Dehradun, August 11
Though the state governement has declared that an ice-skating carnival will be held from August 16 to September 15, there seems to be uncertainty over it for ice is yet to set at the Raipur-situated ice-skating rink.

The south Asia’s biggest artificial ice-skating rink has been lying closed since January after the South Asian Federation (SAF) Winter Games concluded. Built at a cost of over Rs 110 crore, the rink is facing the apathy of the state government.

The Centre had allocated Rs 110 crore for the ice-skating rink while the state government had contributed 10 per cent of the amount towards the its construction. The state government had to delay the international games owing to the non-setting of ice at the rink.

The same problem has been bothering the government here again. Even the three technical experts called from Hungary last month have failed to set ice in the rink. Now, the authorities are making all efforts to set the things right here to avoid embarrassment again on August 16.

The future of the skating players is uncertain, thanks to the mismanagement on the part of the government. “After the SAF winter games concluded, we could not practice at all. When the rink was built we had hoped it would be a good opportunity for the local players to train in the world-class rink, but...,” said an ice-skating player.

The state’s Tourism Department and the PHD Chamber of Commerce will jointly hold the carnival here. The carnival will include ice-skating games and other events.

However, Sports Minister Khazan Dass exuded confidence over the holding of the carnival. “We are ready for the ice-skating carnival.”

Dehradun, August 11
The state government honoured Uttarakhand’s coaches and players who had brought laurels at the national and international levels in different sports disciplines at the ice-skating rink complex, Raipur, today.

Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank unveiled the foundation stone of the ice-skating rink complex. Players from Uttarakhand who won in the South Asian

Federation Winter Games held in Dehradun and Auli in January this year were honoured. Along with them players of other disciplines including cricket, football,volleyball, athletics, karate and boxing, were also given cheques at the prize distribution function.

Nishtha, Ashwin Raj, Shrya Painuly, Yati Gupta, Swasthi Bhambi, Prayakshi Thapa, Sachi Pandita and Snehshish Tiwari were honoured for winning in the ice-skating championship in Dehradun. Preeti Dimri and Vandana Panwar were honoured for getting top positions in the skiing championship held at Auli.

In football, Raksha Panwar, Sonam Negi and Anita Rawat were given cheqeus for Rs 21,000 each.

Skating coach Shiv Kumar Penuali and judo coach Satish Sharma were given Rs 10,000 each. Volleyball coach Pradeep Walia,athletics coaches Manoj Kumar Sharma and Lokesh Sharma and karate coach Shefali Verma were presented a cheque for Rs 15,000 each.

Athletics coach Manoj Kumar Sharma, boxing coach Durga Thapa and Mui Thai coach Pritma were presented with a cheque for Rs 30,000 each.

Later the CM congratulated the players for making the state proud.

Nishank highlighted the development work done in Uttarakhand. He said the state would continue to honour players who made it big in national and international sports competitions.

Sports Minister Khazan Das, Agriculture Minister Trivender Rawat and Tourism Minister Madan Kaushik were among those present.

Dehradun, August 11
Dayara Bugyal (a meadow) will once again come alive to the sound and music of the traditional butter festival, known as “Andudi”, to be celebrated on August 17.

The unique festival, in which villagers of Raithal village an the adjoining areas in Uttarkashi come armed with butter and milk to play a Holi, owes its existence to a traditional practice started thousands years ago to thank lord Krishna for providing protection to the village.

Addressing a press conference here yesterday, Chandan Singh Rana, president of the Dayara Paryatan Samiti, Raithal village, said the villagers had kept intact the 5,000-year-old tradition. “You will rarely see villagers spraying milk and applying butter on each other like they do with colours during Holi. Since 2004, the villagers have been celebrating it as a major cultural event, linking it with tourism,” said Rana.

He said even Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee had enquired about the unique tradition when he visited Uttarkashi in 2009.

Udit Ghildiyal, organiser of the festival, said the Culture Department has already extended a financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the samiti for the festival and even the Governor had promised to support it.

“Last year the Governor had provided an assistance of Rs 5,000. We have invited both the Governor and the Chief Minister to the festival,” said Udit.

Dehradun, August 11
The Excise Department has collected Rs 4,20,000 as fine in just four months, from April to July this year. The department had earned Rs 3,94,000 as the fine in the corresponding period last year.

The department has also caught 96 persons selling illegal liquor this financial year while the number was 97 last year.

The quantity of liquor that was seized from these people this year is 1,570 litres, which is less in comparison to last year when it had seized 1,727 litres of liquor.

There are around 65 shops in the capital that has the licence to sell foreign as well as countrymade liquor. The department has also registered 138 challans against the erring shop owners while the number of challans was 135 during last financial year.

Dehradun District Excise Officer TC Pant said normally they left the licensee shopkeeper after a fine and a warning. “The maximum challan is Rs 5,000. We leave the shopkeeper after getting the money and also warn them for future,” he affirmed.

Sources maintained that normally it was the staff at liquor shops that acted in such a way in order to earn some extra bucks during the absence of the owner.

Regarding the sale of liquor, Pant said as many as 13,62,009 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor had been sold in these four months which was more in comparison to last year when the number of sold bottles was 13,16,640.

Dehradun, August 11
Vice-president, Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), Raghunath Singh Negi held a march from the Parade Ground to the Clock Tower here today against Leader of the Opposition Harak Singh Rawat for allegedly possession land at Sahaspur illegally.

Negi said Rawat, as the then Revenue Minister misused his position and illegally occupied 8.2 hectares belonging to Sushila Rani, a resident of Shankarpur Hukumatpur, Sahaspur through a fake power of attorney in 2002. Another BJP leader Akash Panwar said Rawat transferred 4.6 hectares to his wife Dipti Rawat and 3.5 hectare to Luxmi Rana, a close relative of theirs.

Dehradun August 11
Members of the Jaunsar Baber Association held a protest before Vidhan Sabha today demanding implementation of the town area plan to rebuild new Chakrata town. The association also demanded a hostel for the 10,000 students who came to study in Dehradun from the region and urged to develop Kisau hydro-project at a micro level so as to prevent the migration and rehabilitation of the dwellers of the area.

President of the association Munna Rana said the inauguration of the town area plan was done much earlier 13 years ago but it was never implemented ever since Uttarakhand was formed. He demanded to expedite action on it so that a renovated town could come into existence.

In the matter of hostel too, he said the announcement of a hostel in the city was made much earlier but nothing was done.

Just to avoid the complexities related to migration and rehabilitation, he demanded Kisau hydro-project on the Tons river to be developed at small level.

He threatened to launch an intensified agitation if no attention was paid on their demands.

Dehradun, August 11
Members of the Uttrakhand Rajya Nirman Sainani Manch (URNSM) staged a three-hour dharna before Vidhan Sabha today on issue of corruption in the state.

Many other social organisations such as the Bharat Samaj Seva, the Jan Manch, the Poorv Avam Ardhsainik Sangh and student leaders also participated in the dharna and raised slogans.

Speaking on the occasion, Manoj Dhyani, convener of the URNSM, said, “The state government is involved in various scams, including distribution of hydro-power projects , the Sturdia land scam, the Bora scam, the Himalya Ayurveda scam, the Kumbh scam where Rs 600 crore had not been properly utilised, the ITI recruitment scam, the SAF winter scam , the seeds scam and the mining scam. The list is long but none has been punished in these scams.”

Dhyani said in the support to the fast to be held by Anna Hazare in New Delhi on August 16, they would hold a rally at the Secretariat and demand a strong Lokpal Bill in the state, the one which the Anna team had drafted.

He cautioned the state and the Centre not to harass people like Ramdev for their insistence on probe into money laundering.

Dehradun, August 11
On the fourth day of the creative and academic festival, “Mindspree”, at St Jude’s School, extempore debate was conducted here today. The topic of the debate was: “This house believes that modern technology is running this generation”.

Participants from six schools of Dehradun, including St Thomas College, Hilton School, Summer Valley School, Touchwood School, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy and St Jude’s School, showed their wit and vivacity for and against the notion.

The “Best Team Trophy” was bagged by Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy while the St Jude’s School team was declared the runners-up. Shivam Maini from Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy won the “Best Speaker” title while Kritika Nautiyal from Hilton’s School was declared the second best speaker. Saachi Matta from the academy was the third best speaker.

Babita Dhami, A Pundir and Ratna Manoucha adjudged the competition.

Dehradun August 11
The cultural week at St Joseph’s Academy culminated amid jubilation and fanfair here today.

The programme began with Hindi dramatics in which participants from the four houses mesmerised the audience with their entertaining role, plays and performances. Following it was musical trance of group and solo singing that reverberated the entire auditorium with the resonance of electric guitar, drum and keyboard played by participants.

The highlight of the final day programme was western dance, which was a feast for the eyes. From salsa to hip hop, from contemporary to jive, from freestyle to locking popping, students with their nimble footwork and extensive efforts left everybody spellbound. The principal of the school, Brother A J George, appreciated the enthusiasm and extraordinary skills of students. He congratulated all his students and staff for their selfless efforts and making the cultural week a lifetime event.

In the final result of the cultural week, Dooley House stood first with 255 points, Duffy second with 240 points, Donovan House third by scoring 230 and Bergin fourth with 225 points.

Dehradun, August 11
Summer Valley School won the under-17 team championship beating Kasiga 3-0 during the 6th S Wasu Inter-School Table Tennis Championship here yesterday.

In the final, Akash got the better of Siddarth 13-11, 11-2, 11-9; Akshay Dabral beat Thawin 11-3, 11-6, 11-6 and Suraj Rana defeated Natapong 11-6, 11-4, 11-3. Summer Valley School kept up the good work beating Shri Guru Nanak College 3-0 in the under-19 team championship final. Akshay Dabral beat Amanjeet 11-7, 11-6, 11-8; Akash Gupta defeated Amandeep 11-3, 11-6, 11-2 and Suraj Rana downed Asif 11-4, 11-7, 11-5.

Dehradun, August 11
Doon Star routed Gypsy Young 5-0 in a super league match of the district football league that held on Pavilion Ground here today.

Gaju (18th, 40th minutes), Vasu (32nd), Dharmender (57th) and (62nd) were the scorers in the win. While Gypsy could not score any goal throughout the match and suffered a humiliating defeat. The Uttarakhand Police edged past Sunderwala Boys 1-0. Sourabh Rawat struck the badly needed goal through penalty for the cops in the 23rd minute of the play. The rival team failed in its attempts.

Dehradun, August 11
The results of the matches played on the third day of the inter-section football competition played at the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) are as follows: Juniors: Chandragupta section defeated Pratap section 3-2. Cadets Akshat scored goals for Pratap section while cadets Tomthin and Mukul scored for Chandragupta section.

Shivaji section defeated Ranjit section 3-1. Cadets Param, Zote and Kunal scored for Shivaji whereas cadet Tabu scored for Ranjit section. Seniors: Pratap section convincingly defeated Ranjit section 5-0. Cadets Nelson, Lalit and Sawma scored for Pratap section.

At the end of the day, the section standings were as follows: Pratap section- 11 points, Ranjit section- 4 points, Shivaji section- 8 points and Chandragupta section - 7 points.