DMC team removes six hoardings 
Dehradun, November 22
Six major hoardings were removed by a team of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) under the supervision of Deputy Mukhya Nagar Adkhikari Sadia Alam Khan in the city today. The removed hoardings were controversial and three of them belonged to the leader of the opposition in DMC, Ashok Verma, on Darshan Lal Chowk and three others on Rajpur Road, including two of Vodafone. 

CM gives Rs 5 lakh to blind school 
Dehradun, November 22
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has announced a sum of Rs 5 lakh from the CM Discretionary Fund for Sharp Memorial Blind School at Dehradun. Bahuguna speaking as the chief guest of Sharp Memorial's 125th Foundation Day here today said the disable children needed no sympathy, but affection.

Talks between power staff, MD, UPCL, end without result
Dehradun, November 22
The talks of representatives of Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) with the Managing Director, UPCL, AK Johri, over their demands of upgradation of staff structure ended without any fruitful result today.

Dehradun, November 22
Councillor Sachin Gupta along with a delegation met District Magistrate (DM) BVRC Purushottam today regarding the grievances against the Social Welfare Department. Gupta said the Social Welfare Department was not doing its duty of helping disabled and elderly people.

He said the department had set up its office in Doiwala for which the hapless people had to travel long distance and spent money on bus fare in making several visits to pursue their case.

He complained that there was no facility of direct bus-service up to the office and no surety that the sufferers would meet the officer concerned on that particular day.

He said the people had to shell out Rs 200 on a visit to get pension of Rs 400.

According to him, setting up office outside the city was causing mental and physical harassment to the poor. He demanded to shift the premises of the department in the heart of the city.

He also brought the attention to the fact that the department was not issuing scholarships to children belonging to the Other Backward Castes (OBC), owing to which their future was in limbo.

He said the BJP government had removed the condition of having son or grandson of the age limit of 20 years or above to hold any BPL category eligible for pension, but despite that tehsil employees were hoodwinking in disbursing pension on this account. He said politics should not be played in such matters.

He also stated that elderly people, widow and disabled had not received pension, though their cases had been cleared a year ago. He urged Purushottam to look into these issues seriously and take concrete action on them.

Purushottam assured him of his sincere efforts in this direction.

Dehradun, November 22
Six major hoardings were removed by a team of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) under the supervision of Deputy Mukhya Nagar Adkhikari Sadia Alam Khan in the city today. The removed hoardings were controversial and three of them belonged to the leader of the opposition in DMC, Ashok Verma, on Darshan Lal Chowk and three others on Rajpur Road, including two of Vodafone. 

One structure of Vodafone was so massive that it took a group of 20 workers from morning till evening to dismantle it. Vodafone managers tried to stop the team saying the hoardings were installed on private land but Khan showed them the High Court orders mentioning the company name and the spot where the hoardings were located. The team continued with its work and finally brought down all the six hoardings. Tomorrow, other big hoardings would be removed.

The owners of the hoardings had been able to scuttle any drive to remove these for more than two years. Despite the High Court orders, DMC officials could not do much. Rather, on one occasion, when Khan was sent by Mukhya Nagar Adhkari (MNA) Ashok Kumar to remove one illegal hoarding of BJP leader Vinay Goyal, she was called back while she was having an argument with the leader. Khan felt humiliated and wrote a letter to the MNA to make things clear to her in future. It is only when the High Court has taken a tough stance that the drive has been launched on a full scale. Mayor Vinod Chamoli said, “I had deliberations with the MNA and told him in categorical terms that if he did not act against illegal hoardings now, the High Court would take action against him and other DMC officials. Nevertheless, without the intervention of the High Court, the task could never be accomplished.”

Dehradun, November 22
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has announced a sum of Rs 5 lakh from the CM Discretionary Fund for Sharp Memorial Blind School at Dehradun. Bahuguna speaking as the chief guest of Sharp Memorial's 125th Foundation Day here today said the disable children needed no sympathy, but affection.

Bahuguna said if supported, the disabled children could achieve great success in their lives. He said these children were not lack talent and they just needed encouragement. He observed that supporting these children and extending affection was for the benefit of society.

Appreciating the endeavour of the school in providing support to the visually impaired children, Bahuguna said the state government would fully support the school.

The children presented a colourful cultural programme on the occasion. The Chief Minister also released a souvenir. Also present on the occasion were superintendent of Sharp Memorial School PM Samuel and Dr Satish John.

Dehradun, November 22
Forty senior citizens today went on a pilgrimage to four Siddhas around Dehradun organised by HelpAge India under the Sponsor-a-Grandparent programme. The tour was flagged off by 89-year-old C. Kashyap.

The main objective of the tour was to visit the four Siddhas in a day and it was proposed by elderly people. According to senior citizens, if somebody visits the four Siddhas in a day it fulfils the wishes of the pilgrims. All senior citizens were very happy to undertake the pilgrimage. They visited Manik Siddha followed by Kaloo Siddha then Lakshman Siddha and finally Mado Siddha. All pilgrims offered ‘gud ki bheli’ flowers etc, as prasad at the temples.

Prem Singh, a senior citizen, expressed satisfaction as he could visit the four Siddhas in a day. He praised HelpAge India for organising such programmes for the elderly. The tour was coordinated by Ashutosh Mishra and Sashi Kumar Negi of HelpAge India. 

Dehradun, November 22
In order to break the stalemate arising out of the lockout by employees of the Peyjal Nigam started from November 16, Uttarakhand Water Resources Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani has invited MD Peyjal Nigam Ravinder Singh for talks in Srinagar.

The MD left for Srinagar today and is likely to hold talks with the minister tomorrow.

The minister has made an appeal to the employees to call off their stir and resume work. But unless there is significant movement on the issue of the main demands, the employees say they will not call off their stir. “We are open for talks but unless the government concedes to our main demands as agreed during a meeting in August with the Chief Minister, we will be forced to continue with our lockout,” said Sanjeev Kumar Dosad of the Adhikari Karamchari Sanyukt Samiti.

The main demands of the employees include according the government department status to the Peyjal Nigam, government salaries to employees, bearing of establishment charges by the government and the release of arrears to retired employees.

Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam employees ensured the closure of all Peyjal Nigam offices in Dehradun, Nainital and Pauri districts.

Dehradun, November 22
Final matches were played today at the All-India Talent Series Tennis Tournament 2012 (Under-14 and Under-16 boys and girls) being held at the Shanti Tennis Academy, Dehradun.

In U-14 boys, Sabrang Sandal (Chandigarh) stood first beating Manik Dabar (Uttarakhand) 6-4, 6-2 in the final. Similarly in U-14 girls, Neelanchal Gupta (Delhi) emerged victorious beating Komaljeet Kaur (Chandigarh) 6-4, 7-5 in the final.

In U-16 girls final, Sachi Belwal (Uttarakhand) became champion beating Neelanchal Gupta (Delhi) 6-1, 6-1. Similarly, In the U-16 boys' final, Eklavya Singh (Jharkhand) beat Rishabh Sharda (Chandigarh) 6-2, 6-2.

Earlier, In U-14 boys' semifinals, Manik Dabar (Uttarakhand) beat Mohit Sarawat (Delhi) 7-6, 7-3 whereas Sabrang Sandal (Chandigarh) beat Rishabh Sharda (Chandigarh) 6-3, 6-3. In U-14 girls semifinals, Komaljeet Kaur (Chandigarh) beat Misha Sood (Delhi) 6-2, 6-0 and Neelanchal Gupta (Delhi) beat Harleen Kaur (Punjab) 7-4, 6-3.

In under-16 girls semifinals, Sachi Belwal (Uttarakhand) beat Jahanvi (Haryana) 6-2, 6-2 while Neelanchal Gupta (Delhi) beat Komaljeet Kaur (Chandigarh) 6-4 ,7-5 in the second semifinal. In under-16 boys semifinals, Eklavya Singh (Jharkhand) beat Kelvin (Manipur) 6-3, 6-1 and Risabh Sharda (Chandigarh) beat Nirvan Sahani (Delhi) 6-2, 6-2.

Dehradun, November 22
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna unveiled a statue of freedom fighter late Goverdhan Tiwari at Goverdhan Tiwari Base Hospital in Almora yesterday. The statue had been built at a cost of Rs 7.74 lakh.

Bahuguna said to meet the shortage of doctors in the state they were being appointed on the contract basis. He added the contract period of the doctors had been increased from one year to three years and their salary had also been raised.

The Chief Minister assured the gathering of addressing the water and health problems on priority. He said considering the shortage of technical medical staff the recruitment process for them would be initiated at the earliest so that required medical facilities could be provided to the people.

Congress MLA Manoj Tiwari apprised the Chief Minister about the pathetic condition of the hospital. Bahuguna the government endeavour would be to provide all requisite medical equipment to the hospital so that it did not remain a mere referral centre.

The Chief Minister also assured the people of resolving all problems of the area as projected by the MLA.

Tiwari said the Chief Minister was making serious efforts to redress the problems and had sanctioned Rs 35 crore for drinking water projects in Almora and Rs 75 crore for the establishment of a medical college.

The MLA also urged the Chief Minister to extend assistance for the upgrade of the local stadium. Bahuguna assured him of allocation of funds for the same soon.

MLAs Lalit Farswan, Himesh Kharkwal, Vijay Tiwari, son of late Goverdhan Tiwari, Nagar Palika chairperson Sobha Joshi and Prakash Joshi were also present on the occasion. 

Mussoorie, November 22
Mahavir Singh Rana was re-elected as president of the Nagar Palika Parishad Karmchari Sangh here yesterday.

The other elected members of the trade union were CP Baloni as general secretary, Rajendar Prasad Thapliyal as chief adviser, Bakthawar Singh as convener, Prabhakar Bhatt as spokesperson, Shiv Singh Butola as office secretary and Bhagwan Singh Negi as organisation secretary.

Rana thanked the union members for their support and said he would continue to work for the interests of the MC employees. He said the Labour Commissioner and the Registrar of Trade Unions, Uttarakhand, had been informed about the elections.

Dehradun, November 22
Senior Superintendent of Police Kewal Khurana visited Paltan Bazaar and met customers on the road today. Khurana got a positive response from the customers, who expressed their happiness over removal of all sorts of encroachments and parking problems. Khurana has asked for two more days from the traders to ensure whether the public was comfortable with the drive.

He said the drive was started keeping in view the convenience of the public and he was happy that the public at large showed contentment over the drive.

Meanwhile, Kewal Khurana gave direction to the Raipur police to register a case in the death of Deepak Dubey, who had drowned in a local river on September 26. The police had not registered a case in the matter. Today Dubey's mother met the SSP and said that she suspected eight of her son's friends who had gone with him on the fateful day for a picnic.

Khurana further assured of investigation into the case.