Dehradun, September 1
Residents celebrated the festival of Krishna Janmashtami with fervour here today. All temples, including Aadarsh Temple and Shyam Sunder Temple at Patel Nagar, Prithvinath Mahadeva at Saharanpur Chowk, Chaityana Gaudya Muth, Karanpur and Nageshwar Mahadeva at Garhi Cantt, were beautifully decorated and lighted.

Two children dressed as Radha and Krishna

Students of Kidcare queue up to celebrate Janmashtami in Haridwar on Wednesday. Tribune photographs

The palki-jhankis of Radha-Krishna, Vasudeva-Devki and Lord Shiva were the main attractions of the day. People thronged the temple whole day.

The birth of Lord Krishna will be celebrated tonight when the Lord will be offered mishri and butter.

Later, on the prasad of mishri will be distributed among devotees.

The devotees also kept fast to mark the occasion. Though all temples saw a huge crowd today, the numbers are expected to increase tomorrow as well, it being a holiday.

Jhankis were also taken out on various streets of the city. Some people moved with them and others preferred to pay regards from balconies.

Pushkar Singh Dhami, Uttarakhand Shahri Vikas Anushravan Parishad, greeted people on the auspicious day. He said people should follow in the footsteps of Lord Krishna.

Schools celebrate birth of Krishna

The branches of Poly Kids school in Dalanwala, Sahastradhara Road and Vasant Vihar celebrated Janmashtami today. The school was decorated with pictures of Krishna and Radha.

Students were told the story of Krishna, Yashoda, Gokul, how Krishna killed King Kansa and also his role in the Mahabharat and Gita.

Students dressed as Radha and Krishna danced on stage. Teachers also danced to the songs on Krishna. A small skit on Krishna life’s was also performed.

A swing had been put up for the son of Vasudev and Devaki. A pot with butter was broken by a child and students were told about the concepts behind ‘matki’ and ‘makhan’.

The best-dressed Radhas were Swadhi, Twishi, Aayana. The best dressed Krishnas were Ishaan, Aaditri, Samarth.

Other children who were also dressed up were as follows: Krishnas: Aryan, Priyanshu, Sparsh, Anjanay, Ikjot, Purvi, Alokpati. Radhas: Dhriti, Vaidehi, Nivedita, Siddhi, Chaitali, Aariana.

All children were served special sweets.

Director Ranjana Mahendru highlighted the importance of such celebrations on the minds of little ones. Present on the occasion were Directors Rohit Singh, Nandita Singh, Coordinator and Head Mistresses Nidhi, Monica, Poonam, Shivani and the teachers.

Haridwar: Krishna Janmashtami was celebrated in various schools of the city. Children dressed as Radha and Krishna were the cynosure of all eyes making the whole atmosphere dip in Krishna Leela.

Kids play school organised a fancy dress show. At Sanskriti School a competition named ‘Best Radhe-Krishan’ was organised were Ananya and Chandni who were jointly adjudged the winners as best dressed Radha while the duo of Karthik-Abhigyan vowed the judges for being the best dressed Lord Krishna.

Palasi came second while Lavanya and Megha shared the third place in girls’ section while Amodh and Yatharth came second with Sanjeev winning third prize among boys.

Similarly, other schools like Whiz Kid, Doon Cambridge, and Delhi Public School too organised number of programmes to mark the festival.

Haridwar, September 1
Voicing the need for development and uplift of every stratum of society, particularly those who are in a dire need, State Social Welfare Minister Matbar Singh Kandari related good governance aspect with the social welfare of society.

Addressing a function organised by the Social Welfare Department in the Town Hall, the state Cabinet minister emphasised on the need of reaching out to the deprived, neglected, weaker section of people so that they could be brought into the mainstream of development with benefits of various government-run or aided schemes specially meant for them.

“The state government is committed to the development of the needy section of the society that is unable to earn a livelihood of its own. Be it the Gauri Devi Kanya Dhan scheme, old age pension, widow pension or aid to the minority, we have been making a difference in their lives,” said Kandari.

Later, the minister handed out pension cheques to senior citizens, physically disabled and widows in the presence of Municipality Committee Chairman Kamal Johra. Cheques of Rs 2,400 amount were given to 400 recipients, while those who didn’t have bank accounts would be given via organising of similar camps.

District Social Welfare Officer Upma Shukla informed that various social schemes were being run by the government for minorities, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and people living below the poverty line.

Besides, soon holding camps regarding the allocation of beneficiary pension amount to those not having bank accounts was being finalised so that maximum needy people get benefit.

Haridwar, September 1
Keeping in with its tradition of social causes, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Ranipur unit, today kick started a tree plantation drive under the Harit Vikas Yojana.

As per the greenery drive, a target of 3,000 tree saplings plantation has been earmarked which will be covering empty land within the BHEL premises in various sectors.

Planting the maiden sapling, Managing Director Devendra Kumar Modi stressed on the need of having environmental conservation as instability in environmental balance was casting its negative influence on whole world and so it’s everyone’s responsibility to conserve nature.

Citing climatic changes, Modi said due to a growing population, rapid urbanisation, industrialisation the green cover was fast being replaced by concrete structures which were majorly responsible in bringing changes in water, land and air constituents.

“Plantation of trees is the simplest as well as effective answer to fight the climatic changes viz global warming and varied environmental problems. Respecting nature should be our foremost duty and by initiating the plantation drive we are contributing a bit,” said Modi.

Senior BHEL officers Nirmal Khandelwal, Rajiv Bhatnagar, Satyendra Kumar Tyagi, MK Jain, AK Sharma, Amit Kumar, Subash Kumar and representatives of all labour organisatons, eminent citizens and schoolchildren were present on the occasion to give impetus to the plantation drive.

A pledge was also taken by the participants to conserve nature as well as make this go green efforts achieve its stipulated target of sapling plantation.

Dehradun, September 1
In the coming six months, three Municipal Boards will be upgraded to Municipal Corporations (MCs) and the State Urban Development Department is already engaged in the assessment exercise before the notification is issued.

The Boards likely to figure in the list include Haridwar, Rudrapur and this will take the number to four in the states. As of now, only Dehradun is the sole Municipal Corporation in the state.

Stating this today at the launch of the Chief Minister’s Infrastructure Development Programme, the Pandit Deen Dyal Upadhyay Parking and Viabiltiy Gap Programme and the Chief Minister’s Nirmal Nagar Award Programme, Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik said preliminary assessment regarding the Board, the provisions in the Act etc were already underway.

He said the state government was keen to upgrade the infrastructure of local bodies and Rs 2,000 crore had been earmarked for carrying out different programmes. “A total of 31 local bodies will benefit from Asian Development Bank-funded programmes. Besides three cities are already covered under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission programme,” he said.

The Dehradun Municipal Corporation has adopted the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act and also the Panchayati Raj Act.

Dehradun, September 1
Officials in government departments here nowadays are forced to sit in damp rooms or under leaking ceilings due to the heavy rain that has taken place in the state this monsoon and the slow response of the authorities in repairing and maintaining these buildings.

A number of proposals regarding the repair work have been sent to the departments concerned, along with the Dehradun District Magistrate, by the officials, but without any response so far.

Talking to The Tribune, Atar Singh, Administrative Officer, Tehsil Sadar, said, “Whenever rain occurs for a long time in the city, water seeps in from the roof of the building causing dampness and a leaking roof”. “This is not a situation that is unique to this year. It happens every year during the rains and our complaint asking for repairs is pending since long,” he added.

Dehradun Tehsildar Sadar Lakshmi Raj Chauhan said, “We sometimes have to arrange for a tent to cover the roof of the building, but still, water manages to seep in”.

He said the department had send the proposal regarding the repair of the building to the district magistrate six months ago, but the concerned department has taken no action.

“We are again planning to send a proposal to repair the buildings which have suffered damage due to incessant rain in the tehsil to the District Magistrate after consulting the PWD,” Chauhan said.

Dehradun DM Sachin Kurve said he had directed all departments to send reports of the buildings that had been damaged.

Nainital, September 1
Evaluating the progress under the Atal Adarsh Gram Yojana, District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli has asked nodal officers to ensure that all 44 villages chosen under the scheme fulfill the criteria specified for their inclusion in the scheme.

The villages chosen under the scheme must have the facilities of roads, drinking water, power, irrigation, health, education, communication and banking.

The Block Development Officers (BDOs) have been asked to visit the villages and supervise the works being done there.

Officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) have been asked to float tenders for the building of roads for which clearance has been granted. For the roads, which are to be built on forest land, the officials have been asked to prepare proposals within a week and send the same to the state capital for approval.

They have been told to take the assistance of the Divisional Forest Officer for the purpose.

Bagauli told the BDOs to prepare a report within a week of the villages that could be connected to the main roads by the construction of bridges up to 30 metres under the Mukhya Mantri Gramin Sanyojakta Yojana.

Officials of the Power Department have also been asked to prepare a status report of the works being done under the rural electrification programme.

Officials of the Education Department informed the District Magistrate that proposals for building high schools in Pinrau and Amgadi have been sent to the state administration.

All other villages chosen under the scheme already have high schools.

Bagauli has ordered that Aanganwadi Kendras be opened in Pinrau, Sirmauli and Ratighat by the end of September.

He also asked the BDOs to provide money to the families falling in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category for the construction of toilets at their homes.

He also ordered the opening of a mini bank in Ranibagh by the end of September.

Nainital, September 1
The Uttarakhand High Court has directed the state government and the management of Citurgia Bio-Chemicals Limited (CBL) to file affidavits before it in a matter pertaining to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed before it by the Uttarakhand Jan Sangharsh Morcha.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice VK Bisht has also restrained the parties from speaking to the media.

The petitioner has sought issuance of a writ of certiorari quashing the order of the state allowing the company and its co-promoter to sell 30 acres of government land to private builders without reviving the sick unit.

It also seeks the quashing of the order of the Haridwar Development Authority (HDA) sanctioning the maps submitted by the company and its co-promoters.

The petitioner has sought that the court direct the state to resume the public land in favour of the state as per the provisions of the agreement of 1961 and also direct the HDA not to approve the maps.

There is also a request to direct the state government to initiate an inquiry against the officials involved in the decision to ‘fraudulently and illegally’ transfer the said land to the company and to lodge a first information report (FIR) against them.

There is also a prayer to get the matter of public property worth Rs 450 crore being transferred to the persons or builders who have no right over the land and that too under the garb of a Board for Financial and Industrial Reconstruction (BIFR) scheme investigated.

The respondents in the case are the state of Uttarakhand, Secretary Housing, Director of CBL, Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Vice-Chairman of the HDA.

In its orders, the court has asked the government to specify in its affidavit whether there was a land-use scheme prepared by the government and to furnish the scheme.

The government has been asked to relate under what law the scheme was prepared and also to produce the law if there is any.

It has also been asked to indicate whether the change of use of the said plots of land was permissible in terms of the scheme and whether at any point, it had represented to the BIFR and if so, when and how the representation was made.

The court has asked the company to state whether any steps had been taken to revive the sick industry.

Referring to the progress report submitted by the company, it observed that such vague reports will not do.

The HDA has also been asked to furnish an affidavit in the matter on what it had done on the requests from the company. The affidavits by all parties are to be filed within four weeks.

Dehradun, September 1
To mark India’s 63rd Independence Day, the Art of Living, Dehradun, conducted its Prison Smart Programme in Dehradun prison from August 23 to 29 to help over 90 prisoners, including 20 women.

Based on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s belief that behind every criminal is a victim crying for help, their prison programme’s rehabilitative and stress-elimination tools help inmates come to terms with their past actions and gives them confidence and hope for a better future.

More than 120,000 inmates lodged in prisons in India have undergone the Prison Smart programme with spectacular results.

In Tihar Jail in Delhi, Asia's largest prison, around 48,000 convicts have benefited. Special courses have also been conducted for the prison staff to cope with job stress.

“A progressive, practical and result-oriented course, the Art of Living Prison Smart Programme provides innovative and effective solutions that help in breaking the cycle of violence in society and in tackling escalating crime rates.

“It helps in the rehabilitation of inmates and in integrating them in society. We received full cooperation from the prison authorities for this noble cause,” said Subodh, a Art of Living teacher who conducted the programme.

Research being conducted has showed that 60 per cent of the inmates report that they are now less prone to act aggressively towards the staff and they attribute this change to the Art of Living programme.

Pitthoragarh, September 1
Special attention is being paid to medical facilities in the Sundugra valley of the remote Pati block of Champawat district after three children were suspected to have died of measles in the valley last week.

“We have sent three teams of doctors to the affected area of Sundugra, Mulagoan and Gagar village, where more than 600 children have been treated. Some blood samples have been sent to Delhi to ascertain if the cause of the deaths was measles,” said Anil Shah, CMO Champawat.

According to residents, their villages have been totally neglected from the primary health point of view as the ANM deputed there has not visited these villages for the past eight years.

“Today, we protested in front of the CMO’s Office in Champawat and demanded that he depute an ANM and other village-level medical staff in the Sundugra area immediately,” said Khushal Singh Adhikari, Block Pramukh, Pati.

According to women from a village in the Sundugra area, they have not been receiving life-saving vaccinations for the past four to five years resulting in deaths of newly born kids and their mothers.

“If we go to Pati Hospital, we are asked to get vaccination from our ANM centre at Chaurakot, but there is no staff to treat us there,” said Parvati Devi from Sundugra village.

Champawat CMO Dr Anil Shah admitted that more than two dozen villages in the Chorakot area had been neglected from the primary health point of view, but said that the villagers came late and that resulted in the death of three kids. “Had the villagers informed us earlier, the kids would have been saved,” said Dr Shah.

“We showed the treatment slip of the three victims to the CMO to prove that they had been treated at the Pati Hospital and not at the centre at Chaurakot, which has been deserted for the past two years,” said Khushal Singh Adhikari.

According to sources in the Lohaghat primary health centre, many children from the valley have been admitted to the hospital. The Champawat District Magistrate has ordered teams of doctors to remain in the villages till the condition of all ill children becomes normal.

“I have also asked for the medical record of the past eight years of the Chaurakot ANM centre to ascertain whether the area had been neglected all this while,” said Dr Pankaj Pandey, DM, Champawat.

Haridwar, September 1
With an objective to promote energy efficient practices, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India, have come together on one platform. Both the CII and the BEI are organising workshops to enhance competitiveness through energy efficiency at various industrial locations in the northern states with an emphasis on energy efficiency in different sectors. In this regard CII-BEE jointly held a workshop on “Enhancing Competitiveness through Energy Efficiency” here yesterday.

Renowned experts from BEE, Industrial Sector, government agencies and academic institutions briefed people on various initiatives, schemes and technologies that are available for energy conservation.

Earlier, speaking at the inaugural session, Rajiv Berry, Chairman, CII Uttarakhand, the state council stressed on the imperative need to start adopting energy efficient technologies in the wake of ever-increasing gap between demand and supply of energy resources.

While SC Nautiyal, Additional Director, Industries, government of Uttarakhand, on this occasion called the industry to adopt various energy efficiency techniques as a social service towards the society and nation.

Shedding light on various government schemes and the role of BEE, Gaurav Kumar, project engineer, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, said industry should be encouraged to adopt various energy efficient techniques by utilising several governmental schemes.

Among others who spoke on the occasion included Prof GC Tiwari, Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Petroleum and Energy, Dr S Farooq, Vice-Chairman, CII Uttarakhand State Council, Rakesh Agarwal, Convenor, CII Uttarakhand, NB Tilak, DGM TATA Motors, and Piyush Johari, Manager Safety and Maintenance from Mahindra and Mahindra, among others from Dehradun, Roorkee and the host city.

Nainital, September 1
In a case of mistaken identity, a team of the Delhi police, which was on a mission to nab an auto lifter, got beaten up by villagers near Kashipur who took them to be dacoits. Police personnel sustained injuries in the incident that saw the villagers beating them up and holding them hostage on Monday.

While the villagers had gone on to snatch mobile phones and cash they were carrying, the accused auto lifter, for whom personnel of Jagatpuri and Shakarpur police stations had come to Barkhera Pande village, managed to flee.

According to information, the Delhi police had nabbed an auto lifter in Delhi some days back. He had told them that one Sarfaraz of Barkheda Pande village was one of his accomplices. Some police personnel, under the leadership of Sub Inspector Sandip Kumar, descended on the village in the early hours of the day to nab the accused. When confronted by his family they allegedly roughed up some of the family members following which it was announced from the village mosque that some dacoits had entered the village. It is learnt that the Delhi police personnel had not informed the local police of their mission.

This led to the villagers surrounding the police team and beating them up. When the police personnel allegedly fired in the air, the villagers snatched their arms, mobiles and cash.

They kept them hostage and informed the personnel of the local police at the Paiga post. It was only when the personnel of the Delhi police revealed their identity before the local police that they were let off and their possessions returned.