Dehradun, February 14
Celebrating Valentine’s Day in its own style, Maiti - a voluntary organisation that has been working for environment conservation in the state today held series of pro-environment conservation events in Dehradun as part of the Valentine’s Day celebrations.

To put creative talent of the youth in right direction, the Maiti Valentine Day event ranged from making of graffiti’s to plantation of trees and also distribution of seeds. The main attraction was Gandhi Park, where youths were invited to draw graffiti linked to Valentine Day. Distribution of seeds of medicinal plants to the people apart from plantation of as many as 300 saplings were planted across the city.

Chief Guest subdivisional officer, Rishikesh, BD Singh lauded the efforts of Maiti towards staging of such creative events on Valentine Day. He said it was important that the youth of today understood the significance of environment conservation.

Earlier, founder of Maiti Kalyan Singh Rawat said it had always been his endeavour to hold environment conservation programme on Valentine’s Day. He said for Maiti, Valentine’s Day was “Prakarti Diwas” and reiterated the organisation’s pledge to work for the betterment of the environment.

Roorkee, February 14
Moral police virtually held sway at all the lovers' rendezvous points leaving the local police as mute spectators on Valentine’s Day here today.

Activists of Hindu Jagran Manch and Shiv Sena were seen taking rounds in groups of all parks, education institutes, cafes and restaurants in search of love-struck couples. Even married couples at parks were not spared.

The main targets of these groups were Solani Park, Indian Institute of Technology gates, fast-food eating joints, hotels and restaurants where their presence was enough to scare away the couples.

Though the leaders of ‘Hinduvadi’ groups had claimed that they were not against love but many couples, who were sitting decently in Solani Park and other places, were virtually shooed away by these overzealous activists.

Contrary to the claims of their seniors about the protection of lovers, the cops just let these ‘hooligans’ carry on with their activities.

"We are unable to understand what the police is for. When couples come here everyday, why they are making an issue of it today? Moreover, who are they to tell us what to do and what not?" rued Neelam, who had come with her husband to Sonali Park.

Shiv Kumar, who set up a flower stall at Civil Lines, said, “I invested Rs 3,000 in this stall but the ‘rowdies’ took away the flowers after vandalising my stall. The police did nothing.”

When contacted, SP (Rural) Ajay Joshi claimed that nothing had happened and everything had passed on peacefully.

Dehradun, February 14
With a view to facilitate the visually handicapped electorate, the Election Commission is considering the setting up of auxiliary polling booths in different parts of the country.

Stating this, after convening a meeting with the officials of the Garhwal Division at the Secretariat here today, the Election Commissioner Naveen Chawla said that initiative of setting up an auxiliary polling booth for the first time at the National Institute for Visually Handicapped (NIVH), Dehradun, during the 2007 assembly election had proved successful.

“In the coming general elections, auxiliary polling booths will be set up in Uttarakhand. We are also contemplating setting up booths in various other parts of the country,” he said.

Chawla added that the Election Commission plans to set up such booths at places where a substantial population of visually handicapped electors are residing from more than six months.

Chawla said that now, the new Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being introduced have buttons from 1 to 16 in the Braille-based digitised format.

Chawla, who also paid a visit to NIVH today, said that the institute authorities have suggested that the EVMs should have the names of the candidates also in a Braille-based system. “I will put forward this suggestion in the meeting of the Election Commission next week,” he said.

Expressing his satisfaction over the preparation of Uttarakhand for the coming general elections, Chawla said that 96 per cent work of election photo identity cards and 95 per cent work of electoral rolls is complete.

“I would urge all political parties to appoint their booth-level agent (BLA), so that a meeting of the BLOs and BLAs could be convened in every district by February 21. This exercise will help in rectifying errors, if any, from electoral rolls,” he said.

Prominent among others present in the meeting included Chief Election Officer (Uttarakhand) Radha Raturi, IG Garhwal MA Ganapathy, District Magistrates and SSPs of the Garhwal division.

During the meeting, Chawla reviewed the law-and-order situation and the preparations related to the elections. 

Haridwar, February 14
Around 100 kg of marijuana (ganja) was seized from three persons from the Bairagi camp area near the Trisha Bridge, here today. According to police, the trio was finding a suitable place to hide the contraband.

A police team, led by SHO Amarjeet Singh of Kankhal police station, nabbed the trio - Sonu, resident of Saptkali, Rakesh, from Rajasthan, and Vijay Kumar, from Madhubani district in Bihar - while they were descending from the hills where they were allegedly supplying 'ganja' to foreigners and Kanwaris coming to the city during the Kanwar season. A case has been filed against the accused.

In addition to Amarjeet Singh, the police team comprised Ompal, Ved Prakash, Manoj and Devendra Barthwal.

Meanwhile, SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal has lauded the police action and said patrolling would be intensified to avert such illegal trafficking.

Dehradun, February 14
Since there are no indications of resumption of work on the 480 MW Pala-Maneri hydro-project, which was stopped by the state government under pressure from environmentalists last year, it is the private contractors who stand to gain on account of cost-escalation.

Work on the Rs 1922-crore project, as well as 381 MW Bharon Ghati project, which are fully owned by the state, was stopped in June, 2008, after environmentalists led by Prof GD Aggarwal opposed construction of hydro projects on Bhagirathi river in Uttarakashi district.

The government has so far spent nearly Rs 80 crore on this project. The approval of detailed project report (DPR) of Bharon Ghati project by Central Electricity Authority is still in process.

Sources said any further delay would surely result in cost-escalation. “Although we have yet to work it out, the thumb rule is that any delay by one year jacks up the cost by 10 per cent, which roughly means another Rs 200 crore,” said sources.

Tenders floated for the project were in execution after start of work. The government order came when work on diversion tunnel was in process. So it is being felt that the increasing delay would make the contractors happier than anyone else.

“All I can say is that we are ready to resume work any moment. Technically, it has to be done right. In summers, melting of snow starts, which coupled with rainy season, adds to discharge of flow into rivers. So, we will have no option but to wait till December because work on diversion tunnel, which is the most important stage of construction of any hydro-project, can be done only in the lean phase,” said RP Thapliyal, MD of Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL), which is the executing agency.

Notably, as per the DPR of this project, the work was to be completed in 53 months. But chairman of UJVNL Yogendra Prasad gave a commitment that they would complete it in around 40 months in the larger interest of augmenting the power generation in the state.

As of now, the total generation in the state from its power stations is nearly 4,500 Million Units (MU), but the demand is 7,000 MU. 

Dehradun, February 14
A seven-member committee will be holding a meeting on Feb 19 to resolve long-standing demands of the forest guards of Uttarakhand. The meeting will be held under the chairmanship of chief conservator of forests projects, Veena Sekhri.

The chief conservator of forests Garhwal AK Dutt, conservator of forests HRD Jairaj, senior forest officials STS Leptcha and Neena Grewal and representatives of Forest Guards Association RR Painuily and RL Badoni are a part of the committee constituted to end the stand off between the guards and the department.

Forest guards are looking forward for the meeting with much hope to resolve various issues, including promotions. Uttarakhand Forest Guards Association has decided to charter out the future course of the agitation after the meeting. Guards demanded that those who have completed 14 years of service should be promoted as foresters and those with 24 years of service should be promoted to the post of deputy ranger.

They are also demanding pay grades as per the recommendations of Sixth Pay Commission.

General secretary of Uttarakhand Forests Guards Association RR Painuily however said while the association was hopeful for an early solution, it has not closed the option of protest.

Forest Guards also to thwart opening of Tiger Famous Corbett Reserve and the Rajaji National Park last year.

Significantly, the PCCF Uttarakhand has himself taken keen interest towards resolving the concerns of their issues, whom he termed backbone of the forest department. 

Haridwar, February 14
In the ongoing Inter-Faculty Tournament being held at Shrawannath Jawahar Lal Nehru College, Chinkara XI defeat Gaurav XI winning by six wickets. Sachin Kumar Captain, Chinkara XI, won the toss and posted 81 runs in the allotted 15 overs. In this team score Sachin scored a brisk 16, while Mohammed Hussain added 14 runs in the team score. Gaurav Mehta scalped four wickets conceding 14 runs.

Gaurav XI started with a bang with Suraj (19) and Sunny (20) amassing a solid 40 runs partnership.

The bowlers despite bowling a good line and length failed due to the low score they had to defend. Sachin Kashyap sailed the team chasing score with a not out innings of 28.

In the second match of the day, which was to be played between Kings XI and Rani XI, Kings XI got bye as Rani XI failed to turn up at the scheduled time. 

Dehradun, February 14
Ashim’s five-wicket haul helped the AG Uttarakhand team register a thrilling eight-run victory over the Secretariat team at the ongoing 57th District Cricket League organised by the State Cricket Association at the Survey Stadium, here.

It was a bowler’s day today as both teams exploited the pitch condition exceptionally well. Batting first, the AG team was restricted at the total of 150 runs by the Secretariat team. It was a superb bowling display by the Secretariat bowlers as Lalit and Deepak Joshi took two wickets each, whereas other bowlers supported them well on the other end. For AG Uttarakhand, middle-order batsmen Anuj and Kundan were the top scorer, both contributing 29 runs each.

The Secretariat team fell short by 8 runs as AG Uttarakhand’s Ashim ripped through top batting line up of Secretariat claiming five wickets in his six-over spell. Subramaniam and Dharam Singh supported Ashim well from other end as they both took two wickets each.

The Secretariat team was all out for 142 runs.

Meanwhile, in another match the league played at the OFD ground, Valley Boys registered a three-wicket win over Royal Cricket Academy.

Batting first, Royal Cricket Academy put up a poor show as their failed to come up with a big score. Royal Cricket Academy team could only manage 134 runs in their allotted 40 overs.

Chasing a victory target of 134 runs, Valley Boys reached the target in just 20.3 overs with three wickets in hand. Valley Boys opening batsmen Shashank and Vishal gave a good start to their team and paved the way for the victory. Shashank made 46 runs and Vishal contributed 37 runs.