Baba Ki Mazar shifted to Chorkhala
Dehradun, November 27
Baba Ki Mazar, which was occupying 10 ft space in the middle of the road on Chakrata Road and had been a cause for many accidents, was finally shifted to a roadside at Chorkhala this evening. It has been allotted to 12 ft space.

Dehradun, November 27
For stronger implementation of the PCPNDT Act (2004), the State Appropriate Authority (SAA) monitoring committee today decided to put in place an ultrasound tracking system in ultrasound machines at the government hospitals, uploading of Form F and ensuring that radiologists work at two ultrasound centres only.

At a meeting chaired by state Health Minister Surinder Singh Negi that was attended by government officials, members from different NGOs and other stakeholders stressed on giving teeth to the PCPNDT Act.

“The ultrasound tracking system will be set up in government hospitals by a private party. It will help us track the ultrasound centres. In the private centres, such a tracking system will come up only after the clinical establishment bill is passed,” said Dr Saroj Naithaini, state nodal officer for PCPNDT Act.

The state has already started receiving information being filed by the ultrasound centre owners under Form F. The form contains all information about an expectant mother, including the number of pregnancies etc.

The filling of the form is now mandatory.

The details and clinic-wise data through the online reporting system will be available on the public domain.

As of now, 487 registered ultrasound centres have filled Form F. The forms will be evaluated by the District and State Appropriate Authority Committees on the PCPNDT Act. The committees will track those women who have two daughters and have undergone ultrasound examination in the pregnancy period of 12-20 weeks.

“However, it has come to light that complete information about residential addresses of the patients who had undergone ultrasound was not being provided. We will be issuing directives to the hospitals to ensure that identity cards are submitted by the patients at the time of ultrasound examination,” said Piyush Singh, Additional Secretary, Health.

In Dehradun, 317 registered ultrasound centres have filled Form F. Besides, there was consensus on restricting the radiologists to provide their services at two ultrasound centres only and the private practitioners sought clarification on the matter to which Dr RP Bhatt, CMO, said, “The PCPNDT Act mandates that a radiologist works at only two ultrasound centres falling within the radius of 20 km. This provision has to be strictly implemented to curb the practice of radiologists working in multiple centres, which is likely to be misused,” said Dr Bhatt.

Dehradun, November 27
Baba Ki Mazar, which was occupying 10 ft space in the middle of the road on Chakrata Road and had been a cause for many accidents, was finally shifted to a roadside at Chorkhala this evening. It has been allotted to 12 ft space.

It was after the district administration, Mayor Vinod Chamoli and former Speaker Harbans Kapoor had discussions with Qazi Maulana Mohd Kasmi, caretaker Ballupur mosque Mohd Shahid and other religious leaders such as Sahed Khan and Nafiz Ahmad that this sensitive issue could be tackled smoothly.

The entire paraphernalia of the mazar was neatly removed and packed in a coffin and reinstalled at Chorkhala.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli said the issue of shifting of mazar also arose when Chakrata Road was widened but the people of the Muslim community were not ready for this at that time.

He said it was a communication gap among representatives of all groups concerned that the matter continued to hang fire. This time people were taken into full confidence before shifting the mazar to a place, which was liked by every one.

City Magistrate Harak Singh Rawat said it was not easy to remove the mazar which was 70-year old and people were deeply attached with it.

He said the religious sentiments were taken care of while removing the paraphernalia. Police security was also beefed up at the venue.

Mussoorie, November 27
A board meeting of the Mussoorie Municipal Council (MC) was marred by chaotic scenes amid allegations of political conspiracy levelled by the elected ward members against the executive officer (EO), who is also the secretary of the board, here today.

The MC ward members arrived for meeting around noon and were agitated to find that the executive officer Prahlad Singh was missing from the meeting. The members alleged that Prahlad Singh Yadav was deliberately keeping away from such important meeting where the development work of the town was to be discussed.

Ward Member Nand Lal alleged that the EO was trying to stall the development works by not giving nod to tenders passed by the council in the previous meeting which was unconstitutional.

Jasvir Kaur, another member, said Prahlad Singh Rawat, on the pretext of lack of funds in the council, was trying to please his political masters who were in opposition in the council.

Kedar Singh Chauhan, ward member, also said the EO had the legal obligation to pass the tenders proposed at the council meeting.

Sushil Agarwal, another ward member, said most of the roads had been dug up in the town and they being the elected members were being questioned by citizens of the town.

Therefore, the development works were the need of the hour but the executive officer was trying to stop all such works due to dubious intentions. The ward members also alleged that the EO was not attending to the meeting deliberately thus hurting the sentiments of the people.

They demanded to cancel the meeting today and reschedule it whenever the EO was present in the meeting. Several ward members also said they should apprise the Chief Secretary about the working of the EO and demanded his transfer from the town immediately. The MC president OP Uniyal also shared the sentiments of the ward members and said the EO had no right to stall any development work passed by the council members.

He cancelled the meeting and said the higher authorities in the administration would be informed about the whole issue and the meeting would be convened in the coming days once again.

Dehradun, November 27
The police has arrested the leader of the Banti gang, Rajiv Tomar of Ghaziabad, and his accomplices Ravi Thapa of Dehradun and Vikas Verma of Baghpat.

It also seized four pistols, cartridges, gold and silver jewellery and Rs 17,000 from their possession, besides impounding two cars.

They had recently committed a theft in a house at Rajpur. They are also facing many cases at the Vikasnagar police station in Ghaziabad.

SSP Kewal Khurana said the trio was arrested when they were planning to commit a theft in a jewellery shop. DGP Satyavrat Bansal has rewarded the team that arrested them with a cash prize of Rs 20,000.

Tomar was wanted in a number of theft cases. He was also jailed in 2008.

He admitted to have committed thefts along with his accomplices, Rajan, Banti and Luxman Singh Bisht, at Tapovan Enclave in Raipur, Rajeshwar Nagar, Johri village, Nagal Hatnala, Jogiwala, Harrawala, Roorkee and Haldwani.

Explaining about their modus operandi, SSP Khurana said Luxman would do a recce of houses or shops to be burgled. After this, his accomplices committed the theft while he used to stand outside the premises. He would keep in touch with them over the cellphone.

The other members of the Banti gang, Asif, alias Pappu, Pramod Kumar, Raju, alias Azam and Shadab Khan, alias Shabbu, are already behind bars.

Dehradun, November 27
The Doiwala police today arrested three persons, Aman, Arun and Mukesh, all residents of Saharanpur, for allegedly committing a theft in a jewellery shop in Bhaniawala village, Doiwala, on Sunday.

The police has also recovered gold and silver jewellery worth Rs 3.5 lakh stolen by the accused from Radhe Jewellers. However, shop owner Deepak Bali is yet to submit the list of the stolen jewellery items to the police.

SSP Kewal Khurana said the trio entered the jewellery shop from the adjoining shop that had been lying vacant for some time. Its shutter was not locked.

While Mukesh works as a tailor on Karanpur Road, Arun is a student in a local college. They belong to the same village. The accused used to hatch conspiracies at Mukesh's shop. The police is conducting raids to arrest their other two accomplices.

Meanwhile, DGP Satyavrat Bansal has announced a cash prize of Rs 10,000 for the team that arrested them.

DIG, Dehradun Range, Sanjay Gunjiyal and SSP Kewal Khurana have also announced a cash prize of Rs 5,000 and Rs 2,500, respectively, for the team.

Dehradun, November 27
Under its anti-encroachment drive, the police today removed vendors and hawkers from Moti Bazaar and the Hanuman crossing. They had encroached upon in these busiest locations, leading to traffic jams.

Rehriwalas were also removed during the drive spearheaded by the anti-encroachment squad floated by SSP Kewal Khurana. The station officer of Kotwali has been appointed its head.

Dehradun, November 27
The Pratap section won the Inter-Section Drill Competition 2012 of RIMC here.

Col PK Kumaria, Commandant, RIMC, presents the trophy to the leader of the section in Dehradun on Tuesday.

The drill competition was started in 1951.

It was a closely fought game with all sections putting their best foot forward to lift the coveted trophy. The final standings were as follows:

I-Pratap (222 points), II- Shivaji (209 points), III- Ranjit (207 points) and IV- Chandragupta (205 points).

The best commander award was bagged by cadet NCO Tanmay Potbhare.

In the inter-section PT competition held on November 7, the Chandragupta section had lifted the trophy. The final standings were: I- Chandragupta, II-Pratap, III- Shivaji and IV- Ranjit.

The cadets also did well in the 66th annual district athletics meet, which was organised on November 3 and 4.The RIMC contingent won the trophy for the second time in a row and also won the U-14, U-16 categories. Cadet Tomthin was adjudged the best athlete in the U-14 category. All medal winners were felicitated on the occasion.

The chief guest was Col Pankaj K Kumaria, Commandant, RIMC. He was impressed by the standard of drill and determination of the cadets. He acknowledged their hard work and their efforts to present an impressive show.

Also present on the occasion were Lt Col Ambarish Tiwari, Administrative Officer, RIMC, CS Vishwakarma, vice principal, RIMC, Lt Pinku Haiekam and PK Sharma.

Mussoorie, November 27
Woodstock School has been chosen once again by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) as an only centre in the country to track the worldwide progress of Santa Claus. It is an initiative to promote global understanding and goodwill on Christmas.

Using technology which normally keeps track of flights within North America, the NORAD will provide a satellite view of Santa’s progress around the world on the Christmas Eve, with ‘Santa cams’ showing him at various prominent landmarks. Woodstock is his only Indian destination.

The scheme has been running for more than 50 years after a child mistakenly rang the defence centre and asked for Santa’s location. Since then it has been a yearly tradition and last year website www.noradsanta.org received 15 million hits. This year, First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama is expected to take calls from children at the centre asking for Santa’s location.

Woodstock students and staff carrying forward the initiative will be buying shoes and sweets for children at a local orphanage.

Principal of the school Jonathan Long said it was good to be involved in the programme again. “Woodstock is proud to be part of anything which brings people together in celebrating peace and understanding in our troubled world,” he said.

A video made by the school will greet hundreds of thousands of people and make them see what attracted Santa to the Indian hill station of Mussoorie.

Woodstock social media expert Marney Lewis said the programme was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. “With more than 65,000 views of our video last year, we hope Woodstock continues to enthral people around the world,” said Lewis.

Mussoorie, November 27
DAV College, Dehradun, were declared the winners in both women and men's sections in two day inter-college table tennis tournament of Garhwal University that concluded at Mussoorie Postgraduate(MPG) College here today.

In men's and women's individual events, Shantanu from DAV College, Dehradun, was declared winner and Sumita from the college was declared winner in the women section.

Shantanu defeated Dinesh Rana from the college in five sets with a margin of 11-9,11-7,11-7,11-7,11-7 and lifted the winning trophy. In the women section, Sumita also from DAV College defeated Vinita from the college in a keenly contested four set match by a margin of 6-11,11-7,11-8,11-7 to lift the trophy.

DAV College were declared winners in the team section of both women and men categories.

The former MLA, Mussoorie, Jot Singh Gunsola, distributed the winning trophy and citations on the occasion.