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Interesting battle on cards
Poor kids have a hearty meal, courtesy poll
Children enjoy food at Bikol village in Dhanaulti. |
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A skier at the Auli ski resort. A file photograph
Cong will provide stable govt in state, says Sheila Dikshit
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit addresses mediapersons in Dehradun on Sunday.
A Tribune photograph
Man identifies sister’s body
Doon Civic Blues A park in Ward No. 48, Dehradun.
NAINITAL Diary
Victory for NIZ Sports Academy in cricket tourney
The NIZ Sports Academy, New Delhi, team that won the Uttarakhand Premier Cricket Tournament in Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph
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Interesting battle on cards
Dehradun, January 22
Congress has put councillor Rajkumar while BJP has Ravindra Singh Katariya as its candidate. The Bahujan Samaj Party’s Tanvir Singh is trying to make the fight triangular. There are a total of 19 wards of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation in the Rajpur Road reserved constituency. The Congress today has councillors in 11 of these wards while 7 wards are with the BJP and one is with Independent. Congress candidate Rajkumar, who has been a councillor for the past many decades, is primarily banking on the support of Congress councillors.
The problems of slums and lack of civic amenities in other residential areas are major concerns in this constituency. While many areas lack sewer line, the issue of garbage disposal and pathetic conditions of roads are other major issues in this constituency in the poll. Congress candidate Rajkumar accuses the Uttarakhand BJP government of doing little for the betterment of slums. He alleged that the centre funds meant for improving living conditions in the slums went unutilised. However, Ravindra Singh Katariya said Uttarakhand had always faced a step-motherly treatment with the Congress-led Centre as far as disbursement of funds was concerned. He also held Congress councillors responsible for sorry state of civic affairs in Uttarakhand.
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Poor kids have a hearty meal, courtesy poll
Mussoorie, January 22 Such scenes have become a regular feature in several villages of Thauldhar block where the candidates due to paucity of time and busy schedule are forced to eat the food in the village where the children are also invited to consume the food. Nitin Rawat, aged 14, said since the announcement of the names of the candidates in the constituency they had joined supporters who invite them every time they visited the village. Apart from free badges, the food had also become as major attraction in these elections, added Nitin. The poor people of the village are of the view that though their kids are able to have two square meal a day, thus helping them in rationing their food in the time of price rise. However, the parents clarified that such enticement would not have any bearing on their choice and would vote for the candidate who is able to address the much-larger issues such as price rise, migration and unemployment. On the other hand, Trinamool Congress-supported independent candidate Devendar Chamoli was of the view that such exercise was being carried
out by the canddiates of national parties. He also called it as a breach of the modal code laid down by the Election Commission. He demanded an investigation in the matter as it could lead to providing undue advantage to the candidates indulging in such activities during the elections. The supporters of the candidates denied being involved in such exercise. Senior BJP leader Kunwar Singh was of the view that due to paucity of the time, the candidates were forced to consume the food in the village. The villagers themselves cook the food voluntarily in accordance with the regional custom where the guests were not sent off with empty stomach. For a change, the senior Congress leaders of the region also had similar views and said the food was mainly for the supporters and no one minded the children eating the food available on the
occasion. The returning officer was not available for the comments.
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World Snow Day celebrated at Auli ski resort
Mussoorie, January 22 The event is being organised under the campaign being run by FIS titled Bring Children to the Snow with an objective to encourage a large number of children and their families to be part of World Snow Day. A snow festival consisting of various national activities is taking place simultaneously the world over today. Several ski and snowboarding events were organised to mark the occasion in which more than 80 participants from different places competed with each other in the biting cold. In Slalom event, 10-12 age group, Arpit and Ayush Kawan were declared winners, while Mohit Kuranga in 13-15 age group and Mayank Dimri in 16-18 age group were among the medals. The officials from state and national-level federations distributed the citations and awards to the winners in the end. According to the secretary, Winter Games Association of Uttarakhand, Prabhat Dimri, the event has been organised with the goal to promote snow sports and enable children to come together with their families to experience and enjoy the fascination of snow. The parent organization FIS hopes to create global momentum for a great future in snow sports all around the world. Similar events were held at Gulmarg and Manali to mark the occasion in the country, said Dimri. Organising secretary of the event LS Mehta, Adventure Association of Joshimath president Manish Bhujwan, Bharat Bhushan and president of Winter Sports Club Rakesh Ranjan were present on the occasion.
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Cong will provide stable govt in state, says Sheila Dikshit
Dehradun, January 22 She said the masses had suffered a lot during the past five years and were yearning for development. She further claimed that a major initiative had been taken by the Central Government in laying the foundation stone of the Rishikesh-Karanprayag railway line and sanctioning of Rs 4,700 crore for the project. On the BJP’s slogan, “Khanduri hai zaroori”, she said if Khanduri was so important for the state as being claimed by his party, then why was he changed in 2009. She alleged that the money meant for the poor people through the MGNREGA was not reaching the target groups in the state. She said the Right to Information Act was introduced by the UPA government. And now the Central Government wanted to bring in the Food Security Bill that could provide food security to the poor. However, she regretted that the implementation of such initiatives rest on the state governments which were lacking in commitment.
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Man identifies sister’s body
Dehradun , January 22 They went out apparently to discuss. The police, meanwhile, checked the matter with Superintendent of Police from Akbarpur, who confirmed of the girl’s association with the boy. According to the police, both were in love, and since they belonged to the same clan, they could not get married to each other. It was later that the deceased girl’s brother admitted her being his sister. The relatives later went with the bodies. The police is awaiting the postmortem report. A bedsheet torn was also seen lying in the bathroom. The police is concluding on two stories. The boy tried hanging himself first in the bathroom. After his attempts failed, he hanged himself from the room ceiling. The other theory the is working on is whether the girl was strangulated and hanged in the bathroom by the boy and then later laid down on the bed. Thereafter, the boy committed suicide. Sleeping pills were also found in the room. Chander Prakash was deputed in 68 Armed Unit, Agra, EME, and was on leave from December 3, which had ended on January 4. He did not return to his duty. It was on January 15 that he took a room in the hotel and checked out on January 19. In the evening both came back and did not open the room till next day evening. Then hotel employees got alarmed and called the police, who spotted both the bodies.
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Doon Civic Blues Seema Sharma Tribune News Service
Dehradun, January 22 Fully aware that it is an onerous task to maintain the parks, she herself goes to there in the morning to inspectthe work done by the gardeners. She is also relentlessly pursuing a water-park project for her ward, which, if realised, would be the first in the city. She said, “I have selected 48 bigha land for the setting up of a water park in the area and sent the proposal to the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, which has approved it and also forwarded it to the state government. The proposal has, however, been awaiting approval. She proudly talks about the new roads, which were built during her tenure. Before her, it was her husband, Omender Bhati, who had been the councillor of the area. He, too, has been a great support and inspiration to her and as a result, both could take the remaining tasks forward. The sewerage system is also being revamped under the baton of the Asian Development Bank. The residents, by and large, have no other problem besides the poor sanitation system and faulty streetlights. Pravesh Lata, a resident, said, “The sanitary workers are very irregular. Owing to their frequent absence, the garbage is not cleared up for days.” Ashok Kumar also complained that the four dustbin, which the DMC had placed at four different locations in the area, consisting of 42 colonies, had also not been removed, owing to which the garbage problem has worsened further. Amrit Kaur rued about poor civic sense, which has added to their woes. “Only 70 out of 620 families have hired private sanitation workers for garbage disposal while the rest of them throw it here and there.” The councillor said a strength of 18 sanitation workers was short for her ward, which is larger in size than many other wards. On that, she said, the authoritative attitude of the sanitary workers and their frequent absence, despite bringing the matter to the notice of DMC officials, clearly alluded toward the internal party politics. Madan Kumar Mittal, a resident, grumbled about the streetlights that had been out of function most of the time. At this, Bhati said the streetlights were indicated repaired in the official files of the DMC, which in reality remained dysfunctional.
Residents Speak
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Snow... boon for tourists, bane for locals
The Lake City has been experiencing an extended tourism season this time. This is on account of the four spells of snow that it has experienced this time and the election season that has been on. On previous occasions, Nainital used to present a desolate look the moment the New Year celebrations were over. The tourists used to vanish once the New Year parties were over. But this time, the very first day of the year saw the town wearing a white mantle. This led to the tourists prolonging their stay in the town for a while. In addition to this, a new set of tourists kept pouring in over the next 15 days. The weather gods never disappointed them as the town witnessed one spell of snowfall after the other. This led to more arrivals of tourists much to the glee of the people associated with the tourism-related activities. Taxi owners, restaurant owners and hoteliers were in for a surprise as the period, which is considered to be an offseason, turned out to be the one offering windfall gains to them. The locals had a tough time since the supply of essentials was hit for some days. The additional arrivals in the town added on to the pressure on the resources that are available in the winter months and now everything was available at a premium. Even the prices of gachak and rewaris, considered to be winter delicacies, had shot up. In addition to this was the misery that is associated with snow and subsequent frost. BD Pande Hospital in the town reported a phenomenal increase in patients arriving following accidents related to falls on account of the frost. Orthopaedic experts had a busy time attending to these patients. Construction norms
in smoke
The poll season has come as a boon for those who have resorted to rampant construction in the Lake City. Giving two hoots to the existing norms, those interested in carrying out illegal construction in Nainital have gone ahead with their nefarious plans ever since the Model Code of Conduct came into being. These elements knew that the official machinery would be busy carrying out the poll-related jobs and would neither have the time nor the resources to address the problem of illegal construction during the poll season. So they decided to make hay while the sun shine during the poll season. They also knew that no political party would oppose their actions all this while. As regards the subsequent action against the illegally constructed structures, it would be left to the new government that comes to power in March.
Field day for media
A section of the society that has a field day ever since the poll was announced in the state has been the media. The ongoing political activity seems to have overshadowed every other development that has been recorded in the state. The focus has been just centred on who will form the next government and what can be derived from the contestants in economic terms. Paid news has made a strong presence in a small state like Uttarakhand despite the fact that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has put in place stringent measures to check the menace. The vernacular media in particular has raked in a moolah estimated to be worth crores of rupees right under the nose of the authorities. This has put the issues related to the common man clearly on the backburner. As of now the news means elections across the state. The rest will be taken care of once the new government assumes office in the second week of March.
Genuine issues
sidelined
The poll scenario in the state this time is presenting a murky picture. There are several factors that have taken the poll pundits by surprise and they are unable to come up with a clear picture in terms of who has an upper edge. To begin with there is a complete absence of a wave in favour of a particular party or against another party. In the absence of a wave, it is difficult to assume the shift of vote percentage in favour of a party in particular or against another party. Secondly, the major players in the fray-the Congress and the BJP, are clearly in the campaign without any issue of their own. They are trying to run each other down. While the BJP has been attacking the Congress on the scams that have been encircling the of the UPA government at the Centre, the Congress has been targeting the BJP with regards to a series of allegations on corruption at the state level. In this entire process, the parties that have been taking up the genuine issues pertaining to the state have been sidelined. It is the parties like the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Progressive), the Uttarakhand Parivartan Party (UPP) or the Left parties which have raised genuine concerns of the people of the state. But in the prevailing scenario, they have just been pushed to the sidelines of the state polity. This has led to the complete disillusionment of the social activists and the intelligentsia. As prominent social activist and Uttarkhand Lok Vahini leader Shamsher Singh Bisht puts it, “Uttarakhand can today be described as Thekedar Khand (state of contractors) as everyone is just out to mint money here.” The same sentiment is being aired by those persons who have genuinely contributed the prime of their lives for creation of the new state. — Rajeev Khanna
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Victory for NIZ Sports Academy in cricket tourney
Dehradun , January 22 In reply, NIZ Sports Academy, New Delhi, scored 94 runs for the loss of two wickets in 14.1 overs to win the match by eight wickets. Opener Lokesh Sharma remained unbeaten on 47 runs while Sandeep scored 28 runs. S.
P. Gupta, chairman of the Institute of Management and Education (IME), who was the chief guest for the concluding function, gave away prizes to the winners and runners-up teams. The winning team was given a cheque of Rs.1,11,000 while the runners-up team got Rs 71,000. Hyder, who was adjudged man of the series, was given a motor cycle.
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Village kids in the Dhanaulti constituency, who were attracted towards a convoy of election campaigners for free badges and flags of various parties, have something more to cheer about.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has claimed that a wave of change in favour of the Congress has been sweeping the hill state of
Uttarakhand. Addressing mediapersons, Sheila Dikshit, who is on a two-day election campaign for the party in the state, said here today that the Congress would provide a stable, accountable and transparent government in the state.
Dehradun , January 22
However, BJP candidate Ravindra Singh Katariya argues that the maximum parts of Rajpur Road comprises areas that are represented by BJP MLAs. After delimitation, 90 per cent of area of Rajpur Road comes from Rajpur, Doiwala and the Dehradun proper constituency, which are currently represented by BJP MLAs Ganesh Joshi, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Harbans Kapoor. 
I have selected 48 bighas of land for the setting up of a water park in the area and sent the proposal to the DMC, which has approved it and also forwarded it to the state government. The proposal has, however, been awaiting
approval.