State, IREDA sign pact to build clean-energy projects
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 4
Uttarakhand has become the first state to have signed an agreement with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA) to provide financial aid to the state at lower interest rates for the development of alternative and clean-energy projects.

Managing Director, Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL), GP Patel, who signed the agreement, said the department had chalked out a long-term plan to bring about new small, medium and big energy projects and renovate the old projects as well in the next 10 years, for which it would require Rs 23,000 crore. He said they would work out the arrangement of finance from the state, Centre and IREDA and asserted that they would be able to overcome power deficit of 15 per cent by 2015. The UJVNL would be in a position to sell power to other states by 2016 of 2017 and would have no debt or loan to pay anymore by then, he said.

“The financial help extended by IREDA for our gas-based hydroelectric projects of 350 MW and 500 MW to be set up at Kashipur and Haridwar, respectively, according to the agreement signed with GAIL in June will pave the way for the construction of these projects,” he said.

Director, (Technical), IREDA, KS Popli appreciated the ongoing projects and the future plans of the UJVNL and assured it of loans at much subsidised rates. He said the agency had sanctioned 1,900 projects of alternative energy worth Rs 8,000 crore in the country. “There is a huge scope to promote alternative energy methods to produce power in the country. Seeing the growing global concern for environment protection and limited sources of fossil fuel depleting fast, solar and wind energy is gaining popularity all over the world. Our country will be able to produce 15000 MW of solar energy and register a 25 per cent increase in wind energy generation by 2022.”

Principle Secretary, Power, Alok Kumar Jain said in face of increasing industrialisation and reduction in power generation due to the closure of hydroelectric projects and environmental objections in the state, they were looking for cost-effective methods to enhance power availability in the state. He said hydro would continue to the be at the core of the energy sector in the state despite other alternative resources.

Managing Director, Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited, AK Jain, Additional Secretary, Power, Ravi Nath Raman were also present along with other higher officials of the UJVNL.

Four tourist rest houses to be renovated
under PPP mode
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 4
Four tourist rest houses situated at Drone (Dehradun) , Kodiyala, Srinagar and Mussoorie will be renovated under the public-private partnership mode.

The decision was taken at a board meeting of the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) yesterday.

Managing Director of the GMVN Ravi Nath Raman said as the tourist rest house at Drone was situated at a prime location, it required immediate renovation owing to its dilapidated state.

He said the department was ready to spend up to Rs 1 crore on its renovation by taking a loan. He said work on the identification of tourist rest houses that were lying closed would be completed in a fortnight. Later, they would be handed over to local organisations to run them independently, he added.

He further said employees of the nigam who had been raising objections to such suggestions in the past would also be taken into confidence. “Local people are conversant with the topography and culture of their area. They can run these rest houses in a better way,” he added.

President of the GMVN Anil Nautiyal said the managers of successful tourist rest houses had been allowed to spend 15 to 20 per cent of the profit themselves.

Meanwhile, the GMVN also decided that it would will buy six new AC buses. It was also informed at the meeting that the GMVN’s new PRO office at Noida was almost ready.

Besides announcing the Divali bonus of Rs 25,000, a resolution to provide Voluntary Retirement Service benefits to employees was also passed. On the issue of departmental promotions that are lying pending since 1996, it has been decided to seek the help of the Social Welfare Department.

State BJP to hold rallies over inflation
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 4
The state wing of the BJP will hold rallies across the state in the coming months to expose the “inadequacy” of the Central Government in reining in inflation and corruption.

At a press conference here today, general secretary of the BJP (national) Dharmendra Pradhan said the rallies would be held to expose the “failure” of the Centre in reining in inflation. “The prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed, which is the result of corruption in the government. The country is moving towards bankruptcy. Several scams have surfaced in which the CAG has castigated different departments,” he alleged.

Pradhan said during the second tenure of the UPA, the government had pledged to control inflation in 100 days. “Since then they have been extending the deadline to cover up for their inability to control the rising inflation,” he added.

He also lashed out at the Centre for ending the industrial package introduced by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “The UPA government will have to give an answer to the people of the state as to why the package was suddenly cut short,” he said.

State to release quarrying policy
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 4
The state government has finalised a quarrying policy that will be released soon. The policy has been formulated to identify quarrying areas in the state.

This was disclosed by Principle Secretary (Industries and Quarrying) Rakesh Sharma during a meeting with the District Magistrates of all districts through video conferencing today. “All DMs should identify quarrying areas in their districts. This will help rein in illegal quarrying activities,” he said.

He said work was also going on formulating a policy to establish stone-crusher units in the state. He has also invited proposals in this regard.

He also directed the District Magistrates of Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar to work in tandem with each other.

The Forest Development Corporation will carry out quarrying activities in the forest reserve, the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam in the Garhwal circle and the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam in the Kumaon circle.

In case, they expressed inability, work would be handed over to other firms, he added.

The Dehradun District Magistrate said he had identified 900 hectare in the district for quarrying activities.

Panel: Disposal rate of cases pertaining to SCs low
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 4
The rate of disposal of cases of crime against the Scheduled Castes by the police and the court continues to be abysmally low in the state.

“In 2009, the conviction rate was 46.4 per cent, the percentage of pendency was 77.2 per cent, while the percentage of acquittal was 53.6 per cent,” said Dr Raj Kumar Verka, Vice-Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, while interacting with media persons here today.

The members of the commission were in Doon on a two-day visit.

He said the average conviction rate in the past three years (2007-2008, 2009) had been 42.6 per cent against the all-India average of 29.95 per cent. “Though the Uttarakhand Government has set up special courts in Haridwar and Nainital for trial of cases under the Act and the State-Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee (SLVMC) has been set up under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, no information was provided to us regarding the conduct of the meeting of the SLVMC. Similarly, no areas have been identified as atrocity-prone zones,” he said.

Besides there continues to be a huge shortfall of employees against the posts reserved for them. With regards to the group D posts in the government departments the total shortfall of SC employees is 820, in the group C posts the short falls of SC employees is 4,012 and in the group B posts the total shortfall of SC employees is 152.

The members also had a grouse against the state government for failing to spend the budget allocated for the SC and ST communities under the sub-component plan despite the directives of the Government of India.

“Heeding the instructions of the Central Government, the state government should have appointed a state-level liaison officer to ensure that the rights of the ST communities were protected, but this has not been done,” said Verka.

In Uttarakhand the prescribed quota of reservation in services is as follows: For the Scheduled Castes -19 per cent, the Scheduled Tribes 4 per cent and for the OBCs 14 per cent.

Convention on Dalit issues ends

Mussoorie, November 4
A two-day convention, which was aimed at identifying Dalit issues and their rights, today concluded on the note that the members from upper castes should also join in the fight for the rights of the Dalits and assist them pro-actively so that the state could progress rapidly on the path of development.

The convention was organised by the Uttarakhand Samta Andolan, Mahila Samakhya, Dalit Foundation and the Himalaya Parvyavaran Shiksha Sansthan here. More than 12 eminent persons from Delhi, Uttarakhand and UP deliberated on various issues confronting the Dalits in the state and opined that the cases of atrocities on the Dalits were on the rise in the state and a comprehensive strategy was needed to eradicate discrimination against them. They said it was possible by taking the members of the upper castes along.

The speakers stressed the fact that the Dalits ended up as losers in the construction of hydroelectric projects in the state as they were allegedly left out in rehabilitation and compensation programmes due to social discrimination. — OC

Latest radar to be set up near Nainital
Tribune News Service

Nainital, November 4
A stratosphere-troposphere radar (ST Radar) is being set up by the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) at its Manora Peak facility near Nainital.

It is expected to be a unique system of this kind in the world aimed at taking the research in atmospheric sciences to a new level.

Keeping this in mind ARIES with the help of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is organising a two-week

"School on Radar Probing of the Atmosphere" programme from November 8 to 22.

Besides, providing an introduction to physics and dynamics of the atmosphere, the exercise would deal with topics like observational remote sensing techniques to probe the atmosphere, fundamentals of radar and signal processing, data retrieval and analysis.

A spokesperson for ARIES, Dr Rajesh Kumar, has stated that the exercise has been aimed at attracting students from the field of atmospheric sciences, space sciences, geophysics and environmental sciences to the facility at the Manora Peak.

The event would witness lectures and demonstrations by the experts in the field of atmospheric sciences.

Students conduct ideal parliament
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, November 4
A unique ideal parliament was conducted by schoolchildren which should be an ideal example for politicians of the country to follow. These students matched politicians in attire only, with regards to the rest, be it conduct, manners, adhering to parliamentary proceedings and obeying the Speaker’s instructions and maintaining discipline, they differed with the politicians contrastingly. The occasion was the 24th Annual Youth Parliament competition, which is held at the zonal, state and national levels to generate awareness on democracy, especially working of Parliament, and inculcate healthy habits of discipline, tolerance, etc, in students.

The model parliament is organised by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry in consultation with the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan annually on the BHEL complex. Seeing the disciplined behaviour and parliamentary ethics of the students during the contest, Secretary of Parliamentary Proceedings S Chandrasekhar said the view with which this event was conceptualised seemed to be on right track, as students seemed to be observing the Parliament proceedings keenly. Today, three teams from Lucknow, Patna and Dehradun presented their enactments in the northern region round. The winner of this regional round will be participating in the national youth parliament competition.

Tanvi, a participant, said during the enactment she felt like holding a Cabinet Minister berth and the power that politicians enjoy in Parliamentary, on which the confidence of more than 1 billion people of the country was reposed.

While sitting in the visitors’ gallery, former parliamentarian Isham Singh lauded the way the children were conducting the parliamentary proceedings. “Surely we politicians need to review the way these days Parliament is conducted. They (children) may not have political experience but surely they are presenting an ideal example for us (politicians) to follow”.

SSB steps up vigil to check smuggling
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, November 4
Keeping in view the reduced water flow in the Kali river in the winter, which forms border between India and Nepal, the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has identified 22 places across the river in the 274 km-long border that falls in this district to check smuggling activities across the river.

According to BS Tolia, Commandant of the SSB, smugglers, especially those involved in the smuggling of charas, become active in these areas in the winter. “The smugglers trading in the wildlife areas also become active during the season when the flow of the river is not good,” said the Commandant.

“After identifying these places, all 18 border outposts of the SSB situated on the Indo-Nepal border in this part have been alerted and the jawans on duty have been asked remain alert vigil round the clock,” said the Commandant.

He further said the five suspension bridges on the river would be taken under extra vigil from the first week of November till April.”

The Commandant said most of the sensitive places, from the smuggling point of view, were between the Dharchula and Garbiyang Bridge.

“The smugglers use these areas the most because of less habituation here,” he added.

Villagers threaten stir over blocked road
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, November 4
The villagers from the Lejam area of Berinag subdivision of Pithoragarh district today threatened to launch an indefinite agitation at the subdivisional headquarters if the road linking the Lejam area was not opened in the coming days.

”The road, which is blocked for the past four months as a result of heavy debris dumped on it during rains, is causing inconvenience to 10,000 people of at least 12 villages of the area. The villagers are compelled to travel more than 6 km on foot,” said Vinod Pant, gram pradhan of Gaderapant village. According to the villagers, the road constructed in 1999 has not been metalled, which causes hardships every year during the rains when the heavy debris covers the road. ”The debris at Gol Band has not been removed by the department concerned. It is causing inconvenience to the residents of Byanti, Gadera pant, Kauli, Gol, Chami, Bhankot, Sitoli, Aam thal, Sunerti Ghangholi Asyali, Darmoli and Balyau villages,” said the pradhan.

The PWD engineers said they had sent the proposal of repairing the road twice to the state government but none of those were approved.

The department had also tried to secure money from the disaster management department but to no avail,” said BM Gupta, assistant engineer of the PWD.

“The department has neither metalled the road nor has constructed bridges on the nullahs along the 6 km stretch of the road. Even the retaining walls have not been erected on both sides of the road,” alleged the pradhan.