Haridwar, June 17
In a major fire incident in the city, a chemical factory gutted down to ashes in the Ranipur Jhal area situated on the Haridwar-Roorkee National Highway.

The fire was of such intensity that people could see fire flames as far as several kilometres. It took nearly six hours for fire fighters to douse these flames.

Property worth Rs 20 lakh was destroyed in the fire. The cause behind the fire has yet not been ascertained, however, initial indications suggest short circuit. Laxity on part of the factory owners in adherence of the fire safety norms made the task of the fire fighters tougher.

Factory’s evening workers said the fire emanated from a truck that was carrying a paint-making machine, but nobody saw it immediately. Soon the fire spread to nearby tankers and took the shape of massive flames. Initially, security guards tried to control the fire with fire pits, but that proved to be insufficient. By then, company officials and city fire officer were informed of the incident.

More than 10 fire brigades reached the spot under Station Fire Officer SK Sharma.

The total loss due to the fire is estimated to be around Rs 20 lakh. While the fire department regularly carries out mandatory inspections of factories, most of the companies do not adhering to the fire safety norms in spite of being served with notices.

“Now we will deal strictly with erring company owners, as incidents of fire in factories, especially in the SIDCUL area, are increasing. Most of the time, the intensity of the fire could have lessened, had the factory owners adhered to the fire safety norms as suggested by our department,” said Sharma.

The factory manager tried to evade queries about the fire and said they needed time to asses the whole situation.

Dehradun, June 17
A student of DAV (PG) College was allegedly shot at by a group of students of the same college on the Haridwar Road near Old Jail here last night. They allegedly made about four fire shots, out of which one hit his left arm.

However, the police doubts the claims. The cops said the two groups might have had fight or he might have cooked up the story to get his old rivals behind bars.

Victim Simran Singh, a BA II student and resident of Race Course, has gone to jail twice under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code and recently came out of the jail.

Simran, while talking to mediapersons in the Doon Hospital, alleged that youths on about four motorbikes and two cars attacked him last night when he was on his way home bringing pizzas in his car.

He added that the rival group pelted stones at his car and smashed it too.

They fired four shots and one hit him on the left arm. However, he managed to drive to the police station. He named a few of his college students behind the alleged attack, who, he said, tried to murder him following an old dispute.

City Superintendent of Police (SP) Jagatram Joshi said his claims were yet to be verified and the matter was under investigation. Doubting his claims, the SP said it didn’t seem to be possible that he was shot at and he managed to reach the police station.

The police also doubts his claims due to his old criminal record.

Meanwhile, a group of students met the SP to bring to his notice that none of the members from their group was involved in any alleged attack.

Dehradun, June 17
State Minority Commission vice-president Mazhar Naim Nawab has alleged that Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Harak Singh Rawat has grabbed the land of a poor Muslim.

Rawat denied the allegations claiming that he was the rightful owner of the land, which has been registered in his wife’s name since 2004.

At a press conference held here today, Nawab presented Mahmood Hasan, a resident of Shankarpur village, who charged that the agriculture land measuring 62 bighas, where he had been residing for the past 40 years, had been allegedly usurped by Rawat. He alleged that Rawat had been threatening him with dire consequences to evict him from the land. Hasan in an affidavit said his father was a chowkidar of the land that then belonged to Sushila Rani Verma, and after his father died, he became the chowkidar. Sushila gave 10 bighas of the land to him before her death in 1974, and the remaining land to her friend and caretaker Leela Bhanot. However, the land could not be transferred in their names in the land records.

He charged that Rawat, with the help of an attorney, bought that land in 2004, and ever since had been threatening him to vacate the land.

Nawab also wrote letters to Speaker of the Assembly Harbans Kapoor, Dehradun District Magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police to inquire into the allegations and report to the commission for further action.

Interestingly, Rawat charged Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank of conspiracy against him. “The Chief Minister wants to pressurise me into silence, since I raised the issues of allotment of hydro-electric projects and Sterdia land transfer in the last Assembly Session. This is dirty politics,” he told The Tribune.

He said the land was duly purchased in his wife’s name in 2004, and the deed was registered in New Delhi where the former landowner resided. On being asked whether the lady died in 1974 or 2005, he replied that he was in possession of the death certificate of the landlady that mentions she died in 2005. “Moreover, the son of the landlady is a witness of the land deal,” he said.e also argued that the complainant never approached the civil court, the appropriate authority, since 2004 against him. “Why he has chosen this time to go public against me? The minority commission is not a forum for such cases. He should have gone to the civil court,” Rawat added.

Rawat charged the Chief Minister and his BJP government of trying to defame him in front of the Muslim community by making such false accusations. 

Dehradun, June 17
Block Pramukhs owing allegiance with the Kshetra Panchayat Pramukh Sangathan, Uttarakhand, today called off their dharna after BJP state chief Bishan Singh Chufal promised to take up their demands with the Chief Minister.

The BJP chief met the protesting pramukhs at the Vidhan Sabha and asked them to call off their stir.

The main demands of the pramukhs include membership to the District Planning Committee (DPC), raising the honorarium of the panchayat and fixing it at Rs 20,000 per month and a state Panchayat Raj Act

Dehradun, June 17
While chairing an evaluation meeting of the SC/STs special component plan on Tuesday, Vice-Chairman Suresh Rathore of the SC/STs Commission expressed annoyance at the absence of SSP Abhinav Kumar from the meeting.

At a meeting in which the department heads of the district were present, Rathore specifically asked the Law and Order authorities about the number of cases registered under the SC/STs Atrocities Act and if, at all, the recruitment drives were being carried for filling up of the vacant posts.

While addressing the heads of the departments, Rathore asked them to develop model villages that had majority of SC/STs population, with an intervention by the Water Works Department, Social Welfare, Education and other departments. “We have specifically asked the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Department Authority (UREDA) to adopt a village and run it solely on solar energy,” he said.

In his report, District Social Welfare Officer Ram Avtar Singh said in 2009-2010, 45,165 scholarships were disbursed and a total of Rs 6.50 crore spent for the children among the SC community from school to college level.

Similarly, a total of 31,241 ST children benefited and a total of Rs 4.90 crore was disbursed.

After chairing the meetings in different districts, the Vice-Chairman will hold a comprehensive meeting with the Chief Secretary later this month on this issue.

During the meeting CDO Indudhar Badoi, members of the SC/ST Commission Vijay Singh and Leelavati Rana were also present.

Haridwar, June 17
The beat policing system adopted by the Haridwar police this year seems to be paying off dividends with the police cracking several cases in the past few months. Last year, Haridwar had bagged the tag of crime capital by recording the highest number of crime incidents in the state.

After the Kumbh there was a surge in criminal activities, as 20,000-odd mela police personnel had left the pilgrim city.

However, with the district police swinging into action, the situation has once again been brought under control.

This can be gauged by this week’s back-to-back sensational arrests of four chain snatchers and bike thieves of notorious gangs, who had been operating for quite some time in Haridwar and nearby Uttar Pradesh border districts.

The police arrested two members, Subodh and Jutan, of an inter-state chain-snatching gang. Both hailed from Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. The duo was arrested during the vehicle-checking drive at Chandighat bridge. Seven gold chains were recovered from them. They were involved in chain-snatching incidents for the past two years, while the other three members of the gang Ramcharan, Ajit, alias Jeetpal, and Balva are still absconding. During investigation, the arrested thugs said they used to execute their act on motorbikes by targeting women, who used to be alone, and then sold off these chains at half rates to jewellers in western UP. Another important case has been solved with the arrest of two bike thieves Naushad Ali, resident of Muzaffarnagar district, and Manjoor Ahmed, resident of Sahranpurwho, had created fear among the residents with at least a bike been stolen every other week in the district. They were arrested from the Bahadrabad area with the police recovering 10 motorbikes from the duo.

SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal attributes the recent success to overall team effort.

Dehradun, June 17
To take the class of “bad boys” in the Police Department, who are tarnishing the image of the Mitar Police, an angry Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Abhinav Kumar has asked for the past one-year list of cops who were found involved in misbehaviour, drinking and other such cases while being on duty.

All of them will be sent to the Police Lines where they will be given treatment, including rigorous parade morning and evening. If needed, the drunk addicts in the department will be sent to the anti-drug centres and for motivation and counselling classes as well, according to their records.

“Several such cases have come to light recently, in which police personnel were involved in misbehaviour, drinking and other such cases. This is a cause of anxiety and can tarnish the image of the police here. We will not adopt any leniency in such matters and the guilty will be strictly dealt with. We have asked for the list of such cops in the department from June 2009 to till date,” said the SSP.

There are a few in the department who don’t want to get to right path and will be isolated and strict action will be taken against them, he added. The SSP pointed out that there was no question of tolerating any irresponsibility at work.

The senior functionaries in the department are quite angry at the yesterday’s incident, in which a drunk cop eve teased a minor girl. When her relative protested, the cop beat him up and it was only after the intervention of the public that the latter could be saved.

Two days back, two cops were terminated from their services in the fleeing of Munir, a murder accused, history-sheeter Jiti, for merrymaking. Jiti was brought to the Doon Hospital for treatment but with the connivance of the cops, he fled to meet his girlfriend. They later returned to the hospital, where they were taken into custody by the police. Several such cases in the past have come to the light involving the police in misbehaviour and drinking in public and creating ruckus to surprise the Doonites with their acts. 

Mussoorie, June 17
Minor Irrigation (MI) Monitoring Committee president Mahendar Prasad Bhatt said on Tuesday that after the department received a number of irregularities reports through the media, various blocks decided to construct canals following tender procedures.

A three-member committee would be inspecting before approving the projects at the block level and licensed contractors provided jobs on priority after the Gram Sabha submits the proposals.

Bhatt was speaking in a press conference held at the Press Club of Mussoorie here.

He said more than 14 officials were suspended out of whom one had been reinstated. He said adequate monitoring was being done to curb corruption in the department and make it transparent.

Bhatt also said a computerised data base was being created to assess the irrigated area under the MI Department.

As many as 31 junior engineers had been appointed in the department this month. He said around Rs 350 crore proposals had been sent to the government of India which would be received soon.

The Tribune had revealed the major irregularities in the construction of canals under the MI Department in April.

Bhatt commended the efforts of Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in approving Rs 68,000 for the state plan outlay by the Planning Commission.

He thanked the Central government for providing additional Rs 360 crore allocation for the current fiscal. Vijay Ramola, Dinesh Badoni and other BJP leaders were also present on the occasion.

Bhawali, June 17
Lok Sabha member from Nainital KC Singh Baba has stated that there is no bias in the approach of the Centre when it comes to giving development funds to states. He was responding to a query on repeated allegations being levelled against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre by the Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank-led state government.

Baba, who had come here to attend the concluding function of a three-day Bharat Nirman awareness campaign organised by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to propagate the flagship programmes of the Centre, said: “The states on their part should ensure that optimum utilisation of Central funds is done”.

The awareness campaign concluded with the presentation of cultural programmes and government officials making people aware of various schemes launched by the Centre for the uplift of the people.

Earlier in the day, schoolchildren at Bhawali took out a rally to propagate the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. A healthy baby competition was also organised to make people aware of proper child care. A free medical check-up camp was also organised at the venue of the event.

The event was organised by the various units of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry like the Directorate of Field Publicity, Song and Drama Division, Doordarshan, Aakashwani and the Press Information Bureau (PIB).