94th Kisan Mela kicks off at Pantnagar University
Dehradun, October 4
The 94th Kisan Mela began at the Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology here today. It was inaugurated by Dr Arvind Kumar, Deputy Director-General (Education), Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi.

Special rituals performed for disaster victims, local people
Haridwar, October 4
Despite official government figures putting June 16-17 flash floods toll in the Himalayan belt of Uttarakhand at approximately 600 and another 5,500 reportedly missing, the actual figures as per local people and pilgrims who survived are assumed to be much higher.

Three arrested with heroin worth Rs 1 lakh
Dehradun, October 4
The Dehradun police seized heroin worth Rs 1 lakh from three persons late last night.

Tourism Dept disappointed at cancellation of functions
Dehradun, October 4
The officials of the Tourism Department are hurt over the sudden cancellation of the mega functions to be held in Nainital and Ramnagar to celebrate World Tourism Day as well as Corbett Mahotsav in the first week of October. However, political party Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Panwar) has welcomed the decision of the state government to withdraw the celebrations.

Dehradun, October 4
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has called for a landslide control programme in the Himalayan states and a scientific treatment for silt, which has resulted in rivers changing their course in the hills.

He was speaking as a chief guest at the ninth foundation day of the National Disaster Management Authority in New Delhi today.

Bahuguna gave the details of the rescue, relief and rehabilitation work undertaken by the state government with the Army, the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and paramilitary forces.

He also paid tributes to the jawans who lost their lives while rescuing pilgrims and tourists following a massive natural disaster that struck the state in June.

He said Uttarakhand had suffered a massive damage to its infrastructure, but he also claimed that most of the roads, water supply schemes and electricity had been restored in the affected areas.

He said after the rescue of nearly 1.5 lakh tourists and pilgrims, it was a gigantic work for the administration to restore normalcy in the state.

He said the Char Dham Yatra had been restarted from October 5. Already, the yatra to Hemkunt Sahib, Gangotri and Yamunotri had been started.

The Chief Minister said World Bank and Asian Development Bank had come forward to help in the reconstruction of the state and the Central Government had also given liberal grants for the same.

“The rehabilitation of the affected villages will start soon. The state government has already started providing prefabricated houses to the victims,” he said.

The Chief Minister said tourism was the mainstay of the state economy which had suffered due to the natural calamity. However, he hoped that with the restart of the Char Dham Yatra, pilgrims and tourists would start coming to Uttarakhand.

Dehradun, October 4
District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam has directed nodal officials of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation and the district administration to identify the beneficiaries of the National Food Security Scheme (NFSC).

At a meeting held in the DM complex here today, he directed Additional Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Uday Singh Rana to provide him with the list of beneficiaries of the NFSC and the Antodya Scheme in all 60 wards.

He also sought information about people belonging to the BPL category, who had been identified for the schemes.

The DM also sought information on the distribution of new forms, their availability, the identification of new beneficiaries and other problems related to the identification process.

He directed Additional District Magistrate Harak Singh Rawat to provide him with information about the 10 employees of the district administration who had been given the task of identifying the deserving beneficiaries. He passed on similar instructions to the District Supply Officer.

The DM said the NFSC was an important and ambitious project of the Centre, so there should not be any lapse on its implementation.

He directed the SDM, Sadar, to carry out the identification process in the rural areas by convening meetings with the officials and employees concerned.

Haridwar, October 4
Despite official government figures putting June 16-17 flash floods toll in the Himalayan belt of Uttarakhand at approximately 600 and another 5,500 reportedly missing, the actual figures as per local people and pilgrims who survived are assumed to be much higher.

As last month, too, bodies were still being recovered at Kedarnath shrine mountain terrain, it is believed many such bodies still may be lying in the region.

Keeping this in mind, on the penultimate day of Shradhs today, special rituals were performed in Haridwar for the Kedarnath valley deceased pilgrims and local people. Also, a sapling was given to each performer to plant it in the name of the flash flood victims, and pledge was taken to conserve environment. A mass Shradh rite was performed for all those people who died in the Uttarakhand Himalayan flash floods under the aegis of Shantikunj Gayatri family at Shantikunj. Hundreds of people offered rituals and prayers for the departed souls, though they did not know them, nor did they have any blood relation with the victims.

But this was done as part of Shantikunj social and global efforts, which maintains that working for society and humanity is most important.

Gayatri family ritual cell in charge Pandit Shiv Prasad Mishra said that Shantikunj activists from across the country became a part of

this ritual and performed Shradh rites for the Himalayan tragedy victims. He pointed out that as hundreds of people had gathered to offer rituals, the process was done in several phases and Shantikunj pandits and teerth purohits guided the activists during the Shradh rituals.

''A total of 21,200 people offered Shradh rituals for their forefathers and for the flash flood deceased at Shantikunj during this

fortnight of Shradh. Tributes, food, water and religious rituals were offered to the deceased souls. Prayers were held for the peace of the departed their souls and their moksha,''said Pandit Shiv Prasad. Pandits Ram Sahay Shukla, Gayatri Kishore Trivedi and Uday Kishore

Mishra guided the participants during the Shradh rituals. Also, a mass sapling plantation drive was carried out, with free distribution of saplings by Shantikunj foundation to the ritual performers. Ritual observers planted the saplings in memory of their forefathers and took pledge to conserve saplings and environment. Meanwhile ,Shantikunj has started a langar at three places for the affected local people and pilgrims bound for Kedarnath shrine. A school has been constructed at Guptkashi ,with Shantikunj foundation adopting 30 students, whose cost of education, uniforms and books will be borne by the foundation. Disaster management in charge Gauri Shankar said till date 154 affected villages had been provided relief aid.

Dehradun, October 4
The Dehradun police seized heroin worth Rs 1 lakh from three persons late last night.

After getting a tip off, a police team of Rajpur police station started checking vehicles on Canal Road and arrested three persons while they were smuggling the drug. A case was registered against them under Section 8/17 of the NDPS Act and they were presented in the court today.

The accused have been identified as Aman, a resident of Sashaspur, Rahul Thapa, a resident of Dobalwala and Shubham Semwal, a resident of Vijay Park. According to the police sources, father of one of the accused is posted in the State Excise Department as an inspector. Reportedly, the son of the excise inspector also tried to influence the police team by bragging about his father’s position.

Dehradun, October 4
College students and activists, associated with various political organisations, staged a protest march outside the secretariat here today in support of their demand to raise the age of entering into government service to 40 years. They raised slogans against the government and sat on a dharna in front of the Secretariat.

The government had raised the age of entering into government service from 35 to 40 years last year but later, the High Court stayed the government order.

The protesters said the ruling had debarred them from sitting for examinations for state government posts resulting into uncertain future. They demanded that state government must take steps and challenge the court ruling in the Supreme Court.

Dehradun, October 4
Ministerial employees owing allegiance to the State Employees' Joint Council continued with their boycott on the second consecutive day today.

Addressing the employees at Parade ground, President Prahlad Singh said despite their talks with Chief Secretary Subash Kumar on September 26, there had not been any communication from the government regarding the acceptance of their demands. The meeting was attended by a large number of employees from different departments.

The employees have threatened to go on an indefinite stir if their demands are not met at the earliest.

Some of the demands of the employees included removing anomalies arising due to the sixth pay commission recommendations and raising the retirement age.

Dehradun, October 4
Governor Aziz Qureshi said here today that no country could make any progress without giving equal rights to women.

He was speaking at a programme organised by the Sarvadharam Sadbhavna Samiti , an NGO, and distributed certificates to women for completing six-month courses in computers, Urdu and English.

To encourage Muslim women to become educated, he said Muslim families should send all their children to school as only education could make them enlightened. He said they should obtain the information about welfare schemes of the government and get benefited by them, making their children healthy, educated and patriotic citizens. He also called upon the Muslim youth to rebel against leaders responsible for the bad condition of Muslims and resolve to improve the state of affairs.

Dehradun, October 4
The main issue of the two-day workshop on anti-human trafficking which started at police line here yesterday, was that how police could curb the human trafficking. It was attended by policemen and experts of the field.

Aditi Kaur, founder of the Child Helpline, explained how Child Helpline rescued children who became victims of child trafficking and how police could help those innocent children after their rescue.

Generally, there are lacunae in the investigation of such cases and effective investigation can nail the culprits involved in human trafficking, said JL Bist, Senior Prosecuting Officer (SPO). Prathiba Sharma, a doctor from Doon Hospital, spoke in detail about how counselling could help victims of human trafficking after their rescue.

Experts also shared their views on the role of vocational training during the rehabilitation phase for the victims. The existing laws and Acts were also discussed in detail for creating awareness among the participants about the existing provisions on anti-human trafficking in our country.

As many as 57 people participated in the workshop, including Sub-Inspectors and constables, from all the 19 police stations of the district and experts from NGOs who have expertise on the issues.

Dehradun, October 4
In a nail-biting match in the ongoing 6th Shri Rohitash Singh Memorial Inter School Boys' Super-8 Cricket Tournament, Doon Blossom School defeated Carman School.

After winning the toss, Carman School elected to bat first and made 19 runs in the first inning at the loss of 7 wickets. In reply, Doon Blossom School scored 36 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. In the second innings, Carmen School scored 30 runs for the loss of 4 wickets taking their final total to 49 runs. Doon Blossom chased the target easily for the loss of 3 wickets.