Dehradun, April 12
With an aim to take on the ruling BJP State Government, the Uttarakhand Congress has decided to start a satyagraha yatra in the state. A decision in this regard was taken yesterday at a meeting of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) attended by newly elected general secretary in charge Birender Singh.

Uttarakhand Congress chief Yashpal Arya today held a meeting of the district Congress chiefs to chalk out a strategy for the satyagraha yatra. “The yatra will start from Dharchula in Pitthoragarh district and travel through all the 70 Assembly segments of the state,” said Arya.

He said the yatra would start in the first week of May and continue uninterrupted for 50 days. “We are determined to highlight the anti-people policies and the scandals involving the BJP Government before the common people of the state in all the remote and inaccessible areas. The yatra will traverse 3,500 km in 50 days,” he said.

Arya, along with the senior Congress leaders, met the district Congress committee chiefs and asked them about the details of the polling booths and the block committees. Arya also directed the district chiefs to finalise the district committees in the districts, where these have not been formed. He said district committee would be formed soon.

Senior Congress leader and Pauri Garhwal MP Satpal Maharaj, former ministers Nav Parbhat, Mantri Parsad Naithani and other senior leaders were present in the meeting.

Nainital, April 12
The failure of the administration to provide basic amenities in parts of Haldwani town led to the public venting its ire on Cabinet Minister Bansidhar Bhagat who happens to be the legislator from the town.

Bhagat was in for some major criticism and had to face the wrath of residents from Kusumkheda and Indiranagar (Phase II) areas on Sunday. Forced to borrow and beg for drinking water from residents of neighbouring localities, people of these two localities lost their patience and descended on the minister’s residence early in the morning. They were riding motorcycles, scooters and tempos.

They not only gheraoed the minister, but also raised slogans in support of their demands. They related their plight to Bhagat and it was pointed out that despite the money having been sanctioned from the legislator’s development fund, the officials of the Water Department had laid down the pipelines in a faulty manner.

The matter was resolved only when Bhagat assured them to call the Executive Engineer of the Jal Sansthan and order him to put the water supply in order at the earliest.

Those who had descended on his residence included women and children. They said there were about 36 houses in Indiranagar (Phase 2) that had not been getting a regular supply of drinking water for the past three years. The people are managing by borrowing water from those who have a regular supply coming from the main pipeline. Bhagat has promised them that the matter will be looked into and the guilty officials will not be spared.

With the setting in of summer, certain areas of Haldwani are facing acute problems with regards to provision of basic amenities. Besides the erratic supply of water and power, the residents are also complaining of a lack of sanitation facilities.

Media reports say there is at least 56 tonnes of waste that is generated from the town and requires to be effectively disposed of. It has also been pointed out that the number of persons deployed for carrying out this task is less than half of what is required.

Dehradun, April 12
The Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) is going to upgrade the infrastructure at Har-ki-Dun during the current financial year. The department has identified the grey areas.

Joint Director, UTDB, AK Dwivedi said: “The place is quite important from the tourism point of view, but lacks the basic infrastructure, which is required to boost tourism in the region. The shortage of accommodation is quite a big challenge. Therefore, we will develop dormitories, both for men and women. Similarly, gender-based wayside amenities will also be provided. A multi-purpose hall for the organisation of cultural events or any other activities will also be built.

“The accommodation and premises, which usually suffer on account of electricity, will be updated with solar power and solar heaters. Informatory signages will be erected on the way. The garbage collection and disposal has emerged as a big nuisance for everyone. We have also enlisted a solid waste management facility to be developed in the area. The estimates/costs for the development has been pegged at Rs 1.9 crore,” Dwivedi said.

Har-ki-Dun is one of the most important tourist places of the region and it is known for its beautiful treks, forests and glaciers. “The Har-ki-Dun trek is one of the most famous treks in the Garhwal Himalayas. The trek from Osla to Har-ki-Dun passes through terraced mountain fields, lush green land and conifer forests. The valley is located at the base of Fateh Parvat at an elevation of 3,556 m. It is a paradise for bird watchers and nature lovers. The tourists opt for the trek that starts from Netwar to Osla and passes through dense forests of chestnuts, walnuts, willows and chinars,” he said.

The chances of seeing wild animals venturing in their natural habitat are also bright here. Aesthetically carved temple dedicated to Duryodhana, the Kaurava prince, is situated in the valley. The temple is still in a good condition, so the board is not taking it up under its up-gradation programme.

The glaciers are other big attraction in the region, particularly the Jaundhar Glacier, which is situated at an altitude of 4,300 m. It is just about 5 km from Har-ki-Dun.

The valley is a base for Swargarohini, which is situated at an altitude of 21,000 feet. Legend has it that the Pandavs went to heaven through this mountain.

Dehradun, April 12
The elected members of the Uttarakhand Wakf Board are apprehensive of the long-awaited board meeting to take place on Wednesday after a gap of six months. They fear that Chairman Rao Sharafat Ali may dodge them again.

Elected member MLA Mohammad Shahzad gave the overtures by confirming not having received any information or agenda copy of the meeting. Recurrent cancellation of the board meeting in the past, quite recently on April 5, has added to their suspicion.

The elected members are prepared to tighten their noose around Sharafat, who has earned the wrath of the members for taking one-sided decisions without taking the concurrence of the majority in the board meeting.

Elected member Mohammad Akram said, “Sharafat has been pushed into a corner, as not only elected members, but his own people like Mufti Raees, too, have turned against him, which is why he wants to avoid the board meeting.”

The stay order on the nomination of one member Dr Zakir Hussain, given to his implication in a criminal case, has mounted complications for Ali. Rules have been flouted in the UWB from day one, after it was reinstated on May 2 last year.

Before that it remained dissolved for three years, for former Chairman Chaudhary Raees Ahmad’s involvement in allegedly usurping Wakf properties and minting money through wrong methods.

The nomination of six members by the BJP State Government against five elected members, too, was challenged in the Nainital High Court and so was the nomination of Hussain. The members have also been making their strong reservations against the frequent change of chief executive officers and the latest one for not being eligible at all.

Elected member and former president of the Bar Council Razia Beig said, “In the past one year, four CEOs have been changed. The current one Raees, too, failed on all the three accounts. He has only two-year experience as a gazetted officer, that too by being CEO of the Wakf Board, against the requirement of 10-year experience. He does not know Urdu and, above all, he was nominated without any consultation with board members.”

Ali counted on the inefficiency of the CEOs for their frequent removal and proficiency of Urdu. He felt that it was a rare phenomenon in the state. The incensed members, who could not confront Ali in the absence of any meeting, have gone to the HC when Social Welfare Minister and in charge of Muslim affairs Matbar Singh Kandari sent letters to all the members, thereby informing them of handing over all the financial powers to the CEO and Chairman, Wakf Board, under Section 32, which, henceforth, nullified the requirement of board approval.

In response to the writ, the HC stayed the order on March 5 reprimanding the minister for holding no authority on passing any order regarding the financial powers of the Board.

Another elected member Hafiz-ur-Rahman gathered information by invoking the RTI on a matter when he was denied access by Sharafat on January 23, which substantiated Ali having received an amount of Rs 50 lakh on a contract given for a work at Piran Kaliyar Dargah, near Roorkee.

According to Rahman, “Ali has not been given financial powers to take individual decisions beyond Rs 25,000. Ali deputed three elected members without consulting the members to organise the mega annual festival of Urs in February this year at Piran Kaliyar, he allegedly made a transaction of crores of rupees by giving lucrative tenders, again without passing these in board meetings.

“Ali is deliberately not holding the meeting, because he knows his game plan to make money through nefarious designs will fall flat if he follows the legal way of passing resolutions in the board. He gave mighty tenders, that too when the code of conduct for panchayat election at Haridwar was on, was a clear-cut case of violation.

Even now, he wanted to avert meeting as he wanted to make most of the time left before code and conduct became operational before the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state,” said elected member of Wakf Board and MLA Haji Taslim Ahmad.

As Razia said, “Ali has not removed a single encroachment on any of the Wakf property. He rather sold three shops of the Wakf to convert them into a hotel”.

He did not vacate, another plush hotel owned by him, but in his father-in-law’s name near Piran Kaliyar, despite DM’s attachment of the said property. He had also been booked for plundering lakhs of money from cashiers of this shrine and was put in revenue jail for the same in ’98 for 14 days. Ali denied this charge, but admitted being implicated in a criminal case, involving clashes with some of the villagers in his village in 1995.

Sharafat also came under scanner for joining hands with another contentious figure, caretaker of the Wakf-10 B and Chairman of Uttarakhand State Haj Committee Shamim Alam, who is also facing criminal charges and fraud of Rs 28.30 lakh.

To these charges, Sharafat said, “I am a very poor man, who came a long way before becoming Chairman of the Wakf Board, which has 2,800 properties of gargantuan value. My detractors feel jealous of me and make baseless allegations against me”.

Nainital, April 12
Women agitating against the opening up of liquor vends in certain places across Kumaon are in no mood to go on the back foot and are continuing with their efforts to garner more and more support for their cause across the rural areas.

The women are not shying away from confrontations and carrying on their agitation in Danya, Lamgarah, Tanakpur and certain other areas in Pithoragarh, Almora, Nainital and Champawat districts.

A man in an inebriated state, who is learnt to be a liquor contractor, received a thrashing from the agitating women, who were carrying out a protest march in the Jageshwar area of Almora on Monday evening. Having hurled verbal abuses at the women, the man did not know what was in store for him till he received a sound thrashing by the women, who had been carrying stinging nettle with them. The agitating women sat on the road demanding his immediate arrest.

Incidentally, stinging nettle is turning out to be the most reliable weapon in the hands of the women apart from certain farm implements.

According to reports coming from Lamgarah, the women are sitting on a dharna with the nettle in hand outside a liquor shop that has been recently allocated. They are demanding that the shop be relocated elsewhere. They have announced that they will be resorting to a traffic blockade on April 15, followed by a hunger strike.

A similar protest has also been reported from the Sukhidhang area of Tanakpur in Champawat district. A recent incident in Champawat where the administration had agreed to relocate a liquor vend has proved to be a shot in the arm for the agitating women. Succumbing to the pressure of women at Pati village of Champawat district on the issue of opening a liquor vend in their village, the administration had decided to shift the liquor vend to Devidhura instead.

Dehradun, April 12
Security arrangements and convenient traffic management programme have been put in place for the Baisakhi fair on April 13 and 14 in Haridwar district. More than five lakh devotees are expected to take a dip at Hari ki Pauri from different parts of the country, including Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and other come to take dip the Ganga on Baisakhi.

According to DIG (Garhwal Range) Deepam Seth, Haridwar has been divided into 11 zones and 38 sectors. Seven well-equipped motorcycles have been sent to Haridwar for the fair. The DIG has deployed additional police force from several districts.

Six COs, 15 Sub Inspectors, 40 Head Constables, 250 constables, 18 women SIs, 50 constables, five tariff SI, 25 traffic constables and five companies of PAC will be on duty to make full-proof security in Haridwar. Besides, wireless staff has been deployed for better communication and a special ‘Khoya-Paya’ cell for missing people has also been set up.

Dehradun, April 12
Chairman of the Uttarakhand State Haj Committee (USHC) Shamim Alam, who is supposed to be looking after the interests of the Muslims, especially those going on haj is facing serious charges of misappropriation of funds, more so in his other designation as a caretaker of Wakf Property-10B, a position he has been handling for the past 25 years. The Wakf Board has around 350 properties worth crores in the city.

Alam, who was recently seen sharing a dais with Chairman of the Uttarakhand Wakf Board Rao Sharafat Ali, the man who first implicated and then exonerated him on the same account and whose own credentials are suspect, spoke candidly about the allegations of corruption against him.

Alam was removed from the position of caretaker of Wakf-10B through a proposal passed by the Uttarakhand Wakf Board under Section 64 of the Wakf Act 1995 for embezzlement of Rs 28.50 lakh and replaced by Chief Executive Officer of the board on August 9 last year. He was also directed to submit all the documents and paraphernalia to the authorities concerned and desist from indulging in any transaction with the related banks as caretaker.

But he refused to bow down, and instead moved the Nainital High Court on September 1, which refused to give him relief first on his writ petition and then on his stay appeal.

Interestingly, the very same Rao Sharafat Ali, who removed him from the position of caretaker of Wakf-10B, permitted him to continue through his letter dated January 24 this year, thus overriding the directions of the High Court. Some of the board members cried foul on the development, but in vain.

Clarifying his position on the matter, Rao Sharafat Ali said: “Alam requested me not to punish him until the charges against him are proved in the court, to which I agreed”.

Alam has been charged with tampering with rental income from the Wakf properties. Former Chief Executive Officer of the Wakf Board Raees Ahmad accused him of charging exorbitant rents from the tenants in a surreptitious manner while maintaining the receipts of petty amount of Rs 10,15, 50 likewise in the record. He also accused Alam of fiddling with the list of tenants and audit report.

The allegations were endorsed in a joint inquiry held by the Uttarakhand Wakf Board under Section 33 (3) of the Act for incurring losses of Rs 28.50 lakh by deliberately keeping the rentals low. Alam in his defense said: “The Wakf properties are meant for the poor and destitute. I can not impose higher rent on them, something for which I was dressed down by the Uttarakhand Wakf Board”.

He admitted of fiddling with the rates of rent, but passed the buck on to the men working under him. “I am working as the head of the organisation and remained largely unaware about such acts of cheating unless the matter is brought to my notice,” he replied while washing his hands off his responsibility.

Razia Beig, a vocal member of the Uttarakhand Wakf Board and a former president of the Uttarakhand Bar Council, said despite the availability of many Muslim personalities of high stature and impeccable records, it was so unfortunate that the state BJP Government imposed these two men with tainted background on two of the most important religious institutions, the Wakf Board and the Haj Committees in the state.

Alam is also indicted for the alleged forgery of education certificates and selling off the Wakf properties. He was jailed for allegedly procuring a false LLB degree in 1998 and was later bailed out by the High Court. The case is still pending in the Nainital High Court. “I am a political man and people are after me to tarnish my image,” said Alam.

Former Chief Executive Officer of the Wakf Board Kutubuddin remarked that the Wakf properties under Alam were yielding an income of Rs 2 lakh annually whereas the proportionate rental income has not increased despite a monumental increase in the value of these properties”.

Former District Chairman, Wakf Board (Dehradun), Latafat Hussain said: “Alam presented wrong facts regarding the stay of hajis from Uttarakhand in Saudia Arabia which resulted in hardships to them”.

Haridwar, April 12
With doctors in the state rolling back their proposed two-day strike from April 15 following an assurance from the CM on their various demands, both the government and private doctors have breathed a sigh of relief.

In Haridwar, the doctor fraternity had come under one banner, to push forth the security aspect of doctors as they have been facing physical violence as well as, discrepancies in the allotment of cadre.

These medicos want a stringent law, the DACP, to check the growing incidents of violence and instant legislation by the state government. Doctors illustrate the example of 10 other states where such a legislation is in place bringing the violence level to minimum. The states are HP, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, AP, Karnataka, MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan among others.

Indian Medical Association (IMA) Haridwar unit secretary Sanjay Shaw said the strike had been temporarily called off on the CM’s assurance. “We had even registered a one-day strike on March 1 last and didn’t intend to pose problems for patients, but ultimately we, too, are human beings. We can’t work in an atmosphere where we are threatened and even physically abused,” said Dr Shaw.

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand state Ayurvedic Yunani Nurses Union members wore black head rolls to demonstrate their unhappiness over pay disparities at the twin ayurvedic colleges of the city, namely Rishikul and Gurukul.

Manju Rani, chief of the RAYNS, asked if ayush employees are getting second-hand treatment, how can the state be called ayush? “If this continues, we will conduct a full strike,” said Poonam, general secretary of the union.

Dehradun, April 12
Two sharp shooters who had allegedly shot dead Munir Rahmad, alias Babbal, near his residence in Nathanpur in March last year on contract from Jitender were given police remand today.

According to AS Rawat, Station House Officer (SHO), Dalanwala police station, Pravin, a resident of Delhi, and Dinesh, alias Billu, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, were brought from Delhi on two-day police remand.

The two sharp shooters had shot dead Babbal and were arrested by the Delhi police. They were on a contract by Jiti for Rs 3 lakh. An amount of Rs 1 lakh was paid to them in advance, while the remaining Rs 2 lakh was to be paid after the work.

After shooting Babbal they had fled to Meerut by car. Jiti and Babbal, both history-sheeters, had had a property dispute.

Pitthoragarh, April 12
Despite the order of the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary to start the allocation of the houses being constructed for urban poor by the local bodies in the state, the Pitthoragarh Nagar Palika Parishad will allocate these only after the completion of all the houses.

Out of 200, the parishad has completed 155 houses. The houses are being constructed under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development programme, informed Parishad Executive Officer (EO) Khimanand Joshi here today.

“For the 200 houses being constructed at six places in various wards of the parishad, the Pitthoragarh Palika received Rs 4.4 crore, out of which Rs 4 crore has been used in the construction. If we get the rest of the amount, 45 houses will be completed,” said the EO.

Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar, in a recent video conferencing, has ordered all the urban bodies to start allocating these houses constructed under the scheme after ensuring quality.

“If we get the remaining amount of Rs 40 lakh which the Chief Secretary has promised to realise within one week, we will complete the construction of the remaining 45 houses, and only then can we start distributing these among the beneficiaries,” said Joshi.

Dehradun, April 12
Dr IS Pal, former DG Health, has said for the longevity of a neonatal it is imperative that good care is given from the day a child is born. He was speaking at a workshop on Safe Motherhood held here yesterday.

“It is important that we increase awareness about the steps that need to be taken for decreasing the child maternal mortality rate,” he said.

Dr Ajeet Gairola, Tuberculosis Officer, said due to lack of awareness about creating an infection-free environment for the mother and child, most of the deaths occurred in the initial stage. The workshop was organised jointly by the Uttarakhand State AIDS Control Society and the Plan India.