Haridwar, February 12
The first phase of the three-level panchayat elections in Haridwar district went off peacefully with more than 75 per cent polling reported from the three blocks where elections were held.

The high percentage is being attributed to the awareness among the people about the concept of panchayati raj in rural areas.

No untoward incident was reported from all the 785 polling centres.

Polling began at 8 am. At noon, already 35 per cent of the electorate had cast their vote. In many clusters, polling got completed in a few hours due to the less number of voters in the villages. Women, even from the Muslim community, turned out for voting in large numbers.

The Bahadrabad block did better than the other two blocks - Roorkee and Khanpur - in terms of the votes cast.

Till the filing of this report, voting at several booths - in Jagjeetpur, Dhanpura, Roorkee and Khanpur - continued beyond the stipulated time.

Contestants and their supporters were seen outside polling booths trying to influence voters one last time.

District Election Officer R Meenakshi Sundaram termed the first phase of the panchayat elections as successful with the poll percentage exceeding the 75 per cent mark till evening with rural areas registering a major share.

SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal and SP City Dr Kiran Lal Shaw informed the Tribune that no untoward incident was reported till the filing of the report.

The peaceful conduct of the first phase has come as a major relief for the Election Commission as there were more than a 100 sensitive polling centres.

Haridwar, February 12
All three major political parties in the state, the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), have claimed public mood was in their favour during the first phase of the Haridwar district panchayat elections, the results of which will have bearings on the second phase of the elections as well as on the upcoming state Assembly elections.

Speaking to The Tribune, Uttarakhand BSP chief Megh Raj Singh said people had voted against the anti-Dalit parties, the BJP and the Congress while voted in favour of the BSP for its developmental policies.

“Despite the misuse of administrative machinery, the BJP has failed to gain anything substantial in the strong areas of the BSP while the Congress was just banking on its parliamentarian Harish Rawat. The Congress has no strong base in the region. Both these parties are the two sides of a coin but the BSP has always been a pro-poor Dalit party whose secular credentials are well established,” said Rajbhar, another leader of the BSP.

Congress MP and Union Minister Harish Rawat said people’s inclination in the district, particularly in the rural areas, had once again been towards the party and in the first phase of the elections, picture is quite clear that people had reposed their faith in the policies of the Congress and voted against the non-development of their areas under the BJP rule.

On the other hand, BJP legislator and state Cabinet minister Madan Kaushik has expressed hope for a good show of the BJP-supported candidates in the first phase of the three-tier panchayat elections. Kaushik, while talking to The Tribune over the phone, cited developmental works carried out on a mass scale by the BJP Government in its four-year tenure in the state as reason for a favourable response by the voters to the candidates supported by the BJP.

Kaushik said the BJP would emerge victorious in the ongoing panchayat elections and also in the next Assembly elections under the able leadership of Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank as massive developmental works had been carried out everywhere in the state.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party leaders said at many village pradhan, village panchayat and BDC seats the candidates supported by their party had polled sufficient votes, as theirs was the one party having real Samajwadi ideology.

Dehradun, February 12
Senior Congress leaders of Uttarakhand have been told to bury their differences in view of the forthcoming Assembly polls and put a united fight against the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government. The message was conveyed to senior party leaders of the state at the coordination committee meeting of the state Congress held by party in charge and general secretary RK Dhawan at his residence in New Delhi yesterday.

All the senior leaders, including Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Harish Rawat, state Congress president Yashpal Arya, Party MPs Satpal Maharaj, Vijay Bahuguna and Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly Harak Singh Rawat were present at the meeting.

While the ruling BJP, under the leadership of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, has started a populist scheme, the Atal Khadyann Yojana, to provide cheaper wheat and rice to BPL and APL families with an eye on the coming Assembly polls, the Congress leaders had been engaged in an internecine war.

Instead of a united fight, most of the Congress leaders were busy in their own programmes and campaigns. Interestingly, workers and leaders of one group were not attending the meetings and programmes of other leaders, including that of state Congress chief Yashpal Arya.

According to party sources, Dhawan was able to convince the party leaders to hold two party rallies, one in the Kumaon region and other in the Garhwal region, in the coming days to kicks tart the campaign of the party for the forthcoming Assembly polls.

The next meeting of the coordination committee of the state Congress will be held in Dehradun where senior party leaders will deliberate upon the key election issues to be raised in the election year.

It is also hoped that the office-bearers of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) will also be announced soon. Since the re-nomination of Arya as the state Congress chief, he has not been able to finalise the list of his office-bearers due to differences between various factions and leaders of the state Congress.

Dehradun, February 12
To identify Gorkha state agitators, the Akhil Bharatiya Rashtriya Gorkha Morcha Party has started constituting committees in every district. It will finish the work within six months of its formation.

The party has formed the committee after orders were passed by the Uttarakhand Chief Minister. Saroj Gurung has been appointed president of the committee, while Bisani Devi Thapa is vice-president. This was stated by Capt JB Karki, national president of the party, here today. He said the committee would be meeting every two months to discuss about its status.

Talking to the media, Captain Karki affirmed that the Manmohan Government was responsible for inflation in the country, and it was the Nishank Government that was responsible for it in Uttarakhand.

He further said it was playing with the sentiments of residents of the state by starting the scheme of providing ration to BPL and APL families at the cheap rates. “It is mentioned in the ration card that each family of the card holder will get around 7-8 units of ration. But now they are being told that the BPL families will get 10 kg of rice and 25 kg of wheat, while the APL families will get 2 kg of rice and 10 kg of wheat, respectively. The quantity is very less for many who have a large family,” he said. He added, “The other food items are sold at very high prices in the market. Who will take it as it is not within the reach of people. Thus, it is a mockery of the scheme”.

Captain Karki stated that the government should take care of development works that were damaged during the floods last year. He also asked the government to answer where were the jobs for 50,000 people that had been announced by it earlier.

Karki asked the government to ensure that 8,000 Gorkhas got jobs on the boundary of Uttarakhand.

Dehradun, February 12
Detection and intervention will be the focus of the Early Child Intervention Centre that will come up in the District Doon Hospital and supported by the National Rural Health Mission.

The Latika Roy Foundation, an NGO working in this area, has been entrusted with the task of running the centre.

Speaking at a workshop yesterday, Dr Anke Meester, the head of the Department of the University Hospital of Amsterdam, said, “An integrated approach to the care for children with disabilities is needed. It requires the cooperation of a variety of medical professionals on a day-to-day basis.

“Centres like these are accepted as a standard for special children in most of Europe and the USA,” she said.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Doon Hospital and the Latika Roy Foundation.

“The foundation will run the centre. The project is being funded by the National Rural Health Mission and will have a yearly running expense of about Rs 23 lakh,” said Dr BC Pathak, CMS, Doon Hospital.

On the other hand, Dr Sebastin Gruschke, Director, Doon-Early Intervention Centre(DEIC), said that the goals of the centre are to provide integrated care to children with disabilities, to give parents and caretakers information about how to optimise the health, well being and the support system of their child.

Nainital, February 12
Making the ambitious Atal Khadyann Yojana, that was launched with much fanfare across the state yesterday, a successful scheme will be a tedious task for the Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in the state.

The populist scheme, which has been launched at a time when the state Assembly polls are barely a year away, is all set to snowball into a major political issue with the Opposition parties already accusing Nishank of launching the scheme with an eye on poll dividends. The populist scheme aims at providing wheat and rice at Rs 2 and Rs 3 per kg, respectively, to the below poverty line (BPL) beneficiaries through the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) outlets. The above poverty line (APL) beneficiaries would get the same at Rs 4 and Rs 6 per kg, respectively. An undeterred Nishank has countered the allegations from the Opposition by stating, “They should be happy that the government has taken a pro-poor step but the message emanating from their allegations is contrary and conveys that they themselves are anti-poor”.

The biggest challenge before the government will be to ensure a smooth flow of foodgrains to ration shops. With shopkeepers running PDS outlets already up in arms against the government and adamant on not letting the scheme take off till the issues pertaining to their profits and commissions are solved in the form of a government order (GO), the scheme has hit a roadblock.

Nishank, when asked about the matter, retorted, “I fail to understand what their problem is with regards to the sale of the additional grains. The government has already ensured them that their profits and commissions will be taken care of”.

Claiming that the scheme will be implemented in a completely transparent manner, the government roadmap states that from the next month it will be ensured that the ration will reach the godowns in every district by the 23rd of every month and a committee comprising the Sub Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) and Block Development Officers (BDOs) would carry out a stock checking. A report for the same will be given to the District Magistrates the following day.

Over the next one week every month the ration will be supplied to various PDS outlets and during the first three days of every month a local or village-level committee will verify the stocks that have arrived. This will be followed by the distribution of food grains.

The big question being posed is that with the existing PDS infrastructure in the state functioning far below the desired levels, how can a proper implementation of the scheme be ensured? It is being expected that since the food grains will be coming from the Central pool, the Congress, which is in power at the Centre, would leave no stone unturned to convey that it is the Centre that is providing the subsidised food grains to the poor. It is being observed that Nishank launched this scheme in the poll year to preempt the Centre’s move of the introduction of a Food Security Bill in Parliament.

The state government was left red-faced in Bageshwar and Pithoragarh on the day of the launch of the scheme when more than 1,000 pesons turned up to collect foodgrains against 100 for whom arrangements had been made at the venue.

It is also being speculated that a mere delay in the arrival of food grains from the central pool can upset the state government’s applecart with regards to the scheme. However, Nishank was categorical in stating that any mischief with regards to delay in supplies would lead to the people of the state giving a befitting reply to the Congress.

Dehradun, February 12
To frame strategies of the party’s action against the celebration of Valentine’s Day in the Doon valley, members of the Shiv Sena held a meeting at their office here today.

The meeting was conducted under the presidentship of Virender Singh Rawat, Zila Pramucha, who said, “Love is considered scared and is next to God, but we strongly oppose the celebration of Valentine Day here in India. The celebration of such days is like invasion of western culture in India that has caused rise in obscenity and vulgarity”.

However, Rahul Chauhan, district head of Shiv Sena, asserted that the party workers would take action against the explicit environment being created by youngsters.

“We have already circulated messages to restaurants and hotels of the city to not conduct any sort of special programmes on the occasion and are expecting cooperation from the people of Dehradun,” added Chauhan.

Dehradun, February 12
The 3,000 Sudurwarti Swasthya Sahayaks (SSS) trained by GVK EMRI 108 Ambulance services will now be deputed at 3,000 villages.

Stating this today, Director General, Health, Asha Mathur said all the Sahayaks would now be deputed in villages where the ambulance could not reach. “They have successfully completed their training and now it is time for them to strengthen the medical services in remote areas,” added Dr Mathur.

Besides, the SSS would now be known as 108-Sudurwarti Swasthya Sahayaks. They were a part of the Mukhyamantri Sudurwarti Swasthya Sudradhikaran Yojna that was launched on November 9, 2009, to enhance the reach of Public Health services in difficult areas.

The Health Department has given GVK EMRI 108 additional responsibilities to manage and coordinate the SSS. The SSS would also coordinate with the ASHA workers, CMOs, District Magistrates and the Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Nainital, February 12
The bodies of two persons, said to be of Nepali origin, were found from the fields adjoining the railway track at Chakarpur yesterday. According to the information, the two had been killed with a sharp-edged weapon and the face of one of the victims had been badly crushed.

The locals had told the police that the victims were relatives who used to sell blankets in the area. It was on the Friday afternoon that the locals saw the bodies dumped in a wheat field. Efforts were on to nab the culprits and determine the motive behind the murder.