Haridwar, January 14
The first holy bath of the century’s and Uttarakhand state’s first Maha Kumbh started with a bang with lakhs of devotees taking a holy dip on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.

Since early morning, the Har-ki-Pauri mela zone was thronged by pilgrims and by the time sun shone in the sky, much to the surprise of people as for the past few days Haridwar has been waking up to a foggy weather, lakhs had already taken a dip in the holy Ganga waters.

Owing to the recent heavy rain in hilly regions, there was a good flow in the Ganga. Extra cusecs of water has also been released from Tehri Dam in view of the Maha Kumbh’s back-to-back holy baths on January 14 and 15 and this was visible in the flow. Naveen Singh, Executive Engineer, Northern Division Ganges Canal (NDGC), said it was being ensured that there was no problem to the pilgrims on account of the water level in the Ganga.

In fact, the influx of pilgrims and devotees in Haridwar had started yesterday. Late in the night it seemed Haridwar hadn’t slept with people and vehicles in thousands coming towards the city from different parts of the country.

Till late in the afternoon, pilgrims were coming to Haridwar in large numbers and ghats were abuzz with devotees taking a holy dip in the Ganga. With Mauni Amawasya, another holy bath, falling the next day, city hotels, lodges, ashrams, dharamshalas and rest houses are nearly full.

Elaborate arrangements were in place to ensure a smooth completion of Makar Sankranti bath. The mela zone was divided into 10 zones and 32 sectors for a better management of crowd and traffic.

The mela administration took this bath as a trial of their preparations for the mega Shahi baths starting from next month. The first Shahi baths falls on February 12, followed by Somwati Amawasya Shahi bath on March 14. The third and main Shahi bath falls on Mesh Sankranti on April 14.

With less than expected turnout witnessed today, the mela administration and police arrangements and strategies couldn’t be tested to the fullest. However, mela officer Anand Vardhan expressed satisfaction over the working and arrangements made for the first holy bath. Anand Vardhan, along with DIG (Mela) Alok Sharma, visited the Har-ki-Pauri area and monitored the whole situation. Such was the presence of police personnel that khaki was visible all over the mela zone despite hundreds of thousands of pilgrims filling the mela zone every hour.

For the first time, the mela administration has constructed ghats specially for physically challenged persons. At the Bairagi camp, near Iyrish Bridge, levelled ghats had been constructed where physically challenged devotees took a holy dip today.

Medical facilities were available throughout the mela zone at District Hospital, Mela Hospital, Rishikul Medical College, Gurukul Ayurvedic College, Jwalapur Medical Hospital and six base hospitals specially set up for the Maha Kumbh. Apart from this, 10 additional hospitals and primary medical centres are functional.

The Railways and local bus depot had made additional arrangements to meet a huge rush of devotees for the first holy bath of the mega fair. Computerised booked counters were in place at Haridwar (40) and in Jwalapur and Shantikunj (two each).

Three reservation counters were also set up at the Jwalapur station while 12 more had been put up at the Haridwar station. These counters came handy as there was not much chaos and serpentine queues as had been the norm during holy baths.

To lessen traffic snarls, 10 state-of-the-art city buses plied on various routes. The introduction of these buses marked the launch of the local bus transport service in Haridwar. These buses plied between Rishikul bus stand and Dhirawali parking, Rishikul and Daksheep, Rishikul and Garui Shankar Deep throughout the day, bringing smiles to passengers’ faces. Traffic was prohibited in the mela zone.

Meanwhile, local residents took a holy dip at various other ghats like Vishnu Ghat, Ram Ghat, Subash Ghat, Gau Ghat, Birla Ghat, Jatwada Bridge Ghats, Sita Ghat, Vivekananda Ghat, Vishwakarma Ghat, Rishikul Ghat and Neel Dhara Ghat.

Dehradun, January 14
The buzz at the century’s first Maha Kumbh has picked up with the first holy of bath of Makar Sankranti today and the arrangements made by the Health Department will be the focus of attention of all, rightly so as the department has managed to create a mini-medical city for pilgrims.

“Our OPDs have begun functioning at ghats. Since the morning, pilgrims have been streaming in to get checked up for minor ailments,” said Dr Anil Sharma, officer on special duty, Kumbh Mela.

The H1N1 isolation ward is ready, and so are the 143 class II and 10 class I medical officers who have reported for work. In all 19 members comprise the four rapid response teams. In each team there will be at least one technician, physician and a medical officer.

A total of Rs 81.50 lakh has been allocated by the Central government for H1N1 and 50-bedded isolation ward, equipped with eight-bedded ICU unit. The hospital is located in a secluded area and has separate entry and exit points. Eight ventilators, along with monitors, have already been installed at the ICU. These are under the supervision of six anaesthetists.

“The government of India has also provided nearly 2.22 lakh Tamiflu tablets and 65,000 triple layered masks and 2,000 N95 masks are already provided to the Mela Adhikari (Health),” said Dr Pankaj Jain, State Nodal officer, Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP).

Of the 19 Primary Health Centres that were to be constructed, the department has only readied seven. The Burn Ward at Rishikul Hospital will only be completed in the coming two days.

“Against the demand of 274 doctors, only 153 have reached Haridwar and in all there are 142 pharmacists, 17 sisters and 77 staff nurses on duty. A control room has been established at the mela hospital manned by one physician, surgeon, radiologist and anaesthetist each,” said Dr SP Agarwal, Kumbh Mela Officer (Health).

There is a provision for 1,040 beds with emergency arrangements at BHEL (150 beds) Ram Krishan Hospital and in Haridwar (150 beds) and 100 beds each at selected private hospitals.

Besides, an arrangement for 100 beds has also been made in areas surrounding Haridwar (outside the mela area) at Luxar, Mangalaur, Bhagwanpur and Narsan.

At 14 places, 108 GVK EMRI services would be available. Of the 13,906 toilets, 4,100 are ready with 250 urinals. A staff of 3,929 safai karamcharis have been given the responsibility to keep the city clean.

Dehradun, January 14
In the backdrop of the auspicious occasions of Makar Sankranti and the first holy bath of the Maha Kumbh, Shri Jagannath Rathyatra Sewa Samiti’s members, led by Swami Bhaktiyog, today took out the Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra. The yatra was given a ceremonial start by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Harbans Kapoor and Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

It commenced at 10 am from the Parade Ground and passed through Ashley Hall, Paltan Bazar, Dhamawala and Aarhat Bazar before finally culminating at Shitla Mata Mandir situated at Maatawala Bagh.

Joined by more than 1,000 devotees, the coordination of the yatra was managed by Shaam Sunder Mandir of Patel Nagar. Chanting “Hare Rama Hare Krishna”, 151 women draped in saris and carrying kalash on their heads, while men dressed in yellow kurtas and white pyjamas presented a mesmerising view of the grand procession. People from every nook and corner also took part in the religion procession and found an opportunity to take blessings of Lord Jagannath. Catching the attention of all, the highlight of the procession was a dandiya dance performed by girls of Rishikesh.

President of the samiti Ram Kumar Aggarwal said: “As per the mythology, it’s believed that once in an year, Lord Jagannath comes in public to shower his blessings on each and everyone, irrespective of caste, colour and creed”.

“This year Lord Jagannath has been placed on a massive rath. While the height of the rath combined with arch is 40 feet, its width is 12 feet and length 20 feet. It has been built at a cost of Rs 5 lakh,” said Bhupendra Chadda.

Govind Mohan, Ajay Bhatnagar, Satish Khanna, KD Sharma, Inderjeet Dhari, Om Prakash Suri and other members of the samiti were other prominent members who took part in the yatra. Devotees from Rishikesh, Haridwar, Vikas Nagar, Delhi, Mathura, Aligarh, Chandigarh, Rajhasthan and Himachal Pradesh also participated in the yatra wholeheartedly.

Meanwhile, celebrating Makar Sankranti with full enthusiasm, people had flocked temples since morning and made traditional food such as the black khichdi and had it along with rewri and gajak in the company of their relatives.

Pitthoragarh, January 14
Prevailing chilling conditions in the Kumaon region and previous day’s rain and snowfall led to the convergence of fewer devotees at various river spots to take the first bath of Uttarayani today. However, thousands of devotees took the holy bath at Bageswar, Pancheswar, Ranibag and Rameswer, early today.

“In Bageswar, due to rain yesterday, the day of the inauguration of Uttarayani fair, devotees from Danpur, Johar, Kanda, Almora, Berinag areas turned up in fewer numbers and the banks of the Saryu river looked deserted at the time of the inauguration of the fair by Balwant Singh Bhoriayal, Health Minister,” said Kashav Bhatt, a resident of Bageswar.

“The Bageswer Nagar Palika has made elaborate arrangements for nearly four lakh devotees, despite the cold conditions. The devotees will come in big numbers in coming days during the tenure of the fair up to January 18,” said Suboth Lal Shah, Chairman of the Bageswar Nager Palika.

While on the one hand the Kumaoni community celebrated the occasion of Uttarayani, on the other Sikhs and members of the Punjabi community celebrated the festival of Lohri all over Kumaon. “Though in small numbers, members of the Sikh community use this occasion to understand one another,” said Sukhveer Singh, a Sikh based in Haldwani.

“Not only the turnup of devotees is less this year, but the extempore presentation of various forms of Kumaon culture like Jhora and Chanchari is also not visible in the Bageswar market where for centuries people from Johar, Danpur, Kamsyar and Bel areas of Gangolihat have been presenting these Kumaoni cultural forms to spend the nights during the Uttarayani fair,” adds Bhatt.

Keeping up with the political tradition of Uttarayani in Bageswar, the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti took out marches from five places and these converged on Bageswar on today. “We want Gairsain be declared the capital of the state and local rivers and forests made a property of the local community, said Rajeev Lochan Shah, spokesman for the samiti.

Besides these marches, Myar Pahar, an organisation of non-resident people of hill area now settled in various cities of the country and abroad, published a souvenir and five posters of leading freedom fighters of the Kumaon region. “This souvenir and posters were released on the occasion of Uttarayani at Bageswar,” said Charu Tiwari, spokesman for the organisation and a journalist based in Delhi.

Dehradun, January 14
IMS, Dehradun, has conducted campus placements and invited big companies for students with a target of 100 per cent placement for the session 2009-10.

During the placement, the institute has invited big names such as Grail Research, Matrix Cellular International, ICICI Lombard, Infosys Eli Lily, Reliance Money and Smart Data. The leading companies across various disciplines conducted marathon interview followed by written tests and group discussions.

A total of 123 students have been selected.

IMS is the flagship institute of the UNISON Group.

Dehradun, January 14
It is proving to be a good season for the Uttarakhand volleyball team. The team reached the final of two national championships winning one and being runners-up at the other.

Uttarakhand were runners-up at the National Championship at Gwalior from December 28 to January 6 while they emerged victorious at the Agra All-India Volleyball Championship from January 7 to 9.

RD Sharma, manager of the team at Agra, said that despite being short of practice, they gelled well as a unit to give an outstanding performance.

“We went for the national championship short of our main player Mandeep Singh and the team was short of practice as well.

“Despite these odds, we came out with flying colours. It was all because of the team spirit with which we played,” said RD Sharma.

At the national tournament, Uttarakhand defeated Haryana in straight sets 25-21, 25-19 and 25-22 and in the final, they went down fighting to Tamil Nadu 25-21, 25-19, 32-34 and 25-21.

The runners-up position at the championship boosted the morale of the team and they emerged victorious at the All-India Volleyball Championship at Agra. In the final, they defeated Punjab 3-2.

Mukesh, Mithelesh, Subha Rao, Ritesh and Avnesh Yadav were the outstanding players at the tournament.

Now, the team is eyeing the National League Championship in February.

Dehradun, January 14
With the passage of a month, the picture seems to be getting clearer at the 58th District Cricket League under way at the Survey Stadium. Teams like YMCA, ACA and a few others have won all their league matches at the tournament to make it to the knock-out stage that will begin from January 20.

As many as 32 teams are participating in the league. These teams are divided into eight pools of four teams each.

From pool A, Rao Cricket Academy are expected to lead the table. They have already won both their matches earning four points. DRCA also have four points from their three matches.

In pool B, YMCA won all their league matches to lead the pool with six points while Diamond Cricket Academy are at the second position with four points.

In pool C, the Little Master Cricket Association are leading the pool with four points. But the name of the team at the second spot in the pool is still to be decided.

DRCA, last year’s runners-up, still stand a chance of making it to the knock-out stage as they still have a match to play. They have played two matches at the tournament, winning one and losing the other.

In pool C, defending champion ACA are going strong this year as well. They have won all their league matches with convincing margins to make it to the knock-out round. The Bhogpur Cricket Club are the other team to make it to the next round.

The situation in pool E is not very clear. The teams in this pool still have to play their league matches.

In pool F, Doon Champs and Doon Tiger have made it to the next round.

From pool G, Himalayan have made it to the second round and from pool I, RPCA and Ajabpur Young Star have moved to the next round.