Dehradun, March 29
In a dramatic turn of events, Congress MLA from Tehri Kishore Upadhyaya, who had been observing an indefinite fast, made a sudden exit from the Doon Hospital and was later found at Chamba in Tehri.

Upadhyaya, along with five other MLAs, had staged a dharna in the well of the House on March 22. This resulted into the suspension of all the six MLAs. Howsoever, the suspension of all the MLAs was later revoked. But, Upadhyaya started a dharna outside the Assembly.

He was admitted to the Doon Hospital on March 27 after he reported failing health. But, to everybody’s surprise, Upadhyaya today left for Chamba without informing anybody. Hospital sources said the forcibly feeding of Updhayaya was to begin today and in all probability he made a quiet exit.

Meanwhile, Congress MLAs, led by Opposition Leader Harak Singh Rawat also raised the issue and created a ruckus in the House. After 10 minutes of pandemonium, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant informed the House that Upadhyaya was not missing but had gone to Chamba on his own.

According to reports from Chamba, Upadhyaya has started a dharna at the statue of Victoria Cross-winner Gabbar Singh Negi in Chamba. He also conducted a “Sundarkand path” at the site of dharna.

Dehradun, March 29
To mark the 76th anniversary of Utkal Diwas, the 15,000-strong Oriya community will celebrate the day on April 1 in which artistes from Delhi-based Sankalp group will present a cultural programme at the AMN Ghosh Auditorium

Addressing a press conference today, Subas Chander Satpathy, Vice-Chairman of the Oriya Samaj, said 76 years ago Orissa was carved out as a separate on the basis of distinct language and culture.

“To mark the occasion, a cultural extravaganza, Utkal Diwas, is held every year by Oriya people settled all over the country. This year internationally renowned artistes of the Sankalp group (New Delhi) will perform at the cultural extravaganza,” he said.

The function will be presided over by Managing Director of ONGC 
AK Hazarika.

Satpathy also urged the Central government to pass a proposal for a super-fast train between Puri and Dehradun. “The only train service here takes 54 hours to reach Orissa. It is not worth the effort. If a super-fast train is introduced between Dehradun and Puri, it will provide connectivity between Badri Dham and Jaganath Dham,” said Satpathy.

He also urged the state government to allocate land for the construction of a temple dedicated to Lord Jagan Nath.

Dehradun March 29
Protesting against the lack of water supply in their area, residents of Bangarwala held a demonstration outside the Jal Sansthan office in Nehru Colony today.

Led by Hema Purohit, member of the Mianwala Zila Panchayat, the residents raised slogans against the authorities of the Jal Sansthan.

They said their area was witnessing acute water shortage.

They demanded connection between the Kiduwala power house and the Bangarwala water pipe. — TNS

Dehradun, March 29
A 58-year-old foreign national, who had come on a pilgrimage to the famous shrine of Piran Kaliyar, 7 km from Roorkee, died under mysterious circumstances. Deceased identified as Ashraf Khan, a South African national of Capetown, had arrived in India on March 21 and reached Piran Kaliyar on March 27 to offer prayers.

The police said Asraf had checked in a nearby hotel at Piran Kaliyar where he suddenly developed some problem related to his health and fainted. Soon hotel owner Rao Irfan admitted him to the Roorkee Civil Hospital where he was declared brought dead by the doctors on duty.

The Roorkee police, along with LIU, reached the hospital and took charge of the body which was sent for postmortem. It also intimated the South African Embassy about the fatal incident.

CEO, Roorkee, Kamlesh Upadhay said the deceased man’s daughter Jaitoon Khan had sent a fax to the Embassy asking that her father’s body be handed over to Syed Sidda Mohammad, resident of Nizamudin. The CEO said the body would be buried in the Kaliyar Graveyard.

The police is awaiting the postmortem report after which it will be able to find out the cause of the sudden death. 

Nainital, March 29
The allotment of liquor vends across Kumaon began this morning amidst heavy police deployment at all the venues at district headquarters. The allotment is being done through the lottery system in the presence of the top administrative officials. While most of the liquor vends were to be allotted by late Tuesday night, those left on account of certain unavoidable reasons would be allotted tomorrow.

In Nainital district, there were 7,580 applicants for the 61 liquor vends. These included 32 country liquor vends while the remaining vends were meant for selling Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL).

According to District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli, the district administration has earned a revenue of Rs 10.15 crore through application fee alone. Sources said there had been no increase in the number of liquor vends in the district.

In Udham Singh Nagar district, there were 6,634 applicants for the 68 country liquor vends and 22 IMFL vends. The number of applicants was 1,914 over and above the number last year. The revenue earned by the administration in terms of application fee amounted to Rs 8.88 crore as against Rs 6.13 crore last year.

In Bageshwar district, there were 1,033 applicants for the various vends that were to be allotted. These included 15 women compared to a mere single woman applicant last year.

Interestingly, a large number of applications across the region are in the name of women. At the same time women have been carrying out an anti-liquor protests over the past few days. The areas that have witnessed such protests include Almora, Bagwalipokhar, Pithoragarh, Devidhura, Kedarthan, Pokhari, Dhunaghat, Tak Khandak, Ladauli, Gurauli, Tanakpur and Lodhiya. These protesters have been demanding closing of liquor vends at various locations.

By the time of filing of this report the allotment process was still going on and it was expected to be completed late in the evening. The administrations of various districts aim at increasing their earnings from the sale of liquor in the next financial year by at least 10 per cent in comparison to the earnings of the current financial year that ends on March 31.

Haridwar, March 29
Owing to their different and adverse geographical conditions, development in hill states is not at par with plain area states. So for wholesome development of the Himalayan states, special attention needs to be paid to them.

This was stated by Lok Sabha parliamentarian from the Tehri Garhwal constituency Vijay Bahuguna here.

In conversation with The Tribune exclusively, the Tehri parliamentarian said in the interiors of hill districts, the situation was quite pathetic with denizens living a tough life devoid of necessary facilities, providing which should be the priority of respective governments at the Centre or in the state.

“Even in Parliament when I take forth this issue, I talk about the cartel of hilly states as one identity i.e. Himalayan states, as their geographical living conditions are the same, but devoid of basic infrastructure and development. Unless we bring these states into the mainstream of development, one can’t assume that India is taking development strides fully,” said Bahuguna, an ex-Allahabad-Bombay High Court judge turned politician.

On the contentious issue of hydroelectric projects being run and granted permission in Uttarakhand in large numbers, the parliamentarian voiced for a well-balanced approach in this regard as one can’t take religion, environment and development as separately.

“All these need a well-balanced vision as development is imperative, though not at the extreme cost of nature, environment or hurting viable religious feelings,” he said.

“But with power and water, and Uttarakhand having limited employment-revenue generation sources, hydel generation projects are a vital option though with restraint measures,” opined Bahuguna, who won the last parliamentary elections defeating ace Asiad medal-winner Jaspal Rana.

Later, Vijay Bahuguna unveiled the guest house storey of the Press Club of Haridwarfor which he had contributed a sum of Rs 5 lakh. Addressing the media fraternity, he highlighted the stellar role played by mediapersons during the Uttarakhand agitation urging them to once again take their pens to carve out developmental wheel in the state.

Sanjay Rawal, general secretary of the Press Club, acknowledged the contribution of the Bahuguna family in Indian politics.

Mussoorie, March 29
The claims made by the local Municipal Council about providing houses to the poor under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) at Suman Nagar here have a hind side too. The house owned by a poor family is on the verge of caving in after the work to level the land for the project was initiated by the contractor yesterday. According to the victims, Sunil, Anil and Pradeep, they have been living in the said house for the past 20 years and some days ago they were told by Municipal Council Executive Officer Rohtash Sharma that the work on the project would begin only after they were shifted elsewhere.

Anil said they heard a loud rumbling sound at night and found that a portion of the house was hanging in the air. The haphazard digging at the project site has led to earth under their house caving in, he alleged. They collected their belongings and left the house. When they tried to contact the contractor and the Executive Officer, they skirted around the issue.

Sunil alleged they were being uprooted under a conspiracy. He demanded that the council either provided them with an alternative site or save their house from collapse.

Meanwhile, the Executive Officer said the land belonged to the council and the said family was living there illegally. He said an alternate site had been offered to the family, but they were not interested in shifting there.

Under the housing project, more than 60 flats are to be constructed for the poor.

Mussoorie, March 29
IAS trainees from LBSNAA, in association with the district administration, will organise a one-day health camp at St Mary’s Hospital in Mussoorie on April 9. The trainees today visited the Municipal Council premises for support from the president and members of various wards.

They said specialists would conduct free checkup of eyes and physical and mental disabilities on the occasion. The doctors would also provide free consultation for ears and polio ailments. Physical and mental disability certificates would also be distributed at the camp.

The disabled would be provided with equipments. The trainees said disabled pension procedures would also be initiated, besides the health checkup.

The team, led by Prabjot Singh and Amit Kumar, met Municipal Council President OP Uniyal and discussed about the camp in details and distributed publicity material on the occasion. Uniyal assured them of full cooperation for the camp. 

Dehradun, March 29
Vipin Nagalia has retained the presidentship of the Doon Udhyog Vyapar Mandal. His opponent Akhil Bhatia today withdrew his candidature from the election, following which Nagalia was declared elected unanimously.

Election Officer Rakesh Oberoi announced Nagalia’s election to the post of president of the mandal. Nagalia said it would be his priority to ensure that traders’ issues get due attention and were redressed at the earliest. He said he was also for unity among traders in the state.

Pranteey Udhyog Vyapar Mandal president Anil Goyal asserted the forces that were trying to create differences among the traders would finally be defeated.

Interestingly, the Doon Udhyog Vyapar Mandal has undergone a split recently with some members parting ways from it and forming the Pradesh Udhyog Vyapar Mandal Samiti. The samiti has NP Deewan as its president.

Mussoorie, March 29
Safai karamcharis marched to the local Municipal Council premises yesterday in protest against the confiscation of their brooms and garbage baskets, which were lying on the roadside, by a health officer on Saturday.

The safai karamcharis met Executive Officer Rohtash Sharma and told him that the health officer had confiscated their brooms and baskets on the pretext that they were absent from duty. They said they would not work under such conditions where the officials did not trust the karamcharis.

Sharma told them that some misunderstanding had occurred between the two sides and it would be removed through a dialogue.