By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 30 Mar: On the second day of the first session of the newly elected state assembly, the House paid rich tribute to eight-time MLA, the late Harbans Kapoor, who died in December last year as a sitting MLA, and to the late Gopal Dutt Ojha, who passed away on 6 January this year. While Kapoor was continuously elected MLA since 1989 after having lost his first election in 1985, representing Dehradun City in undivided Uttar Pradesh (UP) and then various constituencies of Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Ojha was the first elected MLA from Didihat constituency of district Pithoragarh in undivided UP. He was known as a Gandhian leader and died at the age of 90.
Amongst those who paid tribute to Kapoor were Prem Chand Aggarwal, who proposed that tribute be paid to him, Munna Singh Chauhan, Ganesh Joshi, who even got overwhelmed with emotions on the occasion, Manoj Tiwari, Pritam Singh, Khajan Das, Vinod Chamoli, Banshidhar Bhagat, Sahdev Pundir and Pradeep Batra. Munna Singh Chauhan spoke at length, paying rich tribute to him and highlighted the commitment of Kapoor to the people of his constituency. Pritam Singh said that there was a lot to learn from Kapoor and his qualities were such that once he got elected as MLA, he never lost any election and died while in harness. Singh also informed the House about some of his interactions with Kapoor. He demanded that some institution in Dehradun be named after Kapoor so that his memories could remain fresh for a long time to come. Khajan Das demanded a college be named after Kapoor.
Speaker Ritu Khanduri also paid tribute to Kapoor and also informed the House about his life and political contribution.
Amongst those who paid tribute to the late Gopal Dutt Ojha included Prem Chand Aggarwal, and Munna Singh Chauhan, who suggested that a collection of the biographies of all the MLAs from Uttarakhand since the time of undivided UP be published so that future generations of politicians as well as the people could know about them.
