Saturday, December 25 2004 14:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Dehra Dun: Speculation over the fate of Uttaranchal Chief Minister N D Tiwari, the country's first woman Director General of Police and a series of major road accidents, landslides and cloudbursts grabbed the headlines in the State in 2004.

There had been intense speculation that Tiwari would be moved out and given a gubernatorial assignment, especially after he dropped four Ministers owing allegiance to his critic and PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) chief Harish Rawat's camp.

However, the Congress high command kept faith in Tiwari as Chief Minister.

In June this year, Kanchan Chaudhry Bhattacharya took over as Director General of Police, the first woman police chief of any State in the country.

Jenny, the unwed mother from Assam who had accused former Minister Harak Singh Rawat of raping her continued to come under media attention especially after CBI filed a final report in the sensational case. But Rawat, who was forced to quit the Cabinet last year, was absolved of rape charge by the investigating agency ending the yearlong suspense over the tardy investigations. Jenny was sent back to her home State.

Series of accidents and natural disasters

Major road accidents continued to remain the bane of Uttaranchal. Over 200 people, mostly, pilgrims visiting Himalayan shrines, were killed in these mishaps in the year.

Besides road accidents, natural disasters like cloudburst and landslides also took several lives. At least six pilgrims, mostly from Ludhiana city of Punjab, going to Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib shrines died when heavy landslides hit the Badrinath-Rishikesh highway at Baldhora area in Chamoli district in June.

Within one month, 17 more pilgrims were killed when three vehicles were swept away in Alaknanda river by heavy landslides triggered by a cloudburst near Badrinath shrine. The pilgrimage to Badrinath remained suspended for nearly one month.

On August, 29 labourers, mostly belonging to Bihar and Jharkhand were killed when a tunnel of the controversial 2400 MW Tehri Hydel Project caved-in due to incessant rains in catchment area. The work on the project remained suspended for more than a week due to the tunnel mishap.