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BSP in poll mood
Some comfort for Mansarovar pilgrims
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Merger of UP Dists in state
Citizens need to participate in solid waste management
Kumbh works: Secy takes tough stance
Cong morcha protests against unemployment
Dhasmana slams Khanduri
BSNL staff hold protest
LPG dealers mourn Moradabad distributor’s murder
Constables suspended for drinking on duty
Anger prevails in Haldwani over patient’s rape
Jindal murder case goes to Special Operation Group
Docs hail MCI move to impose code
3 killed as bus falls into ditch
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BSP in poll mood
Dehradun, January 5 Of late, she has been drawing flak for amassing wealth by making her party members contribute a fixed amount of money on her birthday, but this time she has taken a detour from this tradition. She has told party workers to celebrate her 54th birthday, falling on January 15, as “Jankalyan Diwas” (social welfare day) rather than “Arthik Sahyog Diwas” (financial assistance). This year BSP workers will distribute blankets among the poor on her birthday. This was revealed by the state party president, Dr Meghraj Singh, at the party headquarters in Dehradun. “On the 54th birthday of ‘Behenji’, we will distribute 54 blankets among poor people in each Vidhan Sabha segment. Besides, we have decided to meet people at the grass-roots level by going to villages and apprising people of party’s agenda and inadequacies of present state government,” said Dr Meghraj Singh. Nathu Singh, general secretary, said the main agenda of their party would be the failure of the state government in giving domicile and caste certificates to SCs/STs people of the state. He said: “The state government has totally failed in giving state domiciles and caste certificates to people from SCs/STs in the state. A total anarchy is prevailing in departments. The rules have been twisted to deprive the underprivileged sections of society. They are not able to avail themselves of the benefits of admissions in educational institutions and employment opportunities. If they continue to be deprived despite winning their struggle to get Uttarakhand carved out of UP, then all their efforts will go futile. Therefore, we are going to raise this issue as the main plank of the party for the coming Vidhan Sabha elections”. Pyara Singh Bains, president of the state working committee of the party, said the party cadre in the state needed to strengthen its organisational roots before the election. Senior leaders Sunil Sonkar and CP Singh, district unit president Tanvir Singh were present at the meeting. |
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Some comfort for Mansarovar pilgrims
Pitthoragarh, January 5 “Last year we rented more than six Innova cars and pilgrims were ferried in those vehicles. Since the nigam wants to give more comfort to the pilgrims, we have decided to purchase 12-seater luxury vehicles permanently,” said Ashok Joshi, General Manager, Tourism, KMVN, and nodal agency for this yatra. According to a notification issued by the East-Asian Division of the External Affairs Ministry, this year’s yatra will begin on June 1 and conclude on September 26 and the selection of batches will be done two days earlier. “The total cost of the pilgrimage per pilgrim this year will be Rs 24,500 to be paid to the KMVN and $ 700 will be paid to the Chinese government, which will bear the cost of pilgrimage into their territory,” said Joshi . Joshi said the KMVN had demanded Rs 30,000 per pilgrim, but the ministry fixed it at Rs 24,500 per pilgrim. The pilgrimage, which involves two nations, is done between India and China from 19,500-foot high Lipulekh Pass in Pitthoragarh district of Uttarakhand, is arranged by the Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with the Chinese government. The pilgrimage was stopped in 1962 after the India-China conflict and resumed in 1981. “Besides purchasing luxury Tempo Travellers, we are also widening the space at our three camps on the yatra trek at Gala, Bundi and Gunji,” said Joshi. This yatra, which is also an Himalayan adventure, has been recognised by the Indian Mountaineer Federation as a trekking expedition for which high medical standards are required from the pilgrims. |
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Merger of UP Dists in state
Haridwar, January 5 The Maidani Kranti Dal, a plain area dominated regional outfit has supported the inclusion of these three districts in Uttarakhand. The party plans to carry out a major movement in this regard. The outfit has initiated a signature campaign in these three districts, giving consent for their inclusion in the hilly state. The signature campaign will then be presented to the Prime Minister, President and respective Governors and Chief Ministers to apprise them of the choice of the people. Its central chief Subash Verma said until districts of Bijnore, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar got included in Uttarakhand, the full geographical structure of this new state would not get complete. General secretary Asaf Ali Advocate said the camaraderie and mutual cooperation shared by both sides was the factor that was propelling people and residents to get included in Uttarakhand,” remarked Ali in the MKD central committee meeting. He also cited various other examples like unemployment, lack of basic facilities and indifferent attitude by respective UP governments that had dragged these districts backward, while the border areas included in Uttarakhand were now way ahead on the road to prosperity. Residents of more than 200 villages of Bijnore district of Uttar Pradesh adjacent to Kotdwar town of Pauri Garhwal district are already been agitating for the past few years and have formed a Sangarsh Samiti under which they carry out their protests. |
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Citizens need to participate in solid waste management
Nainital, January 5 Programme Director Dinesh Mahtolia asserted that the problem of solid waste management should not be looked in the narrow parameters of the government and waste disposal in urban areas. “Instead emphasis needs to me made on ensuring the participation of every citizen in the exercise. Citizens must understand that it is their moral responsibility to keep their surroundings clean and must be participative in their approach towards solid waste disposal. Until this is done, the efforts from the ends of the government and the civic bodies would prove to be worthless,” he said. The main instructor for the programme, Vipin Kumar, who is an advisor to the Uttarakhand government, apprised the participants about the types of wastes and their segregation. He pointed out that waste disposal should not be treated as a mere problem of cleaning up a place. Instead it should be taken up as an exercise in management in which all citizens, public representatives, social groups, environmentalists, scientists, students and intellectuals have a role to play. The first day of the module was marked by the experts answering the queries put up by the participants and telling the latter the fundamentals of the solid waste management and its need in the present-day scenario. In the days to come, the participants will have brainstorming sessions over various issues, including the one related to the menace of plastic carry bags and what needs to be done to mitigate the problem. At the end of the programme, the participants will be giving a written undertaking on what they propose to do in their respective areas in the field of solid waste management. Mahtolia said this was being done to ensure that the skills picked up by the participants at the programme did not go waste and were put to effective use. |
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Kumbh works: Secy takes tough stance
Haridwar, January 5 He has strongly signalled that a lackadaisical attitude in works related with basic facilities such as electricity, water, health, cleanliness will not be tolerated. Subash Kumar also inspected the sites of Kumbh works. He inspected the Chandi Devi bridge, Gauri Shankar, Maha Mandaleshwar Nagar, Bairagi camp, Sati Deep, Daksh Deep, Dhyan Kunj, Jagjeetpur, Kankhal areas. Subash Kumar was accompanied by mela officer Anand Vardhan, additional mela officer Chandra Shekhar Bhatt, BN Dhanik, DIG Alok Sharma and other nodal agency officers. |
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Cong morcha protests against unemployment
Dehradun, January 5 The workers were led by party president Rahul Sonkar who alleged that the BJP was against youth and in its three years of power it had failed to make any schemes for the betterment of the unemployed of the state. The president added that the previous Congress government had fixed 70 per cent reservation in jobs for the state youth in the industries of the state, but the present government had not implemented that. He further alleged that whenever the BJP government had come to power, it had neglected the youth section and turned away from its responsibilities. The unemployed should be provided with easy funds under the Prime Minister Employment Scheme. New industries should be set up in the state and districts, and the contract system should be abolished. |
Dhasmana slams Khanduri
Dehradun, January 5 Dhasmana alleged that despite being the constituency of General Khanduri, the people of Rikhnikhal block only had disappointments. He further said present Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and General Khanduri both were from Pauri Garhwal but the entire district had been suffering due to want of an effective implementation of the developmental schemes. “Doctors in the newly created Srinagar Medical College are not staying due to want of facilities while most of the pumping schemes are not being functional as officers are not staying at the divisional headquarters of Pauri Garhwal,” he said. Deen Bandhu Balodi, president of the organisation, and Kabootari Devi, Block President, Rikhnikhal, were present on the occasion. |
BSNL staff hold protest
Dehradun, January 5 Jai Vikram Singh, Secretary, Uttarakhand circle of the BSNL, said the Central government should take steps to expedite the order or the employees would be forced to launch a stir. All-India level members of the BSNL staff unions had posted letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to look into the matter and find concrete solutions to their problems. Furthermore, a memorandum was also presented to the BSNL general member. “In our memorandum, we have asked the government to soon pass the purchase order so that work can be started. However, in case our demands were not met, then we are ready to launch a massive protest,” added Jai Vikram Singh. Present along with Jai Vikram Singh were NC Sharma, Rajeev Sharma, SK Bahuguna, RP Juyal, Jagbeer Rana, DS Kandari, Kishore Prajapati and others. |
LPG dealers mourn Moradabad distributor’s murder
Dehradun, January 5 They have also threatened that they would go on an indefinite strike if immediate action was not taken. All private gas agencies in the city today were on strike. Bharatgas, Hindustan Petroleum, Doon Nigam condemned the incident. Chaman Lal, president of the All-India Indane Distributors Federation, Uttaranchal Circle, Vinod Kumar, secretary, Tanveer Singh, spokesperson, MK Joshi, treasurer, and other distributors were present at the ceremony. |
Constables suspended for drinking on duty
Dehradun, January 5 The SP in the investigation found that they were drinking wine after a medical examination of them confirmed the same at Doon Hospital. The report was submitted to the SSP who at once suspended the police constables. The two have been identified as Davinder and Pradeep. Both were posted at the Raiwala police station. Woman alleges rape in car A resident of Baeraj Colony, Haridwar, complained to the police that a man allegedly raped her in his car at Raiwala here yesterday. According to the police, the woman alleged that Navnit Kumar Sharma of Jamaalpur, Haridwar, raped her in his car on the pretext of showing her a plot. A medical examination of the woman has been conducted and the report is awaited. Kumar is a property dealer while the victim has been separated from her husband for seven years now. A case under Section 376 of the IPC has been registered at the Raipur police station. Man reports case of theft A resident of the main bazar Vikasnagar complained to the police alleging that articles from his house and shop were stolen on the intervening night of January 4 and 5. Complainant Mahesh Garg alleged that when he woke up this morning he saw that his shop had been ransacked and mobile phones and other articles kept there were missing. However, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Vikasnagar said it was one of those cases. But the police was doing its investigation, he added. The SHO also doubted that whether the theft had been committed or not. “It is yet to be found out whether the theft had been committed there or not. It is possible that the complainant wants to gain some benefit by reporting the matter as a theft to the police,” he said. 2 booked for killing peacock Nainital: Two persons have been booked for killing a peacock in the forest area of Tanda near Haldwani. While the accused managed to flee from the spot on being closed upon by personnel of the Forest Department, the latter managed to seize their bike and the bag containing the carcass of the dead bird. It is learnt that department officials on hearing a gun shot rushed to the spot to find two persons trying to escape with the carcass of a peacock. When they tried to zero in on the culprits, the latter fired upon them and fled from the spot leaving behind their motorcycle and a bag. The killing of the national bird follows the reported killing of six Siberian cranes near Dhaura water body in Uddhamsingh Nagar district. The killing of a peacock can draw a punishment of imprisonment up to three years under the Wildlife Protection Act. |
Anger prevails in Haldwani over patient’s rape
Nainital, January 5 According to her husband, the woman complained of a severe pain in her back late Sunday night following which he informed the ward boy Jeevan Singh Chilwal about it. The ward boy handed him a prescription on a piece of paper and asked him to get the medicine. The husband of the victim could not get the medicine and kept on approaching one pharmaceutical shop after the other for almost an hour. On his return to the nursing home, he saw his wife crying. On being asked, she alleged that she had been raped by the ward boy. She related that her attempts to scream and raise a noise were foiled by the suspect as he pressed her mouth with a pillow and a quilt. Due to her being admitted to a private ward, the employees of other wards did not come to know about the incident. The agitated relatives of the victim thrashed the ward boy before a case was registered against him. He has also been taken into custody. The accused had been working in the hospital for a few weeks. The incident has been condemned by various organisations and individuals. It has also raised questions like how can a mere ward boy be trusted to write prescriptions for a patient suffering from a serious ailment like a backbone injury. |
Jindal murder case goes to Special Operation Group
Roorkee, January 5 The murder took place for the purposes of extortion as well as to create terror of the Rathi gang among the trader community here. While the police claimed to have solved the case by arresting Tyagi on December 14, it failed to arrest the other two miscreants involved in the murder. Now, the case has been handed over to the newly-formed Special Operation Group in Roorkee. ASP Janmajay Khanduri said that along with the two police teams, the Roorkee SOG would help in arresting the miscreants. “Most of the relatives and persons who bailed the miscreants have been interrogated by us. Regular raids are on at the probable locations of the murderers,” said Khanduri while admitting that the police has failed to get any vital clue about the whereabouts of the criminals. “Now, the local SOG has been involved to complete the task,” said the ASP. On being asked about the resurgence of criminal activities for extortion from local traders, ASP Khanduri said that the police has provided security to some traders who could be the targets of these gangsters. Pankaj Jindal, brother of the deceased, has been provided with a security guard by the police. “Besides, we have also prepared a ‘gang chart’ of such criminals. The police has been keeping a vigil on the activities of the criminals on the gang chart,” said Khanduri. Three years ago, Rathi had demanded some extortion amount from the Jindals. Following a report by the Jindals, Rathi was reportedly arrested. |
Docs hail MCI move to impose code
Dehradun, January 5 The MCI, which has been considering a code for doctors on pharma gifts and travel facilities, has sought an amendment to the MCI (professional conduct, etiquette and ethics) Regulation 2002 asking doctors not to endorse or participate in private studies on efficacy of drugs. They have also been told not to accept any kind of hospitality from pharmaceutical companies. Pediatrician and Secretary, the Indian Medical Association (Dehradun Chapter), Dr Alok Semwal said, “Ideally the guidelines are for the betterment of the medical fraternity and in the interest of patients, like any other sector health too has been hit by commercial interests which is not a healthy sign and should be immediately curbed. As a result of unethical practices like taking money for prescribing medicines has become common”. However, the MCI rules are flexible in allowing medical practitioners to participate in or work in research projects funded by pharmaceutical and allied health care industries, the permission is given if competent authorities and institutional ethics body give the clearance. It has been seen that pharmaceutical companies have a separate budget allocation that goes towards the entire public relation exercise of which doctors are the main beneficiaries. Even government hospitals are hunting ground for company representatives who do not shy from pushing costly gifts. Welcoming the MCI code on perks to doctors by pharma companies, Dr DP Joshi, Secretary, Provincial Medical Services and Health Association, said, “Hospitals have become shopping shops for pharmaceutical companies, ready to push their brand of medicines or diagnostic kits whose quality may be doubtful. Several private practioners do not shy from advertising particular brand at their clinic that is not in the interest of patients. However, if the quality of a medicine is good the doctors do prescribe them. Doctors have to draw a line and deal with such companies professionally only”. |
3 killed as bus falls into ditch
Nainital, January 5 While two persons died on the spot, another succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital. The deceased have been identified as 28-year-old Ganesh Bhatt of Anjaniya in Khatima, 20-year-old Rajiv Kumar of Lakhimpur Khairi and 25-year-old Vipin Kumar Chaurasia of Barhaina in Allahabad. Rajiv was returning from an Army recruitment drive in Ranikhet. |
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