BJP has edge over Congress in MC elections: Dhyani
Dehradun, April 24
Former Rajya Sabha member and senior BJP leader Manohar Kant Dhyani today said the party had a distinct advantage over the Congress in the civic bodies’ election slated for April 28.

Former Rajya Sabha member and senior BJP leader Manohar Kant Dhyani addresses a press conference in Dehradun on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

Dehradun, April 24
The proposal of setting up a bottling plant by soft drink giant Coca Cola has unnerved officials of Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL). The prospect of the company using the water of the river feeding four hydropower houses in the state has raised a question on the survival of these power projects.

General secretary, UJVNL Employees' Association, Rakesh Sharma, said: “It is most likely that hundred thousand litres of water for Coca Cola company plant will be used by the river water, which is feeding Dhalipur (5 MW), Dhakrani (33.75 MW), Kulhal (30 MW) and Khara

(36 MW) hydropower houses. If it is done so, then the entire water capacity will be sucked up by the plant itself, which will destroy all these four hydropower houses.” He said the way the company was facing the wrath of local people in Varanasi and Jaipur, employees of UJVNL would resort to fierce protest, dharna and even hunger strike against the company till it gave in writing that it would not affect the generation in any of the power houses.

Managing Director, UJVNL, GP Patel, however, avoided any direct answer on this highly sensitive issue, where the state government is directly involved. He said: “I am awaiting a copy of the proposal on this issue. At this juncture, things are quite hazy on this matter.” But he admitted that if the river water near Dak Pathar was used for the project, then the survival of these four projects would become bleak.

Sharma said: “The survival of hydropower projects is directly related to the employment of employees working there. If the projects closed down, then the employees on contract too would become jobless.

Besides loss to the power generation, it would mean putting the employment of hundreds of employees in danger.”

Dehradun, April 24
Former Rajya Sabha member and senior BJP leader Manohar Kant Dhyani today said the party had a distinct advantage over the Congress in the civic bodies’ election slated for April 28 as “it is united and fully geared up for the polls in comparison to the Congress”.

Dhyani told mediapersons that infighting in the Congress had given the BJP an edge in the MC election. “The voters are silently observing the behaviour of the two main political parties and as the BJP has been able to get its act together well before the election, it is likely to perform better than the Congress,” he said.

He criticised Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna for promising to give permanent land deeds to the residents of ‘malin bastis’. “The Congress is running the government for the past one-and-a-half year. It had promised to give permanent land deeds to the residents of ‘malin bastis during the Tehri byelection also. What stopped it from doing so. The BJP government had come up with a policy in this regard but the Congress-led government wanted to hijack our good work,” said Dhyani.

He added the declaration of the area between Goumukh and Uttarkashi as an eco-sensitive zone could give rise to a renewed conflict on the issue of use of natural resources by the people affected by the notification of the Centre.

“A conflict of this nature where the people rise against the government as their right to livelihood is being jeopardised is not new. But if the conflict continues even after the creation of a separate state, it shows the leaders have failed in their duty,” said Dhyani.

He added not only the government but also political leaders hailing from the area did not keep in touch with the developments on the issue. “It goes to show how our leaders and the governments are moving away from the people,” he said.

Dhyani also criticised the Chief Minister for suggesting that the people affected by the declaration of the eco-sensitive zone would be rehabilitated at some other place.

Dehradun, April 24
The disgruntled faction of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) is again up in arms against party president Trivender Singh Panwar. A rebellion has erupted after a brief period of silence. After the party president gave a cold shoulder to the rebel leaders, they had apologised to him for opposing the mayoral candidate of his choice.

The interesting turnaround this time has been the presence of Kashi Singh Aeri, the seniormost leader and patron of the party in the camp of rebels. While addressing a press conference, Aeri said:''The party convention has been pending since July 25 last year. The party president has postponed it several times. Now we demand calling it immediately after the civic polls. If he does not do so, then we ourselves will call the convention.'' He said they did not want to drag the issue, as

this time they just wanted to focus on campaigning in favour of party candidates for the civic polls.

He said he had the requisite strength of one-third members of the party to call the convention. Aeri got embarrassed to see the banner where party activists had demanded resignation of party president. He said their demand was not to seek his resignation but to urge him to call a meeting. The convention is, however, being called to hold election for the post of the party president. This indirectly meant oust of Panwar and bringing in new leadership.

He said the decisions taken by Panwar so far, including withdrawal to state government, had been revoked and would be re-considered in the meeting of the party convention.

Turning tables on Panwar who had been suspending party leaders on account of their alleged poor performance and indiscipline, Aeri said: ''After a review of Panwar's tenure, they came to the conclusion that their party saw a continuous downfall. the party also could not do well in any of the elections under his leadership. He also failed to strengthen the party structure, expand it further or even in constitute a working committee at the block level.'' He said owing to these reasons, anger was building up and spreading among party leaders and workers against Panwar.

Party general secretary Jay Prakash Upadhyaya said: '' Panwar had been expelling those leaders who had a mass following one after the other. It showed Panwar's insecurity where he felt threatened by the strong

leaders in the party. This was the reason he had been instrumental in dividing the party in various factions to weaken it from within and benefit from the division.''

On this occasion, city president Bahadur Singh Rawat, spokesman, Shailash Guleri, Harish Pathak and Latafat Hussain were also present.

Dehradun, April 24
Congress Mayor candidate for Dehradun Suryakant Dhasmana today addressed a number of public meetings in Hathibarkala, Patelnagar, Gandhi Gram, Sanjay Colony, MDDA colony and Kandoli areas of Dehradun city.

In his addresses, Dhasmana pledged to work for all round development of Dehradun city if elected as Mayor by the people. He alleged that the last BJP Mayor who was seeking re-election had failed to address the common concerns of the people. He said the BJP Mayor even failed to take advantage of Central schemes meant for development of cities in the country.

He also reminded the gathering the development works done by the state Congress government for Dehradun city. Senior Congress leader Saket Bahuguna said Congress had never believed in making announcements and fulfilled what it promised. He appealed to the people to ensure resounding success to Congress in the civic polls.

Congress leader Devendra Sethi said people had understood that the BJP was an unreliable party and had now made up their mind to vote for Congress in a big way. Congress leaders Ram Kumar Walia, Jagdish Dhiman, Priti Grover, Harish Anand and DS Mann were present.

Mussoorie, April 24
With only four days left for the Municipal Council elections in Mussoorie, the candidates have stepped up their campaign in 11 wards of Mussoorie.

The anti-incumbency factor could play an important role in these elections as the non-performance by the existing members is weighing heavily among the voters.

Electricity, roads and water have come out as major issues in the minds of voters making it difficult for the sitting candidates to replicate their past performance.

The other factor which could impact the voting trend is the issue of corruption as many voters feel that most of the sitting ward members instead of providing relief have remained busy in filling their own coffers and the information about their assets submitted to the Election Commission bears the testimony to the fact.

In Hakmans ward number 7, Kedar Singh Chauhan, the sitting member, is contesting as an independent candidate but is finding the going tough this time. Arjun Bhandari from the Congress and Sarojini Kaintura from the BJP are in contest while Arvind Gusain and Geeta Kumain as independent are gaining the ground from this ward.

One voter, Anil from ward number 7, was of the view that he was unhappy with the functioning of the sitting ward member, therefore he was giving a serious thought to where his vote will go this time.

The similar situation is emerging from ward number 8 where the voters are openly venting their ire against the contesting candidates from the national parties while Prem Rawat, Surendar Dangwal, Kuldeep Rawat and Nand Lal, who contested on the Congress symbol in last the elections on the reserved seat, is in the fray once again on the general seat as an independent.

The entry of the youth in these wards as probable candidates is also making it tough for the sitting candidates.

However, with change in the delimitation in Nagar Palika ward number 5 and Kulri ward number 6, where the ward number 5 that was general has now been reserved for female members and ward number 6 that was reserved for female members is now reserved for the general category can contest, the anti-incumbency factor has no role to play.

From ward number 5, Pushpa Padyar on the Congress symbol, Suman Panwar from the BJP, Sashi Rawat, Asha Singh, Nirmala Kant, Yashoda Sharma and Reeta Goel are in the contest and all these candidates are finding it easy to blame the previous ward member Virendar Rawat for all the problems.

In ward number 6, Vinod Semwal from the Congress are Trilok Rana from the BJP are in contest while Kashmiri Lal, Darshan Singh Rawat, Rajesh Goyal, RP Badoni and Roop Chand Sharma.

All these new entrants are blaming the previous candidate Subhasini Bartwal for her non-performance and also alleged that fearing the debacle this time, she did not file her nomination.

In Happy valley ward number 10, Rakesh Chandelia from the BJP is contesting the elections. No candidate from the Congress has filed his nomination from this ward. Rajwant Rawat, who is the sitting nominated 
member from this ward, is in fray as an independent candidate.

Pooran Rawat, who also won the seat earlier, is also contesting once again. Virendar Panwar, who is contractor, is also contesting the elections from this ward.

In Doodhli ward number 11, Jasveer Kaur from the Congress, Kamelsh Sharma from the BJP are in contest while Sarojini Negi and Rekha Chaturvedi are also testing their luck as the independent candidate from this ward.

Jasveer Kaur is contesting for the second time from this ward as she won last time on general seat.

The regional aspirations could also play an important role while determining the winning candidates in these elections.

The money power is also playing an important factor as the flow of liquor to various pockets has increased doubly with the day of election coming closer, much to the delight of the voter who is enjoying the feast without revealing where his vote will go thus keeping the candidates guessing.

Dehradun, April 24
Carelessly maintained muster rolls and failure to set up a state employment guarantee council (SEGC) have led to the poor implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Uttarakhand, the country's top audit agency, the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out.

While undertaking the performance audit of MGNREGS in the state , the audit body has found fault in the way the muster rolls were first prepared in kutcha form and thereafter their particulars entered in pucca muster rolls. ''Once this was done, the date was not indicated for the issue of muster roll, giving rise to chances of fake muster rolls being prepared,'' says the report. Further, the date of payment of wages were also not found recorded on all paid muster rolls and these were not up for public scrutiny.

The Act stipulates that every state government should set up an SEGC for advising the government on the implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the scheme but the state failed to do so, the report added. As a result, certain preferred works were given importance over the other, which did not help in fulfilling the objectives under the act, the report said. Further, even the record of mandays generated per household was poor. For the period ending March 2007, against 84,700 mandays, the mandays generated were 24,947, leaving a difference of 59,763 mandays (71 per cent).

Dehradun, April 24
Welham Boys and Girls basketball teams won the finals of the District Junior (U-14years) Basketball Championship for Boys and Girls section organized by District Basketball Association, Dehradun at Welham Boys’ School. In the boys final, Welham Boys beat Hilton school by 38-12. Ayush scored 15 points for the winners.

In the girls final match, Welham Girls beat Doon Girls School by 38-15.Pushkar Singh, head of Sports Department of Carman School gave away the prizes.