Dehradun, June 7
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesman Tarun Vijay filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections for the lone Rajya Sabha seat of Uttarakhand in Dehradun here today.

Tarun filed his nomination at 11.20 am submitting two sets of nomination papers to Vidhan Sabha Secretary and Returning Officer Mahesh Chandra.

All supporting 41 MLAs that include 36 BJP MLAs, three Uttarakhand Kranti Dal MLAs and two Independent MLAs were present on the occasion. Uttarakhand Party President Bishan Singh Chufal and two former Chief Minister Major Gen BC Khanduri (retd) and Bhagat Singh Koshiyari were among prominent persons present there.

Later talking to mediapersons, Tarun pledged to take up the issue of a special industrial package for Uttarakhand to Parliament. He said he found himself fortunate to represent Uttarakhand in the Rajya Sabha. “I will do my level best to rise to the expectations of the people of Uttarakhand state,” Tarun Vijay observed.

Earlier, Tarun was left for the Vidhan Sabha to file his nomination from the Balbir-situated Uttarakhand BJP office. He was accompanied by a large number of BJP workers.

The lone Rajya Sabha for which Tarun today filed nomination is presently held by Capt Satish Sharma of the Congress and will be vacated on July 1.

Dehradun, June 7
One of the most famous acting teachers, who has given the film industry many prominent actors like Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi etc, has now moved to Uttarakhand to search and hone the skills of youngsters who are interested in making acting their career.

Keeping this in mind, Roshan Taneja, first teacher of the Pune Film Institute, opened the Doon Talent Acting School Dehradun-franchise unit of the Roshan Taneja Foundation for Performing Art in Mehuwala here today.

“We are here to provide a platform to those who have talent, but due to certain circumstances cannot move to Mumbai,” Taneja, founder and former head of the acting department at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, said. “After completing the classes, students will be given a chance to show their talent in the film and TV industry according to their skills,” he added.

The institute will be providing two courses- a 12-week training and a regular course for three months. All students will be trained with the professional course and curriculum. It will include training in action, Bollywood dance, yoga, concentration, scene performance, imagination and sense memory. Once the acting course is finished, the student will emerge as an actor who will be capable to act candidly.

The course and curriculum of the acting school will be based on Taneja’s experience and knowledge and the school will be a pioneer of acting.

To give lessons in acting, Atam Prakash and Harish Magan from the film industry were also present.

The list of Taneja’s students include many other celebrities like Abhishek Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah, Rani Mukherjee, Poonam Dhillon, Karisma Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, the list being endless.

Director of institution Rohit Chauhan, who was present along with Ajay Satti, TR Belwal, said it was for the first time that Taneja had given franchise of his institute to someone. “This institute will be the first of its kind in Uttarakhand,” he claimed. 

Dehradun, June 7
Dehradun Chief Development Officer Indudhar Bodari today asked officials to take action on the problems faced by villagers within a week. He was speaking at a camp organised at Junior High School of Kalsi in Chakrata to make the villagers aware about the welfare schemes provided by the government.

He received 26 complaints, out of which many were solved on the spot.

The villagers complained that the water level had gone down in the Udpalta area due to which they were facing water scarcity and water was being provided by tankers. The officer asked its officials to provide drinking water facility to the villagers.

The villagers also demanded a doctor in the village, as they were not able to get proper medication on time. On this, the Health Department authority said it had appointed a doctor who would soon be available in the village.

The residents were assured that the BPL families would be provided with money for toilets.

Officials told the villagers that due to the lack of staff they were not able to prepare the estimate for the plans for providing jobs under the MNAREGA scheme and would soon sort out the matter.

Dehradun, June 7
Volunteers of the Uttarakhand Sahastra Seema Bal (SSB), also known as guerrilla force had reached the Secretariat to stage a protest to press for their demands. A large number of agitators had gathered from different districts of the state to urge the administration to fulfill their demands.

The guerrilla force had earlier assembled at the Gandhi Park here and later they held a rally to the Secretariat. They shouted slogans and raised voice against the apathy of the administration in providing them permanent appointments and pensions to the retired members.

Through revenue official SP Tyagi, the guerrilla force also gave a memorandum to Union Home Minister and the state government demanding proper appointment and pensions.

Present at the rally were Bramhanand Dalakoti, central president, Manmohan Singh Bhandari, president Pauri, Jagdishwar Chauhan, president Dehradun, Basudev Badola, president Nainital, Shiv Raj Chanola, president Almora, Deepak Bhatt, president Pitthoragarh, Jayender Rawat, president Uttarkashi and other volunteers of the SSB.

Haridwar, June 7
A major success has been achieved by the Haridwar police with the arrest of five hardcore criminals of an inter-state gang involved in several criminal activities spanning three states. The five arrested persons, along with two other absconding ones, have executed several murder, dacoity and robbery incidents in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana states.

The accused have several criminal cases lodged against them in various district police stations in Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Yamunanagar and Haridwar.

The police arrested Jogendra Nagar, Roshan, Rakesh Singh and Kala, all of Firozpur, and Kadwa of Tali village along with Suni of Jogendra Nagar and Kadwa of Muzaffarnagar, who had fled from the scene while conspiring another criminal act of robbing a petrol pump. All these gang members had arrived from Roorkee and were planning to rob a petrol pump when the police team arrived at the spot.

The Bahadrabad police patrolling team, led by senior Inspector Devendra Singh Chauhan, approached the group, while Sunny was able to flee.

As a modus operandi, these gangsters working under name of ‘Bengali Gang’ used eucalyptus sticks, iron rods and wore same colour vest-shorts. The police confiscated two local revolvers and identical knives, three eucalyptus sticks and a car from the scene of arrest.

This gang came in radar of the Haridwar police in January this year when Dev Joshi, a chowkidar posted at the Chief of Uttarakhand Public Service Commission, was found murdered. The house was also burgled. Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjay Gunjiyal made this revelation.

Director General of Uttarakhand Police Subash Joshi has announced a reward of Rs 20,000 to the police team, while Garhwal Division Inspector General of Police MA Ganapathy has sanctioned another Rs 10,000 to the team.

Dehradun, June 7
Uttarakhand state agitationists today held massive protests in Uttarakhand capital Dehradun seeking lower rung of state government posts from outside the purview of the State Public Service Commission.

State agitationists, who included members of the Andolankari Manch, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal and other state agitation organisations staged a demonstration near the Chief Minister’s office followed by another protest at the Clock Tower. They said class III and IV posts should go to locals rather than making these open for anyone from the country.

One of the protesters, Vijay Singh Chauhan said by giving class III and IV posts to the State Public Service Commission, grave injustice was being meted out to the locals.

State agitationist leader Vivekanand Khanduri, Manoj Dhyani and Vijay Singh Chauhan were prominent among the protesters.

Meanwhile, according Uttarakhand state government sources the state government has stopped the sale of the Public Service Commission forms so as to ensure necessary changes. 

Dehradun, June 7
Sanitation workers, working under the committee system, have gone on strike when they were pressed to lift garbage from household in their wards alongside cleaning roads.

The workers, who earn a paltry sum of Rs 2,000 per month, call it exploitation, as they are not being paid extra for the additional work.

Harak Singh Rawat, Assistant Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (AMNA), the officer who introduced this new scheme of garbage collection, called the strike a conspiracy of supervisors who had been minting money from workers by marking their fictitious presence in roll/attendance registers. The workers have refused to meet AMNA and wrote a letter to the MNA instead.

The workers too were not seen unified in their strike as today 250 workers out of a total of 650 working for 60 wards of the city went on strike.

President of the Akhil Bhartiya Swetchkar Sangh Chander Mohan Kala said, “These people have been cheated and made to do work by luring them away in the name of regularising them, which has not happened in the past one decade. Now, they are made to double the work at a nominal salary”.

Ashok Verma, leader of the Opposition, too criticised Rawat for unnecessarily creating trouble by resorting to wrong methods. Mayor Vinod Chamoli refused to make any comment.

Harak Singh, who had been taking initiatives to better the sanitation condition in town, found himself trapped. Since now the ball is in the MNA’s court, it will be interesting to watch how the MNA reacts, especially when he had already warned Rawat not to proceed with the project without proper planning in writing and budget allocation and was advised to move with one ward in the beginning.

Mussoorie, June 7
The dispute triggered by a barking dog at Duggal Villa has now come on the streets of Mussoorie as Nagar Palika ward members held a dharna, demanding the ouster of the SDM, Mussoorie, for his making derogatory remarks against the Palika president at the Jhoola Ghar here today.

Nagar Palika Mahasangh officials also sat on dharna in support of Palika President OP Uniyal on the same issue at the Palika premises. The ward members from the Congress and the BJP raised slogans against SDM, Mussoorie, Manoj Kumar.

Ward member Ramesh Bhandari belonging to the Congress said if the SDM was not removed within the next three days, they would sit on hunger strike.

Palika employees also held a meeting on the Nagar Palika premises. The leaders said they would continue to work under protest and if their demand to ouster the SDM was not met, they would carry out a mass movement till its judicious end.

Ward members Ramesh Bhandari, Virendar Rawat, Sushil Kumar, Kanta Bisht, Jasvir Kaur, Rajwant Rawat, Jai Kumar Gupta and Youth Congress leader Amit Kaintura were also present.

Meanwhile, Mahavir Singh Rana, CP Badoni and other Palika employee leaders were present at the Palika premises.

Hotel Association of Mussoorie officials, however, are of the view that a hue and cry is being raised on such a petty issue and it should have been solved amicably in closed doors instead of the streets considering the tourist season was already under pressure with only 40 per cent occupancy.

The Tribune has learnt that a section of one community has begun lobbying in favour of Uniyal and pressurising the administration to transfer the SDM from Mussoorie. It seems that now the real issue of a girl being beaten has taken a backseat and a clash of egos of various political parties has taken over, which does not augur well for the peaceful town of Mussoorie.

Dehradun, June 7
Pradhans from 95 blocks today held a demonstration and sat on a dharna at the Raipur block headquarters, pressing for the fulfilment of their long-pending demands, comprising the allocation of finances to the gram nidhi, increasing honorarium of gram pradhans, a Panchayat Raj Act for the state and gram pradhans be made members of District Planning Committees.

“The powers of pradhans have been curtailed as the bureaucrats are dominating the day-to-day functioning of the panchayats,” said Kapil Vohra, president, Gram Pradhan Sangathan, Raipur.

The members said similar arbitrary decisions had been taken in the past without taking the pradhans into confidence.