Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun
Cops challenged
The recent brutal murders of three young women in the span of a week in the provisional State capital Dehradun has not only triggered concern on women safety and law and order situation in the Himalayan State but has also put a question mark on the credibility and capability of the police. In the Vikasnagar murder case, police are still unable to apprehend the accused while in the other two cases- murder of a contractual worker of AIIMS, Rishikesh and sensational daylight murder in busy Paltan Bazar area in the heart of the city- it has come to light that the deceased had informed the local police about the threat from their spurned male friends. Regretfully, police failed to act in time which would have saved the young lives. One wonders what would have been the police reaction had the complainants been influential people unlike common citizens as the two unfortunate young women were.
Highway headache
The Central government’s go- ahead to NHAI to construct a new highway connecting Dehradun to Mussoorie could prove counterproductive for the famed hill station known as the queen of hills. Once operational, the new highway fed by six lane Delhi- Dehradun expressway will transport such a multitude of people in the already crowded streets of Mussoorie that it may throw it in a terrible mess. It appears that the authorities have done nothing on the directive given by the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in the aftermath of worrisome subsidence of Joshimath town in Chamoli district that the carrying capacity of all the major towns and tourist spots in the State’s mountainous districts should be calculated. In absence of a scientific assessment of the carrying capacity which is in sync with the local environment and the fragile ecology of the Himalayas, the myopic planners will continue to roll out such mega projects which could have disastrous socio-ecological consequences for the State.
Rice bonhomie
The recent visit of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to the residence of former CM Harish Rawat during which the former gifted a bagful of the rice produced from his farm in Khatima seems to have created heartburns in some Congress veterans. With his goodwill visit, Dhami sought to convey a message of political bonhomie and appropriately take on the sarcasm hurled by Rawat himself when the CM’s social media team circulated his images showing him as ploughing his field with a pair of bullocks in Khatima some months ago. Apart from it, the CM’s visit also underscored Rawat’s stature as the tallest leader of the Congress party in the State despite a series of electoral reversals suffered in last few years and recent attempts by the Congress leadership to side-line him from the future scheme of things in the Himalayan State with eyes trained on the crucial 2027 Vidhan Sabha elections.
