Rail Budget Today
CII demands more trains for state
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 25
With and eye on the Union Rail Budget, the Confederation of Indian Industries and the Industries Association of Uttarakhand (IAU) have raised the demand for strengthening of railway network in the northen region.

The frequency of the existing trains between cities, which are industrial hubs, and cities that are the source of raw materials should also increase.

“It will boost the industrial climate, if the trains between Chandgarh and Dehradun, Delhi and Dehradun and states like J&K, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh were introduced.

“The Integrated Container Depots near Integrated Industrial Estates like SIDCUL, Haridwar and Pantnagar with feeder routes to the freight corridors will also benefit the industry”, said Pankaj Gupta, president of the IAU.

While Pikender Pal Singh, Regional Director, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Northern Region, said the small and medium enterprises' logistics economy and business efficiency could get a boost if the Railway Ministry kept the sector in mind while framing the Railway Budget.

Cry for Tanakpur-Bageshwar train

Pithoragarh: Volunteers of the Tanakpur-Bageshwar Rail Nirman Samiti at Bageshwar today demonstrated at the district headquarters demanding a rail line from Tanakpur to Bageshwar in this year’s Rail Budget.

The demonstrators gathered under the leadership of Gusain Singh Dafauti, its president, with local ceremonial instruments of dhol and damau at the main market in Bageshwar and took out a procession to the office of the District Magistrate and handed over a memorandum to him in this connection.

“In the course of our long struggle for the railway line from Tanakpur to Bageshwar, we have gone on hunger strike for five times at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, besides a route march from Bageshwar to Tanakpur last year. Despite all this, the Government of India has not accepted our demand for this railway line,” said Gusai Singh Dafauti, president of the samiti.

The demonstrators have threatened that if the Government of India will not release money for this railway like this year, a long-term agitation will be launched from the hill districts of the Kumaon region. — OC

Govt biased against Terai settlers
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, February 25
Leaders of the Terai settlers today demanded that the state government should issue a gazette notification on the basis of the high court order making November 9, 2000, as the cut off date for the permanent residentship of the state. They alleged that the Vijay Bahuguna government was biased against the people living in the Terai region.

The Terai settlers, who met under the banner of the Deshaj Sarvodaya Sanskriti Parishad at Rudrapur, said the cut off date restrictions imposed by the government was a proof of its ill-intentions and the partial outlook towards the settlers of the Terai region. “The government intention of declaring 1950 as the cut off date for the permanent residentship of the state is a conspiracy to oust the Terai settlers. The entire region of Terai had come into existence after 1950 when the Central government launched the Terai colonisation scheme,” said Subhash Charturvedi, convener of the meeting.

According to speakers at the meeting, the Terai settlers had moved the high court on the issue only after the government did not pay heed to their problems. “Even after the high court gave verdict in favour of the Terai settlers, the government is hesitating from issuing notification on the line of court order,” said Chaturvedi, who is the former chairman of the Rudrapur Nagar Palika.

Chaturvedi said the state government even did not follow the orders of the Uttar Pradesh government on regularising 1989 acres of Nazul land in Rudrapur town in 1977 due to which more than 1.20 lakh residents had been rendered landless in the town. “The state government has developed a tendency to become extra alert on every issue concerning the welfare of the Terai residents,” he said. 

Cong govt cold to demands of freedom fighters
Tribune News Service

Dehradun February 25
The Association of Freedom Fighters and their Dependents held a meeting in the auditorium of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation yesterday over the lacklustre attitude of the state government on their demands.

President of the association Budihi Prakash said they met Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna three days ago to demand pension for the poor and needy freedom fighters but Bahuguna had refused point blank.

He said the BJP government led by former Chief Minister Dr Pokhriyal Nishank had agreed to give them pension but before he could do anything about it, his reign came to an end. He said the Congress government did not have any sentiments for the aged freedom fighters of the state.

Vice-president Dharam Vir Singh said they had been asking for free transportation of freedom fighters for years together, but the state government did nothing except giving false assurances. He said the freedom fighters made many sacrifices and did a lot for their

countrymen but the state government found it hard to provide them free travel in local as well state transport.

Ranjit Singh Verma, patron, said there were many among them who had no place of their own to stay as they were very poor. He said the state government must do something about it urgently and if not more, at least provide them one-room accommodation, so that they could live and die with dignity.

General secretary PK Khatri fetched attention to other promises made by the state government to provide free education and employment facilities to their dependents which, he said, was not happening at all.

The members of the executive committee who came from the state agreed that if the state government did not pay attention to their demands, then soon they would hold a state wide agitation on the matter and would not budge unless all their demands were not met.

Sant Ravidas’s birth anniversary celebrated
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, February 25
Sant Ravidas, who reformed society during the 15th century through his teachings, was remembered with here today on his birth anniversary.

Various religious functions, prayers and royal processions marked the day with devotees paying obeisance to the saint.

Haridwar city legislator Madan Kaushik at a function on Guru Ravidas anniversary said Indian culture was surviving due to following of the teachings of saints such as Ravidas, pointing out that without guru (teacher) a student could never attain true knowledge.

While Jagjeevan Ram, chief of the Nirdhan Sewa Samiti, said the path of truth lies on followings of one's spiritual guru.

Chief of Sant Shiromani Guru Ravidas Jayanti Kulbhushan said Ravidas Jayanti had attained mass popularity with people from different sections of society taking part in the religious procession carried out through different parts of the city.

Sant Ravidas was being from a lower caste but his knowledge and teachings made such an impact that his devotional songs were included in the holy book of Sikhs by the fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Devji.

Suresh Rathore, Manjeet Nautiyal, Sushil Kumar, Modimal Tegwal, Deepak Rathore, Rohit Nangiyan, Ankit Kumar, Gagan Karnwal, Sita Ram Paliwal, Diwakar among others coordinated the religious procession.

Swine flu alert in Haridwar
Isolation ward set up in hospital
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, February 25
The Health Department has issued a swine flu alert in the district and a special isolation ward has been set up at the district hospital. The samples of suspected swine flu patients are being sent to New Delhi and they are being kept under monitoring round the clock. The threat of swine flu is looming large on Haridwar district as several suspected cases of the disease have been reported.

Chief Medical Officer, Haridwar, Dr Deepa Sharma said all medical staff of the district had been directed to instantly inform her about any suspected case of swine flu. She urged the people to be vigilant and adopt precautionary measures to ensure that the flu did not spread.

Last year 60 patients were diagnosed with dengue while the Health Department had referred more than 300 suspected cases to hospitals.

Also, 24 persons have been found suffering from the scrub typhus disease in Haridwar district, pointing to the venerability of the area to diseases.

Epidemiologist Dr Navneet Kishore said they had been conducting tests to detect swine flu cases and send the samples to the National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi. The patients were being put under round-the-clock monitoring.

He added that an isolation ward had been set up at the district hospital. He, however, failed to give a satisfactory answer to the question about the availability of only one ventilator at the isolation ward.

Minority cells in Doon Haridwar, US Nagar not IT-enabled
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 25
Despite the allocation of money by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, minority cells in Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar are not IT enabled, preventing transparency and efficiency in the disbursement of schemes.

In 2010, the ministry had disbursed the first instalment of Rs 7.84 lakh to ensure that dedicated IT cells were established at the Directorate of Minority Affairs in Dehradun and minority cells in Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar under the Centrally sponsored scheme of the Multi-sectoral Development Programme for Minorities (MSDP) in 2010.

IT-enabled cells were to monitor all schemes under the 15-point programme and the MSDP, so that data on the number of beneficiaries was free of bogus candidates and the implementation of various schemes could be scrutinised.

However, the state government has pocketed sizeable funds for making the Directorate of Minorities Affairs in Dehradun and cells in Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar IT-enabled. These initiatives continue to remain on paper.

Expressing ignorance on the issue, Director, Minority Affairs, HC Semwal said most of the decisions were taken when the department was under social welfare.

Interestingly, in the second phase, Rs 18.53 lakh were sanctioned in 2012-2013 to the government of Uttarakhand for the setting up of IT-enabled dedicated cells in Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Dehradun.

While the cells have failed to take off, the Directorate of Minorities Welfare managed to submit an utlilisation certificate (UC) for Rs 7,84,789 lakh in April 2012, clearly indicating that the establishment of three IT-enabled dedicated cells under the MSDP scheme in Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and the state Directorate was on.

Despite the strict guidelines of the Central Government that call for achieving quantified and qualitative targets and the expenditure incurred by the grantee shall be open for inspection by the sanctioning authority/comptroller and auditor general, the Directorate has thrown caution to the wind.

Not only are these cells non-functional, but the fledgling Directorate of Minority Affairs also managed to bypass the guidelines of the Central Government by submitting the utilisation certificate for work that has not seen the light of the day.

On the basis of the utilisation certificate, the Directorate managed to access the second instalment when the cells are not quite IT enabled.

Sharadiya Kanwar yatra begins
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, February 25
Haridwar is all set to witness a conglomeration of Lord Shiva devotees, popularly known as Kanwariyas.

As Sharadiya Kanwar yatra began today, Kanwariyas from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other regions have started heading towards Uttarakhand to fetch holy Ganga jal from Brahamkund, Har-ki-Pauri, and other ghats. Sharadiya Kanwar yatra will culminate on Mahashivratri.

Devotees from across the country also thronged Ganga ghats on the occasion of Maghi Poornima today to take a holy dip. According to Dr Prateek Mishrapuri, an astrologer, another auspicious occasion of Magha Nakshatra also falls today, which makes this occasion 
more pious.

In view of lakhs of devotees taking a holy dip in the Ganga, elaborate security arrangements were in place by the mela administration.

Superintendent of Police (city) KL Shah and ASP (city) Ajay Singh inspected the mela area with commandos patrolling the Ganga ghats throughout the day.

In the wake of the Hyderabad blasts recently, commandos, sniffer dog, bomb disposal and cavalry squads were also deployed.

SP Shah said additional force from all police stations and reserve squad was also called in for today’s festive bath.

He said with the Kanwar pilgrimage beginning today and Maha Shivratri and Somwati Amawasya falling back to back, additional police force has been sought from the headquarters.

“As the last two to three days of the Kanwar yatra till Maha Shivratri will see a massive influx of Kanwariyas and the very next day of the religious festive of Maha Shivratri being Somwati Amawasya, special security arrangements will be in place,” said Shah.

AAP seeks expulsion of tainted BJP leaders
Tribune News Service

Dehradun February 25
The district unit of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has constituted a working committee of the city unit where it has also demanded the expulsion of those BJP leaders who had recently been in news for wrong reasons.

Some 11 new faces were inducted in the working committee of the city unit where Mahesh Mamgai was appointed as the chief convener and Sunita Singh as convener.

Addressing a press conference, district secretary Sanjay Bhatt said, “State BJP president Teerath Singh Rawat must expel the two BJP leaders whose names have been taken by Delhi policeman Arvind Dabral in the matter of tapping phone calls of Arun Jaitley. It is a serious issue and the BJP should not brush it under carpet and come clean on it. The BJP must expel both these leaders as their tarnished image will also sully the BJP’s image as well.”

Party spokesperson Barghav Chandola took up the matter of BJP leader Sanjay Gupta, against whom a city woman had levelled serious allegations of harassing her.

“In the present times, when there is so much hue and cry against women harassment and gender sensitisation, the issue is really grave,” he said and added that the BJP leaders, who had been making elaborate statements on women issues in television debates, must not be hypocritical when it came to their own leaders and must punish the guilty and hence set an example before public.

He said their party would raise the issue of expelling such leaders unless they were expelled from their party.

Speaking about the development taking place in the main cities of the state , party treasurer Ranvir Chaudhary shifted focus toward building a mini township in each gram panchayat of the state.

He said, “There are 670 gram panchayats in the state which are getting ignored by the state government. The entire focus of development is only on the main cities of the state, whereas the development must start from the root, which are our villages. The government must built mini townships in each of these village which must have sufficient number of schools/college, hospital and other amenities.”

Causes of earthquakes and after-effects discussed 
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 25
The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences organised a workshop on “Natural Calamities and Sustainable Development” at The Indian Cambridge School here today.

The workshop was conducted in collaboration with Key Foundations (KF), which works in the field of science awareness, health and technology and education development. Its objectives was to create awareness among school students and teachers about natural calamities and sustainable development and to know human dependence through understanding the earth system process, so that all may know how to use the resources in a more scientific way.

Furthermore, by holding such workshops and through the innovative and cross-disciplinary teaching-learning process among the participants, it will inculcate an inherent sense of responsibility towards the nation and society at large. Guest speakers for the workshop were Dr BK Tyagi and Prof Afaque Ahmad. Dr Tyagi by way of video illustrations and through interactive participation deliberated about earthquakes and their causes and ways to overcome the after-effects through different ways.

Prof Afaque on the other hand exhibited a documentary and power-point presentation on sustainable energy and how it was important for all to know their responsibilities.

Both Dr Tyagi and Prof Afaque called upon the students to be better learners by becoming more curious and hungry to discover new knowledge. Director of the school Syed Mohammed Yasar, member of the Management Committee Brig R.K. Bhatia (retd) and school principal Albert Temple added to the importance of this very awe-inspiring workshop with their attendance for the full length of the workshop.

The director thanked Dr Tyagi and Prof Afaque for their wonderful contributions to society for holding such workshops and sharing their expertise. Principal Albert Temple also thanked SM Faizani, secretary of the Key Foundations for organising the event. 

Free treatment for HIV patients in Pauri, US Nagar
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 25
Health Minister SS Negi, while addressing a meeting of the State AIDS Council, said all steps were being taken by the Health Department to ensure free treatment for HIV patients in Pauri, Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar and Nainital districts.

He said the National AIDS Control Organisation was an important national initiative of public health. “It is our responsibility to prepare such schemes through this council, which would minimise the occurrence of AIDS and also treat such cases swiftly,” he said.

He told officials of the Health Department that work being done by NGOs to check the spread of AIDS should be observed and assessed.

The minister said he was amazed that a meeting of the council was being held after a gap of four years and said it would now be held every six months.

He told Principal Secretary (Health) S Ramaswamy that AIDS patients who were getting treated in government hospitals should be given free transport facility. He said a proposal to this effect should be submitted.

The minister said blood banks in Almora, Pauri, Champawat and Gopeshwar should be activated and proper staff should be placed there.

The minister said awareness campaigns about AIDS should be expanded and information should be provided at various melas and other such platforms.

IG Ram Singh Meena, Additional Secretary Ajay Pradyot, Director, NRHM, Peeyush Singh and representatives of NGOs also attended the meeting.

Safai karamchari panel members meet Governor
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 25
A three-member delegation of the State Safai Karamchari Commission met Governor Dr Aziz Qureshi at Raj Bhavan today and presented him with the commission's report for the year 2011-12.

They requested him to table the report in the Vidhan Sabha to implement the recommendations of the commission for the welfare of safai karamcharis.

The delegation also requested the Governor to implement the Madan Kaushik Committee Report regarding the simplification of the process of getting caste certificates. The Governor assured them that the government would be directed to take all measures for the welfare of safai karamcharis.

The delegation comprised Bhagvat Prasad Makwana, OP Sisodia and Karamvir Balmiki. Several eminent people met the Governor, including MLA BL Arya, MKP College principal Indu Singh, former IMA commandant LtGen TSShergill (retd) and Dr Rukhsana Parveen of Arogya, Rudrapur.

Nanda Devi pilgrims to gather at Baijnath
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, February 25
Pilgrims from Kumaon along with their sacred religious signs of local deities, who want to take part in the Nanda Devi Rajjat Yatra beginning from August 29 this year, will have to gather at Baijnath, near Bageshwar, to carry out a combined procession of the region. Thereafter, they will travel to join the main procession via Gwaldam in Chamoli district. This was decided at a meeting of office-bearers of the Nanda Rajjat Yatra Samitis of various districts of Kumaon today.

The meeting of the office-bearers of the samitis was held under chairmanship of MLA, Kapkot, Lalit Farswan at Bageshwar today. It was decided that the pilgrims from Pithoragarh and Champawat would travel via Kanda to meet at Kanda town of Bageshwar and the pilgrims from Almora and Nainital districts would reach Baijnath travelling via Kausani. 

Portals of Gangotri to be reopened on May 13

Dehradun, February 25
The portals of the Gangotri shrine in the Himalayas will be reopened for devotees on May 13, after six months of annual closure during winter.

The doors of the Himalayan shrine will be thrown open to people amid chanting of hymns and all necessary rituals at 2:45 pm on the auspicious occasion of "Akshay Tritiya" on May 13, Gangotri Temple Committee sources said.

A day earlier on May 12, the palanquin of Goddess Ganga would be brought back to her permanent abode at Gangotri from her winter sojourn in Mukhba village, they said.

The portals of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri in Uttarakhand, also known as Char Dhams, are closed annually during winter due to snowbound conditions in the area and are reopened on a suitable date in the month of April or May. — PTI