Posts Tagged ‘Dehradun’
Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Dehradun, Jan 30 (IANS) Bright sunshine, and the consequent let up in the cold conditions, resulted in the highest turnout of voters in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, which recorded nearly 70 percent polling in the state assembly elections Monday.
“Nearly 70 percent of the state’s 63 lakh voters came out to cast their vote,” state chief electoral officer Radha Raturi told reporters.
“The Lok Sabha election in 2007 witnessed a turnout of 62 percent, while it stood at about 59 percent in 2002,” she said.
The weather gods were kind to the voters. In fact, the change in the weather became noticeable since Jan 26, when the first bright sun of the otherwise freezing winter season pierced out of the thick clouds and mist.
“But for improvement in the weather conditions, the voting would not have been as good,” admitted a senior government official.
The otherwise harsh winter had, earlier, become a serious cause of worry for all political parties. Even Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri had openly expressed his fears that this year’s unusually high snowfall would render several hilly areas inaccessible.
While the Election Commission is euphoric about the high turnout, it is seen as a bad signal for ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Higher the turnout, worse for the BJP,” observed a senior political analyst, who preferred anonymity. “My reading about the people of this state is that they turn out in high numbers to vote essentially against the incumbent regime and there were several good reasons for a high anti-incumbency against the sitting BJP,” he added.
The BJP regime had taken much beating largely on account of the tremendous rise in corruption levels and poor governance during the chief ministership of Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. While the BJP leadership tried to salvage things by replacing Nishank with a clean Maj Gen (Retd) B.C. Khanduri, it was rather late in the day, said an analyst.
Meanwhile, the Congress party pumped in all its resources and its star campaigners, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Shiela Dikshit and even Pranab Mukherjee, to assure the people of Uttarakhand that they were capable of providing better governance than the BJP.
Counting of votes is on March 6.
Tags: Dehradun, Uttarakhand
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Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Delhi/Dehradun, Jan 30 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday slammed the government over the blacklisting of former ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair and questioned the ‘silence’ of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on the issue.
Talking to reporters in the national capital, party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said the prime minister should answer as he directly holds the charge of ISRO.
‘The prime minister needs to answer… What happened to the report of the high-level probe ordered by the prime minister,’ Sitharaman asked.
She also linked the issue with other corruption cases.
‘The Prime Minister’s Office has got a lot of things to answer especially on ISRO-Devas deal,’ she said.
‘The PMO has a lot of things to answer why Shunglu Committee has remained on paper. The PMO has to say why, in spite of briefing him, Raja is being questioned and not Mr Chidambaram. The PMO is remaining silent,’ Sitharaman added.
The party’s national spokesperson Tarun Vijay also accused the government of having lost its ‘grace to govern’.
‘The unsavoury controversy involving senior scientists from ISRO is seriously damaging the reputation of one of India’s best and highly respected institutions, of which the country has always been proud,’ Vijay said.
‘The ISRO controversy, blacklisting of top scientists who had given their best in terms of scientific achievement and then again sending signals to rethink on the decision, gives a clear signal that this government has lost all sense of balance and grace to govern the country,’ Vijay said.
Vijay also slammed the government and the defence ministry for its stand on the age row surrounding Army chief Gen. V.K. Singh.
‘The government has failed to uphold the constitutional principles of law, justice and fairness and is systematically ruining the institutions that have held the basic foundations of the constitution high,’ Vijay said.
Former ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair and three other top scientists were blacklisted by the government for their alleged role in the $300 million (Rs.60 crore) spectrum deal between Antrix and the Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia Ltd in violation of rules, including competitive bidding through a global tender.
Antrix is the commercial arm of ISRO. Besides Nair, the other scientists indicted include former scientific secretary A. Bhaskarnarayana, ISRO’s former satellite centre director K.N. Shankara and former Antrix Corporation executive director K.R. Sridharamurthi.
Tags: Dehradun, Delhi
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Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Dehradun, Jan 30 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday slammed the union defence ministry for the blacklisting of ISRO and accused the government of having lost its “grace to govern”.
“The unsavoury controversy involving senior scientists from ISRO is seriously damaging the reputation of one of India’s best and highly respected institutions, of which the country has always been proud,” BJP’s national spokesperson Tarun Vijay said.
“The ISRO controversy, blacklisting of top scientists who had given their best in terms of scientific achievement and then again sending signals to rethink on the decision, gives a clear signal that this government has lost all sense of balance and grace to govern the country,” Vijay said.
Vijay also slammed the government and the defence ministry for its stand on the age row surrounding Army chief Gen. V.K. Singh.
“The government has failed to uphold the constitutional principles of law, justice and fairness and is systematically ruining the institutions that have held the basic foundations of the constitution high,” Vijay said.
ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair and three other top scientists were blacklisted by the government for their alleged role in the $300 million (Rs.60 crore) spectrum deal between Antrix and the Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia Ltd in violation of rules, including competitive bidding through a global tender.
Antrix is the commercial arm of ISRO. Besides Nair, the other scientists indicted include former scientific secretary A. Bhaskarnarayana, ISRO’s former satellite centre director K.N. Shankara and former Antrix Corporation executive director K.R. Sridharamurthi.
Tags: Dehradun, Uttarakhand
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Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Dehradun, Jan 30 (IANS) Polling proceeded peacefully in the hill state of Uttarakhand Monday as people queued up in the morning cold to vote for 70 assembly constituencies.
Voting began across 9,806 polling booths at 8 a.m. Monday, Election Commission (EC) officials said here. Some 6.3 million people are eligible to exercise their franchise.
Along with Uttarakhand, polling is taking place in Punjab.
In Uttarakhand, Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri, who replaced Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank last year after corruption allegations surfaced against him, is trying to defend the turf for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Khanduri, a BJP candidate from Kotdwar, is pitted against Congress nominee Surendra Singh Negi. Dissent within the BJP ranks could affect its prospects, party sources admit.
Former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Leader of Opposition Harak Singh Rawat and state Congress chief Yashpal Arya are also among the more than 780 candidates in the fray.
Polling will be on till 5 p.m.
Votes will be counted March 6.
Tags: Dehradun, Uttarakhand
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Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Dehradun, Jan 30 (IANS) Voting started across 9,806 polling booths in Uttarakhand’s 70 assembly constituencies at 8 a.m. Monday, Election Commission (EC) officials said here.
Some 6.3 million people are eligible to cast their votes.
Along with Uttarakhand, polling is taking place in Punjab.
Manipur went to the polls Saturday. Uttar Pradesh will see a seven-phase balloting from Feb 8 to March 3. Goa will see a one-day poll March 3.
Votes in all five states will be counted March 6.
Tags: Dehradun, Uttarakhand
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Written by admin on 25 January 2012
Dehradun, Jan 25 (IANS) Don’t hurl shoes or slippers at politicians. If you don’t like them, vote them out democratically. This is yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s appeal to voters in five states going to the polls.
Ramdev, who is set to address public meetings in connection with the elections, said in a statement that voters needed to exercise their vote — “the weapon of democracy”.
He frowned upon the tendency of some people to throw shoes or slippers at political leaders.
Ramdev’s appeal came ahead of assembly elections in Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Goa which start Jan 28 and end March 3. The results will be out March 4.
Tags: Dehradun, Uttarakhand
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