Dehradun , June 14
Baba Ramdev, who ended his fast on Sunday, was discharged from the Himalayan Hospital at Jollygrant here today. Coming out of the hospital, Ramdev reiterated his resolve to continue his fight against corruption and bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks.

"We have not committed any sin by launching a peaceful agitation against corruption. We want people with clean background should only go to Parliament and Assemblies. We want that about Rs 4 lakh crore black money stashed away abroad should be brought back," said Ramdev.

He also condoled the death of Swami Nigmanand who died in the same hospital yesterday. The swami was on a hunger strike against quarrying in the Ganga river bed.

He lashed out at the Central government for the “brutal lathicharge” on his supporters in Delhi.

He also expressed concern at the condition of Rajbala, who as badly injured in the police lathicharge and is battling for her life in a Delhi hospital

Dr SL Jethani, Medical Superintendent, Himalayan Hospital, said, "We have advised Ramdev to abstain from yoga for two to three days and take rest. Once his health improved he can get back to his regular schedule. His health is stable.”

Ramdev along with his close associate Bala Krishna was brought to the hospital after being forcefully removed from Patanjali Yogapeeth in Haridwar on June 10 where the duo were fasting with their supporters.

"We will continue our fight against corruption and black money till our last breath. The whole nation is with us. Ramdevji will teach yoga and also continue to fight corruption," said Bal Krishna, his close aide.

Both, Ramdev and Bala Krishna later left the hospital for Patanjali Yogapeeth ashram, about 20 km from Haridwar, with their supporters.

Haridwar, June 14
Amid protests against the death of Matra Sadan saint Swami Nigmanand, people thronged the Matra Sadan ashram to pay tributes to the deceased saint who died in Rishikesh after being on agitation for more than three months to save the holy Ganga from illegal quarrying.

Hundreds of local people, activists involved in various programmes to save the Ganga, environmentalists and saints paid tributes to the deceased saint at Jagjeetpur village-situated Matra Sadan, 4 km from here.

A noted environmentalist, Prof Gurudas Aggarwal, and former Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Swami Chinmayanand too visited the ashram to pay tributes to Swami Nigmanand.

Swami Chinmayanand termed his death as mysterious. Professor Aggarwal lamented that at such a young age Swami Nigamanand sacrificed his life for the cause of the holy Ganga.

Matra Sadan founder Swami Shivanand Saraswati alleged that his demand for carrying out a post-mortem examination on the body of the saint by non-local doctors was not met, which indicated there was a conspiracy to curb their agitation to save the Ganga from illegal quarrying. He said Swami Nigmanand was given a dose of “atropine”, which was used to treat cases of poisoning. It indicates that the saint was administered poison, he alleged.

Swami Shivanand alleged that despite his repeated requests to the state government, district administration and the hospital staff, the post-mortem on the saint’s body was carried out by the very doctors who had “poisoned” Swami Nigmanand.

Meanwhile, Haridwar District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram has refuted the allegations levelled by the saints of Matra Sadan. Sundaram clarified that the administration had always been sympathetic and unbiased towards the numerous agitations carried out by the ashram as part of their save-Ganga campaign.

He pointed out that in no way the administration was responsible for the death of Swami Nigmanand. He stated while forced medication was done, in no way any poisonous injection was administered to the saint at the Haridwar District Hospital.

Meanwhile, social activists and political parties condemned the attitude of the state government and the district administration towards Swami Nigmanand’s agitation with many comparing it with the five star treatment meted out to Ramdev at the Jollygrant hospital.

A silent march was taken out in the city in the evening. The protesters demanded a CBI probe into the death of the saint as well as an explanation from Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Cabinet minister Madan Kaushik and district administrative officials.

Haridwar parliamentarian Harish Rawat offered his condolences and demanded a high-level probe into the death. He criticised the BJP state government for supporting Ramdev but failing to address the social issue being raised by the Matra sadan saints.

Nainital, June 14
Travelling between Kumaon and the national capital is all set to become temporarily dearer on account of alteration of the route. According to information, the Rampur route will remain closed due to the construction of a railway bridge and buses will now be plying via Kashipur and Moradabad. The Rampur route had also been closed for a few days last month.

Since the route via Kashipur will be longer by nearly 40 km, passengers will be required to shell out extra money.

They will now be required to pay Rs 30 extra for ordinary buses, Rs 45 for hi-tech buses, Rs 50 for air-conditioned buses and Rs 70 for the Volvo bus service between Haldwani and Delhi.

At present, the passengers are required to pay Rs 182, Rs 289, Rs 350 and Rs 520 for these services, respectively. Officials of the Transport Department say fares have to be increased under compulsion.

It is being expected that the construction of the bridge at Rampur would ease traffic woes on the Delhi-Kumaon routes. At present, the road continues to witness traffic snarls on account of railway crossing gates being closed every few minutes.

The snarls get all the more worse in winters and the monsoon when there is a problem of fog and waterlogging at certain places. 

Nainital, June 14
Rain rain everywhere but not a drop to drink!The saying seems to be becoming true for various parts of the Kumaon region that has been reeling under a water crisis despite the fact that the region has been experiencing good showers for the last several days. The worst affected area continues to be Haldwani where different localities are facing problems on account of multifarious reasons.

To begin with the town has been facing a massive water supply problem on account of a temporary dam that was washed away by the waters of Gaula river on Sunday following heavy showers. While the construction work on the barrage supplying the water is on, Jal Sansthan had resorted to discharging water from the old canal.

The temporary dam on the canal was washed away leading to disruption of water supply as the water treatment plant became redundant.

Hence, on Monday people scampered to arrange for their daily water needs. Although water tankers were put to service, the arrangement was simply not enough.

Meanwhile, the work for repairing the gates of the barrage was scheduled to be completed by Tuesday night. It was on account of the faults developed in the gates that water was seeping inside causing problems in the supplies. Besides, more than two dozen villages in the Halduchaur area have been facing a water crisis over the last four days as motor of the tubewell supplying water was burnt down.

Reports say that at least 4,000 people have been affected by the crisis.

People complain that they had to shell out additional money from their pockets to purchase water which is being supplied by the tankers. The worst affected villages are Tejpur Negi, Dumkabangar, Gangapur, Jaipur Beesa, Gangarampur and Jaipur Kheema.

The problem continues to persist in the rural hilly tracts of Almora, Champawat, Bageshwar, Pithoragarh and Nainital districts where a large number of the water supply schemes were devastated during the rain-related disaster that had struck the region during the monsoons last year. A large number of these schemes are yet to be put in order which has led to the problems of water scarcity in several villages.

Over the last few months, villagers have also protested over the lingering water crisis.

Dehradun, June 14
A two-day media orientation workshop on disaster risk management began here today.Taking part in deliberations, Dr Piyoosh Rautela, Executive Director (Disaster Mitigation and Management Center) said disaster reporting was a sensitive issue and required to be undertaken with a high sense of responsibility.

Referring to DMMC preparedness, Rautela said 22 teams had been constituted that would be deployed on yatra routes in Uttarakhand to meet exigencies in case of any disaster during the monsoon season.

Joydeep Gupta, Director (Earth Journalism Network) said disaster risk reduction required the contribution of institutions, communities and stakeholders, including the media. He laid importance on the role of the media during and after a disaster, be it natural or manmade.

Naghma Firdaus, an associate member of the UN Disaster Management team, gave a presentation on disaster management across the globe.

She said Uttarakhand stood as a very important state vis-à-vis disaster mitigation measures. Firdaus said apart from landslides, which occur frequently in Uttarakhand during the monsoon, the deaths in roads mishaps on circumventing hilly roads were also alarming.

Beenu Thomas, moderator for the workshop, said interactive sessions would also be organised, where opinions of journalists would be shared, particularly on disaster reporting.

The workshop is being jointly organised by Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (DTZ), a German body working on disaster management.

Dehradun, June 14
To press for their pending demands for more rights and autonomy to gram panchayats, the Uttarakhand Gram Pradhan Sangathan has announced that it would lock up the block offices, stage dharnas and burn the effigies of the administration.

Addressing the media, president of the organisation Surat Singh Negi said here today, “We have given a memorandum to the state government and staged dharnas, but it seems the authorities pay no heed to our demands”.

“The sangathan has planned to intensify its protest to press for its demands for enforcing the Panchayati Raj Act in Uttarakhand. The protests will take place in three phases, first to be held on June 21. Following it would be demonstrations at the offices of the District Magistrates on June 27 and a massive dharna at Jantar Mantar, Delhi. on July 12,” he added.

The demands of the sangathan include the monthly fund of Rs 600 given to the gram pradhans for carrying out their social obligations and disposal of other issues be raised to Rs 15,000 a month along with other fund allocation and pension. 

Haridwar, June 14
While Gandhian Anna Hazare and yoga guru Ramdev are spearheading their respective movements against corruption, many social organisations are also carrying out agitations against corruption on their own in Haridwar.

Be it labourers, students, senior citizens or women, every one participated in the various programmes held in the city today, signifying the resentment among the common public against corruption. Hundreds of social activists of the Rashtriya Krantikari Manch, supported by local people, held protests at various places where participants took a pledge to weed out corruption from society by first making sure that they will in no way take the route of corruption to get their works done.

Founder of the manch Ambrish Kumar said the public was quite perturbed over the menace of corruption. Though he supported the ongoing anti-graft movements launched by Anna Hazare and Ramdev, he said nothing substantial could be achieved if one in his or her life didn’t stick to honesty.

Youth activist Gawaksh Joshi said at various places in the city symbolic protests was carried out simultaneously against the corrupt policies of the respective governments in the state.