Dehradun, October 27
The 63rd Infantry Day was celebrated in the salubrious climes of Dehradun today. This was the day when more than six decades ago valiant soldiers of the Indian Infantry landed at the Srinagar Airfield to evict Pakistani invaders who had advanced along the Uri-Baramula-Srinagar road with an aim to wrest Jammu and Kashmir from India. The Indian soldiers fought with valour and courage, thereby reversing the tide of the battle and saving Kashmir as part of the Indian Union.

A wreath-laying ceremony was organised at the Lal Gate War Memorial in Garhi Cantt. Lt Gen RS Sujlana, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, Commandant, Indian Military Academy (IMA), laid the wreath at the War Memorial. A two-minute silence was observed in the memory of the soldiers who were killed in the line of duty. The ceremony was attended by several retired and serving officers from the state.

Infantry, also known as the Queen of the Battlefield, is the predominant combat arm and ultimate cutting edge of the Indian Army and will continue to remain so for times to come due to the infantry-centric nature of conflict in the Indian context.

Characterised by self-reliance, ability to hold ground, adaptability and mobility, perseverance in face of odds and hardships, selfness devotion of infantrymen and the supreme sacrifices made in the call of duty, go to make infantry the most indispensable combat arm of the Indian Army. Its sterling performances in Siachen, along the Line of Control and fighting militancy in the mountains of Kashmir and in the jungles of North East have won accolades from one and all. The infantry’s performance in the Aid to Civil Authorities in various parts of the nation and in the peace keeping operations abroad have raised the esteem of the Army in the eyes of the entire nation.

Tea was also organised to mark the solemn occasion. Subsequently, a lunch was hosted for all serving and retired officers at the IMA.

Pitthoragarh, October 27
UKD leader Kasi Singh Airy today distributed 10 quintals of relief material among 52 families of Munsiyari subdivision who are living in relief camps. They have been living in these camps since they were shifted from their calamity-prone village last month. “The material included tinned milk, clothes, oil, sugar and blankets, which was received from the Citizens for Green Doon, an NGO of Dehradun, and Madhavanand Bhatt, an Uttarakhandi living in Mumbai,” said Airy.

The transport of the material was managed by Hilton while UKD workers helped in the distribution of material among the 56 families of Golfa, Suring, Bhanskot, Papri and all 36 families of Qurie-Jimia.

The UKD leader said the main problem of the villagers living in these relief camps is of getting a permanent shelter, as the government is providing only Rs 50,000 which is not sufficient to make a new house. “The 12 families of Qurie- Jimia whose houses were damaged partially in the calamity and are not fit for living have not been included in the list of those who need houses,” said Airy.

Mussoorie, October 27
Mussoorie had to face water crisis as illegally constructed portion of the building situated near Mount Rose on the Camel’s Back Road collapsed, breaking the main drinking pipeline.

Telephone lines of the road were also affected due to the building caving in last night. The Nagar Palika road adjacent to it also suffered serious damage. The labour working at the site had a miraculous escape as the disaster occurred after they had finished their work in the evening.

Jal Sansthan Executive Engineer DK Singh said he was unaware of the situation and would look into the matter immediately. The administration, waking up to the crisis after repeated complaints, arrived on the scene, along with police force, and stopped the construction with immediate effect.

According to Sadan Singh, caretaker of the building, the collapse occurred due to the water leaking from the pipeline of Jal Sansthan passing beneath the property.

Neighbours of the area, however, alleged that the illegal construction was being carried out for the past three months and more than 10 rooms had been constructed by covering the area with plastic sheet in cahoot with Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) officials as they did not ban the illegal construction leading to the collapse.

SDM, Mussoorie, Manoj Kumar said the work had been stopped and Jal Sansthan had been directed to repair the line immediately.

Jal Sansthan officials said the disaster occurred due to the illegal digging done to construct pillars by the builder, thus, damaging their main pipeline emanating from Chandal Garhi reaching the Gunhill. They were also of the view that it could have been done deliberately to break the pipeline passing from their property.

According to Jal Sansthan AE PB Bhatt the repair work was on and the line would become functional by late evening.

Meanwhile, an FIR has been lodged by the department against the builder.The department was also planning to file an FIR against the builder of the illegal construction.

MDDA Executive Engineer SS Sharma said they had already served notices to the proprietor.

SDO, BSNL, Ganesh Kothari said their telephone lines had also suffered due to this incident and it would take more than a day to repair the damage that amounted to several lakhs.

Dehradun, October 27
Congress workers today rejoiced re-appointment of Yashpal Arya as Uttarakhand Congress President.

Congress workers, led by Dehradun Mahangar Congress President Harish Virmani, resorted to largescale bursting of crackers and distribution of sweets at the Congress Bhawan. Congress workers thanked Congress Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party’s General Secretary Rahul Gandhi for re-appointing Arya as state Uttarakhand Congress President.

The Congress Minorities cell, led by Harpal Sethi, said the Congress high command had reposed his faith on leadership of Arya, which he said was an honour for the dedicated party worker.

Reports of celebrations in the Congress have also been received from other parts of Dehradun, where party workers distributed sweets and conveyedgreetings among partymen.

Mussoorie, October 27
The loud explosion emanating from the barracks created at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) combat wing jolted students and took them by surprise as jawans demonstrated the use of explosives by terrorists. More than 200 students from various schools from the town received much-needed information on ways to combat terrorism provided by the ITBP jawans, popularly called “Himveers”, here today.

The programme was a part of one-week celebrations of the 49th Raising Day of the forces. The students received firsthand knowledge on how the terrorists use explosive devices to instill fear among the common people and how they can be countered. The official trainees also imparted knowledge on ways to read sand maps and recognise an improvised explosive device in the crowded places.

The official trainees displayed equipment like portable explosive vapour detector, which can detect the minutest molecules of the vaporised TNT, along with electronic stethoscope to detect minutest tick emanating from a time-bomb device. Apart from this, the ITBP jawans also demonstrated how terrorists make use devices like bell, ribbon during opening ceremony, towel, briefcase, watch, ceremonial lamp and even book and convert these into portable explosive devices using pressure and frequency mode to reach maximum causalities.

The students enjoyed rock-climbing experience as part of the programme.

ITBP Academy DIG Austen Ippon said as a part of the Raising Day, a motivational programme for students was being organised here.

Speaking about the history of the ITBP, he informed that it was raised in October 24, 1962, after the Chinese aggression. He said as all were aware the security condition in the country was quite challenging and it was not possible to safeguard the nation merely by activities of security forces. The nation could be secured only when all citizens of the country worked together with security mindset.

He also said the idea of this programme was to raise security awareness and encourage students to join the forces in large numbers. Ippon said every civilian was a cop without uniform. ITBP officer Shailendar was the coordinator of the programme.

Dehradun, October 27
Keeping in view of the upcoming festival, the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), along with police officials, today removed encroachments at Paltan Bazar, Hanuman Chowk and Moti Bazar.

The cops from the Kotwali police station, led by Station House Officer (SHO) Kailash Panwar and DMC officials, conducted the drive. The police impounded the material kept by shopkeepers in the verandah.

Some of the shopkeepers were also challaned for violating the norms. The cops had already warned the traders to remove their things from the encroached land, but the latter didn’t pay heed to it.

The police officials said it would continue their drive in coming days too.

Dehradun, October 27
Dehradun District Magistrate (DM) Sachin Kurve has asked Executive Engineer (EE) RP Singh of the PWD to make sure that roads that were closed due to natural disasters recently should be opened by month-end.

While reviewing the Prime Minister Rural Road scheme here today, he said there was no shortage of funds and the EE should prepare an estimate money required for re-carpeting. He asked the engineer to provide all details regarding the roads that had been sanctioned.

Appraising the works, RP Singh said out of 39 works, 33 had been finished and the remaining would be finished by March 2011. He further said seven works had been sanctioned under phase VIII.

Dehradun, October 27
The BJP government continues to be apathetic towards the welfare of the minorities and has failed to allocate a single penny for madarsas. It is even demanding the Centre should share the burden of merit-cum-means-scholarship for pre-metric students.

It was only during former Chief Minister ND Tiwari’s tenure that efforts were made for providing quality education through madarsas in the state. An amount of Rs 1 crore was released for the construction of toilets during (2006-07) and Rs 2.64 crore for the computerisation of the madarsas in the entire state. In all there are 90 madarsas in the state and the teachers get around Rs 9,000 per month, provided by the Social Welfare Department.

Under the pre-metric scholarship scheme for students, the Tiwari government had spent Rs 14 crore on a total of 1,18427 beneficiaries.

But, after the Central government started a similar scheme, the state government is now asking the Centre to share the burden as the liabilities are increasing.

The improvement of madarsas under the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme continues to languish. “Most of our proposals are still awaiting nod. When we first presented a proposal to the Minority Affairs Ministry, we were told that it has to be passed by the Human Resource Department but they went on to suggest that the programme for improving quality of education at madarsas could be included under the Minorities Sector Development programme. Our proposal to set up libraries at the madarsas is still pending,” said BR Tamta, Additional Secretary, Social Welfare.

So also under the infrastructure development programme construction of school buildings have not taken off since the BJP government came to power.

Further under the Muti Sectoral Development Programmes (MSDP)100 Aganwadi centers in Haridwar and 143 Aganwadi centers in Udham Singh Nagar have been constructed.

Dehradun, October 27
The winners of “Prince and Princess of North” will get to play the lead role in a Hindi film to be produced by the Yograj Cinevista Film Acting Institute and Film Production House. This was stated by Yograj, producer of the film, here today. Not only this, the company will also be hosting various talent hunt shows to give a chance to upcoming singers, dancers and actors.

Yograj said, “The competition will be held in December and the winner will get a chance to work as the main lead in the film, the shooting of which will begin in January. Individuals from Mumbai will be the judges”.

The Manisha Koirala, Shakti Kapoor, Ulka Gupta, Aryaman and Zakir Hussain-starrer will be directed by Navneet Kaushik. Most of the film will be shot in the beautiful locales of Uttarakhand and indoor scenes will be taken care of in Mumbai. Besides these actors, artistes from North India will play the main characters in the film. Ashok Mehta has been signed as cameraman.

Refusing to disclose any other detail, Yograj mentioned, “Actor Shakti Kapoor will shed more light on the project on November 19 when he will visit the city”.

While talking to The Tribune, he said his company would be producing two films - a thriller and the one based on politics.

Yograj is also starting an institute that would train persons interested in making a career in this field. “We will teach acting, dancing, singing and modelling in our studio. The ones who do well will be given a chance in Bollywood films”.

“Our film will be made on very high budget and no one will have ever seen a film like this. It will be totally different and it will definitely move everyone,” he claimed.

On the music director, Yograj said, “We have signed a high-level music director for the film, but I cannot disclose his identity right now”.

On being asked what made him start the production house, Yograj said, “The north region is full of talent and I have seen that many people who go from here are unable to showcase their talent in Mumbai. This made me think of providing them a platform on a bigger level”.

Nainital, October 27
Documentaries on Bollywood actor Nirmal Pandey and poet Girish Tiwari, who was popularly known as Girda, will be among the key attractions at the Second Nainital Film Festival that gets under way here from October 29. Both had spent a major portion of their lives in Nainital. The three-day festival is being held by the local cultural organisation Yugmanch in collaboration with the Jan Sanskriti Manch.

Among the other major attractions will be the screening of the film, “Daayen ya Baayen”, which is directed by Bela Negi who also belongs to Nainital and is at present working in Mumbai. Incidentally, the film is being released and premiered on the same day.

Films like Sankalp Meshram’s “Chutkan ki Mahabharat”, Paresh Kamgar’s “Khargosh” and Iranian director Behman Gobadi’s “Turtles can Fly” will be other major attractions at the festival.

There will be a special segment for viewers of serious cinema where productions on contemporary issues will be screened. These include films like “Niyamraja ka Vilap”, “Andhere se Pehle”, “Hindu to Hindutva”, “Voice from Balliyapal” and “Kithe mil ve Mahi”.

The participants at the event will also pay their respects to the four noted poets, Nagarjun, Kedarnath Aggarwal, Shamsher Bahadur Singh and Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed “Faiz”, whose birth centenaries fall during this year. They will be remembered through posters and photographs. An exhibition of photographs on the recent rain-related disaster in Uttarakhand will also be held at Chalet Hall which is the venue of the event. An exhibition of photographs by noted photographer B Mohan Negi will also be held during the vent.

“This event will be different from the government programmes and the other fashionable film festivals. Our attempt is to bring meaningful cinema to the viewers. We got a good response from the people on the festival held last year as they got to see films which were different from what Bollywood had to offer. They accepted the films shown as those films talked about issues closer to them,” said Zahoor Alam, founder of the Yugmanch, at a media interaction here today.

Haridwar, October 27
In view of supplying adulterated “mawa”, a product used to make sweets, ahead of Diwali, a large chunk of spurious mawa was seized from the Jwalapur area by a joint team of the Health and Police Departments. However, the accused, who had brought the material, was successful in running away from the spot with half of the material in the vehicle.

On a tip-off, a joint team combed the Jatwada bridge area in suburban Jwalapur. The accused was seen loading huge chunks of mawa from a bus, but on being noticed he ran away from the scene. Meanwhile, the police seized a cycle rickshaw on which the accused had already loaded 3.5 quintals of the spurious mawa.

Chief Food Inspector RS Rawat informed that the seized material was being brought from the Muzaffarnagar region and the practice had been going on for quite some time.

While Jwalapur police station officials informed that police had conducted several raids and was looking into the nexus of local traders as last year too large quantity of adulterated material was seized.

This incident has again cast doubts in people’s mind on the quality of sweets this festive season.

Dehradun, October 27
Magistrate (City) MS Bisht today asked Shiva Gas Agency to supply gas cylinders to the residents within two days or else face action for non-delivery.

“I received a call in the morning that residents of Shastri Nagar have blocked the road next to Shiva Gas Agency located at the Haridwar bypass as it has been long that the agency is not providing gas cylinders to them despite waiting for more than a month. Other than this, the dealer has also failed in the home delivery of the gas cylinders despite having seven three-wheelers and a TATA 407. While checking the record, I found that the dealer had a long waiting list pending for the past few months,” he said.