Dehradun, August 6
In keeping with the party strategy as was revealed during the Sitarganj byelection, the Uttarakhand BJP is likely to wait for the Uttarakhand Congress to first announce the name of the party candidate for the Tehri parliamentary seat that fell vacant after Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna vacated the seat.

While the names of Raja Laxmi, former Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri, former Uttarakhand Cabinet Minister Matbar Singh Kandari and Mayor of Dehradun Vinod Chamoli are doing the rounds, nothing has been finalised, and, according to BJP party sources, the party would first allow the Uttarakhand Congress to make the first move. “In case the name of Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna’s wife Sudha Bahuguna is finalised, the BJP would bet on Rani Raj Laxmi of Tehri as Khanduri would not like to fight against his family member. In case the Congress tries to prop up former MLA Kishore Upadhyaya, the BJP strategy would then be different,” said a senior party leader.

Though former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari had floated former Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri’s name as a probable candidate from Tehri, party sources claim it is unlikely the former Chief Minister would fight the elections, especially when the general elections are two years away.

Significantly, while former Uttarakhand Cabinet Minister Matbar Singh Kandari, who lost the Assembly election to his brother-in-law, Congress leader and Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat, has expressed his desire to stand for the parliamentary seat, he has tough competition from Mayor Vinod Chamoli. Unlike Kandari, Chamoli, with a sizeable number of supporters in Dehradun that is part of the Tehri parliamentary seat, may have an easy ride. “Chamoli failed to get the party ticket from Dharampur during the 2012 Assembly elections. Who knows the party may reward him this time round,” said a BJP leader. But as far as things go in the BJP, last-minute adjustments and the high command’s writ, too, cannot be discounted. But for now the Uttarakhand BJP is likely to wait for the Congress to make the first move. 

TPS Rawat, president of the Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha addresses a press conference in Dehradun on Monday.

Dehradun, August 6
The Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha (URM) has named party vice-president Kunwar Japender Singh as candidate for the Tehri byelections. It has also constituted a committee to get support from the third front parties for the election.

Party president TPS Rawat said he would not let Tehri become another Sitarganj, where he alleged, the voters were lured with land, liquor and money.

Kunwar Japinder Singh said he would not let people of the state divided on the lines of hills and plains.

Party spokesperson PC Thapliyal said former Army Chief Gen VK Singh (retd) had extended support to their party and convened a meeting for them in Delhi on August 16.

Dehradun, August 6
In the backdrop of the devastation caused by the Uttarkashi cloudburst, the need for Doppler-effect weather radars, the early warning system, may have been felt, especially after the announcement made by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) early this year. But experts say the much-touted weather radar may not be able solve the state's problems related with rain-induced disasters.

As Uttarakhand continues to bear the brunt of incessant rains, landslides and even cloudbursts time and again, the utility of a Doppler weather radar has been enumerated but experts have doubts about it's utility due to the diverse topography and terrain of the state."Beside putting a huge burden on the exchequer, the Doppler radars would not be able to make predictions for far-off areas due the diverse terrain, and setting up two radars in Dehradun and Nainital (as planned by the IMD) would not be able to predict cloudburst beyond their areas of location," said Piyush Rautela, Executive Director, Department of Disaster Management . The Doppler weather radar costing around Rs 10 crore claims to give real time accurate forecast. It generates weather data that maps monsoon clouds, estimates their precipitation and their potential rain-carrying capacity. As planned by the IMD, once installed the data could be shared with the other bodies for sounding out alerts to mitigate the impact of cloudbursts and very heavy rainfall. However, experts say real time prediction could only be possible if a series of weather radars were put up, but these, too, would not be able to specify the exact region. As such the entire exercise would be wasted. "With time the radars would only be useful for predicting weather, and as such the data would be utilised only by the Aviation Department," said Rautela.

Early this year, during his visit to Dehradun, Director General, IMD, Air Marshal (retd) Ajit Tyagi, had announced that for refinement of weather predictions, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) will be setting up automatic weather stations at the districts and two Doppler weather radars in Nainital and Dehradun for monitoring of areas where heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and hailstorms are expected. Experts say while district-level automatic weather stations in the state could boost the overall improvement in weather prediction at the all-India level, the utility of Doppler radar would still be questionable. The idea of Doppler radar for Uttarakhand was first mooted by former Union State Minister for Science and Technology Bachi Singh Rawat, but experts say in the changing climatic scenario, even prediction of rainfall has become a great challenge for researchers, and unless ground level data is available, predictions could become cumbersome even with advance warning equipments. 

Dehradun, August 6
BJP MLA from Mussoorie Ganesh Joshi today held a protest at the District Collectorate against the apathy of the district administration in giving aid to the residents falling in the Mussoorie Assembly constituency, where houses had got damaged during the recent incessant rains.

The MLA said that the people had been facing problems as their houses and approach routes had got damaged in the recent rains. "

Several people in my constituency have been rendered homeless due to the rains and no help has come from the district administration," said Joshi.

The villagers came with a list of problems and demanded immediate relief. The DM asked the MLA to submit the list so that an assessment could be made about the damage.