC fell on the road injuring a scooter-borne youth who was immediately referred to the nearest hospital. Traffic got disrupted for more than twenty minutes till the seven-metre signboard was pushed to the roadside. Another such signboard was uprooted at the Prem Nagar Ashram bridge.

Similar accidents were reported from the Jatwada bridge, Chandi Ghat intersection, Jwalapur, Chandracharya Chowk-Bhagat Singh Chowk stretch and Shivalik Nagar similar.

Executive engineer, Electricity Department, Vineet Saxena said electricity wires were damaged leading to snapping of power supply to many areas. However, it was restored to normal by the morning in many colonies.

Nainital, May 26
The Income Tax (IT) Department has initiated a drive to check tax evasion and claims of wrongful exemptions by certain educational institutions and industrial units in the Nainital range.

According to highly placed sources in the department, the sleuths of the department have recently asked the two major schools in Nainital, Sherwood College and All Saints College, to cough up a sum of around Rs 1.63 crore tabulated for the financial year 2008-09 for which they are said to have wrongly claimed an exemption under provisions pertaining to charity. Some other institutions are also on the radar of the department.

Similarly, the department has identified certain industrial units located in the Kashipur and Haldwani areas that have been making wrong use of the provisions under Section 80 (IC) of the Income Tax Act. The IT officials have discovered that the units have been manufacturing their products outside Uttarakhand while showing the state to be their production base. Similarly, they have also been fudging figures and showing profits earned from units outside the state over here.

It is learnt that the department has recently made proceedings to recover a sum of Rs 68 lakh approximately from M/S Natural Fragrance in the Bhimtal area of Nainital district for misusing Section 80 (IC).

Talking to The Tribune, Joint Commissioner (IT) Satya Prakash said: “We will be taking steps to ensure that the educational institutions and the industrial units do not resort to such measures to evade tax”.

He further stated that the Nainital range, comprising the hill districts of Nainital, Bageshwar, Pithoragarh, Champawat and Almora, is performing the best in the state.

Satya Prakash said the emphasis is on increasing both the tax-payers’ base as well as the revenue in the range. For the previous financial year, the range has collected revenue of Rs 58.74 crore and the target being set for the current financial year is around Rs 70 crore. Similarly, the department is aiming at increasing its tax-payers’ base to 50,000 in the range.

Replying to a query related to the delays in the IT refunds for the assesses, he said the process of refunding money was being carried out on a priority basis and almost 70 per cent of the refund had been given. It was further disclosed that the matters pertaining to refund of those who had filed IT returns through the Internet was also being taken up with the IT refund office at Bengaluru.

Pithoragarh, May 26
Around 136 ethnic groups living in the Talla Johar area of Munsiyari subdivision of this district now have hope for their inclusion into the category of Tribals, as Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has assured them that they would get the same status before the 2012 Assembly elections, said Khushal Singh Piplia, a member of the Uttarakhand BJP working committee.

According to Piplia, all the 136 sub-castes of the Barpatia area of Talla Johar used to be involved in the Tibetan barter trade with their tribal Bhotia community. But, after the trade was discontinued in 1962, the tribal Bhotia community, who lived in the Upper Johar area, was given reservation in government jobs while their partners in the trade, the Barpatias, were deprived of the reservation.

“This has resulted in big social gap in the area. Whereas the tribal Bhotias are getting reservation and other facilities from the government, the 136 sub-castes of Barpatias have been neglected and subsequently pushed into poverty and social backwardness in comparison to the Bhotia tribesmen,” said Piplia.

“We have put this demand before the Chief Minister during his visit to Munsiyari on May 16 this year and the Chief Minister asked Kumaon Commissioner Kunal Sharma to investigate the matter and give him details of the findings,” said Piplia.

Piplia said the people of the Talla (lower) Johar area have always been dependent on the trade with Tibet, which had been open for everyone till the Sino-India conflict in 1962, after which the trade with Tibet was fully closed, resulting in closure of the trade resulted into unemployment.

Nainital, May 26
The Union Minister for Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah, has called for a large-scale use of solar and other forms of renewable energy in providing electricity to the villages in Uttarakhand, located on the international border.

Talking to the mediapersons here at the Nainital Raj Bhawan, Dr Abdullah said the Centre is ready to fund such an electrification project and has asked the state government to come up with a proposal for the purpose.

Claiming that the things are proceeding in the right direction under the National Solar Mission that aims at generating 20,000 Mega Watts (MW) of power by 2022, he said that 1,300 MW would be generated by the end of the first phase of the Mission by 2013.

He said the government is also facilitating import of equipment by giving a waiver in duty for the purpose.

He said the solar energy is being used successfully by several religious shrines for cooking and serving the food to the devotees. These shrines include Vaishno Devi near Jammu, Sai Baba’s shrine in Shirdi in Maharshtra, centres being run by Brahmkumaris in Mount Abu and Manesar.

The minister added the authorities managing the langar at the Golden Temple in Amritsar have agreed to make use of solar energy for cooking the food, which is now being done on LPG that is proving to be expensive. He said that India was picking up in making use of wind energy and the production level had gone up to 13,000 MW.

Dehradun, May 26
An exhibition of paintings by Alpana Lele, a renowned artist from Goa, was organised at a hotel here today. Alpana’s paintings exquisitely bring to life the daily routine of people, especially the women engaged in their household chores. Her work is not confined to Goa but also captures the beauty of Northern India and its mysterious women. She has also ventured into paintings on Rajasthani rural life with minute details from its colourful attire and intricate jewellery designs.

Prof BP Kamboj, a renowned artist, in his brief speech as the chief guest at the opening of the exhibition, lamented the absence of an art gallery in the state capital. He disclosed that the state government had in principle approved the setting up of such a gallery and even the Chief Minister had issued instructions for acquisition of a suitable land for its construction but the prevalent red tape was proving a major obstacle in implementing this decision.

In this context, Kamboj appreciated the initiative by Mohit Dang of the Muse art gallery in providing ample space to artists from Dehradun and elsewhere to exhibit their work. He also said Uttarakhand had enough talent in the field of fine arts but the artists need a suitable and convenient platform to showcase their creative works of art. He also mentioned the pioneer contribution by Uttaranchal Gramin Bank for converting a part of its headquarters premises into an art gallery, but added that such individual efforts though welcome were not sufficient enough.

Alpana has had individual shows not only in many parts of India but also in the US. She has done a five-year course in sculpture as a major from MS University, Baroda. She is also a recipient of numerous awards, including the Soviet Nehru Award, Shankar’s Weekly Silver Medal and the Lalit Kala Academy State Award for Best Sculpture.

Prominent among the art lovers who attended the opening of the exhibition were Madhu, Aloke Lal, Dr Richa Kamboj and Phalguni Das Gupta, a veteran and renowned artist.

Dehradun, May 26
Demand for undertaking a fresh survey for confirming the presence of total number of manual scavengers in the state has one again gained urgency with the revelation that around 246 dry toilets continue to be in use in some villages of Haridwar district.

This belies the claims of the Social Welfare Department that has maintained that manual scavenging is no longer practised in the state.

Calling for a fresh survey in the state, the Chairman of the State Safai Karamchari Ayog, BP Makwana, has said that in Haridwar 246 dry toilets still exist and the state government should take immediate steps to rehabilitate them and end this reprehensible practice that is still continuing in the state.

“We have physically carried a survey of several villages in Roorkee especially of Jwiasi village and found around 246 dry toilets still in use. That means that people from a particular community are still being employed for carrying night soil on their heads,” said Makwana. Surveys undertaken by the government in 1992, 1997, 2000, when the state was not created have confirmed the presence of 1,435 manual scavenges in the state, but the Uttarakhand Government has rehabilitated only 404 scavengers; mystery continues to surround the rest of the scavengers. Their presence was reported in Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Pauri, Nainital, Champawat and Haridwar districts.

Almost all scavengers were brought into the mainstream and encouraged to take up small businesses after a brief training in different trades that could help them earn a living.

But Makwana charged that the state government could not spend Rs 10 crore allocated for the rehabilitation of scavengers. “Out of Rs 10 crore allocated by the state government for the rehabilitation of scavengers, only Rs 8 core were spent in the past five years,” charged Makwana.

Along with rehabilitating the scavengers, Integrated Low- Cost Sanitation Scheme ((ILCS) was also introduced in areas where the practice of a dry latrine was prevalent. The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act came into force 46 years after Independence.

Dehradun, May 26
The teams of ACA Bengal, Air India and Jharkhand Cricket Association won their respective matches as Piyush Chawla, the Indian cricket team player was the star attraction in the All-India Uttarakhand Gold Cup Cricket Tournament played here today.

In the first match played at Abhimanyu Cricket Academy (ACA) Bengal, led by Piyush Chawla, defeated North Eastern Railways by 55 runs. ACA Bengal won the toss and elected to bat first. The team scored 227 for four wickets in 40 overs. Piyush Chawla, the captain of the ACA Bengal team, scored 74 runs (not out) while Mahesh Rawat scored an unbeaten 75 runs. Deepak Yadav of the railways team took two wickets for 33 runs.

In reply, The NE Railways team were all out for 171 runs in 35 overs. Opener Imran was the top scorer with 57 runs while Tahir Abbas scored 38 runs. Piyush Chawla was the main wrecker who took five wickets for 36 runs.

In the second match played at the Rangers’ College ground, the Jharkhand State Cricket Association team defeated BPCL, Kochi, by seven wickets. The Jharkhand team won the toss and elected to field first. BPCL, Kochi, were all out for 116 runs in 29.2 overs. Arun Paulose was the top scorer with 31 runs. Asif Fahad took four wickets for 25 runs for Jharkhand team.

In reply, Jharkhand team scored 117 for five wickets to win the match. Ishank Jaggi with 51 runs not out and Amir Hashmi with 41 unbeaten runs were the top scorers.

In the third match, Air India defeated Indian Air Force team by 36 runs in a match played at Kasiga School grounds here.

Indian Air Force won the toss and put their rivals to bat first. Air India team scored 205 for five wickets in the stipulated 30 overs. Robin Bisht with 42 runs not out and Pawan Negi with an unbeaten 47 runs steered the Air India innings.

In reply, the Indian Air Force team was all out for 169 runs in 28.1 overs. Satish Upadhaya was the top scorer with 39 runs. Pawan Negi took three wickets for 37 runs for the Air India team.

Haridwar, May 26
After the students of DAV public school, Jagjeetpur, brought laurels in academics to the school by securing top positions in the district merit list in this year’s CBSE intermediate results, now it was the turn of the sportspersons of the school to shine with the school basketball team bagging bronze medal in the Uttaranchal State Junior Basketball championship.

The bronze medallist team of DAV Public School, Jagjeetpur, in the state basketball tournament in Haridwar. A Tribune photograph

Boys’ basketball team of the school claimed third spot in the championship in the under-14 age bracket. Team won consecutive league matches, though faltered in the semifinal stage but did not stop putting in brave efforts.

Principal of the school, PC Purohit, said boy’s contingent won bronze medal in the championship held at Om Karanand School in Rishikesh, while girls failed to enter the semifinal stage.

A special function was later organised to felicitate the team’s achievement, which was their maiden feat. Team coach Sanjay Chauhan said that prior to the championship, rigorous coaching-cum-practice schedule was organised for two weeks, which improved the overall performance and physical fitness level of the players.

Jubilant team players gave the credit to the school management, which took care of their studies schedule as well as practice sessions so that they can focus on the championship.

Bronze medallist team members included Ayush Pant, Jayant Kashyap, Shri Yant Gaud, Kunal, Pulkit, Shaurya Chauhan, Hridayangan, Nipun Singh, Vaibhav Chaudhari and Vaibhav Singh.