Haridwar, February 6
Uttarakhand Urban Development Minister Diwakar Bhatt conducted a meeting with all the officers concerned with the mela work assisted by the state chief secretary Indu Kumar Pandey, here today.

Diwakar Bhatt was pretty upset during the meeting regarding the laxity pertaining to work. “Should Kumbh be cancelled at the expense of your laxity and so called chalta hai attitude,” said Diwakar Bhatt while reviewing the project works related to Kumbh. “Our priority should is to organise a successful mela and to provide better facilities to the millions of pilgrims and locals but all this seems difficult with proper coordination.” he added.

In the meeting, chief secretary Indu Kumar Pandey while reviewing the work directed the departments to complete all the work and projects till October 31, 2009. Pandey said, “Complete the work before the deadline and we assure you paucity of funds won’t be a problem.”

With voices arising on lack of quality material and work in the Kumbh related projects, chief secretary said to put a third eye on the work Shri Ram institute, Delhi has been given the onus to review and check the quality of the work being done.

Bhatt also demanded explanation from the officers regarding Bairagi camp anti-encroachment drive. He asked the administration and mela officer that why did they stop the drive. He further said bowing in front of political pressures (referring to cabinet minister Madan Kaushik Haridwar MP candidate from BJP) is not good for the administration.

Present at the high-level meeting were chief secretary to Chief Minister BC Khanduri Subash Kumar, secretary urban development Anup Vadavan, secretary PWD Utpal Singh, secretary irrigation Vinod Fonia, secretary information technology Omprakash, secretary supply Rajeev Chandra, secretary water MH Khan, district magistrate Shailesh Bagholi, SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal, DG Health Premlata Joshi with all the nodal officers of all departments.

Dehradun, February 6
Family members of Phagwara resident Munish Pal, who was found dead at his friend’s place in Nalapani area on Wednesday night, have claimed that Munish’s death is not a case of suicide but murder.

Munish’s father Surinder Pal said that he had given in writing to the Dehradun police that his son had not committed suicide and hence, the case must be probed thoroughly.

Munish’s sister Minty said over the phone from Phagwara that her brother has not committed suicide. “There was no reason to resort to this extreme step,” she claimed.

It is the responsibility of the police to enquire into the matter and nab the culprits, she added.

However, SP City Pushpak Jyoti denied receiving any letter from the parents of the deceased.

Munish, a lecturer of mechanical engineering with the Doaba group of colleges, Kharar, Punjab, was in Dehradun to distribute invitation cards of his sister’s marriage. On Wednesday night, his body was found lying in a pool of blood after he reportedly shot himself in the head with a country-made pistol.

The policemen said that Munish was having an affair with a girl from Chandigarh. Few youths, who had known the girl’s family, had assaulted him in Chandigarh sometime back.

It is also learnt that Munish had told his friends in Dehradun that he apprehends a threat to his life. It is pertinent to mention that Munish was shot on the left side of his head but the pistol was found in his right hand.

However, the Dehradun police have ruled out the possibility of murder. SP City Pushpak Jyoti claimed that circumstantial evidence clearly indicates that it was a case of suicide.

He said, “Since the trigger of the country-made pistol is hard, the deceased may have used both hands to press it.” He added that a team of forensic experts had also visited the spot and their opinion was the same.

“From some time now, Munish was having strained relations with his girlfriend and was in a state of depression. The mobile phone details of Munish revealed that minutes before he committed suicide, he had made a call to his girlfriend,” said incharge of Raipur police station Jawahar Lal, while adding that an argument between Munish and his girlfriend may have prompted Munish to take this extreme step.

SP City added that they would probe the matter further in case they receive any request from the family of deceased.

Dehradun, February 6
For one year, Uttarakhand forest authorities have been sitting on the inquiry report, which detected serious irregularities in the use of Central government funds for rehabilitation of Van Gujjars and the construction of a forest rest house in Rajaji National Park.

Notably, the inquiry was initiated on the directions of the Prime Minister’s Office, which had received complaints regarding the irregularities.

The report, a copy of which is with The Tribune, held that the then director of the park GS Pandey, presently posted as additional secretary, horticulture and medicinal plants, was responsible for the irregularities.

The additional principal chief conservator of forests, Uttarakhand, Shrikant Chandola had submitted the report in March 2008.

Though Pandey was not available for comment as his office staff said he was away to Delhi, the secretary, Forests Department, Anoop Wadhawan, said that he would have to check whether any action was taken or not.

RBS Rawat, principal chief conservator of forests, Uttarakhand, also said he had no idea about the outcome of the report as it was submitted during the tenure of his predecessor.

As per the report, a three-member technical committee headed by Rajiv Bhartari, director, Corbett Tiger Reserve, Ram Nagar, was constituted which found “serious irregularities” in the works done for the rehabilitation of Van Gujjars.

The Central government had allocated Rs 9.57 crore to provide cattle sheds, toilets, handpumps, roads, electrification, tubewells and levelling of plots in Pathar Gujri and Gaindikhata settlements

The inquiry also found major shortcomings in the construction of the rest house at the cost of Rs 24 lakh in 2006-07.

As the quality of works was found to be very poor, the report said that the park administration failed in its duty to ensure regular monitoring of the works.

As a result of this, funds were spent in a wasteful manner.

This could have been avoided if the director of the park had executed the rehabilitation works with prior consent of his superiors which was not done in this case.

“The complaints regarding rehabilitation and construction of the rest house proved Pandey’s failure in administrative and financial control.

“His failure caused wastage of the government funds,” concluded the report.

Dehradun, February 6
The Congress today accused the ruling BJP of misusing government machinery for its political interests.

Congress MLA from Laxman Chowk Dinesh Aggarwal alleged that the workers of the RSS and the BJP, who were appointed as public relation officers (PROs) and personal secretaries (PS) to the Chief Minister, were now engaged in garnering votes for the BJP for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. “Instead of doing the official work for which they were appointed, the PROs and PS are busy campaigning for the BJP. Deepak Dimri, the PRO of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj Gen BC Khanduri (retd) is currently in Dhumakot assembly segment and is working for the BJP,” alleged Aggarwal.

He added that the BJP was prepared to indulge in all sorts of election malpractices and has even drafted a blueprint for the same. Aggarwal alleged that these officials are drawing salary from the government but are working for the political interests of the BJP.

“The exercise initiated by the BJP is wrong and we will be submitting a written complaint in this regard to the Election Commission and the Lokayukt,” he stated.

Aggarwal also said that there was a need to review the Dehradun master plan. While claiming that the master plan is not development oriented, he said that the government must ensure that the objections and other issues with respect to master plan are taken care off.

“The government has failed to draft a fool-proof master plan. It must constitute a committee comprising representatives from all political parties to sort out the issue,” he said.

Roorkee, February 6
High drama was witnessed at the Civil Lines police station today when the police rounded up an Armyman for harassing a girl student at the cantonment area here.

Desraj Ram, a nursing attendant at Military Hospital here, allegedly misbehaved with a schoolgirl.

When the suspect was being taken to police station by the cops, he called out his colleagues and pretended that the police has falsely implicating him in the case. Following a minor clash between Army personnel and the police, the armymen managed to free their colleague.

Following pressure mounted by the police, the Armymen later handed over the culprit.

At the police station, Desraj, who was said to be in an inebriated condition, again created a ruckus following which he was put in a lockup.

Meanwhile, relatives of the victim reached the police station. Some Army personnel also turned up to help their colleague. A case has been registered.

Dehradun, February 6
Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) defeated BSNL by six wickets at the ongoing 57th District Cricket League at Survey Stadium, here today.

BSNL had a tough start as UPCL’s opening bowler Umesh claimed two quick wickets 35 runs on the board. Umesh struck again to claim the final two wickets, wrapping up BSNL’s inning at 123 runs.

For BSNL, Bharat was the only batsman who stayed at the crease for a long as he hit 28 runs of 37 balls. There were no big partnerships in BSNL as the team failed to recover from early setback and went on losing wickets at regular intervals.

UPCL achieved the target in 23 overs with five wickets in hand. It was a shaky start for UPCL as they lost Kiran, at the score of zero, thereafter it was Devender and Sanjay who somehow stabilised the UPCL inning scoring at a steady pace. Devender scored 41 runs of 52 balls and Sanjay made 36 runs. For BSNL team, Shashank was the only bowler, who made some impact as he bagged a total of three wickets. At the end, UPCL won the match with five in hand.

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Police defeated Hostel Boys by 40 runs in the ongoing District Cricket league at Matawala Bag here today.

Uttarakhand Police scored 185 runs. Ashish Joshi hit half century to help his team pile a modest total, he made 53 runs of 62 balls. Chasing the target, Hostel Boys were all out for 145 runs. For Hostel Boys, Pawan was the top scorer with 32 runs. At the end, Hostel Boys lost by 40 runs. 

Dehradun, February 6
Kalsi and Chakrata teams will clash in the final of the Scheduled Tribes Kabbadi Tournament at the District Sports Office tomorrow.

In the first semifinal match of the day, Kalsi knocked out Rajpur in a one-sided match defeating it by 24-3.

Meanwhile in the second semifinal, Chakrata outclassed Sahaspur team by a huge margin of 23 points. The final score between them was 30-7.