Dehradun, September 25
On one hand where the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya award ceremony saw students getting felicitated for academic excellence today, long waiting hours for the arrival of chief guest Ramesh Pokhriyal, Chief Minister, gave them a terrible time.

Students, teachers and other members present at the venue located in Raipur, Dehradun, kept waiting for almost more than three hours for the Chief Minister to arrive. The scheduled time for the price-distribution ceremony was 11 am. However, the Chief Minister on such an important day reached around 2.25 pm.

Besides, the high-spirited candidates and many others, who had come from various parts of the state, had to bear the brunt of hunger, heat and no facilities of drinking water. Where many students eagerly waited outside the entrance gate, some, in exhausted condition, sat down on the vacant seats and even slept consoling each other. The NCC cadets, after standing for hours together, sat on the road.

Meanwhile, to mark the birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya, the Uttarakhand government felicitated meritorious students here. Deen Dayal Upadhaya awards were instituted with a view to enlightening people about the benefits of education. Along with students scoring top positions at the high-school and plus-two levels, the award is also given to top three schools in the state giving excellent results and teachers who put in their best to produce brilliant results. The award comprises a memento, cash price and a certificate.

At the plus-two level, the first rank holder is awarded a cash price of Rs 21,000. The high-school level first rank holder is given Rs 15,000 as award. The Chief Minister gave away awards to students drawn from various parts of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions.

Abhinav Kala, Pankaj Mishra, Kanchan Kumar, Anurag Mishra, Prateek Kumar, Ajay Shankar Bangwal, Ashutosh Bhatt and many other students were among the awardees.

Haridwar, September 25
There seems to be no respite for farmers and local people residing on the periphery of the Raja Ji National Park and areas adjacent to the Ganga from rampaging elephants herds that destroy their crops and create havoc. For the past fortnight, the jumbos are almost frequenting these areas daily.

Villages of Jagjitpur, Missirpur, Katarpur, Jaipota and Pherupur are being regularly visited by these elephant herds. Apart from razing crops, they cause damage to walls of pucca houses and other structures. Elephants intrude into the villages mostly getting attracted to the sugarcane and wheat crops, which are their favourite food. The problem gets aggravated when after being driven away from the fields, the elephants enter the nearby village.

Perturbed over regular incidents of elephant rampage, farmers have complained to the higher forest authorities and have threatened to launch an agitation if concrete steps are not taken by the authorities.

Ravindra Saini, a resident of Missirpur, said now elephants intruding into their farms has become a routine. Apart from losses to their crops, people have to live in fear as sometimes the jumbos attack on them too when these are scared away. “After working in daytime, we don’t sleep in night. Instead, we patrol the whole area. The Forest Department should take stern measures to control this menace,” said Saini.

Meanwhile, to check this jumbo intrusion, the Forest Department is contemplating employing methods to stop elephants from entering these areas. District Forest Officer DK Pathak said the department had put forest guards on night vigil in these areas and was planning to dig trenches to hamper elephants’ movement.

The DFO added he had decided to be in the affected villages during night to better know the points and subpaths from where the elephants intrude into these villages. These paths would be blocked. Besides, the presence of officers in the areas will be helpful in bringing back the confidence of the villagers.

Haridwar, September 25
Early morning rain and strong winds put life out of gear in the city. In many areas, drains got choked and ongoing developmental work for the Maha Kumbh worsened the situation.

Digging work is going on in almost entire city for sewer laying, relaying of roads and various construction works in view of the mega fair. Water got accumulated in pits left unfilled after excavation work, posing a danger to human lives. It was sticky mud everywhere. Several colonies and roads had not been accessible till rain continued.

A huge tree fell on an auto-rickshaw at Kankhal. Luckily, passengers and the driver escaped unhurt. Local residents said the tree was very old. The uprooted tree caused a huge traffic jam and the road could be cleared late in the evening.

There was massive water logging at the Ranipur turn, Bhagat Singh Chowk, Bhotia Market, Bhalla Road, Moti Bazar, Vishnu Garden, Lal Taura Bridge, Jwalapur and other places. 

Dehradun, September 25
The state government today directed those departments, which had not paid arrears of revised salaries, pension and gratuity for 2008-09, to do so under relevant budgetary provisions of Vote-on-Account passed by the state assembly in March.

In an order issued by Principal Secretary, Finance, Alok Kumar Jain, all departments have also been directed to pay the arrears of 2009-10 as provided in the regular state budget passed in July.

The order has been issued after it came to the knowledge of the government that certain departments had failed to pay arrears so far despite budgetary provisions for the purpose.

As per a copy of the order, the erring departments should deposit this amount in the GPF accounts of the employees and pensioners after deducting income tax as decided by the government after revising salaries and pension on the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

It had issued an order that the employees and pensioners would be paid the arrears in three instalments in as many financial years since 2008-09.

Owing to financial constraints, they were to be paid 40 per cent arrears in 2008-09 followed by 30 per cent each in the following two years.

Dehradun, September 25
A constable was allegedly beaten up by members of a college student union organisation at MJ Residency on the Haridwar road here late last night.

The constable, Rakesh Panwar, was admitted to the Doon Hospital and was discharged later. The police has arrested prime accused Rahul, alias Raka, a former member of the Aryan group.

According to the police, the incident happened at 10 pm over a petty issue. The constable, who is posted at the Police Lines, had come to have food along with one of his friends in civil dress. Rahul was having wine with a group of his friends there.

The police said the brawl happened over staring at one another. In the melee, the students brutally beat up the constable, injuring him in eye and hands.

The incident comes close on the heels of the incident in which police personnel were beaten up by mob, comprising members of a political party in Kaladunghi and Haridwar.

Abhinav Kumar, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), said he wouldn’t tolerate any attacks on his force in this district and it didn’t matter to him whichever political party the accused belonged to, the action would be initiated.

A case under Section 147, 307 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at the Daalanwala police station. The police said the arrested student was a drunkard and a hooligan and was booked earlier also.

Dehradun, September 25
Japanese pair of Moe Kawatoko and Miki Miyamura lifted the doubles titled at the ITF Women $10000 Tournament trophy here today. In the finals they defeated the pair of Poojashree and Keren Shlomo by 6-1 and 6-3.

It proved to be an easy victory for Japanese pair in the match. They displayed great coordination and control in the match to win the first set by 6-1 without much resistance from their opponents. In the second set, Poojashree and Keren Shlomo lost the set by 3-6.

In the singles semifinal, Poojashree defeated Miki Miyamura by 6-1 and 7-6 and second in semifinal Rushmi Chakravarthi beat Moe Kawatoko by 6-4, 7-6 (4-7) and 6-2.