News Analysis India

Tag: Uttarakhand

  • Priests confident that Uttarakhand government would repeal Char Dham law

    Express News Service

    DEHRADUN: The priests of Char Dham shrines in Uttarakhand are keeping their hopes high that the Uttarakhand government will repeal the Char Dham Devsthanam Board Act. The hilly state is heading for polls early next year and the ruling BJP may not want the priests to be unhappy over the law enacted by it.

    Recently, the priests announced that they would field their own candidates in at least 15 constituencies in the upcoming Assembly elections due in early 2022. 

    Harak Singh Rawat, state cabinet minister hinting at leniency on the government’s part, said: “We are in talks with all stakeholders and if it seems the law must be repealed, it will be. Our honourable PM has showed that ours is the government which cares for the people of this country.”

    Sources within the state government told this newspaper that the proposal (to repeal the law) can be brought in the state cabinet or winter session of the state Assembly which will take place in Gairsain. 

  • Adopt Maharashtra model in Uttarakhand to fight unemployment: Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari

    By PTI

    PITHORAGARH: Uttarakhand’s problem of unemployment can be resolved by adopting the Maharashtra model that promotes agriculture and handicrafts, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has said.

    “Farmers in Maharashtra earn well by patenting agricultural products that are unique to the state. Working on the same lines, we too can fetch high prices for rajma and herbs that are produced exclusively in the Himalayan region,” Koshyari, who originally hails from Uttarakhand, told reporters here on Wednesday.

    The issue of unemployment in Uttarakhand can be addressed if onus is laid on rare and organic agricultural produce cultivated here and the Himalayan crafts, he added.

    Koshyari also praised the work done by some NGOs and youths of the state in this direction.

    “We have some highly qualified youths in the state who have shown ways to reduce unemployment by creating a market for Himalayan agri crafts and horticulture produce,” he said.

    The veteran leader denied rumours of him getting back to active politics in the state, saying he has grown old.

  • All CAT benches equal, principal bench cannot be usurper of power: Uttarakhand High Court

    By PTI

    NAINITAL: All benches of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) are equal and its principal bench cannot be allowed to robe itself with a superior quality, the Uttarakhand High Court has said.

    The tribunal adjudicates service matters of central government employees.

    The high court also set aside the CAT principal bench order related to transfer of a plea being heard in its Nainital bench to Delhi, saying “the principal bench cannot be permitted to be usurper of power.”

    Hearing the plea filed by Sanjiv Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service Officer, the high court in its order said before a case is transferred from one bench to another, or from one court to another, certain criteria for transferring the case have to be kept in mind.

    Chaturvedi, who is posted in Haldwani, had in February last year filed an application with the tribunal’s bench here challenging the civil servants’ empanelment process.

    The Centre, in October 2020, had sought transfer of the case from the Nainital circuit bench to the tribunal’s principal bench in New Delhi, saying “since the decision with regard to a policy decision of the central government would have nationwide repercussions, therefore, only the principal bench is a suitable bench for deciding the validity of the policy decision” among other reasoning.

    The CAT’s principal bench through its order dated December 4, 2020 had allowed the Centre’s plea for transfer of the case to Delhi.

    Aggrieved over the tribunal’s order, Chaturvedi had moved the high court.

    The court is of the opinion that the reasoning contained in the CAT’s order dated “is legally unsustainable” and set aside it while allowing Chaturvedi’s petition, according to the order issued by Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice N S Dhanik, on October 23.

    Citing a Supreme Court verdict, the high court said a challenge to a policy decision can equally be invoked before any bench of the CAT.

    The high court noted that Chaturvedi’s case was transferred “ostensibly, on the ground that the matter of this nature would have their own impact on the very functioning of the central government.”

    In case Parliament in its wisdom were of the opinion that issues have nationwide repercussion, or having great impact on the functioning of the central government, should be consigned to the principal bench, then a necessary provision would have been enacted by Parliament, it said, referring to the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985.

    “However, since Parliament has treated all the benches of the CAT as alike, even cases of nationwide repercussion, or having great impact on the functioning of the central government can, indeed, be decided by other benches of CAT. Such issues need not be relegated to the principal bench,” the order said.

    Since all the benches, including the principal bench, are equal, such a mis-impression cannot be made in the mind of the litigant, it said.

    “For, the principal bench cannot be allowed to robe itself with a superior authority which was never given to it by the Act. After all, the principal bench cannot be permitted to be usurper of the power,” the order said.

    The high court said, while considering the prayers of the Union of India to transfer the case from Nainital circuit bench to the principal bench, New Delhi, the tribunal should have considered the convenience of both the parties.

    A bare perusal of the impugned order clearly reveals that the tribunal has failed to consider the hardship caused to the petitioner if the case were to be transferred from Nainital circuit bench to New Delhi, it said.

    “Travelling from Haldwani to New Delhi would also adversely affect his (Chaturvedi) physical health, and psychological makeup. For, he will continue to be under a mental tension while having to travel from Haldwani to New Delhi,” the order said.

    Thus, the balance of convenience is in favour of the petitioner if the case should be heard by the Nainital circuit bench, and should be decided by it, it said.

    Chaturvedi, who is working as the chief conservator of forest at Haldwani, has challenged the 360 degree appraisal system for joint secretary and above level officers and recruitment of private sector specialists to central government posts through the lateral entry mode.

  • Preparations for PM Modi’s visit to Kedarnath in full swing

    By Express News Service

    DEHRADUN:  With Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to visit Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand on November 5, just a day after Diwali festival and a day before the closure of portals of the shrine, the preparations have started in full swing. 

    Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said: “We are honored by the PM’s visit. All arrangements are in place, and with blessings of Baba Kedarnath, we will accomplish the dreams of development in Uttarakhand.” The PM is also scheduled to inaugurate projects worth Rs 400 crore in the state.

    While the PM will perform puja in the shrine, workers of the Bharatiya Janta Party will be performing ‘Jalabhishek’ (offering of Gangajal) in Lord Shiva temples in their vicinity across the state and country, including the 11 ‘Jyotirlingas.’ BJP state secretary Kuldeep Kumar said, “On the occasion, all senior party leaders from the country and the state will join the honorable Prime Minister in the puja. Everyone will be connected virtually and perform the rituals together.”

    The hill state was recently battered by heavy rains which killed 77 people. The PM’s visit is also seen as the statement by the BJP and Modi that he along with the party stands with the people of Uttarakhand.Jay Singh Rawat, a political commentator from Dehradun said: “This is the second visit of the PM this month. Though he often visits Kedarnath, this has to be a special visit in the wake of disaster. It is to tell the people that he cares.”

    The PM visited Rishikesh in Uttarakhand on October 7 where he virtually inaugurated 35 pressure swing absorption Oxygen plants across 27 states and eight union territories from All India Institute of Medical Institute, Rishikesh. 

  • Uttarakhand veggie prices rise as landslides hit supply

    Express News Service

    DEHRADUN:   At a time when people of Kumaon region in Uttarakhand are picking up the pieces in the aftermath of a rain-triggered disaster, blocked roads and spiraling fuel costs have pushed the prices of vegetables to the stratosphere. 

    Tomato prices across the region soared beyond Rs 100 from Rs 45-55 a week ago. The prices are unlikely to cool down anytime soon as the blocked roads in the region have throttled the supply lines, even creating a fuel shortage. Commissioner of Kumaon division Sushil Kumar said relief works are being carried out on a war footing, with priority to opening routes and helping the affected in all the six districts of Kumaon. 

    A fair picture of the ground situation can be drawn by taking into account the prices of tomato, apple and petrol in the six districts of the division. Be it Pithoragarh, Almora, Champawat, Bageshwar, Udham Singh Nagar or Nainital, tomato hovered in the region of Rs 100-120 a kg, while a similar quantity of apple could set one back by Rs 100-125. While tomato was cheapest in Bageshwar (Rs 70 a kg), a litre of petrol there could cost as high as Rs 119. Petrol was cheapest in Champawat with a tag of Rs 100.46 a litre.  

    Vikram Singh Chadha, president of Hills Petroleum Dealer Association, attributed the price rise to choked roads. “No supply of petroleum tanker has been received in Kumaon districts in the last four days due to the heavy rains and landslides. Similarly, the supply of vegetables, too, was hit. Once the routes open, there will be some relief,” he said. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the disaster-stricken areas in Chamoli on Friday and announced to donate his one-month salary to CM Relief Fund.

    Death toll touches 68Meanwhile, the death toll in the disaster rose to 68, with Nainital reporting the most deaths. Dozens of connecting roads are yet to be cleared or are broken beyond repair for now. Officials said relief work is on but it will take time to rebuild the damaged infrastructure across the region. 

  • Uttarakhand rains: 88 rescued as death toll rises to 75

    By PTI

    DEHRADUN: The death count in Uttarakhand rose to 75 on Friday as rescue workers found more bodies and also brought to safety score of stranded people after the rains that recently lashed the state.

    State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) men rescued 65 trekkers, including six foreigners, stranded near Bageshwar’s Pindari and Kafni glaciers.

    Twenty-three people were rescued from from Darma Valley of Pithoragarh.

    The official death toll in the state now is 68, including the five bodies of members of a team of 11 people who were trekking from Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi to Chitkul in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.

    The figure, however, does not include two others member of the Chitkul trek reported dead.

    Five people feared dead in Bageshwar are also not included in the official count.

    Rains battered Uttarakhand for nearly three days, beginning Sunday night, with the Kumaon division bearing the brunt of it.

    An official said Kumaon suffered a loss of Rs 2,000 crore, out of Rs 7,000 croe damage statewide estimated by the Uttarakhand government.

    “SDRF teams have rescued 42 tourists, including six foreigners, from Dwali near the Pindari glacier and 23 from the Kafni glacier,” Bageshwar DM Vineet Kumar told PTI.

    Meanwhile, two Cheetah helicopters, which were to make sorties in search of 10 members of a trekking team stranded in Sundardhunga, could not take off due to cloudy weather, he said.

    “But four members of the team have returned safe. We suspect that there may have been some casualties too. The helicopters will make another attempt early on Saturday morning in search of the missing members of the trekking team,” Kumar said.

    Besides, 15 people who had gone missing in Sarmool, the point of origin of the Saryu river, have also been found safe, he said.

    Twenty-one tourists and two ailing locals were rescued from Darma Valley of Pithoragarh district, DM Ashish Chauhan said.

    Two surviving members of a trekking team have already been rescued while the search for two missing is on, officials in Uttarkashi said.

    Kumaon Divisional Commissioner Sushil Kumar said, “Kumaon division bore the brunt of the unseasonal spell of record rains which damaged crops and property worth Rs 2,000 crore besides accounting for the highest number of deaths and large scale destruction of houses,” the official said.

    Fifty-nine deaths were reported from Kumaon alone with Nainital reporting the maximum 35 deaths followed by 11 in Champawat, six in Almora, one in Bageshwar and three each in Pithoragarh and Udham Singh Nagar districts.

    Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday visited Dungri village in Chamoli district to meet the disaster-hit people.

    Accompanied by Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj, state Disaster Management Minister Dhan Singh Rawat and officials, Dhami trekked up the steep slippery slopes of the village with a stick in hand for an on-the-spot assessment of the losses.

    Two persons of a family were buried in the rubble of a landslide in the village on October 19.

    Dhami met the surviving members of the family and promised them all help.

    He asked officials to speed up relief and rescue efforts in the affected areas assuring them that they will not have to face any shortage of resources.

  • Uttarakhand: 2 more missing trekkers found dead, death toll reaches 7; search on for remaining 2

    By PTI

    UTTARKASHI (Uttarakhand): Two more members of an 11-strong trekking team which had gone missing have been found dead taking the death toll to seven, while a search was underway for the remaining two, officials said here on Friday.

    Two members of the team had been rescued alive on Thursday. They are injured and being treated in Harsil and Uttarkashi, an official said. They had gone missing on a trek to Chitkul in Himachal Pradesh via Harsil in Uttarkashi.

    Search and rescue teams from Uttarkashi spotted five bodies of trekkers on Thursday, while two members of the team were found dead by a rescue team in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkashi district disaster management officer Devendra Patwal said.

    A search is on for the two missing members of the team on a war footing with the help of a helicopter, Colonel Rajendra Prasad of 9 Bihar Regiment said.

    The team consisting of eight trekkers — one from Delhi and the rest from West Bengal — and three cooks went missing on a trek to Chitkul recently.

    They had begun the trek from Harsil in Uttarkashi district on October 11 and were to reach Chitkul via Lamkhaga pass.

    Members of the trekking team included Anita Rawat (38) from Delhi, Mithun Dari (31) from West Bengal, Tanmay Tiwari (30), Vikash Makal (33), Saurav Ghosh (34), Saviayan Das (28), Richard Mandal (30) and Suken Manjhi (43), all from Kolkata.

    The cooking staff have been identified as Devendra (37), Gyan Chandra (33) and Upendra (32) all from Purola in Uttarkashi.

  • Uttarakhand rains: Five tourists killed, toll rises to 65; state pegs its losses at Rs 7,000 crore

    By PTI

    DEHRADUN: Five stranded tourists have died in Kapkot in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon, officials said Thursday as the death toll in the state battered by the recent rains rose to 65 and its chief minister pegged the losses at Rs 7,000 crore.

    The confirmation about the death of tourists near Kapkot’s Sunderdhunga glacier in Bageshwar district came on a day when Union Home Minister Amit Shah conducted an aerial survey of the rain damage in the state’s worst affected region.

    Earlier, the official count of the dead was 60.

    Apart from the five dead, one tourist was missing, officials said.

    Four were rescued.

    About 65 tourists had been trapped on the higher reaches of Bageshwar and rescue teams ere at work to bring those still remaining there to safety, officials said.

    Amit Shah told reporters at the Jollygrant airport here that the alertness of the Central and state government agencies helped contain the damage in Uttarakhand.

    Relief and rescue operations continued in the worst-hit Kumaon region amid efforts to restore connectivity and evacuate people from vulnerable areas.

    Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that three days of incessant rains – which began Sunday night — have caused damage of Rs 7,000 crore in the state.

    Restoring the network of damaged roads and bridges and evacuating people to safety is the priority at the moment, he said.

    At 28, Nainital district has reported the maximum number of deaths.

    Shah said a heavy rain alert was issued well in advance and led to precautionary steps like halting the Chardham Yatra.

    “The damage could have been more if this was not done. Timely mobilisation of search and rescue teams and arrival of IAF helicopters to assist in rescue operations helped minimise the potential damage,” the home minister said.

    He did not announce any immediate relief package for Uttarakhand and said a detailed estimate of the loss needed to be made first.

    He said the state was given Rs 250 crore a month ago considering its vulnerability to natural disasters and that can take care of the relief and rescue measures currently underway.

    The Centre is with the state government and will give all support to Uttarakhand in its rehabilitation efforts, the Union minister said.

    He said all blocked roads in the affected areas have been cleared, except three which suffered nearly 25-metre breaches.

    Shah said 80 per cent telephone connectivity has been restored and availability of 60 per cent electricity has been ensured so far in the affected areas.

    At a high-level meeting with officials and state ministers after surveying the rain-hit areas, Shah asked the Uttarakhand government to send medical teams to the affected areas to prevent the spread of disease.

    Damaged power lines should be repaired at the earliest and the good coordination between central and state agencies, which was evident during the spell of heavy rains in the state, should be kept up, he said.

    He also sought the state government’s suggestions on better disaster management.

    He said 3,500 people were rescued and 16,000 others were evacuated to safe locations.

    Seventeen teams of the National Disaster Response Force, seven teams of the State Disaster Response Force, 15 teams of the Provincial Armed Constabulary and 5,000 police personnel are engaged in the relief and rescue operations in the state.

    Uttarakhand Governor Gurmit Singh, Dhami, Union Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt and state Disaster Management Minister Dhan Singh Rawat had accompanied Shah during the aerial survey.

    Due to the heavy downpour and the flooding of the Naini lake, the area around Dhobi Ghat in Nainital is experiencing major landslides, District Magistrate Dhiraj Singh Garbiyal said.

    Around 100 families living there have been shifted, he said.

    Garbiyal said relief camps have been set up at a number of places.

    Twenty-five people were airlifted and six others were rescued with the help of rafts in Ramnagar, while 30 families from Sundarkhal and Ramnagar were airlifted and moved to safe locations.

    Relief camps have also been set up in Puchdi area, which was flooded.

    Fifty-four members of 10 families living in Puchdi Nai Basti have been accommodated in a relief camp set up at the Government Girls Primary School, Poochri, he said.

    Altogether 150 people were brought to Ramnagar safely in roadways buses and sent to their destinations, while 97 families affected by floods in Lalkuan have been shifted to a gurdwara and relief camps, he said.

    Meanwhile, the Chardham Yatra, which was temporarily halted on October 18 due to the heavy rain alert issued by the meteorological department, resumed with pilgrims leaving for Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri from Rishikesh Chardham bus terminal and Haridwar bus stand.

    Heli services for Kedarnath have also resumed.

    The weather at the Himalayan temples is chilly but there is no rain.

  • 41 per cent more rainfall in India from October 1-21, Uttarakhand records five times higher rain: IMD

    Uttarakhand, where rains have claimed the lives of more than 54 people, recorded 192.6 mm against the usual 35.3 mm from October 1-20.

  • Uttarakhand toll at 55, rescue ops pick up speed

    Express News Service

    DEHRADUN:  With weather conditions improving in Uttarakhand, the magnitude of the calamity became clearer on Wednesday as the toll in rain-related incidents touched 55. The figure is likely to go up as a few are still missing and some of the 17 injured are reportedly in critical condition. Sources said some of the missing might be buried under the debris of houses that were levelled by landslides. 

    The torrential rains that battered the hilly state for the past few days have left roads blocked with boulders and villages without electricity.  Out of four the shrines of the Char Dham Yatra – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri – the route to Badrinath remains closed due to landslide.

    On Wednesday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami toured the rain-hit areas of the Kumaon region, instructing officials to prepare an estimate of the damage. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to conduct an aerial survey on Thursday.

    With rains abating, rescue efforts have picked up speed. Apart from the National Disaster Response Force, Indian Army and Indian Air Force, the State Disaster Response Force, state police and local administration are carrying out the rescue and relief operations.  The National Disaster Response Force said it has rescued over 1,300 people from flood-affected areas of the state. The federal force has pressed into service 17 rescue teams in the state. 

    Gangtok cut off as torrential rains pound Sikkim Kolkata: Heavy rains pounded the tiny Himalayan state of Sikkim and the tea growing region of North Bengal, causing landslides that cut off National Highway-10, the main road linking Gangtok with the rest of the country. Thousands of tourists, who thronged the hills during the Durga Puja season, got stranded because of torrential downpour in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts