Dehradun, February 4
Heavy to moderate rainfall in the plains and snowfall in the higher reaches since last night have affected normal life as it led to decrease in the temperatures at most places in the Uttarakhand.

Dr Anand Sharma, Director of the Meteorological Department, has warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall in the the plains and snowfall in the higher reaches in the next 24 hours. The rain could be accompanied with a squall.

Most of the places in Uttarakhand were lashed by moderate to heavy rain, including Dehradun, Mussoorie, Haridwar and Roorkee, the Met office here said.

Joshimath received the maximum of 33 mm of rain followed by Chamoli, which recorded 21 mm of rain, it said. Heavy snowfall in Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri and rain in the plains brought the day temperatures down at most places.

Dehradun recorded a minimum of 13.3 degrees Celsius, down from yesterday's 18.4 degrees C, while Mukteshwar recorded a minimum of 4.2 degrees C as against yesterday's minimum of 11.4 degrees C.

The people were forced to stay indoors as rain remained unabated throughout the day. The higher reaches of Uttarakhand also experienced snow. The hill stations of Mussoorie and Nainital are also expected to receive snow in the next 24 hours.

Haridwar: With snowfall in the upper reaches of the Garhwal division today, lower reaches in Haridwar have also witnessed cold wave with rain prevalent throughout the day.

This brought the temperatures down to 5C, with people resorting to woollen clothes, staying indoors and making bonfire to keep them warm.

The city residents also witnessed power cuts which added to their woes. Owing to a large duration of power cuts in many colonies, people have also expressed their discontentment to the Power Department for making intermittent cuts.

On the other hand, tourists rejoiced the weather, as this gave them an incentive to visit Mussoorie, Dhanaulti, Tehri and Pauri Garhwal to witness snowfall.

Sakshi Kamra, a tourist from Gurgaon, along with her colleagues, decided to move to Mussoorie to have a glimpse of snowfall.

Dehradun, February 4
Tending to destitute or abandoned patients is seldom a priority with the staff of Doon Hospital. Take the case of Kishore, a patient in his middle age, who was brought to Doon Hospital with a spinal injury a few days ago. Though requiring emergency care, he was left to fend for himself by doctors and nurses who spoke about more pressing cases as an excuse to neglect him.

The patient required immediate attention but it was the nursing staff that attended to him, that too after an hour.

Often the destitute or abandoned patients are brought to the hospital by the 108 emergency ambulances and they pose a challenge to it. Usually the hospital staff is reluctant to attend to such patients who have no companion or family member to take care of their daily needs. “Such patients are usually in a bad shape and may require long-term medical care. We do not have helpers who could look after their daily requirement of going to toilet etc and purchasing medicines after emergency. We are already hard pressed for staff. Many times I have paid for medicines and other requirements of the patient,” said Laxmi Punetha, a staff nurse at Doon Hospital.

With over 70 to 80 patients requiring immediate attention at the emergency ward and over 300 in-patients to be looked after on a daily basis, the over-worked staff may already have too much at hand.

“When the patient recovers, the other problem arises where to send him. There is no home for terminally-ill persons in Dehradun. At times, we have to extend their stay because of lack of facilities at the cost of denying another patient medical care at the hospital,” said Dr KC Pant, senior physician.

A thin workforce, crumbling infrastructure and too many patients may have robbed the staff of sympathetic disposition and care, the virtues most sought after in the nurses and the doctors.

Dehradun, February 4
State Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh today inaugurated the Cyber Treasury branch of SBI and Registration Authority office to issue digital signatures in the premises of the Treasury Directorate at Luxmi Road in the city.

She said it was necessary to work through e-governance to maintain transparency. She also stressed on the need to open bank accounts of poor people with zero balance so that they did not face any difficulty in availing benefits of old age pension or widow pension.

She said the digital signature technique would be useful for the

payment/fund transfer through e-mode. Soon it would be compulsory for all the account officers, Budget controllers and heads of the departments. Hence, an office of digital signatures in Dehradun would be quite useful for all everyone. She emphasised on the need to use this technique to rid the state of corruption. She distributed eight digital certificates to beneficiaries on this occasion.

Dehradun February 4
District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam constituted a committee of three members comprising the Chief Development Officer, the Additional District Magistrate (Land & Revenue) and the District Supply Officer to shortlist 300 applications for the allocation of ration shops in the city by February 14.

Many ration shops ownerships are those which were cancelled after complaints were registered either by public or councillors or other officials against the shopkeepers.

The DM announced this decision after a delegation led by councillor and BJP leader Sachin Gupta protested and sat on a dharna before the DM office with the residents of Idgah Kumar Mandi and Yamuna Colony, demanding two ration shops for both colonies. Gupta, who had been demonstrating before the DM office several times on the same issue, refused to budge without the announcement of the date for the allocation of shops. He denounced the alleged black marketing in these ration shops in the city.

He said the state government was reducing the ration quota and gave only 2 litre of kerosene to those who did not own an LPG connection. He demanded to raise the kerosene quota by 10 litr and demanded revocation of regulation of one LPG connection behind one family.

Dehradun, February 4
Mayor Vinod Chamoli, who had to return from Ajabpur Kalan yesterday without laying the foundation stone of Badoni Park, as the land was found to be controversial, has blamed MLA Umesh Sharma Kau for ‘playing politics.’ The matter has also exposed the differences between the administration and the Mayor in the Dehradun Municipal Corporation.

The park is to be built in 1,255 sq metre area, where 120 sq metre land turned out to be of a tent-house owner. The matter is sub-judice where the tent-house owner also showed a photocopy of the stay order from the High Court to the Mayor. In a face-saving exercise, Chamoli said he was aware about the occupation of the land but went ahead in inaugurating the rest of the land. He said residents of the area came complaining to him about distribution of fake land patta to hundreds of people, including the tent-house owner by Kau. He said the DMC was in a stronger position to win the case. He, however, expressed concern for the poor people, saying that the MLA had already reaped much of the benefits from the distribution of pattas but the hapless people would be left on the road after being deprived of the pattas. Nevertheless, the Mayor’s hurry for laying the stone has not gone down well with the administrative officials in the DMC, who complained that he put them in an embarrassing situation. Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Ashok Kumar, present on the spot during the function, had to cancel the ceremony when the tent-house owner showed them the High Court copy. He said the Mayor did not give him any time to go through records of the land, as just a day before he was informed of the function. He said even if a part of the whole land was controversial, it turned the entire plot untenable for any new project. Being the topmost administrative officer in DMC, he said he would have to face the contempt of High Court for going ahead with the project. He also belied the claim of the Mayor of taking legal counseling over the construction of the park on the land.

Administrative officials were seen passing snide remarks that if the Mayor did not do anything about these projects for the past three years, why did he show hurry to do so in a day, without any prior preparation. Thankfully, in this case, DMC got out safely, though with some humiliation, but there are a couple of other projects where DMC proceeded with construction on land which turned out to be stuck in legal wrangles afterwards.

Dehradun, February 4
Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, an eminent moderate Islamic thinker, has said that it is high time that Muslim leaders of the country should focus on the real problems of education and unemployment facing the community instead of getting bogged down in trivial issues of opposing Salman Rushdie.

Speaking at a workshop on, "Youth, employment and secularism" organised by Madhu Limaye Shodh Sanstha here today, Dr Engineer said rhetoric and focus on real issues confronting the community in India was apt and timely.

He said there was an urgent need to codify the Muslim laws as some of the provisions were against the spirit of Koran and only prevalent in India. "The triple talaq has been banned by most of the Muslim countries as it was not in conformity with Koranic injunctions. But this has not been done in India and faces stiff opposition," he said.

Dr Engineer said Kuran had allowed more than one marriage under specific circumstances to protect widows and orphans with a rider that all wives be treated equally in every sense. " Koran at other place clearly states that it would not be possible to treat all wives equally implying that having more than one wife is not allowed," he said.

The eminent Islamic reformist who had been waging a battle against religious fundamentalism for the past half a century said communalism had taken monstrous proportions since political parties and groups were trying to use religion for their personal and political interests.

Advocating complete segregation of politics from religion, he said community leaders who were leading protests against Salman Rushdie and film 'Vihwaroopam were only doing so for their political interests as every leader in the country wanted to become a leader and a member of Parliament overnight. "Otherwise to work for the people and to take up cudgels against establishment one has to work hard as Mahatma Gandhi did," he said.

He asked the youth of the country to rise above religious and sectarian identities and work towards the real issues of poverty, unemployment and economic development confronting the community.

He said most of the misunderstandings between religious groups, particularly between the Hindus and the Muslims, was due to ignorance.

He said most of the Hindus did not know Sanskrit and most of the Muslims did not know Arabic languages to read and understand the true spirit of religious texts.

"Both these communities are dependent on pandits, sadhus, maulvis and mullahs to interpret religious issues for them and these priestly classes have vested interests at the behest of politicians to exploit the masses. I have studied each and every communal riot in the country since 1960 and there was not one incident where a religious issue led to riots. It was only personal, political or class interests that led to riots, deaths and destruction and not any religious interest," he added.

Dehradun, February 4
Dehradun Bar Association today felicitated around 23 senior advocates who have completed legal practice for over 50 years. State Minister for Sports Dinesh Aggarwal distributed felicitation letters and shawls to the advocates. The oldest among all, KN Sharma, 94, also reached the spot. The second oldest Jagmohan, too, made it to the occasion.

Dinesh Aggarwal congratulated them all and admired them for their consistency and devotion to their profession for over half a century.

He called for the need of the same level of sincerity and devotion among those who are serving in different capacities in government offices in order to contribute to the development of the state.