Pithoragarh, May 16
BJP Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay today said that despite being surrounded by two nuclear powers, the Indian Government had never took the country’s borders and their forces seriously, resulting not only in weakening of the security forces but also forcing the people living in these border areas to migrate from their homes.

Talking about the BJP’s ‘Seema Darshan’ programme, he said, “We have weakened our security forces at the borders not only by not providing them modern arms and weapons, but have also not addressed the one rank, one pension demand of the armed forces,” said Tarun Vijay, who was addressing mediapersons at Munisiyari today before beginning the programme of the BJP, sponsored by the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Trust. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank later today flagged off an 18-member team under the programme for Milam glacier from the border town of Munsiyari in this district. The world famous Milam glacier lies on the Indo-China border, 55 km from the Munsiyari town. “We are glad that the party has chosen the state of Uttarakhand to start this prestigious national mission,” said the Chief Minister.

“The team will travel 18 km from Munsiyari to Dummar on vehicles and thereafter walk up to the Milam glacier from where it will return on May 24,” said the Chief Minister.

The BJP MP said the respective Indian governments after the Independence of the country had never tried to provide people living on the borders with basic infrastructure to enable them to remain there in their own areas, resulting in empty borders today. “The negligence of the country’s borders is so grave that the Government of India has not even given attention to the area near Andaman Islands where China is making a defence establishment at Koko island, 40 km from Andaman Islands,” said Tarun Vijay. “Our negligence of the sub- continent is so grave that even the areas of Gilgit and the Muzzafarabad areas of Pakistan are not shown in our maps prepared by the Geological Survey of India,” said Tarun Vijay.

The BJP MP said China was continuously waging a psychological war against our country over Arunachal Pradesh and by resorting to heavy military build-up at the border in Tibet. Pakistan had been sending in groups of terrorists continuously while Bangladesh was out to disrupt our peace by encouraging smuggling from across the border. “Our Central Governments have never sensed these dangers from across the borders in the past 60 years, which has resulted in people living on the borders getting demoralised and migrating from their homes,” said Tarun Vijay.

Giving details of his “Seema Darshan” programme, Tarun Vijay said that the yatra would cover 15,000 km in the next one year, covering all states having international borders with the country. 

Dehradun, May 16
With state Assembly elections approaching fast in Uttarakhand, it is another ‘sonrise’ in the state. Anand Singh Rawat, a son of Union Minister of State for Food Processing and Agriculture Harish Rawat, a senior politician of the state, made a grand entry into the state politics here today. Anand Singh was today elected as the state president of the state Youth Congress in the state-level elections held here today.

Harish again showed his clout in the comfortable win of his son. Anand Singh defeated all his opponents by a huge margin. “I am grateful to each and everyone for ensuring my win,” said a beaming Anand Singh. In the election process, guided by Congress general secretary and in charge, Youth Congress, Rahul Gandhi, Anand Singh polled the maximum number of votes to emerge as the new president of the Uttarakhand Youth Congress. He polled a maximum of 556 votes to emerge as the clear winner while Jyoti Rautela, who got 115 votes, will be the vice-president of the state Youth Congress. Sangram Singh Pundir (90 votes), Om Parkash Sati (60 votes) and Pradeep Tewari ( 52 votes) were elected as general secretaries. Rajesh Nautiyal (42 votes) from the Scheduled Tribes category, Taif Ali Khan (39 votes) from minorities and Varun Chaudhary (21 votes) from Other Backward Classes category were also elected as general secretaries.

Jaswinder Gogi from Tehri Garhwal, Telu Ram from Haridwar, Bhuvan Kapri from Nainital, Guddu Bhoj from Almora and Himanshu Bijalwan from Pauri Garhwal were also elected as presidents of the Youth Congress in their respective Lok Sabha constituencies.

Interestingly, after his historic Lok Sabha win from the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat, Harish has encouraged his daughter, Anupma Rawat, to become politically active in the Haridwar area. She has been very active during the monsoon disaster in the Laksar area of Haridwar last year. She has been assisting her father in managing his Lok Sabha constituency. It was widely believed that she could be one of the potential candidates for one of the Assembly segments of Haridwar district.

Interestingly, it was not only Harish who is encouraging his kin to enter politics, former Chief Minister ND Tewari is also grooming his nephew, Manish Tewari, who is a son of his brother, Ramesh Tewari, in the Kicha area of Kumoan terai region. Moreover, he is also helping his aide, Aryaendra Sharma, to establish him in the state Congress politics. The hoardings of Aryaendra with ND Tewari have been erected in Dehradun city. Aryaendra is also believed to be a Congress ticket aspirant of state Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, Rajiv Satav, National President of the Indian Youth Congress, who supervised the state Youth Congress elections, said the democratic process adopted for the Youth Congress would help in a big way in strengthening the party among the youth.

Nainital, May 16
The Congress is all set to intensify its attacks on the Nishank-led BJP government in the state over the next two months.

Having managed to put up a united face during its “Satyagraha Yatra” in Kumaon, the party is now gearing up to carry out a major assault on the BJP government in the phase of the yatra that will be carried out in the Garhwal region.

Talking to The Tribune, state unit president of the Congress Yash Pal Arya said,“The Congress is united and is clear in its objective of displacing this government ,which has been rejected by the people. We had all major leaders of the party, including our five Lok Sabha members from the state, Congress Legislature Party leader Harak Singh Rawat and others like Indira Hridyesh, coming together to make the yatra a success. The yatra will now be held in Garhwal till July. In between we have a series of other programmes to reach out to various segments of the public. Having had a successful Kisan Sammelan in Bazpur, we now have a minorities’ sammelan coming up in Dehradun.” He said the party would use every opportunity to expose the Nishank government.

Lok Sabha member from the Almora constituency Pradeep Tamta, who is also known as an activist who has worked in the social sphere, claimed that the Congress had succeeded in driving home the point that the BJP government in the state had been a failure on all fronts. It had done nothing on the development front.“People are seeing through Nishank’s latest drive of making populist announcements. His Vikas Yatra needs to be termed a ‘prastav yatra’. People want to know why various announcements are being made when it is almost time for the government to leave office.

Charging the government with wrongdoings, he said,“Action was taken by the Central Government on the basis of the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report (on the 2G Spectrum issue), but nothing has been done here when the CAG has pointed to a scam of Rs 200 crore during the organising of the Kumbh.” 

Haridwar, May 16
Finally, after five months when the Nainital High Court had directed the Uttarakhand Government to constitute the Haridwar Zila Panchayat via elections, today the three-tier panchayat elections process was completed with the election of the Zila Panchayat Chairperson. Anjum Begum of the Bahujan Samaj party has been elected the Chairperson.

Initially, after the counting of votes, Congress candidate Kusum Devi emerged as the leader with 17 votes while the BSP candidate got 14 votes, leaving Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate Sneh Lata Chauhan at last spot with only 11 votes. But, Chief Election Officer R Meenakshi Sundaram ordered the officials concerned to conduct the preferential counting procedure as none of the candidates could garner a majority number of votes. In the second phase of the counting Anjum secured 21 votes while Kusum Devi lagged behind by just one vote.

Bahujan Samaj Party once again proved its dominance in Haridwar district with its candidate Meenakshi winning the vice-chairperson seat too defeating Kamar Aalam by a margin of four votes.

District Panchayat Raj Officer DP Dewradi said after no party reached the majority number, the second preferential counting procedure was adhered to. In this the party that came last in the initial counting was eliminated and the preferential choice of its members was counted. Seven candidates of the BJP opted for the BSP candidate as first preference, leaving the Congress candidate to the second spot by just a single vote.

Speaking to The Tribune, Anjum said the faith people and the Zila Panchayat members had put in her would only be repaid when she worked for the development of the district. She will be taking along other members in carving out policies and works, she added.

A dejected Congress candidate, Kusum Devi said though public had voted for the Congress it was the “back-door” agreements between the BSP and the BJP that undid her prospects. Though she said still she would be working as a member to cater to the aspirations of her voters.

After the declaration of the result, the Congress legislator from Lakshar submitted a complaint to Sundaram, registering his reservations to the counting procedure.

Elaborate arrangements were in place at the venue in view of a close contest between the contestants. Circle Officer Pankaj Bhatt was in charge of the security at the polling booth and at the counting zone in Roshanabad. Two platoons of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), riot control squad and district police personnel were deployed at the venue.

Nainital, May 16
The Bhawali-Almora road has been closed to traffic from Monday to Wednesday. This has been done to repair a bridge that was damaged during the monsoon last year.

People are questioning the step of the administration to close the road and carry out repairs when the tourist season is hitting the peak and inconvenience is being caused to those who are going to Almora, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh.

According to information, the vehicles that are to go from Bhawali to Almora and beyond would be using the Ramgarh-Kwarab route which is not only lengthy but also not in good shape. Similarly, those who are going from Ranikhet to Halwani would be using the Bhatraujkhan-Ramnagar route. While travelling by public transport, people would have to shell out additional money during the three days. Another route available between Haldwani and Almora would be via Lamgarah and Dhanachuli. The road between Bhawali and Almora has been closed as a slab of concrete is to be put on the damaged bridge near the dairy in Bhawali.

On Monday, the people travelling by smaller vehicles went up to the bridge that was being repaired and crossed it on foot to board smaller vehicles parked on the other side for further journey.

People are questioning the timing of the closure of the road. They are agitated over the fact that the administration did not go in for the repairs of the road during all these months when traffic was less and very few tourists were coming to the region. Instead, the closure has come at a time when the tourist season is hitting the peak and a large number of tourists are heading towards the destinations of Kausani, Jageshwar, Baijnath, Bageshwar, Pithoragarh, Ranikhet, Munsiyari and other destinations.

People are also agitated over the failure of the administration to metal the stretch of the Nainital-Haldwani road near Bhujiaghat. Almost 100-metre stretch of the newly built road had sunk during the monsoon. Eight months after the monsoon fury of last year, this stretch is marked by dust and causing extreme difficulty to the drivers, particularly those riding two wheelers.

Haldwani (Uttarakhand), May 16
Sudden lashes of hailstorm have destroyed tonnes of mango produce in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani district. According to authorities, the mango produce this year will be lower as compared to previous years as it has been damaged, with holes and bruises by the hailstorm in the region.

“In previous years, the production used to be around 13,000 metric tonnes; however, it will be comparatively low this year. It is still the month of May and the produce will take time to ripen, but the loss has already been clocked,” said KN Kandpal, horticulture officer.

Farmers have already incurred 60 per cent loss in more than 150 orchids across the region.

“Different varieties of mangoes like Langra, Dasheri, Chausa have been destroyed. I don’t think we will get any value for the 200 boxes of mangoes that we have sent to the market. Had the seed of the mango been formed, we will still manage to have some profit, but most of the produce is of no value,” said Rajinder Singh Rawat, a mango orchard owner.

Farmers receive 70,000 to 75,000 rupees for every tonne of mangoes exported to the US, and make an annual profit of Rs 4.5 million. — ANI

Haridwar, May 16
Issues that concern public are gaining momentum with the involvement of masses. This was quite visible in Haridwar, where politician-cum-saint Uma Bharti is observing a fast for the protection of the holy Ganga and the rights of the people of the hilly region. Uma is slowly but gradually receiving the people’s support.

The Tribune team spoke to some of the people from varied sections of society to seek their opinion on Uma’s agitation.

Anita Singh from New Delhi, environmentalist-cum-social activist, said that local development was essential in the hilly regions of Uttarakhand, but that didn’t mean damage to ecology and displacement of residents. Hundreds of hydro projects were going on which had displaced millions of people from their places of birth.

Dehradun, May 16
The members of the Uttarakhand Lekhpal Sangh today preformed rituals of “budhi-shudhi” of Cabinet Minister for Revenue Diwakar Bhatt so that he could see reason regarding their demands.

All the Lekhpal and Revenue investigators are on an indefinite strike since April 5, 2011, in order to take cognisance on their 13-point demand letter, including the increase in pay scale from Rs 3,050 to Rs 4,500, grant of motorcycle allowance during official trips, stationery allowance, filling of vacant posts of Lekhpal and more demands.

Talking to the media, Radhey Shyam Painuily, an office-bearer of the sangh, said they would continue with the strike till the government took any action on their demands. “We will be observing a fast on Saturday,” he affirmed.

Haridwar, May 16
In a shocking incident, a young unmarried couple attempted suicide in a city hotel with the boy succumbing while the girl is still in a critical condition. She has been referred to Dehradun for further treatment.

The incident happened at a Khadkhadi-based hotel wherein Surti, 27, and Neena, 24, were staying as a married couple for the past three days. This morning when hotel attendants found no movement from the couple’s room, they informed the hotel manager and when they opened the lock, they found the couple lying with poison spread around them.

The police was informed with Circle Officer Nivedita Kumar Kukreti inspecting the hotel room. The boy Surti was found dead when the police team reached. Neena was rushed to the district hospital for medical treatment, wherein on finding her condition critical, the doctors referred her to Dehradun.

Prima facie and taking circumstantial evidence into account, CO Nivedita told TNS that the couple had probably fled from their home and committed suicide. She added that the situation would only be clear when their parents reached Haridwar.

Meanwhile, the police administration has once again urged hotels, lodges, dharamshalas and ashram

owners to take special precaution while giving rooms to tourists in particular checking their identity cards and cross-checking these while informing the police on becoming suspicious.