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Anna wave sweeps Doon
Schoolchildren do their bit
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Movement spreads to Mussoorie
Painting competition marks Janmashtami
Filth dots Jhanda Mohalla in city
Garbage lying on a road in Ward No. 24, Dehradun. A Tribune photograph
BJP workers march against corruption
Members of the Parvatiya Viklang Sewa Sansthan stage a dharna in support of Anna Hazare at Deendyal Upadhaya Park in Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph
Kalam as teacher, friend and guide
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Anna wave sweeps Doon
Dehradun August 21 Members of the Veer Sawarkar Yuva Sangathan continued their dharna and relay fast in support of Anna Hazare at Din Dayal Park while Dharmendar Kumar, president of the association, observed a fast unto death to express his solidarity with the Gandhian activist. Also large number of people from different walks of life, including students, teachers, businessmen and senior citizens, made a human chain at Gandhi Park in his support and took out a rally on motorcycle. Residents from Jaunsar and Chakrata also gathered at the venue, raised slogans and displayed placards against corruption. However, members of the Parvartiya Viklang Seva Sangathan and the Din Dayal Upadhyaya Seva Pratishthan staged demonstrations followed by a rally in the city’s busiest junctions.
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Schoolchildren do their bit
Haridwar, August 21 Students of Shiv Dale School took part in a majority with black strips on their mouths and holding placards, posters and portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Anna Hazare and other freedom fighters. The rally started from Chandracharya Chowk and after passing through Rishikul and Devpura culminated at the bus stand. They have also forwarded a memorandum through District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram to the Prime Minister and the President. Through the memorandum, they have also raised the issue of police crackdown on yoga guru Ramdev who was agitating at the Ramlila Maidan for the same cause. Vivek Mishra and Shivam Rawat, both students of Class XII, said after seeing a huge support for Anna Hazare, they also felt that they should support the ongoing movement and took permission from the school management and organised the rally. They said they conveyed messages to other students through SMSs, Facebook and posters pasted on the school board, so that the maximum students could take participate in the rally.
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Movement spreads to Mussoorie
Mussoorie, August 21 The forum also organised a dhrana in support of the effective Lokpal Bill that could address the menace of corruption in the country in which the tourists also registered their participation at Indramani Badoni Chowk near Rilato cinema. Member of the forum Bijendar Panwar also said a Garjana Rally would be organised from Landour Chowk to Kitabghar. A yajna would be performed so that the corrupt could stay away from corruption.
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Painting competition marks Janmashtami
Dehradun, August 21 An enthralling cultural programme was presented by children. A prize distribution function followed the cultural programme and winners of the painting competition were awarded. Govardhan Bhardwaj was the chief guest. Jogender Pundir, Ajay Sharma, Sooraj Thapa, Purushottam Bhatt were also present. Meanwhile, District Magistrate Sachin Kurve said today that in order to maintain peace during Janmashtmi on August 21 and 22, he had deployed officials at various places across the city. He said City Magistrate Meharban Bisht would look after the area near Thana Kotwali, Patelnagar, and the Cantt area while SDM (Sadar) Manmohan Singh Rawat would oversee the Thana Dalanwala, Raipur and Nehru Colony. Mussoorie SDM Mohan Singh Barnia would look after the nearby areas of Thana Rajpur and Mussoorie, Tehsildar (Sadar) Shahid Hussain Thana Clement Town and Basant Vihar, Nayab Tehsildar (Sadar) Gurdeep Singh Kala would take care of Thana Doiwala.
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Filth dots Jhanda Mohalla in city
Dehradun, August 21 “Due to a shortage of sweepers, the cleaning of the area is not done on a regular basis. Against the requirement of 60 safai karamcharis, only 18 are working,” Singhal said. The councillor further said he had spent Rs 1 crore on the construction of roads and small drains in the area. An amount of Rs 1 crore more had been sanctioned by the authorities for the remaining works, which would be started once the monsoon season was over “Land for the setting up of a permanent garbage house has been approved and construction work will start soon,” Singhal added. Ravinder Kumar, a local resident, rued the absence of sweepers and poor condition of roads in his area. “Safai karamcharis do not come regularly. The filth remains scattered on the roads, which are also in bad shape. During rain, it is difficult to come out of our houses.” Santosh Aggarwal, another resident, said: “In the absence of sweepers, garbage remains lying outside my house. Even if sweepers come, they ask for extra money to pick up the garbage. There is no dustbin where we can dump the garbage.” Aashish Singhal said: “It has become difficult for all of us to live in unhygienic conditions. Instead of behaving as responsible citizens, people themselves throw garbage on the road.” Usha Rani also complained of the filth on the roads. “Residents as well as sweepers throw all waste in drains that get choked during rain, causing trouble for us,” she added.
Representative’s View
Due to a shortage of sweepers, the cleaning of the area is not done on a regular basis. Against the requirement of 60 safai karamcharis, only 18 are working
— A Singhal, councillor
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BJP workers march against corruption
Mussoorie, August 21 BJP workers led by Rajpur MLA Ganesh Joshi organised a sit-in at the place near Gandhi Statue in Mussoorie today, where they raised slogans in support of Jan Lokpal Bill and corruption. Small children accompanying their parents also participated in it and read out poems in praise of Anna Hazare. Later, a march was also held in which the BJP workers marched from Gandhi Chowk to Picture Palace. However, the political hue of the movement could be gauzed by the fact that all slogans raised by the BJP workers were targeted against the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and Sonia Gandhi. Rajpur MLA Ganesh Joshi said this was the spontaneous outburst against the corruption that had increased under the Congress rule in the country and time was ripe to throw the decaying system and put an honest system in place. Refuting the claim that the BJP was cashing in on the popular sentiment, he said the party workers were carrying the National flags and it was evident that the nation came first for them.
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Nainital diary Former President APJ Abdul Kalam took the Lake City, particularly the children residing here, by storm during his short visit to the town recently. Even after 10 days of his departure, his visit is still a hot topic of discussion amid the children. An interesting phenomenon recorded after his visit is the keen interest being shown by the children in reading the books penned by him. During his interaction with schoolchildren at St Mary’s School, Kalam could be seen donning the role of a teacher, a friend, a philosopher and a guide at the same time. In his unique style, that has now become his trademark, Kalam answered questions on a series of subjects ranging from his own life to the complexities of science to the relation between science and spirituality. He told the children to stop using facilities procured by their parents through corrupt means as an answer to their query on how to stop corruption from spreading. The way he conveyed a lot of science and its phenomenon to the children through a playway technique was an example that can be followed by teachers. His whole emphasis was on strengthening of the primary education system in the country. A very interesting aspect of his interaction with children and his speech as the Chief Guest at the convocation of the Kumaon University was that his speech was sparked by rendering of a lot of good poetry. He narrated poems penned by the great Tamil poet Subramania Bharati and Hindi poet Sumitranandan Pant. Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva too touched upon the famous work of Robert Frost when she read an excerpt from “The Road Not Taken”. Net-savvy state leaders
Slowly but surely, the political class in the state is taking to the use of the Net for their political motives. Some of the politicians are showing a lot of political imagination while making use of the avenues made available on the Net. While the relatively new political outfit Uttarakhand Parivartan Party (UPP) has developed an excellent website of its own, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) leader Trivender Panwar has making the use of the social networking sites to convey the stand of his party on various issues. He was successful in generating a debate on the Net on the issue of the government having done away with the requirement of being a domicile of the state for applying for the government jobs. He even staked claim that the UKD was the only political party in the state openly supporting Anna Hazare’s campaign. Lok Sabha member from Pauri Satpal Maharaj too has come out with an impressive blog of his own and has initiated a debate on the issue of inclusion of Kumaoni and Garhwali languages in the 11th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Maharaj has made this request through a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. His letter states that nearly 50 lakh people speak Garhwali and Kumaoni languages as substantiated by the survey of Indian languages which says that the two are among the ancient spoken and written languages of India. The letter has been promptly posted on the blog along with the signatures of Parliamentarians who support it. Several other political leaders from the state are seen to be quite active on the social networking sites.
Humiliation for babus
The officialdom in the region is peeved at the manner in which small-time leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are throwing their weight around. The BJP has earned a reputation among officials, intelligentsia and its detractors for destroying institutional decorum with regards to formal ceremonies and functions. Bureaucrats are annoyed at the manner in which BJP leaders, who are nowhere in the government setup, call up their offices and seek petty informations like telephone numbers in a rude manner. Things have come to a pass that the small-time leaders are even dictating terms to the District Magistrates by pointing that their subordinates are not moving out in the field. This phenomenon has been particularly recorded during the rain-related disaster that had struck the region last week. The haughty and arrogant manner of the BJP functionaries has left the officials fuming.
Cong in sleeping mode
The question being asked by everyone these days is that where is the Congress in Uttarakhand. The party leadership is nowhere to be seen and there have been no political programmes of the party for a long time now. Having started with a bang by organising Jan Aakrosh rallies and Satyagrahas, the party seems to have run out of steam. It is either the typical Congress attitude, “why should I take an initiative”, of the leaders or lack of imagination on part of its party in charge, the party appears to have gone into a political oblivion and is hibernating. Even the morale of its cadres is down as they are yet to come over and above the factional games that are the hallmark of the party. The party cadres are peeved at the lack of initiative on the part of their leaders. They are also agitated over the fact that the party has let go several opportunities where it could have taken over the Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in a big way. Party functionaries point out that the leadership has simply slept over indictment of Nishank by the High Court in Citurgia Land Use controversy, the allocation of hydro power projects and its dismissal of the Municipal bodies at Hardwar and Haldwani which eventually had to be reinstated. Similarly, the party workers are annoyed at the Congress leadership for having maintained a stoic silence over the pinning down of the government in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that was tabled in the first week of May this year. The report has a lot to say on the issue of misuse of funds in the organisation of Kumbh and for disaster management. (Compiled by Rajeev Khanna)
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Dehradun, August 21
Dehradun, August 21
Mussoorie, August 21
