CM assures industries power crisis will be checked
Dehradun, August 5
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has assured the industries that the state government was making efforts to purchase 300 MW of power from outside sources to contain the crisis precipitated by the Northern Grid failure and stalling of hydropower projects due to high deposition of silt.

RGM Plaza on Chakrata Road yet to be razed
Dehradun, August 5
Although the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) had razed all small shops and houses situated on Chakrata Road for the widening work under a drive in December last year, RGM Plaza, a multi-story building, continues to stand tall amid demolished buildings.

Dehradun, August 5
The signboards installed by the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) over the plots illegally usurped by property dealers and builders at various places in the city have been thrown away by those indulging in this illegal trade. The MDDA had installed it's own signboards on the sites where these property dealers and builders had begun plotting or construction over the land.

Vice-Chairman, MDDA, RM Sundaram, said he could not visit these places due to his busy schedule, but in a week's time, he would certainly go for inspection and punish those Junior Engineers JEs of the MDDA who were in-charge of these respective localities in the city, and take action against the erring builders as well. He also pointed out that the frequent transfers of JEs were causing problems. "It takes time for a JE to understand his area and about the illegal plotting taking place over there. In a month or so, when he manages to do so to some extent, he is transferred. The same happens with the other JE. I am going to cease this system," he said and pointed out that the JE concerned would be held responsible for illegal plotting in his area and punished for that.

Over 400 illegal colonies have mushroomed all over the city due to illegal constructions over the last couple of years. JEs and AEs of the MDDA who know it all watch it silently. Their connivance with the builders has not been denied. The frequent transfers also allow them to have a safe escape. Since the vice chairman and secretary, too, keep changing in the authority often, they hardly get time to arrest this monumental problem. It has been seen that the Power and Drinking Water Departments, too, give connections without verifying maps of these buildings.Councillors do not lag behind in providing roads with their funds in these areas. The problem of sewerage and drainage continues to haunt the dwellers.

Even in recent times, illegal plots have been sold at Kargi Chowk, near Himalayan Public School, where a high tension wire is passing through the area. The agriculture land in a particular colony has been misused in a similar fashion. Small plots of 50,60 and 70 feet have been sold in Devrishi Enclave, whereas plots were sold off by covering a nullah at Vidya Vihar in Patel Nagar. New illegal houses are coming up on Subhash Road. Sadly, no action was taken against these illegal constructions till date. Instead of taking action against the erring people, politicians have been advocating to render these illegal colonies as legal.

State Planning and Sports Minister Dinesh Aggarwal has openly favoured the notion of turning all the illegal colonies, including the slum colonies settled across Bindal and Rispana rivers, into legal ones, saying the endeavour would also augment revenue for the state government.

In a scenario where the MDDA has lost out most of the government land to illegal constructions, it has scant land left to build housing colonies under its domain.

Haridwar, August 5
Incessant rains have threatened submersion of areas falling on the banks of Ganga, Solani and Ratmaun in the district owing to heavy flow of water in them.

With the flow of these rivers getting slightly diverted at various points, many new areas have come under the danger zone as landslides and mudslides threaten these places.

Yesterday, while the Ganga was flowing above the danger mark level, today it was just below the danger level point of 294 metres as rains continued to lash the upper reaches of Garhwal division.

Several colonies in Haridwar city, Lakshar and in Roorkee have been earmarked as sensitive.

Villages falling in the Bahadrabad block that are facing imminent threat include Jaurasi, Ransura, Ladpur Kalan, Ladpur Khurd, Sandhipur Gadi, Jaunpur, Matloobpura, Nauk Grant, Kudakwala, Lam, Dadubas, Jassawala, Bharapur Bhauri, Firozpur, Hasanpur, Shapur, Bhagwanpur, Kishanpur and Gangdaspur. Talib Hasan, a villager, complained that several times villagers had apprised the district administration and Irrigation Department officials of the crisis looming large. They had requested the authorities to make embankments on the river bed but no heed was paid.

While Irrigation Department officials point out that they had made several embankments in the past two years, but as the flow of the rivers was taking a new course at various points, new places were getting submerged. They had submitted proposals to the government for constructing embankments along side the river beds in Lakshar and Roorkee, which were flood-prone belts.

Dehradun, August 5
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has assured the industries that the state government was making efforts to purchase 300 MW of power from outside sources to contain the crisis precipitated by the Northern Grid failure and stalling of hydropower projects due to high deposition of silt.

While meeting with a delegation of the Association of Industries here today, which came to air it's grievances regarding acute power shortage which was causing losses to the industries, Bahuguna said the shortage was temporary and the state government was doing everything possible to provide help to entrepreneurs in the state.

He said he had directed officials of the Power Department to do roistering for a fixed time period in the industrial area of the state. He has convened a meeting with entrepreneurs from the industrial belt of Pant Nagar, Haridwar and Selaqui at the secretariat on Wednesday on this issue, where officials of the concerned departments would be present.

On Saturday, the power generation from hydropower houses came down to a drastic 3.13 million units (MU). The power availability remained 14.97 MU against the demand of 23.17 MU. All the hydropower houses such as Dhrasu, Chibro, Khodri, Dhakrani, Dhalipur, Kulhal, Maneri Bhali, Chilla, Pathri, Muhammadpur and Khatima had to be closed down due to the silt. Owing to the gap between demand and supply, power roistering was imposed throughout the state. Rural areas of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar did not have power supply for 5 hours, small cities for 8 hours, hill region of Garhwal for 6 hours and of Kumaon for 5 hours, Vikas Nagar and Doiwala for 7 hours, Haldwani, Roorkee, Kashipur and Rudrapur for 3 hours, Haridwar and Jwalapur for 6 hours, Rishikesh for 5 hours and steel furnace and non-continuous industries for 7 hours. Continuous industries remained affected for over 8 hours hours.

Dehradun, August 5
Although the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) had razed all small shops and houses situated on Chakrata Road for the widening work under a drive in December last year, RGM Plaza, a multi-story building, continues to stand tall amid demolished buildings.

The RGM Plaza building is now hindering the process to lay a new drainage line across the widened road.

Though workers dug up the road from Prabhat Cinema to Clock Tower, they had to leave the area where the plaza is situated.

Since the work could not be completed, the dug up portion is lying uncovered.

Kishan Chand, a shopkeeper, said due to pathetic condition of the road, it had become difficult for commuters to walk or drive.

Executive Engineer, PWD, CM Pandey said they could not do anything till the MDDA issued directions to dismantle the plaza.

However, MDDA Vice-Chairman RM Sundaram said the plaza would be dismantled manually by the authorities itself as shopkeepers had failed to do so despite several reminders.

Shopkeepers are yet to make up their minds considering the cost factor as some have small while others have bigger portions at stake.

The MDDA will take all these factors into consideration before razing the building.

Sundaram said he was holding talks with shopkeepers and would soon take some action.

Mussoorie, August 5
Heavy overnight rain damaged a patch of the Mussoorie-Kempty-Yamnotri road and Lake No I at the famous Kempty Falls, around 13 kilometres from Mussoorie. Three restaurants were damaged due to landslide last night around 11.30 pm. One motorcycle was also submerged in debris here.

The administration rushed to the spot early this morning to assess the damage and heaved a sigh of relief as no human loss was reported at the site.

According to a witness, landslide began around 11.30 pm last night in which two restaurants on the roadside were buried in the debris while another restaurant was razed to the ground as a result of the huge boulders falling on it.

The Lake No 1 at the Kempty Fall was damaged due to the heavy rain and the landslide that occurred overnight.

Around 70 metres of road near the Kempty bridge damaged due to the landslide, leaving the tourists stranded on one side who had to return to Mussoorie.

One of the owners of the damaged restaurant Baldev Singh said he had constructed the restaurant recently but due to the overnight landslide, he had lost his lifetime investment.

Shopkeepers said boulders from the rocky hills above the restaurant fell along with debris in such a speed that they were left with no time to save the belongings.

No human loss was reported as most of the workers had left for their homes and the owner went to sleep at the neighbours shop when the incident occurred.

The casualties could have been far more if the incident would have occurred in daytime when the restaurants were packed with the tourists at the Kempty Fall.

The main area of the Kempty Fall had also witnessed similar damage last year in which the main pool had been washed away in heavy rain.

Rajesh Singh, a tourist from Delhi, said the damage site was really terrifying and as the road leading to Kempty Fall had been damaged beyond repair, his family had to leave without enjoying at the Kempty Fall.

The efforts to remove the debris were started by the PWD and the local police using the JCB machines, especially brought around 9 am.

CP Pandey, Executive Engineer, PWD, also reached the spot to assess the damage. Speaking to the media, he said around 70 metres of the road that leads to Yamnotri had also been damaged severely and it would take around 2-3 months for the completion of the repair work.

The Naib Tehsildar, Dhanaulti, also reached the spot and directed the officials to make an assessment of the loss.

Congress secretary Manmohan Singh Mall also reached the site to assess the situation and said it was fortunate that no life was lost in the disaster but the loss to the restaurants and the lake was around Rs 30-40 lakh.

He also informed the media that the Chief Minister had been apprised of the situation who had given assurance to assist the victims through the Chief Minster Relief Fund and other agencies.

THE announcement by senior Congress leader and Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Food Processing and Parliamentary Affairs Harish Rawat to start a bhajan-singing programme at Har-ki-Pauri at Haridwar to highlight the problems of the people of his own Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency is seen as fresh pressure tactics by him on his own state Congress government headed by Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna.Although Harish Rawat, in a diplomatic manner, has sought the permission from the Chief Minister to start his bhajan-singing programme on August 18, in fact he would be doing the same things again.

Even during the previous Congress regime of former Chief Minister N.D.Tewari, Harish Rawat emerged as the strongest opponent of his own Congress government. While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main Opposition party was dubbed as “Mitr vipaksh” ( friendly Opposition) during the Tewari regime, it was Harish Rawat who opposed and took up various issues concerning the general public, even resorting to dharnas and agitations.

It was first in 2002 that Harish Rawat, who led the Congress Party to victory in the first ever state Assembly elections in Uttarakhand as state party chief, was denied the post of Chief Minister. N.D.Tewari, a veteran party leader, was sent by the party high command to lead the state government, much to the chagrin of Harish Rawat. The party lost the next Assembly elections in 2007 but Harish Rawat did made a vain attempt to win over Independents and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) legislators but did not succeed. However, lady luck smiled on him in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections when he shifted from Almora to Haridwar and emerged victorious to become a union minister in the UPA government.

But since his heart was in the state politics, he again tried hard to become the Chief Minister after the party won the state Assembly elections in 2012 by a slender majority, but the party high command this time reposed faith in another senior party leader, Vijay Bahuguna. Harish Rawat did raise a banner of revolt with the help of his supporting legislators against the decision of the party high command but later relented. In the bargain, he was able to get many important positions for his own supporters in the Uttarakhand ministry as well as outside.

He got Govind Singh Kunjwal as Speaker of the state Assembly, while another of his confidant, Mahender Singh Mahra, who lost Assembly polls, was given a Rajya Sabha ticket. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, after his victory from Sitarganj Assembly byelection that made him politically stronger, it was time for Harish Rawat to act.

Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has resigned his Tehri Lok Sabha seat and byelection would be held there within a few months. The strategy of Harish Rawat would be to keep the pot boiling for the Chief Minister, who would already be under pressure to win his own Tehri Lok Sabha seat prior to 2014 general elections. While it was believed that the Chief Minister camp within Congress wanted that Sudha Bahuguna, his wife, should contest, Harish Rawat has preferred others from the seat.

During the past five months of his rule, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has handled the crisis created by Harish Rawat diplomatically with the support of the party high command.

He has tried to placate the senior leader by inviting him to discuss all the issues. After his first salvo seeking permission from Bahuguna to start his bhajan-singing programme, Harish Rawat has again written a second letter to the Chief Minister, seeking his attention to various problems faced by farmers and the general public of Haridwar.

Dehradun August 5
DGP Vijay Raghav Pant held a meeting with senior police officials at the Police Headquarters today to monitor the relief measures in the wake of natural calamity triggered by cloudburst in the hilly region of the state.

At the meeting, Pant deputed SP Vimmi Sachdeva as in charge of the Disaster Management Control Room at the PHQ. The control room will gather information regarding disaster and relief measures after every two hours and exchange the information with the Weather and Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre. It will also issue alert as per the forecast by the Met Department.

Besides this, police officials of every district have been directed to monitor action plan and equipment to meet any eventuality in this regard.

Dehradun, August 5
Dipali Mahl has been appointed state in-charge and Shivani Thapliyal Mishra state president of the women's wing of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC).

At a function held here today, several women and youngsters also joined the organisation.

Kedarnath MLA Shaila Rani Rawat, who was the chief guest on the occasion, claimed that the Congress had always worked for the betterment of the poor, labour class and Dalits. State president of INTUC Dinesh Sundriyal said the women's and youth wings had been formed to further strengthen the organisation. — TNS