Haridwar, October 22
People belonging to the Dalit community of Jagjeetpur village have accused the Matra Sadan Ashram authorities of encroaching upon a piece of land where they perform funeral rites. Gauging the situation, SDM Harveer Singh visited the disputed site and pacified both sides by assuring them that a survey of the land would be done next week. A heavy deployment of paramilitary forces has been made at the dispute site.

Members from both sides even had an altercation over the land, which the saints claim as a legal property of the ashram. They allege some people belonging to the Dalit community are illegally trying to occupy it by performing funeral rites.

The villagers even tried to construct a boundary wall on the disputed piece of land to which the ashram people resisted. Now, a status quo prevails at the said place with PAC personnel deployed there in large numbers.

Swami Shivanand Saraswati and Saint Dayanand said the said land was very much the property of the ashram and the controversy was baseless as for the past decade it was legally documented property of the ashram. They said the piece of land had been temporarily allocated to the National Botanical Research Institution (NBRI), Lucknow, for research on the Ganga river and related areas and the claim of the villagers to the land was totally illegal and motivated.

Dalit community representative Teerathpal Ravi said for years the community people had been using the land for carrying out the last rites of their dead but now when they were trying to construct a wall boundary wall at the place, the ashram people were claiming it to be theirs.

Matra Sadan saints have filed an additional complaint of physical violence, criminal intimidation, and threat to life against the villagers. Police officials said they were investigating the matter.

Haridwar, October 22
The Rajaji National Park administration seems to be somewhat on the back foot with villages of the Bullawala area taking an agitational route against it, accusing park officials of trying to hush up the encounter of Bullawala resident Babu Lal at Dhaulkhand falling in the western range of the park. Not satisfied with the lodging of a criminal case against park officials, villagers and political representatives have demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter.

With a criminal case being registered against Park Director SS Rasailly, Dhaulkhand Ranger JS Rawat and several other forest employees at the Ranipur police station, family members and villagers took the body of the deceased after the postmortem today.

Accusing the park administration of first killing Babu Lal and later labelling him as a wood smuggler, the villagers vowed that this time they would not let any park employee go scot free .

According to Dhaulkhand Ranger Jaypal Singh Rawat, Babu Lal was leading a group of smugglers at the Dhaulkhand range when on noticing suspicious movement a forest vigil team stopped and enquired them. When park team tried to stop them smugglers opened fire at the forest team in an attempt to escape. The team retaliated in which one of the smugglers, Babu Lal, died on the spot.

Sandeep Lal, son of Babu Lal, said his father was accompanied by Dharam Singh, a neighbour, when he was at the spot to cut grass for fodder purposes but was brutally beaten and then was shot from close range by one of the park employees.

Speaking to The Tribune, Jila Panchayat member at Doiwala Vineet Lodhi said: “Innocent villagers who go to collect grass and fuel wood are being labelled as smugglers and are being killed while real culprits are roaming freely in the whole park area”.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Tribune, Assistant Superintendent of Police Janmayjay Khanduri said the police was already into the investigation.

Dehradun, October 22
The unruly behaviour of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) activists brought tears in the eyes of Rajender Singh, Magsaysay Award winner, when he was in the city en route to Gomukh where he was going to participate in the foundation of Ganga Parliament on October 24 with social activists who lived in the region encompassing from Gomukh to Ganga Sagar and are committed to make the Ganga clean and pollution free.

The UKD, who had been miffed with Singh for giving his unstinted support to environmentalist Prof GD Aggarwal in pressuring the Centre for cancelling the Lohari Nagpala Hydropower Project and been vocal against such projects, locked the doors of the premises and flattened Singh’s car and manhandled his people.

Defying the threat of the UKD of not letting him proceed with his “Ganga yatra”, he though invited the UKD for a meeting day after tomorrow to discuss the issue.

Suresh Bhai, activist of the Save the River Campaign, who was present at the venue, called it a shameful act where the UKD manhandled its guest and brought disgrace to the state. He also denounced the UKD for attacking two of their activists who were also sent to the police post on the complaint of the UKD, but later released on the insistence of Suresh Bhai and others.

UKD state president Omi Uniyal said they did not like Rajender Singh’s support to Prof Aggarwal and his criticism of the hydropower projects which, according to Uniyal, were important for its economic stability and requirement of power. He slammed the outrageous behaviour of some of the UKD members.

He said, “Many experiments in different villages had successfully proved that by using water mills at small distances we could produce power”.

Dehradun, October 22
Two out of 13 mining project proposals sent by the Uttaranchal Forest Development Corporation (UAFDC) to the Ministry of Environment and Forests since October 2009 have been accepted for consideration.

These projects will be carried out on the Song river. A clear picture is likely to emerge in a day or two. The Central government will either approve it in the present form or send it back with recommendations.

Anil Kumar Dutt, Managing Director, UAFDC, said, “We have done the environment impact assessment (EIA) work and held public hearing sessions as well. The proceedings of the hearing session have been videographed and these could be sent to the panel of experts if they ask for it.

He said that a 100-page EIA booklet at points on which the department had to provide satisfactory answers to get further clearance - confirmation of no harm to wildlife or river or to natural resources in the vicinity, filling up pollution-free norms, road-carrying capacity without encroaching upon public comfort, labour activity and many others - had been prepared in great detail.

Besides these two chosen projects, the other 11 projects enlisted for consideration are mining on Sharda and Kirodanala rivers in district Champawat, Nandaur, Uppar Nandaur, Gola, Kosi, Dabka, Nihal rivers in Nainital, Jakhan in Dehradun, two projects on the Chanderbhaga river which is partly in Tehri Garhwal and the rest in Dehradun.

Among these 13 projects, Uppar Nandaur, Kirodanala, Nihal, Sharda, Kosi and Gola are new projects while the rest have been submitted for renewal of licence that will last another 10 years.

Dutt said that the process of approval or enhancement of projects took longer time nowadays due to the introduction of clearance as per the Environment Conservation Act and the Forest Conservation Act.

He added, “Till 2006, the Environment Act did not apply to minor minerals, but from October 2006, the government issued a notification for environmental clearance for collection of minor minerals as well.

“Being from the Forest Department, we have been overtly conscious about adhering to norms with regard to forest and environment conservation. But even if the expert committee set up by the Central government raises more concerns and gives recommendations, we will be happy to follow them for our other projects also.”

The already running mining projects on the Ganga in Haridwar and Nandaur have not been submitted for permission as it was in 2006 that the permission had been sought for these.

The ban on mining in the Doon Valley from the left bank of the Yamuna to the right bank of the Ganga in 1994 has been imposed by the Supreme Court in wake of increasing environmental degradation.

The UAFDC had been directed to keep a patch of 2.5 km out of mining in Nandaur and Gola.

Anil Kumar Dutt feels that this order has implications. “The water over-flooded the surrounding area as its level rose due to thick deposition of silt, sand and other minor material owing to non-permission of mining in this patch. It ended up becoming an island between the rivers,” he said.

Dutt emphasised that a ban on mining was no longer feasible as it would lead to floods. He also put much of the blame of the recent disaster that was triggered by flooded rivers on the ban on mining.

Haridwar, October 22
The Uttarakhand police has initiated a non-governmental voluntary campaign to clean and conserve the holy Ganga which will cover in its ambit the river stretch from Haridwar to Patna.

The objective of the campaign named “Ganga Aviral Pravah-2010” (Unhindered Ganga Flow) is to make common people aware of the need of conserving sanctity of the Ganga by generating mass awareness through the on-water rally, which will begin from October 24 and conclude in Patna on November 21. The drive will be divided into three phases.

Initiated by Dand Swami Bhoomanand Teerth Nyas Sansthanam Peethadeesh Anant Shri Vibhoosith Swat Achutya Nand Teerth ji Maharaj, the campaign will be covering several states with a 70-member contingent of the Uttarakhand police aided by several volunteers taking out mass rallies, organising seminars trying to include school and college student of all places from where the rally will pass through.

Informing The Tribune about the whole concept, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Alok Sharma said this was one of its kind campaigns where the police in collaboration with religious institutions and social organisation was carrying out on-boat rally for the Ganga awareness which was being carried on such a large scale.

Urging all and sundry to participate as well as accompany in the boat rally, the DIG pointed out that the need of the hour was that every one contributed in making Ganga clean as its not only government’s duty to make sure the Ganga retained its holiness and sanctity. “It’s only by each and every one of us whose should take an initiative to keep the Ganga clean which has tremendous religious-spiritual significance for billions of Indians. By this boat rally the social aspect of the ‘mitra police’ will also come to the fore as apart from providing security, cops have different roles to essay in society,” said the DIG.

The yatra-cum-campaign is getting full support from various religious-social organisations as well as the police from all three states that will cover Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The first phase begins from the Haridwar Ganga ghats and will converge at Bhitoor Kanpur on November 2. While the second phase will start the very next day from the Sati Chaura ghat in Kanpur to cover 445 km up till Banaras reaching there on November 14.

The final phase of the mission will culminate at Patna city in Bihar covering on boat a total of 211 km during the festive of Chatth, in which all participants of the campaign will also be observing Chatth rituals.

The injured animal went on to create mayhem in the area for a couple of hours and this led to the closure of traffic movement on the Haldwani-Bareilley road. It was only opened when the animal finally went into the jungle.

Dehradun, October 22
The Jankarwa Manch, a platform for various voluntary organisations working against hydro projects in the state, today appealed to the state government to ensure people’s representation in the rehabilitation policy.

Led by Suresh Bhai of the Raksha Sutra Abhiyan, Uttarakashi, the manch ridiculed the delay in coming up of policy for rehabilitation for those in the hills affected due to power projects and other natural disasters. He said those facing the pains of migration ware now facing shortage of agricultural land and employment opportunities.

He, however, welcomed Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s recent announcement of coming with the rehabilitation policy at the earliest. “We welcome the announcement but will also like the Chief Minister to ensure representation to the people in the work of the formulation of the policy,” he pointed out.

Suresh Bhai also categorically held that there should be no money involved as the compensation for the rehabilitation and land should be provided in lieu of land while house must be provided against house. This could be an effective way to check malpractices.

Puran Barathwal, Vasant Pandey, Lakshma Singh Negi and Narendra Kandari were among prominent speakers on the occasion.

Dehradun, October 22
Showing concern regarding the slow progress of construction work being carried out under various SC/ST welfare schemes, Social Welfare Minister Matbar Singh Kandari pulled up officials here today. He said all officials should immediately provide relief to the SC/ST communities and he told them not to use this money in any other work. He said they should also arrange for open gram sabhas so that people in large number could be benefited from it.

The minister asked the departments, who have spent less than 25 per cent of the money under the schemes, to spend it immediately.

During the meeting he also reviewed the progress of various other departments like Village Development, PWD, Power, Water Supply, and Education, etc. The minister further asked secretary concerned to choose an organisation and send it to Himachal Pradesh and should start the scheme that has been implemented there in Uttarakhand as well.