Haridwar, February 1
The announcement of Uttarakhand minister Madan Kaushik as the BJP candidate from Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency has created divisions between the BJP and its allies here.

Factionalism in the district BJP unit has come to the fore with saints associated with the party camping in New Delhi to change the party candidate. The saints led by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Ashok Singhal has been lobbying for Swami Chinmayanand, a former union minister of the state of home in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Following the announcement of Madan Kaushik, Haridwar saints have come out openly against the candidature of Kaushik and met Lal Krishna Advani and demanded to change the candidate. Swami Chinmayanand has been keeping a studied silence on the issue. Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, president, Swami Narayan Giri has also come out openly in support of Chinmayanand.

Party insiders feel if the pressure from the saints and VHP continues, there are chances that Madan Kaushik may be replaced as party candidate. Though, RSS is considered to have an important say in ticket allotment too yet it is believed that former information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj favoured Madan Kaushik in getting the party nomination.

Meanwhile, Saini community and Gujjars have also come out in protest against Madan Kaushik’s candidature. They had been demanding a BJP candidate from their respective communities in this Lok Sabha election. Various meetings by the backward communities have been held since the official announcement came. Various meeting were held in Haridwar, Roorkee, Bhagwanpur, Iqbalpur, Jhabreda and Jwalapur and a memorandum was given to the BJP high command apprising them of their demand.

“We demand that BJP field a candidate from Saini community in the constituency as we have a sufficient presence in the area. Besides 80 per cent of our community has been pro-BJP for years and this is the right time for party to give something to us,” said Subash Saini of Loktrantrik Jan Morcha.

While Akhil Bhartiya Yuva Gujjar Maha Sabha has said they will teach BJP a lesson in this parliamentary election for neglecting backward class candidates. “We supported BJP in previous elections and when we demanded a ticket for the backward community, we were ignored,” said district head, Anubhav Gujjar, in a meeting at Jhabreda. Pahadi Morcha has also come out vocally in support of Chinmayanand. They alleged that Madan Kaushik hasn’t worked for common man and is controlled by industrialists. “Swami Chinmayanand has worked for the community as a whole while Kaushik is limited to his well-wishers and near ones only. The party is going against its ideals,” said Narendra Gosain, convenor of the Pahadi Morcha.

Meanwhile, district BJP head Manoj Garg has refuted news of party infighting and said that party workers are jubilant after the announcement of Madan Kaushik as a party candidate.

Dehradun, February 1
After attempting to woo Dalits with swabhimaan sammelans, the Uttarakhand Congress is now targeting minorities, particularly the Muslims of the state for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Having a population of more than 12 per cent in the state spread over Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar districts, Muslim votes will play a decisive role in the elections.

The Congress has planned to hold minority conventions in these three districts. The first convention will be held on February 22 in Sahaspur town in Dehradun district, to be followed with one on February 25 at Roorkee in Haridwar district and at Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district on February 26.

The party proposes to unite Muslim votes in its favour by highlighting the alleged discrimination of the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government against them.

The party has been trying to get a hold of Muslim votes that the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) holds sway over in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts.

With the help of Muslim votes in these two districts, the BSP had won eight seats in the 2007 assembly elections.

Uttarakhand Congress leaders feel that division of Muslim votes between the Congress and the BSP would help the BJP.

At a meeting with Muslim leaders of Dehradun district, Uttarakhand Congress vice-president and former state minister Navparbhat charged that the BJP government has stopped all welfare schemes started for the Muslims by the previous Congress government.

“Either they have shut the schemes or made them redundant,” he alleged.

Dinesh Aggarwal, Congress legislator from Laxman Chowk, told the Muslim leaders that any division in their votes would ultimately benefit the BJP.

Suryakant Dhasmana, spokesman of the Uttarakhand Congress, said that the BJP government has failed to constitute the Waqf board and abandoned the 15-point welfare programme for minorities besides winding up the Madrassa Board and Muslim educational Mission.

“The Congress will come on the streets to fight for the rights of the minorities,” he said.

Devender Sethi, another party leader, said that the Congress by making Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, as Prime Minister of the country has proved that it works for the welfare of every Indian irrespective of caste, creed or religion.

Haridwar, February 1
In an incident of eve-teasing, an auto-driver passed lewd comments at a lady constable near the dispensary at BHEL Sector-1 here late yesterday evening. He then stopped the auto-rickshaw and tried to misbehave with her.

The constable slapped the driver and shouted for help. On this, the auto-driver, who was in an inebriated condition, attempted to flee. But persons in the vicinity caught and beat him up.

Soon, the ‘Chetak’ mobile police squad reached the spot and arrested the culprit. A case has been filed against him after his medical examination. He has been sent to jail.

“If a policewoman is not safe, then one can imagine the plight of common girls,” said Jaya Adlakha, president of Girls College.

Recently, an auto-driver was thrashed by locals for misbehaving with a girl working in SIDCUL at BHEL Barrier No-3, Sector-2 here. 

Dehradun, February 1
The police has registered a case against a Haryana-cadre IPS officer on the complaint of his wife Dipti Singh who is a PCS officer posted as Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Gangolihat, in Pitthoragarh district of Kumaon.

The Pitthoragarh district police has registered a case against Shashank Anand, an IPS officer presently posted in Faridabad, Haryana. Cases have also been registered against his mother and sister. According to Puran Singh Rawat, superintendent of police, Pithoragarh, all three have been booked under Section 498-A/452 of the IPC, Section 3/4 of Dowry Act and Section 3 (10) of the SC/ST Act.

Investigating officer MS Farswan, deputy superintendent of police, Dharchukla, Pithoragarh, said that Dipti Singh had submitted a complaint against her husband and in-laws accusing them of demanding dowry, abusing her caste and torturing her.

“After receiving the complaint, a case was registered on January 28 at Berinag police station. Investigations are on and the statement of the complainant will be recorded on Monday,” added Farswan.

In her complaint, Dipti claimed that after having an affair with Shashank for four years, she married him on May 29, 2007, in a civil court in Delhi. Soon after the marriage, the relationship between the two got strained. While stating that Shashank never took her to his home, Dipti also mentioned that for some time now, her in-laws had been harassing her for not bringing dowry.

Dipti claimed that in June 2008, she had lodged a complaint with the Kurukshetra police as her husband was posted there at that time.

She alleged that on December 25, 2008, Shashank came to Gangolihaat and threatened her besides abusing her caste. It is learnt that Dipti had also shot off letters in this regard to the National Commission for Women.

Meanwhile, Farswan said that they have requested a copy of the complaint from the police station to the district headquarters.

“Since Dipti was not available, we could not record her statement today. Most likely, we will now record the statement on Monday,” he said. He also said that the police would first ascertain the authenticity of the marriage and then investigations would be conducted. 

Dehradun, February 1
Taking into account the traffic problems in the city, Traffic Police conducted an awareness cum interaction programme with Vikram, bus and auto drivers at the Parade Ground, here today.

Superintendent of Police (Traffic), NA Bharne called for strict observance of traffic rule for large interests of streamlining traffic arrangements on the city roads. He asked the drivers to keep themselves abreast with the traffic symbol and signs.

He also talked about the proposed left side driving for the Vikrams in Dehradun, which he mentioned was aimed to ease out rising traffic congestion in the city. He said the new system of driving in Dehradun would help in easy conduct of boarding and alighting arrangements for commuters in these public conveyances. Bharney also categorically held that the traffic police would not tolerate any form of traffic violation and would go for large-scale penalisations against the offenders in the near future.

The problems of the drivers were also taken up at the programme like issues of permits and weekly offs were taken up for deliberations.

The administration also conducted eye-tests for the drivers on the occasion, which revealed colour blindness in some of the drivers. “We have asked the Regional Transport Office for rejecting licence of these colour blind drivers,” said SP Traffic.

Roorkee, February 1
Even after a day of shootout at a Bharatnagar mohalla, the local police is still grappling in dark regarding the identity of the miscreants. The police is still find out the exact number of the criminals, being involved in the incident, in which two property dealers were shot at around 9 pm, here yesterday.

While Babar, who hails from Chhapar (Muzaffarnagar) received four bullets in his lower abdomen, the other victim Riyasat, also from Muzaffarnagar, escaped with minor injuries.

Babar is in ICU at a Meerut hostpital while Riyasat is admitted in a private hospital in Roorkee. Riyasat reportedly sustained a bullet in his leg during the incident.

According to the police sources, the miscreants came on a bike and pumped bullets on the victims from a close range, when they were going to nearby market.

The police was informed immediately, but it failed to nab the culprits, who were said to flee from the spot. Some persons of the area claimed that the miscreants were four in number.

Meanwhile, police claimed to have sent many teams to several places including Meerut, Muzzafarnagar and the native village of Babar, but the police has yet to get any lead in the case.

ASP Arun Mohan Joshi said, "We are enquiring the matter, looking at various angles in the case. At least four teams have been deputed to conduct raids at Meerut, Muzzafanagar and the native villages of the victims." 

Dehradun, February 1
In the wake of demand for speedy implementation of Forest Rights in Uttarakhand, Rajaji Park authorities are mulling over rendering settlement rights to 512 Van Gujjar families rehabilitated at Pathri.

The development assumes significance keeping in view of increasing hostilities between Van Gujjars and Forest officials at Rajaji Park in the recent times.

Rajaji Park authorities are working towards providing settlement rights to 512 Van Gujjars of Pathri by providing them settlement rights certificates.

“Adding another chapter to long drawn Van Gujjar rehabilitation initiative, we are working in the process of issuing settlement right certificates to Van Gujjars rehabilitated at Pathri,” Pradeep Kumar, warden and in charge of Gujjar rehabilitation, Rajaji Park said.

It will be followed by similar rights for Gandikhatta settled Van Gujjars where as many as 878 Gujjars have been rehabilitated.

There has been a confrontation between Van Gujjars and state forest officials as many Gujjars that had returned back to the forests were forcibly evicted by the park authorities leading too much of animosity between both the parties.

Meanwhile, on the long drawn demand for including those who have left out from the rehabilitation package, Uttarakhand forest authorities had constituted a committee headed by chief conservator of forests Garhwal AK Dutt that would look into the concerns of Gujjar families left out from the process.

The committee, including directors of Corbett Tiger Reserve and Rajaji Park and the conservator of Forests Western Circle as its members, will also be deliberating on Gujjar issues in Uttarakhand.

The committee over a period of time will be submitting its recommendations to the Uttarkhand principal conservator of forests, Dr RBS Rawat.

The formation of committee comes at a time when Van Gujjars residing at different forest areas of the state have been seeking forest dewellers rights for themselves.

While the Uttarakhand forest authorities managed to conduct the rehabilitation of some Gujjars, there are many who have yet to receive the rehabilitation package.

Significantly, while the forest authorities are forcing them out from the protected areas, the Gujjars are finding themselves helpless over the issue.

Dehradun, February 1
Uttarakhand Police won the 1st President Cup District Football Tournament at Pavilion Ground, here today. Police team registered a 2-0 victory in a closely contested match, which was decided in a tie-breaker.

Players slug it out during the final of the 1st President Cup in Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph

It was a thrilling match between Uttarakhand Police and Doon Valley team with as goalkeepers of both the teams displayed some outstanding saves. Doon Valley’s goalkeeper, Hanuman yet again gave an exceptional performance for his team to make some exceptional saves during the match, while Uttarakhand Police team’s goalkeeper saved four shots during the tie-breaker and helped his team lift the trophy.

Uttarakhand Police started on an aggressive note and launched a sharp attack from the right in the 10th minute of the game that missed the goalpost by a whisker. Just 5 minutes later Uttarakhand Police team’s forwards penetrated the defence of Doon Valley Club but failed to score a goal. The first half went goalless.

In the second half both the teams made efforts to take an early lead in the match. The second half was marked by exceptional goal-kipping by Doon Valley’s, Hanuman. Police was on the offensive again as they came close on scoring through a sizing shot at the goal that was brilliantly saved and rebounded back by the goalkeeper.

The second half saw some heated exchange between the players as Uttarakhand Police’s Sameer Bhandari was shown a red card for using abusive language, reducing the police team to ten members. In the tie-breaker Police team’s keeper, Naveen Chhetri made four brilliant saves helping his team won by 2-0. 

Dehradun, February 1
Khurbura XI registered a 13 runs victory over DLCC club at the ongoing 57th District Cricket League, at the Survey Stadium, Dehradun here today.

Shivam played a dazzling inning of 98 runs of 66 balls for Khubura team. He missed his century by two runs as he was caught on Vikas’s ball.

The accelerated run rate helped Khurbura XI pile a huge total of 210 runs. For DLCC team, Bhupender and Vikas shared six wickets among themselves to help restrict Khurbura team at 210 runs.

In reply, DLCC missed the target by just 13 runs, as Pramod was the top scorer for their team with 53 runs.

Amit was the pick of the bowlers as he bagged four wickets demolishing DLCC’s middle order. DLCC was all out for 187 runs.

Meanwhile, Udham Singh Nagar defeated Tehri by 25 runs at the ongoing u-16 Inter-District Championship underway at Abhimanyu Cricket Stadium, here today. P.Bhardwaj hit 33 runs of 44 balls for Udham Singh Nagar and Lakshy Joshi hit 29 runs to help his team pile a 168 runs in allotted 40 overs.

In reply, Tehri team fall short by 25 runs. Udham Singh Nagar’s Vishal Kumar claimed four wickets to demolished Tehri team for a score of 143.