CPM to maintain distance from Cong, BJP and support URM
Dehradun, October 3
The state unit of the Communist Party (Marxist) held a meeting today to discuss the strategy to extend support to the Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha (URM) with regard to the Tehri Lok Sabha bypolls.

EVMs distributed in presence of DEO Ravinath Raman
Dehradun, October 3
Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were distributed as per the polling stations/booths in the presence of observer Baji Rao Jadhav, who has been appointed by the Election Commission of India. On this occasion, District Election Commissioner Ravinath Raman, candidate from the BJP and other Independent candidates were also present.

Heaviest rainfall in the country was in Doon
Dehradun, October 3
With the monsoon coming to an end in the country, Dehradun has emerged as top most city in the country in terms of experiencing heavy rainfall. During the monsoon period from June 1 to September 30, Dehradun experienced 2137 mm of rainfall, highest ever in any city of the country, even surpassing Mumbai this year that experienced just 1867 mm of rainfall.

Minor raped by neighbour
Dehradun, October 3
An eight-year-old girl, a resident of Badripur Sabhawala in Sahaspur, was allegedly raped by her neighbour Shambu a week ago.

Dehradun, October 3
With the survey on the number of slums in the state being conducted by NGOs under Asian Development Bank nearing completion, a steering committee headed by Cabinet minister (urban development) Preetam Panwar will take a call on carrying out upgrading, rehabilitation and regularisation of the existing slums according to the state slum policy.

“Barring Rishikesh and Nainital towns, the survey in other towns is complete. The Urban Development Department will hand over the survey report, once it is complete, to the government for further action. The slums located on river banks will be rehabilitated as these are in the danger zones. While giving tenure right to slum dwellers, our efforts will also be not to encourage further slumming of cities,” said Radhika Jha, Additional Secretary, Urban Development.

According to the survey, there are a total of 500 slums in the state within the municipal area and boundaries of local bodies with Dehradun possessing the maximum number of slums in the municipal area. Ten towns are free of slums. As of now, the total population living in the slums is close to 7.73 lakh. In 2001, it was 5.98 lakh.

Along with the survey, the verification of the slums by the elected representatives and the District Magistrates is also being conducted. “We had this provision in-built so that the existence slums earmarked by the agency are recognised by them. The payment to the NGOs will be given once these are verified,” said Jha.

Among the slums surveyed so far, those existing in Haridwar, Nainital and Dehradun are expected to be upgraded while five habitations in the hill areas of nine urban local bodies will also be upgraded and provided benefit under the Rajiv Awas Yojana, a affordable housing scheme of the Central Government.

“The framework for regularising space and according property right will be undertaken according to the state slum policy,” said Jha.

The policy also envisages issuing identity cards to the slum dwellers for the purpose of verification. According to the survey, a total of 1.74 lakh household reside in the slums with Dehradun possessing the highest number of slums, followed by Haridwar.

Dehradun, October 3
The state Cultural Department organised an audio-visual presentation based on the works of great poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz at the ONGC auditorium last evening.

In the divine voice of singer Reni Singh, all beautiful verses of Faiz echoed in the air as Shivani Verma danced to their accompaniment.

Fans and admirers of Faiz were overwhelmed by the way in which the eventful life of the poet was brought before them by Zakia Zaheer, Reni Singh, Shivani Verma and other associates.

The poet's romantic poetry, rebellious strain, grace and dignity and his love for humankind was vividly portrayed at the event.

Governor Aziz Qureshi, a great admirer of the poetry of Faiz, appreciated the aesthethic presentation.

Zakia Zaheer, who has had a close association with the poet, Pauri Garhwal MP Satpal Maharaj and Justice Rajesh Tandon were present on the occasion.

Dehradun, October 3
The state unit of the Communist Party (Marxist) held a meeting today to discuss the strategy to extend support to the Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha (URM) with regard to the Tehri Lok Sabha bypolls.

A common consensus arrived at was to maintain a distance from the Congress and the BJP while extending support to the URM candidate. An election steering committee was constituted to run the campaign in the Vidhan Sabha region. Seven coordinators were also appointed for these constituencies. Their names are like Rajender Purohit for Charkata, Qamruddin for Vikasnagar, Shiv Prasad Devli for Sahaspur, Indu Naudiyal for Garhi cantonment, Lekhraj for Rajpur, Virender Bhandari for Raipur and Surender Singh Sajwan for Mussoorie.

Party leader Anant Akash has been made the media in-charge to inform the media about the meetings and programmes held during the election.

District secretary Surender Singh Sajvan said a wave of anger had started against the Congress and the BJP and the beginning had been made for the alliance of an alternative third front. He appealed to all the secular forces to defeat the BJP and the Congress and register victory for the URM.

Dehradun, October 3
Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were distributed as per the polling stations/booths in the presence of observer Baji Rao Jadhav, who has been appointed by the Election Commission of India. On this occasion, District Election Commissioner Ravinath Raman, candidate from the BJP and other Independent candidates were also present.

Jadhav took detailed information from Raman and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) about the election preparations. He also visited the strong room for EVM machines at Rangers' College. He directed the SSP to depute sufficient police force for the security of the strong room. He inspected Sabji Mandi polling station.

Raman informed him that the space required for election would be taken in control by the administration by October 6 and all the arrangements would be completed by October 10. Jadhav also met returning officers and polling officers I & II at the ONGC auditorium where they are undergoing training with regard to the election.

Raman said a total of 1340 EVMs had been arranged. Out of these 301 would be kept 
in reserve.

Dehradun, October 3
With the monsoon coming to an end in the country, Dehradun has emerged as top most city in the country in terms of experiencing heavy rainfall. During the monsoon period from June 1 to September 30, Dehradun experienced 2137 mm of rainfall, highest ever in any city of the country, even surpassing Mumbai this year that experienced just 1867 mm of rainfall.

Significantly, Dehradun has been experiencing high quantity of rainfall for the past several years but has always been second to Mumbai in terms of total amount of rainfall among various cities of the country.

But this year Dehradun has left Mumbai behind and has received 270 mm more of rainfall. Making this announcement today, Anand Sharma, Executive Director, Meteorological Centre, Dehradun, said Dehradun, from the very start of the monsoon, experienced a good amount of rainfall, which remained till the last and became number one city in terms of amount of rainfall. — TNS

Dehradun, October 3
The sub-events for the Uttarakhand Princess contest were held in the city today. The 16 top finalists from Dehradun, Haridwar and Roorkee participated in the sub-events. The Uttarakhand Princess pageant is being held for the first time in the state and focuses on providing a beauty platform for young girls between 16 and 25.

In the sub-event, “Talent Round,” all finalist contestants performed there talents like dancing, singing and acting. From the 16 finalists one girl will be selected for the subtitle, Talented Princess.

They were judged by Megha, Sumit Thapa, Rajat Shah and Nivia Gill. Those who participated were Raveena Sohal (Western dance), Jyoti Adhlakha (Bollywood dance), Anubhuti Badoni (Garhwali dance), Raj Nandini (Sufi dance), Bhumika Chandana (Bollywood dance), Pratishtha Khanna (Western dance), Nidhi Kapoor (Hip hop dance), Roopali Tomar (Belle dance), Reena (Rajasthani dance), Vaishali (Semi-classical dance) and Garima Aggarwal (Bollywood dance). Monika Bist and Saista perfomed acting, and Rakhi Nautiyal and Himani Avantika gave singing recitals.

The finale of the Uttarakhand Princess scheduled to be held in the first week of October will be choreographed by Prodipto Samaddar.

Dehradun, October 3
The three-day Uttarakhand State-level Schools' First Mini Sports Competition started at MKP (Inter) College in Dehradun today.

Declaring the meet open, Director General, Uttarakhand School Education, Sudhanshu called upon the students to perform their best at the meet. Remembering his school days, Sudhanshu said he himself had been a keen participant to the sports. He also asked the students not to get dishearten from failures and try to excel in the next attempt. Sudhanshu also took the salute of the colourful march past that took place on the occasion. Assistant District, Sports, Parmendra Saklani said the competition was being held in the discipline of kho kho and kabaddi. He said a total of 1,000 students were taking part in the competition.

Significantly, a meet is being organised in assistance with charitable organisations that have done all arrangements of accommodation and meals for the participating students. All districts of the state barring disaster-hit Uttarkashi are participating in the competition.

Dehradun, October 3
The Josephites got another opportunity to show their talent when the school organised activity day for classes XI and XII here today.

First of all, Kanika of Class XI led a gathering in prayer. Then the Zero Gravity Team impressed and enlightened everyone with a power-point presentation on the Kashmir issue which was followed by a feast of colourful and scintillating dances, melodious songs, rib-tickling plays and rocking instrumental music.

The satirical english play "It's a mad-mad world" by Class XI gave a lunatic's perception of today's hypocritical world whereas "72 H1", the comical play presented by Class XII, took the audience on a laughter ride. The Hindi play "Khilji Ka Daant" by Class XII and "Khichadi" by Class XI were the wholesome entertainment.

"Daandiya by Class XI and a Bengali dance presented by Class XII left the audience mesmerized. Students swirling around in colourful costumes and perfect synchronisation in different western dance performances on grooving numbers took everyone's breath away. The music section has always been the most popular solo singers like Abhijeet, Anshul and Kaushambi captivated the gathering with their melodious singing.

The Hindi as well as the English choir and instrumental groups of both classes won the thunderous applause for themselves.

Finally, Bro George, Pincipal of the academy, who was the chief guest, commended the students and teachers for putting together a wonderful show. "What ultimately shapes a student's future life is what he/she has learnt in school. Our duty should be to curb all negative elements from our surroundings and bring forth the best hidden within us," he said.

Dehradun, October 3
In the 5th Rohitash Singh Memorial Inter-school Boys’ Super 8 Cricket Tournament, two matches were played today.

In the first match, Summer Valley School beat Guru Ram Das (north) by 37 runs. The winning team scored 42 runs at the loss of 3 wickets in the first inning, whereas GRD (N) scored 15 runs at the loss of 7 wickets. In the second innings, Summer Valley School scored 35 runs at the loss of 4 wickets whereas GRD (N) scored 25 runs losing 5 wickets. Thus, Summer Valley School won the match by 37 runs.

In the second match, Hilton School won the match against The Asian School by 22 runs. The Hilton team won the toss and chose to bat first. In the first inning, Hilton scored 44 runs at the loss of 3 wickets. The Asian School scored 22 runs at the loss of 3 wickets. 

Dehradun, October 3
The Association of Self-Financed Institutes, Uttarakhand, today announced starting of admissions to B. Ed course in their colleges for the academic session 2012-13.

The association's secretary, Sunil Aggarwal, today informed that they had started the admission process for the B. Ed course so as to ensure that the students did not face inconvenience and the academic session this year commenced on time.

Aggarwal said that a delegation of the association recently visited HNB Garhwal University and informed them about the self-financed institutes' decision to start the admission process for the B. Ed courses at the earliest.