The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Opposition terms Bharat Bandh a success
Tribune News Service

A deserted view of the Paltan Bazar during the bandh in Dehradun on Monday. Tribune photos: Rameshwar Gaur

Dehradun, July 5
Bharat Bandh against rising inflation in the country received a mixed response in the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand. No untoward incident was reported from any part of the state.

The bandh was partial in Dehradun with rains further easing off the traffic from roads. Educational institutions had already announced a closure, while bandh supporters closed number of offices. Business establishments at Paltan Market, Rajpur Road and other business areas of the city were closed whereas small shops in localities however continue to function normally.

Similarly, buses and other transport continue to function normally. Nevertheless, works at banks too were affected due to the closure. The joint bandh call given was by the Opposition parties like BJP, Left parties, Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal and other parties, but with Uttarakhand being a BJP-ruled state, it was mostly the BJP workers who were seen enforcing the bandh out on the streets.

Uttarakhand state BJP President Bisan Singh Chufal himself took to the streets to ensure that the bandh proved to be successful in the state. He led party members in staging a jam at the Clock Tower in the heart of the city. MLA Ganesh Joshi accompanied the BJP state President, other party members Subhash Barathwal, Goverdhan Bharadwaj and others.

CPM activists, who too supported the bandh, claimed that the bandh was a total success in the state. Surendra Singh Sajwan, district CPM secretary, said Left party members, along with Samajawadi Party and Janata Dal (S), took to the streets to ensure that the bandh was a success in the capital. They also gathered at the Gandhi Park in Dehradun and resorted to sloganeering against the state government.

The Uttarakhand State Council of the Communist Party of India expressed gratitude to the people for ensuring a successful bandh in the state. Samar Bhandari, Secretary, CPI Uttarakhand, said the common man was suffering due to rising prices of essential items. He said the Congress-led UPA government was backing corporation houses even while the poor and middleclass sections of the society were suffering. Bhandari said the economic policies of the Manmohan Singh government had been a big failure.

Reports of bandh were also reported in Rishikesh, Doiwala, Harrawala, Mussoorie, Vikasnagar, Haridwar and other areas.

Mixed response in Kumaon

Nainital: Bharat Bandh call given by the opposition parties to protest against the recent fuel price rise and the spiraling inflation evoked a mix response in the Kumaon region. With moderate to heavy rains being experienced across the region a large number of people decided to stay at home as a large number of schools also declared a holiday.

In Nainital, most of the eating joints and shops selling daily needs were open through the day in both the Tallital and Mallital markets.

While some of the schools declared a holiday, a large number of them functioned normally. Some of the shopkeepers who are affiliated to the parties that gave the bandh call kept their enterprise shut. The government offices remained open.

The condition was similar in areas like Bhawali and Bhimtal. The bandh was relatively successful in Haldwani where most of the business establishments remained closed for the major part of the day.

In Udham Singh Nagar, the bandh got a mix response. While the markets in Rudrapur remained shut, some of the business establishments in other towns like Kashipur, Bazpur, Khatima, Sitarganj etc remained open. Rudrapur markets are anyways closed on Monday. Hence, it is difficult to say whether the bandh was a complete success there.

Reports of mixed response on bandh came out from the other districts of the region also. Activists of the political parties supporting the call went around the town persuading people to keep their establishments shut but some of the people decided to open a couple of hours later.

Haridwar remains peaceful

Haridwar: The nationwide bandh called on by Opposition political parties on the issue of price hike of petroleum products, had quite an impact in the district, too, with a majority of shops and street vendors remaining closed till late afternoon.

The political parties, specially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aided by most of the allies of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) district units, rallied together to make sure the bandh left an impact in Haridwar. The BJP district unit had specifically worked to ensure the closure was successful.

But, the early morning intense rain that put life out of order immensely helped the pro-strike activists as most of the city areas were covered under water and traffic movement was almost nill for hours at several city intersections.

The party activists in small groups gathered early in the morning, and had the rain not been there, they would have found it hard to forcefully close city commercial establishments. Due to intense rain, businessmen refrained from opening their shops, while common people remained home due to the prevailing weather conditions.

Local MLA and Minister of State for Urban Development Madan Kaushik, too, monitored the whole situation with district chief Om Prakash Jamdagni leading the party workers to ensure that the bandh was effective. The bandh was effective at Har-ki-Pauri, Upper Road Ranipur Mod, Rishikul, Devpura, Jwalapur. In interior areas of Jwalapur, BHEL and inner colonies, the shops remained open.

Jamdagni termed the bandh as overwhelmingly successful, claiming that people themselves refrained from opening their commercial establishments to support the bandh owing to sky-rocketing prices of food and other essential commodities. “We didn’t force anyone. People came on the roads to protest against price hike. The Congress-led Central government has failed on all fronts, whether it be controlling poverty, price rise, corruption or in application of developmental projects,” said Jamdagni.

In view of the problems that come attached with the bandh, all schools remained closed. Due to the bandh, people had quite a tough time, specially in the main city areas, as even shops with essential commodities were not open. Pilgrims and tourists too had quite a tough time with even autos plying in less numbers. “We couldn’t have breakfast till late morning as no eateries were open. Even road-side dhabas were closed. Is this the way to raise the inflation issue? It’s common public only who is burdened by price hike and now such strikes too affect us only,” said Naresh Arora, who was with his family commuting to Cotu from Manesar, Gurgaon.

Meanwhile, the Congress has questioned the very purpose of calling a bandh saying it leads to nothing as petroleum products hike was imperative and accused the BJP of playing political game over this issue. City Congress chief OP Chauhan said traders were forced to shut their establishments by BJP workers threatening them. Allegations of misuse of the administrative machinery were also raised by the Congress.

No untoward major incident was reported from the city with heavy deployment of the police ensuring that the bandh passed off peacefully. Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjay Gunjiyal monitored the proceedings of the day with police patrol teams rallying through the city and rural area roads.

Normal life hit by strike, rain
Yamini Sunwar
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5
With the onset of the monsoon season, Dehradun witnessed heavy showers of rain for continuous hours here today. Since Sunday night it started pouring heavily.

However, normal life was hit by the strike today as rail, bus and air services were disrupted during the bandh called against the fuel price hike. The strike went off peacefully in the Doon Valley with no incident of violence.

Interestingly, the bad weather suited the Bharat Bandh call. Heavy rainfall helped protest supporters to keep common people away from commuting, going to their regular works, schools and colleges.

Luv Kumar Gurung, resident of Vikasnagar, faced many problems today. He said he had to reach for a ritual of his deceased father-in-law from Vikas Nagar to Johari Gaon, near Rajpur Road, early in the morning, but couldn’t due to the heavy spell of rain.

“Usually to cover the distance it takes 45 minutes to 1 hour, but today amid the awful conditions, it took four and half hours. First of all, no bus service was available. I took lift in a tractor till mid way and a motorbike till the rest. We had so many stoppages on the way besides getting drenched in rainwater, but the last hurdle was to cross the Tons river near Prem Nagar. Due to the downpour, the water level of the river had risen and we were swept away by the gushing water,” asserted Gurung.

The rain particularly caused difficulty to office-goers and schoolchildren who later returned home as their institutions were closed due to the bandh. Residents as well as commuters of prime locations of the city such as the Rajpur Road, Subhash Road, Survey Chowk and Tapovan Nalapani managed to escape.

“Today is my birthday and I am away from my home in Pauri Garhwal. So, I had planned to celebrate it with friends by watching a movie and having lunch at some restaurant. But the Bharat Band accompanied by heavy rain have washed away all my plans and we ended up meeting at a coffee shop,” complained Siddharth, student of IMS College.

Many city lanes, drains and household are getting flooded due to excessive rainfall. Many areas were surrounded with heaps of mud alongside roads.

The heavy downpour is expected to remain for the next two-three days.

BJP workers create ruckus at Tribune office

Dehradun: The Press too faced the ire of bandh supporters in Dehradun today. BJP workers forced their entry into the EC Road situated basement office of The Tribune

during morning hours and asked staff members to close their operations for the day.

The circulation team that was present at the office tried to reason out with the BJP workers, who remain adamant despite being told that it was a newspaper office.

Thus, The Tribune staff members were forced to come out of the office and close the office for a while.

It was only after the intervention of Dehradun’s Chief of Bureau, The Tribune, that normalcy could be resorted. The matter was brought to the notice of Dr Devendra Bhasin, Chairman, Media Advisory Council, who was informed of the act of the errant BJP workers.

Release of BEd, MEd, BTC candidates sought
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5
Agitated members of the Prashikshit Berozgar Sangathan burnt an effigy of Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank at the Vidhan Sabha here today.

They were expressing their resentment against the state government for arresting BEd, MEd and BTC candidates in the Kumaon region.

asked the administration for their release or else they would stage dharna in front of the Vidhan Sabha.

Nishank govt insensitive to hijacked Sandeep’s case, alleges family
Seema Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5
The indifference of the state government to follow the case of 26-year-old Sandeep Dangwal, Merchant Navy officer from the city, who has been hijacked, along with 19 other crew members, while sailing in a German ship OCI bound for Mumbai to Belgium by Somali pirates on May 8, has shaken the distraught family members and the Merchant Navy fraternity.

A file picture of Sandeep Dangwal (centre), who has been kidnapped by Somali hijackers for the past two months from his ship and (R) his family members await his release at their Prem Nagar residence in Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph

Losing patience, the Dangwals and other families, who went to Mumbai last week on the shipping company’s call to discuss the progress of the case, refused one-month time asked by the company and decided unanimously to go on strike after 15 days if the company failed to get their children freed from the clutches of pirates.

Father Sundermani Dangwal said he had been devastated by the apathetic attitude of the Chief Minister who never came to visit the family in their hour of crisis, nor showed interest in pursuing their case, and merely told them that he would send a letter to the Central government.

Comparing this to the last incident, when another Merchant Navy officer from the city, Capt Pardeep Goyal, was hijacked by Somali pirates, he said, that time the then Chief Minsiter BC Khanduri visited the family twice and worked tremendously to see him free.

Talking about the only phone call which he got from Sandeep after he fell prey to the pirates on May 26, he said Sandeep asked him to put pressure on pirates through the state and the Central governments.

Sundermani said he got a better response from Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar whom they met when they went to talk to the shipping company in Mumbai twice. They also met BJP senior leader Rajnath Singh in New Delhi.

Capt Pradeep Goyal, who went through the same travail on September 15 when his Japanese ship was hijacked by Somali pirates for two months, shared his views on Sandeep’s case and stressed on the pivotal role of the state and Central governments in such cases.

He flayed the local media for starting a campaign to build pressure on the state government to give ransom to the pirates. He said, “No government ever pays ransom to the pirates. It is only the company of the ship which does. Moreover, ours is a sovereign country which should not budge before a bunch of pirates. Recently, Russia got its hijacked members freed in 24 hours by making its naval commandants attack pirates and killing seven of them in the process. Our country too is blessed with the bravest of soldiers”.

Captain Goyal too slammed the German company in this case for a dithering security system. “Besides the security provided by the United Kingdom Maritime Transport Organisation for 2.5 mile distance towards east and west traffic in the sensitive region of Somali pirates, the ships also make their own exclusive arrangements of gun boats which carry security guards. In Sandeep’s case, the company did not spend on hiring that system and got into a fix”.

The Merchant Navy Association has lent support to the family. President of the association, Capt Navin Barthwal, whom the family met a day before, has assured to talk to the German company to proceed with the matter. The association has also called a meeting to discuss the matter next week.

Meanwhile, the family has decided to go slow for the next 15 days. Sandeep’s father said, “The shipping company has asked us not to interact too much with the media as they fear that the publicity will lead pirates to raise ransom money.

So we too are taking precaution. But it has been two months since the ship got hijacked, and there has not been any headway toward the release of our children.
Now, we have decided to wage full war after 15 days if nothing concrete happens”.

Panel deliberates on agricultural marketing
Ajay Ramola

Mussoorie, July 5
A high-powered committee of state ministers in charge of agricultural marketing deliberated on issues related to improve the condition of farmers, speed up agricultural marketing reforms and recommend to the government the implementation of the Model Act (state Agriculture Produce Marketing Development and Regulation Act, 2003) in all states on an urgent basis in a meeting held at Jaypee Hotel here today.

The meeting was attended by more than six state ministers in the committee, including Uttarakhand Agriculture Minister Trivendar Singh Rawat.

Chairman of the committee Maharashtra Minister Harshwardhan Patil said the committee would recommend to the government the implementation of the Development and Regulation Act, 2003 in all states for state agricultural produce marketing reforms, and suggesting nationwide barrier-free market to benefit the farmers directly.

Patil also said the focus of the meeting was to speed up the process of reforms and facilitate investment by the private sector in the development of marketing infrastructure.

He also said decreasing the interference of middlemen and facilitating direct marketing to increase the profits of farmers from their agricultural produce were also discussed extensively in the meeting.

The major private players like the ITC and Adani Farm Fresh were also invited for the discussion. He said the committee also discussed having MOUs with various states for tapping the domestic market and the farmers getting major benefits of the reforms.

The committee would also invite major stakeholders to participate in the meetings for consultation. He said the issue of registration in contractual farming was also discussed.

It was also felt that unofficial contract farming was prevalent in the country so a registration was required for both the farmer and the contractor, controlled by the local administration as arbitrary body.

Patil said their main concern was keeping the interest of the farmers in the forefront and the committee had resolved to create better agricultural infrastructure.

The government of India, joint secretary and committee member secretary Rajendar Tiwari said the conclusion reached in this meeting was that revenue earned from fruits and vegetables and flowers markets would be spent on developing those markets only. Increasing the direct farming methods were also discussed in the meeting for providing better prices to the farmers and providing cheaper produce to the consumers. He said the government of India had taken decisions to include private farmers in contract and direct farming proposed by the committee. He also said the Modal Act was in the interest of farmers to increase the storage capacity and quality produce.

He said the title of farmers land would not be changed in contract farming at any cost and no land owned by the farmers would be leased or mortgaged by the entrepreneur entering the agreement.

The government had also decided that if the Act was not implemented, no subsidy would be given to the states. The final recommendation would be sent to the government of India after a series of meetings this year.

The members also deliberated on the issue of contract farming and it was found that states could use it according to the need and production of respective states. He said the consensus had been reached on a few issues and the final draft would be prepared in the third meeting to be held in Madhya Pradesh in September and the interim report would be submitted to government.

He said rules would be formulated headed by three states’ sub-committees from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana as members. They would form a draft for the uniformity of rules for contract farming in all states and present it in the next meeting and recommend it to the government of India.

Trivendar Rawat for separate guidelines for farmers Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting of high-powered committee on direct agricultural marketing reforms and contractual farming, state Agricultural Minister Trivendar Singh Rawat said he had raised the various issues in the meeting. He had said the Himalayan states had only 13 per cent of agricultural land and the rest was under forest and so special status should be given to these states, especially in Uttarakhand. He also said farmers had to pay more on transporting their produce which was perishable in nature; hence, some separate guidelines should be made so that farmers were benefited by it.

Trivendar said the committee was looking at his suggestions sympathetically and matters would be resolved in the next meeting of the committee to be held in September in Madhya Pradesh.

He said the state had also demanded a separate mandi for farmers from Uttarakhand in Delhi and hadtalked in this regard with Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit. She had agreed to provide space for a new mandi at Majnu ka Tila in New Delhi.

He said an agricultural association of Himalayan states, of which Himachal was the president, would also consult with the committee. He said he was in favour of contractual farming so that barren agricultural land could be used under this in Uttarakhand effectively.