Dehradun, April 11
The Uttarakhand State Haj Committee (USHC) has strongly condemned the penalty clause under the cost chart that has been sent by the Haj Committee of India and the Central government to respective state haj committees in the country.

Chairman of the USHC Shamim Alam said, “We are shocked at the authoritarian way under which pilgrims have been asked to deposit Rs 31,000 by June 15. An additional Rs 1,000 is also being charged from each pilgrim. Plus, the penalty is not at all acceptable.”

The procedure for haj has started for the current year under which the USHC has received 884 applications till now. The last date for accepting applications is April 30. An immunisation drive will be held soon at 12 camps in the city.

Alam also decried the Centre’s inaction over the repeated demands each year by the USHC to increase the quota of pilgrims from Uttarakhand.

He said that the BJP state government wanted to provide direct flight from Jolly Grant Airport to Saudi Arabia, but for that, the clearance for the embarkation point is in the hands of the Centre. The Congress-led Central government didn’t seem interested in providing this facility.

Alam also urged the External Affairs Ministry not to select haj candidates on its own and go by the draw system through the Internet as per the population of each state.

“The External Affairs Ministry selected 124 applicants who were registered by the Haj Committee of India, Mumbai, in violation of the rules.” He also insisted that Census 2011 be taken into account for the haj in the present year.

Dehradun, April 11
Out of 52 schools that were served notices by the district administration, only 19 have filed their replies with the office of the City Magistrate till now.

A few schools had filed their replies just a day after they had received the notices, while nine schools, including The Asian School, Doon International School, The Heritage School, Marshall School, Bala Hisar School, N Merry School and St Jude School, submitted their replies here today.

While The Asian School has asked for more time for filing reply, the remaining schools have said they are not involved in such activities.

Denying any forcible means to make students buy educational material from a particular shop, the authorities of Doon International School said it was the day-cum-boarding school and being run by a society named the Doon International Educational Society. They had never forced anyone to buy the material from a particular shop. “Though we have authorised one of the shopkeepers to keep all the required items related to the school for the students’ convenience,” it said.

About the remaining schools that have failed to file their replies, City Magistrate MS Bisht said they would be serving them notices asking them why they had failed to file their replies within the stipulated time. “Once we get affidavits from all these schools, we would decide what has to be done further,” he added.

Dehradun, April 11
Members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged a demonstration and the barged onto the premises of Sri Guru Ram Rai (SGRR) Public School, Sahastradhara Road, opposing illegal selling of books and stationery here today.

The protestors who are following the drive against commercialising of education strongly opposed the selling of books in the school campus and compelling parents to purchase them.

According to Anshul Chawla, “We gheraoed the Principal of the school and demanded to stop the practice of selling books in the school campus. We will surely complain to the state administration against the SGRR management.”

Mussoorie, April 11
The star cast of the popular TV serial “CID”, including Shivaji Satam (ACP Pradyumun) and Dyanand Shetty, were in Mussoorie on a one-day visit to the town yesterday. Enchanted by the beauty of the hill station, they said it was the most beautiful place they had ever visited. The TV actors said they had been invited by the Police Department to an award-distribution ceremony to be held in Dehradun.

Speaking about the serial, Satam said it was one of the longest serials running on television and the reason for that was the honesty with which its crew had been working.

Everyone in the crew is proud of being involved with “CID” and that is evident from the quality of its episodes. He also said the serial did not glorify crime, but laid emphasis on the investigation and solving various criminal cases.

Satam said though there was a lot of corruption in the police force, honest people were also there and it was evident during the Mumbai attack where police personnel saved people by risking their own lives. He opined that police personnel in the country were underpaid keeping in view the amount of work they did in a day. It was time now to introduce police reforms and raise their salaries if we wanted an effective policing in the country, he added.

He also said the police personnel should be provided with better housing facilities and tools for investigation. Instead of indulging in corrupt practices, politicians should strengthen the police force so that criminals did not gt away scot-free, he added.

Another actor Dayanand Shetty (Daya) said the police force had good and bad people like in other departments and generalising that the police was incompetent was not good. He also reteirated the fact that the government should do something to improve the condition of the force so that they could do investigations effectively.

Daya said he was working in a programme called “Gutur Gu” for television and had no intention to try his luck in the tinsel town as yet. He said he was extremely happy working in “CID” at the moment.

The “CID” serial is about a team of detectives belonging to the Crime Investigation Department in Mumbai. It is regarded as the longest-running TV serial in India.

Dehradun, April 11
Vice-president of Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) Raghunath Singh Negi has urged the Central Government to give permission for quarrying even in small rivers of the state. He called the Congress Government opportunist for having given the time limit up to May, 2012, for quarrying in the selected rivers of the state in view of the forthcoming Assembly election in the state.

“The Central Government is patronising the quarry mafia hailing from Uttar Pardesh and Himachal Pradesh, which was why it was not giving an NOC on the small rivers of the state. But if it is not done, the state will witness a horrific devastation unleashed by floods which will also damage the fertile soil of the farmers. The interests of labourers, transporters and poor people will remain affected due to the restriction on quarrying,” he stressed.

Dehradun, April 11
Despite residents’ protests, the team of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) today removed around 30 encroachments from Block D in Nehru Colony. The drive was launched only after lunch hours.

Talking to the media, Assistant Executive Engineer HR Rawat said the locals protested when they visited the area, but they carried on with their task as they had the police force with them.

Dehradun, April 11
Agitated by the rejection of examination forms of 2,500 students of DAV PG College and for not allotting admit cards to them by HNB Garhwal University, members of the DAV Student Council did not let flying squads from the varsity enter the college premises here today.

The protestors staged an agitation and burnt the effigy of the varsity Registrar on the college campus.

President of the council Anshul Chawla asserted, “The university is showing neglectful behaviour towards the students of DAV PG College. By not accepting the examination forms of the students on the ground of delayed submission from its due date and not allotting the admit cards to them is equivalent to playig with the future of the students”.

“The Registrar of the university is entirely responsible for the prevailing conditions of the students and the college, while the varsity should apologize to the college,” added Chawla.

Dehradun, April 11
Young footballer Nitin Jyal from Uttarakhand, who is among the 16 Indian under-14 years boys, undergoing nine months training at the IMG Soccer Academy in Florida, USA, will be coming to India to attend the under-16 trials in Goa in June.

Nitin, with the other under-14 boys had gone to the IMG Soccer Academy in mid- September last year.

Praising the academy, Nitin said, “It is a fantastic academy.” Nitin is a cadet of the Maharana Pratap Sports College, Dehradun.

“We will be returning to India on June 4 to attend under-16 trials in Goa,” Nitin said.

Dehradun, April 11
Drona, Prakhar, Mritunjay, Mayuk, Utkarsh and Dhruvpal of Dehradun entered the second round of the All-India Talent Series Tennis Tournament 2011 for boys and girls (under-12 and 14 age groups) that began at the Shanti Tennis Academy here today.

Upcoming tennis players from different states of India including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are participating in the tournament.

In the boys singles u-12 category, Ishan Sethi (Uttarakhand) beat Rishabh Ahluwalia (Delhi) 8-1. Prakhar Pal (Uttarakhand) also beat Anishik Gupta (Delhi) 8-1.

Other results: Boys singles u-12 years: Ritwik Kashyap (DLI) bt Naman Sherawat (CHD) 8-1; Rishabh Sharda (CHD) bt Rohan Gupta (DLI) 8-1; M. Abhishek (DLI) bt Avivar Naithani (UK) 8-2; Yash Jaithani (RAJ) bt Aishwarya Goel (UP) 8-3; Shivank Bhatnagar (DLI) bt Ayush Deswal (DLI) 8-3; Drona Walia (UK) bt Hriday Gupta (DLI) 8-0; Rajbeer S Bedi (CHD) bt Prateek Sherawat (CHD) 8-7, 8-6; Rohit Rawat (UK) bt Aviral Bisht (UK) 8-5.

Boys singles under-14: Siddharth Kapoor (UK) bt Yash Jaithani (RAJ) 8-1; Drona Walia (UK) bt S Jorawar (CHD) 8-3; Ankrish Khanna (CHD) bt Aishwarya Goel (UP) 8-2; Danish Ahmed (DLI) bt Rohit Rawat (UK) 8-6; Mritunjay Badola (UK) bt Ritwik Kashyap (DLI) 8-4; Prakhar Pal (UK) bt Padam Kumar (DLI) 8-5; Nawal Awasthi (DLI) bt Hitesh Jaithani (RAJ) 8-5; Atishay Jain (UK) bt Rohan Sherawat (CHD) 8-0; Swapnil Negi (UK) bt Shivank Bhatnagar (DLI) 8-4; Dhruv Sabarwal (UK) bt Ayush Deswal (DLI) 8-4; Aditya P Singh (UK) bt Avivar Naithani (UK) 8-7;7-4.

Dehradun, April 11
ONGC (Red) won the ONGC Inter-Departmental Football Tournament beating Security (Blue) 3-2 in the final at the Ambedkar Stadium of the ONGC.

Nitual Vohra scored a brace in the title clash. He struck in the 17th and 30th minutes of play. ONGC’s Kamal Nayn Barthwal (40th) scored the winner.

For Security (Blue), Devender Singh Bisht (35th) and SZ Nadeem (45th) were the goal scorers.

Sunder Lal, Executive Director-Chief, Employee Relations, Taquir Hussain, Executive Director-Chief, HRD, and DD Mishra, General Manager (Administration) gave the trophies and mementos to the players.

The tournament was organised by Ravi Kumar, secretary, PM Samuel, treasurer, RK Goel, joint secretary, Pawan Negi and Sanjay Bhatt, both executive members, of the committee.

Dehradun, April 11
In a hotly contested final, Graphic Era (A) and Institute of Technology Management (ITM) became the joint winners after the match ended in a tie in the 59th District Cricket League at the Survey of India Stadium here today.

Batting first, Graphic Era set a target of 271 runs in 45 overs for seven wickets. Ankur (61) and Gurpreet (51) were the principal scorers. Pramod of ITM took two wickets. Shashank, Nadeem and Shahzad got one wicket each.

Chasing the target, ITM scored 271 runs losing all wickets in 44.2 overs. Amit (64) and Shashank (53) were the main scorers.

Mandeep of Graphic Era got three wickets. Romi and Abhishek also got two batsmen of the rival team out.

Dehradun, April 11
Jodhi Tigers got the better of Super Kings Iswar Vihar by five wickets in the Khalanga Krida Samiti Cricket Tournament on PRD Ground, Tapovan.

Batting first after having won the toss, Super Kings scored 91 runs for nine wickets in the allotted 15 overs. No batsmen gave a worthwhile batting performance. Ishan (12) was the top scorer for Kings.

For Jodhi, Aashish and Arun Kaul got three and two wickets, respectively. Vicky, Lawrence and Abhishek pocketed a wicket each.

Replying with the bat, Jodhi achieved the target in only 9.3 overs scoring 92 runs for five wickets.

Sumit (42*) was the principal scorer and Lawrence contributed 18 runs for the side. In the bowling department, Rahul, Ishan, Manish, Parvin and Vineet got a wicket each.

In another match played today, Indira Market Boys beat Fight Club by four wickets.