City residents allege that authorities are running from the responsibility of ensuring that fire safety norms are being followed

Dehradun, October 25
With inadequate fire safety arrangements in most of the commercial high-rise buildings and crowded markets of the city, the state capital of Uttarakhand is virtually sitting on a powder keg.

Albeit fire officials claim that they keep making checks to ensure that all buildings comply with fire safety norms, inquiries revealed that majority of the buildings have no arrangements to tackle any exigency.

“Despite being the state capital authorities seem least bothered to enforce fire safety norms,” said Rajni Sharma, a housewife.

According to the National Buildings Code (NBC) all high-rise, institutional, business, public assembly, storage and industrial buildings should have minimum basic in-built fire protection and fire-fighting equipment.

Commercial buildings other than high-rise are supposed to follow the Uttar Pradesh Fire Service Act, 1944, but so far little heed has been paid to ensure implementation of the same.

A visit to various city areas, including the busy Rajpur Road and Chakrata Road that houses hundreds of commercial establishments, revealed that hardly any complex is equipped with fire extinguishers, sand buckets etc. Apart from this, crowded markets on Gandhi Road, Paltan Bazaar, Moti Bazar, Clock Tower etc are devoid of such arrangements. People living in the vicinity of the Industrial Area are also under constant threat. “Due to inadequate fire safety arrangements in most of the commercial buildings a tragedy can happen any day,” said Sanjay Ahuja, a resident of Curzon Road.

Many other city residents pointed out that notwithstanding the fact that every year hundreds of fire incidents occur, authorities concerned have been running from their responsibility of ensuring that fire safety norms are being followed. “Besides, there are several industrial units in Patel Nagar, which do not even have storage facility for water that could be used for extinguishing fire,” said a resident of the area Rishab Kumar.

Chief fire officer of Uttarakhand C.K. Chakarvarty denied any laxity on their part. He claimed that from time to time fire officials inspect buildings to ensure that adequate fire arrangements are in place. “In case any shortcoming is found in any building or commercial establishment, action is initiated as per norms,” he said. “Once we submit a report that the building is equipped with requisite fire fighting equipment, the district magistrate issues a license. But once that is done, the tenants or shop owners don't bother to maintain fire arrangements,” he added. He further said whenever any complaint is lodged a fresh inspection is conducted and necessary action is initiated against violators.

Mussoorie, October 25
Indian hockey owes much of its success during its formative years to schools of Mussoorie, which have nurtured as much as 10 Olympic hockey gold medal winners between 1928 and 1936.

Distinguished players 1928 Eric Pinniger: Oak Grove School George Marthins: St. Georges' College L. C. Hammond: Oak Grove School M. A. Gateley: St. Georges' College R. J. Allen: Oak Grove School W. J. G Cullen: St. Georges' College 1932 C. C. Tapsell: St. Georges’ College Eric Pinniger: Oak Grove School L. C. Hammond: Oak Grove School R. J. Allen: Oak Grove School R.J. Carr: Oak Grove School

The dominance of players from Mussoorie during this period can be gauged from the fact that the 1928 team had six, 1932 team five and 1936 team had four players who had studied at Mussoorie. Notably, the Indian hockey team won the gold in all three Olympics.

George Marthins (1928), Maurice A. Gateley (1928), William James Goodsir Cullen (1928), Carlyle Carroll Tapsell (1932 to 1936), Ernest John Goodsir Cullen (1936) and Lionel C. Emmett (1936) were the products of St. Georges' College. Oak Grove school produced Eric Pinniger (1928 to 1932), Leslie Charles Hammond (1928 to 1932), Richard James Allen (1928 to 1936) and Richard John Carr (1932). In addition, N. Nugent after studying in St. Georges’ represented Great Britain and was part of their bronze medal winning team at Helsinki Olympics in 1952.

The most celebrated among all these illustrious players was Eric Pinniger, regarded by many as the best centre-half in the world. He was the vice-captain of the 1928 team and went on to lead the team in the Olympic finals against Holland. Allen, an outstanding goalkeeper, played three consecutive Olympics and in 10 matches conceded only two goals. It is also believed that one of these two goals was scored by USA while Allen was busy signing autographs! However, India won that match 24-1.

Tapsell and Hammond were both defenders and played two Olympics each. The Cullen brothers, William and Ernest, had started grabbing the headlines from their schooldays. William, a left-half, was knownm for his “rock-like defense”.

Marthins, Gateley, Emmett and Carr were all forwards who played as left or right wingers alongside Major Dhyan Chand, the Indian hockey legend. Marthins usually played as a right inside forward and formed an indomitable duo with Dhyan Chand.

According to Brother Xavier, principal of St. Georges’ College, the school has a high regard for these champions and the four “school houses” have been named after Cullen, Gateley, Marthins and Tapsell.

However, the Oak Grove school was oblivious of their illustrious alumni and facts were revealed only when The Tribune contacted the school and an examination of old records was made with the help of Bahadur Singh. Sadly, Brother Xavier does not seem very optimistic about future prospects of the game. “Earlier hockey used to be the main sport but now students are more into cricket and football,” he said.

He also believes that now students are more concerned about securing higher and higher marks in order to get admission to good colleges. “Having certificates in sports is no replacement for high percentages these days,” he said.

Keeping the deteriorating standards of Indian hockey in mind, it would indeed be worthwhile that the schools of Mussoorie nurture more such champions in future and give the much-needed boost to our National sport yet again.

Residents here are forced to dispose garbage on the roads as MC dustbins are filled to the brim

Dehradun, October 25
With the population of the city set to reach the 10-lakh mark by 2011, the biggest challenge confronting the municipal corporation here is the issue of solid waste disposal. Around 257 metric tonnes of solid waste per day is generated from within Dehradun municipal corporation limits, which covers an area of 67 square kilometres and houses nearly eight lakh persons. However, only 155 MT per day finds its way to the dump sites. The rest is disposed off in vacant plots of lands, drains and seasonal rivulets. The figure is likely to reach 292 MT/day by 2011, which is quite alarming.

Heaps of garbage can be seen dumped at various points in the city and the very concept of ‘waste gathering at source’ is totally missing. Only one NGO has taken up the cudgels for the cause of a ‘Clean Doon’.

Even if collection does take place, segregation of waste does not as there is no facility of a trenching ground. Residents here are forced to dispose garbage on the streets or roads as the big metallic bins placed alongside prominent roads are filled to the brim, despite the claims of the MC that 70 per cent of these are cleaned regularly. Even if these bins are cleaned, it is mostly done manually which involves loading them into bigger containers, tractors or trucks. The MC has no facility for processing solid wastes and it is disposed at the dumping ground untreated’ which adversely effects the environs as well.

However, the MC here is also facing a shortage of sanitary workers. There are only 650 of them as of now, but the requirement is around five times more than this number. There is neither any senior sanitary officer nor health officer. Similarly, against the requirement of six, there is just one sanitary inspector. There are around 18 to 20 vehicles meant for lifting the garbage but many among them are either out of operation. Civic arrangements turn worse during rains. Litter spreads onto the roads and subsequently finds its way into drains, causing chokes.

Dehradun, October 25
With stalwarts performing before a packed crowd, the penultimate evening at the ongoing ‘Virasat ’08 saw some sizzling performances.

The presentations were transnational. While Allessio Nebiolo cast a spell over the crowds with a scintillating solo performance on the guitar, the well-known ‘qawwal’ from Rampur Mohammed Ahmed Khan Warsi left the audience spellbound with his renditions of Sufi ‘qawwalis’.

Nebiolo set the tune for the evening with a brilliant performance that mesmerised the crowds. His strumming was accompanied by cheering from the youngsters who persuaded him to perform one tune after another. The tunes transported the audience to exotic Mediterranean regions well known for their beautiful locales and music. Born in 1976, Nebiolo has become famous across continents with his performances. The stage was then taken over by Mohammed Ahmed Khan Warsi and his troupe. Warsi began his performance by greeting the crowds on the occasion of Divali. Contrary to the standard practice of starting the evening with ‘Qaul’, he began with ‘Hammad’, singing the most popular ‘Allah hoo’. Warsi is a well-known name in the region and is one of the artists in India who had given a special performance for the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. After the ‘Hammad’ he sand ‘Main naam japun Ali Ali ka’ and a very famous ‘qawwali’ ‘Piya Haji Ali’ followed this. No ‘qawwali’ performance in the Indian subcontinent is complete without the singing of Sufiana qalams written by Amir Khusro. The crowd’s joy knew no bounds when Warsi and his team switched on to singing ‘Chap tilak sab cheeni re mo se naina milaike’.

Notably, there were a large number of foreigners present at the venue who were swaying to the tunes despite not knowing the language in which it was being sung.

Warsi topped this ‘qalam’ by Khusro with the most famous ‘qawwali’ ‘Dama dum mast kalandar’.

The highlight of this rendition was a scintillating performance of ‘tabla’ and ‘dholak jugalbandi’ that compelled a section of the audience to rise to its feet anddance.

Thereafter, Warsi presented a couple of ‘qawwalis’ on popular demand. Just when he was about to wind up, the audience persuaded him to sing ‘Mohammad ke shehr mein’ as the last ‘qawwali’ for the night.

Finally, Warsi left with a promise to come back next year.