Contractors halt development works
Dehradun, April 4
The development work in various wards of Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) has been stopped by the contractors protesting against the non-payment of their dues worth Rs 2 crore for the past six months by the DMC authority.

Dehradun April 4
The mass movement of teachers, students and the staff of HNB Garhwal University for the dismissal of their Vice-Chancellor, Professor S K Singh, for his involvement in the fraudulent process of appointment for the posts of Assistant Registrar and Public Relation Officer intensified here today.

The teachers and students of the university at Srinagar took out a massive protest march under the banner of the Garhwal Vishwavidhyalaya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti.

The protesters received support from Lt Gen TPS Rawat (retd), president, Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha, who along with his party members gathered on the university campus and extended their support to the protesters by staging a demonstration, demanding the resignation from the VC.

Rawat said, "University-colleges are considered as the temple of education. If the officials appointed at these temples will start involving in scams and black marketing, then what impact it would leave on the young minds studying there?"

"We will continue to protest against the series of controversies pertaining to the involvement of Professor S K Singh in the fraudulent process of administrative work till he resigns", he added.

Meanwhile, on the charges of appointing his favourites on the posts of Assistant Registrar and for opting the strange kind of appointment process for the single post of PRO along with irregularities in the admit cards issued to the students for the upcoming examination and withholding the results of 3,200 students of DAV PG College for more than a year, the Zila Panchayat chief (Tehri) Ratan Singh Gunsola has asked Singh to vacate from the post within a week.

Also present on the occasion were Lt Gen Shailendra Raj Bahuguna (retd), S S Panthi, B C Chandola, Brig. SS Patwal (retd) and others.

Dehradun, April 4
The development work in various wards of Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) has been stopped by the contractors protesting against the non-payment of their dues worth Rs 2 crore for the past six months by the DMC authority.

The authority is also not ready to make payment from Rs 1.38 crore it had recently received under the infrastructure fund.

Ashok Verma, leader of the Opposition, DMC, said, “The contractors come from middle class families. They cannot spend from their pockets to build roads or drainage in various wards of the city. Since the DMC has not paid them a single penny for the past six months to them, they too have stopped working after bringing up their case before the officials several times.”

He said as per the rule in the Municipal Act, the payment must be made to the contractors within two months of assigning any piece of work but this rule had constantly been flouted in DMC.

Dr Vijender Pal, councillor, alleged that the DMC recently received the infrastructure fund of Rs 1.38 crore. “Since the infrastructure fund is meant to be spent on the development works such as on road, electricity, drainage, small bridge etc, the corporation must make at least a part payment from this amount to the contractors for the time being. If the officials continue to show defiance then we will take up this case vehemently before them and fight it out.”

He said the contractors were not making their grievances public or bringing them before media as they feared that by doing so they might be sidelined during the tender process for the fresh line of work whenever they are held.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli, however, refused to give the payment to the contractors from the infrastructure fund. He said the DMC would get annual budget from the state Finance Commission this month and the payment would be made from that amount.

Meanwhile, according to sources, the patience of contractors is wearing out. If they are not paid soon, they are ready to protest or sit on an indefinite dharna. 

Dehradun, April 4
The lack of coordination among various departments like the Public Works Department, the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, the Jal Sansthan, the Jal Nigam and state agencies under Asian Development Bank and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Rural Urban Mission (JNNRUM) has hit development works in the city.

According to information, road repair work in many parts of the city is pending for long. Sand and other building material is lying in heaps on Mohini Road for the past two months, but the work has not been initiated so far. Residents have been facing hardships and have no clue to when the road will be repaired and then recarpeted.

Congress MLA from Rajpur Rajkumar held a meeting on these issues with representatives of these departments yesterday. At the meeting, it was found that the work related to the laying down of water pipelines has been done on Mohini Road , but the DMC is sitting on the repair and recarpeting work. He has directed the executive engineer of the DMC to start the work on the road within two days.

He also discussed the issue of poor condition of roads in the Rajpur Road, DL Workshop, Lord Venkateshwar Wedding Point, DAV College, Gandhi School, Dispensary road and other areas.

Officials have given him an assurance that work on all these roads would be completed within one and a half months.

It has also come to notice that three overhead water tanks on the EC Road, near ITI and Nehru Colony each were set up under the JNNURM a year ago, but water connection has not been provided by the department concerned so far. Owing to this, the purpose of constructing these tanks stands defeated.

The MLA had directed the Jal Sansthan to provide water connections in these overhead watertanks before the peak summer. 

Dehradun, April 4
Three hundred workers of Haridwar-based Rockman Industries Limited, a company of Hero Auto group, gathered at Parade Ground here today to hold a protest against the suspension of three of their co-workers for attempting to float an employees' union on the factory premises. However, they were not allowed to hold a march from the Parade Ground to the Civil Secretariat. This 'indifferent' attitude of the administration and the police towards their demand enraged the workers and they decided to start a mass fast from tomorrow.

Mukesh, one of the three suspended workers, said, "The management is deliberately tormenting us for trying to form an employees' union. When we protested in support of our demands, including minimum wages and the shifting of 1,200 contractual workers who had been deployed on machines, we were not heard. Contractual employees should not be given the charge of machines as they do not get accidental claim or other emoluments in case of accidents involving machines."

He said the management wanted to stop them from forming a union. He added when they began their protest, the management got a court order on March 19 barring their entry up to 50 metres of the factory premises. They were also allegedly chided by the SDM of the area and allegedly dissuaded them from taking up the matter with the District Magistrate, Dehradun. The workers had given a memoradum in the District Magistrate office, but they did not get any positive response.

Today, the police did not let them move out of Parade Ground. Disillusioned with the treatment meted out to them, they decided to start a mass fast at Parade Ground tommorow.

Besides Mukesh, Ashwini and Neeraj are the other two suspended workers.

Dehradun, April 4
As a case of Kala azar has been confirmed in Doon Hospital, a 12-year boy Pawan Kumar, resident Naya Gaon village in Chamoli district, is undergoing treatment for the disease that is prevalent in Bihar.

The boy was referred from Veer Chander Singh Garhwali Medical College after his condition deteriorated. "The occurrence of Kala azar that originated in Africa is uncommon in Uttarakhand. A similar case was reported a few years back. The disease occurs due to mosquito bite. The patient usually experiences periods of high fever, intense chills and enlargement of spleen," said Dr DS Rawat, senior paediatrician, Doon Hospital.

The boy caught the attention of Health Minister Surinder Singh Negi who paid a surprise visit today.

The minister asked to keep a watch on the disease and record the number of patients suffering from it.

While speaking on the issue of renewal of contract of seven superspecialists, the minister said their packages would be revised, so also the packages of specialists working in the remote areas of the state.

While paying the visit at ICU and ICCU, the minister forgot to take off his shoes.

Principal Superintendent Dr BC Pathak, senior physician Dr KC Pant and CMO Dr R accompanied the minister.

Dehradun, April 4
Demanding the rollback of the hike in excise duty on gold, jewellers in the state capital continued their protest today.

They gathered at the Clock Tower and staged a demonstration. Jewellers alleged that Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was harassing jewellers by imposing such unjustified taxes.

They kept their establishment closed even today, thus causing inconvenience to the public, particularly during the recent Navratras when people prefer buying jewellery.

Dehradun, April 4
In a major achievement for FRI (Deemed) University, eight of its students have been successful in the Indian Forest Service examination.

These students are Vaanathi M M, Rohini B Saikia, Chaman Lal, Amrita Dutta, Harjeet Kaur, Lovit Bharti, Arpana and Sanjay Biswal.

Director General, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, and Chancellor, FRI(Deemed) University, Dr V K Bahuguna, Director, FRI and Vice-Chancellor, FRI (Deemed) University, Dr S S Negi have congratulated the successful students.

The Forest Research Institute was accorded the status of deemed university by the UGC in December 1991 under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956. 

Dehradun, April 4
Dr Pavan Kumar Emani, Associate Professor, Graphic Era University, received Rs 9 lakh as the Young Scientist Award from the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, today.

Dr Emani is working on the development and design of concrete piles and pile groups which that can bear the tremors of earthquakes leading to less destruction. His work got recognition by the department and received Rs 9 lakh as the award to pursue his research further.

An elated Dr Emani said: “The project will significantly change the way engineers design the piles in hilly areas like those in Uttarakhand. I am happy to be a part of an excellent research group at Graphic Era University, where we are developing innovative solutions to widespread problems.”

The chairman of the university, Prof Kamal Ghansala, has congratulated Dr Emani for his achievement.