Eviction Drive at Mullingar Estate
BJP leader lambasts Mussoorie Cantt Board, Army officials
Mussoorie, April 12
Senior BJP leader Ravinder Jugran has lambasted the Mussoorie Cantonment Board and Army officials over the anti-encroachment and eviction drive carried out on April 6 at Mullingar Estate in Mussoorie.

Devotees take dip in Ganga on Ram Navami
Haridwar, April 12
On the festive occasion of birth anniversary of Lord Rama today, pilgrims from various parts of the country thronged Haridwar to take a dip in the holy Ganga and offer prayers in temples.





On the ninth day of the Navratras a woman performs the “kanjak” ritual in Haridwar on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Dehradun, April 12
Once again the Uttarakhand Government has been hammered by a High Court (HC) order turning down the government’s dubious promotion policy for the selection of Director-General Health.

In fact, the government has created a record of sorts by going all out to favour directors whose suitability for promotion for the highest post has been questioned by the High Court time and time again. In the second such incident, the HC has now ruled in favour of Dr YS Bisht (former Additional Director, Health), calling upon the Health Department to provide retirement benefits to Dr Bisht and promote him as Director-General (Health) in place of Dr PL Joshi who was then appointed Director General (Health) in 2008.

Slighted Dr Bisht, then Additional Director Health had filed a writ petition objecting to the promotion that he thought was not based on merit. The relief from the HC came a day too late for Dr Bisht who retired in 2009. No wonder then, the directives of the High Court will be implemented in retrospectively.

“The High Court has clearly asked the government to compensate me. Now in official records, Dr PL Joshi will be demoted, as both of us have retired. I will, however, get pension of a Director,” said Dr Bisht.

The HC has ruled that Dr Bisht should be compensated from July 2008 to January 2009. Now the government will have to officially demote Dr Joshi, the then DG, who is believed to have been appointed purely on the recommendations of a BJP political heavyweight in Delhi.

Earlier, in July last year, Dr CP Arya, officiating Director General, Medical and Health Services, had to vacate the chair for Dr HC Bhatt, 11 years his senior who too had sought justice from the HC. With the HC ruling coming in his favour, the government had no option but to comply by the order, relieving Dr Arya of his charge and promoting Dr Bhatt. In this case too, political clout had taken precedence over merit. Dr Arya was made officiating DG, Health and Medical Health, after the retirement of Dr Joshi, DG Health, in 2009.

It may be mentioned that between 2008-2009 the Uttarakhand Government had no policy for medicos. The government woke up in 2009 and hurriedly a government order was passed that left a lot of room for resentment and bipartisan decisions. “The 2009 policy, while accepting that merit will be the criterion for promotion to the post of DG (Health) for candidates in the general category, created a group in which candidates in line for promotion scoring between 80-100 points in the DPC will be placed in one group. Those scoring between 60-80 will be placed in the second group. This is a faulty policy as it once again allows enough room for the government to ignore merit and favour candidates that it deems fit,” stressed Dr DP Joshi, General Secretary, Provincial Medical and Health Services (Uttarakhand).

Nainital, April 12
Heads have started to roll in the matter pertaining to the alleged misuse of the Gaura Devi Kanyadhan Yojana by certain senior functionaries of the BJP in Udham Singh Nagar district.

A defensive BJP leadership has divested two functionaries of their posts in the party hierarchy, and also initiated a probe into the matter at the party level. The action has been taken at the instance of the state unit chief of the party Bishan Singh Chaufal. Incidentally, a probe ordered by Udham Singh Nagar District Magistrate BVRC Purshottam is also on in the matter.

Those divested of their posts are the district convener of the weaker sections’ cell of the party Ram Prakash Gupta and president of the district cluster chief Nathu Lal Gupta. Sources said the decision to divest them of their posts had been taken and announced by Chaufal in the state capital on Monday.

The incident of certain BJP functionaries availing the benefits of the scheme meant for girls from poor families was proving to be an embarrassment for the BJP. Chaufal had a tough time answering queries with regards to the allegations against the senior party functionaries during his visit to Udham Singh Nagar on Sunday.

Sources say journalists working at the grassroots level raised the matter at least at five places. Even otherwise, the matter has turned out to be an issue that has been served to the Opposition on a platter and that, too, due to the poll year. The Congress and the other Opposition parties have not wasted any time in lapping it up and attacking the Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank-led BJP Government on the issue.

Apart from Udham Singh Nagar district being on the boil, the Opposition had raised the issue vehemently in the state capital as well. The district, where the misuse is alleged to have taken place, had witnessed a series of protests ever since the matter came to light last week.

Certain BJP leaders had availed the benefits of the scheme in the name of their daughters, whereas a large section of the deserving beneficiaries are yet to get its benefits.

While ordering a probe into the matter, the DM has called for verification of all the beneficiaries, who have been provided economic assistance under the scheme till now across the district.

Dr Purshottam has asked the officials to investigate the matter and submit a report to him at the earliest. He has made it clear that any undeserving beneficiary will face stringent action, including the recovery of the funds.

At least three BJP leaders are learnt to have availed the benefits of the scheme. There are at least 889 poor girls in the district, who are reportedly yet to get the benefits. These include 293 girls from the STs.

Mussoorie, April 12
Senior BJP leader Ravinder Jugran has lambasted the Mussoorie Cantonment Board and Army officials over the anti-encroachment and eviction drive carried out on April 6 at Mullingar Estate in Mussoorie.

Speaking to the media at a hotel here, Jugran said when the elected government was present in the state, Army officials and Cantonment Board should have taken the local representatives and administration into confidence before carrying out the eviction drive. He further said the Cantonment officials, including the vice-president of the board, were bent upon demolishing the property. The situation could have worsened in the event of a clash between the Cantt Board and residents of the estate.

Jugran said he had apprised the Principal Secretary, Home, and demanded that the Army officials and Cantt Board review the whole situation and go on with the demolition drive only after a detailed consultation with the local administration and representatives of the area.

The dispute over the Mullingar Estate property is that the Cantt Board claims that the land belongs to it as it was given under grant several decades back. But residents of the area say they had bought the property in a public auction from the receiver appointed back then.

Haridwar, April 12
On the festive occasion of birth anniversary of Lord Rama today, pilgrims from various parts of the country thronged Haridwar to take a dip in the holy Ganga and offer prayers in temples.

Since wee hours devotees had started thronging to Brahm Kund, Har-ki-Pauri, Malviya Ghat, Alaknanda Ghat, Birla Ghat, Prem Nagar Ashram Ghat and other adjacent ghats.

With the day being the ‘Navami’, when Navratras conclude, the pilgrim city was full of devotees. Women devotees broke their fast after performing the ‘kanjak’ ritual in which girls between the age group of two and 10 years are worshipped as Goddess Durga.

There was a huge rush of devotees at the temples of Mata Mansa Devi, Mata Chandi Devi, Sheetlamata, Mata Vaishno Devi, Mata Maya Devi, Mata Shakumbari, Mata Sureshwari Devi.

The Ram Katha organised at Patanjali Yogpeeth attracted a large number of devotees. Sant Morari Bapu has been enchanting thousands of devotees with his unique style of delivering Ram Katha Ramayana at the yogpeeth for the past few days.

Special policing and traffic arrangements were put in place to regulate the flow of pilgrims at the ghats and the temples. With the festive bath of Baisakhi falling tomorrow, the arrival of pilgrims in the city has been picking up. Add to this, the ‘Sadhbhawna’ convention, which would be addressed by noted spiritual guru and Pauri Garhwal MP Satpal Maharaj, started at the Rishikul Grounds today.

Dehradun, April 12
On the concluding day of Chaitra Navratra, denizens of the Doon valley celebrated the auspicious occasion of Ram Navami, with fasting, rituals and special prayers here today.

Since morning, a large number of devotees thronged the temples to seek blessings from God for their prosperity and good health.

The temples were decorated with flowers and electric lights. The devotees ended their fast by giving prasad to small girls.

Dehradun, April 12
In view of the boycott of the university degree examinations by the Uttarakhand Vishvavidyalaya Mahavidyalaya Shikshak Sangharsh Samiti in protest against non-fulfilment of their demands, Govind Singh Bisht, Education Minister, has convened a meeting with the agitating teachers tomorrow.

The meeting will be held at the Circuit House in Haldwani. Members of the the Kumaon University Teachers Association (KUTA), Pantnagar University Teachers Association (PUTA), Garhwal University Teachers Association (GRUTA), Federation of Uttaranchal University and College Teachers Association (FUUCTA) and the Federation of Uttarakhand Government Teachers Association (FUGTA) will put forth their grievances at the meeting.

The samiti has raised several demands, including University Grants Commission (UGC) benefits to all the teachers without any delay, a raise in the age of retirement for teachers from 60 to 65 years, four increments to the newly recruited PhD degree holders, two increments to the newly recruited MPhil degree holders who have been recruited as teachers, post of Professor with a proper scale to be incorporated in the PG Colleges, introduction of the Smart Health Scheme for the teachers and employees of the universities and colleges of Uttarakhand.

While talking to The Tribune, Vice-Chancellor Pandey, who is alos general secretary, FUUCTA, said: “For some reason or the other, the state government has been ignoring us for a long time. The state Education Minister had convened a meeting with the samiti on April 4 to discuss their demands, but had cancelled it without a prior notice.”

Pandey also said the teachers also met the Principal Secretary (Education), the Chief Secretary (Education) and Harbans Kapoor, state Assembly Speaker, regarding their demands and had submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on these issues. 

Dehradun, April 12
A daylong national-level seminar on “Recent Trends in mathematical techniques and their application” was organised by Graphic Era University here yesterday.

The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, sponsored the seminar where reputed and excellent mathematical brains took part and contributed their valuable skills in this seminar.

The programme was initiated with the lighting the ceremonial lamp by chief guest Dr Rajendra Dhobhal, Chairman, Uttarakhand Council of Science and Technology (UCOST), accompanied by Pankaj Gupta, President of the Uttarakhand Industries, as guest of honour.

The objective of the seminar was to discuss the recent trends of mathematical techniques and their valuable applications in various fields like engineering, social science and information technology.

Eminent speakers and mathematicians discussed the various roles of mathematics in different areas due to increasing dependence of today’s common man upon the technology. The seminar covered various topics like special function, optimisation techniques and fFuzzy logic.

Prof VP Singh, Prof HG Sharma from IIT, Roorkee, Prof SL Singh from Gurukul Kangri, Prof SB Singh from Pantnagar University, Prof RG Varsney and Prof US Rana from Dehradun were the speakers. 

Pitthoragarh, April 12
Uttarakhand Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Pant has cautioned the parents who impose their own unfulfilled ambitions on their children and, thus, spoil the future of the new generation which wants to select its own path in life.

Pant was speaking as a chief guest at an career awareness camp organised by Gen BC Joshi Army Public School here on Saturday.

Leading professional institutes from around the state, including IIPM (Dehradun), Aakash Institute (Haldwani), Royal College (Nainital), branch recruiting office of Army and Renaissance College (Ramnagar), participated in the camp.

“More than 2,000 students participated in the camp,” said PRO of Gen BC Joshi Army Public School Sanjeev Masih.

Dehradun, April 12
Students of The Heritage School celebrated the spring season on the premises of their school here yesterday.

The guests and students’ parents had gathered to witness the celebrations and enjoyed to see tiny tots performing on the stage.

The programme began with a brief welcoming of the chief guest followed by dance and music performances by toddlers.

The Headmistress of the school, addressing the guests and students, highlighted the activities of junior as well as senior sections on the school.

The programme culminated with a vote of thanks.

Dehradun, April 12
Inter-Office/ Inter-Club/ Inter-Institutions Badminton Tournament concluded at the Sports Complex on the Parade Ground here today.

In the open singles, Vikram Singh Rana beat Bhupender Singh Basera 21-11, 21-17. In the open doubles, Vikram Singh Rana paired Bhupender Singh Basera Jodi to defeat SS Sajwan and LM Pant 19-21, 21-15, 21-9.

In the 40+singles, LM Pant got past Vikram Singh Bisht 21-14, 22-20. Also in 40+doubles, Vikram Singh and Sanjay Tolia surpassed LM Pant and PL Shukla 21-12, 21-12. Meanwhile, chief secretary Subhash Kumar gave away the prizes to the wi nning players.