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Party blames state govts for ignoring people’s interests
Jumbo Scare |
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B Tech student commits suicide
Domestic violence on the rise in Dehradun
Kin allege friends behind youth’s drowning
Alva to open ONGC fortnight on January 20
Ex-Block Chief’s Murder Case
Govt pays no heed to ministerial staff’s stir
Cold Wave
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Party blames state govts for ignoring people’s interests
Dehradun, January 17 Party workers, including senior party members, are attending the convention from all over the state. The party members said it had been nine years since this state was founded, but in the name of the development nothing had been done so far. People here had thought that after the state formation their woes and problems would be heard, but all governments, which took over the reins after the formation of Uttarakhand, didn’t pay attention to people. The party is in favour of
having Garsain as the state capital. People had thought that after the formation of
the state, Garsain would be made the state capital, but it didn’t happen. On the contrary, it seemed that the state was founded to destroy the natural resources and beauty of the state. The governance of Uttar Pradesh had been adopted. The party is of the view of giving status of the gram sabha to every village to encourage consolidation of land and give emphasis on policies which give employment, security of food, water, electricity, arrangement of health problems and facilities of roads and telephones in every village while keeping in view the environment. |
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Jumbo Scare
Haridwar, January 17 The jumbo intrusion for past few weeks has made the lives of residents of Ajitpur, Missirpur, Katarpur, Jiopata, Bishenpur, Kanzenhedi, Tibdi villages and nearby areas miserable. Apart from ransacking villagers’ fields, their daily movement is also getting affected and they are forced to remain indoors, specially in early morning hours and just after the sunset. Kisan Morcha state secretary Pramod Sharma blames the department for not paying heed to the problem, which has harmed them both financially and mentally. He complains that for the past few months, elephants have been intruding into their fields and villages, yet no effective steps have been taken by the department. Meanwhile, the district BJP has lent support to the protest of the affected villagers. Led by newly appointed district BJP head Om Prakash Jamdagni, party executive members and village representatives had met DFO RD Pathak recently and apprised him of the problem. Not getting satisfied with the assurances of the DFO, the delegation threatened to lock the gates of the forest offices from Monday if effective measures were not taken by the department. They also had a heated exchange of words with the forest officers and warned them that they would taking the matter to the Chief Minister if the Forest Department took the issue casually. |
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Jyoti Basu’s death mourned
Dehradun, January 17 At a condolence meeting held in Dehradun, state CPM secretary Vijay Rawat said apart from his role as a freedom fighter, Basu would go down in history as a personality who provided excellent governance to the state of West Bengal for a period of 28 years. Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva, in her condolence message, on the demise of the veteran Communist leader, said in the passing away of Jyoti Basu, Bengal had lost one of its most revered sons, the Communist party, its most respected leader, and the nation a much-admired political personality. She said Jyoti Basu dominated the political scene of Bengal over the past four decades bringing stability and development to the state and acceptability to the Left ideology. “The man who could have been President or Prime Minister, chose to stay in the state, but made his presence felt at the national and international levels. He will be long remembered and missed by his colleagues, friends and admirers. I send my heartfelt condolences to his grieving family on this irreparable loss and share the sorrow of the people of Bengal,” she added.In his tribute, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has expressed sorrow over the demise of the veteran Marxist leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister. He termed Basu’s death as irreparable damage to the Indian polity. Garhwal MP and chairman, Parliamentary Committee on Defence Affairs, Satpal Maharaj has expressed grief over the death of Jyoti Basu. He described Basu as a true secular leader and messiah of the poor and downtrodden. Maharaj also remembered the unstinted support for the creation of the state of Uttarakhand on the part of Jyoti
Basu. |
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Kinnow gains ground in state’s citrus belt
Pitthoragarh, January 17 Kinnow grown in the sub-tropical zone of Punjab in now dominating local citrus fruits like malta and orange during winter. This tendency has made the planners sit up as they had planned to sustain the villages in these districts out of these citrus cash crops. “I have been selling local maltas and oranges for the past 15 years, but this year, I am selling kinnows due to the non-availability of local citrus fruits and the increasing demand of kinnows,” said Naveen Chandra Pangira, a fruit vendor in Pitthoragarh town. “Kinnows are preferred to local oranges while the demand for juicy maltas is intact,” he added. “Till last year, we used to sell nearly 50 packets of kinnow everyday, but the number has increased to nearly 100 packets this year,” said Khalil Ahmed, a fruit wholesale trader in
the town. Parkash Pangria, a citrus fruit vendor for the past five years, said that a 10 kg pack of kinnow, purchased at Rs 200, gets the vendor Rs 100 as profit. “Kinnow sells faster as it is juicier,” he said. Local citrus crops were damaged last year as there was no rain during winter. The dry condition rendered the maltas and oranges smaller and less juicy. “In addition, the non-treatment of citrus fruit orchards and changing climatic conditions in the past eight years has reduced production by 5 to 40 per cent this year, said Narendra Kumar, District Horticulture Officer, Pitthoragarh. “In the past eight years, the weather remained dry during March-April when these plants start flowering,” said the DHO. The kinnow plant was brought from the USA and introduced by Balram Jakhar, the then Agriculture Minister, in Punjab. “This juicy plant, which is a crossbreed of Kings Orange and Pipins Citrus, requires heavy doses of nutrients and can be grown from temperate to sub-tropical regions up to a height of 4,000 feet. It was successful in the sub-tropical region of Punjab from Ferozepur to Muktsar to Bathinda to Hoshiapur. “The yield was not sufficient in the hilly region of Uttarakhand because the plant could not get sufficient nutrients there, said IA Khan, a senior horticulture scientist from the Pant Nagar University in Ranikhet. “The local citrus crop that was to give some flow of cash to farmers either suffered due to climate change or could not get proper
market as road connectivity is not proper in hilly area. Plus, post-harvest management is very poor and local citrus fruits are
neither properly graded nor packed,” said Narendra Kumar, DHO, Pitthoragarh. |
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B Tech student commits suicide
Dehradun, January 17 The police said he was unhappy with his studies, which forced him to take such step. No suicide note was found from the spot. The body has been kept in the mortuary of the Doon Hospital and the postmortem will be done once his family reaches the city. According to the police, the deceased’s friends had called him up to enquire where he was, to which he had said he was going away very far and was near the Malsi bridge. But when he did not return to his hostel, the friends went to the place he had mentioned and found him dead. Later, they called up the police. They told the police that he was very unhappy with studies and often used to talk of leaving it. Gaurav Singh hailed from Nainital and was staying in a hostel. XEN held for taking bribe
The Vigilance Bureau team today held an executive engineer (XEN) of the Distribution and Supply Department of Electricity, Uttarakashi, for allegedly demanding a bribe from a contractor to release his funds. According to a press statement issued by the Vigilance, Darshan Lal, who is working as a contractor, filed a complaint that he had taken two contracts of Rs 4,99,058 and Rs 1,60, 075 to install transformers about four to five months ago, but when he went to collect the payment, XEN of the Distribution and Supply Department of Electricity Surender Singh Kunwar demanded 50 per cent for releasing the amount. The engineer allegedly asked for 2 per cent prior to the payment released and 48 per cent at the time of issuing the cheque. The contractor wanted to teach him a lesson and complained to the Vigilance Department. The officials, after confirming his allegations, laid a trap and nabbed the XEN red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 at his office. The team was rewarded with Rs 5,000 by Director of Vigilance Vijay Ragav Pant. Man stabbed, critically injured
A resident of Kishangarh got seriously injured after someone stabbed him on his neck here this evening in Kishangarh. The police said the reason of the attack could not be ascertained and it also could not come to light as to who had stabbed him. Till the filing of the report, Punit Kumar, who is in a critical situation, is being operated upon at the Doon Hospital. Robbery attempts foiled
NAINITAL: Residents of two villages bordering Uttar Pradesh foiled robbery attempts by firing at the armed robbers who had attacked the villagers. According to the information available, about 18 armed robbers had descended on Ganj and Ramnagar villages on Thursday night. In order to terrorise the villagers, the robbers had resorted to firing. However, before they could do any harm, residents of neighbouring Talabpur village informed the police, which promptly reached the villages under attack. Seeing that the police had arrived, the villagers attacked the robbers by firing at them. The robbers fled into the territory of Uttar Pradesh. The police has asked the residents of border villages to remain alert. It is being suspected that robbers from Uttar Pradesh are responsible for the series of robberies over the past few weeks in the area. They use the cover of darkness to commit the crime. Body of man found in lake
The body of a man was recovered floating in the Naini lake yesterday. The deceased has been identified as 31-year-old Harish Rautela of Talla Takula of Nainial district. He was working as a Class VI employee in the Social Welfare Department in Bageshwar. It was on late Saturday afternoon that passersby saw a body floating in the lake towards the Thandi Sadak and informed the police. The deceased was identified through the telephone numbers in a diary recovered from his pocket. The cause of the death is yet to be ascertained and prima facie it is being treated as a case of suicide. Rautela had been missing from his house since Friday afternoon and his family members were trying to find his whereabouts. He had got married in April last year. This is the second incident in three days of people committing suicide by jumping into the Naini lake. Earlier, a student had jumped into the lake. Woman commits suicide
A woman, who had been married seven months back, died at Haldwani on Saturday. According to information, Nidhi Lohni, who was married to an Information Technology professional, Kailash Lohni, consumed poison after having dinner on Friday night. She had gone to her parental home. She was rushed to the hospital following vomitings. While being given medical aid she breathed her last. The cause of her taking the extreme step is yet to be ascertained. |
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Domestic violence on the rise in Dehradun
Dehradun, January 17 Head Constable Deveshwari Rawat, who has been instrumental in solving such cases, says, “Liquor, which is called the staple diet of hill people, is the chief perpetrator of inciting violence and crime against women. Then the perennial problem of unemployment aggravates domestic discord when clashes take place between man and woman over running the house on meagre money. Thirdly, extramarital relations ruin a normal marital relationship with the entrance of the third woman in the picture”. Counselling is not making any headway in reducing such incidents. Confirms head of the Woman Helpline Sarla Rawat, “Our team makes all efforts to solve the simmering disputes between both husband and wife by applying all sorts of methods from cajoling the wife to toning down the aggression in man, but still in very few cases we make up the lost relationship”. SSP Abinav Kumar looks at this rise in marital discord and break-up to the emergence of a new breed of educated and well-placed women who are no longer willing to put up with any kind of nonsense at home. He also does not favour in pressing either of the party to patch up when they share an incompatible relationship. He says, “It is no longer denigrating for women to split up from their spouses in case of domestic violence and live on their own. I, too, do not believe in much of counselling to make the partners live together when they reach an irreconcilable juncture. It is better for women to be on their own than put up with battering in marriage. So even if there is a considerable rise in marital conflicts, which is a transformation phase, it is nothing to worry about. So, I do not favour in making a woman backtrack from her stand by the police to make the graph low of such cases”.
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NGO holds tree plantation drive
Dehradun, January 17 Udayan Care has been running a Kusuma Udayan Shalini Fellowships Programme in Uttarakhand since 2008 with its partner organisation Kusuma Foundation, a Hyderadad (AP)-based NGO. Presently, over 300 girls are getting Kusuma Udayan Shalini fellowships. However, to inculcate a feeling of compassion towards ecology, time and again Udayan Care has been organising camps and helping the girl child to have better future prospects and understanding of life. After successfully organising their first camp at SVMIC School, Babugarh, Vikas Nagar, in October, this was the second phase of campaigning. The objective of these campaigns is to make Udayan Fellows ambassador for motivating people, school and college students to plant a tree and participate in more of such nature-friendly activities. As many as 35 schools from the adjacent area of Ranipokhri, like Doiwala, Rishikesh, Raiwala etc participated in the campaign. “The objective of the campaign was to make our girls socially responsible and mature. Girls were excited to take this crusade ahead,” said Faheem Khan, Senior Programme Coordinator, Udayan Care. “I am happy that today I planted a tree, which will grow and contribute to society in preserving the environment,” said an elated Chanchal, a class XII student. |
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Kin allege friends behind youth’s drowning
Dehradun, January 17 The two also hailed from Bijnor and used to be with the deceased often. The family members believe that the two had some dispute with the youth following which they killed him
and later threw his body into the river. This was stated by the family to
the police. It is pertinent to mention here that the youth had been missing since January 4 and he was found dead on January 14 under mysterious circumstances. The police said the family had lodged no complaint of his being missing. Station House Officer (SHO) Dharender Rawat of Dalanwala police station told The Tribune, “The family has alleged that the two friends of their ward have killed him. However, they haven’t given us anything in this regard in writing, but are supposed to give us a written complaint tomorrow. We will start our investigation accordingly thereon”. The postmortem report of the youth had confirmed that he died of asphyxiation after drowning. The report had also brought to light that the body was three to four days old in the river. The face of Mohit was found badly mauled the day his body was recovered. The police had suspected that his face might have been attacked by some animal. The police had maintained that there were no other injuries visible on the body. Mohit was working as a mechanic in an electrician shop at Astle Hall. He hailed from Bijnor and was putting up at the Bunni area in Raipur. |
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Relishing the wholesome thali at dhaba
Dehradun, January 17 From morning till late in the evenings, people from various parts of the city flock to relish its wholesome thali. “For 35 years my father Inder Singh sold rajma rice and after receiving enough recognition, he decided to start his own joint. It’s his dedication and passion for cooking that our dhaba is running successfully,” informed Kawaljeet Singh at “Uss Da Dhaba”. Inder Singh’s deftness of measurement and home-cooked masalas lend an ideal taste and being reasonably priced office-goers regularly have it without burdening their pockets. Starting from Rs 15 to Rs 30, one can rejoice a thali comprising plain naans, stuffed aloo naans, missi rotis, curd, rajma, chhole, rice, kheer and green chutney. “Our thali is very feasible and all food preparations are done with measurement maintaining hygienic standards. Our idea is to satisfy our customers and offer them more in less,” said Kawaljeet. “I really like the thali of ‘Uss Da Dhaba’, not only it’s economical, but quality and taste of food is worth appreciating,” said Rahul, college student. The menu of the dhaba over the years hasn’t changed, as owners don’t feel the need. “People from Doon, Haridwar, Haldwani and other neighbourhood locations come here as they enjoy our food. We are pretty satisfied with the response and so never felt the
need for expanding our menu,” said Kawaljeet. |
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Alva to open ONGC fortnight on January 20
Dehradun, January 17 Part of the nationwide observation, the fortnight is being jointly organised by All-Public Sector Companies like Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Petroleum Conservation Research Association. The theme of this year conservation fortnight is “Save Fuel Yaani Save Money”. Uttarakhand Coordinator for Oil Industry Ashwani Dua said energy today stood as the most vital input for the socio-economic development of the country and thus conservation of oil and gas was of paramount importance. “Seventy per cent of the crude oil we use is imported and, thus, we lose a substantial chunk of foreign exchange in process,” he pointed out. He disclosed that the fortnight would hold a series of activities that would emphasise on the need and importance of conservation of petroleum products and environment protection. These activities included outdoor publicity, training programme, kisan melas, technical meets and distribution of literature. He said the inauguration progamme slated to take place at the Indian Institute of Petroleum would also have the presence of Yashvir Gupta, Deputy General Manager of
Indian Oil. |
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Disabled agitator battles for life
Dehradun, January 17 Continuing with the protest today, Dai was force-fed in the hospital. She refused to budge from her stand until Social Welfare Minister Matbar Singh Kandari gave in to their 26 charters of demands and issued a notification. However, that was not to be as the minister was away and at his insistence Commissioner (Disability) Snehlata Agarwal visited the hospital late in the morning. “The final word is with the minister. Our hands are tied as we have limited resources. Their demand for raising the pension for physically challenged to Rs 1,000 cannot be immediately met,” said Agarwal. After the government ordered in December 2009, the pension of the physically challenged was raised from Rs 400 to Rs 600, but for the past one year most of the members have not received their due. “I am yet to receive my monthly pension for the year gone,” said Pooja Dhobal, who was present at the hospital, along with other members who owe allegiance to other associations taking up the cause of the physically challenged. Ironically, Agarwal seemed surprised at the turn of events as on January 13 after seven agitators tried to immolate themselves at the dharna site. They were later brought to the Selaqui Jail. Four persons were released while the remaining three started an indefinite protest. However, when the condition of Dai deteriorated, she was shifted to the Doon Hospital late last night. Things would not have come to such a pass had the authorities taken note of the 530-day-old stir of the Pradeshik Viklang Sangathan, Uttarakhand, underway right under the nose of the state Assembly, where decisions pertaining to quantum jumps in MLA salaries are taken and implemented with lightning speed, without caring much about the fiscal health of the state. |
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Ex-Block Chief’s Murder Case
Nainital, January 17 The UKD activists, along with local residents, have held a series of protests to air their resentment against the failure of the police over the past 20 days. On Saturday they had resorted to the locking of various administrative offices. Former Block President, Garud, Chatur Singh Parihar had been found murdered in the store room of his shop in Dangoli towards the end of last month. According to the information available, Parihar, who resided on the first floor of the building where he had his shop, was found strangulated. Local residents told the police that his shop had been closed since December 28. It is learnt that his body bore injury marks on the head and scratches on his throat. The motive behind the murder and the identity of the murderers is yet unknown. The deceased was an ex-serviceman and had seen action in the 1962 Sino-Indian war. |
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Govt pays no heed to ministerial staff’s stir
Dehradun, January 17 The protesters, who are demanding a pay hike according to the Sixth Pay Commission, regularisation of posts and other workforces are in no mood to resume work. Departments like Health, RTO, Irrigation, Horticulture, Education, Child Development, Business and Trade, Collectorate, Animal Husbandry and many others are suffering due to the strike. The protesters are
determined to continue with their indefinite strike till they receive any
positive response from the government. |
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Cold Wave
Dehradun, January 17 Madhu Srivastav, president of the club, said the homeless did not have resources to buy blankets and other materials to protect themselves from the cold. She said in the past too the club had distributed blankets, books and clothes among poor and homeless children. On the occasion Sangeeta Shah, Mina William, Ranjana and Renu Lumbha were also present. |
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