Doon-sday scenario

Open spaces in the Doon valley are soon going to be a thing of the past, with work on the 8216;Greater Doon8217; project in the south of D...

Open spaces in the Doon valley are soon going to be a thing of the past, with work on the 8216;Greater Doon8217; project in the south of Dehra Dun progressing at a very fast rate. In the first phase, the state government has acquired 100 acres of agriculture land in villages Majra and Kargi. 8216;Greater Doon8217; would be spread, in all, over 1,100 acres of land, and house state government offices, cooperative housing societies and a housing colony to be developed by the Mussoorie-Dehra Dun Development Authority MDDA.

With growing population pressure, Dehra Dun has been bursting at its seams since it became the interim capital of Uttaranchal four years ago. The first elected Congress government wanted to have 8216;New Dehra Dun8217; township on the periphery of Dehra Dun to be the seat of political and administrative power. However, the politically sensitive issue of selecting a site for permanent capital of the state forced the state government to abandon its plan. The present Congress government has preferred to play safe by extending the tenure of the one-man commission to select a site for the permanent capital.

Tug of politics

With rumours of change of leadership in Uttaranchal dying down, another tug of war between the rival camps of Uttaranchal Chief Minister N D Tiwari and Congress president Harish Rawat has started on the issue of party leadership in the state. Tiwari wants to get rid of Rawat during the ongoing party election process, which would be over in the next four months, but the latter is doing all he can to have own man in the chair. While Tiwari8217;s choice is Satpal Maharaj, Rawat wants former minister Surinder Singh Negi.

Dogged by bad luck

Three pet dogs of Harish Rawat at his New Delhi residence have become a nuisance for state Congress leaders, particularly those close to him. The dogs have attacked several senior Congress leaders recently, including PCC general secretaries. The latest to suffer was S P Singh 8216;Engineer8217;. Earlier, Dhirendra Pratap, another PCC general secretary, was attacked and bitten. According to Congress leaders in Uttaranchal, Rawat8212;who was overlooked by party high command for the post of Chief Minister after he led the party to victory in the February 2002 assembly elections8212;was advised by astrologers to feed black dogs to fight back the effect of the inauspicious 8216;Rahu8217; in his birth charts.

However, senior Congress leaders have now advised him to get his Rahu 8216;8216;corrected8217;8217; by arranging a religious havan, which would cost less than Rs 1,000 rather than lose his die-hard supporters for his dogs.

Red light zone

The Uttaranchal government has finally decided to issue a notification curtailing facilities to chairpersons of various boards and corporations and to classify them as per their ranks, leaving ruling Congress leaders fuming. After taking over as Chief Minister, Tiwari had gone around generously distributing offices. But soon the chairpersons, vice-chairmen, advisers to various boards and corporations had started flaunting their facilities, including the red lights on their vehicles and the shrill hooters and sirens. With an aim to curtail expenses, the state government had decided to classify the VIPs and to spell out the privileges they could avail. But this had created a hue and cry among party leaders.

Twice these orders were issued but not carried out. Now again Tiwari has gathered courage to take on more than 70 of these leaders. The order specifies that only four seniormost leaders will enjoy facilities provided to a minister of state while all others would be given facilities as per their classification. Again these leaders have started a campaign against the move.