Mussoorie, October 4
The Mining Department finally woke up from slumber to investigate the damage to the environment by contractors working under the Municipal Council on Khattapani, Jharipani, Kempty and the spring road after extensively reported by The Tribune.

The reports had highlighted the illegal limestone mining being carried out by the contractors, building the road and sidewall at several places in and around Mussoorie.

Mining officials led by Piyush Kumar reached the Khattapani road early this morning to investigate the scale of illegal mining done in the area and were aghast at to see the loss to the mountains by the contractors. The investigating team did not find any person working at the site as they had fled on the news of the team’s arrival in the area.

The investigating team measured the quantity used by the contractors to build the road and the sidewall using the material excavated illegally from the nearby mountains. They also took the samples of the concrete and sleet mixture for further testing to determine the scale of illegal mining done by the contractors. Subsequently, the team also visited the Municipal Council office and questioned the Construction Department on the duration of the contract and enquired about the amount of royalty paid by the council for all such works to which the Municipal Council failed to provide any satisfactory answer.

Later speaking to The Tribune, Piyush Kumar said the investigation suggests that illegal quarrying had been done by the contractors in the area. “We measured the amount of material utilised by the contractors and after completing the report, they will submit it to the higher officials for further punitive action” added Piyush Kumar.

Nayab Tehsildar from the Mining Department Tika Ram Bhatt said after the submission of the final report, if any irregularity comes to the fore, contractors would be penalised with Rs 25,000 as initial fine.

Apart from that, the royalty would be collected at the rate of Rs 25 per cubic metre for the area illegally mined and Rs 8 per cubic metre for the amount of mud used illegally from the area that could amount to several lakhs, leading to an increase in the revenue of the department.

The investigating team also went to the Jharipani and Kempty road and took measurements there too.

The mining officials also said the department would also probe the royalty submitted by the Municipal Council on all works in the area and if any shortfalls were found, legal action would be taken against the council too.

The residents and environmentalists of the town have welcomed the move and thanked The Tribune for raising such an important matter that concerned the fragile environment in the region.

Dehradun, October 4
Pressure is mounting on Asian Development Bank (ADB) officials to complete the work on the laying of water pipes from Survey Chowk to the Raipur road within the given deadline of one week.

The SDO (BSNL), SS Rathod, said telephone lines that had got damaged while digging would be repaired by this evening. He said officials would remain present till the work was completed.

Project manager (ADB) PM Garg said: “Earlier, we had laid distributive lines. Now, we are laying pipes from Maldevta to Dilaram Chowk. An area of 7.5 has been completed and work on the remaining is under progress. We have chosen this time for the work as there are holidays in schools, which will continue till October 11. The work will be completed by that.”

The contractor concerned gave an assurance that the pit dug at the Survey roundabout would be filled up by tomorrow, as chambers were ready to be finally placed.

Pankaj Gupta, president of the Nala Pani Seema Dwar Bus Association, said: “If the ADB works day and night, it can complete the work within two days.”

General secretary of the Dalanwala Welfare Association Mahesh Bhandari said: “It is shocking that labourers working on this project, which costs above Rs 200 crore, are waiting for two sacks of cement since morning. It is clear that officials have plundered all money meant for the project and now they are finding it difficult to complete it.”

Mussoorie, October 4
The civil society under the banner of Mussoorie Against Corruption held a meeting in Library Bazaar and outlined its one-month long strategy to remove corruption from the society.

Participants suggested to socially boycott corrupt representatives of the town by not inviting them in any public functions if they wanted to remove corruption from the daily life.

Vishal Sharma, director of the Society for Civil Opinion, Reforms and Empowerment (SCORE) said at the meeting that the maximum number of organisations would take part in the one-month campaign beginning today against corruption.

He also said the campaign would be taken to the grassroots levels where villagers would be empowered on the ways to use Right to Information through several workshops and conventions.

Vishal Sharma further said the people would also be made self-reliant by introducing various self-employment schemes. Ward-level committees would be formed at ward levels in Mussoorie to strengthen the campaign against corruption.

The Sarvahitay Vikas Samiti, the Sarvey Bhavantu Sukhina, the Krishik Mitr Sangh, the Yuva Shakti, the Youth of Uttarakhand, the Aryan Group, the Deendayal Upadhyaya Sewa Pratishthaan, Senior citizens and the Mussoorie Hotel Association extended their support to the campaign.

Dharm Singh Rawat, Mahendar Singh, Manmohan Singh, Amichand Mangla, Sandeep Sahni, Jaikirat Singh, Aashish Goyal, Bhim Singh Rana, Manoj Rayal, Sunil Sharma and Himanshu Agarwal from the organisations were present at the 
meeting. 

Haridwar, October 4
Despite repercussions of global warming being felt worldwide and pollution becoming a major concern, sensitivity about such environmental aspects is not seen among common people. But a married couple from the United States is an ideal example.

A mechanical engineer, John Mevcer and his wife Emily, a physiotherapist, are on a 12-country vehicular pollution awareness campaign.

Currently, they are in Uttarakhand on their bicycles but felt that cool atmosphere of this hilly state is being affected by the pollution, which can be curtailed in Haridwar, Rishikesh, Dehradun and Roorkee by people commuting on bicycles as these cities are not so much big that one needs to travel on petro vehicles every time they move out.

Both started their sojourn on January 2010 taking clue from the impact of environmental pollution emanating from vehicles taking a toll on millions of people worldwide.

Speaking to The Tribune exclusively, John Mevcer said keeping in mind the alarming level with which population was increasing in countries like India and China in coming years, more vehicles would be on roads which would only aggravate the pollution level.

Dehradun, October 4
In the recently concluded Madhavrao Scindia Memorial All-India Inter-school Hindi Debate held at The Scindia School, Gwalior, Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) performed exceedingly well.

A total of 10 public schools from across India had participated in the competition. After three crucial rounds, the RIMC reached the final facing Scindia Boys, Welham Girls and Mayo Girls.

Overall positions

First: Scindia Boys

Second: RIMC

Third: Mayo Girls

The RIMC team was represented by Cadets Amit Kumar Rai, Rishav Raj and Saurabh Shukla. Since its inception, this is the fourth time that the college has achieved one of the top positions. — TNS

Dehradun, October 4
As part of the Wildlife Week celebrations, the Uttarakhand office of the World Wide Fund (WWF), in association with the Uttarakhand Forest Department, organised rangoli competitions in various schools of the city.

Harsh Kumar, Head (WWF Programme Office), Dehradun, said these competitions aimed at making people aware of wildlife conservation.

He said many more events like quizzes and other awareness programmes would also be organised by the WWF. 

Dehradun, October 4
Welham Girls’ School and Hopetown School got the first and second places,respectively, in both team and individual events on the second day of the Inter-council Schools Senior and Junior Girls’ Table Tennis Championship held at The Heritage School here today. The two teams will now lock horns in the final on October 7.

In today’s matches, Welham Girls’ School, Hopetown School, The Heritage School and Unison World School got the first, second, third and fourth

places, respectively, in the team matches.

In the individual matches, Welham Girls’ School, Hopetown School, Unison World School and The Heritage School stood first, second, third and fourth, respectively. The results were declared on the basis of matches today.

Dehradun, October 4
The Heritage School and The Aryan School won the pre-quarterfinals of the Shri Rohitash Singh Memorial Inter-School Boys’ Super 8s Cricket Tournament 2011.

In a pre-quarterfinal, The Heritage School beat Hilton School by five wickets. The latter won the toss and opted to bat first. In the first innings, Hilton School scored 24 runs before getting all out.

Replying, Heritage scored 36 runs for four wickets. In the second innings, Hilton scored 27, losing five wickets. On the other hand, Heritage scored 19 runs for two wickets to win the match. Shubham Rawat of the winning team was declared man of the match for scoring 14 runs.

Mussoorie, October 4
Teams from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh reached the finals of VI Seniors National Bat-Ball Championship being organised under the aegis of the Mussoorie Sports and Culture Association on the Survey Grounds today.

In the first semifinal match of 20 overs played between UP and Haryana, UP batting first scored 240 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. Sanjay for UP outrightly smashed the bowlers of Haryana out of the park by scoring 170 runs in 72 balls that included 15 sixes and 15 boundaries. Other scorer for UP was Deepak with 28 runs. Mukesh, Om, Babloo and Pradeep took one wicket each for Haryana.

In reply, Haryana yielding under the pressure of a massive target set by UP, could garner only 140 runs and were all out with one over to spare. For Haryana, Ravi 53, Babloo 14 and Pradeep scored 25 run but were unable to save the match. Sanjay took 3 wickets while Sunny could take 2 wickets for Haryana.

In another semifinal played between Delhi and Punjab, Delhi batting first scored 196 runs in 20 overs. Aashish scored 30, Surender scored 55 and Jasvir contributed 47 runs. For Punjab, Sony took 4 and Jeetu took 3 wickets each.

In reply Punjab reached the target with three overs to spare and won the match by one wicket. The wicket takers for Haryana were Rahul Kataria 5 wickets while Jatin and S.Rahul took 2 wickets each.

The final between Uttar Pradesh and Punjab will be played tomorrow.