Haridwar, November 29
Taking cognisance of complaints of adulterated and expired food material being served to customers on a routine basis, a team, as per directions of the District Magistrate, conducted raids on five restaurants situated near the city’s busiest market - Chandracharya Chowk (Ranipur Mod).

All establishments on inspection were found serving food items beyond expiry date and contaminated food material. This created a sensation in the city exposing the real face of these food joints that are playing with the health of people even after charging exorbitant prices.

The administrative team, led by City Magistrate R Sreedhar Babu, comprised Circle Officer Pankaj Bhatt, Deputy CMO Pankaj Aggarwal, Health Officer Anil Tyagi, Chief Food Inspector RS Rawat along with others. It first raided Dominos Pizza where the team found expired pizza and other processed material. The material was seized and dumped while samples were taken by experts.

But the most surprising were the raids on the city’s famous food restaurants - Invitation, Fun’n’Food and the newly opened Bikaner Sweet Shop - where the raw material used was found contaminated, insect-infested and adulterated.

Though the owners of these shops tried to dissuade the inspecting team, a determined City Magistrate R Sreedhar Babu, who by his deep knowledge of the food-making process, himself explained the cause of seizing the raw materials, the change in colour and made exact calculations of how many days before these food items were made and had been kept in the cold storage.

Samples were also taken of food store section of the Vishal Mega Mart. In the coming days, more such raids will be carried out by the administrative team.

Deputy CMO Aggarwal informed that a report was being compiled regarding the matter which would be submitted to the District Magistrate for further action.

Chief Food Inspector RS Rawat said samples had been sent for analysis and if found adulterated, then as per the Food and Supplies Act and the Prevention of Food and Adulteration Act, legal action would be taken against the offenders.

Meanwhile, several organisations have demanded stringent action against these food joints accusing them of playing with the health of people. Teerth Maryada Samiti activists termed the contaminated, expired food material being used in these establishments as playing with the health of local people as well as thousands of pilgrims and tourists who throng the pilgrim city daily.

“We used to come often to these restaurants known for their high-end services, but we didn’t know they were serving us unhealthy food material. I saw the seized food material being dumped by restaurant owners in presence of the administrative team,” remarked a group of SMJN College students who were present there during the administrative raid at one of these food joints.

Mussoorie, November 29
It seems that the administration in Mussoorie has not learnt any lessons from the recent Lakshmi Nagar disaster where many persons lost their lives due to faulty construction. Residents believe that a similar incident could take place in the town any given moment if permission to renovate their dilapidated buildings is not given soon. Residents have begun questioning the procedures followed by the Ministry of Environment and MDDA in expediting the cases where new construction is involved.

According to Director Yasmin Fernery, construction and renovation activities in Mussoorie, though on paper, do not fall under the category of ban, but are highly procedure-oriented, which almost implies a ban.

Bimal Sharma said during the days of Uttar Pradesh, the Uttarkashi earthquake of 1991 was used as an excuse to impose a ban during 1995 and 1996 within the freeze zone.

However, the state of Uttar Pradesh on July 25, 1992, relaxed construction activity for residential purposes up to plot area of 200 sq m.

There did not appear any evidence of any follow-up action having been taken by the MDDA on the 1992 orders of state. As per the government order (GO) of May 31, 1996, the seismic zone falls within certain defined boundaries of Mussoorie hills and not the entire hills.

The land area outside the clamp zone is open for construction. The administrators claim to have definite information as to which areas will suffer the most in case of an earthquake, and it appears according to their reasoning that people living outside the periphery of ban zone are all angels and will survive the earthquake and avoid devastation whilst people living within the freeze zone are all devils and should be penalised and shunned from building any additional room according to the needs of their growing families.

Another logic that construction also threatens to engulf the natural beauty of Mussoorie was also floated in the town to discourage construction.

However, construction, legal or illegal, has continued unabated in which only the poor residents of Mussoorie seem to be left out as they do not have any source at the level of the Ministry of Environment which has its nodal office at Lucknow and at the MDDA where one has to be influential enough to flex his arms to clear one’s construction within the stipulated time.

The legal process is so slow that the average resident loses interest till the time the file moves to the top officials, added Sharma.

He said it was intriguing that houses built on or before 1980 were allowed three storeys (load-bearing capacity becomes irrelevant) and plot of land adjacent to the same building would require an NOC from the MOEF.

For example, an existing house with 1,000 sq ft covered area presently with only ground floor qualifies to add two more floors of 1,000 sq ft each. This means an additional load of 2,000 sq ft. In comparison, a plot of land adjacent to the same building of size 500 sq ft would create load-bearing problem if just the ground floor was built.

He said residents of Mussoorie had become outlaws on their native land. The plot of land measuring 1,00, 200 sq m bought by them in the past seems to be a dead hope.

The administration’s denial to allow all these people their long-cherished desire to live in a house which is their own and to manage it has become a distant dream. An NOC from the concerned departments be it MDDA or Ministry of Environment is a nightmare and they are forced to curse their stars.

Bimal Sharma opines that the solution is not to ban construction. According to him, a ban does not work as people have an uncanny knack of finding loopholes or influencing officials to look the other way reminding one of the famous quote that ‘India is not governed by law but by loopholes in law’.

Sharma said, “Well-designed residential houses should be allowed. The number of sites for construction may fall, but their impact will increase.”

District Magistrate Sachin Kurve when contacted was of the view that construction was a serious issue as far as question of the 3,500 buildings cited by the disaster management study held in the past was concerned.

He, however, feels that many landlords of old buildings are not interested in renovating these for various reasons. As far as construction in the town is concerned, the regulatory body is the MDDA.

However, he said, it was really a sensitive issue for the district administration and if the administration felt that there was a need to act on an emergency basis due to any threat of disaster, it would act accordingly. The residents of the town hope that it might not end up being too late.

Dehradun, November 29
Media Mind Prints 2010, a youth-centric environment-cum-media fest organised by students of ISB&M School of Communication, Pune, undertook a corporate-social responsibility activity by planting trees in various schools and colleges here.

The tree plantation activity was done at Scholar’s Home and Dehradun Institute of Technology under the guidance of Dean Shishir Kumar and the institute director.

The final day of the youth festival is at The Survey of India auditorium on Thursday, where various environmentalists and media gurus will enlighten the audience on the topic “Green Doon” and “Emergence of New Media”.

Dehradun November 29
Joint secretary of DAV PG College Student’s Union Charu Srivastava is being declared as officiating general secretary till December 11 here today.

The announcement in this regard was made by Principal of the college BL Nautiyal on basis of a report submitted by three-member selection committee of the college.

While addressing students, Nautiyal said, “The report has been sent to the high-power committee of the university by the college committee about the vacant posts of the College Students Union,” he said.

“Meanwhile, Charu Srivastava will carry out the official duties till December 11. We have also enquired about any provision of conducting re-elections in such case as per the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations,” he said.

However, opposing the decision of the appointment of the existing joint secretary as an officiating general secretary of the Students Union, Aryan group gheraoed the college Principal. Aryan demanded re-elections to provide fair chance to other contesting candidates for the general secretary’s post.

Dehradun, November 29
In the 168th course graduation ceremony of the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), cadet Capt Anshul Roy was awarded with the Sword of Honour for being the Best Cadet here today. He was also awarded with the cup for the Best Performance in English amongst seniors and for the Best Attitude.

The trophy for being adjudged the Most Helpful Boy was presented to cadet Leonard Arambam.

Cadet Prakhar Kaushik bagged the trophy for the Best Performance in Science up to class X, while cadet NCO Karan Thukral won the trophy for Proficiency in Computer.

Cadet Second Commander Piyush Raj was adjudged Best in Integrity and Character and was presented the Wavell’s Sword.

Lieut-Gen SP Tanwar, GOC, Uttar Bharat Area, was the chief guest at the ceremony and awarded the cadets with parchment certificates.

Dehradun, November 29
The break-up party for gentlemen cadets (GCs) of the passing-out batch was held at the IMA here late Saturday evening. The GCs with their wives, fiancées and girlfriends set the dance floor on fire.

IMA PRO Major Amit Dagar said this was an official break-up party for the GCs, who were getting passed out.

The break-up party is held every six months. The party started at 5.30 pm and went on till 10 pm.

The passing-out cadets of the Indian Military Academy at a break-up party in Dehradun.

Dehradun November 29
To mark protest against commercialisation of education in Dehradun, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) took out a rally from the Gandhi Park here today.

The agitators held a demonstration at the District Magistrate’s (DM) office and sought to keep a check on fee hikes in schools and colleges.

Under leadership of senior leader of Dehradun ABVP Surender Singh, the agitators handed over a memorandum to the DM, addressed to the Chief Minister, in favour of their demands. They also demanded closing down of fake educational institutions in the city.