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Seven killed as bus falls into gorge
Deputy Jailer shot dead
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Congress plans siege to Assembly on Sept 27
Chinks in Pithoragarh Cong surface
CM orders relief for landslide victims’ kin
Vendors hold procession in Haridwar
BJP workers celebrate Khanduri’s elevation
More students suspected
of using foul means
5 firms to use pine needles as biomass
Kotiya is Principal Secy to CM
Now, steel industries to have two meters
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Seven killed as bus falls into gorge
Mussoorie, September 12 The incident took place around 11 am when a mini bus (UK 07 2355), carrying 14 people on the Aglad-Thatyud road in Jaunpur block, fell into a 100-metre deep gorge when the driver, who was trying to overtake another vehicle, lost control on it. The locals rushed to the spot and informed 108 ambulance service and other authorities. With the joint rescue attempts, eight persons were rescued in a serious condition. In the accident, Bhura (30) of Lalotna, Ludru (45) of Parodi, Naresh Rawat (36) of Pantwari Nainbagh, Kishanlal (55) of Nainbagh and Anoop Rawat Singh (29) died on the spot. Among the nine injured, two died later. While Lal Bachchan (52), an employee in Government Inter-College, Nainbagh, died while on way to Mussoorie hospital, Santram (35) of Nangotna village, who was referred to Doon hospital, succumbed to his injuries there. Naib Tehsidar B S Napchyal said among the injured, two were in critical condition. Cabinet minister and local legislator Khajandas also reached the spot and took stock of the rescue and relief operations. He announced a compensation Rs 50,000 to the family of the deceased and Rs 25,000 to the injured. The local villagers criticised Khajan Das due to lack of doctors and basic amenities at the community health centre, Thatyur. State Congress organisation secretary Manmohan Singh Mall alleged that the hospital was being run with the help of only one doctor where the oxygen cylinders were also not in working order otherwise a few lives would have been saved. Khajan Das said the problem of doctors was in the state and the new directives for the medical students at Srinagar medical college to work in villages would help in solving the shortage of doctor. Meanwhile, Governor Margaret Alva and Chief Minister B C Khanduri have expressed grief over the tragedy. |
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Deputy Jailer shot dead
Haridwar, September 12
Thapa was returning home after getting his son board his school bus metres away
from his residence when three motorcycle-borne youngsters with their faces
muffled appeared at the spot. One of the assailants fired at Thapa at
point-blank range. As Thapa fell on the ground in a pool of blood, the
assailants fled from the spot. Rajendra Singh Bhandari, Uttarakhand Minister for Prisons, visited the jail and directed the authorities to beef up security for all the jail officials and take any threat to them seriously. Inspector-General of Police (Prisons) Bhaskarnand also visited the jail and ordered precautionary security measures at all prisons in the state. This was the second attempt on Thapa’s life, as on August 31 a minor bomb blast had taken place underneath his private car just when he was about to start the vehicle. Luckily he escaped the attack. The investigation in this matter was on, but it seems the police had taken the matter lightly as Thapa was not provided with adequate security cover, which finally proved fatal for him. At least six special operation police teams have been sent to Uttar Pradesh and other areas of Haridwar district in search of the assailants. Help is also being sought from Special Operations Group (SOG), Special Task Force (STF) and a detailed investigation is being done into the records of all the inmates of the Roorkee jail suspected to be involved in the attack. Speaking to The Tribune, Superintendent of Haridwar Police (Rural) Roshan Lal Sharma said security had been beefed up at the prison with the deployment of additional state police personnel aided by two sections of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC). He added that the involvement of some prisoner in the murder can’t be ruled out and as such all prisoners were being questioned. Circle Officer, Roorkee, Kamlesh Upadhyaya said checking of all the vehicles is being done with barricades put up at all the entry and exit points of the city. Sketches of the assailants were being prepared with the help of the eyewitnesses. She added that link between the previous car blast and Thapa’s murder is also being investigated. Thapa had been posted in the prison since 2004 and for the past six months he had been working as officiating jailer after the retirement of his predecessor. According to members of Thapa’s family, he did not have any rivalry with anyone and had never mentioned of any internal problem at the place of his duty. He had asked for security after the minor blast underneath his car, as he felt there was a threat to his life. He had also requested the administration to raise the boundary wall of the prison though nothing was done in this regard. DIG, Garhwal, Deepam Seth, Commissioner Ajay Singh Nabial, SSP, Hridwar, Kewal Khurana, District Magistrate, Haridwar, Meenakshi Sundram, and other senior police and administrative officials visited the spot.
Admn ‘ignored plea for security’ According to members of Thapa’s family, he had asked for security after a minor blast under his car on August 31, as he felt there was a threat to his life. He had also requested the administration to raise the boundary wall of the prison but nothing was done in this regard. |
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Congress plans siege to Assembly on Sept 27
Dehradun, September 12 Addressing a meeting of the block presidents from the entire Garhwal region, Uttarakhand Congress chief Yashpal Arya called upon the Congress workers to leave no stone unturned in making the siege a historic protest. “By changing the Chief Minister, the ruling BJP has admitted to our charges of rampant corruption prevailing in the BJP government and it should be exposed further. By changing the face, the anti-people policies of the BJP are not going to change,” he said. He also called upon the district presidents to prepare for the coming Assembly elections and form the polling booth committees before December 25. Congress legislators namely Tilak Raj Behad, Jot Singh Gunsola, Kedar Singh Rawat, Rajesh Juvantha, Dinesh Aggarwal, Kishore Upadhyaya and Pritam Singh spoke on the occasion and called upon the party leaders to prepare for an intense struggle to oust the BJP government in the state.
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Chinks in Pithoragarh Cong surface
Pithoragarh, September 12 “The coordinator, who has been sent by state Congress general secretary in charge Birendra Singh, acted on a partisan basis,” said Mahendra Singh Lunthi, president of Pithoragarh District Congress Committee. “We are writing to Sonia Gandhi and pradesh chief Yashpal Arya on this issue,” said Lunthi . According to the information, when the coordinator invited Jagat Singh Khati, former chairman of the Nagar Palika Parishad, Pithoragarh, who is also a Harish Rawat loyalist, to speak at the meeting, the district Congress chief objected to this saying that only the contenders for Assembly tickets are allowed to speak and as Khati has not applied to the district Congress for the same he should not be allowed to speak. Khati is interested in fighting the Assembly polls from Didihat Assembly constituency. But, the members of the Harish Rawat group, which was adamant to let Khati speak on the occasion, said the district Congress was biased in not letting Khati speak at the meeting. “According to the Congress committee rules, if any aspirant for party ticket could not apply to the district committee, then he can apply to the PCC, AICC or to the coordinator. As Khati has applied to me, I allowed him to speak on the occasion,” said Chattar Singh. The party coordinator said nearly 60 candidates from four Assembly seats in the district have expressed inclination to contest the Assembly elections on Congress tickets. “I am carrying all the applications to the party high command and the final decision will be taken by it,” he added. — OC
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CM orders relief for landslide victims’ kin
Dehradun, September 12 Today, the Chief Minister inspected the site and directed the District Magistrate of Tehri to give the amount to the families of all the six deceased. They were buried alive when the roofs of their houses caved in under the weight of the debris. The Chief Minister expressed grief over the loss of lives in the tragedy. He gave directions to the officials concerned that a geological survey and examination of the affected area be carried out so as to find a permanent solution to the problem. He directed the District Magistrate to send a detailed proposal on the rehabilitation of the affected families to the government after identifying of the areas sensitive to natural disaster. After conducting an on-the-spot inspection of the landslide-affected area, Khanduri also visited the road above Dour village where the landslide occurred. Women residents from the adjoining Talai village met him and apprised him about the widespread damage caused to their houses due to the construction of the Narendra Nagar-Dor road. They said the area was under threat from the construction work on the road. The minister gave instructions to the Executive Engineer of the PWD to prepare an estimate of the damage caused to houses and agricultural land in the area due to the construction work and disburse compensation among the affected families.
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Vendors hold procession in Haridwar
Haridwar, September 12 Tehbazari is the system in which street vendors furnish a specified amount to the Municipal Corporation in lieu of trading at a specific authorised place or point in the corporation purview. Street vendors opposed tehbazari procedure and instead demanded specific vendor-hawking zones to be made across the city where they could trade on permanent basis and could easily pay the charges to the corporation. Divisional chief of the Uttarakhand Small Streets Vendor Association Sanjay Chopra said contractors exploited poor street vendors in the name of tehbazari, charging exorbitant rates from them. He also accused many contractors of ill-treating vendors and also giving same space to many vendors and then charging amount double the normal charges. He demanded licence, identity card and rehabilitation of those vendors who were displaced in the name of anti-encroachment drive. Submitting a memorandum to Chief Minister B C Khanduri through District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram, treasurer of the association Bhoopendra Rajput cited several Allahabad High Court decisions wherein tehbazari had been banned in Municipal Committee and Nagar Panchayat in Uttar Pradesh. The memorandum also stated that the Uttarakhand Government should also implement the National Policy for Street Vendors in the state, urging state Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik to take effective steps to safeguard the interests of thousands of street vendors in the state. Among others who addressed the protest procession were Mahendra Saini, Tasleem Ahmed, Dharampal Kashyap, Ramnaresh Mishra, Rajesh Bishnoi, Munni Devi and Sumitra
Devi. |
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BJP workers celebrate Khanduri’s elevation
Pithoragarh, September 12 All of them gathered at the residence of state BJP general secretary Suresh Joshi for the celebrations. Joshi claimed that: “In the next three months, the quality of the ongoing development works will be better.” In Champawat district, party workers celebrated the occasion by distributing sweets among themselves.
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More students suspected
of using foul means
Nainital, September 12 It is learnt that the college authorities had sent the finger prints of 82 students for analysis. The first list that had come had led to the discovery of eight students who had secured admission by using foul means. It is learnt that the guilty students whose admissions have been cancelled would be replaced with a fresh lot on the basis of their merit by September 30. In a startling revelation that had come to light on Sunday night, eight instances of students having used foul means to secure admission to the Government Medical College had come to light. The entrance exams had been taken by one person while someone else had turned up for the counselling for admissions. Dr Jyala had ensured that the fingerprints of those appearing for the entrance exams be taken and the process repeated again when those who had qualified had turned up for the counselling. These prints were sent for a forensic analysis and these led to the trapping of eight miscreants whose admissions have been cancelled and the matter has been reported to the police for further legal action. Four of the accused are from Haridwar district, two from Udham Singh Nagar and one each from Nainital and Dehradun districts.
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5 firms to use pine needles as biomass
Dehradun, September 12 The five companies, Orange Power Zen Limited, A2Z Maintenance Company, Trans Tech Green Power, Snarti Incorporated and Power Technologies Corporation, will generate 60 MW. The project, however, seems to be contradicting the basic tenets of the proposal at the outset. According to the directions issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, small power plants of 2 MW each are supposed to be set up at small distances in the hilly areas of the state for the protection of the environment and the generation of employment to the locals. However, the industries are contending for bigger projects to save their expenditure and resources. Alok Shrivastav, an official of Trans Tech Green Power Limited, said: “Though we are interested in setting up two plants of 10 MW in Udham Singh Nagar, we have been asked to go in for small plants of 5 MW each. Small projects will increase our manpower, expenditure and maintenance problems.” Shrivastav, who has been allotted the area of Bageshwar and Chamoli, also highlighted the problem of a shortage of land in the state. Rajnish Jain, convener of Avni Pine Needle Gasifier, who had pioneered the pine needle gasification in the state with his small plant at Bageshwar said, “Big projects will need an enormous amount of pine needle as feedstock, which means a large number of vehicles plying in the hills to collect raw material. It will lead to air pollution. ” He advised the setting up of small projects of 100 kV. Chief Forest Conservator (Vigilance), Haldwani, KS Sawant, however, expressed the department’s inability to give land for gas plants and the unavailability of a large chunk of land in villages. |
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Kotiya is Principal Secy to CM
Dehradun, September 12 The Principal Secretary will continue to hold the additional charge of Principal Secretary Alternative Energy, Special Programmes. Uma Kant Panwar will also continue to hold Energy, Information and Vigilance. |
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Now, steel industries to have two meters
Dehradun, September 12 Managing Director (UPCL) Anil Kumar Jain said: “We have not removed the meters installed inside the industries, but have fixed one another meter outside some of the industries so that we can tally the readings. In case of a difference in it, action will be taken against the guilty.” He claimed that efforts being made in this direction would certainly bring down the number of theft cases. Power adviser to the Chief Minister Kripal Singh suggested for an urgent need to check theft cases by introducing three-tier methods and better handling. “Two electronic meters are not enough as chances of tampering with it will always remain high. Besides a meter on the industry premises and one outside the premises, a third is needed to be installed at the substation of the area that will have different software,” he added. |
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A mini bus on its way from Nainbagh to Thatyud fell into a deep gorge killing seven persons and injuring 14 others in Tehri Garhwal district.
The injured were referred to health centres at Mussoorie and Dehradun.
A Deputy Jailer of the Roorkee jail, Narendra Singh Thapa, was shot dead by three motorcycle-borne assailants just outside his official residence at Roorkee this morning.
Haridwar, September 12
