Haridwar, April 9
President of the Haridwar city Congress unit OP Chauhan has denied having given a statement that Swami Rishiwaranand Maharaj will be the party candidate for the Mayor’s post of the Haridwar Municipal Corporation in the forthcoming civic bodies’ election. He added it is the party high command that finalised the names of the candidates for the civic bodies’ election.

Chauhan told The Tribune that a news item published by a Hindi daily in this regard had no basis and his name was being wrongly dragged into the controversy.

He said his political career in the Congress spanned over three decades and he had served the Sewa Dal as the state chief in Uttar Pradesh and also in Uttarakhand for four years. “As the Congress city unit chief I have submitted a list of probable candidates to the screening committee, which will decide the final candidates. We have done our work by giving the final list of probable candidates to the committee.

How can I declare any name when the screening committee is still finalising the names of the candidates,” said Chauhan.

Swami Rishiwaranand, who is close to Haridwar MP Harish Rawat, also said he was in the race for the ticket for the Mayor’s post from the Congress but had no hand in making public his name as the candidate.

The Swami, whose ashram was the office of Harish Rawat during the 2009 Lok Sabha election, said it was for Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, the Haridwar MP and the party selection committee to finalise the name of the candidate for the Mayor’s post.

“We would have started campaigning or celebrating had my name been finalised. Please make it clear that I am a loyal party activist and a saint too,” he said.

Meanwhile, Congress Disciplinary Committee member Dhirendra Pratap said in Dehradun that he had sought clarification from Chauhan and Swami Rishiwaranand on the issue.

Mussoorie, April 9
A flurry of activity was witnessed on the second day at the nomination centre for the civic polls as 11 members filed their nominations for the post of president and ward members in Mussoorie today.

Out of 11 candidates three papers were filed for the post of president and eight for the respective wards of the town amid beating of drums here.

As many as six candidates belonging to the Communist Party of India and their allies who could not file their nomination papers yesterday were the people who completed the nomination process today. Aslam Khan, the CPI presidential candidate, Sunil Sonkar, Independent candidate in alliance with the CPI, Nahid Parveen, Babita Mittal and Anand Pal were first to arrive at the nomination centre today. Following that Pradeep Bhandari and the Congress rebel candidate also filed their nominations for the post of president today.

The BJP rebel candidate Rajwant Rawat along with Reeta Goel, Virendar Kumar and Tahmina Khan also filed their nominations for ward no 5 and 10 as Independent candidates. According to the election officials, around 15 nomination papers were sold today. The police remained alert during the whole process all day long to avoid any untoward incident in Mussoorie.

The rebel Congress candidate Narendar Kumar who filed his nominations for the post of Municipal Council president alleged that some leaders ''due to their vested interests'' were conspiring with some senior leaders of the state and had succeeded in lobbying to convert the reserved seat into a general one in Mussoorie, thus hurting the sentiments of the Dalit community. Narendar Kumar further said that he had been working for Congress for the past several decades and as his name was not even considered, he had opted to fight as Independent candidate.

However, the clear picture on who will contest will emerge only after the last day of taking back the names for the nominations.

Haridwar, April 9
Three Independent candidates filed their nominations for the civic bodies' election here today.

Pundit Prakash Chand Bhatt filed his nomination from Bhimgoda ward no. 13 at the district election office, Roshanabad. Dinesh Kumar filed his papers from Ambedkar Nagar ward no 2 and Sudhish Chetriya filed his nomination from ward no. 30.

Yesterday, Dr Satya Narayan Sharma (Independent) filed his papers from ward no. 13 and Shashi and Dharmpal Singh Thekedar, both Rashtriya Krantikari Manch candidates, filed their papers from ward no.1 and ward no. 17, respectively. Sub-district election officer VS Dhanik said security and other administrative arrangements had been put in place and candidates had been urged to adhere to the model code of conduct at the election office.

Dehradun, April 9
Striking government teachers, who had boycotted the evaluation of answers sheets of the Class X and XII class examinations, joined duty today. They also started taking classes. They had called off their stir yesterday after the government fulfilled some of their demands.

“The demands have been pending for the last 11 years. We have begun working towards fulfilling some of the demands and given an assurance to the teachers that most of these will be met,” said Chander Singh Gawal, Director School Education

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly Ajay Bhatt yesterday charged the Congress-led government with not trying to resolve the issue of teachers. He said the work of evaluation of answer-sheets was suffering as the teachers had refused to join duty. “The delay will have an adverse impact on the result that is likely to be delayed this year,” he said.

He added that the government was not sympathetic towards the problems of the teachers and it should have invited them for talks in order to fulfil their demands.

The teachers had been demanding that their 20-point charter of demands, including the same grade pay, allowances and removal of anomalies in pay fixation, be fulfilled.

Dehradun, April 9
The Congress today released its first list of candidates for the civic bodies elections at Congress Bhawan, Dehradun, today. The list comprises 11 Congress candidates for civic bodies in various districts. Uttarakhand Congress spokesman Dhirendra Pratap said 7 out of 11 candidates announced were from Udham Singh Nagar district.

He said 2 tickets each had also been given to women and minorities' candidate. Among those whose names have been announced include Rama Verma for the post of President for Nagar Panchayat, Lohaghat, Rita Pushpaan for the post of Nagar Panchayat President, Ukhimath, Piyarey Lal Himani for the post of Nagar Panchayat President, Purola, Deep Sati for the post of Nagar Panchayat President, Kaladungi, Madan Lal for Chairman, Jaspur Municipality, Anadi Rajan for Dineshpur Nagar Panchayat President, Munna Lal Maurya for Nagar Panchayat President, Sultanpur, Abdul Hasan for Mahuwakhedganj Nagar Panchayat President, Kanta Prasad Sagar for Sitarganj Nagar Panchayat President, Hamid Ali for the post of Kelakeda Nagar Panchayat President and Praveen Kumar have been given party ticket for the post of Mahuwadabra Nagar Panchayat President in Udham Singh Nagar.

Dhirendra Pratap, who is also the secretary of the party’s disciplinary committee, also disclosed that a show-cause notice has been issued to Congress Haridwar City President OP Chauhan for unilaterally declaring himself a candidate for the Mayor seat in the Haridwar Municipal Corporation.

“OP Chauhan has been asked to give his explanation within 24 hours or he will be expelled from the party”, Dhirendra Pratap said.

Haridwar, April 9
The Bahujan Samaj Party today declared the names of candidates for the Municipal Committee and Nagar Panchayat presidential candidates here today.

Apart from this, two candidates for posts of Mayor in two cities have also been announced. Both candidates are women for the two Municipal Corporations.

Anita Singh from Haldwani, Nainital district, has been named the candidate while Rajni Rawat will be the party's official candidate from Dehradun (general) seat.

Uttarakhand state chief Dr Megh Raj Zaravare told TNS that the party would name the Haridwar and Rudrapur Municipal Corporation candidate names very soon, ushering hope that the announced candidates would emerge victorious in the upcoming elections.

“The party maintained a specific policy in the selection of the candidates for the civic body elections.We have given due representation to every segment of the society and elephant will surely ride in both plain and hill districts this time,”said Zaravare.

The first list includes -- Almora - Mohammmed Raja Ali Ansari; Bageshwar - Meena Joshi; Pithoragarh- Kailash Pant; Jaspur - Mohammed Umar; Kitcha - Sunita Kashyap; Bhawali - Sharmila Salim; Ram Nagar - Pawan Aggarwal; Mangalore - Mohammed Shahzad; Uttarkashi - Urmila Devi and Gadarpur - Chandra Joshi.

Nagar Panchayat -- Lohaghat - Draupadi Giri; Kela Kheda-Mohammed Farukh; Mahua Adabra - Harpal Singh; Bheemtal - Naveen Arya; Lal Kuan - Satish Bhatia; Laksar- Rajeev Valia; Jhabdreda - Mohammed Shakeel and Mahua Kheda Ganj - Arvind Kumar.

Mussoorie, April 9
Finally, the BJP after long deliberations has reposed faith in OP Uniyal once again by clearing his name for the post of president for Mussoorie Municipal Council today.

OP Uniyal who was facing opposition from a section of party workers from his own party in Mussoorie emerged as clear favourite due to the winning factor becoming a major weapon in his favour.

When contacted Ajayendar Ajay also confirmed that the ticket of OP Uniyal had been finalised for the post of Municipal Council president.

The party workers have also been directed to work towards ensuring his victory in the elections. He also said that the names for various wards will be cleared after the approval of the election committee which is overseeing the election process in the state.

According to sources, detractors of Uniyal after the announcement of the ticket in his favour and began planning a different strategy in the wake of new developments in Mussoorie.

Dehradun, April 9
The extremely popular event ONGC Golf Cup of the Forest Research Institute Military Academy (FRIMA) Golf Club was played on FRIMA greens on April 6 and 7. More than 110 elite amateur golfers, 10 teams from ONGC, Indian Military Academy, Forest Services, Mount View Golf Club, FRIMA Golf Club, OGA (ONGC Golfers' Association), Indian Navy and other specially invited top-ranked golfers from in and around Dehradun battled it out for top honours.

The tournament was inaugurated by K S Jamestin, Director (HR), ONGC, and Lt Gen Manvender Singh, AVSM, VSM, Commandant, IMA. Besides the team championship, attractive prizes were awarded in the individual category events for different categories of golfers, senior golfers. Ladies putting competition, which is a special feature of ONGC Golf, added colour to the spring season.

ONGC team comprising Rajneesh Badoni, J K Negi, Vikram Rana and L Selvadurai lifted the coveted ONGC Cup. Team IMA led by Gen Manvender Singh and Col V S Negi, Lt Col S Z H Rizvi and Harsh Vardhan were the runners-up. In the individual category events, Vikram Rana of ONGC was the gross winner, Gen Manvender Singh and Lt Col R Ravi Shankar were winners in net handicap categories, Maj Gen Kuldeep Singh and Brig Kulkarni were stableford and veterans winners, respectively. Ladies putting was won by Amrita Badhwar.

Dehradun, April 9
Former Director General of Police JS Pandey, whose term as the chairman of the one-member state Police Reforms Commission is coming to an end on April 12, will soon release his report on police reforms.

He is, however, disappointed at poor response shown by people towards the drafting of the report, which is being compiled on the state government's website.

Pandey had asked for suggestions from public representatives, academicians, bureaucrats, advocates, journalists and intellectual strata to further improve upon the draft. “Barring some police officials and retired bureaucrats, no one bothered to send feedback and suggestions on the report,” he said.

However, Pandey is not letting his painstaking efforts go waste. He said: “We must not forget that the report of the National Police Commission released in 1980 was ignored for 20 years until the then DGP, UP, and BSF, Prakash Singh insisted on its adaptability.”

Today when voices are being raised over reforms in the archaic system of police functioning, Pandey’s report is quite useful. He said, “I have made it clear in my report that the police should not be made independent as this would lead to anarchy in the force. It has been doing its primary job of peacekeeping involving maintaining law and order, VIP security and solving contentious issues of public very well. Hence, it must not be put under undue strain for solving crime cases in a jiffy.”

He said undue pressure from the media and other sources would lead the police to resort to unjustified methods to solve cases.

“The police should follow the prescribed procedure for crime. Instead of focusing on solving one case, it must take measures to prevent reiteration of such incidents.”

He said if police personnel and officials do their work properly, they would not need to open any special helpline to cater to problems of a particular kind.

However, he said information management was one area where the police was required to really work upon.

He said police officials needed to be updated on all important occurrences, besides crime, in their area.

This one year he utilised in compiling the report using his long experience in police service as well as studying the pattern of policing in various countries.

Mussoorie, April 9
Co-members of the Lioness Club of Mussoorie nominated Babita Agarwal as the district chairperson of the club.

Babita Agarwal emerged the most popular candidate for the post and was declared as district chairperson.

She was presented a bouquet of flowers and a citation by the fellow members from Mussoorie in a simple ceremony held today.

Babita Agarwal speaking said she would take all members in confidence in the various programmes of social outreach such as creating awareness towards domestic violence, promoting education for girlchild, etc in near future.