CM calls for hill crafts to create jobs
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, October 18
Chief Minister Harish Rawat, on the last leg of his two-day visit to his Assembly constituency of Dharchula, today told villagers that the state will have to adopt traditional farming for creation of small jobs in rural areas in order to stop migration from the hills. “We have planned 100 small industrial estates in hill districts so that we could promote traditional industries to create jobs at home,” said the Chief Minister while addressing a mass rally in Dharchula.

The Chief Minister said reconstruction and recovery of disaster losses and rehabilitation of those who became homeless and are without livelihood in the catastrophe are his first priorities for the area.

The Chief Minister announced 200 additional Indira Aawas for Dharchula sub-division to combat post-disaster needs of housing for the poor people in the Assembly constituency. Besides, the Chief Minister made several announcements including a ropeway from Dharchula town to Dharchula Dehat, a stadium in Dharchula, four woolen centres in the towns and construction of 25 village motor roads in the sub-division.

“The Chief Minister also sanctioned a sum of Rs 25 crore for repair of the Kailash Mansarovar track route in Byans valley and Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore for Jauljibi and Chiplakot fairs in the region,” said a press release by the Pithoragarh district administration.

According to the press release, the Chief Minister catered to needs of all communities in Dharchula sub-division and announced separate community centres for residents of Darma, Bayans and Chundas valleys. Besides Jan Milan Kendras for these communities, the Chief Minister announced a banquet hall for use of Dalit community members at Dharchula and a cultural centre for Barpatia community. “The Chief Minister emphasised on production of milk, medicinal herbs, Madua grains and bio-agricultural products in Dharchula,” said the district information department press release.

Former MLA wants labour laws reformed
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, October 18
At a meeting of a labour union at the Union Bhawan here yesterday, former legislator Ambrish Kumar called for reformation in labour laws to ensure exploitation of labourers is stopped.

Kumar lamented that despite 140 days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government coming to power, the labour class is the one for which no sop or programme has been initiated.

Referring to the pre-poll election campaign speeches of Narendra Modi as BJP PM candidate, Ambrish said that for Ambanis, Adanis, Ruhia and Mallya, the government had opened doors, but about the poor labourer who works for 12-14 hours earning meagre Rs 80 to Rs 200 per day, the government seems unconcerned.

“Now, even small and medium firms will misuse the latest labour law provision enacted by the Centre. Firms will now be appointing 40 permanent employees and the rest on contract basis to get away from the radar of labour law penalties under Factory Act provisions. Earlier, those firms that had less than 10 employees were not under purview of Factory Act provision. This will exploit at least 30 per cent of labour class,” stated Ambrish, who has been a pro-labour and pro-peasant leader in the district for more than three decades.

Labour leader Murali Manohar called for revocation of such a provision. Instead, the government should penalise big firms such as Kingfisher, which does not have money to bail the company out of financial debt, but spends close to Rs 2,500 crore on the cash-rich Indian Premier League team, he said.

Police to keep DNA of bodies found on yatra routes 
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, October 18
The Uttarakhand police will keep DNA samples of the bodies found during excavation or search operation on yatra routes, this was stated by Deputy Inspector General of Garhwal Range Sanjay Gunjiyal here today. The DIG said previously such samples were vital in identifying the deceased, who got killed in the June 16-17 flash floods last year in Kedar Nath valley.

Notably, earlier this year in July more than 24 skeletons were recovered from the Jungle Chatti and Ram Bara areas in Kedarnath by the police, State Disaster Response Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Force personnel.

On the preparations of Ardh Kumbh fair scheduled for 2016 in Uttarakhand, the Garhwal DIG said the police were training its personnel for the fair in such a way that apart from regular policing, crowd and security duty, they were also trained for a police-pilgrims friendly fair.

On the law and order aspect, the DIG Garhwal said the police was to revive the beat policing, modernisation and hi-tech of the police stations.

Gunjiyal appreciated the working style of newly appointed Haridwar police chief Sweety Aggarwal and hoped that in the coming days the crime would come down. 

Dept gears up to tackle emergency during Divali 
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 18
Fire stations across the capital have geared up to tackle any emergency during Divali. Fire Department has chalked out an elaborate security and fire safety plan.

Vendors are not allowed to set up temporary shop for sale of crackers and district administration along with Fire Department is making sure crackers are sold only in permanent shops to minimise chance of an untoward incident. “This year, cracker licences are given on condition that crackers cannot be sold at temporary stalls in open space as probability of an accident in such stalls is higher,” said Shiv Prasad Mumgain, chief fire officer.

Fire Department officials claimed that firefighting teams along with fire tenders would be deployed at major places of the city like Dilaram Chowk, Premnagar, Kotwali, Dharampur, Clock Tower and Saharanpur Road along with two reserve water tankers stationed at the main fire station.

Moreover, owners of the cracker shops would be issued a set of directives along with specially designed pamphlets, which will be distributed from October 20 onwards to ensure that adequate firefighting arrangements are in place.

The guidelines would include proper wiring at fire cracker shops, fire-extinguisher and adequate amount of water and sand.

The chief fire officer said, “This Divali, we’ll request residents to remain vigilant to prevent any eventuality, although Fire Department has done its homework so that people can enjoy the festival without any problem.”

Notably, fire brigade’s vehicles numbering would be stationed at main spots to tackle any eventuality. Besides, firefighting team has been instructed to remain extra vigilant during festive season and respond to distress call.

Fire Department officials say cracker shops will not be allowed in restricted areas.

Divali DA gift

The Chief Secretary has been directed to ensure that DA and bonus are disbursed to all the employees before Divali. The Chief Minister has asked the Chief Secretary to issue a directive that all state government departments should provide DA and bonus to their employees the latest by October 21.

Mock drill for tackling disasters conducted
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, October 17
The district disaster management authority is conducting mock drills at the industrial area to tackle disasters such as floods, fire outbreaks, earthquakes and other natural calamities in the state.

A mock drill, under the directives of District Magistrate D Senthyl Pendiyan, was carried out at the industrial plant in Integrated Industrial Estate, SIDCUL, here today.

The drill was led by district disaster management officer Dr Naresh Chaudhari. He said various testing situations were carried out during the mock drill. This would provide valuable inputs to test the preparations of the disaster management authority, he said.

Reviewing the operation, Chaudhari said firefighting employees could have better focused on flame-dousing efforts as industrial plant employees were well versed with the first aid procedure.

Cabinet meet on Oct 20
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 18
Due to uncertain weather conditions, the Uttarakhand government has decided to hold the forthcoming Cabinet meeting at Kedarnath on October 20.

Earlier, the meet was slated for October 21 for which an official order had been issued. The meeting has now been fixed for October 20 as weather department has warned government about possibility of foul weather conditions prevailing on October 21 .

The government would arrange for helicopters for ferrying officials to Kedarnath same day. BJP has criticised government move to hold a Cabinet meeting at Kedarnath.

Expedite work on development projects: Tourism minister
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 18
Tourism and Cultural Minister Dinesh Dhanai directed officials concerned to put their facts together and speed up work on the ongoing development projects.

Addressing officials during a review meeting at the Vidhan Sabha yesterday, Dhanai said the Tourism and Cultural departments were lagging behind in development works. He said it was becoming difficult to bring the projects in the implementation stage due to the delay in the documentation process.

He advised officials concerned to work with sensitivity and expedite the job at hand. He directed officials from the Cultural Department to work towards promoting local dialects — Garhwali and Kumaoni.

Dhanai asked the officials concerned to reactivate the dormant Fair and Temples’ Department and fill vacant seats in Cultural Department.

The officials informed the minister that out of Rs 46 crore sanctioned for the Cultural Department, Rs 16 crore were released and Rs 14 crore were utilised by the department.

Dhanai also informed that around Rs 5.3 crore were to be released by the Centre out of which a state-level auditorium was proposed at Gadi Cant amounting to Rs 1.44 crore.

The minister said about Rs 11.25 crore were to be received from the Centre under the 13th financial commission. About Rs 7 crore has to be distributed to landowners whose land was acquired by the government on the ONGC premises, he added.

He urged the state government to put the disbursed amount under the land acquisition budgetary allocation unit so the compensation was given to landowners without any delay.

Speaking about the tourism budget, he said Rs 345.51 crore was sanctioned for tourism out of which Rs 26.35 crore was released and an additional Rs 6 crore has been released under the disaster fund.

‘Cancel Parliamentary secretaries’ appointments’
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 18
The state BJP today called upon the Governor of Uttarakhand Dr Aziz Qureshi to cancel the alleged anti-constitutional appointments of 12 MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries and conferring them with Cabinet ranks by Chief Minister Harish Rawat.

A delegation led by Uttarakhand BJP general secretaries Prakash Pant, Naresh Goyal, Gyan Singh Negi, Urba Datt and senior BJP leader Trivender Singh Rawat met the Governor today and asked him to initiate action against the measure. Later, Prakash Pant said according to Constitution, Uttarakhand can have a 12-member Cabinet including the CM, but by conferring Cabinet rank on 12 parliamentary secretaries, government has exceeded that limit.

Indian Cambridge School celebrates annual day
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 18
The Indian Cambridge School, Dalanwala, celebrated its annual day with fervour and gaiety here today.

The theme of the programme was ‘social evils’ and was highlighted through an English play and a dance performance.

An English play “Once there was a Princess” was presented by students. The play was about a princess who loved nature and people of her kingdom and tries to remove misery from their lives in every possible manner. A group dance was also presented by the Middle School girl students on the theme “Save Nature, Save Yourself”. A hindi play named “Taj Mahal Ka Tender” which was a satire and the main attraction of the event as it left everyone in splits of laughter.

The satire on Shah Jahan and his lofty ambition of building a Taj Mahal in the 21st century entertained everyone. Lieutenant General HB Kala (retd) was the chief guest on the occasion.

Kasiga School annual day a colourful affair

The second day of the 7th annual day celebrations at Kasiga School was action-packed, with an array of events being organised. The morning began with the Parent Teacher Meet.

Author Kunal Verma was the chief guest on the occasion. He attended the speeches and prize distribution ceremony. Students were awarded prizes for excellence in various fields.

The programme began with presentation of ‘Naman’ by kathak students bowing to the Divine using hand gestures. Next was the singing of a traditional ‘bandish’ in Raag Yaman, an evening raga, using vocals, ‘taans’ and ‘sargam’ accompanied by different instruments such as sitar, violin, synthesiser, tabla, flute and harmonium.

The western music department showcased its talent, beginning with ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from Les Miserables sung by Ananya Chandok. ‘Girl on Fire’ was sung by Sadhika and Sarvesa Thapa, Ananya Chandok, Tejaswani. The Mad Hatters Band then played ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ and ‘Don’t Stop Believing’.

Athletic meet ends amid fanfare
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 18
The five-day 15th annual inter-house athletic meet of Asian School concluded here today. Welham Boys School Principal Gunmeet Bindra was the chief guest at the closing ceremony.

Spanning over five-days, the athletic meet witnessed enthusiastic participation of students from all four houses in different track and field events against each other to accumulate medals, trophies and points for themselves and their respective houses.

In the end, Arjun House won the coveted championship trophy. Ranjeet House bagged the second position while Shivaji came third. Chetna Kumari of Arjun House won the best athletic award in the girls’ category while Utsav Khadka of Shivaji House was adjudged best athlete in the boys’ category.

Chief guest Gunmeet Bindra gave away trophies to the winners and threw light on the importance of sportsmanship and the need of will power to excel in the field of sports.

She stressed that games were not less important than academics. At the end, she declared the meet closed and the school flag was handed over by the Principal AK Das to the sports teacher.