Dehradun, March 4
The young girls who want to shine in the glamour world of Bollywood at times end up falling in wrong hands and get their lives destroyed beyond recognition. The case of Purva (name changed), resident of Banjarawala, falls into this category. Lured by an advertisement by a Delhi-based conman, who claimed to be an associate of Yashraj Films banner, she became prey to this man, who exploited girls and made their porn films. Her friend Shruti (name changed), who worked with her, informed her that her nude photos were taken from a CCTV cameras installed in changing room and bathroom. She was later also raped, a copy film of which Shruti managed to steal and has now handed over to the Patel Nagar police.

The suspect, who pasted Shruti's obnoxious photos all around in her locality at East Patel Nagar and public places such as Prince Chowk in the city on last Friday, was arrested from ISBT on Sunday night, where he had stayed with a girl in a hotel.

After being abused, drugged heavily and jailed once because of the conman, Shruti became physical and mental wreck. Her mother disconnected all ties with her. Seven months ago she sneaked out of his trap, got herself treated and also got a job in a company at Dehradun and began doing well in life. The suspect came to know of her whereabouts and pasted her erotic posters. He claimed to be her husband and showed some stamp papers describing her his wife. But he could not produce a marriage certificate or other important documents in this regard.

Shruti denied ever marrying him, as the man was 60, has a 25-year-old son and a wife. His son, a computer literate, helps him in morphing pictures and making films of the girls. He is absconding.

According to Shruti, the man has two offices, one at Mayur Vihar and another in Madhya Pardesh. Three years ago he published an advertisement and conducted an audition for an unnamed film. He took money from aspirant youngsters, shot for some days at Jabalbur, Uttar Pardesh then ran away with money. Likewise, he had been giving ads, posing as owner of a franchise of big companies and production houses.

Shruti said seven years ago, at the vulnerable age of 18, when she was at crossroad because as a single child her parents had divorced and her mother married again, she wanted to be on her own. At such juncture, she came across an advertisement given by the suspect asking for applications from those who were interested in opening a franchise of a mobile tower company with him. He became friendly with her

separated parents and invited her to come Delhi, where his wife and son made her feel as a part of the family. “Gradually they began giving me odd kinds of medicines or drugs, forcibly and kept me asleep most of the the time. I did not know what they were doing with me. I began having fits and became mentally disturbed. Thereafter, he made me manager of one of his fake firm in year 2010. I was arrested due to this and was bailed out by my mother after 50 days. My mother tried to pull me back but I remained stuck in his network. After realising that I was almost finished physically and mentally, he asked me Rs 1.50 lakh. I somehow escaped and began living in East Patel Nagar alone as my mother’s family did not accept me after

the incident of posters occurred,” she said.

Her courage is remarkable as she said despite having been destroyed by the culprit, she was determined to stay on and make sure that he did not become free once again to play with other girls’ lives.

Haridwar, March 4
A conglomeration of spiritual-religious and cultural heads hailing from more than 35 nations came on one dais at the inaugural session of the international conference here at Dev Sanskriti University in Haridwar.

The conference based on the theme “Nourishing the Balance of the Universe” is being held for the first time in Haridwar by International Centre for Cultural Studies of the host university.

About 70-odd religious gurus of different religion-sects are also participating in this mega conference, which wants to give the message of global peace and bonhomie between people of all the religions.

Devotional prayers in 23 different languages marked the beginning of this conference, setting the tone for the next few days where back-to-back sessions will be held in view of the large number of delegates.

Inaugurating the conference, chief of the Dev Sanskriti University, a flagship educational wing of Shanti Kunj-Gayatri family, termed the occasion as a confluence of civilisations - religions, nations, ideologies and faiths.

Dr Pandya said that the message via this conference of humanity, love and mutual admiration for all cultures will be spread in different parts of the world from religious city of Haridwar, which lies on banks of holy Ganga in Uttarakhand.

Issues of global terrorism and global warming remained hot topics in the inaugural session as global religious gurus dwelled on the need of compassion, tolerance among world citizens for humanity to prevail.

In his address, renowned spiritual guru Swami Dayanand Saraswati termed human life as a gift by the Almighty of which we are trustees, and using it for nature, humanity and social causes should also be our focus. He called on all the different cultural-religious participants to cooperate mutually so that we don’t indulge in petty matters but work united as human beings, rather than as separate identities.

Indian Council for Cultural Science member Soumitra Gokhaley, Vice Chancellor SD Bharma, Sub Vice Chancellor Chinmay Pandya, Registrar, DSU, Sandeep Kumar, Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli, and Europe coordinator of ICCS Ram Vaid welcomed the foreign participants during the inaugural session.

A month-long wait is almost over not only for the candidates who contested the recently held Assembly poll across the state, but also for those who were involved in the exercise as supporters, voters, mediapersons and even casual observers. February has proved to be a very long month.

No discussion is complete even on the social front unless there is a reference to March i.e. the D-day when the counting is going to take place and the results are going to be announced.

Even the politicians, who seemed to have vanished once the polling was over on January 30, are now making their way back and are once again being spotted at social gatherings and also in some other functions.

Ironically, they had gone into a sort of hibernation much to the ire of the people who had been battling it out on the streets as usual for the basics. Even during the last one month when there was no politician turning up to reap some political benefit or some publicity, the people had been organising dharnas and protests on various issues across Kumaon.

These issues ranged from the shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to the scarcity of water supply or unscheduled power cuts. Recently when this correspondent asked the reason behind his absence in the city to a candidate, who had contested the poll, the reply was the one only a politician could have given, “I had been out in the rural areas thanking the people for having supported me and having voted for me.”

In any case, the last few days have witnessed political buffs once again taking out their notepads and working out the political possibilities that would emerge once the counting of votes starts.

Observers are still not able to figure out what the trends witnessed in the poll mean. Most of them are expecting some shocks for some of the political heavyweights from the three main parties in the fray across the state i.e. the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

One of the baffling indicators has been the considerably high percentage of voters having decided and gone ahead for exercising their right to franchise. The second puzzling indicator was the silence of the voters throughout the campaign.

Then there has been a lot of infighting, particularly in the BJP and the Congress that has come to the fore in the entire exercise.

While the parties saw an unprecedented rise of rebels coming forward to contest as independents, there have been lots of differences coming to light, particularly within the BJP after the polling was over.

Dehradun, March 4
Residents of the Patel Nagar area (Ward No. 54) are facing hardships due to poor condition of roads. The roads that had been dug up a year ago have not been repaired so far. Gurmeet Kaur, a local resident, said: “The pace of the repair work is very slow. PWD workers take a month to work on a small patch. Commuting has become difficult.”

Area councillor Gobind Mohan said: “Earlier, there was no sewerage system in the area. When sewerage pipes were laid down, residents heaved a sigh of relief. But now PWD officials are saying that roads will again be dug up to lay down sewerage chambers. It is surprising that why both tasks were not executed simultaneously.”

Another resident, Balwinder Kaur, complained of the absence of sanitary workers. She said: “Sanitation workers do not come regularly. Garbage remains lying on roads for days together.”

The councillor stated that after the delimitation process in 2008, seven new colonies were included in this ward.

However, the strength of sanitation workers remained the same. Against the requirement of 40 sanitation workers, only 34 are working. Of them, 12 are permanent and the rest of them come from a committee that hires workers on a contract basis.

Kamlesh Kumari said: “A big nullah near Balmiki Colony remains clogged with polythene bags filled with garbage. Though it should be cleaned at regular intervals, the authorities get it cleaned only once in a year.”

Rajesh Kumar said: “Fencing should be done around the nullah so that people do not throw bags filled with garbage into it. It will help keep it clean.”

The councillor said: “I call a group of workers to clean big drains at regular intervals. But they are not ready to clean this nullah due to concrete thrown into it by the people of the locality. They ask us to hire another contractor to do such type of work. As far as the fencing work is concerned, the funds for this are not easily sanctioned.”

Dehradun, March 4
The Uttaranchal Mahila Association, in association with Punjab National Bank, today organised ‘Uma Shakti Samman Samaroh’ to honour distinguished persons from the fields of education, medical, social service and journalism.

Dr Daljeet Kaur, Director, Patrician College, was honoured for her services in education.

Dr Reena Ahuja, Director, Jan Kalyan Hospital, and Dr Shobha Sikhand, Head, Sikhand Diagnostic Centre, were honoured for their services in the medical field. Social workers who were felicitated were Shaila Brijanth, Seema Goyal and Dolly Dabral.

Jaskiran Chopra, a correspondent of The Pioneer, and Editor, Himachal Times, Indrani Pandit were also honoured.

Meanwhile, a flower arrangement competition was also organised, which was won by Vandita. Babita Gusai won the second position and Archna Singhal won the third position. Sadhna Sharma, founder president of the association, said: “Our association has been honouring distinguished women personalities since 2003. It has been our endeavour to prove critics wrong who have been proclaiming that women are enemies of each other. Women no longer need the support of men to progress..” — TNS