Life virtually came to a standstill here today with all shops, business establishments and even banks remaining closed following the call given by the vypar mandal for a two-day bandh to mount pressure for leaving the district with Uttar Pradesh or inclusion of all the neighbouring districts into the proposed state.

The vypar mandal activists also held a meeting at the main crossing and vowed to wage a relentless war to ensure that Udham Singh Nagar is not tucked with the proposed Uttaranchal. They have also decided to send a fax message to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee bearing signatures of a majority of the local populace on Friday to apprise him of general sentiments.

``You ask anyone here and none will say that he or she iswilling to be associated with Uttaranchal. We had always been considered as non-pahadis and never got benefits which are given by the Government to those living on high altitudes. Why then we are now included in the proposed hill state ?'' asked Om Prakash Arora, president of the vypar mandal.

They have also decided to launch a sustained agitation after this two-day bandh and claimed that the government would have to kowtow to their pressure. ``We can make a compromise only when the Government agrees to include neighbouring districts like Rampur, Bareilly and Moradabad into greater Uttarakhand.

At least in that arrangement we will be living in the new state with whom our culture and language have a similarity, '' Surendra Taneja, who owns a PCO shop told The Indian Express.

Unruffled over growing resentment among natives of the district, the state government will be sending recommendations of the sub-committee to the Centre tomorrow with a clear message that there was no point in keeping UdhamSingh Nagar out of the proposed state.

``The decision to include this district into Uttarakhand has been taken after a series of meetings with different people. Though there are some differences on the issue but there is no logic behind keeping Udham Singh Nagar out of the new Himalayan state,'' Kalraj Mishra, PWD minister and chairman of the sub-committee told The Indian Express.

All the four MPs Buhavn Chand Khanduri, Manvendra Shah, Bachi Singh Rawat and Ila pant (All BJP) have already talked to the Prime Minister and suggested that Udham Singh Nagar should be included in the new district at all costs.

``They have flourished in our foothill and now when the time for repaying the debt has come, they are backtracking which should be opposed,'' said Dr Shamsher Singh Bisht, president of the Uttaranchal Jan Sanghasrh Vahini.