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Panel to decide fate of 3 hydel projects
Will UKD now pull out of government?
Voters discarded hill vs plain propaganda
Party feud: Cong candidates lagged in some segments
IPL Effect |
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Poll debacle: BJP’s Rawat blames it on Centre
An LDA Lucknow batsman misses the ball while attempting a shot against REC Chandigarh at the Uttarakhand Gold Cup at Rangers Ground in Dehradun on Monday. A Tribune photograph
Powerless villagers leave XEN sweating
Doon, Mussoorie cagers in summit clash
Barn owl rescued from Doon resident
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Panel to decide fate of 3 hydel projects
Dehradun, May 18 A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice VK Gupta and Justice VK Bist, however, said the authority was free to resume the work of these projects if it thinks the decision was in public interest. The three projects are the 480 MW Pala Maneri, 381 MW Bhaironghati and 600 MW Lohari Nagpala. Disposing a bunch of petitions on the issue, the High Court asked the authority to constitute the committee comprising experts within four weeks. The committee will take two months to prepare its report on the environmental impact and other concerns regarding the hydel projects on the Bhagirathi. Last year, the Uttarakhand Government had suspended the construction of its Pala Maneri and Bhaironghati projects following an agitation by environmentalist GD Agrawal and other social activists. Prof GD Agarwal, a former professor of IIT, Kanpur, had started a indefinite fast in June 2008 on the banks of the Bhagirathi at Uttarkashi in June 2008. He was demanding a total ban on hydroelectric projects between Gangotri and Uttarkashi keeping in view the religious sentiments involved with the Ganga. He got support from organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Sangh Parivar. While the construction work on the Bhaironghati and Pala Maneri, being built by the Uttarakhand government, was suspended under pressure from the VHP, Prof Agarwal also suspended his fast. But the work on the Lohari Nagpala built by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) continued. Prof Agarwal restarted his fast in New Delhi in January forcing the Union government to stop work on the project. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which did not want to give the BJP an emotional issue, declared the Ganga as a national river and constituted the Ganga River Basin Authority. Dehradun-based voluntary organisation Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) challenged the decisions of the state as well as the union government to stop work on these power projects in the Nainital High Court. The petitioner pleaded that the decision to stop work was against development and would retard the growth of the state as well as the country. The High Court, giving relief to the petitioner, ordered restart of the work on the Lohari Nagpala project of the NTPC in February. Awadhash Kaushal, chairman of RLEK, who had earlier been instrumental in getting mining stopped in Mussoorie hills in the eighties through his Public Interest Litigation (PIL) said that the decision of the state government was politically motivated. “Such important issues concerning national development cannot be decided on the whims and fancies of the politicians,” he said. The petitioner demanded that any decision on
the projects should be taken by the authority and the court agreed. “Now the ball is entirely in the court of the Centre regarding the fate of the three projects,” said Kartikay Shiv Hari, the petitioner of RLEK, a Dehradun-based NGO which was seeking early completion of the three projects. |
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Will UKD now pull out of government?
Dehradun, May 18 Although the party rank and file had demanded withdrawal of support since UKD decided to contest the parliamentary elections alone, the leadership desisted from doing so for reasons best known to it. However, the demand is set to become shriller now after the abysmally poor performance, which it is being felt, made the party a suspect in the eyes of voters who have outrightly rejected the BJP in the entire state. The Congress made a clean sweep by winning all the five seats by convincing margins. “We will continue to put pressure on the leadership to withdraw support to the BJP, which has been wiped out in the state in this election. “There is a predominant feeling among all sections of the party that we suffered due to the decision of continuing to side with the BJP at the government level. “So in terms of judging performance of the BJP-led government, the voters found us no different from it,” said UKD candidate from Tehri seat Sailesh Guleri, who polled just 6,006 votes including postal ballots. However, he thanked the party workers and voters in general besides congratulating the Congress for its unprecedented victory at the state and national level. Interestingly, Guleri supported the idea of including the newly elected Congress MP from Tehri seat Vijay Bahuguna in the Union cabinet. “The defeat has not demoralised our party workers. “We will stick to the issues related to the state and its people. It is now time to start preparing for the Assembly elections to be held in 2012,” he summed up.
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Voters discarded hill vs plain propaganda
Haridwar, May 18 In 2000, when Uttaranchal was carved out of Uttar Pradesh, there was stern opposition to it by some sections, especially in Haridwar and Roorkee. Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party cadres had also protested against the inclusion of these areas in the new state. In 2004, Samajwadi Party fought election on the plank of exclusion of Haridwar district from Uttarakhand, and Rajendra Badi of Samajwadi Party emerged victorious. But with time, the people of the district benefited as they not only got uninterrupted electricity supply, but land prices in the district also sharply rose following setting up of the Haridwar industrial estate of Uttarakhand. However, both the parties tried to fuel the division among people of plains and those belonging to hilly areas, but to no avail. And it was amply clear after the result that people wholly rejected this propaganda, as Harish Rawat, a candidate from the hilly district of Almora, won comprehensively by a margin of 1,23,000 votes. While BSP’s Mohammed Shahzad who was the favourite to win could only manage the third position, Ambrish Kumar of SP couldn’t even save his security deposit. Notably, a group of residents had also challenged Section 3 of the Uttar Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2000, which provided for inclusion of Haridwar town and the entire district in the new Uttaranchal state in the Supreme Court, but recently the apex court rejected this plea and endorsed the inclusion. On the other hand, Harish Rawat termed the hill versus plain issue as baseless and not in sync with the peace loving people of Uttarkahand. He focused on unity, which ultimately reaped rich rewards.
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Party feud: Cong candidates lagged in some segments
Dehradun, May 18 Albeit Vijay Bahuguna of Congress won from Tehri parliamentary constituency, he was behind BJP candidate in Tehri Assembly segment. While Jaspal Rana of BJP pocketed 13,094 votes, Bahuguna could only manage 10,930 votes Interestingly, Tehri assembly constituency is represented by Kishore Upadhaya of Congress, who started participating in the campaign just four days before polls. In Upadhaya's own village, Karkat, which falls in Jakhnidhar Vikaskhand, out of the total 203 votes polled, the Congress just got three, whereas BJP managed 145. Likewise, in Lansdowne assembly constituency, represented by Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly Dr Harak Singh Rawat the Congress lost by almost 4,000 votes to the BJP. Satpal Maharaj of Congress managed 12,226 votes, whereas Lt. Gen. TPS Rawat (retd) polled 16,316 votes. Besides, at Tehri seat, factionalism in the Congress came to the fore, with one of the party legislator allegedly distributing pamphlets and posters carrying derogatory material against party candidate Vijay Bahuguna. The defamatory material was distributed just hours before the polling on May 13 in Vikasnagar, Uttarkashi and Dehradun. Bahuguna had said that the miscreant is a Congress legislator from one of the assembly segments within his constituency. It is learnt that Tehri district president of the Congress Kirti Singh Negi has prepared a report in this regard and has sent the same to the party high command in Delhi, Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Yashpal Arya and the party's election observer for Tehri AK
Verma. |
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Big names missing from Gold Cup
Vishal Thakur Tribune News Service
Dehradun, May 18 Many key players, who have been regular participants to this cricket fest, are absent from the 27-year-old cricket tournament that began here yesterday. Players like Karan Sharma, who is currently playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore, Tanmai Shrivastav of King XI Punjab, Kamaran Khan of Rajasthan Royals and Sudeep Tyagi of Chennai Super Kings are missing from this year’s edition of the Uttarakhand Gold Cup. LDA Lucknow player Javed Anwar, who has been regularly participating in the Gold Cup for the past 10 years, said, “Some quality players are absent from this edition. Most of them may join by the end of the tournament as the IPL is about to come to an end.” Javed has played in Ranji Trophy for the UP team. He was also in the playing eleven of the U-19 World Cup in 1998. Javed is all praise for the tournament. He said, “The Gold Cup has been offering the best facilities for the past 50 years and the players look forward to participating in it.” Another Lucknow player, Dilip Yadav, who is currently playing in Ranji Trophy for the Railways, said, “It is good to have a tournament underway even when the IPL is going on. At least, it gives the players, who are not playing the IPL, a chance to play in an All-India level tournament.” The Uttarakhand Gold Cup is not the only tournament that is affected by the IPL. The famous Sheesh Mahal Tournament, which takes place in UP, has also been cancelled in fear that good teams may not participate because most of their players are participating in the IPL.
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Poll debacle: BJP’s Rawat blames it on Centre
Dehradun, May 18 It is learnt that once Chief Minister BC Khanduri and former CM and Rajya Sabha MP Bhagat Singh Koshiyari return from New Delhi, a meeting of the top brass of the party would be convened in order to discuss the reasons behind the party's worst defeat. BJP state president Bachi Singh Rawat, who himself lost the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar seat, said the party's defeat was indeed a shock for everyone. He said BJP had to pay a heavy price for the step-motherly treatment meted out to Uttarakhand by the UPA government. "Besides, polarisation of the Muslim votes also cost the party. As far as my defeat is concerned, BJP had never won Nainital seat ever since state came into existence. “We worked hard but couldn't manage to win," said Rawat. Meanwhile, sources said the CM, state president of BJP, all senior party functionaries and election observers for the five parliamentary constituencies would be attending the meeting, which is likely to be held on May 19. Sources further said state unit of the party would also be sending a detailed report to the BJP's central leadership in a few days. Notably, except Uttarakhand, almost
all BJP- ruled states have done well in the elections. |
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LDA, ITC triumph
Dehradun, May 18 Batting first, LDA Lucknow piled up 249 runs in their allotted 40
overs. Abhinav Verman was the top scorer. He made 79 runs off 97 balls and hit 10
fours. Alok Singh supported him well on the other end to score 47 runs off 46 balls. In the middle order, Shivansh Sharma and Kapil Rana made a useful
contribution. Shivansh made a handy 36 runs, whereas Kapil Rana made 32 runs. For REC Chandigarh,
Sonu, Ricky and Kamal Walia picked up two wickets each. Chasing the target of 250 runs, REC Chandigarh were all out for 238 runs in 39
overs. Despite making a fine start to the innings, Chandigarh’s team lower- order batsman failed to
deliver. Amit was the top scorer with 46 runs off 45 balls smashing two fours and two sixes in his
innings. Kamal Walia was the second highest scorer with 33 runs. For LDA
Lucknow, Jai Narayan, Dilip Yadav, Shnansh and Amit took two wickets each. In the second match, ITC Gurgaon beat Dena Bank by 14 runs. Batting first, ITC made a modest 195 runs in 30
overs. Vishal was the top scorer with 63 runs. For Dena Bank, Kartar took three wickets and S Batra took two wickets. Chasing 196 runs for victory, Dena Bank was all out for 181 runs. Middle-order batsman Bhupinder was the top scorer with 46 runs. For ITC Gurgaon, Babloo was the leading wicket taker with four wickets. |
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Powerless villagers leave XEN sweating
Dehradun, May 18 Zila Panchayat member Mianwali, Hema Purohit who led the protest against erratic power supply in Balawala, Tunawala, Nathuwala and Shamsher Garh villages, said they resorted to this step to make the official realise the difficulties being faced by the people. She alleged that the officials had been paying no heed to the problem for the last about six months. "When we went to the office of executive engineer Syed Ahmed for the purpose, he told me to get out of his office. So we took this step," she said. Later, when Ahmed called the police, the protesters relented with a warning that if the problem is not sorted out they would repeat their protest in the same manner. |
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Doon, Mussoorie cagers in summit clash
Dehradun, May 18 In the first semifinal between Dehradun and Haridwar District team, Dehradun registered a convincing 28-9 victory over Haridwar District. In the first quarter, Dehradun’s dominance was such that Haridwar District could not open their account. The score at the end of the first quarter was 8-0 in Dehradun’s favour. The second quarter was no different from the first as Dehradun scored another 10 points, whereas Haridwar District could only manage two points. In the last two quarters, Dehradun team increased their lead by another 10 points. The final score was 28-9 in Dehradun’s favour. In the second semifinal, Mussoorie defeated Haridwar City by a huge margin of 20 points to make it to the final. Mussoorie scored 25 points in comparison to Haridwar City who could only manage five points. In the boys category, Haridwar City beat Udham Singh Nagar 39-11. Mukund was the top scorer for the Haridwar City with eight points. In another match, Nainital beat Mussoorie 23-12. Shriyansh was the top scorer with nine points.
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Barn owl rescued from Doon resident
Dehradun, May 18 Acting on a complaint, Dehradun Forest Division officials today raided the residence of Shyam Thapa in Guchchupan area in Dehradun. The owner had been keeping this owl for quite some time. “The owl was in personal possession of this Guchchupani resident which was in violation of the Wildlife Conservation Act,” said BK Gangte, Divisional Forest Officer, Dehradun. The forest officials took the barn owl to Malsi Deer Park for rehabilitation. |
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The Uttarakhand High Court today asked the newly constituted Ganga River Basin Authority to set up an expert committee to decide the fate of three key hydel projects on Bhagirathi river.
