Dehradun, January 14
The officers of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), whose services were terminated for leading the recent nationwide strike by PSUs of the oil sector, today got unexpected support for their reinstatement.

Manorama Dobriyal Sharma, general secretary, All-India Mahila Congress, and former mayor, assured to take up their case with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The development followed a representation made to her by Trade Unions Co-ordination Committee, Uttarakhand.

Earlier, the committee comprising more than 20 state-level and state units of national unions adopted a strongly worded resolution demanding intervention of the Prime Minister to direct the board of ONGC to revoke unlawful dismissals.

“I have decided to take up the case considering the impact that loss of jobs might have on the families of the dismissed officers. Our party president is a kind-hearted woman and I hope she will understand this and help them,” she said.

Manorama Sharma added that she has also faxed the memorandum to the Prime Minister as well as the Petroleum Minister Murli Deora for considering the case sympathetically.

The resolution signed by the representatives of the committee had lambasted the government for the action.

“The committee considers this summary and unilateral dismissals of the executive bearers of the officers association as arbitrary and an act of infringement of trade union rights.”

“The officers association has been formed under Article 19 (C) of the Constitution of India bestowing it the legal right to agitate and bargain for their bonafide demands,” it reads.

Of the total 64 affected officers of the leading oil PSU, five were posted in senior positions at its head office here. All were office-bearers of Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) that spearheaded the strike.

Dehradun, January 14
The issue of supporting the reinstatement of the dismissed ONGC officers posted at its head office here by former Dehradun mayor Manorama Dobriyal Sharma has a political dimension.

Besides sitting Congress MP Vijay Bahuguna, she is one of the three aspirants whose name figures in list sent by the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) to the high command for a party ticket from Tehri Lok Sabha constituency. After delimitation, Dehradun has become part of this constituency.

Political analysts feel that the preference given to Manorama Sharma instead of Bahuguna by the leadership of the trade unions coordination committee to take up the case of the dismissed officers with Sonia Gandhi showed her stake for the ticket should be not be taken lightly.

However, Manorama Sharma refused to comment on the issue. Interestingly, the inclusion of her name in the panel of aspirants is considered an outcome of factionalism in the state Congress unit.

Apparently, she enjoys support of CLP leader Harak Singh Rawat who is aligned with former state Congress chief Harish Rawat. Bahuguna is believed to be part of the rival camp led by the present state unit chief Yashpal Arya.

Co-coordinator of trade unions coordination committee Jagdish Kukreti minced no words in lambasting Bahuguna for his refusal to support their earlier representation to get B-2 status for Dehradun.

“This time we approached Manorama Sharma regarding the ONGC officers’ case as it was due to her efforts that the Centre accorded this status to Dehradun. Due to this, thousands of Central government employees have started getting increased allowances and other benefits,” he said.

Analysts believe that if the government revokes the dismissals of the ONGC officers, Manorama Sharma is bound to walk away with the credit.

This will help her strengthen politically as Dehradun is home to thousands of serving and retired ONGC employees.

Haridwar, January 14
The case of kidnapping of two schoolchildren on January 11 was solved with the arrest of Wasim, (19), a resident of Bijnor, by the Haridwar police today. The children, Aarushi and Raj, had been freed by Wasim the same day.

A few months earlier, Wasim, who worked a caretaker attendant at Cascade International School, was expelled for allegedly stealing a mobile phone of a teacher.

In police custody, Wasim said that he wanted to take revenge on the teacher and hence executed his plan to kidnap the children. But he realised that he had chosen the wrong path and freed the children.

However, the police believe that he kidnapped the children for ransom and he freed them after police raids on his house.

Haridwar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sanjay Gunjiyal said that the whole police team in the district sprung into action within 40 minutes of the incident and this helped in creating pressure and nabbing Wasim.

The SSP said that Wasim had called at the school telephone number and they traced it with the surveillance system. “When we came to know that he was at Nagina, Bijnore, we sent a special team. We nabbed the culprit early morning at Bahadrabad in Haridwar.”

“Our priority was the safety of the two children. After getting them safely, we went all out to nab the kidnapper,” said assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Sweety Aggarwal.

Meanwhile, parents of Anshika, Manoj and Sheetal Sharma, and Raj’s parents, Dilawar Bugalia and Vishan Devi, thanked the police and the media for the safe return of their children.

Dehradun, January 14
Under the banner of the Joint Employees State Coordination Committee, Uttarakhand, a large number of the employees of the state government convened a meeting at Gandhi Park, here today.

The agitating employees are demanding government to accept their five-point demand with respect to the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

Employees had threatened that if government fails to accept their demands, all the employees of the state government would proceed on indefinite strike from tomorrow.

“The government is misguiding masses by giving advertisements in the newspapers that government is interested in talks with the employees.

In reality, so far government has not sent any invitation for talks,” claimed Joshi.

The employees had boycotted the work in government offices since January 12.

The protesting employees rued that it was unfortunate that Uttarakhand government is not conceding their genuine demands.

Committee representatives, Prem Vinod Uniyal, Deep Chander Budalkoti and Sushil Joshi said, “There was complete boycott of work in various government departments including Health Directorate, Irrigation Department and Public Works Department, in the districts of Haridwar, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Almora, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Tehri, Pauri etc.”

Meanwhile, the hunger strike by Class III employees of Survey of India continued for the third day today.

The president of the Class III Service Association, Survey of India, PK Chattopadhyay said, “Our demand for removing anomalies in the implementation of the Sixth pay Commission has not yet met. We demand that the office of the Surveyor-General to send a communiqué to the Central authorities and present a true picture regarding our demands,” he added.

The agitating members demanded an end to the use of government vehicles by the family members of the officers. “Private use of official cars should be stopped,” said Rakesh Gupta, secretary general of the association.

Roorkee, January 14
Spectacular motorcycle stunts, dazzling dance performances, dog show and para-motor flying acts marked the first day of Central Command Investiture Ceremony being held at Centenary Pavilion ground, here today.

Over 5,000 spectators, including senior Army officers and their families enjoyed an hour long show, staged on the eve of the Army Day. During the show, being organized by Bengal Engineering Group and Centre (BEG), motorcycle stunts by Army men made everyone hold their breath. The stunts, including balancing acts, yoga, gymnastic exercises and reading newspaper on moving bikes were well appreciated by the spectators. Displaying coordination, the Army officials also created human pyramid on five moving bikes.

Apart from this, khukri dance by Gurkha Regiment, tent pegging by RVC, Saharanpur, tribal dance by Behar Regiment and holi dance by students of Army School were the main events of today's function, which culminated with Punjab's folk dance bhangra by the jawans of Punjab Regiment.

Tomorrow, Lt Gen JK Mohanty would confer Army awards, including Sena Medal (Gallantry), Sena Medal (Distinguished) and Vishisht Seva Medals on jawnas for their valiant acts. This is the first time that the BEG has been organising the investiture ceremony.

Dehradun, January 14
Oil and Conservation Fortnight 2009 will begin in Uttarakhand tomorrow with Commissioner Garhwal and Secretary Transport Umakant Panwar flagging off the programme in Dehradun tomorrow.

Hoping success for this year’s Fortnight that has come up with a theme slogan “Save Fuel Yanni Save Money”, RK Sinha, Uttarakhand state level coordinator for oil industry said in a state like Uttarakhand where energy needs were registering a phenomenal rise, there was a need to generate awareness among the masses about the urgency to conserve petroleum products.

He said the Oil Conservation Fortnight being conducted in active assistance of Petroleum Conservation Research Association and the oil industry would entail staging series of activities that will focus on sensitising masses over the importance to conserve petroleum products.

Training Programmes, Kisan Melas, Technical Meets and distribution of literature will be undertaken during the Fortnight. A publicity van would be touring major parts of the state conveying the conservation message through pamphlets, screening of films on conservation and talks.

Dehardun, January 14
Scintillating innings of Karan of Cricket Association of Uttaranchal (CAU) here at the Survey Stadium to help his team register a huge, 209 runs victory over Bindaas XI at the ongoing 57th District Cricket League today. Karan scored 121 runs of just 60 balls.

The decision of Bindaas XI to field first proved disastrous as its bowlers failed to curtain CAU team from scoring a mammoth total of 370 runs.

There opening batsmen Shivam went on to score 21 of 24 balls and Kamal scored 42 runs of 44 balls. After their dismissal it was Prakash and Karan who accelerated the run rate.

Both the batsmen displayed wide range of strokes to hit 25 boundaries. Prakash went on to score 50 from 47 balls with seven boundaries, whereas Karan hit nine fours and ten sixes. For Bindass XI, Vikrant took three wickets.

Chasing the huge total, Bindaas XI team went on losing wickets at regular intervals. CAU bowler Karan claimed 4 wickets in just seven overs.

Karan’s first victim was Manoj who was clean bowled in his affect to accelerate the run rate. Suresh was the only batsman for Bindaas XI who went managed to score 41 runs. Bindaas team could only manage to score 163.

Haridwar, January 14
Swami Satyamitranand School cruised into the semifinals of the Inter-District Cricket Tournament organised by the Cricket Association of Haridwar at the BHEL stadium, here today.

Thus, by defeating Holy Ganges School by 43 runs, Satyamitranand became a strong contender for the title.

Holy Ganges school won the toss and decided to field. But with bright sunshine and wayward bowling, the opening bowling pair of the Holy Ganges couldn’t utilise the advantage and the opener duo of Sushil and Jaipal cruised to fifty run partnership.

At this score, both the openers got out bringing some respite for the bowlers with Sushil scoring 22 runs each. Himanshu then gave a good partnership and made 127runs.

For the Holy Ganges, Ankit Routella scalped four wickets for 28 runs while Saurabh, Ankit and Rajat bagged two wickets each.

Holy Ganges had a tough task considering the bowling attack of Satyamitranand school.

And it proved right with wickets started falling at regular intervals and no one except the all-rounder Ankit Routella resisted with a fine 34 ball knock of 24 runs.

The Holy Ganges batsmen failed to score 83 runs in its run chase. Amit filled two wickets giving only 18 runs in four overs while Himanshu gave only eight runs scalping two wickets.

Sunil too two wickets for just six runs in three overs. Thus, Swami Satyamitranand School won by 43 runs.

Tomorrow the first semifinal match will be between Doon Cambridge Public School and Swami Satyamitranand School.