Haridwar, April 6
The ongoing Maha Kumbh in Haridwar is not only attracting devotees, saints, foreigners but also VIPs, politicians, celebrities and who’s who of society. Today it was Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda who took a holy dip in the Ganga.

Talking exclusively to The Tribune, Hooda spoke on varied issues. On the contentious issue of dams and hydro electrical projects on rivers, specially on the Ganga, Hooda said while sanctioning such projects a detailed analysis should be done so that to ensure the sanctity of river is not disturbed as well as ecological balance doesn’t get affected.

Though the Haryana Chief Minister also stressed the need of the dams and hydro projects as imperative for development stating “dams were called pilgrimages of modern India and so one cant just abandon them. The need of the hour is just to make a right balance between sanctity of rivers, effect on nearby settlements and development”.

On the back-to-back victories in the Haryana state assembly elections defying the anti-incumbency factor, Hooda attributed the victory to hard work of party workers and the developmental works carried out in the state.

Notably, Hooda became the Chief Minister in 2004 and then again led the party to power in the 2009 elections. Previous to contesting the state assembly election, Hooda had been a four-time Member of Parliament and is regarded as a mass leader in Haryana specially among farmers where he led several farmer movements.

Hooda is also quite serious about making satellite township of Gurgaon as a premier city of India. While metro rail has made foray into the city, Gurgaon will be the first city in coming years where in private partnership metro rail will be plying.

On women’s reservation Bill, Hooda termed it as a major achievement of the UPA government and expressed hope that it would also get pass in the Lower House.

Earlier, taking a dip in the Ganga as other normal devotees do, Hooda showed that he did care for inconvenience to common people. He took a holy bath at the Jay Ram Ashram Ganga ghat and performed the rituals. He termed it as a blessing to be taking bath during century’s first Maha Kumbh.

“If one wants to see India’s cultural, spiritual, religious and natural diversity then Haridwar is the place to be and I feel blessed to be in this pious time and occasion,” said Hooda.

Terming Ganga river as the lifeline of India, Hooda said: “I get inspiration, energy and motivation whenever I come to Ganga ghats and always a new lease of energy and life is infused into me.”

He was accompanied by Jai Ram Ashram head Brahmaswaroop Brahamchari in Haridwar. 

Dehradun, April 6
State BJP executive meet has sought special grant for border districts of Uttarakhand taking into account the security sensitivity linked to these districts.

Talking to newspersons at the end of the state party executive meeting in Dehradun today, sate party chief Chufal said the BJP state executive had asked the Centre for a special package for the border districts of Uttarakhand that had witnessed migration. He said package would help in development of infrastructure in border districts apart from creating new employment opportunities.

Bisan Singh Chufal said a ten-to-fifteen-member coordination committee will be constituted to ensure better understanding between party and the government. He, however, refuted that the coordination committee was fallout of lack of coordination between the party and the government. “This coordination committee will take the good works being done by the government to the people”, Chufal said. He also said that disciplinary, finance and other committees will be constituted with next fifteen days.

While responding to queries, the state BJP president completely ruled out any factionalism within the BJP. “There are no differences of any sort within the party and we are working together to achieve our vision”, he observed.

Refusing to divulge much regarding party stand over hydro projects on the Ganga, Chufal said while the party strongly believed that the sanctity of the Ganga should be maintained, it was also strongly opposed to Center’s recent decision to scrap hydro projects in the state. “We are for both. While we support maintaining continuity in the flow of Ganga, center’s decision to stop construction of hydro projects is unilateral and not to the state interests”, he added.

Earlier, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank exhorted the party to bring to the notice of the people of step motherly treatment given to the state by the congress government at

Centre. He said Centre’s decision to reduce the NDA industrial package to Uttarakhand revealed former’s step motherly treatment to the state.

He also held that rising inflation fuelled by Central policies was the biggest issue before the people of the country and Uttarakhand was no exception.

Dehradun, April 6
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary and Himachal Pradesh Forest Minister JP Nadda today called for more of aggressive posture against the Centre over rising inflation in the country.

Addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of the national BJP executive meeting in Dehradun, Nadda said the BJP protest march from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament House in Delhi on April 21 would be historic. The BJP workers numbering lakhs will be participating in the protest against the Centre, which, he said, was solely responsible for fuelling inflation. He said as many as 10,000 party men from Uttarakhand will also be participating in the rally.

Party president Nitin Gadkari and senior party leader LK Advani will be addressing the protesters. Nadda reminded that it was strange that food inflation in the country in the past 20 weeks had risen from 17 per cent to 20 per cent. “While inflation in the country has risen by 11 per cent, global inflation has not increased by 2 per cent,” Nadda said.

The BJP national general secretary revealed that in financial year 2008-09, 48 lakh tones of sugar had been exported by India at a rate of Rs 12.50 per kg while the sugar itself had been re-imported within the same period for a rate ranging from Rs 22 per kg to Rs 32 per kg.

Referring to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, he said there had been phenomenal increase in the number of such families in the country. “In 2005, there were a total of 31 crore BPL families while in 2009 the figure stood at 42 crore,” he said, adding that the Congress believes in spreading poverty and has never sincerely taken up the issue of poverty alleviation.

Dehradun, April 6
The Uttarakhand Forest Department has come up with an ambitious plan for utilisation of pine needles (perul) that is to provide livelihood opportunities to the people to the tune of Rs 6 crore.

Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forests RBS Rawat disclosed today that the state forest department had entered into an MoU with seven companies for the utilisation of perul for manufacturing of bio brickbat and chemicals. These companies would be paying around Rs 2 per quintal as royalty to the department while paying another Rs 1 per kg to the perul collector, the local villager. He claimed that this kept a potential of generating an income of Rs 6 crore per annum for the villagers with these companies expected to utilise 60 thousand metric tones of perul every year.

Rawat said the pine needles were main cause of forest fires and its intelligent utilisation would help in countering this growing menace. “Uttarakhand generates 10 lakh tones per year of perul every year”, he pointed out. He also held that Uttarakhand Forest Department was all prepared to meet the forest fire season. “Master crew stations have been set up at various forest divisions apart from appointing Chief Conservator of forests as nodal officers to deal with forest fires. Vehicles are also being provided to the different divisions to strengthen the mobility of forest officials”, he added.

Nainital, April 6
The residents of Nainital have been asked to remove their construction material dumped on the roads in the city so that a smooth traffic flow can be ensured otherwise the material would be confiscated by the administration.

This was ordered by the District magistrate Shailesh Bagauli in a meeting of various departments and organisations on the beginning of the tourist season. He asked the restaurant owners, hoteliers, taxi owners and tour operators to do their bit in maintaining a proper traffic flow.

Bagauli said in view of limited parking space, the parking lots must be utilised to the optimum and maximum number of vehicle owners must be encouraged to park their vehicles at the parking lot developed at Sukhatal from where a shuttle service needs to be started to bring the tourist into the town.

A unanimous decision was taken to regularise the taxi rates so that the tourists are not fleeced. The District Magistrate also said the Nagar Palika must issue proper licences to photographers, hotel guides and those offering horse rides to the tourists which must be produced before the police when asked for.

It was announced that a special drive would be undertaken to check the illegal functioning of certain guesthouses and hotels that are operating without proper licence.

A team comprising the Additional District Magistrate, Chief Medical Officer, Tourism Officer and Sales Tax Officer would carry out the exercise against such establishments. The (SSP MS Bangyal said all the hotels must install CCTVs at their reception and must display a proper tariff card.

Haridwar, April 6
With a purpose to maintain world peace a religious programme, of Shrimad Bhagwat being recited, held in Bhoopatwala at Shri Gangadhar Dham. The katha is being recited by a spiritual speaker Ramesh Bhai Ojha.

The Bhagwat katha will continue till April 13 under the aegis of Vedantacharya Shri Govindanand Ji Maharaj. Inaugurating the religious function Swami Maheshwar Das Maharaj accompanied by Raghu Muni Maharaj lighted the lamp.

The jam-packed venue filled with pious religious feelings once the spiritual guru started the recital of the Bhagwat verses.

At the occasion present among prominent saints were Bindu Ji Maharaj, Bhaskaarnand Maharaj, Dev Prakash Maharaj, Shiv Shankar Ji Maharaj, MahaMandaleshwar Gursharan Das Maharaj among others while thousand of devotees attended the katha. 

Nainital, April 6
The District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli has ordered a magisterial probe under the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) at Ramnagar AK Nautiyal into the death of two students of the prestigious Sherwood College in an accident on Saturday.

Ibrahim Ansari of Kanpur and Anmol Bhatt of Haldwani were amongst 36 students who were traveling in a tractor trolley that had overturned in the Sitabani Forest area. Both the deceased were 13 years of age and were students of Class VII.

The children had gone to the area for trekking and had been staying at a resort in Amgadh. Meanwhile, a public outcry over the incident continues in the region with groups and organisations protesting against the alleged irresponsible behaviour of the school administration that had allowed the children to ride on an unsafe mode of travel like a tractor trolley.

After a protest in Haldwani on Monday, student leaders protested in Nainital on Tuesday by burning an effigy of the school administration.

On the other hand a group of parents led by a former minister in Rabri Devi cabinet in Bihar Ravindra Charan Yadav has demanded a probe by the the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the matter and has sought a monetary compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the families of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh for those injured in 
the incident.

Yadav also announced that he has withdrawn his ward from the school. “Proper action needs to be taken against the school administration for not coming forward and clarifying things on the day of the incident. For three hours the parents of hundreds of children spent an agonising time as all they knew through the media was that two students of the school had died. All of them tried calling the school but no one answered their calls. No helpline was set up,” he said.

The leader further said, “The school authorities must be hauled up for making the students travel in an unsafe vehicle like a tractor trolley.”

The parents while speaking on condition of anonymity said they would be approaching the ICSE Board to which the school is affiliated and also the National Human Rights Commission on this issue. A case in the matter has already been registered at the Kaladhungi Police Station and a special team has been set up to investigate the case.

Dehradun, April 6
With the employees of the Roadways Department adamant on their strike the commuters in Uttarakhand continue to suffer.

The service of roadways buses in the state were paralysed for the third consecutive day following a strike by the employees against the suspension of a foreman in connection with Friday’s incident in which they had allegedly attacked journalists and the foreman was suspended.

“Besides suffering of the people, the department is suffering huge losses due to the adamant attitude of the roadway employees. Where will the revenue of the state go and who will bear the loss,” pointed out a senior journalist.

The journalists here have also decided to hold dharna outside the Chief Minister resident tomorrow if the employees of the roadways involved in the Friday’s alleged attack on journalists are not arrested.

The journalists in a meeting held at the Hindi Bhavan today decided to meet Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ this evening. A core group of the scribes will meet the CM tommorow.

The scribes had earlier declined any pleas of the administration to settle for any compromise.

Mussoorie, April 6
Members of the local Press Club staged a symbolic dharna near the courts premises and raised slogans against the roadways employees who had allegedly beat up scribes at Dehradun.

The members, led by club president Bijendar Panwar, raised slogans against the highhandedness of the roadways employees.

Panwar said the Press was the fourth estate and mirror of society and if corrupt people would unite in such a fashion and beat up mediapersons it was not good for the nation.

Later, a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister was submitted to Nayab Tehsildar Matadin. In the memorandum, immediate action has been demanded against the guilty. Ajay Ramola, Dharam Vir Saxena, Prem Singh, Sunil Sonkar, Satish Kumar, Manish Gangoli, Deepak and others participated in the dharna. 

Dehradun, April 6
Demanding the implementation of the agreement held between the Rajya Nigam, Nikaya Karamchari Syanukt Sangharsh Samiti Uttarakhand and the state government, the employees of the association staged a dharna outside the Gandhi Park, here today.

They raised slogans against the government and the administration. The protesters also submitted a memorandum of their demands to the district magistrate for the Uttarakhand Chief Minister.

Addressing the employees at the dharna, Diploma Engineers Mahasangh regional president Naveen Kandpal said the problems of the employees had not been solved despite the agreement held between the government and the Sangh/Mahasangh.

Dinesh Kandari, president Nigam Karamchari alleged that the employees hadn’t got pending arrears even after implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission while in Nigams the report of the sixth pay panel hadn’t been implemented till now.

Surya Prakash Ranakoti, president Massoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) alleged that the employees were being harassed at the work place. They were also being threatened in order to create discord among them.

The protesters also raised concerns over stopping the recruitment of the fourth class employees that has badly affected the interests of local unemployed. They told that the government was not doing recruitments on the regular basis.

They demanded from the government that all pending agreements of the Mahasangh should be implemented, those harassing the employees be transferred, arrear should be paid after the implementation of the sixth pay panel and unemployed should be recruited. 

Dehradun, April 6
Three new fire tenders were flagged off today by former DGP Ashok Kant Sharan, who was the chief guest, at the third police foundation week programme at the police headquarters.

The present DGP, Subhash Joshi, welcomed the former DGP by offering him a bouquet. Sharan appreciated the efforts of the police and said that there was a need to improve public perception about the police.

Josh said that after retiring from Uttarakhand police in April 2002, this was Sharan’s first visit to the state capital. —TNS