Best price for brinjal forecast in Sept-Oct
Dehradun, May 11
Farmers of Uttarakhand will get the maximum price for their brinjal produce in the forthcoming season during September-October.

Mussoorie, May 11
The two-day meeting of the Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers of all states concluded in Mussoorie today with the resolve of seeking speedy implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST).

The meeting of the Empowered Committee (EC) of State Finance Ministers was chaired by Sushil Kumar Modi.

The members deliberated on the issues of GST network and its progress as it was being felt a robust IT infrastructure was required to implement GST network. The latest position of VAT and non-VAT revenue of the states in the year 2012-13 was also discussed in the meeting here along with review of the VAT rates.

Addressing mediapersons after the meeting, Chairman of Empowered Committee Sushil Kumar Modi said that the committee after due deliberations had recommended the abolition of service tax in hotels and restaurants in order to avoid double taxation levied by Centre and as well as the states.

He further elaborated that some of the services under the hospitality industry were being taxed by both government at the Centre and the state, too, and this anomaly needed to be rectified in the larger interest of the people. Therefore, this recommendation was made.

Modi, speaking on the issue imposing higher tax on tobacco, said that it was strongly reasoned that by levying more taxes the states would be able to increase revenue along with discouraging the consumption of tobacco as it had emerged as major health hazard in the country. He also informed that a presentation on tobacco free India was also shown by Pankaj Chaturvedi, a professor and cancer surgeon, where he outlined the fact that 37 VAT increases were witnessed during 2011-14 in over 20 states. The average VAT on cigarettes doubled.

The number of the states with zero VAT on bidis doubled, leading to averting premature deaths, thus saving lives of around 5.7 million people in the process.

Modi said that only 90 per cent of the states were levying 5 per cent of VAT, whereas out of 28 states only seven states were levying more than 5 per cent. Therefore, it was felt to increase the VAT on tobacco.

Modi, speaking further on recent declaration by the Central Government to keep mobile phones and tablets priced over Rs 2000 in the category of declared goods, said that the committee had strongly recommended that nothing should be kept under the category of declared goods as the Central Government had already agreed that once GST was implemented, declared goods category would be scrapped off. Therefore, there was point in bringing mobiles and tablets under declared goods.

Modi also said that another significant issue discussed in the meeting was ways to increase the taxes on sugar, textile and tobacco industry where representatives from various states argued that with the increased taxation, a proportion of it must be given to the state governments too.

He informed the mediapersons that a sub-committee had been formed by the Empowered Committee to assess the feasibility of increasing taxation on sugar, garments and tobacco industry, and that this committee would submit its report within one month.

Modi also apprised the mediapersons that the Karnataka Government officials were felicitated for preparing a user- friendly computerisation programme on commercial taxes.

Dehradun, May 11
Despite directives from the Central government for making the functioning of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) scheme transparent, the Uttarakhand Department of Rural Development has made backdoor appointments of a Programme Manager and a Computer Programmer at the scheme cell in Dehradun.

The state MNREGA cell sanctioned the posts in February and the appointments too were made the same day. Normally, it takes at least a month to obtain sanction of posts but in this case the appointments were made without following the official procedure and norms. The state scheme cell brazenly appointed the Programme Manager and the Computer Programmer the same day, said a senior official.

Interestingly, the qualifications of the Programme Manager and the Computer Programmer are also not according to the norms specified in the Act.

Both Programme Manager and Computer Programmer are drawing a salary of Rs 20,000 per month while programme officers, who have been working since the start of the rural job scheme in Uttarakhand and are the in charge of the cells, continue to draw a salary of Rs 12,000 per month. Since the Centre-sponsored rural job scheme was implemented in the state, the government is yet to raise the salary of progamme officers heading the cells in the districts.

In other states the salary of programme officers has been hiked according to the norms, but not in Uttarakhand.

“New entrants are under-qualified. The Programme Manager does not posses an MBA degree required for the job while the Computer Programmer is only BSc. Hence, they are not qualified for the posts, but still they are paid higher salaries even as they work under us,” said a programme officer.

After some Programme Managers had gone to court on the issue of permanent appointments in 2008-2009, no recruitments were made in the districts. But these backdoor appointments of two individuals in Dehradun in gross violation of norms had put a question mark on the functioning of the state cell. 

Dehradun, May 11
Farmers of Uttarakhand will get the maximum price for their brinjal produce in the forthcoming season during September-October.

This forecast has been made by scientists of the Agriculture Economics Department of Pantnagar university in a sub-project of the World Bank-funded National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP), ‘Establishing and networking of agricultural market intelligence centres in India’ under operation at the university.

One of the objectives of this project is to make price forecast of select agricultural commodities well in advance of sowing and during harvesting.

The research team of Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, had conducted a market survey of the Haldwani-regulated market, a major market for brinjal in Uttarakhand, and analysed the market price data of the past 23 years in this market.

The results of the econometric analysis showed that the wholesale prices of brinjal in the Haldwani market would be in the range of Rs 600-750 per quintal in September and October and in November, they would range between Rs 500 and 600 per quintal.

Hence, the scientists have advised that the farmers who wish to take brinjal cultivation in the coming season on their farms may decide the area under crop considering the predicted price of brinjal as well as other climatic conditions suitable for the crop. During this period, consumers prefer round-shaped brinjals. Therefore, the farmers may also consider this aspect while planning brinjal cultivation for the next season, advised scientists.

India ranks second with respect to area and production of brinjal and it contributes around 27 per cent of the world’s brinjal production. This crop is grown in over 6 lakh hectares in India. The yield rate per hectare in India is quite low and stands at 18 tonnes per hectare as compared to Japan and Italy where it ranges around 25 tonnes per hectare.

Major brinjal growing states in the country are West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, together accounting for about 94 per cent of India’s brinjal production.

In Uttarakhand, brinjal is mainly grown in plains. It is grown in an area of 1,685 hectares in the state. Dehradun, Haridwar, US Nagar and Nainital are the four major districts producing brinjal and they constituted about 60 per cent of the total brinjal production in the state during 2011. In Uttarakhand, the peak period of round brinjal arrivals in the market is October to November, though it starts arriving in August and lasts up to January.

Dehradun, May 11
The Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun, today celebrated National Technology Day.

Inaugurating the exhibition at the IRDE, the chief guest, Director of the IIP, Dr M O Garg, said as part of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the IRDE has been devoted to research, design and development in the area of optics and electro-optics for defence applications. He said the products and technologies developed by the IRDE were among the best in the country.

The Director of the IRDE, Dr A K Gupta, said the major thrust areas of this establishment included state-of-the-art day and night vision devices, laser-based instruments, thermal imaging, stabilised electro-optical payloads and fire control systems.

He said these systems were extensively used by the armed forces for surveillance, guidance and reconnaissance.

Students from various colleges and schools participated in science quiz.

The major exhibits put up at the exhibition included the recently developed hand-held thermal imaging camera with laser range finder and Commander’s TI sight for T-72 and T-90 tanks.

Dehradun, May 11
Rural litigation and entitlement kendra (RLEK), a voluntary organisation fighting for hydroelectric projects in the state, has requested the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party to reconsider it's decision on hydroelectric projects in the state.

''We request the BJP leadership not to indulge in anti- development activities,'' said Avadhash Kaushal, chairperson of RLEK. In a statement Kaushal said that BJP and its ally, Vishva Hindu Parishad, should immediately stop misleading people about Srinagar Alaknanda Hydroproject and not indulge in false propaganda. ''Whenever elections are near, they start raising the issues such as Ram Mandir, Aviral Dhara of Ganga and Dharidevi temple and try unsuccessfully to mislead people,'' he said.

Kaushal further said that BJP leaders Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Uma Bharati should know that it was during the BJP regime, when BC Khanduri was Chief Minister that letter number 1263/1(2) 2009-04 (8) 06/2003 was sent permitting the uplift of Dharidevi Temple at Srinagar hydroelectric project. Even the managing committee of Dharidevi Temple gave its consent in writing vide letter dated Oct 14, 2006, after consulting the villagers to go ahead and uplift the temple, the villagers said that ''we do not want to live in darkness, neither does the goddess wants us to remain in the dark.'' ''In a similar way, during BJP rule itself three hydroprojects were stalled. These were Bhairon Ghati (381MW) and Pala Maneri (480MW). They are fully owned by Uttarakhand. They were stalled vide the letter number 140/PS/camp/2008, dated June 19, 2008. This was done after spending of hundreds of crores of the common man's money. Pressure was put on Central Government to stall Lohari Nagapala (600 MW) project. All these hydroprojects were almost ready and would have started producing electricity by 2012. ''The party's anti-state, anti-social and anti-people action against development resulted in hardships for people in the entire North India,'' alleged Kaushal.

The RLEK chief said production of hydroelectricity does not consume one single drop of water as it falls on the turbine and again joins the mainstream of Ganga. No field from Gaumukh to Haridwar in Uttarakhand is being irrigated by Ganga water because it flows so deep. Ganga water for irrigation is used beyond Haridwar in UP for irrigation.

Dehradun, May 11
Basic Training Certificate (special) teachers took out a protest march in support of their demands here today.

They assembled at the Parade Ground and then took out a procession towards the Civil Secretariat.

Hundreds of teachers raising slogans against the state government marched on the main roads of the city, leading to traffic jams.

The teachers charged that 2,250 BTC teachers were sent to government schools in remote areas for training on a monthly pay of Rs 7,300.

However, neither they were paid nor appointed as regular teachers.

The teachers threatened to intensify their agitation if their genuine demand for appointment as regular government teachers was not accepted immediately.

Yesterday, BTC teachers had staged a demonstration at the Parade Ground.

Mussoorie, May 11
In order to develop leadership quality among the students, an investiture ceremony was held at Mussoorie Public School today.

The chief guest/patron of the Alumni Association Shialendar Karanwal along with secretary Nitish Mohan inaugurated the ceremony by lighting the ceremonial lamp.

The ceremony started with the hoisting of the school flag.

The Principal of the school administered the oath and the members of the school council were presented with school badges and sashes on the occasion.

Ruchi Dngayach was elected as the school captain while Klatcha Koren was sowrn in as vice-captain of the school. Dhruv Lal was elected as school captain while Shubham Bajaj was declared school activity captain.

The students themselves elected the student council body using democratic process, said the Principal of the school Mukesh Lal.

The chief guest Shailendar Karanwal speaking on the occasion congratulated the new council and said that the students would excel in the duties imparted to them.

He further said the council members should behave in such a manner that they set a positive example for other students during their tenure.

Dehradun, May 11
Dehradun and Haldwani girls will clash in the final of the girls' section of the 13th Aspen Crew Uttarakhand State Junior (U-18) Basketball Championship for Boys and Girls section being organised by District Basketball Association, Dehradun at Welham Boys’ School here today.

Dehradun girls defeated Pithoragarh 43-13 in the first semi-final of the girls' section of the tournament. Haldwani team beat Mussoorie 23-19 to enter the final.

In the boys' section, Haridwar city and Mussoorie entered the last four of the tournament by winning their respective matches today. Haridwar city beat Tehri 44-16 while Mussoorie beat Nainital 38-22.