Dehradun, June 29
The state government is serious about reviving the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) as a profitable entity.

The GMVN has now a Managing Director, an IAS officer, and two General Managers holding independent charges. These posts either remained vacant in the past or the officers were also given other important charges due to which they could hardly attend the office here.

Hansa Dutt Pandey, GM, has been made tourism in-charge. The tourism sector has not been faring well as most of the tourist rest houses under the GMVN are in a dilapidated condition with old buildings and infrastructure worn out. The Chardham yatra and the Kanwar Mela, besides good weather have brought good business to the GMVN this season.

As Pradeep Saha, GM, is looking after industries and marketing sectors too, the GMVN lost out on avenues of revenue like liquor and wood. Mining too almost came to a standstill due to a Supreme Court order. The other industries under the GMVN such as fruit processing and mineral water, barring gas agencies, are in doldrums.

MD Dr Pankaj Pandey has chalked out plans to augment income and plug undue expenditure in the GMVN. He says this will bring annual revenue of Rs 25 crore and enable the GMVN to giver salaries to its staff, renovate rest houses and improve industrial growth. Pandey says beyond established tourism destinations, the department is also publicising other destinations like Dhanaulti, Lansdown, Muketshwar, Harsil and Chamba. More rooms will be added and the existing accommodation will be spruced up. Land is being purchased at Tehri Lake, which is being developed as a big tourist destination by the state government on Central aid.

Adventure tourism is also on the priority list. Pandey says, “We have 12 huts at Kaudiyala, a rafting destination, at present and more huts will be added. The number of rafts too will be increased from five to 15. The ropeway at Auli will also start functioning soon.”

The GMVN has at present a fleet of 32 buses and 10 more buses will be added to it while the oldest ones will be auctioned. Mere renting of buses to the IAS Academy in Mussoorie brings revenue of Rs 60 lakh to the GMVN.

Mining is another revenue generating activity. Pandey says, “I am personally pursuing the matter related to mining. Environment clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest is the only pre-condition that has been imposed by the Supreme Court to start mining in any region. We have earmarked 150 such locations in the Garhwal region. Of these, the ministry has approved the survey report on 80 locations and in rest of the cases it has asked for some modifications that will be carried out shortly.” The MD says he will take up the issue of the re-allotment of the liquor franchise to the GMVN with the state government. Besides, he is also keen on getting the status of a working agency for the construction section of the nigam so that it could take construction projects of other departments as well.

The sick rest houses will be returned to the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board for renovation on the private public participation mode.

Dehradun, June 29
Preparing to undertake the 69 round of the National Sample Survey on drinking water, sanitation, hygiene conditions and survey on slums in the state, the Directorate of Economics and Statistics is hampered by shortage of staff so much so that the department is lagging behind in carrying out the survey of industries for 2009-2010, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.

With just 25 members as part of the technical staff and less than 10 inspectors, who are vital for carrying out survey and collection of data, the headquarter based here has not been able to collect data on industries and process the available data for several years now.

“Since the creation of the state, not much has been done to fill the staff vacancies. We have shortage of inspectors but still the progress of our department is much better from Uttar Pradesh that has stopped undertaking surveys as mandated by the National Sample Survey office,” said YS Pangtey, Director, Directorate of Economics and Statistics.

Besides, the Directorate also lags behind in automation and has not been able to undergo complete digitisation of data. “As of now, if one has to access data, it can only be made available offline as the complete digitisation of the data has not been carried and we do not posses a dedicated server at the headquarter,” said Pangtey.

The department gets around Rs 4 lakh as part of the plan and non plan budget that continues to be miniscule for carrying out technical upgrading.

Meanwhile, the survey (July 2012- December 2012) on drinking water, sanitation, hygiene and housing condition has been designed to collect information on different aspects of conditions necessary for decent and healthy living.

Using the information collected in the survey, important indicators of living facilities would be developed at the national and state level in the state. The survey on slum would seek to measure the extent of the slum problem by estimating the number of slums in urban areas and percentage of slums having access to facilities that are known to be absent in slums.

Dehradun, June 29
Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain, while addressing a meeting of the Annual Plan 2012-13 here today, asked all departments about the information regarding new experiment taken up by them, priorities set for the development of the state and the challenges being faced by them in the process.

The Chief Secretary said Uttarakhand was under the category of a special state, hence the Centre would be urged to relax the set norms considering its difficult geographical conditions.

He said the Centre would also be informed about the loss incurred by the state due to the stalling of hydropower projects. The Chief Secretary said the state needed power but was not able to utilise its water resources.

Jain directed the PWD to adopt successful experiments taken up by other states and bring improvement in its working culture. He also asked the department to prepare a master plan for roads, repair works and security.

He instructed the School Education Department to consider the mobile school scheme and the voucher scheme to extend the reach of education. He said the Planning Commission would be urged to extend help in the Right to Education Act so that more poor students could avail the facilities.

He said demand would also be made to enhance irrigation capacity under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme. He directed the Health Department to fill the bond of students passing out from Srinagar and Haldwani Medical Colleges to extend their services to the state for first three years.

He advocated strengthening medical service in the remote areas through mobile medical vans. He said drinking water projects were being taken up with community participation which had proved successful so far.

He directed the officials of the Forest Department to spread awareness among the local people towards forest fires and prepare a concrete policy to check such incidents.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, Medical, Dr Ranveer Singh, Principal Secretary, Industry, Rakesh Sharma, Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Om Prakash, Principal Secretary, PWD, S Raju and other senior officials of various departments.

Dehradun, June 29
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Pritam Singh has expressed discontentment over the non-distribution of foodgrains in time. He has directed the department officials to distribute the remaining foodgrains under the BPL and APL categories and Antyodaya at the earliest.

At a meeting of the Food and Civil Supplies Department at the Secretariat today, the minister said despite sufficient availability of foodgrains, it was not being distributed.

He asked the officials to ensure the distribution of foodgrains well in time. The minister asked them to launch a comprehensive campaign to check the sale of cooking gas on the black market and their commercial use, fake ration cards and maintain quality while purchasing wheat and rice for the state pool.

He instructed them to constitute teams for Garhwal and Kumaon regions to ensure quality control. The minister laid emphasis on strengthening the public distribution system.

The minister said many complaints were being received from consumers against the non-distribution of ration.

He said if any such complaint would be received, the officials and workers of that particular area would have to face stringent action.

He said kerosene ought to be distributed in the Char Dham yatra and hill areas well in time.

He said no complaints should be received as far as the distribution of kerosene was concerned. The minister asked the officials to provide him with the details of the measures taken to ensure quality .

Commissioner, Food and Civil Supplies, Subardhan, Additional Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies, UC Kabadwal and all district supply officers were present on the occasion.

Dehradun, June 29
The DMC is making all-out efforts to prevent any major disaster during the forthcoming monsoons. Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Ashok Kumar has said the work with regard to cleaning the drainage system was started almost a month ago and but the pace of the work has been increased now. There are 60 big drains in the city which get clogged with garbage and mud each year. Kumar said a group of 7 to 10 sanitary workers, known as nullah gang, have been depoloyed for the task, who have cleaned 45 nullahs so far.

The target is indeed huge as the pre-monsoon downpour has already begun and meteorological experts too have claimed arrival of full monsoons by the first week of July.

He said the embankment of Bindal and Rispana would be covered from those sides where the accumulated rainy water gushed out in the form of floods every monsoon. People of slum colonies who dwell on the banks of these rivers remain at risk during such times as many animals and few children also died by getting drowned in the rainwater. He said catchments area too would be built to meet the objective in this direction.

A control room will be set up in the DMC, where people in despair during rain-related calamity would be able to call DMC to seek urgent help. Various concerned departments such as DMC, PWD and MDDA would remain in close coordination with each other to work out these calls.

Dehradun, June 29
Utkarsh Bhardwaj of Uttarakhand won the under-14 boys’ singles category in the finals of the All-India Talent Series Tennis Tournament at Shanti Tennis Academy here today. Utkarsh defeated Srijan Singh of Uttar Pradesh 6-2, 6-3.

In the 12 years boys’ single category, Rishab Sharda of Chandigarh beat Sanvit Sikka of Uttar Pradesh 6-0, 6-3 in the final match.

In the 12 years boys’ doubles category, Anmol Rattan Kamboj (Chandigarh) and Sanvit Sikka of UP defeated Dron Walia and Prakhar Pal of Uttarakhand 6-1, 6-2.

Rishab Sharda and Sabrang Sandal of Chandigarh defeated Ashar Jhon and Sanchit Mishra of UP in the doubles boys under-14 category in the final match to lift the title.

Interestingly, Sarah Dev of Haryana won both the under-12 and under-14 single titles. In the under-12 age category, she defeated Yuvrani Baneerjee of West Bengal 6-1, 6-2.

In the under-14 girls single category, she beat Chetna Kumari of Haryana 7-5,7-6,9-7 in the final match.

In the 14 years girls’ doubles category, Seerat Kaur Pannu of Punjab and Sarah Dev of Haryana beat Adya Chala ( Karnataka ) and Yuvrani Bannerjee of West Bengal 6-1, 6-2 in the final match.

Dehradun, June 29
State Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare Dinesh Aggarwal has assured of providing better facilities and setting up sports stadiums at Sudhowala and Haldwani soon.

He said five more stadium would be maintained with the assistance of industrialists.

Giving away the prizes to 32 players and 11 coaches for winning various national-level competitions at the Parade Ground here today, he said the money given to the players and coaches after winning the matches would be increased to encourage them further.

He also announced of giving Life Time Achievement Award to former hockey player Hardyal.

The minister said he would make all efforts to get the national games organised in the state only.

He said despite limited infrastructure in the state, talented sports personalities had been bringing honour to the state.