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Delimitation issue echo in Uttaranchal Assembly

Staff Correspondent

DEHRA DUN: Widespread opposition to proposed delimitation of Assembly constituencies in Uttaranchal found an echo in the State Assembly on Tuesday with Trivender Singh Pawar of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal raising slogans against it from the visitors' gallery. He was immediately removed by marshals.

Earlier the Bharatiya Janata Party members wanted the Government to immediately quash all land acquisition proceedings in Dehra Dun as the "fast-unto-death" by former Chief Minister Nitya Nand Swami "seeking justice for the poor farmers whose lands were being forcibly acquired" entered its second day.

The Speaker, Yashpal Arya, told Pritam Singh Pawar of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal that he had not received any resignation letter from any MLA. Mr. Pawar had asked whether the former Minister and Congress MLA from Tehri, Kishore Upadhyay, had resigned as reported in the media. Mr Upadhyay was not present in the House.

Outside the Vidhan Sabha it was a day of demonstrations and traffic jams with the Mahila Dairy Vikas Karamchari Welfare Union and several other trade and youth organisations staging fasts and protest marches in the city.

Anil Rawat and Jyoti Mamgain of the Unemployed Youths Forum sought a CBI probe into the failure of the Rs.18-crore Centrally-sponsored export-oriented herbal farming promotion project implemented by the Uttaranchal Herbal Research and Development Institute (HRDI). The HRDI officials have not been able to produce even a quintal of herbs for export and most of the funds have been spent on foreign tours and seminars in five star hotels, they said.

"It would be better if the Centre introduced a new scheme directly under its supervision where educated unemployed youth were selected to develop herbs as an export item from the hill State," Mr. Rawat and Ms. Mamgain said. The Mahila Dairy contract employees are seeking permanent jobs that had been eluding them despite Government orders to that effect last year.

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Delimitation issue echo in Uttaranchal Assembly

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