The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

KMVN to run sales promotion plan: MD
Pithoragarh, October 9
Facing a loss of Rs 9.5 crore due to disaster, which damaged its property and cancellation of Kailash Mansarowar and other pilgrimages, the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) has decided to run a sales promotion plan under which workers in tourist rest centres of the Nigam and other employees related with the publicity of tourist facility will be given an incentive of 5 to 2 per cent on sale from this year.

MDDA wins case of land acquisition on Chakrata Road
Dehradun, October 9
Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) registered a win with the High Court today delivering verdict in its favour regarding acquisition of land at Chakrata Road for its re-development plan. However, the traders who are against the acquisition have decided to approach Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision.

Children were worst hit by flood disaster: NDMA study
New Delhi, October 9
Children were affected most during the Uttarakhand flood disaster and many of the kids continue to live in trauma and are afraid of rains, the NDMA said. During the recent disaster in Uttarakhand in which hundreds of lives were lost and huge infrastructure was damaged, children were the worst affected, the National Disaster Management Authority said in a study.

IAF donates Rs 8.3 crore for U’khand relief fund
New Delhi, October 9
After having rescued over 23,000 persons in disaster-hit Uttarakhand, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has now contributed for their rehabilitation by donating Rs 8.33 crore in the Prime Minister's relief fund.

Trial of six wheat varieties developed by varsity on
Pithoragarh, October 9
Six varieties of wheat, developed by Pantnagar University, are under trial in different climatic conditions in different parts of the country. They will be released for farmers once the trials are over, university research director said.

Bhatt alleges conspiracy against BJP legislators
Dehradun, October 9
The Leader of the Opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly Ajay Bhatt today accused the Vijay Bahuguna government for trying to hatch a conspiracy against the BJP legislators from Udham Singh Nagar so that they could be put behind bars.

Tourist ends life at hotel
Dehradun, October 9
A tourist, identified as Naveen (40) of Rajasthan, allegedly committed suicide at Hotel Shubham here yesterday. According to information, hotel staff repeatedly knocked at the door of his room this morning, but he did not respond.

	A First U’khand to have special mining vigilance force Tribune News Service Dehradun, October 9 The state has decided to create a special mining vigilance force to check illegal mining in state rivers. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said here today that a decision in this regard had been taken. He said DIG, Garhwal range, Sanjay Gunjial would head the force, which would have its headquarters in Dehradun. The force would check illegal mining in Dehradun, Kotdwar, Vikasnagar, Haldwani and Haridwar and five other places in the state. Bahuguna said Uttarakhand had become the first state to have a dedicated special force to check illegal mining having its own manpower and equipment. He said land would be made available to the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in Haridwar. “ Whatever land will be required, we will provide,” said Bahuguna. He announced that two battalions of the eco-task force would be set up at Rudraprayag in Garhwal and Bageshwar in Kumaon. A total of 1,500 personnel would be employed in these battalions. “Fifty per cent of the posts in the eco-task force will be reserved for women and trained SSB guerillas will also be taken,” he said. On the question of providing death certificates to those whose relatives died in the mid-June natural disaster, Bahuguna said all such death certificates would be provided to the respective state governments from where the deceased belonged within a week. He said the compensation amount to the families of the deceased would also be dispatched within a week through the respective state governments. Bahuguna said all those students who lost their parents or their homes got destroyed would get the entire annual tution fee from the Chief Ministers’ Relief Fund. Regarding having a new state Assembly building at Gairsain, Bahuguna said a committee headed by Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal was supervising the project. He said the National Building Construction Company had exceeded the estimate of Rs 75 crore for the building and it had been asked to furnish its plan afresh by October 25. “Once the project is approved by the committee, the construction will start,” he said. Bahuguna said the foundation laying of the new Assembly and Secretariat buildings at Raipur would be done in November. He said 42 villages of Govind Pashu Vihar had been excluded to pave the way for development activities in the region.
	Cases of 824 missing persons cleared for death certificates Tribune News Service Dehradun, October 9 The Uttarakhand Department of Health and Family Welfare has cleared 19 applications for the issue of death certificates by the designated officer at Rudraprayag. While 18 applications were related to missing persons belonging to Rajasthan, one was from Tamil Nadu. Similarly, it has also cleared 805 applications pertaining to persons from Uttarakhand, who had gone missing in the natural disaster and were presumed dead. The next of kin of persons belonging to other states, who had gone missing in the mid-June flash floods, had begun applying for death certificates. The formalities relating to the verification of the missing persons hailing from other states would be done by both Uttarakhand and the parent states. “As death certificates will be issued under the provisions of Section 7(2) of the guidelines issued by the government, these have to be issued at the place where the incidents happened. Hence, the applications have been sent to the SDM, Rudraprayag, who is the designated officer for the purpose,” said Piyush Singh, Additional Secretary, Health. As Rudraprayag district officials had already followed the procedure to notify the names of the missing persons through newspapers for the purpose of inviting objections, the government had relaxed the condition and there would be no need to wait for 30 days for issuing the death certificates.
	KMVN to run sales promotion plan: MD Our Correspondent Pithoragarh, October 9 Facing a loss of Rs 9.5 crore due to disaster, which damaged its property and cancellation of Kailash Mansarowar and other pilgrimages, the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) has decided to run a sales promotion plan under which workers in tourist rest centres of the Nigam and other employees related with the publicity of tourist facility will be given an incentive of 5 to 2 per cent on sale from this year. “It will help the Nigam to recover from heavy losses,” said Nigam MD Deepak Rawat, after the meeting of board of directors. These decisions were taken in a meeting of board of directors held at Sukhatal Rest House, Nainital today. The meeting was attended by chairman of Nigam, Kiran Mandal, MD Deepak Rawat, besides Nigam officials and directors. “The Nigam board has also decided to give the contract of parking facility owned by it at Haldwani to private contractors to earn more money. The board has also decided to convert its rosin and turpentine factory premises into poly house for growing seasonal and off seasonal vegetables to get more profit and install rope way facilities at various places of Haldwani, Almora, Bageswar and Pithoragarh districts,” said the Nigam MD.
	MDDA wins case of land acquisition on Chakrata Road Traders to approach Supreme Court Seema Sharma Tribune News Service Dehradun, October 9 Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) registered a win with the High Court today delivering verdict in its favour regarding acquisition of land at Chakrata Road for its re-development plan. However, the traders who are against the acquisition have decided to approach Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision. Secretary, MDDA, Banshidhar Tiwari, said he was yet to read the full content of the court’s judgement. Hence he could not make any comment on the issue. However, he said MDDA would follow court’s diktat in the matter. With regard to traders making their mind to move the apex court, he said the traders were free to do so. MDDA was not keen to persuade them. Among the traders who are opposing the acquisition of the shops, president of Chakrata Road Traders' Association Shashi Kant Goyal said:'' “High Court has directed MDDA to acquire land from Prabhat Cinema to Clock Tower on Chakrata Road. MDDA indulged in gimmick by making a journalist file petition in the High Court terming the entire stretch vulnerable because of the condition of structures after the demolition took place here last December. He has contended that the arguments saying that even multi-storey structure which MDDA wanted to erect here was not safe either as the place comes under sensitive seismic zone. But it seems our contention could not convince the High Court.” Trader Rajender Kumar said though the proposition of moving the apex court was a costly affair as it was not certain how many traders would contribute for it, they had made their mind to approach the Supreme Court to save their land from forcible acquisition.
	Children were worst hit by flood disaster: NDMA study New Delhi, October 9 Children were affected most during the Uttarakhand flood disaster and many of the kids continue to live in trauma and are afraid of rains, the NDMA said. During the recent disaster in Uttarakhand in which hundreds of lives were lost and huge infrastructure was damaged, children were the worst affected, the National Disaster Management Authority said in a study. "Some children still have trauma of flood disaster and are afraid of rains. A number of children have lost their lives and others have lost their parents and relatives during the disaster. Damage to school buildings has adversely affected the studies," it said. The NDMA study said the trauma led to increase in number of dropouts and not only schoolgoing children, but even the students studying in higher classes may drop out of schools as their parents have lost their livelihoods and are now not able to meet the expenditure of the education. Participating in a programme on Disaster Reduction Day, NDMA member B Bhattacharjee stressed the need for giving lessons to students about natural calamities. He favoured invention of instruments which could forecast calamities or earthquakes as this could subsequently reduce or lower the impact of any tragedy. "The community or the people could go to safer places, if something is done before and also put some instrument which can give information about the calamity," he said. Bhattacharjee also said there was a need to impart training to school students on how to deal with a calamity. The students of Uttarakhand, where the tragedy happened, also shared their experiences during the event. The awareness material developed by NIDM on Disaster Management was also released during the programme. — PTI
	IAF donates Rs 8.3 crore for U’khand relief fund New Delhi, October 9 After having rescued over 23,000 persons in disaster-hit Uttarakhand, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has now contributed for their rehabilitation by donating Rs 8.33 crore in the Prime Minister's relief fund. The amount was collected by the IAF through the donation of a one-day salary by its over 1.7 lakh officers and men deployed across the country, IAF officials said here. The cheque was presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne at the Air Force Day reception at the IAF chief's residence yesterday. In one of the largest relief operations in the country since Independence, the IAF played a major role in Uttarakhand after floods caused by incessant rain struck large-scale devastation there beginning June 16 night. The IAF airlifted more than 23,000 persons-- flying more than 2,140 sorties and dropping/landing a total of 3,82,400 kg of relief material and equipment. At the peak of its operations in the hill state, the IAF had deployed more than 50 aircraft and helicopters. The operations went on till the end of July. The Indian Air Force choppers involved in the sorties included the Mi-26, Mi-17V5, Mi-17, ALH Dhruv, besides their mainstay in the difficult terrain--Cheetah and Chetak light helicopters. — PTI

Trial of six wheat varieties developed by varsity on
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, October 9
Six varieties of wheat, developed by Pantnagar University, are under trial in different climatic conditions in different parts of the country. They will be released for farmers once the trials are over, university research director said.

According to the sources, these varieties have been developed taking the factors of decreasing cultivation area and some diseases reducing wheat production in the country. “These varieties are the result of research of our scientists over the last 10 years, keeping the aim of increasing wheat production in the country,” said Dr JP Singh, director of research in the university.

The research director said some of the varieties tested were giving good yields of up to 90 quintals per hectare at some places.

“Some other varieties have also given an average production of 65-71 quintals per hectare. This is 10 to 15 quintals per hectare more than than the varieties in the country at present,” said the Director.

Pantnagar University, the pioneering institute behind the Green Revolution of the sixties, is concentrating on increasing the yield of wheat, keeping in mind the decreasing landholdings and area under wheat cultivation in the country.

“The nation produced 92.4 million tonnes of wheat last year from 3 crore hectares under cultivation. It needs to be increased as the demand of foodgrains is increasing and the country needs self-sufficiency in this direction,” he said.

About wheat production in the state, he said that Uttarakhand had produced 8 lakh tonnes of wheat from 3.7 lakh hectares last year.

Bhatt alleges conspiracy against BJP legislators
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 9
The Leader of the Opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly Ajay Bhatt today accused the Vijay Bahuguna government for trying to hatch a conspiracy against the BJP legislators from Udham Singh Nagar so that they could be put behind bars.

In a statement issued yesterday, Bhatt accused the government of targeting the BJP Legislators, including Rajkumar Thukral, by falsely implicating him in the October 2011 riots.

''The government has unleashed a vendetta campaign against our MLAs and has gone ahead and registered false case against BJP MLA Rajkumar Thukral. In the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly in June 5, 2012, the government had given a statement that all the cases would be withdrawn,'' said Bhatt.

He said that the BJP today submitted a letter reminding the Chief Minister about the statement given in the house on June 5, 2012.