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Cong workers take rally to minister’s house Police clueless about schoolgirl’s death
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Woman dies in hospital, kin accuse husband of murder
Ruskin Bond’s 76th birthday celebrated with fervour
Ruskin Bond cuts a cake with children in Mussoorie on Wednesday.
Nishank sends greetings
Election issue mars hotel workers union meeting
Avail financial clearance for projects, says DM Bagauli
Faulty lift puts lives of two families at risk
Former VP Shekhawat’s ashes immersed in Ganga
Char Dham Yatra Bhotia tribals perform a dance at the Badrinath shrine on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph
Chakrota Road traders refuse to accept land behind Gandhi Park
Avail financial clearance for projects, says DM Bagauli
Govts’ policies anti-farmer: Left
Sub-Inspectors promoted
Centre denying industrial package to U’khand: BJP
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Cong workers take rally to minister’s house
Haridwar, May 19 Particularly with Kaushik being the Kumbh mela’s designated in charge minister, the protesters demanded a clarification from the minister on Kumbh irregularities and the laxity on the administration front post Kumbh on health and sanitation aspect. After dozens of the BJP workers too gathered in support of the minister, there was a clash both party workers. After some time, when the Congress workers sat on a dharna and wanted to give a memorandum to Kaushik, he came out of his residence and heard the agitators’ demands. He said the Kumbh had been a mega success with crores of people coming to Haridwar to take part and witness the mega event. On the sanitation issue’ Kaushik assured of satisfactory steps so that the left’ over garbage and filth was soon removed from the city. Meanwhile, during the protest there were several verbal clashes between both party workers and the police had to be deployed to thwart any conflict. “We wanted to apprise the minister of the realities of the Kumbh and it’s a pity that besides being a local legislator he can’t see the worsening condition of the city and people. Instead, the BJP government is demanding the Nobel Prize for such mismanagement?” remarked Purushottam Sharma, former Congress city chief.
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Police clueless about schoolgirl’s death
Nainital, May 19 According to information, Pallavi, who was the daughter of local BJP leader Narendra Singh Manas, had left her house in the Rahamkhani locality to go her friend Surabhi’s house in the Arya Nagar locality. At the same time Surabhi had left her house to go to Pallavi’s house. Both of them had appeared for Class X examination from a private school this year. However, when the girls did not return home, their parents started searching and were told by another one of their friends that both had left her house for their respective homes. The next day Pallavi’s body was recovered in a pool of blood, while Surabhi was found lying unconscious nearby. There are two theories doing the rounds. The first is that the two friends might have jumped from the top of the school building in an attempted suicide. The second is that they might have been thrown from the top of the three-floored building. It is learnt that Pallavi’s bag was found on a table lying at the roof top with a scrap book and a blade lying on the table. There are reports that some graffiti with the names of the two girls was also written on a wall with a piece of brick. The police is waiting for Surabhi to recover from shock so that her statement can be recorded and the matter solved. |
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Woman dies in hospital, kin accuse husband of murder
Nainital, May 19 Her agitated brothers went on to thrash her husband Sanjay Bajaj, while her father has lodged a complaint against him charging him with murder. Sanjay told the police that his wife had gone out to purchase melons and after a while she called him up saying that she had consumed poison. On being asked about her location, she said she was somewhere near the Ooncha Pul locality. Sanjay reportedly reached the spot, along with his son Manav, and found Rima sitting in her car and vomiting. The father and son went on to bring her to a private hospital for treatment. The deceased woman’s father on the other hand has alleged that his daughter was murdered and her husband had been demanding money from him regularly. The couple had been married for the past 25 years. Man’s body found
hanging from tree
The decomposed body of a man was found hanging from a tree in a forest area on the Tanakpur-Champawat road. The body was discovered by a group of rural women who had gone to the area in search of fodder for their cattle. The deceased is said to be about 50 years of age. His body
was learnt to be in such a bad shape that it is very difficult to identify him. It is yet to be ascertained whether he was murdered or had committed suicide. Nothing that could help in identifying him was recovered from his pockets. He was wearing a white shirt and black pants. His
body was sent to Khatima for post mortem. |
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Ruskin Bond’s 76th birthday celebrated with fervour
Mussoorie, May 19 The fans, mostly children from Mussoorie, Saharanpur, Mumbai, Delhi, Dehradun and Chennai, turned up at the shop, where Ruskin was greeted amid cheers. The cake decorated similar to the cover of his new book was cut on the occasion by Ruskin. Palika president OP Uniyal wished him a long life on the occasion. Senior Citizen Forum president Rama Shankar Mishra presented him a citation and a shawl. Authors Advaita Kala, Ganesh Saili and Stephen Alter also wished him. Hriday Gupta, student from St Gregoris High School, Chembur, Mumbai, an avid fan of Ruskin Bond, was present with his Principal Ranjni Krishan Swami to wish him a long life. Hriday, who also figures in the new book as one of the characters, said, “It was a great feeling to be featured in one of the Ruskin Bond’s book”. Elaborating his character in the book, he says his character runs away from school, but later on turns out to be a good boy. Principal Swamy informed that she had read every single title Ruskin had written. Shailja and Pradakshan from Saharanpur said it was great opportunity to meet him face to face. Sunil Arora, owner of Cambridge Book Depot, said Ruskin was bestseller in Mussoorie. Padmakshi, 15, said her favorite book was, “Room on the Roof”. Author of “Mussoorie Medley”, Ganesh Saili said, “Ruskin with every book perfected the art of writing simple English which children can understand easily”. Author and convener of Writer’s Festival Steven Alter was of the view that Ruskin had inspired children to read books and also enhance their creative skills and imagination. Ruskin Bond, born on May 19, 1934, in Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) is now a permanent resident of Mussoorie. Sharing his experience with the media, he said he had written more than 90 books and planned to score a century. Speaking about his new book he said, “The book is a humorous account of a boarding school teacher surrounded by boisterous and mischievous students”. Vishal Bharadwaj, director of “Blue Umbrella”, is planning to make another film called “Susanna’s Seven Husbands” based on Ruskin’s short story. The film titled “Saat Khoon Maaf” is on the floors in Mysore. The other cast of the film includes Priyanka Chopra, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Anu Kapoor . Ruskin is presently busy writing a wildlife-based book for children and his message to the children is “to pursue the career of their choice and liking”. |
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Nishank sends greetings
Dehradun, May 19 The Chief Minister
conveyed the greetings telephonically to Ruskin who resides in the Queen of
Hills Mussoorie. Dr Nishank said Ruskin had admirers criss-crossing
geographical boundaries. He said his writings were a subject of research for
students at the international levels. The Chief Minister hoped that Ruskin
through his writing would continue to bring honour for Uttarakhand.
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Election issue mars hotel workers union meeting
Mussoorie, May 19 Soban Singh Panwar, a supporter, questioned the election procedure and alleged that the elections were not being held democratically. All this happened in front of chief guest Summer
Bhandari, who had to leave immediately after his address. Bhandari said it was unfortunate that the unions were fighting for individual names and not the
organisation. As the annual budget was laid on the table, members of one group named RP Badoni for the post of president unanimously. This was contested vehemently by the Panwar group. The Panwar group alleged that the whole election process was fraudulent and opposed any such move. The Badoni group seeing the anger hurriedly formed a working committee body that then elected RP Badoni as their president. The Panwar group boycotting the election immediately formed a parallel Hotel and Restaurant Karamchari Association with Soban Singh Panwar as their president. The other members elected were Jitendar Singh Rana vice-president, Shamsher Singh Rawat general secretary, Bikram Singh Baludi treasurer, Darmyan Singh joint secretary, etc. The other group also declared RP Badoni as their president.
Soban Singh Panwar said till the time Badoni and Sunil Kumar were president of the union, workers would keep suffering as they indulged in nefarious activities contrary to the workers’ interest.
Panwar also threatened that all corrupt activities of the previous union would be disclosed in the near future. The police also arrived on the spot due to heated arguments between the two groups. Bhandari in his address earlier said the workers should be united against the corporate houses and government supported by them. |
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Avail financial clearance for projects, says DM Bagauli
Nainital, May 19 These orders were given by District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli at a meeting held at the Vikas Bhawan in Bhimtal to evaluate various programmes being run under the Sarkar Janata ke
Dwar, Task Force and District Plan. The departments have been asked to take financial clearance for works that have been initiated on various cleared projects within a week and also seek administrative clearance through reports of technical committee wherever applicable. Referring to the delays occurring in installation of hand pumps and tube wells, Bagauli said the payments against these installations be made on monthly basis so that the expenditure could be shown appropriately. He ordered officials of the Task Force to spend nights in rural areas and try to address the problems of people at the ground level. At the same time the officials have been asked to provide details about their movement to Chief Development Officer Dr Pankaj Kumar. Referring to the works being executed in Atal Adarsh Grams, the District Magistrate has stated that every department should ensure execution of the job entrusted to
them. Bagauli said by spending 91 per cent of the money allocated to it under the district plan for 2009-10, he called upon the officials to start working to achieve a 100 per cent
fund-utilisation target for the current financial year. He also asked the officials to start working towards meeting the Rs 91 crore target given to the district for small savings. The Chief Development Officer said the officials were being given tasks for execution under the Atal Adarsh Gram scheme in the areas, where they were deputed so that they could execute the tasks allocated to them besides this new responsibility side by side. He also asked the officials of the Industries Department to ensure that the training programmes for entrepreneurs were organised in all blocks on a monthly basis. |
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Faulty lift puts lives of two families at risk
Dehradun, May 19 Surprisingly, the building owner and manager of Fab India are not ready to own the responsibility of the incident which could turn into a big mishap, as one of the children started vomiting and pregnant woman Kali Rawat was about to faint due to extreme heat and claustrophobia. Seething with rage, Darshana
Rawat, a victim in her late 60s, said, “We took the lift to come down from the outlet, but instead of stopping at first floor, the lift went further down into the basement and stopped altogether. Meanwhile, my daughter-in-law almost fainted and granddaughter started vomiting. The other old heart patient felt uneasy and started perspiring due to heat inside”. She said she called up her husband Rajender
Rawat, who was at home that time. It was when a panic-stricken Rajender reached the spot, the search for people who had installed the lift
began. Rajender said, “Anything could have happened to my family and other people inside the lift. Shockingly, fully aware of the faulty lift, people at the outlet were using the staircase instead of the lift, but did not find it necessary to leave any attendant or written instructions in the lift to guide customers. Embarrassed by the incident, the building owner had closed the lift for the customers. Arti
Kohli, mananger of Fab India, said, “It seems that customers pushed the stop button mistakenly which would have stopped the functioning of the lift. We are removing the button, putting signs in the lift and leaving one attendant now onwards”. She also said a demonstration was given to the staff of the building on how to operate lift in such circumstances. |
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Former VP Shekhawat’s ashes immersed in Ganga
Haridwar, May 19 Late last night ashes of Shekhawat, who has been the Chief Minister of Rajasthan for three times, were brought to the pilgrim city by his family members, including Rajendra Singh Shekhawat, and friends. Around 9 am, family members of the late Vice-President reached Har-Ki-Pauri and performed the rites and rituals as per the directions of “teerth purohit” with the Rajasthani traditions and customs. Later in the day, the Panchpuri Kshatriya Samaj organised a condolence meeting, where community members and other personalities from different sections of the society participated and paid their tributes to the great leader. Shekhawat was the 11th Vice-President and had a long association with the city, where he had got Gayatri Mantra deeksha by Pandit Shri Ram Sharma of the Shanti Kunj family. Shekhawat had died on May 15 in Jaipur due to respiratory illness at the age of 87 and had nearly 60 years of political career. “I remember his last visit to Haridwar when he attended a small-medium newspapers’ annual convention as a chief guest and there too he highlighted the importance of such newspapers as these catered to the poor and lower strata of the society,” said PS Chauhan, former Principal of SMJN College. |
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Badrinath shrine re-opens
Tribune News Service
Dehradun, May 19 Situated at a height of 10,284 m above the sea level, Badrinath remains closed for nearly six months from November due to heavy snow in the region. As per the Hindus scriptures, Badrinath is the most revered pilgrimage site of Hindus. The main attraction of this temple is the idol of Lord Vishnu and Akhand Jyoti (burning flame). On the opening day itself, thousands of pilgrims braved the inclement weather conditions to have a darshan. With re-opening of Badrinath, all four Char Dham shrines are now open after the winter break. While Kedarnath shrine opened yesterday, the twin shrines of Gangotri and Yamunotri in Uttarakashi district had opened on Sunday. Interestingly, it is for the first time in the past many years, that the opening of the Badrinath shrine has taken place without the presence of any VIP. Even Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who was to be present at the ceremony, could not make it as bad weather forced the cancellation of his visit. The Chief Minister was slated to open a new foot bridge for the pilgrims at Badrinath. But the opening failed to take place in the absence of the Chief Minister. Ony local MLA Kedar Singh Fonia and Badinath Kedarnath Temple Committee President Anshuya Prasad Bhatt were among important persons present on the ocassion.
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Chakrota Road traders refuse to accept land behind Gandhi Park
Dehradun, May 19 They also opposed the state government’s plan to build a mall and a multiplex on the PWD guest house land saying it was illogical to build 1,100 shops at this place which would augment the movement of 30,000 to 40,000 people and a parking problem of an equally enormous scale. The Mayor said in a couple of days, he would meet the Chief Minister along with shopkeepers to solve the matter. Shashikant Goyal, president of the committee, said, “We have been running our shops from here for the past two to three generations, but are still ready to shift in the interest of people. But the now the government should not dither from the stand which Lok Ayukt and District Magistrate Rakesh Kumar had taken and decided to give us the PWD land. Now we will not accept any other place”. Sanjeev Wadhwa, president of the other side of the shopkeepers association, also agreed that the PWD land was located at a prime place, whereas the one offered behind the Gandhi Park was hidden behind the main road. Former president Rajesh Goyal opposed the widely circulated view that the shopkeepers had illegally occupied or encroached upon the land on the Chakrota road. Mayor Chamoli said he would fix a meeting of shopkeepers with the CM to seek his intervention in the matter. Later, talks at the official level involving the MDDA would also be held with the CM.
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Avail financial clearance for projects, says DM Bagauli
Nainital, May 19 These orders were given by District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli at a meeting held at the Vikas Bhawan in Bhimtal to evaluate various
programmes being run under the Sarkar Janata ke Dwar, Task Force and District Plan. The departments have been asked to take financial clearance for works that have been initiated on various cleared projects within a week and also seek administrative clearance through reports of technical committee wherever applicable. Referring to the delays occurring in installation of hand pumps and tube wells, Bagauli said the payments against these installations be made on monthly basis so that the expenditure could be shown appropriately. He ordered officials of the Task Force to spend nights in rural areas and try to address the problems of people at the ground level. At the same time the officials have been asked to provide details about their movement to Chief Development Officer Dr Pankaj Kumar. Referring to the works being executed in Atal Adarsh Grams, the District Magistrate has stated that every department should ensure execution of the job entrusted to them. Bagauli said by spending 91 per cent of the money allocated to it under the district plan for 2009-10, he called upon the officials to start working to achieve a 100 per cent fund-utilisation target for the current financial year. He also asked the officials to start working towards meeting the Rs 91 crore target given to the district for small savings. The Chief Development Officer said the officials were being given tasks for execution under the Atal Adarsh Gram scheme in the areas, where they were deputed so that they could execute the tasks allocated to them besides this new responsibility side by side. He also asked the officials of the Industries Department to ensure that the training programmes for entrepreneurs were organised in all blocks on a monthly basis. |
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Govts’ policies anti-farmer: Left
Mussoorie, May 19 The governments were just acting as middlemen and property dealers for multinationals. He said the Left was not against
industrialisation, but not at the cost of poor farmers’ land. He said a big question still remained as to why only poor man’s land was usurped by the government and not of the rich? Bhandari also lamented the fact that maximum MPs were multimillionaires and not interested in raising issues of poor people.
Bhandari categorically said the Congress and the BJP had kowtowed in front of global masters, who were preying on poor masses of the country and slogans of social uplift had become meaningless. He said the BJP came to power on the issue of corruption and 56 scams done by the Congress in the state, but now the Nishank government was heading towards nepotism on the issue of the power projects, irrigation irregularities or Sturdia Chemical. The government was protecting the corrupt bureaucrats which meant it was also involved deeply in it. On the other hand the Congress was creating facade to impress its constituency. If the Congress was serious on these issues it should have kept the case in the Vidhan Sabha with facts. Instead it was interested in just creating uproar and diluting the whole
issue. Bhandari also said they would oppose the draconian act in Parliament and on streets as it was against the workers. |
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Sub-Inspectors promoted
Dehradun, May 19 SI Om Prakash posted at Pitthoragarh, Tilak Ram at Almora, Pradeep Godbole at police HQ, Dehradun, Anil Kumar and Umesh Pal Singh Rawat, at the police HQ, Dehradun, Anram Arya at Haldwani, Nathi Singh Parmar at Dehradun, Kamlesh Pant at Dehradun and Bhupender Singh Bhandari at Nainital have been promoted to the rank of Inspector.
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Centre denying industrial package to U’khand: BJP
Dehradun, May 19 Led by Rajpur MLA Ganesh Joshi, the BJP leaders alleged that the Centre was deliberately avoiding the industrial package for Uttarakhand as it was a BJP-ruled state. They said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had been exposed due to the stand over the extension of the industrial package to the state. Goverdhan Bharadwaj, Rajkumar Jaiswal, Ramesh Pradhan, Satendra Kharola and Atul Sonkar were among the agitators. They also resorted to large-scale sloganeering against the Central government.
— TNS |
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It was a tough time for state cabinet minister Madan Kaushik. He was put under house arrest by Congress workers who were protesting against the irregularities in the Kumbh funds.
Mussoorie, May 19
Mussoorie, May 19
Haridwar, May 19
Speaking at the sidelines of the hotel workers annual general body meeting held here yesterday, Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary Samar Bhandari said for the past 15 years the policies followed by the subsequent governments had ruined farmers and workers in the country. Bhandari further said the government boasted of increase in the growth rate, but the people living below poverty line had also increased manifold.
