Canada keen on investing in Uttarakhand
Envoy expresses support for adventure sports academy 
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 17
Canada has shown interest in organising ice-hockey tournaments at the ice skating rink here and also to support an adventure sports academy in the state.

This was revealed by Canadian High Commissioner to India Stewart Beck who called on Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna in his office at the Secretariat here today.

He also expressed his country's desire to invest in education, health, energy and tourism sectors in Uttarakhand.

Bahuguna said it had to be explored first in which areas Canada could invest for which a working group of senior officers would be constituted to do the homework.

Stating that ice hockey was very popular in Canada, Stewart expressed his desire to organize ice hockey tournaments in Uttarakhand. He also revealed his interest in investing in urban development and tourism. Canada will also support in establishing adventure sports academy in Uttarakhand.

"Uttarakhand has lots of potential in tourism, energy, adventure sports, food processing and industries both small and big," he said. Bahuguna also apprised the High Commissioner of the state's richness in water and said the state had great power generating potential.

He disclosed that the state government was conducting mapping of areas potential for hydro power projects through IIT Roorkee and it was also studying what effect the hydro power projects would have on environment. After completion of mapping, the government would invite proposals for power generation from private sectors, he said.

Also present on the occasion were Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain, Principal Secretary, Industry, Rakesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary, Tourism, Dr SS Sandhu, Additional Secretary to Chief Minister Dilip Jawalkar among other senior officers. 

Haldwani reels under severe water shortage
Tribune News Service

Nainital, May 17
The water crisis in Haldwani continues unabated and so do the protests and demonstrations by the public. While in some areas the people are agitated over the disruption of supply, leading to a scarcity, in the other they are up in arms against the authorities on the issue of contaminated water being supplied to them.

The town witnessed a high voltage drama on Wednesday evening when some residents of Line No. 16 blocked the Bareilley road, alleging that pieces of flesh and feathers of birds were coming in tap water in their locality. The matter was resolved with great difficulty at the assurance of the administrative authorities but the protestors left only after promising yet another demonstration at the office of the Jal Sansthan. The people were annoyed at the supply of contaminated water to them.

On the other hand, the administration has been taking measures to put an end to the crisis. The authorities at the Jal Sansthan have launched a drive against those extracting water from the pipes in an illegal manner. The drive began on Wednesday with the authorities nabbing 29 persons involved in the illegal act. The authorities have made it clear that in the days to follow, the pumps being used in illegal extraction of water would be confiscated and action would be taken against those using the extracted water.

Three teams have been constituted to check the practice in various parts of the town. Most of the complaints in this regard have been coming from Damuadhunga area. The administration has sought support from the people in dealing with the scenario and has promised to supply water through tankers in crisis-hit areas.

Reports coming from Nainital say that there is erratic supply of water in some parts of Tallital area. It is learnt that a roster has been prepared to supply water across the town over the next couple of months.

Jal Police to be empowered in Nainital for tourist season
Tribune News Service

Nainital, May 17
The Nainital police is all set to strengthen their special teams to ensure more safety and security of people venturing close to water bodies.

The initiative has been taken keeping in mind the probable tourist inflow over the next one month.

DIG, Kumaon Range, DJ Ghildiyal said, “Three boats have been requisitioned for Jal Police. While two of these will be positioned in Naini Lake, one will be kept at Bhimtal.”

He said the police was geared up for the tourist season and special emphasis was being laid on training the tourist police personnel.

The presence of the tourist police in the town has drawn good response from the visitors. The shortcoming being faced by the policemen is that they are short of brochures brought out by the Tourism Department, which the tourists are eager to procure.

Ghildiyal also stated that a vigil was being kept on suspicious elements coming from other states and towns to Nainital.

Meanwhile, the administration too has reviewed the preparations made for the tourist season. Following a meeting held yesterday, District Magistrate Nidhi Mani Tripathi has ordered that emphasis be laid on parking of vehicles on the periphery of the town and hoteliers be asked to run their shuttle services to these parking spots for dropping and picking up the guests.

She also ordered that the vehicle owners should not be allowed to park their vehicles near the schools and on the upper and lower Mall Road area. Tripathi has also ordered the authorities at the Regional Transport Office (RTO) for streamlining the functioning of taxis in the town.

The authorities have been ordered to ensure that the taxi drivers operate from prepaid booths. The officials of the Power Department and the Jal Sansthan have been told to ensure that there is no disruption of power and water suuply in the city.

Purchase procedure of electrical items streamlined
Seema Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 17
The procedure of purchase of electrical items has been streamlined in Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) to control the irregularities committed in this regard for a long time.

The wings of the Executive Engineers, who used to buy the big electrical items themselves and place inflated bills before the corporation, have been clipped as this month onwards they would have to place the orders of the required electrical items to the Contract & Procurement (C&P) section of the department.

With such a system in place, the problems often cropping up with regard to substandard material, exorbitant prices, regular defects in the materials and revenue loss could be tackled efficiently.

Principle Secretary, Power, SS Sandhu, who gave directions to this effect, said a list of 150 major electrical items have been earmarked, which could now only be procured from the Contract & Procurement (C&P) wing of the corporation. He said the Executive Engineers had been making purchase of all kinds of electrical items on their own. “The same items were purchased at different prices by these officials. There was lot of anarchy on account of pricing and materials thus purchased. It had become imminent to contain this anomaly, which was why all the big purchases have strictly been directed at the C&P section only,” he said.

He, however, gave the officials liberty to buy small accessories on their own so that their work did not get affected for trivial purchases.

The connivance of officials at many levels in UPCL came to the fore in such purchases.

Superintendent Engineer, C&P, MK Jain, too, admitted that as per the rule, the Executive Engineers were supposed to place the orders of the required items to the headquarters. But due to the unavailability of those items in the store of the department, they were often given go-ahead to make the purchases themselves.

According to highly placed sources, it was here the series of irregularities began. The cases of exorbitantly priced purchases trickled in where the involvement of officials became a regular affair. The substandard material, too, was bought, which would soon develop defects and gave the opportunity to those involved to play the cycle of purchase once again. The entire gamut of things not only dented the revenue of the UPCL and encouraged corruption but also gave much inconvenience to the public, as the transformers or meters would often go out of order and take long to be replaced.

To plug in all these loopholes in one stroke, a list of 150 items such as cable, electrical pole, conductor, transformer, meter, hardware, etc had been prepared, which could now only be bought from the headquarter office only. Jain said the department would also ensure the quality of the materials purchased. He said with the bulk purchase, the items could be bought at relatively cheaper prices as well which would also help in saving the revenue of the corporation.

Villagers demand bridge on Ram Ganga
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, May 17
Residents of more than six villages near Thal town of Pithoragarh district held a protest today in support of their demand for the construction of a bridge on the Ram Ganga river.

Residents of Asyali, Balyau, Kasari, Kaligaon, Baligar and other villages demonstrated on the make-shift bridge, which they had raised for crossing the river during the monsoon. “More than 100 families from these villages have to cross the river to go to the nearest market at Thal for daily purchases. During the monsoon the temporary bridge often gets submerged in the river and sometimes is even washed away, thus threatening their lives,” said the villagers.

Children of the villages had to walk 7 km daily to reach the primary school at Naulara across the river, they said.

The villagers said the construction of the bridge was a must before the monsoon hit the area in the second week of June. “We have been requesting the successive governments to build a concrete bridge on the Ram Ganga to link our village, as in the absence of a bridge the villagers have to use a raw wooden bridge to cross the river, which becomes very risky during the monsoon,” said Dilip Chand, a resident of Asyali village.

Local MLA Bishen Singh Chufal said he would pursue the issue with the government. “During the BJP rule we have almost completed a proposal for the construction of a bridge. Now, the Congress has come to power in the state and it has stopped working on the proposal. I will pressure the government to take up the proposal,” said Chufal.

Sources in the Public Works Department (PWD) also emphasised the need for the bridge and said a proposal in this regarded had been made.

Uttarakhand Pre Medical Test
Cong leader seeks CBI probe into forged domicile certificate cases
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 17
The Uttarakhand Congress has sought a CBI probe into the cases of candidates appearing in the Uttarakhand Pre Medical Test (UPMT) for admission to medical colleges on fake domicile certificates.

In a letter written to Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, Yogendra Khanduri, a member of the Uttarakhand Congress Media Committee, said influential people were behind the admission racket in medical colleges. He added though the police and the authorities of two medical colleges in Uttarakhand had already started investigation in the matter, a thorough probe by the CBI could unearth the involvement of influential people in the racket.

Khanduri said there was a possibility of a racket going on in issuance of domicile certificates required for the UPMT examination. It had come to light that several applicants had shown themselves as residents of Uttarakhand through forged papers. They used addresses of places in Uttarakhand for obtaining domicile certificates though they were permanent residents of other states. This needed an intensive investigation, he said.

Make Garsain capital of state: UKD-P
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, May 17
With Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna announcing a state Cabinet meeting scheduled to be held at Garsain in Chamoli district, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal-Progressive, while welcoming the move, has also pressed for declaration to make Garsain the permanent capital of the state.

This was voiced at the one-day symbolic agitation by the UKD, Haridwar unit, here today at Chandracharya chowk. Addressing party workers, Uday Ram Semwal, central secretary of the party, thanked Vijay Bahuguna for his bold initiative which was more commendable as for the past 12 years, other Chief Ministers like ND Tiwari, BC Khanduri and RP Nishank tried to delay the process.

Demanding the shifting of capital from Dehradun, which is interim capital, Bal Singh Saini, district chief of the UKD-P, said being equidistant from both divisions of the state Garhwal and Kumaon, it's quite apt that Garsain be made the state capital.

Women wing chief Sarita Purohit stated that the UKD-P was with the Congress government on Garsain and hydro projects and if both demands were not met, then the party would carry out a statewide agitation in support of these issues. Among others who addressed the gathering were Dr Rajbeer Pundir, Kamleshwar Nautiyal, Prabha Malkoti, Yogesh Kumar, Kamal Kant, Sushil Fauji and Satyaveer Singh.

CPI (ML) secy hits out at CM over power projects

Nainital, May 17
Newly elected state secretary of the CPI (ML) Rajendra Pratholi has lashed out at the government led by Vijay Bahuguna for its stand on the power projects.

At an interaction with the media in Haldwani on Thursday, Pratholi stated that by favouring the construction of big power projects in the state, the government was imposing an anti-people model of development on the state in the name of making Uttarakhand an “Urja Pradesh”.

He had demanded that a review be carried out of all constructed and underconstruction power projects in the state to ascertain the impact on environment, public participation, displacement of people and the benefits that had in the way of the ordinary locals.

Pratholi has charged the BJP and the Congress with pushing the state into the marsh of corruption. He said the two parties had been indulging in blame game while not showing any inclination of punishing the corrupt.

He said, "The CPI (ML) demands that 121 scams that have taken place during the tenure of the previous two regimes led by the BJP and the Congress be probed by the CBI and the guilty be put behind bars.”

Pratholi also raised the issue of harassment of the people. He alleged that the SSB trained guerrillas, ASHA workers, Aanganwadi workers, Bhojan Matas, Gram Praharis, educated youth, Urja Mitras and employees of 108 emergency ambulance system were all being harassed.

The state secretary of the party had also called for withdrawal of false cases lodged against his party workers. He had also reiterated the opposition of his party to any attempts at the constitution of an National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) at the national level.

He announced that his party would be sending across memorandums to the Chief Minister from every district on May 21 demanding investigations into alleged scams and an end to harassment of common people seeking their rights. In addition to this, a convention would be held in Pithoragarh against harassment by state agencies on June 17.—TNS

Students want regular water supply in school
Ajya Ramola

Mussoorie, May 17
Furious over an acute shortage of potable water in their school, scores of students of Sanskrit Vidyalaya staged a protest at the Jal Sansthan office in Mussoorie today. They threatened to intensify their agitation if their demand for proper water supply was not met by the department soon.

A large number of students from Sanskrit Vidyalaya, Landour Bazaar, accompanied by their principal RS Semwal reached the Jal Sansthan office here and raised anti-department slogans. They later presented a memorandum to the Executive Engineer with regard to the water problem.

Semwal expressed unhappiness with the department and said due to its callous attitude the students were facing immense difficulties in the wake of water shortage in the school. Poor students had to beg for a bucket of water in order to have a bath in the morning, added Semwal.

Social Activist Amit Bhatt also said the department despite several reminders had not restored the supply of drinking water to the town till now and the officials were also not listening to their grievances. The protesters threatened to intensify their agitation if the regular water supply was not restored soon.

GP Gairola, Executive Engineer, Jal Sansthan said the water problem had arisen as the supply line had broken due to the construction of a road. He assured the protesters that the water supply would be restored within 24 hours.

Tibetans seek Panchen Lama’s release
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 17
Demanding the release of the youngest political prisoner, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, revered as the 11th Panchen Lama, scores of Tibetan men, women and monks held a protest march in the city, marking the 17th anniversary of his disappearance.

They marched past the city accompanied by monks carrying placards condemning Chinese actions.

“Seventeen years have passed, since the Panchen Lama and his family were whisked away by the Chinese authorities, who have targeted our religious gurus to break the Tibetans, but we continue to demand his release,” said Tsering Lamo, a resident of (Rajpur).

The Tibetans residing in Dehradun say the Chinese authorities continue to keep adopt high-handed measures to down the voices of opposition and they fear for the life of Panchen Lama. 

Women oppose opening of liquor shops
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, May 17
Women from many villages and sub-urban areas of Haridwar have come out in open to oppose the opening of liquor shops.

With the recent auction of licensed liquor shops by the Excise Department, several new liquor shops have opened near residential areas. Opposing this move, various women organisations have joined hands.

In Bhagedi village of Roorkee tehsil, women have forcefully got a liquor shop closed. They agitated in front of the shop and also warned resorting to self-immolation in case the administration or liquor mafias try to open the shop.

Social activist Gobind Gopal has been sitting on a darna in support of the issue.

Kavita Devi, a villager, told the TNS that her husband had lost his job owing to drinking habits. Students of the village were also getting addicted to this habit owing to the proximity of the liquor shop from the village, she lamented. She added that instead of going to school, students could be spotted near liquor shops drinking. Several cases of eve-teasing have also come to light.

Similarly, in Ekkad Kala village, villagers have submitted a memorandum to Sub-Divisional Magistrate to close the liquor shop. They have even warned of staging a dharna if their demands are not met.“We are locking these liquor shops. We will not deter or step back. It is a matter of our families and village atmosphere,” said Kusum Devi, representative of an Ekkad Kalan village forum named Mahila Shakti Dal.

Meanwhile, five public schools are situated within the 100-m diameter of the two liquor shops on the Lakshar road, have filed a complaint with SDM Harveer Singh, who has directed the district excise officer to look into the matter.