Rituals being performed for the peace of the departed souls during Shraddh in Haridwar. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Businessman Harchand Singh Mann dead
Dehradun, October 10
Hundreds of mourners were present at the Lakhibagh cremation grounds when the mortal remains of Harchand Singh Mann (90), one of the old residents of the city, were consigned to flames today. He had been keeping good health and regularly attending to his transport business.

Harchand Singh Mann

Nutritional centre not to be set up at women’s hospital
Dehradun, October 10
As District Women’s Hospital will soon be part of the proposed Doon Medical College, the Central Government’s nutritional rehabilitation centre (NRC) for treating malnourished children in the age group of 0-6 years will no longer be established at District Women’s Hospital.

Dehradun, October 10
Led by Governor Aziz Qureshi, who exercised his right to franchise at the Garhi Cantt polling booth, a large number of politicians from both Congress and BJP came out to cast vote in the Tehri Lok Sabha byelection today.

While Saket Bahuguna, Congress nominee from the Tehri seat, cast vote at the Defence Colony polling booth, BJP candidate Mala Raj Lakshmi Shah was unable to cast vote as she is registered as voter at Narendernagar that falls under the Pauri Assembly seat.

Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna along with the members of his family visited the Defence Colony polling booth that falls under the Raipur constituency.

Speaking with reporters, the Chief Minister said, “After electing me twice, I am optimistic that the voters will now repose faith in my son. We will continue to fulfil the promises made in our election manifesto.”

Among the early voters were former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who voted at the Hathibarkala KV School booth, and former Speaker of the Uttarakhand Assembly Harbans Kapoor, who cast vote at the Yamuna Colony booth.

Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay cast vote at Gandhi Inter College, while Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli cast vote at the St Anne’s School polling booth in Nehru Colony.

Meanwhile, the BJP has lodged a protest with the Uttarakhand electoral office which has in its official website showed the gender of Mala Raj Lakshmi Shah as male.

“The website has erroneously mentioned the gender of our candidate as male,” said BJP spokesperson Satish Lakhera.

Former Chief Ministers, including ND Tewari and Nityanand Swami, also cast votes. 

Mussoorie, October 10
Voting for the Tehri byelection remained a low-key affair in Mussoorie today despite clear weather. Only 36.52 per cent voting was recorded in 22 booths under the Mussoorie town, which is very less as compared to the last Assembly elections.

The total percentage for the entire Mussoorie Assembly segment was 43 per cent. Excluding the Landour Cantt area, there are a total of 24,719 voters in the town, including 10,603 females.

Aggrieved by the political system, voters, especially women, preferred to remain indoors and showed no enthusiasm in casting their votes. Most of the voters were of the view that their fate would not change by casting votes for the byelection.

The lack of enthusiasm to exercise their right to franchise was clearly visible among Mussoorie residents. Long queues that were seen in the last Assembly elections were not visible today.

The majority of people came out to vote at 11am and only 29 per cent polling was recorded by 2 pm. However, the polling remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported in the town.

The voting was stalled for a few hours due to the malfunctioning of two electronic voting machines (EVMs) at Library Bazaar. The Sector Magistrate rushed to the spot and directed officials to count the votes and seal the damaged EVMs, which were replaced immediately. The voting began once again after that and continued without any hindrance till 5.00 pm.

The polling percentage in 22 voting centres of the Mussoorie Assembly segment was as following.

Suvakholi 56 per cent, Kaflani 22.48 per cent, Nali Kalan 54.41 per cent, Saroni 46.30 per cent, Jharipani 37.99 per cent, Barlowganj 44.95 per cent, Hillbird 32.07 per cent, MPG 37.35 per cent, Arya Samaj 54 per cent, Landour Cantt 39.38 per cent, Mullingar 40.86 per cent, Guru Ramrai 38.49 per cent, RN Bhargav 27.02 per cent in booth no 1 and 34.1 per cent in booth no 2, Sanatan Dharm Inter-College booth no 1 39.42 per cent and 39.06 per cent in booth no 2, Kyarkuli 48.02 per cent, Nand Villa Camels Back Road booth no 1 31.80 per cent and 43 per cent in booth no 2.

The percentage in Kulri Mussoorie booth no 1 was 35.88 per cent and 28.70 per cent in booth no 2. In Mussoorie Public School booth no 1, the voting was 39.05 per cent and in booth no 2 it was 32.05 per cent.

In Library booth no 1, the percentage was 34.7 per cent and in booth no 2, it was 31.94 per cent. In the Charleville booth, the percentage was 31.16 per cent and in Central School of Tibetans, it was 31.16 per cent at booth no 1 and 30.76 per cent at booth no 2.

The poll percentage of the remote areas in the Assembly segments of Doodhli and Buraskanda was still awaited when the report was last filed.

In the first inning, Bala Hisar scored 25 runs at the loss of 4 wickets whereas Summer Valley scored 23 runs at the loss of 4 wickets. In the second inning, Bala Hisar scored 24 runs at the loss of 5 wickets while Summer Valley scored 30 runs without losing any wicket. In the second match, Shivalik International School won against Guru Ram Das Academy, Niranjanpur. In the first inning, Guru Ram Das Academy scored 31 runs at the loss of 2 wickets. Shivalik International School scored 36 runs at the loss of 3 wickets. In the second inning, Guru Ram Das Academy scored 28 runs while Shivalik International School scored 24 runs at the loss of 5 wickets. 

Dehradun, October 10
The quarrying mafia is having a field day with the end of the monsoon season, as it is collecting material from riverbeds in the district without taking necessary permission and paying anything to the state government. The fact is that in most of the cases the district administration has chosen to ignore the illegal activity.

According to sources, illegal quarrying is going on at Vikasnagar, Doiwala, Raiwala and Rishikesh. The mafia is operating so fearlessly that tractor-trolleys can be seen in the Asan river, the Susva river below Dundli, the Khara area in Rishikesh and around Chiddarwala and Chakjogiwala in Raiwala during the day. The quarrying activities intensify after sun set.

At Vikasnagar, labourers can be seen working overtime in the Yamuna, Asan and Shitla rivers. Illegal quarrying is taking place in the Yamuna at Rampur Mandi, Dakrani, Bhimawala, Nawabgarh, Dakpathar Bairaj, Jalaliya and Sabhawala. The building material extracted from these rivers are collected at a safe place during the day and then transported during the night.

Many tractor-trolleys ply without a number plate. The mafia informers, who usually have an easy access to government officials, come to know about any drive and raid of the police or the administration before hand and the offenders manage to escape. The connivance of the check-post staff and the local police with the quarrying mafia cannot be ruled out in such cases.

District Magistrate, Dehradun, Ravinath Raman said the administration would not allow illegal quarrying at any cost. Surprise raids would be conducted at the places mentioned and the culprits would be brought to book.

SSP Neeru Garg too has given orders for probing the nexus between the police and the quarrying mafia. Raman said the district administration would use 2 per cent of the total profits earned from legal quarrying activity undertaken in the rivers.

He said the income thus earned would be used for building a team and resources to rein in illegal quarrying, which was affecting government revenue.

It is, however, unfortunate that the measures to control illegal quarrying like regular surveillance of rivers, quick action on complaints of people, installation of CCTV cameras and sensor equipment around quarrying areas, brisk day and night patrolling, close coordination between the police and the administration and strict action against the quarrying mafia have never been implemented.

Chairman of the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation Kunwar Pranav Singh said, “If the quarrying mafia continues to exploit rivers indiscriminately, the environment will be also harmed. The natural water flow can be affected; surrounding areas may face the danger of floods, the aquatic life may be in peril and the topography of rivers can undergo a permanent change. The state government will also lose massive revenue due to illegal quarrying.” 

Dehradun, October 10
Hundreds of mourners were present at the Lakhibagh cremation grounds when the mortal remains of Harchand Singh Mann (90), one of the old residents of the city, were consigned to flames today.

Dehradun, October 10
As District Women’s Hospital will soon be part of the proposed Doon Medical College, the Central Government’s nutritional rehabilitation centre (NRC) for treating malnourished children in the age group of 0-6 years will no longer be established at District Women’s Hospital.

To check malnutrition among children in the age group of 0-6 years, the Health Department was to set up nutritional rehabilitation centres (NRCs) in three plain districts of the state under the National Rural Health Mission.

The programme was expected to be launched in October in Dehradun. However, now it has been shelved. “As NRCs were to be set up at District Hospital, efforts are on to identify a hospital that will be given the status of district hospital and either Prem Nagar or Raipur combined hospitals are in the reckoning,” said Dr Archana Srivasatav, CMS, District Women’s Hospital.

The centres would also be opened at District Female Hospital, Haridwar, and District Hospital, Udham Singh Nagar.

On the basis of MMR reports tabulated by the ICDS Department from anganwari centres running in different parts of the state, it has come to the fore that varying degree of malnutrition was prevalent among children in the age group of 0-6 years in the districts of Haridwar, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar.

The National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-3) had bracketed Uttarakhand with states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana, where the mortality rate of children below five years due to severe malnutrition was critical.