Friday, 25 August 2023 | Gajendra Singh Negi | DEHRADUN
Dengue debacle
True to its character, the health department in the provisional state capital Dehradun is continuing to adopt an ostrich -like attitude on the dengue front. Even as the dreaded disease has penetrated into every nook and corner of the city and the hospitals are now unable to bear the ever-mounting burden of the patient influx perpetrated by the bite of Aedes mosquito, the health department claims that there are less than 60 active patients of the disease in the capital. In a recent interaction with the scribes, the CMO of Dehradun made a startling claim that the health workers have so far visited five lakh households in Dehradun for anti- dengue activity. He became uneasy when all the journalists, gathered there, denied having seen any activity on such a major scale in the city. In another such flamboyant claim, the department said that it destroyed 8,000 sites of Aedes larva in a single day on Tuesday. With the department appearing to engage in rhetorical verbosity and pretentious paperwork, it would be prudent for the denizens of Dehradun to take all the necessary precautions so as to prevent themselves from falling prey to the dengue.
Auli fantasy
The innate desire of the high- profile minister holding the tourism portfolio in Uttarakhand to develop the Himalayan State like some of the European destinations is not hidden from anyone. Recently, the minister said that the department is working on a plan to develop Auli located near Joshimath in Chamoli on the lines of a famous ski village nestled in the majestic Alps of France. He listed out a proposal under which a memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be inked between Joshimath municipal council and a famous tourist town of France. The master plan involves developing infrastructure, skiing slopes and other facilities in Auli. The cynics, however, point out that the snow is vanishing from Auli which is located in the vicinity of the sinking Joshimath town and in such a situation there is a question mark on its future as a skiing destination. Taking a jibe at the minister, the critics say that the minister is obsessed with the foreign destinations and is not aware of the ground reality in the Himalayan State, the infrastructure of which is creaking under the load of poorly planned developmental projects.
CWC appointments
The camp followers of the former CM Harish Rawat are rejoicing at the inclusion of their leader and his protégé Ganesh Godiyal in the Congress Working Committee (CWC). However, one should understand that the Congress high command has tried to blend youthful exuberance with experience while fulfilling regional aspirations and caste equations in selecting leaders from Uttarakhand for the CWC. Godiyal has been rewarded for his consistent loyalty to the party, preferred over many leaders for the plum assignment. By promoting Godiyal, the party’s central leadership is moving ahead on the plan to encourage new leadership that started with the appointment of young Karan Mahara as PCC president after the electoral reversal the party faced in the 2022 assembly elections. These young leaders are now expected to work in tandem with their seniors and pull the party out of the rut in the Himalayan State.
