assembly in session
Reviving economy biggest challenge: Cong MLA
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
Congress MLA Navprabhat today said in the Legislative Assembly that the biggest challenge before the government was to revive the economy of the state that had taken a severe beating due to the mid-June natural disaster. He was speaking while continuing a discussion on the natural disaster under an adjournment motion on the second day of the monsoon session in the Assembly.

“While the government managed to make up for its delayed response by doing good work on the relief front, it now faces an onerous task of reviving the economy and providing livelihood opportunities to the people of the state,” he said.

He added the government would have to step in to prevent settlements along riverbanks and also regulate tourist traffic. “Besides preventing encroachments on the riverbanks, there is a need to compulsorily clean the rivers of debris as this could pose a serious problem during heavy rains. The Asi Ganga in Uttarkashi created havoc in the adjoining areas, as debris and muck was not removed from it,” said Navprabhat.

He questioned the work done by the Border Roads Organization (BRO) so far and said its role should be examined as it had not been able to build roads in the Milam valley since the 1962 war with China.

Navprabhat cautioned the government against unscrupulous elements capitalising on the misfortune of the people of Uttarakhand. “The government has to look into the issue of human trafficking. This could even be happening in the garb of people offering to remarry women widowed in the natural disaster,” he said.

On the other hand, while participating in the debate, former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said the government had failed to clean the Kedarnath area of bodies even three months after the disaster. “What prompted your government to give the contract of removing rubble from Kedarnath to a blacklisted company “Engineers India Private Limited” when it has not been able to move an inch of the rubble,” he added.

Nishank took the government to task for showing undue haste in resuming the prayers in the Kedarnath temple on September 11 when the area was still replete with bodies.

He urged the government to issue a White Paper on the natural disaster.

Earlier as soon as the House reassembled today, the Leader of the Opposition, Ajay Bhatt, complimented the Speaker, Govind Kunjwal, for allowing the first ever adjournment motion in the history of the Legislative Assembly. However, he again demanded a discussion under the adjournment motion on the firing incident that took place at Agriculture Minister Harak Singh Rawat’s home. However, the Speaker declined his request.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Indira Hriyadesh in the evening tabled the first supplementary budget in the House for the ongoing financial year. 

No decision on extending House session
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
The state government today failed to give in to the demand of the Opposition BJP for extending the Assembly session to two more days.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt said they had requested the government to extend the session to two more days. "We had given an assurance to the government that we will cooperate with it in ensuring that the business in the House is conducted. The government should now agree to extend the session to two more days," said Bhatt.

However Parliamentary Affairs and Finance Minister Indira Hriyadesh said the government did not have any business to conduct after tomorrow as such there was no use in extending the session. 

Police prevents BJP from laying siege to House
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
Protesting against "tardy" relief work undertaken by the state government in the aftermath of the mid-June disaster, state BJP leaders who were on their way to lay siege to the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly were stopped by the police near the barricade erected at Rispana Chowk.

The BJP leaders included president of the state unit of the party Teerath Singh Rawat, BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi, former CM BS Koshiyari, Ajay Bhatt and several other party workers.

However, in a scuffle, some of the BJP workers were injured and taken to CMI Hospital.

“Teerath Singh Rawat, MLA Ganesh Joshi and several party workers were injured in the scuffle with the police,” said Ajay Bhatt.

Koshiyari said the government had tried its best to stop the siege but in vain.

Cong terms BJP rally flop show

Uttarakhand Congress spokesman Dhirendra Pratap claimed that the BJP’s rally today was a flop show.

In a statement, Dhirendra Pratap said the BJP had made huge claims that over 25,000 people will attend their rally, but only three to four thousand people turned to attend the proposed ghereo of the state assembly against the state Congress government. He said it indicated the popularity of the BJP amongst the people of the state.

Dhirendra Pratap also criticised the statements of former Chief Minister Ramesh Nishank, regarding, demanding the dismissal of Vijay Bahuguna Government. He said Nishank has been making false and baseless claims. Pratap demanded the Chief Minister to come out at the earliest with the report of Tripathi Commission, which is inquiring into the alleged corruption charges against the last BJP government.

Bills, budgetary demands tabled 
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
On the first day of the monsoon session of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly yesterday, the Uttarakhand government managed to table the Uttarakhand contingency Fund (Amendment) Ordinance 2013, the Uttarakhand Scheduled Castes Subplan and the Tribal Sub Plan (Planning Allocation and Utilisation) Ordinance 2013, the Uttarakhand Motor Vehicles Taxation Reforms(Amendment)Bill, 2013, three reports of the Comptroller Auditor General of India for the year ended March 31, 2012, annual report of Uttarakhand Lok Ayukta and Deputy Lok Ayukta, audit report for 2011-2012 of cooperatives and panchayats, annual budget (2011-2012) of Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission and budgetary demand for Uttarakhand Public Service Commission.

Earlier, before the start of Assembly session a delegation of BJP MLAs led by leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt met the Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal to demand discussion under rule 310 and a judicial enquiry into the firing incident that took place last night.

''We are amazed no FIR has been registered though statehood activist Vivekanand Khanduri, who was injured in the firing and admitted to CMI hospital last night,'' said Bhatt.

He said the speaker has accepted all our demands.

Reply on missing persons fails to satisfy BJP MLA
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
The state government has pegged the total number of dead and missing persons in the mid-June disaster at 4,247, but the figure has failed to satisfy a BJP MLA.

In a written reply to a starred question raised by BJP MLA Teerath Singh Rawat regarding the total number of dead and relief measures taken by the government, Minister for Disaster Management Yashpal Arya said nearly 4,247 persons were either dead or missing while 35,000 persons were rescued through helicopters and 1.50 lakh through road. However, raising the issue in the House, BJP MLA Madan Kaushik said throughout the period during the relief operation, the government continued to give contrary figures and even while providing answers to the questions raised by the MLA the practise continued as the minister had given different replies.

“In reply to the starred question no 19 you had said that the number of persons who are missing or dead was 4,247 while in the reply to another question regarding how many people went missing from Kedarnath, you have said 4,116 people are missing,” said Kaushik.

UKD (P) to protest over govt’s policies 
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD Panwar) will demonstrate in front of the Vidhan Sabha to register protest against policies of the state government tomorrow.

Party president Trivender Singh Panwar said, “The state government led by the Chief Minister has completely failed in giving any relief to disaster affected people of the state. By not releasing a White Paper on the disaster relief monetary assistance received so far, the state government has encouraged question marks over its functioning in the matter of disaster. It is clear that the relief money is being syphoned off by ministers as well as bureaucrats”.

He alleged that the disaster affected were running from pillar to post to get relief.

He alleged that those who were injured in the recent firing were so terrified that they were desisting to name the MLA, who opened fire at them.

“The ministers of the state government are least bothered about the calamity engulfing the state and people are facing the most gruesome time of their life,” he added.

He said his party leaders and members would protest on many other policies of the state government which had “harmed” the interests of the people of the state.

He urged party activists to participate in the gherao in a large numbers near the Vidhan Sabha premises tomorrow. 

SDMs told to wrap up cases related to litigations
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam directed all the sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs), tehsildars and nayab-tehsildars to wrap up cases related to litigations and grievances of people rapidly.

He told the officials that they would be responsible for any negligence in the matter and would face punitive action for it.

He said they must conduct their responsibility with integrity and sincerity so that the public should not make unnecessary rounds of district and tehsil offices. He also directed them to complete litigations and complaints in a time-bound manner.

While reviewing the targets as set in the previous meeting, he also gathered information regarding pending cases in the tehsil court and directed them to ensure their completion swiftly. With regard to illegal mining, he directed SDMs and tehsildars to control illegal mining and ensure mandatory action against those indulging in illegal mining. He said he would not tolerate any negligence in this task.  

Hotel owners: Central relief for business community an eyewash
Ajay Ramola/TNS

Mussoorie, September 19
The announcement made by the Central Government to provide service tax relief to the business community struggling to stand on its feet following the disaster that struck in the month of June this year has not gone down well with the hoteliers in Mussoorie.

The members of the Hotels' Association in a press meet held at a hotel here described the relief being given by the Central Government in the name of assisting the business community as insufficient and a mere eyewash.

The secretary of Mussoorie Hotels' Association, Ajay Bhargav, speaking to mediapersons lamented the fact that waiving service tax for only six months would not help the business community in any way as due to the absence of tourists from the town the service tax collection was already at bare minimum.

He further said that the disaster in Uttarakhand due to heavy rainfall on June 15 and 16 has taken a heavy toll on human life and property in the state and has also instilled fear among the tourists forcing them to stay away from visiting places such as Mussoorie and Nainital, thus making it difficult for the business community to recover from the economic crisis confronting them on a daily basis.

Bhargav said that the government was collecting around Rs 20 crore from the state in the form of service tax, and by waiving that amount the business community would not be able to come out of the slumber at any cost as the loss was far more.

He also informed the media that the state government in a meeting with the business community in July had formed a committee where various associations had suggested the measures to provide relief to the business community but those recommendations had not been considered at all.

He said that various associations had demanded from the Central Government 100 per cent income tax exemption for five years, 100 per cent exemption in service tax for five years, waiver of interest on loans taken by the various sectors of industry for five years, providing soft loans for renovation and reconstruction and subsidy on flights or other mediums of connectivity to the various cities of Uttarakhand.

From the state government the business community had also suggested 100 per cent VAT exemption for five years, luxury tax waiver, entertainment tax waiver, waiver of road tax on all commercial vehicles of the state and waiver of MCG (Minimum Consumption Guarantee) on electricity bills and exemption on fixed charges on electricity bills. 

Dept fails to meet SC target on child, women welfare
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
Despite the Supreme Court directive on providing supplementary nutrition for 300 days in a year to children below six, expectant mothers and lactating women, the Department of Women Empowerment and Child Development (WECD) was able to provide supplementary nutrition for 124 days and take-home ration distributed between 110 and 183 days as against the prescribed norms of 300 days in a year despite the availability of sufficient funds for the scheme.

Pulling up the department for poor implementation of the Integrated and Child Development Scheme, the Comptroller and Auditor General in its new report tabled on Wednesday in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly has pointed out several lapses in the implementation of nutrition scheme for children below the age of six years, lactating and expectant mothers.

It says: “The objective of the schemes was to universalise the scheme by selecting all beneficiaries. Audit analysis revealed that take home ration (THR) was not distributed in the year 2009-2010 due to non-execution of MOU between the Department and World Food Programme (WFP). There was huge shortage of more than 50 per cent of THR supplied during 2010-2011 to 2012.”

As a result, 50,523 children (0-3 years), 3,284 expectant mothers and 2,101 lactating mothers were totally deprived of the benefits of the scheme during the period 2010-2012.

As per the government order (2008), cooked food was to be provided to the children in the age group of three to six years through Mata Samitis at Anganwari Centres (AWCs). Audit noticed that only 2,19,557 children (67 per cent) were registered as against the survey figure of 31,84,716 children (2011-2012) in five selected districts. Out of 21,19,557 children (67 per cent) registered as against the survey figure of 31,84,716 children (2011-12) in five selected districts. Out of 21,19,557 children registered only 7,84,289 children (37 per cent) were enrolled in anganwari centres.

The report goes on to point out that supplementary nutrition was supplied for 124 days in the year 2011-12 by the department in the state whereas in the selected districts (selected for test check, ie Pithoragarh, Almora, Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital and Tehri), the THR distributed ranged between 110-183 days as against the prescribed norms of 300 days in a year. It was also observed that in 38 projects of selected districts, THR was not distributed at all in January 2012 as it was not supplied by WFP due to the non-execution of an MoU by the directorate. 

Missing mission

* The Supreme Court had directed the Department of Women Empowerment and Child Development to provide supplementary nutrition for 300 days in a year to children below six, expectant mothers and lactating women

* The department could provide supplementary nutrition for 124 days and take-home ration for 110 to 183 days only

* CAG in its new report tabled in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly on Wednesday had pointed out several lapses in the implementation of the nutrition scheme

* As a result, 50,523 children (0-3 years), 3,284 expectant mothers and 2,101 lactating mothers were totally deprived of the benefits of the scheme during the period 2010-2012

Falling rupee affects pharma unit’s output
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, September 19
Alps Pharmaceuticals, the oldest allopathic drug factory at Ranikhet, is facing immenent closure as it has reduced its production of life saving drugs, antibiotic and pain relievers to half due to costly raw materials imported from abroad, after the rupee started falling against the US dollar in last six months.

Managing Director Khajan Chandra Joshi said, “After the rupee started falling against the US dollar, the prices of raw powder being imported from western countries rose three to four times. It has become difficult for drug companies to produce medicines at the prices set by drug price control order by the government.”

Anti-dumping duty on imported raw material and increased cost of packaging of these drugs, has inceased the factory problems, which resulted into lay off of over 50 workers, said the MD. “We produced 10 lakh tablets of paracetamol before the rupee started falling. We are compelled to produce only three lakh tablets at present as the raw material being imported has become costlier,” he said.

“The drug factory is producing over 300 drugs, including vitamin syrups, life-saving drugs, injections and antibiotics for several states of the country. Due to imported raw material getting costlier, our turnover has fallen to Rs 3 crore a month from Rs 6 crore before the dollar crisis,” he said.

‘Vital to understand the Himalayan eco system’ 
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
The mid-June natural disaster in Uttarakhand has been an eye-opener to all the stakeholders. Of course, extreme climatic events are not easy to understand and handle, too, but their magnitude of devastation can be certainly minimised by respecting the laws of nature. While Uttarakhand collects its wits and will together to address the immense damages caused by this tragedy, it is now imperative to understand the magnitude of the impact of the disaster and analyse it to capture valuable learnings to be used for informed policy decisions not only in Uttarakhand but all over the 11 mountain states and two hill districts of West Bengal in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). Since the 16 per cent of the geographical area of the country provides valuable eco system services to more than 500 million population in the plains, management of natural resources in the Himalayan region is imperative.

These thoughts emerged in the workshop on ''Uttarakhand Disaster: Lessons for Future Planning in the Indian Himalayan Region'' organised by Forest Research Institute and Central Himalayan Environment Association in collaboration with Regional Economic Development Programme of German International Cooperation here today.

The workshop was an attempt to understand the impacts and analyse the situations in the absence of provisions that could have reduced the damage to human life, infrastructure, local livelihoods both on farm and off farm, and loss of valuable resources such as fertile top soil and agriculture fields, including the issues pertaining to governance, geo-engineering, social aspect and others. Preparing Himalayan states to manage and mitigate natural hazards by building on lessons learnt in Uttarakhand is thus being envisaged.

The workshop aimed to capture field lessons, its analysis and developing a road map for the future. Since the basic objective of the proposed intervention is to build upon the learning from Uttarakhand to mountain states of IHR, it is envisaged that a series of well organised events and activities will help to attain the desired outcomes, which could be discussed during the aforesaid workshop.

PP Bhojvaid, Director, Forest Research Institute, and Vice Chancellor, FRI, Deemed University, give the inaugural remarks, stressed the need of biodiversity conservation, while attempting at disaster management.

Shekher Pathak, GS Goriya, DDG, Research, Rajendra Dobhal, DG, Ucost, presided over the two technical sessions on geo-metrological analysis of the June disaster and technological needs and session on social analysis of June disaster anthropogenic aspects, governance-crisis and policy requirements.

SP Singh, Arun Kumar, IIT, Roorkee, PS Negi, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Anand Sharma, IMD, Jyotsna Sitling, SP Sati, Mahivir Singh Negi, Anil Kumar Gupta, NIDM, Rajeev Semwal, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Col (retd) Arun Mamgai, Arvind Darmora, YP Raiwani, Jagat Singh Jangali, Raminderjeet Singh, Indresh Maikhuri, RK Maikhuri, Laxmi Rawat and Pushkin Phartiyal gave presentations.

The workshop proceedings highlighted that since time immemorial human wellbeing is directly related to wellbeing of mountains with their snow clad peaks, dense forests and murmuring rivers.

Being the youngest and loftiest mountain range across the globe, the Himalayas are inherently fragile to disasters. Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) spreads 2500 km in length and the width varies from 150 km to more than 500 km at different places. In official parlance the IHR covers partly/fully 12 states of the country from Jammu and Kashmir in the west to Arunanchal Pradesh in the east. The total geographical area of the region is about 16 per cent of the country where only 4 per cent of the population lives.

It was highlighted that the Himalayas were one of the 34 hotspots identified in the world. The Himalayan eco system provides life to the country. Through Fifth Five Year Plan onwards, several task forces, working groups and scientific organisations have given their recommendation for the sustainable development of the region. The frequency and intensity of natural disasters in this region have been increasing. The recent Uttarakhand disaster is a case in point which has put a question mark on the development path being correctly pursued.

250 benches, uniforms distributed among students
Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, Septembe 19
For the students of Government Inter-College, Thatyur, in Tehri Garhwal district, who have been longing for computer education for a long time, wait came to an end, as the teacher employed by the Hope Foundation began imparting computer education, from yesterday.

The Hope foundation members along with a corporate organisation, distributed school uniforms and 250 benches for education to the school here.The organisation also assured the school of constructing a toilet for the students in the school.

The chief guest on the occasion, SDM, Dhanaulti, Santosh Kumar Pandey, distributed the uniforms to the students here. The students presented several cultural items in honour of the guests on the occasion.The block Pramukh, Geeta Rawat, commending the efforts of the donor organisation said this help would go a long way in empowering the students from lower strata in the region. The kshetra Panchayat adhyaksh, Sartma Devi, the members of PTA and the local villagers were also present on the occasion.

SFI workers gherao DAV College principal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
The workers of Student Federation of India (SFI) staged a protest and gheraoed the principal of DAV PG College, Devendra Bhasin, here today on the issue of alleged irregularities in the law entrance examination. The students alleged that high-level of manipulations and irregularities were done in the law entrance exam, which was held last month. 

They said that the college management got to know about the irregularities in the entrance exam but still they went ahead with the process instead of scrapping the entrance exam. Members of the student union group demanded enquiry into the whole issue followed by the action against the culprits. The Principal listened to the complaints of the students and assured them of taking action on the issues raised by the students. Lekhraj and Pankaj Badwal led the protesting students. 

Nanda Devi festival ends with immersion of idols 
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, September 19
With the immersion of Nanda and Sunanda idols in Naini lake in Nainital today, the 10-day-long Nanda festival in Nainital ended today. Nanda and Sunanda idols have also been immersed in some other towns of the region.

Before the procession started at 10 am, the idols were worshiped by priest Damodar Joshi in the presence of thousands other devotees. “The procession, which started from the Nanda temple, crossed Gurudwara, Masjid Tiraha rickshaw stand and Bhawali road and reached at the immersing place at Naini lake near Pashan Devi temple on Thandi Sarak,” said Kamal Jagati, a devotee, who attended the procession.

Some senior citizens have started cleaning campaign of the lake city by cleaning the litter thrown by the devotees at Bhandara, (langar) after the procession ended at immersion place. “We have picked the litter left by the devotees and dumped it at distance from the lake city in order to spread the message of clean Nainital” said Rajiv Lochan Shah, a resident of the lake city.

The annual Nanda Devi festival ended at Almora, Ranikhet Champawat Bhawali and Nainital besides Bageswar and Champawat . “In Almora the Nada and Sunanda idols were immersed at Dugal Khola water point on September 15, after the idols were anointed by the erstwhile Kumaon King and Nainital, MP, KC Singh Baba,” said Naveen Bisht a cultural activists in Almora town.

In Champawat town, the annual Nanda Devi procession was taken out by devotees five-day ago from Baleswar temple and immersed there after taking a procession from station road to Tallihat and Raj Bunga fort which is oldest fort of Chand king, situated in the town. “We have a unique tradition of taking blessing from local deities as they impersonate some one to bless the crowd,” said Girish Chandra Kalauni, a priest related with the festival in Champawat town.

The Nanda Devi annual procession in Bageswar town began two-day ago with Ganga Aarati last night when the river Saryu was worshiped with lamps. “The annual procession across the town was taken early morning today which was led by devotees with the sound of drums and other musical instruments. The procession, which was taken from Numaiskhet, ended at Bramkapali rock, where the idols of Nanda and Sunanda were immersed,” said Keshav Bhatt, a resident of Bageshwar.

Nine hurt as bus, Bolero collide head-on
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 19
Nine persons sustained serious injuries when the Bolero they were travelling in collided head-on with a Lohaghat depot passenger bus at Lal Tapar in Doiwala this morning.

The condition of the three of the injured is stated to be critical.

All injured are employees of Flex Food Company.

According to eyewitnesses, the driver of the bus lost control over the vehicle, following which it collided with the Balero.

The driver fled the scene leaving the bus behind.