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Poll code hassles candidates
Chinks appear in ‘third front’
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Nomination papers of 11 candidates cancelled
Rising Star beat New Friends
Poll takes toll on property deals
95 file papers from Doon district
Educational mobile van launched
Twenty20 tourney to be telecast live
Documentary on communal riots out
TMC fields 34 candidates
Lohri celebrated in Haridwar
Small parties take Net route for funds, get stinkers
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Dehradun, January 13 While Chief Minister BC Khanduri has been indisposed since he had gone to Kotdwar to file his nomination papers, former Chief Minister and in charge, election campaign, BS Koshiyari too has been keeping unwell. Sources in the party claim both leaders have been entrusted with the task of delivering the 2012 elections to the BJP but at this crucial stage when time is running out both leaders do not seem to be in the pink of health. “Former Chief Minister BS Koshiyari is battling ill-health. Though he was in Srinagar on Thursday, his throat seems to be giving him problem. The CM has not been keeping well for the past three days,” said a senior BJP leader. As if these setbacks were not enough, the BJP is yet to prepare an itinerary for its leaders and is missing the services of organizing secretary (BJP Uttarakhand) Dhan Singh Rawat who has been fielded from Srinagar. At this crucial juncture, the party is missing the services of the men who are at the helm of the BJP. Besides Dhan Singh Rawat, the party too will be wanting on the services of the BJP party president BS Chufal who too is fighting the elections from the Kumaon region. “The BJP is facing dearth of office-bearers as six leaders, nominated by the chairman of BJP election campaign in charge Koshiyari, are in the election fray. Now we have a situation at hand when most of the leaders attached with the state organisation are fighting the elections. They cannot be expected to manage the elections for the party,” said the senior leader. Along with bringing in party workers from neighbouring states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkand, the party has also roped in senior leaders from New Delhi, whose services are being taken to bring around the rebels who have filed nominations as Independent from Assembly seats.
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Poll code hassles candidates
Dehradun, January 13 Now the candidates have to seek no-objection certificate (NOC) 24 hours before they go on campaigning in their Assembly areas that is proving troublesome for the netas who have so far been oblivion to restrictions and NOCs. While seeking the NOC, the candidates even have to specify the exact nature of their canvassing and which areas they will be covering on a particular day. If they fail to procure the NOC, returning officers can even issue notices to the candidates. “I have to cover a lot of ground and naturally my focus is to cover as much time as I can for campaigning,” said Ravinder Kataria, BJP candidate from Rajpur. The strict guidelines of the Election Commission has also made the candidates cautious of their steps. “While launching their election campaigns, the candidates have to take permission from the city magistrate and also specify whether it is an election meeting or a rally and it’s venue,” said Radha Raturi, Chief Electoral Officer (Uttarakhand). But that’s not all. The candidates also have to submit the copies of NOC to the hi-tech poll vigilance panel set up the by the Election Commission of India. The vehicles used by the candidates too have to display the information about the vehicle permit on the front of their vehicles. While strict adherence to the Model Code of Conduct and the Election Commission’s guidelines is making the ‘netas’ run from one office to another, by and large the people are satisfied with the steps taken by the Election Commission to curb election expenditure and ensure a free and fair election in the state. “The steps taken by the commission are praiseworthy. These guidelines will help candidates become responsible and careful. They will not make the elections colourless,” said Atul Sharma, poet and social activist.
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Chinks appear in ‘third front’
Dehradun, January 13 After the Uttarakhand United Regional Front was reduced to a mere caricature of itself owing to internal squabbles among constituent parties, another such merger among the Jan Manch, the Uttarakhand People’s Party and the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (D) too seemed to be heading for the same fate with Uttarakhand Janmanch president Chander Singh Rana castigating party general secretary Rajan Todriya for taking a unilateral decision in setting up a front and jumping in the election fray. Addressing the media, he said: “Todriya should have taken approval from the members of the working committee before deciding on the party’s behalf to float a front with other political parties.” Rana said the party was opposed to predilection of political leaders for abandoning hill constituencies and embracing the plains. He made it clear the party had nothing to do with any front and vehemently denied being a party to any such endeavours. Meanwhile, Todriya accused Rana of playing in the hands of the BJP and the RSS. He alleged that a seasoned communist leader, Rana, could not see through the designs of the BJP and was denouncing the efforts of the party in forming a front with other parties. He alleged that when they prevented their party activists from participating in campaigning, leaders associated with the BJP like Prakash Suman Dhyani and some leaders of the RSS conspired to break up this party on the lines of the UKD. He said the working committee had expelled senior leaders Ashok Bahukhandi, Suman Dhyani and Surender Nautiyal from the party for six years and left it to Rana to decide whether he wanted to stay in the party or not.
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Nomination papers of 11 candidates cancelled
Dehradun, January 13 A total of 906 candidates had filed the nomination papers for the state Assembly poll. The scrutiny of the papers began today after the filing of nominations came to an end yesterday. According to the state electoral office, in Dehradun district, the nomination papers of BSP candidate from the Vikasnagar Assembly seat Deshraj have been cancelled as he was not an official candidate of the party.
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Rising Star beat New Friends
Dehradun, January 13 After winning the toss, Rising Star elected to bat first and scored 214 runs. With his outstanding performance, opener Azeem made the highest score of 139 runs for the team in 100 balls. In reply, New Friends Club scored 87 runs all out. Anil and Rahul scored 21 and 12 runs, respectively.
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Poll takes toll on property deals
Nainital, January 13 The prime reason being attributed to this phenomenon is the strict implementation of norms with regard to carrying large amounts of cash while the poll campaign is on. It is a well-known fact that in property matters, those selling land or constructing buildings prefer to have the payment partly in cash and partly by cheque to save on the stamp duty and other applicable fee for the transaction. With the officials arresting several persons who were found carrying cash on the pretext of the poll code norms, the purchasers and sellers have decided to postpone the transactions till the new government takes over. According to reports from Haldwani, officials have confirmed a dip of about 57 per cent in the land transactions. A man who wants to purchase a flat in Delhi told The Tribune, “Despite having enough papers to show and support some cash that I would need, I have decided to postpone the visit. Although it will not be a problem to convince them, it will be a wastage of time in official procedures. Going to Delhi will mean travelling through two poll-bound states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.” Another factor that has led to the delay in property transactions is the deployment of government officials on poll duty. Most of the purchasers and buyers have assumed that they are unlikely to find the officials at their seats doing their routine jobs. It is for sure that most of them would be involved in some election-related work. Sources say the builders in the region are also busy with the poll-related activities these days. In areas like Bhimtal, Mukteshwar, Ramgarh and the adjoining areas, they are helping the candidates who would toe their line in the days to come when elected to the state Assembly.
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95 file papers from Doon district
Dehradun, January 13 Those filed papers for the Rajpur seat are Sunder Lal Muyal, Chaman Lal, Jai Singh, Arun Valmiki, Sanjeev Kumar, Brij Mohan, Ram Kumar Azad, Sunder Lal Maurya, Naresh Vaidh and Arjun Singh. Those from the Raipur seat were Shanti Prasad (Independent), Naseem (Independent), Rajkumar Tyagi from the Uttarakhand Parivartan Party, Sushil Kumar from the Lok Jan Shakti Party, Anil Pant (Independent), Anuradha from the Maidani Kranti Dal, Manoj Kumar (Independent), Bhupender Singh from the Shiv Sena, Mohd Sattar from the Muslim League. Those from the Dharampur seat are Manzoor Hasan from the SP, Khumuda Begum from the Maidani Kranti Dal, Suresh Singh Rana (Independent), Shailash Verma from the National Congress Party (NCP) , Shambhu Sharan from the Trinamool Congress, Ram Sukh from the Bahujan Sangharsh Party, Gopal Puri from the Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha, Sardar Khan from the Rashtriya Lok Dal, Tarun Ahuja from the Shiv Sena, Sushma from the Jai Ma Bharat Party, Aziz-ur-Rahman from the Muslim League. From Doiwala were Bharat Bhushan (Independent), Jaswant Singh Randhawa (S), Kamal Kishore from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Rishi Kumar from the Lok Jan Shakti Party, Bijender Singh Chauhan (Independent), Ramesh Kothiya (Independent). From Mussoorie those who filed nomination papers were Manoj Dhyani from the NCP, Shiv Singh Rawat, TMC, and Bhagvan Singh Panwar, Independent. The seven-day nomination came to an end on Thursday where total 195 nomination papers were filed from different constituencies all over the district and 94 from Dehradun district by candidates of various political parties.
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Educational mobile van launched
Dehradun, January 13 She said each district should have at least one such van and courses in the hotel management and tourism must be included in the courses offered through this initiative. Alva also appreciated the efforts of the Uttarakhand Open University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor VK Pathak for having built a name for the university. Speaking on the occasion, Professor Pathak thanked the Indian Knowledge Corporation (IKC) for supporting the project and said, “The van will initially run certificate courses in hotel management and later add other courses.”
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Twenty20 tourney to be telecast live
Dehradun, January 13 Addressing a press conference, Jawed Bhatt, general secretary of the association, disclosed that a total of 12 teams would be participating in the tournament which included teams from Haryana, Punjab, New Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam and Tamil Nadu. He said all preparations had been done for live telecast of the tournament at the Kasiga school ground and Tanush Cricket Ground, the two venues in Dehradun. Butt said the winner of the tournament would get a cash reward of Rs 1,11000 whereas the runner-up team be getting reward of Rs 71,000. This, apart from providing motor cycle to the player who gets man of the series award in the tournament. Further, digital cameras will be given as man of match awards.
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Documentary on communal riots out
Nainital, January 13 The film entitled “Partition Revisited” is a 23-minute documentary that indicts the politicians from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with the help of eyewitness accounts for having fomented communal trouble on the given day. The riots had left behind four dead and scores of others injured besides causing immense damage to the infrastructure. Above all, the series of events left a deep scar on the social fabric of the town. The film has several eyewitnesses blaming a senior BJP leader for having incited the mobs by delivering hate speeches, including one near a gurdwara in the town. It has been pointed that a community had been targeted in the riots. Several question marks have been raised on the role of the police and the media in the entire affairs. The eyewitnesses have been documented as saying that the Muslim protested against the police for having failed to check the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran and for converting it into an anti-Hindu tirade. The role of the media has been questioned for not coming up with genuine stories and reports about those responsible for the riots. Its role has also been questioned with regards to playing down of the large-scale migration of people that took place from Rudrapur in the wake of the riots. Even a member of the Uttarakhand State Minorities Commission Mazhar Naeem is shown in the film saying that the police while not taking any steps to quell the riot in the first instance actually helped them spill further. The film has taken the help of some credible reports from the media, including the ones appearing in The Tribune, in substantiating the fact that several attempts had been made in the Terai over the last two years to see that the process of communal polarisation took place just before the elections as this would have served certain vested interests. The film that has been directed by Rajeev Yadav and Shahnawaz Alam has been uploaded on the website pratirodh.com. It is also being on the social networking sites. It also hits very hard at the disparity in compensation given to the victims of the violence on the given date.
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Dehradun, January 13 Karanprayag — J S Kandwal Devprayag — Rajender Gairola Narendra Nagar — D Dutt Chamoli Dhanolti — Md.Shekhar Hakkeer Dharampur — Shambhu Saran Badoni Raipur — Mahesh Narayan Kaushal Rajpur(SC) — Sobha Ram Cantt — M.M.Lamba Mussoorie — S.S.Rawat Doiwala — Sarvanand Uniyal Rishikesh — Naresh Chandra Baluni Haridwar — Harsh Wardhan BHEL (Ranipur) — Irfan Ali Jwalapur (SC) — Amit Gihar Bhagwanpur(SC) — Babli Ram Jhabera (SC) — Vinod Piran Kaliyar — Idris Ansari Roorkee — Dinesh Kr Dhiman Khanpur — Md Taseen Mangalore — Jabrevar Laskar — Gulam Rasool Haridwar (Rural) — Sumeer Joshi Choutbatiakhal — Kapil Dhobal Champawat — Shyam Sundar Digari Haldwani — Sameerullah Khan Kaladungi — Fida-ur-Rehnman Kashipur — Moh.Naeem Bajpur — Baburam Gadarpur — Gulal Mandal Rudrapur —Dr.A.k.Biswas Vikasnagar — Nasreen — TNS
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Lohri celebrated in Haridwar
Haridwar, January 13 People gathered around bonfires at various colonies in Haridwar. Rising flames of bonfire, colourful attires, dancing to the tunes of giddha, bhangra, dandiya and putting of popcorn, peanuts, rewris in the bonfire was the way Lohiri was celebrated.
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Small parties take Net route for funds, get stinkers
Nainital, January 13 A large number of political leaders from these parties have posted their newly opened bank account numbers meant for contesting the poll on the social networking websites with appeals to their friends and acquaintances to come up with donations. Among those who have adopted the technique are the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Progressive) president Trivender Singh Panwar and some of the candidates from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). The responses that these candidates have got for their appeals are equally interesting. In his message, Indresh Maikhuri of the CPI (ML) has written, ”The CPI (ML) advocates practising of clean and transparent politics. We do not take the support of any such person who has acquired the wealth through wrong means. We believe that the people’s fight should be carried out with the help of people’s resources. Hence I appeal for financial assistance to the friends, supporters and well wishers. My account number is?...” Going by the philosophy of the Left, such an appeal is very much expected from its leadership on the occasion of the poll. The CPI (ML) is a party that has been striving hard over the last few ears to find a foothold in the state. It has been taking up people-oriented issues in a big way. While there are some of the supporters who have bluntly written, “I can only give you my best wishes”. There are others who have pledged their support in every possible way for this candidate who is contesting from the Karanprayag seat. Panwar on the other hand has written, “We need your assistance in every form to win the battle of 2012. We can take on these national parties in every sphere of politics but our resources are limited. Hence please contribute the maximum. Our bank account number is ?...” Panwar seems to have stirred a hornet’s nest by making such an appeal. One of the comments in response to the appeal reads, “Regional parties have lost their regional agenda. Please think about it.”
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In a major setback to the BJP that is seeking a rerun in the Uttarakhand
Assembly elections, two of its star campaigners have not been keeping well, putting brakes on the aspirations of the party candidates who are banking on the high decibel launch of the election by these leaders.
