Dehradun April 27
Three officials of the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) were allegedly held captive by the owner of a property, Sachin Upadhyaya, a younger brother of Tehri Congress MLA Kishore Upadhyaya, when they went to photograph the premises on Rajpur Road here today. The officials could only be freed with the timely intervention of the police.

The said property has been involved in a controversy and the matter has been put before the Commissioner, Garhwal. A hearing involving both the parties is to be held on Thursday. The owner of the property has alleged that the MDDA officials asked him for bribe.

Vice-Chairman, MDDA, RK Sudhanshu said: “The officials had been sent to take pictures of the residential premises, to be shown at the hearing, to describe the kind of commercial activity going on in the building. Moreover, the MDDA has the authority to enter any property under its jurisdiction without permission.” Sudhanshu added the property was in the name of Rajender Nautiyal, a businessman, but a social club was illegally being run there by Sachin Upadhyay. The owner of the property had encroached upon a big chunk of government land in the vicinity and was building a four-storied building there.

Sachin’s wife Nazia Yusuf said: “When the matter is sub-judice before the court of Garhwal Commissioner then why the MDDA officials came to the premises a day before the hearing, that too without any orders in writing.” She also denied running any commercial activity for the past two years because of the renovation process going on at the property, the case filed by MDDA and another being pursued by the couple in the High Court regarding the same matter. Though she defended that any such activity could be carried out even in the residential premises for promotion of tourism. She claimed to be the attorney holder of Nautiyal.

Sachin Upadhyaya also denied either running any commercial activity or having any knowledge of anybody running any activity on the premises.

Secretary of the MDDA Vinod Suman said for running any commercial activity, a prior permission from the MDDA was must, which the couple did not take.

The couple, who lost the case in the High Court, were trying to avoid being caught red-handed, which was why they tried to flex political muscle before them, he said. A police case has been filed by the MDDA against the couple for manhandling the officials.

On the other hand, the Upadhayas have also lodged a complaint with the police.

Nainital, April 27
Having won a major battle against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in the Uttarakhand High Court, the reinstated Dehradun Zila Panchayat chairperson Madhu Chauhan has hit hard at the Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank-led government.

In an interaction with media persons in Nainital today, Madhu charged the Nishank-led BJP government with being anti-women.

This is a charge, which has been levelled against the government from various quarters as the BJP affiliates have been instrumental in attempts to dislodge the Zila Panchayat chiefs in Pithoragarh, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar.

Their attempts have proved futile at all the three places. More recently there have been allegations from a former president of the Bar Council and member of the Uttarakhand Wakf Board that BJP cabinet minister Matbar Singh Kandari had threatened her over the phone.

Madhu went on to saying that she was not scared of anyone and would continue to work in the public interest as she had always been doing. She underlined that the move to seize her powers and then dismiss her from the post of the Chairperson of the Zila Panchayat was politically motivated and her victory in the court was a slap on the face of those who had carried out a false campaign against her.

The single bench of Justice Tarun Agarwala of the High Court has ordered her reinstatement with immediate effect besides restoring her powers that had been seized by the state government in August last year. Madhu had been dismissed from her post by the government citing misconduct on February 18 this year.

During the media interaction, Madhu was accompanied by her husband Munna Singh Chauhan who is one of the biggest and most vocal critics of Nishank. He asked Nishank and his government to rise above petty politics and start working in the interest of the masses.

Dehradun, April 27
Going by the progress of the project to upgrade the Doon Hospital to medical college, the announcement of the Uttarakhand Government that the academic session of the college will start in July, 2011, seems to be far-fetched.

Experts fear that the quality of studies at the medical college will be compromised, as the government is keen to reap dividends in the Assembly elections, to be held shortly, by starting the session in July, 2011, and it may not adhere to the norms.

“The proposed medical college needs time and planning so that it becomes a role model in the state. Fixing unrealistic deadlines will not only jeopardise the future of students but also the college,” said a top government official on condition of anonymity.

Though a relaxation in the land requirement for the college by the Medical Council of India (MCI) had spurred the government to inaugurate the medical college on the jail premises as early as July this year, there are several hurdles that have to be crossed. The relaxation in the land requirement has proved to be a boon for various government hospitals. According to the revised guidelines of the MCI, a total of 17 acres is sufficient for setting up a medical college. Earlier, the government was looking for land even at Prem Nagar, but now sources claim the plan has been shelved and the government is planning to sell the prime land to private parties.

About three acres of land on the jail premises continues to be in the possession of the Judiciary Department and sources claim the Medical College is still short of at least 3 acres of land.

Going by the plan, the existing Doon district hospitals for males and females, which are located on the same campus, will be upgraded while taking up the areas vacated by the office of the Directorate of Health on Chander Road and the PWD at Relax Hotel and on the jail premises.

However, the government is yet to start construction work at the site. Besides establishing the infrastructure, the Uttarakhand Government has to begin work on filling the faculty positions by inserting advertisements as also for filling 100 seats, for which an announced is yet to be made.

“We will be building the administrative and pre-clinical departments on the jail premises and the administrative block at the DG office,” said Dr Col Ramamurthy, Manager, Doon Hospital.

The hospital is being promoted as the mascot of government’s achievements ahead of the elections.

The brother of a senior Congress leader is already setting up a Medical College at Satpuli in Pauri Garhwal and there are at least five other medical college projects in the pipeline.

Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Central University at Srinagar has also announced that it would set up a medical college at Kotdwar. Besides, the Almora Base Hospital will be upgraded to medical college and a medical college will be at Rudrapur.

Dehradun, April 27
The judicial remand of software engineer Rajesh Gulati in the case of murder of his wife has been extended till May 9, the police said yesterday.

Gulati, who allegedly murdered his wife Anupama and cut the body into pieces in December last year, was produced before District and Sessions Judge Rajkrishna Gupta on Monday, who extended his judicial remand for 14 more days till May 9. He would now be produced before the court on May 9.The case was transferred to the court of the Dehradun District and Sessions judge from the CJM court for trial on April 12.

The Uttarakhand police has already filed a charge sheet in the case, making Gulati a prime and only accused under a relevant Section of the IPC. In the 350-page charge sheet, the motive behind the murder of 33-year-old Anupama has been described as strained relations between the couple.

The charge sheet also alleged that Rajesh had a second marriage with Jhuma Dutta of Kolkata.

The charge sheet contains the names of 77 witnesses, besides police case diary and findings of investigations corroborated with evidences.

The case was unearthed on December 12 last year, when Anupama's brother SK Pradhan lodged a complaint with the police after not getting a satisfactory reply from Gulati. Later, the police arrested Gulati, who confessed to having murdered his wife, cutting her body into pieces and stashing them in a deep-freezer for nearly two months. — PTI 

Dehradun, April 27
The graduation ceremony of the passing out batch of the BTech programme was held at ICFAI University here today.

More than 700 students passed out as graduate engineers to serve society.

The function was attended by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof GP Srivastava, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof SC Deorani, the Registrar, Prof PK Dash, the Dean, Dr RC Ramola, and members of the faculty.

Professor Srivastava, in his inaugural speech, highlighted the special features of the BTech curriculum of the university. He said the curriculum enabled the students to face the challenges of professional life and the competitive world. It also empowered them to be analytical in their thinking. The BTech degree programme provides holistic knowledge in a wide range of technical fields. Both the Vice-Chancellor and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor emphasised the virtue of being good human being apart from being professionally sound. Professor Deorani laid stress on healthy body and healthy mind as essential components of growth and development of personality. He also assured the students that they would find full support of the university at any point of time in their professional career. The students took the oath to pursue their professional career in an honest manner.

The grand finale came with the presentation of certificates and mementoes to the graduating students by the Vice-Chancellor and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor. In the evening a vibrant cultural programme was organised to celebrate the occasion.

Dehradun, April 27
The Governor of Uttarakhand, Margaret Alva, has said that regular maintenance of historical monuments in the country is important for long-term growth of international tourism and this can be made cost-effective by minimising environmentally detrimental factors from the vicinity of such monuments.

Delivering her address at the launch function of a documentary film titled "The man who saved the Taj Mahal" at the Raj Bhawan auditorium here today, the Governor said that the environmental scenario around the monuments in the recent past had undergone a drastic change.

"Unprecedented pressure on land due to unplanned rapid growth in the vicinity of some monuments needs to be given immediate attention by various agencies," the Governor said after viewing the 56-minute documentary film based on the efforts of senior lawyer and Magsaysay awardee MC Mehta in saving the Taj Mahal from degradation and degeneration caused by polluting industries through public interest litigation. The documentary is written and directed by Toronto-based Jay Bajaj. MC Mehta was also present on the occasion. 

Dehradun, April 27
Varsha scored three goals to lead MKP (Inter) College in thrashing Welham Girls’ School (A) 4-0 in the final to claim the Welhams’ Invitational School Hockey Tournament trophy, here today.

Varsha (sixth, 29th, 45th minutes) helped her side register a one-side win. Neena (19th) also chipped in with a goal for MKP. Welham girls could not score even a single goal and had no answer to the attack of the rival team.

Meanwhile, the Chief Guest, the Principal of Moravian Institute, gave away individual and team trophies to the players. Kavita Bisht of MKP was given the most valuable player award. Pooja Bhatt of the same college walked away with most promising player award.

Best defender prize was given to Sabina of Welham (A) and Lavia of Welham (B) was honoured with the best goalkeeper award.

Mussoorie, April 27
Eminent actor and sports author Tom Alter, speaking on the sidelines of Nand Kishore Bamboo Memorial Cricket Tournament about the CWG scam and Kalmadi’s arrest said that it was bound to happen one day.

Alter was vociferous on the issue of keeping politicians out of sports and asserted that they should be kept away from any sports association with the exception if they are sportspersons themselves. Speaking about Kalamadi, he said Kalmadi’s greed had let him down and eventually landed him in the jail. He, however, said that Kalmadi alone could not have committed fraud of such scale and the silence of likes of Randhir Singh, his close aide, was also mysterious.

Speaking about Kalmadi’s misdemeanour, he said that several decades ago Kalmadi sacked him along with ace swimmer Anita Sood after he came to know that they would not vote for him as IOC president. Kalmadi removed them and placed some dummy members and eventually won by one vote.

Not only this, Kalmadi once refused to recognise Bollywood superstar Dilip Kumar and ridiculed him. Alter lambasting Kalmadi, he said the CWG was just the tip of the iceberg. Alter suggested that if India wanted to shine in sports, the government involvement should be stopped completely and that can be done.