Nainital, August 4
In yet another armed skirmish reported from the Kosi river basin, persons involved in illegal quarrying fired on a team of officials that had reached the spot where the quarrying was being carried out on the outskirts of Ramnagar.

The elements from the mining mafia that is active in the area fled from the spot after firing some shots in the air.

It was during the nights on Tuesday and Wednesday that a team comprising Forest Department officials and the local police started a surprise check from the Kathiapul area on the Kosi basin.

Coming to know of the drive, several vehicles that were involved in quarrying operations fled from the area. It was near Gobra village that the persons that had been carrying out illegal quarrying fired at the team of officials from across the river. The team of officials also fired in retaliation but it was unable to cross the river on account of the rising water levels.

It is learnt that the persons involved in quarrying managed to flee from the spot. Following this episode, some motorcycle-borne persons and some elements riding in a car tried to initiate another skirmish by encircling the team of officials near Gulzarpur village but fled after they were put on the defensive. They left behind two motorcycles.

Meanwhile, the officials managed to impound a tractor trolley that was carrying illegally mined material from the upper Kosi block in the early hours of Wednesday following a surprise raid.

Just when they were trying to take away the vehicle they were stopped by a large number of hostile elements assumed to be involved in the illegal activity. It was only when additional force arrived that these people fled leaving behind the tractor trolley.

In yet another instance, a dumper allegedly involved in illegal quarrying in the Dabka river basin was confiscated by the personnel posted in the Bannakheda Police post in the Bazpur area of Udham Singh Nagar district.

It is learnt that the police has arrested Gurpreet Singh of Chakarpur who was driving the dumper. The seized vehicle was handed over to the personnel of the Forest Department for further action in the matter.

Dehradun, August 4
With the coming into force of the Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011, from tomorrow, the Uttarakhand government will discard the 54-year-old Prevention of Food Adulteration Act.

The Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 is more in tune with the changes taking place globally.

The Food Safety and Standards Act aims to establish a single reference point for all matters relating to food safety and standards. The independent statutory authority, The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, is already functioning in Delhi. The states have to set up the Food Safety Authorities for enforcing the provisions in the Act.

“The Uttarakhand government has already appointed Dr Uma Kant Panwar, Secretary, Health, as Food Safety Commissioner of Uttarakhand. At the state level, two Joint Food Safety Commissioners from the State Public Service cadre and at the district level Assistant Joint Food Commissioners will be appointed.

The Dehradun municipality will not be required to take up food adulteration checks in the city, while the Food Inspectors working under the Chief Medical officer (CMO) will now be integrated with the state body and be known as Food Safety Officers,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr RK Pant.

While the food standards will be determined by the Food Authority of India, the implementation of the provisions rests with the state government. The state will have to upgrade the Food Testing Laboratory and go for accreditation from the competent authority.

“The old Act did not consider several things like how to protect the consumers’ health when there is onslaught of multinational companies that keep launching new products and there was no mention about genetically modified food and its regulation. The Act had more to do with court procedures, said G.C Kandwal, Chief Food Inspector.”

“Under the new Act, the information network across the country will be set up so that the public, consumers and panchayats receive rapid, reliable and objective information about food safety”, said he.

Pithoragarh, August 4
Most of the residents living in more than 12 villages of the Bhagichaura area of Didihat sub-division in Pithoragarh district and six villages of Lohaghat sub-division of Champawat district have been suffering from viral fever which, according to doctors, is due to the use of contaminated water from their traditional drinking water sources.

Villagers of Bhagichaura, Urma, Pathroli, Garakha and Airi Gaon have been suffering from viral fever for the past one week but the patients are not getting proper treatment in the Pimary Health Centre situated in their area as there are no doctors available. The Primary Health Centres is being run by a pharmacist for the past two years.

“The Primary Health Centre in the area is having only a pharmacist, who often complains of shortage of essential medicines,” said Dinesh Awasthi, a social worker of the area.

According to the Chief Medical Officer of Pithoragarh district, Mahesh Chandra Pant, a team of doctors has been sent to the area with essential medicines. The team will also conduct an awareness campaign to make the villagers aware about the basic hygienic practices to be followed in order to get rid of contaminated water during the monsoon months.

“We have also managed some extra beds in the district hospital keeping in mind the fever spreading in the area,” said the CMO.

In nearly half a dozen villages of the Pancheswar valley in Lohaghat sub-division of Champawat district, hundreds of villagers are suffering from viral fever.

The doctors at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Lohaghat have set up a camp in the area on Tuesday and treated more than 300 villagers affected by viral fever.

“We have held camps at Thata, Sudurka and Badoli villages and treated more than 300 villagers,” said Dr SS Bisht, a specialist working at the Lohaghat PHC.

Dr Susheela Shah, in charge of the Lohaghat Primary Health Centre, said the villagers of the area had been instructed to use only boiled water and not to eat stale food as the fever was spreading in the Pancheswar valley due to change in the weather.

“We are also organising health camps to educate the villagers of nearby villages on how to take precautions to avoid the weather-related ailments,” said Dr Susheela Shah.

Dehradun, August 4
More then 40 members from various urban local bodies in Chamba and Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh today visited the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC).

The exposure trip for urban local bodies representatives and functionaries under the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) was organised by the Centre for Urban Governance - a unit of Institute for Integrated Rural Development (IRRD), Shimla, and sponsored by the Department of Urban Development.

Addressing the participants, Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli said the first thing any local body should keep in mind that it was only they who are suppose to deal with the problems of the residents as politicians did not take the responsibility of such works. He further told them to develop the revenue model so that they were less dependent on the state government.

RC Thakur, Assistant Town Planner with the Urban Development, stated that their main motive to visit the place was to see the working of the corporation here.

“We are here to compare our working with the Dehradun Municipal Corporation and will try to implement the same in our areas,” he mentioned and added, “Most of the working is same in both the states. The only difference is the system for implementing the house tax. We will study it and try to apply it in our areas. The way for accessing the house tax is better here as we have exemptions in our area. For example, a 100 sq.mt land is self-occupied in Himachal Pradesh but the corporation here takes the tax for the same.”

Regarding the solid waste management project, Thakur asserted that door-to-door collection was already going on in the Himachal Pradesh while the trials had just begin here and many other projects seemed to be similar.

A junior engineer from the Municipal Council, Dalhousie, affirmed that they were on four- day study tour and other than Dehradun, they would be visiting Nanital and Udham Singh Nagar in Haridwar to observe the working condition.

There are three urban local bodies in both Chamba and Sirmaur, respectively. It includes two municipal councils and one nagar panchayat.

Haridwar, August 4
Though Acharya Balakrishan evaded the CBI today in Dehradun after being grilled for seven hours yesterday, Balakrishan celebrated his 40th birthday on a large scale at the Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar today with free distribution of 2 lakh herbal saplings.

His mentor, Yog guru Swami Ramdev, too participated actively in the programmes held on the occasion, with the birthday being celebrated as ‘Jadi Booti Divas’ to appreciate the knowledge and work done by Balakrishan in the field of herbal medicine.

Preceded by a yoga session early in the morning, the celebrations commenced with ‘hawan-yagna’ amidst chanting of mantras and hymns which was followed by mass plantation of ‘jadi-booti’ saplings.

Students of Patanjali Vishwavidyalaya also didn’t lag behind on their Vice-Chancellor’s birthday. A colorful cultural programme was presented by the students of Patanjali Vishwavidyalaya on his birthday.

A convention to honour experts from the field of Ayurveda and herbal medicine, who have undergone extensive research and carried out social works in these fields, was also held.

A convention of saints was also held in which saint community representatives from across the country participated. Seven thousand yoga participants from 624 Bharat Swabhiman Trust centres also wished Balakrishan on the occasion assuring him of their support in the fight against corruption.

Experts in the field of herbs were honoured with ‘Patanjali Ayurveda Gaurav Samman’ and ‘Patanjali Krishi Gaurav Samman’. They were also given a citation, a certificate and a cash prize by Acharya Balakrishan.

Balakrishan as well as Swami Ramdev refrained from speaking on the various controversies surrounding them these days. Meanwhile, today after a long gap, Patanjali Yogpeeth and the Divya Mandir Trust office-cum-residence of Acharya Balakrishan were full of activity which had worn a deserted look since mysterious ‘missing’ of Balakrishan late last month.

Nainital, August 4
Prominent social worker and statehood activist Soban Singh Jeena was paid tributes on his 101st birth anniversary.

At a function held in Almora on Thursday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant participated in the Bhoomi Pujan for setting up a library and installation of Jeena’s statue at his ancestral village of Sunauli.

The library is to be set up at a cost of Rs 23.10 lakh and the statue is to be erected at a cost of Rs 11 lakh. He also gave instructions to the officials to link the village with the highway under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana.

Remembering the line of thought put in by Jeena for creation of Uttarakhand, Pant said the biggest challenge before the state today was to stop migration of the youth to destinations outside the state and provide them employment in their villages.

This would be the biggest tribute to Jeena, he asserted.

Mussoorie, August 4
An envoy from the Embassy of Russia, Dr Dmitry E Chelyshev, on his short visit to Mussoorie met local historian Gopal Bhardwaj yesterday, in order to know about the literary legacy of the famous Russian traveller, Grand Duke Alexey Saltykov, who is believed to have visited the town around 1842 and stayed at Himalaya Club for one month. Saltykov had authored a book titled “Letters from India”.

Dr Chelyshev had detailed discussions with Bhardwaj about the life of the great artist and travel writer and requested him to assist him in his endeavour to find any remaining legacy that could be used in the book as planned by the Russian Embassy in the near future.

Later speaking to The Tribune, Dr Chelyshev said the Russian Embassy was running a project that could become an important milestone in the history of friendly ties between Russia and India. He also said it was Russia which first established diplomatic ties with India a year before it gained Independence. This project will help in making available to the Indian public the unique literary and rich art legacy of Saltykov who was believed to have had close connections with a famous Russian aristocratic family.

Shedding light on the life of Saltykov, Dr Chelyshev said the former decided to forsake high life and a promising diplomatic career and devoted himself to travelling, with India always being his favourite destination. He visited the country twice from 1841 to 1846. During his first visit, he went to Ludhiana, Lahore and Amritsar apart from other places and frequently enjoyed the honour of being invited to the court of Maharajah Sher Singh. He put his impressions brilliantly in “Letters from India”. The French version of the book was published for the first time in Paris in 1848 followed by the publication of its Russian translation in 1850.

Saltykov depicted the images of the Indian realities in amazing colour paintings and sketches. A British scholar, HLO Garret, translated the original text into English and got it published in “Military Gazette” in 1932. The translation was also published in the form of a small booklet, titled “The Punjab a hundred years ago as described by V Jaquemont (1831) and A Saltykoff (1842)”.

Dr Chelyshev said the Russian Embassy was planning to bring a collection of Saltykov’s paintings from the Russian museum in Saint Petersberg to India and exhibit them in one of the art galleries in New Delhi.

Nainital, August 4
The Udham Singh Nagar administration has stepped in to protect the interests of the people who are being misled by certain developers in the district.

In an appeal made to the masses on behalf of the administration, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) at Rudrapur, Vir Singh Budhiyal, who is also taking care of the issues related to the land-use regularisation in the district has asked the people to be wary of such builders and developers who are out to mislead them and fleece prospective purchasers.

He has pointed out that there has been a large-scale booking of flats and plots in the district which has mainly resulted from a large-scale advertising resorted to by the developers over the past few months.

In a clear message, the administration has asked those advertising flats and plots for sale to mention their registration number, and the clearance given to the proposed project. The advertisement should also carry details regarding the number of the proposed site in the project plan, area of the project plan and the order of the government giving clearance to the same.

It has also been made clear that the attempts to mislead the people by furnishing partial or incomplete information regarding the above-mentioned aspects would attract penal action.

Budhiyal has further stated that the people wishing to purchase property can get the details of projects from developers, his office or from the headquarters of the Town and Country Planning Department in Dehradun.

Udham Singh Nagar has been among the top-ranked districts in the state that have witnessed a large-scale urbanisation over the past one decade. The large-scale industrialisation in the district has led to a massive demand for quality housing in towns like Rudrapur, Kitcha, Sitarganj and Kashipur. With executives earning good salaries arriving in the district from other parts of the country in large numbers, the demand for flats located in well-developed housing colonies has been persistently on the rise.

Dehradun, August 4
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has become the first political party in the state to open its election office at Selaqui today in the wake of

the forthcoming Assembly elections where the candidate for the Sahaspur legislative Assembly seat Sahab Singh Pundir and general secretary Ch Shishpal announced launching of an election campaign.

Shishpal said they would realise party supremo Mayawati’s dream to become the leading party in the state in the coming Assembly elections.

Pundir said by opening their election office first and foremost, they had shown that their party would always remain at the top.

The office would be used to serve people, where they would help public in getting their voters cards, if missing in the voter list, and BPL ration cards made.

Sarvesh Kumar, Rajat Rana, Madhu Arora, Parvin Sharma, Sushma Kukreti, Bishni Bora and Sanjay Dhiman were among the other leaders who were present.

Dehradun, August 4
Residents of Mayur Vihar, which is situated on the Sahastradhara road, today visited HR Rawat, Assistant Executive Engineer, Dehradun MC, and opposed the move of bulldozing four structures in the area yesterday. Rakesh Bansal, mahanagar chief of the Shiv Sena, told the official that the land on which the construction was done belonged to him.

Rawat told him that no one could become the owner of the land close to a river and if they opposed the same the corporation would measure the land in the area and the move could bring more land under the no-construction zone along the river. — TNS