Haridwar, December 24
The city is abuzz with Christmas celebrations with churches being beautifully decorated and people thronging them to offer prayers.

Various programmes and functions were organised at various schools with students enacting the life of Jesus Christ, presenting skits featuring Santa Claus and singing carols.

At Sun Rise School, St Mary’s School, Whizkid International, Delhi Public School, Christmas-related programmes were held.

In the fancy dress competition, Preetansha and Eklavya were adjudged best Santa Claus, Akhsita and Sameeksha were the best angels, Charu got the Mother Mary title.

At Swami Hariharanand Public School, a fancy dress competition was held as part of Christmas celebrations. Tiny tots dressed in various theme-based dresses caught the fancy of all present. But the most sought after were children dressed in the Santa Claus attire.

While at DPS Ranipur, pre-primary wing students came dressed in colourful fancy attires. Principal KC Pandey cut the Christmas cake. Sweets were distributed to the children by persons dressed as Santa Claus. A big Christmas tree was decorated with children showcasing their red-heart pillows, dolls and other crafts related to Christmas.

Haridwar city has three churches which symbolise the religious harmony prevalent in the holy city. These churches have been beautifully decorated and devotees are visiting these churches to offer prayers.

Christmas trees at these churches have been nicely decorated with gifts, bells and balloons. The prayers halls have been decorated with candles and artificial lights with the Bibles being placed at all desks for worshippers.

Dehradun, December 24
Hark to the harness bells of the Yuletide and happiness on the faces of the people post parties on biding adieu to 2009. The resonance of the Christmas carols and excitement among the party lovers will now soon get quenched with celebrations that are approaching.

With the year’s end, the time of merriment and frolic is knocking at everybody’s doorsteps. The buzzing noise in the market place and the crowding restaurants has added gusto to the celebration time. With closing down of schools and most of the colleges, young crowd is mostly seen on the roads. From fashion to eateries, every industry is gushed in with good sales and service to its customers.

Apart from the regular menu, the restaurant at Hotel Great Value on Rajpur Road has planned a special buffet for their guests on Christmas. The festive buffet is priced between Rs 350 and Rs 400 according to the main course ordered. Additional amount will be charged for the drinks and other beverages. The buffet will be available throughout the day on the Christmas Day, whereas DJ Night will be organised at the dance hall for New Year bash.

“The hotel will also host a game for their customers and will reward the winners with the title of Miss Great Value and Mr Great Value. They are also planning to serve special menu on the occasion. For couple entry one will have to shell out Rs 2,500,” said Gaurav, sales executive of Great Value.

Another three star hotel of the town Aketa, will host similar celebrations on the premises of the hotel. They will organise Christmas party for their customers and guests. Special delicacies and cocktails will be served on the occasion.

Except hotels, other eating joints like Cosmopolitan, Black Pepper, Opal, Prez, Yeti, Bukhara Restaurant, Lhasa and bakeries are expecting great turnovers at the year’s end. They have not planned to throw a gala event in particular, but being renowned heart core joints of the city and the number of daily bookings by the tourists as well as local guests are anticipatory to make good business.

Dehradun, December 24
If you receive an email from your friend asking you for monetary help as he is in a dire need somewhere abroad, then beware and check out with him if he really wants some help.

Off late, many frauds had employed this trick to cheat people of their hard-earned money.

The modus operandi wherein cheaters first procure personal information of a person and then ask his friends for monetary help by hacking his personal email ID has trapped even well-known names of the city as well.

Several city residents have fallen prey to these cheaters. Some even lodged complaints with the police while others simply avoided such emails.

Even though the Dehradun police doesn’t have separate data for how many such complaints have been received, such emails is a cause of concern and an awareness drive is the only cure.

A victim of such emails, Brig KG Behl (retd), complained to the police last week that his email ID had been hacked and emails were sent through his ID to his friends asking for $2,500 urgently as he (Brigadier Behl) had got stranded in London and had lost his belongings.

Brigadier Behl added that the emails had mentioned the postal address of London where money was to be sent and asked to email the money transfer control number (MTCN) with details required to send it.

Garwhal IG MA Ganpathy said: “One such case in five or six months comes to us. This is basically a cyber crime and we register such cases under the IT Act and start investigation.

“A few Nigerians were held in Tehri who were involved in cyber crime some times ago”.

The IG maintained that these works were solely done by foreigners and there was no possibility of involvement of any local in such cases.

Another modus operandi of such cheats, emails pronouncing you as a winner of big jackpots and prizes are very common these days and people easily avoid them knowing the trick behind these.

However, a woman of Turner Road was cheated of over 3 lakh in September in one such case.

The victim, Anjum, in her complaint to the police had alleged that she had received an email saying that she had won Rs 2 crore lottery from a London-based company. She was asked over the phone to deposit some earnest amount in an account mentioned by it.

She used to receive receipts of her payments through emails.

After a few payments worth more than Rs 3.5 lakh, the email stopped replying and the woman later contacted the police.

Station house officer of the Patel Nagar police station Chandan Singh Bisht said the only way to catch the persons involved in such cyber crimes was through their cell phone from which they contacted the victim.

But, it was found switched off as the woman had approached the police quite late.

The police is now relying on the EMI number of the cellphone through surveillance to nab the frauds, but it is possible only if they use the cell phone again.

Pitthoragarh, December 24
Uttarakhand has shown the way to other hill states by using pine leaves not only to generate electricity but also to make briquettes.

“At least at two places our pilot projects have been successful in using pine leaves for energy at Pipalchatti in Garhwal and Berinag in Kumaon.

“We are using the pine leaves to be used as an alternative source of energy,” said AR Sinha, Chief Conservator, Forest, Uttarakhand.

The Uttarakhand Forest Department has invited bids from entrepreneurs to run the projects as follow-up of the successful experiments by January 10, 2010.

The first experiment on pine leaves was started last year in April at Virahi, near Gopeswar, in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand by the Alaknanda soil conservation division, Gopeswar. “We are making briquettes and incense sticks out of pine leaves,” said Sanatan, District Forest Officer (DFO) of the division.

The experiment was started with the money drawn from the budget allocated for forest fire prevention.

The division at present is making 150 quintals of briquettes and plans to increase the production to 1,200 quintals by next year. Nearly 3 quintals of pine leaves are used to get one quintal of briquettes.

Incense sticks are being made by using lemon grass grinded with pine leaves and are being sold to the Badrinath shrine authorities.

“The economics of making bricks out of the pine leaves is also encouraging as gathering one quintal of pine leaves involves five man days. We can produce 1,000 quintals of briquettes next year and it could create 15,000 jobs in the area,” said Sanatan.

“In Uttarakhand’s hilly districts of Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Pitthoragarh, Bageshwar and Pauri Garhwal there is more than one lakh quintals of pine leaves available during the 
season between April and June. It can create 1.5 lakh man days of employment every year,” claimed Sanatan.

“The total cost in making one quintal of briquettes stand at Rs 750 which can be sold at Rs 1,200 per quintal as the wood briquettes are selling at Rs 2,000 a quintal,” he added.

Avani, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), at Berinag in Pitthoragarh district has gone a step further.

“We have been generating electricity from pine leaves for the past three years,” claimed Rajnish Jain, director of Avani.

“The 9-kW electricity we are generating involves 13 kg of pine leaves per hour. At present, we are using this electricity for our campus only but we plan to extend it to a nearby village by next year,” said Jain.

Describing the process of electricity generation out of pine leaves, Jain said the pine leaves were first used to extract gas and then that gas created electricity.

“At present, our plant involves 20 persons who gather pine leaves. By involving more villagers we can create more jobs in hill villages,” claimed Jain.

Dehraudun, December 24
National Consumer Day was observed in Dehradun at a function organised by the local chapter of the All-India Consumers Council (AICC) to discuss various important aspects associated with consumer movement.

Dehradun District Forum president RK Sharma said the consumer movement was still in its infancy in the country and needed to be strengthened. He said, “People are yet to be made aware about various legal and administrative measures taken by the government in this connection.

Consumer movement is vital to protect the rights of consumers of different items and services to which they entitled and which are being denied to them due to their not taking up cases with the authorities/forums concerned of considering those minor issues. People can overcome this hurdle by joining hands to make the consumer movement strong to project their demands and settle those peacefully through negotiations and falling which through consumer courts.”

Former Consumer Forum member SK Kulsreshta said consumers were not that helpless as they think or appear and need not to compromise on consumer disputes. “It becomes the duty of every consumer to bring out to the notice of authorities concerned the defects or irregularities noticed in writing so that those are recorded and action is taken to rectify those so that others do not face the same situation,” he said.

Senior territory manager, Reliance, Sachidanad Singh guided consumers saying, “No court fee is charged and the complained can be filed on a plain sheet of paper giving full facts of case as it happened duly support with copies of the receipt.

No lawyer need to be engaged and individuals can fight their own case, but in case the consumer finds oneself helpless to plead or has no time to plead the case, a lawyer can be engaged for the purpose.”

The welfare societies have to get themselves affiliated to the bigger organisations like All-India Consumers Council, Uttarakhand, to provide them strength and support needed for the consumer movement so that the main issues of consumers’ interest could be taken with the higher authorities.

AICC president Brig KG Behl said, “Consumer work is not only limited to welfare societies, but also has to be taken to schools and colleges, where the students have to be made aware about their duties and responsibilities and the important role to be played by them.”

The theme of this year, ‘Be financially literate - save your investments’, was also discussed. Former District Judge, Dehradun, PC Agarwal and Consumers Forum president and Justice Irshad Hussain (retd) also attended the programme.

Dehradun, December 24
The Uttarakhand Handloom and Handicraft Development Council has organised an exhibition at the Parade Ground here from December 21 to January 10, 2010.

Handloom cooperatives, state handloom corporation and handloom groups from 14 states are participating in this exhibition. Industries directorate, Uttarakhand, and ICICI Lombard General Insurance held a health camp here today for the handloom workers.

Industries Assistant Director Sudhir Chand Nautiyal said in the camp 62 weavers were examined and distributed free medicine. This camp was organised under the All-India Handloom Week, which started on December 21. In the camp, Dr Shahid, eye specialist Dr OP Gupta and gynaecologist Dr Pratibha Sahai examined the weavers.

Under the Handloom Week, a seminar will be organised to apprise weavers about various government schemes for their welfare. Nautiyal said a branch of Punjab National Bank had been opened with ATM for the benefit of the weavers in the town.

On this occasion, Industries Assistant Director GC Pandey, fair in charge KC Chamoli, Jagmohan Bahuguna, Dalvir Singh and Pradeep Singh were also present.

Haridwar, December 24
The 78th edition of the All-India Swami Shraddhanand Hockey Tournament got to a flying start here today with favourite Uttarakhand Police team living to the expectations of crowds by winning with a spree of three goals against the Rampur Hostel team.

The opening match of the tournament saw a brilliant display of classical hockey from the state police team. With hundreds of people thronging the stadium chilling wind was heated off by the intense display of hockey from both sides.

In the first seven minutes, the Uttarakhand Police made inroads into the penalty area of the opposition team and their aggressive initial play bore fruits when in the 7th minute Prakash Chand Pargai deflected a beautiful pass to the nets making first goal of the tournament.

Uttarakhand Police players rallied on to make several attacks in the opposition penalty area and shattered Rampur Hostels defence with Arvind Singh slamming a precision hit from a penalty corner in the 17th minute.

The first half saw scoreline 2-0 and in the second half Rampur Hostel also changed its strategy and stressed on an aggressive display of hockey but a solid defence of Uttarakahnd Police foiled their attacks. In the 46th minute, Kailash made a field goal to take Uttarakhand Police to an assailable lead of 3-0. Despite persistent efforts from Rampur players it didn’t fructified in goal and finally with the whistle of referee Avinash Srivastava, Uttarakhand Police won its first league match.

In the second match of the day, New Delhi’s Rajput Club had to suffer a defeat at the hands of Moradabad XI players. In this match, too, initially both teams relied on their forwards to play an attacking hockey. Moradabad gained lead in the 19th minute from Tavrej’s field goal and soon in next three minutes the team gained a 2-0 lead via Mohammed Akram. Delhi players tried to lessen the margin with Akash Kumar scoring through a field goal in the 51st minute but couldn’t convert more scoring opportunities and thus tasted defeat by a 2-1 margin.

While in the third match of the day Shah Jahanpur defeated Shahbad Markanda by a huge margin of 8-2.

Earlier in the day, the tournament started with a gala opening ceremony with beautiful march past by the participating teams. Chief guest of the ceremony Mela DIG Alok Sharma urged the players to give their hundred per cent as without hard work and commitment one couldn’t become a great player. He related life’s difficulties and up-downs with sports and said real player was one who came successful despite tribulations.

The inauguration ceremony was presided over by Prof Swatantra Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of Gurukul Kangri University. A total of 21 teams are participating in the tournament, including BEG Roorkee, PNB Delhi, Itawa Eleven, Shahbad Markanda, Moradabad Eleven, UP Police, Haryana Police, Rampur Hostel, Town Hall Club Shahzahanpur, Railway Board, New Delhi, Sikandrabad, Yamuna Nagar, FCI, Gurukul Kangri University, Uttarakhand Police, Dehradun Eleven, Rajpur Club New Delhi, Dogra Regiment Centre, Faizabad, DHA Ambala, Core of Signals and Nainital.

Dehradun, December 24
Uttarakhand Police power lifters did the state proud by winning three gold and two silver medals at the recently concluded Commonwealth Competition organised in Pune from December 9 to 13. DGP Subhash Joshi congratulated the winners at the meeting here today.

Constable Mukesh Pal, who hails from Haldwani, won a gold in open senior in 100-kg weight category. Mukesh has been in the game since 2001 and has won many medals at the state and national level. His recent performance in the Commonwealth earned him a gold.

Speaking to The Tribune he said, “Being an individual game it gives us a huge amount of opportunity to perform and demonstrate our talent. Therefore, it is completely on ones own ability to rise in the game.” At the competition he competed against competitors from 19 countries. His toughest contest was against the South African counterpart, whom he defeated by difference of 5kg. “Yes, South African opponent gave me a tough fight. I gave my best performance to overcome this challenge in the competition. I lifted 700 kg, whereas he could only manage to lift 695 kg,” said Mukesh. He devotes six hours everyday for his practice. He feels that in the coming time more youths are expected to take up the game.

Another power lifter, Constable Gurumukh Singh from Nainital won a gold medal in junior 90 kg weight category. He said Uttarakhand players had a huge potential in the games. “Although we may not have international-level facilities, our inner enthusiasm to perform is the driving force behind our performance,” said Gurumukh.

Meanwhile, constable Bhagwant Singh of Nainital won a gold medal in 90 kg bench thrust. He said power lifting was an expensive game and the government needed to provide us financial assistance so that we could keep doing well at the competition. Whereas, constable Amit Kumar of Nainital and Nizam Ali of Haridwar won silver medals, respectively, at the Commonwealth competition.

Dehradun, December 24
The Little Master Cricket Club won the match by five wickets against the Ever Win Cricket Club at the 58th District Cricket League here today.

Batting first, the Ever Win Cricket Club scored 192 runs. Sumit was the highest scorer for the team with 42 runs off 47 balls, hitting four fours in his innings.

Puneet was the second highest scorer for the team. He made 66 runs off 44 balls. No batsman showed resistance and the whole team could manage to score 192 runs only. For the Little Master Cricket Club, Sonu took four wickets and Sadik and Manish took two wickets each.

Chasing the target of 193 runs, the Little Master Cricket Club achieved the target with five wickets in hand.

Manish played a scintillating innings of 55 runs, whereas Vipul supported him well on the other end to score 44 runs. Lower order batsman came up with important 33 runs. For the Ever Win Cricket team, Bipin took two wickets, while Vaibhav, Ahmad and Rohit took one wicket each.

Meanwhile, in the second match, ACA won by 201 runs against the MGC team. Batting first, the ACA team scored 276 runs, Abhimanyu scored a century for his team. He scored 106 runs off 90 balls hitting 11 fours in his inning. Vaibhav supported him well on the other end to score 64 runs off 53 balls. For the MGC team, Govind took two wickets and Kamal took one wickets.

Chasing the target of 277 runs, the MGC team was all out for 75 runs. Bivender was the highest scorer for the team with 17 runs and Kamal scored 12 runs. For the ACA team, Abhimanyu took four wickets and Vaibhav took three wickets.

Dehradun, December 24
Sandeep Singh won gold in the 60-70 kg category at the District Boxing Competition organised by the District Sports Office here today.

Results: 30-36 kg men: 1. Srikant Rawat 2. Anisha Rawat 3. Pavan Gurung

36-42 kg men: 1. Rohit Gurung 2. Abhishek Kumar 3. Mukesh

42-46 kg men: 1. Pradeep 2. H.Rai 3. Bhupender and Mukesh

46-51 kg men: 1. Sumit Mal 2. Sandeep Bisht 3. Sagar

51-54 kg men: 1. Mohit 2. Pradeep 3. Rishabh

54-57 kg men: 1. Anand Bisht 2. Praveen 3. Shisher

60-70 kg men: 1. Sandeep Singh 2. Ravi Shankar 3. Nitin Negi

32-38 kg women: 1. Neha 2. Krishan Negi 3. Anita

38-42 kg women: 1. Neha Singh 2. Soniya Singh 3. Rekha

42-48 kg women: 1. Sangeeta 2. Shivani 3. Soni

50-54 kg women: 1. Jyoti Thapa 2. Nandani 3. Sirjan and Deepa

56-60 kg women: 1. Nivadita 2. Preeti 3. Priyanka.