Accountant found hanging in hostel room

New Delhi, March 3 (IANS) A 26-year-old accountant with a Noida-based company in Uttar Pradesh was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room here, police said Thursday.

Radhey Mohan, originally from Roorkee town of Uttarakhand, hanged himself at least two days ago.

Radhey worked as an accountant with IRA Infrastructure company of Noida and was living at Apex Hostel in Shakarpur area.

'He was discovered hanging Thursday morning when one of his friends came to visit him after he failed to answer his phone since the last two days,' said a senior police officer.

No suicide note was recovered.

The body has been sent for post mortem.

Left government in Tripura unhappy with budget, protests

Agartala, March 1 (IANS) Groups affiliated to Tripura's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Tuesday organised demonstrations across the state to protest the 'deprivation of the northeastern region' in the union budget unveiled the day earlier.

Frontal organisations of Left parties, including the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), organised protest rallies across the Left-ruled northeastern state.

'The budget proposed to increase the allocation of special category states in India, but did not spell out the allocation of a specific state,' Tripura Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury told reporters and said it had largely neglected the northeast region.

Terming the budget, presented in the Lok Sabha Monday, 'entirely anti-people', he said it had done 'serious injustice to the northeast region'.

'No significant allocation was made for the infrastructure development of the industry-starved region, which is economically weak,' Chowdhury told reporters.

'Inflation will rise, (there were) no measures (in the budget) to check price rise and poor people will suffer more. Foreign investment in different sectors specially in the financial segments would increase,' the minister observed.

Besides the eight northeastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are designated as special category states and get special financial assistance from the central government and various monetary panels.

In the 2011-12 budget, the allocation as special assistance has been almost doubled to Rs.8,000 crore. Of this, Rs.5,400 crore has been allocated as 'untied Special Central Assistance'.

Said CPI-M state secretary Bijon Dhar after an emergency party meeting: 'Rates of subsidies in different sectors, including food grains, fertilisers and transport fuels, are being lowered and that would enormously affect the common man.'

'The union budget for the coming fiscal is only to crush the poor and to help the affluent people. The United Progressive Alliance government at the centre wants to hand over the profit-making public sector undertakings only to damage these bodies,' said Dhar, who is also a CPI-M central committee member.

The CPI-M leader accused the UPA government of not providing job opportunities for unemployed educated youths, farmers and poor people of the region in particular and country in general.

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'PM should be elected directly'

Lucknow, Jan 30 (IANS) Direct elections should be held for the prime minister's post, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said Sunday.

Speaking at the regional seminar on electoral reforms sponsored jointly by the Election Commission of India and the union law ministry, Nishank said: 'I am firmly of the view that unless one enjoys the confidence of the people of the country, he should not have the privilege to become the nation's prime minister.'

'That is possible only if the people have the right to directly elect their prime minister.'

Nishank urged the Election Commission to devise some measure that may give an instant confirmation on the electronic voting machine (EVM) that the cast vote was successfully added to the candidate for whom it was intended.

He demanded strong preventive and penal measures to debar the candidates contesting and campaigning during criminal detentions, and demanded enforcing minimum educational qualification as one of the eligibility norms.

Nishank also stressed the need for making voting compulsory

Himalayan shrines to be closed for public next month

Dehradun, Oct 18 (IANS) Popular Himalayan Hindu shrines in Uttarakhand will be closed for the winters next month, officials said Monday.

The temple priests decided to close Kedarnath and Badrinath temples for the public Nov 7 and Nov 18.

A decision in this regard was taken by the respective priests on Dussehra (Sunday) after consulting the traditional Hindu calendar, said temple officials.

It is believed that the demi-gods conduct worship of Lord Vishnu in the Badrinath shrine during the six winter months, whereas the human beings worship the deity during the other six months.

Meanwhile, Gangotri shrine authorities have also decided to close the temple Nov 6.

Gangotri, dedicated to Goddess Ganga, is one of the four main Hindu shrines, commonly known as 'Char Dham' that includes Badrinath, Kedarnath and Yamunotri.

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Almora devastated by floods, 36 dead in district

Almora (Uttarakhand), Sep 23 (IANS) Deaths and devastation have cast a shadow on this beautiful Uttarakhand town where not even a single family has been left untouched by the havoc wreaked by the current floods and torrential rains that have claimed 36 lives here.

Heavy rains have triggered the worst floods that Uttarakhand has seen in recent times, claiming 80 lives acros the state so far. Authorities fear the toll may go up as relief workers are busy removing debris and trying to reach out to people trapped in far-off villages.

In Almora district alone, there are over 2,200 villages, of which 20 have been totally devastated.

'We have recovered 36 bodies till today. Our evacuation work is on,' District Magistrate Subardhan, working round the clock to carry out relief work, told IANS.

What has given the district officials hope is that for the first time in the past six days there was no rain Thursday. Also, the main road linking Almora to Haldwani was opened Thursday.

This news sent a wave of relief through the townspeople, most of whose houses have been destroyed by the rains. All essential commodities, including diesel and petrol, are being brought from Haldwani.

'The road opened today and trucks have started moving from Haldwani carrying diesel and petrol. They will reach here by this evening,' added Subardhan in Almora.

According to officials, 80 bodies have been recovered till Thursday noon in the state. Of these, 36 were from Almora district alone.

Giving details about the disaster, Subardhan said the maximum impact was in Balta village in Almora district where half the village disappeared on the night of Sep 17-18.

'We have recovered 13 bodies from this small village itself. They all died in their sleep. There was a landslide and the village was completely wiped out,' he added.

Subardhan said many of the schools and colleges, that have been closed for the past week, have been turned into relief camps. Around 500 people whose homes were washed away are living in the 44 relief camps set up across the town.

Although there has been no death in the main town, many of the government as well as private bungalows have suffered damage with huge cracks, or their roofs were blown off or were flooded. Most roads have got massive crevices or just got washed away.

Hema Rawat, a housewife who lives near the famed Lala Bazar here, is cheered by the fact that the road to Haldwani has finally opened.

'If the road had not opened, we would have faced major problems. We get our ration, gas cylinders and diesel and petrol from Haldwani. My major tension was about the gas cylinder. Thank god, the road is finally opening. We will be able to get food,' Rawat told IANS.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), set up in Uttarakhand's capital Dehradun, they have been able to finally reach out to more people trapped in far off places with the help of the army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and paramilitary forces.

'There was no rain since morning, but the sky is overcast. Most of the national highways are still closed. Some pilgrims bound for Kailash-Mansarovar are stuck because of landslides so we are evacuating them. We will get air support by tomorrow,' said Piyush Rautela, NDMA executive director.

After Almora, Nanital is worst affected. Nineteen deaths have been from Nanital, followed by eight in Haldwani, five in Chamoli and three in Uttarkashi.

For many villagers, there is another worry.

'Most of our paddy crop has been washed away in the floods. We don't know what to do now,' said Ranjit Singh, who lives in Kalet, one-and-a-half kilometres from here.

He said they were able to rescue a family of seven trapped in a flooded house in the nick of time. 'Their house was near the river Kosi and it was swamped by the flood waters,' he said.