Dehradun October 19
The state police force is under pressure for ensuring control over the swelling rate of crime in the city in the festive and wedding season, which has set in. Meetings are taking place at each level at a frantic pace. People are thronging banks to withdraw cash for big- time shopping, and are also buying gold jewellery.

This is the time when criminals become more active. Director General of Police Satyavrat Bansal has given clear guidelines over

in this matter. He said: "Police patrolling, both during day and night time, has been augmented. Police personnel, dressed in uniform

and plain clothes, have been deputed on different sites in the city to keep an eye on criminal elements and prevent any untoward incident from happening. Police pickets have been set up likewise. These steps will certainly provide good results soon."

The terror of theft, chain snatching and now murder has been prevailing in the city for the last six months. Recently, there has been a significant spurt in the crime rate, with each day witnessing one or two such incidents in the last couple of months.

The DGP said: " Crime cases are being worked out side by side but these do not catch the headlines or become as sensational as the crime occurrences. Yesterday two criminals, who were involved in five incidents of gold chain snatching and in the theft of seven two-wheelers, were caught by the police. In Haridwar, too, a Bolero in which a criminal gang was travelling was impounded by the police two days ago. It is sad that a couple of cases of theft and loot in jewellery shops and murder of an advocate's wife have been made quite sensational by the media. A picture of lawlessness and gloom, unfortunately, is being portrayed."

He said the police had recently solved cases of burglary and theft. Incidents of loot and murder would be dealt with strictly. He

added that he was taking a briefing on the city crime from officials daily.

Inspector General of Police, Law and Order, Ram Singh Meena, said the police would solve the much-hyped murder case of an advocate's wife, Pushpa Saklani, in a day or two. He stated: " This murder happened due to personal enmity. The police cannot do anything to stop such mishaps from happening. Indeed, in other cases where incidents of theft/loot or chain snatching took place, the police was on the lookout for those multiple gangs which were committing them."

He said prevention and later detection of crime was the prime role of the police. "It is necessary that criminal elements have a sense of fear of the police, which is necessary to ensure safety and security of the public. However, it cannot be denied that factors such as increase in population, industrialisation and unemployment would never let crime die down completely. Still, the police has to be on guard always," he said.

Dehradun, October 19
An exhibition was held on the 77th founder’s day of The Doon School here. The exhibitions were theme based.

The theme of the science exhibition was 'Evolution' and Prof Frederick Leung of The University of Hong Kong, a well-known scientist, delivered a lecture on the occasion.

The theme for the photography exhibition was ‘Portraits’. Photographs by Abhishek Pande and Orijit Chaterjee were highly appreciated. Photos by Arjun Kamdar and Ashutosh Goyal were also put up.

The theme for the art exhibition was ‘Play with colours’. The art exhibition had over 150 paintings and sculptors out of which five were auctioned.

The science exhibition was the focus of attention for the visitors. The exhibition was divided into three branches.

This was followed by the biology exhibition which dealt with the evolution of life on Earth. The students had created large models of dinosaurs and various stages of the evolution of man.

Later, a Hindi play ‘Court martial’, written by Swadesh Deepak and directed by Hammad Farooqui, was also screened.

Dehradun, October 19
The controversial issue of removal of illegal hoardings has become prominent once again with a team from the High Court reaching the city tomorrow to carry out an inspection in this matter.

The team will ascertain whether the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) has followed its instructions with regard to removal of illegal hoardings in the city or not.

In view of the impending visit of the team, Mukhya Nagar Adkhikari (MNA) sent tax superintendents with respective teams to different parts of the city to remove the hoardings or supporting structures. Surprisingly, this time around, no opposition was registered by some of the owners of the hoardings, who happen to be influential people or important leaders of national parties. Just a few days ago, the MNA had also sent a team to remove these hoardings but he had to shelve the work midway after he received a call from higher-ups regarding thisEarlier, too, Deputy Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Sadia Alam Khan was called back by the MNA from the field where she had almost got a gigantic hoarding pulled down, which belonged to a well-known political leader in the city.

This episode led to a war of words between the MNA and the DMNA through letters as Khan felt let down by the MNA in public. Ironically, it was the MNA who had sent her to undertake the same task. After this episode, MNA never sent Khan for the job.

Haridwar, October 19
Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar may not soon be seen in the egg promotion campaign of the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC).

Noted social, religious reformer Mahant (Dr) Swami Gang Das Udasin has written to Tendulkar and also held talks with his elder brother Ajit Tendulkar regarding the issue.

Mahant Gang Das of the Jugat Niwas Ashram has urged Tendulkar to not to promote egg in advertisements as millions of youths follow him and instead he should promote fruits and green vegetables.

He is trying to have a meeting with Tendulkar who is playing in the Champions League T-20 in South Africa and will be busy later due to England’s tour of India.

As part of his social initiative, Mahant Gang Das has also started a campaign against animal sacrifice under the Jugat Nivas Ashram Foundation.

The Udasin sect members associated with the Jugat Foundation have urged all temple managements, priests, saints and devotees to stop sacrifice of animals during the performance of religious rites.

They urged devotees in Haridwar today to refrain from sacrificing animals to appease God to fulfil their wishes.

Mahant Gang Das said, “How can God be pleased when an animal in pain is cut into pieces to fulfil wishes. I urge the people to shun this practice as this is violence against hapless animals. We should instead shun evils in us and cleanse society of malpractices.”

Dehradun , October 19
The 13th annual inter-house athletic meet of Asian School, Dehradun, concluded here today. The chief guest for the closing ceremony was Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion, MLA and chairman of Uttrakhand Forest Development Corporation.

This athletic meet was spread over a period of 5 days. It witnessed enthusiastic participation of the students, who keenly competed with each other to win medals and points for themselves and for their respective houses.

At the close of the meet, Shivaji House with a tally of 177 points won the coveted championship trophy. Ranjeet House with 165.6 points stood second. Ashoka House with 158.5 points stood third. The fourth position went to Arjun House, which had a tally of 152.5 points. Shubhig Agarwal was adjudged the best athlete among boys and Aishwarya Sachdeva was adjudged the best athlete among girls.

The march-past trophy went to Shivaji House for the sixth consecutive year.

The chief guest awarded the medals and trophies to the winners of the athletic meet.

Dehradun, October 19
In the Lala Nemi Dass Memorial Football League being played at Survey Stadium, Akranta and Doon Star won their respective matches today.

Akranta beat Shivalik Club 1-0. Beckham scored the sole goal for Akranta through a penality.

In the second match Doon Star beat Thakurpur Boys 4-1. For Doon Star, Subham, Dharam Singh, Harpreet and Gajender scored the goals in the 9th, 15th, 36th and 55th minutes of the match, respectively. Anurag scored the sole goal for Thakurpur.

As of tomorrow's matches, Adhoiwala will take on Sundarwala, whereas Doon Valley will clash with Chandrabani.

Players in action during a match in the Shaheed Jaideep Bhandari Memorial Football Tournament in Dehradun on Friday.

Tapovan outplay Challengers
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 19
The faculty of Science and Technology, ICFAI University, Dehradun, inaugurated its first Visvesvaraya Memorial Cricket Tournament on the University Ground here today.

Sixteen teams are participating in the tournament which is being played on the knock-out basis. The finals will be played on October 21.

Dr SC Deorani, Vice-Chancellor, ICFAI University, Dehradun, inaugurated the tournament along with Dr RC Ramola, Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology. Dr Deorani emphasised that a good health was as important as good mind and body.

Sports activities were equally important as academic curriculum for the overall growth and personality of students. He also emphasised that the university had provided facilities to the students towards their overall growth and development.

Haridwar, October 19
The Meerut team today clinched the title of the Inter-cluster Indian Army Public School Football Tournament by defeating the Raiwala team 4-0. The match was played at the Bengal and Engineering Group stadium. Twelve teams participated in this tournament.

Col Mukund Sharma, who was the chief guest on the occasion, gave away the prizes to the players. — TNS

Dehradun, October 19
The Pratap section maintained its dominance during the second day with a lead of 47 points in the annual athletics meet of Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) here today. Cadets Akshat, Kobing, Nelson, Louizink, Abhishek, Pratyush, Akash, Anil and Shikhar gave excellent performances.

The day began with 100 m hurdles in which cadet Maikel of the Shivaji section bagged the gold medal. After 14 more events, the section standings were as following:

First - Pratap (176 points)

Second - Chandragupta (129 points)

Third - Shivaji (118 points)

Fourth - Ranjit (102 points)

Cadets Prasenjeet, Louizink, Karan, Kush, Pratyush, Bhaskar, Nelson and Sohail won individual gold medals for their sections.

The Chandragupta section won the 4x100m relay with a timing of 48 seconds. After the completion of the day’s events, scholarships were awarded to the meritorious children of the employees. The dedicated and hard working employees were also felicitated. Col Pankaj K Kumaria, Commandant, RIMC, was the chief guest of the evening. He praised the cadets for their high athletic abilities and urged them to maintain it in future. The event would conclude tomorrow. Dr Swarna Subba Rao, Surveyor General of India, would be the chief guest of the concluding ceremony. — TNS