9 granted bail in gambling case
Dehradun, October 12
Nine men who were arrested on Tuesday evening in a high-profile gambling case were granted bail by a local court on today. However, the man who rented the house where they were gambling has not been granted bail by the court. The police recovered Rs 1.60 lakh and five luxurious cars from a house situated on the Sahastradhara bypass.

Dehradun, October 12
Power cuts have returned to haunt small and medium-scale industries in the state that are now battling with scheduled and unscheduled power cuts.

To improve the industrial climate in the state, Uttarakhand had promised uninterrupted power supply along with the special industrial package. After the excise package was withdrawn, the small- scale industries banked heavily on the government to provide them with the uninterrupted power supply. However, the poor power scenario in the state has the industrialists worried.

Pharmaceutical and electronics industries have been badly hit in the Selaqui industrial belt. “The economic meltdown and the end of excise package have affected the cost-efficiency equation. The least the Uttarakhand Government could have done was to provide us with uninterrupted power supply. The industries are facing a seven-eight hour power cut,” said Pramod Kalani, president of the Drug Manufacturing Industry.

There are around 55 factories in the Sahara and Selaqui industrial area in the Doon valley affected by power cuts. As the use of generators is banned in the valley, the losses are heavy in the case of small-scale industries.

The industrialists are also questioning the latest power cut schedule announced by the UPCL. It announced four and a-half-hour planned load-shedding in the Doon valley for the industries.

“The UPCL has not taken permission from the Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) and has arbitrarily announced the power cut schedule,” said Pankaj Gupta, president of the Industries Association of Uttarakhand (IAU).

While the industries grapple with power cuts, the CII is of the view that the hydel-based power supply reaches at a critical stage during the winter months and efforts should be made to channelise other sources of energy.

“The industries performance gets affected due to power cuts. We will have to look towards other sources of power supply and wait for the gas-based power projects,” said Vibha Malhotra, director, CII, Uttarakhand.

Mussoorie, October 12
The advent of the “marriage season” has come with bad news for cocktail party and DJ lovers of Bamradi and Bandarwal villages of Thauldhar block in Tehri Garhwal district. The Gram Pradhan of the two villages, Om Prakash Bhatt, has imposed a ban on DJs and cocktail parties during marriage ceremonies taking place in the villages this season.

Members of the gram panchayat, the Mahila Mangal Dal, the Gram Suraksha Samiti of Bamradi and Bandarwal villages at a meeting held today decided to impose a ban on serving liquor during any marriage ceremony taking place in the villages from today. It was also decided that if any family violated the ban, it would have to face social boycott in addition to a fine of Rs 1,000.

Bhatt said the decision was taken unanimously after it was felt that the “DJ culture” induced the habit of liquor consumption among the village youth and led to brawls and lifelong animosity among people.

One of the villagers, Bhago Devi, was of the view that the wrong tradition of serving liquor during weddings also put an additional financial burden on the hosts forcing them into the debt trap from which it was difficult to come out.

Some educated youngsters have welcomed the decision, saying the DJ culture and liquor consumption were “directly related” to each other.Bollywood numbers played by DJs during marriages created an atmosphere conducive to liquor consumption. The decision on banning liquor and DJs during marriages would help reduce animosity among people.

A member of the Kshetra Panchayat said the decision to ban liquor at weddings would be extended to other villages, too, in the near future.

Dehradun, October 12
To book their final berths, Doon Valley School had to battle it out hard while the hosts Cambrian Hall School had an easy run in their respective semifinals of the 13th Col Sashi Shamsher JB Rana Memorial Inter-school Football Tournament here today.

In the first semifinal, Doon Valley School edged past North Point Children’s Academy 5-3 in a tiebreaker. Shervir (14th minute) and Shubham Rawat (55th) scored for Doon Valley while Anup (sixth) and Vivek (65th) netted goals for the opponent team as the match ended on a 2-2 draw in the stipulated time.

Following this, the tiebreaker round was held to decide the winners. Jeet Gurung, Piyush and Sundar of Doon Valley converted their chances into goals whereas Prashant was the lone player of North Point to have found the target.

In the second semifinal, Cambrian Hall School whipped Summer Valley School 6-0.

Shubham (second), Uttkarsh (53rd, 58th), Pawan (60th) and Amulya (62nd, 63rd) struck goals for the winning team as Summer Valley was left stunned and failed to score even a single goal.

Meanwhile, the final is scheduled to be held tomorrow at 3:30 pm followed by a prize-distribution ceremony.

Dehradun, October 12
Over 500 persons thronged The Lifestyle Factory, a two-day exhibition, that began here today. Nearly 40 stalls have been put up in a local hotel.

Western and Indian clothes, jewellery, artifacts, footwear, home accessories, corporate gifts, candle stands, key holders, perfumes, mobile stands, photo frames and items made of metal, aluminium, plastic and wood are attracting the crowd.

Exhibitors from the capital city, Delhi, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Uttar Pradesh, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Amritsar and Ghaziabad are participating in the exhibition.

Mumbai-based tarot therapist Manasi Raina, who has also put up a stall, remained engaged throughout the day today as a large number of people visited her stall to know about their future. She said: “More and more people are getting attracted towards this therapy these days.”

Shama Chandra, who has put up a jewellery stall, said she had brought all items from Mumbai keeping in mind the ongoing trend. “The cost of a pair of earrings starts from Rs 500 and may go up to Rs 1,000,” she said.

Pooja Marwah, organiser of the exhibition, said the main motive behind organising this fair was to encourage housewives who are talented but hesitate from going out of their houses.

Dehradun, October 12
Aggrieved over the removal of slums by officials of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), Congress councillors, under the leadership of councillor Rajkumar, today gheraoed the office of Deputy Executive Engineer Neeraj Pandey as the Chief Executive Engineer as well as Additional Executive Engineer were absent.

Rajkumar said when the corporation had recognized the slums and provided facilities to the people, then why they were considering them as encroachers.

“Lakhs of rupees had been spent by the corporation for slum dwellers. How can they make them homeless,” he stated and added that if the corporation had to do this they should provide the flats to these people under their scheme of JNNURM.

He further mentioned that if the corporation failed to take any decision regarding the same soon, they would gherao the Secretariat as well as the Vidhan Sabha.

Councillor Anand Tyagi and Vijay Pratap Mall along with the people of slums were present during the protest.

Mussoorie, October 12
A free health check-up was organised at Saraswati Shishu Mandir School at Kulri Bazar under the aegis of the Lioness Club (Main) here today.

More than 525 students from nine schools received free medicines after a routine check-up by Dr Ajay Agarwal and Dr NS Rana.

The president of the club Rashmi Viash said underprivileged children from the government and semi-government schools required such camps on a regular basis and the Lioness Club (Main), with the support of the Lioness Club, organised the camp.

She also said such camps would be held for the remaining schools in the near future.

Mussoorie MLA Jot Singh Gunsola, Municipal Council President OP Uniyal, former district president of the Lions Club MPS Khurana, Lioness Club (Main) secretary Krishna Garg, Anita, Anoopa, Manju Sharma, Rajendar Wadhera were also present.