Dehradun, November 16
BJP national spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman today said the BJP government would not hesitate to take action against any BJP Chief Minister involved in any corruption case against whom the evidence was substantiated and came from a constitutional authority.

“If the evidence comes from the Lokayukta as it happened in the case of Karnataka, we will take action,” said Nirmala. She was replying to a question about the Comptroller Auditor General’s reported indictment of the Nishank government on the organisation of the Kumbh mela in 2010 and whether the BJP government would adopt the same yardstick, when it concerned it’s own party men and government.

However, she sidestepped the issue on the party’s stand on Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal against whom charges of corruption were levelled and who was removed from the post of Chief Minister a few months before the Assembly elections.

“Several good things happened during his rule, the party has appointed him a national vice-president,” she replied.

When she was asked why the Khanduri government was suddenly active on the issue of 56 cases of corruption that the BJP government had promised to investigate as soon as it came to power during the last Assembly elections more so at the fag end of the party’s rule in the state, she said: “You should appreciate steps taken by the Khanduri government on the issue of corruption. The BJP government has already brought the anti-graft Bill and the investigation is already completed in 17 cases of corruption that took place during the Congress government’s rule. We (the party) now ask the Khanduri government to ensure an FIR is registered and a strong charge-sheet is filed against those accused in the 17 cases,” she said.

She was here in connection with LK Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra, which will reach the city tomorrow. She said the Congress-led UPA government should make public the 700 bank accounts of persons in HSBC Bank, the list of which was provided by France. “There are names of three MPs whose names figure on the list,” she said.

Dehradun, November 16
Garhwal MP and senior Congress leader Satpal Maharaj has taken strong exception to a statement made by BJP national spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman terming the recent foundation stone laying of the Rishikesh-Karanprayag railway line a political drama.

The BJP spokesperson, while talking to mediapersons today, had termed the foundation stone laying of the project a political drama staged in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections.

She had also raised doubts about the survey that was conducted several years ago and gave credit to her party leaders for carrying forward the project.

He also rejected the claims made by Nirmala Sitharaman that the foundation stone laying was a political stunt. “They should check the facts. Earlier, BJP leader BS Koshiyari was crediting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia for sanctioning the project. Suddenly, they have started finding faults with the project. They should also examine the actions of the BJP and Chief Minister BC Khanduri who is hopping from one district to the other making announcements when the state is cash-strapped,” he added.

Nainital, November 16
In an open letter addressed to Team Anna, the state committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation has expressed surprise and shock over the appreciation it has been showering on the Chief Minister, Major-Gen Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri (retd), and the Lokayukta Act passed by his government.

The CPI (ML) has contended that far from taking the corrupt in Uttarakhand to task General Khaduri’s Lokayukta Act is instead a tool to protect them and their corrupt deals.

The party has stated that the Act even prevents lodging of complaints against those in higher positions. It points out that Section 18 of Chapter 6 points out that complaints or action against the Chief Minister and members of the Cabinet cannot be initiated unless there is a unanimous consensus of all the members of the institution of the Lokayukta. The CPI (ML) has pointed out that the same provision runs for the legislators thus making even registration of a complaint against the corrupt politicians virtually impossible.

The letter hits out at the series of allegations levelled against General Khanduri’s predecessor Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank some of which it claims have even been corroborated by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report. The party has now stated that taking Dr Nishank to task under the Lokayukta Act is impossible given the flaws in the Act. “It is an Act that has been brought about not to remove corruption but to save Dr Nishank,” the letter says.

Dehradun, November 16
Four years after undertaking projects under the public-private (PP) partnership based on the procurement policy, the Uttarakhand government is expected to clear the public-private partnership policy spelling out the government’s approach towards the public-private partnership for attracting private investment.

Though the draft PP policy has been under way for the past several years, it is only now that the government has decided to hold consultation on the policy. The draft of the policy has been circulated among different departments as part of the consultative process and is expected to be brought before the Cabinet in the coming days.

“A clear policy will attract private assessment and bring coherence in the government’s approach towards project formulation and appraisal,” said Principal Secretary, Planning, Ramaswamy.

According to officials, the main thrust of the policy will be on value for money, efficient use of existing assets, optimal allocation of additional resources and fair regulatory framework. This policy will create a public-private enabled environment in Uttarakhand.

Further, the state Planning Department has also been invited by the Central Government for holding consultative process that will take place on November 21. The government is also framing a National Public-Private Partnership policy.

As of now, there are a total of 91 projects costing Rs 5,000 crore in the domain of public-private partnership out of which bidding is complete for 24 projects, eight are operational, eight are underconstruction, eight are undersigned, 28 more projects are under bidding and 40 under the conceptual stage.

So far the maximum number of projects are being undertaken by the Health, Education and Tourism Departments. The Health Department has already four projects under PP mode.

A clear PP policy is expected to provide coherence to the government’s efforts to provide efficient services to the people and also value for money.

Nainital, November 16
Left parties have described the Jan Chetna Yatra being carried out by senior BJP leader LK Advani as a farce.

They have said the yatra is an outcome of one-upmanship to grab political opportunity in the name of fighting corruption.

In a joint statement issued at Haldwani on Wednesday, Samar Bhandari of the CPI, Vijay Rawat of the CPM and Raja Bahuguna of the CPI (Marxist Leninist) said the seriousness of the BJP’s intention to do away with corruption could be gauged by the “deeds” of its own leaders in Karnataka, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttarakhand.

They said while former Chief Minister BS Yedyurappa had come out of jail in Karnataka, former CM of Uttarakhand Ramesh Pokhriyal was recently removed in the wake of charges of corruption against him, but had not been sent to jail.

The parties also lashed out at the BC-Khanduri-led state government that claims to be taking steps to curb corruption. They have questioned the non-removal of “tainted” ministers of the Nishank Cabinet.

They have also charged that had Khanduri been serious of removing corruption, he would have booked several “corrupt” politicians even on the basis of the existing Lokayukta as had been done by the UP Government.

Mussoorie, November 16
BJP national general secretary and state in charge Thavar Chand Gehlot, while talking to the media on his brief visit to Mussoorie, said in the coming Assembly elections, the party would field candidates having a clean image.

He said candidates’ list would be out by December-end.

Lashing out at the Congress, Gehlot alleged that the party had failed to deliver on the development front despite having five MPs from the state.

He further said development would be the main plank of the BJP in the coming elections and it would seek votes on the issue.

Earlier, Gehlot had his breakfast at Mussoorie Municipal Council Chairman OP Uniyal’s house. National chief of the Anusuchit Jati Morcha Dushyant Gautam, vice-president Suresh Rathore, Shasapur MLA Rajkumar and Ramesh Rawat were also present on the occasion.

Pithoragarh, November 16
With the onset of the winter season, the incidents of man-animal conflict are on the increase in the Kumaon region, according to the forest officials. The wild animals are in the process of changing their habitat to escape from bitter cold in the higher Himalayan region.

The Kumaon region has witnessed four incidents of wild animal attack on humans in the past week.

In the latest incident, a 13-year-old schoolgirl was mauled by a leopard in Kinigar village of Pithoragarh district on Tuesday night when the girl was sitting in her house. “The leopard tried to grab the girl who screamed to call the villagers. The leopard ran away leaving the girl in an injured condition. She is now under treatment in the Pithoragarh district hospital,” said Dan Singh, the grandfather of the girl.

In another incident, which occurred at Sarmoli village of Munsiyari subdivision in the district, a 60-year-old woman was mauled by a Himalayan black bear. “The old woman who bravely fought the bear reached her village in an injured condition. The villagers admitted her to a local hospital, where the doctors referred her to the district hospital,” said Hyat Singh Rana, the husband of the woman.

In yet another incident occurred at Gairad village in Bhasiya Chana block in Almora district on Monday, a 22-year-old woman was killed by a leopard. “The body of Sunita Devi, daughter of Bishan Ram of Gairad village, was found stuck in a tree by a villager,” said Ajay Arora, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Almora subdivision.

Nainital, November 16
The Sixth Uttarakhand State Science and Technology Congress being held on the Soban Singh Jeena campus of Kumaon University, Almora, concluded today amid a call given by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr VPS Arora, to the youth of the state to join the field of science and help in the development process.

In his address, Padamshri Lalit Pande said society could only develop if there was development and proper communication of science.

He laid emphasis on taking the developments in the world of science on the doorstep of the common man.

Dr JC Bhatt of the Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan talked of finding solutions to the problems being faced in hill agriculture through scientific interventions.

Dr LMS Palni of the Gobind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development discussed about the interventions required to mitigate the challenges emerging because of climate change.

On the other hand, Dr JS Rawat called for extensive spatial data that can be used by the administration for planning and infrastructure development in the state.

The function was presided over state Assembly Speaker Harbans Kapoor.

Haridwar, November 16
The National Children Science Congress at the district-level was held today at Bal Bhawan on the BHEL premises with the main subject for this year’s congress being land resources-use for prosperity.

Being organised by the National Communication Science and Technology Council (NCSTC) in collaboration with the People’s Association of Hill Area Launchers and the Uttarakhand Council for Science Technology (UCOST), more than 200 students participated in this science congress.

A total of 36 groups from all six blocks of the district participated in this congress, which was held in junior and senior sections.

Ten projects were selected for the state-level event that included six for senior event. Children scientists selected from the senior section were Ayush Mehrotra, Shalini, Jitesh, Sushant, Avneesh Sharma and Neetu while from the junior section, Girish Chandra, Ayushi Pal, Sofia and Vikrant made it to the list.

Inaugurating the competition Anil Jain, secretary of the Educational Management Board, stressed on the need of having more such events as they inculcated and developed serious thinking among students on socio-environmental topics.

Poonam Sharma, vice-principal of Bal Mandir, lauded the efforts pitched in by students on the subject as students researched on subjects such as quality of land, anthropogenic activities on land, sustainable use of land resources and community knowledge on land use.

Emphasis by judges was laid on research, field work, data-tabulation and practical knowledge of the subject, rather than on the compiled data taken from the internet or just posters and models.

Judges and coordinator for the event included KN Pandey, principal, Bal Mandir, PK Sharma, education officer, Subash Sharma, Dr PP Pathak, Neeeraj Sharma and Umesh Bahuguna.

The state-level programme will be held later this month while those selected at the state congress will be eligible to participate in the national congress, scheduled from December 27-31 in Delhi.

Nisha Singh, a Class VIII student, who presented her research on anthropogenic activities on land, said that efforts needed to be done both on society and governmental level to maximise the use of land resources as well as to use it for prosperity but save it also for posterity.

Nainital, November 16
A meeting of renowned agricultural scientists will be held at the Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology at Pantnagar on November 17 and 18 to mark the 51st anniversary of the university. Pantnagar University came into being on November 17, 1960, and is regarded as the harbinger of Green Revolution in India.

A two-day brain-storming session on “Pantnagar Leadership for Evergreen Revolution” will be the major attraction of the event.

According to the Vice-Chancellor of the university Dr BS Bisht, “Since the Green Revolution has attained a state of diminishing returns, our food production system needs to acquire new impetus. An Evergreen Revolution will be a sustainable alternative to the Green Revolution.”

Pantnagar University, which also has the credit of being the first agricultural university of India, is in a position to provide a dynamic leadership to a new revolution “Evergreen Revolution”, he says.

The university is trying hard to lay the foundation to the Evergreen Revolution which India needs so urgently in order to emerge a strong country at food production front.

Dr Bisht said several prominent personalities from the world of agriculture as well as socially related fields would be participating in the brain storming session.

He said recommendations of the meeting would be widely circulated for discussion and on the basis of these, the university would formulate its
vision document.

Dehradun, November 16
Vijay Jardhari of the Beej Bachao Andolan said today that due to “wrong policies” of the government, the traditional agriculture of Uttarakhand might fade out.

“Due to the wrong policies of the government, the farmlands in the hills are losing their fertility and at many places they have been converted into wasteland,” said Vijay Jardhari, who spearheaded the andolan in Uttarakhand while talking to mediapersons today.

He has set up a stall at the ongoing Kothing to raise awareness about traditional agriculture and why it is linked with the issue of food security. Jardhari said along with the “wrong” policies of the government, the hill agriculture was also facing threat from attack by wild animals. “The crop is being destroyed by wild animals and the government has not provided any solution to the problem. The neighbouring Himachal Pradesh Government has been pro-active in undertaking the sterlisation of monkeys that has considerably reduced the monkey menace,” said Jardhari.

Jardhari also criticised the government for “deliberately encouraging farmers to use fertilisers for the traditional coarse grain”.

“This will harm the traditional crops as they have always been free of fertilisers and the organic value of the crops will be undermined,” he said.

Avtar Singh Negi of the Mount Valley, an NGO, also expressed concerns about the government’s “ploy to destroy the traditional hill farming by encouraging farmers to use fertilisers”.

“The traditional crops in Uttarakhand are highly rated for their non-use of fertilisers. Instead of encouraging farmers to refrain from the use of chemicals, the government is enticing the farmers by offering incentives,” he charged.

The Beej Bachao Andolan has been in the forefront to protect the traditional hill farming methods since the 80s.