UKD suspends city unit president Bahadur Rawat
Dehradun, April 18
President of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal Trievender Singh Panwar has suspended the president of the city unit of the party Bahadur Singh Rawat.

Dehradun, April 18
Various constituents of the Uttarakhand Regional Alliance held a press conference in the city where they talked of empowering local bodies on getting mandate from the public in the coming civic elections. President of Uttarakhand Parivartan Party PC Tiwari said:'' The local bodies have been divested of most of their powers and rendered toothless. The important issues pertaining to electricity, water, health, education etc have been weaned away from the local bodies by effecting 74th amendment.

Hence, if our party gets favourable mandate from the public, we would make these bodies stronger. Each such structure would be made autonomous, akin to a mini government.'' He further added that people who are generally unhappy with these national parties on account of inflation and corruption must show their anger in the polling as well.

''People should not wait till the parliamentary elections to punish these parties responsible for perpetrating corruption and inflation in the party. The opportunity is right now in the civic election,'' he said, and added that huge hoardings put up by the leaders of these parties were done so with the money plundered from the public exchequer.

''The bigger the hoarding, the larger is the money siphoned off from public exchequer by leaders of BJP and Congress in the city.'' He, therefore, appealed to people not to get swayed by the lure of money or gifts.

He also assured that a change in the scenario in Dehradun city will usher in revolution at the same level as in the rest of the state.

Mayor candidate and spokesperson of Uttarakhand Parivartan Party Rajiv Kothari said that it was unfortunate that the work related to sanctioning of maps of the buildings which brought significant revenue to the Municipal Corporation and enabled it to execute development projects had been given to Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority.

He said despite the fact that the state government announced to give this work once again to DMC, nothing had been done about it so far.

President of Uttarakhand Jan Kranti Dal BD Raturi rued that their state which was blessed with salient features such as major rivers, holy places and natural resources abounding in hills as well as plains had become a caricature of what was once conceived by the statehood agitators. He said Congress, which opposed the agitation of state formation most among others, had now fielded a candidate who committed the crime of shooting the agitators dead. He called Congress biggest enemy followed by BJP. ''Former Mayor Vinod Chamoli had always been complaining about not being given enough powers for any development plan in the city. BJP never listened to him in this respect. This is the reason, be it the rule of BJP or Congress, the city continued to be cursed with poor state of roads, drains and sanitation.'' He called upon people to give opportunity to the regional powers in this election.

Dehradun, April 18
President of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal Trievender Singh Panwar has suspended the president of the city unit of the party Bahadur Singh Rawat.

Panwar said, “ Bahadur Singh Rawat has been suspended from the party as his term as the city unit president in the past three years has been very disappointing.”

He denied making any promise to opponents regarding holding a party convention in June. Panwar said he would convene the convention when he would feel the time was right.

He said nobody in the party could diktat terms to him regarding holding the convention. The opposition camp comprising Bahadur Singh Rawat, Shilash Guleri, Latafat Hussain and Jay Prakash Upadhyaya has become weak. They have become silent and are now afraid of their expulsion. 

Haridwar April 18
The district election office has served a notice on Congress candidate for the post of Mayor Swami Rishiwaranand for violating the election code of conduct.

He has been issued the notice for putting up hoardings, posters, banners and party flags at public places, trees and telephone poles. His election office was inaugurated on the Dharamshala road yesterday.

Similarly, BJP candidate from ward no 20 Hema Mishra has also been issued a notice for the same reason. Both candidates have been asked to submit their replies to the district election officer by April 21 and MC employees have been directed to remove these illegal hoardings and banners at various places.

Poll code in charge Arvind Pandey said all party candidates and Independents should adhere to the election code of conduct for smooth, fair and peaceful conduct of the elections.

"Strict action will be taken against violators. We are keeping close tabs on the election campaign of all candidates," said Pandey.

Informing the police prior to holding any public rally, march or small 'nukkad sabha' has also been made mandatory for the candidates.

Mussoorie, April 18
The state BJP chief, Teerath Singh Rawat, acting tough on the rebel candidates still in fray for the civic polls, said the party will not tolerate anti-party activity. He gave four days to the rebels to mend their ways and come back in the party fold or face disciplinary action.

Rawat, while addressing a gathering said these civic elections were significant as the poll results would have bearing on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections which could be held at any time considering the present political scenario. He said the party workers instead of fighting among themselves should gear up to ensure victory in the civic polls. He also reviewed the progress of the poll campaign in Mussoorie and gave directions to the party workers for better coordination.

Later speaking to mediapersons, Rawat disclosed that the star campaigners of the party will be begin canvassing from April 20th in the state. Due to the failure of the present Congress government, there was a wave in favour of the BJP and the Congress will face imminent defeat in the civic polls, which could also have bearing at the state level, he added.

Rawat said the party would also consider to move the court regarding the issue of the Congress minister Harak Singh Rawat enjoying the office of profit. He also hinted that the Congress party could disintegrate with the civic poll results going against it.

The MLA from Mussoorie, Ganesh Joshi, poll in charge, Mussoorie, Virendar Bisht, senior congress leader Narayan Singh Rana, Roop Singh Kathait, Vijay Ramola, Mohan Petwal and others were present on the occasion.

On the other hand, the BJP rebel candidate Anita Saxena contesting for the post of the MC president as an independent opened her election office with much fanfare despite the ultimatum from the party chief. Addressing her supporters, she said the party had neglected her claims and denied her the ticket leaving her no options but to contest the poll as an independent.

Dehradun, April 18
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said the upcoming civic body elections would put into focus the one-year performance of the Congress government versus the five-year performance of the BJP government.

“Far from being a referendum on the one-year performance of our government, the voters during these elections will have to evaluate the performance of the Congress government during the past one year versus the five-year rule of the erstwhile BJP government. We took up several measures to strengthen the local bodies and the inactivity of the BJP government in these areas in the last five years,” said Bahuguna, while speaking with mediapersons here.

He said the Congress government had been more than happy to extend financial assistance to the civic bodies so that they could become independent. “It was during our tenure that the maximum funds were allocated and three new Municipal Corporations comprising Roorkee, Kashipur and Rudrapur were created,” said Bahuguna.

He said the Congress was fully geared to fight the elections and the people would give a befitting reply to the BJP. “The party is united and soon I will be campaigning for our party. We have to expose the mindset of the BJP that has been trying to derail the work being carried by the Congress government,” said Bahuguna.

The Chief Minister also categorically rejected the charges of corruption levelled against his government. “We have come up with a transparent excise policy, started tendering in the area of mining and hope to introduce transparency in several key areas,” said Bahuguna. 

Dehradun, April 18
Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) party president Trivender Singh Panwar has been able to score over the rebellion brewing in the party once again. Those who were opposing the mayoral candidate Manmohan Lakhera selected by him have finally fallen in line. They have not only apologised for their brash acts but also assured the president about extending all support to Lakhera.

The on-going war between the two groups, old-timers who had fielded general secretary Jay Prakash Upadhaya and those supporting Lakhera and Panwar has now come to an end.

Party spokesperson and opponent Shailash Guleria said: “The way Kashmir problem could not be solved

till date and a series of dialogues are going on, similarly the UKD problem could also not be solved. So we have no option but to carry on talks with the party president.” Guleria said they had promised Panwar to back Lakhera and participate in the campaigning vociferously.

The threat of police arrests did the entire trick to tone down the aggressive rebels. As a face-saving exercise, the opponents managed to seek promise of holding party convention on June 2. Guleria said: “The president of the party had accepted our demand to hold the party convention on June 2, where the election for the party president would be held.” He, however, could not answer the question as to how they could believe Panwar who had been ditching the issue on several occasions.

The second ground, which the opponents hold in their favour is convincing Panwar to appoint Jagdish Kathait, a leader in the youth wing of the party, as office in charge. Panwar certainly did not have any problem in that.

Till a day ago, the opponents who had been shouting from the rooftop about ousting Panwar from party, not allowing him to enter the party office and not campaigning for Lakhera did not lose couple of hours in bowing down to his dictat.

Dehradun, April 18
The mayoral candidate of the Congress, Suryakant Dhasmana, yesterday said the Congress was the sole party which sincerely works for development.

Dhasmana was addressing a gathering after inaugurating the party election office near Lakshmi Narayan temple in Karanpur. He appealed to the party workers to work collectively for ensuring the victory of the party candidates in Dehradun civic polls.

He pointed out that the BJP’s incumbent Mayor who is seeking re-election has done little for the betterment of the Dehradun city. He said there were a large number of civic problems in the city which needed to be redressed at the earliest. He assured a better Dehradun city if elected as Mayor.

The Congress MLA from Rajpur, Rajkumar, said the party had always helped the poor and the downtrodden. Vinay Kohli seeking re-election as councillor from Karanpur was also present. Kohli said the Congress has the capability to ensure all-round development of the city.

Dehradun April 18
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Rajni Rawat today conducted election campaigns in New Patel Nagar, Karanpur, Kolagarh, Deep Nagar, Survey Chowk and Kanwali road in the city. Rawat, who had been visiting slum areas for the past couple of days, today concentrated on the urban section of the city. 

In her campaign, Rawat commented on the poor state of roads and sanitation in the city. She blamed the BJP as well as the Congress for it. She reminded the people that the BSP was the party of the poor and she as their crusader had been working tirelessly for them all these years. Rawat assured the people that she would always be available for redressal of their problems if elected as Mayor of the city. — TNS

Dehradun, April 18
In view of the civic body elections, the Uttarakhand BJP has constituted a party-level media and model code of conduct monitoring committee.

BJP office in charge Urbadatt Bhatt said that the team had been constituted on the directives of BJP chief Teerath Singh Rawat and comprises Brij Bhushan Gairola, Ajender Ajay, Ravinder Jugran and Dheeraj Bhandari as members. Mukesh Mahindra has been made the coordinator of the committee.

The BJP is also preparing election kits to be distributed among candidates on how to adhere to strict guidelines of the model code of conduct, ECs guidelines on paid news and cash monitoring during the elections.

Dehradun April 18
Amit Sinha, Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Dehradun Range, while reviewing the preparations for the upcoming civic elections, held a meeting with senior police officials of the district here today.

It was noted down that there are 167 polling centres in the district, 488 polling booths, 58 highly sensitive polling centres, including 42 in Dehradun, seven in Vikasnagar, five in Mussoorie, 74 sensitive polling centres, including 52 in Dehradun, five in Rishikesh, three in Vikasnagar, six in Mussoorie and three in Harbartpur. Sinha said the political parties organised their respective rallies while levelling allegations against each other. Hence, the police must do its duty with transparency to maintain peace in such a volatile situation. He directed them to identify the anti-social elements prior to the election and take effective steps in reining their activities.

He said they were also required to keep a vigil on the movement of those, who had been active in previous elections, and take preventive action against them. He said the officials must inform the police force about the directions of the Election Commission of India as well as the State Election Commission with regard to crime which came in the ambit of the modal code of conduct.

He also directed the officials to identify the controversial issues by activating intelligence that might spark off communal riots in the district. He said they must take actions in advance to diffuse probability in such a situation.

He asked them to start visiting the areas around the highly sensitive and sensitive election centres. — TNS

Dehradun, April 18
District election officer BVRC Purushottam and SSP Kewal Khurana today inspected the strong room set up at Bannu School, Race Course, to deposit EVMs after the polling for the civic bodies' elections on April 28. Purushottam directed officials not to occupy more space in the school than required or damage any property of the school. During the inspection, the chief development officer, the additional district magistrates and the chairman of the school management committee were also present. Later, Purushottam asked officials to clear their confusion regarding the operation of EVMs or other details during the training session. He asked zonal officers to check the election material.

He said no party should feel the shortage of election material. While addressing returning officers and first polling officers, he said they must take special care of disabled, old, helpless and women during the polling process.

District panchayat officer Mohd Mustafa Khan and chief education officer MP Khati gave information to returning officers and first polling officers regarding the functioning of EVMs. — TNS