Nainital, April 20
With only two days left for the High Court Bar Association elections scheduled for Thursday, the candidates in the fray for the posts of president and general secretary debated their priorities before the electorate today.

The presidential debate before the poling is a new beginning made by the Bar Association from this year. The debate started with the candidates for the post of general secretary addressing the voters.

The first speaker, Anil Dabral, promised to bring in more transparency in the functioning of the Bar Association if elected. He also promised to effectively put issues before the Bar and the Bench.

Anil Kumar Joshi promised to take up issues of housing for lawyers, provision of chambers and a proper canteen on the High Court premises offering subsidised food. He also said if elected he would ensure the construction of a covered corridor within the premises of the High Court so that advocates do not have to run around drenched during rain from one block to another.

Adding on to the promises made by the first and the second speakers, the third candidate for the post, Rajesh Kumar Joshi, said he would work towards the unity of the Bar. He promised to sort out the issues pertaining to the registry that created hardship for advocates. He also said he would take up the seating problem of junior advocates on a priority and would see to it that there was more generation of work for the advocates. He also promised to take up the issue of leave for the advocates.

The first presidential candidate to speak up was BD Kandpal, who is in the running for the post for the second consecutive term. Since he was a part of the outgoing body, he recounted the achievements of the elected body during the past year and promised to take the things forward. He recalled steps like setting up of the Advocates Welfare Fund and regularisation of munshis who did not meet the prescribed criteria of having a minimum academic qualification of plus two.

If elected, he promised to take up the issue of housing on a priority along with the computerisation of the library so that the advocates could avail the facility online. He also promised to take up the issue pertaining to the adjoining Glenthon premises for building a parking space.

The second candidate, KN Joshi, questioned the outgoing body for failing to achieve results on certain fronts despite having set up various committees.

Adding to the promises made by the previous speakers, he promised to get medical benefits for the advocates on being elected.

The most powerful speech was mad by the last speaker, MC Pant, who said he would work towards promoting internal democracy in the Bar. He would work on a priority for generating more wok for the advocates. Pant said there was a desperate need for a proper coordination between the Bar and the Law Department as the advocates did not have access to government orders concerning the legal fraternity. He also promised to the voters that he would ensure that there was no compromise on the respect and reputation of advocates.

Pant further promised that he would ensure that the Advocates Welfare Fund was governed by proper welfare rules.

The elections to the Bar Association will be held on April 22. The results for the same would be declared the following day.

Haridwar, April 20
Acknowledging the benefits of yoga, now various state police and paramilitary forces are seeking to impart an essential yoga training module in their respective security units. Even the Home Ministry has asked all paramilitary forces to ensure that their personnel get training in yoga by organising camps in collaboration with Uttarakhand-based Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya situated here.

Considering anti-insurgent operations and the rise of Naxalites, Maoists and other anti-nationalist outfits, specially in the aftermath of Dantewada incident wherein more than 70 CRPF personnel were killed, yoga will certainly add to the capability of the security personnel. Various letters of invitation have already been received from several state police and paramilitary outfits by Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, which is one of the pioneer institutions in India in teaching yoga.

The university, after receiving many such proposals in the past few years, has now finally charted out a yoga science training programme in this regard. This has been done by the School of Yoga and Health in collaboration with the Public Relations Department of the university, targeting an initial lot of two lakh police personnel to be trained by university instructors and trainers.

On its own, as a gesture, the university has already conducted several free yoga camps at various cantt areas of the Army, Air Force and Navy across the country.

Shantikunj head Dr Pranav Pandya informed that the university had for long been associated in imparting yoga training to armed and civil personnel as yoga would be quite beneficial for them in carrying out their tasks in a much better way. He further stated that the university planned to train at least two lakh security personnel in the near future and had chalked out the yoga programme keeping in mind the need and tough conditions that they faced during the performance of their duty.

Talking to The Tribune, yoga acharya Gulam Askari Zaidi, who has trained 250 odd police personnel, said there was a genuinely felt need of incorporating yoga among armed and police forces by higher authorities.

Zaidi with his colleague Ram Awatar Patidar had just last week trained police personnel at the Police Training College situated in Sitapur and were all praise for the yoga enthusiastic police personnel.

“What is noteworthy is that all those personnel who attended the yoga camp were quite enthused and excited about learning the different formats of yoga and many wished for more such camps in future,” said Zaidi.

Patidar informed that among these learners 190 odd would teach yoga to the newly 35,000 recruits in Uttar Pradesh police spanning in 50 districts.

“Apart from various yoga asans, we trained them family, stress, life, time and diet managements and also made them take pledge to eradicate various ills from the society and from oneself too,” informed the duo yoga gurus.

Additional Director-General HS Balwaria said yoga had mentally and physically improved the performance level of such personnel.

Dehradun, April 20
Launching a statewide agitation on the call of state Congress chief Yashpal Arya, party workers today laid a siege to various substations in the city protesting against scheduled and unscheduled power cuts.

Demanding restoration of normal power supply in the city, the Congress workers took to the streets chanting slogans against the BJP and terming it a total failure.

“We are afraid that the industry would be forced to pull out of the state if the power crisis continues,” Rajiv Mahrishi, spokesperson for the state unit of the party, said.

Senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana charged the BJP government with plunging the state into darkness. “In the past three years, the BJP government has done precious little to frame a power policy for the state,” said Dhasmana, addressing the agitators.

He said the visionary policies of the Congress in the initial years had transformed the state into an emerging power house, but the BJP’s reckless policies had made it a powerless state. “We do not know who is in control. While Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had announced that there would be power cuts for three hours, Power Corporation officials do not seem to be heeding the directives, as a result there is chaos,” he said.

As per the programme, the Congress leader, along with several party members, held a demonstration outside Patel Nagar Road power sub-station. “The state is passing through a crisis due to electricity shortage which in turn is giving rise to water shortage also,” said Dhasmana.

He said time and again bitter factionalism in the BJP was coming to the fore which was distracting the government from day to day problems of people,” he said.

In the morning, members of the City Congress Committee gathered at Araghar substation raising slogans against the Power Corporation authorities. Harish Virmani, president of the committee, while addressing the agitators, said the state BJP government’s policies were responsible for the power shortage in the city.

Ashok Verma, Leader of the Opposition in the Nagar Nigam, said the misguided policies of the BJP government were responsible for the power crisis.

The members also held protests at the Bindal substation, Kaulagarh, Parade Ground Substation and other places.

Haridwar, April 20
The Hind Rashtriya Awami Hukook party, which has started a movement to get homes for the poor and lower strata of society, has lashed out at the Haridwar Municipality for not paying heed to their demands and not even accepting their application forms for various government-run schemes.

Addressing the media here, national president of the party Mohammed Murasleen Qureshi said though there were several housing schemes for the poor and needy run by the Central government, the beneficiaries were mostly not the needy ones.

Citing various other states wherein houses are allotted to the shelterless and poor, Qureshi said though twice hundreds of shelterless had submitted their application forms to the municipality officials, they had not yet been given acceptance receipts which was quite appalling.

“Thousands of needy people applied on February 15, yet after two months when we sought details we have not been given any sufficient reply. Instead forms are still being enrolled which shows the working and intent of the municipality,” said Qureshi.

Warning municipality and respective political parties of heavy unrest among the poor and weaker sections of society, Qureshi said if within four days there was no substantial reply from the municipality office, they would be forced to take the agitational route.

“Firstly, we will stage a symbolic protest and if nothing is done from the municipality and state government’s side, thousands will take to the streets to protest as well expose the working of the municipality,” he said.

Dehradun, April 20
The Uttarakhand government has brought about a change in responsibilities of 10 IAS officers.

IAS officer DK Kotia, who was on deputation to the Centre and had recently returned to Uttarakhand has been given the responsibility of Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister. Kotia has also been given the additional charge of Information, Personnel, Re-organisation and Vigilance Departments.

S Raju, Commissioner, Kumaon, has been given the responsibility of Principal Secretary, Medical Education, Health, Family Welfare and Ayush.

Additional Secretary, Sports, and Additional Chief Executive Officer, Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, Akshat Gupta, has been given additional responsibility of Additional Secretary Tourism.

IAS officer Ashish Joshi has been given additional responsibility of Additional Secretary, Sports and Director Sports.

Additional Secretary, Election, Industrial Development, and Joint Chief Election Officer, Hemlata Dhondiyal, has been given additional charge of Additional Secretary, Public Works Department.

Additional Secretary, Revenue Department, secretary to Chief Minister, Arvind Singh Hyanki, has been relieved off the Department of Additional Secretary and Director, Uttarakhand Information and Public Relations Department.

Principal Secretary, Forest and Rural Development, Subhash Kuma r, has been relieved of the departments of Information and Personnel. Principal Secretary, Rural Development, Home, Revenue, Disaster Management Anup Wadhawan has been relieved of the Vigilance Department.

Additional Secretary, Information Technology, Sports, Power and Alternative Sources of Energy, N Jha, has been relieved off the posts of Additional Secretary, Sports and Director Sports. 

Dehradun, April 20
Panchayats and local bodies will receive 60 per cent and 40 per cent allocations from the total revenue of the state up to financial year 2010-11.

The Chief Minister, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, today sanctioned Rs 52.89 crore to the panchayats for the first quarter of the current financial year. The panchayats will be given Rs 2.05 crore as establishment grant.

Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Subhash Kumar said the second State Finance Commission had recommended sanctioning of 10 per cent part of the total revenue of the state to the local bodies.

Significantly, 12 per cent of the sanctioned amount for the panchayats will be given to zila panchayats, 18 per cent to kshetra panchayats and 30 per cent to gram panchayats.

The panchayats will be given a sum of Rs 211.60 crore in four instalments from 2006-07 to 2010-11. The zila panchayats will get Rs 42.32 crore, the kshetra panchayats Rs 63.48 crore and gram panchayats will be given Rs 105.8 crore. This amount will be given only after the submission of utilisation certificate. 

Dehradun, Mussoorie, April 20
Executive and non-executive BSNL employees began an indefinite strike from today protesting against privatisation of BSNL in Dehradun and Mussoorie. The employees sat in front of the exchange building and raised slogans against the government. They also demanded solving of issues of ITS absorption. They demanded that employees should not be fired and that BSNL should not be privatised at any cost. The employees sat on dharna till afternoon.

The telephone exchange bore a deserted look as most of the striking employees stayed away from work. However, the strike was called off after the news of agreement with the Telecom Ministry reached Mussoorie.

According to BSNL official Ramesh Chandra Bhatnagar, the strike has been postponed for three months after discussion and agreement with Communications & IT Minister A Raja in New Delhi. He further informed that according to senior union workers in New Delhi, after a protracted discussion for about two hours, an agreement was reached. It was decided that all stake holders, including the unions, would be taken into confidence before any decision with regard to VRS, disinvestment and sharing of infrastructure.

In case of absorption issue of IITS officers as also revision of pension of BSNL retirees, a note will be prepared and submitted to the Cabinet within three months.

As many as 30 million mobile lines will be made available this year to BSNL to provide connections to people. The wage revision of non-executives will be approved by DoT within 15 days.

The striking employees included Mussoorie SDO Ganesh Kothari, SDO Chandra Prakash, JPO Ramesh Chandra Bhatnagar, branch secretary Matadin and others. 

Dehradun, April 20
The concluding function of Fire Services Week was held at ONGC Fire Station here today. Tauqir Hussain, GGM-Chief HRD, ONGC, was the chief guest.

On the occasion, a demonstration on firefighting and rescue operations was organised by fire fighters at the fire station. An exhibition of fire fighting, rescue and life-saving equipment was also held.

During the week various competitions were conducted .Addressing the gathering, Hussain congratulated the ONGC and CISF fire team for organising the Fire Services Week. DGM (Security) JS Sajwan laid emphasis on the fire fighting training to all employees of all work centres and installation.

On this occasion, booklets and leaflets on fire safety were distributed among the audience. SPS Bhatia, in charge, fire services, ONGC, organised the function. HC Singh, DGM (E)-HES, FB, Dr Sajid Jamal, DGM (Chem)- I/c SHSE, MC Pande, DGM (E&T)-HES, KDMIPE and SR Bhatt, DGM- I/c Infocom, were also present.

Dehradun, April 20
A national-level inter-school quiz organised by the Limca Books of Record was held at Scholar’s Home here today. As many as 284 students from 82 schools took part in the quiz. Students from classes VIII to XII were participants of the competition, which was aimed at sharpening their IQ.

Judging from the knowledge and energy levels of the students, the quiz comprised rounds covering various topics such as ecology and environment, ocial science, sports, brain teasers, science and technology, current affairs besides surprise round, audio round, video round and the buzzer round.

The participants from Welham Girls School, Summer Valley School, St Joseph’s Academy, Scholar’s Home, Bright Lands and Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy had come to prove their mettle. Three teams of two members each participated in the competition. The competition is categorised into three rounds, inter-school, semifinal and national rounds.

RK Vaish, sales manager, Hindustan Coca Cola, was the chief guest of the quiz. He appreciated the performance of the students and encouraged them to keep the flags of their respective schools flying high.

Nainital, April 20
In a bizarre incident that came to light in Khatima township of Udham Singh Nagar district, a drunk husband allegedly bit his wife’s nose when she tried to stop him from consuming alcohol.

The incident took place in Shiv Colony of the township on Sunday night. The victim Sunita Devi has complained to the police that her husband Satpal Singh had come home drunk.

Nainital, April 20
A young boy who was going to purchase sweets after clearing his Class VII examination died when he was crushed by a tractor-trailer in Kashipur yesterday.

According to information, Abrar who was a resident of Rajpura Rani Chapat village, had gone to his school in Barkheri to get his result. He was told by his teacher that he had cleared his exams. The happy boy got onto his bicycle to get some sweets for his teacher. On the way to the sweet shop he met with an accident with an overloaded tractor-trailer. He died while being treated in a government hospital.