Dehradun, February 27
It’s Holi time! The city is in a festive mood with the festival of colours being just a day away.

People have already bought ‘abeers/gulal’ and goodies to celebrate the festival. Markets are buzzing with shoppers who have already started making preparations for Monday.

Shops of ‘gulal’ in various hues have been set up on the roadside. Chinese ‘pichkaris’ have come up to lure children who are thronging the stalls to buy these to drench everybody.

Markets like Paltan Bazar, Moti Bazar, Jhanda Bazar, Arhat Bazar, Indira Market, Rama Market and Rajpur Road are flooded with the arrival of garments, Holi caps, ‘gujiyas’, ‘papad’, ‘mathris’ and other eatables. Women too have started making preparations for Holi.

Several schoolgoing children were witnessed playing with colours day before the festival.

“Exorbitant prices have affected the shopping mood, but as the festival falls on the first of the month we have our pockets full with salaries,” said Sharda Dwivedi, a homemaker.

She said, “Retailers and shopkeepers are selling goods according to their whims and fancies. Khoya (mawa) is being sold at Rs 180 to Rs 250 per kg while ghee (butter)/oils are Rs 70 to Rs 90 per litre. The prices of maida (refined flour) and sugar have also increased in the recent past.”

Peeran Kaliyar (Roorkee), February 27
At first sight, it would seem to be some benevolent people serving food to the poor, but a closer look reveals Sikh volunteers providing food to Pakistani jaireens (pilgrims) at the Sabri shrine Urs.

For the past week, these Sikh volunteers have been away from home and are preparing round-the-clock ‘langar’ for their Pakistani brethren.

While one appreciates the step as it leads to the harmony among various religions in the country, Baba Pyara Singh, who has organised the ‘langar’, just forthrightly dismissed the idea.

“Our only mission is ‘nishkaam sewa’ (selfless service). We are not here for Muslims, but for human beings created by one God. For us, there is no Hindu, no Sikh and no Muslim. We believe in humanity,” said Baba Pyara Singh.

Pyara Singh, head of Dera Gareeb Nawaz, Batala, Punjab, specially came to Kaliyar along with his 30 followers, including 10 women, to render ‘nishkam sewa’ during the Urs celebrations at the Sabri Baba shrine.

Volunteers of the dera have put up tents 2 km away from the shrine and one can see the Baba and his followers serving food, snacks and tea round the clock to the ‘jaireens’.

Many of the volunteers, who are mostly agriculturists, hail from Amritsar and Tarn Taran in Punjab and some are from from Karnal and Panipat in Haryana.

“We are lucky to serve humanity under the Baba’s guidance,” said Tajinder Singh from Karnal and Swaran Singh from Tarn Taran.

Baba Pyara Singh said that they had been organising ‘langar’ for the past three years at Kaliyar.

Dehradun, February 27
A procession to mark Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi was taken out in the city here today. The procession began from the old bus stand and culminated at the Sayyed Zamaal Shah Dargah near Rangers College amid sentiments of gaiety and religious fervour. People chanted ‘Milad-un-Nabi Mubarak Ho’ in unison.

Addressing the people, S Ashraf Hussain Qadri, General Secretary, All-India Ulema and Mashaikh Board, said, “This festival is a symbol of faith of the people. On this occasion, in the entire Islamic world, processions and programmes are held to remember the Prophet. Honouring the sentiments of the Muslim community, the government of India too has declared a public holiday on this day.”

Manzoor Baig, Chief Adviser of the Board, said, “We are a people who tread on the teachings of the Prophet and Sufi saints. We are dead against the sick mentality of the Taliban.”

The procession was organised by the All-India Ulema and Mashaikh Board, Sunni Muslim Welfare Organisation, Uttarakhand, and Rashtravadi Muslim Manch. Later, Qadri distributed fruits and food.

Nainital, February 27
An international workshop on “Rhizosphere biology of agriculture, horticulture and forestry: Present and future” is under way at the Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology at Pantnagar that is expected to give a lead to scientists for planning future research on the effects of mircobial flora present around the root zone of a plant for increasing the latter’s productivity.

The workshop was inaugurated on Thursday by Deputy Director-General (Horticulture) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, Dr HP Singh at the College of Basic Sciences and Humanities.

The inaugural session was presided over by Vice-Chancellor Dr BS Bisht.

Dr HP Singh asserted that to address the demands for increasing population, scientists had the challenge of producing more from the limited land that was available. Expressing confidence in science, he said science and technology had the capability to meet the demand of increasing the production of edible items.

“Rhizosphere is very important in this condition because of the immense power of the micro-organisms living there and interacting with the roots of the plant,” he pointed out. Dr HP Singh said micro-organisms had the ability to survive in an adverse environmental conditions.

“The transfer of gene responsible for such resistance from them to agricultural crops will generate the same capability in the crops, thus giving stress-tolerant varieties that are capable of producing more in adverse climatic conditions,” he said.

Dr Bisht apprised the participants of the achievements of Pantnagar University in recent years. He expressed the hope that the Rhizoshpere biology would prove to be a key tool to improve soil fertility and food security, besides management of fertiliser, water, pests, diseases etc more efficiently. He suggested the participants to come up with concrete and workable recommendations based on this workshop’s deliberations.

Chairman of the Uttarakhand Council of Science and Technology (UCOST) Dr Rajendra Dobhal drew the attention of scientists towards the drying up of shisham trees in the Indian sub-continent due to onslaught of certain soil pathogens. He also cautioned the participants against undergoing spell of climate change and laid stress on the need to develop suitable technologies to combat the adversities brought in by climate change.

In the inaugural session, Dr BRK Gupta, who is the chairman of the workshop, said the soil of Indian agricultural lands had been impoverished by an intensive agriculture in the green revolution era and these soils needed to be replenished by adopting new technologies.

Roorkee, February 27
For the high school and intermediate board’s written examinations in the state, all arrangements have been put in place, claimed the Education Department, here today.

The board examinations, which are being conducted by the Uttarakhand Education and Examination Council, will start from March 5.

In Haridwar district, this year a total of 23,129 students will take high school examinations, out of whom 20,749 are regular candidates and private students 2,380.

In intermediate examinations the total number of examinees is 13,259, out of whom the number of regular students is 12,049 and private candidates 1,210.

The number of students has increased by 2,750 this year in comparison to the last year.

A total of 69 examination centres have been set up in the district. “This year the number of examination centres has been increased with the setting up of eight new centres. The centres have been set up at un-aided institutes,” said Ramendra Kushwaha, Additional District Education Officer (Secondary).

In these eight centres, all supervisors and custodians would be outsiders and at all examination centres the invigilators would be outsiders, added Kushwaha.

The lists of custodians and examiners have been prepared and the entire planning of deploying the staff at various centres made, claimed the education authorities here.

To check the illegal practices and cheating during the examinations, seven teams of flying squads have been constituted. The squads will be led by District Education Officer and other high officials of the department. Apart from that, squads at college level will also constituted to curb such malpractices.

The distribution of answer-sheets to the entire centres of the district will take place from Government Inter College, Roorkee.

The high school and intermediate examinations will culminate on March 27 and April 1, respectively.

Dehradun, February 27
As part of National Science Day, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun held a lecture programme on remote sensing.

Delivering the address, Prof VK Jha, former scientist, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, said from the days of World War to the present day, remote sensing has undergone a revolutionary progress. He said satellite imageries were being put to use to check the changes in forest cover, agriculture land and other issues.

He said even in the matter of pointing out of illegal constructions, remote sensing data has been utilised in a big way. “Even in town planning works, the remote sensing is proving to be very crucial to decide on the nature of construction works,” Jha said. The former IIRS scientist also gave a presentation before the audience to support his lecture.

Earlier, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister ND Tiwari who was surprise visitor exhorted the students to take to science subjects in a big way. He said science was fast taking over the world and India was fast strides in this sphere. Tiwari also handed over the prizes for essay writing and slogan competition to the students and the employees of the Wadia Institute.

Director Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology Dr AK Dubey welcomed the participants to the programme. He said the weeklong National Science Day programme had quiz contestants and other from of competitions for school going children and the Wadia Insitute employees.

Dr Abu Azmi, Dr BN Tiwari, Dr SK Parcha and other senior Wadia scientists were present on the occasion.

Dehradun, February 27
Mighty Gorkha Brigade (GBC) surpassed 2 Garhwal Riffle 6-0 in the final to claim the Narayan Gurung Memorial Football Tournament title here today at the Mahendra Ground.

In this one-sided encounter, the winning side dominated the whole match giving no chance to its rival. Chab Bdr of GBC struck in the very first minute of the game.

Bhaktaman was the second one to score in the 21st minute. With this score GBC leading the match 2-0 was in full confidence. Trilok Dura (44th minute) and Mok Bdr (48th minute) netted the next two goals to completely shatter 2 Garhwal Riffle’s hopes to make come back to the match.

Riffle team could try a very few goal attempts throughout the match and those tried couldn’t do anything. The pressure kept mounting on the team and it couldn’t even strike in later part of the match. However Bhaktaman (51st minute) and Trilok Dura (74th minute) of GBC netted a goal to finish the match 6-0 in its team’s favour.

Trilok Dur was given a yellow card in the 65th minute of the game while Krishna Bist was shown yellow card too in the 61 minute.

Meanwhile, Yowan Gurung of the winning team was awarded with the best player award. The winning team was given a cash prize of Rs 5,000 and the other team was handed over a check of Rs 3,000.

Dehradun, February 27
The Himalayan Cricket Club (HCA) got the better of Rajender Pal Cricket Academy (RPCA) by four wickets in the final to clinch the title of the 1st Late Chandan Singh Thapali u-15 Talent Search Cup Cricket Tournament, here today.

Captain of the RPCA Vishal won the toss and chose to bat first. The team’s opening pair of Ravjot (23) and Aman (29) had a good partnership but the next down batsmen couldn’t match up to their performance and went cheaply.

The RPCA scored 94 in the allotted 20 overs at the loss of nine wickets. For the bowling side Prakash claimed three wickets while Sandeep took two wickets and Ankush pocketed one.

Batting second, the HCA achieved the target in 16.2 overs losing six wickets. Opening batsman Sandeep (18) and middle order batsman Himanshu (26) were the principal scorers for the team in this low scoring match.

Vishal and Aman of the RPCA took two wickets each. Vinay and Ravjot Singh also captured one wicket each.

Dehradun, February 27
Graphic Era University defeated GBPEC Pauri by five wickets to win the first Inter-college Cricket Tournament being organised by Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun at MRPS College, here today.

Electing to field first, the winning side packed off GBPEC for just 99 runs in 33.2 overs. Dheeraj (34), Abhay (19) and Nitender (18) were the main scorers for the team.

This was Suarabh who bowled superbly and send back five batsmen to the pavilion. While Aamir and Sumit took two wickets each.

In reply, Graphic Era achieved the target of 100 runs at the loss of five wickets. Amit (38) played a sensible knock to guide his team to the victory. He kept there on the pitch with other batsmen to easily win the match.

Dehradun, February 27
Over 100 golfers from the region are participating in the first Manjeet Singh Memorial Golf Tournament being organised by Sikand Golf and Tennis in association with the Uttaranchal Golf Association in FRIMA Golf Course, here today.

Golfers from the FRI, IMA, RIMA, ONGC, OGA and DSOI have sent registration for the tournament that will conclude on February 28.

Earlier, a Taylor Made Demo Day Golf Clinic was held from February 23 to 27.

The camp included professional advice as well as discount on golf equipment. The camp opportunity was availed by different streams. The participants will be awarded for overall card, longest drive, closet to the pin and best lady golfer.

Dehradun, February 27
Chess Open is being held at the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) here like every term.

This year, the Chess Opens were a great success and more than 153 cadets took part in this competition. Cadets emerged victorious are:

In juniors category:

Winner: Cadet Vivek Boorah

Runner-up: Cadet Arunabh Saxena

In middles category:

Winner: Cadet Akhilesh Gupta

Runner-up: Cadet Prem Kashyap

In seniors category:

Winner: Cadet Karan Thukral

Runner-up: Cadet Rahul Kadian

In most upcoming player: Cadet Ayushkam Pandey

Overall winner: Cadet Vivek Boorah

Col H Dharamrajan was extremely pleased by the way the cadets played the matches and the overall standard was very high.

He expressed hope that the cadets would continue this performance and even better the benchmarks set by them. The over-all co-ordinator of the event was CS Vishwakarma, Dean of Cultural Activities, RIMC.

Dehradun, February 27
Prayers were held to mark the 51st enthronement of H Sakya Trizin Rinpoche, as Tibetans from different settlements participated in the ceremony held today at the Sakya Centre, Rajpur.

More than 10,000 Tibetans gathered to pay their respects at the monastery.

The Sakya school of tradition is one of four major religious traditions that existed in Tibet. It plays a significant role in the development and spread of Buddhism in Tibet. During the 13th and 14th centuries the holders of the Sakya tradition were also the principle political powers that ruled over Tibet.

The Sakya Centre in Rajpur, is the main seat of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism and the personal monastery of His Holiness Sakya Trizin. “The centre is a monastic institute that also offers traditional education in Buddhism, rituals, ritual music, art and meditation,” said Lama Jamyang Lekshey, Director of Sakya Centre.

The occasion also allowed Tibetans to partake of festivities especially after they refrained from celebrating Tibetan New year, in protest against the 2008 attack on Tibetan protestors by Chinese authorities.

A colourful market overflowing with Tibetan food, art and craft products emerged outside the Sakya temple. Even local food vendors took their place next to the Tibetan stalls. Ancient Tibetan flags, lucky charms and masks were all there.