Downpour catches people unawares in Haridwar
Haridwar, June 26
Haridwar city today witnessed the first spell of pre-monsoon rain that started in the afternoon and caught everybody unawares. The people got respite from the scorching heat that had swept the region for the past two months.

Dehradun, June 26
A storm followed by heavy rain today played havoc in the city, disrupting normal life, damaging electricity wires thus disrupting power supply. Traffic was obstructed with uprooted trees blocking the roads and damaging cars and properties.

It was at 12 noon when a storm struck the valley with strong winds uprooting trees thus damaging buildings. A huge tin shade was blown away from the post office premises near Clock Tower and fell on the moving and parked vehicles. One car was badly damaged. The woman, who was driving the car, also sustained head injuries. A few motorcycles parked there also got damaged.

A police jeep which was stationed there to maintain security in wake of traders' protest around Clock Tower was also hit by tin shade. The frontal glass of the jeep was partly damaged. Besides police personnel, some mediapersons were also sitting in the jeep to get shelter during rain.

A car also got smashed in the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) building, where a DMC employee had an escape. He was about to get into his car, then he saw a tree falling on it and he immediately came out of it. Two cars also got damaged, which were parked before Punjab Jewellers on Rajpur Road.

The roof of the police post inside Doon Hospital too got damaged when a huge tree fell on it. The electricity supply of entire hospital has snapped due to this.

Trees also fell on busy Parade Ground on two places because of which the vehicle movement was diverted through the kucha passage of Parade Ground. A jam-like situation was witnessed on the spot as the entry and exit points of the Parade Ground are narrow. The muddy passage also posed difficulties for commuters.

A side wall of a circus in the Parade Ground too fell. A wall of a house also gave way on Cement Road. Rainy water entered houses on DL Road. Trees lying between the road and wires hanging loose to the ground were a general scene throughout the city. The most affected area in this regard remained Chandan Nagar, Rajpur Road, Balbir Road, New Road, Sahastradhara Road, EC Road, Cross Road, Lensdown and Budha Crossing.

The power supply continued to be disrupted for in the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, Chander Lok Colony, Sahastradhara, Saraswati Vihar, Tapovan Enclave, Patel Road, EC Road, some areas of Dalanwala and Vasant Vihar. Officials of Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited blamed the DMC, saying they could not carry out their functions unless trees blocking roads were not lifted by the DMC. But DMC officials did not seem concerned about it at all.

The Mukhya Nagar Adhikari, DMC, did not answer a phone call made to him to gather information in this regard. Mayor Vinod Chamoli said the DMC would soon clear the roads of the trees. Surprisingly, the trees continued to disrupt traffic movement, just close to the DMC premises, in Doon Hospital, Lensdown Chowk Budha Chowk, Parade Ground, EC Road since afternoon but DMC officials did not seem bothered about the inconvenience caused to the public.

Dehradun, June 26
Pre-monsoon showers continued in Uttarakhand today with several parts of the state witnessing another spell of rain. Dehradun saw downpour during afternoon hours that led to fall in temperature levels from 35 degree Celsius to 24 degree Celsius bringing relief to the Doonites. Doon experienced 28.2 mm of rain. The estimated wind speed touched 70 to 75 km per hour during the rain.

According to Dehradun Meteorological Centre Executive Director Dr Anand Sharma, rain will continue to take place in parts of the state, including Dehradun, in the next 24 hours. He said a circulation was emerging over Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir that may cause rain.

Meanwhile, rain that lashed capital Dehradun brought normal life to a standstill. People was seen running for cover as the rain accompanied by high speed winds brought traffic to a halt. 

Haridwar, June 26
Haridwar city today witnessed the first spell of pre-monsoon rain that started in the afternoon and caught everybody unawares. The people got respite from the scorching heat that had swept the region for the past two months.

Though inner city area of Ranipur witnessed less rain, it rained heavily at Har-ki-Pauri and in the Bhooptawala area. Local people, pilgrims and tourists could be seen enjoying the first pre-monsoon shower.

Several areas were water-logged and various intersections witnessed traffic jams as accumulated rainwater took almost an hour to recede.

Municipal Corporation official Prahlad Singh Rawat said in view of heavy rain more sanitation workers were deployed to clear choked drains and nullahs.

While at Ganga ghats, particularly at Braham Kund, Har-Ki-Pauri, Malviya Deep, VIP, Birla, Alaknanda, Gobind, Prem Nagar ghats, and various bridges in the city people could be seen enjoying the cool climate owing to the downpour.

Tourists were seen parking vehicles in the Ganga canal stretch in the Chilla range to enjoy the climatic conditions.

Tea vendors and maize sellers did a brisk business with people coming out to enjoy the weather. Bookings in various hotels, lodges, dharamshalas and ashrams reported a surge even as the Char Dham yatra and the tourist season was already going on.

Electricity and water supply was severely affected today but due to a steep fall in temperature the people didn’t complain about power cuts which had been a regular feature for the past few weeks.

“The rain has brought smiles on everyone’s face as for the past one month we have been reeling under intense heat wave with temperature touching 44°C. I was trapped in the rain when I was going to attend coaching classes. I will have to carry an umbrella now onwards as the monsoon time in Haridwar was not far away,” said Shikha Ohri, a resident of the Shiv Moorti area.

Dehradun June 26
City Magistrate Harak Singh Rawat and contractor and BJP leader Umesh Aggarwal arrived at a compromise and withdrew the complaints lodged against each other here today. They cited inconvenience caused to the public due to their dispute as the reason for the patch-up.

The matter had escalated as both sides had refused to budge from their stand. Rawat wanted Aggarwal to apologise for thrashing his son on a minor issue on June 21, while the latter was angry at being booked under various sections at Rawat’s complaint. The efforts to placate them had failed and the traders had given a bandh call in support of their demand for the withdrawal of the complaint against Aggarwal.

Meanwhile, the bandh call by various traders associations over the issue received a limited response here today. The bandh caused inconvenience to the public and disrupted the functioning of the Collectorate office as its employees boycotted work in support of the call. The BJP activists also raised slogans against Rawat at Clock Tower while members of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (P) braved the downpour demanding Aggarwal’s arrest at the same spot.

Shops remained closed in response to the bandh call mainly near Clock Tower, in some parts of Rajpur Road, Paltan Bazaar, Dhamawala and Chakrata Road.

However, after all the drama, the duo decided to bury the hatchet and withdrew cases against each other. With the patch-up the strike of Collectorate employees also ended.

The people were furious over the bandh. Prakash Gupta, a teacher, said, “This is a fight between two persons. Let the police deal with it. It is not fair to put the public in inconvenience over it. No one ever fights like this for a common man’s cause.”

Mussoorie, June 26
Taking cognizance of the report published in The Tribune on June 25 titled "Bhatta Falls, pride of Mussoorie, faces neglect", a meeting, chaired jointly by Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi and the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA ) vice-chairman(VC), was held in Mussoorie today.

It was decided that the MDDA would develop and beautify Bhatta Falls, provided the land row with the Municipal Council was resolved. MDDA VC Meenakshi Sundaram said the MDDA had assisted in the beautification of the fall in the past and was ready to do even now but whenever they attempted to develop a spot, the Municipal Council stalled all proposed projects claiming that it was their land.

He also said the Jal Sansthan too was claiming a portion of Bhatta Falls which was becoming a bottleneck in the its development.

Meenakshi Sundaram assured the people that if they were given complete rights of the fall, the MDDA was ready to develop and run it under the PPP mode. He also said if the Municipal Council was ready to transfer the ownership rights of the Mussoorie Lake, the MDDA was ready to develop it too.

Ganesh Joshi also aired the concerns over housing problem in the town and directed the MDDA to formulate various schemes under which MIG and LIG flats can be built in the near future. He also raised the issue of rainwater harvesting in the town to which Meenakshi Sundaram directed his officials to persuade residents and hoteliers to install the rainwater harvesting units so that the water could be conserved.

Speaking on the issue of parking problem in the town, Meenakshi Sundaram directed the officials to prepare terrace parking projects along with small spaces available in the town into parking so that the traffic congestion could be eased to some extent.

He further said as most of the hotels in the town were below the road level, the MDDA was contemplating on giving permission for construction of parking on their terraces in order to resolve parking woes of the town.

Other issues related to the town were also discussed where MLA Mussoorie Ganesh Joshi took the executive official Rohitash Sharma to task too task at unhygienic condition of toilets in the town and directed him to maintain the public convenience properly.

He also directed MDDA officials to construct toilets at different places on Library-Kingcraig-Picture Palace for the convenience of tourists and residents alike.

Municipal Council president OP Uniyal was not invited at the meeting. Uniyal also showed his resentment and said the meeting had no meaning as the elected councillors and the president of the council were kept away from the meeting.

OP Uniyal also said it seemed that there was a conspiracy behind keeping him and the elected representatives of the town away from such meetings which he would reveal later.

Dehradun, June 26
With experts cautioning against the increasing incidents of drug addiction among the youth, a partnership between the parents, youth and society was sought while combating the menace on International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking observed today by the Uttarakhand State Aids Control Society (USACS).

Speaking on the occasion, Principal Secretary, Health, Dr Ranvir Singh said drug addiction among schoolchildren and college-going youth was increasing and unless society adopted a proactive approach, too many lives might be lost to drug addiction.

“The use of needle by drug addicts is a cause of concern as it is the surest way to catch HIV virus. A vigilant society can arrest this menace by guiding the youth towards appropriate behaviour,” said Dr Ranbir Singh, while speaking at a workshop.

Additional Secretary, Health, Piyush Singh asked the youth to take a pledge to make Uttarakhand a drug-free state. Director-General, Health and Family Welfare, Dr JP Bhatt said their peers were luring youth into taking ‘party drugs’. During the workshop, participants from the Nijjat Drug Rehabilitation Centre and members from HOPE, an NGO, were also present.

Dehradun, June 26
Utkarsh Bhardwaj, Dhruv Sabharwal and Dron Walia from Uttarakhand won their respective matches to move into the next round of the All-India Talent Series Tennis Tournament under way at Shanti Tennis Academy here today.

The following are the results of the matches played today.

Girls (12 years category)
Yuvrani Bannerjee (West Bengal) beat Kashish Bhatia (Delhi) 4-0,4-0; Nilanjana Saham (West Bengal) beat Sahajbir Bhandal (Punjab) 4-0, 4-1; Prakriti Banbani (MP) beat Hansika (Chandigarh) 4-1, 5-3; Damin Hoon (Delhi) beat Ananya Bhargava (Delhi) 4-1, 2-4, 4-1; Adaya Chala (Karnataka) beat Shefali Arora (Delhi) 4-0, 4-0; Chenta Kumari (Haryana) beat Astha Baluni (Delhi) 4-1,4-0; Taru Ahluwalia (Haryana) beat Navya Dabar (Uttarakhand) 4-0, 4-0 and Sara Dev (Punjab) beat Misha Sood (Delhi) 4-0,4-0.

Girls (14 years category)
Palak Uppal defeated Navya Dabar (Uttarakhand ) 4-1, 4-2; Sara Dev (Haryana) beat Taru Ahluwalia (Haryana) 4-0, 4-1; Misha Sood (Delhi) beat Shefali Arora (Delhi) 4-1,4-1; Kriti Arora (Uttarakhand) beat Khushi Gupta (Uttarakhand) 4-2, 4-2; Komaljit (Chandigarh) beat Harleen Kaur (Punjab) 4-2, 4-2 and Hansika (Chandigarh) beat Divya Chaturvedi (Delhi) 4-1, 4-5, 4-7, 5-3.

Boys (12 years category)
Rishab Sharda (Chandigarh) beat Naman Sharwata (Delhi) 4-1, 4-1; Vipul Mehta (Delhi) beat Dron Walia (Uttarakhand ) 5-3, 4-2; Anmol Rattan Kamobj (Chandigarh) beat Neel Arora (Delhi) 4-0, 4-1; Ayush Deswal (Delhi) beat Prakhar Pal (Uttarakhand) 5-4, 7-3, 2-4, 5-3 and Rudra Kapoor (UP) beat Arith Bhuyan (Assam) 5-3, 4-1.

Boys (14 years category)
Utkarsh Bhardwaj (Uttarakhand) beat Varnit Arora (Delhi) 4-2, 5-3; Anmol Rattan Kamboj (Chandigarh) beat Chaitanya Chaudhary (Har) 4-2, 4-2; Danish Ahmed (Delhi) beat Abhimanyu Rojra (Har) 4-1, 4-2; Dron Walia (Uttarakhand) beat Chengish (Assam) 4-1, 2-4, 4-2; Ronit Bora (Assam) beat Navjot Singh (Punjab) 
4-1, 5-3 and Dhruv Sabharwal (Uttarakhand) beat Sukant Hari Durgapal (Uttarakhand) 4-0, 4-0.