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Package tour fails to take off (June 30, 2000)
New groups want U.P. split into smaller States (June 29, 2000)
Ajit Singh seeks creation of separate state in UP (June 28, 2000)
Poor communication hits Badrinath pilgrims (June 28, 2000)
15-yr-old cadet the first to scale 21,000 ft peak (June 24, 2000)
Mt Kailash scaled in record time (June 24, 2000)
Uttaranchal Express from July 2 (June 19, 2000)
Uttarakhand activist observe "black day" in doon (June 19, 2000)
Shinde upsets Uttarakhand Congmen (June 13, 2000)
Missing Italian tourist’s body found in UP hills? (June 13, 2000)
6 killed, hundreds marooned in rains in UP (June 9, 2000)
BJP had no right to backtrack on Uttarakhand: Khurshid (June 7, 2000)
Over 2 lakh pilgrims visit Badrinath Joshimath (June 6, 2000)
ICFRE feels funds allocated for forests conservation inadequate (June 5, 2000)
Kailash-Mansarovar yatra begins (June 4, 2000)
Need for increasing forest area stressed (June 3, 2000)
17 pilgrims killed in UP bus mishap (June 3, 2000)
Call to demarcate watersheds at high altitude (May 30, 2000)
Hill fest from June 2 (May 29, 2000)
Kumaon leopards on the verge of extinction (May 27, 2000)
Controversy over grazing cattle plagues Valley of Flowers (May 26, 2000)
Musk deer falling prey to poachers (May 25, 2000)
Hills thirsty despite a multitude of rivers (May 24, 2000)
Human rights course to start on May 27 in Doon (May 23, 2000)
Tillers toil in `romantic' Himalayas (May 23, 2000)
Big haul of leopard skins in Uttar Pradesh hills (May 23, 2000)
PM gives assurance on constituting Uttaranchal Assembly (May 22, 2000)
Road accidents on the rise in the hills (May 22, 2000)
Downhill in the hills (May 21, 2000)
Women activists protest lathicharge (May 20, 2000)
The Sahayog affair (May 19, 2000)
Lathicharge on Agitators (May 19, 2000)
Uttaranchal Bill puts BJP Leaders in a fix (May 19, 2000)
Campaign for Udhamsingh Nagar hots up (May 19, 2000)
States Reorganisation Bill: Allies blame BJP (May 19, 2000)
Uttarakhand rallyists outwit police, reach PM’s house (May 19, 2000)
Resentment over deferment of Uttaranchal Bill (May 18, 2000)
United Oppn stalls Bill to divide states (May 18, 2000)
Politics wins as fate of new states Bills is uncertain (May 18, 2000)
SP walkout in UP over Hardwar issue (May 18, 2000)
New States: Introduction of Bills stalled (May 18, 2000)
Pre-historic age skeleton found in Garhwal (May 18, 2000)
MLAs support Udham Singh Nagar cause (May 18, 2000)
Uttaranchal to add to BJP's woes (May 17, 2000)
Hardwar issue raises furore in Assembly (May 17, 2000)
Hardwar in Uttaranchal: Hills, plains divide widening (May 17, 2000)
Complete bandh in Doon Valley over Uttarakhand (May 17, 2000)
Ban on liquor, polythene on `Yatra' route (May 17, 2000)
Rift in NDA over Uttaranchal (May 16, 2000)
Landslides leave 35,000 people stranded in Chamoli (May 16, 2000)
Badal wants panel on Udham Singh Nagar (May 16, 2000)
UP CM leads chorus against Hardwar in Uttaranchal (May 16, 2000)
By Lord! It was star trek at Badrinath (May 15, 2000)
New forest law emerges after 11 years of seeding (May 15, 2000)
LCP assails inclusion of Hardwar in new state (May 15, 2000)
Badal rakes up Uttaranchal issue again (May 15, 2000)
Hardwar district goes to Uttaranchal (May 14, 2000)
Protests threatened if Uttarakhand Bill is not passed before May 17 (May 14, 2000)
Creation of new States: Cabinet to study draft Bill today (May 13, 2000)
Cabinet for Hardwar in Uttaranchal state (May 13, 2000)
Badrinath, Kedarnath temple `kapats' open (May 12, 2000)
Seven killed as buses collide in Garhwal (May 12, 2000)
Tehri dam project enters crucial stage (May 12, 2000)
NGO shows how not to raise AIDS awareness (May 10, 2000)
AIDS report sparks demand for probe (May 8, 2000)
Creation of Uttarakhand this budget session doubtful (May 5, 2000)
Govt takes tough stance on NGO report (May 5, 2000)
`Char Dham Yatra' needs better arrangements (May 5, 2000)
Nanda Devi gearing up for Raj Jat Yatra (May 3, 2000) |
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Package tour fails to take off
By Aarti Aggarwal
The Times of India News Service
June 30, 2000
DEHRADUN: The `yatra package tour' jointly begun by the Railways and the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) fell flat from the word go, having to be stopped within a week.
Presently the Railways had constituted a high-level committee to look into that issue. With the failure of that scheme, railways and GMVN were facing a loss of more than Rs 1.25 lakh per week.
The proposal for that yatra package was sent to the railways by the UP Tourism Department keeping in mind the yatris coming from all corners of India for pilgrimage to the four dhams in Garhwal namely Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamnotra. The GMVN had sked the Railways for 16 seats on Paschim Express, 28 seats on Ahmedabad Mail and 28 on Howrah Express once a week to be reserved for the pilgrims. The idea was to tap tourists from Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bombay in the initial stage.
The Railway Board cleared the tour package for pilgrims from Ahmedabad to Delhi intially. The first batch was given reservation on May 5. In all, 16 seats were reserved for the yatra passengers. But before the second batch could be taken up, problems cropped up due to mistakes in the reservation ticket. The yatra seats were to be allotted every Friday but they were erroneously reserved everyday. That lead to confusion amongst the passengers, officials and the travel agencies.
Thence the travel agents in Delhi and Ahmedabad created a ruckus. As Railways had anounced that scheme during the rail budget they could not cancel it. Seeing no other way out they constituted a high-level committee to sort it out. Now further course of action depends on its report.
Opinion amongst railway officers as to whether that package tour would restart or not was divided. According to the chairman, GMVN, Mr Devender Bhasin, a sum of s 7865 (Seven thousand eight hundred and sixty five) had bene charged per yatri for that pilgrimage of the four dhams. The tour planned took about a fortnight. The amount charged included a return ticket on the railways, commuting to the shrines by car or bus and lodging facilities. A guide would also be provided for the entire yatra. "The objective of this yatra is not only to attract tourists but also to increase the income of the railways", he added.
Mr Bhasin affirmed that this scheme could give a big boost to tourism in Garhwal and hoped that it would take off again. Talks were on to increase the quota. He conceded that package tour for Upasana Express had to be cancelled, as it was not viable due to train timings.
Even though the railway officers claimed that this tour would begin again only in the next season, Mr Bhasin was convinced that the package would restart after the monsoons when the second phase of yatra commences.
New groups want U.P. split into smaller States
By Our Staff Correspondent
MEERUT, JUNE 29. A new organisation has said Uttar Pradesh should be split into five smaller States, one of which should consist of the plains and hills of western U.P.
The demand was made after the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president, Mr. Ajit Singh, formed a group to demand the formation of a Harit Pradesh consisting of 23 western U.P. districts.
The Doab Pradesh Sangharsh Samiti, which wants a Doab Pradesh, is led by Mr. Subhash Goswami.
After a dharna at the Meerut collectorate it urged the President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, to reorganise Uttar Pradesh into five smaller States.
It is the latest among the nearly 15 political groups which want separate States in different parts of Uttar Pradesh.
Mr. Ajit Singh has formed the Harit Pradesh Sangharsh Samiti after uniting several political and non-political organisations.
The Samiti's members include Mr. Sohan Vir Singh Tomar, ex-MLA and secretary of the Sangharsh Samiti, Swami Omvesh, RLD MLA from Bijnore, Mr. Somansh Prakash, former Congress MLA from Muzaffarnagar, Mr. Imtiaz Hussain, a former Congress MLA from Bulandshahr who is now in the RLD, Mr. Majahir Rana from Saharanpur, Mr. Mahendrapal Sharma, president of the Meerut Bar Association.
Mr. Surendra Pratap, secretary of the Meerut College management committee and secretary of the All India Bhatta Association, Mr. Satpal Sargoda, president of the Meerut chapter of the UP Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and Mr. R K Jain president of the Supreme Court Bar Association have also joined the Samiti.
In the Uttarakhand region, the opinion continues to be one of despair.
``We no longer have confidence in politicians. It would be good if they form the hill State,'' people say.
Another has started opposing the creation of the hill State by saying that the region would never develop by separating from Uttar Pradesh.
A third group, consisting mostly of Congressmen, says the region should be first made a Union Territory and then granted Statehood like Himachal Pradesh.
Ajit Singh seeks creation of separate state in UP
HT Correspondent
(New Delhi, June 27)
RASHTRIYA LOK Dal (RLD) leader Ajit Singh today demanded the creation of 'Harit Pradesh', a separate State to be carved out of western Uttar Pradesh. He said an agitation would be launched from October this year to achieve this goal.
Mr Singh, the political heir of former Prime Minister Charan Singh who had raised a similar demand for statehood earlier in the name of Kisan Pradesh, said a smaller State was essential for the purpose of efficient administration and optimum development of the region. He said UP should be divided into four or five smaller States as it was too large and "unwieldy" with a population of 17 crore. For this purpose, he said, the Government should set up a State Reorganisation Commission. Now that the NDA Government had already agreed to create the new States of Uttaranchal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, there was no reason why it should not look into further division of UP, Mr Singh said.
At a meeting of RLD leaders from western UP, held in the Capital today, a programme for holding public meetings at mandal, district and commissionary level was chalked out and a Harit Pradesh Sangharsh Samiti was formed. An attempt would be made by the Samiti to tie up with various other like-minded non-political bodies of western UP, Mr Singh said. He claimed that once the movement picked up momentum, local leaders of other parties including the BJP, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and LCP would come out in support of the new State. The RLD leader envisaged that the proposed State could include the commissionaries of Saharan-pur, Meerut, Agra, Moradabad and parts of Bareilly.
Poor communication hits Badrinath pilgrims
Harish Chandola
(Badrinath, June 27)
The Hindustan Times
DESPITE FREQUENT roadblocks and landslides Badrinath has attracted a record number of 350,000 pilgrims since the summer shrine opened on May 10. But almost all of them return disgruntled.
The greatest difficulty they face is their inability to contact their families or their offices about the delay in their journey caused by bad roads. There has been an almost total failure of telephone services in this summer town. It has about 28 subscriber trunk dialing (STD) booths, besides hundreds of other phones in hotels and rest homes, but only three outgoing lines.
Landslides block the 340km-road from Badrinath to Haridwar at one point or the other almost every day, resulting in pilgrims getting stranded in Badrinath or on the way for hours and sometimes days.
Anxious to inform their families and offices about the delay in their journey, almost all the 350,000 visitors wanted to make calls home. Hardly one per cent of them succeeded, because even the three phone lines were almost always down. One waited at these booths for hours and sometimes half a day in vain.
The Border Roads Organisation has been clearing these landslides to enable the pilgrim-vehicles to pass. There were occasions when after it had cleared one slide another occurred just a few kilometres away, keeping labour-gangs of the organisations working 24 hours to let the passengers drive through.
Badrinath is connected with the rest of the country through a satellite link. This has been disastrously down this year because of bad weather conditions. Angry pilgrims sent telegrams to the Communications Minister and other authorities complaining about the lack of communication facilities in this holy town. But the telegrams perhaps never arrived, ìbecause the line was downî.
It is planned to connect Badrinath with optic fiber cable, capable of providing more channels and clear communications, next year. There is no microwave link north of the Chamoli district headquarters town of Gopeshwar, over a hundred kilometres away. So when the temperamental satellite system goes into a sulk in bad weather, this whole border region gets cut off from the country. The optic fiber cable laid till Joshimath, 44 kilometres below Badrinath, has been of no use. It is supposed to provide the ultimate telecommunications link. But even this link has been down for the past four days in Joshimath forcing this correspondent to travel over a hundred kilometres to another town to send this story about the misery of both the pilgrims and the people of this region.
15-yr-old cadet the first to scale 21,000 ft peak
Staff Reporter/New Delhi
Saturday 24 June 2000
The Pioneer
Fifteen-year-old Vikas Sharma, a student of the Rashtriya Indian Military College, has become the youngest mountaineer to have scaled the 21,000 feet high summit, "Black Peak," in the Garhwal Himalayas. He, along with his team, scaled the peak on June 15.
Sharma was a member of the team which was flagged off for an expedition to Black Peak by Lt Gen H B Kala, GOC-in-C of Army Training Command.
According to a release, the team had left Dehradun on May 29 by bus. It reached Sankari from where their approach march to the base camp at Kyarkoti took four days. The weather at Kyarkoti turned bad and thus delayed further movement.
However, despite the unfavourable weather conditions, the team carried on its expedition. The last day of climbing proved to be the toughest as the team had to move for almost nine hours before reaching the summit. A total of eight members including the leader and the guide reached the top.
The team comprised 22 personnel, which included two Army officers, one Naval officer, 17 cadets and two JCO's from Uttarkashi. The team was led by Lt Col Prem Prakash and the deputy leader was Lt Santosh Kumar from the Indian Navy.
Mt Kailash scaled in record time
By Aarti Aggarwal
Saturday 24 June 2000
The Times Of India
UTTARKASHI: The mountaineering squad of the Nehru Mountaineering Institute (NML) and the Army Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Core (EME) succeeded in scaling the 6,932-metre high peak Mount Kailash in a record time of nine days.
Skiing down from the peak to the forward base camp on their way back was another achievement.
Kailash Parvat is one of the highest peaks situated in the middle of Garhwal Himalayas. It stands straight like a tower unlike the other surrounding mountains. It is about 44 kilometres away from Gomukh (the point where the Ganges emerges).
Six members of the group of 10 successfully completed scaled the peak and hoisted the Tricolour and their Core flag on June 13. The vice-principal of NMI in Uttarkashi, Major Kulwant Singh Dhami, led the group. It was flagged off by Major General S.K. Gupta from Uttarkashi.
Due to bad weather initially the group had to wait in the base camp for the first three days. Then crossing all hurdles, the group made it to the top in a record time of only nine days, as against the normal 25 to 30 days.
This feat was achieved by Major Dhami, Subedar Laxman Singh Negi who is an instructor at NMI and four other members Pushkar Singh, Lekhpal, Babu Kedari and Rajender Singh.
While coming down from the mountain, Major Dhami skied from a height of 20,300 feet to the forward base camp covering a distance of six kilometers, another triumph for the group.
Uttaranchal Express from July 2
The Times Of India
Monday 19 June 2000
DEHRA DUN: As part of the events planned for Dehradun railway station's centenary year, the ``Uttaranchal Express'' will start operating on a weekly basis from the Doon valley. The new train will leave the Doon valley at 6 am every Sunday beginning July two next, according to station incharge Shiromani Badola. This train would reach Okha via New Delhi, Ajmer, Jaipur and Ahmedabad, he said. Details regarding other steps had not yet been received by the Doon station authorities, Mr Badola said.
By not passing through Saharanpur, the Uttaranchal Express will save about 50 minutes of travelling time.
Central railway minister Mamata Banerjee had promised the residents of the Uttarakhand (Uttaranchal) region recently that such a train would soon be started from Doon.
Mr Badola said changes had been made in the arrival and departure timings of some trains. The Janata Express which used to leave Doon at 6.40 pm will leave at 6.15 pm from July 1 next
The Ujjain Express which arrives here at 6.35 pm would arrive at 7 pm from July 1.
He said the Uttaranchal Express had been introduced after repeated requests from the people of Dehradun district. (UNI)
Uttarakhand activist observe "black day" in doon
Agencies/Dehra dun
June 19, 2000
About 200 people including women, ex-servicemen, lawyers and office-bearers of student unions observed a "black day" to protest against "non-action" against those responsible for lathi-charge on women activists here on May 18 last.
Wearing black bands on their arms, the activists staged a demonstration at the district administrative campus on Sunday, raising slogans against the district police and administration.
The activists have been on a "dharna" in the Kutchery premises since May 19 to protest against the lathicharge and demand action against the police. But to no avail.
They have now sent a memorandum to commissioner (Garhwal) B M Vohra urging strict action against police and administrative officers responsible for the lathi-charge.
Shinde upsets Uttarakhand Congmen
By R P Nailwal
The Times of India News Service
June 13, 2000
DEHRA DUN: Contradictory statements issued by various senior Congress leaders on the question of formation of Uttarakhand state has created a piquant situation for party leaders from the hills of western Uttar Pradesh.
The situation has come to such a pass that a senior AICC member, Vijay Bahuguna, son of former party stalwart H N Bahuguna, had declared at Mussoorie on Saturday that the hill unit of the party would not allow any one, including an MP, from his party to enter the region if such a person was found opposing the interests of Uttarakhand.
Bahuguna was reacting to a reported statement by Congress general-secretary Sushil Kumar Shinde that inclusion of district Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar in the proposed state depended on the wishes of the people of the two regions. The reported statement was made by Shinde at Mussoorie while talking to some news persons.
The statement caused a flutter.
Bahuguna, a former Bombay High Court judge and a Congress candidate from Tehri Garhwal parliamentary seat last time, however, denied that Shinde had made such a statement. ``What Mr Shinde actually meant was to elicit the opinion of the Congress workers both in Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar as to what they thought about the move'', Bahuguna explained later, adding: ``Being a Marathi-speaking person, he was not able to clarify as to what he meant indeed.''
It may be noted here some three days ago, both Sushil Kumar Shinde and Mohsina Kidwai were at Mussoorie where the former spoke to the media persons. His reported statement has angered several leaders in Uttarakhand including those from the Congress.
Meanwhile, rallies and demonstrations have become a regular feature in the hills against failure of the Central government in introducing the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2000 during the budget session of the Lok Sabha as was promised by the government earlier.
Taking advantage of the current anti-Centre mood, the Congress leaders are now desperately trying to refurbish the party image in the 12 hill districts.
About a week ago, UPCC president Salman Khursheed visited Uttarakhand and led a huge party rally both in Dehra Dun and Haldwani, the two main foot-hill towns, raising pro-Uttarakhand slogans while condemning the BJP government's failure to introduce the Bill.
In fact, the Congress leaders from the hills such as N D Tiwari, Vijay Bahuguna, Harish Rawat, Kishore Upadhyaya are often making efforts to build up a new base in the region.
They also lament that party high-command did not volunteer its support to the UP Reorganisation Bill 2000. The statements on Udham Singh Nagar issued by some Punjab unit Congress leaders have also made them unhappy.
Missing Italian tourist’s body found in UP hills?
New Delhi, June 13
(Vinay Menon)
INVESTIGATIONS BY the Italian Embassy into the disappearance of a tourist, who vanished midway through his trek in Uttarkashi, received a major setback. An unidentified corpse resembling the missing tourist was found in a deep gorge a couple of days ago.
Injury marks suggest that Daniele Tentori (36), a resident of Udine in northern Italy, may have been drugged, clubbed on the head, and then shoved off a steep cliff by a local guide, allegedly for money.
The discovery comes less than a fortnight after the news of a missing Russian economist touring the same area was reported in this newspaper. Alexey Yrievich Ivanov (34) had arrived in the Capital on April 17 for his month-long sojourn across several tourist spots in the hilly regions of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. However, he too vanished without any trace. All investigations into his disappearance have drawn a blank.
“We are 98 per cent sure that the corpse is Daniele's," said Siono Laoura, Consular at the Italian Embassy. "Tomorrow morning we shall be removing the remains to Agra where an autopsy will be conducted after that the body will be brought to Delhi."
The autopsy, embassy officials say, will determine the presence of any sleep inducing drugs in Daniele's body, apart from explaining whether the deep crack that Daniele bore in his cranium had been inflicted by a fall or a physical attack. The 6-foot-tall, well-built, dark blonde-haired bookshop owner was on a whirlwind tour around the world when he disappeared.
"Information available with us shows that Daniele had acquired for a one-year-ticket for himself to tour the world. Having expired nine months of his holiday, he was spending the last leg in India when he vanished," Ms Laoura said.
It is believed that Daniele was touring the region with a Spanish couple accompanying him on the trek till April 21. However, due to illness, the couple backed out and left Daniele alone in the company of a local guide Srichand on April 23. That was the last time Daniele was seen alive.
"Six days after that (April 29) Daniele's mother in Italy received an e-mail from him saying that he was all right and was proceeding on course," Ms Laoura added.
Anxious on receiving no information from Daniele after that, his friends and relatives got in touch with the Italian Embassy here, who in turn informed the local police in Uttarkashi.
Guide Srichand was picked up for questioning and on a personal search the police found "a countersigned and dated travellers cheque worth $100" in his possession.
It is believed that Srichand told authorities that Daniele had been suffering from altitude sickness and offered him tea to cure him. But the illness was so severe that Daniele allegedly never made it, thereby forcing Srichand to dump his body in the gorge. Further inquiries contradicted this version. Daniele was found to be an expert mountaineer, who tackled situations of mountain sickness on several occasions.
"Moreover when the guide was cross questioned, he contradicted his earlier version and doled out a new story," Ms Laoura said. "It is almost clear that the guide was involved, but the autopsy report would have to come first. All we can say now is that he played a big role in Daniele's death."
6 killed, hundreds marooned in rains in UP
The Indian Express, June 9, 2000
HALDWANI (Nainital): Six labourers were killed and hundreds marooned as heavy rains continued to lash several parts of Uttar Pradesh today. Three labourers were swept away and hundreds stranded while they were quarrying sand at the Gola river as rains battered the upper reaches of the hills. The government had sought the help of the Indian Air Force to rescue the trapped labourers, but the helicopters could not take off from Bareilly due to bad weather, district magistrate Rajaneesh Dubey here said.
However, 300 trapped labourers were rescued from low-lying areas around the river, he said. Rescue operations were hampered due to strong currents, he said.
In another incident, three persons were killed when their truck was swept away in a 'nullah' near Chor Galia here, reports received here said. PTI report.
BJP had no right to backtrack on Uttarakhand: Khurshid
Rajendra Bansal/Dehra Dun UP
June 7, 2000
Congress chief Salman Khurshid has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had no right to backtrack on its promise on the creation of a separate Uttarakhand state. It was on this very basis that it had reaped rich electoral dividends from the hill region, he added.
Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, Mr Khurshid said that the BJP's actions on the statehood issue, notwithstanding the number of MPs and MLAs returned by the Uttarakhand residents respectively to Parliament and Legislative Assembly, had amply proved that the BJP had hoodwinked the people here and misled them into reposing absolute trust in its credentials and capabilities.
The BJP first unkept promise to create Uttarakhand within 90 days of coming to power at the centre was followed by its failed resolve to get the matter through in the Budget session. It's failure to table the Uttarakhand Bill in the just concluded session of Parliament is a indication enough that the party is playing with the popular sentiments, Mr Khurshid said.
This will not be allowed to go on forever, the State Congress chief said and added that his party would mobilise support from Congress units from other states as well to express solidarity with the Uttarakhand residents on their longstanding demand. All Congressmen will rise to the occasion and actively particpate in agitation programmes to be launched soon by the party in support of the issue. Mr Khurshid, who led a Congress party rally organised in the city on Tuesday afternoon in support of the Uttarakhand cause, said that the Congress wanted a fair deal for the region in the sharing of its economic resources with Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Khurshid, who appeared highly elated at the unexpected response to the largely attended rally, also promised the hill people that administrative officers found guilty of last month's lathicharge on Uttarakhand protesters will not be spared after formation of Uttarakhand. "Such officers will find no place to stay in the Uttarakhand region," he said.
Over 2 lakh pilgrims visit Badrinath Joshimath
Tuesday 6 June 2000
The Times Of India
(Chamoli Garhwal): Over 2.25 lakh pilgrims have visited the holy Badrinath shrine ever since it opened on May 10. Neither the rains nor the landslides have seemed to deter their enthusiasm of the devoties.
On the first day, there were 15,000 people in Badrinath. They hailed from all over India to see the "Akhand Jyoti (eternal light). This jyoit placed in the shrine, never blows out even though it is behind closed doors during the six winter months. The governor, Mr Suraj Bhan, also paid obeisance on the first day itself.
Superstar Amitabh Bacchan and business tycoon Anil Ambani along with the general secretary of Samajvadi Party, Mr Amar Singh, came on May 12. On the May 14, heavy rains caused a landslide due to which about 5,000 pilgrims were stranded for around eight hours at various places.
With the plains becoming unbearably hot and schools closing down for the summers, there was a deluge of pilgrims. The numebers is rising steadily. A local shopkeeper claimed that he had never seen such large crowds in the last 27 years. Locals and hoteliers are a gleeful lot.
The Mandir Samiti, which manages the shrines of Badrinath and Kedarnath, had a total collection of Rs 37 lakh from Badrinath till May 31 last year. This year, in half the time, this figure has already crossed Rs 62 lakh mark.
The heavy influx, especially of the VIPs has strained the resources of the local district administration to the limit.
Yet small innovations by it to provide comforts to the yatris have made a noticeable difference. A new route has been made operational from Kedarnath. This 85-km Guptakashi-Chopta-Gopeshwar-Chamoli route, which shortens the journey by 20 km proving to be a born for the pilgrims. Not only are they saved from traffic snarls and heat at various townships on the traditional route, they can enjoy the drive through dense forests and beautiful valleys
Another major achievements has been stopping movement of traffic after 8 pm.
ICFRE feels funds allocated for forests conservation inadequate
Rajan Singh/Dehradun (June 5)
While the new schemes were announced on the occasion of "World Environment Day" for conservation of forests, the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) feels the funds allocated to this sector are not adequate.
The director general (DG) of ICFRE MK Sharma said the allocation made to the forestry sector is not commensurate with the requirement. While talking to media persons Mr Sharma said when we demanded Rs 6000 crore per annum for the forestry sector, the allocation made was only Rs 1600 crore leaving huge gap between allocation and requirement. Mr Sharma said the allocation made in this sector is sufficient only for running the department on day to day basis. He said the government must allocate adequate funds for maintaining a total of 76 million hectare forest area and increasing the green cover in the country. No independent funds have been allocated for the research works, which is very much essential for the forest conservation added Mr Sharma.
He said we have the scientists, who can do wonders in forest conservation but they need help. Mr Sharma complained that 80 per cent time of the scientists is spent in convincing the powers that be about the necessity of the research works and they are left with only 20 per cent time for the research work.
Mr Sharma emphasised that the problem plaguing the forest department must be projected in the right perspective. This is required for the development of forest cover, which is only 19.27 per cent of the total land. He said the forestry sector has great potential and it can contribute immensely to the national exchequer in the years to come.
Terming the forests as true water reservoirs, Mr Sharma said the present water crisis because the states like Gujrat, Rajsthan and Maharshtra are facing water problem because they have destroyed the forests. "Good forest not only increases the rain fall but also increases number of rainy days," said he.
He said the research will help in resuscitating life in dying trees. Most of the tree dies due to imbalance in the moisture in the soil and fungus.
Besides, protecting the environment the forests cater the needs of around 35 crore people living around forest areas as their life depends on them. "It is people, who are gatherer, collector and destroyer, but we can not stop them from exploiting the forest as there will be mass appraisal. He said terrorism around the forest areas in there North-East states is because the in inequality among the residents," added Mr Sharma.
Mr Sharma candidly admitted that timber mafia in connivance with terrorists and some department officials are felling the tree. The worst affected area is North-Eastern states, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Paradesh. He said nation is loosing revenue to the tune of Rs 2000 crore every due to tree felling. He said In Delhi only the department had seized hundreds of wagons of timber coming from North-east through rail.
About the present strength of the forest staffs, Mr Sharma said about 1.19 lakhs forest guards, who are ill-equipped are maintaining the forests all over the country. "This is not sufficient and it must increase upto four lakhs and they must be well equipped," added Mr Sharma.
Kailash-Mansarovar yatra begins
By Aarti Aggarwal
Sunday 4 June 2000
Times of India News Service
PITHORAGARH: The Kailash Mansarovar yatra begins soon with a 35-member batch reaching Dharchula on June 4. Mount Kailash, situated in Tibet, is believed to be the abode of Lord Shiva and Parvati. Spread out on a plateau, besides Mount Kailash is Lake Mansarovar, also called the `Lake of Shifting Colours'.
It is said that Brahma, the creator, wished in his heart (mann) to create a lake (sarovar), hence the name. The Union government organises the Kailash-Mansarovar yatra annually. This yatra conducted from June to December generally comprises 16 groups of 30 members each. An expenditure of Rs 30,000 to 32,000 is incurred per person for this 30-day journey originating from and ending at Delhi.
The first leg of the journey is a 12-day trip (two days by bus and 10 days on foot up to Talakot). Thereafter, the pilgrims break into two sub groups, one undertaking Kailash parikrama and the other proceeding for Manas parikrama. For the Kailash parikrama, a distance of 53 km has to be covered by foot touching a height of 19,000 feet. The Manas parikrama covers a distance of around 95 km on foot in about four to five. The two sub-groups then interchange places.
This year too, the yatris will have to climb 4,444 stairs from Lakhanpur to Jipti as the Gavra-Lakhanpur paidal marg (trekking route) is still not ready. Hence the yatris would have to take the Gala-Jipti-Lakhanpur route.
Need for increasing forest area stressed
By C. K. Chandramohan (The Hindu)
DEHRA DUN, JUNE 3. Mr. M. K. Sharma, Director-General of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) here and president of the Indian Forest Service Association, advocates the set up of a cell within the Prime Minister's Office or the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests to analyse, visualise and supervise implementation of forestry and wildlife-related policies.
In an exclusive interview to TheHindu, a visibly concerned Mr. Sharma wanted to know why most officials at the policy framing level sympathised or expressed concern over the degrading biodiversity but never brought about a suitable order or legislation to set things right. The old and now redundant Forest Act's revision has been pending for 11 years. Perhaps the government would revise it through legislation before it is too late, he said.
Worse is the States taking away the entire income generated by the Forest Department and giving it back a paltry sum that barely meets the establishment expenses. If the income generated by the Forest Department is allowed to create a rotating pool for R&D, plantation and disaster mitigation it can go a long way, Mr. Sharma said. There were relevant provisions for this, he added.
The investment required in the forestry sector is about Rs. 6,000 crores per year against which the Union Government gives Rs. 800 crores and a similar amount comes from international funding agencies. The yawning gap of Rs. 4,400 crores has to be met through innovative ideas and awareness among the masses that investments in the forestry sector besides allowing them to make India a place worthy of living would bring in good returns to them. For this special schemes like bonds and shares will have to be floated. But before this foresters who do not have a positive image will have to go in for some confidence-building exercise.
On the water problem in many parts of the country, Mr. Sharma wanted to know why the Ministry was not planning to increase the forest area. According to a study, 10,000 hectares of forests can help recharge the underground water potential equivalent to the water held in the full reservoir of the Bhakra Nangal Dam.
17 pilgrims killed in UP bus mishap
June 3, 2000
Times of India News Service
Seventeen people,including nine women and a child, were killed and 27 injured when their bus fell into a gorge near Chamba in Tehri district (Uttar Pradesh) on Friday.
The bus was carrying 52 passengers, including 49 pilgrims. Most passengers hail from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The tourist bus was going to Gangotri from Rishikesh when it fell into a gorge just four km away from Chamba. The accident occurred when the driver lost control, after the radiator of the bus burst, splashing hot water on his face.
Of the deceased, 15 died on the spot and two died on the way to the hospital. The injured, including the driver, have been admitted to Masihi Hospital in Tehri. The condition of three is reported to be serious. Passenger Ramchandra jumped out of the bus along with the conductor before it fell into the gorge.
BSF Commandant R S Negi, along with 40 soldiers, supervised the rescue operation.
Call to demarcate watersheds at high altitude
Tuesday 30 May 2000
The Times Of India
R P NAILWAL
DEHRA DUN: Prominent environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt sees the possibility of repetition of Okhimath or Malpa type landslide tragedy in the hills of western Uttar Pradesh in the coming monsoon, if the watersheds along the high altitude belt in the region are not demarcated for threat perception. He also wants development of an early warning system so that the damage following a natural disaster is "minimised".
``I am forced to arrive at this conclusion after 1999 Chamoli earthquake .... These water shed are located in the vicinity of main central thrust (MCT) a zone of recurrent seismicity," says Mr Bhatt who had met the Planning Commission vice chairman K C Pant and cabinet secretary Prabhat Kumar some time back apprising them with an urgent need for disaster management. He is also a member of an ad hoc committee formed to look into natural disaster management headed by former Union agriculture secretary J C Pant. In fact, after the 1998 Okhimath landslide which claimed 58 lives in district Rudraprayag in Garhwal, the government organised an official meeting to identify the landslide prone areas.The meeting was also attended by Mr Bhatt.
``We find that areas near MCT experienced maximum destruction in the last year's quake. The magnitude and nature of destruction diminishes as one moves south of MCT. We wanted identification of fragile water sheds in the MCT zone, change in the techniques for house building, and a
technical survey to be conducted by concerned competent departments in the tremor prone MCT zone", says Mr Bhatt. But, despite this specific demand, the survey was being done only on the traditional tourist routes on the high ways.
Today, this survey is being done between Kedarnath to Rudraprayag, Purali to Gaumukh, Pithoragarh to Malpa, Bhatwari to Maneri, Rishikesh to Uttarkashi, Rishikesh to Rudraprayag, Chamoli to Okhimath, Peepalkoti to Rudraprayag and Joshimath to Badrinath. Organisations such asISRO, SAC, Ahmedabad, IIRS, Dehra Dun, Roorkee University, CBRI, URSAC are involved in these surveys.
According to a paper prepared by Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) Ahemedabad in collaboration with Dasholi Gram Swrajya Mandal (Chamoli), district Chamoli is identified and included in seismically-active zone V of seismic zoning map of India, incorporated in the Indian standard criteria for earthquake resistant design of structures.
Around 19 major earthquake have occurred in the vicinity of MCT in district Chamoli. One can find huge active landslides at various locations proximal to MCT in the central Himalaya viz Bajang-Dharchula in Kali Ganga basin, Pipalkoti-Helong in the Aalaknanda basin and Bhatwari area in Bhagirathi basin.
``This zone has also been identified as one of the most active zone of earthquake activity seen any where in the Himlayas", says the report. According to Navin Juyal of Dasholi Gram Swaraj Mandal, the south facing slopes of the watersheds in the vicinity of MCT are extremely steep with visible scraps which receive full blast of SW monsoon, thus at times cloud burst leads to torrential rain, and if not contained within the watersheds, it gives rise to flash floods of storm surge character.
"Examples are the 1970's Alaknanda flood, 1977's Twaghat landslide in Kali basin and 1978's Kanodiya gadlandslide in Bhagirathi basin," he says.
Hill fest from June 2
Monday 29 May 2000
The Times Of India
ALLAHABAD: With a view to attract tourists, foreigners and hill people in U P particularly in hill areas, the Director, NCZCC, is organising a cultural function in hill areas of U P in Garhwal region from June 2 to 7. The cultural functions are being organised at various important places in hills. This function is being organised jointly by the NCZCC and cultural department of U P government as per the information issued by the NCZCC. Five days cultural programme will commence from world famous pilgrim place Badrinath, which is situated between Naranarain and Neelkanth Hills. The programme will be inaugurated on June 2 by the cultural minister of the state Dr R C Pokhariyal.
In the programme, the Garhwali dance, Ganraur Lokgeet shall be performed by various artists namely Sadhana Upadhayay and her party. The assistant programme officer of the NCZCC, Dr Krishnanand Pandey informed that this kind of programme is being organised for the first time in hill areas.
Kumaon leopards on the verge of extinction
May 27, 2000
The Times of India News Service
ALIGARH: The seizure of more than 50 leopard skins from Haldwani earlier this week is a clear pointer that the entire population of leopards in the Kumaon Himalayas is on the verge of extinction, feel wildlife experts here.
According to sources, the above catch is just the tip of the iceberg of what is a well organised illicit racket in animal skins operating along the Sino-India border near Dharchula.
Sources at Ramnagar told The Times of India News Service over phone that the recent seizure was the result of a chance detection, when some blood started oozing out from a consignment of goods while it was still in the possession of a transporter.
According to Afifullah Khan, secretary of the Wildlife Society of India: ``Wildlife scientists involved in various research projects in the Kumaon Himalayas have been repeatedly expressing concern over this growing menace.'' Afifullah said three years ago, his society had in a report to the ministry of environment identified ``hot spots'' and centres of such illicit trade in those areas. The report was based on the basis of ``first hand experience'' of wildlife scientists who had been working on different projects for more than six years.
The ``hot spots'' and standard routes of smugglers mentioned in the report included the Ramnagar-Baitalghat road adjoining Corbett National Park, Jageshwar, Munsiari, Kalamuni and the Pindari glacier areas.
Another wildlife scientist, who had a ``lucky'' escape after a chance encounter with persons involved in the illicit wildlife trade, stressed that members involved in it are ``very well connected and enjoy patronage in high places''. ``Both the police and forest department staff in these remote areas are too scared to touch these individuals,'' he added.
The report had also warned that illicit timber traders were also playing havoc with rare forested areas in the sub-Himalayan region. The Oak forests, for which the Kumaon hills were once famous, are being ``continuously ravaged''.
Controversy over grazing cattle plagues Valley of Flowers
Abhishek Patni
(Lucknow, May 25)
THE WORLD famous Valley of Flowers in Garhwal Himalayas, known for its exotic wildlife and breathtaking meadows, has shot into the limelight with a major controversy.
The valley, declared a national park by the government, is "out-of-bounds" for shepherds. But of late, local leaders, including BJP MLA from Badri Kedar KS Fonia, have asked the government to lift the ban on grazing in the valley. Their argument is that grazing would enhance flower boom. The issue was discussed at a recent meeting of Uttarakhand MLAs in the state capital.
But the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department has rejected the "new theory", saying grazing, as per rules, cannot be allowed in national parks.
"The national parks", says principal conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Dr R.L. Singh, "are created for protection of wildlife and cattle. Grazing can trample upon the plants, bring new diseases and transport species of foreign origin in the valley."
On the contrary, those who advocate grazing feel cattle would eat the weed and, subsequently provide nourishment and "breathing space" to the original species. Besides, they say, animals could also help in cross-pollination.
The Forest Department officials, however, say this theory lacks suitable evidence. Quoting a project report by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dr Singh says ban on grazing in the valley had, in fact, helped in the revival of lost species.
"For the first time four new species — saussurea atkinsonaii, Duthiea bromoides, Lyco-podium selago and Salix calyculata — were recorded in the UP Himalayas," the State Forest Department study says. Undertaken by researchers C.P. Kala and P.V. Karunakaram, it points out that ever since the valley was declared a reserve, 66 more species have been recorded.
Discovered by Frank Smythe in 1937, the valley, at present, has more than 521 species of flowers and herbs.
"The density of rare herbs in the national park and their low population in adjacent valleys indicate that protection to the area by virtue of being declared national park and a subsequent ban on grazing in 1982 has been beneficial," the study says.
"Further studies on livestock grazing in nearby Khiron valley also belied the myth that grazing was beneficial for the development of plants," adds Dr Singh. Interestingly, scientists are at a loss to explain advantages or disadvantages of grazing in national parks.
According to Dr S.K. Dutta, head, Floriculture Section, National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow, "More research is required to explain this phenomenon. I think only those species benefit from grazing which animals dislike."
Meanwhile, Forest Minister Rajdhari Singh has directed the department to request the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Almora to conduct a detailed research on the subject. "But for the moment we do not have any plans to permit grazing in the valley," asserts State Forest Minister Bansidhar Bhagat.
Musk deer falling prey to poachers
By Aarti Aggarwal
May 25, 2000
Times of India News Service
GOPESHWAR (Chamoli Garhwal): Musk dear (Kasturi Mrig) continues to be mercilessly poached in the higher reaches of Himalayas. At the Rudranath Shiva temple, where the gates of the temple and a nearby hut were found burnt, hair of musk deer have also been found. Evidence of indiscriminate killings in the past is available aplenty.
Noted environmentalist, Padamshree and Magsysay award winner, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, answering queries regarding hunters said that they move in groups. Presently hunters use wire traps apart from guns. Once trapped, the prey is killed and kasturi extracted. "Usually hunters from Pithoragarh take the Dharchula-Darma-Byas Ghati-Urgam route. Locals of Chamoli district accompany them. They undertake their nefarious activities all along the upper reaches of Himalayas," he informed. "They are deft in treading the small paths in the snow-clad upper reaches of the mountains, moving in the forests with full preparations, living there for a stretch of one to two months and surviving on animal meat", he added.
The Himalayan musk deer is not a true deer, but a small primitive deer-like animal. For centuries it has been exploited for the "musk" (Kasturi) found in its navel. Shy, it usually remains concealed to avoid detection. It is highly adapted for life in high altitude regions between 2,500 metres and the `tree line'. Its well-developed hooves make locomotion easy on rough, steep and now clad mountainous terrain. It feeds on woody plants.
The division forest officer (Kedarnath range), Mr Prabhakar, stated that by extrapolating a sample census done in 1996 the number of musk deer in Kedarnath division was estimated as 800-900 and the figure would be around 2000 to 3000 in the entie Himalayan range.
However, these numbers are fast dwindling and it may even become extinct one day. Forest officials experess their inability to nab hunters, as they have neither the high-altitude equipment for patrolling in winters nor the requisite manpower. One unarmed forester is no match for a group of 20 armed, ruthless poachers. They pointed out that the smugglers and hunters caught with hard work are, more often than not, let off scot-free by the courts.
On November 16,1997, ten people were caught from Nanda Devi National Park in Joshimath (Chamoli). Of these two hunters belonged to Chamoli andthe rest were from Pithoragarh. They confessed to their crime. Two unlicensed revolvers, a rifle butt, telescope and ten live cartridges were recovered from them. The next day on November 17, 1997, seven more people were caught who confessed to killing a female musk deer and eating its meat. All of them belonged to Pithoragarh.
The onus of proving innocence under the Wild Life Protection Act is on the poachers. Yet, the courts acquitted all 17 of them in 1998. An administrative appeal has been filed in the high court to convict these hunters who had been let on scot-free.
In 1989, the forest officials nabbed three hunteres of musk deer. Though found guilty, they were fined a mere Rs 1800 rupees. As the illegal earnings are manifold compared to the amount of fine, the enthusiasm of the hunters remains underterred. Kasturi is priced in the market at around RS 30,000 per 10 gram six times the cost of gold. It is used in perfumes, medicines and cosmetics. A full grown male has about 40 gram of kasturi is wet form which is around 17 gram once it dries up. Implying, thereby, aproximately Rs 5000 per deer.
Interestingly, even if the musk is removed once, it gets produced again every yeat. It can be extracted with the help of an injection without killing the creature. However, this is banned. This was stated by the assistant conservation forest officer, Upadahyay. He is looking after the Musk Deer Conservation Centre, Kanchula Kharag, Chamoli. Sprawling over an area of 1.2 hectares. It has 10 deers at present. The musk deer here are a treat to watch.
With the onset of snowfall, the stalkers get activated. Local residents claim that smoke can be seen rising at various places in the forest. Sources affirm that meat of musk deer is sold illegally in local markets. The police was totally ignorant in this regard.
The hunters work hand-in-glove with smugglers. Traversing on old, unused paths and worn out roads, smugglers are able to easily move out to get kasturi. They have contacts in China through Nepal. It is said that Chinese smuggles exchange goods with these smugglers at the Indo-Nepal border.
Certain actions have to be taken to curb this illegal trafficking. First, the prohibition on extracting musk scientifcally should be lifted. Patrolling during the winters should be intensified. A task force of officials and locals should be constituted with adequate weapons to counter hunters moving in hoards. In fact, two decades ago Dabbal Singh of Kalgoth village was given a reward for nabbing poachers.
Hills thirsty despite a multitude of rivers
By Arvind Singh Bisht
The Times of India News Service
LUCKNOW: Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink! Nowhere is this age-old adage more true than in the UP hills. Despite being the source of country's two major rivers, the Ganga and Yamuna, which quench the thirst of the large Indo-Gangetic plains from the north up to the Bay of Bengal, large areas in the hill region continue to suffer a chronic shortage of water for all purposes.
The problem is far more complex than the plain-dwellers can imagine. Roughly 60 per cent of 15,166 villages in the 12 districts of the UP hill region, now proposed to be carved out as a separate Uttaranchal state, do not have potable water. One has to trudge as much as 6 km to fetch a bucket of water. Even this arduous exercise is not without trouble, as conflicts are common over its storage.
Besides the two mighty rivers, several other small rivers and streams too gush down the hills, but their water is harvested properly for meeting diverse needs of humans, animals or agriculture.
Deforestation has led to drying up of hundreds of streams, which flowed amidst the greenery and large spread of roots all over the mountainside to provide moisture and as well to hold top soil in place. For instance, three out of four streams have dried up in the Van Allen Ridge near the famous tiger sanctuary in Binsar. The surviving stream is now shared by a population of nearly 2000 from half a dozen villages around it. Such instances are common in most parts of the hills.
Besides, climatic changes are also causing some glaciers to melt in the region. Geologists have already come up with some evidence about receding glacier of Gomukh, which is a source of Ganga in Uttarkashi district. The situation is no different in Yamunotri, the source of Yamuna in the same district.
But surprisingly, the UP hill development department does not have any information about the phenomenon though its officials candidly admit the magnitude of the problem. The blame for absence of a corrective strategy is laid at the door of financial crunch. The ten drinking water projects prepared mainly for the most affected areas of Tehri Garhwal, Pauri Garhwal, Pithoragarh and Almora need over Rs 150 crore and an equal amount is needed for creating similar facilities in other areas. As all these projects need electricity to lift the water, their maintenance is rather difficult due to cost factor, observes an official.
The department, however, is found lacking for lapses on its part. A large number of drinking water projects constructed by the Jal Nigam in the area have not been found up to the mark and for this reason they have not been handed over to the respective Jal Sansthans responsible for maintenance of supply lines.
Human rights course to start on May 27 in Doon
HT Correspondent
(Dehra Dun, May 22)
A significant step in the propagation of the human rights culture in Uttar Pradesh, that reports the maximum violation of human rights in the country will be made on May 27 with the inauguration of a post-graduate diploma course in human rights here.
The Rural Litigation Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) has instituted the course. The Kendra has been in the vanguard of several cases including closure of mining in Mussoorie and a campaign for the rights of the Van Gujjars. The Van Gujjars are being victimised by the forest officials for not leaving the Rajaji National Park, their traditional home for centuries. Justice U. C. Banerjee of the Supreme Court of India is scheduled to deliver the inaugural address on human rights.
This will be followed by a lecture on "The problems of involuntary disappearance in Asia: a human rights issue' by Mahindra Rajpaksha, Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development, Government of Sri Lanka, who has consented to be a Professor Emeritus for the above course. Justice Ranganath Misra who has also given his consent to be a Professor Emeritus will be the chief guest.
The inaugural session will be followed by series of lectures from May 28 to May 31 by Justice S. B. Sinha of the Calcutta High Court, Justice Bhanwar Singh of Allahabad High Court, Justice Pradeep Kant of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court and Justice V. S. Malimath, former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission.
On June 2, Justice U. C. Banerjee of the Supreme Court of India will deliver the first 'Justice J. K. Mathur Memorial Lecture' on 'Public Interest Litigation and Human Rights'. Justice Shyamal Sen, Chief Justice Allahabad High Court, will preside over the function. He will also deliver a lecture on 'Human rights and the democratic set-up'.
Twenty-five students from all over India and five from SAARC countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, nominated by their respective Governments, will be joining the first batch of this prestigious course. The court has been recognised by the Visvabharti University, Shantiniketan founded by Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore. The course comprises of six papers to be completed in six months of participatory classroom work culminating in a written examination.
This will be followed by three months of filed attachments with institutions like prisons, police stations, training institutes and NGOs working in the field of human rights. After this the students will have to present their dissertation on topics of their choice related to their field assignments.
The dissertation will be defended during a viva-voce before a panel of human right specialists. The RLEK Human Rights Centre was inaugurated on October 2, 1999 by Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah, former Chief Justice of India and the then Chairman of the NHRC.
He had visited the centre on the occasion of the international workshop on human rights organised by the RLEK in collaboration with the NHRC and IWGIA of Denmark.
The aim of the RLEK Human Rights Centre is to inculcate and spread the spirit of human rights culture in India and the SAARC countries and to sensitise potential human rights violators.
Tillers toil in `romantic' Himalayas
By Arvind Singh Bisht
Tuesday 23 May 2000
Times of India New Service
DEHRA DUN: For tourists and adventurists, UP hills may be a pleasant break from the mundane tension of the city life, but for the tillers of the soil, it is one long saga of ordeals and untold miseries. Tricky hill terrains and awesome settings, devoid of basic amenities, make survival an arduous test of endurance.
The hills, the mountains and their idyllic aura and rivers that combine to make it romantic Himalayas and inspire a delight among the beholders are not always that amenable to live in. In fact romantic Himalayas is far more different from the real Himalayas. For its natives, the unrelenting struggle for survival is a fait accompli without much promise or hope.
The failure of successive governments has rendered these hills undeveloped despite being blessed with natural resources and scenic beauty. Even after five decades of Independence, 70 per cent of total 15,117 hill villages do not have proper road links, while basic facilities like medicare are scarce.
Spread over 51.125 square kms, the UP hill region which has a total population of about 59 lakh, according to the 1991 census continues to remain neglected. Even the promise for a separate Uttranchal state by the BJP has made little difference to the development of the area, which remains unchanged despite increase in plan outlay from a meagre Rs 150 crore in the early sixties to around Rs 1100 crore at present.
The government spending has hardly reflected in the lives of the hill people. Employment avenues are scarce and as a result, exodus of people in search of jobs to the plains continues unabated. Agriculture, which by and large is unrewarding, still remains the mainstay for a majority of the people. Medicare is only for the namesake, as hospitals in general are ill-equipped. One cannot hope for medical help in an emergency. Two base hospitals set up at Naini Tal and Srinagar some few years ago are still without the requisite strength of doctors and other para-medical staff. According to a rough estimate, over 700 posts of doctors are still lying vacant in the hill districts.
Comprising more than one fifth area of UP, the hill region hardly received any attention from the government until war with China in 1961. It was probably the first time when the then prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru realised the strategic importance of the area and conferred special status on its three border districts -- Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Pithoragarh, which incidentally also fall on the Mac Mahon Line.
Later, the late prime minister Indira Gandhi raised annual budget allocation for the region equal to that of Himachal Pradesh, which resembles it in size and geo-climactical conditions as well.
As most of villages are far from motor roads, district officials seldom visit the rural areas where trekking requires courage and sense of commitment. In most cases, the hill region is considered as a dumping ground for the rejected lot of officials and generally they are sent on punishment postings. This leads to lack of motivation and reflects on the entire development work.
There are still a large number of villages where people are unaware of the existence of the collectors or superintendants of police. For them the patwari (a revenue official or counterpart to a lekhpal of the chakbandi department) is representative for all practical purposes, he rules the roost and his word is law.
The problems of the region are many and unique which call for a change in basic approach towards development. Although change has been catch-phrase in government planning in the past, yet it has failed to leave any perceptible impression in the region which continues to wallow in the quagmire of callousness and neglect.
Big haul of leopard skins in Uttar Pradesh hills
Agencies/Lucknow
May 23, 2000
Times of India News Service
Skins of 30 leopards, believed to be bound for China, were seized from a warehouse in Haldwani on the foothills of the popular hill resort town of Nainital in Uttar Pradesh. According to the Haldwani superintendent of police, M.S. Bangyala, who was responsible for the haul: "The contraband skins were lying unclaimed in the godown (warehouse) of a local transport company for almost one month. On receiving a tip off we raided the godown and discovered the leopard skins packed in a container."
Bangyala said, "The consignment had been booked way back on April 12 from Kanpur and had arrived in the Haldwani godown on April 21."
"There is sufficient reason to believe that these leopard skins were on their way to China via the Uttar Pradesh Kumaon hill route that remains open for pilgrimage to Mansarovar (in Tibet)," he said.
No arrest has been made so far. "But we are rushing a special police team to Kanpur for further investigation into what is suspected to have much larger ramifications," Bangyala said.
In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh's chief wildlife warden R.L. Singh said he was alarmed at the scale at which poaching of endangered leopards was being carried out. "Considering that similar hauls had been made over the past in other parts of Uttar Pradesh, it is quite evident that all such stuff is finding its way into the international market through China," he said.
According to official statistics, about 50 leopard skins were recovered in a raid from Nainital district on May 6. In a bigger seizure, as many as 70 leopard skins, four tiger skins and 221 black buck skins were recovered from a truck in Fatehpur, near Kanpur, on January 12.
Significantly, 125 tiger nails, 18,000 leopard nails and several reproductive organs of tigers were also recovered from the truck that was on its way to the Uttar Pradesh hills. On December 19, about 60 leopard skins and three tiger skins were recovered from a truck in Ghaziabad, an Uttar Pradesh town adjoining Delhi.
PM gives assurance on constituting Uttaranchal Assembly
May 22, 2000
Times of India News Service
LUCKNOW: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee assured a delegation of Loktantrik Congress members that a 70-member Assembly for the hill state of Uttaranchal will be installed by October 2001. On the issue of Hardwar being included in the new state, the Prime Minister said the Kumbh area of Haridwar would be part of Uttaranchal and the inclusion of rural areas of the district would be decided after further discussions with all parties involved in the dispute.
Talking to newsmen, the LCP's Uttaranchal unit convenor Indu Bhushan Bhandari said all the three MLAs from Hardwar belonged to the Samajwadi Party, who were against the BJP government's initiative to include the district in the proposed state. On the Udhamsingh Nagar issue, the LCP leader said this district is the most prosperous area of the Uttaranchal state and has been represented by ND Tiwari, KC Pant and the erstwhile Raja of Kumaon KC Singh.
Mr Bhandari said a blueprint of the new state has been prepared by the home ministry and the finances for setting up a capital would be cleared soon. The proposed state capital has been shortlisted to Kalagarh and Dehra Dun.
Road accidents on the rise in the hills
By Aarti Aggarwal
May 22, 2000
Times of India News Service
Gopeshwar (Chamoli Garhwal): A jeep fell in to a ravine, 16 kms from Karnpravag in Chamoli, killing three people and injuring eight recently. Of these the condition of three were said to be serious.
That incident added to the recent spate of road accidents. A few recent mishaps with countless dead or injured included a bus falling down in a valley at Manila in Almora, killing 60 and injuring innumerable and two buses colliding on the Tehri-Uttarkashi highway injuring and killing.
Road accidents especially during the yatra season were unfortunately, everyday news in the hills. Though three were scores of road accidents in the plains also they were generally neither so frequent nor so dangerous. A little amount of carelessness in the hills meant pushing several precious lives in the dark dangeons of death or suffering.
The main reason for the alarming increase in the accidents lay in manifold rise in the number of vehicles and passengers on the roads every year and unfit drivers and vehicles plying here. The sad state of roads, technicals faults in the vehicles and the careless attitude of the drivers added to the probability of impending catastrophe in the hills. A major cause is the increasing number of personal vehicles coming from the plains. Their owners, inexperienced in hill driving, drove recklessly endangering everyone.
Even 1974, Sharma Committee was constituted to study the reasons for increase in road accidents. In 1976, report was presented with 62 suggestions for the safety of passengers commuting on the hill roads. Of those, leaving one, which suggested nationalisation of transport facilities, all others were accepted. But to no avail as implementation was never really done.
After an accident, the administration completed the formality of conducting a magisterial inquiry. The prime aim was confined to identify and provide relief to the next of kith and kin of the dead and the injured. The investigating report was sent to the transport commissioner's office, where instead of working out measures for the safety of yatris, it was simply filed.
According to the Sharma Committee report, about 40 per cent of the drivers in the hills were suffering from some ailment or the other. Many were drunk while driving. The genesis lay in the weak economic condition and their odd hours of working. Driving continuously for 12 hours or more on those winding roads tired them out mentally and physically, thereby escalating the chances of a mishap.
Downhill in the hills
Arvind Singh Bisht
May 21, 2000
Times of India News Service
HARDWAR: The idea of Uttaranchal has left them all angry: the hill people who have been waiting for separate statehood since 1962; the farmers of Udham Singh Nagar who want to remain with Uttar Pradesh along with their large land holdings; and the allies of the BJP who believe the holy city of Hardwar belongs to them.
Poor Ram Prakash Gupta. It's either Hardwar or his government. The UP chief minister's allies, on whose support he survives, want the pilgrim town to stay with UP. His own MLAs from the hills are adamant that Hardwar -- the `natural gateway' to the hills -- become a part of Uttaranchal.
It gets even more complicated. The BJP's state allies have no problems about giving away Udham Singh Nagar. But the BJP's Central ally, the Akali Dal, has major problems.
The issue seems to have become a millstone around the BJP's neck, and the BJP-led governments, both at the Centre and the state, stand to lose either way.
For the time being, both Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar are included in the Centre's Uttaranchal Bill. The CM is toeing the Centre's decision right now, but his predicament is reflected by his reported move to have the Bill amended to keep Hardwar out from the hill state.
His allies -- the Loktantrik Congress party (LCP) and the Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party (JBSP) -- account for 39 members in the assembly, crucial for the Gupta government's survival. Hardwar, they say, did not form a part of any of the three Uttaranchal resolutions adopted by the state assembly and moved by different governments -- Kalyan Singh in 1991, Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1994 and Mayawati in 1997. Udham Singh Nagar was included in all three.
Ambrish Kumar, an MLA from Hardwar, is worried that ``the inclusion of Hardwar within the hill state will create a social imbalance with a mass influx of hill people.'' Already, a large number of people have been rehabilitated in and around Hardwar from the Tehri dam site, he says.
The Akalis have the Sikh settlers' interests in mind. The big farmers in prosperous Udham Singh Nagar fear losing their huge land holdings, acquired from tribal communities like Bucksaws and Tharus. Their slogan: ``Ek hi jang, ek hi nara, hum rahenge UP ke sang.'' Spearheading the protest is the USN Raksha Bachao Samiti, patronised by the Akali Dal.
Meanwhile, the hills are seething over the BJP's ``retreat'' on Wednesday. The backlash has been swift and violent, and there is a sense of betrayal, of having been taken for a ride by a party which has sought and got votes by promising Uttaranchal in the last three elections: last time, the BJP swept all four Lok Sabha seats in the hills, once considered a Congress stronghold. The party is sure to emerge as a major player in the new state, whenever it materialises. However, if the protests are any indication, the delay may prove too costly.
Women activists protest lathicharge
May 20, 2000
The Times of India News Service
DEHRA DUN: Women activists of Uttarakhand movement on Friday took out a huge rally in protest against the police lathicharge on Wednesday, in which many of the agitationists were injured. They went to district magistrate's residence and demanded action against those officials responsible for Wednesday's lathicharge.
The Uttarakhand activists had taken out a protest rally here on Wednesday following the Union government's failure to introduce the Uttarakhand Bill in the Lok Sabha on May 17. The angry protesters were lathicharged after a scuffle between a policeman and some activists. A few activists, including some women, were injured in the lathicharge.
Among those who accompanied the women agitators to the DM's residence on Friday were leaders of the Uttarakahnd Kranti Dal (UKD), the Congress and Jan Vikas Party leader S.S. Pangtey, who is a former commissioner of Garhwal.
The Sahayog affair
By Rajeev Dhavan
The Hindu - May 19, 2000
SAHAYOG IS an organisation working on `AIDS' education in the Kumaon Hills of Uttar Pradesh. In September 1999, it published a pamphlet called `AIDS aur Hum' (AIDS and us) which described sexual acts explicitly. It also portrayed, what it, perhaps wrongly, believed to be the licentious social sexual practices of the area. For seven months, nothing happened. Then, all hell broke loose. By April 20, 2000, fuelled by both politics and anger, Sahayog's offices in Almora and Jageshwar were attacked. Members of the Uttarakhand movement, who had themselves been victims of outrage, joined the merciless chorus of indictment. Little was done to protect Sahayog. Instead, 11 staff members and some trainees of Sahayog, who had nothing to do with the publication or its aftermath, were arrested - five for `breach of peace' and six more substantively for `obscene publications' and `public mischief'. After this, nothing was easy for Sahayog or its workers. The Sub-Divisional Magistrate increased the bail amounts for the breach-of-peace arrestees to make it more difficult for them to be `bound over' on their own recognisance. The Almora Bar Association announced that no one should represent the accused; and jeered at the four courageous lawyers who did so. On April 22, a show cause notice was issued to the organisation. An apology and withdrawal of the pamphlet by Sahayog on April 26 was of no avail - even though this was the equivalent of a self-imposed forfeiture order. Faced with this kind of pressure, on May 1, the application for bail was rejected for the alleged offenders. Then, needless public humiliation was added to the brazen denial of civil liberties. On May 4, the four men in judicial custody were handcuffed and paraded with medieval cruelty through the market along with the women.
Instead of being released the remaining six (including five staff and a visitor), who were accused of substantive offences, were remanded to judicial custody. High Court proceedings continue. But there was no respite for the social worker activists. The Union Minister, Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi, who comes from the Kumaon areas, spoke publicly and angrily against Sahayog and asked for strong measures to be taken against them. A supine administration obliged. On May 9, the National Security Act was invoked on Jasodhara Das Gupta (Secretary), Dr. Abhijit Das (Coordinator), Ms. Subita Shah and Mr. Surendra Dhapola (both Sahayog staff). All of a sudden, respected activists were treated as goondas, porn- pushing criminals and, to top it all, a security risk and threat to the nation - after being handcuffed, humiliated and jailed.
This sequence of events must give us pause. In 1996, the then Chief Justice of India, Mr. Venkatachalaiah, incisively observed that ``(t)he quality of a nation's civilisation can be largely measured by the methods it uses in the enforcement of its criminal law''. By this test, Mr. Joshi, the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Kumaon officials and the leaders of the Uttarakhand movement fail miserably. They have been uncivilised. Everything they have done is contrary to law on at least six major counts.
First, let us take handcuffing. In 1980, the Supreme Court (speaking through Mr. Justice Krishna Iyer) categorically prohibited handcuffing unless there was a clear and present danger of violence or escape. This was reiterated in several cases including a remarkable case from Assam in 1995. In 1996, the Supreme Court indicted police and judicial officers of Punjab and Madhya Pradesh of having violated its general directions on handcuffing. In the Sahayog case too, the police and the magistracy of Uttar Pradesh have violated civil liberties and committed contempt.
Second, the rule is `bail not jail'. In the `breach of peace' cases, it is difficult to comprehend why the Magistrate did not follow the routine procedure of releasing the detenus on their own recognisance. Instead, the surety amount was increased. There was little reason to deny bail to those accused of `obscenity' and `public mischief'. The Supreme Court decrees that bail is to be denied only if the accused might abscond, tamper with evidence or is accused of a serious offence. None of these conditions exist. The activists continue to languish in jail.
Third, the seven-month-old pamphlet on AIDS may have ruffled sensitivities, but the `breach of peace' was by the protesters who attacked Sahayog's premises, intimidated the staff and made them feel like hunted animals in a lynch-mob atmosphere in which neither the police nor the magistracy acted with fairness.
Fourth, the local Bar seems to have forgotten the long line of cases - including the Bihar Blinding's cases (1979), Khatri (1978) and later cases - which not only guarantee a right to legal services but repose a proactive duty in the state and providers of legal aid to ensure that legal services are available to all - especially to those who are arrested and incarcerated. For a Bar to deny such legal services, and jeer at the lawyers who did provide them, is in the worst traditions of civil liberties lawyering and violative of the Bar's `conduct of ethics' rules and its constitutional obligations.
Fifth the `obscenity' charges seem overwritten. Everything that is in bad taste and hurts sensitivities is not obscene. From at least 1951, there are several decisions of various High Courts which pay due attention to the need for not just medical education but also sexual education. In 1970, the Allahabad High Court stressed the importance of family planning and sexual education as along as it did not become pornographic.
The dividing line is delicate - even more so in Hindi and its colloquial variations (as is amply demonstrated by so many legal aid pamphlets on rape and sex offences). In the Sahayog case there was no calculated pandering to the prurient interest, no intent to hurt social sensitivities and no commercial exploitation of sex. On the contrary, there was an apologetic withdrawal of the pamphlet, precisely because its authors contritely agreed they had made a mistake in their use of language and in the description of local sexual relationships.
Sixth - and, this is the crowning insult to civil liberties - there was the preventive detention order under the National Security Act (NSA). The administration seems to have gone overboard to please Mr. Joshi, who thundered on this subject, and the members of the Uttarakhand movement, who have tried to make political capital out of these incidents. The NSA is meant for terrorists, smugglers and goondas. Even against them, it is to be sparingly used. Ironically, according to cases successfully argued by the Union Law Minister, Mr. Ram Jethmalani, preventive detention has a protective due process of recall and review which the U.P. authorities have not chosen to use.
In the Sahayog cases, the detentions must be cancelled. The activists released. The charges withdrawn. The peaceful and beautiful region of Kumaon is in ferment not because of Sahayog's pamphlet, but because of its prime political importance. The impending creation of the State of Uttarakhand, which is to be carved out of Uttar Pradesh, makes it a political prize. Apart from his ancestral links with the area, Mr. Joshi recognises this as a power base.
The leaders of the Uttarakhand movement are no less ambitious for profile and power. There is a considerable flexing of political muscle - no less from the BJP Governments in Lucknow and Delhi. The result is the scapegoating and humiliation of Sahayog which has gracefully withdrawn its publication and apologised. The Uttarakhand movement which were brutally treated by the administration in its struggles seems to have forgotten Brecht's evocative advice that those who fight for kindness must themselves be kind. They should strive in Sahayog's favour, not against them.
Every little blow to civil liberties hurts democracy. Every political misuse of power is despotic. Every activist who is needlessly jailed is a martyr. But, is this the shape of things to come in India?
Lathicharge on Agitators
Translated from Dainik Jagran
Dehra Dun May 18 2000
Police charged with cane (lathi) women and others agitators conducting a peaceful demonstration, carrying the corpse of the BJP government as a symbol of resentment for its inability to introduce the bill for a new hill state in the session of parliament in the last few days.
Police beat them with lathi by running after them for quite a distance. One of the woman's clothes were torn apart and she was kicked in her stomach by the police. This inflamed the anger of the women agitators. They also tore the clothes of a police woman and stoned the wind shield of some police jeeps. Police caught and imprisoned 35 wounded agitators and took them to the police station in that condition. No medical assistance was provided during that period.
This started when police misbehaved, beat them with lathi, and kicked the women on ground. Even the police officers joined with their men in this shameful behavior towards a peaceful demonstration against the incapacity of the government. The police chief and district officer did not care to go to the spot and check on the situation. They just called a meeting for formality's sake.
After these events in the morning, women connected with the Uttarakhand Agitation Association went to Kachahari (Court) and started a peaceful procession carrying an effigy as a symbol of the powerless BJP government. As they were out of the court area, the police chief greeted them. He ordered his men to grab the effigy. They didn't have enough policewomen at that time. The policemen started applying force on women agitators and started beating them. One policeman slapped a woman on the face. During this incident, police started punching a woman named Mrs. Jangdamba Raturi, kicked her in the stomach on the ground. This kind of behavior ignited the anger of the demonstrators. They started throwing stones at police jeeps.
Police kept dragging and running after them with lathi. The demonstrators went back to court to save themselves. There, one woman fainted but returned to consciousness after sometime by pouring water on her face.
Afterwards, the women went towards Hardwar Road and stopped all the traffic (Chakka Jam). Due to the traffic jam, some of the car owners argued with demonstrators. Some angry people stoned the wind shield of one fiat and another ambassador car. After these events, and within 20 minutes, the police chief and city police chief reached the area with their police force. They surrounded the agitators near a crossroad pincer. Police chief ordered the capture of all the demonstrators. Police started a lathicharge to control them. On opposing this, they started beating Mahender Bist and Khalik Ahmed and kicking them on the ground. For trying to help their friends, Manoj Dhayani and Mohammed Shahid were also beaten by police.
Agitators kept shouting slogans. Pushpa Chauhan, of the Students and Youth United Front was also slapped by the police. Police took all the prisoners to Kotwali. Meanwhile the wounded Bhuvaneshwari Kathait went to hospital and joined her fellow demonstrators. Police did not bother to give medical help to the prisoners. They are charged with laws 147,336,332,341,500. Late night they were checked for medical injuries and reported no serious injuries but just light wounds.
Various associations criticized the police brutality against peaceful demonstrators. Ms. Manorma Sharma, the chief of Women's Congress Committee, U.P. said the police applied scornful behavior, lathicharge on the peaceful women demonstrators. The chief of Congress Seva Dal blamed police for absurd behavior. He said everybody has the freedom of speech. Nobody can stop the emotions of Uttarakhandi people. BJP cheated the people and tried to suppress them with lathi. City Congress Chief D.S. Rawat blamed the police for igniting the peaceful women demonstrators and recreating the 1994 episode [when men were killed and women raped by the police when their buses were stopped on their way to Delhi for a peaceful demonstration]. According to him nobody can suppress the voice of agitation, whatever oppressive measures are used.
In Vikashnagar, Harbatpur, Mussoorie etc., There is a lot of resentment among the people and criticism against the police's behavior towards peaceful women demonstrators and blame towards BJP government for their inability to form the new state. They expressed themselves by demonstrations against the Government in various places of Uttarakhand.
Uttaranchal Bill puts BJP Leaders in a fix
May 19, 2000
The Times of India News Service
DEHRA DUN: BJP leaders once again had to do a lot of explaining on Thursday. The reason: the failure of the Union government to introduce the Bill on the creation of a separate Uttaranchal state.
Led by Uttaranchal party unit chief Bhagat Singh Koshyari, 10 MLAs, MLCs, state ministers, former MPs and office-bearers announced that all the 17 BJP MLAs and four MPs from the hill region would leave for Delhi on Friday morning to apprise the party central leadership of the ``strong feelings'' of the hill folk over the delay in the Bill's passage. However, the leaders, adopted a defensive posture while vainly trying to explain the reasons behind the governemnt's failure to introduce the Bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
All the MLAs and party MPs were to come here in connection with a four-day party camp for Uttaranchal party workers which was scheduled to be addressed by party chief Kushabhau Thakre, Govindcharayaya, Kalraj Mishra and others. But these leaders could not come due to developments in Delhi and the camp too has now been postponed.
Even as these MLAs, including hill development minister Matbar Singh Kandari, were addressing the press conference, several angry pro-Uttaranchal activists taking part in a rally were rounded up by the police as a precautionary measure.
The MLAs were very unhappy with the Congress leadership, particularly Sonia Gandhi and N.D. Tiwari who hails from the hills, for giving their ``tacit support'' to the opposition's plan to stall the introduction of the Bill in the House. Koshyari said: ``The people of Uttaranchal will never forgive the Congress.''
Campaign for Udhamsingh Nagar hots up
By Rajiv Ranjan Jha
May 19, 2000
The Times of India News Service
LUCKNOW: Political leaders of different hues in the state have stepped up their campaign for the inclusion of Udhamsingh Nagar in the proposed hill state.
A meeting of regional legislators, held on Wednesday under the presidentship of minister of state Matbar Singh Kandari, stressed that Udham Singh Nagar should not be dropped from the proposed state of Uttaranchal. The meeting, which was attended by several ministers and legislators, including Banshidhar Bhagat, Narayan Ram Das, Ajay Bhatt, Bishan Singh, Krishna Chandra Punetha, Harbans Kapoor, Bharat Singh Rawat, Mohan Singh Rawat, underlined the need for including Hardwar in the proposed state. The people of Hardwar, they said, always wanted to be a part of Uttranchal. Even earlier when they were being ruled by the princely state of Tehri, Hardwar used to a part of Dehra Dun which was under the jurisdiction of the Tehri ruler, they felt.
Mr Kandari said that there cannot be Uttranchal without Udham Singh Nagar and nearly 90 per cent of the population was still in favour of inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the proposed state. Ironically the issue of Udham Singh Nagar cropped up as it was carved out of Nainital, he said adding that if this had not been so the issue would not have been there at all .
Elucidating the importance of Hardwar, the minister said that in fact it was the gateway of Uttranchal. The pilgrimage for the religious shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri begins from Hardwar and hence bifurcating Hardwar from the proposed state Uttranchal would be a travesty of faith of the people of the region, he said.
States Reorganisation Bill: Allies blame BJP
Ranchi, May 18
(Agencies - Hindustan Times)
Morcha (Soren) Ranchi district president Prem Chand Mahato told reporters today that his party had decided to agitate during the visit to protest the "betrayal" on Jharkhand and failure to introduce the Bihar State Re-organisation Bill, 2000, in Parliament's Budget session.
The Jharkhand unit of the JD(U) also blamed the BJP for creating confusion in the tabling of the Bill in Parliament. The time selected by the government to table it was not appropriate and needless confusion was created among members by not listing it on Parliament's agenda, JD(U) unit's general secretary Gautam Sagar Rana said.
In a statement in Patna, Mr Rana said members were agitated in Parliament yesterday because the Bill was not listed on the day's agenda and necessary copies were not provided to them before the introduction. Meanwhile, the Jharkhand pradesh Youth Congress has threatened to show black flag to the Prime Minister during his visit to Birsa Munda's native village.
CENTRE REJECTS BIHAR DEMAND FOR PACKAGE: The Centre today rejected the Bihar Government's demand for a massive package of Rs.1.80 lakh crore in the event of creation of a separate Jharkhand state carved out of south Bihar.
Minister of State for Environment and Forests Babu Lal Marandi, who is from Jharkhand belt, told reporters here that the package claim put forward by RJD government was too much. The Centre, he said, would extend all financial help in reconstruction of Bihar after the creation of Jharkhand.
Attacking the opposition for stalling introduction of the reorganisation bills in Lok Sabha yesterday for creation of new states of Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh, Marandi said there was no justification for their action.
To a question, he said he was confident these bills would be passed by Parliament in the monsoon session.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has assured his party colleagues that the government would introduce the States' Re-organisation Bills during the monsoon session of Parliament. He gave the assurance to the members of Parliament from BJP and other parties representing Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh regions of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Uttarakhand rallyists outwit police, reach PM’s house
New Delhi, May 18
(HT Correspondent)
POLICE OFFICIALS posted at the Prime Minister’s residence were caught napping this morning by a group of rallyists who managed to find their way to the first barricade despite the sizeable police contingent.
The demonstrators, about a hundred in number, then raised slogans and climbed atop the first police barricade. That they did not break the cordon was more on account of the fact that they did not want to, rather than the efforts of the policemen.
The entire operation, planned and executed by Uttarakhand activists to protest against the “pre-planned Uttarakhand Bill introduction drama,” was nothing short of a military exercise. It was stealth and secrecy which apparently caught the cops unawares.
The demonstrators casually assembled a few hundred metres away from the Sajdarjung round-about entrance of the PM's residence. Before the Delhi policemen posted in the PM's security could react the demonstrators were already upon them.
Later in the evening Joint Commissioner of Police R K Niyogi conceded that the demonstrators "caught the police by surprise."
The Uttarakhand Sanyukt Sangharsh Morcha (USSM) issued a statement claiming that they “broke all barricades and entered inside 7, Race Course." A memorandum containing the demands of the demonstrators was also presented to the Prime Minister.
However, Mr Niyogi said that the incident was in no way a "breach in security". He claimed that the demonstrators were nowhere close to the PM and hence the question did not arise. He added that no action would be initiated against the police officials posted at the PM's residence.
Resentment over deferment of Uttaranchal Bill
Posted May 18, 2000
Dehradun, May 18: Local BJP workers and various organisations working for the creation of a separate hill state have expressed shock and resentment at the deferment of the Uttarakhand Bill on the last day of the current parliament session on Wednesday.
The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) termed the non-tabling of the bill as an act of ''disrespect to the people of Uttarakhand region''. At an UKD meeting held in the doon valley on Wednesday evening,leaders urged the Centre to convene a special session of Parliament to pass the Bill.
Congress workers in the valley burnt Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee's effigy. But BJP members here have blamed the Congress and other Opposition parties for the non-tabling of the Bill.
Speaking at a meeting, Lt. Col.(Retd.) Vijay Ghildiyal, Secretary General of the Uttarakhand ex-servicemen organisation termed the non-tabling of the Bill as a ''shameless act on the part of the BJP''. The MPs from the Uttarakhand region must immediately tender their resignations or else be forbidden from entering the hill region, he felt.
A BJP Uttaranchal state training camp which was to be held in the valley from Thursday, has also been postponed.
(UNI)
United Oppn stalls Bill to divide states
INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, MAY 17: Pandemonium marked the last day of the long Lok Sabha session as the Opposition closed ranks and members of the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) forced the House to adjourn twice over the government's move to introduce a Bill for the creation of three new states: Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh.
Shouting slogans and protesting vehemently, the Opposition members stormed the well, crowding Speaker G M C Balayogi's podium. They were objecting to introduction of the Bill which was not even listed in the day's business.
The usually unflappable former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar shouted that the government could not bring in any supplementary agenda on the last day of the session. He was supported by Prabhu Nath Singh of Samata Party, an ally of the BJP in the government.
Ignoring the din, Home Minister L K Advani said he was introducing the Bill and BJP members were seen thumping their desks. Confusion prevailed for quite some time on whether the Bill had been introduced or not. While Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Santosh Kumar Gangwar claimed it had, Union Minister Pramod Mahajan said it had not been. Later, the Lok Sabha secretariat confirmed that the Bill had not been introduced since the Speaker had failed to get the consent of the members.
The first adjournment of the Lok Sabha happened soon after the House reassembled after lunch. As Gangwar announced that the Bill would be introduced today, several Opposition members objected. As they got more strident, SP members led by Mulayam Singh Yadav stormed the well, forcing an adjournment for 40 minutes.
The Opposition seemed to have closed ranks during the adjournment period. When the House convened again and the issue was raised this time, the Opposition was more concerted and members of Congress, RJD, BSP and Simranjit Singh Mann of the Akali Dal (M) also joined in storming the well.
Pleas of the Speaker -- sometimes cajoling and at other times angry -- went largely unheard. The Speaker was on his feet but the Opposition was determined.
Finally, the House was again adjourned till 5.30 p.m. By then, the Government had apparently decided to let the Bill rest for the time being and it was also time for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to make his closure statement.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Politics wins as fate of new states Bills is uncertain
New Delhi, May 17
(Kalyani Shanker -- Hindustan Times)
THERE SEEMS to be politics behind the non-introduction of the three-state reorganisation bills in Parliament today.
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b > T e Ghv romenn eptearpdate eoib nia fsxbat oahaVcnan hnl atdaUathrnk aidlB lnspie ertsfnr oemewfrn iigdrns seaict nremfwot ii hhn tDe NaAtpersn rh. Toetconersv ray wbsua oht tneliscou ifntoe ahe sr ao. Fnrtinsea ch, tkelAsahid bae egniasa nht tneliscou ifntoe Uhd ad himgS nahaN gnrUit rtkaaadh na.tLysa ,ePri erMmn siei ttrlABah re aaipVyjeahed sat ue poamctmei toestu yttde mht ea tnreu dhr theicmanrhapsoi efeDcf nieiMtnrsGeo ge reenFnrea.dHsw vore eh,rt eae woseni evcd nfeaoy rnp re ortmftoe chm iotmet ea. Last week, when the talk of the bills' introduction surfaced, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta himself came and met George Fernandes.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, meanwhile, has been putting up a lot of pressure on the Government as Uddham Singh Nagar has a lot of rich Sikhs living in the area who are opposed to their district being included in Uttarakhand. Mr Badal has also roped in some other allies like Trinamool Congress and Telugu Desam. While Trinamool leader Mamata Banerji has supported Mr Badal openly, TDP supremo Chandra Babu Naidu has opted against the formation of smaller states. The Samata Party, on the other hand, is making noises about the Vananchal Bill demanding to know about the package to balance the RJD. It is another matter why the representatives of the allies sitting in the Cabinet did not oppose it while it was being cleared.
The aborted effort of the Government to introduce the bills shows that it is not going to have a smooth passage in the House whenever taken up unless the political parties give up their politics on the issue.
Throughout the day, a lot of behind-the-scene activities were going on in Parliament. Mr Advani had prepared the ground with Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav who is said to have demanded that the bill be sent to the joint select committee. Mr Advani was not averse to it as most bills these days were being referred to the select committee.
SP walkout in UP over Hardwar issue
Lucknow, May 17
(PTI)
SAMAJWADI PARTY (SP) members in the UP Vidhan Sabha today staged a walkout to protest the Cabinet's decision to include Hardwar in the proposed Uttaranchal state and alleged that raking up the issue would only delay the formation of the new hill state.
Raising the issue through an adjournment notice in the zero hour, SP members Ram Asrey Vishwakarma, Balram Yadav and Ram Saran Das said there were sharp difference among the ruling alliance partners also over the status of Hardwar.
Participating in the debate, CPM's Ram Sumer Yadav said the wishes of the people of Hardwar should also be taken into account. BSP'S Sukhdev Rajbhar said the State and Centre's views on including Hardwar in the proposed state "were contradictory" and the issue was unnecessarily generating so much of heat.
The Leader of Opposition Ahmed Hasan (SP) said there was no need to "include Hardwar in Uttaranchal after the state government's recommendations" and said the BJP was not serious over the creation of the new state. The state's PWD and Medical Health Minister Kalraj Mishra said the decision of the Centre would be "acceptable" to all.
New States: Introduction of Bills stalled
By Our Special Correspondent (The Hindu)
NEW DELHI, MAY 17. Faced with strong resistance from the Opposition and some of its own allies, the Government was forced to put off introduction of the much-awaited Bills to create three new States of Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Chattisgarh in the Lok Sabha today.
There was an uproar when the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, tried to introduce the Uttaranchal Bill with members from the Congress(I), the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party rushing to the ``well'' to block the introduction. While the SP was firmly against the move to split Uttar Pradesh, the Congress(I) expressed strong reservations about the inclusion of Uddhamsingh Nagar in the proposed State. The Rashtriya Janata Dal members, worked up over certain ``lacunae'' in the Jharkhand Bill, also joined the protest.
As the members charged towards the Speaker's podium, he adjourned the House and there was some confusion over whether or not Mr. Advani had managed to push through the Bill. For shortly before adjournment he was heard saying he was introducing it. Later, it was clarified that the Bill was not introduced. When the House resumed, no fresh attempt was made to introduce any of the Bills. The Speaker, Mr. G. M. C. Balayogi, observed that sensing the mood the legislation had been postponed. It is likely to be brought up in the monsoon session in July.
Earlier in the day some of the BJP's allies had objected to splitting Bihar to create Jharkhand saying it was not in the national interest. The Samata Party's Mr. Prabhu Nath Singh was strongly opposed to it, while another BJP ally, the Biju Janata Dal, wanted some areas of the proposed State merged with Orissa.
In the Opposition, even those who favoured the creation of new States were not happy that the Government had chosen to come up with the Bills on the last day of the session, and that too through a supplementary agenda. The Bills did not figure in the day's main agenda and nor were they circulated to the MPs in advance. All Bills are supposed to be given to the MPs 48 hours before introduction. Until late in the afternoon there was uncertainty about the Government's plans.
The first indication of the storm ahead came when, shortly after lunch, the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Santosh Kumar Gangwar's announcement that the Bills would be introduced today sparke a row. The Opposition protested that it was not listed in the day's agenda and as some SP members trooped into the ``well'', the House was adjourned amid noisy scenes. The climax came after the House met again with the Opposition succeeding in frustrating the Home Minister's bid to introduce the Bills. Members were agitated since the morning and the most vociferous were those of the SP who repeatedly stormed the ``well'' and raised slogans against breaking up Uttar Pradesh. Members were generally curious what the Government had up its sleeve as the Bills were not listed in the agenda despite repeated announcements that they would be introduced in the current session. The former Prime Minister, Mr. S. Chandra Shekhar, said the Chair should direct the Government not to slip them in through a supplementary agenda.
Pre-historic age skeleton found in Garhwal
May 18, 2000
The Times of India News Service
DEHRA DUN: A team of archaeological experts from the Hemawati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University has discovered a 3000-year-old skeleton dating back to pre-historic times in Malari village in the Garhwal hills.
The team, led by Prof Vinod Nautiyal of the university, has been engaged in excavations in the remote areas of Garhwal and Kumaon hills for several years.
Prof Nautiyal said the discovery of the male skeleton has linked the Garhwal Himalayan region to the stone age, strengthening the belief that life existed in this region even at that time.
The skeleton, which has a height of six feet, shows that some race travelled through Tibet to this part of the Himalayas. Malari village is situated on the Garhwal-Tibet border.
Prof B M Khanduri, head of the ancient Indian history and culture department of the university, said this discovery proved that the notion of human life existing in this area only after the seventh century AD had been wrong.
Some skeletons dating back to the stone age had also been recently found in the Sarana Basedi area of Kumaon, Prof Khanduri said.
Sanjeev Juyal, Sudhir Nautiyal and Girish Uniyal were part of the excavating team.
Prof Nautiyal said that the university's ancient Indian history and culture department was carrying on high-level chemical research on bones of ancient skeletons to find out the kind of conditions under which these people lived in this hill region and the food they consumed. (UNI)
MLAs support Udham Singh Nagar cause
By Rajiv Ranjan Jha
May 18, 2000
The Times of India News Service
LUCKNOW: Political leaders of different hues in the state stepped up on Wednesday their campaign for including Udham Singh Nagar in the proposed Uttaranchal state. Regional legislators met under the presidentship of minister of state Matbar Singh Kandari to stress that Udham Singh Nagar should not be dropped from the new state.
The meeting was attended by ministers and legislators, including Banshidhar Bhagat, Narayan Ram Das (both ministers), Ajay Bhatt, Bishan Singh, Krishna Chandra Punetha, Harbans Kapoor, Bharat Singh Rawat, Mohan Singh Rawat (all legislators).
They felt that it was essential to include Hardwar also in the proposed state as the people of Hardwar always wanted to be a part of Uttaranchal. Even earlier when they were being ruled by the princely state of Tehri, Hardwar used to a part of Dehra Dun, which was under the jurisdiction of the Tehri ruler, they pointed out.
Kandari said that there cannot be Uttaranchal without Udham Singh Nagar as nearly 90 per cent of the town's population was still in favour of being part of the proposed state. Ironically the issue of Udham Singh Nagar cropped up as it was carved out of Nainital, he said, adding that if this had not been so the issue would not have been there at all .
Emphasising on the importance of Hardwar, the minister said that in fact it was the gateway of Uttaranchal. The pilgrimage for the religious shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri begins from Hardwar and hence exclusion of Hardwar from Uttaranchal would be a murder of the people's faith, he said.
Uttaranchal to add to BJP's woes
By Arvind Singh Bisht
May 17, 2000
Times of India News Service
LUCKNOW: The fate of the BJP-led coalition government in the state is likely to get more uncertain with the creation of the separate Uttaranchal state as its strength would get depleted in the assembly, rendering it more vulnerable to attacks from allies.
At the same time, Uttaranchal's creation is bound to be counter-productive for the BJP in the hill region where it has retained its sway over the last three consecutive elections. At present the party has with it 17 out of total 19 assembly and three out of four Lok Sabha seats. Credit for this goes to the BJP's promise for statehood to hill people.
The coalition government in the state faces a tough challenge from its allies, particularly the Loktantrik Congress Party (LCP) and the Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party (JBSP), which are opposed to the inclusion of Hardwar in the Uttaranchal state.
Similarly contentious is the issue of Uddham Singh Nagar (USN), the exclusion of which has already been sought by the Akali Dal, an ally of the BJP at the Centre and some other parties like the BSP. And the hill state without these two districts would seem to be an unfeasible proposition.
In a house of 425, one seat is lying vacant at present. The ruling BJP with its strength of 175 has been able to muster a comfortable majority of 227. Its allies include 20 members of the LCP, 19 of the JBSP, three of the Janata Dal (R) and two of the Samata Party, besides eight Independents. But, the actual majority of the BJP coalition is said to be much less due to allegiance of many BJP legislators to the former chief minister Kalyan Singh.
The immediate impact of the creation of the Uttaranchal will be thus on the strength of the House which will be reduced from 424 to 402. The number of MLAs to be discounted then would be 22, including three from Hardwar district. But the worst affected would be the BJP, the strength of which will come down in the House from 175 to 153, as its 17 MLAs come from hill region. Its depleting strength will pose far more difficult problems if support to BJP government is withdrawn by LCP and the JBSP, which have repeatedly threatened to do so.
Thus in such a situation, the BJP will be left with limited options-- either to go in for the President's rule in the state or form the government with the support of the BSP, which has a strength of 50 in the House. But a tie-up with the BSP too appears to be a difficult bargain, as the BSP wants to extend its support on its conditions. Although the BJP is believed to have kept its option open, many of its leaders are believed to be opposed to the idea of giving outside support to the BSP.
Till the time the BJP decides on an alternative plan, the creation of Uttaranchal appears to hang in balance.
Hardwar issue raises furore in Assembly
May 17, 2000
Pioneer News Service/Lucknow
The opposition created a furore in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday opposing the inclusion of Hardwar in Uttaranchal and demanded a referendum on the issue.
Unruly scenes punctuated by a dharna in the well of the House, mainly by the Samajwadi Party, led to adjournments and finally came to an end when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Hukum Singh assured that he would apprise the Centre of the sentiments of the people. However, he added that the Centre was already well aware of the situation.
The Opposition including the SP, Bahujan Samaj Party and the CPI-M criticised the Centre for ignoring the sentiments of the people and including Hardwar in the proposed hill state contrary to the previous resolutions passed by the House. They contended that culturally, socially, historically and geographically or linguistically Hardwar should remain with the plains.
Tempers rose high when the BJP MLAs from the hills tried to shout down the opposition. The House was repeatedly adjourned several times to restore order.
Ram Singh Saini, Ambrish Kumar, Leader of Opposition Dhaniram Verma, Ambika Choudhary, Sanjay Garg (SP) threatened to launch an agitation if Hardwar was included in the hill state. Demanding a referendum on Hardwar they said the Centre should reconsider its decision. They demanded that the details of the George Fernandes committee meeting which the Chief Minister attended on Uttranchal in New Delhi be made known to them.
Qazi Mohiuddun (BSP) criticised Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta for not forcefully presenting the case before the Centre in New Delhi. On the other hand, he said Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had succeeded in convincing the Centre to take the views of the people of Udhamsingh Nagar before including it in Uttaranchal. They explained that the earlier resolutions passed by the House had excluded Hardwar from the hill state.
Deviating from the party line, SP's Munna Singh Chauhan congratulated the Centre for including Hardwar in the hill state. However, CPI-M's Ram Swarup accused the people of the hills for creating panic.
Intervening in the discussion, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister's remark that the people of the hill region had not forgotten the Rampur Tiraha incident in Muzaffarnagar district in October 1994 where there was a mass rape of hill women, sparked off an uproar in the House.
It immediately followed some noisy scenes by the Samajwadi Party members, who came into the well of the House raising slogans against the government which led to the adjournment of the House for about 25 minutes. It may be recalled that the Muzaffarnagar incident had taken place during the regime of Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in the state.
The remark by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister that the wishes of the people would be taken care of but the decision of the Centre in this regard would be accepted, caused more noisy scenes leading once again to the adjourment of the House for more than half-an-hour.
Hardwar in Uttaranchal: Hills, plains divide widening
Lucknow, May 16
(Sunita Aron)
Hindustan Times
An unholy war is on over the holy city of Hardwar between Uttar Pradesh and its offspring Uttaranchal.
And at stake is the pious Ganga water. Such is the sensitivity of the issue that it may flare up into a major tussle point between the people from the hills and plains.
Politically, though, it may appear as a point of confrontation not only with Opposition parties like Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, but also within the ruling coalition with one of the partner, Loktantrik Congress, threatening to withdraw support to the Ram Prakash Gupta government. In fact, the hill-plain divide is also haunting the ruling BJP, notwithstanding their public posture of abiding with the Centre's decision.
The reasons accentuating the issue are manifold. Leaders from both hills and plains cite historical, cultural, and political reasons for the inclusion/exclusion of Hardwar from Uttaranchal. The proponents of inclusion also have mythological reasons. To quote them — Hardwar is the door to Uttaranchal, the buffer area for the development of the new State, the area is socio-culturally akin to Uttaranchal, the Paechwadoon LS seat, abolished about 25 years ago, included Dehradun, Chakrata, Hardwar and Roorkee, and economically, the people of Hardwar will suffer as it is the starting point of Char Dham Yatra.
They also argue that the popular mood was best reflected in the resolutions okayed by the Nagar Palikas of Roorkee and Laksar and Nagar Parishad of Hardwar, favouring inclusion. Even Hardwar BJP MP, Harpal Sathi, won the election on this issue.
So furious are the hill MLAs over the Punjab Chief Minister's suggestion for referendum that they demand to know if the Central government would accept the same demand for Kashmir, Chandigarh and Hoshiyarpur.
"Why should Punjab CM interfere in the matters of Uttar Pradesh is their argument. The hill MLAS were so agitated over the uproar by SP MLAS in the Vidhan Sabha today that they commented " Today it appears we do not belong to this country. We have been painted foreigner on our own land".
Politically they argue that Uttranchal will get just three more seats of Vidhan sabha in the addition to the 19 as of now and one seat of Parliament. " In fact our demand includes inclusion of Baheri, which is the assembly segment of Nainital Lok Sabha seat as well as Nazibabad, which is the corridor between Kumaon and Garhwal", said Romesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
On the other hand, the opponents feel that Uttar Pradesh, specially its western pockets would suffer as the control point of Ganga canal would go to Uttranchal if Hardwar was gifted to them. " Tomorrow the new government may sop release of water or may set its own terms. Why does the Centre want to create another cauvery type of dispute.
Complete bandh in Doon Valley over Uttarakhand
May 16, 2000
DEHRA DUN: All commercial establishments, banks, government offices and schools remained closed in the Doon Valley on Monday in response to the bandh call given by the Uttarakhand Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (USSS).
The district administration divided the city into three sectors. Vikasnagar, Rishikesh and Mussoorie were kept under separate sectors for the purpose of beefing up security measures.
The bandh call was given many days ago and evoked tremendous reponse despite the Central cabinet's approval on May 13 of the Bills relating to the formation of the new states of Uttaranchal (Uttarakhand), Vananchal and Chattisgarh.
According to Mr Avadhash Kaushal, a senior citizen and environmentalist, this showed the complete disbelief of the people of Uttarakhand in the government's intentions.
According to Lt. Col (retd) Vijay Ghildiyal, secretary general of the Uttarakhand Ex-servicemen Organisation, the government's tabling of the Uttarakhand Bill on the last day of the parliamentary session was a part of its ``delaying tactics.''
Mr S S Pangtey, president of the Uttarakhand Jan Vikas Party, said it was now the responsibility of all political parties of the region to ensure that all irregularities in the Bill were removed before it was passed in Parliament.
Meanwhile, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal, state cultural minister described Monday's bandh as ``anti-people.'' When the new state was in the offing, certain forces were calling for such bandhs in order to save their identity'', he said in a press release issued from Lucknow.
Col Ghildiyal said that as the Uttaranchal Bill was to be introduced on the last day of the parliamentary session, people would have to wait for future sessions in order to see their dream of a hill state being realised.
Many people, however, saw the bandh as a loss to the tourism-based hill economy as this was the peak tourist season in the region.
The bandh call had received widespread support in the Valley and its surrounding areas. Work in offices came to a standstill. Some of the schools, which had not informed their student's earlier, had to send them home at about 8 am.(UNI)
Ban on liquor, polythene on `Yatra' route
May 16, 2000
ALLAHABAD: The Rudraprayag district administration has imposed complete ban on use of liquor and polythene bag on the yatra route from Gaurikund to Kedarnath shrine this summer. Ramashankar Singh, district magistrate, Rudraprayag, in a telephonic message for information of pilgrimes to the Himalayan shrines has urged them not to carry liquor and polythene bags to maintain sanctity of the shrines and keep the atmosphere pollution free.
He said that three police outposts one each at Gaurikund, Ghedurapani and Garun Chatti had for the first time been created for relief and rescue work together with enforcing the ban on use of liquor and polythene bags.
Mr Singh also said that the old yatra route from Gaurikund to Badrinath shrine had been revived in view of traffic congestion on the Gaurikund-Rudraprayag route joining the main Badrinath route. Pilgrims heading from Gangotri to Kedarnath took the Rudraprayag-Gaurikund route and the use of the same route by pilgrims from Gaurikund to Badrinath via Rudraprayag created serious traffic problem, he informed.
Meanwhile, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police has created two outposts, one each at Gaurikund and Badrinath, for relief and rescue operations in view of past experiences of 1998 earthquake and landslides when quick communication created a big problem.
Rift in NDA over Uttaranchal
May 16, 2000
The Times of India News Service
NEW DELHI: The Bill for carving out Uttaranchal out of the hill districts of Uttar Pradesh has caused a sharp rift in the ruling coalition with the Akali Dal strongly opposing transfer of Udham Singh Nagar to the new state.
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday strongly opposed the proposed incorporation of the district - home to a large number of prosperous Sikh farmers - in the new state.
At a meeting of the three-member committee on Udham Singh Nagar, Badal said his party's opposition to the district's transfer was both ``strong and principled''. He said since the district was in the plains there was no logic in making it part of the new state.
The other two members of the committee are defence minister George Fernandes and UP chief minister R P Gupta. Badal said the boundary demarcation of the new state should be on the basis of the wishes of the people of the district.
The Udham Singh Nagar issue - which had earlier delayed legislative moves on the proposed state - has once again set the stage for a stiff tightrope walk for the Vajpayee government.
Any further delay in implementing the NDA's poll promise is sure to provoke another spell of agitation in the hills.
Landslides leave 35,000 people stranded in Chamoli
May 16, 2000
GOPESHWAR: About 35,000 people, mostly pilgrims, have been stranded at several places on the Badrinath-Rishikesh national highway in the border district of Chamoli due to heavy landslides caused by incessant rain lashing the area since Sunday, official sources said.
At least one dozen motor roads on different routes entering Chamoli district were cut off and more than 1500 buses, taxis and cars stranded, the sources said.
The pilgrims were stranded on the Rishikesh-Joshimath-Badrinath road, Gopeshwar-Okhimath-Kedarnath road, and Karnaprayag-Gwaldam-Almora road, they said.
The heavy pre-monsoon showers had also affected telecommunication services, the sources added.(PTI)
Badal wants panel on Udham Singh Nagar
May 15, 2000
NEW DELHI: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday demanded the setting up of a boundary commission comprising Supreme Court judges to determine the future of Udham Singh Nagar in the wake of the Centre's decision to carve out a new Uttaranchal state.
"A final decision on the subject must await the report of this commission", Badal said in a statement, reiterating th Akali Dal's strong opposition to the Centre's move to include this plains district in the new hill state.
Clarifying that his party not only supported but even rejoiced in the creation of new states including Uttaranchal as per the wishes and aspirations of the people, he said his party's differences on the issue were only over the demarcation of the boundaries.
He said his party's stand on the issue of Udham Singh Nagar was based on strong geographical, economic and demographic ground realities of the region in question.
Badal said the Akali Dal was firmly of the view that the interests of the people of Udham Singh Nagar would be gravely hurt by its inclusion into the new state and this should have been of prime consideration for the Centre before coming to a final decision on the issue.
UP CM leads chorus against Hardwar in Uttaranchal
New Delhi, May 15
(HT Correspondent)
THE BJP leadership is in a fix over the Uttaranchal Bill as UP Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta today echoed allies' opposition to the Cabinet's decision to include the entire Hardwar district in the proposed hill State.
The Bill is to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on May 17, the last day of Parliament's budget session. The allies' opposition is a new dimension to the controversy over the Bill, which is already opposed by the Akalis who are against the inclusion of Sikh-dominated Udham Singh Nagar in the new State.
Mr Gupta, who met senior BJP leaders, conveyed the allies' threat to withdraw support to his government if the Centre did not reconsider its decision to include Hardwar.
The Chief Minister is understood to have conveyed his stance at the meeting of a committee headed by Defence Minister George Fernandes, which was attended by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
In view of the opposition, the BJP leadership is expected to go rather slow on the Bill after introduction in the Parliament.
BJP spokesperson M Venkaiah Naidu said his party supported the Cabinet's decision to introduce the Bills to create three new States and objections could be accommodated by way of amendments to the Bill.
Notwithstanding opposition from the allies, he said the party congratulated the Governm-ent and urged all political parties to support the formation of the three States of Uttaranchal, Chattisgarh and Vananchal. "We have made our slogan to create the new States a reality."
Asked about the threat given by the Loktantrik Congress Party (LCP) and the Janata Dal (R) to withdraw support to the Gupta Ministry if Hardwar is included in Uttaranchal, the BJP spokesperson said, "Let the Parliament take a decision after discussion. Let us see their collective wisdom. I don't want to give rise to any controversy."
Mr Naidu said Mr Gupta and Mr Badal met Mr Fernandes, who is chairman of the sub-committee on the issue of inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the new State.
By Lord! It was star trek at Badrinath
By R P Nailwal
Monday 15 May 2000
The Times of India News Service
DEHRA DUN: Probably never before did Lord Badrinath have a date with so many VVIPs at one go. Yesteryear's superstar Amitabh Bachchan, industry megastar Anil Ambani and the party king in Delhi's politico- industrial- social- cocktail circuit, Amar Singh, with a fan club that straddles all political faiths, were all headed on Saturday for the holy shrine in the deep recess of the Himalayas.
They almost sneaked in and out of Dehra Dun en route to Badrinath. The few doting fans who had smelled their coming and turned up at the airstrip near here, however, hardly got a glimpse of Big B. The trio came here by the same flight but left by two helicopters - one carrying Bachchan and Ambani and the other Amar Singh.
While Dehra Dun treated them in a businesslike fashion, the story at Badrinath was different. No less than Badrinath temple committee chairman Vinod Nautiyal was at hand to receive them. The state was more than adequately represented in the reception committee - almost the entire district administration, headed by the district magistrate, turned up at the helipad to welcome the VVIPs.
The niceties usually reserved for a visiting head of state were duly observed. Bachchan was asked to plant a sapling, which he readily did.
Bachchan shooed off journalists saying: ``Please, please, please, it's my private visit to the land of God. No talk about films.''
The grapevine has it that Big B, who has had a string of flops in his comeback trail, was at the shrine to sing Hum hongey kamiyaab and invoke Lord Vishnu's blessings for the success of as-yet Small A, his son Abhishek, in films. If that is true, then he is just following in the footsteps of his mother. Teji Bachchan reportedly used to visit the shrine to seek a divine boost to her son's career graph in his struggling days in Bollywood.
No word yet on what Ambani was seeking from the Gods. And as for man-for-all-reasons Amar Singh, he is omnipresent everywhere like God Himself and doesn't really need to explain his trip.
After their brief encounter with Lord Vishnu, their next date was with Lord Shiva at Kedarnath. Again, the trio went as they came - Ambani and Bachchan in one chopper, and Amar Singh in the other. On the way, the choppers landed at Agastmuni in Rudraprayag district where another state welcome was mounted by the district magistrate and his team. From there onwards, the Ambani-Bachchan duo left for Kedarnath by car. Amar Singh's chopper took a direct flight to Lord Shiva.
The trip was apparently arranged with some sahara from friends like tycoons Subroto Roy and A Mehta. Both were seen with Amar Singh from Dehra Dun onwards.
It's just as well that Badrinath and Kedarnath are now getting their due recognition from the power people of India. Not very long ago, Tirupati was the preferred destination of India's creme de la creme in trouble, in gratitude or in prayer.
New forest law emerges after 11 years of seeding
By Chandrika Mago
Monday 15 May 2000
The Times of India News Service
NEW DELHI: A ``uniform'' law to conserve and develop forests may finally find place among statutes after 11 years of tortuous exercise.
In the culmination of an effort begun in 1989, the Union environment ministry is finalising a note for the Cabinet on amending the 73-year-old Indian Forest Act, shifting the emphasis from commerce - forests managed for production - to ecological conservation.
The aim is to consolidate forest and related laws. The position at the moment is complex and varied. States have not only had the power to make rules under this Act, but have also made amendments to it to suit their needs. The Act doesn't apply in certain states, which have made their own laws - such as Assam. When the amended law comes into force, all this would change.
In addition, to coordinate and integrate the effort of 40-odd departments in the Union government, the ministry hopes to have an apex body, under the Prime Minister, looking at forestry management issues. ``For, it's not something the environment ministry can address single-handedly,'' says a senior officer in the ministry.
Officials, preparing for Tuesday's start to a conference of state environment and forest ministers, say the changes would empower the Centre to direct states on how to protect and improve forests. If need be, it would also direct states to constitute a reserved or protected forest within a prescribed time-frame.
There would be much more. In ``bold'' amendments is a suggestion for controls on shifting cultivation to restore affected areas and for giving village communities greater say in managing forests to meet their requirements - a change from the ``colonial'' law which ``alienated'' communities. The definition of village forests would include community and institutional land, village common land and wasteland.
Moreoever, tree plantation on private land will be actively encouraged; a land owner who does this could register himself as a tree grower. Plantation forests would not be included in agricultural land holding for the purpose of ceiling laws.
State governments will be empowered to relax curbs, especially on felling and transport of certain species from private land, to encourage social and farm forestry. But states may restrict removal of any kind of tree, or all trees. A tree authority has been suggested for urban areas, and in parts of rural areas, to mobilise support for plantation and preservation.
Under the proposed rules, states would also get the power to levy a forest development tax on sale of forest produce. There will be controls on forest-based industries and provision for government to fix a support price for any forest produce to save farmers from exploitation.
Protection measures are to be made more effective and penal provisions uniformly more stringent. Encroachment would become a non-bailable offence. Forest officials would be able to confiscate seized forest produce, including equipment used in committing offences.
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THE AMENDMENT ROUTE
- The process to amend the Indian Forest Act began in 1989, with a nine-member committee being set up.
- The draft prepared by it was sent to the states for comments in June 1990. Comments came in by 1993-94.
- In 1994, a conference of state forest ministers recommended an expert committee be set up. This gave its report in December 1994
- The draft was given to the Indian Social Institute, a voluntary organisation, for suggestions. A series of workshops were organised and about 1,500 NGOs consulted.
LCP assails inclusion of Hardwar in new state
By Biswajeet Banerjee
Monday 15 May 2000
The Times of India News Service
LUCKNOW: BJP's ally in Uttar Pradesh, the Loktantrik Congress Party, has decided to oppose tooth and nail the inclusion of Hardwar in the proposed hill state.
Accusing the BJP of back-stabbing and betrayal, LCP leader Siraz Mehndi on Sunday said: ``The BJP has neglected the recommendations of 425 legislators and the wishes of over 18 crore people of UP. The matter was not even discussed by the National Democratic Alliance steering committee. This shows the respect the BJP has for the people of UP.''
He threatened to go to ``any extent'' to oppose the move. However, he ruled out the possibility of withdrawing support from the Ram Prakash Gupta government.
The Uttar Pradesh Re-organisation Bill, 2000 which was passed by the state assembly in March excluded Hardwar from the proposed hill state. However, the original Bill, which was sent to the President on February 4, 2000 for clearance by the state assembly, had included Hardwar in the Uttaranchal state. Subsequently, under pressure from the LCP, the UP government proposed an amendment, excluding Hardwar from the proposed state. This amendment was opposed by the legislators from the hills region, but the same was passed with a voice vote.
The state BJP leadership, on its part, maintained that the decision to include Hardwar was taken by the Central government by weighing the pros and cones. It had bowed to the long-standing demand of the hills people, a party spokesman.
Badal rakes up Uttaranchal issue again
UNI - Monday 15 May 2000
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today demanded the setting up of a boundary commission comprising a Supreme Court judge to determine if Udham Singh Nagar district should be included in the proposed Uttaranchal state.
A constitution amendment bill for the creation of the proposed state will be introduced in the Lok Sabha tomorrow.
The Akalis have been opposing the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the new state on the plea that it is a plains area having no geographical contiguity and cultural affinity with the hill people. Besides, a majority of the locals want to remain with Uttar Pradesh from which new state will be carved out, they contend.
Badal reiterated his party's 'principled and strong opposition' to the Centre's move to merge Udham Singh Nagar district with the new hill state .But at the same time, he clarified that his party supported the creation of the new state, respecting the wishes and aspirations of the hill people.
They differed only on the demarcation of the boundary of the new state, he clarified.
Badal is on the three-member high level committee headed by Defence Minister George Fernandes set up by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee last year to decide the fate of Udham Singh Nagar.
The committee, which reportedly met twice during the period, has not come out with any report on the issue.
Interestingly, the lone Akali cabinet minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was not present at the crucial cabinet meeting held on Saturday that cleared the proposal for reorganisation of Uttar Pradesh and decided to include Udham Singh Nagar in the new state.
Meanwhile, breakaway Akali leader and MP, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, strongly opposing the inclusion of the district into the new hill state said the ruling Akali Dal was not sincere in opposing it. The party was just shedding 'crocodile tears' and had allowed the Centre to take a decision against the will of a majority of locals there.
Tohra sought to remind Badal that he had committed at the his party's pac meeting in Chandigarh last year to recall the party's representative in the Vajpayee government if the latter chose to include Udham Singh Nagar in the new state.
Hardwar district goes to Uttaranchal
Jay Raina (New Delhi, May 13)
Hindustan Times
IN A significant move, the Union Cabinet today approved inclusion of the entire Hardwar district into the proposed hill State of Uttaranchal, to be carved out of Uttar Pradesh. The proposed State will now comprise 13 districts as against the 12 earmarked in the original draft legislation.
The decision will pave the way for extension of Uttaranchal State boundaries beyond the hilly tract of Udham Singh Nagar to the plains of Hardwar, comprising Rishikesh and Kumbh Mela areas.
The Cabinet, which met here this morning, approved the crucial changes in the draft legislation for the creation of Uttaranchal. It also okayed Bills for carving out Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, respectively.
The Bills are slated to be introduced in Parliament next Wednesday. While announcing the decision on the states, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pramod Mahajan refused to divulge details.
However, highly-placed sources told The Hindustan Times the Cabinet had rejected the UP Legislature’s recommendation against inclusion of Hardwar in the proposed Uttaranchal. It is also understood to have ignored 59 odd amendments except for the one made by the RJD-dominated Bihar Legislature on Jharkhand.
The exception pertains to acceptance of Bihar Government’s plea to name the new State ‘Jharkhand’, against the BJP-favoured nomenclature ‘Vananchal’.
With regard to a special financial dispensation against the loss of mineral-rich Jharkhand to Bihar, the Government has constituted a special cell in the Planning Commission, chaired by its Deputy Chairman K.C. Pant, to work out a package. However, this does not form part of the Bill. The move aims at assuaging feelings of the RJD and NDA’s ally Samata Party.
Significantly, representative of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Sports S.S. Dhindsa, did not attend today’s Cabinet meeting. The SAD and many other Punjab-based political formations have been opposed to the inclusion of the Sikh-dominated Udham Singh Nagar in Uttaranchal.
As regards Chhattisgarh, the Cabinet is reported to have largely gone along with the recommendations of the Madhya Pradesh Legislature. However, these minor recommendations do not alter the boundaries of the proposed State, slated to comprise seven tribal districts: Raipur, Rajgarh, Surguja, Bilaspur, Bastar and Durg.
The new Jharkhand State, as per the present indications, will comprise 18 districts of South Bihar.
The 13 districts to be included in Uttaranchal are: Pauri Garwal, Tehri Garhwal, Nanital, Chamoli, Dehra Dun, Almora, Pithoragarh, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttar Kashi, Bageshwar, Champawat, Rudra Prayag and Hardwar.
Protests threatened if Uttarakhand Bill is not passed before May 17
By C K Chandramohan (The Hindu, May 14, 2000)
DEHRA DUN, MAY 13. The long-standing demand for a separate State of Uttarakhand or Uttaranchal could well become a reality if what transpired at the Tuesday meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, is not diluted by petty games of certain politicians and vested interests.
The Government hopes to introduce the Uttarakhand Bill in Parliament in the current session but it may not be passed due to paucity of time and could be discussed in the next session.
Creation of the new State would definitely add to the mileage enjoyed by the BJP, is the general feeling here.
The Uttarakhand Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (USSS) , however, describes the decision to introduce the Uttarakhand Bill at the fag end of the current session as a mere gimmick. The USSS will observe May 17 as Aakrosh Diwas if the State is not formed by then. It plans to burn 101 effigies of the Prime Minister in New Delhi and hold similar protests in the hills, Mr. Dhirendra Pratap, coordinator and spokesman of the USSS, said.
The Uttar Pradesh Congress (I) Committee president, Mr Salman Khursheed, and local party heavyweight, Mr Harish Rawat, met the AICC president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, and impressed upon her the need to include Hardwar in the proposed State. Although the Congress does not have much to boast of in Hardwar, its clout in the hills cannot be ignored.
The Bill provides for including Hardwar city in the proposed State. The argument given in this move's favour is that Rishikesh and Hardwar form the twin cities that host the Kumbh Mela and have to be clubbed for better administrative and logistic reasons. The BJP MP from Hardwar and the Samajwadi Party MLA have openly supported the move. But the Loktantrik Congress Party (LCP), an important ally of the BJP-led coalition in Uttar Pradesh, has opposed the move. The LCP however, has no base in Hardwar or nearby areas of the plains or hills.
Another bone of contention has been the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the proposed State. Carved out of Naini Tal by the then Chief Minister Ms. Mayawati, the district is known as the granary of the region. The large farms, owned by Sikh settlers, include legal and encroached lands and many Akali Dal leaders have real estate interests. A new State would mean the authorities implementing the land ceiling laws and taking back the encroached lands converted into prime agricultural tracts. The Sikh landholders have been assured by the Uttar Pradesh Government that their land will be touched by the authorities of the new State.
Mr. S P Kochar, Dehra Dun Hotels' Association president, welcomed the announcement and said the time had come for changing the mindset of the planners to improve tourism in the area.
Creation of new States: Cabinet to study draft Bill today
Jay Raina (New Delhi, May 12)
Hindustan Times
THE DRAFT legislation for the creation of Uttaranchal, Vananchal and Chhattisgarh will be taken up for clearance by the Union Cabinet on Saturday morning.
The meeting convened by Prime Minister Vajpayee will be followed by clearance of several economic proposals at the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). The meeting is slated to okay repeal of the archaic Forfeiture Act, 1859, and clear an amendment to the State Financial Corporation Act, 1951.
Sources said the Bills for the creation of Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh were on the agenda and the Bill on Vananchal may also be taken up for discussion.
Maintaining that the necessary spade work on Vananchal Bill had nearly been completed despite its recent receipt from the Bihar legislature, sources said the Cabinet may decide in favour of introducing the three Bills in one go.
But the mere introduction of the necessary legislation would in no way pave the way for the creation of the three States. "The measure may finally fructify towards the end of year after the Bills are passed in both Houses of Parliament during the Winter session," sources said. Except in the case of Chhattisgarh State where there is hardly any difference of opinion, the creation of two other States is likely to lead to considerable friction within the Cabinet in the light of conflicting perceptions of few powerful Ministers from UP and Bihar.
The Cabinet's decision over the inclusion of Hardwar, including the Kumbh Mela area besides the Sikh-dominated Udham Singh Nagar, in Uttaranchal is expected to be stormy. The draft legislation okayed by the UP Legislature has recommended the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the proposed State, which is being opposed vehemently by the Akali Dal.
The Uttarakhand Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (USSS) and other groups have for long been arguing for the inclusion of Rishikesh and Hardwar in the proposed State. Piqued at the Government's decision to introduce the Uttarakhand Bill at the fag end of the ongoing session, the USSS has labelled the move as "mere gimmick" to once again "mislead the hill people". On Vananchal, the Cabinet will have to contend with the RJD's demand of at least Rs 75,000 crore package for carving out of the new State from Bihar.
Cabinet for Hardwar in Uttaranchal state
Jay Raina (New Delhi, May 13)
Hindustan Times
IN A significant move, the Union Cabinet today approved inclusion of Hardwar district as a whole into the proposed hill State of Uttaranchal to be carved out of Uttar Pradesh. The proposed State will now comprise 13 UP districts as against 12 that were earmarked in the original draft legislation.
The decision will pave the way for extension of Uttaranchal State boundaries beyond the hilly tract of Udham Singh Nagar to the plains of Hardwar comprising Rishikesh and Kumbh Mela areas.
The Cabinet that met here this morning approved the crucial changes in the draft legislation for the creation of Uttaranchal. It also okayed two other Bills for carving out Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, respectively. The three Bills are to be introduced in Parliament on next Wednesday -- the last day of the ongoing Budget session.
Announcing the Cabinet's decision on the creation of the three new States, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan refused to divulge the details.
However, highly-placed sources told The Hindustan Times that the Cabinet had rejected the UP Legislature's recommendation against inclusion of Hardwar in the proposed Uttaranchal State. It is also understood to have ignored 59 odd amendments except for the one made by the RJD-dominated Bihar Legislature to the draft Bill on Jharkhand.
The exception pertains to acceptance of Bihar Government's plea to name the new State as Jharkhand against the BJP-favoured nomenclature Vananchal.
With regard to a special financial dispensation against the loss of mineral- rich Jharkhand to Bihar, the Government has constituted a special cell in the Planning Commission chaired by its Deputy Chairman KC Pant to work out a package. However, this does not form part of the Bill.
The move is aimed at assuaging the feelings of both the RJD and the NDA alliance partner Samata party.
Significantly, Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) representative in the government, Minister of Poverty Alleviation and Sports SS Dhindsa did not attend today's Cabinet meeting. The SAD and many other Punjab-based political formations have been opposing the inclusion of the Sikh-dominated Udham Singh Nagar in Uttaranchal.
The Centre's draft legislation on Uttaranchal, forwarded to the UP Legislature for its comments, favoured the inclusion of Hardwar town (as against Hardwar district) in the proposed hill State. The UP Legislature is reported to have rejected this proposal while suggesting the inclusion of only 12 districts including Udham Singh Nagar within the boundaries of the new State.
The sources said the Cabinet finalised the addition of Hardwar district as a whole to the new hill State after detailed discussions wherein several UP-centric Ministers actively participated. One senior Minister is reported to have pressed in vain for the inclusion of Pilibhit into the new State.
As regards Chhattisgarh, the Cabinet is reported to have largely gone along with the recommendations of the Madhya Pradesh Legislature.
Badrinath, Kedarnath temple `kapats' open
By Aarti Aggarwal
Saturday 13 May 2000
Times of India
GOPESHWAR (Chamoli Garhwal): The "kapat" (doors) of Badrinath and Kedarnath opened on the Wednesday with the state governor Suraj Bhan and thousands of devotees reaching here for the ceremony. Pooja was performed at both the shrines to mark the beginning of six months of worship.
It has been after years that the doors of Badrinath and Kedarnath have opened on the same day. Doors of Kedarnath opened at 8 am. The governor flew to Kedarnath to perform the first pooja. He conducted the jalabhishk (prayer with water) and offered Brahakamal (flowers) to the idol of Lord Shiva. The governor inaugurated a Pravachan Hall (sermon hall) worth over Rs 1 crore. Then around 10 am he flew to Badrinath.
The doors of the Badrinath shrine were to open at 3.47 am. I was an eyewitness to the actual proceedings here. A special pooja was performed by the main priest (Rawal) in front of the entrance. The idol of Udhav (Lord Krishna's close friend), which is shifted to the Narsimha Mandir in Joshimath after the gates are closed in winter, was also worshipped.
An amazing fact is that the "Akhand Jyoti" (eternal light), placed in the shrine, never blows out even though it is behind closed doors during the six winter months. It is to see this "Jyoti" that thousands throng Badrinath on the opening day.
After the pooja the Raj Purohit (royal priest) from Tehri opened the seals and then the locks amidst chanting of mantras. When the doors to the sanctum sanctorum opened, we could see the "Jyoti" illuminating the idol. There was a mad rush to view this "Jyoti". The idol of Udhav was placed next to Badri Vishal's idol.
The mahabhishek (morning pooja) was performed by the head priest. Only he is allowed to touch the idol. He bathed the idol, followed by applying chandan, ghee, scent etc. Then the idol was decorated with flowers and precious jewels. The jewels include "Mukut " (crown) with a large diamond, a necklace made of numerous large sized precious stones, and a "Tikka" (forehead bindi) made of diamonds. The idols of other gods too were decorated with flowers and silver ornaments.
The governor arrived at about 10.30 am. The wife of the governor accompanied him. He performed a special pooja and was briefed about the shrine. Then he distributed free medicines to the poor under a scheme started by the district administration. He also planted a pious "Bhojpatra" tree. After meeting locals and listening to their problems he went back to Lucknow at around 12.30 pm.
Seven killed as buses collide in Garhwal
UNI (Rediff) May 12, 2000
Seven passengers, four of them women, have been killed and 44 injured as two buses collided on the Tehri-Uttarkashi road in the Garhwal Himalayas.
Three people died on the spot after one bus was thrown into a 20-metre-deep gorge as a result of yesterday's collision. The ill-fated vehicle, going from Hardwar to Yamunotri, was 10 km from Tehri when it collided, at about 1215 hrs, with a bus which was approaching Tehri from Uttarkashi.
Four passengers died at a Tehri hospital. The condition of ten of the injured is stated to be life-threatening. They have been brought to the Doon Valley for treatment.
Six of the deceased were pilgrims from Bombay. Their names are Ajay Shah (43), S P Bijlawan (the owner of the bus), Damyanti, Neeruben, Anita Rawal and Ansa Sampar. The seventh corpse is yet to be identified.
The accident took place near Sirai village. Police officials and villagers rushed to the spot.
Tehri dam project enters crucial stage
By Paripoornanand Painuli
The Times of India News Service
May 12, 2000
DEHRA DUN: Alarm bells have started ringing at the impending submergence of the historic Tehri town. The state government has asked the Garhwal commissioner, who also heads the Tehri dam oustees rehabilitation directorate, to submit by May 15 an ``action plan'' for the speedy execution of the dam project, being built at Tehri at the confluence of the Bhagirathi and Bhilangana rivers.
The day the green signal is received for dropping of the gate of the Bhilangana tunnel to stop the flow of the river, many areas of the town will be submerged.
The commissioner, B.M. Vohra, has already warned the people against staying back in the town, waiting for the dam construction reaching the critical stage. He said: ``With the dropping of the second gate of the tunnel to stop the Bhilangana's flow, all low-lying areas of the town may be submerged as soon as the monsoon sets in.''
The dam has generated controversy since its inception in 1972. In the beginning, both geoscientists and environmentalists had criticised its construction. In fact, the Planning Commission had cleared the project disregarding the environment department's advice. Chairman of the working group for the assessment of the dam's environmental impact Sunil Rao had also said that the installed capacity of 1,000 MW with a firm supply of 346 MW was a poor return for a massive investment ``and a social and environmental disaster''. Much water has flown down the Ganga since then.
Environmentalists like Sunder Lal Bahguna are not vocal anymore. But the issue of the oustees' rehabilitation hangs fire. Ruling BJP ministers from the hills reiterate that Tehri's submergence will take place only when the people are fully rehabilitated. Besides the historic Tehri township with an 18th century palace and ancient temples, 23 villages around it will also get submerged this year. Seventy-two other villages, with fertile land and 2,000 hectares of pastures, will be partially lost in 2002.
The government apparently realised belatedly that it was a mistake to give low priority to the oustees' rehabilitation. It was yet another folly to assign the rehabilitation work to the Tehri Hydroelectric Development Corporation (THDC).
The hydel engineers, with no knowledge of the revenue system and strangers to the oustees' problems, did little to rehabilitate the oustees. Those opposed to the dam's construction were the first to receive compensation for their property. Some persons usurped municipal land, built houses on them and, in turn, received compensation allegedly in connivance with THDC officials.
People in Tehri say that the dam is meant to fulfil the needs of the people of the plains and little attention has been paid to the oustees' plight. On completion, the dam will provide irrigation to 2.7 lakh hectares of land far away in the plains and generate 1,000 MW power in the first stage and another 2,000 MW power in the second stage to feed industries, also in the plains.
The state government has been erroneously saying that the dam will help the people of the hills. But what it has never made it known is that the project stipulates the development of tourism, fishery and navigation in a big way to provide employment to the local people.
The project report, submitted to the Planning Commission in 1969, said the reservoir (measuring 1,100 sq mt) would offer ideal conditions for fish culture. The 250.5-metre-high dam, having a storage capacity of 2,539 million cubic metres, will provide ideal navigation facilities extending 44 km upto Dharasi from the dam axis along the Bhagirathi and 25 km along its tributary, Bhilangana. All this will naturally boost tourism.
NGO shows how not to raise AIDS awareness
SONU JAIN
Indian Express - May 9, 2000
ALMORA/JAGESHWAR, MAY 8: Uttarakhand has been smouldering for about 20 days now, and this time it is neither politics nor religion but public health that has caused the uproar. What began on April 19 and has now snowballed into a big controversy is a classic example of how a public health issue should not be handled. With both the people and the administration behaving irresponsibly, the anti-AIDS campaign and women's reproductive health have been the casualties.
What shook the hill region was a 42-page report on AIDS called AIDS Aur Hum by a local NGO, Sahyog. The people alleged it was full of obscenities and made sweeping statements about the sexual behaviour of the people of Uttarakhand, mentioning incest at length.
Though Sahyog argues it is guilty of just plain-speaking and has quoted people verbatim to make the report authentic, the locals believe it's a conspiracy to spoil the image of Uttarakhand for getting foreign funds. They point out the report talks of sexual relations between father and daughter and brother and sister. The report, they allege, describes the sexual behaviour of both men and women as beastly. In fact, they complain, the language is comparable to any cheap paperback sold on the streets.
The founder of the NGO, Abhijeet Das, is an MBBS trained in public health and has conducted several workshops for training other doctors on reproductive health. Articulate and well-travelled, he has presented several papers abroad. His wife, Jashodhara, is a post-graduate in comparative literature. They were both fellows of the McArthur Foundation.
With such credentials, where did the two go wrong? What they describe as pure research material on sexual behaviour -- used in order to make a strong impact on people who matter, perhaps those who fund them -- has offended the people. ``We were victims of the small-town mentality. In any case, the material was meant for a select audience, that of NGOs and policy-makers and not the general public,'' says Das.
But Shamsher Singh Bisht, a social activist, who first raised the alarm, indicts them strongly. ``They are outsiders and in the eight years that they have been here, they have not been able to catch the pulse of the society or come close enough to the people to be accountable to them,'' he says.
While the NGO has behaved somewhat irresponsibly, the people's behaviour has been irrational and without any restraint.
After the controversy broke out, the report was selectively photocopied and distributed in remote corners of the region. With the local press joining the campaign, wild accusations are now being hurled at the NGO. ``They make blue films; they are raking in foreign funds in crores; and they take women into the jungles, god knows what they do,'' are some samples.
The couple were handcuffed and paraded from the local court to the jail, a distance of one kilometre. They have failed to apply for bail because the lawyers in the area have decided against representing them.
But what's worst is that the campaign against AIDS and other similar programmes have received a setback. Each such project is now suspect. A university programme running with government assistance has been asked to come clean on its finances and the work done. ``I do not believe in showing the details of our programme to every Tom, Dick and Harry who comes here. Our programme is very different from what Sahyog used to do. I feel that the kind of things which the report talks about is false. Our interactive sessions do not reflect the theory spelt out in the report,'' says S D Bhat, who is the head of the Department of Zoology and runs a programme `Becoming a Responsible Youth'. He has got a grant of Rs 60 lakh from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
But Sahyog is what everyone is talking about now. The people from the sample area of five villages in the Dhauladevi block of Jageshwar do not mince words. ``This is not the first time they have done something so shameful. An inquiry had been conducted by the SDM in 1998. They have never mingled with the public but managed to build a group of 20-30 women who would participate in their programmes,'' said Harish Bhat, gram pradhan of Jageshwar. There was a campaign to oust them from here in 1998 and ``because of their good relations with top officials'' those who participated in the campaign had false charges made against them.
Devki Nandan Bhat, who was once employed with Sahyog, recalls that a person from Sahyog had come to organise a group discussion thrice. ``These sessions were about the knowledge of AIDS and were conducted in a village called Kunja. Our conservative society would not discuss these things with outsiders,'' says Bhat. He feels they did not go to the five villages, as claimed in the report.
The locals are seething. ``They started their work here eight years back with the literacy project. After that they have failed to do anything worthwhile for the people of Uttarakhand. They have two gobar gas projects and three smokeless chullahs to show on the main road,'' says Ram Chander, block pramukh.
Everybody in the region is vying to issue statements against them -- the vyapaar mandal, doctors, Uttarakhand Sangharsh Samiti, women's groups and even other NGOs. Almora and Ranikhet remained closed for two days as a mark of protest. A meeting is also being organised in Delhi on May 15. Eleven people from Sahyog were arrested following a gherao by 250 people inJageshwar and Almora. Five are still at the Almora jail.
Even the doctors quoted in the report have denied their statements fearing they would be ostracised. ``No doctor had been consulted on trevplenaeeoc efuslxyatla srintmdtdes aiee.sTse ihf rnaoimntgov niie hn teeortpir siamfng efttoe rhiia imaginntaod anl ple artcousiane trk naie hn toephtsliaa as fsrbao dltoa srunifnsio osccrnee,n'ds'i a dtatsmane estuidsbe rympnoni eottdrc ofstoe ahe .r/ao
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n*tOe rhair sr:eWt eeewtrk naaea kb ch.sTrip re oat wesersldaie entSmpee bnr auddsndyenlw toe pho le paeehrva tedc eh. The charges are baselessas it is the people who are disturbing local peace rather than us.
* On whether the facts in the report are true: 33.5 million HIV positive people in India and 95 per cent of the transmission through sex are UN figures.
* On their finances: We have got aid from Oxfam, McArthur Foundation,Action Aid, Danida, and these are unconditional grants. We set our ownagenda and publish our balance sheets in our annual report. Only Rs60,000 has been spent in preparing 500 copies.
* On their future: This will give us a chance to quit the project and hand it over to a local leadership.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
AIDS report sparks demand for probe
Monday 8 May 2000
By R P NAILWAL
Times of India News Service
DEHRA DUN: A report on the possibility of the existence of AIDS in the hills of western UP by an Almora-based NGO has stirred a hornets' nest in the region and raised demands for a scrutiny into the functioning of NGOs in the region.
The report, published in a pamphlet issued by the NGO Sahyog, is alleged to have cast aspersions about the moral behaviour of the hill people and dubbed them as promiscuous. Following a public outcry against the report, the police had arrested six activists of the organisation. The UP government had also blacklisted it.
Hundreds of NGOs are currently working in the UP hills with the avowed aim of uplifting the rural poor and improving the environment. Some of them receive generous financial aid not only from the government but also from foreign agencies.
``This incident has once again proved that there is an urgent need for a thorough probe into the activities of these NGOs. What are their means and what are they actually doing with the enormous amount of money they receive? Who is funding them and why?'' asks Veenapani Joshi, a social activist of Dehra Dun.
``The Sahyog report was totally baseless and unwarranted as it showed the hill peoples' personal behaviour and moral values in bad light. Naturally, there was widespread resentment among them,'' says Surendra Lal Sah from Ranikhet in Almora district.
Aided by the MacArthur Foundation of the US, Sahyog brought out a report on the possibility of AIDS in the hill region after reportedly carrying out a study in parts of the Kumaon hills. The study, it was claimed, indicated that most hill people were promiscuous and thus prone to AIDS.
Some years ago, a similar controversy had taken place after an NGO had published a report on the hill women. That report too had raised hackles among the region's people.
The people are upset and demanding a probe into the working of the NGOs in region. ``There is an urgent need now for an investigation into the ongoing projects of various NGOs in the hills some of which have doubtful credentials,'' says Ramakant Uniyal, a former OSD to the chief minister, now settled in Dehra Dun.
Creation of Uttarakhand this budget session doubtful
SHARAD GUPTA
Indian Express
NEW DELHI, MAY 4: Intense struggle by people of the hill region of Uttar Pradesh for creation of a separate Uttarakhand may not bear fruit during the Budget session of Parliament ending on May 17.
Though the Bill has been returned by UP Assembly with 29 objections, it is unlikely to be passed during the ongoing session. "There is insufficient time for the Bill to be passed by both Houses of the Parliament. At best, we can introduce it during this session and get it passed in next session," claims senior BJP leader from the hill region, Maj Gen (Retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri.
Khanduri led a delegation of three other MPs from the Uttarakhand region, Manvendra Shah, Bachi Singh Rawat and Manohar Kant Dhyani to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Thursday, to get the Bill passed at the earliest.
However, Uttarakhand Samytukta Sangharsh Samiti (USSS) leaders accuse the Vajpayee Government of deliberately delaying creation of the new State since it would inevitably mean that the Ram Prakash Gupta government in UP will be left with a slender majority. "With Kalyan Singh supported by over a dozen BJP rebel MLAs, breathing down Gupta's neck, he can hardly afford to carve out Uttarakhand," says Samiti convenor Harish Rawat, a veteran Congressman.
The BJP and allies have a strength of 223 in a House of 425 in UP. Of the BJP's 176 MLAs, 17 come from Uttarakhand. Thus once President gives his assent to the Bill after being passed by the Parliament, the BJP's strength would go down to 161 and considering the threat from Kalyan Singh, party can't take a risk.
Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs claim that the Bill had been sent to various ministries to get their comment on the objections raised by UP Assembly. After getting their opinion, the MHA would finalise the Bill to be introduced in Parliament. The entire exercise was taking a long time, sources claimed explaining the reason for the delay in finalisation of the Bll.
USSS leaders rubbish the MHA claims by saying how can bureaucrats decide whether Haridwar would be part of the new State (as demanded by USSS) or will remain in Uttar Pradesh (as demanded by the UP Assembly) or else only Kumbh Mela Area would be included in the Uttarakhand (as envisaged in the Bill). "It has to be a political decision. Babus can't decide the fate of an entire district," Rawat claims.
Most of the objections made by the UP Assembly to the draft the Bill are political in nature. Thus blaming bureaucracy for the delay is but fooling the innocent people of Uttarakhand or rather Uttaranchal (as BJP refers to the region), Rawat asserts.
The USSS has, however, already stepped up pressure on the Government and MPs hailing from Uttarakhand. On Wednesday, they staged a dharna at residences of MPs from the region. "If the Bill is not passed during the current session, we will burn effigy of the Prime Minister at all panchayat headquarters in Uttarakhand besides at 101 places in Delhi before launching a tiraskar pakhawada (humiliation fortnight) during which all UP ministers and MPs from the region would be humiliated. This may be followed by Uttarakhand bandh, Rawat claims.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Govt takes tough stance on NGO report
By Aarti Aggarwal
Friday 5 May 2000
Times of India News Service
GOPESHWAR: The state government has taken a strong stance against the report published by an NGO based in the hills.
The NGO, Sahyog, had published a report on AIDS pertaining to Uttrakhand. The distribution of its copies had led to a widespread agitation and 11 persons associated with the NGO were behind bars since a week.
The report AIDS aur Hum: Uttrakhand mai AIDS ki Sambhavana (we and AIDS: The possibility of AIDS in Uttrakhand) was published by `Sahyog' along with a Lucknow-based voluntary organisation `Sparsh' after conducting a study here. It had been stated in the report that the majority of men in the hills were serving outside. The youth here usually joined the armed forces leaving behind their families in native villages. The lady of the house hence was forced to live alone waiting for their better halves for most of the time. The report pointed out that in those circumstances, the women here entered in to illicit sexual relations with other men. Also, that the rural women of Uttrakhand were involved in flesh trade with every second house turning in to a Vaishyalaya (den of prostitution).
The distribution of that report led to a march against the NGO in Danya, Almora. They even agitated at the Sahyog office based in Suvakhar. Sarvadaliya Sangarsh Samiti demanded an enquiry into the works done by the NGO, and to take strong action against the people associated with it. Consequently, people were arrested. Those included the president & secretary of Sahyog, Sh. Abhijit Das and Smt Jasodhara Das respectively along with others. They had been charged under sections 292, 293 and 505 of IPC.
DM Almora, Dr Deepak Krishan Verma had banned all activities of that NGO for the next two months under section 144 CrPC. The administration had sealed all its offices. The DM said that all thse actions been taken as the indecent language and controversial statements made in the report might disturb the law and order situation in the district.
There had been protests in Ranikhet, wherein people accumulated at Subash Chowk and burnt the report shouting slogans against the NGO. Even in Pitthoragarh, local leaders had criticised the report and the organisation. In Pauri, the women demanding that the people arrested should not to be released, took out a massive rally.
Locals were angry over the fact that this report was attempting to term Uttrakhand or `Devbhoomi' a prostitute land. That report maligns the sacred relation of a brother and sister and father and daughter. Various organisations had asked for a CBI enquiry into the activities of the NGO.
The general feeling was that this report was humiliating for Uttrakhand and Sahyog was out only to earn money on immoral grounds. Last year also Sahyog had to face local wrath in Jageshwar area. The then DM had ordered an enquiry to be conducted by a committee headed by the SDM. Astonishingly, the report submitted by the committee had not been made public till date.
The state government had requested the American government through the Indian government to stop aid (no pun intended) to the NGO. The convener of Human Rights Organisation in Uttrakhand had moved an application in the court demanding 26 people including Abhijeet Das and Jasodhara Das of Sahyog as well as voluntary organisation Sparsh, McArthur Foundation, Kaushal Bisht, Richard Wheeler be booked under NSA (National Security Act).
`Char Dham Yatra' needs better arrangements
Aarti Aggarwal
Friday 5 May 2000
Times of India News Service
GOPESHWAR: With the `kapat' (doors) of Gangotri and Yamnotri opening on May 7 and Badrinath and Kedarnath on the May 10, the government and administration is busy in making arrangements for pilgrim inflow.
In the hot summer months, the faithful and tourists reach the U.P. hills in hoards but the difficulties encountered leave scars. The sufferers are then the hill folks and the hills themselves.
In this Char Dham Yatra, the scariest part is the road accidents. Even though this aspect is looked in to the most, every year, the accidents are on rise. There are complaints regarding "pass" being issued to the vehicles unfit for traelling in the hills. A number of such vehicles ply on the winding roads. Personal car drivers drive as if on a highway in Delhi, in utter disregard of norms of hill driving. Strict rules regarding the fitness of the vehicle, the driver's experience, exist, but to no avail.
During the yatra , the "padavs" (night halts) should be clean and affordable so as to ensure a comfortable stay for the yatris. The government constructs raen baseras, and toilets for the travellers, which are either in total disuse or hijacked by the locals for their own personal use. Every year, schemes are made to set up medical aid units at various junctures but the units, after functioning for a few days, are found always locked. In the season the followers have to haggle over rates for coolie (porters), horse, dandi (palanquin), kandi (basket carried by a person for the kids) and mule at the paidal marg (trekking point). Even though firm directions are given by the administration for all these, yet travellers face hard times.
With the beginning of the season, the liquor mafia also gears up its operations along the route with an eye on profits. The shopkeepers too hike the rates of all commodities so as to make huge killings, knowing well that the yatra is dependent on them for food and shelter. Stern orders have been passed to stop all this.
Certain new measures have been taken this year. It has been decided to ban use and sale of polythene bags at the dhams in totality. Travel by the commercial vehicles at night has been restricted. Only the private vehicle owners would be allowed to move at night. It has also been decided to enforce buses meant for local transport to villages etc actually do so, and don't divert to the better-earning yatra route.
The need of the hour is not only to issue less but to ensure effective implementation in all these areas. This yatra can be advertised further and by making better arrangements, if could lead to improving the economic condition of Garhwal manifold.
It will not be fair to expect everything from the administration. The netas as well as the hill folk shoudl work towards making it more comfortable and affordable for the yatris. At present greed, and not welcoming guest, seems to be the motto. The yatra carries on, inspite of shortcomings, due to the will of God.
Nanda Devi gearing up for Raj Jat Yatra
By Aarti Aggarwal
Wednesday 3 May 2000
Times of India News Service
GOPESHWAR (Chamoli Garhwal): The preparations are on with gusto for the Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra to be held in August 2000 after 13 years. State government has decided to make arrangements on the level of Maha Kumbh.
This Yatra is a very rare event dating back to ninth century. Though scheduled every 12 years, it is rarely held. In the 20th century, it was completed only four times, in the years 1905, 1925, 1968 and 1987. Torrential rains and blizzards forced pilgrims to return midway in 1951. The royal family undertakes the arduous journey to get rid of a curse. It has to be led by a four-horned ram, a rarity. Everytime the yatra is scheduled, one is born as if by divine power.
According to the schedule, the Yatra will start on the August 22, 2000 from Naui village of district Chamoli. This pilgrimage of 264 kilometres walk will span over 20 days with 19 padav (stoppages for the night) ending on September 9. Walking through various places pilgrims reach the lake of Rupkund, located at 15,000 feet surrounded by hundreds of human skeletons. Crossing a narrow vertical spot called "Jyurangalidhar" (the path of death), it proceeds to Hemkund, `the lake of fire sacrifice' where the four-horned ram leaves the procession and finds its way, unaided, to the summit of Mount Trishul. The yatra touches a height of 17,500 feet.
As this yatra is arduous and dangerous, it calls for a number of arrangements. The district magistrate, Chamoli Rajiv Aggarwal, said that a sum of Rs 1 crore has been allocated for this yatra. He further informed that this year there would be no restrictions on the basis of sex, caste or nationality. Earlier women and foreigners were prohibited and in '87, for the first time one foreigner and only two women had accompanied this yatra. Also the Shilpkar Sabha had warned of taking judicial recourse if Scheduled Caste persons were not allowed to join in.
The administration has apportioned the funds under various heads. Rs 24 lakh has been allocated for drinking water at all stoppages, Rs 9 lakh for electricity, Rs 10 lakh for development of mela places and Rs 6 lakh for health and sanitation. Roads and bridges worth Rs 40 lakh are to be constructed. Zila Panchayat has been asked to maintain their pathways and accordingly shell out an additional Rs 40 lakh from their own sources. ITBP, SSB, Garhwal Scouts, Garhwal & Kumaon Regiments have been requested for tents in thehigher reaches. Preparations are being made to ensure proper food distribution in the yatra. Additional allotment of rations has been done. The Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra this year will be recorded and filmed for perpetuity.
According to tradition, the all-powerful Nanda Devi is regarded as a dhiyani, an outmarried village daughter who is at the same time a goddess, married to Lord Shiva. She is summoned, feased and worshipped and sent back to her husband's place. This pilgrimage is conceived of as bidai (departure) of the divine daughter Nanda from her natal place, Nauti, to Mount Kailash, her husband Lord Shiva's abode.
The procession will be accompanied by the dolis of 194 gods and goddesses this year, including many from the Kumaon Mandal. The state culture minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, said that this yatra, a great unifying factor of Uttarakhand, is steeped in age-old customs and traditions and it exemplifies the rich historical and cultural heritage of the region. |
