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railway
budget 2012-13
Senior leaders in race for post of CM hold talks with Azad
Training programme to begin today
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RIMC best actor award for Shukla
Stress laid on promoting civil defence activities
U’khand Police victorious in cricket tourney
Two hurt in landslide; road blocked
Khanduri’s defeat spoils the BJP’s show
Workshop on “Green Chemistry for Environments”
Woman dies as cylinder bursts
Doon students excel in master mind event
More crorepati MLAs in Assembly this time
Tiger kills tusker in Corbett
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railway
budget 2012-13
Nainital, March 11 Under the banner of Bageshwar-Tanakpur Rail Marg Nirman Sangharsh Samiti, the people have once again sent across memorandums addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi, reminding them of their demand that has been pending for several years. They have also mentioned that the Congress must deliver on the promises on this front that its leaders had made during the campaign to the recently held Assembly polls. They have stated that despite talks of a survey to be done by the Railways for laying of the tracks, nothing has been done till now and nobody is aware of the developments in the direction. The demand for Bageshwar-Tanakpur line has been gathering steam for quite some time with representatives from all the political parties supporting it. The members of the samiti have held protests and demonstrations in Delhi in the recent past and have been assured time and again by the leaders of the ruling party that their demand would be taken up with the Railways Ministry and the top persons in the government. Just before the last Raiway Budget, the Lok Sabha member from Almora, Pradeep Tamta, had strongly pushed for the Tanakpur-Bageshwar rail link. Having raised the issue vociferously during Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Rail Budget speech in Parliament, Tamta had written two separate letters to Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Mamta Banerjee, seeking rail connectivity between these two areas. He had written that the demand for this rail link has been pending since pre-Independence days. A survey for the same was carried out in the year 1912, 1993 and also in the year 2006. However, the work for the same could not be started till date. Several important Congress leaders have also made promises to the public to establish this link. Tamta had underlined that the link is very critical not only from the angle of economic development of this backward hilly region but also from the strategic viewpoint. The link will be very However, the Railways Board has found that connectivity on routes like Bageshwar-Tanakpur, Chaukhutia-Ramnagar etc. is not economically viable. The chairman of Railway Board Vinay Mittal during an interaction in October last year had stated that the surveys have yielded that they are not economically viable. Referring to the Bageshwar-Tanakpur rail route, he has disclosed that the estimated cost for connecting the two destinations is working out to be Rs 2252 crore for a mere 51.48 km stretch. He had underlined that such projects can become viable only if they are cleared by the Planning Commission and Parliament. At times state governments come forward to share 50 per cent of the cost involved and work is expedited on such routes. |
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Senior leaders in race for post of CM hold talks with Azad
The statement by Harish Rawat, a serious contender for the post of Chief Minister, is more than what meets the eye. While the suspense over the choice of the party high command for the top post in Uttarakhand continued on Sunday, Harish Rawat has emerged as a formidable candidate amongst the party MPs in race for the job. According to party sources, Harish Rawat has been able to convince the three Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislators to switch sides, in case he was made the Chief Minister. Two of the BSP legislators, Surinder Rakesh and Hari Dass, had met Ghulam Nabi Azad during his visit to Dehradun on Saturday when he had come to elicite the views of the party legislators on the issue of choice of Chief Minister. They reportedly assured their support to the Congress Party. However, according to party sources, the Congress high command has been weary of splitting BSP in Uttarakhand and annoying BSP Chief Mayawati. In the given political situation in Uttar Pradesh, the party does not want to irritate BSP further and want to get official support from her for a Congress government in Uttarakhand. But Harish Rawat who lost out to veteran N.D.Tewari after 2002 Assembly polls in the race for the post of Chief Minister, now is in no mood to relent this time. Interestingly, in 2002 also, it was Ghulam Nabi Azad who was general secretary and in-charge of Uttarakhand party affairs. Ironically, Harish Rawat who had done all the hard work to make the Congress Party win the first ever sate Assembly elections in the state was left high and dry and veteran Tewari was imposed on the state. N.D.Tewari did everything under his command to undermine Harish Rawat in politics. However, when he completed his Rajya Sabha term in 2008, he had nothing much to do as his Almora parliamentary constituency was also declared as reserve in the fresh delimitation and was removed as state party chief after the party’s defeat in 2007 Assembly elections. But Harish Rawat chose Haridwar and created history by winning the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections for his party after quarter of a century. In the process, he also dented the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which had influence, winning majority of the Assembly seats in the 2002 and 2007 polls. He won over several senior BSP leaders, including legislators, including Qazi Nizamuddin from Mangalore. In the recent Assembly elections, BSP could win only three seats in the state. Harish Rawat either wants himself or one of his supporter legislators to become the Chief Minister if the party high command decides to prefer a legislator in a bid to avoid byelections in near future. Meanwhile, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has said that the party has decided to give support to Congress in the formation of the government in Uttarakhand. BSP state president Surajmal said that BSP supreme has given her green signal to negotiate with the Congress leadership at the central level. The party having three MLAs is most likely to be part of the government. "We will support Congress on instructions from party high command and the negotiations will follow,” said Surajmal on the telephone. |
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Training programme to begin today
Dehradun, March 11 The Union Government had notified the new EIA legislation in 2006, which makes it mandatory for various developmental projects such as mining, thermal power plants, infrastructural works and industries, including very small electroplating or foundry units, to get environment clearance. According to the Head, Division of Forest Ecology and Environment, FRI, Dr Laxmi Rawat, the objective of this training programme is to strengthen its human resource by providing information on technical aspects related to the EIA of the developmental projects with special emphasis on preparation of the environmental management plan. Dr SS Negi, Director, FRI, will inaugurate the training programme, which will conclude on March 16.
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RIMC best actor award for Shukla
Dehradun, March 11 Shivaji House stood first in the competition followed by Ranjit and Chandragupta Houses, who emerged second and third, respectively. Pratap House stood fourth. As of individual awards, the best actor was bagged by cadet Saurabh Shukla, the most upcoming actor award was jointly bagged by cadet Chinmay Goyal and Manvendra Dubey. Cadet Amit Kumar Rai won the best director award. Earlier, the cadets performed skits of 10 minutes each. All skits were hilarious. The cadets performed self-composed skits on Paan Singh Tomar, Modern Sholay and various other topics. Chief Guest Commandant, RIMC, Col Pankaj K Kumaria said such activities brought out the hidden acting talent of the cadets. He praised the excellent performance of the cadets. The judges for the event were CS Vishwakarma, DN Thapliyal, PK Sharma and PN Naik. CS Vishwakarma was overall coordinator of the event. |
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Stress laid on promoting civil defence activities
Dehradun, March 11 Presiding over a civil defence meeting at Pragati Vihar here today, Bhounthiyal said civil defence activities must be adequately promoted in the state. He asked the
sector wardens to take up, on priority basis, conduct training programmes on disaster management,
primary health services and fire extinguishing techniques. He said the sector wardens should
have excellent coordination with the residents of the area. Assistant Deputy Controller, Civil Defence, JN Yadav, assured assistance to the sector wardens in the conduct of civil defence activities. He urged the sector
wardens to keep all entries in family register up to date. Earlier, sector warden, Dharampur, Rajeev Sharma, said a tree-plantation programme was organised by them last year and another plantation was in the offing in the coming monsoon. Other sectar wardens, Brijmohan Sharma, Ravindra Mohan Kala and Mahesh Sachdeva, were prominent participant to the meeting.
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U’khand Police victorious in cricket tourney
Dehradun, March 11 The Graphic Era University team won the toss and elected to bat first. It scored 85 runs all out in 23.3 overs. Akbar was the top scorer with 18 runs while Manoj and Ravi Bisht took two wickets each. In reply, the Uttarakhand Police team scored 83 runs without loss in only 6 overs to win the match by 10 wickets. Opener Naresh Parihar mauled the Graphic Era University bowlers by scoring unbeaten 75 runs in 23 balls with the help of 11 hits over the fence and two boundaries. |
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Two hurt in landslide; road blocked
Pithoragarh, March 11 “The driver of the jeep, who received slight injuries, helped to retrieve the injured Nepali from the debris and sent him to community health centre at Dharchula,” said Thapa. According to eyewitnesses, the company involved in widening work of the road had done massive blasting last evening and the loose stones and debris was left uncleared by them. “As the jeep began downloading the passengers at the site after reaching Pangla, the dumped debris poured down suddenly causing them,” said Bhupendra Thapa. The traders’ association of Dharchula has demanded from the sub-divisional administration that the companies doing road widening work at this border should be more vigilant considerate towards the need of the villagers. “Due to this negligent tendency of the contractors working on this road, the villagers of Garvadhar, Mangti and Jipti villages are facing inconvenience due to blockage on their only road to Dharchula market, from where they purchase their daily needs and which is also subdivisional office,” said Thapa. |
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Khanduri’s defeat spoils the BJP’s show
The defeat of Khanduri proved costly for the party as it fell short by one seat to the Congress. Had Khanduri won the seat, the party would have been the largest party with 32 seats and first to claim to form government. But it did not happen. The party had projected the Chief Minister as the star campaigner and the entire Assembly elections strategy was woven around the clean image of Khanduri with the slogan “Khanduri Hai Zaroori”. The unprecedented success of the BJP, particularly in the Terai region, proved that the party managed to consolidate its votes while the rebellion in the Congress proved its undoing in the entire state. But the defeat of Khanduri and the victory of his bete noire former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank proved to be Achilles’ heel of the party. Amid allegations that Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank sabotaged the election of Khanduri from Kotdwar, the central leadership was in a fix on two counts. It was difficult for them to choose a leader of the BJP legislative party and could not decide on the offer made by Nishank to explore the possibility of forming the government. The party found itself in a dilemma on these issues as it did not want to annoy Khanduri and his supporters who were opposed to Nishank. Unable to take a decision on the issue of nominating leader of the BJP legislative party, the party legislators empowered the party leadership to take a decision on the matter. According to insiders, the senior party leadership found itself embarrassed as among the faction-ridden party, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank proved himself to be a better politician and manager. Nishank was removed by the party high command in September 2011 amid allegations of corruption and inefficiency. Interestingly, these allegations stemmed from the BJP high command and there was an attempt to run down Nishank. Both, Khanduri and Nishank choose to shift to new Assembly segments of Kotdwar and Doiwala, respectively. Khanduri, who is considered haughty and rigid, perhaps did not take the sitting BJP legislator Shailnder Singh Rawat into confidence before deciding about contesting from that seat, Nishank as Chief Minister had decided to contest from Doiwala and had started nurturing the segment. In the caste-ridden politics of Uttarkhand, Khanduri being a Brahmin found himself at the receiving end as Thakurs, who are in a majority in Kotdwar, stood solidly behind Congress candidate Surinder Singh Negi. In the Doiwala segment, Nishank proved lucky as Congress rebel SP Singh took more than 11,000 votes to pave the way for a 1200-vote victory for Nishank. Buoyed by his success and defeat of his political rival Khanduri, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank after the election results had offered to form the government with the help of independents and the three-member BSP group. However, the BJP leadership which projected Khanduri as the next Chief Minister could not take a decision. On selecting a new leader of the BJP legislative party, the number of aspirants has made the task of the party leadership difficult. Harbans Kapoor, Speaker of the outgoing Assembly, who has won the Assembly poll for the record eighth times, Madan Kaushik from Haridwar who has recorded his third successive electoral victory and Ajay
Bhatt, a former party general secretary, are in the race. It was believed that Ajay Bhatt, a former state health minister could be given the responsibility. The victory of the Congress over the rival BJP by one seat and the efforts by the party to win over three independents, lone member of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (P) and the three-member Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to cobble up majority in the 70-member House was an interesting event. With the Congress emerging as the single largest party with 32 seats, four short of majority, the focus has been shifted on the three independents and the lone UKD (P) legislators. Senior Congress leaders immediately went into action taking hold of the three independents. All three independents were basically Congress rebel candidates owing allegiance to one senior party leader or other. Mantri Prasad Naithani, independent from Devprayag, owed allegiance to party MP Satpal Maharaj, Harish Chander Durgapal from Lalkuan is a supporter of senior party leader Indira Hariydesh and Dinesh Dhanai from Tehri was supported by party MP Vijay Bahuguna. The lone UKD (P) legislator Pritam Singh Panwar from Yamunotri was taken to the Congress high command by Kishore Upadhaya, the Congress leader who lost elections from Tehri. Interestingly, these legislators apart from getting whatever they wanted in lieu of support also exerted pressure to get their leaders as Chief Minister. (By SMA Kazmi )
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Workshop on “Green Chemistry for Environments”
Dehradun, March 11 Inaugurating the workshop, Prof Vinod Kumar Singh, Director, Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, Bhopal, said green chemistry was a new branch of chemistry which lays emphasis on adoption of eco friendly methods to synthesise drugs and other chemicals by minimising the usage of toxic chemicals. Uttarakhand Council for Science and Technology director Rajendra Dobhal said with rising environmental concerns, green chemistry has became an important subject for the scientists and society in general. He said green chemistry was much safer chemistry nowdays taking into account various environmental concerns globally. Earlier, coordinator of the event DS Negi said the objective of the workshop was to make people working in industries aware about minimising of waste generation by following the principles of green chemistry. A total of 120 delegates are attending the workshop.
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Woman dies as cylinder bursts
Pithoragarh, March 11 Sub-inspector Bachi Singh Karayat said 31-year-old Gita Devi who sustained serious burn injuries died on her way to Base Hospital, Almora. The body has been handed over to her kin after a post-mortem examination. However, the deceased’s father has accused Gita’s husband of killing her. In an FIR registered with the Ranikhet revenue circle, he alleged that his daughter had been killed by her husband and his younger brother’s wife as they had an illicit love affair and his daughter had come to know about it. In another incident, Babita (22) was found dead in mysterious circumstances in her house in Digra village of Someshwar subdivision, Almora district. Her father Khim Singh Kaira has lodged an FIR against her husband and mother-in-law accusing them of killing his daughter. According to his father, Babita had got married in March 2011 and since then her in-laws had been harassing her.
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Doon students excel in master mind event
Dehradun, March 11 It was organised by the Sajha Welfare Society. Of the 6, 250 students, 72 qualified for the final round. Vinay Shukla, a student of Love Dale Academy, won in the the category of “Master Mind (senior) while Kinsak Negi, a student of Mount Font School, topped in the category of “Master Mind (junior). Abhishek Tamola, a student of Glacier Academy, won the first position in the “Master Mind (sub-junior)” category, Pratik Badola of Sant Kabir Academy won in the category of “Master Mind (kids) and Shiv Malhotra of Stepping Stones School won the first position in the category of “Master Mind (Aryan)”. The prizes were given away by Health Director, SWS, Seema Verma and Chairman Pankaj Bhardwaj. Verma appreciated the endeavours of the organisation and said by participating in such quiz competitions, students would be prepared for other competitive exams. Senior coordinator, SWS, Puja Bhardwaj said the organisation had been working in the fields of education, health and public service for the past 12 years. She said they would soon hold “Super Mind Competition” in which teachers of city schools would participate. Besides, the organisation would also hold health camps in schools. Mona Negi and Shailash Chander Godiyal played the role of quiz master and Reetu Anand, Mansi Barthwal, Megh Pandey and R Dhawan were the judges. |
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More crorepati MLAs in Assembly this time
Nainital, March 11 In terms of percentage, the figure of such legislators stands at 27 per cent, which is three per cent higher than those in the previous Assembly. This analysis has been made by the Uttarakhand Election Watch (UKEW) after analysing the affidavits of the 70 elected legislators to the Assembly. The UKEW has stated that out of the 19 legislators, five have declared that they are facing serious criminal charges. Talking in terms of money power, the newly elected legislators are crorepatis and the number of such legislators has gone up from 16 per cent to 46 per cent in the previous Assembly. In terms of numbers, 32 newly elected legislators in the state are crorepatis. According to the UKEW, "The MLA with maximum assets in the 2012 state Assembly is Rajesh Shukla of the BJP from the Kitcha constituency with assets worth Rs 26.63 crore followed by Amrita Rawat of the Congress from Ramnagar with Rs 13.57 crore and Surendra Singh Jeena of the BJP from the Salt constituency with assets worth Rs 7.04 crore." Contrary to this, there are only three legislators "A total of six MLAs out of 70, declared liabilities of Rs 40 lakhs or above," states the UKEW report. Among major parties, the average asset per MLA for the Congress is Rs 1.87 crore, BJP is Rs 2.02 crore, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is Rs 1.21 crore and for Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Progressive)/UKD (P) is Rs 1.27 crore. The UKEW analysis shows that 71 per cent of the legislators are graduates and above and only five women candidates have made it to the Assembly. Their percentage in terms of representation is just seven per cent. Analysing the MLAs who have re-contested the elections in the state, the UKEW has stated that there were 50 such legislators. It has been underlined that while the average asset of these MLAs, as declared in 2007, was Rs 83,34,174, it has gone up to Rs 2,30,46,876 in 2012. The average asset growth for these re-contesting MLAs has been Rs 1,47,12,701 in the past five years. Similarly, the average percentage growth in assets for these MLA stands at 177 per cent. The UKEW report says that Rajesh Shukla of the BJP from the Kitcha constituency has shown the highest increase in assets to the tune of Rs 25.76 crore followed by Surendra Singh Jeena of the BJP from the Salt constituency with an asset increase of Rs. 6.26 crores and Yashpal Arya of the Congress from the Bazpur constituency with an asset increase of Rs 3.71 crore. The highest percentage increase in assets that has been pegged at a whopping 84.33 per cent has been for Bishan Singh Chuphal of the BJP from the Didihat constituency. His assets rose from Rs 1.18 lakh in 2007 to Rs 1.01 crore in 2012. He is followed by Mayukh Singh of the Congress from the Pithoragarh constituency with a percentage increase of 47.73 per cent (from Rs 6.30 lakh in 2007 to Rs 3.07 crore in 2012) and Banshidhar Bhagat of the BJP from the Kaladhungi constituency with an increase of 29.68 per cent (from Rs 2.38 lakh in 2007 to Rs 73.02 lakh in 2012). |
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Tiger kills tusker in Corbett
In an unprecedented incident, a tiger killed a tusker in the Corbe tt National Park in Uttarakhand today. He said the deceased tusker hd tusks that were around two feet in length. “In all probability, the tiger had killed the tusker as the latter had injuries both on its back and head. The injuries mark visibly revealed that the tusker was attacked by a tiger”, Mishra pointed out. He said the tiger had also eaten parts of the body of the deceased tusker. “The hind legs of the tusker had deep wounds and the ears of the elephant had been eaten by the tiger”, Mishra said. — TNS |
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Dehradun, March 11
Dehradun, March 11
Dehradun , March 11
THE ruling BJP finds itself in a piquant situation following the results of the Assembly elections. The party under the leadership of Chief Minister BC Khanduri did very well than expected but was stunned by the defeat of Khanduri from the Kotdwar Assembly segment.
