Dehradun, June 2
Finally, the state BJP has initiated the process of drafting a detailed report regarding the reasons that led to the party's defeat in the recently held Lok Sabha elections.

According to senior party leaders, after having threadbare discussions with the party's rank and file, a comprehensive report would be prepared that would also be submitted to the party's central leadership.

Notably, Uttarakhand was the only BJP-ruled state where the party failed to win even a single seat. After Congress made a clean sweep in the elections by winning all the five parliamentary seats, both Chief Minister Maj Gen (retd) BC Khanduri and state BJP president Bachi Singh Rawat had announced that members of the state unit, including district-level office-bearers, would sit together to deliberate upon the main reasons behind the humiliating defeat.

Although ever since the results, BJP leaders were maintaining that reasons of defeat would be reviewed, a final decision in this regard was not taken. However, after registering victory in Kapkot assembly by-elections yesterday, BJP top brass has announced that party leaders would convene a meeting in Dehradun on June 4.

Bachi Singh Rawat, who himself lost election from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar, said, "On June 4, presidents of all the districts, state office-bearers, heads of various frontal cells of BJP, party in-charge of all districts and the top brass will be meeting. The main agenda will be to find out what went wrong in the elections."

Rawat also said after elaborate deliberations on the issue and couple of more meetings, the party's state unit would submit the report to BJP's central leadership.

"Defeat in the Lok Sabha elections was BJP’s first poll debacle in the state after Khanduri took over the reins. After forming government, BJP performed well in various elections, including that of local bodies and assembly by-polls etc. Hence, it is important to ascertain what led to party's defeat in the Lok Sabha elections," said a senior BJP leader on condition of anonymity. 

Haridwar, June 2
Former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari reached Haridwar late last evening while on his way to the state capital. After suffering a humiliating defeat in the just concluded general election in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost all five seats in Uttarakhand, the by-poll result of the Kapkot assembly segment has come as a breather for not only the BJP but also for Bhagat Singh Koshyari. The seat had become vacant after Koshiyari went to the Rajya Sabha.

Koshyari looked quite relaxed but the party’s failure in the Lok Sabha elections stopped him from hailing the win as a big one.

He termed the win as the people’s mandate on the policies of the BJP and the work done by the party in past two years. Party workers gathered at the crossing of Chandighat bridge and garlanded Koshyari.

Local legislator and cabinet minister Madan Kaushik described the Kapkot win as mandate on the party’s policies and work done by the BJP government in the state but failed to answer why the party candidate lost by a huge margin of 1 lakh votes in Haridwar parliamentary constituency.

Present on the occasion were district general secretary Swami Yatishwaranand, Ashutosh Sharma, Rohit Sahu, Neelabh Mishra, Rajeev Sharma and Yogesh Pandey.

Haridwar, June 2
More than 10 lakh devotees thronged Ganga ghats on the occasion of Ganga Dussehra in Haridwar and Rishikesh today. Devotees began arriving at Har-Ki-Pauri and other ghats since early morning.

According to the mythological tales Ganga Dussehra is the day when river Ganga descended on earth. The Ganga Sabha performed special puja to mark the occasion.

To maintain order and security at the Har-Ki-Puri area, hundreds of police personnel, including sharp shooters, commandos, bomb-disposal squad and officers in plain clothes were deployed besides the whole mela area was bifurcated in several zones and sectors.

The administrative officers were appointed to oversee the proceedings.

While it was quite a relief from usual traffic jams as witnessed in the city on such occasions. CO traffic Shweta Chaubey herself was seen managing the traffic at Dehradun-Haridwar highway and other major intersections though more than 80,000 vehicles passed through the highway.

“The jam-free fair is mainly attributed to the traffic police which worked whole day despite scorching heat and execution of traffic plan as devised a day earlier,” said Shweta Chaubey.

A major rush was seen at the railway station and bus station. Railways had specially arranged additional coaches till June 4 to accommodate more people in all trains on the routes of Panjab, Delhi and Moradabad. While buses betwixt Dehradun-Rishieksh plied extra routes with 35 extra 
buses ordered from Dehradun depot for the purpose.

District magistrate Shailesh Bagholi, SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal, SP (city) Asim Srivastava, ASP Sweety Aggarwal, CO City Navneet Singh, City Magistrate Archana Grehawar and other administrative officers were controlling and having an eye on the mela proceedings throughout the day.

Roorkee, June 2
Congress supporters today burnt the effigy of Matbar Singh Kandari, minister of Irrigation and Water Supply, under the ‘Halla Bol’ agitation at Civil Lines, here today. Raising slogans against the minister and local BJP MLA Suresh Jain, the protestors alleged that the drinking water, being supplied to the people here, is not potable.

“Due to old sewer and drainage system, which is in drastic need of overhauling, the polluted water of sewerage has now been mixing with drinking water through leakages at many places. After drinking the polluted water, the people, especially of old Roorkee, are falling prey to many diseases.

“But the government is least bothered about the problem”, said Dr Sanjay Paliwal, former district president of Congress (Haridwar).

Lashing out at local BJP MLA Suresh Jain, he alleged that the local MLA has not issued any funds for the development of the city till date. “Our city, which is the gateway of the state, has been facing lot of problems but the government took no interest to solve them”, said Paliwal.

Meanwhile, the ‘Halla Bol’ agitation by the Congress against the BJP government’s apathy towards public problems has entered the third day.

“We would continue our protest indefinitely till the government wakes up from its slumber and start paying heeds to the problems of the common”, said Ravinder Khanna, municipal ward member. 

Haridwar, June 2
Seeing no major headway to their demand of retaining affiliation for the 2008-09 session, of the Ist year BAMS course, the students of the Gurukul and Rishikul Medical Colleges have today decided to start indefinite fast.

The students have also decided to send their issue in writing and to meet with the state and cabinet ministers.

A delegation of junior doctors met Member of Parliament and Union State Minister Harish Rawat in this regard and apprised him of the whole situation. Harish Rawat assured the representatives of students of his support.

The junior doctor association also wrote an application to the state health minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank of alleged in discrepancy regarding the accreditation.

The letter stated that while in the state affiliation has been granted to the two other ayurvedic colleges and step motherly treatment is being meted out to Rishikul and Gurukul college.

The junior doctors also allege that college principal Pradeep Bharadwaj is an associate member of managing committee of a private college and so is not giving any heed to this issue.

Meanwhile, today ABVP and Gurukul University College Union also came out in support of the student’s demands. ABVP and GUCU sat on agitation and burned effigies of the college principals of both the colleges and of Rita Bharadwaj, who is the director in health department.

“Health minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank should immediately intervene in this matter as it was his slogan of ‘Ayush’ state but he is keeping an blind eye on Ayurvedacharyas which is quite surprising,” said Tulika a junior doctor.

Junior doctors’ association also demanded explanation from local MLA Madan Kaushik for not even taking time out to meet them.

“Its local MLA’s duty to see what’s going on in his assembly but despite his home barely a kilometer away from both the colleges we have got no response from his side.

“Albeit we heard he was busy in celebrating Kapkot assembly victory but fails to understand the darkness surrounding our future,” said Jitendra Kandpal, representative of the agitating students.

While health services have been severely suffered at Rishikul and Gurukul medical hospitals for the third day and hapless patients were seen enquiring about the strike and its end. 

Dehradun, June 2
Much to the relief of a large number of students, HNB Garhwal University has lifted restriction on admissions to private professional institutes affiliated to it. The delay in admissions in the current session had put a question mark over academic future of the students.

The university had ordered against fresh admissions as process of framing new rules got delayed reportedly due parliamentary elections.

The need of new rules had arisen after the university got the status of a central university. All the affiliated institutes were asked to wait for new rules in accordance with the Central University Act.

The delay affected more than 100 such institutes in the state offering BBA, BCA, paramedical and other courses.

“We were hopeful of putting new rules in place by May. But this could not be done as university officials and staff had been put on election duty,” said Vice Chancellor SK Singh.

But the delay in admissions on this count put the institutes in an awkward situation.

Due to this, Sardar Bhagwan Singh para-medical institute filed a petition in the High Court praying for directions to the university to allow admissions as per old rules.

The university authorities had last month hinted at allowing admissions as per old rules to the affiliated institutes.

But the Association of Self-Financed Institutes of Uttarakhand had been flaying the university for playing with the future of students due to its own failure to get the new rules in place.

Its secretary Sunil Aggarwal termed the university decision as vindication of the Association’s stand. 

Roorkee, June 2
While the posh Civil Lines market here is a well-known shopping point for the rich, it also has a day for the poor.

On every Wednesday, the day when the shops remain shut, a temporary market, popularly known as ‘Budh Bazar’ comes up which caters to the needs of the poor and middle strata of society.

The popularity of the ‘Budh Bazar’ (Wednesday market) can be judged by the fact that thousands of people turn up at the market. The shops offer all kinds of household items including clothes and fancy garments, kitchen goods, toys, footwear, cosmetics and show pieces at very nominal rates.

Not only do customers come from far-flung areas, the vendors too come from various cities like Delhi, Dehradun, Haridwar and Saharanpur.

Delhi-based Rinku, who sells readymade jeans and t-shirts here, said that when he saw how popular the market was, he began coming here every week from Delhi to set up his stall.

“Like me, there are 20 other persons who come from the country’s capital to sell their products here,” said Rinku while adding that the low rate of every product is the main reason for the huge popularity of the market.

“One can get any item at much cheaper rates here than at other markets. Our target group is the poor class so we have only a five to 10 per cent margin on our products,” said Mohsin Ahmad, president of Saptahik Bazar Kalyan Samiti.

On the quality aspect, Mohsin said, “Undoubtedly, the quality of goods here is not as good. Many of us sell the second-hand quality items while other vendors have been selling the rag material. But the customers we are catering to do not mind such things.” Kunal, a local student who came to buy jeans and t-shirt for himself, said, “I can buy a jeans and a t-shirt for just Rs 200 here. What if I get second-rate quality here? Just see the difference in rates.”

Anjana Sharma, a housewife, said that she regularly visits the market to purchase household items and her children’s clothes from Budh Bazar. “The quality of products is not so bad. The rates are low because the vendors sell the items at very less profit.”

Meanwhile, Mohsin alleged that shopkeepers extract money from Budh Bazar vendors to allow them to set up stalls in front of their shops.

“As we set up our stalls with the permission of the SDM, this malpractice should be curbed by the authorities immediately,” said Mohsin while maintaining that they had complained about the matter to the police many times but no action no avail.

Dehradun, June 2
At least eight people were killed and six others injured in two separate road accidents in Chamoli district. Five people were killed and four others injured when a Bolero jeep in which they were travelling fell into a gorge at Narayanbagad area on Monday evening.

The injured were admitted to a nearby hospital where their condition is stated to be stable.

As per the officials of the State Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre, a Bolero bearing registration number UA 11 0918, going from Dehradun to Tharali met with an accident near Narayanbagad. EMRI-108 rushed the injured to a hospital in Narayanbagad.

In another incident, a Border Road Organisation truck fell into a gorge on Joshimath-Malari road killing three persons on the spot and injuring two others. Chief Minister BC Khanduri has expressed grief over the incident. — TNS

Dehradun, June 2
Three sisters went missing after they left their house at Chukkhuwala area of the city, the police said today. Pratibha (24) along with her two cousins - Sapna (14) and Nitu (11) - left the house at around 3.30 pm yesterday but did not return, Puran Singh, father of Pratibha, said in his missing report filed with the police. 

Pratibha was pursuing a computer course from a private institute, while Sapna and Nitu were students of ninth and seventh standard in a school respectively, the police said. The police has raided several places of the city, including the railway station and bus stand, in the search of the girls.

The girls went missing barely a week after a college student Anshu Nautiyal was found murdered two days after her family members lodged a missing report. — PTI