The Tribune – The big chill: At -3°C, Narnaul (Haryana) coldest place in plains

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 7. The cold wave condition intensified with the minimum temperature plummeting sharply, throwing normal life out of gear in many places of the North. According to weather office, the lowest minimum temperature of minus 3.0 degree Celsius was recorded at Narnaul (Haryana) in the plains of the country.

With cold wave conditions raging, Delhi continued to shiver as mercury remained below normal by five notches to settle at 2.4 degree Celsius. The maximum temperature too dipped to seven degrees below normal to settle at 13.4 degree Celsius.

In the neighbourhood, Hisar reeled with a low of minus 0.8 degree Celsius, two degrees below normal, followed by Bhiwani with 0.5. Minimum temperature in Amritsar settled at a low of 1.8 degrees Celsius while Patiala and Ludhiana recorded the minimum temperatures of 2.4 and 2.7 degree Celsius, respectively.

The entire Kashmir Valley continued to reel under intense cold with night temperature hovering several degrees below freezing point. The minimum temperature recorded in Srinagar was minus 4.9 degree Celsius, down by 0.3 notches from yesterday’s minus of 4.6 degrees Celsius.

The Met office said the Kargil town in frontier region of Ladakh was the coldest place in the state with a low of minus 16.4 degree Celsius, while mercury in Gulmarg plunged further to minus 9.8 degree Celsius. Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh, shivered at a low of minus 0.6 degree Celsius.

Rajasthan continued to remain in the grip of severe cold, with Churu being the coldest place at minus 2.7 degree Celsius followed by Karauli at zero degree while in UP Muzaffarnagar shivered at minus 0.7 degree Celsius. Agra recorded 0.6 degree Celsius, Najibabad (Bijnor) 1.0, Lucknow and Aligarh 1.4 each and Kheri 1.6 degree Celsius.

In Uttarakhand, the Tehri district was the coldest at 0.5 degree Celsius followed by Mukteshwar at 0.4 and Pithoragarh at 0.2 degree Celsius. Capital Dehradun also shivered at 1.3 degree Celsius.

According to the IMD, cold wave conditions would prevail over some parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar during next 48 hours. While dense fog would abate from many parts of Indo-Gangetic plains during next 1-2 days, strong northwesterly winds from tomorrow onwards could worsen chill conditions.

Chandigarh’s coldest day in history

Chandigarh on Monday recorded its coldest day in history with a maximum temperature at 6.1°C, as piercing cold conditions swept Punjab and Haryana.

The minimum temperature recorded in Srinagar was minus 4.9°C

Hisar reeled with a low of minus 0.8°C

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The Tribune – SGPC condemns arrest of Sikh jatha in Uttarakhand

Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, November 30. Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) has condemned the arrest of the members of the Sikh jatha that was on its way to pay obeisance at the site of the demolished Gurdwara Gyan Godhri near Har-ki-Pauri in Haridwar. SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar said, here today, that every person had the right to observe his religious rights. The arrest of the Sikh youths who were peacefully proceeding towards the historic shrine was highly condemnable.

Makkar said that the people as well as the state government had not denied that Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh Guru, had visited the place at Har-ki-Pauri where a gurdwara was established around 450 years ago. He said that their main demand was that the shrine be rebuilt keeping in view the sentiments of the Sikhs living there.

The SGPC chief said that he would soon seek an appointment with Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna to resolve the issue. He said he would also involve the local community leaders including local MLA Harbhajan Singh Cheema in the talks so that the shrine could be rebuilt as early as possible.

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The Tribune – Badal asks Congress not to interfere in Sikh affairs; Assails Uttarakhand Government for jatha arrests

Tribune News Service

Lambi/Muktsar, November 29. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today condemned the Uttarakhand Government for preventing a Sikh jatha from entering Gurdwara Gyan Goddari at Haridwar and arresting its members at the state border yesterday.

He also lashed out at the Congress for its “old habit” of interfering in the religious affairs of the Sikhs.

“On the one hand, the Congress government in Delhi is doing injustice to the Sikhs by not conducting the Delhi Gurdwara Sikh Management Committee elections, on the other the Congress government in Uttarakhand has hurt the sentiments of the Sikhs by arresting devotees,” said Badal, who is on a two-day “sangat darshan” tour of his Lambi Assembly constituency.

He further said the religious sentiments of all sects must be respected, as the Constitution advocated adopting a secular approach.

On the threats made by Pakistan fundamentalists after Ajmal Kasab’s execution, Badal said the state government had made necessary security arrangements and there was no threat to peace in the state.

Reacting to the shortage of coal in thermal plants of the state, he said the state government was aware of the situation and efforts were afoot for its uninterrupted supply.

“I have written to the Jharkhand Chief Minister to seek his intervention,” he claimed.

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The Tribune – Delhi Police arrests Ponty aide Namdhari

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Dehradun, November 23. Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, former chairman of the Uttarakhand Minorities Commission and a prime witness in the murder case of Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep Chadha in New Delhi last week, was detained by the Delhi Police from his residence at Bajpur in Udham Singh Nagar district today.

Namdhari, who had been untraceable for the past six days, surfaced at his residence at Bajpur.

Talking to mediapersons, he said he had himself called up the Delhi Police and had been constantly helping the Delhi police in its investigation.

He alleged his detractors were trying to defame him. He clarified he was the one who had informed the police and had got the FIR lodged about the incident. Namdhari said that he had no business connections with the liquor baron Ponty Chadha.

The sacked chairman of the Uttarakhand Minorities Commission was arrested on the charge of criminal trespassing (Section 452) and dacoity (Section 391) after being interrogated by a special team of Delhi Police in Uttarakhand.

“On specific information, we had sent a team to Uttarakhand to ascertain the role of Namdhari in this shootout. We have arrested him on the charge of criminal trespassing and dacoity. He was brought to Delhi today,” said Chhaya Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police, south district. Namdhari had been present at the spot on the day of the incident.

Police sources also clarified that the body of Hardeep Chadha was found in the guard room on the basis of which the first FIR was lodged under Section 302 (murder), 327 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort property) and the Arms Act.

The police officials did not elaborate further.

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The Tribune – SGPC seeks to reconstruct 450-yr-old shrine

Sanjay Bumbroo, Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, September 15. Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) has renewed its efforts to reconstruct the 450-year-old gurdwara Gyan Godhri at its original place near Har-ki Pauri in Haridwar.

The SGPC has once again sought an appointment with Uttarakhand Chief Minister through local MLA Harbhajan Singh Cheema to resolve the issue.

SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar, who was in town for the installation ceremony of Guru Granth Sahib at Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, said two delegations of the committee had already visited Uttarakhand earlier. But with the change of guard in the Uttarakhand government, the matter could not proceed further, he added.

The 450-year-old gurdwara Gyan Godhri was set up at Har-ki-Pauri in memory of Guru Nanak Dev who visited the place in 1504-05. The Sikh community in the hilly state of Uttarakhand had been demanding that the shrine, which was demolished during 1984 anti-Sikh riots, should be restored at its original place.

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The Tribune – Sikhs intensify effort to reconstruct historic shrine

Perneet Singh, Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 8. Various Sikh organisations have intensified their efforts to evolve a consensus over allocation of a site for the reconstruction of historic Gurdwara Gyan Godri at Har-Ki-Pauri in Uttarakhand. The gurdwara is associated with Guru Nanak Dev.

Leaders of the SGPC and the Sarab Pradesh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SPGPC) will jointly meet Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Sunday.

Inderjeet Singh Chugh, SPGPC general secretary, said he had recently discussed the issue with Bahuguna and apprised him of the talks they had on the issue with the previous BJP regime. He said Bahuguna had assured him of allotting around 100 sq yards of land at the original site of the gurdwara. Bahuguna had also proposed to earmark another 400 sq yards on the other bank of the Ganga.

The gurdwara was demolished in 1980s and later an office of Bharat Scouts and Guides was built at the site.

Chugh said even if the government allotted around 100 sq yards of land they could put up a ‘Nishan Sahib’ and raise a memorial to commemorate Guru Nanak Dev’s visit to the place and build the gurdwara on the other bank of Ganga.

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The Tribune – Passport case; Ramdev aide Balkrishna in CBI net

Sandeep Rawat and Syed Ali Ahmed, Tribune News Service

Haridwar/New Delhi, July 20. Vice-Chancellor of Patanjali Ayurvedic University Acharya Balkrishna, a close aide of yoga guru Ramdev, was today arrested by a CBI team on the charge of getting a passport on the basis of fake documents.

A five-member CBI team arrived at Patanjali Yogpeeth (Phase-I) around 2.30 pm with a non-bailable warrant issued against Balkrishna by a special court. The team had to face a stiff resistance from Bharat Swabhiman Trust members, yoga guru supporters and Patanjali Yogpeeth employees. To pacify the crowd, the police decided to take away Balkrishna in his personal Landrover car. The arrest was effected around 3 pm and he was taken to Dehradun for producing him in the court.

Talking to The Tribune while waving to a large number of supporters gathered at Patanjali Yogpeeth, Balkrishna said he had full faith in the law of the land. He said he was willing to get sacrificed for the sake of motherland in order to clean it of corruption, corrupt politicians and bringing black money back to India.

“I was born in India though my parents hailed from Nepal. The Indian Constitution gives me the right to be citizens of this country. So, as per the Constitution of India, I am very much an Indian. I have not forged any documents,” he said.

Terming the arrest as politically motivated, enraged supporters of Balkrishna burnt effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the CBI outside the Patanjali Yogpeeth. Protests were also reported from various other parts of the district.

In charge of the Bharat Swabhiman Trust Jay Deep Arya said the CBI move was on the specific directions of the Congress high command that wanted to curb the anti-black money agitation being spearheaded by Ramdev and Balkrishna.

Sources in the CBI said the arrest of Balkrishna was long due, but he had got a stay against it from the High Court of Uttarakhand. Issuing the stay order, the court had said Balkrishna should not be arrested till the CBI had completed its investigation.

The agency filed a chargesheet on July 10 in a special court at Dehradun. It had also accused the then Principal of Sanskrit Mahavidayala, Khurja, Uttar Pradesh, for helping Balkrishna.

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The Tribune – China violated LAC 505 times since Jan 2010; Triggered by differing perceptions of disputed line

Ajay Banerjee, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 16. Differing perceptions of the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China has led to a whopping 505 transgressions by Chinese soldiers since January 2010.

Explaining ‘transgressions’, officials said India and China do not agree on the LAC, hence soldiers on either side patrol up to the point they perceive as the LAC. Soldiers on both sides show a banner asking the other party to withdraw when the LAC is crossed. Despite the underlying tension, the process of withdrawing by both sides keeps a lid on the situation along the tense frontier between the two edgy neighbours.

Today, the matter of transgressions was raised in the Rajya Sabha and the Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran said, “There have been 228 reported cases of transgression in 2010, 213 in 2011 and 64 till April this year. It was clarified, “There has been no intrusion along the India-China border. However, there are cases of transgression (by People’s Liberation Army, PLA) due to different perception of the LAC.” The word ‘intrusion’ is the official nomenclature to indicate a breach of the sanctity of the border and is different from transgression on LAC, that too on sections which are disputed.

The LAC is 4,057-km-long and traverses areas of Himalayan states, principally in Eastern Ladakh (J&K), parts of Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Historically, there has never been a demarcated boundary. These are strategically vital portions which are contiguous with Tibet.

New Delhi takes up specific incidents of transgression with the Chinese side through established mechanisms such as hotlines, flag meetings, border personnel meetings and normal diplomatic channels.

The 15th round of Sino-Indian Special Representatives (SR)-level talks was held in New Delhi in January last. Sources said the two sides are at an advanced stage of taking a decision on a joint civil-military mechanism to maintain peace along the LAC.

Despite the transgressions, peace is maintained along the LAC following an agreement thrashed out in April 2005. India and China have worked out what is called a ‘banner drill’, which helps keep tension under check.

Whenever either side perceives that a transgression has been made across the LAC, soldiers show a 10-feet-wide banner with a slogan painted across to each other. The banner primarily cites the 2005 agreement and says there is a need to back off from the present positions of patrolling.

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The Tribune – 19% Punjab MLAs facing criminal cases

Kanchan Vasdev, Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 11. The hue and cry against criminalisation of politics notwithstanding, the voters of Punjab this time have elected 19 per cent MLAs, who have criminal cases pending against them. The situation is more alarming in Uttar Pradesh with almost half of the 224 newly elected Samajwadi Party MLAs facing criminal cases. Almost 25 per cent of these are facing cases with serious criminal charges like murder, attempt to murder, theft, robbery etc.

In Uttarakhand, 19 of the 70 newly elected MLAs have criminal background, according to Uttarakhand Election Watch.

Of the 117 legislatures in Punjab analysed by Punjab Election Watch, 22 (19%) have criminal cases pending against them. As many as eight MLAs (7 per cent) are facing serious criminal cases. In the Punjab 2007 Assembly elections, 21 (18%) were facing criminal cases.

In Punjab, the Congress has the maximum number of MLAs with criminal cases. As many as 11 such MLAs are from the INC, nine from SAD, while two are independent. The SAD has 56 MLAs and Congress has 46 in the Assembly.

The Punjab Election Watch report states Simarjit Singh Bains, a SAD rebel who was elected as an Independent from Ludhiana, has six cases pending against him. The charges he faces include, attempt to murder, deliberate and malicious acts intending to outrage religious feelings, theft, obstructing a public servant in discharge of his public functions, rioting, criminal intimidation and assault to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty. Simarjit has been elected with a huge margin of over 28,000 votes.

Following Bains is Bibi Jagir Kaur, an MLA from Bholath in Kapurthala with a case of murder, wrongful confinement and kidnapping pending against her.

Balbir Singh Sidhu, Congress MLA from SAS Nagar, has a case with charges of murder, attempt to murder, rioting, and criminal conspiracy pending against him.

Sukhbir Singh Badal, MLA from Jalalabad, has been named an accused in an attempt to murder case, robbery and voluntarily causing hurt to extort property.

Amarinder Singh, former chief minister and Congress MLA from Patiala, has six cases registered against him. Charges relate to criminal conspiracy, cheating and dishonesty and forgery for the purpose of cheating under Sections 120-B/ 420/467/468 IPC. He also faces charges related to using as genuine a forged document, defamation, forgery and criminal breach of trust.

Besides, he has three cases filed against him by Vigilance in Patiala, Ludhiana and Mohali.

Of the 403 MLAs analysed for Uttar Pradesh 2012 Assembly elections, 189 (47%) have criminal cases pending against them. Of these, 189 MLAs, 98 MLAs (24%) are facing serious criminal cases.

From the winning Samajwadi Party, 111 (49.6 per cent) of the 224 MLAs have criminal cases against them. Of these 56 (25 per cent) are facing serious offences like murder, attempt to murder, theft, extortion, robbery etc.

As per the Election Watch, three MLAs are facing a host of cases. They are Mitra Sen of SP (Bikapur constituency). He faces 36 criminal cases, including 14 related to murder. Sushil Singh (Independent, Sakaldiha) has 20 criminal cases, including 12 charges related to murder. Ram Veer Singh (SP, Jasrana) has 18 criminal cases, including 8 relating to murder.

(With inputs from Shahira Naim in Lucknow)

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The Tribune – Assembly Elections, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, UP

BJP takes Goa – Landslide victory for Cong in Manipur – Dead heat in Uttarakhand – Tough times for UPA ahead – Mulayam routs Maya, setback for Rahul in UP

Anita Katyal, Our Political Correspondent

New Delhi, March 6. Widely perceived as a litmus test for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the results of the five Assembly polls declared today served as a serious warning for the Congress in general and its heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi in particular about the party’s capability to lead the country once again as the morale of cadres sank to a record low.

More immediately, the party’s dismal performance in these elections will spell further trouble for the already beleaguered Congress-led UPA government which will have to contend with a more aggressive Opposition as it heads into a crucial budget session of Parliament. The results were nothing short of a nightmare for the Congress. It faced a humiliating defeat in Punjab where the ruling Akali Dal-BJP government set a record by bucking the anti-incumbency trend to emerge victorious for a second consecutive term. While the party drew some solace from its victories in distant Manipur and Uttarakhand (a wafer-thin margin), it was mauled badly in Goa by the BJP-MGP combine.

However, the UP results were clearly the big story of the day. The Samajwadi Party won a landslide victory and will form the next government without any outside support. While the projection of Mulayum Singh Yadav’s son Akhilsh Singh Yadav as the party’s new face proved to be a real winner, the SP’s ride to power was also helped as it was seen as the strongest party capable of dislodging the Mayawati government.

The results were a personal blow for AICC general secretary and Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi who had taken complete charge of the elections in the state to revive the fortunes of the grand old party. As it happened, Rahul’s intensive and aggressive campaign failed to deliver as the Congress was unable to add substantially to its tally of 22 seats.

While Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, and Rita Bahuguna Joshi, UP Congress chief, were quick to insulate Rahul from criticism, the man who led from the front did not shy away from taking the blame for party’s poor performance. “I led the campaign, I led from the front and so it is my responsibility. We fought collectively, we fought well but the results have not been so good,” he told reporters outside Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence this evening.

Gracious in defeat, Rahul also conceded that the party’s organisation was not in very good health. “Organisationally, we are not where we should be in UP…I think it will be a very good lesson for me because I think it will make me think about things in a detailed way,” he said, adding that the fundamentals of the Congress in UP are weak and need to be corrected.

Although the party is expected to introspect the election results at a later date, party insiders maintained that the state Congress unit’s over-confidence and complacency had cost them dearly in Punjab. “Everybody assumed they were winning,” remarked a senior AICC functionary. Faulty distribution of tickets and the presence of a large number of rebels were the other factors, which proved to be the party’s undoing, he said.

The Congress campaign in UP got off to a flying start with Rahul focusing on the poor governance record of the Mayawati government but got derailed after the third phase when senior leaders Salman Khurshid and Beni Prasad Verma raised the pitch on the Muslim quota issue.

References to Hindu terror in a state where nobody has been charged in any such case, the possibility of President’s rule and the Batla House encounter issue also contributed in changing the course of the UP election.

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