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Temples not safe under BJP rule: Parishad
AICC member Dhirendra Pratap shows a damaged temple bell in Dehradun on Saturday. A Tribune photograph
Two-pronged battle likely at Pauri
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Ticket for sister spells trouble for Bahuguna
In U’khand, Muslim League fields one candidate
Bamboo industry lacks marketing, says expert
IAS probationers have a feel of Kumbh
Sikhs firm on anti-Cong stance
... Meanwhile
Shivaji defeat Pratap section
Players in action at the Inter-Section Basketball Tournment at RIMC, Dehradun, on Saturday.
A Tribune photograph
Contempt: 3 top officials told to appear in court
Rao Sporting triumph
103-yr-old woman dies
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Temples not safe under BJP rule: Parishad
Dehradun, April 11 With an alarming increase in the theft incidents of temple bells and gongs from various temples in the state, Rajya Nirman Andolkankari Kalyan Parishad (RNAKP) has come out against the state government. Pratap today took out a Ghanta Yatra and addressed the media persons at the Congress Bhawan. He said, “It is really shameful that during past 15 days, 200 temple bells had been stolen. Yesterday night, nine temple bells were stolen in Haridwar.” Interestingly, Pratap, who was carrying half piece of a temple bell, further said, “The thieves had cut half of the bell and decamped away with it. As a mark of protest against the government, I have come here with the other half of the bell.” Pratap also said that he would be meeting the Governor BL Joshi, while requesting him to intervene in the matter. He also said that the police authorities in the state had taken no steps in this regard. Meanwhile, in Haridwar yesterday, Pratap lashed at the BJP led government in failing to control such incidents and termed the act heinous and a blot on the image of Devbhoomi. Pointing to the dual nature of BJP, Dhirendra said on one side the party talks about the Ram Mandir while on the other hand it is turning a blind eye on the number of thefts happening in the various temples here. “Its an eye opener for the people that LK Advani aspires to become the Prime Minister of the country over the issue of Ram mandir while here Hindu temples are not safe under the rule of BJP government,” said Pratap. Pratap termed the Chief Minister BC Khanduri as Dhritarashtra for turning an blind eye towards the temple thefts. “Thefts are taking place in his hometown Pauri and assembly segment of Dhumakot apart from the temples in Almora, Rudraprayag, Chamoli district but he is silent over the whole issue,” alleged Pratap. Incidentally, RNAKP cited half a dozen cases of thefts at Kulaikhand temple, Manjoda Devi, Fald Mahadev, Nagaraj Mandir, Marchoola, Bandrad Mandir, and Boongi Devi temple in Haldookhal where robbers have taken away the pious items of the temples. While JP Pandey of Uttarakhand Kranti Manch termed the robbery and BJP governments’ apathy towards this issue as direct attack on the sentiments of the people. The Parishad members will meet Governor BL Joshi in this context. Parishad has taken up the issue at a time when election campaign is getting intense in the state. The issue may put BJP in trouble as it is directly related to the sentiments of people. |
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Two-pronged battle likely at Pauri
Dehradun, April 11 While BJP has fielded its sitting MP Lt Gen (retd) TPS Rawat, the Congress has gone in for old horse Satpal Maharaj. Considering the narrow margin (4,506 votes) with which BJP managed to win this seat in the 2008 byelection, it seems that it will be tough battle between the two parties. A perusal of the previous election results reveals that so far the Congress has managed to pocket this seat seven times, whereas BJP registered a victory five times. On three occasions, candidates of the other political parties emerged victorious. It was the Congress that had a hold over Pauri Garhwal till 1991, when contesting on the BJP ticket BC Khanduri opened the account of his party from this seat for the first time. However, in 1996, Khanduri lost the election to Satpal Maharaj, who contested Congress ticket. But the next three Lok Sabha elections - in 1998, 1999 and 2004 - witnessed Khanduri defeating Congress without much difficulty. Interestingly, in 2004 Khanduri had defeated Lt Gen TPS Rawat (retd), who was in Congress at that time. However, after Khanduri became Chief Minister, the seat fell vacant and a byelection was held in February 2008. TPS Rawat left the Congress and joined BJP and in the byelection, defeated Congress candidate Satpal Maharaj by a narrow margin of 4,506 votes. Notably, except one win, Satpal Maharaj has lost the election four times. Except for his lone victory in 1996, he has lost in 1989, 1991, 1998 and 1999 as a Congress candidate. After delimitation, the Pauri Garhwal constituency is the one that had undergone most of the key changes. Dehradun city is no more a part of Pauri Garhwal, whereas Deoprayag and Narendra Nagar segments of Garhwal and Ramnagar segments of Kumoan region have been included in the constituency. Dehradun city has been decisive to the saffron party's victory on s number of occasions. The city always had a tendency to vote for BJP, which is amply substantiated by the fact that it has been
represented by BJP MLA Harbans Kapoor for the past many decades. The exclusion of Dehradun from Pauri may affect the BJP a bit. Likewise, inclusion of Deoprayag and Narendra Nagar in Pauri goes in favour of Congress, as the party had polled more votes than BJP during the last assembly elections. Another significant factor is
the large number of ex-servicemen electorate in Pauri constituency. Out of a total of 10,437,11 votes, there are nearly 1.25 lakh ex-servicemen voters in this constituency. In wake of the fact that the community has found due representation in Uttarakhand with Khanduri at the helm of things and TPS Rawat becoming Member Parliament from Pauri Garhwal, BJP has remained the main attraction for the ex-servicemen here. Now, whether the Congress manages to break BJP's record of winning the seat for the fifth consecutive time or not will only be clear on the May 16, the date for the counting of votes. |
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Ticket for sister spells trouble for Bahuguna
Dehradun, April 11 Vijay and Reeta, children of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, are both contesting the forthcoming elections. While Vijay, a sitting MP from Tehri Garhwal, is fighting to retain his seat, Reeta has been fielded by the Congress against Nafisa Ali of Samajwadi Party from Lucknow. However, her candidature has brought about trouble for her brother in Tehri. Earlier, Reeta had close relations with Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and has even once contested on the party ticket as Mayor of Allahabad. This time, she was keen to fight from Phoolpur or Allahabad seat, but was directed by party high command to shift to Lucknow. She had also sought a favour from Mulayam Singh for her brother and the latter had agreed not to field a SP candidate from Tehri Garhwal. Amar Singh had announced that his party, as a mark of respect for late HN Bahuguna, would not field any candidate against Vijay. It was argued that any SP candidate from Tehri would cut into secular votes, which would help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, the candidature of Reeta from Lucknow on a Congress ticket has annoyed both Mulayam and Amar Singh, and they have now asked the Uttarakhand unit of SP to field a candidate against Vijay. “We have been asked by Amar Singh to field a candidate against Vijay Bahuguna. But we are trying to convince the party leaders that it will divide secular votes. However, the party’s decision will be supreme,” said Vinod Bharatwal, national general secretary of SP. |
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In U’khand, Muslim League fields one candidate
Haridwar, April 11 The party has decided to field Asghar Khan as a candidate from Haridwar and hopes that he will assiduously work for the rights of the community. Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Lok Dal
(RLD) has released a statement stating that it will contest from all five seats of the state. The party will soon release names of the candidates, and is banking on farmers and Dalits for support. While the Bharatiya Kisan Union
(BKU) has still not disclosed its cards as to what party they will support. However, the BKU has, in a meeting held at
Roorkee, decided to go with the party that meets the demands of the farmers. In another political development, Akhil Bharatiya Kashyap
Nishad, Bind, Khevat, Malah, Dhivar and Mehra communities have decided to support Akhil Bharatiya Kashyap party candidate Rekha
Valmiki. State chief Vinod Kashyap said Mayawati is behaving like a dictator and maligning the name of
Dalits. “So its imperative to vote for another women Dalit candidate who will be our voice,” said
Kashyap. In addition, the Hindu Maha Sabha has also decided to contest from all five seats, with a special emphasis on
Haridwar. The party will start a Hindu Jan Jagaran Abhiyan in this context soon. “Its time that Hindus unite against terrorism. Although there are various units like Bajrang
Dal, RSS, Jan Sangh and VHP, yet these organisations have utilised Hindus only for gaining political mileage and votes,” said state chief Swami Ramswaroop
Brahmachari. As far as Bharatiya Janata Party is concerned, its leaders lashed out against the UPA polices at the Centre and condemned the opposition parties for not being serious on the issues of terrorism. However, during the inauguration of a party office at Ranipur Mod, factionism in the BJP came to fore when cabinet minister Madan Kaushik and Swami
Hansdas, who played a pivotal role in cancellation of Kaushik’s ticket, rarely spoke to each other during the ceremony. On the Congress front, former Uttar Pradesh minister Ram Singh Saini has termed his return to Congress as a homecoming and said smaller parties don’t have the calibre and vision to take forward national
interests. Saini was initially a Congress cabinet minister and later joined the Samajwadi Party in 1990. He left SP to join BSP and has now rejoined the Congress. However, the party has its own set of problems. Today it got a slight jolt when its district vice-president Rati Ram Shastri criticised the party for making Harish
Rawat, an outsider, the Congress candidate from Haridwar. |
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Bamboo industry lacks marketing, says expert
Dehradun, April 11 Till date there has been no survey on bamboo available on private lands whereas 13,9409 hectares of state’s forestland is under bamboo plantation. There have been isolated efforts to improve bamboo cultivation here. Marketing continues to be a big challenge for the promotion of bamboo products. Few efforts have been made to promote bamboo as in countries like China. — Paramjeet Singh,
FRI official The state had some time back signed an MoU with a Thailand based company, which had pledged to invest a sum of Rs 211 crore for bamboo plantation activities in Van Panchayats of the state. Company targets a total of 1.5 lakh hectares for bamboo plantation during 2004-14. All these efforts have been limited to forest department as bamboo continues to be a taboo for private sector mainly due to lack of marketing. “Marketing continues to be a big challenge for promotion of bamboo and certainly there have been little efforts till date to take a bamboo on similar lines as done in a country like China”, said Paramjeet Singh, senior official of Forest Research Institute (FRI). FRI has been instrumental in extending its expertise to the farmers and to the forest officials towards promotion of bamboo cultivation. Significantly, FRI is also coming up with one of its kinds High Altitude Bamboosetum in the state. Uttarakhand bamboo and fiber development board (UBFBD) since the year 2004 is striving hard for the promotion of the plant. It had been doing yeoman service for promotion of bamboo taking into account all its aspects from cultivation, training to marketing front. It has set up two Ajeevika Vatika at Peepalkoti in Chamoli and Kapakot in Bageshwar. R P Mishra, deputy director, UBFBD strongly believes that the state has given bamboo its due importance. “The board came into existence to dispel laid back attitude of the public towards this useful grass and aware them that its proper utilisation can not only boost the state economy, but will also provide employment opportunities to the villagers,” he said. Mishra said asserting that Bamboo could be a means to rural prosperity in days to come. More than 20 Bamboosetum have been established all over the state at forest division level. Haldwani, Dehradun, Ramanagar, Khatima and Jwalapur have certainly come up as major bamboo markets in the state. |
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IAS probationers have a feel of Kumbh
Haridwar, April 11 — A probationer As many as 113 IAS probationers came from Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, at about 11 am and then went to the CCR towers from where the whole Mela proceedings and Har-ki-Pauri area is monitored. At CCR towers, the would-be bureaucrats attended a lecture on management, particularly of the Kumbh Mela, as a part of their training schedule at the Mussoorie academy. They asked questions from their lecturers who mainly comprised Maha Kumbh-designated officers. Kumbh Mela IAS officer Anand Vardhan briefed the batch about the intricacies which go into the preparation of the Kumbh. He told them that the preparation for the mega event is set off years prior to the fair. Security is a major concern considering the incidents that happened at the Ardh Kumbh in 2004. DIG (Mela) Alok Sharma apprised the trainees about the finer aspects of the high-level security during the world renowned event. Apart from the security aspect, managing the crowd with patience and helping them in their visit is also a part of the training programme of the Uttarakhand police, he said. A special tourism police force looks after the pilgrims and tourists. Many of probationers said that similar trips to different parts of country helped enhance their knowledge, vision and inculcated a sense of governance especially considering the tough administrative task ahead of them. “To manage crores of people in a 100-km area is awesome,” said a female probationer from Maharashtra. Later, the whole batch went for sightseeing to Har-ki-Pauri ghat. Much to their embarrassment, auto-rickshaw wallas and tourist guides started saluting them when the policemen accompanying them told the rickshaw-drivers that these probationers would soon become officers. |
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Sikhs firm on anti-Cong stance
Roorkee, April 11 However, the Sabha termed the development as a win for the community. “Protests across the country have resulted in a win for us,” the members added. Even if the Congress has dumped both accused of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, we are not going to forgive the party — Member, Singh Sabha The Congress had earlier fielded Tytler and Sajjan Kumar form North-East Delhi and South Delhi seats, respectively. Meanwhile, the Sabha members held a meeting immediately after the news was flashed to chalk out the future course of action. On being asked whether the community would support Congress candidate Harish Rawat from Haridwar seat, president of the Sabha Surjeet Singh Chandok plainly said: “No way”. “Congress has showed many a time that they have no respect for Sikh sentiments. So we are not going to vote for their candidate. Even the projection of Manmohan Singh as the prime ministerial candidate by the party is not sufficient for us,” said Chandok. “We have decided our strategy for the election, but will reveal it at an appropriate time,” he added. Notably, there are 16,000 Sikh voters in Haridwar constituency. |
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Munna’s exit makes no difference: BJP
Dehradun, April 11 Addressing mediapersons, Dhyani said during past two years, BJP had registered a victory in zila panchayat elections, municipal corporation elections and the two byelections as well. “The main contest for the five parliamentary seats of Uttarakhand is between BJP and Congress. People of the state are extremely happy with the performance of the BJP government. They have also seen the five-year rule of the previous Congress government. I am sure they will prefer our development-oriented approach,” he said. On the issue of MLA Munna Singh Chauhan’s resignation, Dhyani said, “Munna’s entry in the party or his exit doesn’t makes any difference.” Dhyani criticised the Congress for not initiating work on AIIMS, which is proposed to come up in Rishikesh. He lambasted Congress for reducing the tenure of the industrial package given to Uttarakhand by the NDA government. |
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... Meanwhile
Dehradun, April 11 Sharma said Munna was inducted in the party after a nod from party president Mayawati. He said it was Uttarakhand BSP president Surajmal and party’s incharge for Uttarakhand, Ramachal Rajbhar, who had been instrumental in Munna’s entry into BSP. “All senior leaders of BSP, including party MLAs, were present when Munna joined the party. Now the entire BSP is committed to ensure his victory,” he said. He added that even Dr Pramod Uniyal, who was earlier announced as BSP candidate from Tehri, has expressed his happiness over Munna’s candidature. Meanwhile, former MLA from Purola Maalchand has said all his supporters would be actively campaigning for Munna Singh. Describing him as a leader of masses, Maalchand said Munna is very popular among the people of Tehri. “All my supporters will be working to ensure Munna’s victory,” he said in a release issued yesterday. |
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Shivaji defeat Pratap section
Dehradun, April 11 In the three fixtures, Pratap section took on Shivaji section in all three divisions - junior, middle and senior division. In the junior section, Pratap defeated Shivaji 10-8. The highest scorer was cadet Vamalswama representing Pratap section. In the middle division, Shivaji levelled the score by defeating Pratap 34-26. The highest scorer was cadet Lalit Thapliyal from Pratap. The referees were Hav Satish Patil and Hav Krishna Odari. In the senior division, Shivaji defeated Pratap 16-9. The highest scorer of the match was cadet Shreyas Pingle. The next round of matches will be played tomorrow between Ranjit section and Chandragupta section. Dignitaries present to witness these matches included Commandant Col H Dharmarajan, LT Col Rajesh Nathawat, CS Vishwakarma and PK Sharma. The event was co-ordinated by Keshav Anand.
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Contempt: 3 top officials told to appear in court
Dehradun, April 11 PK Khatri, a senior officer of the Uttar Pradesh Transport Department who retired in 1999 before the formation of Uttarakhand, had gone to court to claim his service benefits. The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court in its judgement dated 18 March has asked Govindan Nair, Principal Secretary, Transport Department, Uttar Pradesh, Deepak Verma, the then Principal Secretary, Transport Department now Principal Secretary, Tax and Registration, and KS Atauria, Transport Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh, to appear in person before the court for contempt-of-court proceedings as the trio had failed to comply with court orders. On May 23, 2006, delivering its judgement on PK Khatri versus state of UP, the court had directed the Uttar Pradesh Transport Department to reconsider the matter of promotion of the petitioner on the post of ARTO. “The petitioner (PK Khatri) shall also be entitled to all consequential benefit like arrears of salary for the higher post, fixation and payment of retrial benefit accordingly,” the court had said. However, the UP Transport Department failed to comply with the court orders prompting contempt of court proceedings. |
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Rao Sporting triumph
Dehradun, April 11 Johri Lions won the toss and elected to bat first. The team piled up 93 runs in their allotted 15 overs. Johri Lions had a shaky start losing opener Atul in the second over of the match who contributed 12 runs. The other opener Manish smashed the bowlers all over the ground. He made 43 runs off 40 balls hitting two fours and three sixes. First-down batsman Nilesh made 10 runs. For Rao Sporting, Pradeep was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets in his three-over spell. Shital took two wickets off his three-overs spell. In reply, Rao Sporting reached the target in nine overs with four wickets in hand. The openers gave a good start to the team with both contributing 24 runs. Vishal was the top-scorer with 26 runs off 14 balls hitting three fours and two sixes. Shital supported him well making 15 runs. Lower-order batsman Bhupender scored 17 runs to help his team win the match.
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103-yr-old woman dies
Haridwar, April 11 Shanti Devi was born in 1906 to Pandit Mangat Ramji and had vast knowledge about the World Wars, Indian freedom struggle, formation of Haridwar district and creation of Uttaranchal. Neighbours and relatives recall that her health deteriorated last year after she had some problem with her eyesight. She used to perform puja twice a day everyday. SK Pandey, Shanti Devi’s neighbour in Kankhal, said that with her demise the legacy that spanned two centuries had come to an end. |
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Hemant leads in chess
Dehradun, April 11 In the initial matches, Dinesh, Himal Gusain, Manohar Lal, Jaideep Sharma, Jaydeep Sharma were placed at the second place with 3.5 points each. Further in fourth round, AK Verma outclassed Harendra and DS Negi beat Ravi Rawat. Earlier in the day in the third round match, Hemant Sharma beat Mohan Naithani and Himal Gusain defeated D K Chopra. Dinesh outclassed Tarun Ratan, Akhileshwar Singh beat AK Verma (of Indian Air Force), Surya Prakesh Pokhriyal defeated D S Negi, AP Tiwari beat KK Pandey (of Indian Air Force), Vinod beat Arvind Uniyal. In 10-year-old category, Kanishk Nautiyal beat Vedant. |
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All India Congress Committee member and president of the Rajya Nirman Aandolankari Kalyan Parishad, Dhirendra Pratap today lambasted the BJP government for the increasing thefts of the temple bells in the state.
Dehradun, April 11
Dehradun, April 11
