Latest news with #Dhasmana
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
a day ago
- General
- Business Standard
Helicopter crashes on Char Dham Yatra route occurring at alarming frequency
Helicopter crashes or emergency landings are occurring at an alarming frequency on the Char Dham Yatra route in Uttarakhand, causing concern among people and the administration. The latest crash of an Aryan Aviation Pvt Ltd chopper returning from Kedarnath near Guptkashi on Sunday morning, which killed all seven people on board, is the fifth mishap involving a helicopter on the pilgrimage route this year. A Kestrel Aviation helicopter en route Kedarnath made an emergency landing on the highway in Rudraprayag district on June 7 after developing a technical snag shortly after take-off. It made a hard landing on the road close to populated buildings, with its tail rotor hitting a parked car. All pilgrims on board, as well as the pilot, escaped narrowly. The hard landing of the helicopter came about a month after another private chopper on its way to Gangotri temple crashed near Gangnani in Uttarkashi district on May 8, killing six people, including five women and the pilot, and leaving one male passenger seriously injured. On May 12, a helicopter returning from Badrinath to Sersi with pilgrims on board had to make an emergency landing in a school playground in Ukhimath due to poor visibility. All pilgrims were safe. The helicopter took off again after about an hour when the weather improved. On May 17, a heli ambulance from AIIMS Rishikesh crash-landed near the Kedarnath helipad in Uttarakhand due to damage to its rear part. Fortunately, all three occupants on board a doctor, a pilot, and a medical staff member escaped unharmed. "This was the fifth mishap involving a chopper on the Char Dham Yatra route within less than one-and-a-half months of the commencement of the pilgrimage this year," state Congress vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana said. "It shows that the state government has no control over the aviation firms operating on the route. There is no SOP for chopper operations. In the mad rush for making money, the heli companies have thrown all caution to the wind. There is no cap on the number of sorties being undertaken by them in a day," Dhasmana said. Social activist Anoop Nautiyal said it appears that the state government is not learning lessons from the recent mishaps involving choppers on the Yatra route. "Four days ago, news came that there will be strict norms guiding heli operations now only 3- 4 passengers will be allowed to board a chopper, not 5- 6. However, four days later, seven people, including the pilot, died in yet another helicopter accident," Nautiyal said. If you don't want to change the system, why do you tell lies to the people? Will anyone who played with people's lives be suspended? Will anyone take responsibility? Will these helicopters be reined in after five accidents in little over a month, or will they keep crashing like this," he asked. Soon after the crash on Sunday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held an emergency meeting and asked senior officials to prepare a strict SOP (standard operating procedure) for heli services in the state, making a thorough check of the technical condition of the choppers mandatory. The Uttarakhand chief secretary has been directed to constitute a committee of technical experts, which will prepare the SOP after thoroughly reviewing all technical and safety aspects of heli operations. The committee will ensure that the operation of heli services is completely safe, transparent, and as per the prescribed standards, an official statement said. Heli operations on the Yatra route have been suspended for two days, Dhami said. Operations will resume only after the safety of all passengers is ensured. The safety of the Yatris cannot be compromised, he said. Dhami also said that weather status should be checked before heli operations. The chief minister has directed a committee constituted to investigate helicopter accidents to thoroughly probe every aspect of Sunday's crash and earlier accidents and submit a report. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Kedarnath chopper crash: Helicopter accidents on Char Dham Yatra route occurring at alarming frequency
Helicopter crashes or emergency landings are occurring at an alarming frequency on the Char Dham Yatra route in Uttarakhand , causing concern among people and the administration. The latest crash of an Aryan Aviation Pvt Ltd chopper returning from Kedarnath near Guptkashi on Sunday morning, which killed all seven people on board, is the fifth mishap involving a helicopter on the pilgrimage route this year. A Kestrel Aviation helicopter en route Kedarnath made an emergency landing on the highway in Rudraprayag district on June 7 after developing a technical snag shortly after take-off. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo It made a hard landing on the road close to populated buildings, with its tail rotor hitting a parked car. All pilgrims on board, as well as the pilot, escaped narrowly. The hard landing of the helicopter came about a month after another private chopper on its way to Gangotri temple crashed near Gangnani in Uttarkashi district on May 8, killing six people, including five women and the pilot, and leaving one male passenger seriously injured. Live Events On May 12, a helicopter returning from Badrinath to Sersi with pilgrims on board had to make an emergency landing in a school playground in Ukhimath due to poor visibility. All pilgrims were safe. The helicopter took off again after about an hour when the weather improved. On May 17, a heli ambulance from AIIMS Rishikesh crash-landed near the Kedarnath helipad in Uttarakhand due to damage to its rear part. Fortunately, all three occupants on board - a doctor, a pilot, and a medical staff member - escaped unharmed. "This was the fifth mishap involving a chopper on the Char Dham Yatra route within less than one-and-a-half months of the commencement of the pilgrimage this year," state Congress vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana said. "It shows that the state government has no control over the aviation firms operating on the route. There is no SOP for chopper operations. In the mad rush for making money, the heli companies have thrown all caution to the wind. There is no cap on the number of sorties being undertaken by them in a day," Dhasmana said. Social activist Anoop Nautiyal said it appears that the state government is not learning lessons from the recent mishaps involving choppers on the Yatra route. "Four days ago, news came that there will be strict norms guiding heli operations now - only 3- 4 passengers will be allowed to board a chopper, not 5- 6. However, four days later, seven people, including the pilot, died in yet another helicopter accident," Nautiyal said. "If you don't want to change the system, why do you tell lies to the people? Will anyone who played with people's lives be suspended? Will anyone take responsibility? Will these helicopters be reined in after five accidents in little over a month, or will they keep crashing like this," he asked. Soon after the crash on Sunday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held an emergency meeting and asked senior officials to prepare a strict SOP (standard operating procedure) for heli services in the state, making a thorough check of the technical condition of the choppers mandatory. The Uttarakhand chief secretary has been directed to constitute a committee of technical experts, which will prepare the SOP after thoroughly reviewing all technical and safety aspects of heli operations. The committee will ensure that the operation of heli services is completely safe, transparent, and as per the prescribed standards, an official statement said. Heli operations on the Yatra route have been suspended for two days, Dhami said. "Operations will resume only after the safety of all passengers is ensured. The safety of the Yatris cannot be compromised," he said. Dhami also said that weather status should be checked before heli operations. The chief minister has directed a committee constituted to investigate helicopter accidents to thoroughly probe every aspect of Sunday's crash and earlier accidents and submit a report.
India Today
26-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Why Congress is opposing name tweaks for sports facilities in Uttarakhand
The Uttarakhand government has revised the names of four major sports facilities in the state, triggering sharp political criticism from the Opposition Maharana Pratap Sports College and Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Dehradun will now come under the umbrella of the 'Rajat Jayanti Sports Complex'. In Haldwani, the Indira Gandhi Sports Infrastructure will be under 'Manaskhand Sports Complex', Manoj Sarkar Stadium in Rudrapur will fall under the 'Shivalik Sports Complex', and Haridwar's Vandana Kataria Hockey Stadium will be part of the 'Yogasthali Sports Complex'.advertisementWhile the BJP government has clarified that these are administrative integrations and not renaming, the Congress has accused it of deliberately erasing names linked to national icons and regional athletes. The controversy comes after the Pushkar Singh Dhami government, last month, embarked on a renaming spree, changing the names of several towns, villages and roads in multiple districts. The changes primarily affected areas with historical or perceived Islamic names, with the new names associated with Hindu or nationalist Congress has strongly opposed the renaming of sports facilities and warned of protests if the decision is not rolled back. At a press conference in Dehradun, Suryakant Dhasmana, senior vice-president (organisation and administration) of the party's state unit, said the decision was prejudiced. Dhasmana said the Congress condemned the move and demanded that the government restore the original names. He alleged that the BJP government's decision reflected a bias against names associated with Congress mentality has not only targeted the names of great Congress icons but also ended up insulting figures like Maharana Pratap and sportspersons like Manoj Sarkar and Vandana Kataria, whose names were part of these stadiums. This is unacceptable,' he said the State Congress Committee would meet the governor to register its protest and organise demonstrations at the affected stadiums. Dhasmana also said it was the Congress government that built and developed sports infrastructure across Uttarakhand while the BJP's only contribution had been to change the names of those Negi, state president of the Congress social media department, launched a sharp attack on the government, saying that for the BJP, development now meant only changing names. He accused the government of misleading the public while ignoring the actual condition of sports facilities. Calling it a matter of 'honour', Negi warned that if the decision was not withdrawn, the Congress would launch a statewide protest targeting the sports minister and the chief sports minister Rekha Arya countered that no existing stadium had been renamed. She said the government had only integrated multiple sports facilities across Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Haldwani under broader complexes for administrative and developmental names already in use—such as the Manoj Sarkar Stadium in Rudrapur—will remain unchanged. The newly developed facilities in the same area, like the multipurpose hall or cycling velodrome, will also retain their individual names. But collectively, these facilities will now come under the Shivalik Sports Complex,' she she explained that the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium and Maharana Pratap Sports College in Dehradun's Raipur area will continue with their existing names while the entire Raipur campus will be integrated and known as the Rajat Jayanti Sports same applies to the Indira Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Gaulapar and the Vandana Kataria Hockey Stadium in Roshanabad, Haridwar. 'So, if anyone claims that the old names are being replaced, that is completely incorrect,' Arya the move continues to be seen by the Opposition and political observers as a continuation of the BJP's broader strategy to reshape the state's public identity along ideological lines. While the earlier renaming of towns, villages, and roads was openly projected as a cultural correction, critics argue that the naming of sports complexes is a more subtle grouping existing facilities under umbrella names like Rajat Jayanti Sports Complex or Manaskhand Sports Complex, the government is not technically erasing individual names but is creating a larger identity that overshadows them, particularly those linked to Congress leaders such as Indira Gandhi and Rajiv is pointed out that this method allows the government to avoid direct accusations of rewriting history while still advancing its ideological goals. By branding the entire campus or area under a new name, references to individual Congress-linked institutions become less prominent in public usage, signage and instance, while the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium may still officially exist, its presence is now enveloped within the Rajat Jayanti Sports Complex, diluting the visibility and recall of the original name. This allows the BJP to defend itself on technical grounds, arguing that no renaming has occurred, while still achieving a symbolic shift in public perception and to India Today Magazine
New Indian Express
14-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Uttarakhand Congress accuses BJP of using Indian Army for votes
DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand Congress has criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly using the Army for political gain, after initially defending the Centre and the Army's actions in 'Operation Sindoor'. The party's shift in stance comes after a three-day silence on the matter. Reacting specifically to the BJP's announced 'Tiranga Yatra', explicitly being conducted under the name of 'Operation Sindoor', Suryakant Dhasmana, Senior Vice President of the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee, drew distinction with Congress' historical actions. He highlighted that the Congress party had previously conducted Tiranga Yatras across the country when the Army had actively engaged in fighting against enemies on and across the border. He stated that such yatras were aimed solely at boosting the morale of the soldiers and demonstrating full national support. "Lakhs of Congress workers fulfilled their national duty by holding such Tiranga Jai Hind Yatras in various parts of the country, including the state capital Dehradun," Dhasmana recalled, contrasting with the BJP's current initiative.
