Haridwar, January 22
In a major violation of the rules, the Bahadrabad-situated Shivalik Air Product Oxygen filling unit, where a major accident occurred yesterday, has been found to be flouting the norms.

The Fire Department had in November 2009 issued a notice to the factory owner for not complying with the safeguards and other safety precautions, directing them to fulfil the norms and then get the no-objection certificate.

This was done after the then fire officer SK Sharma had inspected the factory and found gross violation of the safety norms. But the factory management did not respond to the notice, which eventually led to the major blast in the unit, and as a result immediate fire extinguishing and other help was not available after the blast, which aggravated its impact.

Station fire officer Puran Singh Shaw told The Tribune that after founding non-adherence of the fire safety rules, a notice was served by the Fire Department, but the factory management did not respond to the notice. On being questioned that why no action has been taken by the Fire Department from the last one year, the party fire officer said as he had recently assumed the post, he was looking into the details.

A three-member team has also been comprised by District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram to probe into the matter to see how many such industrial units were functioning in the district, which were not following the security norms. Sub Divisional Magistrate Harveer Singh, ASP Sunil Kumar Meena and chief fire officer PR Shah are leading the team. Meanwhile, the police investigation team further inspected the blast site today.

Assuring the affected families, State Urban Minister Madan Kaushik assured that the state government would provide sufficient compensation to the family of the victims.

Shocked by the massive blast, the city residents and several organisations condoled the death of the employees today and demanded strict action on such industrial units that play with the lives of its employees.

State vice chief, the Industries Association of Uttarakhand, Harendra Garg, former legislator Ambrish Kumar, women Congress working chief Kiran Singh, city chief OP Chauhan, BJP district chief OP Jamdagni, New Shivalik Trade Union chief Dharmendra Bishnoi, JP Pandey, Vimla Pandey and Poonam Bhagat paid tributes to the deceased.

Nainital, January 22
Residents of the hilly terrain in Kumaon heaved a sigh of relief when the power supply was restored after 37 hours today. Till that time, residents of Nainital, Almora, Champawat, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh districts had to undergo extreme hardships in the cold weather conditions.

The cause behind the power failure was snapping of a high-tension 132-KV line near Bhimtal in Nainital district on Thursday evening. It took 37 hours for personnel of the Power Department to put things in order.

The entire hilly terrain in the region is solely dependent on this line for power supply. Questions are being raised on the efficiency of the Power Department and the security of this source of power. It is being pointed that anyone could create havoc in the region by just sabotaging this one line.

Although the exact cause of the snapping of the high-tension line is being probed, it has been disclosed that a fire in an “illegally built” structure, very close to the power line, had led to the snapping. The people are agitated over the fact that the illegal structure was allowed to come up right under the nose of the administration for the past several months.

Reports say that the work for restoring the power supply by re-connecting the snapped cable had suffered, as one of the pulley machines brought from Haldwani had failed to function. In the absence of the power supply, the drinking water supplies across the region were also badly hit.

The episode proved to be an embarrassment for the Nishank-led state government that goes around projecting the state as an Urja Pradesh.

A large number of tourists sneered at the prevailing scenario and raised questions on the viability of Uttarakhand becoming a major tourist destination. “With the present state of affairs, where roads are in a terrible state and the power scenario is pathetic during peak winters, I would rather take my family to a state where comfort is assured,” said Vivek Roy, a tourist from West Bengal.

Public anger was visible throughout the town as people could be heard discussing the failure of the government.

Dehradun, January 22
The lives of hundreds of people who met with road accidents could have been saved in the past two years if the trauma care centre at Roorkee, completely in 2009, had been made functional by the government.

The trauma care centre at Roorkee’s JN Sinha Memorial Combined Hospital is a case of the state government’s apathy towards providing emergency services to the people, particularly who had met with some road accident or had sustained injuries on the head.

The centre having all needed facilities at one place with regard to treatment of victims of fatal road accidents was dedicated to the public in 2009 at a high-level inauguration ceremony, but sadly, it has not become functional.

The state government has failed to appoint doctors and other support staff. Therefore, this building, locked at most times, is used to organise departmental meetings off and on.

The need to construct a trauma care centre was felt by the state government as Haridwar district, which is a gateway to Uttarakhand, does have a high traffic flow on account of two national highways passing through it - Delhi-Haridwar and Delhi-Dehradun. On these, hundreds of fatal road accidents occur every year. A trauma centre would provide timely aid to victims.

With an outlay of Rs 10 crore, construction started in 2006 and was completed three years later. It was dedicated to the public at a ceremony by the then Chief Minster Major-Gen BC Khanduri (retd) on February 22, 2009.

The state government had sent all the required medical equipment which ever since have been gathering dust.

But nothing has been done to fill the posts of doctor, neurosurgeon, neuro-physician, orthopaedician and allied staff required to run the centre.

“The posts have not been sanctioned so far by the government,” said Dr Urmila Vohra, Chief Medical Superintendent of the JN Sinha Memorial Combined Hospital, Roorkee.

Dehradun, January 22
The 39th World Scouts Conference in Brazil proved to be an excellent platform for six India delegates, including a representative from Uttarakhand, as they shared their scouting experiences in India with those in other parts of the globe.

Uttarakhand Scout’s Headquarter Commissioner Rajeev Sharma, who was part of the Indian delegation at Curitiba held from January 10 to 14, returned to Dehradun a few days back.

Sharma, who described his interactions at the conference very fruitful, said he got an opportunity to interact with several personalities from across the globe, including Chief Minister of the state of Meleka, Malaysia Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Bin Mohd Rustam, member board of trustees, Scout Association of Japan, Makoto Nakano and director to the King of Sweden John Geoghegan.

Lone scout from Uttarakhand to be selected for the six-member Indian delegation, Sharma also gave a presentation on Uttarakhand, which was highly appreciated by the delegates. Sharma also gave a speech on the Uttarakhand tourism and culture.

The conference also witnessed election of Simon Rhea Korea as the new chairman of the World Scout Committee for next four years. John May of the United Kingdom was elected as the vice chairman.

Apart from Uttarakhand Headquarters Commissioner, Rajeev Sharma is also a member of the Law College, Dehradun.

Mussoorie, January 22
On the final day of the second carrom tournament organised by the Mussoorie Sports and Cultural Committee at Walnut Grove Hotel, Kulri Bazar, Sunil emerged as the winner for the second consecutive year.

He defeated Mohit in a keen contest in a race to reach 29 points first. The final score read 29-18.

In the opening board, Mohit shocked Sunil by winning it 8-0. Sunil hit back and won the second board 8-0. Mohit responded by winning the third board 2-0.

In the fourth board, Mohit faltered in the fifth strike as he lost the opportunity to pot the queen. This set up an easy position for Sunil to win 11-0.

The nervousness of both players was evident at the commencement of the fifth board in which both players missed easy chances, but Sunil relying on his experience reached 29 points and clinched the title.

In the doubles group, Sunil Kumar and Subash Kavi defeated Ajay Rao-Ram Krishan Rahi 24-10 to bag the trophy.

Invited guest Anil Goel congratulated the winners on the occasion and said that the spirit of sports should be kept alive in Mussoorie so that international matches continue to be played.

The chief guest on the occasion Mussoorie Municipal Council President OP Uniyal gave away the trophies.

He announced a cash award of Rs 3,100 for the winners and runners-up. The winners were also awarded a cash prize of Rs 1,100 along with a citation and certificate.

Dehradun, January 22
Amritsar XI won all their three matches in the 25th Banke Lal Shah Memorial Under-15 Cricket Tournament being played here at the Rangers College Ground.

In the first match, the Amritsar team trounced Haryana XI by 149 runs. Haryana won the toss and elected to field. Amritsar made 209 runs for seven wickets in their allotted 20 over. Manohar with 48 runs was the highest scorer with Pamma and Gurpreet scoring 44 and 41 runs, respectively, for the Amritsar team. For Haryana, Parveen took three wickets for 23 runs.

In reply, the Haryana team was bundled out for only 60 runs in 11 overs. Manpreet was the wrecker who took six wickets for 13 runs. Only opener Sandeep could reach double figures (13 runs).

In the second match, the Amritsar team defeated Karan XI by seven wickets. Amritsar won the toss and invited Karan XI to bat. Karan XI scored 95 runs all out. Vaibhav was the top scorer with 25 runs. Akashdeep took three wickets for 16 runs for the Amritsar side.

Amritsar scored 100 runs for the loss of three wickets in 16 overs to win the match. Akul was the top scorer with 38 runs not out while Gurpreet remained not out on 23 runs. Earlier in the innings, opener Himanshu scored 30 runs.

In the third match, Amritsar defeated Karan Juniors of Delhi by three runs. Karan Juniors won the toss and elected to field first. Amritsar scored only 59 runs all out in 13 overs.

Sanjay was the top scorer with 15 runs. Nakul of Karan Juniors took six wickets for only 13 runs.

In reply, Karan Junior, Delhi, was bundled out for 56 runs in 18 overs. Opener Shankey scored 19 runs. Varun, Ravinder and Sahil, who took two wickets each, ably supported Raman who took three wickets.