Nainital, February 11
The entire region of Kumaon has been witnessing unrest over the recruitment to various schools under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), which is being done through the Uttarakhand Purv Sainik Kalyan Nigam (UPNL).

Over the last couple of days, there have been a series of protests in various towns across the region by the unemployed youth, alleging that the recruitments are not being made according to norms.

These protestors have been demanding that the recruitment procedures should be carried out by the UPNL authorities in a transparent manner. The authorities, on the other hand, have been denying these allegations.

The protesters have been charging that the procedures being adopted in the name of transparency area a hogwash. They say that while the protests are on, a large number of educated youth continue to submit their forms along with the prescribed fee. It is being alleged that the applicants are not even being given proper receipts against the forms and fee being submitted by them.

At various places like Haldwani, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar, there have been dharnas and processions against the UPNL authorities. At some places the protesters have submitted memorandums to the state Governor Margaret Alva through the local administration, seeking her intervention in the matter.

The protesters have been alleging that the recruitments are being made at the behest of the functionaries of the state government without taking into consideration the merit of the candidates. The matter is all set to snowball into a major controversy in the days to come.

Dehradun, February 11
As part of an anti-encroachment drive, a team of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation today demolished 65 structures in the Canal Road area of Jakhan.

The team was led by Additional Executive Officer, Dehradun, Harak Singh Rawat. Heavy police force also accompanied the team.

After a little opposition by people, the team managed to demolish 65 structures that included semi-constructed houses, boundary walls and some hutments.

The DMC authorities held that a large number of illegal structures had come up on both sides of the Canal road at Jakhan despite repeated warnings.

Harak Singh Rawat said the corporation would continue with its anti-encroachment drive.

Dehradun, February 11
Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri today announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each for the families of factory workers who were charred to death in a fire incident at a factory at Manglore in Roorkee.

The Chief Minister visited the factory today that was gutted in fire a few days ago. He assured all assistance to the affected families. The Chief Minister also assured the aggrieved families of more financial support under the labour laws. Khanduri said a through probe into the incident would be held and those responsible for the mishap would face strict action. He said implementation of safety norms should be ensured in industrial units in the state and gave orders for frequent inspections of industries.

Dehradun, February 11
Complacent in spending the Budget money even as the current financial year comes to a close in March, the Finance Department is now worried that the rush spending by state departments in the closing months may create fiscal imbalance, adversely affecting the precarious financial health of the state.

The tendency to incur expenditure at the fag-end, which normally should be distributed throughout the year, has perplexed the Finance Department that has advised the state departments to maintain uniform pace of expenditure.

“A trend has taken hold of the state wherein the departments show zeal in spending the Budget at the fag- end of the financial year, leading to revenue expenditure mismatches and temporary cash crunch,” said Alok Jain, Additional Chief Secretary.

The temporary cash crunch leads to governments taking loans from different sources that reflect negatively in the finance record books. There is a limit beyond which the states cannot overdraw. The limit is set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Spending can only be justified by revenue generation, which is negligible in the state that has limited sources of revenue.

To ensure that the tax payers’ money is fully utilised, the governments must initiate development activities but when every effort is made to spend at the fag-end, the quality of assets, too, cannot be properly monitored, said a senior official.

Since the creation of the state, more so in the last couple of years, the state government’s meagre revenue resources have not kept pace with the spending. The state is already burdened with a loan liability of Rs 22,000 crore.

Significantly, over the the last 5 years, the Budget projections for revenue deficit and fiscal deficit have not been achieved. The state could not achieve the fiscal deficit target of 4% of Gross State Domestic Product as prescribed in the fiscal responsibility and budgetary management (FRBM) Act, 2005, for the year 2009-10, which stood at 5.94 per cent. The Twelfth Finance Commission norms prescribe that expenditure under the salaries head should be 35% of revenue expenditure, while actual expenditure on salaries accounted for 53% in 2009-2010.

Mussoorie, February 11
It seems that all the efforts to curb the monkey menace by relocating them from the hill town of Mussoorie have gone in vain as they are back with vengeance and are creating more trouble for the innocent residents and tourists of the town on a daily basis.

Added to this, the monkeys relocated last year into the adjacent jungle of Kempty region in Tehri district are wrecking havoc by ruining the crops of the farmers.

The government hospital in Mussoorie has witnessed rise in the cases of monkey bite where more than 100 patients were administered rabies injections since April 2011.

The animals have become much more aggressive and are leaving no opportunity to barge into the homes with slightest openings. The monkeys have begun breaking windowpanes in search of food in the town

much to the dislike of residents and tourists alike.

Some residents of the town are blaming the dustbins devoid with lids installed by the Municipal Council on the Mall Road as a major reason for increase in the number of attacks on humans. Gunanand Joshi, a

hotelier from Kulri Bazaar, was of the view that as most of the boarding schools are still closed for winters, the monkeys from these schools have made inroads into the town area and are using the dustbins as their temporary dining table.

“The monkeys sitting on the top of the dustbins look for food the whole day and on certain days not finding enough food, try to satiate their desire by attacking the hapless tourists and residents alike,” added Joshi.

When contacted the MC president OP Uniyal said that the lids were placed over the dustbins but have been stolen by miscreants over a period of one year. He also informed that a relocation drive was carried out last year to curb the monkey menace in the town, thus providing relief to the towns folk but most of the monkeys have returned back and are troubling the people once again.

OP Uniyal further said that with the increase in number of complaints, the Municipal Council was left with no other option but to conduct relocation drive once again.

On the other hand, the villagers around Kempty region are opposed to any such move as last year’s relocation drive carried out by MC resulted in Mussoorie monkeys ravaging the standing crops and corn fields to an extreme extent, leading to loss in the yield.

Manoj, resident of Kandi village, said: “The Mussoorie monkeys are much smarter than the village monkeys, and after making bondage with local species are jointly inflicting more damage to their fields.”

Many believe that the ban on the export of monkeys for research purpose is also one of the reasons in the rise in their number. They have become bold enough to attack humans frequently.

While environmentalists are of the view that with receding forest cover, the monkeys are forced to head towards the towns in search of food, leading to man-animal conflict. They also believe that the onus of finding a permanent solution to the monkey menace lies with the Forest Department and merely relocating them from one place to another was no solution.

When contacted the forest officials from Mussoorie division were of the view that relocation drive carried out by Municipal Council should involve forest officials, too. Divisonal Forest Officer Ram Gopal Verma was of the view that the relocation drive would only succeed if the alpha male of the herd is caught first and sterilised, as it will help in controlling the population of these monkeys. The forest officials have stated that they were ready to assist in the relocation drive carried out by MC in near future.

Whatever may be the reason to the increase in monkey attacks, the residents of Mussoorie along with Kempty villagers are looking towards the concerned authority to find a permanent solution to the problems that are resurfacing on an annual basis.

Dehradun, February 11
In the list of this year’s Republic Day decorated defence personnel was a Doonite, Col Ajay Kothiyal, who has been conferred with the Vishist Sewa Medal. Kothiyal has earlier been a recipient of gallantry medals Shaurya Chakra and Kirti Chakra.

Presently in the adventure wing of the Indian Army, Col Ajay Kothiyal was awarded Shaurya Chakra on August 15, 2002, for leading an expedition to the Himalayas. Later, on January 26, 2004, Kothiyal was conferred with the Kirti Chakra for leading an operation against militants in Kashmir, leading to the killing of 7 militants while none of his team members faced any causality. The meticulously planned operation led to nailing down of militants and ultimately their annihilation. The recent Republic Day Vishist Sewa Medal is another feather in Kothiyal’s cap and was conferred on him for conquering Manaslu Peak in Nepal. At a height of 8,163 metres above sea level, Manaslu Peak is one of the eight most difficult peaks across the globe.

After his initial schooling at St Joseph Academy and Brightlands, Ajay did his graduation from DAV (PG) College, Dehradun, before joining the Indian Military Academy after qualifying for combined defence services examinations. He passed out from the academy in December 1992 and was commissioned into 4 Garhwal Rifles.

Ajay had a narrow escape with death when a few years back he braved a snowstorm in Mana during September 2010 while on a trek in the higher reaches of Garhwal. After getting buried in snow, Ajay bare- handed made his way and emerged out from the snow. Two other Indian Army officers died in this unfortunate incident.

Col Ajay Kothiyal’s love for adventure started at an early age when he went on a trek on Har Ki Doon on Febroary 26, 1969. This followed his increasing love for mountains as he subsequently scaled Chaukamba, Trishul, Nandadevi and Satopanth. He was also part of Indian Peace Keeping Force in Lebanon.

A proud father, SS Kothiyal, a retired Inspector General of Police, who resides in Vasant Vihar, said his son always had an inclination towards adventure, which was also a motivation for Ajay to join the Indian Army.

He said Uttarakhand was home to a large number of defence personnel and keeps a history full of heroic deeds of its decorated officers. “I am happy Ajay is keeping with this tradition and was bringing fame to Uttarakhand”, the senior Kothiyal observed.

Haridwar, February 11
While on the one hand women reservation quota Bill is still hanging fire for decades in Parliament, it seems this is not only the mode to curtail the gender bias that exists between men and women, as the fair gender feels that getting respect is foremost, otherwise just allocating quota won’t do much to improve their social status.

This was the view of most of the girl participants who spoke on ‘Indian Women and their Social Status’ here at Shravan Nath Math Jawaharlal Nehru College.

Citing the socio-economic condition of a majority of women, particularly in rural areas, Prerna Kainthola, chief of the college students’ union, said that the need is to change the mindset of the men who always deem women as inferior, be it at home or outside. “It is only the fairer sex that has been targeted in India, be it the Sati tradition, female foeticide or even physical harassment. We in India do respect female deities and term our country as motherland and talk of female achievers, but when it comes to reality we (girls) feel insecure to venture out of our homes alone,” said Kainthola.

Demanding a change in the societal mindset, which is pro-male, Sugandha Verma said that unless women are given due respect, get recognised of their contribution and are accepted as equally capable as males, till then the gap between the two genders will prevail.

Many participating students cited women contribution in the Independence movement, science, academics, politics, social field, sports and other fields where they termed their contribution way ahead of their male counterparts, urging women to never think themselves as inferior in any way.

Winner of the debate Anuradha Pant said: “In Indian culture, it is said that where there is respect for women, the deities too shower their blessings, and be it Goddess Laxmi, Durga, Kali or Saraswati, various facets of women can be seen in them. So it is just a matter of confidence and opportunities that we need and we can be like Kalpana Chawla, Indira Gandhi, PT Usha, Pratibha Patil, Meera Kumar, Margaret Alva, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal and Arundhati Roy. Women have shown that they are as capable and successful as their counterparts.”

Appreciating the large number of girls’ participation in the seminar, working principal SK Batra even related the women empowerment with the global crisis, saying that while the world got severely affected with it; in India it had less impact.

He pointed that the small term money that Indian women separately store from their monthly income as well as the gold ornaments that they store came in handy during the economic crisis, making sure minimal impact is on the economy.