State At A Glance: October 3, 2010

State At A Glance:

Search for trekkers abandoned

Uttarakhand government has abandoned the search operation for missing trekkers from West Bengal as various teams engaged in the operation failed to trace them on Gangotri-Kalindikhal area. This was stated by Bhatwari Sub Divisional Magistrate S.N. Semwal. The eight-member team led by N. Prasadrao has been missing for the past 12 days from Gangotri-Kalindikhal trek following turbulent weather in upper Himalayan reaches. After getting information on September 21, Uttarkashi district administration launched a search operation. Two Cheetah helicopters of the army as well as ITBP personnel were also pressed into service but they failed to trace the trekkers as the area had received heavy snowfall in the past several days. West Bengal ministers Kanti Ganguly and Srikumar Mukherjee, along with a rescue team, had also made an unsuccessful attempt to search them with the help of helicopters.

HC reserves order on CS appointment

The Uttarakhand High Court has reserved its order on a petition challenging the appointment of Subhash Kumar as chief secretary of the state. A division bench comprising Justices Tarun Agrawal and V.K. Bist reserved its order after completing hearings on a PIL challenging appointment of Kumar on the post of chief secretary, petitioner's counsel A.K. Tiwari said.

The petitioner claimed that Kumar's appointment has been made ignoring the seniority norms of IAS cadre rules. A pay scale of Rs 80,000 has been fixed for Kumar, while three other officers are also in the same scale. This is against the rules as the state government did not take necessary approval from the Centre,’ Tiwari claimed.

Corporates I-T returns deadline

The income tax department has extended the last date of filing returns by corporates for the assessment year 2010-11 to October 15, on account of disturbance due to floods in many parts of the country. "The Central Board of Direct Taxes has extended the due date of filing income tax returns for the assessment year 2010-11 from 30th September 2010 up to 15th October 2010. The due date has been extended in view of disturbance to general life caused by floods," an official statement said. Accordingly, the deadline for obtaining tax audit report also stands extended to October 15, 2010. It further said that the due date for Jammu and Kashmir, however, remain at November 30. Floods have affected various parts of the country including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Efforts to boost tourism

The Uttarakhand government said it wanted the hill state to be on the international tourism map in next five years. Speaking at a function on the World Tourism Day, chief minister Ramesh Pokhariyal 'Nishank' said, "Uttarakhand has a vast potential of tourism and the government has fixed a target of establishing it on international tourism map as a model state in the next five years." Governor Margaret Alva, who inaugurated a tourism exhibition on the occasion, said the state with abundance of natural beauty has a potential to attract tourists in large numbers.

Kasana villagers force minister to go back Villagers of landslide hit Kasana village of Pauri Garhwal district forced state minister Vijaya Barthwal to go back when she visited the area which falls under assembly constituency Yamkeshwar. Kasana is affected by landslides every year and heavy rains this monsoon season aggravated their problems. However, when Barthwal reached the village on hearing the plight of the people and to hand over cheques of relief amount, she was asked to go back when she tried to convince the villagers to leave their unsafe houses and take shelter in school buildings and tents. The villagers, who even refused to accept the cheques of relief amount, said they should be rehabilitated elsewhere and given agriculture land. Barthwal told the villagers that she would talk to the chief minister in this regard.