Rallying around

The ongoing tussle between the first woman Mayor of Dehradun Manorama Sharma who is also President of the state unit of Mahila Congress and Uttaranchal Urban Development Minister Nav Parbhat has resulted in a new law in the state. In a bid to embarrass the Mayor, the Minister has got the term of the Deputy Mayor extended from one year to two years. The Urban Development Minister has got an amendment passed to the Municipality Act in the just concluded assembly session, which has pitted the state government against his own party state unit chief . Mayor Manorama Sharma proposes to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi against her own government.

Tourism with teeth

Dental tourism has picked up in Uttaranchal. While there are doubts about any visible increase in tourism traffic, dental surgeons of the state gathered at the Second Uttaranchal state Dental Conference held here recently claimed that a large number of foreigners visiting Haridwar and Rishikesh and Char Dhams are attracted towards getting their dental problems sorted in Doon valley.

Doctoring claims

Most government doctors and specialists posted in hilly regions do not join duties and primary Health centers are run by pharmacists . However, a recent judgement given by Surinder Kumar, a member of the State Consumer Protection Commission against government doctors in a case where a woman patient died due to alleged negligence of the doctors hascreated panic amongst government doctors as well as the health department. The commission allowed recovery of Rs.2.5 lakh from the state government as compensation to Gopal Vashisht for the death of his wife Richa Sharma in a Rishikesh Government hospital.