Dehradun, April 5
Strongly supporting social activist Anna Hazare and his campaign against corruption, Dehradun coordinators of ‘India Against Corruption’ held a candle march here today.

The march that began at the Gandhi Park ended at the Clock Tower. A large number of eminent persons from Dehradun staged a demonstration at the Gandhi Park to show solidarity with Anna Hazare.

“We are strongly in favour of Hazare’s call for the tabling the Lokpal Bill in its original form,” said Rakesh Oberoi, an industrialist and coordinator of India Against Corruption.

He asserted that the Lokpal Bill, if tabled and approved by Parliament, would be historic in many ways as it would be a first major step in the country in the fight against corruption.

Dehradun, April 5
Kapila Venu held a demonstration on Kutiyattam (pronounced ‘Koo diyatam’) at Jaswant Modern School. She took great pains to describe the importance of hand gestures in the ancient art form.

It was a stylised presentation, with emphasis on hand gestures and eye movements, taken from the life of Lord Krishna. A desperate King Kans, when confronted with the news of his nephew’s birth, launches a massive drive to eliminate all newborn babies in his kingdom, taking the services of demoness Putna.

“It is a stylised form in which stories are enacted aesthetically using hands and eyes to convey action and emotions. There are 24 forms of basic abhinay and rarely are the eyes used so evocatively in other dance forms as is done in Kutiyattam,” explained Kapila.

One minute Kapila was all motherly, carefully laying the baby to rest, and the next minute she changed her expressions and hand gestures to show Putna weaving a magical spell so as to transform herself into a woman. “Only one actor plays different characters. This has been the standard procedure followed by all performers,” she said.

The tradition had never witnessed any deviations, she said, adding, “There are no documents available which can testify to the exact date of the origin of this form of theater, but it may have been passed on through the oral form as has been the case with other art forms of Kerala. We continue to follow the rules laid down a thousand years ago,” reasoned the dancer.

While Kapila took the centrestage, it was left to Kalamandalam Rajeev and Kalamandalam Hariharan to provide the right tempo through their drum beating.

As if to announce to all and sundry, Kalamandalam Hariharan gave a clarion through the vigorous beating of the drums at the start of the performance. “The drum is beaten in a manner that the sound manages to reach even the nether world, so that people assemble and watch the performance. These days only miniature versions of the drums are used,” elaborated Kapila.

At the end of the performance, Kapila called upon the young audience to join the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY) movement to know more about Indian culture and tradition.

The performance was made special when Kapila’s former Headmaster Dev Lahiri, who is now the Headmaster of Welham Boys School, too joined the audience to witness her performance.

Haridwar, April 5
With the final examinations of various school boards finally over, the rush of tourists at the world-famous Rajaji National Park has been on the rise in the past few days.

The timings to gain entry into the Park are from 6 am to 9 am and 3 pm to 6 pm, but many tourists can been seen going towards the gates during the rest of the day.

Rajaji National Park falls in three districts - Pauri Garhwal, Haridwar and Dehradun. Opened in 1984, it is spread over 820 sq km.

The park, apart from being home to the Asian elephant (Elephas Maximus), possesses as many as two dozen odd species of mammals, 315 bird species and 40 odd reptile species which make it a paradise for any wildlife lover. The presence of leopards and tigers adds to the curiosity of the tourists.

On one side of the Park is the Ganga and on the other side is the Shivalik forest range in the backdrop giving tourists an experience far from the congested, concrete and polluted atmosphere of the cities.

Dehradun, April 5
The state DGP has asked police officials of all the districts to study the situation and take help from local residents to deal with the traffic problem in their areas.

In a two-day police meeting, the traffic problem has come up as the main trouble in all the hill and plain districts of the state. All districts have different traffic problems, including narrow roads, lack of bypass, increase in influx of taxis and encroachment.

“The officers told us that they mainly encounter traffic-related problems. All the districts have been asked to study the situation in their area and also consult and take help of people there,” DGP Jyoti Swaroop Pandey told The Tribune.

A presentation was given on the steps taken by Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar and Dehradun to solve the crime cases. The senior officers also held discussions over the issues.

Haridwar has launched a group message service among the cops deployed at the barriers and residents of the area from where the street robberies were reported. This has helped to decrease the crime rate in a big way.

Likewise, Udham Singh Nagar has used the control room and the public address system effectively. In residential areas, the district has made gates to keep a check in the number of vehicle theft cases.

Dehradun has chalked out a plan to deal with a large number of processions that lead to traffic jams daily. The procession organisers have to inform the police prior to taking out such rallies or protests.

Dehradun, April 5
Ram Prakash Dhasmana scored a brace to help Security (Blue) enter the quarterfinals of the ONGC Inter-Departmental Football Tournament beating Technical Services 3-0 here today.

Dhasmana scored in the fourth and 25th minutes of the game. RM Bhatt also scored a goal in the 10th minute for the Security team.

ONGC (Red) beat Central Store 2-0 to enter the quarterfinals in another match today. Vikram Bisht (28th) and Nitul Vohra (38th) scored a goal each.

Frontier Basin and ONGC (Green) played a draw. For Frontier Basin, Shanwaz (33rd) scored the goal while for the rival team, Amarjit (35th) netted the lone goal.