Dehradun, July 1
Following the inspection conducted by a Member Secretary, People for Animals (PFA), Uttarakhand, the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), under the animal welfare division of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, has directed the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences (HIMS), Dehradun, to stop experimentation on animals till further directions are issued by the CPCSEA.

The director of the animal welfare division and CPCSEA member secretary, Anjani Kumar, has issued the directions based on the report of the inspection of the animal house facility at HIMS conducted by the Animal Welfare Board of India northern region sub-committee member and member secretary of the People For Animals (Uttarakhand), Gauri Maulekhi. The PFA, Uttarakhand, was also directed by the CPCSEA to visit the animal housing facility periodically and take care of the animals there as a stop-gap arrangement.

The PFA has further lodged an FIR with the Doiwala police against the Director of HIMS for promoting and encouraging foul practices and for criminally neglecting sections 14-20 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960. The PFA has now insisted on the immediate arrest of the culprits so that an example may be set for other institutes.

It has also been proposed to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests that an inspection team be set up to supervise experimentation in all the medical institutes in Uttarakhand. The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), India, has also welcomed this action by the PFA. PETA has served a notice on the Director, HIMS.

According to Maulekhi, certain members of HIMS, while preferring to remain anonymous, complained that the departments of orthopaedics, anatomy and pharmacology were flouting all rules pertaining to experimentation on animals.

Mussoorie, July 1
More than 10,000 villagers from the Aglar-Yamuna valley, along with tourists, dived into the Aglar rivulet, 25 km from here, to celebrate the annual community fishing festival, “Maund”, today.

It is learnt that more than 3,000 kg of fish was caught this year. The festivities began at 10 am after villagers from Laloor Patti who were assigned with the task of preparing intoxicant powder from the bark of “timru” threw it into the the rivulet after offering prayers at Maundkot.

One could witness young and old standing in the cool waters of the Aglar. However, many villagers rued that this year due to an increase in the flow of water, they could not catch fishes upstream and had to travel down to the Aglar bridge where fishes could be caught easily. A member of the Yamuna-Aglar Ghati Vikas Manch, Bitto Kavi, said: “Generally, the festival occurs on June 28, a few days before the advent of the monsoon. But this year due to an unwarranted delay, the festival was postponed to July 1, resulting in a less catch upstream.”

He said villagers of Laloor Patti have been fined Rs 1,000 for this delay. When asked, villagers cited the delay in the making of powder as the main reason.

Tourists also enjoyed every moment of the festival and were of the view that the government should publicise the event internationally so that more people could become a part of this festival in Garhwal.

Four researchers from the zoology and environmental studies department, Gurkul Kangri, Haridwar, were also here to study the affect of fishing on biodiversity and found that “timru” used by villagers for fishing did not pose environmental threat as such.

They also took samples for further study. They will study the impact of “timru” powder on fishes. One of the researchers, Umesh Bharti, said species found in the stream were ‘Mahseer’ (scientific name tor-tor) ‘Gooch’ (Sthizo Thorex), ‘Bang Mach’, ‘Rohu’ and Dancer. Mahseer was the longest.

Bharti said the gradient slope of the rivulet needed to be preserved so that fishes could travel with ease and bred spuriously.

Bharti also said a study conducted by their institute would be able to highlight the affects of anthropogenic activities in the river in relation to the biodiversity. Bharti further said such festivals could help educating villagers on the correlation of healthy environment and anthropogenic activities carried out by them.

Dehradun, July 1
The two thieves, who had stolen jewellery and other items worth over Rs 10 lakh from the house of an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, Sanjay Srivastava, on the Forest Research Institute (FRI) campus, have been arrested. The police has recovered almost all the stolen items.

One of them has been identified as Ishu who works as an office boy while Salman was former worker at the FRI and at present stays at Premnagar. The two had become friends when they were working and staying at the FRI, said the police.

According to the police, the two had committed the theft on the night of June 4. The Srivastava family had gone out of station that night. When they returned, they found the house ransacked and valuables missing.

The cops questioned some of the staff members and finally nabbed the office boy, Ishu. During the interrogation, he disclosed the name of his accomplice, Salman.

Panditwari police chowki in charge Pradeep Rana said the two had been arrested and almost all the recovery made. Ganesh Singh Martolia, SSP, held a press conference regarding the case.

Haridwar, July 1
A 16-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped at Hotel Ganga Avtaran late last night.

According to information, the victim, a resident of Panipat, had eloped from her house owing to “ill-treatment” of her step-mother and had come to seek shelter at the hotel.

At the hotel, one of the accused, Krishna, who works as a chef there, told her that he could help her in getting a room on a nominal charge. He also made entry in the hotel register on the girl’s behalf.

Krishna narrated the story of the girl to his two friends, Arjun and Vipin, and asked them to come to the hotel.

Later, on the pretext of taking her to the room, he allegedly raped her and also called Arjun and Vipin there, who also allegedly raped her. When the victim tried to run away, they beat her up. However, the girl somehow managed to flee and raised the alarm. Hearing her voice, people gathered at the spot and reported the matter to the police.

The police managed to arrest Krishna when he was trying to destroy evidences at the room while the other two accused, Arjun and Vipin, managed to flee.

ASP Nivedita Kukreti said the victim told her that she had run away from her house as her step-mother’s behaviour was not good towards her.

A case under Sections 376/342, 506 of the IPC has been registered against the accused. The medical examination report of the girl is awaited. Her parents have also been informed about the incident.

Dehradun, July 1
After two days of rain in the city, Mayor Vinod Chamoli today visited various places, including Darshan Lal Chowk, Lansdowne Chowk, Kanak Chowk, Quality Chowk, Clock Tower, Indra Market and Gandhi Park.

After taking stock of cleanliness at the Clock Tower, he asked the officials of the PWD to do the needful to prevent water logging in the area. He also asked them to ensure that there was proper alignment at Darshan Lal Chowk and to carry out alterations at the drain at Lansdowne Chowk.

The Mayor also inspected the construction of a drain in the Indira Market and said he was satisfied with the pace of the work.

After examining the Lansdowne Chowk and Quality Chowk on the Gandhi Park side, Chamoli asked the officials to get a a boundary wall constructed there.

He stated that he had approved the appointment of gardeners to maintain Gandhi Park and had sent the matter to the Engineering Department that would soon be appointing 15 labourers and 10 gardeners for the park. “Tenders have already been floated for the beautification of the park and the MC would soon invite applications for building fountains and installing lights at the park,” Chamoli said.

Dehradun, July 1
Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva has laid emphasis on the importance of the Forests Rights Act in ensuring rights of forests dwellers over minor forest produces.

Interacting with media persons on the sidelines of the convocation of the Central Academy for State Forest Service in Dehradun today, Alva said the Forests Rights Act was important towards ensuring that tribals and forest dwellers had genuine rights over minor produces of forests.

She also outlined the need for the foresters to adopt the latest techniques and systems to effectively handle challenges like fast erosion of forest wealth and countering forest fires. A total of 42 officers passed out. They included 17 from Maharashtra, 3 from Karnataka, 13 from Tripura, 2 from Tamil Nadu and 7 from Chhattisgarh.

Earlier, delivering the convocation address at the second convocation of the State Forest Service Course 2009-11, Alva expressed her satisfaction over the training imparted at the academy. She said education and training must provide a cultural grounding in moulding human beings.

She also greeted the passing-out officers and the award winners, stating that as custodians of the country's rich forest wealth, they now have tremendous responsibility on their shoulders at this crucial juncture, with careers of more than three decades before them. She also expressed happiness over a large number woman officers being in the passing-out course. "I am especially pleased to see so many woman officers in the training batches here. It is good that so many of you are joining this service, which was for long considered the exclusive domain of the men,” she observed.

Director, Forest Education, Ajay Kumar delivered the welcome address. Principal of the academy Savita gave details of the various training programmes being conducted at the academy.

Dehradun, July 1
XI Star and City Young registered victories during the 60th Lala Nemi Dass Memorial District Football League held at the Pavilion ground here today.

XI Star defeated Dehra XI 2-0. Bhaskar (fifth minute) and Nobsang (36th minute) scored for the winning team while the rival team failed to retaliate during the whole match. XI Star played an aggressive game throughout the match.

In the second match, City Young got the better of Thakurpur 2-0. Manish Chetri (60th) and Atul Sood (65th) scored two late goals. Thakurpur despite a good start lost the battle. Tomorrow, Doon Challengers will face Willis Youth Club and Akranta will play against Gypsy Club.

Dehradun, July 1
A short-term training programme on “Ecological restoration of mined lands” concluded at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) here today.

The Director, Forest Research Institute, Dr SS Negi, said he was very much hopeful that the participants at the training progamme would apply in the their working what all they had learnt about the ecological restoration of coal mined areas during the programme. The collaboration between Bharat Coking Coal Limited and the FRI is the just a beginning, he added.

Dr SS Negi also handed certificates to the participants. Scientist at Ecology and Environment Division of the FRI Nirmal Ram, Dr Pramod Kumar, Dr Mridula Negi and the heads of various divisions of the FRI were also present.

Dehradun July 1
Irked over the non-fulfilment of their long-pending demands, members of the Uttarakhand Registrar Kanungo Sangh, Dehradun, have announced to boycott work for three days. They also staged a demonstration here today.

A large number of association workers gathered on the campus of the Tehsil office and raised slogans in favour of their demands.

They are demanding the regularisation of jobs, an increase in the pay scale and promotions.

Haridwar, July 1
With the RBI pulling out of circulation the 25 paise coin across the country from today, the coin has become a thing of the past after serving the Indian economy for over six decades since it was introduced in 1950.

However, people feel that the decision has come quite late as the 25 paise coin, popularly known as “chavanni”, as well as its lesser denominations such as 20, 10 and 5 paise coins were of no use as in common practice none accepted these.

But many have become nostalgic, particularly the older generation who enjoyed a whole meal for 25 paise.

Like Uday Ram Semwal, a shopkeeper, thinks back an incident in 1970 when one and two paise coins were also in circulation. He took his fiancee, now his wife, first time for a date at Haridwar’s first coffee shop and then he had just two 25 paise coins, which now, can be considered equivalent to a 100 rupee note.

“But now when this denomination is closed, I ponder how the time has changed,” an emotional Uday who has kept as a souvenir a 1968-made 25 paise in memory of his first date.

While youngsters too are quite aware of the roll out decision as Paridhi Gupta, a commerce topper student, points: “I remember during our primary classes we used to purchase many items from 25 paise, but later it slowly disappeared from market.”

Meanwhile, Shaivya Rastogi, a banking aspirant, agrees with the roll out as she says many a times in the past few years she tried to give 25 paise coins to shopkeepers but they failed to accept it.

Today is the official day for the roll out but unofficially it had been unacceptable for the past few years.

“It would be better if the government pull out denomination of 50 paise also so that all commodities should be priced in rupees only. Then there will be no added 50 paise or 99 paise to any item, which incurs loss to consumers only,” opined Shaivya.

While Naresh Chaudhari, who used to collect coins, said the name “chavanni” was quite interesting as at that time denomination of “annas” was in prevalence and 4 annas were equal to 25 paise approximately which became popular as “chavanni”.

Councillor Rajender Singh Dhillon had complained to Joshi that one Kureshi had opened a meat shop in front of Durga Temple. — TNS