Drumming up support for state ³ ³ ³ Dholis play on  the state Foundation Day in Dehradun on Monday.  Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

CM announces pension for statehood agitators
Dehradun, November 9
On the occasion of the 9th Foundation Day of the state, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today announced a host of welfare schemes, including the flagship Atal Adarsh Gram Yojana. Launching the Atal Adarsh Gram Yojana, Nishank said initially villages under 670 nyaya panchayats would benefit from the scheme and later it would be extended to all villages in the state.

Dehradun, November 9
Warming up to ninth Statehood Day of Uttarakhand with a marathon race and an address by Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister, a day before, celebrations reached their zenith with an inspiring speech by Governor Margaret Alva.

A paratrooper lands at the venue of the state Foundation Day function in Dehradun on Monday. Tribune photo: Anil P Rawat

This was followed by a vibrant parade of the police, a thrilling show by the Air Force during the day and cultural bonanza presented by renowned classical musician Shubha Mudgal and Odissi danseuse Geeta Mahalik in the evening.

Paying homage to statehood martyrs, the Governor said that we must fulfil the aspirations of the brave men who laid down their lives to form the state.

She said, “While taking pride in the rich cultural heritage and traditions of the state, we must also look to the future and ensure that we progress in every field.

“Our children need health care, education and nutrition; our youth need jobs and opportunities; our women need to live in dignity, security and comfort; our men need to earn more by producing better yields and getting better prices for their products.

“Vision 2020 adopted by the state aims at making Uttarakhand self-reliant and a leader in many areas of development.”

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank honours a freedom fighter at a function held on state Foundation Day in Dehradun on Monday. Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

Appreciating the police force for its efficiency in combating pressures from inside and outside the borders, she said, “We have international borders to protect and internal security of citizens needs to be ensured. We are short of personnel while we receive five times the state's population each year as pilgrims.”

She added, “I am glad that our police is meeting all challenges successfully and has started many innovative programmes such as establishing tourist police, jal police, commando units and special anti-riot police.

“The forthcoming Maha Kumbh at Haridwar will be a mega event and will pose an immense challenge for us. I am sure that all state resources, including the police, will be geared up to ensure an orderly, peaceful and memorable festival.”

While thanking the Governor for giving a pat on the back of police force for its good work, DGP Subhash Joshi expressed his gratitude to her for starting many schemes such as of increasing diet and conveyance package, ex-gratia for risky acts and promoting a police official, out of turn, for his courage, to boost the morale of state police.

He also said that the Uttarakhand police force is committed to emerge as the best police force in the country in next three years.

The Governor also appreciated the march-past presented by 10 units of the armed forces, led by Parade Commander Abhinav Kumar. Earlier, Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank also took a guard of honour from them.

The main attraction of the day was parachute-jumping from a height of 2 km performed by the Akash Ganga Para Trooping Group of the Air Force under the guidance of Wing Commander RC Tripathi.

On the occasion, the Governor also met an expedition group, led by police officer Nilesh Bharne, which covered a distance of 1,811 km throughout the state on motorcycles.

The Governor also honoured the recipients of medals who have been recognised for distinguished and meritorious service in the police force. These officers were JN Goswami, Satish Kumar Shukl, Rajender Prasad Sharma, Joginder Singh, Madan Singh, Dinesh Chander Rawat, Kanchal Singh Rana and Diwan Tamta. Rami Ram was also honoured for his exemplary service with certification and cash prize.

The bevy of celebrations that continued throughout the day came to an end with a soulful rendition of classical music by noted singer Shubha Mudgal and an impressive dance performance by noted Odissi danseuse Geeta Mahalik.

Dehradun, November 9
On the occasion of the 9th Foundation Day of the state, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today announced a host of welfare schemes, including the flagship Atal Adarsh Gram Yojana. Launching the Atal Adarsh Gram Yojana, Nishank said initially villages under 670 nyaya panchayats would benefit from the scheme and later it would be extended to all villages in the state.

He also announced the inter-state bus terminus (ISBT) in Dehradun had been named Maharana Partap Inter-state Bus Terminus while the Jollygrant Airport had been named after Swami Ram Tirth. He also enhanced the money being paid to a leprosy patient from Rs 400 per month to Rs 1,000 per month.

Besides honouring five freedom fighters of the state, the Chief Minister also honoured five women and five men statehood agitators and also announced to give pension to the statehood agitators who had undergone prison for seven days during the agitation. He also gave cheques for Rs 25 lakh each to the widows of Havaldar Bahadur Singh Bora and Havaldar Gajendra Singh, who died fighting militants.

The Chief Minister also called for overall development of the state with the help of each and everyone. “Keeping our political differences away, each and every one in the state should work wholeheartedly for the development of the state,” he added. Nishank said if the Himalayas got weak, the entire country would be threatened. He exhorted the people to work hard to make Uttarakhand a strong and vibrant state. He also released a souvenir listing the developments of the state on the occasion. 

Nainital, November 9
Uttarakhand’s Foundation Day function here was disrupted by a small group of statehood agitators who raised slogans while the programme was on at the Flats grounds here this afternoon.

Just as people were enjoying cultural programmes in the presence of cabinet minister BS Bhauryal and District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli, a group of statehood agitators, who had placed themselves strategically amongst the audience and mediapersons, stood up raising slogans like “Andolankariyon ko nyay do” and “Andolankariyon ko niyukti do”.

The agitators have been seeking regular employment from the state government in various departments. The government has set up a team to identify the genuine agitators at the state level so that they can be granted special benefits.

The agitating group was soon forced out of the pandal by the police and personnel of the local administration.

Barring this incident, the Foundation Day was celebrated amid colourful presentations by various teams. The event began with a march by school children from Tallital to Mallital.

They converged on the Flats grounds. This was followed by a cultural presentation of songs and dances not only from Uttarakhand but other states as well. Artistes from the song and drama division of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of the union government presented famous Chhand dance of Rajasthan and a Kumaoni dance.

After them, the stage was taken over by teams from various schools who presented local songs and dances depicting the vast cultural landscape of Uttarakhand and the Kumaon region in particular.

A booklet on the development works being carried out by the state government was also released on the occasion.

Addressing the audience, Bagauli said: “Uttarakhand is taking considerable strides in the field of education, health and public welfare. We are moving ahead towards becoming a power-surplus state and a prime tourist destination”.

Noted Kumaoni poet Girish Tewari, who is fondly known as Girda across the region, recited a poem penned by him in which he talked of the sacrifices made by people of Uttarakhand to get a separate state for them.

Haridwar, November 9
There was a clash among senior and junior students of the engineering faculty of Gurukul Kangri University. The police had to be called after efforts of certain students to intervene went in vain.

The incident happened near Shani Dev Mandir and both sides were equal in strength. Initially a verbal duel, it soon turned into a serious incident.

The junior students accused the seniors of ragging them despite the university authorities strictly telling the students that no ragging would be allowed on the university campus.

One of the junior students, who suffered injuries in the clash, said the seniors had been for quite sometime trying to rag them and often used foul language and other tactics to irk them.

Though the juniors lodged a complaint with the police, it was later withdrawn on the intervention of the university authorities.

Dehradun, November 9
To commemorate the ninth Foundation Day of the state, Great Value Hotel, situated on busy Rajpur Road, had organised a two-day Garhwali food festival since yesterday. Unlike other normal days, this food festival gave people a chance to relish authentic cuisines of Garhwal, which are normally not available in the local markets.

“We organised this festival so that during the celebrations of state’s Foundation Day we can also contribute by giving people of the state a chance to taste the famous delicacies of Garhwal, which otherwise are difficult to hunt for,” said Magan Bhandari, assistant manager of the hotel.

However, unlike other cuisines, the food of Garhwal is mostly cooked in rich spices and mustard oil, making it healthy from the point of view of the overall wellbeing. Starting from “gath ka shaureba” (soup), which was made out of lentils, combined with leaves of garlic and asafeotida, there was “pahari chach” (lassi), salad (reddish leaves and spinach leaves mixed with mustard oil and salt). And to add more variety to the starters, there was “gath ki paturi” and “urad daal ki bhuri”, yummy crispy pakoras made out of gath (a special daal of Garhwal) and urad daal. “Lot many times people enquire about the specialties of Garhwal and by the means of this festival we have tried to incorporate all main dishes under the comforts of one roof. The food is primarily cooked in powered masalas and mustard oil, which has ayurvedic properties and is excellent during winters and for patients who are suffering from stones,” said Bhandari.

While the snacks were quite to tickle the taste buds, the main menu comprised a thick dal made out of gath and urad, known as gathwani and masfani. Another dish favourite of many and of Roshan, chef of the hotel, was “kandali ka saag”, made out of bichhu grass. It is firstly boiled removing the itching sensation of the grass and then mashed with the aromatic and heavy flavour of asafetida. Chemi ki bhuji (boiled beans-mustard oil and asafetida), aloo ki thinchani (aloo veg with little curry).

Beautifully complimenting this wholesome cuisine was “kodhu ki roti” and “jangora ka rice”, cooked in the dumpukht style for adding an extra flavour to the palate of food lovers.

Last, but not the least, was traditional sweet dishes like “arsaa” and “jangora ki kheer”. While “arsaa” is made of boiled rice powder and jaggery paste, it is fried with crispiness outside and soft and melting flavour of jaggery on the inside. “Jangora ka kheer” is delicious kheer and tastes pretty different from the usual rice kheer. 

Dehradun, November 9
As part of the ninth Foundation Day celebrations, the Uttarakhand Congress today conducted a workshop which was presided over by Tehri Garhwal MP Vijay Bahuguna.

In his address, Vijay Bahuguna said the Congress was committed to work for the fulfilment of the dreams of state agitators. Greeting the audience on the occasion, he held that the Congress had always honoured the sentiment of Uttarakhand.

Former Minister Hira Singh Bisht alleged that the BJP has always shown disrespect towards the concerns of Uttarakhand. “By changing the name of the state from proposed Uttarakhand to Uttaranchal, the earlier BJP government at the Centre had revealed its biased mindset,” Bisht pointed out.

Another speaker, Navprabhat, said the earlier Congress government in Uttarakhand gave direction to the state in terms of development.

Congress MLA Pritam Singh said the struggle undertaken by the women and youth will be remembered long as they were the very basis to the creation of the state.

Subodh Uniyal, Shoorveer Singh Sajwan, Sunder Lal Mandarwal were other prominent speakers on the occasion.

Dehradun, November 9
Welham Boys’ School has been pitted against Summer Valley School in the final of the Coca Cola Sub-Junior Level Football Championship to be played here tomorrow.

Both the teams had an easy sailing into the final. They beat their respective rivals with ease in the semifinals played today.

In the first lop-sided semifinal, SGGR Nehru Gram blanked Summer Valley School 4-0.

Summer Valley kept the pressure on its rival right from the beginning and made most of the goal attempts. However, the winning team scored its first goal in the 14th minute of the game when Afzal Badr Khan scored a field goal.

Afzal kept his rivals busy even after the goal and struck in the second minute of scoring the first half. He gave SGGR second jolt in the 16th minute by scoring another field goal.

The SGGR team couldn’t score any goal in the first half and lost a few opportunities that came its way. In the second half the winning team seemed much more aggressive and took many goal-bearing chances.

Aditya Parmar of Summer Valley netted the third goal in the 54th minute to give his team 3-0 lead. No sooner did the SGGR come out of the third shocker than Debojit Kalita scored the goal of the day when he tackled five players before hitting a marvelous goal.

The goal was highly appreciated by the crowd. With this goal Summer Valley came victorious with a margin of 4-0.

In another one-sided match of the day, host Welham School drubbed Army School 4-1.

Abhay gave an early jolt to Army School with a nice field goal in the 5th minute of the match.

Shivam netted the second goal for Welham giving his team a 2-0 lead at the end of the first half. In the second half, Army School got a boost when John struck in the 45th minute.

But Army School’s happiness couldn’t last long as Sahash struck two back-to-back goals to take the Welham for 4-1 victory. He scored in the 56th and 57th minute. 

Dehradun, November 9
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (RRMR) defeated The Heritage School (THS) by 85 runs in a knockout match during the ongoing Council School Cricket Tournament underway at St Joseph Academy here today at Rajpur Road.

RRMR opted to bat first after winning the toss as they mounted a total of 193 in the stipulated 25 overs. Anish was the top scorer for the team who was also the lone batsman to score half-century.

His innings of 51 runs was studded with nine boundaries. He was well supported by Parsh (27) from the other end. Earlier opening batsman Santosh contributed 43 runs.

For THS team, Somesh pocketed two wickets. He broke the important partnership of Anish and Parsh.

In reply, the THS was soon on back foot. Their main batsmen got out early and couldn’t stand on the pitch for a long. Aditya made 35 runs in just 20 balls. He hit six boundaries in his short innings.

Aditya got stumped, while trying to hit a shot, by RRMR’s wicketkeeper Zahid on the delivery of Akash. He was the only batsman who showed some courage on the pitch. The rest of the batsmen hardly could do much for the team.

In another knockout match of the day, Carmel School Dalanwala (CSD) showed the exit doors to the Guru Ram Dass (GRD) Rajpur. The CSD beat the GRD by two wickets.

Batting first, Guru Ram Dass managed to score 109 runs only. While Carmel School Dalanwala achieved the target of 110 runs at the loss of 8 wickets. 

Dehradun, November 9
The Race Course team won the finals of both junior girls as well as junior boys categories in Shri Guru Ram Rai Public School Sahodaya Inter-School Badminton Tournament here today.

The tournament was held on the school premises.

Race Course beat Basant Vihar 11-8, 11-7 in the final of the junior girls category while it beat Nehru Gram 15-7, 15-8 in the final of the junior boys category.

In the final of the senior girls category, Race Course got the better of Talab 15-8, 15-9 and in the the final of senior boys section, Patel Nagar beat Race Course 21-17, 21-18. 

Dehradun, November 9
Swati Sharma defeated Bhavana Harbola 11-3, 13-11, 11-6 in the final to claim the title of the Women Table Tennis Tournament being organised by District Sports Office here today on its premises.

Swati and Bhavana had an easy sailing in the final yesterday. The title winner had drubbed Nirmala Joshi 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 in the semifinals.

While Bhavna had trounced Vineeta Bhatt 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 in the second semifinal of the day.

Dehradun, November 9
DR Jaiswal of central zone defeated RR Singh of west zone to emerge as the winner of the OFIL Air-India Inter-Zone Chess Tournament organised by OLF working committee, here today.

Jaiswal earned 4.5 points and RR Singh was right behind him with 4.0 points.

Also top seeded G Vivekanandan of south zone drew match with Rajan Rai of north zone. G Ravi got 3 points while OP Yadav earned 3.5 points.