Dehradun, March 13
The budget session of the Uttarakhand Assembly, which will start from tomorrow, is going to be a stormy affair following a resolve by the main Opposition Congress to expose the alleged misdeeds of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, on the floor of the House.

With less than a year left for the scheduled Assembly elections in the state, Opposition parties, mainly the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), will leave no stone unturned to embarrass the state government.

If the state government decides to go for an early Assembly polls as indicated by certain leaders of the ruling BJP, this can be the last session of this state Assembly.

Already the Uttarakhand Congress has shown its intentions to be aggressive in and outside the state Assembly. While the Uttarakhand Congress, led by state party president Yashpal Arya, has announced to gherao the state Assembly and given a call to the party workers to converge on Dehradun on March 15, Leader of Opposition Harak Singh Rawat has also been spewing venom against the state BJP Government and particularly against Nishank.

To top it all, in this election year, most of the legislators are also ready to come up with their own agendas. Kishore Upadhaya, Congress legislator from Tehri town, has announced that he will be staging a dharna in the well of the House from the first day of the budget session to highlight the issues facing people of Tehri Garhwal who are suffering due to the alleged step-motherly treatment being meted out to them.

He had staged a dharna in the last Assembly session also on similar demands, but was assured by the state government of an early solution of his grievances.

“They have cheated me into believing that people of Tehri will get their grievances removed, but nothing has happened. I will not budge this time,” he said while talking to The Tribune.

Arya said his party legislators would take up the issues concerning the common man and the alleged failures of the state government. “This government is a disaster. We will expose it thoroughly,” he said.

With the division of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), the UKD (Trivendra Panwar group) has also announced to gherao the state Assembly on March 14 against the state government on the opening day of the budget session. Their lone legislator Pushpesh Tripathi would also be critical of the state government in the House.

On the other hand, the Chief Minister is also well prepared to get the budget passed amid the expected ruckus.

Dehradun, March 13
Tigers of the Jim Corbett National Park have claimed six human lives in the past four months and the Uttarakhand wildlife authorities seem to be still groping around for an answer to the challenge. Villagers residing on the periphery of the park have now decided to gherao the Corbett Park Director on March 17 to press him for eliminating the tiger, which was responsible for the death of a person in the park yesterday.

The latest human death caused by the tiger has also put a question mark on Uttarakhand Forest Department’s earlier claim that it had shot dead a man-eater tiger, which was responsible for a number of human deaths in the Sundarkhal and adjoining regions of the Corbett.

The sixth and latest victim, a mentally challenged person belonging to Sundarkhal, was picked by a tiger from the Kosi range of Ramnagar Forest Division during the morning hours of Saturday. The half-eaten body of the person was later recovered from the Sarpduli range of the park.

Significantly, these brutal human deaths have come at a time when the Forest authorities are busy with the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of the park. Hardly 45 days ago, a tiger was shot down after it went on a killing spree. Another woman was attacked by a tiger on Friday, while the Saturday incident has taken the tiger attack death toll to six in the past four months.

The sixth human death incident has led to a scare among residents of the Sundarkhal and adjoining regions. The residents immediately have sought the trapping of the tiger. Corbett Warden UC Tiwari, however, said they had sought the permission of the Additional Chief Wildlife Warden for caging the beast.

The villagers have now threatened the Corbett authorities with a widespread agitation if the tiger was not caged and compensation not provided to Savitri Devi, victim of the tiger attack on Friday, immediately.

Interestingly, wildlife conservationists have also put a question mark on the claim of the Uttarakhand Wildlife authorities that the tiger, which was gunned down 45 days ago in the park, was a man-eater. Rajendra Agarwal, Uttarakhand coordinator of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, said the human death on Saturday had revealed that there still was a man-eater roaming around in the Sundarkhal region.

“The worst fears have come true. It is very much possible now that the Uttarakhand wildlife authorities had killed a wrong tiger last time and the real man-eater is still on the prowl,” Agarwal claimed.

Meanwhile, Munish Kumar of the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti said the villagers would continue with their agitation till each and every man-eater in the Corbett was eliminated.

Nainital, March 13
If the developments pertaining to Sunderkhal village, on the periphery of the Jim Corbett National Park, point towards anything, it is the failures of the political establishment and forest officials on matters related to framing of a policy and implementation of the laws.

The Forest Department, as was pointed in the presentation given by Director, Corbett National Park, RC Mishra, said, “The village is nothing, but an encroachment upon the government land by people residing there”.

Officials further claimed that the government was even having the eviction orders. But there was no one to answer the question as to why was an encroachment of such a massive scale allowed to come up in the area and what was stopping the eviction and the proposed rehabilitation. This was necessary from the point of view of bringing the man-animal conflicts to an end in the area and to make the proposed plan of developing a corridor a reality.

Chief Wildlife Warden Srikant Chandola said there were social issues involved in the matter. He also pointed out the problems being faced in the Rajaji National Park where some Gujjar families were to be rehabilitated. “Getting a family to vacate their house voluntarily is not an easy job,” he told The Tribune.

There was no denying the fact that there was politics involved in the process. A senior personality from the judiciary said it was not only the Sunderkhal villagers who were to be rehabilitated, but there was also a need to get all the resorts that had come up on the periphery removed.

It required no reasoning to say that those who had got permissions to build the resorts were “reasonably well connected”.

The residents of Sunderkhal, who have been agitating against the government for failing to protect their lives, have their own tale of woe. The village and its adjoining areas have seen six persons being killed by the wild cat since November last year.

Village pradhan Chandan Ram Arya asserted that the 500 families had been kept in the dark with regards to the proposed rehabilitation.

“They have sought no suggestions from us and neither have they communicated any plans to us. We want to know where they plan to rehabilitate us and what is going to be the procedure for doing so,” he added.

The villagers have been demanding that they be rehabilitated within the Ramnagar Assembly constituency and the area should be given the status of a revenue village. They oppose the plan of the government giving every family Rs 10 lakh.

The 89th All-India Agro-Industrial Exhibition-cum-Farmers’ Fair, popularly known as the Kisan Mela, concluded at the Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology at Pantnagar on Saturday afternoon. Chief guest Harbhajan Singh Cheema, the legislator from Kashipur, praised Pantnagar University in making the country self-reliant in food production while recalling the “ship-to-mouth” existence of the 1950s.

He said improved hybrid varieties of different crops had significantly enhanced productivity, and the university had earned itself a very good name in the farming community. He urged the scientists to focus on the livestock sector so that milk productivity could also be enhanced significantly. Dr BS Bisht, Vice-Chancellor of the university, congratulated the scientists of university for the successful release of 10 new varieties of different crops. Besides, two patents had also been awarded to university, he pointed out.

Dehradun, March 13
Environment groups and human rights organisations from the Himalayan states of Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh will hold a public hearing in Dehradun on March 25 and 26. The core issue will be the effects of climate change on the livelihood opportunities of people residing in these hill states.

Suresh Bhai of the Nadi Bachao Abhiyan said Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva would inaugurate the two-day hearing on March 25 in the presence of Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Harish Rawat and Uttarakhand MPs Pradeep Tamta, Vijay Bahuguna, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Tarun Vijay.

He said a panel had been constituted for the hearing that included Dr Palani, Rajendra Singh, Prof SP Singh, Dr VP Maithani, Prof N Purohit, Dr Anil Joshi, Shekhar Pathak, Prof JP Pachori, Ajay Rawat, Dr Shamsher Singh Bisht, Radha Behn, Sundar Lal Bahuguna. The public hearing would be followed by signing of the Himalayan Public Policy.

“Initially, the policy document will be handed over to the MPs followed by submission of the document to the Prime Minister after it has been signed by over four lakh people,” said Suresh Bhai.

The issues of hydro power, tourism, land acquisition and forest rights will also come up for discussion. A total of 200 delegates are expected to attend the event.

Dehradun, March 13
Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today refuted the Opposition charge that the state government was not utilising Central funds meant for development schemes in the state. Addressing a press conference, Dr Nishank said the charge was baseless as the incumbent state government had already spent far more than what the Congress did in its tenure of five years when in office.

“In it’s five years of rule, the Congress spent Rs 5,299 crore, whereas we in just four years have utilised an amount of Rs 9,229.42 crore,” the Chief Minister said pointing out the large difference of fund utilisation among the two governments. Giving a breakup of some of the schemes, Nishank pointed out that the Congress had just utilised Rs 48 crore in its five-year rule under the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), while his government had so far already spent a staggering Rs 814 crore.

“Similarly, Rs 312 crore of the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana fund was utilised by the earlier Congress government, while we have already crossed Rs 800 crore mark,” he said, asserting that the Congress had no right to mislead people.

Nishank said it would have been better had the Uttarakhand Congress protested in Delhi seeking justice for Uttarakhand rather than staging protests in Dehradun. He referred to the truncating of the special package to Uttarakhand provided to the state by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.

On the budget session beginning tomorrow, Dr Nishank said his government was bringing a regular budget in the Assembly and appealed to the Opposition to play the role of a constructive Opposition by ensuring the smooth conduct of the Assembly proceedings.

He disclosed that he had been to almost every district as part of the Vikas Samiksha Yatra and asserted to resume the yatra after the conclusion of the budget session of the Assembly.

Nishank was joined by his senior Cabinet colleague Prakash Pant and Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar.

Dehradun, March 13
To maintain law and order situation during the Vidhan Sabha sessions, which will commence here from tomorrow, barricades have been put up at Shastri Nagar, Rispana Bridge, Praghati Vihar and the tri-junction of the Vidhan Sabha to tackle dharnas or processions.

Outside the Vidhan Sabha, the SP (City) and inside the Vidhan Sabha the SP (Rural) will be on duty, along with circle officers. The first session of the Vidhan Sabha will be held from March 14 to 16 and the second session will be held from March 23 to 29.

Meanwhile, traffic diversions have also been made to avoid traffic jams and facilitate school students. Most of the schools in the district are situated in the city, thus the students coming from the Haridwar Road, Jogiwala, Shastri Nagar and Ajabpur will be affected.

However, the police has chalked out a plan to divert the traffic and deal with the situation. The police has appealed to the residents not to use the barricaded area between 12:30 pm to 2 pm to avoid any hassles.

The police has also appealed to all the political parties and agitators to use less time in their protest and hold their programmes in a peaceful manner, so that the students of schools and colleges do not face problems.

Dehradun, March 13
Agitated members of the Uttarakhand Diploma Engineers Federation yesterday announced the commencement of their indefinite strike in support of their demands from March 14.

Diploma engineers working in almost all government departments participated in the agitation and gave a memorandum to the state government. In their memorandum to the authority, the protestors mentioned the demands of regularisation of diploma engineers, promotion orders of awaiting members and setting up a structure of the workforce of Uttarakhand.

Talking to The Tribune, Navin Kandpal, president of the federation, alleged that diploma engineers had been struggling for the past nine years, but the state government had paid no heed to their demands yet. “We are also demanding that the employment of diploma engineers hailing from other states in the functional agencies be stopped. They should recruit engineers from Uttarakhand in the State Rajkiya Nirman Nigam,” he added.

Dehradun, March 13
A meeting of the Congress labour cell was held at the Ballupur Chowk to chalk out the strategy for the proposed gherao of the Vidhan Sabha by the party tomorrow.

The Uttarakhand Congress party has planned to hold a massive gherao of the state Assembly on the opening day of the Budget session in Dehradun.

Senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana, addressing the party workers, called upon them to come in large numbers to participate in the proposed gherao.

He alleged that the state government had failed on all fronts, including good governance. He further charged that the BJP government had failed to provide any succour to victims of the natural disaster during monsoon and been embroiled in several alleged scams.

Dhasmana said the protest by the Congress would express the sentiments of the common people against the state BJP government.

Dehradun, March 13
Agitating Shiksha Mitras, who are demanding regularisation of their services and are on an indefinite strike, received the support of Harish Rawat, a senior Congress leader, in their strenuous protest here today.

Addressing the protestors at the dharna, Rawat assured them of the party’s support and criticised the state government for neglecting the ad-hoc teachers.

A large number of protestors, led by Lalit Dwivedi, state president of the Shiksha Mitra Mahasangh, shouted slogans and staged a demonstration in front of the Vidhan Sabha. They also displayed banners and threatened to shift to revolutionary methods if their demands were not met.