Dehradun, May 8
The doors of the famous Himalayan shrine of Kedarnath reopened on Sunday for pilgrims after a gap of six months with Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank being among those who had early darshan of the idols of Lord Shiva.

Amid blowing of conches and chanting of Vedic hymns and shlokas, the chief priest of Kedarnath shrine Bhimshankar Ling opened the locks of the temple at 0530 hrs in the morning in the presence of senior administrative and police officials, official sources said.

During the opening ceremony, hundreds of devotees were present outside the sanctum sanctorum, chanting "Bam Bam Bhole" braving chilly winds blowing in the area.

While Nishank performed puja along with his family members, Uttarakhand Disaster Management Minister Khajan Das and Principal Secretary, Tourism, Rakesh Sharma, were also among the first ones, who paid obeisance at the temple.

The government has taken various steps for a smooth conduct of yatra and directed all departments to work in tandem during the period. Surat Ram Nautiyal, vice-chairman of the Char Dham Vikas Parishad, said, “Heavy police security has been provided all around the shrine. CCTV cameras have also been installed to keep surveillance. The Border Road Organisation has been directed to do major road repair work at night time. For small pits, they have been allowed day time. And to keep a check on polythene use, the devotees have been allowed to rent out rain coats from the outlets near the shrine to store their things, and deposit these while returning.”

The Chardham Yatra comprising pilgrimage to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri nestling in the Garhwal Himalayas was kicked off with the opening of portals of both Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines on May 6.

The Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines are situated at a height of 3,200 metres and 3,615 metres respectively in Uttarkashi district. Badrinath is located in Chamoli district a height of 3,133 meter and Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district at a height of 3,584 meter.

The Char Dhams reopen in April-May every year after a gap of six months as the area remains snow-bound during the winter period.

Meanwhile, the doors of the Badrinath shrine will also be thrown open for pilgrims on Monday. The annual yatra is considered as a backbone of the thriving religious tourism in the state that attracts nearly 15-16 lakh pilgrims every year from home and abroad.

Haridwar, May 8
While just a year left for the Uttarakhand assembly elections and over a year passed since the completion of the Maha Kumbh fair in Haridwar, the political fever seems to be focusing on both these events as today the women Congress wing unleashed a massive campaign against the state BJP government alleging mass corruption in hosting of the Maha Kumbh, particularly in the allocated budget from the Centre.

The campaign saw big names from the national as well as the state women Congress showing unity among the party at least in the women front, which would have send shivers down BJP leaders not only in Haridwar, but also at the state level.

Cornering the BJP government over the corruption issue, Women Congress national chief Prabha Thakur lashed at BJP leaders for playing with the sentiments and feelings of billions of devotees, who thronged the pilgrim city to take holy dip during the Maha Kumbh last year.

Amidst mass uproar of party workers, Thakur announced the “Lalkaar Rally” which will expose the corrupt side of the government led by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, as party workers will go between the public exposing behind-the-scene malpractices, which via massive advertising campaign was shielded from public eyes.

“Corruption has deep-rooted in this BJP government as even the religious fair of Maha Kumbh was not spared by corrupt BJP ministers in connivance with some bureaucrats. But the public have to come out and teach the BJP leaders a lesson, who were involved in mass discrepancies in the Kumbh funds and show them the door by bringing the Congress back in power for the development of the state,” Thakur added.

While Anupama Rawat, daughter of Haridwar parliamentarian Harish Rawat, tried to defend his father’s stance of not going for agitation during the Maha Kumbh fair against mass irregularities in the Kumbh budget, saying that it would not have been appropriate to go on agitation since millions throng the city to attend Kumbh as the move would disrupt the fair.

Women cell executive members of the state, including former women state commission chairperson Dr Santosh Chauhan, kissan cell chief Poonam Bhagat and Akhil Bhartiya Panchayat chief Kiran Singh were among those who participated in the campaign.

Nainital, May 8
The Congress has been able to drive home the point of rampant corruption in the state among the electorate through its ongoing Satyagraha Yatra that was started a week back from Dharchula in Pithoragarh district. Party leaders claim that the yatra has been successful in garnering public support as it has moved through areas like Dharchula, Munshiyari, Dwarahat, Chaukhutiya, Mahsi, Bhikiyasain, Manila and Mauli Khal.

During the yatra, the state unit president Yash Pal Arya has been the most vocal of the leaders in attacking the Dr Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank-led BJP government in the state.

Arya has been calling the term of the BJP as one marked with ‘kushasan’ (bad governance). He has been charging the Nishank government of having promoted only scams and corruption. Arya has also been accusing the state government of misusing the financial assistance being given by the Centre.

Stating that the Centre has been consistently increasing the plan outlay for the state, Arya has asked the Nishank government to explain how it plans to utilise the money given for the current financial year for the welfare of the state.

Accusing the government of not having done anything to tackle the issue of unemployment, Arya said the government had been charging hefty amounts in the name of application fee.

The yatra was also joined by the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Harak Singh Rawat on Saturday.

Dehradun, May 8
The Pratap Nagar Jankalyan Samiti has urged Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to pay attention to the problems the residents of Pratap Nagar were facing due to the setting up of a hydro-electric dam project in the region, and has demanded their share in the benefits from the project.

The samiti staged a dharna to press for their demands at Gandhi Park here today. It has sought to divert the attention of the government to the exodus of people after the dam came up in the area. They allege the project has slowed down the pace of development in the area.

The samiti has demanded employment to the local people in the project, rebate in electricity bills, 12.5 per cent of power generation revenue to be spent on the development of the area, the entire pocket to be declared backward, the creation of Pratap Nagar district with the assimilation of affected areas in Pratap Nagar tehsil and the establishment of medical as well as engineering colleges in the region.

Pithoragarh, May 8
Sudden change in the weather resulted in sufficient rains and snowfall in the higher Himalayan region of the state and brought cheers to the horticulturists, but it has also posed some problems for the people in the higher valleys.

“The tribal herdsmen visiting their homes during their annual migration are facing blockade at Nabhi and Kuti villages in the Byans valley as the rain has caused landslides blocking the way,” said a spokesperson of the Dharchula subdivisional administration.

The Munsiyari valley of the district witnessed heavy rains throughout the day yesterday bringing the temperature of the region down by 5°C and witnessing unexpected snowfall on the Panchachuli, Chiplakot and Hansling mountains surrounding the town of Munsiyari.

“The town also witnessed hailstones, which resulted into further dipping of the temperature forcing people to put on warm cloths,” said Devendra Singh, a social worker and journalist of Munsiyari.

In the Pithoragarh valley, continuous rain for the past two days brought the temperature of the valley down to 12°C bringing good hopes for vegetable growers and also for the general public and tourists, who were facing the heat.

“Farmers can now transplant saplings from nurseries as fields have received sufficient moisture,” said Dr AK Singh, horticulture specialist based at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pithoragarh.

The rain in Didihat, Berinag and Gangolihat areas of the district not only cooled the atmosphere, but also helped in putting down the forest fires at some places. The district received 6mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours, which also helped the drying natural water sources to get more water.

Farmers of Lohaaghat town in Champawat district said due to lack of maintenance of equipment of automatic weather station installed two years ago in the Lohaghat area, farmers were not getting information regarding suitable weather for their crops.

“As the machine has gone non-operational, we are not getting information about temperature, humidity, air velocity and directions from the department and suffering losses by the sudden change in the weather,” said Lali Rai, a farmer in Chauri village of the Lohaghat region of the district.

The rain has affected the communication and commercial services as the broadband services remained affected for 24 hours.

“The rain also led to damage to the lines in the Devidhura area of the Pati block, near Champawat district. The services remained suspended for 12 hours,” said HB Palsai, technical officer of BSNL.

Dehradun, May 8
An awareness seminar especially for the students of Classes XI and XII on career guidance was organised by Young Sikh Leaders at Doon Interantional School, Dehradun, here today.

The seminar was attended by hundreds of students from different schools, colleges and rural areas. Eminent speakers from various professional institutes and fields such as IIT, Roorkee, bankers, Army personnel addressed the seminar.

“The idea behind organising the seminar was to provide students a chance to meet counsellors so that they could clear their doubts regarding their professional choices especially after completing their Intermediate,” said Inderjeet, the coordinator of the orgnisation.

Nearly 150 students from all three streams, arts, science and commerce, participated in the seminar and their overwhelming response marked the success of the programme. The participants were shown audiovisual presentations and soft skill training to help students to choose their respective careers ahead.

However, addressing the programme, Prof Bhupender Singh and Prof Gur Sharan Singh from IIT Roorkee, motivated the students to participate in such seminars for a bright future. 

Dehradun, May 8
The Law College, Dehradun, organised a legal awareness camp in Adhoiwala village, Raipur block, here today. Justice Tarun Aggarwal, senior judge, Uttarakhand High Court, was the chief guest on the occasion while Vijay Bhatt, member, Bar Council of India, and Prashant Joshi, member secretary, state legal services authority, Nainital, accompanied him as a special guest.

During the camp, students from the college apprised people about consumer rights, dowry laws, importance of registering birth and deaths, domestic violence, FIR, accident and other legal information. The students of the law college also presented skits and plays based on various legal issues.

While addressing the camp, Tarun Aggarwal said increase in population and lack of awareness among the masses were reasons behind the rising number of pending cases. He appreciated the steps taken by the Law College for organising the camp and appealed to people to come up with their problems and seek assistance from the administration instead of keeping silent.

Rajesh Bahuguna, Principal of the college, said legal assistance and legal awareness were two sides of a coin, but the latter was more important.

He concluded the programme with the message that legal knowledge should be spread from village to village and not restricted to only books. 

Haridwar, May 8
A day after an elephant was electrocuted to death in a rural area, a leopard intruded into a local ashram today. According to the local residents, at about 9 am, the inmates of Tyagi Ashram, which is situated adjacent to the famous Kali Peeth temple on the Chandi Devi road, a leopard was spotted in a cow shelter.

The Forest Department was informed immediately and the door of the cow shelter was bolted from outside. Led by Wildlife Warden of the Rajaji National Park, Vikram Singh Tomar, and SDO KS Rana, the officials of the department tried to rescue the wildcat. But, with a huge crowd gathered outside the cow shelter, leopard got intimidated and didn’t move out. It even moved aggressively towards the forest employees when they tried to go near it.

The wildlife experts said wild animals, when got trapped in a human habit in daylight, don’t easily venture back into the forests but these leave the area when it’s get dark. So it was decided to leave the leopard in the trapped ashram and wait till late evening.

Meanwhile, it was decided to vacate the whole ashram. Till the filing of the report, the leopard was inside the ashram. Water and other eatables were thrown into the cow shelter. Tomar said as the leopard might have come from the Chilla forest range, which fell in Pauri Garhwal district, while chasing a prey.

The wildlife experts also told the forest officials to cordon off the nearby region as the leopard could attack anyone while trying to go back to his habitat.

Dr Ritesh Joshi, a wildlife expert, cited a number of examples where wild animals got trapped in the human habitations adjacent to the Rajaji National Park and the Shivalik forest terrain but reverted to the jungles in the evening.

“Movement of wild animals in the buffer zone is quite common on the outskirts of the Rajaji National Park Forest area. These venture out of their habitat mostly in search of food or while chasing prey. It’s better to let themselves revert back on their own, as it’s quite easy for the trapped animal and it also lessens the chances of human-animal conflict,” said Dr Joshi.

Dehradun, May 8
Neena Sangeet Sharma, Director, Synergy Consultant, was appointed as the chairperson of the Deaf Welfare Association in a general body meeting that was held here today.

During the meeting, she discussed various problems faced by the people of deaf society. She assured them that she would get them employed in the private sector.

It was also discussed during the meeting that recognition should be given to the sign language. Other than this, it was suggested that the members of the association would be provided training in education as well as various other fields.

Those who attended the meeting included Umesh Grover (general secretary), Ramesh Kumar (treasurer), Sashi Bhushan, Bhuwan, Sushil Jakhmola, Praveen Kalra, Hemant, Raju Singh, Parul Singh, Ruchi Grover and Priya Kalra.

The programme was coordinated by a physically disabled player, Prem Kumar. 

Dehradun, May 8
As part of a nationwide exercise to highlight alleged corruption cases against the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, the Bhartiya Janata Yuwa Morcha’s (BJYM) Uttarakhand unit will hold a marathon in Dehradun tomorrow.

National BJYM President Anurag Thakur will flag-off the marathon that will criss-cross the prominent roads of the city before culminating at the Dehradun Mahanagar BJP office.

Addressing a press conference at the state BJP office, Vinod Kandari, president, BJYM, Uttarakhand, said today that besides BJYM workers, a large number of people would participate in the marathon.

He said various other such anti-corruption marathons were proposed to take place at Tehri, Pauri, Uttarakashi, Rudraprayag, Almora, Kotdwar and Purola.

The people must know the misdeeds of the Congress-led UPA, he said, adding that the marathon was aimed at highlighting the misdeeds of the Central government. Senior BJYM leaders Narendra Bhandari and Surabh Thapliyal were selected as coordinators for the marathon.

Dehradun, May 8
Maharishi Vidya Mandir beat Super Challengers by 63 runs in the ongoing Shri Babu Farid Under-15 Memorial Cricket Tournament held at Sudhowala jail ground, here today.

Batting first after winning the toss, Vidya Mandir amassed 143 runs in 20 overs losing only a wicket. After opener Saurabh went early for 9 runs, Ajay (44) and Surya (54) shouldered the responsibility of carrying forward the team’s innings.

Both played sensible knocks and brought the team score to a level from where they could fight their rival easily. For challengers, Sunny was the only successful bowler picking a wicket.

Playing second, challengers’ batsmen gave a very dismal performance as the whole squad got out for 81 runs in 14.3 overs. Opening batsman Rajat (20) was the only one to have scored a double-figure number.

In another match played today, Headwali Tigers defeated Doon Global School by four wickets. Bhupi (35 runs and two wickets) played pivotal role in the Tigers team’s win.

Dehradun, May 8
The Aryan School got 64 points to be crowned with the overall winning trophy of the 17th Doon District Inter-School Roller Skating Championship that concluded here today at Summer Valley School.

Summer Valley had to be content with the second position, getting 53 points. Kasiga School scored 46 points and got a bronze medal. Whereas in the electrifying match of the day between tough rivals, the Aryan School got the better of Welham Boys’ School 5-2 in Roller Hockey

(Senior Group).

A total of 255 participants from Dehradun, Roorkee and Mussoorie took part in the championship. Meanwhile, Pallavi Upadhyay, Principal of DPS, Roorkee, Chandragupta Vikram, Patron, and Sunil Mason, Vice- President of Sarrafa Mandal jointly gave away prizes to the players.

According to a press statement issued by organisers, Discipline Trophy was awarded to DPS, Roorkee, while in Junior Roller Hockey, Aryan got first position, Welham second and Asian Third. In the senior group, Summer

Valley got first, Aryan second and Asian third. Roll Ball match was won by Kasiga and Asians remained runners-up.