Dehradun, October 28
As quarrying has began taking place in rivers Song I, II and Jakhan, incidents of illegal quarrying by mafia men, too, are coming to light. The Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation (UFDC) has tightened it's belt to prevent such incidents at any cost.

Chairman, UFDC, Kunwar Pranav Singh, said soon police personnel would be deputed around quarrying areas. They would undertake intensive patrolling to nab those found involved in illegal quarrying activities. "The mafia are denting quarrying revenue in a big way. Merely UFDC employees cannot guard the areas themselves. Hence, I have already discussed the security-related matter with the Chief Minister, who has given positive signals. I am also hopeful of getting full support from the Director General of Police as well, whom I am going to meet in this regard," he added.

He said he had given strict guidelines to Managing Director S. Chandola on this issue. He said: " It has been seen that the vehicles which carry the quarrying material are overloaded more than the permissible limits. The contractors, thus, manage to hoodwink the corporation by not paying for the extra load they pick up from the rivers."

It is no longer a secret that the quarrying activity takes place even after sunset, which as per the rule book was not permitted. Here thehandiwork of employees of the UFDC on the site and those of illegal mafia stood exposed. The role of the police, too, had become quite controversial.

Singh said if needed, he would reserve a fixed percentage of revenue earned through quarrying on guarding the quarrying areas. "When quarrying is our chief source of revenue, we can spend a chunk of the revenue coming from it on protecting our quarrying borders from mafia men. I am in the process of discussing this issue with the management as well. We will be able to save major revenue by spending little in this direction," he said. The proactive approach of UFDC over controlling quarrying is laudable and understandable as the department has not got any permission to carry out quarrying in other big rivers, Kosi, Dabka, Sharda and chiefly Gola, till now from the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The department seems desperate to save whatever little it can from quarrying in Song I, II and Jakhan," 
he added.

Dehradun, October 28
The police has arrested three culprits, Sonu, Faizal and Arshad, who lived together in a room at Sevlakalan, Patel Nagar, for killing Vikram Singh, whose body was found in the Timli jungles at Sahaspur on October 22. The three had plotted with Vikram to loot the ATM cash van, driven by Vikram, but when Vikram failed to execute the plan, the trio shot him dead and dropped his body in the Timli jungles.

Sonu, who worked as a custodian at an ATM maintenance company, came in contact with Vikram when the latter joined as the driver of the ATM cash van six months ago. Later, Sonu was fired from his job as he was suspected to be having hand in the incidents of breaking ATM machines at Araghar and Nehru Colony. Sonu, however, continued to maintain contact with Vikram and also introduced to him his other two friends, Faizal and Arshad, with whom he lived in a rented room at Sevlakalan.

Since all the accused were unemployed and faced acute financial crisis, they hatched a plan to loot the cash van which Vikram drove around to several places in the city to fill in ATM machines of PNB banks. To execute their plan, they conducted a recce of all these places, where the van would drop cash and later selected PNB Enclave at Sevlakalan for loot. The accused also gave Rs 50,000 to Vikram as an advance and bought three pistols and cartridges. In this way, they spent around Rs 3 lakh.

But one month after mooting the plan, Vikram was not able to get the plan executed. On the fateful day, the threesome decided to kill Vikram in case he did not cooperate in looting the van that day.

The accused called him at their room. Vikram, who reached on his bike, expressed his helplessness again, saying the van was out of order. The accused then took him in their car under the excuse of driving around. In the car the culprits got into a heated argument with Vikram over their plan. Vikram got infuriated. Out of desperation and frustration, Faizal and Arshad fired at Vikram from

the rear seats at his head and back several times. Later, they secured his two mobile phones and threw his body in the jungles. Then they came back to their room, broke the lock of Vikram’s bike and, thereafter, threw his bike and mobile phones in the jungles at Sabhawala.

After gathering information from Vikram’s friends, his workplace and mobile details, the police could zeroed in on the accused. 

Dehradun, October 28
The Uttarakhand Parivartan Party (UPP) held a protest and a street play on the issues of inflation, discrepancies in ration distribution, corruption and many current issues at Chakshah Nagar today.

District president of the party Kuldeep Madhwal said the state government was toeing the line of the Centre. “People of the state are badly affected by inflation.

The state government made tall promises about efficient ration distribution but people are not getting even the minimal requirement of grain. Poor people can not buy wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene from open market.”

He said the natural resources were being handed over to the private players on public-private partnership mode.

He said the state government was pleasing industrialists by giving agriculture land in Sitarganj to build industrial hub, SIDCUL Phase II.

He also expressed concern over the increasing incidents of crime in the city. “People are living under fear. Be it the residents or shopkeepers, no area in the city is safe from the terror of thieves and criminals.”

He also took a potshot at the state government’s decision to convene a Cabinet meeting at Gairsain saying that if the state government was so sincere about the welfare of the hill people then it should announce Gairsain as the capital of the state.

Mussoorie, October 28
In a splendid display of colourful, vibrant and acrobatic dance style, a tribal group from Purulia, West Bengal, mesmerised the students of Guru Nanak Fifth Centenary School here today.

The programme was organised under the aegis of SPICMACAY.

The Chhau or mask dance commenced with the invocation to Lord Ganesh.

The Tarapad Rajak group presented Chhau dance laden by traditional musical instruments like chausar, jhanj, dhumsa, shainai, pepti, dhumba, chadchadi, drums and elaborate head gear with dazzling sets of ornaments. They dance depicted scenes of Mahishasura Mardhini with dexterity. The scenes of Lord Kumaraswamy on his peacock, goddess Durga on the lion and the manifestations of Lord Ganesha and Shiva were spellbinding.

The audience was flabbergasted with the energetic, acrobatic and rhythmic performances.

One of the students said the dance form presented by the group was interesting. The students were awestruck at the display of the acrobatics skills by the tribal dancers.

While speaking to mediapersons, the head of the group from Purulia Tarapad Rajak said the Chhau dance was a genre of the Indian tribal martial dance, which was popular in states of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. Its origin is attributed to Mayurbhanj in Orissa and their family had been traditionally attached to this dance form for the about 250 years, he said. He further stated that the dance was believed to date back to over a century. It was patronised by the royalty and landlords of the Purulia region. Since its inception, members of the Mahato and Kurmi communities had sustained this dance form, he added. The dance was accompanied by musical instruments like dhol, dhamsa and shehnai.

ND Sawhney, the headmistress of the girls’ section, said the objective behind inviting the SPICMACAY group to the college was to create a platform for students to familiarise them with the dying traditional dance forms of the country.

Headmaster Anil Tiwari, Sunil Bakshi and others were present on the occasion.

Dehradun, October 28
The Sunday morning started with a vintage and classic car rally organised by REACH as a part of Virasat ’12 festival here today. Virasat village was filled with automobile enthusiasts who do not get an opportunity to see the various vintage and classic cars that the local Doon collectors possess.

Once the rally started and the vehicles came on to the road, it was a very unusual sight. There was a 1943 World War 2 Ford Jeep. It was the oldest car in the competition and was owned by a vintage enthusiast Vimal Dev Sharma. There was also an Austin 8 (1946 model owned by Surinder Pal Singh. There were three vintage cars owned by Vijay Aggarwal - a Morris Traveller (1965), A Volkswagon Passat (1980) and a Suzuki (1980). There were three motorbikes - a Yezdi Classic 250 (1983), A Royal Enfield(1965) manufactured in England and a GTS Rajdoot (also called a Bobby bike) and a 1967 Rajdoot owned by Inder Raj Kohli. There were also 11 scooters owned by Ravinder Singh, starting with the oldest one being a 1955 Lambretta-LD.

The rally was organised by two boys and the whole rally team took a tea break at Hotel Great Value after which they continued on a route which went around the city and ended back at the Virasat crafts village.

Dehradun, October 28
Rao Cricket Academy defeated YMCA XI by 50 runs in the Youth Cup Cricket Tournament played at Ranger's College ground here today. YMCA XI won the toss but decided to field first. Rao Cricket Academy scored 202 runs all out in 34 overs. Saurab was the top scorer with 50 runs. Deepankar scored 21 runs while Kiran scored 20 runs.

Ravinder and Gulshan took three wickets each for YMCA XI.

In reply YMCA XI were all out for 252 runs in 27.1 overs. Gurpreet scored 29 runs, Gulshan 26 and Aman 21 runs, 
respectively.

Sanjay was top wicket taker for Rao Cricket Academy, taking five wickets for 34 runs. Abhimanyu Cricket Academy will play against Doiwala XI in the match tomorrow.