Dehradun, August 5
Slighted and ignored, a former BJP MP, Lt-Gen TPS Rawat (retd), has formed a non-political group with a large number of ex-servicemen and intellectuals, giving a jolt to the BJP government.

The BJP leader, who had been keeping a low profile after losing the Pauri Lok Sabha seat in 2009, emerged from hibernation to form the Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha, a non-political front. At the first meeting of the morcha, General Rawat attacked his own party government on the issue of corruption and scams.

Ahead of the Assembly elections, the General’s sabre-rattling at the morcha’s meeting on August 3, where he also harped on the need for a third front, and his perceived closeness to a former Chief Minister, Lieut-Gen BC Khanduri (retd), who too has drifted away from the present BJP dispensation, have set the alarm bells ringing in the BJP.

While the BJP leaders are saying that a possible rapprochement is on the cards, General Rawat denied that he had been approached. “I am in Satpauli today. None of the BJP leaders approached me. We organised a small function here to flag off the mobile medical vans provided by Bhola Maharaj and Mangala Ma. They also handed a cheque for Rs 1 lakh to Sonam Negi, an upcoming footballer,” said General Rawat.

Interestingly, it was Congress leader and MP (Pauri) Satpal Maharaj, who introduced General Rawat to politics. He fought the 2002 and 2007 Assembly elections on the Congress ticket. His honeymoon with the Congress ended in 2007, when he vacated the Assembly seat for General Khanduri and was rewarded with the Pauri Lok Sabha seat that he won for the BJP in 2007.

Speculation is also rife whether General Rawat’s inspired move has the tacit support of General Khanduri. He is expected to organise a similar meeting on August 14 in the state capital.

“I am not in touch with General Khanduri. I raised my concerns at an apolitical meeting. I am still with the BJP and the morcha is an apolitical body. Several options are before us and would be tried during the elections,” said General Rawat.

Though these are early days, with the emergence of Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha as a rallying point for the ex-servicemen with a sizable presence in the hills, especially in Pauri Garhwal, the political theatre of General Khanduri and General Rawat may spell trouble for the BJP.

Nainital, August 5
Surveys for laying new railway lines between Tanakpur and Bageshwar along with Rishikesh and Karanprayag have been completed.

The Rishikesh-Karanprayag new line project has been included in the Railway Budget 2010-11 at an anticipated cost of Rs 4295.30 crore. Meanwhile, the Tanakpur-Bageshwar new line survey report is at present under examination of the Railway Ministry.

This was stated by Minister of State for Railways Bharatsinh Solanki in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

According to a spokesperson of the Railway Ministry,”The Tanakpur-Bageshwar new line project has not yet been sanctioned. For the Rishikesh-Karanprayag new line, preliminary activities like preparation of part estimates for geo-technical investigation and final location survey have been taken up. Construction work will begin after the completion of these preliminary activities and the sanction of detailed estimates.”

The demand for rail connectivity on these two stretches has been gathering steam over the years, particularly after Uttarakhand was carved out as a separate entity from the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Uttarakhand has been seeking rail development on the lines of the North-East. In the past two years it has been conveyed to the Railway Board that the Centre should pay special attention to the requirements of Uttarakhand as it is a tourist destination visited by lakhs of people every year from across the world.

The state government has been pointing out that since the state shares international borders, it is all the more necessary to have proper rail connectivity here. Stating that rail connectivity should also be provided from stations other than Dehradun and Kathgodam, there has been a demand from the state government for the early laying

of railway lines and starting of rail services between Rishikesh and Karanprayag, Tanakpur and Bageshwar, Dehradun and Kalsi, Ramnagar and Chaukhutiya along with Kicha and Khatima.

A large number of residents of the Bageshwar-Tanakpur stretch have been agitating seeking rail connectivity between Tanakpur and Bageshwar.

They have even held demonstrations in the national capital on more than one occasion to press their demand. They have been agitating under the banner of the Rail Nirman Sangharsh Samiti and have accused the Centre of not paying heed to the genuine needs of the residents of the region.

They have been contending that a survey regarding the laying of a railway line between Bageshwar and Tanakpur had been done in the British era and the project was found to be feasible. They said that in the absence of rail connectivity, development in the hills was being hampered.

Haridwar, August 5
District BJP chief Om Prakash Jamdagni’s resignation from his post has been accepted by the party high command. The resignation comes in the wake of allegations against the district BJP chief of joining hands with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders in making sure that BSP candidate Anjum Beg gets second preferential votes of the BJP members in the 42-member zila panchayat poll.

Also the dismal performance of the BJP in the zila panchayat elections held in February, in which the party could bag only seven seats in the district and the Congress emerged as the largest party with 14 seats, went against Jamdagni. The BSP had won 11 seats.

With the BJP already faring poorly in the 2009 parliamentary elections, when present Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Agriculture Harish Rawat defeated BJP candidate Swami Yatindranand by a record 1.15 lakh votes, the party high command couldn’t easily digest the zila panchayat poll loss.

In the wake of the allegation that the BJP zila panchayat members taking bribe to ensure the BSP candidate’s victory, which was to the knowledge of Jamdagni, who is considered close to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the party formed an investigation committee to look into the district chief’s role in it.

The committee, comprising state party former chief Bachi Singh Rawat and State Planning Commission member Manohar Kant Dhyani, had submitted its report a month ago, which blamed the Haridwar BJP district chief for the failure of the party in the elections.

According to party insiders, the report also indicated that the move by the BJP zila panchayat members to cast vote in favour of the BSP candidate also didn’t go down well with the party vote bank which could hurt the party’s prospect in the upcoming Assembly elections.

“The Congress has been and will surely draw advantage from the BJP-BSP connection as already Harish Rawat has emerged as the first choice of the Muslims and the Dalits in Haridwar district. So the party didn’t want to take any chance so it was just a matter of time that the person responsible (Jamdagni) should go,” said a senior party office-bearer on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the Congress has again cornered the BJP on this issue saying that the real face of the saffron party has been exposed with it going to any extent to make sure the public mandate is not respected.

Pithoragarh, August 5
Irked over a shortage of teachers in primary schools for long, residents of the interior Bal Chuni area of Bageshwar district have threatened to lock the schools if the teachers were not appointed at the earliest.

A delegation of residents also submitted a memorandum to the Pithoragarh District Education Officer (DEO) today and urged him to appoint teachers in these schools within 10 days.

“Schools at Kuwari, Borbalara and Pethi in the Bal Chuni area are without teachers for two years. Though children go to school daily, after waiting for some time, they return to their houses,” said Govind Singh Danu, a Zila Panchayat member, Bal Chuni.

According to residents, citing the new system of the adjustment of teachers as the reason, officials of the Education Department transferred teachers of these schools to other places. “Some of the teachers are still drawing salaries from these schools. Due to political pressure, officials are unable to send the teachers back to these schools,” said Danu.

The delegation urged the DEO that the teachers who had been posted at other places should be sent back to the schools from where they were still drawing salaries.

“If no action was taken, the primary schools of Pethi, Umeda Pethi, Kuwari, Borbalara and Bacham will be locked,” said Kishan Singh Danu, a political worker of the Bal Chuni area.

The DEO, DS Tomar, said some of the teachers posted in these schools had applied for posting at convenient places on medical grounds. “Whenever we get additional teachers, they will be posted in the schools of Bal Chuni area. Till then, we have made temporary arrangements and have adjusted teachers from nearby schools,” said Tomar.

Dehradun, August 5
Uttarakhand Forest Minister Govind Singh Bisht today said the state Forest Department would host a programme at Ramnagar on August 9 as part of the Corbett Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Addressing his maiden press conference after assuming office here, Bisht said Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank would inaugurate the August 9 Corbett celebrations. Some eminent wildlife experts would also be present.

The minister said his government took strict action against encroachers in forest areas. Forest officers had been asked to check encroachments and take action at the very beginning. Joint teams comprising officials of the Forest Department, the police and district officials would be constituted to remove encroachments from forest areas.

Bisht said issues like minimising the human-wildlife conflict and strengthening van panchayats were among his priorities. The Forest Department had taken up the plantation of fruit trees, bamboo and other trees used for food and shelter by both elephants and monkeys so as to ensure that animals got food within forest limits. This would decrease their entry into human settlements.

He said the Forest Ministry planned to include industries in the work of conservation. “As industries cause pollution, they should also participate in the work of conservation,” he added.

Bisht said women in the rural areas, through van panchayats, would be provided training in income generating skills like stitching, embroidery and fruit processing for preparing jams, juices and chutney. His ministry aimed to strength van panchayats in the state?

Dehradun, August 5
With the aim of teaching the accent of spoken English, voice training and correct pronunciation to the teachers deployed in the hilly regions of Uttrakhand, a team of voluntary trainers from Ireland, including Brid Brady, Ann Farell, Maggie, Hudie Dhomhnaill, Muriel McElwee and Paul McElwee, initiated its two-week workshop at the 7th Annual Teachers’ Training at Rural Litigation and Enlightenment Kendra (RLEK) here today.

The workshop was headed by Rutger Kortenhorst, head of the voluntary workshop, along with the Indian training team from West Bengal, comprising Soumitra Bhattacharya and Sushila Marandi, who impart inspiring training through reading schemes, games, role plays, poems, interaction and songs.

Apart from teaching them how to teach English, the teachers of the RLEK schools are also trained in subjects like history, geography, science, health education, sports and music.

“This is the seventh time I am here for the annual teachers’ training programme and I can see a great difference in the personality of the participating teachers,” said Dr Paul McElwee, science teacher educator, University College, Dublin.

”Under this programme we conduct healthy interactive sessions to upgrade the teaching methods and to devise ways of holding the attention of learners. We try to teach them the methods of making education a joyful experience rather than a boring exercise,” he added.

Around 45 teachers from 20 schools run by the RLEK in the hills of Uttarakhand participated in the workshop. The educational institutes, including the innovative Van Gujjar Schools at Gendi Khata, Tarbar, Sahasra and Dhaula Tappar and others, are benefiting from Rutger and his kind of learning.

While speaking on the occasion, Avdhash Kaushal, Padmashri recipient and Chairperson, RLEK, said: ”It is a humble effort to keep the standard of education high for our children who are on a par with students of any public school across the country.”

The workshop would continue till August 12. Khazan Dass, state Basic Education, Technical Education, Youth and Sports Minister will grace the valedictory session of the programme.

Dehradun, August 5
The activists of the Uttarakhand Mahila Manch today held a demonstration at Shahidi Sthal here in protest against the government proposal to revoke domicile certificate criterion in the state.

Reacting to the proposed move of the government, district convener of the manch Nirmala Bisht said: “The state of Uttarakhand was formed as a result of collective struggle of the people of the state. But, they are highly disappointed with the policies and proclamations made by the state government. We fought for a separate state which is why we asked for bringing about the compulsion of domicile certificate on priority a basis. But, now the government is going to revoke it which is a gross injustice with the people of the state. Therefore we demand that such a proposal should immediately be rolled back”.

Bisht also emphasised that those who had been living in the state for 10 years prior to the formation of the state should be held worthy of domicile certificates. She said the state government should soon come up with a clear-cut policy on this issue.

The others who joined her in the protest included Hemlata Negi, Kasturi Bhandari, Srojini Chamoli and Rukmani Joshi.

Nainital, August 5
In what has eventually turned out to be a clash of interests between retail chemists and wholesale dealers of pharmaceutical companies, Sushila Tewari Memorial Hospital, Haldwani, has been facing unrest for two days.

According to sources, the trouble started on Wednesday when a medical representative of a pharmaceutical company was allegedly distributing samples of a medicine to patients. He was spotted by an employee of one of the chemist shops located outside the hospital which led to chemists creating a scene at the hospital charging that the company representatives have been selling medicines directly to the patients.

They went on to disrupt the functioning of the hospital and approached the authorities seeking an end to such practices.

Sources in the hospital said: “They were told to either produce the medical representative who was selling medicines so that a case be registered against him or give a written complaint so that the authorities can check such practices if at all they are being carried out. But one thing needs to be understood that no doctor would allow the sale of medicines by company representatives in wards and even the consumers are not that naïve that they would purchase a medicine that does not have the price printed on it.”

However, dealers of pharmaceutical products approached the District Magistrate’s office last evening alleging that chemists were targeting them since they had been refusing to shell out Rs 25,000 to them for selling the products manufactured by the companies being represented by them. They are learnt to have submitted a memorandum to the DM’s office accusing the chemists of defaming them. They said the money was being extracted in the name of a letter of cooperation. The Chemist and Druggist Association has, however, refuted the charges.

Dehradun, August 5
Members of the Provincial Medical and Health Services (PMHS) have welcomed the government’s decision to amend the service rules for doctors, thus paving way for the promotion to additional directors.

The matter related to the wrong translation of a word in the service rules book that closed the door of promotion for senior doctors having more than 35 years of experience.

Addressing a press conference yesterday, Dr RK Pant, Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS), Dehradun, and a member of the PMHS said now that the amendment had been made, senior government doctors could hope to become Additional Directors.

“In all, there are 36 posts of Additional Director that will now be filled and the practice of appointing acting Director-Generals will also come to an end,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Deepa Sharma, CMS, Doon Hospital (female) has welcomed the Cabinet’s approval to the draft of the proposed Security Bill.

Dr BC Pathak, CMS, Doon Hospital, said there would not be any chance of the misuse of any provisions in the Bill as a provision for the punishment for doctors had also been included.

Mussoorie, August 5
Members of the local unit of the BJP, as per the directions of the Election Commission, discussed its strategy to select and train booth-level agents for the forthcoming Assembly elections at a meeting held at Saraswati Shishu Mandir today.

The party unit, headed by Roop Singh Kathait, deliberated on ways to woo voters for the Mussoorie Assembly segment.

Kathait said a training camp and a seminar for the booth-level agents would be organised for party men this month. The district in charge of the party, Akhilesh Sharma, also informed the party workers about the election strategy that would be adopted by the party. The heads of various cells of the party also kept their views at the meeting and resolved to win the Mussoorie Assembly seat with a huge margin in the forthcoming Assembly election.

The Jaunpur Block Bhartiya Yuva Morcha president, Virendar Singh Rana, said more than 1000 youngsters had resolved to make the “Sansad Gherao” rally over the issue of the price rise and corruption on August 9 a success. 

Dehradun , August 5
Uttarakhand, in a decade of its existence, has witnessed rapid economic growth with rapid industrialisation. However, to sustain this growth momentum, and also to achieve the dream of “development for all,” it is imperative to focus on the development of the hilly areas.

One of the areas which holds immense potential for driving hill development is the herbal potential of the state, said Dr S Farooq, Chairman, CII Uttarakhand State Council, while introducing the concept of “herbal skill Gurukul” to a group of 50 farmers from Pithoragarh, Chamoli and Uttarkashi.

The CII, jointly with Himalaya Drug Company, is exploring the possibility of setting up a “herbal skill Gurukul”, which will impart training to farmers in the hills in herb cultivation. The training module would include aspects like identification of herbal plants, organic cultivation, basics of soil testing, harvesting techniques and storage practices, elaborated Farooq. The training would be imparted on the Himalaya Herbal Experimental Farm of the company.

Addressing the farmers, Dr RC Sundriyal, Director, Herbal Research & Development Institute, welcomed the initiative. The session, he said, would help farmers understand the opportunities for herbal farming created by the increasing demand for herbal products across the world. He added that while farming skills for traditional crops were passed on from one generation to another, formal training for the successful farming of herbs was essential.

After the interactive session, the farmers were taken around the experimental farm. They were also shown films on the journey of herbs from farms to processors and to final products in the market. The objective of the session was to sensitise the farmers on the opportunities and potential of herbal farming in the state and to encourage them to exploit this potential.