Dehradun, February 13
The effects of former Uttarakhand Chief Minister ND Tiwari’s surprise presence at the launch of the ambitious Atal Khadyann Yojana of the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government was felt in the Congress circles, with Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Harish Rawat criticising him for his presence on the dais of the rival BJP.

Harish Rawat, a long-time political foe of Tiwari from the Kumaon region, during his visit to Dehradun today, said the presence of senior Congress leader Tiwari at a function where national BJP president Nitin Gadkari was the Chief Guest was shocking. “It is my personal opinion that Tiwariji should have avoided it,” he added.

He, however, said it was for the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) to look into the matter. Interestingly, president of the Uttarakhand Congress Yashpal Arya is a staunch follower of Tiwari and owes his rise in Congress politics to him only.

The presence of Tiwari at the launch function ahead of the Assembly elections has greatly embarrassed the main Opposition Congress.

He not only attended the function but also praised Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, much to the chagrin of Congress leaders and workers. Tiwari, who has been shunted out of the Andhra Pradesh governorship following his alleged involvement in a sex scandal, is also fighting a paternity suit filed by Rohit Shekhar, a youth who claimed to be his son. The Delhi High Court has ordered a DNA test of the veteran leader to test the claim.

Congress sources claim that Tiwari, who is one of the senior most leaders of the party, has been completely sidelined by the Congress. By attending such functions of the rival BJP, he has been trying to extract his revenge from Congress for not standing behind him. Earlier on November 9, 2010, on the state foundation day, Tiwari was present along with Nishank at the funcion while former BJP Chief Ministers BC Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Nityananad Swami gave it a miss.

While the Chief Minister has been trying to consolidate his own position and prepare the party for the forthcoming Assembly polls, the presence of Tiwari and his praise of the Chief Minister have put the state Congress in a quandary. A sizeable section of the senior Congress leaders owe their allegiance to Tiwari. However, Tiwari has made it clear that he was not interested in politics and would devote his time for the welfare of the people. But, his actions are proving to be a bane of his own party in the election year.

Meanwhile, Surendra Aggarwal, former Chief spokesperson for the Uttarakhand Congress, alleged that the Atal Khadyann Yojana was a farce, as people were not getting any benefits in the rural and hilly areas. “It is clear that the BJP has launched the scheme with an eye on the Assembly polls. Already the Union Government has given a guarantee of food security. Is the scheme different from what the Central Government has promised?” he asked.

Dehradun, February 13
The Uttarakhand Parivarthan Party (UPP) has started its preparation for the Assembly election of 2012 by giving directions to strengthen the party at the district and village levels, and also prepare a list of possible candidates. It was also decided to emerge as the third front with the help of like-minded political parties if needed against the BJP and the Congress.

The issues picked up for the elections were opposition of the mafia, grouping of corrupt leaders-bureaucrats-middlemen, naming places after people associated with the RSS by the BJP and declaration of Gairsain as the state capital.

Speaking at the meeting of the Central Working Committee, party president PC Tiwari said it was shameful that both the BJP and the Congress were maligning each other for corruption, though they themselves were deeply involved in it. Therefore, it was important to defeat them with full force in the Assembly election to realise the dreams of the public and martyrs of the state.

In the working committee meeting, it was decided to constitute party units of all the districts, cities and blocks by June. The leaders urged party activists to participate in all the movements/campaigns run under the baton of their party.

The others who were present on the occasion were Chairman of the Parliament Board of party, MC Kandpal, vice-president Jay Prakash Uttrakhandi, general secretary Prabhat Dhayani, president of the Disciplinary Committee Govind Lal Verma, spokesperson Rajiv Kothari.

The 70 odd persons who came from various social and political organisations included former Congress District president of Uttarkashi Dr Nagendra Jaguri, advocate Shishram Kanswal, former district president of the Rashtravadi Congress, Uttarkashi, Virender Singh Gusai, renowned theatrist from Delhi Virender Aggarwal and social worker Khadak Bahadur. 

Dehradun, February 13
Six months have passed since the signing of a contract between the Uttarakhand Government and Emami Pvt Ltd for the setting up of an ayush gram at Bhawali, but the lethargic attitude of the Ayurvedic Department has put brakes on the project.

The state government and Emami Limited had signed a contract on August 15 last year, but the long time taken in the transfer of land from the Health Department to the Ayurvedic Department delayed the project. There is a real fear that the government may be termed defaulter. The project is to be run on public-private partnership.

According to sources, not only the contract is binding with the entire time line, but also Emami has already deposited Rs 2.5 crore while signing the contract and was to bring an upfront investment of Rs 50 crore during the commencement of the project.

The bid process was initiated in February 2010 and finally the Government of Uttarakhand awarded the ayush gram project to consortium of Emami Limited.

The ayush gram is a unique concept conceived by the Government of Uttarakhand, a first of its kind in the country that aims to provide ayurvedic, unani and homoeopathy services, start a cultivation centre for herbs and also wellness centres.

The location for the first of these ayush grams was identified at Bhawali in Nainital district.

The delay has not only put a question mark on the ability of the Uttarakhand Government to deliver a project that has high stakes, but has also delayed other ayush gram projects.

Now, the government has been advised to ensure the procurement of the land first, before going into the a public-private partnership.

Mussoorie, February 13
The Uttarakhand Hakdari Yatra that began from Banbasa in Kumaon and will end at Tyuni at the border with Himachal Pradesh reached Mussoorie yesterday.

The objective is to create awareness about the rights of the common people towards their land, water and forests.

The yatra was led by Uttarakhand Hakdari Manch Convener Mukesh Bahuguna. Accompanying him were several social activists involved in the struggle for the rights of the indigenous people.

Speaking to mediapersons on reaching Mussoorie, Mukesh Bahuguna said due to the draconian attitude of the state government, it was important to start a dialogue on the issues of basic rights of the indigenous people. The state government’s so-called development projects were an encroachment on the land of the locals.

He added that the government had not involved the local population during the initial phase of any development project because its intention was only to serve the corporate sector and the multinationals at the behest of the World Bank.

He said the motive of the yatra was to make people aware of the conspiracy that was being hatched in the name of conservation in the hills where all the forest land of the villagers was being sold to the private owners clandestinely.

Govind Singh Meher, Central President, and Prem Singh Sanwal, convener, Uttarakhand Panchayat Sarpanch Sanghatan, also said that the government was amending the van panchayat guidelines according to its own whims and fancy. This has rendered farmers fodderless, waterless and cropless.

They said that farmers were being encouraged to grow crops like Jatropha. “Most of them are marginal farmers. Where will they grow crops like rice and cereals which are essential for their existence if they grow Jatropha?” they said.

He also said that the Forest Department was dilly-dallying in implementing the Forest Dwellers Act due to vested interests of a few who were earning in the name of global warming and climate change.

Govind Singh Meher also said the government was also conspiring to acquire the farmers’ land in the name of national parks whereas it had completely failed in maintaining them adequately.

The speakers, in unison, said the policies of the government were totally anti-farmer and anti-environment as was evident when the government had to rollback on the issue of 52 power projects in haste.

Uttarakhand Alaknanda Vikas Manch secretary Mohan Singh Rawat, Narayan Singh, Ajay and Ramesh were also present on the occasion.

Nainital, February 13
Residents of Gairad village in Bageshwar have threatened to boycott the forthcoming state Assembly polls if the government does not address their demand for the upgradation of the middle school in their village.

In order to press for their demand, villagers have launched a protest on the premises of the local temple.

They claim that the demand for the upgradation of the school has been hanging fire over the past two decades and all that they have got till now is plain assurances.

The villagers say that since their village is about 10 km away from the road, their children, particularly girls, are deprived of getting higher education.

They say that as citizens of the country they too are entitled to aspire for better education facilities.

They underline that despite a series of schemes launched both at the Central and state levels to promote education amongst girls, the girls from their village have failed to avail any benefit offered from these schemes as they cannot study beyond class VIII.

They have also demanded regular deployment of teachers at the existing school. 

Dehradun, February 13
After the sighting of an unconscious tiger by a patrolling party in the Corbett Park area yesterday, the park authorities today denied that the spotted tiger was injured in any way.

Ranjan Kumar Mishra, Director, Corbett, said the male tiger had become weak probably due to its failure to hunt successfully for quite some time. But the tiger regained strength as it killed a sambar, and after consuming it, it showed signs of recovery. Mishra categorically held that there were no signs of injury on the tiger, which, he said, was about eight years of age.

Interestingly, the tiger in question was sighted by the Corbett staff in the Bijrani tourist zone of the national park yesterday. The tiger, which appeared to be in a weakened state, was sighted at a distance of about a km from the Bijrani Forest Lodge. Forest officials looking at the condition of the tiger initially thought that the beast had sustained some injury, but it was not so.

The Corbett Director disclosed that the male tiger was in a weak state probably due to temporary failure in catching a prey. But having consumed the sambar, it had recovered fast and was now in a healthy state.

Dehradun, February 13
Vice-president of the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) Raghunath Singh Negi has launched a statewide mass awareness campaign to stress the need to do mining in rivers of the state to protect the infrastructure and precious lives for the next monsoon season.

He held the Centre responsible for bringing about a ban in the garb of protecting the environment. Negi said the state had already witnessed disaster of a colossal level last year.

“A repeat of last year cannot be ruled out as the rivers of the state were overflowing with the sand, stones and other materials and had come to the level of the ground at many places,” he said.

He also said the state was not interested, particularly in mining as such, but collecting these materials to bring down the level of the water in the rivers was something that had been allowed in the Environment and Forest Act- 1976.

“The ban on mining in the rivers is severely affecting the development in the state,” he said. He had already started his campaign in the Kumaon region. 

Nainital, February 13
Waking up to the hazard of construction material being dumped in parts of the Lake City, the Nainital Municipality authorities have asked people of the town to remove the material over the next 24 hours failing which the material would be seized. The warning was issued by Chairman of the Municipality Mukesh Joshi who gave time to the local residents to get the material removed by Monday morning.

A survey with regard to the dumping of construction material on the roads was carried out yesterday. The residents have been complaining that the dumping of the material on the roads is leading to sanitation problems, besides becoming a cause of accidents in the town.

It is also being pointed out that instead of a ‘cosmetic’ removal of the material from the main roads like the highways and the Mall Road, the Municipality should carry out a drive to get the material removed from all the roads where it has been dumped on a large scale as construction and repair of buildings, a large number of which are illegal, continue unabated during these winter months. This correspondent was witness to a large-scale dumping of construction material on different roads in the Snow View area as well on the Ayarpata and Seven Number localities of the town.

Dehradun, February 13
With the launch of a VCD of a Garhwali album, “Man Legi Meru Payara Pahad Maa”, a new singer Sunil Tamta has been introduced by the city-based Lio The Arath and Rising Sun Company that is producing it. The album was released by famous folk singer Gajender Rana here today. It has been directed by Pradeep Bhandari.

It is Sunil’s first album. Other than him, Sangeeta Dhondiyal has lent her voice to the album, while Arvind Negi, Kanta Prasad, Pradeep Bhandari, Rachita Kukreti, Geeta Negi, Kalpana Bisht, Swati Dhyani, Ankush Saklani, Kundan Rawat and Ajay Solanki have acted in the video.

Talking to the media, Bhandari said the album was based on the Ghandiyal god, who is the ruling deity of the Kirti Nagar area. “This is for the first time that an album on him has been made,” he said and added, “Other than this, the album also consists of songs in praise of the hills”.