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Hail paints Haridwar white
Rain, snow lash U’khand
Tourists extend stay as prospects of snow increase in Mussoorie
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SAF Winter Games
Workshop on ‘Recent Trends in Educational Research’ begins
Doon’s needy feel the chill
Finally, Kailash Kher reaches Joshimath
HNB varsity to conduct entrance exam
Five days on, woman-eater still at large
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Hail paints Haridwar white
Haridwar, January 15 It is after many decades that the holy city has experienced nature’s bounty in this form. The city was all covered in white. Spellbound denizens enjoyed the view and threw balls of hailstones at each other at Har-ki-Pauri, Moti Bazar, Mayapur, Kankhal, Devpura and Ranipur areas. At around 9 am and after a few minutes of intermittent rain, the hailstorm began covering the ground with white spheres of snow. Traffic on the national highways slowed down on account of the hailstones. “This is awesome. Despite having fever, I couldn’t resist myself from going to the roof to catch a glimpse of white hailstones on the roof. I called my friend in Pauri Garhwal where snow falls regularly and told her that today we in Haridwar too had a similar experience,” said Shikha Kumari, a resident of Raj Bhawan, Mayapur. Till late in the evening, a drizzle continued to moisten Haridwar. Teerth purohits and astrologers found the change in weather as normal which they opined was expected after Makar Sankranti.
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Rain, snow lash U’khand
Dehradun, January 15 According to the Uttarakhand Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre, a house was damaged at Chimta village in the Gairsen region of Chamoli Garhwal. This resulted in critical injuries to two children. There were a total of seven occupants inside the house, but the rest escaped with minor injuries. Roads to Yamunotri and Gangotri remained blocked at Phoolchatti and Harsil, respectively. The Border Roads Organisations managed to open the Yamunotri road for smaller vehicles. Meanwhile, continuous rain and snowfall were reported in the higher reaches of Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Champawat, Pithoragarh and some other high-altitude areas of the state. Rain accompanied by hail lashed the plain areas of the state, including capital Dehradun. Met officials predicted no immediate relief. Dr Anand Sharma, Director, Meteorological Department, Dehradun, said that rain and snow would continue over the next 24 hours. He said the weather could improve in the Garhwal hills during the later part of the day tomorrow, but rain and snowfall could stretch longer in Kumaon. In the capital, showers continued throughout the day. Taking into consideration the cold wave conditions present, most residents kept themselves indoors.
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Tourists extend stay as prospects of snow increase in Mussoorie
Mussoorie, January 15 Tourists from as far as Delhi, Saharanpur and Dehradun began arriving in the town since afternoon. Dehradun tourist Ran Singh speaking to The Tribune said he, along with his family, had for only an hour, but now would stay overnight in anticipation of the snowfall early morning. According to the Met Department, the present condition will prevail for a couple of days more, leading to heavy snow in the higher Himalayas accompanied by a heavy rain.
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SAF Winter Games
Auli, January 15 The journey had started at about 12 noon and the passengers were rescued at 2.15 pm by a rescue machine. “Initially, nobody realised what had happened. Then, everyone got scared when we came to know that the trolley had been stuck midair. Some of us started shouting,” a journalist who had been in the trolley said. Till the filing of this report, officials were trying to ascertain the problem in the trolley. The officials have to get the trolley back in operations mode quickly as it would be required to bring players and officials to Joshimath. The only road which goes from Joshimath to Auli was closed for vehicles in the morning due to heavy snowfall and the ropeway was the only alternative left. Free ride creates trouble
The move of the state government to give a free ride to all on the Joshimath-Auli ropeway during the SAF Winter Games created a big mess at Auli. A person’s ticket costs Rs 500. The local residents shouted slogans against the state government for not giving them a ride as there was a lot of rush. The Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) claimed to have lost Rs 6 lakh during the free period. It is not sure whether the government would cover its losses. Local residents alleged they were not being given a chance while outsiders and VIPs were being given preference to ride free in the trolley. The fare was waived
yesterday - the opening day of the SAF Winter Games - and during the two
days when the national skiing championship was held here. A GMVN officer said, “Yesterday, 400 persons used the trolley. The two free days during the national skiing competition cost us Rs 6 lakh. We are not sure whether the government will compensate us.”
Asia’s longest ropeway
The Joshimath-Auli ropeway system is the longest in Asia. The altitude of the upper terminal is 3,016.3m and the lower is 1,906.3m. The total ascent is 1,110m, the track distance is 4.15 km and the slope distance is 3.96 km. It has 10 towers and carries a maximum of 25 passengers (standing) in one go with a maximum speed of 3m/sec.
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Workshop on ‘Recent Trends in Educational Research’ begins
Dehradun, January 15 The programme began with the lighting of the lamp by chief guest Harbans Kapoor, Speaker, state Assembly, followed by a welcome song. Accompanying him was Justice KD Shahi (retd), former Judge High Court, Allahabad, as guest of honour. Prof GS Aswal, Principal, Pestle Weed College of Information Technology, gave an introductory speech about the workshop and read the achievement report of the institution. On the occasion, the college magazine Srijan was also released. Aswal laid emphasis on equipping teachers with the best armoury available in the educational sector to address the curiosity of the child. Speaking on the occasion, Prof Grijesh Pant, Vice-Chancellor, Doon University, said the main objective of the workshop was to bring together experts from Uttarakhand and neighbouring states to discuss ideas on how to enhance the efficiency of educational institutes. “Only scientific research is not the need of the day, the other areas such as agriculture, horticulture, manufacturing sectors, ayurveda and social sector required equal and prominent justification from researchers and scholars. There are still many areas that are yet to be explored,” he said. The programme culminated with the achievement report of the college, which is a glimpse of the plethora of activities undertaken during the year followed by the presentation of mementoes to the guests.
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Oil Conservation Fortnight begins
Dehradun, January 15 ONGC teams visited Doon Valley Public School and Kendriya Vidyalaya ONGC and organised quiz, drawing, speeches and essay competitions. Various methods of energy conservation were communicated to teachers and students of the schools by the ONGC teams. Chief Technical Services ONGC B Ram explained to the children about the importance of energy conservation. He called upon the children to use energy judiciously. He also stressed that hydrocarbons alone could not fulfill the country’s energy needs and, thus, the focus should be to develop alternate sources. RK Bahuguna, Head, Corporate Energy, ONGC, underlined the importance of participation of children in such oil conservation awareness events. He said securing the future of children was the responsibility of one and all and asserted that it could only be fulfilled by way of education and encouraging masses on oil and gas conservation. A large number of schoolchildren took part in the activities on the first day of the Conservation Fortnight today.
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Doon’s needy feel the chill
Dehradun, January 15 Despite the fact, the DMC had passed the tenders last week only and work of arranging the blankets was given to the Khadi Ashram. Following the approval of the proposal, the MCD sanctioned the budget for purchasing 9,000 blankets. Though the officials claimed that they would be distributing them by weekend, the sources maintained that it was obviously difficult as procuring the blankets was a long process and it would take another 10-15 days. Talking to The Tribune,
Leader of Opposition in the MCD, Congress councillor Ashok Verma said, “Earlier, the councillors had submitted a proposal to Mayor Vinod Chamoli to facilitate the measures aimed at assisting the poor people in the town and this proposal has been approved by the
MCD, the blankets will be procured for distribution among the needy.” ”A special committee has already passed the sample of the blankets for which a tender amounting to Rs 13 lakh has also been approved,” he said. “The nigam should have started the procedure much earlier, as they knew that the tender process takes time and should have distributed it by mid of December. The homeless and poor in the city are bearing the brunt of the cold weather,’ he added. Chief executive officer
Sushil Kumar said, “The tender has been approved and the blankets will arrive by the weekend and we will distribute
them immediately.”
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Finally, Kailash Kher reaches Joshimath
Dehradun, January 15 “He is scheduled to perform in Joshimath tonight and has a flight tomorrow,”said Arun Khatri, PRO of the event. Along with the singer, WGFI officials and mediapersons came down to Joshimath from Auli late in the evening. Officials and reporters had gone to Auli to witness the second day of the SAF Winter Games by a ropeway trolley in the morning as the road was closed due to heavy snowfall. However, in the afternoon, the trolley went out of order and they were stranded at Auli. “Now, Kailash Kher will perform at Joshimath as scheduled,” the PRO said.
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HNB varsity to conduct entrance exam
Dehradun, January 15 He blamed the entire system of the varsity and the state government for the delay in the admission process. He said, “It’s been complete two years for HNB University to have gained recognition of centralised varsity. The state government has been giving assurance to establish a new varsity for affiliation of the existing colleges, but nothing has materialised yet. In view of this haphazard situation, we had a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar of HNB University recently. They have affirmed that the varsity will not withdraw the affiliation from the existing colleges as per the inscription in Section 4 (F) of the university’s recommendation”. He asserted that the process of admission would start in a couple of weeks time, inviting applications from students of both science and commerce streams. The students will be given appropriate time to apply. The admissions will be strictly made on merit basis and in compliance with other instructions of the university. “The varsity is also contemplating allotting vacant seats of the science streams to the students opting for art streams, if they couldn’t be filled in the last academic session,” added Aggarwal.
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Five days on, woman-eater still at large
Dehradun, January 15 According to the Uttarakhand Forest Department sources, around two bullets had hit the tigress on Tuesday night, but the injured tigress was still untraceable. According to the hunters, the wounded tigress should have been in the close vicinity of the area. Eight teams are taking part in the search operations, along with the domesticated elephants and sniffer dogs brought from Kathgodam, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Sundarkal villagers are
living under the fear of the tigress. “The villagers are keeping themselves indoor and have stopped going to the forest for fuel wood,” said Munish Kumar from the Sangarsh
Samiti.
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Haridwar, January 15
Mussoorie, January 15
Dehradun, January 15
