Hang Afzal Guru also, says Kalraj Mishra
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 21
Describing the execution of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani terrorist responsible for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, as too late in coming, the national vice-president of the BJP Kalraj Mishra said the UPA-led Congress government should now speed up the process of hanging of Afzal Guru, convict of the 2001 Parliament attack.

“Unnecessary delay has been caused in the hanging of Afzal Guru and the government has spent lakhs of rupees in his upkeep. Now without further delay, they should decide on hanging him,” said Mishra.

The senior BJP leader, who led a protest in Dehradun against the Congress-led government on issues such as FDI in supermarkets, high inflation and corruption, said his party was open to lending support to Mamata Banerjee on bringing no confidence motion against the government. “In the face of the opposition on the FDI from all parties and swirling corruption charges, the Congress has lost the moral right to rule the country and must go,” he said.

Mishra, however, refused to comment on the charges of corruption levelled against BJP national president Nitin Gadkari saying, “The corruption by the Congress and the charges levelled against Gadkari were separate issues. The CAG has in its report has indicted the Congress government for corruption. If Gadkari has committed any irregularities, the court is the perfect forum to decide,” he said.

On the issue of sacking Chairman of the Uttarakhand Minorities Commission Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, Mishra said he had been told by the state BJP that there were no criminal cases pending against him.

Clarifying the party’s position, BJP spokesperson Mukesh Mahindra reiterated that there were no criminal cases pending against Namdhari and instead charged that Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna used flimsy grounds to sack him. “There are also reports of a senior IAS officer from the state being present at the Chadda farmhouse at the time of the shootout. Would the Chief Minister sack him too on the basis of reports?” questioned Mahindra.

He said the BJP was with Namdhari and would also look into the issues of his sacking as the commission was a statutory body and he was sacked before completing his tenure.

Bahuguna welcomes Kasab’s hanging

Dehradun, November 21
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna today welcomed the hanging of 26/11 attack convict Ajmal Kasab, saying people “reap what they sow”. “Bad deeds lead to bad results. We reap what we sow,” said Bahuguna, commenting on Kasab’s hanging at Pune’s Yerawada central prison this morning.

The wife and mother of NSG commando Gajendra Singh Bisht, who hailed from Dehradun and died fighting terrorists during the 26/11 attack, also expressed satisfaction at the hanging of the sole surviving Pakistani gunman.

“My son cannot come back now but his soul would definitely rest in peace now as Kasab has been hanged,” said Bisht’s mother.

“Justice did come late but it was not denied,” said his wife Vinita, who lives along with her two children in the city. — PTI

Execution move to gain people’s sympathy: Ramdev

Haridwar, November 21
Yoga guru Ramdev today alleged that the hanging of Ajmal Kasab was a move by the “corruption-ridden” Central Government to gain people’s sympathy. “Steeped in corruption, the government is trying to use Kasab’s hanging as a detergent to wash off its stains. But the taint of scams will not go away so easily,” said Ramdev here today.

Ramdev said though late, the terrorist met an end he deserved and hoped Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru would also meet the same fate.

Demanding separate courts to deal with terror cases, he said it was not justified to allow terror convicts to approach the President for clemency. — PTI

3 killed over land dispute in Kashipur
Communal tension erupts 
Large police force deployed
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 21
Communal tension erupted in Kashipur area of Udham Singh Nagar district following the killing of three persons and injuries to two others in a land dispute at Bhainskhera village near the town yesterday.

According to administrative officials, in a land dispute concerning two parties on Tuesday, one of the party led by gram pradhan of village Kachnalghazi Mahendra Singh along with his supporters went to take possession of the land. He allegedly fired on the other party opposing the takeover. In the firing that took place, Shahzad, Sartaj and Mohammed Rafi died, while Aziz and Salma were seriously injured.

The irate villagers chased the attackers, who fled, leaving their vehicles which were torched by the villagers. The villagers put the bodies on the road and started to protest. According to officials, a piece of nearly eight bighas of land belonging to one Mohammad Shah was donated as Wakf property to a nearby Chand mosque and Dhudhia Pir Mazar. However, the wife of Mohammad Shah gave it to Harbel Singh on lease. Later, Harbel Singh claimed that he had purchased the land. He, along,with Mahendra Singh and two dozen supporters, had gone to take possession of the land.

A large number of policemen were deployed as senior police officials rushed to the town. However, the situation again became tense when the families of the deceased wanted to bury the dead in the disputed land today.

This was opposed by the other party. The families of the deceased again put the bodies on the main road and stopped traffic for six hours. The situation became communal with both the communities coming against each other and started pelting stones. The police had to lathi charge both the parties to keep the situation under control. Later, after persuading the families of the deceased, the dead were buried in the evening.

Deepak Jyoti Ghildyal, DIG, said that cases had been registered against the alleged culprits and one person had been arrested. 

Visit remote areas, solve people's problems: CM to officers
Wants fast completion of development projects

Dehradun, November 21
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, during his visit to Almora today to review the various developmental programmes in the Kumaon region, has directed the officers to visit remote areas and resolve problems on the spot.

Bahuguna reviewed the meeting of various development works at Circuit House at Almora and instructed the officers concerned to prepare action plans for timely utilisation of funds allocated for district planning and Centrally-funded projects. He laid emphasis on expediting works related to drinking water, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects, NRHM and Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyut Yojna. He directed them to ensure quality and timely completion of the projects.

He asked the Social Welfare Department to disburse various pensions to the bona fide persons and demand for additional funds well in time.

Chief Minister Bahuguna said that all formalities ought to be completed for the projects for which funds had been allocated so that the projects could be started well in time and completed in the stipulated time frame. He asked officers to give priorities to works related to tourism.

Bahuguna said that all those drinking water projects for which funds had been disbursed should be started at the earliest so that the general public could reap maximum benefits out of them. He asked the officers to identify all those villages with drinking water problems so that necessary measures could be taken to provide relief to them from water crisis during summer season. He instructed them to replace defunct transformers, wherever needed. Chief Minister Bahuguna expected that all the officers should keep themselves updated with the problems of their respective departments. He asked them to maintain coordination with the MLAs concerned. He said that any incident of officers found deficient in giving attention to the problems of public representatives would be viewed seriously.

Bahuguna revealed that it had come to his notice during the meeting with legislators that commissions were sought for the works under MLA funds . He assured to look into these charges with a vigilance probe. Stating that complaints regarding non-payment of compensation in time for acquired lands had been received in PMGSY works. He asked the officers concerned to take concrete measures to resolve the issue.

Bahuguna said that any one facing any kind of problems while carrying out the development works could directly contact the CM office at the Secretariat and the Chief Secretary's office. —TNS

Sonia to lay stone of Vidhan Sabha building at Gairsain
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, November 21
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has said that Congress party president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will lay the foundation stone of the state's first Vidhan Sabha building at Gairsain in Chamoli district on January 14 next year.

Talking to journalists at Almora today after reviewing the district planning progress, the Chief Minister said that to facilitate permanent capital of the state at Gairsain, his government had made it clear that there should not be any shortage of land for the construction work of the capital. "For that purpose we have banned all the transactions of lands in Gairsain area," said the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister reviewed the progress in the district plan and instructed the officers to work in coordination with the local public representatives. 

Mobile health units having ultrasound facilities being misused
Neena Sharma/ TNS

Dehradun, November 21
As the Health Department grapples with the skewed child sex ratio (0-4 years) in the state, it has come face to face with it's own scheme going horribly wrong. It has now come to light that the hill-bound ultrasound facilities-fitted mobile health units are being increasingly used for sex determination tests.

Waking up to the reality, the Health Department has decided not to equip the 22 new mobile units with the ultrasound facilities and also maintain a strict vigil on the antecedents of its own 12 health mobile units. “We will not extend the ultrasound facilities in the new 22 units to be put up in the state. At the same time, field-level audit of the persons undergoing ultrasounds is on the cards for greater monitoring,” said Piyush Singh, Additional Secretary Health.

The ultrasound machines equipped in the mobile units were proving to be useful to track the movement of babies in difficult pregnancy cases. These are also wily-nily proving to be an easy source for pregnant women in hilly and remote areas to easily access information about the sex of their babies and then probably go for abortions at some centre located in the plains.

For the safety of the mother and child under the Janani Suraksha Shishu Karyakaram (JSSK) programme of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), several free entitlements have been given to pregnant women, including free diagnostic facilities (ultrasound facilities).

But now free diagnostic examinations being offered are proving to be the scheme’s undoing. Even during the course of its own inspections, the Health Department belatedly realised that Kumaon areas, close to the plains, such as Udham Singh Nagar, Haldwani, Kashipur and Rudrapur, were emerging as centres for carrying out abortions.

“Expectant mothers are using different centres for undergoing ultrasound tests and abortions and mobile health units where routine ultrasound examinations are carried under the JSSK could unwittingly fall in the scheme of things,” said Singh. Notably, the Sex Ratio at Birth, denoting the number of female live births per 1000 male live births, was lowest in the state of Uttarakhand according to the 2011 census.

BJP protests against FDI, inflation
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 21
The Uttarakhand BJP today held statewide protests against the Congress-led government on the issues like foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail, high inflation and corruption.

The protest comes a day before the winter session of Parliament is scheduled to begin. Senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra led the protest at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Park in Dehradun.

Mishra, while addressing the gathering, said the FDI in retail would damage the existing retail business in the country and leave scores of youth jobless. The gap between the rich and the poor would widen further and the interests of the local shopkeepers and farmers would be harmed, he added.

A large number of BJP leaders, including MLA Harbans Kapoor, Ganesh Joshi, Ravinder Jugran and president of the city BJP Puneet Mittal, participated in the protest.

In Haldwani, BJP chief BS Chuphal and former Cabinet minister Banshidhar Bhagat led the protest. 

150 units of blood donated
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 21
The Blood Donors Club of Sardar Bhagwan Singh Postgraduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Research, Balawala, in association with the Blood Bank of Himalayan Institute and Hospital Trust, Jolly Grant, organised a blood donation camp on the Institute premises, today. As many as 150 units of blood were collected at the camp.

The staff and the students of the institute and local residents of Balawala, Mianwala and surrounding villages voluntarily donated blood.

Earlier, the director of the institute, Brig PPS Pahwa (retd), welcomed an HIHT team consisting of Dr Amit Agarwal and Dr Esha Kapoor.

Dr Agarwal said 150 units of blood were collected at the camp. He thanked the club for organising the camp. Dr MK Chakraborty, convener of the club, coordinated the activities of the camp.

The club organises a blood donation camp every year with an objective to help financially weak patients in complicated and expensive surgical interventions.

Traffic chaos on widened South Road continues
Ajay Ramola

Mussoorie, November 21
Unauthorised parking and indifferent attitude of the authorities concerned have defeated the objective of widening of South Road at Landour Bazaar in Mussoorie. Several crores of rupees were spent to widen this road to ease traffic congestion.

The Municipal Council of Mussoorie undertook the work to widen South Road a year ago with an objective to reduce traffic congestion at Landour Bazaar. One-way traffic was also introduced but the plan failed to materialise due to the apathy of the local police and the municipal authorities.

On the contrary, the road continues to experience traffic congestion as people park their vehicles on both sides of it, belying the claims of the authorities concerned.

Vehicles can be seen parked on the 2-km road due to the lack of an adequate number of police personnel and manning by the Municipal Council, thus leading to frequent jams.

South Road, which stretches from Anupam Chowk to Clock tower, is to be one way route for vehicles coming from Dhanaulti and Landour Cantt, but due to unauthorised parking of cars regular chaos is witnessed on the road.

Only a few men in uniform are present at Anupam Chowk.

Sunil Panwar, a local resident, told The Tribune that the one-way signboard erected at Anupam Chowk had also worn out, making it difficult to read. This results in the movement of traffic from both sides and jams for several hours.

Executive Officer PS Rawat said the road was widened to reduce traffic congestion but regular chaos was still witnessed as local residents were parking vehicles on it. He added the Municipal Council would make all efforts to ensure that no cars were parked on the road and also no-parking signboards would be erected on both sides of it.

The council after consulting all organisations concerned of the bazaar was planning to penalise people who parked vehicles on the road.

SSI, Mussoorie police, DS Kohli said he would also talk with residents for the removal of bottlenecks created due to illegal parking on South Road. 

Popularising science of weather on IMS agenda: Expert
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 21
The Indian Meteorological Society (IMS) aims at popularising the science of weather and climate. It focuses on studying the impact of climate and weather. Stating this during the ongoing seminar, TROPMET-2012, here today, IMS fellow RK Datta said the IMS was a society of professionals and had been growing steadily.

Today, it had over 3,000 members that were enrolled in its 27 chapters across the country. He said popularising the science of weather and climate was high on the society's agenda, besides studying the impacts of climate and weather.

The IMS, he said, had been holding annual conferences like TROPMET annually to discuss the issues of the meteorological importance for the country. The ongoing TROPMET-2012 was specially focusing on the frontiers of meteorology with reference to the Himalayas, he added.

"The Himalayan region faces the biggest challenge of cloudburst, which has also come up for discussion through the presentation of scientific papers on the subject in the seminar," said Datta.

He said although European countries and the US were certainly good in meteorology, India was also working continuously to upgrade forecast skills.

An IItian and PhD holder in atmospheric sciences, Datta has also been former head, National Centre for Medium Range Forecast, in Delhi. He also worked as adviser with the Uganda Government.