Dehradun, March 13
The Dehradun Mahanagar Congress has appealed to the party cadres to ensure a convincing victory for their candidates in all the five constituencies during the forthcoming parliamentary elections in the state.

Newly appointed Mahanagar Congress President Harish Virman, while presiding over the maiden meeting of the party’s city executive here today, said the Congress workers should be all prepared to face the challenge. He said because most of Dehradun city was part of Tehri parliamentary constituency, the voters in the city had a crucial role to play. Congress councillor Ganesh Dangwal warned party workers against falling prey to over-confidence, while quoting the case of the last bypoll in Pauri. He said a little effort can make big difference and asked the Congress workers to take poll preparations with all seriousness.

During the course of the meeting, some of Congress workers expressed concern over the apathetic attitude of the Mahanagar Congress over the passport office episode, which involved a few Youth Congress workers.

One of the office-bearers Deep Vohra said while the Congress workers struggled against the malpractices prevailing in the passport office, little support came from the Mahanagar Congress.

Some workers alleged that Congressmen who held key position in the Mahanagar committee earlier were being sidelined now. However, Virmani refuted the allegations asserting that the former office-bearers were getting due recognition in other programmes being held in the city.

But he expressed satisfaction at the attendance during the maiden meeting of the newly constituted working committee.

“Looking at the enthusiasm among Congress office-bearers, I am hopeful of a big victory,” Virmani said.

Dehradun, March 13
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has started its election campaign in right earnest by holding the Vijay Sankalp Rally, has encountered its first major headache.

Munna Singh Chauhan, BJP legislator from Chakrata in Dehradun district and a powerful leader from Yamuna Valley, has come out openly against his own party. Munna, who was earlier Samajwadi Party legislator in Uttar Pradesh assembly and had then formed his own political party, had merged his outfit with the BJP before the 2007 assembly elections.

During the polls then, Munna Singh had rubbed BJP the wrong way when his wife was refused a party ticket from his native Chakrata assembly segment. While Munna Singh fought assembly polls from Vikasnagar assembly segment, his wife fought as an independent from Chakarata despite every effort by the BJP to win her over.

Munna Singh won, but his wife could not make it to the Assembly. However, she made the official BJP candidate from Chakrata bite the dust. Munna had then argued that his wife was an independent entity and no decision could be forced on her.

Thus, Munna’s entry into the party as well as in the state Assembly left the BJP leaders sore. As expected, he could not make it to the Khanduri cabinet and was neither given any other responsibility.

The confrontation with the party was again repeated when his wife won the post of chief of Dehradun district panchayat, despite every effort by the ruling BJP and particularly by Chief Minister Khanduri to defeat her.

Now, with Lok Sabha elections round the corner, Munna has already started a tirade against his own party accusing the BJP of not utilising his services in a proper manner.

He kept aloof from the Vijay Sankalp Rally and made his decision known through the local media.

Meanwhile, his anger against BJP could harm the chances of ace-shooter Jaspal Rana, the official BJP candidate from Tehri Garhwal seat. Since the husband-wife duo of Munna Singh Chauhan and Madhu Chauhan have a strong hold in the Yamuna valley, their opposition could prove costly for Rana, who originally hails from Chakrata region.

There are also efforts by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to win over the disgruntled couple to their camp and make one of them fight for the Tehri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat.

According to BSP sources, Munna was in contact with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, who wanted the couple to join her party.

However, Munna has to resign from his assembly seat in order to join the BSP. “He is weighing his options and will take a decision soon,” said a senior BSP leader.

Dehradun, March 13
With the state scheduled to go for Lok Sabha polls on May 13, election activities are gaining momentum with each passing day.

After BJP’s Vijay Sankalp Rally, the Uttarakhand unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is all set to kickstart their election campaign in style. The party has decided to hold a massive rally in Rudrpur (Udham Singh Nagar) on March 25.

The rally, to be addressed by BSP supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, would mark the formal launch of BSP’s election campaign in Uttarakhand.

According to senior BSP leaders, besides March 25 rally in Kumaon region, Mayawati would be addressing another election rally in Garhwal in April.

The party has already announced its candidates for the five constituencies. Although party workers have already started the campaign at grassroots level, the formal launch of the campaign would be on March 25.

For supervising preparations of the rally, BSP’s incharge for Uttarakhand and transport minister Ramachal Rajbhar has already reached Udham Singh Nagar. After camping in Udham Singh Nagar till March 15, Ramachal would be holding meetings in Almora from March 16 to March 19. From March 20 to March 25, he would be convening election meetings in Udham Singh Nagar.

Meanwhile, senior BSP leader Subhash Sharma said the party is expecting a gathering of 50,000 people during the rally. “After March 25, we will be requesting Mayawati to address another rally in Garhwal region in April,” he said.

Notably, BSP has emerged as the third major political party in Uttarakhand, and has slowly but steadily expanding its base. In the first assembly elections held in February 2002, BSP showed its presence by pocketing 10.93 per cent votes and seven assembly seats in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts.

In the next polls in February 2007, BSP consolidated its vote bank by managing 11.76 per cent votes. This time, BSP’s tally in the state Assembly increased to eight, with the party capturing six assembly constituencies of Haridwar and two of Udham Singh Nagar district. And this time round, BSP seems determined not only to further expand its voter base, but also to score a maiden victory from Haridwar.

It is expected that the party would do well in Haridwar and Nainital seats. While, Narayan Pal, a two-time legislator from Sitarganj, has been announced as the candidate from Nainital, BSP has named Shahzad as its candidate from Haridwar. Shahzad currently represents Bahadarbad assembly constituency and is also the leader of the BSP legislature party in the state Assembly.

“We are confident of performing well in all five constituencies. It is not just Uttar Pradesh; BSP’s wave is very strong in the entire country,” said BSP leader Subhash Sharma.

Dehradun, March 13
The Uttarakhand State Information Commission has issued a notice to the Chief Minister’s office on a plea seeking the release of the report of the committee tasked with selecting a permanent capital for the hill state.

The commission has sought the release of the Justice Virendra Dixit commission report along with details of the expenditure incurred on it.

Justice Dixit, who headed the commission to select a permanent capital for Uttarakhand, had presented his report to Chief Minister BC Khanduri in August last year after eight years.

Sources said the general administration department had provided details of the expenditure incurred on the Justice Dixit Commission to the applicant, but had said the report had been submitted directly to the Chief Minister and it had no idea of the contents.

Dissatisfied with the information given to him, the applicant approached the appellate authority of the department which upheld the information given by the public information officer.

He subsequently appealed to the State Information Commission. Accepting the applicant's appeal, the commission issued notices to the public information officer and the appellate authority in the Chief Minister's office, asking them to appear before the commission.

The Justice Dixit Commission was constituted in January 2001 by the then ruling BJP government to select a permanent capital for the state, but was dissolved after one-and-a-half months.

It was again reconstituted in 2002. — UNI

Dehradun, March 13
Sangat from different parts of the country have begun arriving to participate in Jhanda Mela scheduled for March 15.

For the next 15 days the Darbar Sahib premises and dharamshalas would be booked with pilgrims. The managing committee has made advance bookings at the nearby dharamshalas and has constructed 100 toilets.

A stream of pilgrims from Punjab arrived today, after paying obeisance at the Paonta Sahib Gurudwara in Himachal Pradesh. They sought blessings of Devender Das of Sri Mahant Guru Ram Rai.

The sangat has begun sewing white cotton, satin and darshani cloth, which is offered at the Darbar Sahib. The clothes are used to cover the mast on which the flag is hoisted.

“This year the responsibility of offering darshani cloth, an important tradition observed every year, has been entrusted to Kartar Singh Jaladon Wala village in Ludhiana district.

All the clothes would be offered prior to the hoisting of the main flag,” said Vishnu Kumar Nautiyal, coordinator, Darbar Shri Guru Ram Rai, Jhanda Sahib.

Besides, the Guru Ram Rai authorities have spruced of the area in and around the Jhanda Sahib, where the mela would also be held. A total of 300 petty shopkeepers to whom the licenses have been issued would set up shops at the mela.

The mela is known to offer everything under the sun, from a small needle to the modern machinery all is available here.

“Earlier it used to provide a platform to local shopkeepers to sell their goods, however with the passage of time, shopkeepers from Meerut and other neighbouring towns too come down to sell their goods, they do good business during the 15 days of the mela,” said BP Saklani, officer incharge, Darbar, Shri Guru Ram Rai.

Dehradun, March 13
The second day of the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) reunion celebrations were marked by a brilliant display of on-field competitions between the RIMC cadets and the Old Boys.

Former Chief of the Army Staff Gen (Retd) VN Sharma, Engineer-in-Chief Lt Gen Gautam Dutt and Commandant RIMC Col. H Dharmarajan paid tributes to the martyrs at the War Memorial.

Thereafter, RIMC Daredevil Horse Show got underway, in which the Pratap Section and Shivaji Section shared the top honours.

Cdt Navneet Suman of Pratap Section got the Akshay Chibbar Memorial Gold Medal for being the Best Rider.

The second Best Rider award went to Cdt Praveen Kumar Singh of Shivaji Section. Lt Gen S.S.Dhillon gave away the awards to the young and aspirant riders. This was followed by a wonderful display of Sky Diving by the members of the Shatrujeet Sky Diving Team.

Later, a friendly cricket match between the Rimcos and the Rimcollians was played in which Rimcos scored 84 runs with Cdt Tirthankar scoring 23 runs and Cdt Sec Com Rohit Reddy scoring 24.

Lt Col YK Gautam and Maj Ravi took two wickets each. Rimcollians scored 88 runs with Maj Ravi and Zia Hasan scoring 21 and 14 runs respectively. Cdt NCO Ankit Siwach and Cdt Sec Com took two wickets each. Finally, Rimcollians won the match by two wickets.

The cadets of the Aero-Modelling Club organised a Aero models show. The gymnastics club also put up a good show by going through the ring of fire.

On this occasion, Engineer-in-Chief Lt Gen Gautam Dutt inaugurated the new Shooting Range which is fully equipped and has all the facilities required for the 50m, 25m, 10m shooting range.

Dehradun, March 13
Setting an example in women empowerment in Uttarakhand, a group of rural women in a Dehradun village have set up a bank which today has a capital worth over Rs 10,00,000.

The bank has generated a major hope among household women for transforming their lives through personal savings.

Women in Dehradun's Sahaspur village joined hands two years ago to open the Mahila Bachhat Bank after they failed to get loans from existing banks here.

They started the venture under the "Women's initiative for self-employment" scheme which was introduced here to ensure employment to rural women.The village women started saving and soon set up a bank for women.

Today, these rural women can take loan from their own bank at 8 per cent interest rate.

The bank is helping them do small business like making pickles, bakery products, running beauty parlours etc.

Started two years ago, the bank has 300 household women as members and 65 have availed bank loans.

The bank has not only given the village women a sense of pride, but also support to start small businesses.

"Our aim in opening the bank was to provide an opportunity to those women who want to earn on their own. Usually, women undergo

training to start their own ventures but due to lack of funds they were unable to do so. So we thought of starting our own bank.

Members of the bank hold meetings very month and deposit money with the bank which is then given to needy women," said Kiran Negi, bank chairman.

"We are very happy with the bank. We get three times more than what we deposit in the bank," said Asha Pandey, an account-holder. — ANI

Dehradun, March 13
An attractive pair of shades not completes a look but also protect us from harmful ultra violet rays. And now as its summer time, people here are rushing to optical shops to buy and flaunt their favourite glares.

Few years ago people used to visit Delhi or Chandigarh to purchase the latest pair of sunglasses. But now, there are a wide variety of both local and international brands available in the market here.

The latest and the most trendy are the imitation glares, which are imported from Korea and being affordable and stylish are the hot favourite among youngsters. “Though international brands like Ray Ban, Christian Dior, Gucci and Versace are available in Dehradun, but then majority of the people prefer Korean brands as there are affordable and stylish as well,” said Anand Bharadwaj, owner of an optical shop.

Branded Korean shades which starts from Rs 600 and are preferred by people who believe in quality. The popular Korean brands are Vintage and Scott. “People who are aware, and want quality prefer to buy branded Korean frames, and don’t mind experimenting,” said BS Chauhan, owner optical shop.

Moreover, Fasttrack, the leading brand in glares by Titan is another hot favourite and with John Abraham being the brand ambassador is preferred by the youngsters. The latest by fasttrack is the Army collection, which has got a rugged look and is designed especially for outdoor activities. “Being economical, stylish as well as anti UV rays, youngsters prefer to wear them. Men generally want the aviators or the biker collection, women don’t mind experimenting with bigger frames,” said Gaurav Gupta from Titan.

“As now its quite hot in the city, I recently purchased a very stylish looking shade from fasttrack,” said Garima, a college student.

However, all-time favourite brands like Ray Ban and Vogue are preferred by people who are brand loyal. “Though Korean brands are very much in demand, but still 10 per cent of the people in the city are loyal to their favourite brands and don’t mind paying Rs 5000 to Rs 6000,” said BS Chauhan.

“I love the black aviator shades of Ray Ban, and from past 10 years I am wearing it,” said Rajesh Vashist, a businessman.

“Its mainly people from army or business background who want expensive brands, but due to lot of awareness due to advertisements younger generation are also ready for the change,” said Ajay Bhatt, owner, Bhatt Opticals.

Dehradun, March 13
Acting on the instructions issued by District Magistrate Amit Singh Negi to ensure punctuality among government employees, a surprise check was conducted at various government departments here today.

Negi ordered a one-day salary cut for as many as 29 employees who were found missing from their seats in their respective offices.

The move has made the employees sit up. Residents believe this may result in better efficiency.