Mussoorie, July 23
“Retired hain par tired nahi” — these lines written at the entrance of a humble canteen close to the Nirankari Bhawan in Mussoorie catches one’s attention instantly.

On seeing an old couple working relentlessly inside the kitchen of the canteen without any helping hands while catering to their customers with hot ‘paranthas’ and tea/coffee, one gathers the true meaning of the words written at the gate.

The customers wait patiently for Pushpa Gulati (78) taking her time to make different kinds of ‘paranthas’ on order and Kishan Lal Gulati (84), her husband, to make tea on another gas stove and serve them with unsteady feet.

The customers vouch for the homely affection and a feel of home cooked food which pull them to the canteen. The couple is an inspiration both for the aged as well as youngsters.

The couple, who had to flee from Kashmir with their family after their snuff factory was burnt by militants way back in 1990, took shelter in Nirankari Bhawan in Delhi. Within two years, they moved to Dehradun for good.

Speaking with trembling lips and teary eyes, Kishan Lal Gulati said, “When I left my home in Kashmir, I had five daughters and a son. Being a follower of Nirankari teachings, we took shelter in Nirankari Bhawan, Delhi. Thanks to the sect head, Sri Baba Hardev Singh, he married off my three young daughters within eight months”.

It was a sea change for the couple who saw their fortunes nosediving from a big factory and a large house to a one-room accommodation and small canteen.

The earnings from the canteen come to almost a nought in winter when the tourist inflow comes to a gradual halt in the hill station.

Taking this huge shift in her stride, Pushpa Gulati said, “The teachings of the Nirankari sect instilled peace in us and made us believe that worldly possessions are transient and and can change at any juncture.”

With their meagre earnings, they married off their only son and two more daughters. Happy about their daughters’ lot, they are concerned about the rickety career of their son who is working in a hotel in Austria.

Though their daughter-in-law lives in Dehradun with her children, the Gulati couple prefers to be on their own. “As long as we are not dependent on anyone, we will continue to get respect from everyone. We don’t wish to lose that,” said Pushpa Gulati.

They are not too worried about their failing health. “I had been vomiting blood for the past two years. The doctors could not ascertain the cause. Nevertheless, we want to keep working to keep agile, otherwise we would get stuck to the bed,” said Kishan Lal.

He may not have been able to cure his own deadly disease, but with his ayurvedic treatment, which he learnt from his forefathers, he had been treating patients for gastric ailments, skin diseases and height problems.

Even at this age, he wants to practice medicine, but shed the desire when he was asked to shell out Rs 27,000 as licence fee.

Well, his customers are more than willing to pay for their scrumptious food and effective medicine. Jeevan Prakash, a businessman who sell woollens in Amritsar, said, “For the past 15 years, I have been regularly coming to Mussoorie with my family and I make it a point to visit their canteen every year. Their love and dedication is unmatchable and so is the food prepared by them.

Rishikesh, July 23
The acute shortage of water in hill villages has become a stark reality of the state. Perturbed over the constant drying up of water sources and catchment area of the Hemwal river of Tehri Garhwal, an NGO, the Uttarakhand Jan Jagriti Sansthan, led by Aranya Ranjan and his entire family, is actively engaged in reviving the river by doing away with all practices which lead to the drying up of the river that nurtures 50 villages. His father and founding member of the NGO, Pratap Shekhar, and mother Dulari Devi, who participated in the Chipko Andolan, are fully involved in the task.

As a member of the core panel, the Astha Jan Kalyan Committee, Ranjan covered 80 km stretch from Surkanda to Shivpuri in June this year on foot along the river to find out the reasons behind the problem, gauge the extent of villagers’ dependency on it and to spread awareness among them for its upkeep.

Ranjan says: “The river flows from Surkanda Parvat up to Shivpuri for about 60 km. Close to village Nagni, the water has dried up on a stretch of 2 km. Similar is the condition of the river near GB Pant Agriculture University’s Hill Campus at Rani Chowki. The catchments area too has dried up. All these places have somehow got replenished with rainy water these days but only for a short duration”.

The general course of drying up of river has largely affected the villagers who are dependent on the river not only for potable water but also for irrigation of their fields. “Many fields have got dried up. Then people altered their crop cycle according to the availability of water in the river. Instead of sowing seeds two months ago, they are doing so now. Most of the residents of Khurait village left for cities for this very reason,” he adds.

Pratap Shekhar says the villages such as Kanatal, Jaripani, Javarna, Arakat, Chopdiyalgown and Chamba situated at the top of the hill, which used to get water from the river through pipes, are in dire need of water as the water level has gone down quite significantly.

“One can see residents of Chaupriyal village lined up across the road with their utensils waiting for the water tankers of the Jan Sansthan to come. They don’t get adequate water from the river anymore now,” he says.

Dulari Devi blames the blatant felling of the trees and sporadic incidents of fire in forests for the serious condition of the Hemwal river.

After the extensive on-foot coverage of the riverside, the committee has prepared recommendations to be submitted to Water Resource Minister of the state Prakash Pant.

“There needs to be stringent control over mindless felling of trees by wood mafia and others. The state government should create a control body for the purpose. The catchment area should also be treated. The tourists who throw water bottles, polythene, etc, into the river at the Surkanda temple and Shivpuri should be discouraged from doing so”.

Once the river returns to its original form, he suggests, it can become a viable source of local employment with a vast scope of angling as the river used to have good varieties of fish.

Dehradun, July 23
The 160m long and 90-ft deep Patal Bhuvneshwar natural limestone cave that finds a mention in the Skandapurana will be made more roomy and airy in the coming days.

The natural cave near Gangolihat in Pitthoragarh, which has a narrow tunnel-like opening, cannot hold several pilgrims. Devotees have to crawl to reach other smaller caves.

In order to reduce congestion, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Dehradun, will be working with the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, to enhance ventilation in the cave.

The rock formation, formed as a result of the water hitting the rocks, has fascinated pilgrims for centuries by its sheer beauty.

“As the cave has limited access to air, we will be working on increasing ventilation inside. Pilgrims have to crawl some 25m. Once they enter the cave, proper passage of air and in abundance is necessary,” said Dr DN Dimri, Superintendent Archaeologist, ASI.

According to legend and folklore, the underground cave is the abode of Lord Shiva who takes centre stage with numerous other gods. Limestone rock formations have created various spectacular stalactite and stalagmite figures of various hues and forms.

In fact, the entire Indian pantheon of gods and goddesses comes alive inside the cave allowing one’s imagination to run riot - Goddess Bhuvaneshwari stands guard with her weaponry, Lord Ganesha and various avatars of Lord Vishnu seem to have descended here.

The cave, which was visited by the Pandava brothers, is fully and electrically illuminated.

“The cave temple is centuries old as such physical intervention of any kind cannot be carried out. Our plan is to increase the air circulation. While doing so, various possibilities will be explored so that the natural ambience of the cave is maintained and the original character and integrity of the site remains intact,” said Dimri.

He ruled out any intervention in the ancient settings that may alter the original character of the temple.

The ASI has taken up several cave restoration works in the past. This will be a special exercise aimed at restoring the health of the monument under its care using building techniques.

Locals believe that some doors that are now closed inside the cave were open several years ago, but the ASI will not be exploring that aspect.

“It is not necessary that all efforts typical of restoration and conservation are carried out inside the cave. Sometimes, changing the land use in the watershed of a cave can have a restorative effect on the cave. For example, building a wall around a temple located on the river bed to prevent damaging salt action yields good results,” said Dimri shedding light on the work that ASI carries out.

Hardwar, July 23
Despite a separate mela authority being formed by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to look into the annual festival in Haridwar, the preparations seems to be inadequate for the renowned Kanwar Yatra with just a few days left for its commencement.

Despite the administration’s tall claims, the very Pantdeep land, where the Kanwar fair is hosted with lakhs of Kanwariyas putting up their traditional ‘kanwars’, is waterlogged with no efforts evident for cleaning up the area.

No toilets have been put in place for the pilgrims who will throng the Kumbh city from various states in millions.

A round of Pantdeep reveals the scant preparations that have been done for the Kanwar season which begins on July 26.

The whole areas appears to be a pond with no properly maintained road, beautification, electricity and cleanliness.

Many Kanwariyas, who have started on the Kanwar Yatra, pointed out that it is the duty of the administration to provide better facilities to the pilgrims so that the ones coming from far corners of the country take back good memories of the host city.

Administrative officials assured that everything would be in place before the start of the Kanwar season.

“Several meetings of the state machinery have been held. Tall claims are being made, but on the ground level, even basic facilities for the Kanwariyas are not in place. Only by putting up hoardings and posters if the administration thinks the Kanwar Yatra can be successfully held, then let it be,” said Tej Prakash Sahu, a social activist.

Many attribute the administration’s apathy towards this area to local traders not favouring the administration’s proposal to shift the Kanwar fair from Pantdeep to Bairagi camp as one of the factors.

Dehradun, July 23
District Magistrate D Santhiyal Pandiyan held the second meeting with representatives of schools and education institutions, Additional District Magistrate (Finance), City Magistrate and Additional Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (AMNA) to take the agenda of garbage disposal by institutions themselves to the next level.

The participants were shown slides of garbage disposal management by Nitin Kumar, environmentalist and solid-waste expert.

Nitin Kumar is slated to hold a workshop in a couple of schools, which are yet to be selected for the purpose, on July 31 where other institutes will also assemble.

He showcased how the institutes could make compost out of biodegradable waste in their premises and hire the services of private operators to dispose off non-biodegradable waste. He said, “Solid waste management should be decentralised up to the micro level. The municipal corporation should not be unduly burdened with the task.

“Schools and other institutes can use their campus for making compost from bio-degradable waste.

“I suggested to them to tie up with a segregator, one is working in Bhandari Baag area, who will pick up non-biodegradable or recyclable waste from their premises and also pay them in return.

“The segregator will then dispose off separate items such as plastic, paper, bottles etc to the respective markets for recycling. This cycle of operation will provide both value addition as well as livelihood.”

Harak Singh Rawat, AMNA, said that the move initiated by the DM would go a long way in sorting the problem of garbage accumulation out of the nook and corner of the city. By making school and medical institutions pro-active in disposal of garbage from their premises would reduce the burden by 50 per cent.

Mussoorie, July 23
A mock drill on earthquake evacuation techniques to reduce the risks during any disasters was conducted in Girls School under the aegis of the Emmanuel Hospital Association (Landour Community Hospital) in association with Seeds India and Christian Aid funded by the European Commission here yesterday. The students practised the training techniques imparted to them in last one year in which mock drill was held to test an emergency preparedness level of the school.

During the mock drill an earthquake shaking warning was given for one minute in which a pre-arranged signal such as siren/bell was sounded and after that the students practised the technique of ducking for cover and other response action were performed in the class rooms. Once the warning signal stopped the teachers and students checked the building damage and initiated a decision to evacuate the building following proper evacuation procedures. They then assembled as per their class at the pre-determined assembly point. And activated the search by the rescue team/first aid team trained in last one year.

An evaluation drill was also conducted to identify problems encountered during the drill and means to correct them in future earthquake drills. The students trained in last one year were also present with citations and wards on the occasion. A question answer session was also held after the culmination of mock drill and it was felt that the communication techniques should also be imparted to the students.

Senior Citizen Forum president RS Mishra said use of HAM radio should be included in the training because during Uttarkashi earthquake it was only mode of communication available to the outside world. Project Manager Gopi Chand conducted a programme here which was a part of Hyogo Framework of Action adopted at Japan by 170 countries in 2005 in which it was decided that the programmes under disaster risk reduction would be carried out at village and school level focusing on disaster response to enhancing disaster risk reduction at school and village level. He further said 10 schools had been selected, five from Mussoorie and five from Vikas Nagar, along with Herbertpur Christian Hospital and Landour Community Hospital, under the project.

Principal Abha Shaili also reiterated the fact that such drills would be conducted in the school on regular basis. The chief guest on the occasion MLA Jot Singh Gunsola commended the efforts of the people involved in imparting the training and said it was necessary for Mussoorie as it was under the seismic zone four and five. He said such training should also be imparted to the general public in near future. He informed that Uttarakhand was the first state to form a separate disaster management department in the country. Palika president OP Uniyal, Christian Aid Project Manager Ram Chandra, Seed India project manager Parag, contract manager Rehman and others were present on the occasion. 

Dehradun, July 23
Scoring a fine brace Nitin paved the way for Vijay Cantt to register a facile win over Yankies in the District Super League being played at Police Lines here today.

Nitin scored his first goal early in the fifth minute, which was the only goal of the first half. In the next half, Tushar scored the next for his side in the 41st minute to put his side tally 2-0.

Nitin scored his second and team’s third goal in the 66th minute whereas rival team failed to perform and couldn’t mange even a single goal.

The second match played between Gypsy Young and Hostel resulted in a goalless draw. While in the third encounter, XI Star prevailed over Garhwal Sporting 3-0. Ganpo (1st minute), Dipen (34th) and Gopal (69th) scored a goal each in the win.

Tomorrow’s fixture: Garhwal Sporting vs Uttarakhand Police, Willis Youth vs Yankies Cantt, Blue vs Hostel.

Dehradun, July 23
Doon Star played a 2-2 draw with City Young here today in the ongoing Nemi Dass Memorial Football League on the Pavilion Ground today.

Nitin Saini scored two goals for Doon Star. He struck in the 38th and 57th minutes of the play.

Goswami too scored a brace for City Young to keep up the good work. He scored in the 70th and 76th minutes.

Tomorrow, Sarvodaya will face Sunderwala and in another match Akranta is scheduled to meet Gorkha United FC.