Mussoorie, January 30
The state government has directed the Vigilance Department to conduct an inquiry against the Municipal Council of Mussoorie in wake of the reports being received by the government about rampant irregularities.

The government has directed the Vigilance Department to conduct a inquiry and submit the report to the government within three months.

The Vigilance Department will conduct inquiry on the irregularities committed in the works such as increasing the ticket prices at Company Garden illegally, illegal construction of food court and shops at Company Garden owned by the Municipal Council, the irregularities in tender processes, in spending around Rs 63 lakh in the beautification of the barriers at the Mall Road, charging eco-fee without the permission of the government and running the official vehicle without the appointed government employee.

Apart from this, the Vigilance Department will also look at other irregularities committed by the council over the years.

MC President termed the whole exercise as political conspiracy against him and the ward members as the elections for the new council were nearing.

He also said some officials in connivance with a few detractors were bent upon maligning the image of the Mussoorie Municipal Council and they would emerge clean from the investigations in future.

A PIL in this regard was also filed by a resident of Mussoorie in the High Court, Nainital, in 2011 over the irregularities being committed by the Mussoorie Municipal Council.

As a result, the High Court had directed a CBI inquiry into the matter but the Mussoorie Municipal Council had succeeded in getting stay order on the whole process.

Mussoorie, January 30
The Mussoorie Municipal Council, which was facing a financial crunch till now, has received a boost with the arrival of state government grant worth Rs 2.69 crore in the town.

The ward members from the Mussoorie Municipal Council have welcomed the arrival of the much-needed grant and said that the development projects which were stalled due to the lack of funds will be carried out without any hindrance now.

The Municipal Council ward member, Kedar Singh Chauhan, said that now the executive officer should consider all the development projects which were being stalled due to the paucity of funds. He further clarified that the Municipal Council will be receiving more funds in the month of March from tax collection, thus improving the financial state of the council in the future.

When contacted the officials from the Municipal Council also corroborated that they had received the state grant and the development picture that was grim would improve immensely.

Dehradun, January 30
India's first Microsoft web camp was organised at Tula's Institute, Engineering and Management College, here today, which saw Brady Gaster, the famous Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation, USA, interact with students.

The main agenda of Microsoft web camps was to help students learn how to develop beautiful, interactive and fast websites using Microsoft's web tools and platforms.

The web camp at Dehradun was a big hit, which saw over 450 persons in attendance, which included students from various colleges along with leading developers from Dehradun.

The event was also video-recorded so as to upload it on you-tube so that all those who missed out can get a glimpse of the same in the days to come.

Gaster was overwhelmed with the hospitality and said that he found the campus 'gorgeous' and the students very receptive. He believes that the students are very talented in this part of the world and he will be very happy to share Microsoft's technological advancements in the future too.

Speaking on the occasion, Silky Jain, head, Corporate Relations, said: " It is a proud moment for us that the country's first Microsoft web camp was organised in Dehradun.

The web camp provided the students with an ideal opportunity to interact with the famous Technical Evangelist Brady Gaster from Microsoft Corporation USA."

Venkatesh Sarvasiddhi, head, Windows Phone and Cloud Services at Microsoft India, was also present at the event. He shared information on upcoming events that Microsoft plans to launch in India for students.

"I would like to thank Tula's Institute for giving us the opportunity to meet and interact with Brady Sir. All the sessions were not only informative but very interactive as well," Kunal Shah, a student of Tula's Institute, added.

Dehradun, January 30
The Dehradun police today busted a sex racket by arresting nine women and 12 men involved from a house at Defence Colony. This operation was carried under the direction of Circle Officers of Special Operation Group and Nehru Colony, who recovered four cars, 20 mobiles, laptops and Rs 75,000 from the accused. SSP Kewal Khurana said Kamal, resident of Saharanpur, was the kingpin of the racket. He used hi-tech methods such as running two websites to woo his clients. His driver, Deepak, localite, helped him in his operation in the city. The flesh trade was operated in a house owned by Major (retd) SP Bali,

which the accused had taken on rent of Rs 15,000 a month. A Chartered Accountant, Satnam also played an important role. He, however, denied he was part of the entire game. He said he wanted to recover his money from Kamal because of which he was in contact with him.

Kamal had earlier been arrested in Rajpur for the same crime and was later released on bail in 2010. The accused would normally lure professional prostitutes from Delhi and also provided for a car service to their male clients if they wanted to take girls out.

Two of the girls who have been caught are from Nepal, one from Punjab, one from Uttar Pardesh, two from Delhi, one from West Bengal, while two are from Patel Nagar, Dehradun. Among the men, besides Kamal, Deepak and Satnam, driver Ketan, Jatin and Neeraj are from Sahranpur, while Sanjay Yadav, Vinay, Bhupender, Rajnish, Dharminder and Yogesh are from Ghaziabad, UP. The accused along with the women have been booked under Gangsters Act.

Dehradun, January 30
A green park in the city will come up for which 34 acres of land has been identified on Sahastradhara Road.

Besides, the MDDA will also provide another green park on it's land, and both these parks will be connected by road.

A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain at the Secretariat here today.

Jain laid emphasis on natural greenery in the park and directed the officers concerned to complete the work in a year.

It was decided in the meeting that the District Magistrate would table the proposal within a week. The identified land would be transferred to Industrial Department and SIDCUL would develop the park under its social responsibility.

Along with other facilities, parking lots would also be constructed in the parks and pathways laid for morning walks. The greenery and natural essence would be maintained inside the parks.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, Industry, Rakesh Sharma, Principal Secretary, Revenue, Om Prakash, Secretary, Finance, MC Joshi, District Magistrate, BVRC Purushottam, and other senior officers.

Dehradun, January 30
More than a week after he died in a freak accident aboard a ship, the body of deceased Merchant Navy officer Avnish Petwal reached his residence in Dehradun today from Port Blair. The body was later consigned to the flames at Haridwar.

The body reached Ajapur Khurd residence of Petwal from Jolly Grant Airport during morning hours today. The body reached Jolly Grant Airport in a chartered plane from Port Blair. A large number of relatives and family friends had gathered at Ajabpur Khurd to mourn the loss.

Neighbours described Avinish Petwal as a humour-loving person who was liked by one and all. Grief-stricken parents and wife of Avnish were consoled by relatives.

Raipur Congress MLA Umesh Sharma, BJP leader Ravindra Jugran, City Magistrate Harak Singh Rawat, apart from a large number of people were present on the occasion.

It is noteworthy that Merchant Navy's Chief Officer Avnish Petwal died on January 13 due to a gas leakage in a ship travelling from Kolkata to Singapore. Avnish's family had to run from pillar to post to bring the body to Dehradun. The family members accused the shipping company for which Avnish was working of little cooperation. It was only after intervention of Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and former Chief Minister BC Khanduri that the body could be brought to Dehradun.

The last rites of Avnish were later performed at Haridwar.

Dehradun, January 30
The body of constable Kamal Singh Mehra of 46th PAC Battalion, who shot himself at his duty place at Raj Bhavan yesterday afternoon, was taken to his hometown Bailpadav, Ram Nagar, by his eldest brother, Pushkar Singh, and cousin Devender Kumar today at 12 in the day after completion of the postmortem. While the body was being taken out from the postmortem room, SP, City, Kunwar Dalip Singh, gave final adieu by saluting him. The body was covered with floral garlands.

Both the brothers of Kamal, who had reached the town at 1 in the night, were sad for losing their brother. Pushkar questioned the logic of deputing Kamal on a sensitive place like Raj Bhavan when he was passing through a tough time of facing an inquiry in the wake of his suspension. He said Kamal should have been given some light duty where he would not have felt the pressure at such stressful times. The batallion is also under scanner for deputing the constable, who had

been suspended for drinking at his duty place at Naintal High Court in September last year. He was posted to Dehradun on December 4.

About Kamal’s drunken ways, Pushkar said the family kept probing him about his drinking where he assured them each time that he no longer was drinking at his workplace. He also reacted to Kamal’s diary where he had written romantic poetry, saying that he was not having any love affair. Being a young lad, he took to writing poetry, which was quite normal.

Pushkar said Kamal was not in the habit of sharing his innermost sentiments with anyone. Even in his phone calls, which he made on Tuesday morning to him, he talked normally about coming home after three days to spend time with the family.

He said during three months’ period of suspension, he stayed home. He remained calm, without exhibiting streaks of hypertension. He could not gauge any reason which he felt led him to take to suicide. He said Kamal was not the type to take such a step.

His marriage was to take place next month.

Dehradun, January 30
To provide health facilities to people in the slum areas of the state, the Uttarakhand Department of Health will set up 17 more urban health centres under the National Rural Health of Mission (NRHM).

The centres are proposed for Rishikesh (2), Haridwar (2), Ramnagar (3), Udham Singh Nagar (8) and Kotdawar (2).

Spread across semi-urban areas, the urban centres will be run by NGOs for which tenders have already been invited.

The NGO would have to provide for the staff equipped to provide preventive and curative services, including ante-natal and pre-natal care, and also adolescent health care.

These urban centres would be served by women MBBS doctors, three ANMs, one pharmacist, a lab technician and one social mobilised to be provided by the NGO. — TNS

Dehradun, January 30
The People for Animals (PFA), Uttarakhand, has started the process to enrol interested animal lovers as colony caretakers. A decision was taken by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to issue identity cards of colony caretaker to animal lovers, who feed stray dogs and cats.

The 28-member Animal Welfare Board of India, the first to be established by any government in the world, was set up in the country in 1962. It recently decided to give colony caretaker card to every person who feeds animals in their areas.

According to Gauri Maulekhi, a co-opted member of the board and member secretary of the PFA, said identity cards would especially protect women and senior citizens, who are compassionate towards animals but face inconvenience due to hatred of some residents towards animals.

“The office of the PFA receives numerous complaints every week from compassionate persons who feed stray animals but are threatened by their neighbours who are yet to develop sensitivity towards animals,” Maulekhi said. — TNS

Dehradun, January 30
Dhruv Pal, Manik Dabar and Dhruv Sabharwal won their respective matches during the All-India Talent Series Tennis Tournament today. All three are from Uttarakhand.

In the U-16 boys, Dhruv Pal, Uttarakhand, beat Sagar Sahrawat, Delhi, 6-0, 6-0. Manik Dabar, Uttarakhand, beat Danish Ahmed, Delhi, 6-0, 6-3. Dhruv Sabharwal, Uttarakhand, beat Prithvi Khanna, Delhi, 7-6, 6-7 and 7-6.

In the U-14 boys, Danish Ahmed, Delhi, beat Sahishnu Sharma, Chandigarh, 6-4, 6-1. Sanket Tomar, Delhi, beat Sagar Sahrawat, Delhi, 7-5, 6-0. In the U-14 girls, Nandita Saxena, Delhi, beat Ayesha, Chandigarh, 6-1, 7-5.

Harleen Kaur, Chandigarh, beat Lavanya Singh, Uttarakhand, 6-1, 6-2 and Rishika Sharma, Delhi, beat Priya Thapliyal, Uttarakhand, 6-0, 6-1.

In the U-16 girls, Kiran Shah, Delhi, beat Krishtal 6-1, 6-2. Harleen Kaur, Chandigarh, beat Palak Uppal, Uttarakhand, 6-0, 6-0.

Dehradun, January 30
Members of the Uttaranchal Power Employees Association protested in front of the Power Distribution Division office on EC Road here.

They accused the Executive Engineer of not calling them to discuss their demands despite giving appointment for the day. President of the association BS Kumai demanded repair work of all 33 KV sub-stations and faulty transformers, pension benefit, timely promotions, benefits as per the 6th pay commissions, regularisation of daily wagers, filling of vacancies and construction of their residential colonies for which, he said, the department had already got funds.