Dehradun, September 23
A man allegedly threw acid on a woman leader of the BJP, Geeta Shankar, at her THDC Colony-situated house in the Rishikesh area in Dehradun district today. Worst, her 17-year-old daughter Khusbhu, who was present at the scene, died unable to bear the shock of the incident.

Geeta, president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, Shyampur area, who has sustained 65 per cent burns, has been admitted to Coronation Hospital. Khusbhu’s body has been sent for the post-mortem to determine the exact cause of death. The police, meanwhile, has arrested the man who threw acid on Geeta.

According to SP (Rural) GC Dhyani, Lakshman who threw acid on the woman is a brother of Rakesh who has an affair with a local girl. While the girl’s parents do not approve of her relation with Rakesh, the boy’s family is willing to accept the girl as their daughter-in-law.

The girl’s family approached Geeta to get the matter sorted out. She held talks with the two families at a meeting in which it was decided Rakesh would not meet the girl again.

He was also warned of police action if he did so. This enraged his brother Lakshman and him who blame Geeta for it.

Lakshman, carrying a bottle of acid, reached Geeta’s home and knocked at the door. No sooner did she open the door than Lakshman threw acid on her. After hearing the woman’s shrieks, her husband Mani Shankar rushed towards the door. He noticed the youth running away as his wife fell on the floor crying in pain. She was shifted to a local hospital in Rishikesh where the doctors referred her to Coronation Hospital.

The SP said her daughter, who was present near her at the time of the incident, could not bear the shock and died. He, however, stated the body has been sent for a post-mortem examination to find out the exact cause of her death.

The police has collected clothes, bed sheets and certain other articles which got burnt coming in contact with the acid.

Though victim Geeta alleged in the FIR that acid was thrown at her, prima facie the investigation by the police revealed she was set afire after being doused with petrol.

“In the quick turn of events, the woman may not have noticed whether it was acid or petrol. It seems petrol was thrown at her to set her afire. However, the clear picture could come after the forensic examination,” said Dhyani.

Meanwhile, the police has registered a case under sections 307, 326 and 452 of the Indian Penal Code at a Rishikesh police station.

Dehradun, September 23
In support of their four-point charter of demands, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers, owing allegiance to the Uttarakhand Asha Swasthya Karyakarti Union, staged a demonstration outside the Chief Minister’s residence today.

They gathered at the Parade Ground in the morning and later marched towards the CM’s residence. The main demand of ASHA workers is the revocation of government order that slashed their honorariums. “According to the previous government order, the ASHA workers were entitled to an honorarium of Rs 600 in the rural areas and Rs 200 in the urban areas. But the government later slashed it to Rs 350 in the rural areas and Rs 100 in the urban areas,” said Shiva Dubey, president of the union.

They urged the Chief Minister to end the “exploitation” of ASHA workers.

Though policemen stopped ASHA workers midway, the workers remained unrelenting and readily courted arrests. The police later put them in a van and took them to the Parade Ground.

The protest by the ASHA workers also brought the traffic to the standstill. Schoolchildren had a tough time tackling police barricades put up as a preventive measure.

Dehradun, September 23
More than 80 per cent of the streetlights in the city are in a state of neglect. In certain areas residents have to switch the streetlights on and off in the evening and the morning respectively while the timers installed on most of the others are nonfunctional. Owing to the faulty timers either the respective areas remains in the dark or the streetlights remain on even during the daytime. The switches installed on the streetlight poles in certain areas become a cause of accidents during the rainy season.

There are around 26,000 streetlight poles in the city out of which 14,000 are connected with a proper power phase while the rest are connected direct to power lines and have to be switched on and off manually. The bulbs connected direct to the power lines often fuse due to fluctuation in power while switches go out of order in the rainy season

Each of the switches costs around Rs 30 and the amount the DMC spends on their maintenance is around Rs 2.5 lakh. The cost of a bulb is between Rs 200 and 500 and around Rs 10 lakh is spent on changing the fused bulbs every year.

The solar lights installed by the corporation four months ago on the Chakrata road at a cost of Rs 3 crore too are crying for repairs. These have been installed to promote the use of solar energy but the DMC has failed to maintain these. Those areas which remain in the dark include the Subhash road, Race Course chowk, Haridwar road, the stretch from the Prince Hotel chowk to the Aaragarh police post, Neimi road, Nehru road, Kalidas road, Mohini road, Gandhi Road and the EC road.

Sources confirmed that the DMC had failed to pay the charges to the Power Department due to which the latter was not repairing the lights regularly. The officials concerned maintained that they were in talks with the department in order to solve the issue of payments.

While talking to The Tribune, Councillor Ashok Verma, Leader of the Opposition in the DMC House, said there was a lot of corruption involved in the process of installation of streetlights, which should be investigated as soon as possible. “The faulty switches or lights connected direct to the power lines can trigger a major incident. Many a time animals are electrocuted at these poles,” he said.

Councillor Raj Kumar said the bulbs connected direct to power lines fuse often. “The theft of electricity becomes easy from these streetlights. The major problem is that the Power Department has failed to provide a three-phase line leading to high fluctuation in power supply,” he said.

The sources said the corporation had paid around Rs 37.5 lakh to the Electricity Department for installing timers on streetlights in certain areas but these had not been installed so far.

According to Mayor Vinod Chamoli, they are waiting for a proper power phase to be provided by the Power Department for the streetlights and till then the streetlights would not be able to work properly. “The Power Corporation has taken a lot of time in providing the estimates to us and now we are completing all the formalities. We hope the work will start early,” he affirmed.

Dehradun, September 23
More than 40 per cent of the BSNL landline phones falling under the Clement Town circle have been non-functional for two weeks, causing inconvenience to subscribers of the area.

However, some of the connections in the area are non-functional for three months.

“My phone is lying dead for three months. Despite several complaints to the authorities, the BSNL authorities have failed to take any action,” said TS Saxena, a resident of Turner Road.

Another resident of Bell Road, Bharuwala Grant, said though her phone was dead since July, the authorities had sent a bill for the month of August without the phone being in use.

Subdivision officer, Clement Town (BSNL exchange), Dinesh Sehgal said: “Nearly 400 BSNL landline phones at Shimla Bypass, Turner Road, Bell Road, Subash Nagar and Mohabewala have been non-functional for a few months due to the digging up of roads in some areas.”

“The repair work has been further affected owing to a staff crunch as there are only three-four linesmen looking after the entire circle of Clement Town,” Sehgal added.

Deputy General Manager (BSNL), Clement Town, MP Gupta said: “Digital points of a particular area may not be working. I will get them checked and subscribers will be provided with services at the earliest.”

Dehradun, September 23
Schools of Dehradun have fared well in the all-India ranking of most respected schools, according to a countrywide survey of 400 best schools conducted by Education World-C Fore. The Doon School stands second in the boarding schools’ category while Welham Girls’ School has been ranked third. Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) is ranked seventh. Woodstock School, Mussoorie, is at the top of the list of international schools.

The Doon School had topped last year’s ranking while the Welham Girls’ School has done remarkably well and has received the third position this year. It had got the sixth ranking last year.

According to a schoolteacher, “This is absolutely due to hard work and inspirational leadership of the Principal of Welham Girls’ School, Jyotsna Brar”.

Dehradun, September 23
SGRR, Bindal, entered the final beating KV IMA 5-3 in a tiebreaker in the second semifinal today during the 3rd ONGC Ram Bahadur Chhetri Memorial Football Tournament under way at Ambedkar Stadium.

The match ended in a goalless draw after the two teams failed to score in the stipulated time. In the tiebreaker, Mukul, Akash, Shubham, Shivam and Sachin scored for Bindal while Gaurav, Sushant and Sidharth could score a goal each for KV IMA.

Meanwhile, SGRR, Bindal, will battle it out against Col Brown School in tomorrow’s final.

Dehradun, September 23
To book the final ticket, Vijay Cantt had to vie hard against Doon Valley to eke out a 4-2 win in a tiebreaker today in the Doon Callisto Football Tournament on the Pavilion ground.

The fiercely contested final ended in a 1-1 draw in the stipulated time.Talented Balvinder (15th) started the campaign with a goal leading Doon Valley 1-0 in the first half. Vijay Cantt thereafter made desperate attempts to score the equaliser.

It could taste success only five minutes before the stipulated time was over. Its Rajesh Gautam (65th) scored this goal to level the score. This followed a tiebreaker round in which Vijay Cantt made the difference.

Rajesh Thapa, Manish, Ramesh and Rajesh Gautam found the target for the winning team. For Doon Valley, Balvinder and Arvind could score while Brijesh and Shyamal Rawat failed to convert their chances.

Tomorrow, City Young will face Akranta in the second semifinal. The winner will lock horns with Vijay Cantt in the final of the championship on September 25.

Dehradun, September 23
The Sahsik Paryatan Sangarsh Samiti has decided to boycott rafting activity in Rishikesh this year to register their protest against non-revocation of the proposal of levying 20 per cent entertainment tax on rafting activity in the state.

President of the association Deepak Bhatt said the former Chief Minister, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, had given them a letter regarding the cancellation of the proposal of levying entertainment tax on rafting but the government couldn’t make an official announcement or release a government order before he was removed. He expressed dismay that the present Chief Minister, Major-General BC Khanduri (retd), spurned their request to come up with a government order in this regard and Principle Secretary Alok Jain too reiterated the CM’s assertion.

He said the tourists would not pay these taxes and opt for the neighbouring state of Himachal Pardesh, which would be a big blow to tourism development in the state.

He added that the Tourism Department, which was ready to spend Rs 250 crore on the development of tourism in and around the Tehri Dam lake, was doing everything to finish the much-established rafting in the state. He sees a conspiracy behind it.

“The state government wishes to finish the business of the present lot of rafters and bring in the rich and influential through auction process. It is nothing but a conspiracy to make money through back door. The tourism sector has become a centre of the nefarious forces who just wanted to make money out of it,” he said.

On September 27, they would bring about a strategy for intensifying their protest in the state, he added.