Dehradun, June 23
The resignation by Chief Minister Maj. Gen. BC Khanduri (retd) from leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party has made the task of selecting his successor more complex for the party high command.

Besides aspirations of the legislators, the party has to take into consideration sensibilities of people of two regions - Kumoan and Garhwal - two camps - Khanduri and Koshiyari - and two dominant castes - Kshatriyas and Brahmins - while deciding upon the new leader.

Two front-runners in the race are Uttarakhand Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism Minister Parkash Pant and Health Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Pant is a pharmacist by training and was Speaker of the interim assembly after formation of the state. He is a Brahmin from Pitthoragarh district of Kumoan.

Nishank was a small-time journalist before becoming a BJP legislator in Uttar Pradesh assembly and a minister in the mother state.

He was the Finance Minister in the BJP interim government, but was defeated in 2002 assembly polls. Hailing from Pauri Garhwal district of Garhwal region, Nishank is also a Brahmin.

In the current scenario, Chief Minister Khanduri would like someone from his own, Garhwal region, to succeed him so that power remains with Garhwal.

Former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari also remains in fray. But his resignation from Rajya Sabha and later withdrawal on the directive of party high command has annoyed BJP Central leaders.

Koshiyari has been leading the dissidents against Khanduri. His activities and resignation 'drama' has put him in bad light, and the party high command, in all probability, would avoid rewarding him.

Moreover, it was believed in party sources that Khanduri would also use his veto against him. Koshiyari was a RSS 'parcharak' and has backing of the Sangh Parivar.

Another name that is doing the rounds in the party circles is that of state Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

A protégé of Koshiyari, Rawat was a RSS 'parcharak'. Trivendra Singh, a 'Thakur' by caste, also has the backing of RSS leaders. He has been a bitter critic of Khanduri.

Another aspect that the party has to look into is the regional balance. If the new Chief Minister comes from Kumoan, then the state party president would be from the Garhwal region.

Party leaders opine that if Pant manages to make it to the top post, Bacchi Singh Rawat, Uttarakhand BJP chief, who hails from Kumoan, would be replaced by someone from Garhwal region.

Dehradun, June 23
The industry in Uttarakhand has termed the ongoing power crisis as a case of mismanagement and lack of long-term planning on the power front due to which the image of the hill state as ‘Urja Pradesh’ has taken a severe knock.

For the past two years, industry representatives have been demanding that forecasting of the overall demand of power be done as it is very important for the future planning.

It had also been demanded that the government should pay attention to set up gas and coal-based power generation plants for assured supply as depending on hydro-generation, which is subject to vagaries of natural factors like rainfall and melting of snow in upper reaches, has led to the present situation.

Another demand that the state’s power corporations should have an annual maintenance plan for transmission and distribution lines had also fallen flat.

As no efforts were made in the past to address the problem, the prevailing crisis situation is not unexpected.

But the industry is being made to bear the brunt of the situation by subjecting it to long cuts resulting in loss of valuable production hours.

The UPCL has announced scheduled four-hour cut on June 22. But if the average daily loss of supply for two hours on account of tripping of transformers, breakdowns and low voltage is taken into account, the industry will have to actually bear a cut of six hours.

“The industry has suffered cuts of more than 149 hours due to frequent breakdowns for the past three months. Besides, the total power cuts in April and May lasted 104 hours in industrial area, Lal Tappar,” claimed Pankaj Gupta, chairman, Industries Association of Uttarakhand.

During the past two years, the association submitted written representations to the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and Power Secretary in this regard.

Several meetings with MD, Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL), too failed to elicit any positive response.

“We believe that the prevailing crisis is more a case of mismanagement and insensitivity on part of all three power corporations of the state in terms of their failure to draw up concrete short and long-term plans.

“The situation would not have worsened if the government had heeded to our suggestion to set up two 100 MW stations based on coal or gas for assured generation in the present situation when less generation is being attributed to less discharge of water into reservoirs.

“Our surveys concluded that these stations would have helped overcome the shortage of 150 MW reported across the state,” asserted Gupta.

Dehradun, June 23
The pilgrimage to the revered Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib resumed today, after a temporary bridge connecting Govindghat and the shrine was constructed.

After suspension bridge got damaged on Sunday, pilgrimage was stopped and thousands of pilgrims got stranded.

However, today the Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel built the temporary bridge.

Also, a team of PWD officials has reached the spot to repair the old suspension bridge. The broken bridge is likely to be repaired within a week’s time.

Roorkee, June 23
The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R), has been playing a major role in the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY).

The institute, in role of Principal Technical Agency (PTA), assesses proposals by 15 different State Technical Agencies (STA) to construct roads to connect habitations.

Its don, Dr Praveen Kumar, is a member of two top national-level committees, which have been formed to monitor the Rs 65,000 crore project of the central government.

The STAs are a group of engineering colleges across the country selected by the concerned central ministry which look into the proposals submitted by the local people regarding construction of roads to unconnected villages.

On every 15 STAs, there is one PTA. The work of PTA is monitored by the National Executive Committee (NEC) comprising six members.

Dr Praveen Kumar, professor, Transportation Engineering Group, IIT-R, is not only a member of NEC but also part of the four-member national committee that monitors the performance of 200 members of the National Quality Monitors (NQM) group, having retired chief engineers as its members.

The members of NQMs monitor the quality of the roads being laid under the project.

Dr Praveen Kumar said that IIT-R not only looks after project work as STA in 14
districts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand but is also responsible for four states -
Bihar, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh - in its capacity as Principal
Technical Agency.

After the presentation of Dr Parveen, who did his PhD on rural roads, in Ministry of Rural Development in 1999, the idea of PMGSY was floated.

“The idea of my presentation was to connect each and every village to the nearby main road with only one road,” said Dr Praveen while adding that the concept is based on ‘Minimum Spanning Tree Approach’.

The then Union Minister for Rural Development, M Venkaiah Naidu, and joint secretary of the ministry, JS Sarma, who were present there, were impressed with my presentation, said Dr Praveen.

The project, under which every village with a minimum population of 500 in plains and 250 in hilly areas was to be connected with the ‘core network, is yet to be completed. The deadline of completion of the project was 2007. With the delay, the cost on it will be doubled, added Dr Praveen.

“Several thousands of villages have been connected under the scheme till date. Though there are a large number of villages still to be connected with the ‘core network’, we are now focusing on the maintenance of the roads already constructed under the project,” said Dr Praveen while maintaining that the PMGSY had been instrumental in bringing prosperity to the villages which have already been connected with the road network.

RR Uniyal general secretary of Forest Guards Association also today extended support to the agitating daily wage employees.

Dehradun, June 23
Demanding suspension of some General Railway Police (GRP) personnel for allegedly thrashing an employee of Jal Sansthan Lakshman Singh Negi, representatives of the Rajkiya Vahan Chalak Mahasangh today urged Dehradun SSP Amit Kumar Sinha and District Magistrate Amit Singh Negi to look into matter and take immediate action.

Mahasangh leaders have threatened to resort to blocking of traffic in the entire state in case their demand was not met.

The matter, taken up by the Mahasangh, pertains to the recent incident wherein General Railway Police (GRP) Dehradun Station Officer had allegedly beaten 24-year-old Negi, an employee of the Jal Sansthan.

District president and secretary of the Mahasangh Kamal Singh Rawat and Sandeep Kumar Mourya, respectively, shot off a letter to SSP and DM pointing out that Negi had been brutally beaten up and should be initiated against the guilty.

On June 16, Lakshman's father Birinder Singh Negi had alleged that while his son was talking to his fiancée Nilu Sunderyal, who is lady constable in GRP police station, he was picked up by Dehradun GRP Station Officer RP Sati and mercilessly beaten up.

SSP Amit Kumar Sinha had also placed Nilu under suspension. After the media reports, IG (Garhwal) MA Ganapathy had said it appeared that Lakshman was thrashed brutally and hence they will look into the matter.

After waiting for almost one week, Mahasangh leaders have now decided to strongly take up the matter with both the district and police administration.

The letter, a copy of which was released to mediapersons, mentions that suspension of women constable Nilu was also uncalled for.

"Action had been initiated against Nilu, but she had done nothing wrong. The main culprits are the GRP cops, including the Station Officer," the letter read.

Rawat and Mourya also said they will not tolerate injustice with Lakshman. "In case the administration fails to suspend the erring cops and revoke Nilu's suspension, the Mahasangh will block traffic in the entire state," they said.

Dehradun, June 23
A book that sheds light on the functional aspect of leader and leadership titled, ‘Passion for courage; A winner’s creed’ authored by Brig (Retd) Sarvesh Dutt Dangwal was released today by Lt Gen (Retd) HB Kala.

A former Army man, the author through his book has not only demystified military leadership but also emphasised that if leadership is on offer then through principles of courage, character and conviction it can be achievable.

Shedding light on the virtues of the book, Lt Gen (Retd) HB Kala said, “Far from sounding condescending, the author has been successful in giving his views on a subject that would appeal to the young careerists in the corporate world and the defence services.”

He said that while reading the book one would be tempted to call the writer a
cynic but when one has been a fighter throughout his life, cynicism is bound to
creep,” said Kala.

All along the tone and tenor of the book is more towards the author’s own inclination to lead a life of values.

As he himself said, “What is good may not be successful and in these times when virtues of materialistic gains are all too visible it is difficult to build a character or follow an ethical path. Nevertheless my experiences and values that I learnt from my parents became personal benchmarks.”

The book delves into choices that human beings have to make between right and wrong but leadership is more a choice than option of convenience and expediency.

The author calls for making leadership a habit, which transcends and subordinates, situation ethics.