Dehradun, June 9
Harak Singh Rawat, Congress legislator from Rudraprayag and senior party leader, was here today inducted into the Vijay Bahuguna Cabinet, ending the suspense about who would be the last to become minister in the state government.

Harak Singh was administered the oath of office and secrecy as a minister by Governor Dr Aziz Qureshi at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhawan.

Interestingly, Harak Singh Rawat, who was the Leader of the Opposition in the previous Assembly, was a front-runner for the post of Chief Minister after the last Assembly elections along with other senior state party leaders. He was also reportedly unhappy at the choice of Vijay Bahuguna as Chief Minister. He was quite vocal against the Congress government in the state and even called it a “rag tag” combination.

Harak Singh wanted the post of Deputy Chief Minister but the party high command did not oblige him. He also publicly announced that he would not accept any post less than Deputy Chief Minister and had taken a vow at the Dhari Devi temple in this regard.

A total of 11 ministers, including Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, formed the state government while the last slot was kept vacant. Other groups also started mounting pressure on the Chief Minister by including Independent legislator from Tehri Dinesh Dhanai, who extended support to the Congress government.

However, Harak Singh sided with Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Parliamentary Affairs Harish Rawat, who was also angry for being denied the top post in the state government. Harish Rawat also exerted pressure on the party high command to induct Harak Singh into the ministry. There were rumours that he could have rocked the Congress government by jumping the fence if kept out of the Cabinet for long.

With the Sitarganj byelection fast approaching, the high command finally agreed to give him the vacant slot in the state Cabinet. The move was also aimed at weaning him away from the dissident Harish Rawat camp.

Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Indira Hridayesh, Irrigation Minister Yashpal Arya, Health Minister Surendra Singh Negi, Panchayati Raj Minister Pritam Singh, Labour Minister Durgapal, Planning Minister Dinesh Agarwal, former Chief Minister ND Tiwari and Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Commission Mayukh Maher were present at the swearing-in ceremony. Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain conducted the ceremony that was attended by many legislators and officials.

Later talking to mediapersons, Harak singh said he would try to come true to the faith reposed in him by the party leadership.

Dehradun, June 9
For the Mankotia family from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh today was the most important day of their lives. While Col RPS Mankotia’s elder son Bhanu Pratap Singh Mankotia passed out of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) with flying colours getting the coveted sword of honour, his other son Surya Pratap Singh Mankotia too was part of the maiden passing out parade at the newly created Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Gaya.

Bhanu Pratap, now a Lieutenant with Sind Horse after commissioning, bagged the prestigious sword of honour at the IMA for standing the best all round gentleman cadet from the regular course. He also won the gold medal for standing second in the order of merit from the regular course.

Col RPS Mankotia said he was extremely happy that his sons were continuing with the family tradition of donning the olive uniform. He added by bagging the coveted sword of honour, his son Bhanu Pratap had lived up to the expectations of his family elders like Major Vijay Singh Mankotia and Col Sanjeev Singh Salaria, who too had got this honour.

Col Mankotia said his younger son Surya Pratap too had completed his training and was part of the passing out parade at the OTA, Gaya, today and would now go for further training. Mother Sunita Mankotia said this was the fourth generation of their family in the Army and she was happy with her sons’ natural inclination towards serving in defence forces.

A son of a farmer was also among the league of medal winners. Sandeep Kumar Yadav, a resident of Nalanda in Bihar and son of a farmer, was presented with the silver medal for standing second in the order of merit from the regular course. A Rimocollion, Sandeep attributed his success to the initial training he received at the Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun, followed by the National Defence Academy, Pune. “The training at the IMA was an easy task at hand once we had successfully undergone training at the NDA,” he said.

Among other medal winners was Uday Bhan Singh Chandel who won the bronze medal for standing third in the order of merit from the regular Course. Abhimanyu Sirohi won the silver medal for standing first in the technical graduate course. Abhishek Mahajan won the silver medal for standing first in the technical entry scheme. All medals were presented at the passing out parade by Admiral Nirmal Verma, who was the chief guest, amid a round of applause by the audience.

Dehradun, June 9
Dehradun District Magistrate Ravinath Raman’s directions to all fellow junior magistrates to attend to the public coming to the DM’s office when he is not around show his sincerity towards his duty.

Raman, who hails from Tamil Nadu, was brought up in Maharashtra. He grew up sharing his father’s dream, who had also cleared the civil services exam in 1961, but could not join due to unavoidable circumstances.

After doing graduation from BITS Pilani in 1976 and honours in computers application, he joined Infosys and served in Singapore and the USA as a senior system analyst. However, his dream to clear the civil services exam made him resign from Infosys.

Finally his handwork paid off and he cleared the civil services exam in 2001-02 and became an IPS officer. It was during his training period that he met his life partner, Vimmi Sachdeva, an IPS officer, at present SP (Headquarters).

In 2002-03, Raman gave another attempt and achieved his dream to become an IAS officer. He said:“It is not that I was not happy as an IPS officer. I did not want to limit myself and wished to serve public in various capacities and bring in difference to their lives.”

Out of his various postings so far, he rated that of DM, Rudraprayag, as the most satisfying.

He has also chalked out concrete plans to contribute to Dehradun in a big way. He said: “Dehradun is plagued with the problem of encroachments. Slum colonies that have usurped a lot of land in the city will be provided with houses under the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojana. I have also proposed to provide them with means of livelihood near their housing colonies so that they do not have to move away from the area in search of work.”

He further said the second biggest problem that required a long- term solution was that of traffic jams. “For immediate relief, I have talked to traffic police officials with regard to the widening of some busiest roads in the city.”

He also expressed concern over the depleting level of groundwater and said he was awaiting the Ground Water Commission to visit the city to make its recommendations in this direction.