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NGOs face probe for luring villagers into poaching
Two-day BJP convention begins; to review preparations for Tehri bypoll
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Quota
in Promotions
Postpone Tehri bypoll, say Left parties
Spending limit of candidates for elections fixed at
Rs 40 lakh
Napino Auto wins BHEL quality control contest
Scarcity of funds hits VAT reimbursement scheme
Fiscal Act to reduce deficit, revenue loss
Looting
of petrol station owner
Police to step up vigil on Nepal border
Eye vision centre starts functioning
Girl dies after eating wild mushrooms
Class IV employees suspend stir
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NGOs face probe for luring villagers into poaching
Dehradun, September 12 Two wildlife conservationist NGOs that have in recent years got much accolades for helping to nab poachers are finally turning out to be suspect themselves. The revelations came after the arrest of some persons with a leopard skin in Hardiwar last month. These arrests had come after a tip-off given by these two NGOs. However, on interrogations, the arrested poachers made a startling revelation that they were paid by the wildlife NGOs. Though forest officials for long have been admitting that these NGOs play a dubious role and even resort to luring villagers into poaching and finally getting them arrested. This certainly is the result of the competition among various wildlife NGOs for registering a higher number of wildlife seizures which in turn results in increased donations and accolades, a charge repeatedly denied by these NGOs. However, a recent letter from the Union Environment and Forest Ministry directing the Uttarakhand Forest Department to probe these allegations has forced the forest authorities to go for swift investigations. SK Dutt, anti-poaching cell head in Uttarakhand, admitted that he had received a letter from the Union Environment Ministry seeking detailed information about some wildlife NGOs working in the state in view of repeated allegations against these organisations of being facilitators of poaching. Dutt added that they would investigate the matter and send their report shortly to the ministry. The working of the wildlife conservation NGOs in Uttarakhand have been under scanner for quite some time. Dr Hem Singh Gehlot, who has been associated with wildife NGOs in the state for the past many years, asserts that the NGOs should play a constructive role. “The NGOs must act as watchdogs and should not just go to such low levels”, he said, adding that the Forest Department had already issued guidelines for wildlife NGOs working in
Uttarakhand. |
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Two-day BJP convention begins; to review preparations for Tehri bypoll
Mussoorie, September 12 The two-day convention has been organised with an objective to galvanise party workers and review the role of the state BJP Scheduled Caste Front for the forthcoming Tehri Lok Sabha bypoll and determine a convincing victory for the party. The two-day review meeting was attended by former Chief Minister BC Khanduri, national president, BJP Schedule Caste Front, Dushyant Kumar Gautam, former Cabinet Minister Khajan Das, state BJP president Bishan Singh Chufal, SC/ST Commsion president Suresh Rathore, MLA, Mussoorie, Ganesh Joshi, Chaman Lal, MLA, Jaageshwar, Ram Das, MLA, Ghansali Bhim Lal Arya, Amrit Lal Nagar and Geeta Thakur. The BJP candidate for the Tehri Lok Sabha bypoll, Maharani Raj Laksmi, was introduced to the party workers here. The BJP leaders, addressing the gathering, said that the party had always looked after the interests of the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and fought for their cause at every available forum in the state. On the other hand, the present Congress government had used them as merely a vote bank and the people from the community now had understood the ‘misleading tactics’ adopted by the Congress, and would give a befitting reply to the Congress in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls from Tehri constituency by voting for the BJP candidate in large numbers. Former Chief Minister BC Khanduri, speaking on the occasion, said that the people of the country were fed up with the ‘corrupt’ Congress government at the Centre along with its six-month rule in the state. The state government had lost the faith of the people with its ‘anti-people decisions’ taken in the past six months. The government employees’ agitation was indicative of such policies in the state which had brought the state functioning to a standstill. He said the ministers and the MLAs in the government were up in arms against it's own government leading to anarchy in the state. Khanduri further stated that people of the state were fed up with the issues of corruption, namely coal scam, 2G Spectrum scam and had made up their minds to teach the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre a lesson by voting in favour of the BJP in forthcoming polls. Khanduri affirmed that the BJP victory in the bypoll would sound the death-knell for the Congress, leading to a clean sweep for the party in the next Lok Sabha elections. Maharani Raj Lakshmi, member of the royal family and the candidate for the Tehri bypoll, was respected and had a direct link with the people of the constituency. He also said that the homecoming of Munna Singh Chauhan was the turning point, which will help the party to win the seat with a convincing margin. The state president, Bishan Singh Chufal, speaking on the occasion said that the Congress had failed on all fronts at the Centre as well as the state and the presnt standoff between the government employees and the government was a living example of it. He also said that the Congress government in the state was bent upon dividing society by misleading the employees from both general and reserved categories. Chufal assured that the BJP was united this time and would not repeat its mistakes of the past, thus ensuring victory in the Tehri Lok Sabha bypoll. The state BJP president of the Scheduled Caste Front, Ajay Tamta, said that the district heads of the front also shared their views in the session that carried on till late evening and pledged to provide complete support to the candidate for the Tehri Lok Sabha bypoll. The BJP candidate from Tehri Lok Sabha, Maharani Raj Lakshmi, speaking on the occasion said that it was important for BJP to win the Tehri Lok Sabha poll as it would send a clear message to the Congress that people would not tolerate any act of corruption in the country. The party leaders in unison said that the mistakes of the Sitarganj Assembly elections will not be repeated during the Lok Sabha poll and BJP would emerge victorious from Tehri. Senior BJP leaders Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Munna Singh Chauhan will also attend the meeting tomorrow. Municipal Council president OP Uniyal, Dinesh Badoni, Vijay Ramola and others were present on the occasion. |
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CM seeks allocation of coal-based power projects to state
Dehradun, September 12 Bahuguna expressed his gratitude for giving priority to Uttarakhand for the purchase of 15 per cent additional power, besides 13 per cent free power generated from Dhauliganga-Gauriganga Hydropower project at Pithoragarh district undertaken by the NHPC, according to a press release issued by the Uttarakhand government. The Chief Minister requested the Union Minister to help in beginning all those projects that had received environmental clearance. Stating that Uttarakhand was called Urja Pradesh, Bahuguna revealed that the state had to purchase power worth Rs 900 crore the previous year to meet its power demand. He said that hydropower projects were instrumental for financial growth of the state and power generation for the entire country. Chief Minister Bahuguna said that on the assurance given by GAIL, gas-based power projects had been set up at Kashipur. However, as GAIL was unable to supply gas, the projects were not yet started. He said that owing to a higher rate of gas in the international market, which is more than Rs 6 per unit, the state government was unable to purchase it. He urged the Union Minister to provide some alternative measures or chalk out a policy so that these gas projects, in which a
large investment had been made, could be run to generate power. |
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Quota
in Promotions
Dehradun, September 12 While the government maintained that 18 security personnel belonging to class IV and responsible for maintaining security at the Secretariat have been served suspension notices, office-bearers maintained that no such notice had been issued. “The security personnel have not received any notice and unless the government accepts our demands, we will not give up our stir,” said SS Valdiya, president of the morcha. Yesterday, the government had warned of issuing notices against probationers who are still under training but today the government announced that they were being given some more to time to return to work. Today, employees of the rural development also joined the rally by the
striking employees at the Parade Ground. The office-bearers of the morcha said 39 employees were supporting their stir. |
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Postpone Tehri bypoll, say Left parties
Dehradun, September 12 Secretary, CPM, Vijay Rawat said the entire government machinery which should attend to disaster victims in Uttarkashi was now busy making preparations for the election. He said the election to the Tehri Lok Sabha seat, which got vacated after Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna resigned in July, could be deferred for six months. The deadline for election would come to an end in January. He said there was no hurry as such to hold the election for the time being. Therefore, the state government must give priority to development and relief to the people of Uttarkashi. State Secretary, CPI, Samar Bhandari, said as per the figures provided by the state government, around 7,285 people and 57 houses got affected in Uttarkashi district. As many as 150 families had taken shelter in camps. Government property worth Rs 600 cr and private property worth Rs 100 cr got damaged. He said six Vidhan Sabha constituencies, including two from Uttarkashi district which came under the Tehri Lok Sabha seat, were badly hit by the calamity, hence, the election should be postponed till the normalcy returned to the affected area. |
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Spending limit of candidates for elections fixed at
Rs 40 lakh
Dehradun, September 12 He said it would be necessary for the candidates to give their account numbers while filing nomination forms. The candidates would be allowed to withdraw Rs 20,000 at one time and, more than that through cheques only. The candidates would have to furnish the details of the expenditure to the District Election Officer. The expenditure details would be put up at the notice board as well. He said a liquor monitoring team had been constituted to monitor that liquor or money was not used by the candidates to allure the voters. Chief Development Officer/ Election Expenditure Officer Sushil Kumar said expenditure observers, flying squads, surveillance team and a Media Certification and Monitoring Committee had been formed to ensure the smooth conduct of the election. He said the information provided by these bodies would be given to the District Election Officer and State Election Commission. |
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Napino Auto wins BHEL quality control contest
Dehradun, September 12 He was chairing a valedictory session of the Uttarakhand Preliminaries of the 25th Quality Control Circle Competition 2012 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry held here today. Highlighting the contribution of quality circles in the success of the BHEL, Pandhi said the BHEL had been a pioneer in this field and initiated circles in 1982. He said efforts were made continuously by the BHEL to take forward the quality movement and the BHEL Haridwar had 395 quality circles. Pandhi also appreciated the CII efforts in taking forward the quality movement. He gave away the trophies to the winning teams. An innovative team from Napino Auto & Electronics Ltd, Haridwar won the trophy. The Horizon team from Bharat Electronics Ltd, Ghaziabad, emerged as the 1st runner-up followed by the Nai Disha team from Secure Meters, Solan, as the 2nd runner-up. The first two teams will now participate in the regional final. Explaining the importance of quality circles, Sandeep Jain, vice-chairman, CII Uttarakhand State Council, said circle teams played a very important role in involving a cross section of employees in any organisation for improving quality. He further mentioned that quality should be seen in a holistic perspective, which implies development of skills, productivity and quality of four aspects, man, machine, method and product through cumulative process of training, work experience, brain-storming sessions and active participation. The quality circle has emerged as a mechanism to develop and utilise the tremendous potential of people for improvement in product quality and productivity. Eighteen quality circle teams from 13 organisations with strong commitments towards quality, like BEL, the BHEL, Cavin Kare, Honeywell, Marico Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra, Rockman Industries, Napino Auto, Lifelong, Secure Meters, TVS Electronics, Denso India and Anand Automotive - Spicer India participated in the competition and gave presentations on the specific projects handled by them at their work place. The eminent panel of Judges comprised Deepak Tikle, plant head, ABB Ltd, Haridwar, Camillo Mascarenhas, manager HR and EHS, SKF India, Haridwar and Sudhir Chandra, consultant, Akums Drugs & Pharmaceuticals. |
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Scarcity of funds hits VAT reimbursement scheme
Dehradun, September 12 To spur industrial development in the hill areas of the state,the Uttarakhand government had announced the reimbursement scheme in 2008 and after the new Congress government took over, the Industries Department was asked to pursue the matter on a priority basis. Accordingly, the Directorate of Industries prepared a budget of Rs 10 crore for reimbursing the manufacturers, out of which the Industries Department thought it fit to sanction only Rs 3crore for repayment of VAT, out of which only Rs 1 crore has been allocated. “Things have come to such a pass that there is more demand than the supply. If there is no timely reimbursement of VAT, the small manufacturers would not be able to take the full benefits of the incentive announced as part of the Special Integrated Industrial Policy. Small manufacturers are basing all their calculations on the timely payment of incentives,” said Pankaj Gupta, president of Industries Association of Uttarakhand. The objective of the scheme is to provide support to the manufacturing units to be set up in the hill regions. The scheme came into operation with effect from April 1, 2008, and shall remain in operation till March 31, 2018. According to the scheme, the maximum limit of reimbursement of the VAT subsidy for the enterprises classified under Category A shall not be more than 90 per cent and the enterprise classified under Category B districts shall not be more than 75 per cent of the total VAT payable by them. Beside, the government has also not issued any order on the payment of VAT to the commercial wing by the Industries Department. "This new arrangement was introduced as part of the amended SIP. The procedure for sanctioning of disbursement for reimbursement of claims of VAT is still awaiting sanction,” said Gupta. The Special Integrated Industrial Policy covers the entire territories of district Pauri Garhwal, Tehri, Almora, Bageshwar, including the development blocks forming the hill areas in district Dehradun and Nainital, except the territories comprising Doiwala, Vikasnagar, Sahaspur and Raipur blocks in district Dehradun, and the territories comprising the Haldwani and Ramnagar blocks in district
Nainital. |
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Fiscal Act to reduce deficit, revenue loss
Dehradun, September 12 Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain said this while reviewing the execution of the FRBM Act at the Secretariat here yesterday. He said it was necessary for the state to achieve the target set under the FRBM. The Chief Secretary said the 13th Finance Commission had approved Rs 700 crore for special plans and failure in achieving the FRBM target would lead to the restrain of this amount. He said in 2010-11, the FRBM target was not achieved, but it was brought under control in 2011-12. In the current fiscal year, the target had been set as per the main budget. He laid emphasis on achieving revenue targets and looking for the new resources besides budget provisions of 2012-13. Principal Secretary, Planning, S Ramaswami, Secretary, Finance, Radha Raturi, Additional Secretary, Finance, MC Joshi and other senior officials attended the meeting. |
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Quota in Promotions: UKD leaders observe fast
Dehradun, September 12 Panwar said the state government should follow the decision of the High Court and the Supreme Court in this regard. He threatened that if the government failed to do so, his party would launch a statewide campaign from September 15. |
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Looting
of petrol station owner
Mussoorie, September 12 Raising slogans against the police, the traders took out a march from Picture Palace to Library Chowk. Later, they blocked a road at Library Bazaar for more than two hours. They said the police had failed to arrest the accused, thus raising questions on its performance. They alleged that no one from the administration was ready to listen to their woes. Satish Dahuandiyal, a member of the association, said the police had failed miserably to perform its duty, forcing them to take to the streets. The traders lifted the blockade only after Mussoorie SDM Ramjee Saran assured them of organising their meeting with the District Magistrate tomorrow. Meanwhile, commuters faced a lot of inconvenience as they had to wait for a couple of hours in their vehicles due to the blockade. |
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Police to step up vigil on Nepal border
Pithoragarh, September 12 The SP said all persons living in hotels or in rented accommodations in the district would have to produce their identity proofs to the police. “We have also decided to coordinate with other agencies working to check infiltration on the Nepal border,” he added. “Besides, other internal security issues were also discussed at the meeting and some decisions were taken. Keeping in mind incidents of thefts in some temples of the district last month, it was decided to run a special campaign to nab the thieves,” said the police.
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Eye vision centre starts functioning
Dehradun, September 12 At the centre screening would be carried for cataract operations. The hospital authorities said the centre would cater to the medical needs of the surrounding areas of Motherawala, Banjarwala, Dodhwala, Nauka, Kedarpur and Dandi. While inaugurating the centre, CMO of Dehradun RP Bhatt said there was a need to improve the
services at the rural health centres. “We have to improve the services at all costs in the rural areas because the people living here have limited choices,” said
Dr Bhatt. He also appreciated the efforts of the authorities of Sri Mahant Inidresh
Hospital which thought it fit to open the eye centre in the rural area. |
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Girl dies after eating wild mushrooms
Pithoragarh, September 12 According to the information received from Chief Medical Officer, Champawat, family members of Dhati Gaon in Barakot district ate the vegetable of mushrooms brought by Ramesh Ram on Tuesday night. As the mushrooms were wild, all of them fell ill. "In that condition, a local quack was brought to their home to treat those who fell ill, but during the treatment, a 13-year girl Sabita died," said Dr Harish Chandra, Chief Medical Officer of Champawat district. "We have referred other ill members of the family to Haldwani as due to delay in bringing them to the community health centre at Lohaghat, their condition worsened," said the CMO. — OC
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Class IV employees suspend stir
Dehradun, September 12 The office-bearers of the Class Four State Employees Federation held talks with Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Dilip Kotia on their two-point charter of demands. “The employees were told that due to the imposition of the model code of conduct in view of theTehri byelection, the government will not be able to take any decision. But they were assured of positive response once the strike was over,” said Additional Secretary (Personnel) Arvind Hayanki. The office-bearers, who attended the meeting included Govind Singh Negi, president of the federation, Banwari Singh Rawat and others.
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