Traders seek freehold status for their land
Dehradun, October 31
The members of the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, who are traders of lease land number 285, have demanded from Chief Minister BC Khanduri that the land be converted into a free hold property. The members said the traders who had been running their shops since 1952 should not be removed from the market place.

Official held for graft
Dehradun, October 31 Sushil Pandey, an assistant engineer dealing with the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan’s project at Rudraprayag, was arrested by vigilance department officials on charge of corruption here today.

Govt ignoring daily wage earners: Sabha
Dehradun, October 31
Members of the Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha expressed anguish for ignoring more than one lakh daily wage earners at the Cabinet meeting held recently.

Third Film Festival
Call to make meaningful films from state
Nainital, October 31
The third film festival entitled “Pratirodh ka Cinema” or the cinema of resistance got under way at the Chalet Hall here on Sunday evening with the screening of Kundan Shah’s acclaimed satire “Jaane bhi do yaaron”.

Dehradun, October 31
A meeting between vice-chairman of the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) BVRC Purushottam and representatives of traders, who are to be shifted from the Chakrata road as it is being widened, proved to be a step forward on the stalemate between both sides on the issue.

Shanti Kant Goyal, president of the Chakrata Traders Association, said the traders were satisfied that the MDDA was ready to give them space equal to what they had now on the Chakrata road. Earlier, the MDDA had agreed to give only 50 per cent of the land they had occupied on the Chakrata road.

He expressed reservation on the difference in the cost of land. He said: “Since the circle rate of Rajpur Road is much higher than the Chakrata road, we are supposed to pay the difference in the cost after the assessment of the cost of the land. Then the tenants are also expected to pay the base cost of the land given to them in the shopping mall. They will certainly oppose it.”

Today, none of their representative was present at the meeting.

President of the Doon Traders Association Vipin Nagliya said they had also opposed the lottery system. “Our shops are situated in front on the Chakrata road, but in the complex, we could be located anywhere on the first floor. We demand that we should be located in the same order as we have been on the Chakrata road,” he stated.

He, however, said they would soon convene a meeting of all traders’ associations and mull over the issue before the next round of meeting was held with MDDA officials.

Haridwar, October 31
With kanungos under the Uttarakhand Registrar Kanungo Union on strike, the official work carried out by them is getting severely affected.

Despite apprising the state government of their nine-point demand letter, the union members cite the laxity and indifference shown by the state government in adhering to their long-term agitation which made them resort to a complete boycott of their official work.

Representative of the union SL Lakhera said despite 11 years of formation of the separate statehood, a separate manual service had not been made for the registrar kanungo, assistant land record officials and revenue inspectors.

He further said a hike should be made in the fixed quota for the promotion of patwari-lekhpal for the posts of revenue inspectors and registrar kanungos.

“Registrar kanungos posted in hilly districts are getting salary less than their subordinates despite working in tough climatic conditions and less facilities. Even the agriculture census is being done by us, which adversely affects our working and we do not get paid for such additional work,” said Lakhera.

Other demands of the union include appointment of computer operators for revenue-land records and appointement of personnel for taking care of tehsil records and disparity in promotion procedure in the state.

Dehradun, October 31
The members of the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, who are traders of lease land number 285, have demanded from Chief Minister BC Khanduri that the land be converted into a free hold property. The members said the traders who had been running their shops since 1952 should not be removed from the market place.

Secretary of the samiti Anant Akash said hundreds of traders had applied for the conversion of their land status under the state government policy in year 1999 whereby they had also deposited 25 per cent cost to the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) but only a few traders got free hold status for their property. He also added that 155 shopkeepers of Indira Market were not allowed to have registries of the land on which their shops are situated though they deposited the full amount for the purpose. He said they would oppose the resettlement of some traders in the newly constructed shopping complex near the Clock Tower.

Dehradun, October 31
Sushil Pandey, an assistant engineer dealing with the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan’s project at Rudraprayag, was arrested by vigilance department officials on charge of corruption here today.

He was arrested over the accusation of taking bribe from Laxman Singh Sajwan, a contractor of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan’s infrastructure, at Rudraprayag.

Sajwan has stated that he was given the contract to construct a building of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan at Rudraprayag but the officials of the department were demanding money in return of passing his bills. — TNS

Nainital, October 31
The third film festival entitled “Pratirodh ka Cinema” or the cinema of resistance got under way at the Chalet Hall here on Sunday evening with the screening of Kundan Shah’s acclaimed satire “Jaane bhi do yaaron”.

The event is being jointly organised for the third successive year by the Jan Sanskriti Manch of Gorakhpur and the local cultural organisation Yugmanch.

The event was inaugurated by well-known artist and writer Vishwa Mohan Badola who gave a call for making of meaningful films from Uttarakhand itself.

“Attempts should be made to show the life and struggles of the people of the state to the outside world. There is

immense talent and scope available for that. Why should such films be made outside and then shown in Uttarakhand”, Badola said.

Liberally quoting Faiz Ahmed Faiz, he lauded the movement launched by the Jan Sanskriti Manch to take good, realistic and meaningful cinema to the masses in different cities of the North and Central India.

In his keynote address, another artist and poet Manglesh Dabral said the cinema, even the so-called meaningful cinema, coming from Bollywood and Hollywood,was a cinema of migration in which it is mainly the entertainment aspect that dominated. He pointed out that even films like “Peepli Live” that have dealt with the much serious issue of farmer suicides talked of migration and turned out to be an entertainer.

Addressing a gathering, Sanjay Joshi of the Jan Sanskriti Manch related the problems being faced by his organisation in fulfilling its mission of promoting good cinema.

“At times, we are dispirited on finding a few people turning up at the inauguration of our festivals. But then it is a big morale booster when someone from small mofussil towns calls up to request that such a festival must be held in his town also so that people get to see what is happening in reality,” he said.

He pointed out that in Bollywood a large number of films were being made from the money coming from the mafia and black marketers who were not interested in promoting good cinema. There were people who spent crores on making a movie but would not spend even a meager amount in promoting or marketing it.

He gave the example of the film “Daayen ya Baayen”, made by local film director Bela Negi in Mumbai which could not even be released. The film talks of the problems being faced by the people living in the hilly terrain of Uttarakhand. “But we can proudly say that we showed it to the masses in several cities and it was liked a lot,” said Joshi.

An interesting event that was held on the sidelines of the film screening was the inauguration of sketches and paintings by Pranav Mohanti.

His works display the various facets of life and the forces that have shackled human existence. An interesting aspect of thisartist from Phulbani in Orissa is that he does not sell his works.

The morning and the afternoon sessions on Monday were dedicated to screenings and talks for children. The day began with a talk delivered by Ashutosh Upadhyay on the journey into the core of the earth. This was followed by a rich cultural presentation by the children from Rama

Montessori School and the screening of Pankaj Advani’s well acclaimed feature film “Sunday”.

In the second half, the children were treated to some of the classics made by Bert Haanstra. These included his all time great “Glass” and “Zoo”.

Dehradun, October 31
MKP Inter College got the better of Kendriya Vidyalaya ITBP 6-4 in a junior girls’ match in the District-level Handball Tournament held at the Parade Ground here today.

Madhuri and Deepa scored three goals each for the winning team while Anjali and Ayushi scored two goals each for KV ITBP.

In the second match of sub-junior boys’, KV ITBP had to face 9-5 defeat at the hands of SGRR, Nehrugram.

A match between OFD and SGRR, Nehrugram, will be played tomorrow.

Dehradun, October 31
An outstanding performance by Amit helped Shivalik College to beat Beehive College by 96 runs in a match in the UTU Inter-college Cricket Tournament here today.

Beehive College that won the toss chose to field first. In the first innings of the match, Shivalik College made a total of 143 runs with opener Amit scoring 20 runs in 25 balls. Beehive College could make only 47 runs in the second innings of the match.

In the second match, the Doon Institute of Engineering and Technology beat GRD IMT, Dehradun.

DIET won the toss and chose to bat first.

Hemant and Rajeev Ranjan made 32 runs each for the winning team in 37 and 39 balls, respectively.