Dehradun, August 12
The state government has transferred 123 senior IAS officers, including Additional Chief Secretary. Additional Principal Chief Secretary Ajay Kumar has been transferred to the post of Director General of the Uttarakhand Administrative Academy, Nainital.

Principal Secretary (Civil Aviation), Industrial Development, Minor Irrigation, Higher Education, Sanskrit Education and Chief Executive Officer Khadi Gramudhyog PC Sharma has relieved of the portfolios of Industrial Development, Minor Irrigation and Khadi Gramudhyog. Further he has been given additional charge of the Irrigation and Accommodation Department.

Principal Secretary of Urban Development, Housing and Information Technology S Raju has been relieved off the posts of Information Technology and Housing. Moreover, he has been given additional charge of Industrial Development, Minor Industries, Khadi Gramudhyog and Chief Executive Officer of Khadi Gramudyog. Principal Secretary of Technical Education, Culture, Tourism, Sports and Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Development Rakesh Sharma has been given additional charge of Information Technology.

Dr Uma Kant Panwar, Secretary of Health, Family Welfare, Medical Education and Housing, has been relieved off the posts of Medical Education and has been given additional charge of Secretary (Energy).

Secretary of the Public Works Department, State Property Department, Youth Welfare and Power Utpal Singh Singh has been relieved off the portfolio of Energy and given additional charge of Secretary of the Potable Water Department.

Secretary of the Transport and Transport Commissioner and Managing Director of SIDCUL S Ramaswamy has been given additional charge of the Planning Department. Secretary of the Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Cooperatives Dr Rakesh Kumar has been relieved off the posts of Rural Development and additional portfolio of Medical Education. Secretary of Potable Water, Forest, Watershed Management MH Khan has been revealed off the portfolio of Potable Water.

Pitthoragarh, August 12
Two persons, who were running an information technology institute in Pitthoragarh town, were arrested under Section 420 of the IPC for duping nine youths of lakhs of rupees in the name of getting government jobs for them.

“Narendra Singh Bisht and Aakash Tamta, who were running a computer institute named IIHT, were arrested after Ajay Singh Rawat of Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar lodged an FIR with the police in which he said he had been duped of Rs 9 lakh by the duo on the pretext of getting him a job in the Railways,” said Amit Srivastava, Deputy SP, Pitthoragarh.

According to the police after their party searched the residents of the culprits, they recovered objectionable documents, including educational documents of many youths. “All documents are being investigated by the police,” said Srivastava.

The police said the culprits had confessed to duping 31 youth from across Uttarakhand of crores of rupees. “Nine youths from Pitthoragarh district have been duped by the culprits,” said Srivastava.

Dehradun, August 12
Justice Barin Ghosh was today sworn in as the Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice.He was administered oath of office and secrecy by Governor Margaret Alva at the Raj Bhawan auditorium.

The ceremony was attended by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, former Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari, former Chief Minister Maj Gene BC Khanduri (retd), DGP Mayor Vinod Chamoli, Chief Secretary NS Napalchayal, senior lawyers, advocates and other top officials.

Justice Ghosh succeeds Justice Jagdish Singh Kher who was transferred to the Karnataka High Court.

Later talking to mediapersons, Justice Ghosh said speedy justice to all would be his top priority. “I am here to serve the people of Uttarakhand and we will ensure that the oppressed get justice,” he said. He stressed that according to the directives of the Chief Justice of India, pending cases, too, would be disposed off within the stipulated time frame of three years. — TNS

Haridwar, August 12
Highlighting the need of having a better coordination between various working agencies, departments and contractors, as without a coordination and mutual cooperation developmental works get affected, Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik termed this as quite imperative for the development of the state.

The minister was speaking as a chief guest at a function of the Contractor Welfare Association of the Public Works Department (PWD) here today. The function was organised in a view of the newly elected executive working committee coming into existence.

Lauding the role of the association in giving a shape to the works undertaken by PWD, Kaushik said the contractors gave the real shapes to the projects envisaged and designed by the department. “Your (contractors) role is of immense importance, you are on the field giving the works real shape. A mutual coordinated relation thus assumes importance between the department and contractors which will pave way for a developed state,” said Kaushik.

Informing about the formation of the newly contractors’ association, its president SK Mishra said the very conceptualisation of this association had been to forge better bonding and coordination between the two sides.

“This was being felt from both sides, particularly from hours of the need to have a association which takes further talks, issues, problems with the department, as this was hampering quite a lot the working atmosphere as well as the on-field works be it timely completion or delay in works,” said general secretary of the association Mahipal Singh.

The newly elected committee of the association comprises founder Anil Jaitley, secretary Mahipal Singh Chauhan, senior vice president Kamruddin, treasurer Dinesh Rajput, RK Aggarwal, Navin Kaushik,Anil Chauhan and Mohammed Nassim.

Present on the occasion were local political leaders Anirudh Bhatti, Hitesh Sharma, Anil Kumar, Surendra Pathak, Amit Bhatiya, Zakir Hussain, Surendra Kumar, Dinesh, Lokesh, Anil Chauhan among others.

Nainital, August 12
With its electoral base eroding very fast since the inception of the state, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), is now in the process of strengthening its organisation.

The party, which was at the forefront of the Uttarakhand agitation, is aiming to come back to the centrestage of state politics.

The newly installed President of the party, Trivendra Singh Panwar, said here today,” Our target is to bring at least 50,000 members into the party fold from every district in the state. The purpose is to take the UKD to the villages.

“Those in charge of the membership drive in the districts have been asked to conduct reviews after every trimester.” The newly elected party chief is currently on a state tour, trying to feel the political pulse in the districts.

During his visit to Nainital, he lambasted the Congress and the BJP for having failed the people of the state and for doing nothing to fulfil the aspirations of the masses.

“No difference in their approaches has been witnessed since the state came into being. It is the same as what it was before Uttarakhand came into being. They are just following the policies that are framed by their party leaderships in Delhi,” he pointed out.

When asked why the party continues to support the ruling BJP government in the state, he said, “We gave our support to avoid a re-poll in the state. The second reason was that the mandate in 2007 was against the Congress. That does not mean that we have given up.”

Answering a query about the internal pressure coming from its cadres to withdraw support to the ruling BJP government led by Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Panwar admitted that the cadres all over the state were assertive in demanding the withdrawal of support.

He said that the new Executive of the party would be formed in September and would meet to discuss the matter. He underlined that the sentiments of the party workers would be taken into account.

UKD is among those exceptional regional parties in the Indian polity whose voter base has been decreasing fast. In most states, the fortunes of regional parties are on an upswing.

Panwar faces an uphill task to ensure that the party’s tally, which stands at a meagre three seats in the present Assembly, goes up if the UKD wants to be a key player in state politics in the times to come.

Ironically, while regional parties across the nation have been making electoral gains over the past two decades, the UKD’s fortunes have been sliding down. Having contested all five Lok Sabha seats in the 2009 parliamentary polls, the party had fared miserably.

The ‘second rung’ leadership of the UKD along with its cadres had squarely blamed the continuing support of the party to the BJP in the state Assembly for the poll debacle.

All five candidates fielded by the UKD, after the party could not manage a pre-poll alliance with the BJP, had lost their deposits.

Under pressure from the party cadre, the lone UKD minister in the state Cabinet Diwakar Bhatt had resigned from the ministerial post held by him just before the poll. However, he had not campaigned for his party citing ill health.

With all candidates of UKD losing their deposits, the party graph hit an all-time low. The vote share of the UKD dipped from 43,899 in 2004 general elections to 38,100 in 2009 parliamentary elections. Panwar admitted that the UKD has not fared in the manner other regional forces have. He said, “We could not generate regional feelings. We are more nationalistic in our approach. We also did not try to do so.”

Dehradun, August 12
To deal with the problem of education and unemployment among students, the All-India Youth Federation (AIYF) in association with the All-India Students Federation (AISF) held a youth convention here today.

students expressed resentment over unemployment among the youth of the state. Samar Bhandari, state secretary of the Communist Party of India, was the main speaker of the convention who highlighted the achievements of the federations.

At the convention, the members of both federations lamented the state government was silent over the unemployment problem in Uttarakhand.

Dehradun, August 12
Resenting poor civic amenities in the city, Mahanagar Congress members today staged a protest on the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) premises and also submitted a memorandum to Mayor Vinod Chamoli.

Led by Lalchand Sharma, former Mahanagar Congress president, the party workers alleged poor state of civic affairs in the downtown Dehradun. They said the condition of roads in Khurbuda Mohalla, Tilak Road, Gandhi School, Karanpur, Dharampur, Tyagi Road, Govindgarh, Dakhpatti and other areas were pathetic.

Sharma also said development works in the DMC areas had been affected due to delay in the tendering process. He also called for regularisation of slums in the city.

Congress councillor Vijay Pratap Mall, Rajkumar, Ashok Verma, Anup Kapoor, Naveen Bisht and Vinay Kohli were prominent participant in the protest.

Nainital, August 12
In a gruesome incident reported from the Bazpur area of Udham Singh Nagar district, a man killed his wife and her paramour after seeing them in a compromising position. The incident took place at Barhaini village.

According to information, the police has arrested accused Mohammad Rafiq and has recovered a sharp-edged weapon from his possession which was used in the act of crime. It is learnt that Rafiq’s wife Nasroom Jahan had illicit relationship with one Rashid of the same village.

Rafiq had tried to dissuade her from continuing the relationship on several occasions, but to no avail. On Tuesday evening, he told his wife that he was going to Rudrapur and would not return till morning. However, he did not go anywhere but hid himself in the house. His wife allegedly called over her paramour and the two were caught in a compromising position by Rafiq.

He tied up Rashid and told them that he would report the matter to the panchayat. But he went on to hit his wife on the head with a blunt object making her unconscious. He followed this act with allegedly killing both his wife and her paramour with a knife.

Dehradun, August 12
Ashok Verma, Leader of Opposition in the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), burst out against frequent encroachments on the land of the DMC on Monday. He also raised fingers at many of corporation projects which were in doldrums for various reasons.

Having a dig on the ruling party over the encroachment issue, he said: “All our rantings to save corporation’s land have fallen on deaf ears. We have been telling from the day one to give away that land to employees, journalists or for different projects to make revenue and to at least save it from the clutches of encroachers, but to no avail.”

He also pulled up the corporation for having had a bad deal with the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited, which sold it poor quality electric switches for Rs 37 lakh because of which street lights remained off during nights.

The failure to address tender rates with contractors too had intermittently delayed the development work in all wards, he said, adding that if the corporation did not take any action within three days, then he and other Congress councillors would launch a campaign against officials of the corporation.

He was miffed at sidelining the issue of freedom fighters saying that they should have been given houses to live by now, as their numbers is already dwindling day by day.

Be it the case of making a hospital on the lines of City Medical Institute or running petrol stations, all corporation projects were gathering dust, fumed Verma.

Dehradun, August 12
St Joseph’s School hosted a cultural festival, where students presented various activities with full of entertainment and fervour here today. The second day of the fest began with the junior school events.

Students of senior and junior school presented folk dances of different states, along with quiz competitions and plays. In the fancy dress competition, Donavan House came first, Bergin House second and Dooley House was third.

Principal Brother AJ George, Vice-Principal Brother Antony school coordinators and teachers were also present at the festival. Judges on the occasion were Sadhna Shukla, Indu Rawat and Deepak Bhardwaj. Duffy House’s performance kalbelia bagged the first prize, bhangra performed by Dooley House stood second and Garhwali dance performed by Donavan House was third.

The school band showed their excellent performance. The students also presented Indian folk dance, where Duffy House bagged first position, Dooley House came second and Donavan House was third. The English Dramatics Committee dramatised the challenging plays - The Refund, The Prize Poem, Miss Louisa and The Outlaws and The Enchanted Shirt. Judges for the English dramatics were Rajen Brij Nath, B Banerjee and Indrani Talukdar who adjudged Bergin House first, Duffy House second and Dooley House third.

Brother George gave certificates and trophy to the students who excelled at the “Milestone” at St George’s, Mussorrie, followed by his vote of thanks. He appreciated the efforts put in by the students as well as their teachers to present the extravagant event.