Dehradun, July 16
The monsoon is here and during the heavy rain, water gets stagnated on roads and even enters houses and shops.

The reason given by MC officials is the blockage in drains, but the problem arises because of the encroachers who have constructed houses on the areas near the rivers.

Moreover, the government has even provided them the civic facilities like water, power connection and even roads. More than 15,000 people have encroached the areas in Lohiya Nagar, Gandhi Gram, Govindgarh, Indra Colony, Dev Suman Nagar, Brahmpuri, Patel Nagar, MDDA Colony, Rajiv Nagar, Rajpur, Jakhan and many others places.

Seven years back, the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) had identified more than 2000 encroachments on the riverbeds of the Rispana and the Bindal. Sources claimed politicians had provided the government land to various people in order to create their vote bank. The Dehradun mayor and councilors agreed with it.

“Many politicians have provided lands near the rivers in cheap prices to the poor. The government should take measures and construct low scale houses for them,” Mayor Vinod Chamoli said.

“Furthermore, the irrigation department as well as MDDA is also to be blamed for the same. It is the MDDA who keep on giving permission for the construction on small drains, why it doesn’t have a look before passing the map,” he sited and added, “The former state government had constituted a task force committee of all departments under the leadership of the Commissioner but it just remained on papers. Now I have taken up the matter again and asked to revive it so that certain action could be taken,” he lamented.

On being asked what measures have been taken for the people who reside near the rivulet and drowned every year during heavy flow of water and later on their families come asking for the relief, Chamoli said, “No one is ready to leave the space and the government needs to pay heed to it as life is precious. They are paid on the basis of human grounds and not as illegal residents.”

Dehradun, July 16
Irked over the non-declaration of their results, as many as 2,500 students of DAV PG College, Dehradun, led by Anshul Chawla, president of the College Student Council, staged a demonstration on the college campus today and also handed over a memorandum to college Principal BL Nautiyal.

According to information, the examination forms of these students had been rejected by HNB Garhwal University. However, students alleged that the university had only directed the college to issue handwritten roll number cards to them. Following this, the college conducted their examinations and their answersheets were sent to the university.

But the university refused to check them and declare their results. Chawla said the the university was playing with the future of the students.

In their memorandum, students said the college would not reopen till the answersheets of the 2,500 students were checked.

Dehradun, July 16
A single Bench of Justice Praful, Nainital High Court, has issued notices to Gauri Maulekhi, secretary of the People For Animals (PFA), and the police for “misusing” official information.

In a petition filed by the Himalayan Hospital Trust (HIHT), it has been alleged that Gauri Maulekhi had misused official information to malign the reputation of the Trust.

Hearing the petition yesterday, Justice Praful issued notices to the police and Gauri Maulekhi and asked them to reply within six weeks. He also ordered that no action be taken against Dr Pratima Gupta and Dr DC Dhasmana of the Trust.

Dr DC Dhasmana and Dr Pratima Gupta had filed a petition on July 13 for quashing a case registered against them. In their plea, they said the Institute’s Institutional Animal Ethics Committee was following all rules stipulated under the Wildlife Act and also taken permission from the Ministry of Forests and Environment for the use of animals for the purpose of conducting experiments.

Dehradun, July 16
As many as 16 cases related to the tax were cleared on the spot by the members of the Dehradun Executive Committee here today.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli after the discussion with the members gave a discount up to 50 per cent in many cases.

Other than this, the committee solved 12 matters related to the correction of names and one mutation case in the end of the two-day meeting.

Two cases were left to be taken later after the investigation. Councillor Sachin Gupta took the matter in the meeting and asked the Mayor to make a special policy related to the tax for those who had given the land on rent but are receiving the meager amount for it.

The Mayor also said they would try to held the meeting in the first week of every month.

Dehradun, July 16
A prisoner fled from police custody here yesterday. However, policemen chased after him and managed to catch hold of him.

According to the police, Abdul Malik of UP was brought to Doon Hospital for a check-up. He fled from custody, but was later arrested.

The police has registered a case under Section 224 of the IPC against him.

Dehradun, July 16
With the monsoon starting to unleash its fury in the state, the Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre will be on its toes for the next few months. Piyoosh Rautela, who has been the Director of the centre for the last six years, will have a tough time deploying his personnel on rescue missions all across Uttarakhand.

“Though the centre tries to focus on pre-disaster arrangements and creating awareness among people it also deals with the post-disaster situation effectively,” said the confident Director.He said the basic work of the centre remained that of policy planning, minimising the possibility of any disaster and better township planning in the seismic vulnerable regions.

Rautela, who was earlier working with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Bangkok, is an experienced man. “I have learnt a lot from my experience in the last organisation and particularly last year here in the state when several people lost their lives in the havoc triggered by heavy rain,” he added. On being asked about what challenges he faced while working on disaster relief, he replied, “The challenges here are very short-lived, more pertaining to a change in the perceptibility of one’s mind. There is no peer pressure or targets for us to be fulfilled; but to be able to sustain the ability and capability to confront any disastrous situation efficiently is the challenge fulfilled.” There are 22 rescue teams deployed under Rautela in the disaster-prone areas in Uttarakhand. Rescue courses, first-aid courses, lecture series and research presentations are conducted for the benefit of those at the gram level, the police, students, social workers and bureaucrats.

Rautela has completed his PhD from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and has successfully imparted skills to nearly 2,500 policemen, 2,100 villagers and 3,000 masons on disaster management, assessing the seismic vulnerability and risk in Himalayan townships and earthquake safe architecture. “We also work with various schools and city-based NGOs to work on pre- as well as post-disaster effects,” he said.

Dehradun, July 16
The Uttarakhand State Junior Athletics Competition being organised by the Sports Department and the State Athletics Association began at Sports College, Raipur, today.

According to Sports Director UC Kabadwal 16 teams, including Police and Sports College squads, are participating in the two-day state-level competition. As many as 240 boys and 110 girls are taking part.

Earlier Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank inaugurated the competition.The CM said such sports competitions not only provided the youth with a platform to show their talent but also helped prepare future national and international-level sportspersons.

Nishank said the process of constructing an international-level stadium in Nainital district had already been

initiated. A stadium at Peepalkoti in Chamoli district was also being constructed.

Sports Minister Khajan Das said sports not only enhanced nationalistic feelings but also helped strengthen social harmony.

Addressing the gathering later Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said youth power was made more responsible and sensitive to social values through sports.

Dehradun, July 16
Garhwal Sporting battered Chandramani 2-0 in the ongoing 60th Lala Nemi Dass Memorial District Football League here on Saturday.

The winning squad scored a goal each in both halves whereas Chandramani tried hard to net goals but drew a blank. Abhishek (15th) and Ashish (38th) were the scorers for Sporting.

Earlier the first match ended in a draw as Khukri and Willis Youth Club locked one each at the end of the stipulated time. Anish (eighth) scored for Khukri and Willis scored through Jitu (10th).

Meanwhile, three matches are lined up for tomorrow. Adhoiwala will face Doon Challengers Club. Doon Star will meet Gypsy Club and Uttarakhand Police will lock horns with XI Star.

Dehradun, July 16
A 19-member football team of Maharana Pratap Sports College, Dehradun, has left for West Bengal to participate in the All-India Inter-Football Academy Tournament for under-17 boys organised by the Kalna Super Soccer Club.

The tournament will be hosted at Kalna (WB) from July 19 to 24.

The college team consists of Gaurav Jigwan, Ashish Bisht, Rahul Negi, Suraj Rawat, Arohi Kutiyal, Shashank Rawat, Anand Mamgain, Anuj, Babloo Kumar, Rahul Negi, Gaurav Bhandari, Aman Kumar, Lalit Tariyal, Divyank Sudain, Divyank Kashyap, Rohit Negi, Prayank Bisht and Prakash Pal. Tarun Negi has been named coach-cum-manger for the tour.

The championship is a brainchild of ex-India footballer Subir Ghosh. This year nine football academies from different parts of India will fight for the top honour in the six-day championship.

Mussoorie, July 16
“Main Mussoorie Hoon”, a short film, was premiered at Shagun Wedding near Jhoola Ghar today.

The film has been made to showcase lesser-known tourist destinations.

The chief guest, former Mandi Parishad chief Upendar Thapli, along with senior Congress leader Madhuri Nautiyal and environmentalist Vipin Kumar, released the film, which was enjoyed by the audience on a slide projector.

Thapli appreciated the efforts of the production team. He further said the Municipal Council, the Tourism Department and the state government would make all efforts to publicise towns like Mussoorie so that more tourists were attracted towards it.

The producer/director of the film, Pradeep Bhandari, said this was the first-ever short film made on the history of Mussoorie.

The film is 30-minute long and contains one duet of 12 minutes that glorifies the historical tourist town of Mussoorie. The lead role has been played by Ajay Solanki and Pooja Nirankari.