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Eleven legislators in category of crorepatis
Anjum confident of clean sweep by BSP in Haridwar
Stay on Balkrishna’s arrest to continue
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New road to reduce distance to border town
Sikh body adamant on gurdwara at Har-ki-Pauri
Rogue tusker still on the run
Three killed in road accident
Quarrying in Ganga Basin
Remote village on border electrified
Potato prices to go up in March
Two more held for Deputy Jailer’s murder
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Eleven legislators in category of crorepatis
Nainital, December 2 Of the 70 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), 11 are ‘crorepatis’. In terms of the party-wise breakup, the Congress has five ‘crorepati’ legislators while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have three each. If analysed on the basis of the party’s strength in the house, the BSP accounts for 38 per cent as out of three, eight MLAs come in this category. The Congress has five among its strength of 20 while the BJP has three out of its 36 members in this category. These are some of the interesting facets of the report prepared by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Uttarakhand Election Watch (UEC). According to these organisations, the facts are based on the affidavits filed by candidates with their nomination papers before the last polls. Copies of affidavits were obtained from the Election Commission of India’s website (http://eci.nic.in). The two organisations have stated in their report, “While all efforts have been made to ensure that the information is keeping with what is mentioned in the affidavits, in case of discrepancy between the information in this report and that given in the affidavits, the information reported in the affidavits filed by candidates should be treated as correct.” The report adds that Amrita Rawat of the Congress tops the chart with total assets, both movable and immovable, amounting to Rs 12 crore. She is followed by Mohammad Shehzad of the BSP, who has total assets to the tune of Rs 4 crore. Among the BJP leaders, Chief Minister BC Khanduri tops the list with assets to the tune of Rs 1.48 crore. The report, while referring to the MLAs with lowest assets, said Om Gopal of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) leads this segment as he had stated in his affidavit that his total assets were to the tune of Rs 20,000. He was followed by Bansidhar Bhagat of the BJP, whose figure of the assets stood at Rs 2.38 lakh. Observers point out that it would be worth studying how much assets are declared by these people when they go on to file their nominations for the forthcoming Assembly elections. |
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Anjum confident of clean sweep by BSP in Haridwar
Haridwar, December 2 Anjum Begum backed her claim by pointing out that the able governance of BSP supremo Mayawati had given hope to the people of Uttarakhand that the same developmental and stern anti-corruption governance of the party in Uttar Pradesh will be replicated in this hilly state if BSP rode to power. Secondly, she asserted that people of the district had seen Congress Party’s Union State Cabinet Minister’s (Harish Rawat) and Uttarakhand state BJP Cabinet Minister’s (Madan Kaushik) tenures, which had been marred with controversies rather than development. “The public is perturbed with both Congress and BJP leaders and looks to the BSP as it’s first choice. Zila panchayat elections were just an indication but in the upcoming Assembly elections, we will sweep all the 11 Assembly segments and usher in development in the region,” said Anjum. She urged voters of the district to vote for the ‘elephant’ as both the ‘hand’ and ‘lotus’ had failed on development parameters. By having 11 Assembly seats, the party will surely form the next government in the state. With a couple of legislators resigning from the party membership, Anjum denied it having any repercussions on the party’s prospects. She asserted that the party’s base mattered, not individual faces. Anjum also lashed at her opponents for levelling false allegations on her of having backdoor secret alliance with the saffron party and giving bribes to BJP zila panchayat members to make sure they gave second preferential vote to her instead of Congress candidate Kusum Devi. She also termed her six months’ tenure as zila panchayat chairperson as productive and said that as this is a short span, the real work be visible in the coming months only. |
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Stay on Balkrishna’s arrest to continue
Nainital, December 2 Justice Tarun Aggarwal, Nainital High Court, in his judgement, while giving relief to Balkrishna also rejected his plea of quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He has also been asked to cooperate with the CBI, the investigation agency in the fake documents case. CBI counsel had pleaded for vacation of the stay on his arrest on the grounds that the alleged accused had not been cooperating with the investigating agency. The court also ruled that Balkrishna would not leave the country and his passport deposited with the High Court would remain in the court custody till the filing of the charge sheet in the competent court by the CBI in the case. The trial court will decide in case he needed his passport. The passport of Balkrishna had been submitted before the High Court on August 5 following which hearings had been held on August 29 and September 15. On another couple of occasions, the court had given fresh dates for taking up the matter. The High Court had granted Balkrishna immunity from arrest on July 29 and had asked him to present himself before the CBI and help in the investigations. A petition by Balkrishna, charged by the CBI of having furnished fake certificates to get a passport, had been taken up by the court of Justice Tarun Aggarwala in the last week of July. The CBI counsel pleaded that the registrar of Sampoornanand University had told the CBI that the educational documents produced by Balkrishna were fake. The CBI is represented by Arvind Vashist while Rajendra Dobhal is the counsel for
Balkrishna. |
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New road to reduce distance to border town
Pithoragarh, December 2 “Keeping the strategic value of this road, the Government of India had approved an amount of Rs 520 crore some years ago but due to the non-clearance of the forest land, the construction of this vital road could not be started,” said M.S. Hyanki, executive engineer of state the PWD. The Union Forest Ministry has cleared a 12-km forest patch from Tanakpur to Kakrali gate on which the construction of the road will be started soon after cutting trees. “The forest officers have told us that the counting of trees in this patch will begin in one or two days,” said the PWD engineer. After the construction of this road, not only will the distance to high mountain areas of Dharchula subdivision of Pithoragarh district be reduced, the accident rate, too, in the hilly patch of the road from Tanakpur to Pithoragarh will be cut. “The survey for this motor road was first conducted in the areas in which the villages on the bank of the river were also included. But to reduce the distance and get away from the forest land, a new survey will be conducted by a private construction company,” said the PWD engineer. |
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Sikh body adamant on gurdwara at Har-ki-Pauri
Dehradun, December 2 He said their organisation and hundreds of other sikh devotees would lay a siege to BJP High Command Lal Krishan Advani on December 20 in New Delhi under the leadership of Baljit Singh Khalsa Daduwal to protest against the state government for turning down their proposal of the reconstruction of the gurdwara at Har-ki-Pauri. “We have staged various dharnas and demonstrations and gave memorandums to the state government as well as the Union Government but nothing moved in this direction. Taking inspiration from the BJP’s rath journey, we also carried out a ‘rosh yatra’ from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal from November 7 that culminated in Uttarakhand on November 10.” The Uttarakhand Punjabi Kranti Morcha has lent its support to the Babbar. Its convener Kunwar Japinder Singh said the state government must honour the sentiments of the Punjabi community by building the gurdwara at the designated place. Babbar said if BJP did not accept their demands, then it would face the wrath of the Punjabi community in the coming Assembly elections as well. |
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Rogue tusker still on the run
Dehradun, December 2 The tusker, yet again, during the afternoon hours came near Corbett elephants in Chorpani and consumed some sugarcane. But before forest guards initiate the tranquilisation exercise, the tusker vanished back into the Chorpani forests. Chief Conservator of Forests Bhagirathi Circle SM Joshi disclosed that they were constantly monitoring the situation and were prepared for any eventuality. The forest authorities managed to hit the tusker with a dart in the herbal garden yesterday, but before the tusker came under the influence of the sedative, the authorities had to suspend the operation in the evening due to dark.
Authorities show concern over use of Corbett elephants Dehradun, December 2 The tusker menace has become a challenge for the state forest department these days. The tusker, after having killed five persons in the region in the past few months, was still eluding the authorities. A day ago, it even attacked one of the Corbett elephants that had been brought to Chorpani to deal with it. In the backdrop of the tusker scenario, the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s member secretary Dr Rajesh Gopal asked the state Wildlife Authorities to put in place an institutional mechanism with well-trained response team to deal with such situations. He said the Corbett-Rajaji landscape was prone to the man-elephant conflicts and there was an urgent need for an effective mechanism to deal with man elephant conflict situations. Dr Rajesh Gopal also referred to the letter written to the Director of Corbett Tiger Reserve by National Board of Wildlife member Brijendra Singh in which the latter suggested protocols for addressing man-elephant conflicts. In the letter, he had suggested raising a unit of elephants and trained mahawats for effective handling of such conflicts. Singh, a day back, had also written to the state chief wildlife warden SS Sharma, expressing his concern over the injuries to Corbett elephants being put to use to tackle the tusker. Singh had said the Corbett elephants were not trained to take up such operations.
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Three killed in road accident
Dehradun , December 2 Uttarakhand Chief Minister B.C.Khanduri, in a message, has condoled the death of passengers in the road accident. He directed the district administration to provide medical help to the injured and pay immediate ex-gratia amount to next of kin of the deceased.
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Quarrying in Ganga Basin
Dehradun, December 2 Addressing a press conference here, Jan Jagran Chetna Manch’s president Vijay Verma alleged that the state government was playing in the hands of quarrying mafia in Haridwar and held the state administration responsible for the death of the anti- quarrying activist Swami Nigmanand. Ganga anti-quarrying crusader Swami Nigmanand died a few months back after observing a 68-day -hunger strike, demanding a ban on the quarrying in the Ganga basin. The Matra Sadan, to which Swami Nigmanand belonged, and the Jan Jagran Chetna Manch that has launched a campaign against quarrying in Haridwar today claimed that the mafia in connivance with the politicians murdered the swami through slow poisoning. “After martyrdom of the swami, his Guru Swami Shivanand is now on an indefinite fast for past 8 days demanding a ban on quarrying in Ganga but the state government is least concerned about his health,” Verma maintained. He said he was hopeful that the CBI probe in progress over Swami Nigmanand’s death would expose the nefarious design of the quarrying mafia behind swami’s death. Sanjay Bhatt of the India Against Corruption present at the conference held that the ruling BJP in Uttarakhand has been exposed over the quarrying issue particularly in the Haridwar region. He alleged that the Ganga has been dug up in Haridwar resulting in creation of trenches in Ganga of depth varying from 25 feet to 40 feet. He said it was strange that the BJP, which identifies itself as the champion of the Hindu cause, was promoting quarrying activity in the Ganga basin. Bhatt accused members of the ruling party of being hand in glove with the quarrying mafia. |
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Remote village on border electrified
Pithoragarh, December 2 “The 10 KW capacity plant installed at Garbiyang village, 65 km from the sub -division headquarters of Dharchula, will feed on wind and solar both to produce electricity round the clock,” said PK Gangwar, senior project officer of UREDA. According to a senior project officer, the project, set up with the financial help of central solar
hybrid system, has been installed by a private company, Tata BP Solar India, and has started functioning for the past
one month. “This plant has been installed after a survey found that the wind flows at the velocity of 60 to 80 km per hour round the
year in the village,” said Gangwar. The project officer said this wind energy plant had been situated at a height of 3,220 meter from the sea level. “We have connected every family out of all 150 families of Garbiyang village with this project and supplying them wind energy as there is no possibility of carrying the electric lines from the mainstream feeder,” said the
project officer. “Besides, at Garbiyang, two of our wind energy plants of 5 and 10 KW capacities have also been commissioned at Rilkot and Lilam villages in the Darma valley recently and both are running successfully,” said Gangwar. According to UREDA sources, the survey to find out the possibility of wind energy viability in this area had been conducted by the department with the help of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. After the whole year, a survey team found potential of solar and wind energy in the area as the source of alternative energy. A Detailed Project Reprt (DPR) was prepared on the project and national
competitive bidding was advertised in all major newspapers which has been allotted to an experienced company, Tata BP
Solar India to complete the project,” said Gangwar. |
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Potato prices to go up in March
Nainital, December 2 The main objective of the project is to release the price forecasts of the selected agricultural commodities before sowing and during harvesting. The project team of the Pantnagar centre had conducted market survey of the Haldwani regulated market, a major market for plains’ potato in the state, and analysed the wholesale price data which
has prevailed for the past 21 years. The econometric analysis indicated that the wholesale prices of plains’ potato in Haldwani market would be in the range of Rs 400 to Rs 550 per quintal in January 2012,
while in February 2012 these are expected to be around Rs 350 to Rs 500 per quintal. However, in March 2012, the prices are expected to be in the range of
Rs 450 to Rs 550 per quintal.
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Peyjal Nigam staff to step up stir
Dehradun, December 2 At a meeting held today at the Peyjal Nigam headquarters, the striking employees condemned the attitude of the government and said they would be forced to start a relay hunger stir. “The strike has already lead to a loss of Rs 50 crore and the loss is expected to grow with each passing day as we will not withdraw our stir unless the government heeds to our demand of declaring the Peyjal Nigam as a government department,” said Dinesh Bhandari, member of officers/employees Coordinating Committee, Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam. Meanwhile, the government is maintaining that a study is underway to bring improvement in the functioning of the Peyjal Nigam and the employees and the officers can put forward their demand and suggestions before the members conducting the study. |
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Two more held for Deputy Jailer’s murder
Dehradun , December 2 “Sahdev alias Yogesh, a resident of village Mundali in Meerut district of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh along with Sachin Khokhar Monu, a nephew of gangster Sunil Rathi were arrested from Meerut today,” said Sanjay Gunjiyal, DIG, Garhwal range. Sanjay Gunjiyal said Sehdev had revealed to the police that he had met gangster Sunil Rathi once during his hearing where the conspiracy to shoot Narinder Thapa was hatched. Sahdev has confided to the police that Sunil Rathi had promised him a sum of Rs 5 lakh to accomplish this task. The police has seized one 9mm pistol and a 15 bore country-made pistol from both during their arrest. Pawan, another assailant who was part of the shootout, is still at large. |
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Confident after Bahujan Samaj Party’s victory in the three-tier Zila panchayat elections to the Haridwar zila panchyat, chairperson Anjum Begum expressed hope that her party will make a clean sweep in the upcoming Assembly elections in Haridwar district.
Gurcharan Singh Babbar, president of All-India Sikh Conference, has refused to accept land anywhere else for the construction of Gurdwara Gyan Godhari Sahib but Har-ki-Pauri where he claimed that the 450-year-old gurdwara of Guru Nanak Dev used to be situated before it was dismantled in 1984.
Strongly resenting quarrying activity in the Ganga basin, Jan Jagran Chetna Manch today accused the Uttarakhand government of backing the quarrying mafia and playing with the fragile environment of the region.
