Kumaon varsity VC meets Bahuguna
Dehradun, March 5
The Vice-Chancellor of Kumaon University, Prof Rakesh Bhatnagar, met Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna at the Secretariat here today. He talked to the Chief Minister about the appointment of the controller of examination and the approval of bearing the expenses of the posts approved by the UGC.

Mussoorie, March 5
Meera Devi, 65, was killed while her husband Ram Singh, 85, was grievously injured when they were attacked at a house, near Jharipani, on the Mussoorie-Dehradun Road around noon today. Ram Singh has been admitted to a hospital.

The Mussoorie police found Meera lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the house owned by some businessmen from Delhi.

The assailants attacked the elderly couple with a sharp weapon. While Meera received injuries on her head and neck, resulting in her death, her husband survived though he too had suffered serious injuries. The couple was employed as caretakers and had been residing in the house for the past several years.

The SP, city, Daleep Kunwar Singh, along with the circle officer (CO), Mussoorie, Harbans Singh, also reached the crime site. The police has taken a supervisor of the house and a few other persons into custody for questioning.

The SP told mediapersons that the gruesome incident was being investigated from all angles and he had directed the police officials to solve the case as soon as possible.

The news of the incident spread like a wildfire in Mussoorie, creating panic among senior citizens. Local residents rued the fact that unsolved murder cases in the past had emboldened the perpetrators of crimes and resulted in the attack on the elderly couple.

More than 14 persons had been murdered in the town since 2000 while the police had failed to solve the cases. Asked about the unsolved murder cases, the SP said the police had been found wanting in some incidents. He added that several persons had been arrested for questioning in today’s incident.

It is worth mentioning that a tourist was found murdered in a hotel room in year 2000 in Mussoorie. A photographer was found murdered in forests around Mussoorie in June 2005. In 2006, another tourist was found murdered in a hotel while bodies of a woman and her son were found in the forests, near Ban Suman. In July 2006, two elderly Dua sisters were found murdered in their house and another case of murder of an elderly couple in its house was reported in August 2007.

A student from New Delhi was found dead under mysterious circumstances in 2008 while a police constable was murdered at Kulhukhet. In 2009, a hotel guide and another person were murdered. A woman was found dead at Gunhill here in 2011.

The police has been able to solve only the murder cases of 2008. It has remained clueless about the murder of housemaid Pushpa near Library Bazaar.

Dehradun, March 5
Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), subsidiary of Tourism Department of the state, seems to have shattered the monopoly of the giant Parmarth Niketan Ashram by inviting other volunteer ashrams/hotels in this year’s ongoing International Yoga Festival.

Parmarth Niketan Ashram has refused to adhere to any of the dictates of GMVN in this regard. As per the rules, all the tourists, domestic/international, joining any ashram or hotel, which are on the panel with GMVN for holding yoga/spiritual sessions under the banner of the festival, are required to register themselves with GMVN. The purpose was that GMVN would not only earn revenue from the registration fee, which is Rs 500 for each domestic and Rs 2,500 for international participant, but would also be able to keep an account of the number of tourists joining this festival and their activities.

But no tourist who has enrolled himself with Parmarth has registered with GMVN or paid the registration fee. Not only this, the Parmarth management has gone to the extent of refusing admission to those who registered themselves with GMVN.

Parmarth, which is estimated to receive the maximum foreign tourists during this festival, as it enjoyed monopoly for close to two decades and has a wide network in international sphere, could provide good foreign exchange to the loss-incurring GMVN. By throwing the challenge before the entire state government machinery, it has refused to bite the bait. Ironically, the state government has adopted a defensive mode on this scenario. General Manager, Tourism, HD Pandey, said, he talked about it to Principal Secretary, Tourism, Uma Kant Panwar, who said they would not make it mandatory for other ashrams and hotels to align themselves with GMVN for the festival from next year and, this way they would be left free to register the tourists with themselves.

This stand of Tourism Department is shocking as it is doing exactly what the Parmarth management wanted to achieve. The other hotels/ashrams which are giving registration fee to GMVN would certainly feel cheated this way. 

Dehradun, March 5
Dehradun Municipal Corporation has already identified three places, Chaudhary Enclave near ISBT, Raipur Road near Old Dalanwala and Mata Mandir Road, to relocate vendors from the city. With the addition of three more spots, namely GMS Road towards the office of Bhavishya Nidhi complex call centre on Saharanpur Road and Doon Vihar, more could be accommodated now. Still, these six places are insufficient to meet the demand, as these can at the most absorb 500 vendors, whereas the total population of vendors is touching around 3000 in the city alone.

DMC has no plans for them at present. Owing to this, a lot of chaos is taking place in the premises, where vendors are blaming DMC for preferring those who were paying them hefty sums for giving space in the selected vendor zones.

Vendor Rajkumar said: “We were removed from Hanuman Chowk long ago under the anti-encroachment campaign launched by DMC. I have given applications in the DMC office demanding space in the vendor zone. Despite being among the first ones who applied for it, I was not preferred but others who came later benefited. They had been allotted space just because they oiled the palms of the officials and I don’t have money to give.”

Mayor Vinod Chamoli refuted these allegations, saying: “Only the 18 shops which were removed from the Tehsil Crossing and six others shifted from Niranjanpur Sabji Mandi have been given space in Chaudhary Enclave. The process of identification and verification of other vendors is still going on.” He said DMC would also provide licence to those who would be relocated at the vendor zones.

He also admitted that the corporation had been unable to control the hawkers/ rheri pullers who stood at any place to sell their goods. “The crowd of hawkers /rheri pullers is uncontrollable at the moment. DMC would need more space in the city to accommodate them. A proper monitoring has to be done periodically to ensure that they do not rent out their space to others and start indulging in occupying land somewhere else in the city," Chamoli added.

Raghvendra

Dehradun, March 5
Two-time Emmy Award winning Canadian film producer Paul Saltzman has launched a new mission in his life. Currently touring Uttarakhand in his last leg of the India tour, Saltzman wants to search his guru who taught him meditation in Rishikesh 45 years ago. The mission is to find Raghvendra about whom little information is at present available in Rishikesh. For this Paul, wants to take help of the Internet.

Renowned film and television producer-director, Paul’s most recent film is "Prom Night in Mississippi" featuring Morgan Freeman. The Canadian filmmaker got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share some memorable moments with the famous musical group Beatles at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Ashram in Rishikesh in 1968.

Paul has an interesting story to share about how he landed in Rishikesh in 1968. Recalling this, Saltzman says, “Heartbroken, with my girlfriend abandoning me, I arrived in Rishikesh to learn meditation at the maharishi's ashram. But I was not allowed to enter the ashram due to tight security for the Beatles. I waited outside the ashram gate, sleeping in a tent, for eight days and during that time I became familiar with Raghvendra, who was considered key person in the ashram. On the morning of the 8th day, he came and took me to his meditation room and taught me meditation. Meditation helped me recover and I witnessed the magical effect of it.”

The Rishikesh visit totally changed the life of Paul Saltzman and he continues to practice meditation regularly. During his 1968 stay, the Canadian filmmaker took some pictures of John, Paul, George and Ringo of the Beatles group. In 2000, Paul released a book of his photographs, The Beatles in Rishikesh (with Penguin-Putnam) and in 2006 he and Patricia Aquino, published the deluxe limited edition box set, The Beatles in India.

“People say that in 1968, Raghvendra has some differences with the ashram people and he left Rishikesh. Since then, there is no information about him. I want to trace my guru to thank him for teaching me meditation to transform my life. For this I want to use the Internet”, said Saltzman.

Paul, leading a 20-member group to India, began his tour from Trivandrum on February 15 and after travelling various cities reached Rishikesh on February 27. He will conclude his tour on Wednesday.

Mussoorie, March 5
The District Magistrate, Dehradun, was appalled at the lacklustre approach of the subordinate officials from various departments towards the development issues which were discussed in the previous meeting that was chaired by him in January in a review meeting held in Mussoorie today.

The DM, Dehradun, BVR Purushuttom, angered at the delay in the work of parking facilities and other development-related issues took the officials to task and scolded them for not taking his directions seriously.

He warned the officials to complete all pending works within one week or face dire consequences.

The DM in a meeting held in the month of January had outlined several development issues and directed the officials to complete them within a stipulated time frame.

The DM receiving unsatisfactory reply to the various works outlined in the previous meeting said that the officials were taking fat salaries but were not serious towards the development works in the town.

“The town was clean and beautiful during his training period at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) Academy. But comparing it with those years the situation has deteriorated drastically due to the callous approach of the officials here. The District Magistrate while inspecting a hotel near Picture Palace where a parking site was proposed on the roof top was shocked to find the tin shed being placed illegally right in front of him. He lambasted the SDM, Mussoorie, and MDDA officials for not taking any punitive action against the illegal construction. He directed the officials to remove the illegal tin shed within an hour.

The MDDA officials finding themselves at the receiving end began the work of demolishing the tin shed as soon as the DM left the town.

He also directed MDDA officials to take action against the persons involved in illegal construction in the town.

The DM also directed the officials to streamline the parking facilities by holding talks with taxi assoaction to avoid any congestion during the peak season in the town.

The Pey Jal Nigam officials were also directed to place barricades while working on the sewerage project and complete the work on scheduled time.

The DM, speaking to media persons, later said that this year they had proposed to create parking space for around 250 vehicles at various places in the town. He also said that subordinate officials had also been directed to pull up their socks and work towards making such arrangements in the town that tourists go back with a smile on their faces this tourist season.

Dehradun, March 5
Demanding recruitment in government hospitals under the state government and the National Rural Health Mission, members belonging to the Berozgar Ayurvedic Diploma Pharmacist Sangh began a relay hunger strike outside the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly from today.

The pharmacists are demanding that the AYUSH Department should start recruitment on 180 posts of pharmacist and fill 70 posts lying vacant under the National Rural Health Mission.

“The government has opened four government colleges and one private college, with a result every year students are passing out but if there are no jobs where will they go,” questioned Deepak Thapliyal, president of the sangh. He said if the government failed to solve their problems in the coming days, they would be forced to intensify their stir. “If we fail to get a positive response from the government in the coming eight days, we will be forced to intensify our stir,” said Deepak.

The members are also demanding issuance of licences so that they could open shops and sell ayurvedic medicines. 

Haridwar, March 5
A hairstyle competition was held during the ongoing youth festival at Shravan Nath Math Jawaharlal Nehru College here today. Girl students participated in the event in a large number compared to other activities. Nidhi Bakshi won the Miss Best Hair 
Stylist title while Shalu got the second prize. Nikita won the third prize while Kahkashaan received the consolation prize.

Nidhi Bakshi was groomed by fellow students Nutan Prasad and Nidhi Verma. She attributed her award to team effort and said simplicity, the Indian tradition and long hair made her win the title.

Beautician Deep Mala Chaurasia was the chief judge of the event. She was assisted by Dr Saraswati Pathak, Nalini Jain, Surjit Kaur, Tina Kaushik, Kiran Sharma, Priyanka Pandey, Rinkal Goel, Purnima Sundriyal and Richa Chauhan.

College principal Sunil Kumar Batra and dean Dr Sanjay Maheshwari lauded the efforts of the girl students in making the event a success.

Meanwhile, students and the Cricket Association of Haridwar celebrated India’s victory in the second test in Hyderabad and the unassailable 2-0 lead the team took in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy. Jubilant fans praised Uttarakhand-origin Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and attributed the success to his cool nature and innovative captaincy.

Office-bearers of the Cricket Association of Haridwar Neeraj Kumar and Inder Mohan Barthwal said Dhoni had created a new record of most wins (22) as Test captain and under veteran Sachin Tendulkar he is leading a new talented lot that will bring more laurels to the nation in the near future.