Mussoorie, May 20
With the announcement of the summer vacations in schools and other institutions from May 22 in the northern plains of India, tourists have begun heading for the 'Queen of Hills,' but the local administration is yet to put its act together and complete pending tasks as promised in the indoor official-level meetings held in the recent past.

The business community of the town is yet to see any change in the condition of the town, thus raising it's apprehension about more than dozen meeting of ministers, Chief Secretary’s and District Magistrates held in the town in the recent past with regard to development works. The business community lamented the fact that there was no improvement in the condition of the roads, parking facility and water storage capacity despite the mad rush of tourists this weekend, thus revealing the preparation level of the administration and its seriousness to act on the directions given to the concerned officials from time to time.

The condition of the town is such that the Mussoorie-Dehradun road that is the lifeline for bringing in the tourists to Mussoorie is in an appalling state, with several potholes present, making it difficult for the commuters to travel on the road.

The linking roads are also in bad shape and there is no improvement in their condition despite clear directions given by the Mussoorie Municipal Council of maintaining such roads. The public toilets are also crying out loud for attention as the basic facilities are missing, leaving the tourists and residents to look elsewhere.

The garbage strewn on Camel's Back Road still shows that the officials are only paying lip service to the directions given by the senior administrators in the review meetings held in the town.

The health services in the town are also in a shambles with only one government hospital that is in working condition, though partially. During emergency, the patients have to rush towards Dehradun, that is 30 km away, sometimes resulting in unfortunate death while on the way to hospital. There is no specialist doctor for heart and other ailments in the town, forcing the residents and the tourists alike to live with it on permanent basis.

MC ward member Virendar Rawat is of the view with no visible effect after such meetings, the interest of attending them is waning and if the officials do not change their working, gradually people would lose faith and stop attending such meets in future.

The traffic is controlled by the local police but most of its troops on ground, instead of performing their duty, are busy listening to Bollywood numbers through the headphones attached to their mobile phones, leaving the commuters in the lurch.

When contacted the SDM, Mussoorie, Jharna Kamthaan said that such meetings do have positive effects but consented that the the attitude of the officials requires room for improvement for which she has clearly directed them that the next meeting would not be held indoors but at the place from where the complaints are being received so that they are addressed on the site immediately.

Haridwar, May 20
On the pious festive occasion of Badh Amawasya, tens of thousands of devotees thronged Haridwar to take a holy dip at the sanctum sanctorum Braham Kund, Har-ki-Pauri, and adjacent ghats but also left shattered the traffic flow in the city.

Apart from tens of thousand of devotees due to weekend and summer holidays of schools, the tourist influx was seen in large numbers coming towards Haridwar, Dehradun and Mussoorie and other hill stations situated in districts of Pauri Garhwal and Tehri Garhwal. Both the National Highways 58 and 72 passing through the city witnessed massive traffic congestion.

Traffic congestion and regular jams reached such an alarming level that Senior Superintendent of Haridwar police Arun Mohan Joshi, Superintendent of City Police Yogendra Singh Rawat and Traffic Superintendent Kiran Lal Shaw themselves managed the traffic on major intersections of national highways.

From early morning itself as devotees began throng Ganga ghats, the number of vehicles also began to increase simultaneously. By 10 am the traffic on Delhi-Dehradun national highway was moving at a slow pace with vehicles queuing up, guided by traffic personnel deployed at every 20 metres.

From Bahadrabad till Motichur from where Dehradun district starts, traffic congestion posed many a problem for commuters, pilgrims, tourists, police personnel and local people as in scorching sun, moving at a snail's pace, was not an easy task.

Talking to TNS, SSP Arun Mohan Joshi said that traffic police personnel along with civil police were pitched in for the festive bath duty but as weekend tourist aided by already ongoing Char Dham yatra, a huge rush was witnessed.

He added that separate traffic plan was envisaged while as pressure mounted on national highways, alternate traffic plans, which included diversion of vehicles through routes like Chilla corridor or Lakshar, were put in place.

SP Traffic, KL Shaw, said that by late afternoon the highway congestion was cleared with traffic flow going on smoothly, adding that till the time when NH-58 gets expanded to multi-lanes, traffic congestion will always be witnessed on festive days.

A million dollar question that has been asked in Uttarakhand is that from which constituency Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna will choose to enter the state assembly. The riddle has thrown many answers and set a chain of events that would have implications on the polity of the state.

Vijay Bahuguna, member of the Lok Sabha from Tehri Garhwal parliamentary constituency, was selected as the Chief Minister after the Congress won the assembly elections held in January 30 with a razor-thin majority of one seat. The Congress with the support of three independents, three BSP and lone Utttarakhand Kranti Dal (P) legislators formed the government. While Congress has 32 legislators, the main opposition BJP has 31 legislators in the state assembly.

Vijay Bahuguna has to enter the state assembly within six months of becoming the Chief Minister. With Union Minister of Food Processing, Agriculture and Parliamentary Affairs Harish Rawat opposed to Vijay Bahuguna, it is difficult task for him to choose a safe constituency for himself and to persuade a legislator to vacate his or her seat for him. An undecided Bahuguna has been making efforts to strategise his safe entry into the state assembly.

With an aim to win over the hearts and minds of the people of the hilly region in a bid to find a safe seat for himself in the Garhwal region, Bahuguna raked up the emotional issue of Garsain as the permanent capital of Uttarakhand. Even before the formation of the state of Uttarakhand during the statehood agitation, agitators had demanded that Garsain in Chamoli district should be made the capital of the proposed state.

However, at the time of the formation of the state in November 2000, the Union Government decided to make Dehradun as the temporary capital of the state. The statehood agitators and the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (P) continued to demand Garsain as the permanent capital. The first state government headed by ND Tewari constituted the Virender Dixit commission for finding a suitable place for the state capital. After much delay, the report of the commission was tabled in the state assembly. The commission found Dehradun and its surrounding areas as most suitable for the capital in all respects but the emotional issue of making Garsain continued to rankle in the hearts and minds of the hilly people as they strongly felt that the capital of a hilly state should be in the hills.

Vijay Bahuguna by announcing that he will hold a Cabinet meeting at Garsain on October 2 has again raked up the issue. His aim is to win the support of hill people that could make it easy for him to win a byelection from the Garhwal region. But still there is no clarity on choosing a safe seat.

It was believed that he would fight from the Karanprayag assembly segment by making the sitting Congress legislator Anusuiya Prasad Maikhuri resign. But the biggest fear of Congress planners is former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader BC Khanduri. Khanduri who lost assembly poll from Kotdwar could be fielded against the Chief Minister by the BJP. Khanduri would be a formidable contender against his own cousin Vijay Bahuguna from the Garhwal region having represented Pauri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat several times.

Mussoorie, May 20
The results of the class X ICSE exams and the class XII ISC exams were declared here yesterday. In the class XII exams, Nitin Goyal (commerce) and Palak Gupta (science) of Wynberg Allen School made their school proud by scoring 95.75 pre cent and 95 per cent, respectively, while Prakriti Katariya from the same school followed them closely with 94.75 per cent marks.

In Class X exams, Raghav Mutneja from Wynberg Allen topped the town with 97.60 per cent and Madhav Bhardwaj followed with 95.80 per cent.

Vishal Bisht topped Gurunanak Fifth Centenary School in class XII exams in the science stream with 91.5 per cent marks. Vishal is the son of a plumber, Dhan Singh, who is employed in the same school. School official Sunil Bakshi informed the media that Vishal’s education was sponsored by the school itself and they were proud of him. Shilpa Bisht topped with 90.25 per cent marks in the commerce stream along with Neemkai Sherpa who followed closely with 85.5 percent. In class X, Sumali Gulati (commerce), with 88.8 per cent marks, topped the school while Toshima Saxena (science) stood second with 87.4 per cent. Shivani Tyagi (science) with 85.85 per cent stood third.

In Mussoorie Public School, Chandni Dhanai from class XII topped the school in the science stream with 94.5 per cent marks. She also scored cent percent marks in mathematics, making it a new record in the school. Himani Negi and Pavas A Dwivedi stood third with 84.3 per cent marks. Gunjan Bhandari stood fourth with 81.3 per cent marks. In the commerce stream, Honey Kanojia secured 87.3 per cent marks followed by Saroj Tamang who scored 84.3 percent marks. Aparna Singhal stood third with 83 pre cent.

In class X, Indresh Goel topped the school with 89.8 per cent.m Shivam Juyal secured 87.8 per cent and Altamash A Ansari stood third with 78.3 per cent marks.

Pithoragarh, May 20
After agitating unsuccessfully in getting the liquor shop at Pulhindola, Chalthi and Bastia in Champawat district cancelled for this year, the agitating women organisations in Champawat district have now started a move against those locals who let out their premises to liquor shops to be opened at these places.

“We began our agitation against the opening of liquor shops at these places from April 23 onwards this year, but the government did not pay any heed to our agitation and gave away the liquor shops at these places; we have now decided to boycott socially those who give away their premises to station the liquor shops,” said Basanti Samant, one of the leaders of the month-long agitation against liquor in Champawat district.

The women of Chalthi completed 22 days yesterday of dharna against the opening of liquor shops there and their focus lies mainly to shift the shops. “ Due to opposition of these women, the liquor shops could not be opened at Pulhindola and Kimtoli in Lohaghat area till date. The women agitators are also keeping an eye on the shop at Chalthi and sitting on dharna against the opening of shop there for the last 21 days," said Kamla Devi, president of Mahila Mangal Dal Chalthi.

The liquor shop at Tanakpur could not be opened yet as the contractor could not get appropriate place for it due to opposition of women; even at Bastia,10 km from Tanakpur, the women agitated on the road as they heard of the contractor, who reached to open the shop of English liquor on Friday.

Dehradun, May 20
To educate the young generation about Indian classical dances, SPICMACAY (Uttarakhand) is conducting a workshop by Kathak dancer Nandini Singh in different schools of the city.

So far she has conducted workshops in Unison World School and Kendriya Vidyalya OLF (Raipur) and would be involving more schools by the time the workshop ends on May 21.

During the workshop, the students will get to know the basic and the finer techniques of Kathak. Around 30 students are attending the workshop.

Nandini was inspired to enter the world of dance by her mother Late Janaki Devi, who herself was a known classical vocalist. She learned Kathak from some of the great gurus like Ganeshi Hiralal and Pt Sunder Prasad.

In her pursuit for perfection, she got associated with Pt Devi Lal and Pt Durga.

She has to her credit several choreographic works and has performed in many prestigious festivals throughout the country and abroad.