Dehradun tehsil building in state of neglect
Dehradun, August 19
The Dehradun tehsil building, which has been providing relief to people from the natural calamities, is in a state of neglect.

Employees of the Dehradun tehsil office work in the verandah of the building that is in a dilapidated condition. The employees are unable to sit in the rooms due to leaking roofs and crumbling walls; and (right) moss on a doorway of the computer room of the tehsil office. Tribune photos

Patriotic song competition held
Dehradun, August 19
The Principal Progressive School Association (PPSA) organised the 14th inter-school patriotic song competition at Children’s Academy here today. Over 13 schools of Dehradun and Mussoorie participated in the competition. They left no stone unturned to impress the judges as well as the audience by singing their respective songs with patriotic fervour and enthusiasm.

Girl students participate in a patriotic song competition held at Children’s Academy in Dehradun on Friday. A Tribune photograph

Gotipua dancers perform in city
Dehradun, August 19
Peppered with lithe and acrobatic movements, Gotipua dancer Bijay Kumar Sahoo and his 12-member Nakshyatra troupe have reinvented the traditional temple dance for modern audience. The troupe performed toady at Summer Valley School.

Lensmen display creativity
Dehradun, August 19
Amateur photographers displayed their creativity at the three days’ photography exhibition which began today at the Heritage School. Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank inaugurated the exhibition held to mark the World Photography Day.

Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank goes around an exhibition of photographs held on World Photography Day in Dehradun on Friday. A Tribune photograph

140 take part in chess competition
Dehradun, August 19
A total of 140 cadets took part in the Chess Open competition held at the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC). The competition was held in three categories — Juniors, Middle and Seniors.

Dehradun, August 19
Rain in the state capital continued to wreak havoc even today as many of the areas remained waterlogged. The rain continued till late evening causing overflowing of drains.

Water entered low-lying residential areas at Mahatma Gandhi Basti, Nai Basti at Nemi Road, Balmiki Road, Sanjay Colony and many other areas causing problems for the people. The flow of water in the Rispana and Bindal rivers that criss-cross the city increased due to the rain. Most of the people residing near the rivers had to vacate their houses. A road and a 60-metre embankment also got damaged.

Councillor Rajkumar said they had repeatedly asked the Dehradun District Magistrate to ensure that certain arrangements were made in order to save these people, but no action had been taken till date.

“We met the DM today and he assured us of the safety of the residents. If he fails to take action now, a major incident may occur in the near future,” he said.

Rajkumar added that the department was not taking disaster management seriously. He claimed that the telephones in the control room did not work properly.

Mussoorie, August 19
Members of the Thauldar Vikas Samiti have come out in support of Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption.

They held a rally from Landour Bazaar and raised slogans in support of Anna Hazare and removing corruption from society. The rally received a boost when senior BJP leader Ravinder Jugran also joined it and marched along with members till Gandhi Chowk.

On the occasion, Jugran condemned the act of denying Anna Hazare his fundamental right to speak and agitate peacefully in support of the logical demand of introducing the Lokpal Bill.

He further alleged that a nexus among a section of the media, bureaucrats, public representatives and judiciary had led to an increase in corruption in the state and there was a need to launch a movement to identify “black sheep”.

When asked about allegations of corruption against the present BJP government, he termed them as “baseless”. He said the judiciary had given a clean chit to the government.

President of the samiti Chaman Nautiyal, Satey Singh Rana, Anil Juyal and senior BJP leader Vijay Ramola also spoke on the occasion.

DEHRADUN: Extending support to the anti-corruption movement initiated by Anna Hazare, HUM, a city-based NGO, organised a street play at Gandhi Park here today. The theme of the play was ‘Eradication of corruption from society’.

Sunil Dutt ‘Kedar’, the writer of the play, said, “Our play was just a small contribution towards the development of society.”

“If Anna at 74 years of age can observe fast and can fight for our future generations, then its our duty to extend support to him,” he added.

Dehradun, August 19
Culture Minister Vijay Barthwal gave directions for further upgradation and conservation of the ancestral home of leader Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna at Pauri Garhwal at a meeting with officials of different departments in the city.

He directed the building of a 250 metre road connecting the main road to the house. He also asked the officials to conduct a joint inspection of the place and present the expenditure estimates. He said literature and historical documents related to the leader should be preserved in the museum.

Besides preparing a plan for the makeover of Bahuguna’s residence into a museum, he said the officials must also come up with similar plans for other places of historical and cultural significance. The statue of Vir Chander Garhwali must be installed at different places and fairs should be held in his name. 

Dehradun, August 19
The Dehradun tehsil building, which has been providing relief to people from the natural calamities, is in a state of neglect. The place is on the verge of collapse posing a danger to the employees as well as the visitors.

The offices of additional tehsildar and naib tehsildar are located in its premises. The ceilings and walls of the building have developed cracks making it difficult for the employees to work in the rain. They are forced to work under waterlogged condition. It seems that the state government is waiting for some major incident to occur, as it had paid no heed towards it despite repeated demands for its renovation.

Few days ago, the wall of the record room at the premises had collapsed destroying many records.

Sources in the department maintained that last year, they had bought the shed by their money in order to get rid of leaking roofs, but it is not proving successful this time due to the incessant rain. They stated that last year, water entered in the ceiling fan, which had not been repaired till now.

The sources said they had never seen any repair work being done in the building.

Tehsildar (Sadar) Sahid Hussain said they had written to the administration, but had not received any response. “The authorities have inspected the building and funds have been sanctioned for the repair. But we are not sure when the funds would reach us,” he said.

Despite repeated attempts, the Dehradun District Magistrate could not be contacted till the filing of the report.

Dehradun, August 19
UNESCO’s Travelling Literature Festival began here with Amar Chitra Katha authors Nimmy Chako and Sanjana Kapur holding interactive sessions with students and a local author, Mukesh Nautiyal, sharing his thoughts on his work, “Ruee ka Gola,” with 
children.

The festival being held at Jaswant Modern School, Dehradun, with the support of an NGO, Nivesh, started with tributes to Uncle Pai, founder of Amar Chitra Katha who passed away some months ago.

Paying her tributes, Shaguna Gahilote, Project Officer, UNESCO, recalled the contribution 
of Uncle Pai to children’s literature. She said Anant Pai, popularly known as Uncle Pai, presented Indian mythology, history and legends through his comics of Amar Chitra Katha to children. She said in Uncle Pai’s death, children had lost a friend.

Today, the first session of the festival started with Mukesh Nautiyal, 
who spoke to students about his book. The session was open to children in the age group of 8 years to 11 years. The second and third sessions were taken by authors Nimmy Chako and Sanjana Kapur from Bangalore.

The duo answered queries by students.

Later, reading sessions supported by the National Book Trust along with the distribution of books was held at Government Primary School in Ajabpur, Dehradun.

The sessions were attended by among others Jaswant Modern School’s Principal Meenakshi Gandotra, teachers and students from various schools and authors.

Dehradun, August 19
The Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) and the Panchayati Rule and Gender Awareness Training Institute (PRAGATI) organised one-day sensitisation camp on “Gram Sabha Mobilisation” at Bahadrabad block of Haridwar district today.

The camp was organised with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency under the project “Promoting community participation and gender equality in local governance for prosperity”.

The objective of the camp was to empower the gram sabha, elected women representatives (EWRs) and self-help group members. The RLEK team discussed functions of gram sabhas and transparency in its workings, panchayat resources, problems related to MNREGA and their possible solutions, the RTI and legal rights of women. 
The RLEK team intends to organise nine such mobilisation camps in Dehradun, Haridwar, Tehri and Uttarkashi districts. The main focus of these camps will be to inculcate leadership qualities amongst the EWRs to strengthen the functioning of gram sabhas. In addition to these camps, the RLEK team also aims at forming community-level voluntary vigilance committees, which will act as watchdog to monitor the functioning of gram sabhas.

The observations during the camp were lack of awareness about the Constitution and the role and importance of gram sabhas. Surprisingly, 95% of the participants had never seen the map of India, according to a press release issued by the RLEK.

“We are unaware about the meetings of the gram sabha and their importance,” said Babli, a villager of Sunehra village in Roorkee block.

“The benefits of the BPL cards do not reach the actual beneficiaries. Only rich and influential people of the village get them and actual beneficiaries are left out,” said Siteshwari Devi of Laaldhaang village.

Members of the gram sabha also took part in the camp and raised their voices against the irregularities and corruption by the village-level authorities.