Allahabad HC comes to aid of bravery award winner
Haridwar, March 8
The Allahabad High Court has come to the aid of National Bravery Award winner Babli and ordered the Uttar Pradesh police to lodge an FIR in a case of robbery in her in-laws’ house at Khatoli in Muzzafarnagar district.

Dehradun, March 8
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, during his first visit to Uttarakhand today, after his recent elevation, gave a clarion call for decentralisation of the party organisation, and also put Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and state Congress Party chief Yashpal Arya on notice, demanding better coordination between the party organisation and the state government.

He gave a clear message to the party and the state government that grassroot party workers ought to be given respect and preference with an aim to galvanise the party for the crucial 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Rahul Gandhi studied at Doon School here. After landing in the morning at Jollygrant Airport, Rahul Gandhi headed straight to a local hotel where he met party functionaries before lunch.

It was a shock for senior party functionaries, including Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat, Congress general secretary in charge Birender Singh and state Congress president Yashpal Arya and party MP Satpal Maharaj when he asked them to leave the place as he wanted to interact one to one with the grassroot party workers from all over the state.

A total of 11 groups from different districts of the state, including district presidents, block presidents, party legislators and former legislators and all those who fought state Assembly elections on the party ticket from each district, met him separately.

Interestingly, each group was given nearly half an hour and party workers from the grassroot level gave vent to their feelings before Rahul Gandhi. From party infighting, lack of governance and being let down by senior party leaders and the state government during and after the state Assembly elections were some of the issues raised by party workers with Rahul Gandhi.

While elated party workers met the party vice-president, senior party leaders, including Harish Rawat, Satpal Maharaj, Birender Singh and Yashpal Arya had to cool their heels the whole day outside.

After meeting the district party delegations, he went on to address a gathering of more than 900 elected panchayat and civic bodies' members of the Congress from all over the state. Addressing the gathering, he emphasised the need to strengthen the Panchayati Raj system as envisaged by his father Rajiv Gandhi through 73rd and 74th amendment to the Constitution. He said that there was a need for a total change for the overall development of the country. He reminded the gathering that his father was criticised for bringing in communication revolution through computers and phones. But, finally, such technological advances took the country much ahead, fuelling economy.

He later addressed a gathering of workers of National Students Union of India (NSUI) at a nearby venue. In the evening, it was the turn of the senior party leaders and ministers to listen to him at a meeting of the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC). Giving his piece of mind, Rahul Gandhi reportedly pointed towards the huge gap between the party organisation and the state government. He said that there was no work division in the party organisation, and the grass-root party workers remain ignored during and after the elections.

He criticised the system of imposing party candidates during elections from the top. He suggested that the party candidates should be selected by the block and district-level party organisation, rather than by the party high command.

He also reportedly put the Chief Minister, Vijay Bahuguna, and state party chief Yashpal Arya on notice by telling them to work in coordination between the state government and party organisation. He told both of them that during his next visit to Uttarakhand, he would be taking a feedback from grassroot party workers on this count.

During his visit Rahul Gandhi maintained a safe distance from the media. However, it was a virtual stampede at the venue of his meetings where enthusiastic party workers from all over the state descended. Hira Singh Bisht, a former Uttarakhand minister and senior party leader, fell unconscious due to the heat and rush. He was rushed to a local hospital, where his condition was stated to be stable. 

Haridwar, March 8
The Allahabad High Court has come to the aid of National Bravery Award winner Babli and ordered the Uttar Pradesh police to lodge an FIR in a case of robbery in her in-laws’ house at Khatoli in Muzzafarnagar district.

In 2004, Babli as a teenaged girl hailing from suburban Jwalapur in Haridwar had hogged the limelight for saving six children from drowning in the Ganga Canal. The President of India had conferred upon her the National Bravery Award.

But today she is quite upset with Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh governments for ignoring her plight. She has now appealed to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to look into the daylight robbery at her in-laws’ house at Khatoli in Muzzafarnagar district last month.

Babli was at her home along with her in-laws when four armed persons entered the house, gagged them and decamped with Rs 18,000, jewellery and electronic items. Babli went to Khatauli police station to lodge a complaint but police officials refused to do so. She showed them her bravery certificate but the police officials paid no heed to her.

A determined Babli then took the legal route and petitioned the Allahabad High Court to intervene in the matter. “Now, the High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh police to lodge an FIR. When an FIR is lodged after a month on court’s order, one can understand the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh. I will try to meet Akhilesh Yadav in this regard. I have already sent a copy of the FIR to his office,” Babli told The Tribune at her parents’ house in Indira Nagar, Jwalapur.

Babli is also perturbed at the delay in enrolment of her parents Shaddik Hussain and Anno for old-age pension. Shaddik still works as a labour and does other menial jobs to earn a livelihood.

“The Uttarakhand Social Welfare Department has not enrolled my parents for old-age pension for the past one year. I don’t know what has happened to our system. While some demand bribes, others delay the process. If this is the treatment a national bravery award winner gets, one can imagine the plight of the common women,” said Babli when asked about women empowerment on International Women’s Day.

The brave girl, who has lost her brother Sonu to cancer, said he could have been saved had the government and social organisations given her monetary help. However, she praises former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, who had given Rs 3 lakh of government aid for her brother’s treatment.

Former chairperson of the Uttarakhand Women Commission Dr Santosh Chauhan termed Babli’s struggle as an example of what poor women in India go through.

“If a national awardee like Babli is struggling, it is not worthwhile to celebrate International Women’s Day.

To attend seminars and speak on women’s issues is one thing, but helping them and providing them with a suitable environment is more important. Babli saved six children but who will save her from the government apathy,” said Santosh.

Haridwar, March 8
With the Supreme Court quite stern over manual scavenging still being practised, Uttarakhand, which has as per Social Welfare Department and Census 2011 figures 4,701 human scavengers in the state, needs to take stern steps to fully abolish this practice.

Alone in Haridwar, which is considered a pilgrim city, 357 people are involved in this practice, for which the government is initiating a Bill to legally prohibit this procedure.

Talking to TNS, Bhagwat Prasad Makhwana, chairperson of the Uttarakhand Safai Karamchari Commission, Uttarakhand government, lamented that the state government submitted a wrong affidavit in the apex court, declaring wrong number of such dry toilets.

In reality as per census 2011 figures and counting done by Social Welfare Department ,dry toilets touch a whopping 14,000 mark in the state, while 4,701 people, mostly from Dalit community, are involved in this procedure.

"We are committed to totally eradicate human scavenging from the state. Alternative livelihood generation options, skill-based training and building of permanent modern toilets, will assist in totally abolishing manual scavenging," stated Makhwana.

He pointed that it was quite anguishing that in a small state of Uttarakhand more than 4000 people are involved in what could be termed as one of the shameful practices, with more than 12 years of the separate hill state formation.

Citing state government's commitment to abolish this practice, Makhwana said that for this skill orientation-based programmes were in place and rehabilitation of human scavengers was being done as per National Rural Livelihood Mission. A grant of Rs 10 crore was provided by the Union Government in this respect in 2001. He lamented that despite 12 years of this amount being sanctioned to Uttarakhand, respective state governments had failed to spend this with just 1.21 crore being spent in this regard.

Executive Officer, Haridwar Municipal Corporation, apprised that a total of 357 human scavengers had been identified who were to be rehabilitated with the assistance of the Social Welfare Department. Chief Health Officer of the corporation Anil Tyagi added that a mass awareness campaign is being held across the district to make sure this practice gets abolished completely.

Makhwana during a review meeting with officials at Damkoti state guest house made it clear that he was not satisfied with the non-chalant approach of the officials regarding issues of health workers, and warned of punitive action if they don't take time-bound action.

Dehradun, March 8
Owing to a strike by 2,500 contractual employees of all three corporations of the Power Department seeking the regularisation of their services, officials are being forced to do clerical and extra work in 
sub-stations and hydroelectric houses.

The officials are somehow managing doing double duties but this makeshift arrangement will not sustain for longer. The end result might affect power generation in Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL), transmission in Power Transmission Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited and distribution in Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL).

On the other hand, division among contractual employees over the strike has also affected their chances of success. Some workers are on strike while some are attending to their work.

The top officials of the corporations have expressed no reservation in the regularisation of their services and salary hike and have handed over the matter to the state government.

MD, UJVNL, GP Patel said, “Junior engineers are working in place of workers in hydroelectric houses. Besides their eight-hour duty, they are doing double shifts. We have somehow managed not to let power generation get affected. But officials can no longer replace the workforce of 400 contractual employees working in the UJVNL.”

He said if UPNAL that had hired these workers wanted the UJVNL to pay extra salaries to the workers, the latter would do so. However, if the state government regularised the services of the 2,500 employees, it would also have to regularise the services of 18,000 other contractual employees working in other state departments.

Some officials in the UPCL feel that the service regularisation process would override the basic process of holding exams and interviews mandatory to get any government job.

According to sources, all contractual employees working for the UPCL are not on strike. But with each passing day, the number of those working is decreasing.

As many as 932 were working on Wednesday, 911 on Thursday and 884 yesterday.

President of the contractual employees' union Yogender Vishal said the workers put their lives at risk working on electric poles. But they were getting peanuts in return.

Dehradun, March 8
Yoga has kept alive the spiritual aspect of life and sensitivity in the age of science and technology.

This was stated by Governor Aziz Qureshi at the closing ceremonies of the international yoga festivals held at Muni-Ki-Reti and Pramarth Niketan Ashram at Rishikesh yesterday.

The Governor said yoga should be included in school curriculam and awareness regarding yoga should be enhanced at the global level. The Governor said the worldwide popularity of yoga would give Uttarakhand a special identity globally.

The festivals were held from March 1 to 7. The festival at Muni-Ki-Reti was organised by the GMVN and the Tourism Department. MP Satpal Maharaj addressed the gathering at Muni-Ki-Reti and said yoga should not be associated with religion. He said it is a science.

At Parmarth Niketan, Swami Chidanand Muni said the festival was being organised for the past 23 years and needed to developed on a higher level.

The Governor also participated in Ganga aarti at Parmarth. Minister Indira Hridyesh was also present.

Dehradun, March 8
Demanding better pay and perks, the Uttarakhand Lekhpal Sangh staged a dharna at the Collectorate here yesterday.

Led by Rajesh Uniyal, the protesters pledged to continue with their protest till their genuine pay and perks concerns were redressed by the government. Subhash Rathore, Vibhor Gupta, Atar Singh Rathore and Dhanpal Singh Saini were prominent among the protesters.

Mussoorie, March 8
Three persons were arrested for allegedly stealing car parts from various vehicles parked in and around the town by the police in Mussoorie today.

The three apprehended were identified as Javed, Umar Qureshi and Rohit, all residents of Butcher Khana and south road near Landour Bazaar.

According to the police, Kalsang, the owner of a restaurant at Rialto, reported that when he reached his vehicle early morning today, he found that his deck, tool bag and other spare parts were missing. He immediately informed the police about the theft. He police immediately swung into action and apprehended Umar Qureshi and Rohit from south road and brought them to the police station. The duo first pleaded innocence in the case but revealed the truth after stern grilling. The two also informed the police that they acted on the directions of Javed, who is also resident of south road.

The police then arrested the third criminal Javed and recovered a large number of stolen car radiators, decks, speakers and tyres. The police also recovered spare parts stolen in the past several years from them.

The police station in charge, BS Rawat, informed the media that with this arrest the possibility of many more cases of theft could come to light as the police was intensely questioning the three apprehended in the case. The police also suspected that the number of the gang members could increase in the near future and efforts were on to identify them after questioning the perpetrators today. The residents have commended the effort of the police for solving the case within a few hours of the theft.