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Govt yet to notify flood-hit areas
Rs 55 lakh each for families of 15 ITBP men killed in copter crash
Fake gutka factory unearthed, two arrested |
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SSB donates Rs 1.89 cr for flood-hit
Now, consumers can pay power bills online
Nishank has close brush with death
Mussoorie-Dhanaulti road blocked due to landslide
DMC website not updated for past two years
Ex-servicemen back Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra
Mountaineer: Ensure rules followed before undertaking constructions
Govt ready to give forest land for rehabilitating 280 villages
Issue White Paper on relief work: BJP chief
Policemen cremate 13 unclaimed bodies
Health food contest
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Govt yet to notify flood-hit areas
Dehradun, July 17 Without the notification of the flood-affected areas, the departments concerned are in a bind as most of the relaxations announced under various schemes are meant for such areas only. Though some parts of Uttarakhand received heavy rains, the districts of Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar were the worst affected and 59 villages had been swept away in the floods. The Ministry of Rural Development was the first to announce relaxations in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for 2013-2014, including additional financial assistance to Uttarakhand for up to 50 days of employment in notified flood-affected districts and blocks and the maintenance of wage material ratio (60:40) in the notified areas. However, these relaxations can only be implemented after the state government notifies the flood-hit areas and sends the notification to the ministry. Earlier, due to the sheer scale of the natural calamity, the government could evade the issue of notifying the areas as flood affected as providing relief to the people was its priority. However, now a month has passed and the government cannot go about it without notifying the flood-affected areas. "Funds and relief material are pouring in but it has to be used for the flood-affected areas only, which are yet to be notified. Who will be responsible for a large-scale pilferage and the diversion of funds. The Calamity Relief Fund has to be properly accounted for and there has to be proper stock-taking of the financial aid being received in the name of disaster relief," said Ajay Bhatt Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly. Interestingly, politicians, too, find this situation inimical to their interest. "In view of the flow of funds, whether their areas were hit by disaster or not, it would be a happy situation for the politicians if all districts are declared calamity stricken," said a senior official.
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Rs 55 lakh each for families of 15 ITBP men killed in copter crash
New Delhi, July 17 Director General of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Ajay Chadha said the government will give Rs 15 lakh as compensation to each of its jawan's families, while the governments of Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh will give Rs 10 lakh each and Gujarat government Rs 5 lakh. He said the ITBP will also ensure that each of the 15 bravehearts' families will get Rs 15 lakh as part of the life insurance cover, besides other benefits entitled to any paramilitary personnel who dies during official duties. "We will ensure that the family of each of them will get full pension benefits," he told reporters here. Asked how the ITBP will ensure insurance claims of the two soldiers whose bodies were not recovered yet, Chadha said a certificate will be issued by the designated authorities that the two boarded the chopper while another certificate will be obtained from the Indian Air Force that there was no survivor in the crash. The ITBP chief said one ITBP jawan belonging to Uttar Pradesh will get an additional Rs 10 lakh from the state government. On June 25, the IAF helicopter on a rescue mission crashed killing all 20 on board. Fifteen of the victims were from the ITBP while five were IAF
personnel, including crew members. The family members of the IAF personnel will be given the compensation by the Defence
Ministry. — PTI
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Fake gutka factory unearthed, two arrested
Haridwar, July 17
SP, Rural, Ajay Singh today said they were receiving complaints that fake tobacco product in packing of a popular brand were being sold in the district. He said two partners of the factory, namely Sandeep Aggarwal, a resident of Bahadrabad in Haridwar, and Shahbuddin, a resident of Satti Mohalla in Roorkee, were arrested. Their other partner Babu, alias Javed, was absconding. A special police team is conducting raids on Babu’s suspected hideouts. It has also decided to raid similar factories suspected of manufacturing fake tobacco products in the district. Labourers working in the factory are being arrested while raids are being conducted on other units suspected of producing fake tobacco products in the district. Station House Officer JS Pundir added that duplicate gutka was being sold to vendors on the price margin of the original product so that no one could discover the difference. The culprits were using the latest machines and the product looked similar to the original brand gutka in paper, print and size.
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SSB donates Rs 1.89 cr for flood-hit
Dehradun, July 17 The total amount of the contribution stood at Rs 1,89,60,137. The SSB too bore the brunt of the nature's fury in the hill state as its Officers Training Academy in Srinagar was hit by floods and it suffered a damage to the tune of Rs 80 crore. The about 40,000 personnel strong SSB guards Indian frontiers with Nepal and Bhutan. — PTI
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Now, consumers can pay power bills online
Dehradun, July 17 The consumers will be provided information about their bills and payment through an SMS . They can also check the status of the bills, payment, power consumption and electricity connection online. Meanwhile MD (UPCL) AK Johri has approved time-scale pay structure as was being demanded by employees and officials of the department for long.
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Nishank has close brush with death
Uttarkashi, July 17 Nishank had gone to take stock of the situation in rain-affected areas of Didsari, Ongi, Bhatukasol and Maneri, party sources said. — PTI
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Mussoorie-Dhanaulti road blocked due to landslide
Mussoorie, July 17
The local administration was able to remove the mud debris with the help of JCB machines after a struggle of five hours. Long queues of vehicles were witnessed on both sides of the road, much to the inconvenience of the commuters here. The danger of the road being blocked again still persists as huge boulders are still stuck in between the trees and could fall once again on the road at any given moment. Several vehicles carrying relief material for the disaster- affected villages such as Parodi, Sinjal etc also were stuck in the long jam for nearly five hours here. The local residents lamented the fact that the area is disaster prone but the administration has failed to make adequate arrangements for quick relief. On the contrary the SDM, Dhanaulti, when contacted said that the team was prepared for any eventuality and JCB machines was summoned as soon as the road was blocked in the morning. The police has also been placed at the site to avoid further risk to the lives of the commuters and was managing the flow of traffic effectively, added SDM.
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DMC website not updated for past two years
Dehradun, July 17 The information about councillors is not available. This shows that the information about the councillors of the last board had purposely been deleted without bothering to replace it with the names of new persons who have been elected this year. In a section of the projects, incomplete information has been given of projects of 2011. This includes BSUP housing projects for slum dwellers. However, the saving grace is the old photo of Mayor, Vinod Chamoli, and his message for the people of the city. As Chamoli continues to hold on to his position, so his photo/message did not look awkward in the sequence of old information uploaded on the website. Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Ashok Kumar said people would be able to air their grievances online. The fact is that this facility existed for the last two years, but no one ever bothered to check it. The amenities of applying and filling up forms to obtain birth and death certificates online was also available but due to lack of apathy of the officials, it too failed. MNA said they had already registered around 47, 000 houses to be provided online house tax facility. Mayor Vinod Chamoli said he would start taking those houses in the ambit of house tax, which had not been incorporated from the next week and include them in online facility . However, when apprised about the issue, Mayor Vinod Chamoli passed directions to the fellow staff to update the website.
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Ex-servicemen back Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra
Dehradun, July 17 Uttarakhand Purv Sainik Ardh Sainik Sanyukt Sanghatan, an organisation of ex-servicemen in the state, has decided to hold a meeting in Dehradun on July 19 to garner support in favour of staging of Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra. Spokesman for the sanghatan PC Thapliyal said staging of Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra on its proposed schedule is important as it will be boost the sagging morale of the hill state, particularly in the aftermath of rain disaster. He reminded that serving defence personnel have played an important role in relief and rescue operations in the recent rain disaster in the state and asserted that ex-servicemen would leave no stone unturned to make the yatra in Uttarakhand a grand success.
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Mountaineer: Ensure rules followed before undertaking constructions
Dehradun, July 17 ''Everything in Uttarakhand seems to be Ram Bharose. Instead of learning lessons from the disaster, we seem to be repeating the mistakes again and again. I hope this time we take lessons and build houses and commercial establishments by following proper norms. Uttarakhand falls in a highly active seismic zone and building norms should be followed rigorously,'' she said. She said that in the past couple of years, Uttarkashi district has been at the receiving end of nature's fury as such sustained efforts are required to help the people cope with the disaster.
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Govt ready to give forest land for rehabilitating 280 villages
Dehradun, July 17 ''Depending on the situation and availability of land the first priority would be to see if there is availability of degraded land followed by the van panchayat land and in case none of these two are available, then the forest land could be considered for rehabilitation purpose,'' she said. The Union Minister who was on a visit to Dehradun said that she would also fast track the process of setting up the regional office of the Ministry of Environment that is presently in Lucknow to Dehradun. ''Till the time the full-fledged Chief Conservator Forests office is not established for the specific purpose of clearing up the forest and environment-related issues concerning Uttarakhand, a camp office would be set up in Dehradun,'' she said. Announcing further concessions for the state, the Union Minister said that as many roads have been damaged in the state, for the purpose of realignment of roads, the ministry would be willing to relax the rules. ''If one hectare of forest land is required for realignment of roads, the ministry would take in return the compensatory forest land equal to the forest land diverted rather than demanding double the forest land diverted,''
said Natarajan. She also supported the Uttarakhand government's demand for payment of green bonus as a means of compensating the state for maintaining the green cover.
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Issue White Paper on relief work: BJP chief
Pithoragarh, July 17 Rawat was talking to mediapersons in Pithoragarh today after visiting the disaster-hit Darma and Johar valleys. He blamed the state government for the death of thousands of pilgrims due to hunger and thirst in the jungles of Kedarnath as the government could not reach them even after eight days of the tragedy. “Had the government provided even a piece of bread and a bottle of water to the stranded pilgrims, thousands of them would have survived,” said Rawat. The BJP president said the government failed to repair track routes in the district even after one month of the tragedy. “Villages are facing a shortage of essential goods like foodgrains and medicines due to the indifferent attitude of the government. The inactivity of the government has endangered the career of students studying in professional medical and engineering colleges as they are not in a position to pay their fee,” he said.
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Policemen cremate 13 unclaimed bodies
Dehradun, July 17 Meanwhile, CM Vijay Bahuguna will be handing over the ex-gratia cheques to the family members of the 14 police personnel, who attained martyrdom at the rain disaster en course of their duty. Every deceased policeman’s family member will be getting around Rs 17.5 lakh. He will hand over the cheques at a function in Dehradun. — TNS
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Health food contest
Dehradun, July 17 She said healthy food was important for the well being of society. She also urged the UMA to work for the betterment of poor women. Earlier, president of the UMA Sadhna Sharma said the women were fast deviating from traditional food and taking to fast food.— TNS
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The Mussoorie-Dhanaulti road was blocked near Kaplani due to fresh landslide triggered by the incessant rains near
Mussoorie, resulting in inconvenience to the commuters for several hours today. The local administration was able to remove the mud debris with the help of JCB machines after a struggle of five hours.
