Dehradun, March 27
Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today said the Nehru ward located at the Old Jail premises on the Haridwar road would be conserved for posterity.While inspecting the jail premises today, Dr Nishank expressed his annoyance at the neglected state of the ward and the statue, and asked the Culture Department to take steps for its conservation. He also sought help of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for the conservation of the ward that was of great historical importance.

Official apathy was evident from the poor upkeep of the cell, in which first Prime Minister of the country Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru was lodged during the freedom struggle. The marble plaque at the entrance of the cell mentions that Nehru was imprisoned here in 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1941, but the board put up inside refers to only two terms.

The Nehru ward is one of the monuments in the state associated with the freedom struggle and since the first Congress Government took over the reins of the state, announcements were made that efforts would be made to preserve the monument, but no action has been taken so far. It does not fit in the category of monuments preserved by the ASI.

“The state Culture Department has been roped in to take the necessary steps for its preservation,” said Nishank. The area will soon witness construction for building some of the departments for the Doon Medical College.

Dehradun, March 27
On the concluding day of the two-day meeting held by the CPM, MP Tapan Sen expressed concern over the escalated intervention of the US in internal matters of the country.“The fact was underpinned by the repeated disclosures made by the WikiLeaks these days. Not only the UPA Government, but the BJP, too, was equally enchanted with the policies of the US,” he said.

Taking a pick at the Assembly elections due in the five states across the country, he said the election results would determine the course of the politics of the country.

While putting forth the status report of the party activities and state politics, State Secretary Vijay Rawat said the state desperately needed a third alternative beyond the Congress and the BJP.

He said the party units had vociferously been raising the prevalent issues such as forcible acquirement of land of people in the name of hydroelectric projects, corruption in the PDS system, problem of caste certificate etc. on all possible platforms.

In the meeting headed by Bachi Ram Kaunswal, members Surender Singh Sajwal, Rajender Negi, Indu Naudiyal, Virender Bhandari, Lekhraj and Anant Akash also participated. 

Dehradun, March 27
On the first day of the Theatre Festival, Kulanand Ghanshala directed satirical play “Mankhi Baagh” managed to stir the consciousness of people here today.Staged in Garhwali language, the play tried to present a scenario about how simple people from the hills begin to behave and act like rich and corrupt under the influence of materialism.

Life of Jeetu and Fajeetu takes a turn when they come in contact with a few rich men living in the village, who exploit them and make them do things that are against their basic nature, so much so that both of them even land in jail.

Realising their folly, they try very hard to lead a normal life, but not without going through several trials and tribulations.

“During the play, I tried to maintain the tempo. Though most of the actors are new, I think they did a good job,” said Ghanshala, who heads the Garh-Gatha Kala Manch.

The artistes, who took the centre stage include Ratan Singh Rawat as Jeetu, Veer Singh Rawat as Fajeetu and Pramukh as Prem Vallabh Godiyal. The music was provided by Alok Malasi. 

Dehradun, March 27
After continuing with his hunger strike for almost a week, Tehri Congress MLA Kishore Upadhyaya has now decided to step up his protest further by announcing to observe ‘maun vrat’ beginning tomorrow.

Announcing this from the Doon Hospital, where he was admitted on Saturday, after reporting failing health, Upadhayaya said he would continue with his protest till his last breath for the larger cause of betterment of Tehri and its people.

Updhayaya said he had been forcibly brought to the Doon Hospital from the dharna site outside the Vidhan Sabha, but asserted that this would not deter him from continuing his protest.

“I will also observe ‘maun vrat’ from tomorrow. This will be followed by abstinence from water from the next week onwards,” 
said Upadhayaya.

He also held that the state government would be responsible for all the consequences, if anyone tried to go for force feeding on him. Responding to mediapersons’ queries, Upadhayaya said, “Everyone has a right to protest in a democratic country. We had even observed fast inside the Parliament campus, near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi despite not even being MPs during the state agitation and, thus, no one has any right to oppose my non-violent way of protest”.

Updhayaya said the Tehri had a rich history of making sacrifices. He said personalities from Tehri like Sridev Suman gave a supreme sacrifice for the sake of people and he was only continuing with the tradition.

He also denied that there were differences in the party towards backing his protest. “All the party MLAs had collectively staged a walkout inside the Assembly over the issue of my well being,” he said. Congress MLAs Dinesh Agarwal and GS Kunjwal were also present on the occasion.

Dehradun, March 27
Amandeep Singh and Puneet Singh were declared overall rally champions of the Wheel of Springs, 2011, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) car rally that concluded at the Bidholi campus here today.

In the open category, Saurabh Nagalia and Anubha Nagalia were declared winners and awarded a cash prize of Rs 10,000. Joy Ankush Raja and Deepak Khanna won the second prize and Tushar Jain and Saurabh Jain won the third prize.

In the family category, Rajesh Talwar and Shwetank Talwar won the first prize, Mukul Jain and Shobha Jain the second prize and Gagan Goyal and Atul Goyal the third prize.

In the UPES staff category, Umesh Wazir and Tarun Chitkara won the first prize, Dr MS Phawa and Manmeet Kaur the second prize and Dr DK Gupta and Deepti Gupta the third prize.

A total of 55 participants participated in the rally that was flagged off in the morning from Dunga House by Manjul Joshi, Additional Secretary, and AK Hazarika, CMD, ONGC Ltd.

The prize distribution ceremony at the UPES campus was presided over by Water Resource Minister Prakash Pant.

The main sponsors were Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and Castrol.

Dehradun, March 27
Three members of the BEd, BPEd, MEd, MPEd Prashikshit Berozgar Sangathan’s continued their hunger strike atop a water tank tower at Banu School today. They threatened to jump from the tower if the state government did not listen to their demands. They had climbed the tower on Friday night.

The association also burnt an effigy of the state government near the tower for failing to fulfill their demands. “The state government is dead for us. They are not bothered to listen to our genuine demands,” said Himanshu Rajput, the vice-president of the association.

“No one from the government came to see us even today. The health of the three men is deteriorating fast and if anything happens to them the government will be responsible,” Rajput added.

Yesterday some officers from the administration had visited the spot and requested them to come down. However, the association insisted on the release of a notification by the government for filling 8,000 posts of the specialised BTC.

The association has also demanded that eligibility of 50 per cent marks in graduation for the specialised BTC to be waived off. 

The Budget Session of the Uttarakhand Assembly brings in a lot of activities involving the state government machinery, but the ongoing Budget Session has brought with it a lot more activities, noise and din. The reason being that it is the last Budget of the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government and probably the last session of the present state Assembly before the forthcoming Assembly elections scheduled to be held in February, 2012.

While Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank presented a populist Budget trying to please a large section of society with an eye on the coming polls, Opposition members were also visibly active to show their worth and to put the state government on the mat within and outside the state Assembly.

It has become a norm in the Uttarakhand Assembly that the Opposition members create ruckus on one issue or the other and the House gets adjourned. In such an atmosphere of tit for tat and game of one-upmanship, the real legislative work or the main motive to highlight the issues concerning the masses remain in the background with the legislators trying to score brownie points and the treasury benches only trying to stonewall most of the issues of public concern. Interestingly, the Assembly functioned for a few hours and some of the ministers were found wanting and were not fully prepared to answer the queries and supplementaries put forth by the members.

The level of discussion in the state legislature has come down over the years. The state saw the best debates during the interim Assembly soon after the formation of the state in November, 2000. With fewer members than the present elected strength, the discussions were more focussed and elaborate. Most of the debates were meaningful and lively with Chief Minister Nityanand Swami, a veteran of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, leading the House with Indira Hariydesh, Munna Singh Chauhan and Ambrish Kumar taking the state government to task and giving valuable suggestions in legislative work. Ambirsh Kumar was the best legislator in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly also.

However, the first elected state Assembly, led by another veteran Chief minister ND Tiwari did not see any lively debate except expected acrimony between the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP. The main reason was that the Chief Minister did not take any interest in the legislative work and left the House to be run by his number two, Indira Hariydesh.

In the ongoing Assembly session, another vital question that arose was whether the House or the well of the House was the appropriate place to stage dharnas by the Opposition legislators. A precarious situation arose when Congress legislator from Tehri Kishore Upadhyaya resorted to a dharna in the well of the House to press for the demands concerning his Tehri constituency. He was joined by other Congress legislators. Finally, the Speaker for the first time in the history of the state suspended six Congress legislators for three days and Upadhyaya was forcibly evicted from the well. Later, the House revoked its suspension order on the assurance by the Leaders of the Opposition.

Political observers believe that the forthcoming Assembly polls have forced most of the legislators to show their love for their constituencies that they ignored in the past. Interestingly, while Upadhyaya resorted to a dharna, members of the ruling BJP taunted him for not even spending his Local Area Development Fund but resorting to agitation for Tehri people blaming the state government.

Dehradun, March 27
Sunderwala today ousted Gujrada 3-0 in a knockout match played on the inaugural day of the Bir Singh Thakur Memorial Tournament being organised by the Dev Bhumi Vikas Sansthan on the OFD Ground here.

Gujrada failed to score throughout the match while Sunderwala were in their element striking three goals. Himanshu (20th) opened the account of the winning team as the first half ended at 1-0.

Sushant Rana (39th) and Shashank (58th) scored the next two goals for Sunderwala. The rival team was not given any chance to score by the solid defense of the winning team. Earlier, the match was inaugurated by Agriculture Minister Trivender Singh Rawat.

Tomorrow, two knockout matches will be played. In the first match, XI Star will meet Khalanga while Nehru Gram will face Bajrang.

Dehradun, March 27
Dehradun District XI got the better of the Scotland under-19 team by two wickets in a one-day match held at Abhhimanyu Cricket Academy here today.The visitors won the toss and chose to bat first. Scotland set a target of 202 runs in 48.4 overs losing all its wickets. R Mclean (46), P Ross (34) and M Cross (30) were the principal scorers. Bhupender of the district team returned with a rich haul and troubled the batsmen of the Scotland team with his deliveries. Aryamaan and Amit Pandey also got a wicket each.

Replying with the bat, the home side achieved the target of 202 runs in 46.1 overs. Ashish Panwar (37), Amit Lara (35 not out) and Vaibhav Bhatt (29) mainly scored for the side.

For Scotland, K Smith and G Main took two wickets each. P Sadler, S Page and T Mcbride too pocketed a wicket each. 

Dehradun March 27
Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna (HNB) Garhwal University, Srinagar, declared the vacancies in the pre-PhD course for the centres in Pauri, Tehri and Srinagar here today.

The classes for pre- PhD course will commence from April 11. The list of short-listed candidates in its affiliated colleges for different subjects has also been released. The university has already sent the call letters to the short-listed candidates and scheduled April 8 as the last date for admission. The fee for general candidates is fixed at Rs 3,100, while Rs 2,100 is for SC/ST candidates The fee can be submitted through cash as well as bank draft in the name of the Finance Officer, HNB Garhwal University. The draft has to be handed over at Srinagar, Garhwal.

For further information, candidates can log on to the official website of the university, www.hnbgu.ac.in. 

Dehradun, March 27
Despite the involvement of gram panchayat and the MC, the civic problems of Vivek Vihar-II of Jakhan (ward number 3) remain unattended. The managing bodies, the gram panchayat and the MC are unable to provide relief to the residents, who have been drawing attention towards the broken roads, absence of streetlights, an open nullah running from their front yard and disposal of garbage.

The slum area of Vivek Vihar-II, earlier known as Bapu Nagar, has around 230 families residing legally. “Our area is registered under the Dehradun MC since 1984. Despite regular taxes being paid by us, the MC has neither laid apucca road, nor has installed streetlights in our locality,” complains ex-Armyman Satbeer Singh.