Allowance for jobless youth top on Congress manifesto
SMA Kazmi
Tribune News Service

State Congress leaders release the election manifesto in Dehradun on Friday. A Tribune photograph

Dehradun, January 13
To regain power, the state Congress has made many populist promises, including unemployment allowance to educated jobless youth and a transparent answerable government in the state if the party was voted to power.

Releasing the party’s election manifesto for the Assembly elections slated for January 30, Birender Singh, party general secretary and in charge of the state affairs, promised to give unemployment allowance of Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 per month to the jobless educated youth registered with the employment exchanges of the state for the past three years.

The youth applying for government jobs will not have to pay anything.

The party has also promised to give benefits to employees, teachers and staff of the state government corporations on the pattern of Central government employees. It has promised to get 2,000 villages in the hills for organic farming.

The party has also promised to develop Udham Singh Nagar district into seed- producing zone. It has promised to protect the forests and wildlife wealth of the state besides looking after the interests of the people living in or around these protected areas. All those injured by wild animals would get adequate compensation for life and property.

The Congress has also promised to come up with an industrial policy to attract the industry in the hills by giving subsidy and a special package. It also talked about abolishing contractual system of labour to safeguard their interests.

The Congress also committed itself to increase the amount for families under the National Health Insurance Scheme from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 per annum and to start a medical college in Tehri district.

In the important power sector, the party said all pending hydroelectric projects would be completed within three years and smaller hydroelectric projects would be developed and maintained by the respective panchayats.

For road connectivity, the party promises to link all villages of the state to roads within the next five years and to construct a state highway to link Garhwal and Kumaon regions.

For women voters, the Congress promises to give bicycles or travelling allowance to girls attending school and colleges and 30 per cent job reservation in government services. The party has also promised to probe all alleged scandals during the BJP rule in the state and bring the guilty to book.

The Congress has also promised to have all legislators, ministers and gazetted employees to file their income details every year. The party said there would be a separate ministry for the minorities to work for their economic and social welfare.

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who was supposed to release the election manifesto could not make it to Dehradun due to his pre-occupation in the national capital.

It’s a pack of lies: BJP

Dehradun: BJP spokesperson Satish Lakhera has described the manifesto released by the state Congress as a pack of lies that lack vision and innovation. In a statement issued here today, he said several promises made by the party in its manifesto were already being implemented by the BJP government. “It seems the leaders of the party are not aware that several initiatives announced by the party in its manifesto are already being implemented by the government like free bus fare, cycles for girls etc,” said Lakhera. — TNS

URM wins over Cong, BJP rebel stalwarts
Seema Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun January 13
The four-month-old Uttarkhand Raksha Morcha (URM) has taken an impressive lead in winning over the powerful stalwarts and rebels from the BJP and the Congress and emerging as the strongest regional party in the state.

The big names include Kedarnath Fonia from the BJP, Somawari Lal (Congress), Rajender Pant (RSS), Ratan Singh Ghunsola (BJP), Sri Kant Verma (Congress), Renu Bisht (Congress), Shobha Joshi (Congress) and Raja Virender Singh Pal (Congress).

The party headed by Lt General TPS Rawat (retd), earlier considered to be a close associate of Chief Minister BC Khanduri, had left the BJP after developing differences with former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and floated his own outfit, URM, in August last year to consolidate ex-servicemen voters, who make quite a significant chunk of the total population. He has been able to woo the heavyweights from the two mighty political parties, who did not get the ticket from their parties in these Assembly elections. In party president TPS Rawat’s words, “His party is a conglomeration of highly educated and well-placed people of impeccable integrity, unlike the BJP, which has become a bunch of crooked illiterates where a class V passout can become an education minister.”

The biggest catch among all was Kedarnath Fonia, former Cabinet minister from the BJP, and quite recently Rajender Pant, a name to be reckoned with in the RSS, who had been fielded against Harbans Kapoor, Speaker and six-time MLA from Cantt seat.

Party spokesperson PC Thapliyal said: “Former Chief Minister Nityanand Swami wanted his daughter Jyotsana for this seat but she was no match to Kapoor’s experience. Pant will certainly give him a tough competition.”

Mass leader Ratan Singh Gunsola, BJP’s district panchayat president from Tehri, joined the URM and is now contesting from Tehri. Somwari Lal, Congress loyalist for four decades and former block head, now fights for Dhanaulti segment for the URM .

Sri Kant Verma, another Congress veteran leader who headed the Industrial Development Corporation and is state president of Van Gurjars, is fighting from Haridwar on the URM ticket.

Renu Bisht also gave a shock to the Congress when she announced to contest from Yamkeshwar on the URM ticket in this election.

Chairperson of Local Bodies, Almora, Shobha Joshi of the Congress preferred to sail in the surging boat of the URM for the Almora seat. The royal king of Askot, Virender Singh Pal, a known intellectual, deserted the Congress and joined the URM and is now standing from Dharchula seat.

Prized catch

• Some big names are Kedarnath Fonia from the BJP, Somawari Lal (Congress), Rajender Pant (RSS), Ratan Singh Ghunsola (BJP), Sri Kant Verma (Congress), Renu Bisht (Congress), Shobha Joshi (Congress) and Raja Virender Singh Pal (Congress).

Poll snippets

URM getting much publicity in media

Dehradun: The Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha (URM)is getting much publicity in media these days. The party has rather replaced the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal as regional party of Uttarakhand. The basic reason behind Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha getting into prominence in media is due to a large number of rebel candidates contesting Assembly elections on the morcha’s ticket. Brainchild of former minister Lt-Gen TPS Rawat (retd), the Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha mostly has retired bureaucrats and Army officers in its executive.

Ram and Lakshman

Dehradun: The contest at the Rudraprayag Assembly seat is turning out to be an interesting war of words between BJP candidate Matbar Singh Kandari and Congress candidate Harak Singh Rawat. In his recent election speeches, Harak Singh Rawat identified Matbar Singh Kandari as elder brother Ram. Reacting to this, Kandari asked Rawat to become Lakshman and withdraw from the contest as mark of respect for the elder brother. Interestingly, both the contestants Kandari and Rawat are close relatives.

‘Dharati Pakar’ of Pithoragarh

Pithoragarh: Known as “Dharati Pakar” of the district, Gulzar Khan (50), a tailor, says that he has contested four Parliamentary elections, three Assembly and two for Chairman of the Pithoragarh Nagar Palika Parishad. “ I have been contesting elections since 1988, but I don’t have a single rupee in my bank account and I have been doing all that by the donations given by the voters,” said Khan. Gulzar Khan says he enjoyed the 1991 election most as he polled 13,000 votes in that election. “This time I hope to do better as the people will vote for me due to the wave in favour of Anna Hazare,” said Gulzar Khan.

Door-to-door campaign for now

Nainital: With the weather playing truant, the candidates in fray for the forthcoming Assembly poll in the state are preferring the door-to-door campaign for now. While the scrutiny of papers is on and it is snowing or raining in most parts of the state, the candidates can be seen visiting the houses of the voters along with a small group of supporters. They know that organising of huge rallies would not deliver the desired results in such weather conditions.

Works in govt offices hit

Nainital: With the officials busy in poll duty, the routine works in government offices have come to a standstill. The weather has added to the phenomenon of officials keeping away from their office on the pretext of being on the poll duty. Sources in the government setup say that the implementation of the model code of conduct has hit the works related to infrastructure repairs as no fresh amount of money is being sanctioned to the contractors to take the works that have been completed half way further. Skeptics say that while the works were not completed when there was ample time on hands, what would a difference of another few days make.

Fair sex gets unfair deal
Only 3 women given ticket from Haridwar dist
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, January 13
Despite repeated assurances by major political parties of alloting Assembly ticket to substantial number of women, out of 11 segments in Haridwar, only three women have been given party ticket by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. While the Bahujan Samaj Party, despite having Mayawati a women as the party chief, has given no ticket to any woman candidate.

In the first Assembly elections of the state, no women was given ticket by any major party, while in 2007 too, no women was allocated a single ticket.

The Congress has fielded Brij Rani from the Jwalapur (reserve) seat, while the BJP has fielded Vajyanti Mala from the Jhabreda segment.

Initially, it was Vaijyanti Mala’s husband Desh Raj Karnwal who was given party ticket but later it retracted its decision and gave ticket to his wife, which is being seen as a step to give a pro-women message.

A former Zila Panchayat chairperson Vaijyanti has been actively involved with the BJP for the past decade and, along with her husband Deshraj, a Zila panchayat member, holds good presence in Jhabreda.

Talking to TNS, Vaijyanti refuted the claim that giving her ticket was a damage-restoring step by the party high command, pointing out that it was the wishes of the people of his constituency and political calculations.

“The BJP has always motivated women leaders, be it at the national level or state level, there are more women leaders on the post of office-bearer than any other party,” said Vaijyanti who resigned from government school to contest the Assembly elections.

While Brij Rani of the Congress holds a good political base in Jwalapur and as this time this segment got reserved she was a prime contender for the ticket months ago.

Though she accepts that if the 33 pc reservation is done for women in Parliament and state Assemblies, it will give them more opportunities, yet she is of the opinion that women politicians should work at the grassroot level so that they get ticket on their political stature and capability.

BJP state chief Bishan Singh Chufal told TNS that the party had given six ticket to women in the whole state.

Though from smaller parties like the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, the Nationalist Panthers Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Janata Dal (United) and Independents, eight women candidates have filed their nominations from the district.

Tripta Sharma, a housewife-cum-social activist, contesting from Haridwar city from the NPP, said it’s high time when women should come in active politics and contest elections as it will result in dip in corruption.

Poll officer gets tough on code violations
Tribune News Service

Nainital, January 13
District Election Officer (DEO) in Nainital Nidhi Mani Tripathi has ordered that action will be taken against officials of those departments who have failed to give their vehicles for the election-related exercise.

She has expressed annoyance over the fact that certain departments had not given their vehicles to the election office despite having been directed to do so.

Tripathi carried out an inspection of the election office that had been set in MB Postgraduate College in Haldwani. Taking stock of the preparedness for carrying out the election exercise, she gave a series of instructions for strengthening the functioning of the office.

She laid stress on the transparent functioning of the office and ordered that complaints that were coming with regards to the violation of the Model Code of Conduct should be registered round the clock.

Tripathi has also ordered that the stationery and other items required for polling should be procured and sent to the polling stations in time.

She has asked the personnel of the video surveillance teams to provide a copy of the recordings being provided to the Election Commission so that it have a clear picture with regards to the expenditure being done by various candidates. At the same time, she has called for a blanket coverage of advertisements being carried by the print and electronic medium to be provided by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) to the observers on a daily basis.

Tripathi has ordered that those candidates violating the code must be given notices and in case of serious violations, an FIR should be registered against them.

The district is going to witness some close battles between political heavyweights in some of the constituencies.

Makar Sankranti: Security up in Haridwar
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, January 13
In view of the Assembly election process going on and lakhs of devotees taking a holy dip in the Ganga on Makar Sankranti tomorrow, security has been beefed up in the pilgrim city. The administration is taking no chance. Though till now election process has passed off peacefully, yet keeping in mind the sensitivity of the city heavy deployment of security personnel has been done.

The whole city mela has been divided into five zones and 13 sectors. Furthermore, three companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary have been deployed in the city.

Superintendent of District Police Pushkar Sailal said as more than a million devotees were expected to throng Ganga ghats in Haridwar to have a holy dip on Makar Sankranti, 670 policemen would be patrolling the city.

He added that as a threat letter had been received by Haridwar railway station superintendent Samarendra Goswami, security had been beefed up at the station.

Today two teams of bomb disposal squad were deployed with one at Har-ki-Pauri core mela zone and the other in the inner city.

The railway station, bus station and other important buildings were thoroughly checked by the squad. Sniffer dog squad and commandos had also been pressed into service.

“We are checking every suspicious item round the clock as intelligence reports point at Haridwar being sensitive area in this election time," said Gajendra Singh Bisht, in charge of the bomb disposal squad, while frisking baggages at the railway station.

Nodal Security Officer for Makar Sakranti mela Shahjahan Khan said as election process was also going on, the administration did not want to take any chance on the occasion of Makar Sakranti.

75 companies of paramilitary forces for state
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 13
A majority of the sensitive and hypersensitive polling booths have been identified in Haridwar and Dehradun districts. A total of 45 companies of the Central paramilitary forces will be stationed in the Garhwal Range to ensure peaceful Assembly elections. In the entire state, 75 companies of the Central paramilitary forces will be deployed.

DIG Garhwal Range Sanjay Gunjyal disclosed that adequate police force would be deputed in the seven districts of the Garhwal range where Assembly elections were scheduled to be held on January 30.

The Garhwal division consists of seven districts, Dehradun, Haridwar, Uttarakashi, Tehri, Pauri, Rudraprayag and Chamoli Garhwal.

There are 41 Assembly seats in the Garhwal division with 4,396 polling centres and 5,817 polling booths. There has been an escalation of 20-25 per cent increase in the number of polling stations in the Garhwal division.

Out of these, 647 have been identified as hypersensitive and the rest 884 as sensitive.

As many as 258 polling booths in Haridwar and 192 booths in Dehradun districts too have been rated as hypersensitive where,

Gunjyal said, adequate security arrangements would be made with the deployment of forces as would be done in rest of the hyper-sensitive polling booths whereas in sensitive polling booths, the police and the PAC would be deployed.

Gunjyal said the number of sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling booths could come down as well after further scrutiny as the current status was revealed after making a first estimation.

The sensitivity or hyper-sensitivity of any polling booth or constituency is measured on the basis of various parameters such as poll history of booths, history of violation of the model code or law and order problem.

Snowbound Booths
Chopper services sought for poll staff
BD Kashniyal

Pithoragarh, January 13
Three feet of snow at the highest polling booth at Namik in the Johar valley of Munsiyari subdivision of the district this week has left the district election office worried as the booth, situated at a height of 8,800 feet, will need helicopters to lift the staff on poll duty and other people to enable 365 voters of the village exercise their right to franchise.

Despite the district administration demanding two helicopters for ferrying the staff on poll duty and other people in 19 snowbound polling booths, it has not received any written confirmation in this regard from the Election Commission, according to District Election Officer R. Rajesh Kumar.

“We have written to the Chief Election Commissioner of India and the Chief Election Officer, Uttarakhand, to provide us two helicopters at the time of polling, but we have received only verbal assurances. We are not in a position to say that helicopters will be made available to the poll teams to carry election material to the snowbound polling booths on the election day,” said Rajesh.

The polling booth at Namik village has witnessed more than three feet of snow, according to the Munsiyari subdivision office. “If the weather remains the same even on the polling day, we will have to dispatch the poll parties three days earlier in case we are not provided helicopter services,” he said.

To reach the polling booth at Namik, the poll parties will have to travel 27 km from the Birthi pass on the Pithoragarh-Munsiyari road, 110 km from the district headquarters.

“Besides the booth at Namik, we have 18 other such polling booths which might remain cut off due to snowfall,” said the District Election Officer. The booths at Pato, Saipolo, Tiksain, Bona, Tomik, Dhamigaun, Samkot Tejam, New, Sumdung, Dar, Bongling, Bung Bung, Kureela, Jaikot Suva and Panyar are situated at a height of 5,000 to 7,000 feet in the district.

According to the District Election Officer, the staff on poll duty at these booths will also be issued material helpful in fighting hazardous weather conditions. “As the employees in these polling booths will have to face tough weather, they will also be issued oxygen cylinders, snow cutters and snow boots so that they could perform their constitutional duty properly,” he said.

1,500 villagers to boycott poll
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, January 13
Nearly 1,500 voters of four villages of Bageshwar district have announced to boycott the Assembly elections slated for January 30. They said despite various surveys, the successive state governments had failed to initiate the construction of a road in the area, thus forcing them to travel more than 5 km on foot. The villagers, at a meeting held in Dungra village on Thursday, appealed to all residents to boycott the elections and even convey their decision to the candidates who would come to their villages to seek votes.

“We have convinced almost all villagers of the area to boycott the elections as our basic demand has not been fulfilled by the successive governments so far,” said Narendra Singh Rathod of Dungragaun village.

According to the residents of Nail, Dungar Gaun, Majbe, Bajigaun and Malsuna villages, the government had sanctioned a 6-km road from Runikhet to Darimthok in the area in 2009 and the funds for various works had also been released. However, the department concerned had not initiated the construction work so far.

Minister has narrow escape
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 13
Uttarakhand Minister and BJP candidate from Deoprayag Assembly seat Diwakar Bhatt had a narrow escape when the car in which he was travelling from Rishikesh to Haridwar met with a minor accident near Mansa Devi gate in Haridwar district on Thursday evening. Bhatt suffered minor injuries. A week ago Diwakar Bhatt was admitted to a hospital for some illness.

Papers of UKD (P) nominee rejected
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, January 13
The nomination papers of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Progressive) candidate from Didihat Gajendra Singh Jangpangi have been rejected during the scrutiny of papers.

BL Rana, returning officer, Didihat, said: “The papers of the UKD (P) candidate have been rejected under Article 8(3) of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, as he had not mentioned about his three-year jail term. Instead of presenting appeal papers of the case, he presented only bail papers to the returning officer.”

Medical store’s details to go online

Nainital: The Health Department has started the process for making the details of the medical store of the Base Hospital in Haldwani online. The exercise is a part of a bigger plan to bring about transparency with regards to the availability of medicines in the government hospitals. Officials say that this would also help in reducing the time delay with regards to the procurement of medicines after the stocks are exhausted. — TNS