Nainital, December 9
The issue of illegal mining in areas around Ramnagar continues to simmer even as the administration has finally started a drive to check the malpractice. The agitation launched by the local population is being fuelled by the support being offered by workers of various Opposition parties.

On Tuesday, the town had witnessed yet another powerful protest from women demanding the withdrawal of a case registered against them for having resorted to a traffic blockade on Sunday night.

They alleged that while the police and the administration were targeting them for agitating against them, they were not doing enough to check the illegal mining that has been going around right under their noses.

They demanded that the heavy vehicles carrying mined material should not be allowed to ply on the busy roads like the one going to Puchri where a youth had been buried after a vehicle carrying illegally mined material had overturned on Saturday evening. The death of the youth had led to violent protests in the area. Meanwhile, the local administration along with officials of the Forest Department has initiated a drive to check illegal mining in the region. Having confiscated a large amount of illegally mined material on Sunday, the emphasis is now to target vehicles used in transportation of such material.

Teams of officials carried out a series of raids in Ramnagar and Haldwani nabbing more than 12 violators and issuing challans to them. Two vehicles were seized in Haldwani during the raids.

Ramnagar had seen sporadic violence over the weekend with the people not sparing even the elected representatives and going on to gherao them. The trouble had started when a youth, identified as Amit Bodai of Puchri village, had been buried under an overloaded dumper which was carrying illegally mined material from the Kosi riverbed and had overturned near the village. This had led to an angry mob of people going ahead to torch the dumper and a trolley. The police had arrested the driver of the overloaded dumper Asraf Ali following a complaint lodged by the father of the deceased.

Sunday morning saw the administrative officials and the local legislator Deewan Singh Bisht drawing the ire of the local population when they had gone to the house of the victim to offer their condolences.

In the evening, residents, including a large number of women, had resorted to the traffic blockade on the Kashipur-Buakhal national highway alleging that the owner of the dumper Mohammad Shaief had been issuing threats and demanded his immediate arrest. The accused was arrested later in the evening which saw the situation improving.

The agitators had pointed that vehicles carrying illegally mined material are a cause of several accidents.

They had alleged that the administration and the Forest Department have failed to check illegal mining in the region which has turned into a life-threatening menace for the population residing the areas where such activity is being carried out.

Dehradun, December 9
In what could be another issue of standoff between environmentalists and mining promoters, the Union Forest Ministry’s advisory group has given a final go-ahead to Canadian Pebble Creek Mining Limited, approving a 30-year mining lease to the company to extract mineral from Askot deposits in Pithoragarh.

The final approval in form of the forest clearance came at a high-level meeting held in Dehradun a few days back that was attended by the advisory group members and senior forest officials of the state.

Confirming the clearance through a release issued by the company from its Vancouver headquarters, the Pebble Creek disclosed that the Dehradun meeting that was attended by company’s delegation led by executive chairman Gyan C Singhai has been granted the forest clearance and a formal letter would follow soon. The forest clearance is the last remaining permit that the company requires in order to be granted the mining lease.

Wildlife-famous Askot, a musk deer habitat, also has massive sulphide deposits containing copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold. The prospect has an indicated mineral resource estimate that compliant with the Canada's National Instrument 43-101. The forest-clearance permit establishes the terms under which the company may remove trees, provide for their re-planting elsewhere and otherwise alienate certain surface lands.

On the other hand, the environmental groups have raised their concern at the mining and processing of gold ore in the highly fragile and ecologically sensitive Askot in the Himalayan region. There was even opposition by the environmental groups at the public hearing held in the same concern in November 2006 by the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board.

The Lawyers Initiative for Forests and Environment (LIFE), a Delhi-based environment group, has raised objections on the project. Supreme Court lawyer Ritwick Dutta had said the project would prove disastrous for the ecology of the area. The group alleged that the ore would be processed with cyanide and other chemicals and the remains would again be deposited on the hills.

In 2006, the Uttarakhand Government had approved a 30-year mining lease, which was forwarded to the Union Ministry of Mines that, too, approved it in 2007, for Askot. In the same year, Uttarakhand issued a letter of intent to grant the mining lease subject to the company obtaining certain other approvals and permits.

In totality, the company completed about 30 separate tasks, studies, hearings or approvals and many meetings required by several branches of the state and Central Government, which resulted in final grant of the forest clearance at the Dehradun meeting of the forest advisory committee on December 3.

Nainital, December 9
A Review Officer of the High Court of Uttarakhand has been arrested for allegedly tampering with a file pertaining to a case of murder. The arrest follows the registration of an FIR at the instance of the office of the Registrar of the High Court. The accused has been identified as Om Prakash.

The police had initiated investigations against certain court officials for tampering with documents pertaining to a murder case. According to the information, certain papers pertaining to a case of Dhiru Singh versus State Government of Uttarakhand had allegedly been tampered with by some officials of the court. Certain data related to the case that was stored in the court computers had also been deleted.

Sources say the case had been with the erstwhile Uttar Pradesh High Court since 1991 and had been transferred to the Uttrakahand High Court in 2001. The matter pertaining to tampering with the papers in the case had come to light on September 8 this year.

The murder had taken place in Tanakpur in 1989 and the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment by a lower court. The case had then come up before the High Court in 2001.

The accused in the case had allegedly approached Om Prakash, who is also a resident of Tanakpur in Champawat district. The matter of tampering with the papers in the case had come to light following an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The arrested official was produced in the court later in the day.

Sources say that more arrests may follow in the days to come.

Haridwar, December 9
Despite two months have passed since heavy monsoon rains flooded various regions of rural Haridwar, proper rehabilitation of several villages has not been done so far. In view of the delay, despite political assurances from the state government ministers and administrative claims, the villagers of some affected villages have now resorted to hunger strike in favour of their demands.

One of the affected villages, falling under the Lakshar tehsil, has started hunger strike at Roshanabad situated district administration headquarters alleging apathy of the BJP-led state government. Dozens of these affected villagers have now resorted to strike, sitting in the cold weather prevalent in the region, sitting underneath makeshift tents outside the premise of the administrative building.

Addressing the agitators, vice chief of the Visthapith Khaddar Kisan Sangarsh Samiti Bulli Chauhan said rehabilitation and allocation of relief aid to the affected villages has not been done, despite several promises.

“We are forced to stage hunger strike and live in makeshift tents in this winter,” said Bulli Chauhan. Samiti chief Chandrapal Chauhan said the samiti members would stage hunger strike till rehabilitation was not done.

Villagers have decided to take to streets, rallies and protests, if administrative officials do not pay heed to their demand in coming days. “District magistrate, SSP, other higher administrative officials and district judges live in area where we are staging strike. They just pull up their vehicles glasses while passing from the area. This shows a huge gap between the hierarchy and poor people in Indian democracy,” said social activist Fakeera Khan.

Nainital, December 9
District Magistrate Shailesh Baguli has expressed his displeasure at the failure of the officials to initiate construction works for auxiliary nurses and midwives (ANM) centres at Alchauna and Mehragaon villages despite clearances being given and land being identified for the purpose.

During an inspection of Mehragaon, which has been earmarked for the Atal Adarsh Gram scheme, Bagauli instructed that all infrastructure that has been destroyed in the recent rain-related disaster in the region must be rebuilt on priority while making use of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).

He also directed that aquaguards should be installed in all schools in the village under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Bagauli directed the Sub-Division Magistrate (SDM) to ensure that the builders carrying out construction in the Bhimtal area do not throw silt into the drains leading to their clogging. He asked the SDM to identify such builders and initiate action against them.

He sought action against those who were drawing water from borewells without taking sanction for the same. Bagauli pulled up officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) for the laxity in works and asked them to ensure that the retaining walls on the Ghorakhal Road are built by February 15.

He carried out an inspection of a primary school in Mehragaon and found the school lacked basic facilities like drinking water and toilets besides the building being in a bad shape. He asked CDO Deepak Rawat to get a water tank and toilets constructed under the Swajal scheme at the earliest. He also asked the Block Education Officer DS Kathayat to prepare a proposal for repairs of the building.

Dehradun, December 9
President of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal Trivender Singh Panwar has slammed the state government for doing away with the clause of compulsory knowledge of local languages, Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari, as one of the selection criterion for the Class C category jobs. Panwar said the UKD was ready to fight out this decision of the state government which it had taken under the pressure of some anti-state elements.

Panwar said: “The Garhwali language has been the state language during the King Panwar reign and, Kumaoni during the Chander Shasan Kal. The state should constitute a Lok Sabha Academy to promote these languages to develop them,” he said.

He said these languages were spoken by 80 per cent of the local population and prolifically used in local newspapers and magazines. Panwar also criticised the initiative of the state government to allot land to MLAs to build houses and called it a well-mooted conspiracy.

Pitthoragarh, December 9
The District Magistrate of Champawat today revoked the no-confidence motion passed by the Champawat Milk Cooperative Union against its Chairman last month and installed Chairman Devi Dutt Joshi on the post again.

According to the District Magistrate, the no-confidence motion was passed by less than two thirds of total votes which is against the rules of the Uttarakhand Sehkari Samiti Niyamawali’s Section 483. “At that time five members out of eight have voted against the Chairman but the two-thirds number stands at 5.3,” said Dr Pankaj Pandey, District Magistrate, Champawat, in whose court the ousted Chairman had appealed, citing a decision of the Allahabad High Court in a similar case.

Dehradun, December 9
A group of five-six armed persons in a Bolero vehicle reportedly kidnapped a man at Mandi Chowk, Patelnagar, this morning.

Though the news sent shock waves in the area, police sources said they were cops in plain clothes and were arresting a criminal. According to the information, a woman informed the police control room at about 8:45 that a man has been kidnapped. She said she saw about five men with rifles in a white Bolero car (UA07P-1777) forcibly dragging an unidentified man into their vehicle from the Mandi Chowk area.

Strangely on the part of the police, it maintained that the cops tried to trace the number but they couldn’t and also later said the man was arrested in connection with some case by the policemen who were in plain clothes.

Dehradun, December 9
To mark protest against the Uttarakhand Parivahan Nigam, the Mritak Ashrit Sangharsh Samiti members begged symbolically at the Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) here today. The protesters have been staging dharna since 170 days in front of the Uttarakhand Parivahan Nigam in favour of their demands.

According to president of the samiti Geeta Jugran, State Transportation Minister scheduled a meeting on December 8 with the protesters, but did not turn up.

“While neglecting the appeal of the affected, the State Transportation Minister went back to Haldwani. We have, therefore, thought of protesting in form of begging at the ISBT to get some money for ourselves,” said Geeta. The protesters have been demanding recruitment of the dependants of the deceased, who worked in the Uttarakhand Roadways Department, as their families have been facing financial problems.

Dehradun, December 9
State body of the World Human Rights Protection Council has demanded setting up of a state human right commission in Uttarakhand during a press conference at a city hotel today.

The council said the human rights’ violations have increased in the state and it is sad that there was no human rights commission in the state. The members said the example of the violation of the human rights is alleged fake Ranvir encounter case and closing of the state press club.

State General Secretary of the rights council PC Thapliyal said in every district there should be a helpline centre to deal with human rights violations.