Mussoorie, September 14
A landslide hit the road just below the Company Garden in Mussoorie today instilled fear among 200 families residing in the area.

Surendar Rana, president of the Garden Welfare Resident Association, said the landslides had been occurring for the past three years and despite reminding the authorities repeatedly, no action had been taken to check it on a permanent basis. As a result, the landslide now had hit the road.

Any further damage to the road in the coming days could endanger the whole Company Garden, added Rana.

The main drinking water pipeline passing through the area that was hit last year could be damaged at any moment leaving the town thirsty for several days.

Rana further said several political dignitaries had paid a visit in the last two years and assured them of initiating an action but nothing had been done so far.

Municipal Council president OP Uniyal said he had raised the issue with the officials concerned and the government on several occasions in the past but no action was initiated resulting in the present situation.

He assured them that he would talk to the senior officials soon and find some solution to stop the recurring slide in the area.

Dehradun, September 14
The Dalai Lama, while addressing a gathering of Tibetans comprising teachers and monks here today, asked them to give up drinking and gambling, the vices of modern age.

"Besides drinking and gambling, drug addiction among Tibetans is a cause of concern. During my visit to Ladakh, I was told by the locals that how Tibetans who had settled there due to their drinking and gambling habits were spoiling Ladakhi society," he said, while delivering sermons at the Tibetan settlement at Kulhan, Sahastradhara.

In his inimitable way, the Dalai Lama asked the Tibetans to follow 10 virtues as espoused by Nagarjuna, a Buddhist teacher and philosopher. "Self-control is the key to happiness and happiness is independent of suffering. Only when one is fearless can one experience complete happiness.  The path of Nirvana can be achieved through meditation and following the righteous path," said the Dalai Lama.

At the end of the sermon, the Sakya Trizin of the Sakya monastery (Rajpur) make long life offerings to the Dalai Lama. Later, the Dalai Lama visited the Drikung Kagyu monastery in Sahastradhara and Songtsen Library, which is the centre for Tibetan and Himalayan studies, where he was greeted by Dr Tashi Samphel, director of 
the library.

The library attracts students from across the world and has in its possession a Saloon Mercedes Benz that was used by the Dalai Lama for 18 years from 1964-1998.

It was brought here after the inauguration of the library. The library houses the personal collection and journals of well-known scholar and pioneer of Buddhism, Lama Anagarika Govinda. Born in a German family, he became a Buddhist, staying in Almora in the mid-80s.

Dehradun, September 14
A workshop on industrial safety was organised by the Confederation of Industrial Institute (CII), Uttarakhand State Council, today.

Industrial safety is rapidly emerging as a big challenge to the management as it impacts not only its employees but also the environment. It has become vital for the employees to be aware and trained to meet any eventuality for their own safety and also for smooth running of the organisation. Against this backdrop, the workshop was organised.

Managing Director of the Institute of Industrial Safety Management Yashpal Singh said the objective of the workshop was to make the participants understand the importance of industrial safety and various kinds of industrial hazards.

Satyaveer Rath, Head, Safety Management Department, Tata Motors, Pantnagar, shared the best safety practices at the Tata Motors plant, including safety inbuilt infrastructure, well-defined logistics and a robust safety management system. Rath also elaborated on the sword of honour award that Tata Motors have recently received from the British Safety Council, which he mentioned was one of the prestigious awards in safety management.

The workshop laid stress on safety in industrial activities like welding and cutting, material handling, use of power tools, handling of gas cylinders etc and also focused on the emergency action in case of any accident. The programme enabled the participants to be aware of various industrial hazards and how to minimise the risk of accidents so that the overall production and resource management in its best form could be ensured.

The training programme was attended by more than 30 engineers, supervisors, safety supervisors/officers and workers from various industries, including Nestle, Titan Industries, Perfetti Van Malle India, Aquamall Water Solutions, Gujrat Ambuja Exports and Minda. 

Dehradun, September 14
Amid the allegation of irregularities in the Students’ Union elections levelled by the NSUI, the Principal of DAV (PG) College, Dr Devendra Bhasin, withheld the poll results late last night.

The Principal has ordered a probe to be conducted by a committee according to the Lyngdoh Commission's recommendations to find out the reasons behind the goof up in the total number of votes polled in the elections.

The committee will submit its report within a week. Meanwhile, the college has been closed for a week till panel submits its findings.

After the declaration of the DAV (PG) College Students' Union poll results, wherein ABVP candidate Mahesh Jaguri was declared the winner, members of the NSUI, led by Congress MLA from Rajpur Rajkumar, reached the Principal's office alleging the rigging of votes.

They said while 5,467 votes were polled for the post of president, the total number of votes counted were 5,568, thus 101 extra votes were polled which was a serious matter. President of the state unit of the NSUI Sandeep Kumar accused the college administration of changing the ballot boxes.

After a commotion and brawl that continued till late night, the college authorities withheld the results till the committee submits its findings.

As soon as ABVP members came to know of the development, they gathered at the Principal's office and resorted to vandalism. BJP MLA from Mussoorie Ganesh Joshi, who was supporting the ABVP, and MLA Rajkumar, backing the NSUI, also had heated verbal exchanges and the police had to face a tough managing the affairs.

Meanwhile, ABVP members today staged a dharna outside the main gate of the college and raised slogans against the college administration. They also accused the state government of trying to use government machinery to serve the interests of the NSUI. 

Dehradun, September 14
The protest by BJP leaders over the alleged irregularities in the Students’ Union poll in DAV College ended today.

The leaders were satisfied with the DM Ravinath Raman’s letter to the Principle of the college where Raman had questioned the Principle’s authority in directing a magisterial inquiry after distributing certificates of victory to the winning candidates.

In his letter, he wrote that the Principle neither took any permission from the district administration nor had any right to take such decision on his own. He directed the Principle to take further action in the matter.

It was yesterday that the members of the NSUI, after the party’s defeat, created a ruckus over the alleged 101 fake votes during the counting process. Principle of the college Devender Bhasin, under pressure, declared the suspension of the oath ceremony of the winning candidates and ordered a magisterial inquiry through a committee which was to give its findings in seven days. He also announced the closure of the college for one week.

It was in the morning that former Agriculture Minister Trivender Singh Rawat, former speaker Harbans Kapoor, MLA Ganesh Joshi, president of the State Doon Traders Association Umesh Aggarwal, BJP city president Punit Mittal and several BJP councillors held a dharna in the DM’s residence over the matter. ABVP leaders, including elected president Mahesh Jagudi, also joined the protest. The police had cordoned off the area.

Joshi attacked Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna’s son Saket Bahuguna saying he was involved in the election from day one and had deliberately played the ploy to denigrate the ABVP. He said the state government was not able to accept the defeat.

Trivender Rawat said the Principle had no right to issue magisterial inquiry nor could the DM take action in the matter.

Once the announcement was made and certificates to the effect was given to the winning candidates, only the High Court or the Supreme Court could intervene in the matter, he said.

While attacking the Congress, Harbans Kapoor said the party was spoiling the atmosphere and tampering with the preliminary school of politics, the DAV college election.

He said the Congress fielded a candidate for the post of the president who had been in jail for four years for a heinous crime. In the scuffles, which took place between the ABVP and the NSUI prior to the election, Kapoor said the Congress filed a report against the ABVP, backtracking from its given word and later implicated them under Section 307. He said the same section slapped on NSUI leaders was removed just three days before the election to facilitate bail for them.

These leaders, who had pledged not to leave the DM’s residence without a concrete action, departed after getting a letter from the City Magistrate as well as District Magistrate with regard to nullifying the direction of magisterial inquiry.

Mussoorie, September 14
Litterateurs, residents and students of Mussoorie paid rich tributes to legendary Himalayan poet Chandra Kunwar Barthwal on his 67th death anniversary in a symposium held on the premises of the Municipal Council today.

The day is also celebrated as Hindi Divas.

Chief guest on the occasion Subodh Uniyal, Narendar Nagar MLA, offered floral tributes to the portrait of the poet.

The students from St Clares and Mussoorie Girls’ Inter College payed homage to the poet and recited his poems.

Shoorvir Bhandari, member of Chandra Kunwar Barthwal Research Institute, while shedding light on the life of Barthwal said he was a man who loved nature and humanism and had been compared with famous poets like John Milton and William Wordsworth.

Barthwal was born on August 20, 1919, at Malkoti village near Talla Nagpur, now in Chamoli district. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis early in life and died young at the age of 28 in Panwalia a village called. In his short span of life, Barthwal wrote many poems. He composed poetry even on petty objects like cremation grounds and the ripening of the berry, popularly known as ‘kafal’. His ‘Kafal Pako Kafal Pako’ is popular even today.

Bhandari further said no other poet had splendid readers by describing the spirit of the panoramic view of mountains, cloudscape, grandeur of the rivers and mountains the way he did.

However, he felt the state government and society at large had completely forgotten the legend in his home state.

Bijendar Panwar, another senior journalist, said the poet had not yet received rightful recognition from the government.

Uniyal, while speaking on the occasion, said, “Barthwal was an unsung hero in the literary world. The government and the society together should make efforts to conserve his work so that future generation is able to enjoy the jugglery of words used by him.”

Dehradun, September 14
The Uttarakhand Police team registered a landslide victory against BSC Boys 12-0 during a match in the Dehradun District Football League here today.

Uttarakhand Police players outplayed BSC boys in almost all departments of the game.

Ashok scored 3 goals, Saurabh and Veer Singh scored 2 goals each and Dhanveer, Amit, Sahdev, Deepak and Himanshu scored 1 goal each for the winning team.

In the second match, Wills Youth beat Kukhrie 2-1. For Wills Youth, Mohit scored both goals whereas Lokesh scored the sole goal for Kukhrie.