Dehradun, July 6
A resident of Meerut, Nitish (21), who had accepted his wife as his sister and decided to reunite her with her former lover, thinks his “sacrifice” has gone in vain. The 19-year-old girl has reportedly been dumped by her lover.

“I saved three lives and what did I get a legal action on a complaint by Aarti’s family,” said Nitin, who was initially engaged to Aarti’s elder sister who eloped with her lover. He had to marry Aarti on repeated requests of her family to marry the girl to save their honour.

Apprehending their implication in a false case at Rudrapur, Nitish’s family and relatives met Director General of Police (DGP) at the Police Headquarters in Dehradun today. They requested the DGP, Jyoti Swaroop Pandey, to direct the SSP of Udham Singh Nagar to verify all the facts and incidents before registering any case against them.

“Aarti’s family has lodged a false case of dowry, abduction and torture against us at Meerut and now they may lodge a similar case against us at Rudrapur, as the girl’s father is a Sub-Inspector and has been posted at the Police Armed Constabulary (PAC) unit at Rudrapur, Udham Singh Nagar district,” said Nitish, after meeting the DGP.

Nitish and Aarti got married on May 6. On the first night of the marriage the bride told the groom that she had secretly married her lover Vineet and she married Nitish due to family’s pressure.

Aarti told Nitish she looked to him as her brother. She even tied a rakhi around Nitish’s wrist. The boy then decided to reunite the two lovers. However, the story took a twist when the girl was reportedly dumped by her lover, who is said to be missing, said Nitish. “Now members of the girl’s family are threatening us that they would ensure that we are sent to jail, and demanding Rs 12 lakh,” alleged Nitish’s relatives.

Nitish was earlier working as a supervisor with an IT company while Aarti is a BCom first year student. Both the families are based in Meerut.

Nainital, July 6
The state administration is in the process of overhauling the tourism set-up in the Kumaon region with a view to tapping the tourism potential to the optimum.

To begin with, the Tourism Department plans to divide the region into five decentralised tourist zones and recruit officials at the top level for their management.

Talking to mediapersons here yesterday, Principal Secretary (Tourism) Rakesh Sharma said the first of the proposed zones would be Nainital and neighbouring areas, including Kathgodam. The Terai zone would include Haldwani, Rudrapur, Jaspur and adjoining areas. The third zone would comprise Pithoragarh

district. Almora and Bageshwar make up the fourth zone while Ramnagar, Kashipur and areas in that vicinity would be included in the fifth zone.

Two new positions, those of General Managers for Project and Marketing and Tourism, were to be created for these zones for which there would be an open selection process. Their duties would entail a regular monitoring of the functioning of the tourism infrastructure.

“Financial and administrative powers will be granted to these officials. We need them to be at a functional level,” said Sharma.

Positions of three Deputy General Managers, one under Projects and two under Marketing, would also be created. The aim of this was to create motivation within this work arena where employees would aspire for promotions.

“The idea is at the preliminary stage. It was officials and unit heads under me who approached me with these ideas. A board meeting will be held in order to finalise these details by August 15. We have given ourselves time till March 31, 2012, for this initiative,” he said.

The Principal Secretary also disclosed that a Rs 15 crore grant had been allocated for the improvement and restoration of tourist rest houses in the Kumaon region. “We are open to the idea of not only public-private partnership (PPP) but also reverse-PPP where private land and government management can coexist. Monitoring is not my job. I am here to give resources,” he asserted.

Among other things, he also discussed the project of lighting in the town of Nainital. A similar initiative has just been completed in the town of Mussoorie. As regards publicity of the town, he said the Uttarakhand Tourism Board was adept at this. He advocated online sources where enough publicity material and information was available. Sharma also announced the construction of 24 new tourist cottages in Almora and the demolition and reconstruction of half of similar property in Binsar.

He advocated the cause of “regulated tourism” in Nainital where the town is not overburdened, traffic is diverted to towns like Mukteshwar and Sattaal and an online numbering system of the kind used at Vaishno Devi is brought into practice.

Dehradun, July 6
With denizens of Dehradun becoming more health conscious and fitness freak, a number of gyms are springing up at every nook and corner these days.

Influenced by his or her favourite onscreen actors and actresses, everyone desires to get their look and does not even mind undergoing a knife to possess similar shape.

Perhaps, some low-priced and untrained health centres mushrooming in the city claim to give that perfect shape and size through their services, but lack of professionalism and wrong assistance can lead one to worse conditions.

EC Road, Bullupur, Rajpur Road, Haridwar Road, Defence Colony, Garhi and Kolagarh are some of the fitness destinations which have been witnessing gyms and health clinics for many years. But the question remains that how many of them are run by professionally trained gym instructors?

“There are many myths attached with weight training and fitness programmes. People have a propensity to follow wrong diet, especially during rainy and winter seasons. Fried dishes like pakoras, samosas and junk foods like pizzas, noodles do look tempting, but these are not good for health,” said Avinash Gaur, owner and instructor at Slim and Shape Fitness Center, Ballupur.

“With modern lifestyle, wrong eating habits, lack of exercise, less physical work and improper guidance, we tend to put on excessive fat in our body. To gain the ideal shape, size, stamina and fitness, we must exercise daily and keep a check on proper nutritious diet,” he said.

He suggests that one must stick to inmate food type rather than going for a processed dietary. Fried food can be replaced by boiled, grilled and steamed food. Go for natural oils found in nuts such as almonds, cashew nuts, peanuts, walnuts, pistachio, olives and coconuts, which have properties of essential vitamins and vital nutrients. One must have coloured fruits, leafy vegetables, sprouts, lentils and dairy products regularly to stay healthy.

Sheetal Thapa, a VLCC professional, elucidates on the natural ways to stay in shape and look healthier. “We suggest clients to lead a healthy life rather than going for artificial treatments and surgeries. We provide them slimming treatment comprising massage, steam, vibrating therapy through new kinds of techniques and muscle toning equipments.”

As per the recommendation of all fitness experts, yoga teamed up with brisk walk in the morning hours reduces the chance of becoming diabetic, obese and heart patient. The light exercises and various asanas performed in yoga helps to detoxify body and stay in shape.

Deepak Raturi, a city-based yoga trainer, strongly advises the younger generation not to be anexoric and run behind the size zero figure.

“The thought of fitness should come from within. It shouldn’t be forcibly done. Stamina, power, strength and flexibility altogether make an individual a fit person but dieting makes the body weak and frail.”

“Make exercising a daily habit. From various exercises, including cardio, weight training, muscle toning, aerobics, yoga, tai chi and kickboxing, one can choose any of them which suit their body to help shedding extra pounds from the body,” he added.

Mussoorie, July 6
Tibetans in Mussoorie celebrated the 76th birthday of Dalai Lama with fervour and enthusiasm at Happy Valley amid heavy rain today.

The ceremony began with special prayer sessions held at the Buddha Temple in which community members prayed for the well-being and long life of their spiritual head.

A ceremonial scarf was offered to the portrait of Dalai Lama at the Tsering Dolma Auditorium where the Tibetan Homes Foundation (THF) general secretary addressed a gathering by reading out a message from the Tibetan government-in-exile.

In the statement, the Tibetan cabinet extended greetings on the 76th birthday of Dalai Lama and pleaded him to remain with the community and guide the Tibetans as long as possible.

Students from the THF and members of the Tibetan Women Congress presented various cultural programmes to keep the memories of the homeland alive among the youth.

An inter-house song and dance competition were also held on the occasion in which the students from Class V to XII participated. Fun and games for the kids were also held on the CST ground along with the raffle draw.

Student from the THF Yecshi said Tibetans believed that one day Tibet would be free and they would be able to go back and live with dignity in their homeland. He, however, was sad that Dalai Lama was devolving his political power and was of the view that this move would undermine the struggle for free Tibet as he was respected around the world and without him the Tibetan community would not be able to garner the much-needed support for the movement.

CST principal VK Singh also wished Dalai Lama on his birthday and said the Tibetans should follow the path of non-violence shown by the Dalai Lama.

Dehradun, July 6
Even after signing two agreements with the Uttarakhand Government to set up a modern state-of-the-art heart facility at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (Coronation) Hospital in March under the PPP mode, a heart care centre to be set up by Fortis Health Care is waiting for the 108 Emergency Services to move out of the hospital.

Despite handing over the second floor to Fortis Health Care according to the terms and conditions of the agreement, the office of the GVK EMRI 108 Emergency Services office continues to function from the hospital.

“Though some portion of the second floor that was with the hospital authorities has been vacated last week, we cannot start work till the entire portion is vacant. The OPD and other units have to begin functioning together. But we are hopeful that we will be able to get the unit ready by November . Besides, a part of the facility will also get going by the next month,” said Dr Rajeev Singhal, Director, Fortis Health Care.

The GVK EMRI 108 Emergency Services office has been functioning from the hospital for the past three years and the company has shown reluctance to move out unless provided with alternative space.

“We have still not been allocated a permanent place to shift. Our call centre that is vital to our operations has to be shifted in units so that our services do not get disrupted. The government had suggested a few places that unfortunately are already taken up by other parties. We do not see the possibility of our moving out anytime soon,” said Manish Tinku, head of operations, GVK EMRI, Uttarakhand.

The facility at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (Coronation) Hospital will be the first-of-its-kind cardiac care facility in Dehradun.

The initial phase of the contract will be for 10 years.

The proposed facility will have a cardiac care unit, cath lab, cardiac OT, a non- invasive diagnostic lab and an ICU for cardiac surgery.