Watershed development programme
World Bank officials to approve programme in May
Tribune News service

Dehradun, April 18
The formalities for starting the second phase of decentralised watershed development programme, funded by World Bank, has been completed. After the formalities are completed at the Central level, the Board of Governors of the World Bank will approve the programme in May.

A meeting was held at the Secretariat today, chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, between a team of World Bank and officials of the Uttarakhand Government.

The Chief Minister said the human resource and other facilities would be provided by the state government. He said he hoped that Gramya Phase II would enhance the skills and income of farmers and other rural people in the hilly areas of the state.

The proposed duration of the project is from 2013 to 2020 in which Rs 140 million dollars will be spent. Of this, 71.43 per cent will be spent by World Bank, 20.89 per cent by the state government and 17.68 per cent by the beneficiaries.

The districts covered would be Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Almora, Bageshwar ,Champawat and Pithoragarh. The project will benefit 3 lakh 18 thousand persons of 509 gram panchayats. Market linkages will be strengthened and agro-business activity be encouraged. Special attention will be given to farmers and the landless.

Present at the meeting were principal secretary Rakesh Sharma, SS Sandhu, Secretary Bhaskaranand and Norman Piccioni, Jockey Julien and Ranjan Samantaray were the officials from World Bank. 

Fast winds damage crops, disrupt electricity supply
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, April 18
The Tanakpur to Champawat highway remained closed for five hours on Tuesday and power supply to Champawat town remained disrupted for 24 hours after fast winds accompanied by hailstorm damaged crops and uprooted trees that fell on the road.

According to sources in the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), traffic on the highway remained suspended for five hours after trees uprooted by winds blocked it at Dhaun. BRO personnel, however, removed the blockade and the traffic resumed.

The winds also disrupted electricity supply to Chamapwat town and adjoining villages as trees fell on electricity poles and lines between Pithoragarh and Champawat. “The power supply, which remained disrupted after trees fell on the electricity line, was restored up to Lohaghat town by noon. But the power supply to Champawat could not be restored as another tree fell on the electricity line between Lohaghat and Champawat,” said a Vidyut Nigam engineer.

Champwat businessmen have estimated their business losses at Rs 10 lakh due to disruption in power supply. “The businesses of printing presses, cyber cafes, computer units and photostat machines were affected badly,” said Mahesh Punetha, a printing press owner at Champawat.

The power supply to border towns of Munsiyari and Dharchula was also disrupted after an uprooted tree damaged the electricity line at Kalamuni.

Heavy hailstorm for two hours damaged standing crops of vegetables and fruits causing heavy losses to farmers of Berinag and Gangolihat subdivisions of the district. “Fruit trees of peach, mango, apricot and plum, besides the standing crops of wheat and barley in the Kandey Kiroli, Devinagar and Chaukori region was severely damaged,” said Mohan Singh Dhanik, a social worker in Gangolihat.

The makeshift roof of a police post was blown away in the Purnagiri temple area of the Tanakpur region. “Rain that followed the winds brought relief to the pilgrims from soaring heat in the temple area. Policemen faced difficulties in erecting a new roof of the police post that was damaged by the winds,” said JS Rathor, SDM, Tanakpur.

DRDO achievements highlighted at TECHMA
Swami Chidanand praises the organisation for saving the Ganga
by designing bio-toilets
Our Correspondent

Mussoorie, April 18
The two-day national conference "Technology Management for System Development Projects"(TECHMA-2013), in which scientists from around the country deliberated upon various aspects such as technology forecasting, assessment, acquisition, etc, began on the Institute of Technology Management (ITM) premises yesterday.

Delegates, while deliberating upon various dimension of techno-management, presented their scientific research papers.

The conference being organised by ITM, a research wing of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in Mussoorie was inaugurated by the chief guest, Dr G Malakondiah, DS & CC R&D, DRDO, and the spiritual head of Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh, Swami Chidanand by lighting the ceremonial lamp.

Addressing the inaugural session, Dr G Malakondiah highlighted the achievements of the DRDO and how the premiere research organisation was assisting the nation in providing the-state-of-art technology and systems to the defence services of the country.

Dr G Malakondiah said the DRDO was working in various areas of military technology which included aeronautics, armaments, combat vehicles, electronics, instrumentation engineering systems, missiles, materials, Naval systems, advanced computing, simulation and life sciences.

Dr G Malakondiah further said as the expectations were high, so the need was to become leaders and not followers in the field of defence science, technology and its management. He also laid emphasis on promoting innovation among the scientists so that they could deliver new products which could compete with the world.

The other invited chief guest Swami Chidanand laid emphasis on spiritual advancement along with the science and said spirituality was also a science and using the method of meditation one could learn about the self thus becoming an aware person in the process.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, he said, “What is the use of that speed which has no direction.” Speaking further, he said spirituality provides that direction, therefore the need was to create a bridge between science and spirituality for the development of the nation.

Swami Chidanand emphasising on saving the Ganga and environment said now the time had come to make more toilets rather than building more temples. He praised the DRDO for its role in saving the Ganga by designing bio-toilets that would lead in controlling sewage into the holy river. He also said the Ganga Action Parivar along with FICCI and the DRDO would be installing such bio-toilets at the major holy shrines' cities of the state such as Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamnotri, Kedarnath and Piran Kaliyar this summer.

He also said the Governor of the state has also consented to be present at the Bhoomi Pujan ceremony of the first bio-toilet to be installed at the Badrinath on the day of the opening of this year.

BJP leader for probe into unwed mother controversy
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 18
BJP senior leader Ravinder Jugran has urged the state government to initiate a high-level inquiry into the unwed mother controversy, in which the name of one of its Cabinet Minister’s has cropped up.

In a letter written to the Chief Minister, Jugran said a high-level inquiry should be initiated and the state government should ascertain the veracity of the reports, out in the media, to rule out the attempts to denigrate the minister.

“Such reports are giving a bad name to the state. The name of former Chief Minister Uttarakhand ND Tiwari, too, had cropped up in the past. Taking lessons from these incidents, the state should set up high standards of moral behaviour for it’s ministers and bureaucrats. I urge the Chief Minister to initiate an inquiry so that such incidents are not repeated in the future,” said Jugran.

Leader of opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly Ajay Bhatt had earlier said that such incidents were giving a bad name to the state.

Cong protecting criminals: Nishank

Dehradun, April 18
Lawlessness has become the order of the day during the rule of the Vijay Bahuguna government as it is providing protection to criminals in the state, said former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank while addressing mediapersons here today.

“While the law and order situation has deteriorated in the last one year, the Congress-led government and its entire machinery have been engaged in providing protection to Umesh Sharma against whom 14 cases have been registered and non-bailable warrants issued,” said Nishank

He added the government, with great impunity, engaged itself in serving the cause of Sharma, who enjoyed an easy access to its ministers. “Sharma is running a news channel that is surviving on advertisements provided by the government,” he alleged.

Though the Nainital High Court had directed the Uttarakhand Police to arrest Sharma within 15 days of its directive issued in 2012, he had been absconding since then. Nishank said while the government was busy shielding criminals, the crime graph in the state had been rising steadily. “The incidents of crime against women have increased so much that 234 rape cases of rape and 215 cases of abduction of women have been reported in the last one year,” he added. — TNS

CM, Guv greetings on Ram Navami

Dehradun, April 18
Governor Aziz Qureshi and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna have greeted the people of the state on the occasion of Ram Navami. In his message, the Governor said, "On the auspicious occasion of Ram Navami, we should reiterate our resolve to walk on the path of truth, sacrifice, love and compassion shown to us by Lord Ram. His life is an inspiration for us to create an ideal society."

Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said "The values which his life portrays are extremely relevant today. His life is the perfect example of dignity, sacrifice and tapasya." — TNS

Chamoli meets DMC employees, appeals for votes
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 18
Outgoing Mayor Vinod Chamoli, who is fighting on the BJP ticket for the seat of Mayor, met employees of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) today.

Chamoli met the DMC employees and BJP candidates for councillors’ seats and appealed to them to help him garner the maximum votes. The leaders of the employees’ unions of the DMC assured Chamoli of full support in the civic body poll.

He said, “I tried my best to bring development projects to the city. It was due to my efforts that we could have a renovated hi-tech Town Hall. Residents of the city now hold functions and programmes here at much affordable prices.”

He said he had also planned to renovate the DMC premises as well but the state government ditched him. The government dithered on giving him funds for the purpose and proposed to take up the project on public-private partnership for which he was not ready, he added.

“The DMC building is our property and we cannot tolerate interference by private entities here. Hence, I have decided to complete the project through the available resources in my second term as Mayor,” Chamoli.

He inaugurated the election office of the BJP candidate for the councillor’s seat from Rajpur. On the occasion, he said he arranged for door-to-door collection of garbage and also facilitated the widening of a crossing and Chakrata Road. 

DGP: 80 per cent of human trafficking victims are women
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 18
The three-day workshop on “Anti-Human Trafficking” came to an end in the police lines yesterday. Two experts, senior Supreme Court advocates, Ravi Kant and Bhuvan Ribhu, today spoke about the topic. Director General of Police Satyavrat Bansal also addressed the gathering and distributed certificates among those police officers who attended this workshop.

The DGP expressed concern that 80 per cent of the victims of human trafficking comprised women. “Human trafficking is the third most organised crime after drugs and arms. In today’s times when the whole country is discussing about the safety and sensitivity about women, traffickers targeting them is quite worrisome. The state police has not been able to address this issue properly till now.

“The police has been busier with traditional crime occurrences. But as this issue has now become highly sensitive and critical. So we held this workshop to disseminate information and sensitise the police force about it,” he added.

He said he had been right in ordering to convert the missing cases of women and children into kidnapping cases. “The cases lodged as missing are often forgotten. By registering these as kidnapping cases, the police pursues them till their logical end. I had to face stiff opposition with the assertions that this conversion of cases would increase the workload on the department. But just 10 days after my orders, Supreme Court’s direction on the same lines proved that I was right in doing so.” He said he was regularly in touch with the officials concerned about the progress made over missing children or girls, who could most probably be the victim of human trafficking gangs.

He said the girls in large numbers were brought from the Nepal route in the state and sent out to the rest of the country. He said human trafficking was no longer a socio-economic problem but a socio-police problem.

He directed IG, CID, Deepak Seth, to review the progress made by the four anti-trafficking cells operating in the state about their performance in the last three years. He said the police should always target the kingpin and break the nexus of the gang. He also asked them to be more sensitive about children and women and look at the cases from the point of view of the victims and their families.

DIG, CID and nodal officer of Anti-Human Trafficking PS Sailal briefed the audience about the summary of the information exchanged during the workshop. The programme was emceed by SSP, Special Task Force, Santhial Abudai. The other officials who were present there included ADG, Administration Anil K Raturi, IG Headquarters Jeevan Chander Pandey, DIG, Dehradun Range, Amit Sinha, SP Jagatram Joshi, Mohan Singh Bangyal and Nilesh Anand Barne. 

Preparations for local civic body polls in full swing
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, April 18
The local administration in Haldwani has started its preparations to conduct the elections for the Nagar Nigam fairly as all the contesting candidates, 182 as Nigam members and 13 for the post of chairman, were acquainted with the election procedure through EVM.

They were also informed about the ideal code of conduct and methods of filling the accounts registers at a training session held at the district cooperative bank auditorium in Haldwani today.

“Our officers informed the candidates about the election process and answered their queries,” said Nidhimani Tripathi, district election officer, Nainital district.

Candidates were also given tips on maintaining accounts book during the elections. “Though the top election officers of the district were present in the training, but a very few candidates took part,” said RD Paliwal, returning officer of Haldwani.

According to the returning officer, dummy ballot papers for the Nigam election have been prepared by the returning officers concerned and sent for printing at the government printing press in Roorkee. “We have decided to train all the contesting candidates in three stages from April 21,” said the returning officer.

M&M organises talent contest
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 18
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M), a leading auto and farm equipment’s major, organised a full-day programme “Mahindra IGNITER’s Quotient” at University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES), here today. The career services team of the university was instrumental in organising the event, the very first of its kind, in Uttarakhand.

Arun Dhand, director, media affairs of the university, disclosed that the programme has been uniquely conceived by the company and is aimed at not just identifying the talent in the engineering colleges but also to engage them in the early years of study and give them a corporate experience.

The event is being organised by the Mahindra & Mahindra across the country. Explaining the concept in brief Dhand said the programme encompasses three aspects viz. technical, design and general. Technical quotient of students gets tested through a technical paper presentation contest. It tests the student’s technical knowledge with the help of live case studies provided by Mahindra. The design quotient is evaluated through a design contest where students have to assemble a vehicle using assembly kits. The general quotient gets measured by a quiz contest. The quiz helps students to experience the myriad dimensions of automobiles, farm or agricultural products.

Mahindra also erected a pavilion at the UPES campus on the occasion, which included a Mahindra Quanto and Arjun tractor. A grand history wall was shown in the back-drop, which took the students through the history of Mahindra automotive and farm equipment sectors.

The event got a huge response. As many as 400 students of the UPES participated in the various contests. The nine winners of the contests were awarded Mahindra Igniters “Passport” which gets them direct entry to M&M interview round during the campus selection process of the company. They are exempted from the aptitude test, technical test and group discussion rounds, which is big prize for all students.

Pro Vice-Chancellor of the UPES, Dehradun, Utpal Ghosh, thanked the company officials for organising the programme on the university campus. He expressed satisfaction that the industry-institute interaction through such activities was greatly benefiting the students.

Need to develop energy-efficient technologies stressed
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 18
The Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) celebrated the 53rd foundation day today. During a lecture organised on the occasion, Director General, Uttarakhand Council for Science and Technology, Dr Rajendra Dobhal, stressed the need to develop energy efficient and environment friendly technologies that should be globally competitive.

He said," The benefits of science should be such that the lifestyle of the entire human race is upgraded. Science should not only mean business.”

Director, IIP, Dr Garg, said the institute had been contributing to the growth of petroleum refining and petrochemical industry for the past many decades. “Its charter includes functions, among others, to undertake research and development work in refining petroleum, natural gas and petrochemicals, utilisation of petroleum and its products in engines and industrial and domestic combustion”, he said.

He said the IIP also developed human resources for hydrocarbon and related industries in the country by training their personnel through specialised training courses and assisting the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in formulating standards for petroleum products.

Tulsi Chowk renovation nearing completion
Tribune News Service

The new rotary being constructed as part of the renovation of Tusli Chowk in Haridwar. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Haridwar, April 18
Tulsi Chowk situated in the middle of the city will soon become one of its most beautiful intersections. The renovation and broadening work of the chowk being done by the Public Works Department (PWD) is in the last phase.

Though renovation and expansion of 12 intersections in the city periphery was started at a cost of Rs 1.76 crore during the Mahakumbh in 2010, only six intersections had been renovated till date due to the lackadaisical attitude of the PWD authorities.

The renovated intersections are Devpura Chowk, Rishikul Chowk (Malviya Chowk), Chandracharya Chowk (Ranipur diversion), Shankar Ashram Chowk, Desh Rakshak Chowk and Shiv Moorti Chowk.

A new rotary has been constructed at Tulsi Chowk and a statue of saint Tulsidas will be installed there. Niranjani Akhada will hand over the statue of saint Tulsidas to the PWD for installation at the new rotary.

The design and railings of the rotary are in sync with the traditional architecture of akhadas and buildings of Haridwar.

Executive Engineer, PWD, SS Tomar said the rotary was nearly complete and only the final touching was remaining. The statue could be shifted there anytime now.

He added that as soon as the akhada provided the statue the renovation work on Tulsi Chowk would be completed.

Already, murals of Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati and Lord Ganesha have added to the beauty of the chowk, which is adjacent to the Damkoti guesthouse. Pilgrims, tourists and local residents could be seen strolling there in the morning and the evening.

Haridwar parliamentarian Harish Rawat, who had inaugurated the murals last month, had demanded renovation of more chowks to make this world renowned city more beautiful.

District Tourism Officer KS Rawat said the Tourism Department was open to ideas from people and institutions in making the city more beautiful. More renovation projects were in the pipeline, he added.