Doon Hospital food found unsatisfactory
Dehradun, January 3
During the internal audit undertaken by the Doon Hospital staff today, once again the food being prepared by the kitchen in charge was not found up to the mark. The hospital staff that has been entrusted with the task of undertaking inspection found the kitchen untidy and the spinach being prepared containing more than required the quantity of water.

Political activities begin in Mussoorie ahead of MC poll
Mussoorie, January 3
With the Municipal Council elections round the corner, political temperature of the hill town is on the rise as the probable candidates have begun enquiring the voters on their electoral prospects in Mussoorie.

IAS officers promoted
Dehradun, January 3
IAS officers of the 88 batch Radha Raturi and SS Sandhu have taken over as Principal Secretaries from January 1 this year while eight IAS officers have been promoted as Secretaries.

Dehradun, January 3
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, along with Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, Deputy Assembly Speaker Anusuya Prasad Maikhuri and his other Cabinet colleagues, inspected the land proposed for the construction of the new Vidhan Sabha Bhawan at Raipur here today.

Kunjwal said the Raipur area was suitable for constructing the new Vidhan Sabha Bhawan and consent in this regard would be obtained from other parties also. He said the final decision would be taken very soon.

Bahuguna observed that the new building for Vidhan Sabha was required in Dehradun as the present one had limited space and there was difficulty in its extension.

Moreover, he said, the present location of Vidhan Sabha posed inconvenience for general public during the Assembly sessions. He said the Raipur area was appropriate for the new Vidhan Sabha Bhawan as there was sufficient space. He said decision of the Assembly Speaker would be considered final. He said consent of other party members would also be sought.

There would be no dearth of fund for the construction of new building and the work would be completed in two years. He said after the construction of Assembly buildings in Dehradun and Gairsain, the Assembly sessions would be conducted in both the places.

During the inspection, Principal Secretary, Revenue, Om Prakash, said the selected area was under the state government and 160 acres was available in revenue record.

Also present on the occasion were Cabinet Ministers Indira Hridayesh, Pritam Singh, Mantri Prasad Naithani, Dinesh Agarwal, Preetam Singh Panwar and Harish Chandra Durgapal, Surendra Rakesh. MLA Rajkumar and Umesh Sharma, Additional Secretary Dilip Jawalkar, District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam and other senior officials were also present.

Dehradun, January 3
A team led by City Magistrate Harak Singh Rawat today removed encroachments from the Chunna Bhatta area at Raipur.

The Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) is planning to shift a part of Sunday Market and Vendor’s Zone on this four bigha land.

The place was occupied by builders who had stored the building material on land.

When the anti-encroachment team reached there, then the encroachers could not do much beyond raising hue and cry which went unheard in the presence of heavy police deployed on the spot.

The drive which began at 10 in the morning continued for four hours.

The DMC never paid heed to complaints of land being encroached in this area.

All illegal constructions, including a couple of makeshift huts, were razed to the ground.

Dehradun, January 3
During the internal audit undertaken by the Doon Hospital staff today, once again the food being prepared by the kitchen in charge was not found up to the mark. The hospital staff that has been entrusted with the task of undertaking inspection found the kitchen untidy and the spinach being prepared containing more than required the quantity of water.

“The kitchen was very dirty and the spinach preparations was quite watery. We have repeatedly told him to keep the kitchen clean, but the cook is quite careless,” said the hospital staff.

In anticipation of the inspection visit for extension of the ISO certification, Doon Hospital has begun conducting internal audit of the services being offered.

For proper monitoring of the food, the nurse in charge of the ward have been given the diet plan so that the checks could be maintained on the quality of food. 

Mussoorie, January 3
With the Municipal Council elections round the corner, political temperature of the hill town is on the rise as the probable candidates have begun enquiring the voters on their electoral prospects in Mussoorie.

The elections for the Municipal Council are held after five year and as the tenure of the present council is nearing completion, many believe that the elections could take place in March or end of April.

However, due to new delimitation exercise a number of seats, which were previously under the general category, have been changed into reserved ones, affecting the poll prospects of many candidates who had been nursing their wards for the past one year.

The sitting candidates in various wards are saddened by the fact that the wards have been reserved either for women candidates or for the persons from the Scheduled Caste category forcing them to file objections on different grounds.

The Jharipani ward, which was previously a general ward, has been reserved for the SC woman candidate. The Barlowganj ward which was previously reserved for Women (SC) has been converted into women(general), Bhadraj Doodhli, Raj Mandi Jhalki and Landour North and south and Nagar Palika ward, which were reserved for general candidates, have remained unchanged this time too.

The Kulri ward which was reserved for women previously has been changed into the general category, Kacheri ward which was reserved for women previously has been converted into the general category, the Library ward which was previously reserved for women has been reserved for the Scheduled Caste category, the Charleville ward which was reserved for the Scheduled Caste has been changed into the general category and the Polo Ground ward which was previously reserved for women has been changed into the general category.

The total number of wards under the Mussoorie Municipal Council is around 11 for which the probable candidates will try their luck this time.

Many sitting candidates are unhappy with the change in the category and have filed an objection in this regard with the department concerned in Mussoorie.

Kedar Singh Chauhan, who won from the Kacheri ward last time and with the announcement of the ward to be reserved for women candidate this time, has filed an objection with the department pleading not to change it into the women category.

Kedar Singh Chauhan in his objection said, “The proposal for changing the Kacheri ward into the woman category has been done without taking into consideration the demography of voters that exist according to the 2001 census, which clearly states that the ward should remain a general one.”

Jasvir Kaur, another sitting candidate from Bhadraj-Doodhli, has also filed an objection pleading not to change the category of the ward as it is against the laid down guidelines.

However, many new candidates, trying their luck in the coming council elections, have begun preparation much before the announcement of the election dates.

Dehradun, January 3
IAS officers of the 88 batch Radha Raturi and SS Sandhu have taken over as Principal Secretaries from January 1 this year while eight IAS officers have been promoted as Secretaries.

The eight IAS officers, who have been promoted as Secretaries, include RK Sudhanshu, Bhaskaranand Joshi, AS Nayal, Suverdhan, DS Gabrayal, Snehlata Agarwal, L. Fenai and Bhupinder Aulak. The DPC meeting for their promotions was held in 2012. 

Mussoorie, January 3
Municipal Council president OP Uniyal flagged off a truck containing three tonne of garbage for recycling to the unit in Nainital. The unit uses equipment provided under the ADB project to recycle garbage.

The equipment was provided by the Asian Development Bank to the Municipal Council where the plastic garbage collected from the town was brought to the unit installed near the Tehri bypass road for further recycling.

Speaking on the occasion, the MC president said the joint project was started by the ADB and Mussoorie Municipal Council had led to reduction of plastic garbage in the town and the first truck with three tonne of garbage collected here would be sent to the recycling unit at Nainital for further processing.

Uniyal further said the amount collected from selling the garbage would be utilised to fund the salaries of the people involved in the exercise here.

The Health Officer, Dr RK Singh, and Dr Virendar Bisht were present on the occasion. 

Dehradun, January 3
In the 7th Abhishek Dabral Memorial Football Tournament being played on Survey Ground, Dehradun, Doon United beat Thakurpur 4-0 in a one-sided match.

Amit Ramola scored the first goal in the 34th minute followed by Sumit who scored the second goal in the 42nd minute. The third goal came from Amit Nautiyal who scored in the 52nd minute of the match.

Sumit, who played some excellent football scored the fourth goal, his second in the 65th minute of the match.

Doon Star will take on Balaji in the first semifinal match.

Dehradun, Janaury 3
The Rising Star Cricket Club defeated the PCA Cricket Club by 10 wickets in a match in the 61st Dehradun District Cricket Tournament played at Col Brown School here today.

Batting first after winning the toss, the PCA team scored 70 runs losing all wickets in 17.5 overs. Deepak was the top scorer with 15 runs. Vishal took four wickets for 11 runs while Satish took two wickets for three runs.

In reply, the Rising Star club scored 74 for no loss to win the match by 10 wickets. Openers Chinu and Ravi scored 37 and 24 not out.

Dehradun, January 3
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna today honoured Unmukt Chand, captain of the Under-19 cricket team, with a cheque of Rs 11 lakh and a shawl at a function held at his official residence here today.

The family of Unmukt Chand hails from Uttarakhand.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Bahuguna said the entire state was proud of the achievements of Unmukt Chand who has brought laurels to the state and the country.

Wishing him best of luck for his future, Bahuguna said his government would do everything to help him in future also. He further said his government was committed to promoting sports in the state and a stadium of international standards would be constructed at a cost of Rs.100 crore in Raipur of Dehradun. The ONGC has donated a sum of Rs 100 crore for the stadium.

Bahuguna said with the completion of stadium, international matches would be played in Dehradun. Bharat Chand, father of Unmukt Chand, was also honoured with a shawl on the occasion.

Unmukt Chand said he was proud to be an Uttarakhandi and would work hard to do well in future. Sports Minister Dinesh Aggarwal, Finance Minister Indira Hariydesh, Revenue Minister Yashpal Arya, and officials of the state government were also present.

Dehradun, January 3
As part of nationwide protest against the Delhi gang-rape incident, the state unit of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) will be staging dharna tomorrow at Gandhi Park here.

Addressing a press conference at the ABVP state office here today, national secretary of the ABVP Ravindra Gadiya said the entire country was shocked after the Delhi rape incident and said the parishad had decided to stage a nationwide agitation tomorrow to express concern over the rising crime cases against women in the country under the UPA government at Centre. He said ABVP workers would be staging dharna outside Gandhi Park in Dehradun tomorrow as a mark of protest.

Disclosing forthcoming programmes of the ABVP, Gadiya said the parishad would be holding a number of progammes on January 12, 2013 to January 12, 2014, to mark 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand.

He said students from over 400 colleges in the country would be taking part in the celebrations.

Referring to the recently concluded ABVP’s 58th national convention held at Patna, Gadiya said the convention had passed a proposal condemning the role of Bangladeshi infiltrators behind the Assam riots.

The convention also expressed concern over rising corruption in the country.