Mussoorie, December 30
The poll managers from major political parties, namely the BJP and the Congress, are facing immense challenge to accommodate women candidates, who are demanding a fare share of the tickets in the upcoming state elections in the wake of the 33 per cent reservation as proposed in the Women’s Reservation Bill that is still biting dust in Parliament due to various reasons.

The BJP Government led by BC Khanduri had announced 50 per cent reservations for women in panchayat elections during his first tenure as chief minister with an objective to include them in the mainstream of state politics.

However, the raised aspirations of the women who, after the new found taste in politics through panchayat elections, are now demanding equal share in the distribution of MLA tickets this time around. Same is the situation in the Congress Party.

The women candidates are vociferous enough to demand the seats of their liking and this has put the poll masters of both BJP and Congress in a tight spot, who are taxing there grey cells to find ways to accommodate women candidates.

The history of women candidates making into the Assembly dates as far back to 1957 when the whole region was under Uttar Pradesh. The first woman MLA to reach the Assembly from Uttarakhand was Vinaylakshmi, the widow of the renowned revolutionary, martyr Sri Dev Suman. Vinaylakshmi won twice from Dev Prayag seat in 1957 and 1962, respectively. Third time she was defeated by Indramani Badoni in 1967. Following this Saraswati Tamta won from Bageshwar reserved seat on Congress ticket. She became the first woman candidate from the Scheduled Caste to reach the Assembly. Rama Devi, Congress candidate, won from Almora in 1971. In 1989 Saraswati Tivari won from the same seat. However, in the Assembly elections of 1991, 1993 and 1996, no women candidate could make it into the Assembly.

After the formation of a separate state of Uttarakhand in 2002, around 72 women candidates fought for different Assembly seats, out of which only four made it into the Assembly. Similarly, in 2007, 56 women candidate were in the fray, out of which four candidates made it into the Assembly. It is evident from this that that women from Uttarakhand, who were the backbone of the separate sate movement, also participated actively in the state election process, thus proving their mettle from time to time.

Speaking of the Mussoorie Assembly segment, one of the probable women candidates from the BJP Tika Rani Shah belonging to royal family of Tehri Garhwal, vying for the Mussoorie Assembly segment, who has a strong hold over the voters from the Gorkha community apart from being a woman, is facing a tough task, convincing the poll managers as the other male candidates have spent huge amounts of money and time in nurturing the constituency in the past three years.

But the BJP, which has pledged to support women in politics, is yet to adhere to 33 per cent reservation clause in its own party despite providing 50 per cent reservation to the its women candidates in panchayat polls.

The Congress, too, with Sonia Gandhi as its national president in the state is yet to prove that it also is in favour of the women candidate representation in the party. This election will be a litmus test for both the parties in determining its support for the women candidates, who are pleading for one opportunity to move further up in their political careers. But this time round the women candidates are facing tough competition from their male counterparts, especially in the general seats, and what kind of representation they will get, remains to be seen.

Mussoorie, December 30
Mussoorie is ready with the flurry of entertainment programmes to make the stay of its tourists a memorable one. A plethora of activities will be organised to bid a farewell to 2011 and welcome the New Year with arms wide open.

The markets have been illuminated with ornamental lights. The tourists have begun arriving in the town with their families and friends to witness the last days of the year.

The hotels and restaurants have made their own arrangements of wine, music and dance, with many rock bands and orchestras thronging the town for a display of their talent. Hotels like Park Plaza, Jaypee Residency, Sterling Resort, Dunswirk Court and Nabha Claridges are ready with in-house programmes consisting of music and various delicacies for the tourists.

Special packages have been introduced on the occasion. More than 24 hoteliers have taken permission for temporary bars. Jaypee Residency Hotel has come up with package of this sort ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000. The hotel has also planned several entertainment programmes, including live performance by Sheena Chawla of Indian Idol and Chak De India fame. The evening will be made musical by eminent DJ from Delhi. The hotel has also planned New Year champagne brunch and Indian, western and oriental cuisine.

Anil Sharma, General Manager of the hotel, said they had made arrangements for children in their hotel. Activities such as balloon bursting, songs dance and painting competition are also a part of the New Year Bash. He also said a photography exhibition titled “Mussoorie across ages” by local historian Gopal Bhardwaj had been organised for the guests.

The traders also have stocked their shops with eateries. A large number of roadside stalls have cropped up for the tourists on Mall Road.

Dehradun, December 30
Garhwal MP Satpal Maharaj has sought the benefits of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations for class IV employees of Uttarakhand.

Satpal Maharaj, who also raised the issue in the Lok Sabha under Rule 377 seeking the Centre’s intervention, said class IV employees in the border state of Uttarakhand must be given its benefits.

He said these employees had been agitating since September 1, 2008, in support of their demand for the benefits of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

However, their concern was yet to be addressed by the state government.

He said the Centre must direct the Uttarakhand Government to provide these benefits to class IV employees.

Haridwar December 30
With the New Year round the corner, extending greetings of wishes to one’s near and dear ones is a normal routine. Though with changing times the medium of expression may have changed, particularly due to IT and social media tools, now it is easier to convey instantly to many.

But still greeting cards hold a special importance and card lovers can be seen thronging the card galleries to pick the best one that suits the personality or the compiled words which they find best to express their feelings and expressions.

But despite a slowdown in the greeting card business being visible in the past decade, the worst sufferers are the Hindi language cards.They seem to be almost extinct as none of the galleries in the city had such cards, barring a few pieces, that also were of yesteryear's leftover stock.

Amita Singh, coordinator of Ranipur Market Archies Gallery, said that for the past few years Hindi inscribed greeting cards were few in demand and particularly younger generation did not seem to be interested in these cards. So that was why they hade not ordered any such this year.

While sales girls at Ahuja Gift Shop, Ranipur, and Shree Sai Gift Shop at Bhagat Singh Chowk pointed that barring a couple of customers, they had not found any takers for Hindi cards this year.

“Be it the younger lot or older people, no one seems to be interested in buying Hindi cards; may find it too unfashionable or not to be in trend,” said Amita, showing mini cards that are most in demand.

Noted Hindi literati Naresh Mohan expressed shock on knowing the public attitude towards Hindi cards. He said that despite much efforts of making Hindi a national language, English has gained prominence in society. “People feel it is fashionable to be speaking or writing in English, and degrading to do so in Hindi, which is a matter of concern, said Dr Mohan.

Jini and Supriya, students, were find busy in selecting cards for their parents, apart from friends. They told TNS that what matters was feeling, and cards are better than just texting and forwarding New Year messages.

Dehradun December 30
Members of the Christian Clergy Fellowship have demanded one reserved seat of Rajpur road for their candidate Arjun Kumar from the Congress. While addressing the media in the city today, Rev JP Singh, president of the association, said the Christians had been extending their support to the Congress unequivocally but the Congress never reciprocated their loyalty. Neither did it appoint any one from their community as the office-bearer in the Pradesh Congress Committee, nor as a candidate in the Assembly election. Rather, they were never consulted, he said.

He said they discussed the issue with Congress leaders Chaudhary Virender Singh, state president Yashpal Arya, Leader of the Opposition Harak Singh Rawat and MP Vijay Bahuguna in the month of November. “If our candidate was fielded in the Assembly election, then our community would continue to be loyal to the Congress or else we will be under compulsion to change our mindset and prepare a strategy to use our vote in a way that we are be able to showcase our strength in the political arena.”

He said the congress should back up the candidate selected by them or they would use their votes anywhere as per their own mutual decision.

Haridwar, December 30
With more than 100-odd industrial units having been established in Haridwar, the city is luring multinationals and other private firms in large numbers.

Corporate bigwigs find Haridwar attractive in terms of investment due to the initial industrial package, good connectivity with Deli, immense manpower in the state and a congenial atmosphere for industrial operations.

Talking to The Tribune, Director (HR), Alghanim Industries, KS Shyam said in the coming years Haridwar would be a major industrial hub and if the government provided easier entry to industries through a single-open window and improved infrastructure then surely it would leave behind other industrial cities that have been set up in recent past.

The company is set to achieve a mammoth 1 lakh tone metric production of steel structures at its subsidiary plant, Kirby, SIDCUL, here.

“This will put Haridwar on the global map as nowhere in the world such a large-scale production of steel structures is done in a single-roof unit. We are committed to providing the best of material as well as the best of facilities to the employees. The expansion of the unit is also on the cards,” said CEO of the company D Raju.

On the impact of the global recession in India, Raju termed it minimal, pointing out that it’s the western, particularly the US and European, regions, which have faced the heat of the recession but the Indian economy and the market have survived the turmoil.

With a view to having one-to-one communication between the executives and the employees, a special function was organised at the Kirby unit where employees’ problems were sorted out on the spot.

Sudhir Mehta, GM (HR), said in Uttarakhand availability of manpower was a big advantage in comparison to the other states and that’s why more and more firms were investing in the state and already SIDCUL had created three industrial hubs in Haridwar, Dehradun and Rudrapur.

Dehradun, December 30
People For Animals (PFA), Uttarakhand, has expressed concern over poor care of animals at Malsi Deer Park here.

In a letter to the state Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Dr RBS Rawat, the PFA said since there was a shortage of staff at Malsi Deer Park, proper care of animals was not being taken.

Highlighting the sorry state of affairs at the 
park, Gauri Maulekhi, member secretary, PFA, said most of the cages were without stand off barriers, which was compulsory as per the law so as to prevent the visitors from going near the enclosures.

A peacock and a wild cock had been kept in a single enclosure and another peacock had been kept in a solitary confinement for over three years. “According to the law, an animal cannot be kept without a mate for a period of over 1 year”, she said.

Among other anomalies highlighted by the PFA were that two rescued owls at the park were found caged in small parrot cages giving them no space for free movement, exercise or expression of natural behaviour.

The PFA alleged that the park authorities did not even have a full-time veterinarian .

A vet who visited the park once a week was not trained in handling or treating animals.

Dehradun, December 30
While reminiscing his bitter past in the context of losing party symbol, state minister and president of the Uttarkhand Kranti Dal (D) Diwakar Bhatt said it was unprecedented the way he was removed from the party within 8 days of withdrawal of support to the state government by the then president of the combined UKD party, Trivender Singh Panwar, on 27 November.

He said he had heard of expulsion of six years under disciplinary action but never of lifetime, as was done in his case. He said the public and party activists would never forgive Panwar for conspiring to divide the party. Same party with two symbols would create confusion and mislead voters, he said.

He said when Panwar had led the party in the 1997 election, it ended up in forfeiture of the security amount and when he himself took over the rein in 2002 as the president of the party, he facilitated recognition to the party.

He made it clear that for him, his party was above winning election.

“If my objective was to win election at any cost, then I would have joined Congress long ago. There are two alternatives in front of us; either we fight all the 70 seats or join hands with the BJP. We will talk to the BJP if it could accommodate us for 5 to 7 seats under a respectable agreement. We won 3 in first the Assembly election and 4 in the next, this time we are hoping to get 5 or 7,” he stated.

He laughed away the squabbling within the Uttarkhand United Regional Front saying such an experiment of creating a regional front had failed drastically in 1999 when all parties put together could not even get more than 10,000 votes.

The party has constituted three committees. BD Raturi has been appointed the president of the coordination committee, Shivanand

Chamoli the president of the Finance Committee and Luxman Singh Chufal, the president of the Publicity Committee. Bhatt has been empowered to take any decision on the matter of striking alliance with any party with regard to coming Assembly elections.

Nainital, December 30
They might figure heavily in the list of contestants and even though it is well known that they can eventually turn out to be king makers in the event of a hung House, the Independents have not had much clout in the state of Uttarakhand in the two polls that have been held since its inception.

In the last two Assembly polls that have been held in the state, 597 people have contested the elections as Independents but only six of them have managed to reach the Assembly as winners, which is a just a little above 1 per cent.

In the first state Assembly elections held in 2002, there were a total of 927 candidates in the fray, out of which 346 were independents.

Interestingly, the Independents had filed their nominations on 69 of the total 70 seats in the offing. But only three of them managed to come home as winners. These included Kunwar Pranav Singh from Laksar, Dr Shailendra Mohan Singhal from Jaspur and Gagan Singh Rajwar from Dharchula.

In the second Assembly elections held in 2007, there were a total of 806 contestants across the state, out of which 251 were Independents.

Once again their tally did not cross three. This time the winners were Yashpal Benam from Pauri, Rajendra Singh Bhandari from Nandprayag and Gagan Singh Rajwar from Dharchula once again.

With the filing of nominations yet to begin, it is once again being assumed that this time, too, there would be a long list of Independents contesting from various seats. Most of these are expected to be the rebel candidates of the two major parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, who would be showing their anger for having been denied the party ticket on various seats. Observers say that there would be very few genuine Independent candidates who do not have affiliations with any of the political parties in the state.

With the only regional force, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, in a shambles and the remaining smaller parties having only pockets of influence, the battle is once again between the two main political forces.

It remains to be seen whether those contesting as Independents have anything concrete programme to offer to the electorate. They have to come up with promises which are different from what various parties are offering.

Dehradun, December 30
Sunderwala Boys and Raipur XI won their respective matches in the 44th Amar Shaheed Kharag Bahadur Bisht Memorial Football Tournament played at Nehru Gram here today.

In the first match, Sunderwala Boys trounced Bajrang Dal Football Club 2-1. Sunderwala Boys scored the first goal through Asif in the 11th minute and later Abhishek scored the second goal in the 25th minute. The Bajrang Dal team tried hard to equalise and got their chance in 42nd minute when Gopal scored a goal for them. They tried hard for the second goal but could not succeed, losing the match 2-1.

The second match between Raipur XI and the Akranta Football Club was a tie at 1-1 by the end of the stipulated time. It was Manoj of Akranta who scored the first goal in the 25th minute of the game but seven minutes later Balwinder of Raipur XI scored an equaliser.

Later as the match went further, Raipur XI won the match by 3-2. Manish, Shashank and Nitin scored for Raipur XI while Manoj and Nikunj scored for Akranta.

Dehradun, December 30
Dutta XI, Meerut, defeated Nalanda XI, Delhi, by 10 wickets in the opening match of the 26th Banke Lal Shah Memorial Under-15 Cricket Tournament that started here today.

Nalanda XI won the toss and elected to bat first. The team scored a total of 117runs for nine wickets. Harshit was the top scorer contributing 27 runs. Kunal took three wickets for 25 runs. In reply, Dutta XI scored 118 runs without loss to win the match by 10 wickets. Openers Chetan and Jitender Malik scored 47 and 54 unbeaten runs, respectively. Jetender Malik was adjudged the man of the match for his unbeaten knock.

Dehradun, December 30
The Success Point Cricket Club (A) defeated the Eleven Star Sporting Club by 20 runs in the 60th Dehradun District Cricket League being played at the Survey Stadium here today.

The Success Point club scored 153 runs all out in 31.1 overs. Opener Asad was the top scorer with 47 runs while Sagar took four wickets for 13 runs.

In reply, the Eleven Star team was all out in 133 runs in 27.2 overs losing the match by 20 runs.

Opener Rajesh scored 48 runs while Sagar scored 28 runs but could not save their team from defeat.

Ravinder scored four wickets for 22 runs and Asad took four wickets for 26 runs.