BJP protests aginst hike in petrol price
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, September 6
With the rupee plummeting to its lowest level since Independence and the subsequent hike in petrol products, the youth wing of BJP today staged a major protest against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

Youth wing activists gathered at the party city office from where they arried out a protest march. Lashing out at the UPA government, the protesters said that due to ''ill- governance and corrupt nature'' of the ministers of the government, the economy had suffered an all-time low.

Demanding a rollback of the recent hiked petro prices, the youth wing chief, Harjeet Singh, said that in the two tenures of UPA, more than 20 times petrol rates had been hiked.

''The UPA had come to power with the slogan of 'Aam Aadmi ke saath.' But now it seems it had left the common man and joined hands with multi-

billionaire oil conglomerates. In the coming elections this very common

man will show the Congress-led government the exit door,'' said Harjit.

Ujjwal Pundit, office bearer of the youth wing, said that even a seasoned economist like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had failed to control inflation and price rise, which points to the crunch in the leadership qualities in the Congress government.

BJP youth activists later burned an effigy of Congress government, raising slogans against Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Activists also warned of staging similar protests in the near future if the Union Government did rollack the recent petrol hike.

Hilljatra festival celebrated with fervour
BD Kasniyal

1) An artiste dressed up as ‘Lakiya Bhoot’ along with three others performs during the Hilljatra festival in Pithoragarh on Friday. 2) Another artiste gets the final touches before the performance 3) Two masked jokers entertain people. Tribune photos

Pithoragarh, September 6
Thousands of spectators today witnessed the wrath and kindness of Lakhiya Bhoot, a disciple of Lord Shiva, as the deity appeared again this year when the villagers were celebrating traditional agrarian mask festival of Hilljatra at Kumour village of the valley in Pithoragarh district. The Hilljatra festival is celebrated on the last day of Aanthon festival to worship Birbhadra, a commander of Lord Shiva.

Local MLA Mayukh Singh Mahar was chief guest, while Pithoragarh District Magistrate Neeraj Khairwal was the guest of honor.

According to a legend, Birbhadra was sent by Lord Shiva to destroy the Yagna Mandap of king Daksha Prajapari at Kankhal, after one of the then king’s daughter and Shiva’s wife Sati immolated herself when she found out about the humiliation of her beloved husband at the hands of her own father and other present deities only for his unusual life style. “We worship Birbhadra as Lakhia Bhoot and seek his blessing for good agriculture harvest and prosperity of agrarian community,” said Yashwant Singh Mahar, organiser of the Hilljatra.

Villagers depict various characters of ancient agrarian community for public display, including a man sowing his fields with the help of bullocks, women working in fields and transplantation of paddy in the festival rituals. “After these depictions, our deity Birbhdra impersonates in a village youth and blesses the crowd present, which is considered the auspicious beginning of the kharif crop season,” said Mahar.

The festival is being celebrated for more than one day for the past few years. Cultural programmes were organised in pre-Hilljatra days also. “We have been receiving grants from the Cultural Department of the state government due to which we have been able to extend the tenure of this festival for more than one day,” said the organiser. Besides the Kumour village, the festival is also organised at Bajeti and at some other villages of Kanalichina, simultaneously.

Haridwar BJP begins mobilising workers for LS poll
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, September 6
The BJP district unit has started mobilising its party workers keeping in view the upcoming 2014 Lok Sabha parliamentary elections. As a major step,the district party chief has appointed Haridwar party in charge and given responsibilities to active party leaders.

Ashish Gupta has been nominated as the district in charge for party affairs,who will overlook the party affairs as well as preparations for the Lok Sabha elections for Haridwar parliamentary seat. Party district unit hopes that the party will regain this seat from Congress. Notably, BJP candidate Harpal Sathi had made a hat-trick of wins in 1996,98 and 99 parliamentary elections from Haridwar seat.

But in 2004 Samajwadi Party candidate Rajendra Singh Badi won this seat ,while currently Congress parliamentarian Harish Rawat, who is Union Minister for Water Resources, clinched the seat in 2009 elections with a record margin of 1.15 lakh votes.

BJP candidate saint-turned-politician Swami Yatindranand Giri had to content with the second position.

District unit chief Kuldeep Gupta said that Haridwar holds special significance both in terms of religious and political aspects.

“Haridwar is a Devbhoomi city in Devbhoomi state of Uttarakhand. It is a matter of pride and blessing that we live here and have the option of working for the residents and pilgrims.Today,due to corruption and ill governance of Congress, residents and pilgrims face many a problem,which can be solved if BJP comes to power in the Lok Sabha,”said Gupta, while addressing party workers at the city party office.

He added that party workers should take up the ‘ill-governance’ of Congress representatives as well as the development-oriented vision of the party to the common man. “We have to win the Haridwar Lok Sabha elections and for that we need to mobilise our resources from now onwards,” he said.

District general secretary Rajeev Sharma said that Congress-led Vijay Bahuguna state government had also failed in relief aid operations and people of the state who are perturbed with the natural disaster and ''ill-governance'' are looking forward to BJP to provide them relief.

“We have to start preparing for Lok Sabha elections as this is the occasion when we can drive away Congress and provide development-oriented people’s governance without corruption,”said Sharma.

The district party unit is also urging party workers to assemble in large numbers for the September 19 Assembly gherao, announced by state party high command.

The party district unit leaders also stressed on inducting as many new members across the district and work as a unit, irrespective of party national high command deciding on the name of the Lok Sabha candidate for Haridwar constituency.

Present at the party meeting were youth wing district chief Harjeet Singh, Kushpal Saini, Pawan Rathore, Arjun Chauhan, Ram Kishan, Naresh Jaiswal, Naresh Sharma, Rakesh Sharma, Sandeep, Mohit and Naveen.

Lohaghat hospital has one doctor; MLA threatens agitation
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, September 6
Lohaghat MLA Puran Singh Phartiyal has threatened to start an agitation in front of the office of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) if vacant posts of doctor in the Government Hospital in his constituency were not filled soon.

In a memorandum to the CMO, Champawat, the BJP legislator has said though a large number of patients visit the Out Patient Department (OPD) of the Lohaghat Government Hospital, only one doctor has been posted there at present. “It is sheer negligence on the part of the Health Department. Even though a large number of out patients visit the hospital, it has only one doctor,” said the MLA.

Phartiyal has alleged that the Champawat hospital has been provided with a sufficient number of doctors despite the fact that it sees fewer out patients compared to the Lohaghat hospital.

“Even the meeting of the district hospital management committee held a day ago did not give attention towards the condition of the Lohaghat hospital. It only passed a resolution to fill vacant posts of medical staff in the Champawat hospital,” said the MLA. He added even decisions concerning people’s health were being taken on political considerations.

Meanwhile, workers of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) handed over a memorandum to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate today saying since the Lohaghat hospital had been given under the public private partnership (PPP) mode the government had transferred all doctors and other medical staff from there. The private party, which has been tasked with management of the hospital, did not deliver good results. “We have decided that if the number of doctors and other medical staff is not increased by September 8, we will start an agitation under the leadership of the local MLA,” said Nirmal Mahra, district president of the BJYM. 

Transport Minister asks officials to fill vacant posts
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 6
Transport Minister Surinder Rakesh, directed the officials of the Uttarakhand Transport Commissioner today, to start the process of filling the vacant posts at various levels by setting a date for the meeting of the departmental promotion committee.

During the review meeting, Rakesh said all the vacant posts should be filled immediately. He was informed that in fulfilment of the directives of the Supreme Court, around 2.44 lakh vehicles were provided high security registration number plates.

Further, the vehicles used by the Income Tax Department, Transport and Police Departments have been permitted to use blue strip on the number plate. He said in order to increase the revenue of the department, the officials should carry out surprise checks to curb the misuse of the government buses.

UKD (Airy) resents quota withdrawal

Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Airy) officiating president Narendra Singh Rawat, has expressed strong resentment over withdrawal of 10 per cent horizontal reservation for the state agitators in the government jobs.

Addressing a press conference in Dehradun today, Narendra Singh Rawat alleged that the state government did not effectively plead the concerns of the state agitators before the Nainital High Court, following which the court directed for the withdrawal of the reservation for the state agitators in the government jobs.

Rawat said the state agitators were harassed with cases slapped on them during the state hood movement.

Saplings of neem, lemon distributed

Chairman, Sardar Bhagwan Singh Postgraduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Research, Balawala (Dehradun), SP Singh organised a tree donation programme at Government Inter-College, Majrigrant, here on Friday. As many as 593 students participated in the programme with great zeal and enthusiasm. School Principal PL Diwakar, teaching and non-teaching staff were also present. SP Singh distributed neem and lemon saplings among students.

He emphasised the importance of tree plantation. He asked the students to be proactive towards the environment and encouraged them to plant one sapling every year to make the environment more green and suitable for living.

He also gave away reward of Rs 1,100 each to Pooja and Barkha Saini for securing the first and second positions in high school examinations, respectively.

The award has been set up in the memory of his father and founder director the Late Sardar Gurucharan Singh.

Bureaucratic reshuffle in Uttarakhand
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, September 6
A bureaucratic reshuffle has taken place in Uttarakhand. Principal Secretary, Public Grievances, Agriculture and Agriculture Education, Labour and Employment, Dairy Development and Animal Husbandry, Ranvir Singh, has been relieved of the portfolio of Labour and Employment, while he retains the rest of the portfolios. He has been given additional charge of Principal Secretary, Sainik Kalyan.

Secretary, Sugarcane, Confidential, Corruption Eradication and Public Services, General Administration, Surendra Singh Rawat, has been relieved of the post of General Administration, while he will retain the rest of the portfolios. Secretary, Prisons, Sainik Kalyan, Revenue, Disaster Management and Finance, Bhaskaranand, has been relieved of the post of Secretary, Sainik Kalayn, while he will retain the rest of the portfolios.

Additional Secretary, Agriculture and Home, Manjul Kumar Joshi, has been relieved of the posts of Additional Secretary, Agriculture and Home, and instead transferred to the post of In-charge Secretary, Home and Labour and Employment.

Additional Secretary to the Chief Minister, Public Works Department, Chief Executive Officer, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Amit Negi, has been relieved of the post of Additional Secretary to the Chief Minister and Public Works Department. Amit Negi has been given additional charge of In-charge, Secretary to the Chief Minister and PWD. He will retain the rest of the portfolios.

Commissioner, Cane, Director, Social Welfare, Women's Welfare and Minority Welfare and Labour Commissioner, Haldwani, CMS Bisht, has been relieved of all the posts and has been transferred to the post of In-charge Secretary, Language and Census and General Administration.

Secretary, SC Tripathy Probe Commission, Additional Secretary, Urban Development, Director, Local Bodies, and Director, Asian Development Bank projects, PS Jangpangi, has been relieved of the portfolio of Secretary, SC Tripathy Probe Commission and Additional Secretary, Urban Development, and instead given additional charge of member of Revenue Board.

Additional Secretary, Finance, and Staff Officer to the Chief Secretary, MC Joshi, has been given additional charge of Additional Secretary, Power. Additional Secretary to the Governor, Home and Minority Welfare, D Senthal Pandian, has been given additional charge of Secretary, Agriculture.