Uttarakhand

12th Foundation Day of Uttarakhand Celebrated

The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Vijay Bahuguna on 9 November 2012 celebrated 12th Foundation day of the State of Uttarakhand and had made several announcements marKing the State foundation.

The Measure announced by him includes-

• Increasing of pension for the statehood agitators
• Institution of awards for promoting local dialects
• Inclusion of important facets of the statehood movement in the state school syllabus.

He had also launched an unemployment-cum-skill development allowance by distributing cheques to 106 unemployed youths from various districts at the Secretariat.

Marking the Occasion, the Chief minister Vijay Bahuguna with his Cabinet colleagues and party office-bearers also released a book on Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand Foundation Day is celebrated every year on 9 November. It was on 9th November 2000 that Uttarakhand was formed by dividing Uttar Pradesh (UP) becoming the 27th state of Republic of India.

Uttarakhand tops in “Environmental Performance Index (EPI)”

November 1st, 2012

Uttarakhand (scored 0.8123) topped the list of best-performing States and Union territories in terms of environmental performance. As per the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) released by Planning Commission:

· Uttarakhand is followed by Himachal Pradesh (0.7316), Chandigarh (0.7270), Sikkim (0.7149), and Andhra Pradesh (0.7147).

· Best states in terms of air quality: Mizoram, Kerala, Goa, Sikkim, Tripura, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar (all with average score of 1)

· Paradoxically, except for Uttarakhand, all the States meet the prescribed national ambient air quality standard in respect of the sulphur dioxide of 20 micrograms per cubic metre.

· More than 10 States do not meet the national standard of 30 microgram per cubic metre for Nitrogen dioxide.

· Except for Goa, Kerala, and Mizoram, no State meets the 60 microgram per cubic metre national standard for particulate matter.

· Himachal Pradesh is the only state with 100 % sewage treatment capacity, in the remaining States it ranges from 0 (13 States) to less than 20 % (8 States) and more than 50 per cent in 4 States.

· Total fecal coliform count is as much as 92 % in most of the States.

· States leading in forest conservation and expansion of green cover are Chandigarh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.

Environmental well-being is one of the considerations for transfer of funds to the States under the Gadgil formula.

Indicators taken under consideration to arrive at water quality:

· Sewage disposal

· water quality of rivers

· dissolved oxygen

· total coliform count

· percentage of water exploitation

The indicators considered for measuring the ambient air quality performance:

· sulphur dioxide

· nitrogen oxide

· particulate matter

Vijay Bahuguna to be new CM of Uttarakhand
Congress MP Vijay Bahuguna sworn in as the chief minister of Uttarakhand. Vijay Bahuguna’s biggest challenge would
be to get elected as an MLA within six months. Governor Margaret Alva administered the oath. The
Congress, which won 32 seats in the 70-member Assembly, one more than BJP’s 31, has managed to
get the support of three independents and an equal number of BSP MLAs and that of UKD(K) MLA.