Cong may lose Nainital reserved Assembly seat 
BJP seeks inquiry into issuance of caste certificate to Sarita Arya
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 21
Disaster is waiting to happen at the doors of the Uttarakhand Congress as the party may lose the reserved Assembly seat of Nainital held by Congress MLA Sarita Arya.

A BJP leader and president of SC and ST Front (BJP), Rajesh Arya has demanded enquiry into the issuance of caste certificate to Sarita Arya through which she managed to fight the 2012 Assembly election.

The issue of Sarita Arya has come as a God-sent opportunity for the BJP to get even with the Congress that is said to be behind the disappearance of BJP MLA Kiran Mandal, who was waiting to switch sides once the Bahuguna delivers his main demands.

Former Chairman of Municipal Board, Sarita Arya stood from the reserved Nainital Assembly seat and according to the charges levelled by Arya, Sarita misused the reservation policy to get herself elected from the reserved assembly seat. "On my complaint a screening committee has been constituted to look into the matter," said Rajesh Arya.

According to the reservation policy, if a woman belonging to general category marries a person belonging to SC/ST/OBC category, she cannot avail the benefits of reservation policy.

"Sarita Arya, while belonging to a general category, and married to a person (K.N Arya, PC officer) belonging to the SC category, cannot be the beneficiary of the reservation policy. But their children can. I do not know how the authorities issued a caste certificate to her which helped her in fighting the Assembly election from the reserved seat," said Arya.

In a similar case in Ranikhet, the caste certificate of Alka Arya was invalidated after an enquiry.

Waiting to strike back at the Congress, the Uttarakhand BJP has said they would take the matter to court in case the District Magistrate, Nainital, fails to cancel the certificate. "We are ready for a long battle. If the matter does not get resolved at the district level, we will approach the courts," said B.S Chuphal.

While the Congress plans to lure BJP MLA Kiran Mandal to switch sides are yet to materialise, the party may lose the one seat advantage over the BJP in case the enquiry initiated by the District Magistrate goes against Sarita Arya.

"The party has already promised the moon to BJP MLA Kiran Arya as a reward for switching sides. It would be an uphill task to give land rights to members of Bengali community, because it would lead to other areas demanding similar concessions," said Suresh Joshi, general secretary (BJP state unit).

Single registration system must for trekkers’ safety
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, May 21
The Pithoragarh police wants to make trekking in the Himalayas safe and properly manageable by starting a single registration process for all trekkers. This will ensure full safety of trekkers and porters accompanying them, who get trapped in the Himalayas, DIG, Pithoragarh range, GS Martolia told this correspondent here today.

“Due to lack of a foolproof system for single point registration of foreign tourists going for trekking in the Himalayas, we could not trace the tourists who used banned satellite phones in the restricted areas on the route to the Pindari glacier last week,” said Martolia.

The DIG said the police wanted that all tourists, domestic or foreign, going for trekking in the Himalayas should be registered with the local administration at the point they moved on the trek. “Not only the tourists be registered with a single authority for their protection, but also trained guides be sent with them as some fatal accidents have occurred due to unskilled guides accompanying the tourists in the past,” said the DIG.

He added he was writing to the Tourism Department as well as the administration authorities to consider the matter of safety of the trekkers in our part of the Himalayas, as with proper publicity of safety measures, trekkers from across the world could be attracted. “During a tour to the Milam glacier last month I found that a group of foreign trekkers was facing difficulties as the guide accompanying them was a resident of Sikkim and had no idea of this part of the Himalayas and its treks,” said the DIG.

Martolia said tourists who got trapped while trekking in Milam or Pindari glaciers sometimes could not get help as they had crossed towards Dewal in Uttarkashi without informing the local authorities. “Had it been mandatory for the tourists to provide information to the local administration, they would have got help from the ITBP and the local administration in times of distress, said the DIG.

He cited an incident when some Nepalese porters died on the Kalindi trek route near Gomukh last year. “Had there been a system of single point registration for trekkers the incident could have been averted and the trekkers and their porters provided timely help,” said the DIG.

Over 100 principals gather at SGRR
Tribune News Service

Speakers at the All-India Conference of Principals of Sri Guru Ram Rai Schools in Dehradun on Sunday.

Dehradun, May 21
Principals of more than 100 Sri Guru Ram Rai Public Schools from all over the country gathered at the SGRR here today to discuss the problems related to their respective branches and shared their achievements.

The management gave them guidelines to deal with their problems and gave assurance to redress their grievances.

The programme was inaugurated by Additional Director, Director of Education, NK Bahuguna.

The educationists also presented their views on the subject ‘Administrative skills of principals in public schools’.

The guest of honour, Prof SP Thapiyal, said the principal played the most important role in taking an institute to a new height.

DMC councillor pulls up
Jal Sansthan officials
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 21
Leader of the opposition, Dehradun Municipal Corporation, Ashok Verma, took officials of Jal Sansthan to task for not providing potable water to the residents of Jakhan Area.

Verma, along with residents of Jakhan locality met Executive Engineer, Jal Sansthan, Subodh Kumar, and Anil Sharma and apprised them about the water crisis faced by the people of the locality. Verma said the residents had no option but to depend on affluent people of the area from whom they had been getting some water to drink. He said some of the lanes were too narrow for water tankers to even reach there. Their demand for water pipelines too had not been attended in all these years.

The officials assured them that the estimate of new potable lines would be prepared within a week and work would be started immediately thereafter. 

Dev Bhoomi Mahasabha members meet DM over pollution
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 21
The members of Dev Bhoomi Mahasabha met the District Magistrate regarding problems of pollution and encroachment in Miyawala locality of the district. President of the organisation, Pramod Shastri, said the area was full of polythene bags which appeared scattered everywhere.

This not only polluted the environment in the area but also posed danger to the health of the animals who gulped them while eating garbage. He requested the DM to impose restrictions on usage of polythene in the area.

The other major problem he raised was pollution of the river Dulhani by a liquor factory situated at Kuanwala. He said the waste flowing from the factory had rendered the water in the river poisonous,

which directly affected the biodiversity surviving on it.The water was also being used by the residents for various purposes, which made the case more serious.

Hinglish spoiling purity of Hindi: Expert
Sandeep Rawat
Tribune News Service

Dr Ram Prakash Sharma, Hindi litterateur and member of the Hindi Consultation Committee, Union HRD Ministry, at Gurukul Kangri University in Haridwar. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Haridwar, May 21
With mixed usage of Hindi and English becoming common, it may be easy while interacting but its spoiling the purity of the Hindi language. This was stated by Dr Ram Prakash Sharma, a member of the Suggestion Committee on Hindi language, Human Resource Ministry, the Government of India, here yesterday.

He said while many developed nations communicate in their official languages, in India the general opinion is that if we don’t learn English, we will be considered backward.

Dr Sharma said in more than154 countries, Hindi was being taught with foreign students taking keen interest in learning this language. In India, one the contrary, mushrooming of English medium schools was on a rise, he said.

“For Hindi is the language of masses, multi-national companies also make use of it while advertising their products,” said Sharma, who has been working for the cause of Hindi with the HRD Ministry for more than a decade now.

He also mooted for having regional language as the curriculum language in primary schools.

He also said in north-eastern states, Hindi was fast gaining popularity with the setting up of Central Hindi Institute at Shillong.

“More work needs to be done in propagating the use of Hindi, which is the language of the Indian culture. For that we have to feel proud in speaking and writing in the language,” asserted Sharma.

NSUI activists stage protest
Tribune News Service

Power cuts cripple life in Pithoragarh, Champawat
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, May 21
Residents of the border districts of Pithoragarh and Champawat experienced the worst Sunday yesterday as power cuts for six hour were imposed in these districts by grid control room at Rishikesh and by local distribution circles. It affected the daily business of owners of mobile repairing shops, photostat shops and music centres.

“We had to shutdown power for 3 hours from 10 am to 12 noon yesterday as our workers are doing the work of enhancing the capacity of substation that supplies power from grid to both the districts,” said Chandan Singh Basnait, Executive Engineer, electricity distribution circle, Champawat.

In normal time, power cut by the grid authorities for three hours has continued for the past two months in these two border districts.

“We have demanded from the government that like Rishikesh and Haldwani, our two districts also be freed from this power cuts as there are no alternative to the electricity supplied by the grid to these districts,” said Bhagwan Singh Mahra, a political figure in Lohaghat town.

Not only residents of hill districts, but also of the plain areas of Champawat are also being subjected to power cuts thugh they have been linked with Lohia head power house situated in US Nagar as according to the residents, the maximum part of generation is being shifted towards the industries and big farmers.

“The sufferings of the residents of the Tarai region have gone up as they are braving the temperature of nearly 45°C without power his season,” said Mahra.

Now, all eyes on state BJP president
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 21
After managing to appoint Ajay Bhatt as the Leader of the Opposition in which the senior leaders BS Koshiyari and BC Khanduri had an upper hand, the attention is now likely to shift to the post of Uttarakhand party chief at present held by BS Chuphal.

In keeping with the caste and regional considerations, the post is likely to be vested with a Rajput leader hailing from Garhwal. With Khanduri and Koshiyari calling the shots, it is almost certain that for the post of party chief, their choice of candidate will prevail. Party sources say while Khanduri is in favour of Chaubattakhal MLA Tirath Singh Rawat, Koshiyari is in favour of former Agriculture Minister Trivender Singh Rawat.

After initially putting forward the nomination of his supporter as the Leader of the Opposition in the Uttarakhand assembly, former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had distanced himself from the entire exercise.

But the appointment of Bhatt has not gone down well within the party and discontent is brewing in the BJP over his appointment. Bhatt was appointed by passing several senior MLAs, including former Chairman of the Vidhan Sabha and seven times MLA Harbans Kapoor who had the support of several MLAs.

While Nishank went along with the party decision, it is unlikely that he would yield ground to Koshiyari and Khanduri in the matter of selection of the party chief. Uttarakhand BJP chief BS Chuphal, whose term is expected to end in October, hails for Kumaon and is known for his proximity with Nishank.

“The decision to appoint Ajay Bhatt has not gone down well with the party. The Koshiyari camp's dominance is complete. The central leadership too is maintaining a status quo by reposing faith in Khanduri because there is a real chance of the BJP making capital gain of the instability in the Congress but the leadership cannot antagonise the senior leaders and would have to take their views while appointing the BJP party chief,” said a senior BJP leader . 

Roorkee to have new bus station: Minister
Sandeep Rawat
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, May 21
Uttarakhand Transport Minister Surendra Rakesh has announced a new state-of-the-art bus station keeping in mind a large number of devotees coming to Sabir Pak Dargah and people visiting the Indian Institute of Technology, the Bengal Engineers Group and the Central RBI in Roorkee.

Surendra, a BSP legislator, said as Roorkee was a connecting city to Haridwar and the rest of Uttarakhand it needed a bus station of the class of the ISBT, Dehradun. A proposal had been made in this regard and hopefully the people would get a new bus station in the coming years.

The Transport Minister added besides buses of the Regional Transport Office, luxury buses would be operated from the Roorkee depot to provide better facilities to the commuters. He was speaking on the sidelines of a function.

Surendra criticised the previous BJP government for failing to fulfil the aspirations of the people. He called the alliance with the Congress in the state as satisfactory that had given the people the hope of a development-oriented government that would cater to all segments of society.

“All legislators in the coalition government, including three of the BSP, are concerned about development in all districts of the state. We have given support on several issues and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is trying his best to speed up development works in the state,” said Surendra, a legislator from the Bhagwanpur segment in Haridwar district.

The minister cited various steps being taken by the state government for the welfare of the minorities, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

Asked about BJP legislator Kiran Mandal being lured into the Congress, the BSP legislator said it was an internal party matter of the Congress and the BJP. He, however, rejected it as rumour in the absence of any official confirmation.

Workshop on traffic management

Haridwar, May 21
A three-day training workshop on traffic management and crowd management for Scouts and Guides of the city is being organised at Bhalla Intermediate College. The workshop aims at training the students in such a way that during mega fairs, if needed, they can be called in to assist the police.

Master trainer OP Guniyal said this was being done keeping in mind the religious importance of Haridwar where religious gatherings are witnessed on regular intervals. On such occasions, scouts and guides can come handy in managing the crowd.

Ratan, a class IX student, said he was excited to learn the fair and crowd management techniques and was eager to lend his services as a Scout. — TNS

3 Bijnaur men held for murder
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 21
The Doiwala police today arrested three accused, Kamender, Tejpal and Pappu, all residents of Bijnaur, Uttar Pardesh, for murdering Inder Veer Singh, alias Billu, whose body was found hanging from a tree at Doiwala on May 15. Since the body had its hands tied from the rear, the police suspected he was killed. The victim was a resident of Bijnau. No one in the locality identified him.

Police teams were sent to Saharanpur, Muzzafarnagar and Bijnaur. At Bijnaur the police was successful in coming across the family of Billu, who identified the photo of the victim. His wife Sunita cast doubts on her brother-in-law Tejpal and Kamender, who were arrested by the police. They admitted their crime. Both the accused had given Rs 60,000 to Pappu, his friend Bhupender and Manoj for murdering Billu. Bhupender and Manoj are still absconding.

The accused told the police that victim's wife had illicit relations with Kamender, who is father-in-law of Tejpal's son. Tejpal is Billu's elder brother and had property dispute with the victim.

When Billu came to know of his wife's relationship with Kamender, he threatened the latter. Given to this, both Kamender and Tejpal joined hands together and hired their friend Pappu for the crime.