Russian traveller's body cremated in Doon
Dehradun, May 20
The body of Russian woman traveller Alla Shumili, who was found dead at Garpak in Chamoli on May 7, was cremated today. She had completed trekking on the route, Auli-Kwaripas-Tapovan, Jumma-Dronegiri- Bagini, and was heading for Drongiri-Garpak-Jumma route when she died mid-way. How she died remains a mystery.

Haridwar, May 20
The administration launched an anti-encroachment drive at the roadways bus station, the suburban Jwalapur market and key intersections, including Bhagat Singh Chowk, in Haridwar today in view of a heavy rush of pilgrims for the Char Dham yatra and tourists.

The anti-encroachment drive started from the roadways bus station where at the exit gate temporary shops had mushroomed, leaving little space for buses to move.

City Magistrate Jeevan Singh Nangiyal led the drive that initially got some resistance from traders. But seeing a heavy deployment of police and the stern attitude of officers, the encroachers themselves removed encroachments.

Encroachments were totally removed from Bhagat Singh Chowk, providing more space at this busy intersection. At suburban Jwalapur too more than 40 encroachments were removed and the remaining encroachers were given a stern warning to remove encroachments themselves. In the coming days other parts of the city, including Lal Taura Bridge, Upper Road, Ranipur, Shankar Ashram Chowk, will also be covered under the drive.

Nangiyal told The Tribune that a cleanliness drive was also being lauched simultaneously in the Municipal Corporation periphery to make Haridwar cleaner and greener.

At Shivalik Nagar, beautification and renovation of public parks was being done with cooperation from local residents. The pilgrim city is witnessing traffic jams regularly after the Char Dham pilgrimage to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines commenced and due to the arrival of tourists during the summer.

Dehradun, May 20
The Peepal tree at Clock Tower that Mayor Vinod Chamoli along with forest officials visited a couple of days ago to find out the possibility of saving it has witnessed politics in the past five years. Chamoli had begun his last term as Mayor of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation by stirring the issue about the tree.

He had said he would remove the tree in order to beautify historical Clock Tower of the city. He reiterated the promise of beautification throughout his five-year stint but the Peepal tree came in his way each time. His decision to uproot it citing reasons that it was getting old and hollow from inside had incensed environmentalists. They even started a movement against the move. The issue became so intense that the then Chief Minister of the BJP-led state government, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, too stood by tree lovers and left Chamoli alone. The issue hung out once again. Chamoli’s opponent in the civic body poll and Congress vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana too pulled him up on the tree issue. He said Chamoli failed to resolve a small issue of Peepal tree throughout his tenure as Mayor and brought it up again during the election this year by promising the beautification of Clock Tower. Dhasmana said Chamoli had been hiding his failure to fulfil his promise of beautifying Clock Tower on the pretext of Peepal tree.

The Mayor being wary of the sensitive issue went on to dig into its history. He met the members of the renowned Jain family which created Clock Tower in 1951. According to him, the Jain family denied that they had seen the tree when Clock Tower was built.

Dhasmana said this showed that the tree had nothing to do with the heritage of Clock Tower. It is to be seen, how Chamoli delivers on his promise on Clock Tower this time by doing a tight ropewalk on Pipal tree.

Mussoorie, May 20
Twin sisters Tashi and Nungshi, residents of Sinola in Dehradun and former students of Guru Nanak Fifth Centenary School in Mussoorie, have achieved a rare feat of becoming the youngest among the women climbers to scale Mount Everest. They achieved the feat around 7.30 am yesterday by hoisting the National Tricolour at the highest summit of the world, bringing joy to their family and the staff of their school in Mussoorie. They also made a record in the process. The 20-year-old twins are also the youngest among the women climbers to do so. The administrator of Guru Nanak Fifth Centenary School, Sunil Bakshi, congratulated the two former students and said they got inspiration to climb Mt Everest during various trekking activities organised in the school.

He said in the beginning the two sisters were reluctant to take up adventure activities but after they were exposed to the challenges of mountaineering they developed love for mountain climbing.

Elated father Col VS Malik confirmed that his daughters successfully scaled Mt Everest around 7.30 am yesterday.

Col Malik had made efforts to develop in his daughters a liking for the challenges of mountaineering for better understanding of the ‘self’. And the daughters surprised him when one day in 2009 they declared their aim to scale Mt Everest. They had then just passed their Class XII examinations.

Both Nungshi and Tashi did their schooling from Guru Nanak Fifth Centenary School, Mussoorie, and stood out as avid participants of sports and adventure activities. After Class XII, their love for mountaineering made them go for the Basic Mountaineering Course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), Uttarkashi, which they completed in 2010. They did not stop here and went on to successfully undertaken the Advance Mountaineering Course from the NIM in 2011. The two had also successfully undergone training from a professional mountaineering trainer and instructor at the NIM with ‘A’ grade. They later also completed the basic skiing course at the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering, Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir, and stood the overall second, thereby, obtaining ‘A’ grade.

They got a big achievement when they successfully scaled Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in Africa in February 2012. This inspired them to scale Mt Everest. Tashi and Nungshi told The Tribune that it had been their dream to conquer Mt Everest and they had achieved it. Col Malik, a proud father, said by achieving this feat they had made Uttarakhand and India proud. He was sure that it would inspire young Indians to excel in their pursuits. The two sisters have completed Bachelor in Journalism and Mass Communication and are involved in a peace building mission around the globe.

Dehradun, May 20
A two-day workshop on the Domestic Violence Act began at the Police Lines here today. It is being by organised by Delhi-based NGO Maitri Sanstha in collaboration with the Uttarakhand Police.

SP (Rural) Mamta Bohra inaugurated the workshop. On the first day today, 150 policewomen attended the workshop. Tomorrow, policemen will attend it. The arrangement has been made separately on the request of women, who sought comfort level in asking all sorts of questions.

Mamta Bohra said: “It is very important that women should know legal provisions or protection extended to them under the Domestic Violence Act. Many end up suffering atrocities for 12 to 14 years and then they raise voice against it. They should not wait for so long for justice and a dignified life. This Act has been formulated for their safety.”

She said the primary job of the police was to give protection to the victims. Unfortunately, most of the victims had no knowledge about this Act and they continue to live a miserable life.

On the need for holding such workshops, she said, “Routine handling of the same kind of cases instill some insensitivity among the police as happen in the profession of doctors, lawyers etc. These kind of workshops remind them of the gravity and sensitivity regarding such matters. So it is important to hold such workshops to keep police force agile and sensitive towards their work.”

Guest lecturer from the NGO Anita Gupta explained the intricacies of the Act. She also elucidated its various aspects by referring to several case studies and also answered the queries asked by policewomen. Policewomen associated with police stations, posts, women’s helpline, Female Voluntary Bureau, women’s desk and State Women’s Cell attended the workshop.

Haridwar, May 20
In a major success to the district police, a gang of three persons was busted today, with one absconding. The gang used to target small commercial vehicles.

The arrested persons, Sandeep, resident of Lakshar, and Johny, resident of Akbarpur, Lakshar, have confessed to their involvement in such incidents, while the police is in search of the mastermind of the gang, Sonu, also a resident of Lakshar.

Informing about the whole episode, Superintendent of City Police Kiran Lal Shah said that the police was in search of these three when on May 18, they looted a commercial vehicle, Tata Acer, at gupoint from Subash, resident of Lakshar, from Rani Mazra bridge. They also took away Rs 10,000 in cash and a cellular set also.

Sonu drove the vehicle while Sandeep and Johny fled away in a motorcycle. Subash filed a complaint in Lakshar police station. The SP City formed a special team to look into this matter.

Led by senior Inspector TS Rana, SI Vidya Dutt Joshi and SI Vikram Lal, the team carried out impromptu search and kept a routine tab on the same model of the looted vehicle. Other police station and checkpost personnel were also apprised about the vehicle. As a result, yesterday night during similar search operations, a Tata Acer was signalled to stop.

But instead of stopping, the driver of the vehicle drove the vehicle to nearby dense forest. The police team chased the vehicle arresting Sandeep and Johny, while Sonu fled away.

From the persons a revolver, live cartridges and the purse of complainant Subash were recovered. Later, it came to light that the vehicle in which the culprits were travelling was the same one that was looted on May 18 from Subash. It was painted in a different colour to avoid identification. Sandeep and Johny claim that Sonu was the mastermind, who used to provide them liquor, cash and phones, while they just used to accompany him and were involved in more than six such acts.

DIG, Dehradun range, has announced a reward of Rs 5000 in cash to the police team, while Rs 2500 were sanctioned by the SSP, Haridwar.

Nainital, May 20
The Uttarakhand High Court today issued contempt notices to former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan and a top Central government official for not following its directive to review the extension of two years given to the Aryabhata Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) Director.

Kasturirangan chairs the Nainital-based ARIES. Hearing a PIL, Justice Sudhanshu Dhuliya ordered that contempt notices be issued to Kasturirangan and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Science and Technology, Thirumalachari Ramasami, for ignoring its earlier order asking them to review the extension given to Director, ARIES, Ramsagar.

Ramsagar is facing charges of irregularities in recent appointments at the institute. In an order dated April 16, the court had ordered the review of service extension given to Ramsagar after superannuation within 30 days, Bhagwat Mehra, counsel to the petitioner said.

The institute's efforts to seek relief from the Supreme Court were turned down by the apex court on May 9, he said.

The institute today sought six months more time from the court to review the service extension which was termed as "thoroughly misconceived" by the court and contempt notices were issued.

One of the counsels representing the Governing Council, ARIES, said its petition seeking six months more time to reconsider the service extension given to Ramsagar as the institute's Director has been rejected by the court.

DN Bhatt, a social worker, had filed a PIL alleging irregularities in the recent appointments of scientists in the institute and in the award of various tenders by it. ARIES is one of the leading research institutes in the country, which specialises in observational astronomy, astrophysics and atmospheric sciences.

The Uttarakhand High Court has already given direction to the CBI to file an FIR against Ramsagar and investigate the allegations. — PTI 

Haridwar, May 20
In the finals of the Twenty20 cricket championship, Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited team emerged as champions, defeating GM Engineering College team comprehensively.

Held at BHEL Sports Stadium and organised by BHEL Sports Club, the championship saw a dozen-odd teams participating and a good turnout of spectators.

Winning the toss GM Engineering opted to bat first on a wicket which looked placid but as the game progressed, BHEL bowlers extracted good bounce and seam from the wicket, making it difficult for openers to score freely. GM Engineering batsmen also failed to utilise power play overs with first 50 coming in 9th over only.

The team bundled was out for a meagre 100 with only Ashish 16 and Anirudh 14 giving some resistance to fine bowling display of BHEL pace attack.

Chasing the target BHEL openers and middle order batsmen scored 6 per over with Satyam Budakoti (28), Virendra (25), Mukesh (20) and Amol Barthwal (13), helping the team to reach the 100 runs in the 15th over itself.

For GM Engineering side, Aashish Gupta took 3 wickets for 18 runs, while Manoj Saini took a couple conceding 26 runs.

Chief guest at the final match was AGM Basu Gangopadhyaya, who gave away the prizes to the winning team, while Additional Managing Director QC Sara gave the prizes to first runners-up.