Dehradun, January 2
The demolition drive continued on Chakrata Road throughout the day. A shrine, coming in the way, was also shifted by taking its caretakers into confidence who had created a scene over its destruction a day before.

A directive from the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) created ripples once again among shopkeepers who had now been directed to leave two metres more space from the remaining portion of their shops on Chakrata Road for parking.

The shopkeepers are highly incensed over it and have teamed up to talk about it to vice-chairman (VC), MDDA, on Tuesday.

Anil Kumar, a shopkeeper, said it was unfortunate when everything had been sorted out and the entire project was progressing smoothly, a new order had been imposed on the shopkeepers to take away big chunks from their land, which they would not allow at any cost. Meanwhile, the VC had constituted three teams to resolve all differences regarding the Chakrata widening issue. Umapathi Bhatt, junior engineer, and Sanjiv Kumar, supervisor, MDDA, had been deputed to

resolve the complaints of people regarding water, electricity, sewerage in the new flats allotted near the ISBT. Another team led by city planner RG Singh and staff comprising Anupam Sharma, Nazeer Ahmad, Krishan Mohan Bahuguna and the entire Nazool department will address the claims regarding the property of displaced people from Chakrata Road. The third team led by Executive Engineer NS Rawat. Assistant Engineer Rakesh Rana, junior engineer Vineet Rastogi and Shashipal Singh will assist him to solve the problems regarding water, electricity in the new shopping complex.The team heads will give daily report to the VC.

Dehradun, January 2
The Indian Council of Forestry and Research Education (ICFRE) has taken up a number of new initiatives to make the forestry research more useful, user-friendly and beneficial for its all stakeholders at the field level.

Dr VK Bahuguna, Director General, ICFRE, during the first meeting of national subject matter coordinators said six forums namely the Knowledge Pool, the Knowledge Forum, the Ginger Group, the National Subject Matter Coordinators, the National Project Directors and the Direct to Consumers have been formed to solicit innovative ideas for designing field-oriented as well as result-oriented research.

Managing forests and forest products for livelihood support, biodiversity conservation and ecological security, forest and climate change and forest genetic resources management and tree improvement with 32 research themes have been identified during the joint meeting of the forum held on last month.

During the meeting, it was decided that separate committees in line of the Research Policy Committee will be constituted for the Forestry Extension and Forestry Education. The other initiative of nominating Chief Technical Adviser for all important tree species like teak and bamboo for development of comprehensive tree improvement programmes was also decided at the meeting. 

Dehradun, January 2
The fortnight-long Virasat concluded with a high voltage performance by artistes coming from different parts of the country. Earlier, the Anveshana Dance Theatre’s presented Asthadash Parv, the eternal war and death out and within. It lit up the tail-end of Virasat, with the design, direction and choreography of Sangeeta Sharma.

Founder and director of the Anveshana Dance Theater Sangeeta Sharma is an Indian contemporary dancer and choreographer for over 24 years with both Indian and western essence. Sangeeta’s choreographed pieces demonstrate her unique creative and innovative style to bring up issues facing the society, journey into the internal struggle and conflicts of each individual, her own spiritual search with the audience and the inter-connectedness between theatre and dance.

Anveshana creates images and emotions in movement arising from the creation of work that comes from introspection. Its purpose is not to approach dance as an illustrative event but rather to arrive at an intimacy with this everyday art and to discover hidden worlds that can spring up inside the same dance.

Octave, comprising dances from North-Eastern states, was the high mark of the festival. Each dance followed the other without pause. Each one distinct in itself, with beautiful traditional costumes and traditional flavour in its dance form. The audience cheered and clapped and all agreed that Doon had not seen anything like it before. Today, the artistes from the North-East visited Raj Bhavan and met Governor Margaret Alva. They presented their traditional dances at Raj Bhavan.

The Governor said it was a matter of great pride that despite the vast cultural diversity, the various parts of India were bound together by the thread of Indianness.