Saturday, June 18, 2011

Uttarakhand government suspends 25 doctors

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The Uttarakhand government on Saturday terminated the services of as many as 25 doctors posted in government hospitals of various districts in the state, citing their absence from duty as the reason.

The doctors who have been suspended were found to be absent from their duty for the last 10 to 11 years without any permission, officials said.

The suspended doctors posted in the hilly and far fetched areas of the Uttarakhand state did not report for duty after being appointed hence their services were terminated.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Uttarakhand raises power tariffs by 5%

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Bringing the industry on a par with domestic consumers, the Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) has announced new tariffs for the year 2011-12 with an average increase of five per cent across the state.

Under the new order, the UERC has fixed rates in such a way that all consumes, including domestic, non-domestic and industrial, would have to pay five per cent more in the current financial year despite the state government’s reluctance to go in for any hike in the election year.

In its annual revenue requirement, the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL), the sole electricity distribution licensee in the state, had projected a gap of Rs 2,152 crore, considering the distribution loss of 18 per cent, and requested the commission to allow a raise of 31 per cent to meet its minimum cash requirement.

“We dismissed this request and instead fixed the power tariffs with an average increase of five percent across the board,” said Neeraj Sati, secretary UERC.

Unlike in previous occasions where UERC had followed the advice of the government, this year the Commission had issued new tariffs complying with the direction of the appellate tribunal for electricity which wanted no interference in determination of the new tariffs.

Tariffs for the first 100 units would be increased by Rs 0.05 per unit, for 100-200 units: Rs 0.1 per unit and for 201 and above units: Rs 0.2 per unit. The fixed charges for all three categories have been increased to Rs 25 from Rs 20.

The UERC has also introduced fixed charges of Rs 5 per month for below poverty line consumers in snowbound areas.

No extra burden has been put on the 10,155 industrial consumers in the hill state.

For low-tension industries, the fixed charges (upto 25 kW) have been increased to Rs 85 from 80 and energy charges from Rs 3.25 per kWh to Rs 3.35/kWh.

In high-tension category, the average increase is five per cent. Last year, UERC had fixed a nominal raise of three to five per cent for the industry.

Source: Business-standard.com

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Monday, April 4, 2011

Uttarakhand plans IIM at Kashipur

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The Uttarakhand government is planning to set up an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Kumaon region of the hill state.

For this purpose, the government has identified two sites — Escort Farms in the industrial town of Kashipur and Pant Nagar agriculture university. In both the places, vast land is available for a possible IIM, which requires 200 acres.

A central team from the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD) has already surveyed the two places and would take a final decision shortly.

Before the concept of an IIM at Escort Farms, spread over 530 acres of land came into picture, the State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (Sidcul) had plans to develop a new industrial estate there.

Even if the 200 acres of land is given for the IIM purpose, a top official here said an industrial estate still could be developed on the rest of the land side by side. According to an estimate prepared by Sidcul, the land cost at the proposed Kashipur estate is likely to be 40 to 50 per cent cheaper than the other industrial areas in Uttarakhand.

The land cost at Kashipur after the development would be around Rs 1,800-2,000 per sq meter, which is far cheaper than other industrial estates like Sigaddi in Kotdwar, where the land cost is Rs 3,500 per sq meter. Moreover, the revenue through plots sale can also generate an income of Rs 200 crore for the cash-starved state.

These estimates are based on the DPR being prepared by the Sidcul, which wants to develop an industrial estate for SME units. These estimates are based on the fact that the Sidcul got the Kashipur land from the government free of cost.

On the other hand, the official said Pantnagar agriculture university was also having sufficient land for the proposed IIM. However, the university authorities are opposing the idea of IIM in the premises.

Source: www.business-standard.com

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Saturday, April 2, 2011

Jim Corbett National Park - Injured Tigress Dies

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A tigress at the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand was declared dead after it succumbed to injuries on Saturday.


Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand
According to Corbett National Park's veterinarian Rajeev Singh, the tigress broke its leg 10-15 days earlier making it unable to feed itself.

Singh said that hunger might have been the cause of death.

"I was informed that a tigress was hurt. I was on my way to look at it when I was informed that it succumbed to injuries. But after prima facie, it seems the tigress' right leg is broken," Singh said.

"It also seems it used to move by dragging its feet. The bone too was jutting out, and maybe that is why it wasn't able to hunt and drink water which could be reason for its death," he added.

It was recently reported that 34 tiger cubs were sighted at the national park, creating a positive buzz of increasing number of tigers.

The Jim Corbett National Park has a tiger population of around 160, which makes it the last and most important bastion of this endangered species in India.

Earlier, last month, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had said that the number of tigers had gone up from 1,411 to 1,636 as per a 2010 census.

Source: dailyindia.com

Friday, March 11, 2011

Sidcul's proposals in Uttarakhand for Gas-based Plants

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Amid the sluggish growth of the hydropower sector in his state, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has tentatively approved plans by State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (Sidcul) to set up gas-based power plants in the state.

“I am not aware of such proposal but as and when such a proposal comes to me, I will give my approval,” said Nishank.

With natural gas all set to reach the hill state, the government-owned Sidcul has prepared plans to set up two 300 Mw gas-based plants at Kashipur and Haridwar areas in collaboration with GAIL. This is the first diversification move by the Sidcul which had set up several key industrial estates like Pantnagar and Haridwar in the hill state.

When contacted, a government official told that Sidcul would place the proposal on the gas-based plants in the next meeting of its Board. The meeting was to be held last month but was postponed due to unavailability of some top officials.

GAIL is constructing two pipelines to bring them to Kashipur and Haridwar areas in the hill state from Uttar Pradesh in one year’s time. Since the industries are currently facing the heat of the power crisis in the hill state, the Sidcul is taking the new initiative to provide gas-based energy to these industries which includes some of India’s big names like Nestle, Tata Motors and Hero Honda.

GAIL began constructions of these pipelines last year with the construction of Karanpur-Moradabad-Kashipur-Rudrapur pipeline in the first phase with a cost of Rs 250 crore. The pipeline will be 182 km in length. Similarly, the other pipeline is being brought from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haridwar district of the state.

Besides this, the Sidcul has also evinced interest in the city-based gas distribution. With people in the hill state facing shortage of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders, Sidcul is also gearing up to prepare a blueprint for the city-based gas distribution in cities like Dehradun.

Source: www.business-standard.com

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Tiger found dead near Jim Corbett National Park

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A tiger was found dead in the western Terrai forest divisions bordering the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand on Sunday.

Though tiger deaths always bring questions about poaching with them, this one is being seen by the forest officials as a natural death.
Tiger found dead near Jim Corbett National Park"It is a male tiger and there is no sign of outer injury or marks on its body. It is an old tiger. We will conduct the postmortem today and then we will tell what really happened," said Nishant Verma, a forest official.

The cause of death here may be old age, if the forest officials are to be believed.

"The first instance here is that its paws are all torn and there are cracks in it. Also his claws are not sharp and are very blunt. It seems to be an old tiger and so there is the possibility of a natural death," Verma pointed out.

For the time being, the postmortem report of the tiger is awaited to know the real reason of death. (ANI)

Source: Sify.com

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Saturday, January 15, 2011

Skiing Centre at Auli Uttarakhand

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Auli: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal on Friday said his government would build a large skiing training centre at Auli Uttarakhand shortly.

Inaugurating the second and the last leg of first South Asian Winter games amidst a cultural fest here, Pokhariyal said the large skiing centre would attract sports lovers from home and abroad to Auli, which has been declared as the natural skiing site by Olympic Council of Asia.

By organising the winter games, Uttarakhand has achieved another milestone in the sports arena, he said.

The Chief Minister also lauded the role of Winter Games Federation of India (WGFI) in organising the event.

Earlier, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was to officially declare the games open could not reach the venue due to bad weather conditions.

Source: zeenews.com

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Elephant found dead in Rajaji Park Dehradun

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Carcass of a female elephant wasfound in Chilla range of Rajaji Park near here, the parkofficials said.

The body of the 42-year-old elephant was noticed by parkguards during a routine patrolling yesterday. A postmortem of the pachyderm has revealed that it died due to an injury inits neck, they said.

In Uttarakhand, bodies of four elephants have beenrecovered in the past five days. On January seven, a tusk-lessmale elephant was killed in a fight with a tusker in Kotdwar area.

Another tusker was also killed in a similar incident onthe following day. Then on January 9, a calf elephant died ofpneumonia in Kotdwar area.

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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Uttarakhand villagers trapped in snowfall

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Hundreds of villagers in remote areas of Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district are trapped in heavy snowfall and incessant rains, officials said on Saturday.

There are, however, no reports of tourists being stranded, sources said. Relief and rescue teams comprising 500 personnel belonging to PWD and Border Roads have been pressed into service in various snow-covered areas.

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India's Most Dangerous Road in Uttarakhand

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India's Most Dangerous Road in Uttarakhand
India's most dangerous is in Garhwal, Uttaranchal. Just check it's video which I get from youTube:

This road is in Ghengarkhal in Rudraparyag district of Garhwal region.

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