Set up on 11 Jan 2001, the Dixit Commission (Justice, Retd Virendra Dixit) was constituted to decide the permanent capital for Uttarakhand after the then Nityanand Swami’s interim government failed to reach a decision.

After almost 8 years and as many as 11 extensions, Dixit Commission finally submitted its report on 17 Aug 2008 which was tabled in Uttarakhand State Assembly on 13 Jul 2009.

The Dixit commission report provides a comparative feasibility study of five sites for the proposed permanent capital viz Dehradun, Gairsain, Kashipur, Ramnagar and Rishikesh. The report is based on a study conducted by the School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi. The parameters that have been used for the study of the location included geographic conditions, populations, accessibility, transportation system, forest area, proneness to earthquakes or landslides and security.

The commission appears to arrive at the inference that Dehradun is the most suitable location, ignoring the popular sentiments that Gairsain be declared the permanent capital. The report says that centralization of population, appropriate land distribution, relatively less vulnerability to landslides and earthquakes, easy transportation and connectivity, less possibility of deforestation and less pressure on agricultural land, security from international border, proximity to national capital and scope for expanding public facilities made Dehradun a preferred location.

Gairsain has been found less viable for the location of permanent capital. The reasons cited being poor connectivity, distance from the national capital, insufficient land for future development, insufficient water resources, steep slopes, proneness to landslides and earthquakes, difficult climate, proximity to flood area, non-centralization of population and possible threat from the international border.

Choosing a permanent capital is politically sensitive issue attached to the sentiments of the Uttarakhand people too. We all are aware that no govt is going to jump into fire by shifting the capital to Gairsain for vote bank politics. You might not be knowing the the 3 non-hill districts of Uttarakhand ie Haridwar, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar alone will represent 30 seats in the assembly as per the new delimitation policy.

On a different note: The demand for Uttarakhand state has its origin in a demand for a separate Hill State. After the delimitation of legislative assembly seats comes into effect, the hill state will loose hill representation in the Legislative Assembly. With the new distribution of seats coming into effect, the three non-hill districts viz Haridwar, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar will represent 30 seats in the assembly while the other 10 districts will represent the other 40 seats.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has come down heavily on the Uttarakhand government for failing several deadlines and yet not doing enough to organise the South Asian Federation (SAF) Winter Games.

This international event was initially scheduled for February 2008.

More than Rs 72 crore has already been spent on building infrastructure and yet the two venues – Dehradun and Auli – are far from ready, the CAG report says.

Worse, foreign consultants engaged for event-related projects have been given full payments even before they fulfilled their commitments.

The CAG’s latest appraisal is a scathing indictment of the organising committee of the Games for a trail of irregularities and lack of accountability.

The SAF Winter Games were rescheduled for February 2009, then December 2009, January 2010 and now for December 2010.

Teams from eight nations – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan were to participate. The events include Alpine skiing, free-style skating, ice hockey and curling.

The Centre had released a grant of Rs 110 crore and the state government contributed Rs 5 crore for the Games. The organising committee was set up with the then chief minister, B.C. Khanduri, as chairperson.

The committee hired two foreign consultants, Dianege SA and Louis Berger Consulting Pvt. Ltd, for advice on technical and managerial aspects. Dianege SA was responsible for project management consultancy at Auli in Chamoli district.

Louis Berger was to provide consultancy for a skating rink and other facilities in Dehradun.

But the CAG found “flaws at various stages of planning, execution and monitoring” and “extraordinary delays at the planning stage and in fixing responsibilities”. This had derailed the whole schedule.

At Auli, the venue for three skiing events – Alpine, free- style and cross- country – the CAG found the work had been completed.

But it was “of substandard quality and was yet to be tested and commissioned”. A chair-lift at Auli, an elevated ropeway to transport players, critical for skiing, had still not been installed. A lift installed here in 1992 was operational till December 2008 but failed to meet safety requirements during a technical audit.

Another example of negligence was the manner in which a water storage facility was built for artificial snowmaking. Here too, full payment was made to a company called Spaceage.

The CAG verification found flaws. No barriers had been put up to address safety concerns.

Nothing was done to prevent dust from entering the water.

The slopes were shoddily paved with loose stone rubble instead of a cement mortar finish.

Faulty planning and indifference to quality and deadlines were evident at Dehradun as well.

The CAG auditors found that by June 2009, more than Rs 9 crore had been paid for the iceskating rink, yet only 40 per cent was complete.

The report said while Rs 2.35 crore had been released to the public works department for a road stretch to link the games venues, progress had lagged behind deadlines.

The manner in which the committee had paid the high fees to the consultants attracted special critical attention of the CAG team. A payout of Rs 59.62 lakh was made to Dianege and Rs 186.81 lakh to Louis Berger in June 2009. Their contracted commitments are still pending.

“The services rendered by them were found deficient in terms of submission of periodic review reports and technical evaluation of the work at site,” the CAG report noted.

Pictures clicked by the CAG team in November 2009 show only skeletons of buildings.

Uttarakhand Sports Secretary U.K. Singh has stated that since the Games were postponed because of certain other reasons, the work is being carried on at a slower pace.

“The Indian Olympic Association conveyed to us that the SAF winter games coincided with the SAF Games being held in Dhaka. It was decided to postpone the Games in Uttarakhand till December,” he said.

Asked why the consultants were paid in full while work was still on, Singh said there were performance guarantee clauses in the contract which could be invoked in the event of dissatisfaction.

“The CAG audit raised the point of an electric chair for skiing events, but it is possible to hold the event even without the chair. We have shown our facilities to international experts and they have approved,” he added.

Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank could not be contacted. Khanduri, under whom the preparations began, said he was not aware of the contents of the report.

News Source: India Today

Dehradun, 22 Jan 2010

Commuters in the plains of Uttarakhand will have to shell out 10 per cent more for travelling in the state-run buses from today, officials said here.

However, the new fares would only be charged from the passengers travelling in the plain areas. The fares of buses plying on hilly routes are unchanged, Uttarakhand Roadways officials said here.

The passengers travelling in ordinary buses of Uttarakhand roadways would now have to pay 59 paise per km, 0.05 paise more than the existing fares.

Similarly, those travelling in Hightech or AC buses would have to dole out Rs 1.03, which is 0.12 paise more than the previous fares.

The fares have increased by Rs 2 to 7 in buses plying on the Dehrdun-New Delhi route and by Rs 35 in those on Dehradun-Haldwani route.

News Source: PTI

22 Jan 2010

Uttarakhand will showcase the historic Kumbh Mela in its tableau at the Republic Day parade this year.

‘The tableau from Uttarakhand shows a scene from the ‘Samudramanthan’ or churning of the ocean and the scene from Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar,’ said Dhanajay Mohanty, a defence ministry official coordinating the parade preparations.

The tableau depicts various facets of the festival, etching its mythological significance in myriad colours and carvings.

The Kumbh Mela is one of the world’s oldest religious gatherings. Every 12 years, millions gather at Haridwar – the gateway to the abode of Lord Shiva in the Himalayas – for the Maha Kumbh Mela.

In Hindu mythology, the Kumbh Mela traces its origin to the Samudramanthan described in the holy texts of Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu Purana, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. When kumbh (pot) of amrit (the nectar of immortality) came out, the gods had to safeguard it from demons. Lord Vishnu’s carrier Garuda flew away with the elixir. Four drops from the pot fell at four places – Haridwar, Prayag (Allahabad), Ujjain and Nashik – where the Kumbh Mela is held till this day.

‘The Kumbh Mela is a part of Uttarakhand’s history and tradition. The Haridwar Kumbh coincides with astrological alignment of Venus and Jupiter with the Sun and the Moon,’ an official said.

News Source: Indo Asian News Service

25 Dec 2009

With a local Telugu television channel “ABN Andhra Jyothy” telecasting the photographs of alleged sexual escapades of the octogenarian governor, women’s and other organisations and political parties have started demanding his head.

The Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad is finding itself mired in a slush with governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari’s name getting dragged in to a sex-scandal.

With a local Telugu television channel “ABN Andhra Jyothy” telecasting the photographs of alleged sexual escapades of the octogenarian governor on Friday morning, women’s and other organisations and political parties have started demanding his head.

The photos, showing an unidentified old man with three girls spread all over him on a bed, were allegedly provided to the channel by a woman Radhika in Uttaranchal, the state once ruled by ND Tiwari as the Chief Minister.

Though a division bench of Andhra Pradesh high court immediately issued an order restraining the channel from further screening of the photos, and the Raj Bhavan has also issued a denial describing the photos as “fabricated”, damage was already done.

The woman Radhika has reportedly told the channel while providing the photos that she had sent the women to Tiwari from Uttaranchal as he had promised to give them jobs.

Demonstrations by women’s groups

Several women’s organisations and other civil society groups came out demanding the sacking of Tiwari for sullying the constitutional office and Raj Bhavan. They held demonstrations in front of Raj Bhavan forcing the authorities to strengthen the security in and around the governor’s house.

There were also demonstrations in Vijaywada, Visakhapatanam, Warangal and other places condemning the alleged sexual escapades in Raj Bhavan.

The leader of the opposition, N. Chandrababu Naidu, strongly condemning the alleged unsavoury happenings in Raj Bhavan said, “the only option before Mr. Tiwari is to resign or the central government should immediately sack him”.

Naidu alleged that the involvement of a constitutional figure in such activities in Raj Bhavan had sullied the image of the constitutional office and degenerated the values and ethics in public life. “It is shocking for everybody. We have never seen such a thing in the past”, he said.

Though it was not clear from the photographs who the man was with the girls and whether it was taken in Raj Bhavan, the whole episode was being seen as highly damaging as Tiwari had already come under fire over a paternity suit filed by a young man from Uttar Pradesh in Supreme Court claiming to be son of Tiwari. He had alleged that Tiwari had relationship with his mother and he was born out of the relationship. But Tiwari had refused to undergo DNA test to prove or disprove that charge.

At the same time, the timing of the expose has also raised many an eyebrows. It came to light when the agitation for Telangana state is at its peak creating a major crisis in Andhra Pradesh. Motives are being attributed to the expose and it is being seen as an attempt to divert the attention from the fight for Telangana state, because the channel which carried the photos has the image of being against the Telangana demand.

Secondly, the allegations have come to light just a day after the intense speculations began that the central government was contemplating replacing Tiwari with comparatively younger person as Andhra Pradesh governor as precursor to the imposition of President’s rule in the state. The names of leaders like former Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandi and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh were doing rounds in the political circles here.

News Source: Gulfnews.com

Dehradun, 25 Dec 2009

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank today announced a total ban on the use of polythene bags in the state.

Nishank said his government is committed to make the hill state polythene-free and it would not hesitate to bring in a legislation if it becomes necessary.

The chief minister also sought cooperation from common people for making the state polythene-free stating that no social issue can be addressed without the active participation of society.

He also stressed the need for control on all kinds of pollutants in the state.

Nishank said this while addressing a gathering after laying foundation stone for widening and strengthening of 3.30 km-long Jogiwala-Badripur Majri road at a cost of Rs 2.71 crore here, an official release said.

News Source: PTI