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Soldiering for final assault
Mountain bike comes to town
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Utsav
Summer train yet to draw passengers
Tagore’s statue unveiled at Indian Public School
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Soldiering for final assault
Both the Congress and the Addressing election rallies, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate LK Advani has claimed that if voted to power, the NDA would implement the “one rank, one pension” scheme in case of ex-servicemen. Addressing an election rally in Dehradun yesterday,
All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi too claimed that her party was committed to the welfare of ex-servicemen and a high-level committee had been constituted to submit report on the issue. Senior leaders who are members of ex-servicemen cells of both parties are holding meetings in various parts of the state. While president of the ex-servicemen cell of the AICC Brig (retd) KP Singh Dev is on a whirlwind tour of various places in Uttarakhand, former J&K Governor Lt Gen (retd) SK Sinha will visit Dehradun on the last day of campaign,
May 11. In March and April, the BJP had organised sammelans of ex-servicemen in all constituencies of the state. Ex-servicemen constitute a major part of the electorate in the state. According to rough estimates, there are at least one lakh ex-servicemen voters in Almora and Pithoragarh region, another 1.25 lakh in the Pauri Lok Sabha constituency, about 50,000 in the Tehri constituency and another 50,000 in Udham Singh Nagar and adjoining areas. Furthermore, there are 92,109 service voters (defence personnel) in Uttarakhand. The importance of service votes can well be gauged from the fact that it was postal ballots that provided a win to BJP candidate from Pauri Lt Gen (retd) TPS Rawat in the 2008 byelection. Rawat was trailing his Congress rival Satpal Maharaj at the end of the counting of EVM votes, but snatched a victory with a margin of 4,506 votes after the counting of postal ballots. The parliamentary constituency with the maximum number of serving armed personnel and ex-servicemen is Pauri. Out of more than 12 lakh voters in Pauri Garhwal, as many as 1,61,898 are either ex-servicemen, serving Army personnel or widows of ex-servicemen. Meanwhile, addressing a gathering of ex-servicemen at Congress Bhawan today, president of the ex-servicemen cell of the AICC Brig (retd) KP Singh Dev said over the years, Congress had initiated several steps for betterment of ex-servicemen. “When the UPA constituted a high-level committee to look into the matter of one rank, one pension, the BJP raised a hue and cry, stating that it was wrong to form a committee during election time.
This shows the indifferent attitude of the BJP towards the needs of ex-servicemen,” he claimed. Dev said the the Congress-led UPA government had established a new and separate department for ex-servicemen’s welfare in 2004. “Since, ex-servicemen constitute a large cadre of dedicated and trained persons, the Congress had announced to employ them for crucial nation-building tasks,” he said, adding that Congress was the only party which took care of ex-servicemen. “It was during the Congress regime that a separate corporation was set up for re-employment of former defence personnel. “The BJP government has only made empty promises,” said senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana. Convener of the state unit of the BJP ex-servicemen cell Col CM Nautiyal (retd) claimed the BJP had the support of 55 per cent of ex-servicemen in
Uttarakhand. “The ex-servicemen have found due representation in Uttarakhand with Maj Gen (retd) BC Khanduri on the chair of Chief Minister and Lt Gen (retd) TPS Rawat member of Parliament from Pauri Garhwal,” claimed Col Nautiyal. The BJP leaders maintained their election manifesto clearly mentioned that the armed forces deserved better pay and privileges. Col Nautiyal said the party manifesto mentioned that
“pending issues of pay and privileges will be revisited and resolved to the satisfaction of the defence
forces”. “The modalities for setting up a separate pay commission for the forces will be expedited.
Besides, all personnel of the Army, Air Force and Navy, as also paramilitary forces, will be exempted from paying income tax on their salaries and perquisites and the principle of one rank, one pension will be implemented.”
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Mountain bike comes to town
Dehradun, May 10 To cater to the growing demand of bikes in the city, BSB Enterprise today launched an exclusive franchise of Firefox and Trek brands of mountain bikes. “As the bikes will be available locally, it will encourage adventure tourism in the state.” All bikes are imported and what sets them apart from the ordinary ones is their finesse and light frames. These bikes have 21 speed gears, disc breaks, dual suspension and adjustable seat that gives a fair degree of manoeuvrability to the rider,” said Ajit Gandhi, marketing head, Firefox. On offer are more than 40 models in different colours and different features with “The beauty of these bikes is the different levels of gears that can be worked upon depending on individual efforts. The gears help you to gain speed,” said Ajit Gandhi, who was present at the launch of the franchise. As of now, there are three-four categories of Bikes Motor, Mountain and Stunt bikes. The Motor Bikes can be used for city rides, Mountain Bikes having single suspension are popular among adventure sports lovers and can be used for mountain rides. Stunt or BMX bikes are popular among stuntmen. The owner of the franchise, Amardeep Singh, said his search for a mountain bike for his 14-year-old son led him to take the plunge and now for the first time the city has an exclusive franchise for bikes. “The price of bikes for adults is in the range of Rs 6,000-Rs 17,000, for children these start from Rs 2500.” Firefox has 46 outlets in the state. “The economic condition has drastically improved in mid-segment towns and people are eager to experiment. So we thought of targeting emerging towns and cities for our products,” stressed Ajit Gandhi. The bike requires minimum care and maintenance and is quite sturdy. “Biking is getting popular in the country and Mountain Bike expedition are organised in Shimla and Sikkim from time to time. “The mountain bikes can be driven at very high altitudes and there is no limit; it all depends on the efficiency of the driver. “The bike culture is slowly evolving in the country. Several cities like Chandigarh and Delhi have separate lanes for bikes,” said Gandhi.
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Utsav
Dehradun, May 10 The chief guest for the occasion was R Meenakshi Sundram vice- chairman
MDDA. Starting with the spiritual Nanda Devi-Raj Jat of Uttarakhand, students presented popular dance forms of Gujarat, Assam and Haryana. The graceful naati of Himachal Pradesh, the lofty Santhali dance of Jharkhand and the exuberant gidda and bhangra of Punjab, completely captured the attention of audiences.
There was a loud applause at the end of each performance. The atmosphere was electrifying. A tribute to the resilience and strength of women was paid through the dance on Ganga
Vilsaar. In the later half of the day students also performed foot tapping western fusion of hip hop, salsa and jugalbandi of Indian and western dance.
The utsav concluded with prize distribution.
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Summer train yet to draw passengers
Chandigarh, May 10 Ever since the train started on April 1 this year, the lean passenger strength has been a characteristic feature of the train. With 10 AC coaches and not a single general coach, the need to add some The 450-seater train that also caters to the Hardwar passengers has been getting a meager response of 70-100 booking on an average travel day. Ravinder Kaur, a passenger, who was waiting for the Dehradun summer special train to arrive at the station, said, “I feel that instead of all AC coaches, some general coaches should be added for layman even as the train is comfortable otherwise.” Echoes another passenger Ramandeep, “In a country like India, people prefer travelling by general class, especially to a place like Hardwar, not many passengers will prefer an AC coach. There have to be some general compartments also.” H.K. Jaggi, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Ambala Division, said “The rail which was lying idle the whole day at Dehradun has been utilised as the summer special train till the time a regular Chandigarh-Dehradun train comes up. Since it was lying idle, we pursued the headquarters to run it for the convenience of passengers.” Elaborating on the planned proposal of a conventional train between Chandigarh-Dehradun, he added, “Till the time a conventional train with one or two AC coaches and rest general coaches materialises, this is a reasonable option for the passengers. Given the fact that the passengers travelling to Hardwar may not have a high paying capacity also, the fares are reasonable.”
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Tagore’s statue unveiled at Indian Public School
Dehradun, May 10 It was made by students under the guidance of Atul K Kabiraj, head of department, arts and crafts. The unveiling of the statue was done in the presence of eminent dignitaries with chief guest being Padamshri Dr Shyam Singh Sashi. The programme started with welcome song, renditions of Tagore’s songs in Bengali, Hindi and English, poetry and then instrumental music performance, based on Rabindranath sangeet, an audio-visual presentation. The programme ended with school chairman RK Sinha expressing his gratitude
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With the hill state of Uttarakhand having a considerable number of ex-servicemen and serving soldiers as voters, political parties are all out to woo them.
Dehradun, May 10
