Question Hour
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 22 Aug: The Question Hour in the state assembly was quite interesting today. The last session which lasted only two days did not have question hour. Hence, the Opposition members seemed prepared and eager to take on the ministers and corner them during the question hour today. Newly elected Congress MLA Qazi Nizamuddin today cornered Cabinet Minister Prem Chand Aggarwal over sale of liquor in religious places in the state through a short notice question. The original question was what is the excise policy of the state and whether the government will consider amending the policy to restrict sale of liquor in religious places like Haridwar, Rishikesh, Char Dham sites, Piran Kaliyar and Hemkund Sahib. To this, on behalf of the CM, Parliamentary Affairs Prem Chand Aggarwal informed that as per the rules amended in 2002, sale of liquor is completely banned within the municipal limits in Haridwar and Rishikesh and within the distance of 1.6 kilometres from Kaliyar Sharif in district Haridwar, Char Dham Shrines, Hemkund Sahib, Poornagiri and Nanakmatta. However, Nizamuddin was not satisfied with the response and claimed that liquor was being sold not only within 1.6 kilometres from Kaliyar Sharif but also on the borders of Haridwar and Rishikesh towns.
The Congress MLA also alleged that the government has set up a liquor brand named Metro which was being sold along the Char Dham routes and he sought to know what was the need for the government to establish a liquor brand. Aggarwal claimed that this brand has been establish to help farmers and the objective of establishing the brand has been to maximise the use of local fruits and bioproducts for production of low alcohol liquor so that wastage of local horticulture produce can be curbed.
In response to a short notice question of BJP MLA from Uttarkashi Durgeshwar Lal, Forest Minister Subodh Uniyal informed that two persons had died in Purola under Tons Forest Division when a Pine Tree fell on them. In his question, Durgeshwar Lal had alleged death of 10 persons due to tree falling on them in the Tons Forest Division. To lthe response of Uniyal that two persons had died, Lal claimed that at least 3 persons had died on the spot while some other people had died in another incident. To this, Uniyal promised that he will get the matter checked and in case wrong information has been given to him, action will be taken against the guilty officials.
In response to a starred question of Doiwala MLA Brijbhushan Gairola, Health Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat informed that a sub-district hospital had been approved in Doiwala. He also sought the cooperation and help of the MLA in identifying and locating suitable plot of land for establishing the sub-district hospital. In response to Gairola’s response that the present CHC Hospital suffers from lack of doctors and diagnostic machinery, Rawat claimed that at present, the CHC in Doiwala is 30 bed hospital and the emergency operates round the clock there. He also listed the facilities being provided at the hospital under various specialities but Gairola insisted that there are only a handful of doctors engaged there. Rawat responded that on the complaint of the MLA, the government has taken back the administrative control of the Doiwala Hospital which was earlier running on PPP mode. He also claimed that there are a number of hospitals around Doiwala as it is not a remote area. The CHC has treated over 75,000 OPD patients during last 6 months since the administration of the hospital has been taken back by the government.
In response to a starred question of MLA Bhuvan Chandra Kapri, Education Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat informed that at present in the aided non government secondary schools, 426 teachers are working on ad-hoc basis but asserted that the government is committed to fill up vacancies on a permanent basis. In response to a supplementary question, Rawat admitted that there are over 12,000 posts of lecturers in the state and of them 8895 posts are filled up and there is a vacancy of 3,895 lecturers in the state. However, against these vacancies, 3,019 posts have been filled up through guest faculties and the efforts are being made to fill the remaining vacancies.
