Dehradun, January 19
To create a supportive environment for street vendors in consonance with the national policy for street vendors, the Uttarakhand Government is preparing a draft policy, which is expected to provide legitimacy to their trade.

The draft policy, which is being prepared by the Urban Development Department, calls for implementing appropriate laws and setting up legitimate hawking zones in urban development.

All the street vendors of 63 Nagar Palikas and Nagar Panchayats of Uttarakhand would be able to lead a life of dignity without worrying about the daily harassment at the hands of the police.

“For the first time, vendors in these Nagar Panchayats would be identified, issued identity cards and allocated space to carry on their trade after paying the licence and registration fees,” said Nidhi Mani Tripathi, Additional Secretary, Urban Development.

The vendors would also be brought under the ambit of pension and insurance schemes, thereby making their future secure. Conservative estimates put the number of vendors in the state close to 90,000, though a proper survey would be carried after the government passes the policy.

“At these markets, the provisions of public toilets, solid waste management and electricity would be taken care of by the civic authorities,” said Tripathi.

A part of the exercise is also aimed at easing congestion from in city as the vendors or rehri wallahs have encroached upon pavements and roads leading to traffic congestion and untidiness.

“It is important that the cities recognise their contribution and give the vendors due space. The only means to do this is through setting up three separate zones allowing space for vendors, mixed zones and no-vending zones,” said Subash Gupta, Deputy Director Urban Development.

At tourist sites, the vendors would be encouraged to undertake activities in a manner that does not affect the beauty of the place. “Several interesting suggestions have come up from the Palika members, for example in Nainital a special area has been allocated near a riverbed for the vendors. Bhubaneswar in Orissa and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh too have been able to rehabilitate the vendors,” said Gupta.

In the hills the traditional haats, which are set up by farmers, have also been incorporated in the policy. “At Srinagar in Pauri Garhwal district, the vending activity is completely banned but village haats are held at designated areas,” he added.

The policy also calls for setting up city vending committees, which would oversee the implementation of the policy.

Nainital, January 19
District Magistrate of Almora DS Garbyal has called for optimum utilisation of funds sanctioned to various departments for the current financial year and to speed up the various construction works.

At a meeting held at Almora this morning, Garbyal asked the officials of the various departments to ensure 100 per cent utilisation of funds by February 15. Pulling up the officials of the Pay Jal Nigam, Jal Sansthan and Public Works Department (PWD), he asked them to complete the works undertaken as per the District Plan and Disaster Mitigation. He expressed his displeasure with the Education Department for having failed to properly utilise the funds sanctioned to it under the District Plan and asked the officials to ensure that the construction of class rooms and laboratories be done well in time.

He has directed the District Education Officer to be present in the next meeting after doing his homework properly, particularly with regards to the disbursement of scholarships to the students from the weaker sections of the society.

Dehradun, January 19
To facilitate disabled persons, a free medical camp was held at the Doon Hospital here today.

Not only were disabled persons examined, but those requiring help for procurement of implements and handicap certificates were also given assistance.

“In all, 8,382 persons registered for the camp, out of whom 58 persons were given certificates. From Chakrata block, a total of 20 handicapped persons were issued identity cards. Around 27 persons were physically examined, said Dr BC Pathak, CMS, Doon Hopital.

The doctors who gave their services included Dr DC Nautiyal, Dr YS Thapliyal, orthopaedic surgeons and eye surgeon Dr NS Jangpangi.

Dehradun, January 19
The Minister for Rural Development, Women Welfare and Culture Vijay Barthwal today inaugurated a workshop on “Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Uttarakhand” at Doon University.

The minister said the coming together of scholars, academicians and artistes would lead to a fruitful discussion on the state of culture in Uttarakhand.

In her keynote address, Molly Kaushal, head of the Division Janapada Sampada, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), said documentation and research would be able to help generate interest in folklore among the new generation.

Later a film on the Baddi tribe was screened for the delegates.

Dehradun, January 19
State spokesperson and general secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Manoj Dhyani has slammed the Diwakar Bhatt faction of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) for unnecessarily dragging the name of their party in their internal wrangles. He also attacked the state government for its failure to control hoarding and black marketing, leading to the escalation of inflation in the state.

Taking a shot at the Bhatt faction, Dhyani condemned the spokesperson for the UKD saying that it was inappropriate on his part to draw them in their internal scuffle following a split in the party. “We don’t believe in playing negative politics in the state and condemn the UKD leaders for indulging in cheap tactics to conceal their own weaknesses. Such people will rightly be answered in the Assembly elections,” he said, adding that they were more interested in emerging as an alternative to the BJP-Congress combine in the state than involving themselves in petty politics.

Placing the figures of an increase in inflation of food items from 18 per cent to 34 per cent, he said all the efforts of the Centre were proving insufficient in meeting the demand of food items. “The chief reason for the widening gap between supply and demand has been the control of middlemen, hoarders and black marketers over market. It is strange that the Centre did take steps such as carrying out income tax raids on these anti-social elements, but our own state government did nothing to give relief to its own people. Similar is the situation in the states ruled by the Opposition parties.”

He said if things didn’t improve his party would launch an agitation on in the state.

Haridwar, January 19
Nominations for the three-tier panchayat elections began today with many candidates reaching the officer for filing their papers in the company of a large number of supporters.

Elaborate arrangements have been done at the Zila Panchayat office in the city for the nominations. Three special counters have been set up where candidates can file their papers. Notably, the nomination papers for the Zila Panchayat posts are being filed at the Zila Panchayat office while nominations for village head, village panchayat member and block member are being made at the block headquarters.

Assistant district election officer BK Sant said elaborate arrangements had been made for the nominations at all the blocks of the district as per the directions of the state election office.

There was no report of violence or violation of election rules from the Zila Panchayat office as well as the blocks of Narsain, Bhagwanpur, Roorkee, Bahadrabad on the first day of the nominations. Not more than five persons were allowed to enter the main building for filing the nomination papers.

The nomination process ends on January 22. There are 42 Zila Panchayat seats in Haridwar for which major political parties are yet to announce their candidates. That is why today there was not so much rush at the nomination office.

“I want to serve people and as there is reservation for women in the panchayat elections, the women like me, who are house makers, can also contest the elections,” said Sneh Lata, an aspirant for the post of Zila panchayat member.

Pithoragarh, January 19
Ranjana Devi, chairperson of the Pithoragarh Zila Panchayat, was ousted today after the near total Zila Panchayat adopted a no-confidence motion against her by 31-1 votes. One vote was declared invalid, said in charge of no-confidence motion proceeding and Pithoragarh Additional District Magistrate Vinod Goswami.

“The motion moved by Sunita Devi, Zila Panchayat member from the Bhatura area, was adopted by the members without holding any discussion on it,” said the ADM.

“Ranjana Devi, after becoming the Zila Panchayat chairperson, adopted dictatorial ways to allot development works. She would always neglect remote areas in the Zila Panchayat projects.

“That is why the members, cutting across party lines, voted for the no-trust motion,” said Fakir Ram Tamta, a Zila Panchayat member.

Nainital, January 19
The Uttarakhand Parivartan Party (UPP) will be chalking out its strategy for contesting the forthcoming Assembly polls in the state at a meeting of its central executive, which is scheduled to be held in the state capital on February 13.

Talking to The Tribune, newly elected president of the party PC Tewari said: “We have decided to contest the forthcoming polls as a major serious contestant across the state.”

As a prelude to its executive-level meeting, the party has decided to carry out a statewide programme from January 27 to February 2 with the aim of connecting with the masses. “The programme is targeted against the various mafias that are dictating the developments in the state.

The programme has been aptly named ‘Mafia Sanskriti Virodhi Jan Abhiyan - Shram ka Samman’ (People’s movement against the mafia culture and respect to labour). Our effort will be to reach out to the people and explain it to them how the mafia-politician nexus in the state is impacting the various spheres of their lives,” said Tewari. He said during the weeklong programmes various public meetings and protests would be held across the state over the issue of mafia-politician nexus. He disclosed that the weeklong drive would conclude at Chaukhutiya on February 2. Chaukhutiya is the place from where the “Nasha Nahin Rozgar Do” (Give employment not intoxication) movement was launched in the eighties.

Tewari added that at the executive meeting of the party the senior leaders would chalk out the strategy for contesting the next Assembly elections and making its presence felt in the political spectrum of the state, which is at present dominated by the national-level parties, barring the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, which is in a complete disarray.

When asked whether the party is aiming to fill the void created by the disarray in the UKD, he said: “The only similarity that the UKD has with us is that we are regional forces. The UKD had come on the political stage by its demand for a separate state after it gave the slogan ‘Aaj do abhi do Uttarakhand Rajya do’ (Give now and here a new state of Uttarakhand) but once the state came into being it died its own philosophical death. We on the other hand talk of ‘Naya Bharat Naya Uttarakhand’ (a new India and a new Uttarakhand) and are far more relevant in the existing scenario.”

Pitthoragarh, January 19
The Congress will start a state-level Satya Grah Yatra after January 24 to appeal to people of the state to vote for the party in the coming Assembly elections, Uttarakhand Congress chief Yash Pal Arya said.

“Our Satya Grah Yatra will focus on the failure of the BJP Government in Uttarakhand in eradicating unemployment and on the development front,” said Arya on the telephone from Haldwani.

According to the Congress president, the BJP Government in Uttarakhand is running totally with the help of Central assistance. It had failed to develop its own resources during the past four years. “Despite the fact that the state government had used only 30 per cent of the Central assistance, the UPA Government at the Centre did not reduce its plan size and it remains at Rs 6,800 crore annually. According to the Planning Commission provisions, the plan size of the state should have been reduced as it did not spend more than 30 per cent of the allotted money”.

The state Congress president said the Uttarakhand Government had utterly failed to provide succour to the rain disaster-affected people. “The Central government is ready to give Rs 300 crore as relief to farmers of the state who have lost their land in the disaster at the rate of Rs 6,000 per hectare, but the state government could not even prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on it,” said Arya.

The Congress president said corruption had increased during the past four years in the state and the law and order situation had worsened.

He said he was welcomed during his visit to the Garhwal region in the past three months and now he was planning to launch a long campaign to contact people in the Kumoan region in which people would be told about the failure of the Uttarakhand Government on all fronts.

“The Congress has already asked the government to issue a white paper on its functioning on which the government has not yet responded,” said Arya. 

Dehradun, January 19
Rajesh Gulati, who allegedly murdered his wife Anupama and later cut her body into several pieces to be kept hidden in a freezer, was produced in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM).

The court of Amaninder Singh asked the police to produce him on January 29 and arrange his visit with his twin kids in the court. The court had earlier pronounced that Gulati be allowed to meet his children on the last Saturday of every month.

On January 6 when he was last produced, the court had rejected two applications of Anupama’s family.

In the first application, the family of the victim had requested the court that Gulati not be allowed to meet his children as it would have an adverse effect on the mental condition of the twins.

In the second application, Anupama’s family had pleaded to the court to seize Gulati’s property.

However, both applications were rejected by the court.

The software engineer had allegedly murdered his wife Anupama on the eve of Dusshera on October 17 by stuffing cloth in her mouth and smashing her head with a heavy iron object. He had later cut her body into several pieces which he hid hidden in a freezer.

Dehradun, January 19
For the Manglore police in the Roorkee area, Wednesday proved to be a tough day as the driver of a truck alleged that his vehicle laiden with goods had been hijacked by unknown criminals.

But soon their worries turned into a smile as nothing of the sort had happened as the driver had been misleading them against a road accident he committed. However, the police recovered the so-called hijacked vehicle with proper goods from Chhapar, a town of Uttar Pradesh the same day.

The driver alleged that his truck, loaded with 872 fans manufactured by a Haridwar-based factory, had been hijacked by car-borne miscreants at gunpoint near the Narsan border on Tuesday. It created a flutter in the police circle as a similar case of truck-hijacking of Finolex Cables Ltd had occurred on January 4 under the same police beat of Manglore police station under Roorkee. But as the police started interrogation, the driver kept changing his statements.

“Our first attention went to his (driver) account as to why a person would go 50 km from the spot to Haridwar on foot to inform the incident to factory owners, when the police station was hardly a few kilometres from the incident spot,” divulged SHO (Manglore), Mahendra Singh Negi.