Regularisation of contractual staff
Over 2,500 employees to go on strike from March 5
Dehradun, March 3
Seeking regularisation, over 2,500 contractual employees working with three government power corporations (Uttarakhand Jal Vidhyut Nigam Limited, Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited and Power Transmission Corporation Limited) in the state have decided to go on a tool-down strike from March 5.

Mussoorie, March 3
Finally, tourists have something to cheer about as the first Luxury AC 2/2 bus under the aegis of the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation in association with private companies began services from Mussoorie to Delhi on a daily basis from tonight.

The first bus left at 8.30 pm today carrying tourists to Delhi.

The 33-seater luxury AC bus will cater to the tourists from Delhi and will be plying two times in the day. The first service from Mussoorie will be in the morning around 10 am and another service will be available to the commuters at 8.30 pm in the evening.

The Uttarakhand Transport Corporation under the arrangement with private transport service, Empire Travels from Dehradun, has finally acceded to the long-standing demand of a luxury bus for the tourists outbound for Delhi from Mussoorie.

The Managing Director of the Empire Travels Ved Prakash Mahavar informed The Tribune the 2/2 AC bus with 33 seats is fitted with modern amenities and would go a long way in providing convenient travel for the tourists. He also said that the advance booking counters had been established at Mussoorie and Dehradun. The ticket amounts to Rs 495 per person.

The residents of the town have welcomed the move and said that the tourists who had to travel in utter inconvenience in the existing ordinary buses will find the journey to Delhi comfortable with the introduction of this service from Mussoorie today.

The members of Mussoorie Hotels Association have also hailed the decision and said that with the start of this service more tourists will prefer using the bus service, leaving behind their own vehicles, thus resulting in less traffic congestion in the hill town of Mussoorie.

According to the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation officials, they have hired buses from private parties for the purpose as on popular demand.

Haridwar, March 3
As part of it's drive to check illegal sale of liquor and it's consumption, the city police today arrested two persons who were ferrying four caskets of illegal countrymade wine from Jwalapur area here today.

On a tip-off from an informer, Jwalapur police chowki in-charge Ganesh Mandola with his police team started checking vehicles near Jatwada bridge early in the morning. They found two persons on separate scooters trying to escape from police checking teams.

But due to barricades on the Jatwada bridge intersection, they failed to escape and were arrested by the team with four caskets of illegal liquor worth Rs 50,000.

As per Sub Inspector Ganesh Mandola, the arrested persons included Ajay and Rajpal, both residents of Peeth Bazaar, Jwalapur. They were ferrying the caskets for sale in local areas.

They both confessed to their involvement in this trade for the past few months. They used to purchase countrymade liquor from villages. The police is looking into the whole racket and is conducting raids at various hideouts as per disclosures made by the two arrested persons.

Station House Officer Kuldeep Singh Aswal said that with the festive season of Mahashivratri, the religious festi bath of Somwati Amawasya and ongoing Sharadiya Kanwar fair going on, the police is conducting specific checking drive in the area.

It is pertinent to mention here that sale and consumption of liquor is prohibited in Haridwar city up to 5 km falling in the Municipal Corporation periphery. But despite prohibition, illegal liquor mafia has been operating the business on a mass scale, with liquor easily available in the city.

Various social-religious organisations have been raising this issue but the police administration has failed to fully stop this illegal trade.

Teerth Maryada Raksha Samiti, a socio-religious organisation, has written to district police chief Arun Mohan Joshi in this regard ,demanding implementing of prohibition stringently as religious environment of the pilgrim city is being affected due to liquor trade.

Dehradun, March 3
Seeking regularisation, over 2,500 contractual employees working with three government power corporations (Uttarakhand Jal Vidhyut Nigam Limited, Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited and Power Transmission Corporation Limited) in the state have decided to go on a tool-down strike from March 5.

Addressing a press conference here today, chief of the Uttarakhand Power Contractual Employees Association Yogendra Bisral announced that the contractual employees had been forced to go on a tool-down strike as their genuine concerns for better honorarium and facilities had been turned down by the management. He said the striking contractual employees would also be staging demonstrations on March 4 outside the power corporation’s offices on the Kanwali road and Maharani Bagh.

Bisral said most of the contractual employees had been working for the past eight to nine years but were facing the worst form of exploitation. He said all contractual employees had come through Uttarakhand Poorva Sainik Nigam Limited and thus, a major share of their honorarium went to the nigam.

General secretary of the association Manoj Pant asserted that 12 of the contractual employees had lost their lives encourse performing their duties but no consolation had come from the management. He said they had been demanding Rs 10 lakh as compensation in the case of accidental death of a contractual employee while on duty.

The contractual employees were also raising demand for accommodation and free power facility.—TNS

Haridwar, March 3
To generate communal harmony and brotherhood among people of different religions living in Haridwar, a Sadbhavna yatra was carried out today by Congress Sewa Dal activists.

Union Minister for Water Resources Harish Rawat lauded the initiative of the activists by remaining present for a short period during the march at Luxor.

While daughter of Harish Rawat Anupama Rawat, who is also the general secretary of the women cell of the Congress participated in march.

One hundred sixtyfive activists participated in the 10-kilometre march.

Rawat said despite Haridwar being a prominent Hindu pilgrim city, people from the Islam, the Sikh, the Christianity, the Jainism and Buddhism live together in substantial numbers.

He added that this diversified aspect made the pilgrim city one of its kind in the whole world calling for more such initiatives from local people.

District chief of the Sewa Dal Rajesh Rastogi said they had carried out this march to generate communal harmony and mutual love between different communities and the overwhelming response they got throughout the yatra was an indication of the success of this initiative.

Rizwan Khan, Mohammed Hanif along with a large number of villagers from the minority community welcomed the activists at Kathapir with garlands in their hands.

The march passed through Sultanpur, Kunhari, Durga Gadh, Phool Garh, Gobind Gadh route from Luxar to Katha Pir. —TNS

Mussoorie, March 3
Traders once again reposed faith in the existing executive panel in the Mussoorie Traders Association elections at Shagun Place here today.

The traders, in a one-sided contest, elected Rajat Agarwal for the post of the president and Javed Khan for the general secretary.

The only new face in the panel Sandeep Agarwal also won with emphatic margin.

In the polling that began around 10 am, the traders came out in a large numbers to cast their vote.

The polling went on till 2 pm and the counting began around 3 pm.

Election officer Dhan Prakash announced the results. Out of a total of 792 votes, 728 votes were casted along with eight postal ballots. Rajat received 590 votes, whereas the rival candidate could garner only 127 votes.

This is the third consecutive win for Rajat Agarwal in the traders election in Mussoorie.

For the post of general secretary, Javed Khan received 504 votes, whereas Rajiv Agarwal got only 148 votes.

The newly inducted candidate for the post of treasurer in the Rajat panel was also declared winner. He received 513 votes while the rival candidate Jagjit Kukreja could garner only 187 votes.

Newly elected president Rajat Agarwal said he would fight for the cause of the traders. This was for the first time that the traders association's elections witnessed the involvement of the people from outside the trading fraternity. Several MC ward members and politicians were seen lurking around at the site of the elections.

The traders association's elections have been seen as the focal point of the politics of the town.

Dehradun, March 3
Uttarakhand's commercial private vehicle owners yesterday held a demonstration at Regional Transport Office, Dehradun.

Under the aegis of Uttarakhand Transport Federation, the demonstrators alleged that while petrol and diesel prices have increased substantially in the last couple of years, they have not increased the passenger fare since 2010. "The RTO must allow us to increase the fare," Uma Naresh Tiwari, president Uttarakhand Transport Federation pointed out.

The demonstrators also threatened a complete strike on March 12 if their genuine concerns were not addressed immediately.

Dehradun, March 3
Demanding better pay and perks, Uttarakhand Diploma Engineer' Mahasangh members today converted their dharna outside Vidhan Sabha into an indefinite fast on Friday.

Addressing the protesters, state president of the Mahasangh Naveen Kandpal said it was unfortunate that the diploma engineers had been staging dharna outside the Vidhan Sabha for the past three days but the state government was least interested to address their concerns. "We have now started an indefinite hunger strike and will be forced to further intensify our agitation if our genuine demands linked to pay and perks are not addressed promptly," Kandpal asserted.

VK Dangwal, MS Rawat, CS Kanyal and Santosh Srivastava were prominent participants in the hunger strike.

Dehradun, March 3
A meeting was held on Friday at the BJP office to make preparations for the forthcoming cooperative elections in which all office-bearers are associated with the cooperatives participated.

The office-bearers were asked to organise meetings of the workers so that BJP’s victory could be ensured.

BJP chief Teerath Singh Rawat and former BJP chief BS Chuphal chaired the meeting.

Teerath Singh Rawat has already called upon the state government to ensure that an authority was created for ensuring the free and fair conduct of the elections.

“We have been demanding the creation of a separate entity for overseeing the elections, as we have no faith in the Congress government,” said Rawat.

Dehradun, March 3
Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi today gave away the Sara Governor's Golf Cup Running Silver Trophy to winner ONGC at the closing ceremony of the first Sara Governor's Golf Cup Tournament at FRIMA Golf Course.

Baby Fatima Rizwi , the youngest among the female golfers, was also given a prize.

The Governor said such events would bring back the lost glory of Dehradun and also provide a platform to encourage the young talent of Uttarakhand.

He said a world class cultural centre was needed in Dehradun and Mussoorie to help artistes of the state to display their talent.

The gathering was also addressed by Tarun Vijay, MP. He said that such events would bring back Dehradun's old days.

IMA Commandant, Lt.Gen Manvendra Singh, and MLA Raj Kumar also spoke on the occasion.

Dehradun, March 3
Doon Panthers and Vidhan Sabha Dehradun team won their respective matches in the District Cricket League being played here in Dehradun.

In the first match, Doon Panthers won against Doon Colors by 7 wickets. Electing to bat after winning the toss, Doon Colours scored 91 runs losing all wickets in the process. For Doon Colours, Bittu scored the highest 25 runs. Rest of its batsmen failed to perform. For Doon Panthers, Hari Om took 3 wickets.

Batting next, Doon Panthers easily got to the target score, losing just 3 wickets in the process, thereby ensuring itself a 7-wicket win. Zohran Ali scored the highest 28 runs. For Doon Colour, Yasin and Vicky took 2 wickets each.

In the second match, the Vidhan Sabha Dehradun team registered a massive 118 run win against the PWD Dehradun. Batting first, the Vidhan Sabha team scored a total of 195 runs losing just 2 wickets in the process. For Vidhan Sabha, Vishal scored 67 runs while Ravindra contributed valuable 51 runs. Chasing the target, the PWD Dehradun team was all out for 77 runs thereby ensuring 118 run win for Vidhan Sabha Dehradun team.