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Upheavel in U’khand Kranti Dal (P)
Leaders sink differences
CM mourns freedom fighter Laxmi Sehgal’s death
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Police modernisation
on the cards: DGP
Residents seek master plan for Champawat town
Jwalapur colonies getting muddy water
Power cuts in several parts of Uttarakhand
Cop-Journalist
Scuffle
Employees of Jal Sansthan stage dharna
Need for women to fight against foeticide: Rawat
CPM opposes Food Security Bill
Case of burglary solved; 3 arrested
Farmlands to have boundary walls under MNREGA
Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve a pride of Uttarakhand
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Upheavel in U’khand Kranti Dal (P)
Dehradun July 23 Aeri’s visit to the venue of the protest, held by expelled district president NK Gusain against MLA Harbhajan Singh Cheema’s anti-hill rhetoric a few days ago, is understood to be the reason behind serving notice to Aeri. Sources said the move was orchestrated to teach a lesson to Aeri, who had been hobnobbing with camps of rebel leaders, including former state minister Diwakar Bhatt and staunch bete noire of present president of UKD (P), Trivender Singh Panwar. The arrow has hit the bull’s eye as Aeri, baring his susceptibility and weakening stature in the party, has succumbed to the pressure tactics and returned to the party fold without echoing any murmurs of protest. Panwar later made it clear that it did not behove well on part of senior leaders or even members of the party to gell well with the expelled leaders. Panwar, with his unequivocal tone and action, has reinforced his empowered position in the party as of now. Harish Pathak, general secretary, who, too, was served notice along with Aeri and taken back in the same vein, however, registered his protest, far from the vigilant eyes of Panwar, saying that Aeri, being founder and patron of the party, must have all the freedom to visit anyone outside the party without any restrictions. In this entire ball game, Panwar also used party general secretary Shishpal in working out his moves against Aeri. In his press release, he said any statement with regard to Aeri would not issued by anyone else than the president of the party himself in future. His statement showed as if the press meet called by Shishpal regarding disciplinary action against Aeri and Pathak was not supported by Panwar. This is also meant to give some face-saving grace to Aeri, to indicate that Panwar was not in the know of the things against him. On this issue, Shishpal averred: “The party president must take disciplinary action against me if I made any unilateral announcement about Aeri on my own without taking a go-ahead from the president. If he is not taking action against me, it means I have become mightier than the party president.” The entire Panwar-Aeri imbroglio has certainly exposed the seething tug-of-war between both the leaders, which, at present, seemed to have slid in favour of Panwar.
Leaders sink differences
Dehradun, July 23 He also withdrew notice against party general secretary Harish Pathak on the same ground. Aeri and Pathak were served with notices on Saturday on account of indiscipline. Pathak sat quiet in the press conference far in a corner, while Aeri, too, reiterated the same lines echoed by Panwar, terming the entire episode unfortunate. Panwar also clarified that those party office-bearers or leaders who had been expelled due to indiscipline would not be taken back in the party. He said none from the party was engaged in talks with expelled leader and former state minister Diwakar Bhatt. He said:" The party would continue to fight for the regional issues on it's own and does not look for the support of any other party in this regard. We are strengthening our base with appointment of new members and constitution of district committees. This process will culminate by October." Having burnt his hand in announcing the date of the party convention in October, bypassing the party foundation day on July 25, he said that the party would celebrate the foundation day on July 25 throughout the state by holding deliberations and programmes. The convention, however, will be held in the month of October only. In the wake of scant monsoon, he said the state might face drought this year. The state government must prepare the estimate and demand relief from the Centre regarding this.
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CM mourns freedom fighter Laxmi Sehgal’s death
Dehradun, July 23 In his condolence message, Bahuguna said the late Laxmi Sehgal had played an important role in the freedom struggle and had taken charge as Commander of the Rani Jhanshi Regiment of the INA. Chief Minister Bahuguna said Sehgal, who was a doctor, was also active in social service. He said the country had lost a great personality. He prayed for the peace of the departed soul and strength for the bereaved family members. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Governor Dr Aziz Qureshi has also condoled the death of veteran freedom fighter Laxmi Sehgal. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) condoled the death of veteran freedom fighter and former Commandant of the Azad Hind Fauz Luxmi Sehgal. The speakers, including state secretary Surender Singh Sajwan, threw light on the contributions of Sehgal as first lady commandant of the INA under Subhas Chander Bose and later as social worker. Sehgal, 97, passed away today after having a cardiac arrest.
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Police modernisation
on the cards: DGP
Haridwar,
July 23 DGP VR Pant was
addressing journalists at a function in Press Club of Haridwar here
today where he cited the just-held Kanwar fair in which Uttarakhand
police managed a record of 1.92 crore Kanwariyas with less than 4000
force deployed in Haridwar. Attributing it to the hard work of police
personnel and a legacy to contribute to the motherland as, in
Uttarakhand, every family has almost one member in the armed forces, the
state police has stood out tall in comparison to other state police
force achievements. He termed modernisation of the police force as
vital in making it capable of tackling traditional as well as modern
crimes such as cyber crime. “Uttarakhand police lived up to the
expectations of the people, particularly in striking a balance between
people-friendly police image and tough against criminals. It was the
patience and resilience of the state police personnel which made the
Kanwar fair peaceful,”said the DGP. While Garhwal Range DIG Sanjay
Gunjiyal added that post-2000, police reforms have fallen on expected
lines, and a major crux of the state police force was young and new,
which had now gained quite an experience. SSP, Haridwar, Arun Mohan
Joshi said that public cooperation and inputs from media and other
organisations proved vital for the police to manage law and order
situation on regular basis. Former legislator Ambrish Kumar termed
managing almost 2 crore Kanwariyas smoothly, which is double the
population of the whole Uttarakhand, as creditable, suggesting the state
government to provide more infrastructural facilities in Haridwar where,
on a regular basis Maha Kumbh, Ard Kumbh and Kanwar fair are held. On
the occasion among the others who spoke were Mahant Ravindra Puri, Ganga
Sabha representative Virendra Kirtipal, Dr Santosh Chauhan, traders'
representative, and a host of other eminent personalities.
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Residents seek master plan for Champawat town
Pithoragarh, July 23 Pandey said the local people believed that with the Nagar Palika Parishad in place, planned development of Champawat town could be ensured. “Planned development can take place in the town if the government approves the proposal of the master plan sent by the Nagar Palika Parishad,” he said. Sources in the civic body said the district was carved out in year 1997 and the population of Champwat town at that time was 4,000. But today 7,000 people were living here in several unplanned localities. “When Champawat district was carved out in 1997 its first District Magistrate Naveen Chandra Sharma had emphasised on planned development of the town as hundreds of hectares of barren land was available around the district headquarters. “As around 10 houses were constructed every month in Champawat town since then, it gradually consumed the available barren land, leading to a haphazard development,” said Dinesh Pandey, a senior journalist of Champawat town. According to records available at the Nagar Palika Parishad, the two-thirds of the barren land was still available for future development. “If the master plan for the town is not approved immediately, the available land will also witness unplanned development,” said Shyam
Pandey.
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Jwalapur colonies getting muddy water
Haridwar, July 23 Residents of Kotarwan, Kassaban, Lal Mandir, Maidaniyan and Shastri Nagar are perturbed at locals falling sick after consuming contaminated water. Despite repeated complaints to the authorities concerned, no-long term solution to the problem has been found. Though a large number of cases of jaundice, chicken pox and malaria have been reported from Jwalapur and a Health Department team has also visited the area, no concrete remedial measures have been taken so far. Meanwhile, Navneet Kishore, in-charge of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP), said their team was surveying the affected areas and taking blood samples of patients. It was also distributing medicines to the patients and urging residents to consume only boiled water. Jal Sansthan executive engineer PK Gupta said potable water was getting contaminated due to some fault in the supply pipeline and it was being checked. He added that on the one hand the fault in the pipeline was affecting normal supply, on the other potable water was getting contaminated due to leakage at various places. However, locals said the advice of Health Department officials to drink boiled water was no solution to the problem as the water was very contaminated. Shivani, a resident of Kotarwan colony, said women had staged agitations over the issue in the past few weeks. |
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Power cuts in several parts of Uttarakhand
Dehradun, July 23 The difference between power availability and demand remained 3 million units (MU) on Sunday with hydropower generation dipping to 15 MU, taking the availability to 30.54 with the help of Centre's share and overdraw from the grid, whereas the demand
was 33 MU. Meanwhile, the Uttrakhand Power Corporation Limited carried on it's drive against power theft, whereby electric meters of 3 consumers at Selaqui were sent for testing on suspicion, and an FIR was registered against 3 consumers of Rudrapur for power theft. |
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Cop-Journalist Scuffle
Dehradun, July 23 Dileep Rathod, a journalist, said some car-borne youths, who were drunk, beat up his cameraman Sohail Saifi last night. Saifi informed him about the incident. He along with Saifi reached Dalanwala police station to file a complaint but were told to go to Rajpur police station. When they reached Rajpur they were again told to go to Kotwali police station and then to Dhara police post. Rathod said Bhatt was delaying action on our complaint and when they urged him to act urgently and nab the culprits he entered into a heated exchange with them. Bhatt then complained to Circle Officer, City, Navnit Bhullar that mediapersons were misbehaving with him. Bhatt told the Circle Officer that Saifi was drunk and filed a complaint against them. However, Rathod said Saifi was observing Ramzan and was not drunk. He added he suggested to Bhatt to get Saifi medically examined. Many mediapersons came out in support of Rathod and Saifi. Rathod and Saifi complained to the SSP who withdrew the complaint registered by Bhatt against them and marked an inquiry into the incident. She assured them that the inquiry would be completed within three days. The SSP listened to them and the Circle Officer, Navnit Bhullar. She said, “Inspector PD Bhatt has told me his side of the story. Today, I came to know about the version of mediapersons, who had a scuffle with Bhatt. I have directed SP, Rural, GS Dhyani to conduct an inquiry into the matter and give me the report within three days. I will be able to take a decision in the case after I receive the report.” However, she refused to transfer Bhatt on the demand of mediapersons. Bhatt has been in news for allegedly maltreating mediapersons in the past also. |
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Employees of Jal Sansthan stage dharna
Dehradun, July 23 While addressing the employees, Narinder Thaledi, president of the union, said that the government had been consistently ignoring their genuine demands. “Some of our demands include better pay scales, new recruitments and payment of 30 per cent cash for works,” Thaledi said. He said that since the last several years only officer-level recruitments were taking place in the Jal Sansthan. “There is an acute shortage non-officer staff. A total of 2,500 are running the department,” said Ajay Dhami, general secretary of the union. The protesters also condemned the decision of the Jal Sansthan to take up works through outsourcing and contracts. “As a result, the quality of works has deteriorated and the organisation has become top heavy,” Thaledi added. |
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Need for women to fight against foeticide: Rawat
Dehradun, July 23 “The situation has turned grim in Uttarakhand with the female child sex ratio declining in districts that were known for woman power. We must all unite to end the menace of female foeticide,” said Rawat. He was speaking at the end of the workshop on keeping a check on foeticide organised jointly by the ActionAid and the Jan Karwan here today. On the other hand, chairperson, State Commission for Women Sushila Baloni said society could not survive without girls. Killing girls in the womb was taking the society towards a darker future. A charter of demands was also read out to ensure the role of the state to end the practice of sex selection and promote girlchild by providing betterment schemes and submitted to the minister. The campaign was launch today against the declining child sex ratio in Uttarakhand in the FRI, Dehradun. The programme was inaugurated by a group of girl children by lighting a candle. Thirteen persons were felicitated who took a stand to save girl children in Uttarakhand. They include Himanti, working as an Auxillary Nurse/Midwife. Till now she has helped around 28 women who were forced to undergo sex determination test and sex selective abortion. Another ASHA worker Poonam Bhandari from Bilangana, Tehri Garhwal and Jaymanti from Udham Singh Nagar were also honoured. Asha Singh, member, National Inspection and Monitoring Cell, PCNDT, played a recorded conversation with a doctor of Dehradun who was ready to do sex selective abortion for Rs 10,000. Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid India, said: “Besides implementing the PCPNDT Act, we need to create a struggle at the grassroot level. He also emphasised on the need of joint efforts by NGOs, the media, panchayati raj institutions and government machinery to increase the number of girl children in the state”. |
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CPM opposes Food Security Bill
Haridwar, July 23 CPM activists today staged a protest in this regard, terming it a lollypop as the Bill’s provision would not be sufficient to provide food security to the poor and common man. A memorandum was handed over to the district food supplies officer to forward it to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Union Agriculture Minister so as to incorporate various suggestions in the Bill. Spokesperson for the district unit of the party RC Dhiman said the Bill failed to bridge the gap between Above Property Line (APL) people and Below Property Line (BPL) people as there were different rates and quantity of foodgrains allocated to the people under the Public Distribution System. Dhiman said they wanted a common distribution system with all families, be it under the BPL or APL category, should be given 35kg of foodgrains at the Rs 2 per kg rate. “This will diminish the gap exists between the two segments of the society as in India foodgrain is in surplus quantity. Thousands of tonnes of foodgrain gets damaged due to improper food storage houses which, as per directions of apex court, should be distributed among the poor" said Dhiman while addressing part activists at the tehsil. Implication of the MS Swaminathan Commission recommendations was also mooted by CPM activists on the occasion. “The Swaminathan committee has called for a medium-term strategy for food and nutrition security in the country in order to move towards the goal of universal food security, enhance productivity, profitability of the major farming systems of the country and policy reforms to substantially increase the flow of rural credit to all farmers which should be implemented before the Food Security Bill,” said MS Jakhmola, district unit office-bearer. |
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Case of burglary solved; 3 arrested
Dehradun, July 23 Wasim works as barber, while Vijender as a scrap dealer. Of the three, Sarfraz is proficient in breaking the shutters of the shop. Senior Superintendent of Police Neeru Garg said the police was verifying their past records from the Meerut police. She said the accused had kept their phones switched off but later the police, while tracking them on surveillance, pinpointed their location. |
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Farmlands to have boundary walls under MNREGA
Dehradun, July 23 Union Minister for Food Processing and Parliamentary Affairs Harish Rawat said here today that the decision of the Union Rural Development Ministry would pave the way for land consolidation under MNREGA. “There is a special provision under MNREGA
for land consolidation and construction of boundary walls. Even under the Tribal Forest Act, the tribals have the right to construct boundary walls,”
he said. Rawat said by building boundary walls under MNREGA would help the farmers guard their crops against wild animals. “The provision is a boon for small and marginal farmers,” he added.
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Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve a pride of Uttarakhand
Dehradun, July 23 It was in 1988 the Nanda Devi National Park and its surrounding area was declared as the Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Spreading around 6,000 square kilometre of areas and encompassing three districts of Chamoli, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve has a core zone of approximately 700 square kilometres has in it Nandadevi National Park and the Valley of Flowers National Park. The Nanda Devi National Park is also among the World Heritage Sites due to its unique biological and cultural wealth. Director, Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, BK Gangtey disclosed that the region witnessed high turnout of pilgrims due to presence of the revered shrines of Badrinath and Hemkunt Sahib, resulting in anthropogenic pressures. He said the biosphere that shares its boundary with Tibet, has other challenges as well. He said conservation was certainly challenging in the reserve when the issues of border roads and other development activities were also a priority for the administration. The biosphere is rich in biodiversity and harbours high diversity of species and rare endangered, native and endemic species of both flora and fauna. It is the only region in Uttarakhand where snow leopard had been photographed for the first time. Apart from snow leopard, Himalayan black bear, brown bear, musk deer, and bharal are among some mammals found in the biosphere. Among the birds, state bird Himalayan monal pheasant, western tragopan and koklas pheasant are also found in abundance. As of floral wealth, there are over 1000 species of flora, including medicinal herbs and also represent important genetic reservoirs. The precious aphrodisiac kida jadi is also found in this Biosphere Reserve. The Uttarakhand Forest Department has from time to time is trying to conduct community welfare programmes to involve local villagers in conservation efforts. |
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Dehradun, July 23
Haridwar, July 23
The city police finally cracked the case of burglary into 11 shops of
Mothrowala, Nehru Colony, which had taken place more than a month ago.
Three accused, Sarfraz and Wasim, who are brothers, and Vijender, alias Pallu, all residents of
Meerut, were caught from Bangali Kothi at Ajabpur Kalan on a tip-off from an informer in the day today. The police has recovered two mobile phones and a few silver wares from their possession.
The Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve is certainly a pride of Uttarakhand as it is one among the 17 existing biosphere reserves of the country.
It had to its credit being the region where the first-ever photographic evidence of the presence of highly endangered snow leopard has been confirmed in the state. It houses the shrines of Badrinath and Hemkunt Sahib and has the country's highest mountain peak of Nanda
Devi.
