Pithoragarh, July 10
Demanding a road linking all the nine villages of the area and a mobile phone tower in the valley, the villagers of the Chaudans valley in Dharchula subdivision today stopped the pilgrims of the seventh batch of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra while the batch was crossing Sosa village to reach the first camp at Sirkha.

“The villagers let the pilgrims go only after they get assurances from the local administrative officers, who were accompanying the pilgrims, that their grievances will be conveyed to the local administration. The pilgrims had been stopped from 11am to 2pm by the villagers who wanted to draw the attention of the administration towards their demand for a road and a mobile tower in the Chaudans valley,” said Dr Abhisekh Tripathi, SDM, Dharchula.

According to the villagers, their purpose was not to inconvenience the pilgrims but to convey their message to the country through these pilgrims as how they have been neglected by the administration for the past 64 years after the Independence.

“A population of 3,000 in the nine villages of the Chaudans valley is facing acute difficulties in moving from one place to other, as the area is part of the Askot Musk deer sanctuary. As it falls under the restricted forest area, not even a single kutcha way had been sanctioned for the villages for past 64 years after the Independence and 10 years after the creation of the separate state of Uttarakhand, forcing the villagers to migrate to other areas,” said Deewan Singh Patiyal, convener of Chaudans Ghati Sangharsh Samiti.

“If our demands are not looked into by the administration in the near future, we will resume our agitation,” said Patiyal.

Meanwhile, the batch reached Narain Ashram two hours late and from there the pilgrims were taken to the Sirkha camp on there way to Gunji. The route has been badly damaged at two places, said the SDM.

Nainital, July 10
Five persons were washed away while three had a narrow escape when a flash flood was witnessed in the Baur river in the Kaladhungi area of Nainital district. According to the information available, all the five victims were members of a family that had come for a visit to the area from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.

It is learnt that Mohammad Illyas of Tanda Badli in Rampur had taken a mango orchard on contract for plucking and selling the fruit produce. The members of his family had come to the orchard in Chhoti Haldwani for helping him out with the work and had been residing there for the past few days.

On Saturday evening, all the eight members of the family went to the banks of the Baur river to take a dip. The weather was fine at the time when they went to the river. However, there was a flash flood as water came gushing down the river and washed away five members. Those who were washed away included 40-year-old Naseem Jahan, 20-year-old Mumtaz, Nazreen, eight-year-old Samreen and six-year-old Samama.

Zulfikar, an elderly person, saved two children identified as Salman and Arisa.

On coming to know about the incident, people from the surrounding areas rushed to the spot to help the police and the personnel of the Fire Brigade in rescue operations. Till late evening, the authorities had been able to retrieve the bodies of Nasim Jahan, Samama, Mumtaz and Samreen.

The authorities have advised the people to stay away from the water bodies.

Dehradun, July 10
Venturing into the area of the Ayurvedic medical tourism for the first time, the Uttarakhand government and Emami Limited’s Rs 65 crore Ayush Gram Project at Bhawali near Nainital will offer different Indian systems of medicine under one roof.

Taking a leaf from Kerala that gained immense popularity for the medical tourism, especially for Ayurveda treatments, the Uttarakhand government too is banking high on the Ayush Gram projects to promote this kind of tourism.

Significantly, the inclusion of homoeopathy, naturopathy and Unani was undertaken at the insistence of the Chief Minister who was shown the model of the project at the ongoing Health Exhibition by company officials.

“The project is a test case for us as we are venturing into the Ayurveda Tourism with private partners, catering to the high-end clients from both India and abroad. Earlier, we were only thinking in terms of promoting Ayurveda only, but now homoeopathy, naturopathy and Unani too will be included,” said a company official from Emami.

The concept of the Ayush Gram envisages promoting centres, where along with the Indian system of medicine, cultivation of herbs is also taken up involving the locals.

The project being undertaken under the public-private partnership mode will comprise an ayurvedic hospital, a drug manufacturing unit, a 3-star hotel, a museum, herbal cultivation facilities and a lodge on 10 acres leased out by the Health Department to Emami for 60 years.

To participate in the health exhibition, the company officials said the formalities regarding signing of lease deal with the Health Department would take place this month and all components under the project would take shape by 2012-2013.

The Rishikesh-based Parmarth Niketan, that is also part of the consortium with Emami, has been roped in to provide expertise in running Ayurvedic hospital, offering, besides other things, Panchakarma and Yoga. While the Chevron Hotel chain of Delhi would build the 3-star hotel, offering spa facility for high-end clients.

“Ayurveda medicines have ways to totally rejuvenate the body and mind. These procedures improve your physical and mental activities measurably using botanical preparations. It has gained significance in this modern world due to its holistic approach to the well-being of the individual,” said Dr Pooja Bhardwaj, Director, Ayurveda and Unani Servics. 

Dehradun, July 10
Congress workers under the aegis of the Uttarakhand Women’s Congress today set ablaze the effigy of the Uttarakhand Chief Minister, alleging scam in the state Health Department.

Setting ablaze the Chief Minister’s effigy at Clock Tower, Dehradun, Payal Behl, State Women’s Congress leader, alleged that a scam in the state Health Department, linked to purchase of medicines, had taken place in at the behest of the Chief Minister’s office. She asserted that the Nishank government had crossed all limits of corruption and was indulging in acts of corruption.

The protesters also raised slogans against the Nishank government. Rekha Arora, Devendra Sethi and Lalchand Sharma were prominent among the protesters.

Dehradun, July 10
Uttarakhand Lakshman Chowk Congress MLA Dinesh Agarwal has accused the state BJP government of indulging in large-scale corruption.

Addressing a convention of Uttarakhand Congress Dharampur Assembly segment workers, Dinesh Agarwal accused the BJP government of indulging in large-scale corruption in the state.

He said the development in the state had come to a standstill ever since the BJP government came to power. He called upon the Congress workers to highlight the misdeeds of the state BJP government before the people.

Congress leader Pramod Kumar Singh asked the Dharampur assembly segment workers to remain fully prepared for the assembly elections in the state.

He said the people of the state had been fed up with the BJP government.

Echoing similar sentiments, Dehradun Councillor Ashok Verma referred to the pathetic state of civic amenities in Dehradun.

He said with monsoons already set in, the drains in Dehradun were yet to get cleared.

A large number of Congress workers was present on the occasion. 

Dehradun, July 10
The Bharatiya Jan Seva Manch has moved the Nainital High Court against the non-issuance of certificates to the members of the SC, ST and OBC categories.

This was stated by Jai Singh, president of the Manch, here today.

He said the Chief Justice had asked the Uttarakhand Government to file a reply within six weeks to why the issuance of certificates to these people is being delayed.

The manch has said before the court that the District Magistrate and the Tehsildar had failed to issue certificates to these people.

It stated that owing to the non-issuance of certificates students were facing difficulties in getting admissions to various educational institutes.

Dehradun, July 10
Posing as a reporter of a reputed national news channel, a native of Agra duped several persons of their money across the country, the police said.

The accused, Shailendra Singh, was arrested from a city hotel today where he had been putting up for the past two months. The police has recovered three or four cheques from him.

He had taken these cheques from his victims and even tampered with the figures on all these.

The police has also recovered fake IDs and papers related with the news channel from him.

However, he told the police that though he had all those documents, he never misused those.

According to Abbal Singh Rawat, Inspector who has been posted at the Kotwali police station, the police had received a complaint from a local resident, Kamla Soni, last month. She was approached by Shailendra claiming to be from a Malaysian firm and offered her that he would open an ATM machine close to her shop at Saharanpur Chowk. After some days, he asked her to invest some money in the venture, as it would give her good returns. He took a cheque for Rs 150 from her as registration charges. However, he tampered with the figure making the amount on the cheque Rs 20,150 and encashed it.

When he didn’t show up after withdrawing Rs 20,150 from her account, Kamla reported the matter to the police. On the basis of a photograph of the man given to the police by the victim, the police checked out with city hotels if they had seen the man.

Shailendra told the police that he had cheated people the same way in Haridwar, Dehradun, Nainital and Agra. He used to stay at hotels under different identities and has got a resume showing him a gold medallist in BCom. His bio-data recovered from him says he is an MBA and journalism diploma holder.

Dehradun, July 10
The local intelligence unit today arrested two Nigerians. It also recovered two fake passports of South Africa besides other documents from their possession. The accused, Beelo and Jackson, were staying at a city hotel on Tyagi Road.

Officials said they were in India for the business of garments. The documents and the items recovered from them did not indicate towards any illegal activity, they added.

The officials said the hotel authorities had informed them about the Nigerians.

According to information, Beelo had come to Mumbai. But he lost his passport and came to Delhi and lived there illegally. In Delhi, he met Jackson of the same country.

The visa of Jackson had expired and he was also putting up in Delhi illegally. The duo then came to Dehradun and started living at the hotel here. The duo will be produced in a local court tomorrow.

Mussoorie, July 10
Members of the gram panchayat, the Mahila Mangal Dal, the Gram Suraksha Samiti and the Van Panchayat from Patudi village in Chamba block of Tehri Garhwal at a meeting held today decided to impose a ban on serving liquor during any social function, be it a wedding or birthday function of a child. It was also decided that a fine amounting to Rs 1,100 would be imposed on families which did not comply with the decision.

Women of the village have welcomed the move and said the liquor menace was destroying the basic social fabric of the village. They were unhappy that men indulged in brawls after drinks during any function in the village.

Rama Devi was of the view that the pressure of serving liquor on weddings also put a burden on poor families that had to borrow money to arrange liquor and this new order would certainly help curbing such overspending.

Patudi village pradhan Anand Singh Kaintura, Mahila Mangal Dal president Beena Kaintura and Kundan Singh said the need to impose such a ban was felt due to increase in the liquor culture.

Anand Singh further said they were also contemplating a ban on the DJ and other such activities which had adverse effect on the youth of the village. 

Dehradun, July 10
A delegation of the Irrigation Department Employees Association met Principal Secretary, Irrigation, PC Sharma to show their concern over the delay in the distribution among work to various divisions.

President of the association Shekhranand Raturi said a proposal to this effect had already been sent by the Chief Engineer and HOD to the state government but the issue had been hanging fire since then.

He said Irrigation Minister Matbar Singh Kandari too had written to the state government regarding the matter several times, but to no avail. The Irrigation department was the only department in the state which was neither restructured nor renamed after the formation of the state, and the entire process had only been confined to the correspondence between the department and the state government without any end results, he added.

Raturi said: “The employees are anguished over the delay in the division of properties of the department and the merger of the Irrigation Department and the Small Irrigation Department. The minister concerned had been making declarations regarding the matter in the past, but these were never implemented. Rather the state government had begun calling our department as a ‘white elephant’, whereas the truth is that talented and experienced engineers and employees of the Irrigation Department have no work for the past 10 years, which was why we demanded for an equal distribution of work.”

He made it clear that if the state government did not fulfil their demands by August 15, then they would go on an indefinite fast.— TNS

Dehradun, July 10
Uttarakhand Police got the better of Dehra XI in a league match during the ongoing 60th Lala Nemi Dass Memorial District Football League here today.

Narender (30th minute) and Ashok (42nd minute) were the scorers in the win of the police team.

Dehra XI struggled to score a single goal during the match and ended up on a goalless note.

Vijay Cantt registered 3-1 victory over Khukri. Tushar (sixth minute), Ankur (12th minute) and Nitin (42nd minute) netted a goal each to fashion the win. Rajat (65th minute) was the lone scorer for the losing side.

The third match between Akranta and Sarvodaya ended on a 1-1 draw.

Tomorrow, Uttarakhand Police will face Indra Club and Doon Star will take on Nagar Nigam in league matches.