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Himalayan
Tsunami
Himalayan
Tsunami
Aanthon, Janmashtami celebrated with fervour in Kumaon
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Survey work for Pithoragarh
drinking water project begins
Police cracks three cases of murder
Govt fails to implement DACP
scheme for allopathic doctors
State Cong to set up hi-tech communications dept
HC ban on construction within 200 m of river beds hailed
Indian Oil signs MoU with SIDCUL
IRS officer sells her paintings to donate Rs 20 lakh
Protesting MNREGA employees who were lathi charged by the police stage a dharna in support of their demands in Dehradun on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph
Agitation by shiksha sangathan continues
Shiksha acharyas hold a protest in support of their demands in Dehradun on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph
Govt in a fix over transfer of teachers
Concept of GEP confusing: RLEK
Bahuguna mourns Dogri writer Prashant’s death NGO gives relief aid State agitators flay HC order
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Himalayan
Tsunami
Dehradun, August 28 But little availability of these trained personnel in the rescue and relief works in the recent rain disaster has questioned the very relevance of these training programmes. CPI (ML) Garhwal secretary Indresh Maikhuri argues that the data in the DMMC website itself questions the credibility of the training and calls for a through probe. Maikhuri said he doubted if the disaster preparedness training was done with any seriousness. Interestingly, the list of those trained available in the DMMC website reveals that the maximum number of those trained were born on Jan 1. For example, in Chamoli district, a total of 25 persons were trained at Malari Nyaya panchayat in Joshimath block, and all had Jan 1 as their date of birth. Similarly, 21 out of 25 trained in Chinka Nyaya panchayat in Dasholi block, too, were born in Jan 1. Further, 23 out of 25 trained at Bairgana Nyaya panchayat in Dasholi block in Chamoli again were born on Jan 1. At village Sumerpur in Augustmuni block, again all 24 trained had Jan 1 as their date of birth. “This certainly cannot be a coincidence and there is certainly something fishy about it. It could be training just as part of paper work with no training on ground,” Maikhuri pointed out. Even in disaster-ravaged Rudraprayag district, all the 25 trained in Tawara Nyaya panchayat in the Ukhimath block of Rudraprayag had their dates of birth on January 1. In Karanprayag Nyaya panchayat, 22 persons trained have their date birth as January 1. As of Pithorgarh district, in Baram Nyaya panchayat in Dharchula block, 21 out of 24 participants to the training progamme have their dates of birth on January 1. Similarly, in Nachni village of Munshiyari block, 18 out of 25 participants have their dates of birth on January 1. Further in Tehri district, all the participants at the training programme held at Chamba block have Jan 1 as their dates of birth. Same is the case with training held at Pauri and Uttarakashi. Significantly, in the recent Kedarnath disaster in Uttarakhand, DMMC's ability to deal with disaster got exposed and none among those trained were seen in relief and rescue works. However, refuting the charges, Piyush Rautela, Director, Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre, said it was a manual mistake and was being rectified. He said those criticising DMMC should be aware that DMMC was working with a minuscule staff and little resources with an annual budget of just Rs 1 crore. “We have already started rectifying the mistake and cross-checking with our records. We have conducted all the training programmes and that is the reason we have uploaded the data in our website”, Rautela asserted. He said the entire department could not be blamed for a clerical mistake.
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Himalayan
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Dehradun, August 28 "Hospitality and tourism together account for one-fourth of the State Domestic Product apart from being a key source of employment and income generation from the revenue perspective," said DS Rawat, national secretary general of ASSOCHAM. "The hospitality and tourism industry in Uttarakhand has sought the intervention of policy makers in the Ministry of Finance, the RBI and the Central Government, as many players in the industry had availed bank loans for various projects and are now finding it difficult to repay them," said Rawat. "As such the Centre, along with its key financial institutions, should look at formulating a relief package for the state's hospitality and tourism industry in form of loan waivers, tax exemptions and subsidies," he said. Calling for the state government's attention in this regard, the ASSOCHAM national secretary general said, "Though the rehabilitation of enterprises is done at the level of bankers and lenders, the state government must compliment the efforts of these financial institutions by partnering in the process." "The hospitality and tourism sector alone is likely to suffer direct loss of about 1.8 lakh jobs during the course of the next six months. Besides, the sector is also likely to lose over Rs 4,100 crore annually," according to a recently released study titled, "ASSOCHAM Prescription: Coping With the Impact of Disaster in Uttarakhand State." The state government's finances will also experience reduced tax revenues due to a drop in goods and services' production, loss of earnings and reduced consumer spending, added the ASSOCHAM study. The hospitality and tourism sector is likely to be reduced by 75 per cent in the aftermath of the devastation caused by unprecedented flash floods and landslides as rate of cancellations shot by a whopping 50 per cent. "The development of strategies for short, medium and long term support for the recovery of livelihoods, services and rehabilitation of infrastructure is the need of the hour," said Rawat.
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Aanthon, Janmashtami celebrated with fervour in Kumaon
Pithoragarh, August 28 According to the legend, Gaura, a girl from the village, was married off to Lord Shiva, residing at Mount Kailash. She returns to her parental home after a gap of 12 years of marriage and is welcomed by the entire village as its daughter. “The festival is organised on the 8 days of Shukla Paksh of the Hindu month of Bhado, (month of August) and is celebrated in the format, depicting her birth, childhood marriage and then coming back to her parents after 12 years and then her return to Kailash as their village girl,” said Padma Datt Pant, a cultural writer from the area. According to the rituals, the village women erect an idol of Gaura with grass on the first day and a statue of Maheswar on the second day when the marriage ceremony of the deities is conducted before worshiping the duo by village women. “The actual festivities of Aathon begin on the fifth day, when women drench seeds of five grains to be offered to Gaura on the day of Asthami,” said Pant. The festival culminates with folk songs sung to worship Gaura and her husband Maheswar. “These folk songs are sung even to inquire about the difficulties in the lives of the daughters who are married off to distant places, making Gaura proxy for it,” he added. Besides Anthon, Janmashtami was celebrated all over the region today. People thronged the temples of Lord Krishna and celebrated his mid-night birth with singing of bhajans. “We have also started preparation for celebration of Ganesh Utsav, which falls in the first week of September,” said Jagdish Punera, secretary of Ramlila Committee which is organising the celebration of Asthon and Janmashtami festival in the district headquarters.
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Survey work for Pithoragarh
drinking water project begins
Pithoragarh, August 28 According to Jal Nigam sources, a sum of Rs 1.62 crore has been sanctioned for the work of making DPR of the project, forest clearance and settling the compensation claims of local villagers whose land will be taken by the project. “After we complete the survey work in the coming 3 months, construction work on the scheme will be started,” said KC Joshi, executive engineer of the nigam. The survey work on the scheme is being conducted by a private company of Dehradun. According to Jal Nigam sources, as the money meant for the scheme has been sanctioned under Urban Development Department of government of Uttarakhand, there will be no shortage of money for starting construction work as soon as the survey work completes. “ The Rs 60 crore project will add water enough for the next 15 years for the town of Pithoragarh, which has a need of 11 MLD water at present but getting only 6 MLD of drinking water from three schemes active at present,” said the Jal Nigam engineer. According to sources, the scheme was formerly proposed by BJP government in 2010 under finance from the Asian Development Bank, but after changing power in the state, the present Congress government did not pursue the trench 2 schemes proposed under the bank assistance, and instead sanctioned money from the state head for the completion of the scheme this year.
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Police cracks three cases of murder
Dehradun, August 28 In the Doiwala murder case in which the body of a seven-year-old boy was found inside a car on August 25, the Doiwala police arrested Amit Kumar, resident of
Doiwala, for allegedly sodomising the minor before killing him. According to the postmortem report that came out on Tuesday, the boy was sodomised and later strangulated to death. It is to be noted on August 25 the police arrested the owner of the car in which the body was found. In another alleged murder case of 66-year-old Leela
Devi, resident of Harpurkala village in Raiwala police station area, who was found dead in the nearby forest in Raiwala few days back, the police arrested three persons here today. According to
SSP, Dehradun, the arrested persons namely, Suman, Suraj and Sunil, told the police that they were taking drugs inside the forest when Leela Devi who reached the forest with her domestic animals caught them and threatened to complain to their families. After heated arguments, Leela Devi allegedly tried to hit them by her stick that antagonised the three of them, who were already under the influence of drugs. They chased the elderly woman and smashed her head by a stone, and left her bleeding, claims the police. Meanwhile, the police also raised the curtain from the murder case of Sahaspur resident
Nazeem, who was found dead inside his mudhouse at Dhaki village in
Sahaspur. The police arrested Ishtiyaq and Ishrar, who knew Nazeem. According to the police, Nazeem was a small time financier and used to lend money on interest and Ishtiyaq and Ishrar broke into his house in the night with the intention of looting the money, which Nazeem would have recovered from his debtors. Hearing unusual voices, when Nazeem woke up, both Ishtiyaq and Ishrar hit Nazeem with stones and killed him on the spot. They also took away Rd 5000 from his house. All six accused, arrested for their alleged role in three murder cases, will be presented before the magistrate. SHAMEFUL ACT: In the Doiwala murder case in which the body of a seven-year-old boy was found inside a car on August 25, the police arrested Amit Kumar for allegedly sodomising the minor before killing him.
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Govt fails to implement DACP
scheme for allopathic doctors
Dehradun, August 28 The Uttarakhand government has already extended the Assured Career Progression
(ACP) scheme to most of the government employees, staff of medical and ayurvedic doctors. But the allopathic doctors have been left out. Dr BC
Ramola, president of the Provincial Medical and Health Services (PMHS),
Uttarakhand, said: ''The government is not serious about improving the condition of the government doctors and making the services attractive for young doctors. We have been demanding the implementation of the DACP scheme for long, but to no avail. After implementing the DACP in 2002, the Central Government had asked the state governments to implement the scheme as part of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations for the government doctors.'' The government's inability to address this problem since the creation of the state has resulted in the government services appearing unattractive for young medical officers. ''Even the neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana are implementing the scheme. No wonder new entrants prefer joining the services in these states,'' added Dr
Ramola. Once the DACP scheme is implemented, doctors will get time-bound promotions and increments. |
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State Cong to set up hi-tech communications dept
Dehradun, August 28 Addressing a press conference at Congress Bhawan yesterday, Uttarakhand Congress general secretary Vijay Sarawat said the Congress at the national level had decided to go high tech to counter Opposition’s communication ''technology-aided misleading campaign'' against the party and would now go for facebook, twitter, website and other forms of IT communication. He said Uttarakhand Congress will be opening up its communication department at Congress Bhawan on August 30 which will be inaugurated in the presence of Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, state Congress president Yashpal Arya and Uttarakhand Congress co-i ncharge Sanjay Kapoor. He disclosed that Ajay Gupta, party IT cell head, will oversee all arrangements of the communications department. Saraswat said party workers at block level will also be sent to Delhi in September for making them well versed with modern IT mechanism. Congress spokesman Suryakant Dhasmana reminded that Food Security Bill that had been passed in the Lok Sabha yesterday will prove to be historic in removing hunger from the country. He said the party will soon hold a workshop on September 8 and 15 in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions respectively for party workers to help them apprise the people about the benefits of Food Security Bill.
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HC ban on construction within 200 m of river beds hailed
Pithoragarh, August 28 Almora District Magistrate Akshat Gupta said rampant encroachments had taken place near the Kosi, Gagas, Ram Ganga, Saryu and Panar rivers in the district in the past decade as there was no law to check illegal
constructions. He said with the court orders, they would now be able to take action against violators and take steps to prevent a disaster-like situation in the future. Gupta said hundreds of villages in Chaukhutia valley of the district would be affected by this order as these were situated near river beds. However, Hem Kandpal, a social worker from Chaukhutia, made it clear that the orders would not be applicable to old constructions. Bageshwar residents are happy that the court’s order will save the river beds of the Saryu, Gomati and Pindar rivers from further encroachments as due to this menace, they suffered many hardships during rains every year. A number of people living near river beds had lost their lives in the mid-June deluge in the state.
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Indian Oil signs MoU with SIDCUL
Dehradun, August 28 The Indian Oil and the Uttarakhand Government will jointly make plans for infrastructural development of natural gas and innovation in power
sector. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, said investment was essential for development in
the state. He said there was need to concentrate on the power sector for industrial development. He expressed the hope that the MoU would encourage social and economic development in the state.
He spoke to the IOC Chairman, RS Butola, over the phone about the establishment of an
LPG bottling plant in the state. The Executive Director, AK Marchanda, said the Indian Oil would identify a cluster after surveying the demand in the present geographical conditions. Also, work would be done with regard to city gas distribution.
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IRS officer sells her paintings to donate Rs 20 lakh
Dehradun, August 28 She informed the CM that a painting exhibition was held by her which was inaugurated by former President APJ Abdul Kalam. An amount of Rs 20 lakh were earned by selling the paintings, which she had now donated to the state. The CM has expressed gratitude to Sangeeta for this contribution. Also present on the occasion were member NDMA VK Duggal, Cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat and Chief Secreatry Subhash Kumar. Besides this, Chandra Shekhar from Doon Valley Public School presented the CM with a cheque for Rs 51,000 for the CM’s Relief Fund while General Secretary, Lok Nav Chetna, LP Thapliyal also gave Rs 50,000 for the same purpose. Sanjay Kumar and Manish Singhal from Alpine International also presented the CM with a draft of Rs 32,000.
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MNREGA employees intensify stir
Dehradun, August 28 The MNREGA Workers Association is protesting for their demands that include raise in monthly wages of technical supporter from Rs 8,700 to 22,000, data entry operator from Rs 7,250 to 18,000, and project officer from Rs 12,000 to 28,000. They also demanded reinstatement of the sacked MNREGA workers who were terminated across the state for not having mandatory mathematics and commerce subjects in their qualifications. Earlier, the MNREGA workers had a clash with the police on Tuesday, when they staged a protest march towards Chief Minister’s house. The police had to use force against the workers for stopping them from reaching the Chief Minister house that resulted in injuring many MNREGA workers.
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Agitation by shiksha sangathan continues
Dehradun, August 28 It is to be noted that in 2008, the government closed EGS and AIE centres due to which a large amount of shiksha acharyas and part-time teachers got unemployed throughout the state. Now they are demanding they must be accommodated in the vacant posts of shiksha
mitra, which are in the number of 1797. The aggrieved teachers are claiming that the government through its Government Order (GO) in 2010 adjusted 1107 shiksha acharya and part time teachers on the basis of seniority in the vacant posts but the left out 1745 shiksha acharyas and part time teachers have still not been adjusted.
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Govt in a fix over transfer of teachers
Dehradun, August 28 In response to a writ petition, the high court had asked the Department of School Education to maintain a status quo on transfers till the time it re-evaluated the categorisation of schools under the remote and accessible categories for posting teachers. After this, the department again took the exercise of carrying out the re-evaluation of schools. But the mid-June natural disaster occurred, which forced the government to put a stop on transfers. According to the transfer policy framed by the department, the government had to first undertake 10 per cent compulsory transfers and then follow it up with regular transfers. A government official said the file had been put up before the secretary, school education, and the decision would be taken shortly.
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Concept of GEP confusing: RLEK
Dehradun,
August 28 In a statement issued today,
Kaushal said those talking of GEP in Uttarakhand seem little interested
in the development of people of the state. He asserted that Human
Development Index stands as the right parametre to asses the development
and any effort to introduce GEP will not be in the interest of
Uttarakhand. Kaushal said while Uttarakhand battles rain disaster, the
state government is busy coming up with baseless concept of GEP. |
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The indefinite agitation of Shiksha Acharya and Anudeshak Sangathan against the government in support of their demand of accommodating them in vacancies of Shiksha Mitra still continues. On Wednesday, the members of the Sangathan raised slogans against the government, blaming it for its apathetic behaviour towards them.
