Dehradun, February 7
Tehri Congress MLA Kishore Upadhyaya, who had vowed to oppose the Tehri Mahotsav, today alleged that he was detained by the Tehri police and prevented from going to the venue of the functions to be addressed by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in Tehri town today.

Upadhyaya charged that he had reached the Tehri Hydroelectric Development Corporation (THDC) guest house last night, but was not given a room by the authorities. “I had to spend the night in the verandah of the guest house, despite the fact that the entire guest house was empty,” he told The Tribune on phone from Tehri.

He further alleged that the police prevented him from moving from the guest house in the morning, since he had announced to oppose the programme of the ruling government. He said he had planned to oppose the programme to highlight the plight of the Tehri dam oustees and the lack of developmental initiatives by the state BJP Government for Tehri district.

He further alleged that his supporters were prevented from reaching the venue of the public meeting to be addressed by the Chief Minister. “Despite such draconian measures, my supporters waved black flags to the CM in Tehri,” he claimed.

However, Tehri district officials denied that Upadhyaya was detained forcibly.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Harak Singh Rawat in a letter to Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Harbans Kapoor took up the matter of denial of room to Kishore and urged him to intervene in the matter. “It is a gross violation of the privileges of an elected legislator and an attack on democracy,” he said.

State Congress President Yashpal Arya also condemned the action taken against Upadhyaya. He said Upadhaya had been trying to raise the issue of the victims of the Tehri dam and those affected by the rain disaster, and preventing him from doing so amounts to an attack on the democracy.

He further charged that the state BJP Government had been discriminating in the developmental works in the constituencies of the opposition legislators. “We are standing with Upadhyaya in his fight for the people of Tehri and the state BJP Government will have to pay a heavy price for their actions in the coming elections,” he said.

Dehradun, February 7
With black bands tied around their foreheads and candles in their hands, students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IITR), today took out a procession to pay homage to their fellow student who reportedly committed suicide yesterday evening. The students gathered at the main building of the institute, along with IITR staff, and paid their respects to the departed soul.

The student, identified as Manish Kumar (20), reportedly committed suicide by jumping from the fifth floor of his hostel building. The incident took place in the evening while he was studying in the balcony of his room.

It has been learnt that Manish, a second-year B Tech student, was a suffering from depression and undergoing treatment for the same at Meerut Military Hospital as his father, a Junior Commissioned Officer with the Indian Air Force, was posted in Kanpur.

The police found prescription and medicine during the search of his room. However, no suicide note was recovered. Investigations are on to ascertain the exact cause of the death, said SHO Jaimal Singh Negi.

“There has been no eye witness to the incident. His body was spotted by the guards who informed the IITR authorities. Manish was taken to IIT-R hospital where he was declared brought dead,” the SHO added.

As a mark of protest, the students boycotted the classes today.

Shocked, Manish’s father Rajinder Kumar told The Tribune that his son had once mentioned some disparaging remarks made by some students over caste that had upset him.

Mussoorie, February 7
Speaking on the concluding day of the seminar organised by the District Mahila Congress in a hotel in Mussoorie, Leader of the Opposition from the Congress Harak Singh Rawat said the women force of the state was feeling neglected under the BJP regime.

“Therefore, the Mahila Congress had sounded the bugle from Mussoorie to oust the BJP Government from the state in the forthcoming Assembly elections. He was of the view that the system cannot change without organising the women force.

He commended the efforts of the Mahila Congress in addressing the problems of women, who had been sidelined in the present BJP rule and achieved the motive of throwing out the present government. Rawat said women had sacrificed a lot in the formation of the state and he remembered them on the occasion. He said he also paid homage to all those lives lost during the natural calamity that occurred last year.

Rawat said the Congress was the only party that had concurred women with the highest post in the form of President Pratibha Patil. He stated that the Congress had always given women the due respect at the state and the national level and would continue to do so.

Speaking to the mediapersons, Rawat said he condemned the house arrest of Congress leader Kishore Upadhyaya by the Tehri administration. Lambasting the BJP Government in the state, he said it had failed on all the fronts and development work had come to a standstill. Elaborating further, he said the government had not been able to widen the road at Darshanlal Chowk and was paying a mere lip service to the development in the far-flung villages of the state.

He also said the recently concluded SAF Games had been marred with corruption and alleged that more than Rs 100 crore of the budget allocated by the Centre had been siphoned off in the name of the Games that was yet to be accounted for. He reiterated his demand for a CBI investigation in all the corruption allegations, be it the scam of the Maha Kumbh Mela scam, PWD or helicopter scam, in which the misuse of the state vehicle had been rampant.

Rawat said the state was not utilising the funds allocated under different schemes by the Centre. He informed that the Congress had made a monitoring committee that was overlooking the schemes implemented by the Centre and had come to the conclusion that the funds had been under-utilised, including the ADB funded schemes where the work was moving at the snail’s pace.

He also said the women empowerment schemes were being misused and as a result the state government could not send any name for the award under the MGNREGA schemes to the Centre. He also criticised the government on delaying the decentralisation of the panchayats and implementing the Act in totality.

Speaking on the naming of the PCC unit, he said the Congress workers were not dependent on any post in the organisation and were ready to work as an ordinary party worker in the interest of the party and moreover, it was an internal matter, which the Congress was capable of solving itself.

When questioned about the absence of the local MLA from Mussoorie in the seminar, he said Jot Singh Gunsola was busy in his constituency and could not attend due to his previous predicaments and more should not be read from it. 

Dehradun, February 7
The Irrigation Department has been given construction work of schools by the State Education Department and other projects by different departments after it was declared a working agency one-and-a-half months back. The Rashtriya Madhymik Shiksha Abhiyan is funding the school projects and the Irrigation Department is still working on the estimate of these projects.

It is certainly a big step towards strengthening the position of the Irrigation Department, which had been crying hoarse about the collapse of all its revenue resources, especially when it was finally divested of the civil and mechanical work from all the hydropower projects, which were handed over to Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited.

Informing about the project, chief engineer, Yamuna Ghati, Mushirrul Hasan said the department had been given the task of upgrading junior schools to high schools and high schools to intermediate schools at 14 locations in Dehradun, Uttarkashi, Haridwar, Almora and Champavat. Model schools would also be built in these districts, costing Rs 2.5 crore each.

The schools that need renovation or additions, such as more rooms, laboratory, lavatory, computer laboratory etc would be a part of the project. The Irrigation Department would also construct hostels for Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in each of these districts.

Joint Director, Rashtriya Madhymik Shiksha Abhiyan, Mahavir Singh Bisht said, “These projects will be a testing ground for the efficacy of the Irrigation Department as a working agency. We have given five districts to the Irrigation Department for two years and eight districts to rural engineering services. If the Irrigation Department performs well, it will be given more such projects in the future”.

Besides that, the Irrigation Department was also involved in building a ropeway over the Bhagirath and Tanuns rivers in these five districts only to facilitate the smooth pathway for orchards. The project would be funded by the Horticulture Department.

Hatcheries for the Fisheries Department in Satpuli, Tata Centre for the Treasury Department, residences for Class IV police personnel in Dehradun was also on the anvil.

The Tourism Department had also placed its own requirement for premises to the Irrigation Department and repair work at the Secretariat was already underway.

Elated over this achievement, employees and officials of the Irrigation Department do not wish that the Uttar Pardesh Nirman Nigam, working agency of Uttar Pardesh, should get further extension.

General Secretary, Employees Association of the Irrigation Department, Ramesh Ramola said, “The Uttar Pardesh Nirman Nigam has got further extension till 2012, which is not in favour of the welfare of the state, as 12 per cent charges of our projects go to fill the coffer of the UP Government. It is the handiwork of some corrupt players, who are helping it to axe their own grind”.

Hasan, too, expressed his displeasure saying, “It is in the hands of the state government to allow or disallow the Uttar Pardesh Niran Nigam in Uttarakhand. But if the projects handled by it are given to us, it will certainly improve our financial position”. 

Dehradun, February 7
As part of the surveillance visit, a three-member Indian Standard Organisation (ISO) team visited the District Women’s Hospital to ascertain whether the hospital was fully complying with their conditions.

The District Doon Hospital and Women’s Hospital had bagged the ISO certificate in 2009. The three members were Chandrashekar, Amit and Dr Prakash.

The hospital is expected to follow the best practices in clinical and non-clinical areas of hospital management “towards patient satisfaction”.

“To ensure that the hospital continues to follow the requirements laid down by the ISO, independent checks of the hospital are undertaken,” said Dr Deepa Sharma, CMS, District Women’s Hospital.

She said the hospital had to conform to the norms of the Indian Public Health Standards at all times.

The 110-bed hospital is undergoing renovation. “The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with a capacity of 20 cradles is being built and medical store expanded and funded under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) programme,” said Dr Sharma. 

Nainital, February 7
Taking the battle of the alleged sale of land belonging to the Bhawali Tuberculosis Sanatorium further, the Congress 
has contradicted the claims made by the BJP on the issue.

Contesting the recent claims of senior BJP leader Ajay Bhatt on the issue that the 10 acres of land in question have not been sold, but were merely being leased out for 35 years for development of an AYUSH gram at the spot, Congress leaders Dr BS Bhakuni and Satish Nainwal have stated that since it was the Centre that was promoting AYUSH grams, what was the need for the Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank-led Government to give public land to private enterprises for developing the facility and that, too, at a place where the previous Congress regime led by Dr Narayan Dutt Tiwari wanted to develop a full-fledged chest institute for the public.

Nainwal said, “What is the need to bring in private parties to develop AYUSH grams, when the Centre is giving funds for the same? Has the state government failed to the extent that it is selling off the public land to the private parties?”

The Congress has also demanded that the government comes out with true facts about the actual land donated for the sanatorium in the past and whether the entire land was still intact with the institution.

Reacting to Bhatt’s claims that the land was just being given for a 35-year period on lease, Dr Bhakuni said, “Have you ever heard of a hotelier vacating the place 
after developing a three-star facility? Why is the land being given to people who have close association with the BJP? The land has been given to cosmetic manufacturing factory Emami, Chevron Hotels and Swami Chinmayanand. There is definitely a renewal clause in the deal and this scam 
is bigger than the 
Citurgia scandal”.

The Congress leaders have also contested the BJP claims that the sanatorium buildings will not be touched and claim that at least one building will be demolished to make the plans of the state government a reality.

They further contested that if the Nishank Government was so concerned about the well being of the masses, how did it explain the gathering of dust by machines worth Rs 4 crore lying at the sanatorium.

Responding to the contention of the BJP that the proposed project would be executed in the public private partnership (PPP) mode, Bhakuni said, “Why does the Chief Minister not give his post in the PPP mode? The entire proposal reeks of corruption”.

During a recent visit to Nainital, Bhatt had charged the Congress of resorting to a malicious campaign to defame the state government on the issue. He had contested that the BJP Government had taken a conscious decision in a transparent manner to lease out approximately 10 acres of land near the existing sanatorium for a period 
of 35 years.