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No more ad hoc appointments in state, says Bahuguna
Denied compensation, farmers go on indefinite agitation
BJP leaders skip banquet for British royals
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Mass-cleaning drive at Ganga ghats
Shantikunj sends more aid for Kedar valley
Labourer commits suicide
Emotional cost of mountaineering
high, says author Maria Coffey
Wild animals descend to lower valleys to escape chill
One held with 95 gm charas
BJP keen to wrest Haridwar LS seat from Cong
Cultural festival begins
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No more ad hoc appointments in state, says Bahuguna
Dehradun, November 8 Speaking to reporters at the end of the Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister said that while there would be a complete ban on ad hoc appointments in the state, the Cabinet has decided to regularise the services of the ad hoc employees. The rules and regulations and cut-off date for regularising such employees would be fixed. "Today, the Cabinet has in principle agreed to regularise the temporary employees but the rules and regulations would be approved in the next Cabinet meeting. While undertaking the exercise, the state reservation policy would be strictly enforced," said Bahuguna. However, the Chief Minister said the posts of class four employees would continue to be filled through out sourcing. He also said that the Cabinet had also agreed to meet the long-standing demand of 13 holidays in a year for the Anganwaris. On the issue of criticism levelled by the BJP on the hospitality extended by the state government to the British royalty during their recent visit to Dehradun and Narender Nagar, the Chief Minister said the royal couple's visit had resulted in huge publicity to the state at the international level. "The message has gone home that the state is safe and there is nothing to fear. The Opposition is in the habit of criticising everything. There are certain international obligations that have to be fulfilled. The visit of the royal couple was taken care of by the Ministry of External Affairs. Though the BJP leaders were absent during the dinner hosted at Narender Nagar yesterday, BJP MP from Tehri RajLaxmi Shah was present," said the Chief Minister. |
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Denied compensation, farmers go on indefinite agitation
Haridwar, November 8 The affected peasants have started an indefinite agitation against BHEL management, demanding adequate compensation and return of the unused land acquired by BHEL. Farmers argue that if the unused agricultural land was returned they can carry out agricultural work for their livelihood. Under the banner of Kissan Sangarsh Samiti (KSS), the affected farmers had been on an agitation for the past four years. They gave up the agitation after an assurances from BHEL management. But finding that there was no headway, the farmers have once again started their agitation outside BHEL administrative building near Lal Bahadur Shastri statue. The affected villagers are sitting on a daily basis in batches, trying to catch attention of the BHEL management officers. Lashing out at the BHEL management for delay in framing a policy, Balwant Ram Chauhan, president of the KSS, said that despite years of agitation, repeated complaints to the management and district administration, nothing concrete had been done to address the woes of the affected farmers. Chauhan pointed out that they have spoken to the BHEL officials concerned about their woes umpteen times. But, barring assurances, nothing had been done so far. “This is affecting dozens of families as they have no permanent home or agriculture land for earning their livelihood. Nor are their kins being provided jobs in the BHEL, Ranipur unit, which was promised prior to their displacement,” alleged Chauhan. Massom Aligada, founder of the samiti, has warned of an indefinite strike. A signature campaign is being run by the agitators. When contacted, an official of BHEL HR Department stated that legitimate demands of the aggrieved farmers is being looked into. The company had adhered to the acquisition agreement with displaced families being given due compensation as per the fixed criteria.
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BJP leaders skip banquet for British royals
Dehradun, November 8 Three former BJP Chief Ministers BC Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, besides Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Bhatt, state BJP chief Tirath Singh Rawat and party MP Tarun Vijay were invited to the banquet hosted in honour of Prince Charles and his wife Camilla Parker Bowles last night. However, all of them decided not to attend the event in view of the recent calamity in the state in which hundreds perished and thousands went missing. State BJP chief Rawat said, “The party is thankful to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall for their visit to Uttarakhand. But in a state where people are yet to recover from the effects of the colossal tragedy, a simpler function with less pomp could have been held in their honour.” He said, "We feel that organising a lavish royal banquet in such times could have been avoided." The state BJP chief said the party leaders’ decision not to attend the lavish feast was out of sympathy with the people of the state who have suffered so much in the recent calamity in Uttarakhand. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna held a sumptuous dinner last night at the palatial Hotel Ananda at Narendra Nagar in honour of the royal couple who began their extensive nine-day India tour with Uttarakhand on November 6.— PTI
Royals relish Garhwali dishes at Feast
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Lab technicians’ strike continues
Dehradun, November 8 Members of the Uttarakhand Medical Laboratory Technician Association are demanding upgradation of their grade pay scale. The pharmacists, too, are demanding fulfilment of their five-point charter of demands, including removal of anomalies in pay scale. Due to the strike by the laboratory technicians, the blood sampling is being undertaken only for emergency cases and for indoor patients that is proving to be a costly affair for the poor. Meanwhile, medicine counters at the government hospitals remained closed due to 72-hour boycott call by the pharmacists from November 7. The worst is to follow as after November 9, the pharmacists will resort to complete indefinite strike. |
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Mass-cleaning drive at Ganga ghats
Haridwar, November 8 Held in a joint association with the Press Club of Haridwar, more than 300 volunteers participated in the cleaning drive held at Kankhal-based Ganga ghat. As the closure of the Ganga canal is going on, the drive was carried out to give a message to the people to come forward in cleaning the holy Ganga. The drive was initiated at the revered temple in Kankhal. Sheetla Mata and adjacent Ganga ghats were cleaned by the volunteers. Balakrishna, while cleaning the garbage from the holy Ganga ghats, said the Ganga is a symbol of Indian culture. He urged the people to make sure that the Ganga remains clean as it was the responsibility of all of us. “The need of the hour is to put ‘Bhagirath-like efforts’ to save the holy Ganga. We are pitching in small efforts, but if all of us unitedly come forward with such cleaning acts, then we would be successful in our mission surely,” said Balakrishna. Balakrishna, along with Mahant Ravindra Puri, urged the devotees not to throw or leave old clothes and other materials at the Ganga ghats as it pollutes the holy Ganga. Press Club of Haridwar (PCH) president Sanjay Arya said that genuine efforts from the socio-political and other organisations were needed to clean the Ganga. PCH general secretary Rama Chandra Kannaujiya said an awareness campaign would be carried out soon by the Press Club. Sunil Dutt Pandey, Deepak Nautiyal, Rameshwar Gaur, Khulbushan Sharma, Mudit Aggarwal, Bal Krishan Shastri, MS Nawaz, Gulshan Nayyar among others were present on the occasion. |
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Shantikunj sends more aid for Kedar valley
Haridwar, November 8 A fourth batch of Shantikunj volunteers was dispatched today from Haridwar to the affected villages. These volunteers will be constructing pre-fabricated makeshift houses. The material for the construction of these pre-fabricated houses was dispatched in three trucks that were flagged off by the Shantikunj owner,
Dr Pranav Pandya. In addition to these pre- fabricated houses, Shantikunj is renovating two schools, Agustumuni based Blooming Public School and Takshila Public School at Shilli, which were affected during the flash floods. Community centres will be built up by Shantikunj in the near future. Meanwhile, the volunteer group of Shantikunj, who were providing free food to Kedarnath pilgrims and local people near the revered deity Lord Shiva temple, returned back to Haridwar today as portals of the holy Shri Kedar Nath shrine got closed on November 5. The in-charge of the Shantikunj disaster management cell, Gauri Shankar Sharma, said in the coming days as per the vision of Shantikunj founder and spiritual guru Pundit Shri Ram Sharma Acharya, they have been trying to help the affected people in one way or the other. Engineers Gauri Shankar, Saini Goyal, Vijay Sharma, Rakesh Jaiswal, Sudhir Bharadwaj are supervising the pre-fabricated houses mission. |
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Labourer commits suicide
Dehradun, November 8 The victim identified as 19-year-old Kayoom Hasim was killed after he jumped in front of the Lahori Express at 8:30 am today. The police has sent the body for a post-mortem. Kayoom hails from Bahadurganj in Bihar and was working as a labourer in Dehradun.— TNS
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Emotional cost of mountaineering
high, says author Maria Coffey
Mussoorie, November 8 The author said there was an emotional cost attached with the risk taken by the climbers during various expeditions as the family members, especially wives and children, who undergo a difficult time when the climbers are busy with their expedition and lose their lives in the process. She believed that risk-taking was a part of a climbers' life. Speaking about her personal experience where she had lost her companion who was a high-altitude climber while he was trying to scale a peak, Coffey said losing someone close was a difficult experience for her and it was then she decided that there would be many more like her who needed her help and it was this feeling which led to her writing about the dark side of the climbing. Maria said in comparison to male climbers, female climbers do leave climbing after they have children and do not enter in any risk-taking exercise after they have families. Her advice to the climbers was that they should calculate the risks involved in climbing and try to come home after every expedition. Freddie Wilkinson, another Alpine climber, corroborated the fears of Maria Coffey and said mountain climbing was dangerous and and every climber should chose their objectives and adventures that were appropriate to their skill levels. Nilambar Badoni, owner of Trek Himalaya in Mussoorie, said there was definitely an emotional cost to climbing and he too had faced those risk where they had to survive for a week without any solid food. Climbers should be patient and take decision considering their family members who are waiting back home, he added. The renowned author, who lives in Delhi and has written extensively about the Indian subcontinent, gave a lecture on his new book "Return of the King: Afghanistan Then and Now," on the first Anglo-Afghan war. He gave a vivid description of the British retreat from Afghanistan in 1842, which led to the deaths of thousands of British and Indian troops. He also linked the story back to Mussoorie explaining how one of the former Afghan rulers Amir Dost Mohammad was for a time under house arrest in the hill station. Three mountaineers then spoke about their experiences. American Freddie Wilkinson showed an awe-inspiring film of him conquering the Moose’s Tooth peak in the Ruth Gorge in Alaska. Nepali climber Dawa Steven Sherpa inspired the audience telling them how he set up a bakery at Everest base camp to encourage camaraderie among mountaineers, and how he had set up a scheme which has removed thousands of kilogrammes of garbage from Everest. He has also set up the Himalayan Climate Initiative to try and raise awareness of climate change for mountain people in Nepal. |
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Wild animals descend to lower valleys to escape chill
Pithoragarh, November 8 “Keeping in mind the increasing conflicts between human and wild animals, especially wild Himalayan bears in the last two years, we have started alerting villagers to avert any incident of man-animal conflict during winter months,” said Ramesh Lodhiyal, a Forest Department employee. He said herds of Himalayan bears had been spotted in Bansbagar, Sainranthi, Birthi and Bala villages of the lower portion of Johar valley. “We have told the villagers of these villages that they should inform the department on seeing the herd or an individual bear,” he added. Forest department officials say that after descending to lower valleys to escape the chilling cold of high Himalayan region, the herds of Himalayan bears sometimes come across the human settlement or any human being individually. This paves the way for conflict between the two. “In search of food, these hungry bears can go to any extent and even attack humans and domestic animals. At times, they attack them, resulting in fatal injuries,” he said. “In one such incident, a bear and a youth of Sainrathi village died last year,” said the forest official. Villagers of Sainrathi said two villagers besides 12 domestic animals became victim of the Himalayan black bears in the village last year. Besides the Himalayan bears, the herds of other high Himalayan animals like Bharals, blue sheep, musk deer and snow leopards descend to lower valleys. “We have also made arrangements to save them from poachers as the gangs of poachers enter these area to kill the musk deer during winter months,” said the forest department officials. |
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One held with 95 gm charas
Dehradun, November 8 According to the police, the accused, identified as Vikas Kumar, a resident of old Dalanwala Road, was stopped near DAV Postgraduate College after he was seen moving in suspicious conditions. During thorough checking, the police recovered 95 grams of charas from his pockets. Vikas Kumar has been booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. He was produced before the court today which sent
him to jail.
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BJP keen to wrest Haridwar LS seat from Cong
Haridwar, November 8 The Assembly segments of four legislators Madan Kaushik (City), Swami Yatishwaranand (Rural), Sanjay Gupta (Lakshar) and Aadesh Chauhan (Ranipur-BHEL) fall in the Haridwar parliamentary constituency. These legislators have decided to activate the party cadre in view of the upcoming 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Swami Yatishwaranand today called a meeting of all district leaders and activists of the BJP to devise a strategy to steer the party to victory in the Lok Sabha elections. Yatishwaranand said the public was perturbed at the poor governance of the Congress-led governments both at the Centre and in Uttarakhand. “The anti-people policies along with corrupt practices of Congress ministers have led to nationwide resentment among the people. The BJP should take the lead and present itself as the best alternative to the Congress. For that we have to go from households to villages to get connected with the voters. We should also focus on addressing their issues,” said Yatishwaranand. He added a pro-BJP wave was sweeping the nation since Narendra Modi was announced as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. “The country is looking towards Modi. We have to carry forward his message to the voters,” he said. Lakshar MLA Sanjay Gupta emphasised on the need to cash in on the pro-Narendra Modi wave and the anti-UPA resentments as the people want a change both at the Centre and in the state. “Corruption has reached an alarming level and so has inflation. The prices of essential commodities, pulses, vegetables and terrorism have gone beyond the reach of the common people. The Congress has failed on all fronts. Only leaders of the caliber of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishan Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi can again take the country on the path of development and prosperity,” said Gupta. Madan Kaushik and Aadesh Chauhan also urged the party workers to shed differences and personal interests and work for the victory of the party in the forthcoming elections.
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Cultural festival begins
Pithoragarh, November 8 The Speaker praised the initiative taken by the Pithoragarh district administration and Nagar Palika Parishad. He said such festivals help to promote local culture. The cultural festival would conclude on November 13. The Union Minister for Water Resources, Harish Rawat, will take part in the concluding ceremony. More than 50 stalls of the government departments, besides private traders’ stalls, have been displayed at the festival. A cultural stage, including performances by local schools and cultural tropes, will be a part of the seven-day festival. Almora MP Predeep Tamta and local MLA Mayukh Singh Mahar were also present on the occasion.
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The Uttarakhand government would no longer make ad hoc or temporary appointments.
Under the guidance of Patanjali Ayurvedic University Vice-Chancellor Acharya Balakrishna and a close aide of Yog Guru Swami
Ramdev, a mass-cleaning drive was carried out at Ganga ghats in Haridwar today.
With the winter gripping in the whole Uttarakhand, social foundation Shantikunj has decided to send more relief aid to the flood-affected Kedar valley region.
