Haridwar, February 11
After much turmoil and uncertainty that clouded the Haridwar district panchayat elections, which had been put on hold by the BJP Government citing delay in the reservation process, all the arrangements have been made for the polling to be held in three blocks of the district tomorrow.

The polling will be held at Roorkee, Bahadrabad and Khanpur blocks for the three posts of village chief, village panchayat member and BDC as well as the Zila Panchayat posts. A total of 1,529 polling booths have been set up in the three election blocks.

Informing The Tribune about the arrangements for the polls Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjay Gunjiyal said the police was leaving no stone unturned to make sure the first phase of the elections passed peacefully.

Gunjiyal said two Additional Police Superintendents, seven ASPs, 10 Inspectors, 200 Sub-inspectors, 138 Head Constables, 1,291 Constables, 1,044 jawans of Home Guards and 394 village chowkidars have been put on polling duty.

Superintendent of City Police KL Shaw said in view of the incidents happened during the previous elections as well as fear of violence in various polling areas, 12 platoons of Provisional Armed Constabulary (PAC) have been deployed.

“Intense vigil is being maintained on highways and district entry points while flag march was carried out in sensitive polling areas. We carried out flag marches at Jwalapur, Ranipur, Pathri, Bahadrabad, Shyampur, Jagjeetpur and Roorkee to make sure anti-social elements don’t try to hinder the election process,” said Shaw.

Though the government offices, schools, colleges and industrial units in the district will remain closed tomorrow in view of the polling, banks and LIC offices will remain open, as per the directives of the state Election Commission.

The polling parties will be getting food prepared by bhojan matas who make mid-day meal at schools, said assistant district election officer TR Prajapati.

Only Zila panchayat candidates will be allowed to use vehicles and the facility will not be allowed to village pradhan, gram panchayat member and BDC candidates on the polling day.

With the state Assembly elections, which are scheduled to be held early next year, the panchayat elections assume much importance for the ruling BJP, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj party.

Dehradun, February 11
Faced with acute shortage of medical manpower, the efforts of the Uttarakhand Government have yielded negligible response. In fact, neighbouring Uttar Pradesh is proving to be a magnate and attracting medical college passouts from Uttarakhand.

“The reason behind the crunch is the inability to regularly advertise the medical posts at various levels and poor salary to even contractual doctors,” said experts.

Last year, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand had advertised for 600 and 187 posts of medical officer through their respective Public Service Commissions. “While in Uttar Pradesh all the selected doctors managed to join in May, the Uttarakhand Government could finish the task only in September last year after numerous extensions. Till date, only 50 per cent doctors have joined,” said General Secretary, Provincial Medical and Health Services, Dr DP Joshi.

At least two batches, comprising around 200 students, have already passed out from Haldwani Medical College. Once again the Uttar Pradesh Government has advertised 550 posts of the medical officer in January this year. The Uttarakhand Government, too, has followed suit, taking into consideration the past track record. It remains to be seen how many doctors actually join.

Appointing doctors on a contractual basis was another option that the government has opted for, but poor salaries being offered was proving to be a dampener. “We are being offered Rs 25,000 per month for rendering services at Intensive Care Units and other speciality departments, which is very less. Even a junior fellow at Haldwani Medical College gets around Rs 35,000 per month as a stipend,” said a doctor on condition of anonymity.

Similarly, under the National Rural Health Programme (NRHM), Rs 1 lakh is being offered to the doctors who agree to serve in the hills. To date very few have opted for these.

Even the walk-in interviews have yielded poor results. “These, too, have become a mere formality and are never held regularly,” said Dr Joshi.

Dehradun, February 11
As the panchayat elections in the Haridwar district are to be held on February 12, all the political parties are busy in campaigns. The Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) and Panchayati Rule and Gender Awareness Training Institute (PRAGATI), both voluntary bodies were promoting community participation and gender equality in local governance.

The teams of both these bodies were out in the field organizing number of camps in the blocks of Laksar, Bahadrabad and Roorkee to strengthen the democratic processes. Mobilization camps were bringing the women together, making them aware about the various roles and responsibilities of the Gram Sabha and encouraged them to actively participate in it.

The Vigilance committee consisting of women Self Help Group (SHG) members has been formed. It will act as a watchdog for women and other disadvantaged groups and keep in check election malpractices.

“Leadership Training was being organized from 25th, February 2011, in which Justice Dr VS Malimath, Chairman Law Commission Karnataka, Sushma Singh, Former Secretary Information and Panchayati Raj and the Central Information Commissioner have agreed to work as a resource person for the training programs,” said Avdhash Kaushal, Chairperson of RLEK.

Justice GN Ray, Chairman Press Council of India would also take some sessions during this training. The campaign was being supported by Canadian Development Fund which has set up various help desks at all the three blocks to smoothen the entire Electoral process.

Mussoorie, February 11
Around 400 workers gathered in front of the MDDA office, near the Bakery Hill, to protest against corruption and nepotism prevalent in the department that has led to harassment of the construction workers in Mussoorie.

The construction workers, under the banner of the Bhavan Nirman Mazdoor Sangh, led by Aslam Khan, gathered at the MDDA premises, along with a large number of the workers, raised their voice against the MDDA.

CPI and AITUC general secretary Samar Bhandari and Uttarakhand Parivartan Dal vice president Jaiprakash Uttarakhandi also extended their support. CPM general secretary Samar Bhandari said it was unfortunate that the poor and the working class of the state were still suffering the most.

He also said the BJP and Congress in collusion with the land mafia and bureaucrats were exploiting the state. He also said the MDDA was not interested in taking action against five star hotel constructions, but they only acted against the poor and working class residents of Mussoorie.

Lambasting the BJP Government on the issue of doling out cheap ration, he said it was nothing but an election gimmick. Jaiprakash Uttarakhandi, being critical of the MDDA, said, “In the last 30 years, several MDDA vice-chairmans arrived in the town as paupers, but left with bounty that was showered on them due to corrupt practices.”

He also demanded a CBI enquiry against these corrupt engineers and officers, so that illegally acquired assets were revealed in front of the public.

The workers also presented a memorandum through the SDM Mussoorie to the Governor in which they stated that the town was included in the MDDA because the population of Dehradun was less at that time, but now as the town has grown to great proportions, Mussoorie should be excluded from the MDDA control.

Bhavan Mazdoor Sang president Aslam Khan said their major demand was to oust the MDDA Department, as it had failed to initiate development work in the town.

Dehradun, February 11
The second day of the student union week at DBS PG College was a fun-filled affair. A large number of students participated in the festivity with great fervour and enthusiasm here today.

The chief guest for the event was senior BJP leader Tirath Singh Rawat, who inaugurated the programme by enlightening the ceremonial lamp and offering flowers to Goddess Saraswati. President of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal OP Uniyal and state president of the BEd Teachers Association Sunil Aggarwal accompanied him.

Boys and girls danced to the tunes of popular Hindi film songs, while teachers also thoroughly enjoyed the musical notes played by the local orchestra artists.

The programme of Rajasthani dance and western dance performed by the dance troupe from Delhi enthralled the audience. The meritorious students, outstanding NSS volunteers and NCC cadets were given prize on the occasion.

Dehradun, February 11
The youth will now get admission in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Force on the basis of optical magnetic reader (OMR). This was stated by Director General, ITBP, RK Bhatia at the inaugural function to mark the four-day Basant Mela at Pt Gautam Kaul Stadium, Seemadwar, today.

Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the function, Bhatia said the ITBP had learnt a lesson after the Bareilly incident where job aspirants returning from a recruitment camp died after falling from the roof of two speeding trains. “To avoid such incidents, the ITBP has planned to discontinue the rally system and would admit youth on the basis of OMR,” he affirmed.

Talking about the mela, Bhatia stated that it had developed as a tradition and its celebration brought the people together from all walks of life.

Dehradun, February 11
Rahul Kothiyal of Doon University bagged the first position in the Sardar Gurucharan Singh Memorial Fourth National Debate Competition held at Sardar Bhagwan Singh PG Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Research, Balawala, today. He received a cash prize of Rs 11,000 and a scholarship.

Out of 14 participating teams, Rahul Kumar and Vini Bhatia of the Benaras Hindu University won the overall trophy. The second day of the debate was presided over by Prof DS Chauhan, Vice-Chancellor, Uttarakhand Technical University. The topic for the competition was 'India - a rising power in the global economy: Myth or reality?’. Speakers from different colleges expressed their views on the issue.

All the teams spoke for and against the motion. The audience was enthralled by the verve, wit and vivacity of the 70 speakers from the 35 teams. Later, the chief guest awarded the winners.

Ankita Rawat of SBSPGI, Balawala, stood second, Manoj Yadav of Zakir Hussain College, Delhi University, was declared third. Consolation prizes went to Vireshwer Tomar of GB Pant University, Nainital, and Rahul of the Benaras Hindu University.

Dehradun, February 11
A three-day conference on landslide hazard- consequences and challenges started at the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, today. Experts of 45 technical institutes and organisations are taking part in the conference.

Director CBRI SK Bhattacharya said, “The aim of the conference is to provide a platform for academicians, field engineers and policy makers associated with the landslide disaster mitigation to share their knowledge and experiences.”

“Natural disasters of different forms such as landslide, earthquake, cyclone etc. cause large-scale destruction to the infrastructural facilities, especially in the hilly region,” he said.

“Reliable statistics concerning the number of landslides occurring each year are not available. However, some reported observations in the north Sikkim and the Garhwal regions clearly reveal the average of two landslides per sq km per year and annual soil loss is about 2,500 tonne per sq km. The story is more or less same in other parts of the country and the facts still have to be found,” said RK Bhandari from London.

“Uttarakhnad is prone to natural disasters and have been bearing the brunt and the latest incidents have alarmed the situation that needs to be addressed,” said Bhattacharya. Former director CBRI RK Bhandari stressed upon utilising the waste material for the construction work.

Pithoragarh, February 11
Congress workers today burnt an effigy of State Drinking Water Minister Prakash Pant. They were protesting against insufficient drinking water supply to nearly one lakh population of his home town Pithoragarh.

“The minister has not only failed to provide a new drinking water scheme for the town, but has also not managed the present one,” said Mahendra Lunthi, president of the District Congress Committee. “The town needs 11 lakh litres of drinking water every day, but is only receiving 6 lakh litres per day,” he added.

AICC member and senior leader of Congress Ravender Singh Bisht said the people of the town had long been demanding a drinking water scheme from the Gori river, but due to political reasons the minister had failed to do anything. “Until the minister provides sufficient drinking water to the town, the agitation against the minister will continue,” he added.

The Congress leaders pointed out that drinking water crisis was looming large in other towns of the Kumoan region as well, as more than 2,000 hand pumps installed in four district of the Kumoan region which is nearly 10 per cent, had dried even before the start of summer.“Not only the hand pumps, but traditional water sources have also dried up and are not being revived,” charged Bisht.

Pant admitted that people of Kumoan were facing shortage of drinking water. “We are working on new drinking water schemes for the region and making the technically ‘unfit pumps’, fit to deliver water and declaring ‘dead’ those, where the water level has gone down,” he added.

Haridwar, February 11
The incident involving the house arrest of Tehri legislator Kishore Upadhyay has not gone down well with the Congress and the Uttarakhand Kranti Manch. Activists from both fronts jointly yesterday held a protest to register their resentment.

Terming it as an autocratic handling by the state machinery, party workers said such an act had hurt the dignity of the legislator who had to sleep on a bench situated in the verandah of the state guest house for no proper reason. As per the declared programme, activists from both the organisations gathered at the Tulsi chowk and marched towards the camp office of the District Magistrate situated in Mayapur.

Lashing out at Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, manch convener JP Pandey said Nishank had put Upadhyay under house arrest at the state guest house as he did not have the courage to face the mass protest that included a large number of localites too.

“It’s only Nishank that can stoop to such low acts but people of not only Tehri and Garhwal but the whole state will show the door to the BJP Government for its undemocratic, unethical and tyrant way of governance,” said Pandey while addressing the activists.

Women Secretary of the Congress Meera Raturi lashed out at the state government for biased behaviour with the Opposition legislators which was totally unacceptable and uncalled for.

Meera said in the previous regime of ND Tiwari, the Opposition legislators were given due respect as per the Constitution and Assembly norms, but in the BJP tenure the Opposition legislators were being ill treated.

Dehradun , February 11
To spread awareness about the second phase of census operations in the Muslim community, imams (clerics) used their Friday sermons in the city mosques for the same. They stressed upon the community members to register themselves in the census enumeration.

Maulana Mohammad Ahsan, imam of EC Road Mosque, urged the community members not to shy from the census. He also called upon them to register themselves as Muslims and register Urdu as their mother tongue. — TNS