Dehradun, July 16
Uttarakhand Congress Tehri MP Vijay Bahuguna today charged the state BJP government with falsely blaming the United Progressive Alliance government at Centre for all its ills.

He also refuted Uttarakhand CM’s charge that Congress MPs from Uttarakhand were not pursuing the state’s issues at the Centre with sincerity.

Addressing a press conference in Dehradun today, Vijay Bahuguna accused Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank of having a habit of blaming the Centre for all his follies in the state.

He alleged that the Chief Minister had not even invited the Uttarakhand MPs once to consult on any issue and refuted his charge that the MPs of the state were not doing enough at the Lok Sabha.

“The Chief Minister only believes in blaming the MPs. He least invites the Uttarakhand MPs for consultations on any issue. It is we, who had even gone to meet him on a couple of occasion in the interests of the state”, Bahuguna pointed out. Bahuguna said the Centre had always been benevolent in providing funds to the Uttarakhand Government despite the state’s repeated failure to utilse the Annual Plan outlay amount of past years. Responding to queries, Bahuguna said he favoured Eco-Senstive Zone for the Ganga but accused Chief Minister Nishank of failing to come up with a clear cut stand over the issue.

Referring to the ongoing rains, he said the State Disaster Management Network had failed completely. “The Char Dham Yatra today stands disrupted as the state has not taken adequate measures to ensure road connectivity in the state. This is giving a bad reputation to the state that boasts of being the Char Dham Yatra state”, he observed.

Dehradun, July 16
The Internal Control System (ICS) of the Group Organic Certification introduced by the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board is proving to be a boon for farmers with small and fragmented land holdings.

Instead of going individually for organic certification that proves to be a costly affair, the ICS method has halved the cost of the certification and even encouraged more farmers for getting organic certification of their farmland.

“The objectives of the group certification are manifold. It reduces the cost of certification without compromising on quality and also organises farmers in groups. As the revenue from agriculture is less, the farmers find it easier to opt for the ICS methodology,” said Kishan Chand Punetha, Vice-Chairman of the board.

Working in tandem, the Uttarakhand State Seed Certification Agency has been entrusted with the task of carrying out external certification based on Indian and International standards.

“For a small farmer, the cost of certification will be between Rs 10,000 per year per hecatre and Rs 12,000 per year per hectare,” said Hemanand Semwal, Deputy Director, Uttarakhand State Seed Certification Agency.

By declaring itself an organic state in 2001, the state tried to capitalise on the Uttarakhand farmers’ natural tendency towards traditional farming and using cow-dung manure. In a way, this has also helped them embrace the organic movement and now around 1,500 villages have been declared organic or bio-villages in the state.

The total area that has been brought under organic farming in the state is 43,987 hectare and in all, 63,000 farmers are registered with the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board.

In 2009-10, the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board facilitated a total sale of Rs 933 lakh and in 2010-11(till February) the sale is Rs 872.68 lakh.

Besides, the board has certified 14 products as organic. Some of these include Dehradun Basmati, Taraouri Basmati, Pusa-1121, B-70, Pusa-1, Red Rice etc, hemp seeds, jamboo fern, onion whole and among pulses rajmah, naurangi dal, etc.

“The organic certification proves useful for selling our products at trade fairs and there is also a special attraction for Uttarakhand products because these are still being grown in virgin valleys,” said Ram Singh Rawat, a farmer from Dehradun. 

Pithoragarh, July 16
As the monsoon becomes active in this part of the Himalayan region and rain occurring almost daily, nearly 8,000 people from 1,495 families of 21 villages in Munsiyari subdivision and 16,000 people from Baram and Tawaghat areas of Dharchula of the district are living in constant panic as the state government has not done anything to rehabilitate them despite repeated disasters they have been facing for the past decade.

“We have 70 localities in the district which have been declared highly sensitive from the disaster point of view during monsoons,” said Pithoragarh District Magistrate MC Joshi.

According to district administration officials, a round-the-clock alert has been sounded by the District Magistrate keeping in mind the possibility of a natural disaster in the district.

The District Magistrate has ordered subdivision-level officers to visit the villages which are prone to landslides and flashfloods during excessive rain and keep labourers and JCB machines ready at such places.

But despite these routine instructions, villagers of La Jhekla, Rumidola, Queri Jimiya, Kultham, Sana, Balthi, Bhandari Gaon, Saipolo, Bona, Gangharia, in Munsiyari, Sisna, Palpala, Syakuri, Tawaghat and Baram in Dharchula subdivision are facing insecurity as neither the administration nor the state government has done anything to shift them to safer places.

“Despite the visit of the Chief Minister during the time of disaster at these places, 35 families of Queri Jimiya are still living in tents outside their houses and the people of the Baram valley have been facing natural calamities continuously for the past 5 years,” said Harish Dhami, a Zila Panchayat member the from Baram area of the district .

But the District Disaster Management office claimed that this year the paramilitary forces like the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Sahastra Seema Bal (SSB) had been asked to cooperate in crisis in the sensitive areas most of which fell in remote areas where these forces had their camps.

“We have linked all 13 police stations of the district with the control room at district headquarters for any information on disaster,” said District Magistrate MC Joshi.

Dehradun, July 16
Leader of the Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly Harak Singh Rawat has urged Uttarakhand Governor BL Joshi not to give his assent to the appointment of Information Commissioners proposed by the state government.

Lodging a strong protest through a letter addressed to the Governor, Rawat pointed out that the Uttarakhand government’s arbitrary decision to appoint two more Information Commissioners was unconstitutional.

“I had informed the government that I would not be present on the day the meeting of the selection committee was to be held. Yet the government went ahead and cleared the two names though I am a member of the committee,” said Rawat.

Meanwhile, the Journalist Union of Uttarakhand has also condemned the government’s action to appoint a journalist who is not from Uttarakhand as Information Commissioner.

“We will be forced to launch an agitation against the government if the decision is not reversed. The Uttarakhand government is promoting a person whose qualification is how to remain in the good books of the powerful.

The government is deliberately foisting a person on the people who has no connection with the state,” said Jay Singh Rawat, president of Journalist Union of Uttarakhand.

Pithoragarh, July 16
Uttarakhand State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Bishen Singh Chuphal said here today that Gairsain, as capital of the state, had never been an election issue for the BJP in next assembly elections.

“After the Dikshit Commission Report, it does not remain an election issue,” said Chuphal, while addressing mediapersons.

According to the BJP state president, the party is committed to creating new districts in the state which have been recognised by the party, after the process of the Census gets over this year.

“The districts of Ranikhet, Kotdwar and Didihat have already been recognised by the BJP,” said the BJP chief.

He announced that the inquiry report on 56 scandals committed during the previous Congress regime would be released soon by the BJP government.

He further said the alleged failure of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre in providing sufficient relief for Uttarakhand to tackle natural disasters and the BJP’s comparative success in developmental projects in the state would be the main issues on which the party would contest the next assembly elections in the state.

Chuphal said that keeping the rains in mind, the BJP government was fully prepared to tackle any disaster in the state despite its limited resources. — OC

Nainital, July 16
Nainital District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli has expressed displeasure at the lack of proper sanitation in the government hospital at Ramnagar.

Bagauli was appalled to see the hospital in the present state during his visit to the facility. He had gone to attend a meeting of the Managing Committee of the Hospital.

Budgetary proposals to the tune of Rs 72 lakh were cleared for the hospital for the current financial year during the meet. The committee also cleared deployment of three Pratiya Raksha Dal (PRD) personnel for maintaining security on the hospital premises.

Bagauli has asked the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) at Ramnagar AK Nautiyal to carry out an inspection of the emergency services available at the hospital and submit a report to him.

Like Haldwani, the hospital at Ramnagar is also overburdened with a large number of patients turning up for proper medical treatment.

The hospital not only caters to the town, but also provides medical assistance to people living in the hilly regions from where it is easily accessible.

The town has a heavy concentration of population that adds to the work of the doctors in the hospital.

Following the meeting, Bagauli inspected the blood bank at the hospital and also went around the wards along with local legislator Dewan Singh Bisht.

He was annoyed on seeing the lack of sanitation on the hospital premises. On being questioned, he was informed that there were only five personnel taking care of sanitation in the hospital. He asked employees to call the person who had been given the contract to maintain sanitation but the latter was not found anywhere.

A furious Bagauli instructed the staff at the hospital to ensure that the sanitation was maintained as per the terms mentioned in the contract given to the contractor.

Haridwar, July 16
A team of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has favoured a long-term plan to check landslides on the Shivalik hills terrain near Haridwar.

The team, comprising experts, scientists and officers of various departments, during its inspection of the Shivalik hills found 4-km area to be ultra sensitive due to its vulnerability to landslides and the threat it poses to the people living in the lower parts of the hilly terrain.

Led by T Nanda Kumar, who is a member of the NDMA, the team has concluded that immediate steps to check landslides on the terrain are not possible and a long-term plan with expanded data and scientific inputs is needed to make the terrain less vulnerable to landslides. He said under the long-term plan, satellite images, rainfall data, soil samples and the impact of the monsoon on the terrain will be studied.

“Within three months, the scientists, geologists, experts and engineers of different government departments will study this terrain while a team of experts will survey the area to prepare a technical report,” he said.

Haridwar Disaster Management Officer Kailash Chandra Joshi, who helped the team in carrying out the inspection, said their department had submitted estimates for the treatment of the hilly bypass on this terrain and they were awaiting consent from the government.

As a temporary step, soil-filled jute bags will be put at those places where soil is sliding to prevent further damage to the terrain during the rainy season. Retaining walls will be constructed and wire crates fixed at the spots where landslides have occurred.

Executive officer of the PWD OP Singh said on the directions of Chief Secretary Subash Kumar his department had started the process to invite tenders. Work on the project would be started immediately after an estimated budget of Rs 2 crore was released by the government.

Experts of Indian Space Research Organisation (Dehradun), the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Central Scientific Indutrial Organisation (CSIO), Chandigarh, Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, and the officers of the forest, PWD, irrigation, rural engineering services departments and the Railways inspected the terrain.

The Tribune has highlighted the issue of landslides and danger the sensitive terrain poses to the residents living in its foothills.

Nainital, July 16
A chunk of land rendered degraded due to a continuous use of chemical fertilisers in the rice-wheat cropping system in North India can be improved and the carbon element present in the soil can also be brought back to its initial level by the optimum use of balanced fertilisers and farm yard manure.

These recommendations have been given by scientists of the Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, following researches done in the Tarai area under the project, “Long-term fertility experiment”.

Keeping in view the problem of a continuous decline in soil fertility, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has started the All-India Coordinated Research Project on, “Long-term fertiliser experiment in the decade of the 70s”, in 17 agricultural universities and colleges in India, including Pantnagar University.

A scientist with the department of soil science, Pantnagar University, and at present the principal investigator of the project, Dr Sri Ram said the objectives of this experiment was to study the effect of a continuous application of plant nutrients singly and in combination with organic or inorganic forms, including secondary and micro-nutrients as per the need, on crop yields in the multiple cropping system, and monitoring the changes in the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil as a result of a continuous use of chemical fertilisers and manures.

After 35 years of the experiment, it has been found that the status of organic carbon in soil declined to 0.51 per cent from the initial level of 1.48 per cent by not using any fertiliser or manure. Even the optimal use of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) fertiliser could not maintain it. However, an integrated use of optimum NPK with 15 tonnes per hectare FYM in rice and wheat improved the soil organic matter and could be brought back to the earlier level over the years.

It has also been found that in the absence of the application of phosphorus and potassium, the availability of these nutrients depleted considerably to low-fertility class, whereas their addition at the optimal level almost maintained the medium fertility status. The availability of potassium and phosphorus in soil could be increased by the use of the FYM with optimal the NPK. It was further found from the experiment that the zinc availability declined in the Tarai region when zinc was not applied in soil. However, the application of zinc sulphate in soil at the rate of 50 kg per hectare was found to maintain its status above the critical level for 4-5 years.

Dr Sri Ram said that the application of the optimum amount of the NPK with the FYM was must along with the application of zinc in soil after every 4-5 years. He said that the continuous use of chemical fertilisers deteriorated soil health and its quality which needed regular monitoring to conserve soils for a prolonged use.